Organizational Behavior - Motivation, Emotions, and Moods - Essay Example

Name Instructor Course Date Summary Report Managers The first chapter discusses how management affects organizational behavior. The first discussion is in what ways communication skills, technical and qualitative as well as leadership skills of a manager are beneficial to an organization. Apart from offering better financial performance, a skilled manager also ensures that quality employees have a higher turnover. A skilled manager is also able to make better-informed decisions, allocate resources efficiently and effectively direct activities that aim to attain organizational goals. Also, a manager's role is divided into four major categories. They include, planning, leading, organizing and controlling. Each of these roles has tasks that help a manager perform his responsibilities effectively. This chapter also discusses managerial roles as defined by Mintzberg. According to Mintzberg, managerial roles are divided into three categories; interpersonal, informational and decisional roles. Lastly, for a manager to be productive, they have to use intuition, systematic study as well as faddism. Organizational Behavior The next important discussion is about organizational behavior. Organizational Behavior is defined as “A field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behavior within organizations, for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organization’s effectiveness.” Contributing disciplines to organizational behavior include psychology, sociology, sociology psychology and anthropology. Some of the benefits associated with organizational behavior include; improving people’s skills, helps organizations respond to globalization, helps manage workforce diversity, stimulates innovation and change, improves quality and productivity and it also helps employees balance conflicts associated with work-life. Emotions and Moods The next chapter discusses emotions and moods in organizational behavior. Previously, emotions were viewed as irrational, and managers were determined to enforce a work environment that was emotion-free because they were considered disruptive and interfered with productivity. However, organizations have recently concluded that it is impossible to separate emotions from the workplace. Apart from helping us understand the environment around us, emotions also critical when it comes to making rational decisions. They also help in survival problem-solving. There are numerous sources of emotions, and some of them are personality, weather, day and time of the week, social activities, stress, sleep, age, exercise, and gender. Affective Events Theory is also extensively discussed. It discusses some of the events in the work place that trigger either negative or positive emotional reactions. It is important for organizations to understand some of the implications of emotions. for instance, by understanding that both negative and positive emotions can distract employees as well as reduce job performance. For this reason, it is in their best interests that they understand that emotions, as well as minor events that cause them, should not be ignored. Emotional intelligence that describes an individual self-awareness when it comes to emotions is also important when it comes to job performance. Some of the organizational behavior of emotions and moods include; in selection, creativity, decision making, leadership, motivation, customer service, deviant workplace behavior, negotiation, job attitudes and manager’s influence. Motivation The next discussion is regarding motivation that is defined as "the process that account for an individual's intensity, direction, and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal – specifically, an organizational goal." Several theories have been developed to explain motivation. They include McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory, McClelland’s Theory of Needs and the Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory. In recent times, scholars have replaced those outdated motivation theory with contemporary theories of motivation, and they include Self-Efficacy Theory, Goal-Setting Theory, Equity Theory, Expectancy Theory and the Reinforcement Theory. The next discussion is about management by objectives. This is defined as the systematic way in which to utilize goal-setting. According to management by objectives, goal must be measurable, verifiable and tangible. After discussing motivation concepts, the next topic is about its applications. There is the motivation by job design where the Job Characteristics Model concept is explained. Motivational Potential Score (MPS) where the five core dimensions (skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback) are pooled into a single predictive index of motivation. Redesigning Jobs This can be done by job enlargement, job rotation or job enrichment. Several guidelines for enriching a job are provided. Alternative Work Arrangements These includes flextime for employees, job sharing, and telecommunication. Telecommunication does not work for all profession, but it is encouraged for some that do not require direct supervision of employees. Employee Involvement It is described as "a process that uses the input of employees to increase their commitment to the organization's success." Employee involvement programs like participative management, representative participation, and quality circle are discussed in detail. Strategic Reward Decisions They include what to pay, how to pay individuals, what type of benefits to offer and ways of how to build recognition programs. Attitudes and Job Satisfaction There are three components that make up an attitude. They include cognitive, behavioral and affective. Behavior does not always follow from attitudes. Consistency is attained by changing attitudes, through rationalization as well as adjusting behaviors. Major Job attitudes include job involvement, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, psychological empowerment, employee engagement and perceived organizational support. Job satisfaction is described as one of the primary job attitudes measured. Job satisfaction can be measured as a single rating or as a summation score. Employee responses to dissatisfaction can either be active, destructive, constructive or passive. Advantages of job satisfaction include improved productivity, influencing Organizational Citizenship Behavior, customer satisfaction, discouraging absenteeism, improved turnover and discourage workplace deviance. In conclusion, it is important for managers to observe employee attitudes and should also work towards increasing job satisfaction as well as create positive job attitudes. Understanding Work Teams Organizations are encouraging working in teams because it is a boundless way to use employee talents. Teams are viewed as a more flexible unit to work with, and it also responds better to changes in a working environment than working with an individual. One can quickly, assemble, refocus, deploy and disband a team that is convenient for an organization. Teams also facilitate employee involvement by increasing employee participation when it comes to decision making. It also democratizes an organization as well as increases motivation. Types of teams include problem-solving teams, cross-functional teams, self-managed work teams and virtual teams. An effective team has common characteristics such as effective leadership, climate of trust, adequate resources and most importantly are made up of members who believe in the team’s ability. Creativity Creative skills include positive traits, mental blocks, problem-solving and lateral thinking. Problems facing creativity include lack of resources, confusing situations, unexpected happenings, situations that demand extra efforts, risky situations or situations that lack ready-made solutions. Creativity is a necessary condition that facilitates the development of critical and creative thinking. Critical thinking that lacks a creative output is viewed as negative thinking. Creativity in entrepreneurship encourages newness, difference and novelty. Creativity encourages innovation. Creative entrepreneurs need to be aware of changes around them, and they should aspire to use it to their advantage. Nurturing creativity is very crucial in any society, and this is done by asking questions, brainstorming, and lateral thinking. Negotiating It is described as a” reaching an agreement by resolving differences through creativity.” The negotiating process consists of the style, the outcome and finally the principles. There are two negotiating styles, and they are quick and deliberate negotiating styles. Outcomes of a negotiation can either be realistic, acceptable or worse for parties that are too stubborn. A motivated negotiator should have social skills, be a team worker, be enthusiastic, have integrity, and be creative. A negotiation model involves investigation, presentation, bargaining and agreement. An agreement should be impartial and acceptable, and most importantly it should pay attention to the needs of all parties involved. Finally, a good negotiator should be versatile, motivated, and creative and also be able to walk away. Work Cited Johns, Gary, and Alan M. Saks. Organizational Behaviour: Understanding and Managing Life at Work. Toronto: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005. Print. Read More