What Is Organisational Behaviour All about - Coursework Example

What is Organisational Behaviour? How can it assist business to deal with the challenges opportunities that business is facing? Introduction The term organizational behaviour is used to refer to a discipline and an application of knowledge about the way in which individuals and groups act within organizations. Based largely on the system analysis approach, the study of organization behaviour conceives the people-organization relationship as whole persons, as whole groups, as whole organizations and as whole social systems (Robbins, 2002). The behaviour of an organization refers to that shared body of values and code of beliefs that all the people within an organization ascribe to (Robbins, 2002). That means that the behaviour ultimately affects the way various stakeholders of an organization behave, interacts and commit to the accomplishment of prescribed task that serves the organization within which they relate. Again, organization behaviour is that trait that uniquely distinguishes an organization from the other. Based on that understanding of organization behaviour, this paper seeks to elaborate on the study of organization behaviour as a way of managing an organization towards optimal performance. The paper elaborates on the component elements of organization behaviour, the role of organization behaviour and how that behaviour affects the daily operations of an organization. Finally, the paper illustrates how organization behaviour plays out in view of the 21st century business challenges and opportunities. The Elements of Organisation Behaviour Organization Behaviour (OB) is a product of the individuals and groups within an organization, mainly discerned from how they interact with each other and with the roles assigned to each one of them. OB encompasses a very wide range of variants such as organization attitude and response to change, human behaviour, leadership style, team work, communication channels etc. The component elements of organizational behaviour are the interrelated and sometimes overlapping. They serve as the basic principles on which an organization functions as a singular identity to all its stakeholders (Robbins, 2002). According to Robbins (2002), at the very base on which every organisation rests, we have values, vision, goals and management’s philosophy as the pillars of organisation behaviour. These values, vision, goals and philosophy define what the organisation is, its identity, it practices and its way of doing things (culture). Every member of the organisation (managers or junior employees) always acts in correspondence to the vision, goals, values and philosophy that the organisation ascribes to. Once these are established, the derived way of doing things (organizational culture) is gradually composed in the formal, informal and social segment of the organisation’s existence. The groups that form within the organisation are mostly defined by the culture as is the image the organisation portrays to the outside society. The formulated culture is what determines the leadership style adopted in the organisation, the modes and channels of communication employed between individuals and groups of an organisation and finally the group dynamics at play within that organization. All these are derivatives of the organisation culture. Further, the employees of that organisation will perceive the quality of their work life in relation to the established culture, thus determining the degree of their motivation to perform their assigned tasks. Ultimately, the performance of each employee, the individual satisfaction in the job and the personal growth and development of each employee will rely on that degree of motivation. Now, when all these component elements combine, they build the very framework the concerned organization will perpetually operate from, the organisation behaviour in short. The Role of Organisation Behaviour An organization has one main goal which can be assumed as a universal goal of businesses. As Schein (2004) says, that goal is to succeed. According to Buchanan, David & Huczynski (2004), modern organisations are larger, more complicated and more productive than in any other time in history. We have global corporations with employees that number the population of some major cities in the world. This success can directly be related to the realization and acceptance of the role of organisation behaviour in the business set up. The rapidly changing cultures in modern businesses stem from an overly competitive and incredibly fast-paced market (Buchanan, David & Huczynski, 2004). A slight change in organizational behaviour usually changes the motivation levels of employees, the employee behaviour, the productivity, the profitability and the corporate image of the business. Today's business managers are very attentive to how employees react to any situation in view of maintaining positive organisation behaviour. Every newly hired employee is inducted into the organizational behaviour as part of the training and development programs for the workforce. Organizational behaviour determines how motivated the employees will be, how they will perform their task, their perceptions to the relevance and need of their contribution etc. The turnover of employees will depend on the motivation levels where low motivation will be indicated by many resignations, retirements and dismissals (Greenberg, 1994). Every employee will adopt a personality, creativity, adaptability and responsibility levels that directly relates to his or her motivation levels. Each of these is a derivative of the organisation behaviour of the particular organisation (Greenberg, 1994). Productivity will ultimately be a product of the organisation behaviour. In organisation Y, employees only work with supervision. In organisation X, there are only two supervisors managing the entire production line since employees assume personal responsibility over the production. In hotel B, waiters are always as good as the tip they expect from you. In hotel C, the waiters are as good as the presence of a senior manager in the establishment. In hotel D, waiters will make it a personal business to ensure your satisfaction as her or his customer. That is how relevant organisation behaviour is to an organisation (Greenberg, 1994). The above is just a simple illustration of how organisation behaviour plays out in determining profitability of an organisation. From informal group set ups, to the communication channels adopted, the behaviour of an organisation determines how it operates (Nel, Hodges, & Erwee, 2009). For instance, some organisations are purely formal in communication while others rely on grapevine communication to pass on employee grievances and discuss policies (Nel, Hodges, & Erwee, 2009). The organisation behaviour will determine how effective an organization is in pursuit of its goals. The success of an organisation is always as good as its organisation behaviour (Nel, Hodges, & Erwee, 2009). Organisation Behaviour in the 21st Century The 21st century is among the most challenging times to do business in the history of organisations. The markets are volatile, labour market very demanding, competitions at its most lethal, laws at their most restrictive, consumers at their most selective and choosy, governments at their most rigorous control and the environment at its most unreliable state ever. As Parker (2000) says, there is need for quick responsiveness to global social economic trends, flexibility of policies and adaptation to different eventualities for every successful organisation. That means that organisations must establish favourable organisation behaviours that are dynamic and very supportive of the volatile environment they have to operate in (McKenna, 2000). The amount of challenges facing organisations from within and from without have increased in this new age, thus demanding a solid and readily effective organisation culture. Organisations have to craft a befitting organisation behaviour meant to improve their human resource, their sales and their expanding market reach. Growth in portfolio not accompanied by a reciprocal growth in behaviour will only lead to disappointments (McKenna, 2000). Perhaps what should be identified as challenge number one in modern organisations is globalization. In globalization, people are always on the move, societies are being integrated, global; communication networks are being adopted as the best mediums, trade is going beyond borders, more and more people are becoming global citizens, problems are being shared across nations with effects and counter effects and most importantly, the global market is assimilating to standardized levels. For organisations to adopt these changes and still be able to contend on a global level; there is need to create and maintain positive organisation behaviour where each individual and group in the organisation progresses towards attaining the core objectives of the organisation. As challenges increase, the need for employee motivation and satisfaction is evidently the only way to retain competitiveness (Robbins, 2002). Consequent to globalization, organisations have to hire people from different nations and facilitate their induction into the organisation behaviour (Saiyadain, 2003). The organisation identity as defined by the organisation behaviour will be the only pillar to hold such organisations on a constant growth process (Saiyadain, 2003). The winning organisations of this age, will have to renew their strategic plans and adopt such an organisation behaviour as can enable their employees to face new challenges and exploit new opportunities. Conclusion As elaborated above, organisation culture is the defining element of an organisation’s success. In this new age, as Parker (2000) says, the challenges and opportunities at hand require that every organisation crafts desirable, proactive and largely positive organisation behaviour. Organisations have to train and retrain their employees on emergent issues, motivate them and strategically direct the behaviours of constituent individuals and groups if only to remain market relevant. The vision, goals, values and management philosophy of the organisation must feature a dynamic acceptance of the challenges and a proactive role in attaining a winning edge in the face of those challenges (Robbins, 2002). More so, the organisation need to act in ways that exploit new opportunities by instilling growth, vision, ambition and innovativeness in the employees as part of the organisation behaviour. References Buchanan, David & Huczynski, Andrzej, 2004, Organizational Behaviour: An Introductory Text, Prentice Hall, New York. Greenberg, Jerald, 1994, Organizational behavior: the state of the science, Lawrence Elrbaum Associates Publishers, New Jersey. McKenna, Eugene, 2000, Business Psychology and Organisational Behaviour: A Student's Handbook, Psychology Press, Philadelphia. Nel, P, Hodges, D & Erwee, R 2009, “Organisational behaviour on various levels and in different contexts”, International Journal of Organisational Behaviour, Volume 14(1), 1-3. Also Available at Parker, Martin, 2000, Organizational culture and identity: unity and division at work, Sage Publications, California Robbins, Stephen, 2002, Organizational Behavior, Prentice Hall; New York. Saiyadain, Mirza, 2003, Organisational Behaviour, Mc-Graw Hill, New Delhi. Schein, Edgar, 2004, Organizational culture and leadership, John Wiley & Sons, San Franscisco. Read More