Organizational Behavior Discussion - Assignment Example

?Organization Behavior Discussion Responses A. The Hawthorne experiment headed by two researchers: Elton Mayoand Mary Parker Follet involved six female workers. The team altered the working conditions of the workers and monitored the effect it had on their morale and productivity. Several conclusions were made from the experiment among them the most important was that workers are motivated by physiological conditions more than physical working conditions. Mayo therefore advised managers to attend to the emotional needs of their employees. The Hawthorne legacy has had a strong influence in today’s workplace by setting the standards for managers to view people not as machines but as humans and attend to their individual needs; offers supportive leadership at the work place rather than pushing for results (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2006). McGregor’s Theory X assumes that most people dislike work and try to avoid it when they can, therefore they must be coerced and threatened in order to work. Theory Y on the other hand says people like work as it is a natural activity like rest or play and people are capable of self-control and self-direction when they understand the goals. Theory X goes ahead to assume that people prefer to be directed and tend to avoid responsibility and that they are only interested in security. Theory Y on the other hand people get committed when they are rewarded for it and that they will learn and seek responsibility as they are imaginative and creative. It is hard to work under Theory X managers as most of them only stress on work and more work without understanding employee needs. I prefer the Theory Y managers because they understand people and they are concerned about creating positive relations that foster productivity in the organization (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2006). C. The term E-business is defined as the use of the internet to more effectively and efficiently manage every aspect of a business. Employees today have acquired skills in many areas of digital communications and these include the use of blogs, emails, social networking and other sites where users provide and refine content. In this kind of environment therefore where the employees have the control over the information that they can share and access, the role of the manager is evolving into one that aims at providing the means for collaboration that is they learn the need for team work and empowerment in independent decision making (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2006). 2. A. There are three layers of organizational and these include: (1) observable artifacts which are the physical manifestations of an organization culture such as manner of dress, acronyms etc. ; (2) espoused values which are states values and norms preferred by an organization; (3)basic underlying assumptions which are the things taken for granted but guide organizational behavior. There are four functions of organization culture: (1) organizational identity; (2) Collective commitment; (3) social system stability; (4) it acts as a sense making mechanism (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2006). There are four types of organizational culture according to the competing value framework each with distinct characteristics. The first is a clan culture and this has an internal focus and values flexibility: it uses employee involvement as a method of achieving flexibility. The second is an Adhocracy culture which has an external focus and values flexibility. This culture values innovation and fast responses to change. The third is a market culture which has a very strong external focus valuing stability and control. They are majorly driven by competition and put emphasis on customer satisfaction. The fourth and last category is the hierarchy culture that has an internal focus valuing stability and control: it lays emphasis on formal structured work in order to meet high standards (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2006). B There exist six socialization tactics used by organizations to socialize employees. Each of the tactics provides an organization with two opposing options that can be used to socialize employees. They are collective versus individual where employees can be socialized collectively or individually, formal versus informal where employees are segregated from regular members or mixing them, sequential versus random where there are fixed steps that culminate in a role for a new employee or where there is a dynamic progression, fixed versus variable where there is a timetable for the assumptions of the role or there is no timetable, serial versus disjunctive where a newcomer is socialized by an experienced member or where there is none and investiture versus divestiture where there is affirmation of a newcomers incoming global role identities and attributes or the denial and stripping away of the newcomers sense of self and then the reconstruction of the self in the organizations image (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2006). The four types of developmental networks derived from a developmental network of mentoring are the receptive network which is composed of a few weak ties from one social system. The second is the traditional network that contains a few strong ties between an employee and developers that all come from a single social system. The third one is the entrepreneurial network which is made up of strong ties among developers from various social systems. The fourth and the last one is the opportunistic network which has been associated with having weak ties with multiple developers coming from various social systems (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2006). 3. A Ethnocentrism can be defined as a prejudicial belief that an individual’s own culture, country, language, behavior and traditions are superior or better than those of other individuals. There exist a wide variation among cultures and this made Hofstede to warn people against directly applying American-made management theories to other cultures without adapting them first. He therefore made it clear that there is no one best way to manage across cultures as cultures are different and each one of them will require specific management techniques in order to effectively manage. Forcing a given management approach on a given culture because of the assumption that it works in America and therefore should work elsewhere will only lead to frustrations to the manager (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2006). C People in high context cultures are known to derive great meaning from situational cues above the spoken or the written words. They include people from China Japan and Mexico. Their interpretation and assigning of meanings is dependent on the prevailing situation. People in low context cultures derive key information from precise and brief written and spoken messages. To them the spoken and written messages are so important sources of key information about people and situations. They include people from Germany, the United States and Canada. In Mono-chronic cultures time is very precise and rigidly measured. They are very strict with time and they prefer doing one thing at any one given moment. They include people form the United States. The polychromic cultures view time as fluid and flexible. To them they do not pay strict adherence to time and can do multiple tasks at ago. They include people from Latin America, Middle East and Africa (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2006). 4. D Emotional contagion is the aspect of emotions being contagious such that both the good and the bad moods have the possibility of affecting others at the workplace. Emotional labor is a situation that occurs when people need to suppress their emotional reactions when serving others. It happens when employees bottle up feelings of frustration, resentment and anger which are inappropriate to express and therefore put on a mask in order to continue serving others which may lead to emotional burnout. There are four key elements of emotional intelligence which include: self-awareness and self-management- which people are engage in for personal competence, and social awareness and relational management that individuals engage in for purposes of social competence (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2006). E There are five big personality dimensions and these include extraversion which talks of people who are social and extremely talkative. The second dimension is agreeableness which describes people who are trusting and very cooperative. The third is conscientiousness which describes people who are responsible and persistent in whatever they do. The fourth is emotional stability which describes people who are seen as relaxed and unworried about situations. The fifth is known as open to experience which describes people that are intelligent and curious. Of the five traits conscientiousness as the best predictor of job performance and this is because a proactive personality shows initiative, takes action and endures until a desired change is achieved. If you consider the others for example the extraverts, they are social and easily create relationships with people with ease but when it comes to performance they waste time in trying to create relationships, talking of and in most times irrelevant issues and thus their performance is lowered as compared to the conscientious dimension (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2006). 5. A The Job performance Model of motivation asserts that there two key categories of factors that influence motivation and these are: individual inputs which include job knowledge, emotions, beliefs, values to the work setting; and job context variables which include physical environment, tasks completed by an individual and the organization’s approach to recognition and rewards among others. The two categories influence each other as well as the motivational processes of arousal, direction and persistence. It goes ahead to state that motivation leads to motivated behaviors which in turn affect job performance. On the other hand Maslow’s Needs theory states that an individual is motivated to meet the needs up the ladder which he put as composed five categories, physiological, safety, love, esteem and self-actualization. An individual is motivated to attain another need once a need in the hierarchy has been met. McClelland believes that motivation and performance vary according to the strength of an individual’s need for achievement. He goes ahead to say that the top achievers prefer to take moderate risks and be involved in situations where they are able to control their destiny (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2006). C The values model of work-family conflict asserts that the general life values determine an individual’s values about family and work. It goes ahead to say that work-family conflict occurs when there is a lack of value similarity with family members. Work-family conflict can also occur when an employee on work values are not consistent with the company values. When an individual does not accomplish his or her values depending on what he believes to be right for them as a result of work-family conflicts, job or life satisfaction, or even both in some instances, him and the job will suffer. Essentially this model looks at how family interferes with work and how work interferes with family. Depending on different values conflicts will arise if the values are inconsistent with each other and thereby affecting both the individual and his work or both (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2006). 6. There are two basic functions of feedback; one is that feedback instructs such that it clarifies roles of employees and can also be used in teaching of new behavior. For example when there are conflicting tasks carried out by different individuals, feedback will enable the management to clarify who will do what so as to solve the existing conflict. The second function of feedback is the motivational function as it motivates employees or an individual when it serves as a reward or promises to give a reward. For example after a working hard a manager may tell an employee to take the rest of the day off. This is a pleasant reward for hard work. There are three sources of feedback: (1) others such as peers, supervisors and low level employees; (2) the task an individual is engaged in; (3) oneself (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2006). D Positive and negative reinforcement are strategies that are used by the management in order to strengthen behavior. On the other hand punishment and extinction are used in order to weaken behavior. This can be used for example when an employee is used to coming to work late, when such employee is deducted a certain amount of money from his salary he will not come late. This is a form of punishment to make him come early. When an employee does exemplary work and is given a bonus he is motivated to work harder. The bonus is a form of positive reinforcement. Behavior shaping occurs when closer and closer approximations of a target behavior are reinforced. In effect the standard used for reinforcement is made more difficult as the individual learns. The process begins with continuous reinforcement which is followed by irregular reinforcement and this happens when the target behavior has become strong or routine (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2006). 7. A A team is emerges from a group and can be defined as a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, goal and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable. A team is a matured work group where the leadership is shared, there is both individual and collective accountability, and they have set their own purpose. Teams are made to solve problems especially at the organizations and their effectiveness is measured through their collective outcomes. The five teamwork competencies are (1) orienting team to problem solving situations; (2) organizing and managing team performance; (3) promoting a positive team environment; (4) facilitating and managing task conflicts; and (5) appropriately promoting perspectives (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2006). C Tuchman’s theory describes five stages of group development. The first stage is forming where the members of a group come together and agree to form a group. Group members tend to be uncertain about roles, people in charge, goals and trust is low. The second stage is the storming stage which is time for testing. Members test the leader’s policies and assumptions and each other leading to formation of subgroups or sometimes rebellion. The third stage is norming and this happens after challenges such as power and authority in stage two have been resolved. There is team spirit as individuals understand their roles. There is group cohesiveness that binds the group together. The fourth stage is performance where the group is involved in problem solving; there is open communication, cooperation and lots of helping behavior. Challenges are solved amicably and commitment makes the group to achieve more results. The last stage is the adjournment stage where group members move to other things when the work is completed. There exist parties, award ceremonies, graduation etc. (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2006). 8. A The rational decision making model consists of identifying the problem, generating viable alternative solutions, evaluating and selecting a specific solution and lastly implementing and evaluating the solution. Scholars have come to contest that decision makers rarely follow all the above mentioned stages as outlined in the ration model. On the other hand Simon’s normative model is directed by a decision maker’s bounded rationality. The decision makers are restricted or bound by certain specified constraints when making a decision. It goes ahead to mention that decision making is characterized by three aspects: (a) limited information processing; (b) the use of judgmental heuristics; and (c) satisficing. The model of decision making styles asserts that styles vary along two different dimensions: value orientation and tolerance for ambiguity. When the two are combined they form four styles of decision making and these include directive, analytical, conceptual and behavioral. People with a directive style have low tolerance for ambiguity and are oriented towards tasks and technical concerns. The analytics have higher tolerance for ambiguity and have a tendency to overanalyze situations. Conceptualists have a higher threshold for ambiguity and are people oriented. Behavioral styles tend to focus mostly on people. The creative process has five stages: preparation where it starts from a base of knowledge, concentration stage where an individual focuses on a problem at hand, incubation where people mull over information and make remote associations, illumination where associations occur and verification where the entire process is revisited to verify, modify or to try out the new idea (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2006). C Brainstorming in a group is used to enable group members come up with a variety of ideas and solutions to a problem. The nominal group technique helps groups in coming up with new ideas and the evaluation and selection of appropriate solutions. The Delphi technique is seen as a group process that secretly generates ideas or judgments from experts who are located in different geographical areas. The computer aided decision making works to reduce consensus roadblocks while at the same time collecting more information in a shorter period of time. The pros of including groups in decision making process include, greater poll of knowledge, different perspectives, greater comprehension, increased acceptance and provides a training ground. The cons include social pressure, domination by the vocal few, logrolling, goal displacement, the problem of group thinking as a result of cohesiveness (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2006). 9. A The perceptual process model of communication is a process of consecutively linked elements. It describes receivers as the processors of information who create the meaning of messages in their own mind. Because the recipients of information interpret messages differently from the one intended by the sender, miscommunication is a common phenomenon. All the elements that exist in the perceptual model of communication act as potential process barriers to communication. There are eight personal barriers that affect communication and these include the ability to effectively communicate, the way people process and interpret information, level of interpersonal trust, stereotypes and prejudices, egos of people communicating, the listening ability, the natural tendency to evaluate sender’s message and the inability to listen with understanding. The physical barriers relate to distance, physical objects, time, work and noise. Semantic barriers come up as errors in the encoding and decoding of messages (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2006). B An assertive style is one that is expressive and self-enhancing but it does not in the process violate others’ basic human rights. The aggressive style on the other hand on the contrary is expressive and self-enhancing but takes unfair advantage of others or violates the rights of others. Anon assertive style is one that is characterized by fearful and self-denying behavior. The following are the sources of non-verbal communication: body movements, gestures, touch, facial expressions and eye contact (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2006). 10. A The five soft influence tactics include rational persuasion, inspirational appeals, consultation, ingratiation, and personal appeals. The five are less forceful than the following hard four influence tactics. The four hard influence tactics include exchange, coalition tactics, pressure and legitimating tactics. Soft tactics are better used for generating commitment and are seen as more fair than the hard tactics. Cialdini presents six principles of influence and persuasion, they include liking that is favoring friends, reciprocity that is the belief that one good or bad turn deserves to be repaid in kind, social proof that is following those that are similar to oneself, authority that is deferring to credible and respectable experts and finally scarcity where you things that are limited in availability (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2006). B French and raven presents five bases of power and these include reward power where an individual in power rewards those who comply, coercive power where a person in authority punishes people who do not comply, legitimate power which is known to rely on formal authority, expert power where an individual provides the required information and referent power where the basis is personal attraction. Empowerment means sharing varying degrees of power and decision making authority with the subordinates so as to be able to serve customers effectively. To make empowerment work their needs to be active sharing of information, there needs to be structures that support autonomy, control must be transferred from the managers to the teams and lastly the need for persistence. In the end trust and training should also be availed (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2006). 11. A The following represent characteristics that are common to all organizations, they include coordination of effort and this is achieved through policies and guidelines, a common goal which can be seen as a collective purpose, division of labor where people are seen to be performing different tasks but the tasks are related to the attainment of organizational goals, hierarchy of authority where there exists a chain of command that defines who reports to who. A closed system is one that is self-sufficient and relies on internal inputs to supplement its operations. A closed system is one that is highly dependent on the external environment for its survival. The military/mechanistic metaphor sees organizations as machines where work has to be done without considering the people within the system. The biological sees organizations as developing form birth, maturity, death and so on. Organizations as cognitive systems view organizations as places for learning or a source of information (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2006). C New style organizations focus on collaborations within the organization such that there are no boundaries between managers and subordinates. They follow the horizontal approach which focuses on work processes. The work processes require input from people in different functions. Team work is essential in the new style organizations. The old style organizations mainly divided work according to functions, products and customers. They had boundaries in each section and team work was highly diminished. They majorly followed the vertical approach. The three keys to affectively mange people who are geographically dispersed in a virtual organization are the sharing of knowledge, building of trust and maintaining connectedness (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2006). 12. A John Kotter in his analysis of organizational change found out that organizations fail to change because of one or more of eight common errors. He therefore came up with eight steps that organizations should keep in mind in order to overcome these errors. The first step is to establish a sense of urgency, the second step is to create the guiding coalition, the third is to develop a vision and strategy, the fourth is to communicate the change vision, the fifth is to empower broad-based action, the sixth is to generate short term wins, the seventh is to consolidate gains and produce more change and lastly is to anchor new approaches in the culture (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2006). Employees resist change because of the following ten reasons: (1)an individual’s predisposition towards the change (2) surprise and fear of the unknown (3) climate of mistrust (4) loss of status and/ or job security, (5) peer pressure, (6) disruption of cultural traditions and group relationships, (7) personality conflicts, (8) lack of tact and poor timing, (9) fear of failure, and (10) non-reinforcing reward systems (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2006). Reference Kinicki, A., & Kreitner, R. (2006). Organizational Behavior: Concepts, Skills and Practices. New York: McGraw Hill/Irwin . Read More