Organisational Behaviour at Chris Motor Services Limited - Case Study Example

Organisational Behaviour Name of the Student: Name of the Instructor: Name of the course: Code of the course: Submission date: Organisational Behaviour The success of an organisation is based on several pillars. One of the major pillars in an organisation is the organisational behavior. The manner in which employees relate with is other determines the level of productivity of the organisation by a large extent. Ideally, the organisational behavior explains the state of an organisation. The better the behavior is, the more productive the organisation is. In the Chris Motor Services Limited case under reference, it is seen that Chris, who is the founder of the company had cultivated a good organisational behavior in the company. Chris ensured that all the disputes which occurred in the company would be dealt with in the most appropriate means possible. Chris also acknowledges the important of a competent labor force; which explains the reason as to why he upheld the retention of employees. However, then opposite happened while Chris exited the management of the company. Things broke loose with the height of them being the division of the company’s employees into two groups, one led by Paul who was the new managing director and the other led by Steve, Chris’ son, who was the executive director of the company. The following essay will make reference to organisation behavior with consideration to the Chris Motor Services Limited situation. The areas which will be covered in the essay are psychological contract, motivational gaps and business communication strategies. The concept of psychological contract has not been in practice since its formation in 1959 in the management field. However, over the recent times, more and more managers are turning to it in order to be able to control the employer- employee relationships at the work place, hence leading to the general success of the company. The psychological contract involves a set of in precise and informal laws which govern the relationship between the employer and the employee (Dadi 2012, p.88). They are a set of practices and values which the employer and employee uphold. Therefore, the psychological contract is not a formal contract, instead, it is a virtual contract which exists in the mindset of the employer and employee, hence establishing and governing the mutual relationship between the two. Therefore, at such a time when the relationship amongst the employees, between the two leaders Paul and Steve and between the employees and employees in Chris Motor Services limited is at stake; the adoption of the psychological contract in the company can do it a lot of good. The following section will discuss why psychological contract can become a better fit for Chris Motor Services Limited, considering their management challenge. First of all, psychological contracts lead to an increase in the ability of the stakeholders involved that is employees and employers, to predict what the other party is going to do (Morrison 2010, p.7). Predictability enables each of the parties involved to foresee the future of their relationship. Ideally, predictability is an important aspect of human to human relationships. Every person wants to build a relationship with a person whose moves he or she can be able to predict. Taking a look at the Chris Motor Services Limited, it can be noted that Paul does not trust the moves of Steve; he sees as if he is trying to corner him out of the company. On the other hand, there is conflict among the young and older generations in the company. Steve recommends that the older generation paves way for the talented young people whilst Paul is against this move. Lack of predictability leads to a loss of trust among the parties involved, which is the exact situation at the company in context. Therefore, if a psychological contract is adopted at the company, predictability will be regained and consequently trust; hence returning the company to the successful company is at the times of Chris. Secondly, a psychological contract will increase the dependency among the employees working in the company (Wangithi & Muceke 2012, p.117). Ideally, dependency is a co-function of team work. Neither of them can exist without the other. Looking at Chris Motor Services Limited, it can be seen that there is a lack of dependency between the older generation and the younger generation, between Paul and Steve who are supposed to be leading the way for other employees and between the two executives and the employees. For this reason, team work is poor in the company which will ultimately result to a fall in the production of the company. In order to revive this much needed dependency, it is advisable that the company adopt a psychological contract. Thirdly, a psychological contract will lead to a psychological distance. On this point, it is important to acknowledge that everyone is unique in his or he whom way. There are some who speak out their minds while the inverse of this are also present. For this reason, it is important that there is a certain degree of accommodation of each other in any human to human relationship (Morrison 2010, p.10). Ideally in a work place where team work is required, it is necessary that the stakeholders involve reduce the psychological distance to as low as possible. This will ensure that the people will be able to work as a team. This is the inverse to what is happening at Chris Motor Services Limited where everyone is trying to work in the best way that he knows. Therefore, a psychological contract has the capacity to alter this trend in the company. Fourthly, a psychological contract will bring with it a shared way of looking at situations. For this reason, a psychological contract comes in handy while dealing with change (Morrison 2010, p.11). Looking at Chris Motor Services Limited, two forms of changes can be identified. The first one is the leadership change. Due to the exit of Chris from the management of the company, Paul and Steve have been appointed as the two executive leaders at the company. This is a leadership transition in the company. Secondly, the company is evaluating its position in the market hence faced with two possible routes of change to take; one is the diversification of business to car dealing as proposed by Steve and the other one is the continuation of normal business and finding ways in which to increase business. These two changes are the main cause of the conflict at the organisation which has led to a division of the company’s employees with respect to their age. However, if the organisation adopts a psychological contract based on the values of the company, it will be able to undergo change successfully since it enables the employees to act from a common reasoning ground based on their relationship. Lastly, a psychological contract equips the parties involved with a capacity to fight off danger (Morrison 2010, p.13). Taking a look at the situation at management situation at Chris Motor Services Limited, it is noticed that the parties in conflict do not have a collective way of dealing with the threats to the company. As a result of this, management scandals and differences in opinions have threatened to pull down the organisation which has taken so long to build to its knees. This is because of the fact that the employees and the employers do not have a collective perspective of dealing with danger. However, with the adoption of a psychological contract in the organisation, the employees and the employees will be able to fight off the threats which are facing the company. From the above discussion, it is appropriate to state that the psychological contract should be considered by Chris Motor Services Limited. From the case on the Chris Motor Services Limited, it is seen that the employees have broken u into two groups. One group is led by the young Steve whose ideologies of running the company differ greatly with Paul’s, the leader of the other group. From the situation, it is also seen that Paul is leading the group of the old employees of the company, the ones who have brought it to where it is today. On the other hand, Steve leads a group of the young employees in the company. There are several motivational gaps which led to the situation at Chris Motor Services limited. The following section will give a detailed discussion of the possible motivational gaps which may have led to this. One of the motivational gaps which may have led to this is the lack of a shared vision. The creation of a shared vision should be done with the involvement of every employee in an organisation. This makes an employee feel that he/she is part of the organisation hence working towards the success of the organisation (Lin 2011, 265). This sense of belonging ultimately leads to the motivation of the employees. Taking a look at the situation at Chris Motor Services Limited, one acknowledged the fact that the division in the organisation is based on the ages of the employees; young and old employees. This is due to the fact that each of the two groups of employees holds different perceptions of where the organisation should be heading to. The group led by Steve is calling of young people who have new ideas and more strength to push the company a notch higher, whilst adopting to the new trends and opportunities in the market. The other group led by Paul is for a status quo in the organisation; they want the organisation to run in the same way it has been run since its establishment. This shows that there is a sharp divide in the organisation as to where it should be headed. This lowered the motivation of the employees, hence leading to the current division. Another motivational gap which may be existing in the company is the lack of regard of the employees. Generally, a person feels motivated if he/ she feel highly regarded by an organisation. If an organisation considers the ideas and the input of an employee at an individual level, he / she will feel motivated since he/she will see that his or her efforts do not go unrecognized (Yurtseven & Halici 2012, p.72). The labour force of an organisation is a very important aspect which determines if the organisation will be successful or not. This is due to the fact that it is the labour force which executes the strategic plan of an organisation. Therefore, without the full incorporation of the labour force in the plan of an organisation is as good as spelling doom for a company. From the case on Chris Motor Services Limited, it is clear that Chris knew the importance of employees to the company, which explains the reason as to why he had to step in fast in order to salvage the company from the mess it has gotten into. Due to Chris’ high regard of employees, there was no such division during his leadership as there is after his exit. Taking another look at the situation of the company, it is seen that Steve is even advocating for the sacking of the old generation, which had brought the company this far and replacing them with young employees. This shows the low regard with which he looks at the old generation with. Therefore, it is important that the management of Chris Motor Services Limited find ways of filling the two motivational gaps indicated above. With regard to the first one, Steve and Paul should ensure that they establish a shared vision in the organisation. This will ensure that every employee in the organisation feels as part of the company, hence getting motivated. A good way of ensuring this can happen is by using an appropriate communication strategy. According to the communication performance theory, healthy workplace communications boost the performances of employees in a given workplace (Ou, Davison, Zhong & Liang 2010, p.194). This is due to the fact that it leads to the sharing of knowledge and boosting of teamwork, hence leading to s shared vision and consequently to an increase in the productivity of a company. With respect to the second motivational gap, the management of Chris Motor Services Limited should find a way of incorporating all the employees in the activities of the company. Every employee in the company is equally important; the older generation is highly experienced and they have brought the company thus far. Therefore, their competency should not be doubted. The younger generation is also important. They have new ideas, they have new knowledge, and they have the strength. For this reason, the organisation needs the two generations of employees. An appropriate way of incorporating all of the generations in the running of the company would be to mix them randomly in the various departments of the company. A good communication system would also boost teamwork in the two generations of employees. From the Chris Motor Services Limited case, it can be seen that there is a lack of understanding in addition to a lack of coordination in the organisation. As seen from the case, there is minimal coordination between the two leaders; Paul who is the Managing Director and Steve who is the Executive Director. As a result of this, there has been a sharp division in the employees in either of the ways. So as to counter these two vices which are threatening the very existence of the company, it is important that the organisation adopts the use of a correct communication strategy which will ensure that there is a better understanding and coordination between Steve and Paul and the other employees. There are various communication mechanisms which can be used to reverse the situation at Chris Motor Services Limited. They will be discussed in details below. Communication in an organisation is broadly grouped into two categories; internal communication and external communication. Internal communication is communication which takes place within an organisation while external communication takes place without an organisation. From this definition, it is clear that the problem at Chris Motor Services Limited is related to a failure in the internal communication in the organisation. Internal business communication is composed of three types of communication. They include upward, downward and horizontal communication strategies (Adnan 2012, p.1). With respect to the situation at Chris Motor Services Limited, all the three types of communication will have to be integrated into one system which will afterwards be used as the internal communication model for the company. Upward communication system is whereby information comes from the subordinate staff to the superiors (Adnan 2012,p.1). With respect to Chris Motor Services Limited, it is communication from the employees to Steve and Paul. With this type of communication strategy in place at the company, employees will be able to air their opinions on different situation, hence instigating the management to consider it in its decision making. Another benefit of this system of communication is that it enables the employees to exchange ideas and information. When this is done, the employees are able to work as teams in a better manner as before. The sharing of ideas and information will be a very important avenue for the bridging of the gap between the older and the younger generation of workers in the company. This system of communication will also enable the management to get a feedback from the ground. This enables it to assess its efficiency in meeting its goals and objectives. Upward communication will also lead to a feeling of job satisfaction from the employees hence motivating them. The other communication system is downward communication system. In this type of system, the information flows from the superior to the subordinate staff (Adnan 2012,p.1). Adopting such a communication system will enable the management to transmit crucial information to the subordinate staff, get feedback, improve the morale of the employees, ask for cooperating from the employees, encourage discussions and increase the efficiency of the company (Anderson & Martin 2005, p.249). This type of communication will enable Steve and Paul to communicate to the employees; hence being able to unite them together by tackling the issues which have led to the division of the people. Lastly is the horizontal communication system. This type of communication is one which occurs between the employee themselves and between the employees and between the leaders of the organisation (Adnan 2012,p.1). On this point, horizontal communication will be enable the employees to talk within themselves hence being able to come into a common ground, hence eliminating the problem causing the division. The horizontal communication strategy will also enable Steve and Paul a chance to settle their differences rationally and possibly come up with a strategy aimed at uniting the employees. There are various communication media which Chris Motor Services Limited can use in order to communicate to its employees. They include the telephone, mail via the company’s email account, video conferencing and the internet. Lastly, written communication can be very instrumental in communicating to people within a given location. For instance, the use of memos to manage interior communication can be very strategic. Face to face communication can also come in handy while talking to the guardians of the children. In conclusion, it is seen from the essay that an organisational behavior is very important in determining the stability of an organisation and consequently the success of the organisation. The essay has discussed the issue of psychological contract in details. From the essay, it has been seen that psychological contracts have the capacity to increase the employer dependency levels, reduce the psychological distance between employees, increase predictability, increase the potential to deal with danger and lastly, the employees are able to adapt better to change. The essay has also discussed about motivational gaps which may have led to the current situation at Chris Motor Services Limited. It was observed that the motivational gaps which existed in the company prior to the current division are a lack of a shared vision which is a result of the lack of consideration of all the opinion and the disregard of the employees. Lastly, the essay has discussed about the internal communication strategies which may e used by Chris Motor Services Limited to improve the coordination in the company and create a mutual understanding in the company’s employees and leaders. References Adnan, K., 2012. Business Communication and Its Types, Retrieved on 8th November from Anderson, C., & Martin, M., 2005. Why Employees Speak To Coworkers And Bosses: Motives, Gender, And Organisational Satisfaction, Journal of Business Communication, Vol.32, no.3, pp.249- 262 Dadi, V., 2012. Promises, Expectations and Obligations- Which Terms Best Constitute the Psychological Contract? International Journal of Business and Social Science, Vol. 3, no. 19, pp.88- 102. Lin, H., 2011. The Effects Of Employee Motivation, Social Interaction, And Knowledge Management Strategy On KM Implementation Level, Knowledge Management Research and Practice, Vol. 9, no.1, pp.263-275 Morrison, D., 2010.Psychological Contracts & Change, 1-19. Ou, C.,Davison, R., Zhong, X., & Liang, X., 2010. Empowering Employees Through Instant Messaging, Information Technology &People, Vol.23, no. 2, pp. 193-223. Satisfaction, International Business Research, Vol. 5, no.1, pp.72-81 Wangithi, W., & Muceke, N., 2012. Effect of Human Resource Management Practices on Psychological Contract in Organisations, International Journal of Business and Social Science, Vol. 3, no. 19, pp117-124 Yurtseven, G., & Halici, A., 2012. Importance of The Motivational Factors Affecting Employees Read More