Importance of Organizational Behaviour - Coursework Example

Organization behaviour Name Institution Subject Instructor Date Abstract Organizational Behaviour involves application of knowledge on how people and groups interact with one another in an organization. It comprises different aspects like psychology, sociology, management and communication. Organization behaviour is used in interpreting people’s relationship relative to the whole person, group, organization and social system. The aim of organization behaviour is to ensure that, there is better relationship in an institution in order organization, human and social objectives. This paper elucidates a problem in an organization and methods that can be used to curb such scenarios. The problem that is discussed in this paper is departmental loyalty. Introduction Departmental loyalty is an impending problem in different organization. As noted by Newstom & Davis, (2002), there is danger of creating different departments in an organization because of “us versus them” notion and mentality between two different groups. There may be conflict between sales departments with accounting department because; new customers may fail to be approved for credit facilities. Logistics department may conflict with manufacturing department if production of good is not is not fast enough to meet the shipping requirement. Different departments may compete with each other. Some of them feel that their work is more important than those of other departments. This can lead to break up of communication between different departments leading to low productivity. Apparently, organization strategy and marketing department was at conflict with technical and implementation department relative to the nature in which employees conducted their duties. There was an issue of blame of game, with every department blaming the other on inefficiency causing the organization activities to rag behind. Marketing and strategy department staffs who specialize in generating ideas for the organization and ultimately affecting the product development cycle, felt that when the present a viable idea to be implemented, then technical and implementation department had to go ahead with implementation without a say. According to marketing and strategy department, the research they had conducted was enough to determine the need and desires of their customers. Moreover, they were in the opinion that they had conducted thorough feasibility study to ensure that their ideas could be implemented in their original form without any modification. After approving their ideas they forwarded it to technical and implementation department. Technical and implementation department staff felt that since they were mandated with the responsibility of implementing different ideas, it was prudent for strategy and marketing department to leave them to decide whether the idea presented to them could be implemented. They argued that they were in better position to determine this than their colleagues in the strategy and marketing department. If there was possibility of an idea being implemented, then they would go ahead with the implementation process. If the idea could not be implemented in its original form, they could make modification that they see fit, and if the idea could not be implemented at all, then they would reject it wholesomely. This was because, even though some of the ideas presented are very brilliant in their face value, some of them are not viable, impossible to implement or very costly to the company than what they are expected to generate after implementation. In this document the problem presented can be resolved by following the under mentioned organizational behaviour schedule; Perception Leadership Personality Perception Perception is the process through which awareness or understanding is attained relative to an organization environment by categorizing and interpreting sensory information (Newstom & Davis, 2002). According to Irwin (2009), perception entails signals in the human nervous system, which basically results from physical stimulation of sensory organs. For example, for someone to see something, light strikes the retinas, smell is mediated through the odour molecules and hearing is made possible by pressure molecules. As was noted by Richard Irwin (2009), perception does not receive passive signals, but can be shaped through learning, memory and expectation. In the context of employees and their different behaviour in their occupation, perception can be regarded as how employees from different departments such as strategy and marketing department’ and ` technical and implementation department’ ‘see’ and respond to one another. The nature in which one department talks and thinks about the other entails perception. Perception also involves reaction of organization employees when they are in an argument with their employees from the other department. Strategy and marketing department sees itself as being more superior to the technical and implementation department and thus there was always conflict. This was when employees in strategy and marketing market felt that their decisions were perfect because they considered themselves in close proximity with the consumers (Pomerantz, 2003). Employees in technical and implementation department had perceived their counterparts as superior to strategy and marketing department yet they are the ones who understood weight attached to the project. This is detrimental in order for the organization to be successful, as it could result to each department looking down upon the other resulting to hindrance of the organization activities because decision making process is usually a difficult one. The nature in which employees from different department behave towards each other may affect the way in which their viewed the work as the working environment would not be conducive. Therefore this can make them to hate their job making their jobs unproductive. For an organization to move forward and achieve its different objectives and goals, the company should change its perception and the two conflicting department should come into terms. In order to change the nature in which the two departments perceive each other, there should be a dialogue between the two conflicting departments and also to train and educate them on the significance of unity and teamwork in the workplace. After achieving this, employees in both departments would take and see each other positively and thus avoid conflicting interest. Each department should consider each other as equal and thus ensure that they appreciate each other. As a result, the two departments can work together in harmony. Leadership Leadership is the guidance process in which a given person may influence different group in order to achieve a common goal (Northouse, 2007). Leaders may carry out the process of leadership using the knowledge and skills they have gained. While leadership is obtained from learning, skills and knowledge can be affected and influenced by different traits and attributes such as values, beliefs, character and ethics. Skills and knowledge displayed by a leader contribute directly or indirectly to the leadership process, while the other attributes portrayed give a leader specific characteristic that ensures that his or her leadership is unique. An effective leader has ability of knowing that people require somebody of high integrity to lead them. Without it, a vital ingredient in an organization can be missed. As in the foundation of a structure, integrity is significant for an organization to succeed in its activities and to provide an environment that is safe, stable and well referenced. An organization with many departments requires a leader who takes the mandate of directing different activities on the way to move forward. Leaders must prove that they are worthy by the judgment they undertake on behalf of department they represent and in an organization at large. Failure of a leader to display the required and expected behaviour, subordinate may lack a sense of direction and may lead an organization astray. Leaders are vision bearers because they have power of influencing junior employees by different decision made when they are exercising authority. Leaders should be skilful in solving different problems presented in the organization. They should have planning and decision making ability and also should give an organization direction in different activities. They are required to be in a position to pass any information to their subordinates in an efficient, effective and clear manner. This ensures that all staffs are aware what the organizations expect of them, the goals and the objectives that guide the organization. In this paper the organization presented the two departments’ analyzed as lacking in good leadership causing division in the organization. If there was good leadership, different problems that affected the two departments would have been identified and solution arrived at. This would have ensured that there was coordination and cooperation ensuring that conflict between two departments was avoided. Good leadership would ensure that staffs in the two departments assist one another in achieving organization objectives. Personality Personality involves pattern of thought, behaviours and feelings that make someone different from others (Newstom & Davis, 2002). Personality is a combination of attitudinal, emotional and behavioural response of a person. Moreover, personality comes from inside a person and remains consistent throughout his or her life. Different tasks bring people together being drawn from different backgrounds, culture, philosophies and personality. Different places of working encourage teamwork, cooperation and creativity. Differences in personality mean that different people take different approaches on work style and the nature in which employees, managers, competitors and clients interact with one another. Understanding ways in which personality affects working behaviour is essential in determining motivating factors for workers to perform different task in certain ways. The natures in which different personalities show themselves in a working environment affect the work environment positively or negatively. Behaviour of a person affects the way in which other employees perceive him or her. If a person is easy to work and interact with, then other employees would find it not hard to interact with him or her. In this paper, the sum-total of the personality displayed by strategy and marketing department employees was that of not allowing any compromise even if their ideas were on fault. This was seen on insistence that technical and implementation department must implement their idea in its original form (Pomerantz, 2003). They don’t leave any room for adjustments and they want to dictate to their counterparts in the implementation & technical department. On the other hand, the implementation & technical department employees feel undermined yet they are supposed to work in a level working field. Therefore, this personality display will negatively affect the relation between the two departments hence hamper productivity. While there is need to soak this personality display to allow for harmony, it is imperative for the employees in the two departments to display a personality that will foster unity. This will be achieved when the employees in the marketing & strategy department consider themselves as people who can err and therefore forefeet the ‘know it all’ mentality. This personality display change will allow their counterparts in the implementation & technical department to ventilate into the ideas they make and these will counter the current conflict. Leadership is required is required to help guide the employees in both departments in self-actualization process. Conclusion In conclusion, an organization must base its activities on management philosophy, goals visions and values. This is significant as it helps in driving organizational culture that entails social environment and formal and informal organization. Culture determines the kind of organization leadership, group dynamism and communication throughout the organization. To avoid conflicts in an organization, awareness and understanding of the environment that organization is operating in should be created by organizing and interpreting sensory information to create unity in an organization. In an organization where there are many departments leadership should be used to influence a group of individuals to achieve a common goal. Good leadership creates harmony in an organization. References Irwin, B. (2009). Personality Theories. Belmont: Cenage Learning. Newstom, W. & Davis, K. (2002). Organizational behavior: Human behavior at work. Boston: McGraw-Hill Northouse, G. (2007). Leadership theory and practice. Lodon: Sage Publications. Pomerantz, J. R. (2003). "Perception: Overview". London: Nature Publishing Group. Read More