Organisation Behavior
According to Keith Davis "organizational behavior is the study and application of knowledge about how people act within organizations. It is human tool for the human benefit. It applies broadly to behavior of people in all type of organization such as business, government, schools, etc. it helps people, structure, technology, and the external environment blend together in to an effective operative system".
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Stephen Robins defines organizational behavior as a "field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have an organization for the purpose of applying such knowledge improving an organization's effectiveness".
According to Stephen Robbins, "four elements make up the Organizational Behavior life cycle. They are Leadership, Employees of the Company, Organization Behavior Guidelines and time frame, Organizational Framework. Organizational Behavior is an important aspect to maintain interaction levels amongst employees in the company and also to enhance healthy relationships between them. Other attributes like leadership qualities of the employees, openness to discuss problems between the top level and ground level employees, challenge-initiative are all embedded in to this basic concept of Organizational Behavior to help the business in achieving its strategic and sometimes its business objectives.
Summary-
The Statement alone tries to bring out the role of Management and Behaviour of people working in a Organization . It details the relationship involved at various stages of Organization with that of Management. There is a close relation between the organization behavior and the management theory in practice. It also help us to understand issues which occurs in the Organization working and how Management can help them to solve those issues; Moreover this course bring out different changes which are been implemented in modern work Organization and help us to understand that Management is not only the sole tool to understand it, A manager has to rely on different tools as well. The course work wants the reader to understand relationship between Management ,Performance of organization and changing trend in modern working Organization.
"What Case Study Says"
The General Electric(GE), the conglomerate corporation incorporated in the State of New York, USA, is famous for its organizational culture. In GE, the management philosophy followed by the management is to Encourage employees to share their views in a collaborative culture, Vest greater responsibility, power, and accountability with front-line employees, Eliminate wasteful, irrational, and repetitive steps in the work process (which would come to light through employee feedback), Dismantle the boundaries that prevent the cross-pollination of ideasand efforts and they consider customers and community as the emperor. They gave former importance to team job and gave respect to each other. All these optimistic aspects helped the company to get strong faithfulness of millions of employees during the long 120 years since the Company was founded by Thomas Edison. Jeffrey Immelt managed the whole company in a well-known style that has been very legendary till now. In 2000 to till now, when GE passed away correspondingly, along with the obituary wordings it was noted by writers, that the founders' legacy was not the reason for the huge growth of GE-but it was the one and only GE.
But after the merger of GE with IT Corporation, Ling-Temco-Vought, Tenneco, the things distorted upside down. Former GE people like former dissection heads, managers, engineers, and all the employees says about the GE as something extraordinary. General Electric usually visited the corporation halls, interrelate with community and staff about their projects, their troubles etc. They keep in mind that at time everybody valued everybody as well.
The actual issues started when John Francis Welch Jr, was hired GE's CEO. He fixed tough to the productivity of the company. A setting of panic started among the staffs which not at all be real earlier than. The main complaints against him were valuing money more than people, mistreatment lay-offs and creating a culture which is unfair to the staff's. His intentions didn't match with GE's visions. They saw revenue only as a bludgeon to achieve other objectives which are given equal value. The other objectives include welfare of the employees, customers etc.
The above case was all about GE. It is a across the world held opinion that GE played a critical role in Company's achievement. Critics may say that to support an excellent corporate civilization, the company should be at its superior times. But people of GE who have knowledgeable GE will never agree this because GE's most struggling times were also the times when GE was established at its best and now GE need to focus on the management style which makes the organisation effectiveness and their employees happy so they can work well which makes GE as a successful company and leading brand once again.
Important Work Organization Factors-
For an organisation to work, it has to take into consideration much aspect that can make it successful in the current business climate and the recession that is going on. In business, change is always there. It is important to anticipate these changes and see how well a strategy can be formulated to continue to have a sustained growth in the business environment. The organisations have to satisfy the needs and aspirations of its employees and stakeholders yet simultaneously meeting the demands of its customers.
There are internal aspects as well as external aspects that influence the organisations decisions and strategy. The core competencies that the organisations, and how they can take that and turn it into their advantage using the various processes in place. It also depends on the individuals and the managers within the organisation and the policies the managers put into place in order to achieve their long term goal. The report will evaluate the above mentioned organisations in aspects which are critical for a company to be successful in the current market situation.
a) The contribution, motivation, rewards and roles of individuals within these groups and teams
According to Stephen P. Robbins, "motivation is the willingness to exert high levels of effort toward organizational goals, conditioned by the effort's ability to satisfy some individual need."
Each and every function of life is accompanied with one or other type of motivation. There are two main kinds of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic. Internal motivation is known as intrinsic motivation. When external factors compel the person to do something, then it is extrinsic motivation.
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Elton Mayo has the opinion that a employee having societal links at the place of work will be motivated more. Mayo believed that employees can also be motivated by acknowledging their social needs and making them feel important among others. This is what is done by General Electric in the case of GE. The employees who have skilled the actual GE says that "everyone is valued by everybody as well". Employees were given independence to make decisions on the work and superior absorption was paid to relaxed work groups. This model is named as Hawthorne effect by Elton Mayo.
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In the case study, General Electric were very victorious in inspiring their employees by simply being down to earth. They never forget to visit their employees, to interact with them and to know their troubles and also to find answers. From all these illustration we can say motivation is what propels life. In everything we do motivation plays a major role. To care about output, learning, means, employment, achievement, victory, breakdown, etc motivation should be there
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The motivation process is demonstrated through several theories. They are as follows:
1. Need-based theories: Need based theories include Maslow's need hierarchy, McGregor's Theory X and Theory, Herzberg's two-factor theory, Alderfer's ERG theory and McClelland's need theory
2. Process based theories include Expectancy theory, Goal-setting theory, Reinforcement theory, Attribution theory
3. Individual-organizational goal-congruence theories consists of Exchange, Accommodation, Socialization, Identification
Maslow's Need Hierarchy is all about a hierarchy of five basic needs which includes Physiological needs: hunger, thirst, shelter etc.
Safety needs: security and protection from physical and emotional harm
Social needs: affection, belongingness, love, acceptance, and friendship
Esteem needs: internal esteem and external esteem
Needs for self-actualization: the drive to best realize one's potential.
Alderfer's ERG theory talks about three types of needs-Existence needs consisting of physiological and safety needs, Relatedness needs including the desire for maintaining important interpersonal relationships: social needs, and the external components of the esteem needs and Growth needs: an intrinsic desire for personal development: the intrinsic component of esteem, and self-actualization.
McGregor's theory X and theory Y Theory X has the assumption that employees don't like work, and they are lazy, not willing to take liability, and not motivated. Theory Y has the assumptions that employees like work, are creative, farm duties seekers, and are self motivated. Herberg's two-factor theory talks about two contrasting views of satisfaction and dissatisfaction and it also talks about two factors-motivational factors and hygiene factors. McClelland's Need Theory deals with the need for achievement. In other words it talks about a drive to excel, to set a higher goal, to seek higher responsibility, and to strive to succeed.
All these theories more or less deals with what all factors create motivation in people and also the influence of motivation in a business. In the case of GENERAL ELECTRIC (GE), earlier the company was very good in mounting employee morale and thereby improving the efficiency of the operations of the company. But after the merger, the things totally fell upside down. The new top level authorities intense only on the profitability and not on the employee morale. This paved the way for disappointment in employees which negatively affected the productivity of the company.
Reward system consists of financial rewards and employee benefits, which is collectively known as total payment. They also include non-monetary rewards such as appreciation, promotion, praise, achievement, responsibility and personal growth. Recent studies and researches on reward system shows that reward criteria of the organizations, both monetary and non-monetary rewards have great influence on the employees and performance and the performance of the employees. As an answer to the question, why reward system is required, we can find out a number of reasons like it can improve organizational effectiveness, it is capable of achieving integration, motivate the employees, compete in the labor market, increased commitment towards work, it can attract employees having fair and improved skills, improved quality, develop team working.
In the context of the case of GENERAL ELECTRIC(GE), even though reward plays a vital role, the morale of the employees was more affected by changes in the emotional environment of the business and also sudden change in the culture of the business. As they were practicing a different culture of informality, they find it difficult to survive in new environment which is so formal and which gave no importance to their opinions. When an organization gives importance to the views and opinions of employees, they feel it better to work in such conditions because it is human nature to wish to be recognized. Better performance will be the result if the individuals are given some roles to perform.
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[Steve Williams & Fred Luthans (1992), ' The Impact of Choice of Rewards and Feed Back on Task Performance, Journal Of organizational Behavior. Vol. 13, P: 653-666]
[Katzenbach, J.R. & Smith, D.K. (1999). The Wisdom Of Teams. New York: HarperBusinees]
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(b) Management and leadership relating to both groups and teams
Alan Keith stated that, "Leadership is ultimately about creating a way for people to contribute to making something odd happen." Tom DeMarco says that leadership needs to be distinguished from posturing. Northouse says that leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal. Mary Parker Follett defined management as "the art of getting things done through people". Setting a new direction or vision for a group to complete the objectives of that group is known as leadership. But management is the controlling body of people and resources available in a group according to already established values. Even the terms management and leadership are often confused, they are actually different, but interrelated. The GENERAL ELECTRIC(GE) dealt with the well-known management style, developed the organization as a single family giving respect to each other. It is evident from the growth of GENERAL ELECTRIC(GE) that they were very successful in managing the people.
Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus (1997) said "leadership is like the Abominable Snowman, whose footprints are everywhere but who is nowhere to be seen". Leadership is everywhere but no one seems to be able to determine or figure out what makes up good leadership. It has been discussed by Bass in his book a study by H.L. Smith and Krueger (1933) in which they researched various primitive cultures around the world and finally reached a conclusion that leadership exists among all people, regardless of their culture, race or viewpoint. Even though if societies do not have traditional or elected leaders, chiefs, or rulers, someone always exists who initiates a process and plays a critical role in the decision making process of a group (Bass, 1990). General Electric(GE) found out that leadership qualities are lying hidden in each and every individual and thus they developed a culture of respecting each other developing a sense of integrity in the organization.
According to Hollander, leadership is a process that involves three main components.
One is the leader, the second is the employees, and the third is the culture of the organization. If the relationship between these three components is not compatible then in a long term outlook leadership will fail and so will the team. The first component of leadership is the leader. A leader must possess certain beliefs, perceptions, characteristics, and skills for good leadership to occur in teams. A leader must hold the Wallenda factor closely. The Wallenda factor is the ability to only think about succeeding, and concentrating on the task at hand and not even thinking about failing. The Wallenda factor was named after a famous tightrope walker Karl Wallenda who fell to his death. Karl Wallenda was preparing for his most challenging stunt of his life. But what he could think for 3 months before stunt was about failing, instead of working hard for the stunt. Checking and supervising the construction of his rope, he has never done it before and due to the thoughts of failing he checked it for the first time. (Bennis & Nanus, 1997).
The willingness to share power and control with the team should be a quality of the leader. Acting like a traditional boss is not good for a leader; he should be like a player or coach to the team. As already seen in the case of GENERAL ELECTRIC(GE), leaders must be there for support and encourage employees to solve troubles on their own. [http://www.teamtechnology.co.uk]
[Bass, M.B. (1990). Bass & Stogdill's Handbook of Leadership. New York, NY: The Free Press]
[Bennis, W. & Nanus, B. (1997).Leaders: Strategies for Taking Charge. New York, NY: HarperCollins]
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[Hollander, E.P. (1978). Leadership Dynamics. New York: The Free Press]
c) Group structures, goals and objectives.
The group structures are important since it plays a vital role in determining the productivity of a group. A group can do better than the collective effect of employees working independently. A successful group leader can lead a group to success. Different organizations structure their groups differently based on their goals and objectives. Groups should not be over crowded with skilled people or vice versa. A group lacking skilled personnel may fail to achieve the said objectives. Goals and objectives provide the team members with the means of doing an act, and the end result will be their successful accomplishment.
When the work is carried out in well managed groups, the groups will enjoy operational and managerial freedom, which can increase their satisfaction towards work. The members of the group should be aware of his/her contribution towards the group and it is being valued, each individual starts viewing the group as an attractive entity. Well managed group structures enable the employees to work in co-operation.
The statements that describe about the vision to be accomplished, or the results of any action that will be achieved in the future are known as goals and objectives. Goals provide a wide context of what the vision is and what is it trying to achieve. Objectives are more statements that describe in a narrow context i.e. specific, tangible products, deliverables and fruits that will be delivered as a result of the action. Compared to objectives goals are high level statements.
Goals may include more than one objective to achieve since it is at a higher level. To be more precise, attainment of many objectives may result in the success of a goal. Generally goals cannot be measured. Goals are defined as long-term aims, in which validation is possible in the future while objective accomplishment is a step by step process and can lead to the successful accomplishment of a goal.
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Obstacles to Organization Performance-
Over the past decade there is an abundance of evidence, that could be produced to say that successful organizations are managed by efficient managers. Success in the long run can be ensured only through effective management. Successful managers foster sustainable growth through their skills, attributes and personal qualities. According to Pfefferand Veiga(1999), common sense and common knowledge are different. Knowing things is different from doing things. Being able to analyze a case, identify a problem, suggest a correct solution makes a manager more effective. Out of all the characteristics that make an effective organization, the most important factor is the quality and alignment of the human resources. In this essay, the most important characteristics of an effective organization and the main obstacles to effective organizational performance and the ways to overcome them are discusse
Qualities of the human resource
The success of an organization depends on the nature of the human resource. According to Whetton and Cameron, (2005) the most important personal qualities essential for a manager are the awareness of one's own self and ability to solve problems analytically and creatively. First and foremost quality that builds clarity in the thought process is the self awareness. Self awareness does not stop at the individual level, but the awareness of one's inner potential and capabilities as a team and as an organization. Self awareness helps to understand the customers more by taking a closer look at their lifestyle and environement Cox(1994) in his work mentions that, self awareness is very essential to have a concept of self regard and worthiness to define the persons' emotional intelligence . More awareness of the person's personal values gives direction when decisions have to be made. When a person is aware of the inner self, then they can appreciate the differences between individuals when working in a group. An effective manager feels comfortable in welcoming different viewpoints and can create a shared sense of commitment in a team .The other personal skill that has to be possessed by a manager is the ability to solve problems analytically and creatively
Group skills
The next set of skills that enhance the effectiveness of an organization is the degree to which the members are able to delegate and organize, building effective teams and leading positive change. In an ever changing business environment the organization has to redefine itself constantly according to the changes. For the easy adaptability of the company in times of change, the manager should be able to motivate and lead others towards positive change and he should be able to build good teams to carry out the changes. In times of rapid change, it is far more challenging to prepare the members of the organization to accept the need for change, to help understand the new approach, to obtain their commitment to implement the proposal, to manage the transition period effectively and to institutionalize the new idea by "hard wiring" it into the organization's communication, evaluation and reward systems. Good ideas are not in scarce supply, what is rare is the ability to translate a good idea into accepted practice. When we analyze the words accepted practice, it is clear that the success of any change is dependent on the acceptance of the practice. The acceptance of the new idea by the members of the organization at all levels can be achieved through careful estimation of the changes required and intricate planning of the details about implementation. Delegation and empowering the team members is very necessary to accomplish a goal. There are a number of benefits when this approach is adopted. First for the organization, it is highly advantageous because the company now has more members aware of the purpose and the task of achieving it.
Power and politics
The term power means the ability to control the environment around. Power gives the ability to a person to decide and act. If an employee is empowered, he can decide on issues and can proceed without being given directions at every stage of operations. When organizations are becoming leaner, the empowerment of employees becomes very vital. Also worth the emergence of information technology the boundaries of traditional office does not exist. In this situation, power does not only denote the authority but also denotes the opportunities embedded in a job. When the organization is facing uncertainty it can create confusion about roles played and the relative importance of the roles played by people. For example, when an organization is going to be taken over by a MNC, there is a high uncertainty about the jobs of people. In such a situation employees tend to use their persona l power and influence to gain information and to favor people. This can trigger office politics. The change in status is definitely advantageous for the organization through delegation.
Q 2
Consider the changing nature of modern work organisations and attempt to challenge and criticise the validity of this statement.
In this special issue on the changing nature of work and organizations, we explore how changes in the external
environment affect the world of work. Over the past decade, several factors have come together to impact the role,
relevance and practice of human resource management in organizations (Burke & Cooper, 2000; Cooper & Burke,
2002). These factors operate at many different levels and raise important issues and challenges for the management of organizations. For example, individuals in the workforce have somewhat different values and expectations about work now. Organizations are employing the most educated workforce in the history of the world. Employees have higher salary expectations, the availability of opportunities to participate in organizational decision making, and the need to be treated fairly and with respect. In addition, more employees are concerned about the effects of work demands and work hours on their family and on their personal lives.
Technology
The second factor which drives where we work, and how we organize and manage work is technology (Wallace,
2004). As new technologies are invented, the way we do things changes, and those changes in turn affect us personally and directly, such as where we live and work. The important thing about technology is that it continues to get better, R.J. Burke, E. Ng / Human Resource Management Review 16 (2006) 86-94 89 cheaper, and faster. As a result, we can process enormous quantities of information, share and access data easily, and communicate globally. Suffice to say, we wouldn't be global today without technology.
Telecommuting and distributed work
Technological inventions have also changed where we live and work. The latest developments in communications
and mobile technology such as cellular phones, Blackberries, PDAs and WiFi (Wireless Fidelity) have facilitated
telecommuting or distributed work. The fact that communication technology is getting better, faster, and cheaper has
brought new optimism to telecommuting and flexible work arrangements. Workers no longer have to commute long
distances to the workplace, but instead can telecommute, meet online, and work in virtual teams. In fact, knowledge
workers spend only about forty percent of their work time at the office, thirty percent in their home offices, and the
remainder in other "third places" such as coffee shops, airports, etc. (Ware, 2005b). However, the latest technology has also brought little relief to enhancing worklife balance. Instead, workers are finding themselves ever more connected to the workplace.Workers are constantly checking emails, downloading reports, and connecting back to the office during their waking hours rather, than their working hours. Organizations and workers have become dependent and addicted to technology and work itself.
Outsourcing and offshoring
Global competition is often about price, and companies are striving to be the lower cost producers in order to compete. The result is increased competition and the pressure for efficiency. Organizations have discovered that one of the best ways to cut costs is to take advantage of lower labour costs by outsourcing. Of course, when the lowest cost producers happened to be overseas, it didn't take very long for outsourcing to turn into offshoring (Ware, 2005c). Outsourcing effectively transfers work to places where labour can be bought more cheaply. For millions of workers, that means losing their lifetime permanent job, starting from those in the manufacturing and production. The reality is that developing countries (such as Brazil, Russia, India, and China, collectively known as "BRIC") have become industrialized, and can compete on lower labour costs. This has enabled them to compete in world markets, and effectively made manufacturing capabilities a commodity. As a result, many industrialized economies such as Canada are "hollowing out." The term is often used to describe the de-industrialization of an economy as a result of transfers of manufacturing and production bases overseas. Unfortunately, outsourcing is no longer restricted to the manufacturing and production sectors. In a recent New York Times (2005) interview with Nandan Nilekani, CEO of Infosys, Nilekani said that basically any type or work that can be done over a wire is at risk of being outsourced. White-collar, professional, and knowledge work, thought to be "safe" are already being offshored. Canadian graphics chip maker giant, ATI Technologies Inc., recently set up its first research and development facility outside of Canada in Hyderabad, India (Canadian Business, 2005b).
Conclusion
