Factors of Determining Organizational Results - Literature review Example

Student’s Name: Professor’s Name: Subject: Organizational Behaviour Date: The interaction between organizational behaviour, the Balanced Scorecard and employee coaching on tangible results in organizations Introduction The three aspects, the organizational behaviour, the balanced scorecard and coaching are important factors of determining organizational results. The balanced scorecard is a concept or tool that helps managers to predict the performance outcome. It is a tool that measurers the performance of any organization, however, small or big. The organizational behaviour is crucial because it helps people to know how to socialize within the organization. Coaching, on the other hand, reinforces the skills and knowledge of an employee. The three aspects contribute to the performance of an organization (Encyclopaedia of Business, 2015). Organizational behaviour Organizational behaviour refers to the field of study investigating the impacts that structures, groups, and individuals have on behaviour in organizations. The study is done so as to apply such knowledge towards improving the effectiveness of an organization. Behavioural sciences contribute to the organizational behaviour development. Such disciplines include Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology and social psychology. Psychology refers to the science that measures, explains and change, sometimes, the human and animal’s behaviour. The unit of analysis of psychology is an individual. Psychology contributes to organizations behaviour through influencing how an individual learns, determines the motivation, emotions perception and motivation of an individual. Psychology also gives insights on how leadership effectiveness, training, and job satisfaction affect the organizational behaviour of an individual (Encyclopaedia of Business, 2015). The discipline helps in individual decision-making and performance appraisal attitude measurement. In a nut shell, the discipline contributes towards behavioural change, attitude change, communication, group processes and group decision-making. Sociology focuses on studying people in relation to fellow human being. The organizational group or system is its unit of analysis. Sociology focuses on how the organizational behaviour is determined by the group dynamics, work teams, power, and communication, the culture of an organization, organizational change, formal organization theory and organizational technology. Anthropology studies societies so as to learn about the human beings, as well as their activities. The discipline has the organization system as its unit of analysis. Anthropology studies how the culture of an organization is developed. It focuses on the organizational environment indicating the comparative attitudes and values with a focus on cross-cultural analysis (Encyclopaedia of Business, 2015). Organizational behaviour as an academic discipline is concerned with understanding, describing, controlling and predicting the behaviours of humans in the organizational environment. The field concerns itself, particularly with the group dynamics, how individuals participate in and relate to groups, how leadership is exercised. It also concerns with how organizations function and the way change in organizational settings is effected (Mishra & Gretchen 1998). Organizational behaviour management refers to directing the theory of organizational behaviour specifically at the ways that an organization is controlled by management. The manner in which employees behave at work places differs from their behaviours as individuals in the society. Organizational behaviour is influenced by a number of factors. The factors include the structure of the company, procedures, and policies, the interaction between colleagues and management effectiveness. All the factors can either contribute to the disengagement of the employees or for the employees to work extra harder. A company can, therefore, become more competitive and productive by striving to understand how it can get the best out of its employees (Mintzberg et al. 1996). Robbins (1998) state that when a new individual joins a company, the way the individual will behave solely depends on the influence by the culture of the organization. Because people are social beings, they try hard to fit into their surroundings. If the culture of the company allows for the employees to speak competently without reprisal fear, a new employee may gain confidence when expressing his or her ideas. If the culture is meant to shoot the messenger, a new employee will eventually learn how to his or her opinions to himself. The culture of the company can be influenced by being sure and clear about the values and vision of the organization and daily putting them into practice as well (Robbins & Stephen, 1998). According to Nahavandi, et al. (1998) people show up for their jobs because they need the salary. However, according to the studies of organizational behaviour, an employee needs to be motivated for him to perform to the best of his or her ability. An employee is most likely to be motivated after he has seen a link that is very clear between the effort put in work and reward received. A reward must be viewed as equitable and fair so as to inspire an employee to work harder. A manager motivates employees by establishing measuring attainment and goals that are achievable and realistic. Organizational behaviour also has an influence the decisions made by people. A company with effective, robust mechanisms of communication enables employees and managers in making informed decisions. For any company to survive, it should respond to changing markets, customer demands, and technical advances. The organizational behaviour, therefore, is a very fundamental component of the tangible growth of any organization (Nahavandi et al.1998). The balanced scorecard Just like organizational behavior, the balanced scorecard is an essential tool in determining the performance of an organization (Kaplan & Norton, 1992). Through the balanced scorecard, an organization can establish tangible results. The balanced scorecard was developed by Robert S. Kaplan, a Harvard Business School professor, and David Norton, a management consultant in 1992. It is a tool for measuring the performance of an organization. The research by Norton and Kaplan led them in believing that traditional measurement of finances, for instance, investment returns did not provide the real organizational performance. This was because the business environment of the 1990 was becoming very innovative. Initially, managers were forced to choose between “soft” operational measures and “hard” financial measures. For instance, they strive to retain customers, employment satisfaction and development cycle times of products. Kaplan and David, as a result, came up with a method that allowed managers to make considerations of both measures types in a manner that is balanced. The balanced scorecard, therefore, is made up of financial measures that give results to measures that were initially taken. The balanced scorecard complemented the measures of finances with operational measures that stand as future financial performance drivers. It provides a management framework enabling a manager to be able to link the various types of measurements together (Kaplan & Norton, 1992). Norton and Kaplan recommended that a business should be looked at from four different perspectives that include: the perspective of the customer, the perspective of the internal business, the perspective of innovation and learning and the perspective of shareholders or financial. A manager, therefore, in relation to each perspective, drives three to five goals when a manager uses the overall corporate strategy as their guide. The manager then develops measures that are specific to support every goal. The scorecard ideally helps a manager to make clarifications of his vision for the organization and hence translating the vision into actions that are measurable that can be understood by employees. A manager is also in apposition of balancing the various stakeholders concerns so as to improve the overall performance of the company (Kaplan & Norton 1992). The balanced scorecard is, therefore, a concept that is powerful although it is based on a simple principle. A manager is in need of a set of performance that is balanced so as to run the business perfectly. The indicators are supposed to measure the performance against the business’ critical success factors. The “balance” refers to the balancing tension existing between the nonfinancial operational and traditional financial, lagging and leading and monitoring measures and action-oriented. Since it was introduced, the concept of the balanced scorecard has enjoyed significant success. Financial Times indicate that the concept was adopted by eighty percent of large companies of the United States as from 2004. It has therefore become the most popular tool of management meant to increase performance in the nation. Additionally, its application in the public sector has greatly increased since its promotion by the government. The scorecard is also popular because of its consistency with several performance initiatives companies undertake. The initiatives include cross-functional teamwork, continuous improvement, and customer-supplier partnering. The concept complements the initiatives by assisting mangers in understanding the complex interrelationships existing among different business areas. It links the elements of the competitive strategy of a company in a single report. The scorecard helps the management of an organization in decision-making. The basic scorecard of Kaplan and Norton asks a manager to view his business from four perspectives: an internal business perspective, customer perspective, learning and innovation perspectives, and finally the shareholder or financial perspective. The four perspectives are relevant to every business type. For instance, a company that is in the industry of oil may need to incorporate the perspective of environment regulation. The balanced scorecard, in this way, will maintain some flexibility for companies having special needs in so as to add other perspectives (Schneiderman 1999). The customer perspective The perspective, according to Kaplan and Norton is all about how the customer views the company or business (Schneiderman 1999). The two profounder of the balanced scorecard contend that a lot of companies made their priority the customer service. The scorecard enables a manager to translate the broad goal into measures that are specific. The measures that is very crucial to customers. The main customer concern areas include time, quality, performance, and cost. Internal business perspective This perspective has a close relationship with the customer perspective (Schneiderman 1999). Excellent customer performance, after all, derives from decisions, processes, and actions that occur throughout an organization. To view an organization from this perspective insinuates that the management asks itself what it must do for the organization to excel. Kaplan and Norton make a recommendation that internal processes should be recommended first as well as impact satisfaction of customer like cycle time, productivity and quality as well employee skills. Innovation and learning perspective For this particular perspective, modern companies have to make consistent improvements so as to succeed in a global business environment that is competitive. The ability of a company to improve, innovative and learn the direct company value ties was noted by Kaplan and Norton. A manager is hence expected to establish goals that relate to learning and innovation and then make a translation of the goals into measures that are specific. The financial perspective During the creation of the Balanced Scorecard by Kaplan and Norton, the financial measures were being increasingly attacked by management experts. With all the critiques, the two still found that financial controls were an essential component of the puzzle. A manager needs to know whether or not the bottom line reflects the operational improvements. Through the balanced scorecard, therefore, the organization or business is in a position to see positive results that are tangible. Employee coaching on tangible results in organizations Organizations realize at an increasing rate the benefits of talent nurturing and development through programs of coaching and mentorship (Richard et al. 2008). Coaching therefore directly affects the organizational behaviour of an employee. The employee will be coached to behave in accordance with the organizational culture. Coaching helps an individual to get the best out of him in terms of performance. With coaching, there is already an existing potential that needs to be reinforced. There are two types of coaches; the external and the internal coaches. An internal coach is specially trained internally and champions coaching within the organization in line with the agenda of talent development of the organization. An external coach on the other hand works outside an organization. He or she offers wider experience, and his approach is independent. Mentoring and coaching proved a wide range of advantages to the organization of any kind. They improve the tangible results of a company. When done properly, coaching provides an employee a way of connecting, learning and growing within the company and along the career paths of the employees (White 2009). Mentoring and coaching are about pairing professionals that are experienced with employees. Coaching is employed when current or new employee gain from the specific job duties personal guidance, responsibilities or processes. Coaching helps an employee to gain personal development. When knowledge of employees-experienced are taken advantage of, professionals and employees help in bringing less experienced or younger employees up to speed. Other than developing employees, coaching improves the role of the team, department and finally the whole organization. Coaching and mentorship give mangers a chance of identifying the strengths and weaknesses of each employee. The organization is, therefore, able to capitalize the resources so as to keep the entire team working efficiently (White 2009). Conclusion In conclusion, the three concepts; organizational behaviour, balanced scorecard, and coaching are comparable because they have a common agenda. They all aim at ensuring that organizations meet their tangible results. The balanced scorecard is a concept or tool that helps managers to predict the performance outcome. It is a tool that measurers the performance of any organization, however, small or big. The organizational behaviour is crucial because it helps people to know how to socialize within the organization. Coaching, on the other hand, reinforces the skills and knowledge of an employee. The three aspects contribute to the performance of an organization. List of references Boundless 2015, “Measuring Organizational Performance,” Boundless Management, Retrieved, April 14th 2015 from, / Encyclopaedia of Business, 2015, Organizational behaviour, Retrieve 6th May 2015 from, Kaplan R. S. & Norton D. P., 1992, ‘The Balanced Scorecard-Measures That Drive Performance,’ Retrieved April 14th 2015 from, Read More