Organizational Behaviour Issues at the Workplace - Literature review Example

Organisational Behaviour Case Analysis Student: Tutor: Subject: Institutional Affiliation: Date: Organisational Behaviour Case Analysis Culture is a people’s way of life. It defines how people behave, their beliefs, what they value and what to them is unquestionable knowledge and norms [Sch071]. Culture is then what we can rightfully consider to be a people’s identity since every group of people has a culture that dictates their way of life and differentiates them from the rest. It is the same for organizational culture; it defines an organization and spells out how things are done in an organization [GHo911] Organizational culture can be defined as a collection of beliefs, norms, values, work ethic, and relationships that identify an organization from another. Schein (1985) defines organizational culture as a pattern of shared assumptions discovered or developed by a group of people. The pattern has been accepted over time as the group learns to grapple with external and internal dynamics to solve its problems. According to Schein (1985) the organizational culture shapes the organizational behaviour over time. This is then seen in various aspects of the organization such as management style, human relations, organizational effectiveness and value systems. Being a collection of people with different individual goals and ambitions, achieving organisational effectiveness in an organisation can be a challenge that may slow down the organisation’s advancement to its goals, notes Longenecker, (2013). In light of this understanding, this paper seeks to analyse organizational behaviour issues I have experienced at my work place through the four-frames model, with the aim of diagnosing the problem and providing practical recommendations to solve the problem. Central problematic case in my organisation Between 2010 and 2012 I worked for Albion-London, a marketing agency in London. The firm was only four years into business but making slow but impressive steps into acquiring a piece of the lucrative market. Within the four years, the firm had set up three branches around the city to handle clients and source for new business. Marketing agencies are always competing against each other to survive in a market with high competition and relatively low chances for new comers to break through. As such, the firms will always be poaching for the best employees in the industry to work for them. Even though this strategy works in most cases, in some it only demoralises existing employees who feel they have been overlooked in the recruitment exercise. The central London branch which I worked was not doing very well in generating new business. The management thought of replacing the branch manager with a new manager who was an assistant to a manager in a leading firm. This did not augur well with the junior staff in the branch who felt they had worked for the company through its hardest start-up period and thus one of them particularly the assistant to the fired manager should have taken over. The existing employees also felt the new manager did not posses the skills and experience required to run the branch effectively given the fact that theirs was a growing start up faced with a unique set of factors. Even though the senior management of the company knew this, it requested that the existing employees give support and guidance to the new manager accordingly. It was difficult for the new manager to assume leadership of a team that disapproved of him in the first place and this undermined cohesion and team work in the organisation leading to further loss of business and organisational effectiveness. The assistant manager felt she could not take orders from the new manager. Other senior employees also sided with the assistant in alienating the new manager with hope that the top management will review its decision. After five months, the assistant quit her job to work for a rival company. Several others felt the company’s recruitment model will not favour them in the long run and it will only be prudent for them to keep looking for opportunities elsewhere. The result was a demoralised workforce that had lost touch with the strategic direction of the organisation and thus could not help it achieve its objectives. Clearly then, the top management ought to have approached the matter in way that would not affect the existing organisational effectiveness and human relations in the growing organisation. In a company which relied heavily on team work and close relations to overcome unique challenges, internal recruitment for top positions would have served it well to encourage hard work and innovation as opposed to poaching and top down management style. In addition to this, the company was moving so abruptly from a flat management style which had adopted an inclusive organisational culture to a semi-bureaucratic style which had slowly alienated the top management from the rest of the employees in the company thus sending the wrong impression on management’s commitment to individual goals of employees. It is important that organisations merge individual goals and those of the organisation to create a productive and harmonious working environment that is flexible to tackle uncertainties from within and without the organisation[Red01]. Analysis of the problem and relevant recommendations To analyse the problem in this case, the problem must be approached from three lenses of the four dimensional model of organisational behaviour. The three frames are; human-resource, political and symbolic. The human resource frame considers organisations as extended families. As such the individuals will have needs and aspirations which they expect others to respect and help in achieving. Problems will therefore arise when the individual feels the job is only meeting the employer’s goals and not theirs[Bol13]. Such is the case here where the existing employees feel overlooked in the recruitment process. By picking an assistant manager from another company and overlooking the experience and skills of the existing employees, the top management of the company demoralised the existing employees to the extent that they felt their services and aspirations were not valued by the organisation. Humans have feelings which in turn affect their attitudes towards work[Sha05]. In reaction to management’s action, the employees decided to make it a hostile reception and stay for the new manager much to the disadvantage of the organisation. The management should have first looked within its employees to evaluate the competence and skills that can be tapped from within before going outside the organisation. If the skills were not available, it would have been important to let existing employees understand this and prepare them to accept the decision to source from outside. Better remuneration package can be used consoled those who are likely to feel overlooked upon during employee poaching [Edv05]. This would have made the transition easier and beneficial to the organisation. The political frame considers organisations as contest arenas where individuals have competing interests for power and resources. To achieve organisational effectiveness, it is vital that different strategies such as coercion, negotiation and compromising be employed[Bol13]. Bass & Avolio (1994) argue that if power is not concentrated or distributed fairly, organisations can get into problems as is the case with Albion-London where competing interests and unfair concentration of power undermines team spirit. The new manager seems to have been handed power and privileges which others felt they deserved in the first place. This in turn creates a conflict of interests which is manifested in the actions of the existing employees in their quest to express dissatisfaction with the state of affairs. The management should have called the conflicting parties to a discussion to eliminate the notion of one individual being privileged and powerful than others. In so doing, the management would be encouraging a team spirit mentality which would have been achieved in the first place by recruiting from within. When everybody feels sufficiently powerful in a way to have their opinions highly regarded and their interests safeguarded, frequencies of conflict will most likely reduce thus giving room for concentration on organisations goals[Red01]. The symbolic lens/frame considers organisations as tribes or theatres. The actors’ actions have huge symbolism and impact on the audience. If actors don’t play their role as expected, a problem arises and symbols lose meaning[Bol13]. For this case, the management actions give a negative impression in the minds of the employees as regards team spirit and organisational culture. The employees no longer identify nor believe in the company’s culture and will quit at the slightest opportunity. Small start-ups are largely dependent on strong organisational cultures that give strategic orientation that a company is focused towards[Bas94]. The culture is greatly attached to the actions, statements and behaviours of the top management who in most cases have a percentage of ownership in the company[Mil06]. If the top management then betrays the belief in the employees, the culture and symbolism that binds the organisation no longer has meaning and employees start focusing on personal goals[Bol13]. Albion-London had adopted a flat inclusive management style that encouraged team work and commitment. The action of recruiting from outside the company for a top position undermined employee commitment to the company’s course. The management should be more concerned on the organisational culture and the symbolism that enhances its effectiveness in motivating and committing employees towards the company’s objectives. The moment such symbolism is lost, employees can no longer identify with the success or struggles of the company as argued by Madu, (2008). Angelopulo & Barker (2005) argue that it is important for organisations to involve their employees at all levels in the decision-making process so as to avert chances of there being conflicts whenever changes are made in the organisation. In support of this view, Aswanthappa (2005) notes that the action of involving the employees is symbolic in the sense that it creates a feeling of ownership of the organisation in the employees. It also enhances teamwork and cohesive relations between the top management and the employees which is instrumental in ensuring the organisation is dynamic in responding to changes in its environment. Conclusion As can be seen from the analysis in this paper, organisations have their own unique set of challenges largely contributed by the people within the organisations who have different characters, ambitions, needs, aspirations and opinions. It therefore presents a challenge to the leadership of an organisation on the best way to mobilize the skills and capabilities of all in the organisation for a common goal that is the success of the organisation. Albion-London faced a challenge in recruiting an appropriate candidate for a manager’s position in one of its branches in line with their strategic goals. The decision to recruit from outside demoralised the existing employees who felt they had the skills and capabilities to fill the position. The management could have involved the existing employees in the critical decision-making process so that they could understand the need to hire a manager from outside. This way the good relations within the organisation could have been protected fro the benefit of the company. Humans make up organisations. Their needs and aspirations have to be aligned with those of the organisation for them to be productive. If this does not happen then the desire for power and influence may ruin organisational effectiveness. Management should therefore take care not to send the wrong signals which may make organisational culture and values ineffective in as far as people in the organisation are concerned. References Sch071: , (Schwartz & Sagiv, 2007), GHo911: , (Hofstede, 1991), Red01: , (Redshaw, 2001), Bol13: , (Bolman & Deal, 2013; Longenecker, 2013), Sha05: , (Lauby, 2005; Yamaguchi, 2005), Edv05: , (Edvinson & Camp, 2005; Hong, Yang, Su, & Chiou, 1995), Bol13: , (Bolman & Deal, 2013), Bas94: , (Bass & Avolio, 1994), Mil06: , (Millls, Bratton, & Forshaw, 2006), Read More