Critical Analysis of 4 of the Topics Covered in Organizational Behaviour - Essay Example

A Critical Analysis of four of the topics covered in Organizational Behaviour Table of Students 1.0 Introduction 2.0 The Leadership theory in Organizational Behaviour 2.1 Communication as a Tool in Organizational Behaviour 2.2 Motivation as a Tool in Organizational Behaviour 2.3 Emotions and Moods in Organizational Behaviour 2.4 Presentation of Examples of each from the media 3.0 Conclusion 1.0 Introduction Organizational behaviour refers to a field of study which investigates the impact that groups, individual and even structure have on the behaviour in the organizations for the purpose of applying such knowledge on the enhancement of the organization’s effectiveness. An organization is therefore a collection of people working together in order to achieve various goals both for the organization and for the individual. All organizations in the world exist for the purpose of providing goods and services which people want. These goods and services are therefore direct products of employees’ behaviours. Organizational behaviour in essence, is the study of numerous factors which have an impact on how groups and individuals respond towards and act in organizations and how such organizations manage their specific environments (Dineen, et al, 2006). The study of organizational behaviour thus presents a set of tools, concepts and theories which help people in comprehending, analyzing and describing what happens in organizations and why. The major reason for studying organizational behaviour is therefore to have the ability of using the organizational behaviour tools in order to fully understand behaviour in the organizations and thus apply such theories, techniques and concepts to enhance behaviour in the given organizations so that groups, organizations and individuals can easily achieve their goals. Managers are charged with the responsibility of finding new ways aimed at motivating and coordinating their employees to ensure that their specific goals are well aligned with the organisational goals. Organizational behaviour is normally analyzed on three levels namely individually, on group basis and as the organization in general (Golden, et al, 2008). 2.0 The Leadership theory in Organizational Behaviour Leadership refers to the ability of influencing a given group towards the attainment of the attainment of goals. Leadership also refers to management in which there is inherent use of authority in the designated formal positions in order to achieve compliance in all the organizational members. Leadership and management are all important for the attainment of organizational success. Trait leadership theories are known to consider the social, personality, physical and intellectual traits so as to differentiate leaders from the non-leaders. Examples of such leadership traits include openness, extroversion, conscientiousness and emotional intelligence (Grant, et al, 2009). Despite the fact that traits are capable of predicting leadership, they are however better at actually predicting the leadership emergence as opposed to effectiveness. There are two types of leadership theories namely; trait theories which assert that leadership is so inherent and therefore people must be able to effectively identify leaders based on their traits. On the other hand, there is the behavioural theory which states that leadership is actually a skill set which can be taught to any person and further asserts that people must effectively identify relevant behaviours to teach potential leaders (Podsakoff, et al, 2007). It should be noted be noted by all and sundry that behaviour and trait theories cannot help in understanding of leadership but the environment in which such leaders exist do actually does. According to the situational Leadership theory which focuses on the readiness of the follower, followers can either reject or accept the leader and that the effectiveness of the organization is highly dependent on the response of the followers on the leader’s actions. Readiness in this case therefore refers to an extent to which individuals have the willingness and ability of accomplishing a given task. The theory of the “House Path-Goal” states that leaders must provider their followers with the necessary support, information and resources so as to help them in the achievement of their goals. Transformational leaders are known to inspire their followers in transcending their self interests for the organization’s good (Jahangir, et al, 2006). Leaders, can through depiction of numerous types of leadership aid the achievement of their workers goals through clarifying their paths. The “House’s Path-Goal Theory” names the 4 types of leaders as being: Directive leaders who places focus on the work that is to be done, supportive leaders who lace emphasis on the worker’s well-being, participative leaders who consult their employees in matters relating to decision making and lastly, the achievement-oriented leaders who sets the challenging goals (Furst, et al, 2008). Based on the Yetton’s and Vroom leader participation model, how a given leader makes decisions is as vital as what is actually decided. It further asserts that the situational variables are known to interact with the leadership attributes in order to impact on the leader’s behaviour. As a result, the behaviour of leaders must adjust to the ways that such tasks have been structured in the organization. This is therefore a normative model which informs leaders how they ought to be participative during their decision making process. Charismatic leaders are known to influence the followers through various actions like for instance by articulating a vision, creating a vision statement, creating a new set of values and demonstrating the organization’s vision (Patterson, et al, 2005). 2.1 Communication as a Tool in Organizational Behaviour The major aim of communication in the organization is for the transference and comprehension of meaning. Some of the functions of communication therefore include controlling the behaviour of the members, fostering motivation regarding ought what to be done, providing release for any emotional expression and also providing of needed information aimed at making decisions in the organizations. The communication process entails numerous steps between the source and the receiver which eventually lead to the understanding and transference of the implied meaning. The communication process entails numerous major parts which include the sender responsible for initiating the message, encoding which involves translation of thought towards the message, the message which involves what is to be communicated, the channel which refers to the medium in which the message travels through, decoding which implies the action of the receiver in making sense out of the message, the receiver who is the individual that gets the message, noise which refers to any form of interference towards the message and feedback which refers to the return message about the initial communication. A channel of communication refers to medium that is selected by the sender and through which the message travels to the final receiver. Communication channels can either include formal or informal channels. Formal channels refer to those established by the firm in order to transmit messages or information which is related towards the members’ professional activities. On the other hand, informal channels are used in transmitting either social or personal messages in the organization. The informal channels are normally spontaneous and they therefore emerge as an easier response towards individual responses. Interpersonal communication comprises of oral communication, written communication and non-verbal communication. Non-verbal communication involves body movement, intonations and voice emphasis, physical distance between the receiver and the sender and facial expressions. The Grapevine communication is normally informal and therefore it is controlled by an organization’s management. To most employees, Grapevine communication is perceived as being more reliable and believable as opposed to formal communications. Grapevine communication results from ambiguous conditions, those that cause anxiety and a desire for information regarding important events or situations. The Grapevine communication is important because it serves the social needs of employees and it is also insightful to managers. In order to reduce rumours, then an organization’s management should announce timetables for making vital decisions, explain behaviours and decisions which may appear either secretive or inconsistent, emphasize both upside and downside of future plans and decisions and openly discuss any worst case possibilities (Fox, et al, 2001). Despite the fact that electronic communication (E-Mail) is advantageous in that it can be written quickly, sent and even store, it is also disadvantageous in that it is not relevant for sending negative messages, it is not private and it can result in emotional flaming and responses. The media richness model aids in explaining the choice of communication channel that is chosen by individuals. A rich channel is one that is capable of being very personal, facilitating rapid feedback and handing numerous cues simultaneously. Most high performing leaders or mangers actually tend to be “very media sensitive” and thus the choice of such channels will normally be dependent on whether such messages are routine or not. There are numerous barriers towards effective communication like for instance filtering in which a sender manipulates information so that it can be seen to be more favourable to the receiver. Selective perception negatively affects effective communication since individuals selectively interpret what they observe based on their background, interest, attitudes and experience. Information overload is also a barrier to effective communication because it makes the inflow of information to exceed the processing capacity of an individual. Another barrier towards effective communication are emotions since how a receiver feels during the time of receiving a message will normally affect or influence how such a message is finally interpreted. Other barriers to effective communication include communication apprehension, gender differences and language (Eatough, et al, 2011). 2.2 Motivation as a Tool in Organizational Behaviour In order to motivate employees, then organizations ought to come up with various employee involvement programs which refer to participative processes which uses the whole employee capacity and designed with an aim of encouraging increased commitment towards the success of the organization. Some examples of employee involvement programs include participative management which is a process in which the subordinates share a high degree of decision making capabilities using their immediate superiors. Representative participation enables employees in an organization to participate in the organization’s decision making using a small number of representative workers. Work councils are also a good example of the “employee involvement program” in which some groups of either elected or nominated employees must always be consulted whenever an organization’s top management wants to make decisions that involve personnel. Board representatives are also a type of representative participation in which the employees of a company sit on the board of Directors with an aim of representing the interests of the organization’s employees (Biron, et al, 2012). Skill based pay levels are normally based on the number of skills that such employees have and the number of jobs that they are capable of doing. Skill based pay plans are important in that they present flexibility in staffing, they facilitate communication in the firm, they reduce protection of territory behaviours, they are capable of meeting the employees’ needs for advancement and they lead to improvement in performance. However, there are also drawbacks that are associated with the skill based pay plans like for instance, it lacks additional lacking opportunities which will increase the pay of the employees, it leads to continuation of paying employees for skills which have already become obsolete and which have no immediate use to the company. It is also disadvantageous in that it results in the organization paying for a skill instead of the level of performance of the employee for a given skill (Jiang, et al, 2011). Employees should establish “Employee Share Ownership Plans” or ESOPs with an aim of rewarding employees. ESOPs refers to benefit plans that are established by the company in which the workers acquire shares in the company as part of the benefits. Employees are known to tailor their own benefit programs with an aim of meeting their own personal needs through choosing and picking from a menu comprising benefit options which may include either core plus plans, modular plans and flexible spending plans. 2.3 Emotions and Moods in Organizational Behaviour Emotions refers to intense feelings which are directed at an individual or towards something while moods are feelings which tend to be less intense as compared to emotions and which do not have a contextual stimulus. Despite the fact that emotions and moods are a critical factor in the behaviour of employees, they have since time immemorial been ignored. Emotions of any form are always disruptive to organizations and initially, the major focus of Organizational Behaviour (OB) was on the impacts of strong negative emotions which interfered with both organizational and individual efficiency. There are various sources of moods and emotions like for instance stress, personality, day and time of the week, sleep, gender, age, exercise and even social activities. In most circumstances, positive moods are usually on the highest during the end of the week and during the middle of the day. On the other hand, negative moods are normally on the high during the beginning of the week they normally portray little variations throughout the whole day (Bradley, et al, 2012). According to research conducted, it was ascertained that emotions tend to change according to gender. For instance, it was realized that women tended to portray greater emotional expression and intensely experienced emotions as opposed to men. In addition to that, it was also realized that women were more comfortable in expressing their emotions and understanding the emotions of other people unlike men. On the other hand, it was also ascertained that men tended to strongly believe that the depiction of emotions was inconsistence with the image of male people and therefore, they were innately less capable of reading and even identifying with other people’s emotions. Men, unlike women also had less need of seeking social approval through depicting positive emotions. Some of the external constraints on the emotions include cultural influences, individual emotions and organizational influences. In an organization, there may arise emotional labour in which employees may portray “organizationally desired emotions” during some interpersonal transactions (Bellou, 2007). In an organization, employs may show various forms of emotions like for instance felt emotions in which a person depicts actual individual emotions or displayed emotions in which a person may portray some emotions which are required organizationally and which may be regarded as being appropriate or relevant in a given job. According to the Affective Events Theory or the AET, it was ascertained that work events actually triggered both negative and positive emotional reactions. It was further ascertained that mood and personality really determined the intensity or length of the emotional response and that emotions were capable of influencing numerous work satisfaction variables and work performance. According to ACT theory implications, it can further be ascertained that individual responses clearly reflected the mood and emotion cycles and that both past and present emotions greatly affected job satisfaction. Emotional fluctuations also tended to create variations in job performance and satisfaction and both positive and negative emotions can greatly distract the employees in an organization and eventually lead to a reduction in job performance (Richardson, et al, 2005). 2.4 Examples of Each from the Media All the above aspects of communication are well represented in various forms of media like for instance in the radio, television, newspapers and even through electronic mail. The media therefore plays a great role in enhancing the performance of various organizations through the application of various organizational behaviour strategies (Lau, et al, 2010). 3.0 Conclusion Based on the above, it can correctly be ascertained that organizational studies actually encompass the study of numerous organizations from various methods, viewpoints and levels of analysis. Therefore, whenever individuals in any given organization interact, there are various factors that come into play. Contemporary organizational studies have therefore attempted to clearly comprehend and model such factors with an aim of enhancing their organization’s success. Just like any other contemporary sciences, the aim of organizational studies is to seek to not only control and predict but also explain. However, there are some other controversies which have arose regarding the ethics of controlling the behaviour of employees and the manner through which such employees are treated. As a result, organizational behaviour and even to an extent, industrial psychologies have both been accused as being powerful scientific tools. Organizational behaviour can therefore play a crucial role in the development of the organization through enhancing its performance and even group or individual satisfaction, commitment and even performance. Works Cited Dineen, BR, Lewicki, RJ & Tomlinson, EC 2006, ‘Supervisory guidance and behavioural integrity: Relationships with employee citizenship and deviant behaviour’, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 91, No. 3, pp. 622-635 Golden, TD, Veiga, JF & Dino, RN 2008, ‘The impact of professional isolation on teleworker job performance and turnover intentions: Does time spent teleworking, interacting face-to-face, or having access to communication-enhancing technology matter?’ Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 93, No. 6, pp. 1412-1421. Grant, AM & Sumanth, JJ 2009, ‘Mission impossible? The performance of prosocially motivated employees depends on manager trustworthiness’, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 94, No. 4, pp. 927-944. Jahangir, N, Akbar, MM & Begum, N 2006, ‘The impact of social power bases, procedural justice, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment on employees’ turnover intention’, South Asian Journal of Management, Vol. 13, No. 4, pp. 72-88. Richardson, HA & Vandenberg, RJ 2005, ‘Integrating managerial perceptions and transformational leadership into a work-unit level model of employee involvement’, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Vol. 26, pp. 561-589. Bellou, V 2007, ‘Organizational culture as a predictor of job satisfaction: the role of gender and age’, Career Development International, Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 4-19. Jiang, JY, Sun, L-Y & Law KS 2011, ‘Job satisfaction and organizational structure as moderators of the effects of empowerment on organizational citizenship behaviour: A self-consistency and social exchange perspective’, International Journal of Management, Vol. 28, No. 3, Part 1, pp. 675-693. Patterson, MG, West, MA, Shackleton, VJ, Dawson, JF, Lawthom, R, Maitlis, S, Robinson, DL & Wallace, AM 2005, ‘Validating the organizational climate measure: links to managerial practices, productivity and innovation’, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Vol. 26, pp. 379-408. Eatough, EM, Chang, C-H, Miloslavic, SA & Johnson RE 2011, ‘Relationships of role stressors with organizational citizenship behaviour: A meta-analysis’, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 96, No. 3, pp. 619-632. Fox, S & Amichai-Hamburger, Y 2001, ‘The power of emotional appeals in promoting organizational change programs’, The Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 15, No. 4, pp. 84-95. Furst, SA & Cable, DM, 2008, ‘Employee resistance to organizational change: Managerial influence tactics and Leader-member Exchange’, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 93, No. 2, pp. 453-462. Podsakoff, NP, LePine, JA & LePine, MA 2007, ‘Differential challenge stressor-hindrance stressor relationships with job attitudes, turnover intentions, and withdrawal behaviour: A meta-analysis’, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 92, No. 2, pp. 438-454. Lau, RS & Cobb, AT 2010, ‘Understanding the connections between relationship conflict and performance: The intervening roles of trust and exchange’, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Vol. 31, pp. 898-917. Bradley, BH, Postlethwaite, BE, Klotz, AC & Brown, KG 2012, ‘Reaping the benefits of task conflict in teams: The critical role of team psychological safety climate’, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 97, No. 1, pp. 151-158. Biron, M & Bamberger, P 2012, ‘Aversive workplace conditions and absenteeism: Taking referent group norms and supervisor support into account’, Journal of Applied Psychology, March, pp. 1-12. Read More