Organizational Behavior and Diversity of the Nike Company - Research Paper Example

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR AND DIVERSITY OF THE NIKE COMPANY Introduction Organizational Behavior is an academic discipline that draws its knowledge (psychology, sociology, anthropology, political science and economics) from both behavioral and social sciences since it’s a science itself and uses scientific research methods. On the other hand, it leads to understanding of individual and group behavior, organizational dynamics, and interpersonal processes with the goal of improving the performance of organizations and the people in them. Strength of the Nike Company Nike Company finds Organizational Behavior important since it helps employees to interact more effectively in their work place. They gain a better work-related understanding of their own behavior and that of others hence, motivate, influence, and to succeed. Nike Company is dynamic in that it obtains raw materials from the environment and processes them into finished goods or services that are returned as outputs to the environment. From finished goods and services, Customers create a continuing demand of Nike Company products resulting to a circle known as a value chain (Nelson, Debra & James 25). How Nike Company Functions Organizational structure of Nike Company is centered in managers and their team leaders who foresee efficient running of the company. Their nature of managerial work revolves around planning, organizing, leading and controlling. They execute informational, interpersonal and decisional roles. Informational roles is whereby a manager exchanges and processes information through team leaders and also liaise with the employees in decision making for the betterment of the company. Effective managers must integrate technical, human and conceptual skills. As well they must be sensitive to workforce dynamics while consistently adapting to their environment and understand broad applications of technology, focus on quality and customer service. In Nike Company, emphasis on managing emotions both personally and in relationships with others, is considered an important leadership competency since a manager’s emotional intelligence contributes significantly to their leadership effectiveness (Nelson et al. 30-5). Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand and deal with emotions such as self-regulation, relationship management and self-awareness. Positive organizational cultures in this Company tap the talents, ideas of employees, and their potential creativity. Therefore it makes the organization a better employer and helps it to effectively compete more in the job market. Diversity programs in Nike Company includes; emphasis on recruitment, selection, and retention of potential employees who provide a basis for more effective job satisfaction and productivity. In order to accomplish the diversity management in Nike Company, all levels of management in the company must be committed across all functions of the organization in order to get the best from the company. Diversity therefore, promotes creativity and innovation, social responsibility, reduced legal noncompliance costs and appreciating differences /value of inclusion. The mission statement of Nike Company describes and helps focus on the attention on the company’s core purpose, vision and future aspiration in a way that inspires commitment, innovation, emotion, and courage (Nelson et al. 45-6). Attitudes and Job Satisfaction in Nike Company Attitudes play an important role in employees work output in Nike Company. Managers should therefore be interested in their employees’ attitudes since attitudes give warnings of potential problems and influence behavior. If managers in Nike Company can improve employee attitudes, it will likely result in heightened growth of the company’s effectiveness. The key managerial goal in Nike Company is the employee’s job satisfaction. This is assessed through managerial observation and interpretation of employee’s attitudes and behavior by use of job satisfaction interviews and administering of questionnaires to employees. Also fully job involvement to the company leads to high performance and positive growth of the company. In the company’s commitment, emotional commitment is more powerful in influencing high performance than rational. Employees’ perception in mind is a key factor in determining his/her willingness to work hard for the organization (Nelson et al. 66-8). Nike company employees have a higher perception when they perceive that they have some input to decision-making processes in the company. Personality also plays a major role in Job Satisfaction in that the employees believe in themselves and gather confidence towards their work. On the other hand dissatisfied workers are absent more frequently and not engaged in their work hence more likely to quit. Emotions and moods In Nike Company, emotions and moods of employees create an impact in its performance and growth. The management should emphasize on managing emotions both at personal level and in relation with others. A leader’s emotional intelligence greatly contributes to his or her leadership effectiveness. Emotions do affect service delivery quality to customers which in turn affects customer relationships. Employees are supposed to have rest such as enough sleep, physical activity, good leadership, motivation from other employees and involvement in decision making to aid in keeping their moods upbeat. Employees are supposed to maintain a low level of stress to help them control their psychological and physical health (Nelson et al.72). Social activities also have a positive impact on their moods. Personality & Values Every employee in Nike Company is unique because of individual characteristics, needs, background, and how he/she perceives the company and other employees. Employees with different personalities, interact differently with co-workers and customers. Personality explains why some people embrace change in the company while others are fearful of changes; why some employees are productive when they receive instructions. Individual differences shape their organizational behavior and impact success in the company (Nelson et al. 78). A person’s self-concept is greatly influenced by culture. It is formed over time based on early experiences. An employee’s self-esteem can rise and fall depending on his/her circumstances like losing a job after a successful employment can temporarily impact self-esteem. On the other hand, managers should use caution on how they handle the personality of employees. Managers must be aware of the employees’ developmental level in order to tap the potential and ability. Personality strongly impact how we deal with stress both affirmatively and negatively (Myers-Briggs). An important social trait is problem-solving style (Nelson et al. 91). This reflects the way a person goes about gathering and evaluating information in solving problems and making decisions. Nike Management, which is aware of these styles, will distribute tasks and assign responsibilities more effectively. Extraversion (being outgoing, sociable, assertive), Agreeableness (being good-natured, trusting, cooperative, deferential), Conscientiousness (being reliable, responsible, dependable, persistent), Emotional stability (opposite is Neuroticism) and Openness to experience (being creative, imaginative, curious, broad-minded). Values Values are broad references concerning courses of action or outcomes. They influence attitudes and behavior of employees in Nike Company. Researchers like Maglino aimed employees in the workplace, have found greater follower satisfaction with the leader when there is congruence in terms of achievement, honesty, helping and fairness values. John Holland’s Personality-Job Fit Theory explains 6 personality types: social (helping others), investigative (thinking/organizing), conventional (rules/order), enterprising (verbal/advancement) and realistic (physical/skill). Culture helps to define boundaries between different employees and affect how they relate to one another. Geert Hofstede expresses how value differences can influence behavior at work place (Nelson et al. 96). The dimensions are correlated, explaining each dimension to a larger or lesser degree. Perception and Individual Decision Making in Nike Company The employees’ perceptions help them to interpret situations and prepare their response. Employees’ perceptions are greatly influenced by their values, employees’ differences in beliefs and their culture. One’s perception is affected by both internal and external factors. If the management don’t know exactly why employees behave the way they do, they infer reasons because they need to create a cause and effect relationship. Managers are not supposed to overlook the external causes of employees’ behaviors. They should identify and confront their stereotypes, biases and preconceived notions. They should evaluate employees based on objectives and contextual factors. They too should not rush to quick judgment. In Nike Company, cynicism is expressed in terms of stereotypes about other employees. When they say “top management doesn’t really care about the employees,” they are attributing to a particular perception rather to a whole “top management” (Nelson et al. 102) Decision Making and Creativity in Nike Company Decision making is the process of choosing a course of action for dealing with a problem or opportunity (Rational Decision Model).The quality of the decisions made at Nike Company impact all facets of the company. The company must use decision making rationally, proactively, productively and creatively in order to make a positive impact in its growth. Each and every employee is unique because of background, individual characteristics, needs, and how he/she perceive the company and other workmates. Employees with different attitudes respond differently to instructions and work assignments from their supervisors. Employees’ differences explain why some embrace change, and others are fearful of change; why some are productive only when they receive detailed directions. Employees’ differences shape the company’s behavior and impact its success hence its growth. Behavioral decision theory acknowledges the notion that employees have limits to what they can know at any time. This limitation hinders information-processing capabilities. Judgment of the top management is important in all aspects of decision making. Research shows that employees are prone to mistakes using biases that often interfere with the quality of decision making (Nelson et al. 112). In conclusion, ethics in the decision making process, Nike Company is more likely to consider and identify options that mitigate the impact, or assist employees to cope with the layoff or closing ( providing office space for some departments and assisting with re-training of new employees). Work Cited Nelson, Debra L, and James C. Quick. Understanding Organizational Behavior. Mason, OH, USA: Thomson/South-Western, 2008. Print. Read More