Organizational Behavior: the Cultural Dynamics of any Organization - Essay Example

?Final Reflective Report Report Word Count = 1644 words (excluding references and TOC) Contents FinalReflective Report 1 Customer Name 1 University 1 Instructor 1 Course 1 Date 1 Report Word Count = 1644 words (excluding references and TOC) 1 Contents 2 Introduction 3 Motivation 4 Personal Experience 5 Reinforcement and Rewards 6 Personal Experience 6 Communication 7 Personal Experience 8 Conclusion 9 References 10 Introduction Understanding Organizational Behaviour, today, has become an impetus to the successful operations of an organization. The modern day managers need to understand and have an immaculate grasp of their organization, its cultural dynamics and existing values and norms. The organizational behaviour is the corporate fingerprint of any company that distinguishes it from others in the industry especially in the eyes of its employees. The attainment of goals and resilience in a company are reflection of the employee commitment that a modern day manager cannot bring out of his sub-ordinates until and unless he knows how to handle the employees. Handling of employees does not mean domineering employees outrageously to a certain task without allowing them to have a say in it. In fact handling employees mean understanding them, giving them liberty to coin their opinions in decision making and respecting their rights at all points in time. Organizational Behaviour basically entails the cultural dynamics of any organization and how an individual can operate within the socially acceptable norms and values of the organization in order to ensure smooth functioning of the organization over a sustainable period of time [WATSON 2011]. Organizational Behaviour may be considered by business managers and students as a subject that is applicable to organizations in the corporate sector, but as a personal observation it is felt that the scope of organizational behaviour is too wide and broad to be restricted to corporate sector alone. Organizational behaviour theories are so vibrant and versatile that they are equally useful, relevant and applicable to domestic affairs, educational environments as well as the corporate entities in a similar manner. This is because organizational behaviour talks about the behaviour of humans in organizations and hence it directly or indirectly talks about human behaviour. Throughout the module numerous fruitful theories regarding organizational culture and behaviour were discussed however the most interesting and applicable ones, on a personal note, are Motivation Theories, Reinforcement and Rewards and Communication. Throughout the length of this paper these three topics will be discussed and will be linked to personal experiences and how they paved future road map as per the lessons they taught. Motivation One of the most significant concepts for a manager to learn and understand is indeed motivation. Motivation can be defined as an urge to satisfy a particular need. If there is an unsatisfied need in an individual, then he experiences anxiety and to get rid of the anxiety and get back to the normal state of mind the individual strives for the fulfilment and satisfaction of the need [KREITNER 2008]. In Management this human behaviour is to some extent exploited and practices quite regularly. A modern day manager is required to understand his subordinates, because without knowing one subordinate one cannot learn about their inner motivations. A manager must be smart enough to identify the unsatisfied urge in his staff members then use it as an instrument to motivate its employees to attain a particular task [NOBLE 2011]. A famous theory that has been used by the managers for a lot many years now is the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. The figure shows the famous Maslow’s Pyramid of Needs that individuals develop over a period of time. Individuals move from one level to another on the pyramid and in some cases they may find themselves on two different levels at the same time. the implication for this that the business manager needs to understand the level in the pyramid where its subordinate is at that very moment and then use this observation or identifies unsatisfied need as means to attain organizational ends [WESSON 2010]. Personal Experience IN K-8 it is remembered that there was a boy named Tom, he was a lonely boy had no friends and he did not use to talk to anyone. Tom was also an underperformer in the grades. Tom’s parents were worried about Tom’s approach to life and work and they consulted the Children’s Counsellor. The Counsellor had a few sessions with Tom, and she realized that he is dire need of socialization. Tom’s teacher was taken on board, secretly, and she was requested to cooperate and come up with a solution to this dilemma. The teacher came up with a wonderful solution that turned the tables completely. She designated Tom as the Class Representative and by doing this she gave Tom a huge opportunity to come in direct contact with his class mates, interact with them on a regular basis and ultimately befriends with them. The move worked wonders and Tom was not asocial any more. He had a lot of friends and this helped him improve his performance in all the facets in the class and this reflected on his grade sheet as well. So it was learnt that identifying the level of unsatisfied need and then providing means to the individual to satisfy this need brings a revolution in the individual and motivates him to attain the desired goal in order to satisfy the need, as happened in Tom’s case. Reinforcement and Rewards Understanding organizational behaviour could be unwieldy for managers if they are not keen observers of their surroundings. Some employees by nature are rapacious while others ill-motivated. Due to prominent differences in the motivation levels of employees it is difficult for the manager to stop them from making mistakes in the work place [UHN-BIEN 2010]. So to bolster the implication of the theory of Motivating employees, managers also use reinforcement and reward techniques on a regular basis. Reinforcement is a technique that is employed by managers to reduce the probability of occurrences of unacceptable behaviour by the employees in the workplace, categorically [CLICKER TRAIN USA 2005]. Reinforcement can be of two types; Positive and negative Reinforcement. When a good behaviour is observed in an employee such as meeting of sales target or treating customers well then a tap on the shoulder by the boss shall be a sign of recognition of good performance of the employee. This tap on the shoulder will motivate the employee to repeat this behaviour more frequently in the future. Similarly negative reinforcement is to prevent the employee from repeating abject behaviour [ROBBINS 2009]. Personal Experience Throughout the education expedition this has been observed that teachers and instructors use this technique of reinforcement on a regular basis. Julia is a classmate that has been outperforming in every course and when asked of this standout performance, Julia gave a lot of credit to the encouraging behaviour of instructors in the class whenever she scored good grades. Sometimes the students were asked by the instructors to laud the good scores gained by Julia. This treatment motivated her more and more to work harder and maintain the consistently standout performance in the classes. Similarly Sam used to crack foolish jokes during class lectures. Mrs. Parkinson did not like this behaviour and she started ignoring Sam and not responding to any of his jokes and it was observed that within a period of few weeks Sam literally stopped cracking jokes in Mrs. Parkinson’s sociology class. This was a practical depiction of reinforcement, this time negative of course. Communication Communication is one of the most significant concepts and tools that are used by business managers since time immemorial to ensure that tasks are executed as expected and goals are attained as planned [RAINS 2011]. Communication is basically the sending of message by the sender and its reception by the receiver via a particular medium, email, internet, cell phone etc, and then receiver’s response in a particular manner. The following figure summarizes the entire process of communication, The process may last for a few seconds, hours or days but it lays the foundation to successful attainment of goals or complete disasters. If not performed well and with efficiency and effectiveness it may cost billions of dollars to companies in no time. The magnitude of devastation will be so huge that it will not give a second chance to recover to those affected [LOGSDON 2011]. The communication is as effective or as complex as the organizational structure in place itself is. In centralized organizations with a uniform level of communication the process is generally slow, steady but accurate. However in decentralized organizations the process is speedy but information may get tempered while disseminating. Both the organizational structures have their own pros and cons but the significance and relevance of effective communication are well established and recognized by both [GLINOW 2009]. Personal Experience While participating in a sorority to manage an event, the need to communicate effectively was personally experienced and realized. The responsibility delegated to John was to keep a track of the sound system as a whole. The team leader was in a bit of rush while he delegated the responsibility to John. The team leader thought that John has understood what he is supposed to do but that wasn’t the case. John thought that he just has to switch the sound system on at the time of Chief Guest’s speech and he assumed everything to be in order. When the time came, John did what he thought he had to do and the plan did not go at all the way team leader thought it would. The sound system was not in order, against the expectations of John and the entire sorority had to face embarrassment at the hands of crowd and others present. The entire episode was a consequent of miscommunication and it resulted in great mismanagement. Conclusion In all in all, at the end of the module the significance of Organizational Behaviour is realized. Organizational Behaviour is relevant and applicable to whole lot of day to day tasks that we perform. Without application of Organizational Behaviour concepts to the real world situations one may face ravaging consequences. The experiences shared in this paper have helped improving the approach to work and life of those involved. References ANGELO KINICKI and ROBERT KREITNER, 2008, Organizational Behaviour: Key Concepts, Skills & Best Practices, McGraw-Hill ANN LOGSDON, 2011, Positive Reinforcement – Fix Behaviour Problems with Positive Reinforcement, accessed 14 Nov 2011 < http://learningdisabilities.about.com/od/behaviorproblems/p/reinforcers.htm> CARMEN NOBLE, 2011, The Most Powerful Workplace Motivator, accessed 13 Nov 2011 < http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6792.html> CLICKER TRAIN USA, 2005, Schedules of Reinforcement, accessed 13 Nov 2011 < http://www.clickertrainusa.com/scheduleofreinforcement.htm> JASON COLQUITT, JEFFERY LePINE and MICHEAL WESSON, 2010, Organizational Behaviour: Improving Performance and Commitment in the Workplace, McGraw-Hill JOHN R. SCHEMERHORN, JAMES G. HUNT, RICHARD N. OSBORN and MARY UHN-BIEN, 2010, Organizational Behaviour, Wiley JUDGE ROBBINS, 2009, Organizational Behaviour, Pearson International Edition JULIE RAINS, 2011, 9 Reason people don’t’ Do What They Are Supposed To, accessed 13 Nov 2011 < http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6792.html> STEVEN MCSHANE and MARY VON GLINOW, 2009, Organizational Behaviour, McGraw-Hill SUE WATSON, 2011, Rewards and Positive Consequences, accessed 14 Nov 2011 < http://specialed.about.com/cs/behaviordisorders/a/rewards.htm> Read More