Unit 5 Organizational Behavior

In the Debra Tannen’s Gender Differences Video, Ms. Tannen displayed and discussed a few common issues that happen between women and men in offices across the world. Ms. Tannen made it very clear that the way in which you are speaking is always going to be judged above you and your tone will determine if you’re the boss or the subordinate of the conversation. There are many distinct differences in the ways that males and females communicate to each other and amongst themselves, which if not managed correctly can cause male and female rivals to get in the way of achieving important goals in and out of the workplace.

Women regularly undercut themselves often not taking full credit for what they have accomplished, or often putting themselves in a one down position rather than in a one up position in the workplace. One example is how women will often say thank you or sorry often even when a favor or mishap hasn’t happened towards them, while saying thank you or sorry is a polite way to end a conversation or meeting, it must be understood it is just a formality.

While women often apologize for doing nothing wrong what so ever, men often only apologize when they absolutely need to, and even when apologizing they do their best to minimize the blame. A good example of this is when a co-worker has assigned worker to a reporter without following the proper channels and when it comes time to the reporters boss he tells her he wants to apologize while making sure he gets what he wants. Even though he has taken the time to apologize to the reporters boss, he has gotten off the hook easy with the response of you didn’t know any better.

The grapevine or an informal communication network in a group or organization can play a major role in the outcome of ones satisfaction and status within a group or organization. The grapevine generally consists of rumors and gossip that is transmitted through informal types of communication throughout the workplace such as...