Organizational Behavior - Case Study Example

ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR Organizing refers to the process of bringing together physical, financial and human resources and establishing productive relations among them for the achievement of specific goals, It is concerned with building up a stable framework or structure of various interrelated parts of an enterprise, each part having its own function and being centrally regulated. Organization learning focuses on the way people make sense of their experiences at work. The aim of organizing is to enable people to relate other and to work together for a common purpose. The organized group of people in a collective sense is known as organization. (Yvonne 129) “Organization is the process of identifying and grouping work to be performed, defining and delegating responsibility relationships for the purpose of enabling people to work more effectively together in accomplishing objectives.” -Louis Allen There are many factors that determine how we assess others in an organization. In fact, it is these assessments that help us to deal with others in the organization. Some of the factors that influence the judgment that we make of others are: PERCEPTION Perception is the process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting or attaching meaning to events happening in environment. It is the intellectual process through which a person selects the data from the environment, organizes it, and obtains meaning from it. The physical process of obtaining data from environment, known as sensation, is distinct from it. Perception is a basic cognitive or psychological process. The manner in which a person perceives the environment affects his behavior. Thus, peoples actions, emotions, thoughts, or feelings are triggered by the perception of their surroundings. In person perception, there are many more factors such as: 1. Personality. People tend to perceive others more accurately when they are more like the ones that they are perceiving than if they are different from those who are being perceived. 2. Mental Set. In organizational setting, people have tendency to perceive about others on the basis of this mental set, which causes misperception. 3. Attribution. Attribution refers to how a person tries to understand the behavior or events by interpreting them as caused by certain factors. It has been observed that different persons have different views about why they behave in particular ways. This may affect the resultant decisions. 4. First Impression. It is very common that people evaluate others on the basis of first impression. People continue to evaluate on the basis of first impression, though incorrect. This can be corrected by more frequent interaction, though erasing of first impression evaluation is not that easy. 5. Halo Effect. The halo serves as a screen, keeping the perceiver away from actually seeing the trait he is judging. 6. Stereotype. Stereotypes may attribute favorable or unfavorable traits to the person being perceived. There are certain stereotyped groups, such as, managers, supervisors, workers, union leaders, etc. 8. Situational Factors. Situational factors also affect the perception. There may be structural characteristics of the place indicating the characteristics of person occupying it. Thus a person is likely to be perceived by a place. For example, a person is perceived differently if he meets with other in a five star hotel as compared to an ordinary place. This may be the main reason why companies have lavishly furnished offices or showrooms. In many cases, these may not reflect the true value but may only distort peoples perception who might be dealing with them. Most often a new entrant into the office is often viewed with suspicion by the existing members of the team. This is the classical case of members resisting change which is represented by the the new person. Often the prejudices of the employees, grapevine and the behavior of the new employee can create suspicion. However, the behavior and conduct of a person affects us most. This is because factors other than the behavior of a person is short-lived and can easily be mended when it is found that the assumptions about a person were false. However, the behavior of a person serves as a constant proof of how that person is. There are many theories in management that indicate that the inherent qualities of a person are strong determinants of how she or he will be perceived by others. When a person has more sociable skills, he will be accepted by the group but the more he or she tries to be go against group dynamics, the more will they be resented by others in the team. An understanding of interpersonal perception is important to understanding behavior in organizations. This is because the behavior of one person affects the behavior of others. Team interaction has very strong influences on employee attitudes. In most cases, attitude problems are not magnified when employees solve problems by consultation with other members in the team. The definition of a team would drive home the importance of the concept of a team. Greenberg, 1999 sums up the importance of a good team. A team as.".. a number of persons, usually reporting to a common superior and having some face to face interaction, who have some degree of interdependence in carrying out tasks for the purpose of achieving organizational goals". Here the stress is on interdependence and the differences between the superior and subordinates members are scaled down. Such a type of interaction increases the responsibility of the employees who also feels a compelling sense of ownership In a psychological perspective, attitudes and behavior are different. Behavior is the way in which a person conducts himself for attaining an internalized objective. Attitude on the other hand is a strong feeling that are converted to behavior if the belief is sufficiently strong. [Grayson Randall, 2001]. “. Itfollows that attitude manifests as behavior even though it can be modified by social and group compulsions. It can also be seen that attitude is more difficult to manage because behavior is expressed and can be gauged by the observer. The attitudes and beliefs of people modify what is learnt, and affects perception of the individual. This means that what is important for one person may not be important for another. Attitudes and beliefs are a personal feeling but it echoes in the organization as a whole In my experience, I have seen that employees who give too much importance to themselves are often sidelined by their peers in the company. However, those who mingle with the rest of the team and makes everyone comfortable are accepted and respected by other team members CONTROL . Control is the process of obtaining congruence between the desired and actual state of the organization. It can be taken at any stage, either at the individual level, or organizational level depending upon the requirement. Normally a person controls the behavior of other persons through the process of influence, which involves a series of social interactions by which a person or group is induced by another person or group to act in conformance to the influencing agents expectations to do something other than what would be done ordinarily. The success of an organization is largely determined on its ability to maintain control of its participants. Control and Performance: In controlling the human behavior in an organization, it should be emphasized that control guarantees the performance, which has been set. It suggests that for control, some performance standard is required. This is the desired behavior of a member which is reflected in the performance whatever the measurement criteria have been used. For example, if a person is required to produce 100 units of a product in eight hours, his desired behavior from the organizational point of view will be the production of this much of units. The control must focus on this. Its implication is that the standard behavior must be clear to both the controlling agent (0) and the person being controlled (P). 1. Organizational Rules and Procedures. Most of the organizations prescribe some standing measures for providing guidelines for peoples actions in the organizations in the form of policies, rules, and procedures in action. Thus, they leave very little scope for freedom in action. 2. Perception Formation. The peoples perception is affected by a number of factors. In organizational situation, it is affected by the action of management, and the type of relationship between management and employees. The perception of people towards control is a major factor in determining the response to it. Organization, in order to ensure achievement of its objectives, must provide some means of control. Thus, control can be (i) one on one basis, mainly through inter-personal communication process; (ii) group on one, mainly through group dynamics; (iii) group on group, mainly through inter group relationship of co-operation and conflict; and (iv) one on group, mainly through power, authority, leadership, and total organizational climate. Control requires the use of sanctions such as: 1.Physical Sanctions. Physical sanctions are in the form of use of coercive power. . 2. Material Sanctions. Material sanctions are opposite of physical sanctions. These are based on the control and allocation of material resources and rewards. Material rewards consist of goods and services 3. Symbolic Sanctions. Symbolic sanctions are those, which do not constitute a physical threat or a claim on materials rewards. They are in the form .of some symbols, which are important for the recipients. I remember my early days as a management graduate when I had to take orders from my immediate superiors. In the initial days of my posting, I was bombarded with the power play of senior managers in the office. I was often used to display the superiority of officers in the department. All this changed when we had a new manager who had a quiet way of working. Even though the man was quiet and composed he exuded control and all activities of the office were conducted without any confusion. He often used symbolic sanctions to get his work done rather than physical sanctions as used by his earlier managers. The workers were more comfortable under him and developed their potential much better than earlier. CONCLUSION Perception, Power & Politics, Gender, Culture, Control plays an important role in the success, efficiency and soundness of an organization. The ‘Team’, its people, their caliber and their attitude to succeed and out perform determine success of any organization. Employees are the only resource, which is capable of self-propulsion and value addition. Unlike any machinery that gets devalued or depreciated with time and age, the human resource i.e. people appreciates with age and experience. So they are very special but this fruitful only if people are developed and kept satisfied. It is unlikely that any improvement can be made in terms of production, productivity, quality or customer service until people are developed. References Ahuja K. (2003) Personnel Management, Kalyani Publishers. Calcutta. p 435-775 David Buchanan & Andrzej Huczynski, Organizational Behavior – An Introductory Text, Prentice Hall, 2004. Pp85- 90 Etzioni A, Modem Organizations, New Delhi: Prentice-Hall of India, 1964 Hersey P& Blanchard K, Management of Organizational Behavior, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 2002 Herbert G. Hicks and C. Ray Gullett, Organizations: Theory and Behavior, New York: McGraw Hill, 1995. p 230-231 Prasad LM, Management Studies, Educational publishers, Daryaganj, 2006, p 262-287 Sharma MC. (2004). Business Studies. S Chand & Company. New Delhi. p 10- 51 Tushman M.I., A Political Approach to Organizations: A Review and Rationale, Academy of Management Review, No.2, 1997, p. 217 Yvonne Mc Laughhlin. Business Management: A Practical guide for Managers, Supervisors and Administrators. Business Information Books. p. 5-149 Greenberg, J, Managing Behavior in Organizational (2nd Ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1999 Grayson Randall, (2001), Staff Training Best Practices: Targeting Attitude Camping Magazine, Issue: Nov-Dec, 2001 Martin and Ford Paula, (2001), Attitude and behavior, Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology Read More