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An organization is made of several units and not only the structures that are visible to people. It comprises of human beings, buildings, culture, and procedures on how to conduct task(s) to achieve a certain goal. In every organization, there is a distinctive way through which people lead themselves-human behavior. The organizational behavior is a study of how individuals, a structure, and groups affect behavior in an organization (Robbins Judge, 2013). Organization culture occurs at three distinctive levels. The micro-organizational behavior level encompasses individuals and groups that are formed in the company to perform a specific task that contributes to its overall goal. The macro level checks a broad perspective of the entire firm and industry including the competitive strategies and structures being necessary to keep the organization vibrant in the market. The last level is known as Meso which studies the status of individuals (power), the culture governing the company as well as the way how people do interact within the firm. Since it is a broad area which involves people of different calibers and capabilities, it borrows from various interdisciplinary subjects such as psychology, management, and communication (Robbins Judge, 2013). Organizational behavior is an important study which can be used to enhance the development growth in the company.

Communication is a key element that must be considered by any company which needs to be effective and efficient (Barrett Davidson, 2006). It is used in the coordination of all business activities starting from the senior management to the workers at the lower level. When communication is paramount at work, it creates a good working condition leading to increase its productivity. The biggest challenge affecting effective communication is diversification of people in the company. This paper will seek to evaluate gender difference in communication and its relation to organizational behavior. Gender difference in communication is a common problem in many firms. If it is left unaddressed, it can lead to underproduction in the organization.

How Does Gender Differences in Communication Affect an Organization?

The research has shown that interpersonal interaction is mainly affected by the differences in the manner in which men and women pass the information to the company. Both of these genders act differently when it comes to coping with personal or home and work related issues. The following ones are the differences in communication portrayed by a number of males and females in organizations. When solving an issue or fulfilling a task, men approach it in a straightforward manner by giving options, solutions or a method. However, women approach it with affinity. Hence, men are more likely to arrive at an organizational goal quickly compared to women. In addition, males are known to crave for power and status in the company. On the other hand, females will use communication to create cohesion with other colleagues and, hence, are the best to use when forming organization groups (Wilson, 2003).

Women will always ask for a clarification if they do not understand clearly the problem. Meanwhile men have a tendency of not asking questions. If a task is very complex and very expensive in that any mistake would lead to a failure, women have been found to be the best candidates. Men are viewed as goal oriented and will try to complete the task despite the challenges as opposed to women being relationship oriented. Such traits are what distinguish gender communication. It, however, does not apply to all men and women. There are still some females who are occupational oriented and a few men who lean on a relationship side. Those differences have impacted organizational behavior in most institutions.

Closing the Gap Created by Gender Differences in Communication for an Organization

Rules and regulations regarding the communication in any company should be put in place clearly denoting the ethical language to be used at the workplace. Women are not fond of being addressed as girls by their male colleagues. Thus, a stern action should be taken for anyone who uses the provocative language. Staff members should also use the official language as stipulated by the firm. The use of jargon and slang language can alter a message or information that might be crucial. Additionally, every person has the right to speak his or her mind at the meeting and should not be dictated by gender. Men take a lot of time at the event explaining their views leaving women with the limited time to give their recommendation. Therefore, applying rules and regulations will uphold the quality and importance of organizational behavior and improve the reputation of the firm at the same time (Barrett Davidson, 2006). Seminars and forums should regularly be conducted to educate workers on the importance and what organizational behavior entails. It will help to minimize communication conflicts at the workplace especially those that are gender sensitive. For example, men solve problems internally before they give their decisions or a working solution whereas women process out loud. In such a scenario, a woman may think that a man is not taking some matter seriously because he is not responding immediately to the questions being asked.

Groups should not be composed of one gender; and the top positions should be distributed equally amongst both genders. It eradicates the perception that women are a weaker sex as compared to men by giving them an opportunity to dispense duties (Gurian Annis, 2008). The leader should be chosen through some merit, not by any other factor such as gender.

Another way to avoid conflicts due to gender distinction is through appreciating the efforts contributed by others when trying to complete a task at hand. An organization that has a strong organizational behavior has strong communication channels established. All staff members are important regardless of their status at work. When looked from the outside world, it is more appealing unlike in a hierarchical organization (Gurian Annis, 2008).

Benefits of Having Interpersonal Communication in an Organization

The main reason organizational behavior is studied to understand how people can come together and overcome their differences especially in communication to achieve a common goal. Good interpersonal interaction can be used as a tool to achieve a competition advantage. There members of the group regardless of their gender are given an opportunity to showcase or contribute to the specific task. Since people think differently, many ideas will arise to choose from which can be manipulated to produce goods and services that are unique as compared to those of a competitor. Good interpersonal communication will also enable people from different cultures to work together in harmony (Barrett Davidson, 2006). The organization benefitting from this is that the one to have a wider information of taste and preferences of different communities and the population.

Emotions, Gender and How They Affect Communication in an Organization

Men and women relate differently with their emotions. In any given situation, different emotions run high, or they can be contained leaving one in a normal state. During collective decision-making in the company, opinions are made; and the men and women involved use different emotions to communicate. The emotions of employees in the firm are the main foundations of decisions they make, attitudes they portray, and a motivating factor to their work (McShane Von Glinow, 2014).

These kinds of communication differences by gender may affect the organizational behavior of any institution. Emotional behaviors play a major role in the organization depending on the gender of any employee. For example, if a man is a team leader, he would be motivated by crave for more knowledge about a particular subject by pointing out an opposing perspective in an anticipating emotion. However, if a woman is a team leader, she would be motivated by the desire of understanding each other and establishing a mutual support using her trust emotion to make a better team. Such emotions are just a few of the many that run within individuals in an organization while trying to get along and maintain a professional relationship with each other. Emotions elicited in the company during its operations largely influence the general behavior of employees specifically according to gender. In this way, communication being a backbone of every firm is likely to be affected by gender disparities. The emotions evoked may conflict interests within individuals as men and women use them differently to reach collective goals in the organization.

Management of such a company will be disrupted if the emotions that are gender based are not acknowledged and harmonized accordingly. A female leader encouraging others to take turns in a mutual conversation to build balance and structure communication may feel offended by a male leader. The latter one could interrupt and use his intelligence to order his audience in order to impress. The two leaders use different emotions to gain respect but end up conflicting with each other due to their gender differences (McShane Von Glinow, 2014). Organizational behavior in such an instance is negatively impacted.Gender and Individual Behavior in Organizational Behavior

The human behavior is never constant as it is always influenced by culture, social settings, or environment. However, the human behavior can be further subdivided according to individual behavior, which further streams down to gender behavior (Wilson, 2003). The person’s behavior in the company is influenced by several factors such as their background, work environment, and gender. The latter one is the most likely of all to influence an individual’s behavior. Men are mostly focused on relaying information and an action to be taken than women who can multitask and can easily veer off the main subject at hand. Such behaviors in communication occur also in the firm during meetings or during discussions that entail sealing deals. The male world is easily enticed by a good looking deal in a contract where their female counterparts rely on their intuitions.

If the organization is male dominated, then the few females working for it are bound to have individual behavior being almost or similar to that of their male colleagues. It would, however, affect their organizational behavior in communication since maybe a primary reason for bringing them into the organization was to influence the organizational behavior (Wilson, 2003). Nevertheless, such company would have affected organizational behavior if it increased the number of female employees. It should be in such a way to be a fair field for behavior and enrich each other through their communication differences. The vice versa case would happen in a female dominated organization. The background of individuals could be a hindrance or a success in the bid to ensure gender equality motivated by behavior in the company. A woman brought up together men will have behaviors that tend to lean more on the male side, and the vice versa case would happen to a man. It would cause an imbalance in the organizational behavior since the female who would be brought in would have male characteristics.

Gender, Team Cohesion and Leadership

An organization with only one gender involved in decision making is likely to fail. Therefore, it is important to combine the differences of both genders to attain balance and firm decisions. It can be, therefore, said that gender difference is advantageous to organizational behavior. If a problem arises, a female employee can go to detail the problem and be able to establish the cause. However, a woman may go way deeper than the issue is and probably go off course, but the man in the team can curb the woman since they are more action oriented. When a team is assembled gender equality is a key. Only the team that has all genders is most likely to succeed. The rate of success is even increased when both parties are aware of their individual communicational behaviors and the strength each brings to a group. The women in the group can bring cohesion since they communicate to build a relationship and ensuring balance and positive outcomes (Gurian Annis, 2008).

Leadership in teams that have equal genders would be easy and fair as the exploitation would be less likely to happen (Gurian Annis, 2008). Understanding and being in control of their gender inclined communication behaviors acts as an additional benefit to being a leader and a member of the team. For instance, if the woman is a leader, she can be brief and to the point in order to communicate effectively to the men in her team. If being concise it is not possible, the men on the team can be patient listening to the explanations and illustrations of the problem they are trying to solve.Technology Evolution, Gender and Its Effects on Communication

Technology has evolved in a large scale. It has introduced and established social networks that are here to stay. They have also led to the evolution of organizational behavior. New departments have been put up to accommodate those changes and also keep up with the new inventions (Markovic?, 2012). The evolution has brought changes to a mode of communication and how meetings can take place. The effects in communication in the company can also be associated with gender. Women are prone to be swayed by the social media due to their nature of seeking rapport rather than information. In contrast, men hardly use social media. When they do this, they often have specific purposes. It is in these instances that the organizational behavior, especially the communication department, could fail due to distractions and misunderstanding.

The tendency of women to being influenced by social media has seen them being placed in the roles that deal with social media. Females mostly act as telephone operators or being in charge of e-business departments (Markovic?, 2012). Their male co-workers are, however, being placed in development departments of those social media platforms even though their use is minimal. Female employees may tend to use social sites in communicating with their fellow workers who may seem as unprofessional, altering their organizational behavior in etiquette. There is an advantage with the social networks. Meetings can be done from any part of the world from networks like Skype. It has opened up avenues for a worldwide interaction. In this way, the organizational behavior has evolved worldwide and is no longer confined to departments or some businesses.

The evolution of information technology has interconnected the world making it an obligation of every employee to have and adopt a global mindset (McShane Von Glinow, 2014). Gender differences in communication have strongly encouraged this trend as well as incorporated very well with organizational behavior. A women’s ability to create relationships through communication can be used on a global scale bringing every investor on a table and maintaining a positive outlook. The global mindset in the worker will ensure that proper communication channels are established and followed accordingly. Understanding global trends is an added advantage to organizational behavior as it will monitor the conduct of an individual in any organization. Differences in gender communication practiced by employees in their respective genders can be linked to high individual and team performances leading to excellent outcomes.

Conclusion

Gender differences in communication have become an important aspect in organizational behavior of many firms. Communication is crucial to the victory of the firm and any impediment to the success should be addressed appropriately. As a result of gender differences in communication, an organization may fail to achieve its goals or objectives if this problem is not handled appropriately. Such varieties in communication affect a process or a manner in which men and women pass some information from one level, among teams or departments. In order to address the gender differences in communication, appropriate measures must be taken so as to ensure males and females are given an equal chance to maximize their potential. The company that seeks to promote interpersonal communication among the employees stands a chance of not only becoming successful, but also to have an added advantage over its competitors. The current organizational behavior views the firm as a community that needs resources and laborers to enhance productivity. In most cases, gender differences in the company can be accessed through emotions of both men and women. Although there are many factors that influence individual behavior, gender stands out as the most influential factor. It can affect team cohesion and leadership. Technology evolution has also affected gender communication in many organizations in the form of social networks. Women and men have been affected differently. Females have been swayed more than males. Finally, gender differences in communication have led to understanding of human behavior in an organizational setting and how to deal with differences. Self-awareness has also increased as there is a mutual understanding leading to maintenance of high quality of organizational behavior in institutions. These differences are no longer viewed as hindrances to success but are now the major elements of success.

References

Barrett, M., Davidson, M. (2006). Gender and communication at work. Aldershot, England: Ashgate Pub.

Gurian, M., Annis, B. (2008). Leadership and the sexes: Using gender science to create success in business. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Markovic?, M. R. (2012). Impact of globalization on organizational culture, behavior and gender role. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Pub.

McShane, S., Von Glinow, A. (2014). Organizational behavior (7th ed.). New York, NY: Irwin/McGraw-Hill.

Robbins, S. P., Judge, T. A. (2013). Organizational behavior. Boston, MA: Pearson.

Wilson, F. M. (2003). Organizational behaviour and gender. Aldershot, England: Ashgate.