StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...

Organizational Behavior Similarities Between Humans and Elephants - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
Organizational Behavior (Humans and Elephants) 12 May 2011 Introduction Elephants are one of the most intelligent mammals on earth. In fact, their high level of intelligence and memory helped them survive for a very long time, since the paleontological era…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER96.4% of users find it useful
Organizational Behavior Similarities Between Humans and Elephants
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Organizational Behavior Similarities Between Humans and Elephants"

Download file to see previous pages

Among their unique characteristics are having a long and flexible snout (proboscis), elongated incisor teeth (tusk) and a placenta just like humans. They have other distinguishing features which are not very obvious such as obscure features in their teeth, shoulders and ankles; they are one of the very few hoof mammals to have retained five toes (other mammals have only four or fewer toes). Discussion Elephants exhibit a remarkable high level of intelligence; this makes up for their very slow gaits which usually has an adverse effect on wild animals because slow-moving animals are at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to escaping their predators.

Their big size is a big help in their fight for survival since they have very few enemies in the wild; however, there is another characteristic of elephants which is their complex level of organizational behaviors. It is this social behavior which has allowed them to outlive other species in the wild as it makes them highly organized in terms of foraging for food, looking for water sources and in fighting off predators; elephants also learn throughout their lifetimes (Haynes 64). Elephants are highly-socialized animals.

They live in groups, tend to stay with their relatives, form into familial and kin groupings similar to human clans, highly gregarious and in general associate with other members of their herd. The social behavior of the elephants is very complex because they live very long lives (ibid.) and elephants are suspected to use the same type of personal individual identification as humans when they communicate with each other. They largely maintain long-term relationships; elephant groups are female-centered.

By using infrasonic (low-frequency) calls, elephants can communicate with all the other group members and identify an elephant’s individual identity (Breed & Moore 196). The elephants are also very adaptive in their behaviors, with females influencing the males (Wasser 30). Social System of Elephants – their social system is hierarchical and matriarchal. It is usually the oldest female elephant that is the recognized leader of the group. The rest of the group members follow their matriarch in search of food and water to areas which are recalled by the matriarch’s memory bank.

Studies showed that elephant groups without a matriarch are often very tentative in which direction to go because no one gives the order (Dagg 32). An elephant herd needs a large territory because it has an inefficient digestive tract, able to digest and absorb only half the food an elephant eats (O’Connell 235) and needs a big grazing area. The study of elephant behavior will have a great bearing on efforts to ensure their survival. The herd behavior of elephants exhibit striking similarities to human behavior in the social organization sphere.

There is an acknowledged leader in a group and this is the oldest female elephant (matriarch) but other female members (sisters, aunts, nieces, cousins, etc.) take a collective effort in caring for their young. It is the matriarch, together with the several generations of relatives, who will gather the group into a close-knit unit that will suddenly take a charge and stampede a perceived threat (AWF 1). Elephants use a variety of ways to communicate such as by sound, smell and stamping the ground (Waal & Tyack 79).

Stress Conditions – elephants are very similar to human beings in many ways. One

...Download file to see next pages Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Organizational Behavior Similarities Between Humans and Elephants Essay”, n.d.)
Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/environmental-studies/1421778-organizational-behavior-similarities-between
(Organizational Behavior Similarities Between Humans and Elephants Essay)
https://studentshare.org/environmental-studies/1421778-organizational-behavior-similarities-between.
“Organizational Behavior Similarities Between Humans and Elephants Essay”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/environmental-studies/1421778-organizational-behavior-similarities-between.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Organizational Behavior Similarities Between Humans and Elephants

ELEPHANT TALK - KOSHIK

The social habits of Asian elephants are somewhat similar to those of African elephants.... Prior to Koshik, elephants have been known to imitate sounds that they heard through modified vocalization.... Mlaika, a 10 year old female African elephant who lived among a semi-captive group of African elephants, could imitate sounds of trucks.... Spectrogram studies showed that the sound of trucks and the truck-like sounds made by Mlaika were similar and the noises made by Mlaika were very much different than those made by other African elephants (Poole, et al, 1988)....
3 Pages (750 words) Research Paper

Organizational School Management

What is more, there are similarities and overlaps in the roles that employees must play in order to ensure that they stay on top of their duties and the dictates of the business environment.... Name: School: Topic: LEVEL 6: EMPOWERMENT AND CONTROL Lecturer: LEVEL 6: EMPOWERMENT AND CONTROL Introduction Writing on organisational school management, Hill & Saranson (2006) stressed that in modern times, organisational management has moved beyond just the basics of selling products and services to make profits into a more resilient and formidable corporate structure that demands attention with several variables of competitive engagements....
7 Pages (1750 words) Essay

Cross-cultural Issues in International Management

To identify and analyze the cultural differences between United States of America and Malaysia.... Literature Review:Cultural Differences between United States of America and Malaysia:Culture is a country specific term.... The report on cross cultural issues that may crop up in our joint venture with the Malaysian Company is presented here in detail....
13 Pages (3250 words) Essay

International Marketing: Adaptation vs. Standardisation

Levitt (1983) and Douglas and Wind (1987) propose two "seemingly" opposing views on marketing.... We emphasise the term "seemingly" because a deeper analysis of the two works show that each one looks at the same phenomenon using a different viewpoint.... Therefore, like the proverbial blind men and the elephant, these two sets of authors come up with different descriptions of the beast and argue that theirs is the right one....
16 Pages (4000 words) Essay

Elephants, Economics and Ivory

This research paper “elephants, Economics and Ivory” sets out a detailed analysis of recommendations through the use of management and people organization concepts to consider how best to manage the ivory debate going forward.... hellip; The WWF conservation aims towards the protection of elephants goes hand in hand with the CITES regulation and international ban on the ivory trade....
19 Pages (4750 words) Essay

Elephants of Alexander the Great as Prototype of Modern Tanks

The paper «elephants of Alexander the Great as Prototype of Modern Tanks” traces ingenious Greeks' warfare technique from the Alexander's period until the Roman Empire's rise.... Being a terrific tool of death in capable hands, in an unfavorable terms elephants turned their power against their troops.... nbsp; Native peoples of Africa and Asia might have used elephants for numerous tasks including the ability to wage war, it wasn't until Alexander the Great began his expansion into India that the western nations became aware of this giant beast of frightening abilities, the natural world's version of a tank....
28 Pages (7000 words) Coursework

Building Effective Networks

Globalization has facilitated collaboration between various networks and multinational organizations can benefit the most out of global patterns of networks.... The reader gets a thorough understanding as to how organizational functioning and behavior are being influenced by global or international networks.... The paper explores the various forms and patterns of networks that exert great influence on one's social, organizational, professional and personal life....
4 Pages (1000 words) Assignment

The Evolution Of The African Elephants Trunk

African elephants use their trunks for containment purposes with highly porous and flexible muscles serving as evidence (Hughes 8).... The trunk acts as a communication tool that the African elephant uses to ward off other elephants or cue its mood (Moss, Croze, and Lee 108).... Lastly, the African elephant uses the trunk's many tough muscles to attack other animals or elephants by punching or shoving (Cristoffer and Peres 1360)....
6 Pages (1500 words) Research Paper
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us