I. CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR Organizational Behavior

1. The typical employee is getting older.

2. More women and people of color are in the workplace; corporate downsizing and the heavy use of temporary workers are severing the bonds of loyalty that tied many employees to their employers.
3. Global competition requires employees to become more flexible and cope with rapid change. The global recession has brought to the forefront the challenges of working with and managing people during uncertain times.
4. When times are bad, though, managers are on the front lines with employees who must be fired, who are asked to make due with less, and who worry about their futures.
5. The difference between good and bad management can be the difference between profit and loss or, ultimately, between survival and failure.
6. Managing employees well when times are tough is just as hard as when times are good?if not more so.
7. But the OB approaches sometimes differ. In good times, understanding how to reward, satisfy, and retain employees is at a premium. In bad times, issues like stress, decision-making, and coping come to the fore.
Responding to Globalization. There are many challenges faced by managers that can benefit by the use of OB concepts, including:
1. Increased foreign assignments. Managers increasingly find themselves working overseas dealing with a workforce that may hold different needs, aspirations, and attitudes.
2. Working with people from different cultures. Even if the manager stays in the domestic environment, the workers that the manager deals with may come from different cultures and backgrounds. Motivational techniques and managerial styles may have to be modified to remain effective.
3. Overseeing movement of jobs to countries with low-cost labor. Outsourcing tasks and jobs to low-labor-cost countries may make economic sense, but such decisions are not without local ramifications.
a. Managers must be able to deal with unions, government, and the public, who see outsourcing as a threat to their livelihood.
b. Balancing the needs of the company with the needs of the community is at the heart of a firm?s concerns over social responsibility.
There are many challenges faced by managers that can benefit by the use of OB concepts, including:

4. Increased foreign assignments. Managers increasingly find themselves working overseas dealing with a workforce that may hold different needs, aspirations, and attitudes.
5. Working with people from different cultures. Even if the manager stays in the domestic environment, the workers that the manager deals with may come from different cultures and backgrounds. Motivational techniques and managerial styles may have to be modified to remain effective.
6. Overseeing movement of jobs to countries with low-cost labor. Outsourcing tasks and jobs to low-labor-cost countries may make economic sense, but such decisions are not without local ramifications.
a. Managers must be able to deal with unions, government, and the public, who see outsourcing as a threat to their livelihood.
Balancing the needs of the company with the needs of the community is at the heart of a firm?s concerns over social responsibility