Technology on Organizational Behavior - Essay Example

Technology on Organizational Behavior Organizational behavior is aimed at understanding the daily work of people at the workplace and the manner in which they pursue their professional goals in the midst of demand and motivation. As such, the notion of organizational behavior is associated with a set of common themes that aim to highlight the modern workplace across several aspects ranging from behavior, diversity, balance and performance. However, the study of organizational behavior does take into consideration two other important elements that are considered pivotal to the prospects of a modern organization – globalization and technological innovation. With the increase in the challenges that organizations are facing today in the midst of an ever competitive world and with the increasing interdependence with which companies have had to become involved across several economies, the values and behavioral blueprints of an organization have evolved significantly over the preceding few years. As such, the relevance and importance of organizational behavior has become more pronounced and the trends in this direction are assumed to gain more significance in the years and decades to come. In order to understand such an evolution, it is necessary to understand the perceived impact that technological innovation is likely to have in the future of organizational behavior and related studies (Stephen Robbins, 2008). One of the primary areas where the innovation in technology is likely to have a predominant impact is its influence on the ethics and the quality of decision making. In this context it is also important to analyze as to what it means to remain ethical in taking decisions and being influenced by technology at the same instance. Simply said ethics is all about the proper application of standards and principles to issues and situations and questioning whether such an application is proper or wrong. As such, profit and loss or gains or losses in value as part of business transactions are core aspects of ethics within business. It depends not just on results, but also on personal as well as social values (John Schermerhorn, 2007). There are several ways in which ethics can be brought to the forefront while evaluating decisions. Firstly, it is believed that innovation would help a manager in considering the right ethics by making all the standards available for ready reference. In this context, the logic of presentation is desired to be intelligent enough to take the factors of the situation into consideration and demonstrate the correct set of applicable standards. Secondly, modern systems must also develop into using historical cases and related data to show the expected outcomes of a particular decision (Dennis Organ, 1986). A situation may span across several cases from the past and may be influenced by a number of factors. As such, it is an expressed desire from the industry that would help them utilizes the services of systems that can pull out all scenarios, compare them with the questions and generate projected and precise estimations of the outcomes that would result with the application of a particular set of decisions (Ricky Griffin, 2009). The introduction of Information technology into the equation of an organization over the past few decades has multiplied the demand from jobs and has put an additional burden on the employee with constant changes in the workplace, an increased flow of information that is often overlooked or difficult to handle. As such, the levels of stress are often more profound thereby leading them to look at technology as more of a burden than a benefit. Technological innovation aimed at creating a better work environment must understand the relationship between stress and the well being of an employee are interconnected and as such, any new development must be aimed at developing and improving over the inefficiencies (Gary Johns, 2006). Stress is mainly caused by a mismatch between the employee’s ability and the conditions at the workplace. Further, the technology has to take care of employees across all personalities and levels of coping with the requirements, demands and challenges of their responsibilities. Individuals today are experiencing an overload of technology at work. Email, fax, mobile phones, SMSes, blackberries and electronic documents are all adding to the core demand to get the actual work done. Workers have to rely on a proper use of all these tools at the moment to be able to keep track of the progress of the job, manage it and report it to all stakeholders through appropriate means. All this is adding to the stress already being felt at the workplace. Further, information today flows so fast that many people are unable to keep up. In this scenario, any work related stress can impair both the employee as well as the organization in the long run (Randolph Bobbitt, 2008). As such, it is believed the modern technological innovation can prevent any occurrence of job burnout and any resulting loss of satisfaction or motivation across all levels of the organization. Employees like to be rewarded for their efforts in many ways. Some prefer monetary gain while others aspire for recognition for their contributions. However, a new trend that has been emerging over the past few years has also given rise to several other benefits for the employee such as flexible working hours, the option to telecommute and the compensation in terms of pay and holiday for any additional time (Ricky Griffin, 2009). Employees have expressed a great sense of satisfaction for such provisions and given the general level of acceptance to such innovations, the onus is on technology to provide the required services. Firstly, allowing employees to be mobile and away from the workplace and still allow them access to the organizational environment required the development of such systems and software that can facilitate the communication and sharing of information in a secure manner. though such technologies exist at the moment, they have been found wanting in several aspects such as the quality of service and the effort required to establish communication. The future provision should eliminate the need for employees to do anything special when trying to communicate with a corporate network and any service should not be disrupted at any level. This will not only help in getting the job done on time, but will allow companies and employees to remain more flexible than ever thereby enhancing the level of satisfaction for both entities (Dennis Organ, 1986). As such, it can be seen that understanding the various factors that can induce inefficiencies in the working of an organization are many and each is potentially capable of having a major impact on the output levels of both employees as well as the company. the era of globalization has challenged companies not to work along with people with different personalities and capabilities, but also across time zones and cultures. Working against varying times requires that technology continue to adopt and evolve with changing demands. Work done across several locations needs to be synchronized and this can only happen with the help of enhancements to current technologies. Stress and job satisfaction, two of the issues that have become important considerations and additional burden for employees can only be solved by improving the existing forms in which it is provided and this can be done only by better evolution in technological terms. We cannot do away with technology as it has become an integral part of modern companies. As such, working out the best ways to utilize technology in the most efficient manner is seen as the best way forward to upholding efficiency and satisfaction among companies and employees. References 1. Stephen Robbins (2008), Organizational Behavior. New York: Prentice Hall. 2. John Schermerhorn (2007), Organizational Behavior. London: Wiley. 3. Dennis Organ (1986), Organizational behavior: an applied psychological approach. University of Michigan. 4. Ricky Griffin (2009), Organizational Behavior: Managing People and Organizations. New York: Cengage. 5. Gary Johns (2006), Organizational behavior: understanding life at work. London: Foresman Scott. 6. Randolph Bobbitt (2008), Organizational behavior: understanding and prediction. University of California. Read More