Mismanaged Behavior at the Workplace - Essay Example

?Reflective Report There is a growing body of research on organizational behavior (OB) in order to assist the business organizations in handling the chaotic pressure brought on by mismanaged behavior at the workplace. When managed in a professional manner, OB comes across as not only a crucially valuable source of innovation and growth, but also exerts a riveting influence on all important stakeholders of a business including employees, shareholders, and customers. In contrast, a prodigious ominous-looking assortment of notorious issues starts destroying the foundation of a business when strategies made to fiercely manage OB fail. Reportedly, many significant problems capable of directly interfering with progress of OB are related to the factors of leadership and management, organizational structure, and employee motivation. This essay is basically an attempt to contemplate a few principally deteriorative issues with respect to these three factors. In order to better scrutinize each of the three factors and the associated paradoxes, appropriate OB theories will also be added and discussed to evaluate what literature has to say on multiple ramifications of different problematic OB issues. In case of poor leadership and management, one thing escalates another and soon stress and depression at workplace fosters the absenteeism rate also as in case of one private hardware store I worked at. Observations made by me while working at that hardware store identified three issues to be primarily responsible for worrisome OB issues thriving at the store and passive leadership and management was one among them. The leaders there appeared to be least dedicated with resolving myriad issues faced by the workforce and due to absence of a patent communication path, a lot of confusions prevailed at the store which plummeted down the level of both employee motivation and customer satisfaction. The famous theory of transformational leadership is worth mentioning in this context because this leadership concept stresses on transforming an organization for the better and maintaining the vision by winning the trust of the workforce (Connell, Cross & Parry 2002, p. 143). It is implied by this theory that the leaders should lead employees through all difficult processes by communicating with them and showing willingness to solve problems. When, such a strategy is maintained by employers, the employees begin to trust them which is a key element of sound OB. As more and amore employees are becoming less trusting of their domineering or passive employers, research proves that development of trust between leaders and employees is “necessary for the generation of competitive organisational advantage through support, cooperation and the improvement of co-ordination mechanisms” (Rocha 2001 cited in Connell, Cross & Parry 2002, p. 145). Leadership practices, employee motivation, and organizational structure interrelate with each other which is why the hardware store I worked at failed to compete with other firms in the market in addition to internal issues like poor management and job dissatisfaction. The managers at the store consistently refused to address the concerns of employees, which rapidly destroyed the structural framework of OB. OB is seriously at stake when the employees are unsatisfied with the leadership style practices at the workplace which decreases the rate of motivation or when weak organizational designs are implemented. Decreased employee motivation means a depressed workforce which is proved to be lethal for OB while a satisfied workforce proves to be an asset for a company. A peaceful and collaborative OB assists organizations in grooming many talents of unproductive employees while a domineering boss, in contrast, fosters a rough workplace environment which increases the rate of job dissatisfaction and decreases the rate of organizational commitment. A large percentage of workplace issues originating from negative OB are laden with confusions, fear, and unhealthy criticism because the leaders do not invest enough time in winning the trust of their employees. As a result, employees are not motivated to produce their best which increases job dissatisfaction level. The famous Mobley model suggests that job dissatisfaction induces an employee to quit job, think about the benefits of joining another organization, and eventually employee turnover rises (Lee 1988, p. 263). While most of the problematic issues targeting the hardware store I worked at were related to weak leadership and low level of employee motivation, some were also associated with bad organizational design. This explains why most of the employees at the hardware store had low trust in their superiors because no sound organizational design was implemented. Organizational structure and design is important area where the concept of ethics should not be forgotten by the people associated with a firm. Business ethics works to make the employers realize that absolute use of power could quite literally cripple many important areas of organizational behavior essential for vigorous business life like organizational design, employee motivation, organizational commitment, and professionalism. General consensus is that organizational design has huge ramifications for the OB of any firm. Organizational design or structure is considered one of the main factors which influence the organizational innovation. Employee empowerment initiatives among other OB strategies are worth mentioning here as they directly relate with “employee participation and job satisfaction, motivation and performance, individual commitment and organizational achievement” (Sahoo, Behera & Tripathy 2010, p. 40). This proves that organizational designs which incorporate such effective tools improve service behaviors of the employees and make them invest extra time, hard work, and brainwork in the functions they perform. There is a growing need to incorporate flexible organizational structures where the workforce is given empowerment to participate in important decision-making processes. Concluding, this much becomes clear from the above discussion that OB has enormous implications as one of the principal determinants of competitive success for many organizations. It is an indisputable reality that for an organization to compete successfully in the global market, the management should keenly address the three primarily important OB areas of leadership styles and management, employee motivation, and organizational structure or design. Myriad valuable approaches and strategies in this context are popular around the globe which differ from each other but focus on steering the failing organizations in the right direction. References Connell, J, Cross, B & Parry, K 2002, LEADERSHIP IN THE 21st CENTURY: WHERE IS IT LEADING US?, International Journal of Organisational Behaviour, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 139-149. Lee, TW 1988, How job dissatisfaction leads to employee turnover, Journal of Business and Psychology, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 263-271. Sahoo, CK, Behera, N & Tripathy, SK 2010, Employee Empowerment and Individual Commitment: An Analysis From Integrative Review of Research, Employment Relations Record, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 40-56. Read More