Management and Organisational Behaviour - Essay Example

? Management and Organizational Behavior Introduction: Organizations are formed by groups of people with intensions to achieve certain goals that aretargets for the organization as well as for the organizational members. Organizational behavior within organizations primarily deals with the human behavior of the organizational members. It deals with the understanding of thoughts, feelings and behaviors of the members; the interactions being necessary in an organizational context towards achievement of organizational objectives (Martin & Fellenz, 2010, pp.9-14). Human behavior at work has been studied by researchers since early times and the concept of behavioral approach implies that human resources are the major contributors in the output of a business. Gradually with time several approaches towards understanding the human behavior have been focused for enhancing the performances of business organizations (Gupta, 2009, pp.24-25). It has been studied that several external factors may affect the organizational processes and internal behavior. These factors may also include the global economic movements, the regulations of government, alterations in technology and culture or other environmental issues (Capitalism and organizational behavior, n.d., p.11). In case of the UK, it has been obtained that the booming economy that was prevailing in the nation was collapsed by the impacts of the recent global recession, thus affecting the organizational performances and behaviors as well. This report would primarily focus on the effects of the recession on the UK business organizations and find out the modifications in behavior approach that might benefit the firms, based on a case study of a Kingfisher plc. Impact of Recession on the UK economy and Organizational Behaviors: Until the latter part of the last decade the economy of the United Kingdom seemed to be in a period of endless boom. Levels of unemployment were relatively low, house prices were rising pretty quickly and people seemed to be reaping the rewards. However, the Credit/Liquidity Crunch and subsequent recession brought this to a crashing halt and a number of organizations have subsequently gone into administration / receivership and many more have had to tighten their belts and cut costs just to survive. The UK economy was to a great extent dependent on the services of finance and business particularly in the last decade. With an assumption that growth would take place inevitably, the government of the nation had an increased rate of debt, implying the recession to have had a severe impact on the economy of the country (Killick, 2008). The crisis in the UK was mainly realized in the financial sector, which represented the most active business area for the country. The rest of the economy was thus subsequently affected. The financial calamity had developed into a credit crisis that had severe impacts on the business organizational performances affecting their abilities. Also, the consumers’ capability to borrow and purchase was affected and declined to a great extent. The availability of finances from the public also started getting limited thus impacting the “ability of the UK government to use fiscal policy to combat the crisis” (Killick, 2008). A very significant consideration in this context of study relates to the association between the recession and the behavior among organizational members. Recession impacts the motivation of the human resources primarily with respect to unemployment. The issue of unemployment as a consequence of economic crisis also focuses on the welfare of the employees as well as motivation. The Expectancy theory of organizational behavior, reflecting focus on individuals, facilitates the understanding of members’ ability to motivate themselves during the periods of recession (Sinclair, 2010). Countries like the UK have been found to manage the circumstances of recession through cost cutting measures that include undertaking administrative and receivership measures or layoffs leading to unemployment. Behavioral Approach to Management and UK Organizations’ Behaviors towards Dealing with Recession: The behavioral approach to management within an organization deals with improvement of the available human resources through psychological understanding and framing of their minds. The approach intends to use the available human resources efficiently towards positive outcomes of the business. It may deal with employee conflicts, or influence them to bring changes in their behavior to deal with any particular situation encountered by the company, for example, a global recession. The Behavioral Approach allows employees to have a lot more impact on their working lives in terms of empowerment, flexibility, input and management (DuBrin, 2008, p.23). Generally business organizations possess some form of organizational strategy that can be explained through the following figure. Strategies aim to define the internal and external factors affecting businesses, the status, values, resources and functions of the business. The plans and strategies formulated within a business need to be implemented which takes place through the processes followed in the organization. Also, the strategy of an organization should be focused on either considering the firm to have integration of resources available or considering the firm as fitting with its environment. The different elements of a business include the product, the markets, the technologies, the costs and benefits, the profits, as well as the expansion policies of the company. During a period of recession, businesses are required to familiarize themselves to certain strategies like retrenchment, investment or a combined strategy that includes both retrenchment and investment strategies. Retrenchment techniques involve cutting down costs that may also involve reducing employments, directly affecting the organizational members (Lowth, Prowle & Zhang, 2010, pp.2-4). This explains the crisis that affected the UK organizational behaviors. The effects of recession can thus be seen to affect the organizational members in the UK firms. The behavioral approach comes into play in this respect to understand how the firms could have taken measures in a different perspective by and understanding of the human resources. It can be understood that the recession caused a change in the organizational behavior in the UK organizations. CIPD or Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development had also conducted studies on the changes in organizational behavior in the UK companies owing to recession. Unemployment rates showed huge increases particularly for the youth in the UK. The financial crisis had initiated a change in the organizational strategies focusing also on changes in the political and public leadership. When the scenario was severely disordered, companies realized the significance of changing their organizational behaviors and strategies. The focus was not only on accumulating finances but also to establish proper governance towards achievement of organizational goals (Organizational responses to economic challenges, 2009, pp.4-5). Business leaders have been found to have inadequacies that could not prevent a global crisis to occur. Studies have also reflected that the manner in which employees would be treated within an organization would provide the employee with an impression on the company along with their feeling of job security on which the employee’s performance and commitment is highly dependent. It has also been realized that attitudes of employees change with the effects of recession. This is primarily owing to the insecurity in regard to the job as well as the mental stress. What organizations could undertake as measures are the flexible working and sharing of a common purpose and dedication. These measures would present a feeling of mutual gains towards common interests and achievements of organizational objectives. Communication could in this respect play a major role to enhance the internal relationships and performances. All these positive measures eventually motivate the employees towards improved results that might be more effective for the company. The employees having greater talents than others should be tried to be sustained even though cost cutting is focused at the time of recession (Organizational responses to economic challenges, 2009, pp.12-14). Understanding Organizational Behavior in Management: The case of Kingfisher Plc: Although the recession in Britain had initiated in 2008 and ended in 2009, yet the nation’s economy weakened again in late in 2010; a major reason being the heavy snowfall. According to experts, the UK had presented a most terrible shortfall in its budget in the last year in the European Union (Oxlade, 2011). In such a crisis situation when several companies were severely affected, Kingfisher plc focused on overcoming the recession through changes in the organizational behavior and strategies. Kingfisher plc is a leading European home improvement retail company acquiring third position in the world. With a focus to become a leading local retail company, it has its branches in China, Turkey, France, Ireland, UK, Poland, Russia and Spain rendering sales of about 1.9 billion internationally. The company has sincere responsibility towards its consumers as well as its employees. It focuses on bright career opportunities and personal development for its employees across the world. In the recent times, when the world has just overcome the phases of the global recession, Kingfisher Plc has been found to focus on its management, capital and returns (Kingfisher –at a glance, 2011). With a view to overcome the recession, the company efficiently maintained its strengths. It brought changes in the organizational strategies and started operating through its subsidiaries that benefited its customers with garden, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and other products. Managing the strengths of the company was considered as the main reason for the company to survive the recession. A major participation to this management was the efficient performance of the management team prevalent in the company (Chairman’s statement, 2011). Kingfisher plc is one of the companies that have successfully built its business in many developed countries. It has taught people worldwide to stay and live better by providing many household products necessary in the home for every person. The major issues encompassed by this managerial approach include leadership, motivation, communication, teamwork, and conflict (DuBrin, 2008, p.23). According to CIPD Chief Economist John Philpott, the most unprecedented and unwanted layoffs of employees had occurred in the UK at the time of the global economic crisis (Organizational responses to economic challenges, 2009, pp.4-5). However, in case of Kingfisher plc, such layoffs were not reported. Instead the company focused on newer processes towards overcoming the recession. Even during the recession, the company was focused on its strategies and modified its organizational behavior towards a more behavioral approach that enabled the management team and the employees to remain motivated towards improved performance. Kingfisher realized the importance of changing the business attitudes in the period of crisis. This motivated the employees as they were provided with the measures that could assist them in accepting the changes. The company developed a growth strategy that was based on green products and services. The company had a focus towards a sustainable prospect through incorporations of new technologies and business practices thus altering the organizational behavior as well (Cheshire, 2011). The study of this company can be considered as an example towards understanding the importance of organizational behavior in management. It can be realized from this case study that a behavioral approach towards organizational management is capable of assisting a company in focusing on strategies. Particularly, in crisis situations of recession, the company may need to change its organizational behavior which might be supported to a great extent if the company follows a behavioral approach. As this case study reflects, the behavioral approach to management is highly significant and necessary in this respect since the process is based on psychological perspectives. Although the process is primarily based on theoretical concepts, at the same time the approach is highly realistic, thus dealing directly with the problem attitude. It is believed that behavior is a trait that can be changed through easy and applicable learning processes (Makin & Cox, 2004, p.1). It can be understood that maintaining behavioral approach during the times of recession, when companies are under high pressure, is a difficult task to be accomplished. Thus although the importance and advantages of behavioral approach towards organizational behavior can be realized, yet UK companies have been found to take measures that created layoffs and job uncertainties thus implying a different circumstances of the organizations. However, Kingfisher plc also represented that companies could positively use the behavioral approach to management as well. Conclusion: The study has clearly provided an understanding of the importance of behavioral approach to management that focuses on the needs and welfare of the employees or organizational members within an organization. The UK companies at the time of the global recession reflected a different prospect of organizational management that showed changes in the organizational behaviour. To manage and survive the economic crisis, the UK companies undertook measures that were focused on cost cutting and led to layoffs as well. This increased the rate of unemployment in the country as well as created dissatisfaction and sense of uncertainty in the minds of the employees. From the above study and the circumstances it can be realized that in a situation of recession where huge pressure prevails on a company for its survival, maintaining the behavioral approach to management might not be an easy task to perform, which may be understood from the studies of the UK companies. However, it is also factual that organizations that follow the behavioral approach to management, like in the case of Kingfisher plc, perform better since the management of the company had focused on a behavioral approach towards bringing changes in the organizational behavior and follow new strategies. Thus the study of organizational behavior and management may have different perspectives depending on the scenario as well as the capabilities of the company concerned. References 1) Capitalism and organizational behavior. (n.d.), Palgrave, available at: http://www.palgrave.com/business/brattonob2e/about/chapter1_sample.pdf (accessed on September 6, 2011) 2) Chairman’s Report (2011), Annual Report and Accounts 2010/11, available at: http://www.kingfisher.com/files/reports/annual_report_2011/index.asp?pageid=12 (accessed on September 6, 2011) 3) Cheshire, I. (2011), Sustainability – it needn’t send a ripple of fear through the boardroom!, University of Cambridge, available at: http://www.cpsl.cam.ac.uk/Resources/What-is-Sustainability-Leadership/~/media/Files/Resources/Sustainability%20Trends%20pdfs/Sustainability_Trends_Ian_Cheshire_Dont_Fear_Sustainability.ashx (accessed on September 6, 2011) 4) DuBrin, A.J. (2008), Essentials of Management, Connecticut: Cengage Learning 5) Gupta, M. 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