Organisational Behavior in a Company - Literature review Example

Title: Organisational Behavior Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Name and Code: University: Date of Submission: Introduction Organization behaviour is the discipline that studies the structure and the design of organizations. Organization behaviour and theories refers to both the descriptive and prescriptive aspects of the discipline. It describes how organisations are actually structured and offers suggestions on how they can be structured to improve their effectiveness. It is a body of knowledge about organizations which has been developed through the scientific method. This paper makes milestones in expounding the body of knowledge used to describe and predict (Boeree, 2006). It is an integrated set of statements that summarise and explain research findings. It is an explanation of some phenomenon and it consists of principles that describe relationships observed in some situation. In other words a theory tries to explain some practice observed in nature. In organization theory the primary focus is the study of organizations at the macro level. In other words we are trying to learn the whole organization or departments: the way it is structured: the ways the various variables relate to each other and the way groups behave in an organization set up. Excellent leaders do command and build excellence (Hersey & Blanchard 1964, pp. 80). Organizational behaviour refers to the behaviour of people in organizations. It tries to understand the behaviour, attitudes and performance of people in organizations. In addition it discusses human psychological processes that can affect behaviour in organizations for example it tells us how a system of rewards affects a person’s behaviour and performance in organizations. Organizational behaviour derives its concepts from political science, psychology, anthropology and social psychology Organizational behaviour as a theory seeks increased understanding of human behaviour in organizational settings. It seeks to find out how individuals conduct themselves in the manner they do as well as how an individual can change their behaviour and guide them to behave in a certain way. Thus Organizational Behaviour (O.B) is about individuals (their attitudes, perceptions, motives). O. B is defined as a field that seeks enhanced knowledge of behaviour in organizational settings, through the scientific study of individuals and individual processes. The goal of such knowledge is to enhance both organizational effectiveness and individual well being Literature Review Relevant concepts, theories and models In any company a notion taken up by every stakeholder is the business success in their operations. This in effect calls for effort, sacrifice, technical skills, initiatives and effective planning for productivity. The employees are the greatest contributors in the organisation, they drive the productivity, and they build the team, and from them come the leaders who will eventually lead the company into future success. However, their efficiency to be factored in fully, then, organisation behaviour theories, concepts, ethics and policies have to be well observed implemented and directed among them. Today, company have taken up the rapidly evolving organisational cultural trends that are designed to earn the company a competitive advantage. It is every organisation trend, by most managers or leader, to give much consideration on the employee response or reaction to issues. In the overall organisation behaviour has pervaded the company complex piece of training and development of the employees (Boeree, 2006). In the competitive market that is increasingly becoming globalised, organisation behaviour, from both the employee or company perspectives have gained significant requirement for an efficient management team to drive the organisation into success. With a good leadership in the organisation, workforce personality, innovative, resilient and motivating employee will assure the company of continuous success. With this understanding the leaders will be able to accomplish a successful career. The changes in the environment also dictate the type of managers and leadership qualities that should be adopted or affected in order to handle the workers, tackle the new environmental challenges, and employ more skills to get the general tasks accomplished. According to Boeree (2006) Great concern in leadership has attracted various forces in the world today to examine what qualities or conduct should actually be associated with these kinds of leaders. In this attempt, various theories and concepts were developed right from the twentieth century to distinguish leaders from managers, from the crowd and from followers and identify them within the workers in the organisation. The great man theory Today history is largely dominated by the life histories of great men, inherent, but not made; leaders. Thus, according to great mans theory, an inborn leader is considered heroic, and tended to appear almost magically within a community and take control of a circumstance to guide the group into a secure success in portrayal of leadership qualities; for instance, Abraham Lincoln, Julius Caesar, and Mahatma Gandhi. In an organisation, this relates to a leader, within the employees, who is proactive and ready to take initiatives about any upcoming difficult situation and try to tackle it in a way to give inspiration to those in his association. Eventually, such people will be aristocratic leaders achieving noble position in the organisation and even the community. In some instances today, most people are described with endowed inherent qualities that make them effective leaders (Hersey & Blanchard, 1964 pp. 81). The contingency theory The contingency theory was suggested by the Austrian psychologist Fred Edward Fiedler, 1922, who puts more weight on specific environmental variables that dictate the personalities and attributes of a leader with the subsequent leadership style that best well-matches the situation at hand. According to the contingency theory, there is no fixed leadership style that can best suit every situation, but rather, on the interplay of various qualities, styles and initiatives. The model relates to an organisation where a leadership quality is focused on the significant leadership qualities in every situation that people face during the daily business operation. An individual with these qualities is offered the responsibility of directing and coordinating the related work activities. The effectiveness of the individual given the responsibility of performing the particular tasks a leader associated with his/her characteristics and efficiency confirms that various leaders are in various fields, but he who can change in different situations is the most effective leader. In actual, the contingency model brings out a dependent upon or caused situation within the followers of such a leader. In an organisation the leadership qualities will be portrayed on the assessment of potential people style of accomplishing their assigned tasks and relationship with other employees in the organisation in light of the contingency factors like stress, work pressure, the ease of flexibility in fluctuating work demands, attitude to technological advancement. The extensive spectrum of the customised coordinating resources, colleagues, tasks and style of management implemented in relation to the way, one manages them is significant in the leadership attributes, and overall management of personal organisation. In essence, the model calls for selection of a leader within a group with the best situation control qualities, considering the interrelationship of internal and external factors in the organisation. In most circumstances, the theory comes in posit the hierarchical feature in the structure of the model for a leader’s role. Thus, the characteristic atmosphere in relation to the confidence and loyalty, a team of employees are willing to feel in a particular individual. Further, the aspect of ambiguity or clear transparency of the constituents of a group assigned responsibility. The intrinsic authority or domination of the leader or individual control is an important aspect, in the effectiveness of how the team will eventually perform their tasks (Stephen & Robbins, 1987 p. 54). The normative decision theory Hersey & Blanchard (1964 pp. 83) suggested that the theory that has been termed as the game theory as well, makes significant effort to the procedure in leading a team or an organisation in making optimal decisions. Decision making is an important factor in any organisation that implicates the success of the organisation both in times of booming business activity, economic recession or meeting opportunities in the market sector, not to mention the type of relationships within the different organisation departments and employees. However, the normative decision making seldom takes place in the real world, because of the perfectionism consistency has in most cases mismatched the real behaviour in the organisation. Further, the descriptive strategy on how some employees in the organisation in point of fact make their decision is influenced by the cooperation of the employees and the managers or leaders, and within one another, and the way they closely find the decision relating with situation (a normative decision). In today’s organisations, most management decision is in somebody's debt, in actuality, determined by the ease of flexibility in and adjustment as posits the contingency theory. Leadership styles bring to play the varying degrees of relationship between behaviour, assigned tasks which the leaders or individual colleagues are able to adjust to the situation at hand with regard to the organisation and fellow workers interests (Boeree, 2006). The leadership personalities and attributes should have a significant impact on the level of task performance as opposed to subordinates undertaking the same job all alone with a normal supervisor. Situational leadership is an insightful model that directs managers or workers, on the style of approach to tackle a situation. Trait theory The theory takes the approach that most individuals take up intrinsic values, attributes and traits that put them at an appropriate leadership position. The personalities and traits adopted in many occasions relate the individual with certain attributes and personal characteristics common among many leaders. If a certain leadership trait is associated with leadership, then leaders ought to posses those qualities. Much attention is focused on discovering these traits under this model, and mostly tends on successful managers or individuals. However, the underlying idea those other individuals within the organisation might be with the traits could be leaders need to be identified with skills of critical leaders. Traits Skills Adaptable to situations Brilliant and intelligent Alert to social environment Conceptually skilled Ambitious and achievement oriented Innovative Assertive Fluent in speaking languages Cooperative Knowledgeable about a group task Decisive Organised in administrative endeavours Dependable Persistent and persuasive Energetic in a highly active level Social and friendly Should have self confidence Able to contain work pressure Tolerant and resilient during stress Willing to assume responsibilities Proactive in gaining new skills The traits that highly feature in a person’s whole life tend to be synonymous with the qualities. These individuals are rare to be found in our society and organisations. These secondary traits that most of the times relate to the attitude portrayed while undertaking certain activities in the organisation or when meeting challenges during performing of tasks or problems with relationships with individuals. It is expected that good organisational behaviour (company ethics and policies) be upheld at all times, when these are not upheld always and a problem arises it is at this point within the employees that leadership traits will be seen. The approach the individuals will find a solution to these challenges will portray the traits and a combination of characteristics of a leader. At such an instance we expect to see the traits of extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, openness, Behavioural theories designed to give the credit that the common behaviour in leaders is inherent. This leadership theory concentrates on the undertaking that individuals or leaders or managers and the subsequent qualities that the leaders profess in their state of mind. Their participation in any work shall reveal these qualities, both behavioural and skills endowed with in their work. Management theory qualifies a leader by their competency in supervision of the company workforce team into effective performance. Management theory defends the concept that leadership system of rewards and punishment reflect the success and failure of the leaders (Stephen & Robbins, 1987, p. 67). The relationship theory focuses on the interconnection between the leaders and their workgroups. Thus, a leader should be able to motivate and inspire his tem by giving insight to the members in a transformational way that will keep the team moving in smooth and tough times. Further, he also establishes a good understanding and friendly relationship within the team members themselves in a way that they can fulfil a task as a unit. An effective and efficient leader should be able to ignore simple arguments and rather focus on the development of the organisational qualities and essentials required for success. In that fact, if one is able to enhance their skills within the organisation employees, the five critical qualities of a leader then he/she must portray honesty, be forward looking, competent, inspiring and intelligent. Portray of these qualities confirms the qualification for one to be called a leader. The skills displayed identifying these leadership qualities is related with individuals who desire to lead or be lead. The inspiration of confidence in the leadership of one should therefore be felt for ones followers to confirm that one is a great leader (to be) (Stephen & Robbins, 1987). Describe one person who could be called a leader Our company has grown over the past sixty years to be the best company Manufacturing Pipe Valves in America, sandwiched in a multicultural environment. However, with the most effective management, this has been achieved, with the personal input of each and every three thousand five hundred pair of hand and application of brain work brought together into a productive activity. It is within these individuals that I concluded, that it is within these individuals that the management has been realised and made up of. To drive closer, Mr. John Garrison has been outstanding in his performance and conduct, and I can’t wait to credit him the leadership award. Considering his conduct and the team he has been leading in the production department, he has been outstanding and pleasing. It is during his team supervision that we were able to realise comments, from our most esteem customers that the quality distinction between our valves and those of our competitors could clearly be seen. This notwithstanding, Mr. Garrison has been able to bring together the team to work as a unit, his team has portrayed high levels of respect, within each other and a mutual understanding that engineered impersonal completion of work rather than trying to please the manger. Mr. Garrison has particularly portrayed being an introversion leader by being engaged in the direction of more attention of inner experience, which was interconnected to the extraversion, in him, that concentrated on being open to other colleagues and the team members in particular. Therefore, he has proven to reserve the introversion quality of being quiet and action oriented. He has also been neurotic and strongly portraying emotional stability while carrying out his duties and brushing shoulders with other employees. His mood has shown the confirming signs of being temperamental and temperedness evenly. It is just the other day, when the production machine broke down, and I was able to explore his tendency to emotional upset, it was low, in fact, he concentrated more on seeing to it that the machine comes back to operation rather than finding who caused the mess, but rather, what caused the breakdown. Considering the fact that our company has been in a multicultural environment, Mr. Garrison has been flexible in dealing with the clients, negotiating with suppliers on the quality of work and incorporating many employees in his team work to fit comfortably. Flexibility has been an important feature in him that I am convinced he is a great leader. The adaptation to the environmental needs and pressure in the light of meeting our company targets has been effectively played by this noble colleague. He has taken up clients and employees with diverse religion, beliefs, race, personal qualities and skin colour into an effective working team that does not show an iota of a fragmented unit. He has been able to develop an understanding for various beliefs and respected their differences, pronouncing that the organisation policy was to be observed. As a team supervisor and member, he has been able to eliminate the chances of looking down between employees and but forged to deliver output. For instance the Hindus in the use in our company among his team have been able to be fully accommodated regardless of their beliefs. He always gives them off days during their celebrations and they have always confirmed of being in a joint family (team). The cultures among the three thousand five hundred individuals is countless, the company contains diverse workforce across the world. In particular, his team portrayed highest appreciation and clear perception of each other’s cultures and ability to perform their work. When Mr. Garrison was assigned the responsibility of supervising the team, which was previously having commotions and giving priority between the each worker according to race and social status, was done away with when he got in. He strategically built a working relationship among the workers irrespective of their backgrounds and desires of who to work with. In reinforcement, he was so aggressive not to be deterred by the niches between the employees who were already in the team with their subgroups. However, he did not eliminate the sweeping generalisations; he was able to balance his views not to show consideration for any particular worker or group, or in contrast, to using vague assumptions. Honesty has been his leadership quality. His colleagues demand honest communication from top management just as, in reciprocal, the management need honesty from the team. Today, I am fully convinced that the next manager under the production department should be Mr. Garrison this is in relation to the fact that he has never missed the opportunity of portraying his honesty in mistakes he commits or his team commits. He has done his job diligently, explore his department on how to improve their effectiveness and refine the ideas that could not work. In spite of this, he has nìver retreated from avoiding failure because of trying the new strategy, but he always comes to the admission to submit of it not working and accepting another strategy. He has always accounted each and every coin spent in the company and given due regard irrespective of reporting or not (Stephen & Robbins, 1987, p. 77). In relation to the situation leadership, Mr. Garrison, has been able to plan on bringing together the employees of his team to tackle various challenges and initiatives that come up in the industry. His personality in being forward-looking has been outstanding considering the fact he has met numerous success in the long term accruing from the way he has been able to have a vision for his team for a quality driven value to the organisation. On many occasions he has been able to solve very complicated situation with regard to the time planning and effective strategising on the production at every stage (Hemphill & Coons, 1957). He has surpassed the normal standards of a delegated responsibility individual to a leader with a clear vision. He has always gone a step further to share the vision and ideas with his team and colleagues in an effort to have credibility and open mindedness. On the other hand, most people have to know that a leader should posses a strong vision for the hope a going concern principle. He has been efficient in informing the employees the goals, objectives and vision for the progress of the company. He has reliably given appraisals to his team in relation to the targets and measured objectives (Hemphill & Coons 1957). The association of competency to this noble individual is because of his expertise in performing his duties and dealing with his team is worthwhile. He has been able demonstrate his competency in his influence to the team work. He is also an inspirational leader. He has always communicated in a passionate and clear way that motivates his team to go for effectiveness and efficiency. He has always informed his team irrespective of their cultural background or language in a way that they have a crystal clear understanding of the task ahead of them and meeting it with exciting. Conclusion The purpose of organization theory is to explain the component parts of an organization and their relationships so that some prediction can be made about how they are likely to behave under certain conditions. It is a way that scholars try to see and think about organizations based upon patterns and regularities in organization design (Hemphill & Coons, 1957). It is a theory that studies organizations, their structure and the relationships between its various parts. It focuses on organizations as entities in themselves i.e. the whole organization. Organisations pervade all aspects of contemporary human life – society as a whole, the economy and even our personal lives. The employees are the greatest contributors in the organisation, they drive the productivity, and they build the team, and from them come the leaders who will eventually lead the company into future success. However, their efficiency to be factored in fully, then, organisation behaviour theories, concepts, ethics and policies have to be well observed implemented and directed among them. Today, company have taken up the rapidly evolving organisational cultural trends that are designed to earn the company a competitive advantage (Hemphill & Coons 1957). Bibliography Boeree, C. G 2006, Personality Theories. Retrieved from 12 April, 2011, from Hemphill, J. K & Coons, A.E 1957, Development of the Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire. In Stogdill, R. M. & Coons, A. E. edn.), Leader Behavior: It’s Description & Measurement (Research Monograph No. 88). Ohio State University, Bureau of Business Research, Columbus. Hersey, P & Blanchard, K 1964, ‘Management of Organizational Behavior: Utilizing Human Resources’, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, p. 78 - 84. Stephen, P & Robbins 1987, “Organization Theory, Structure, Design and Applications”. Prentice-Hall Inc., A division of Simon and Schuster Eaglewood Cliffs, New Jersey, p. 22-78 Read More