Understanding of Organizational behavior - Essay Example

What is Organizational Behavior (OB)? Organizational behavior is concerned with business practices that are typified by human behavior and the dynamics of group interaction. It is related to organizational culture, which for its part is concerned with the norms regarding how the organization deals with people, situations and environments. It is, hence, the psychology or soft aspect of business management. It is all about connecting behavior with the achievement of the efficiency of the organization.

It is also distinguished from organizational psychology due to its breadth. When organizational psychology studies behavior within the organization covered by psychology and its subfields, organizational behavior can include those that are within the areas of sociology and economics, among others.What would you identify the top three current topics in OB?The first top issue in organizational behavior today is the manner by which woman still encounter the glass ceiling in their career path. This is true in the case of Wal-mart employees.

When women are prevented to advance on account of their gender and that it is a conventional practice of an organization, it is a discriminatory behavior. It can be addressed using frameworks available that have been developed as a result of extensive studies done on similar organizational behavior theme in the past. The fact that it still persists speaks volumes about the attitude and policies of organizations and policymakers in business today. Secondly, there is the case of equitability of wages.

Executive officers tend to get higher percentage of pay raises in comparison with the rank and file employees. This is what is happening at Hostess, for example. The dynamics by which organizations dispensed with this policy deserves attention especially that many believe it as valid, cost-effective and efficient. An in-depth analysis of this issue in the context of organizational behavior could lead to viable models that would achieve organizational efficiency and profitability while implementing income equitability.

Finally, I would like to cite the case of the corporate greed. Decision makers are hard-pressed to deliver the maximum profit to its shareholders. Hence, all other considerations such as social responsibility and ethics are never prioritized, if at all. The dynamics of the interaction between profit and policies, shareholders and managers, and, organization and society are covered by organizational behavior and could similarly be addressed within its framework in instances severe corporate greed.

Describe the various roles you play both formally and informally within your organizationIn my fathers appliance repair business one of the major roles I play is marketing. It is interesting for me because aside from the traditional marketing approaches, I am also tapping new media in the performance of my duties. I also help with taking care of the business finances. It is drastically different from marketing. Being able to perform those two functions gave me fresh perspectives. Marketing is all about spending resources whereas the finance department is all about sourcing revenue.

Someday I hope to be in charge of the human resources of the our small firm as well.