Organizational Behavior - Essay Example

Material Summary You are required to study all 9 sessions’ material and provide summary report of your understanding of this material (1000 words – 20 marks) The first session deals with organizational behavior (OB) by studying the effect of individuals, groups or structures on behavior in organizations. The key issues include decision making, directing activities to achieve common goals, interpersonal skills in improving a manager’s effectiveness, manager functions and managerial roles. It makes reference to Katz’s managerial skills – technical or human and Luthan’s management perspectives – traditional, communication, human resource management and network conceptual. It also explains a model with three levels of analysis: organizational, group and individual. The dependent variables in OB are productivity, absenteeism, turnover and deviant workplace behavior while the independent variables include the individual, group, and organization system. Intuition, faddism and systematic study can predict OB. OB is applicable in responding to challenges of globalization and workforce diversity. The second section deals with emotions and moods. While emotional feelings are intense, moods as less intense. The basic emotions – anger, fear, sadness, happiness, disgust and surprise – can be of low or high positive or negative affects. Emotions functions in cases of irrationality, problem-solving and survival. Sources of emotions include personality, day and time, weather, stress levels, sleepiness, exercise, age, gender and social activities. Emotional labor can be dissonance, felt or displayed. The affective events theory can be used to explain effects of personality and mood on emotional reactions. Emotions influence work variables like job satisfaction, distraction and satisfaction. The knowledge of emotions and moods is applicable in hiring workers, decision-making, motivation and leadership negotiation, customer service, workplace attitudes. The third session looks at emotional intelligence (IE) in detail. IE consists of self-awareness, coping skills, interpersonal skills, effective relationships, personal and interpersonal effectiveness. Increase in EI improves efficiency, productivity and success. It is also important in oral communication, social awareness, self-assessment, self-confidence and relationship management. EI takes six dimensions: self-control, transparency, adaptability, achievement, imitative and optimism. Social awareness, organizational awareness and service orientation are important in IE. Relationship management is useful in inspirational leadership, influencing and developing others, change, conflict management, teamwork and collaboration. EI can be developed through seminars, in-housetraining, individual development, coaching and organizational intervention. The fourth session explains motivation concepts. Motivation is the process that account for an individual’s intensive, directional and persistent effort towards achieving a (organizational) goal. Maslow’s Theory of needs, Theory X and theory Y, Two-factor theory and McClelland’s Theory of needs are considered outdated. Contemporary motivation theories include Cognitive Evaluation Theory, Goal-Setting Theory by Locke, Self-Efficacy Theory (Social Cognitive Theory or Social Learning Theory), Reinforcement Theory, Equity Theory, and Expectancy Theory. These theories can be integrated. In business, performance can be predicted by one’s motivation level or high need for achievement (nAch). The fifth session looks at how motivation concepts are applicable. The job characteristics model by Hackman and Oldham identifies five job dimensions: skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback. It is argued that people with high core job dimensions have more motivation, satisfaction and productivity. Jobs needs to be redesigned through rotation, enlargement, enrichment, alternative work schedules include flextime, job sharing and telecommuting. Performance is a function of motivation, ability and the opportunity to perform. The employees’ involvement leads to greater autonomy which in turn increases motivation, commitment, productivity and job satisfaction. Employees’ involvement programs include participative management, representative participation and quality circle. The major strategic reward decisions (motivators) include who to pay, how to pay, flexible benefits and recognition building. The sixth session looks at workplace attitudes and job satisfaction. Three attitude types are identified: cognitive, affective and behavioral. Behavior can result from attitude; the vice versa is also true. Attitude-behavior relationship is moderated by the importance of the attitude, its correspondence to behavior, accessibility and personal experience of the attitude. The main job attitudes are job satisfaction, involvement, empowerment or autonomy and organizational commitment. They are evident through perceived organizational support and employee engagement. Job satisfaction is measurable by a single global rating or by a summation score. Job satisfaction can be influenced by pay or personality. Dissatisfaction is shown constructively by voicing concerns and passive loyalty or destructively through exit or neglect. Job satisfaction leads to high job performance, positive organizational member behaviors, customer satisfaction, minimal absenteeism, low employee turnover and reduced workplace deviance. The seventh session deals with understanding work teams. Teams are popular because they are a great way to use talents, they are more flexible, facilitate employee engagement, and they increase participation and motivation (they are effective but not always effective). A work group is different from a work team: the former interacts for information sharing and decision making while the latter develops synergy through coordinated efforts. The four types of teams are problem solving, self-managed, cross-functional and virtual teams. In a team-effectiveness model, the key components are the context, composition, work design, and process. Three ways of turning an individual into a team player are selection, training and rewards. A team, however, takes more time and resources than an individual. A team should match the job complexity, create a common goal and ensure members’ involvement and interdependence. The eighth session deals with creativity – one adapting to the world or adapting the world to oneself. Three creative skills emerge: positive, mental, lateral and problem solving. A problem is a situation calling for extra efforts and has no readymade solutions. Problems can be close-ended or open-ended. The left and right sides of the brain perform different functions and thus solutions to a problem can be left or right oriented. Creativity involves conceiving new ideas, relating the unrelated, and expecting the unexpected. It brings out product consumers weren’t aware they needed. Creative minds have a critical aspect otherwise it is just novel thinking .Creativity requires a questioning mind like those of Newton, Einstein. Creativity is not taught but constructively nurtured through questions, lateral thinking, six thinking hats and brainstorming. In entrepreneurship, creativity makes one transformative. It begins with preparation then incubation, illumination and verification. It leads to innovation which is one of the entrepreneurial qualities. Creative minds tolerate ambiguity, identify gaps and reallocates resources. The last session deals with negotiation – the art of reaching an agreement and conflict resolution. The negotiation process comprises style, outcome and principles. The style continuum has quick – compromise – deliberate. Negotiation outcomes can be predetermined, realistic or acceptable. The principles of negotiation include agenda setting, making everything negotiable, working towards a better deal, creativity and learning to say ‘No’ to oneself. A motivated negotiator has enthusiasm, social skills, recognition, integrity, creativity and team worker. A negotiation model comprises investigation, presentation, bargaining and agreement. A good negotiator is creative, versatile, motivated and able to walk away. Read More