Behaviour Management and Organisational Behaviour - Assignment Example

Behaviour management and organisational behaviour; Explore with reference to appropriate theory, how individuals adapt their role in Organisationsaccording to the position they find themselves in at work, with particular reference to leadership and group situations. Every individual has a role to play at work, at home, at the playground etc; in short, specific activities to perform in specific situations. Similarly, all employees in an organisation are assigned with specific roles according to their skills and qualities; besides these, every employee also has certain role towards the group he/she is associated with, the boss, and the organisation. Considering the fact that organisations, groups, and teams work towards a common goal through collective efforts of all individuals, every individual needs to adapt him/herself to the situations in order to fulfill these roles. Situations may be related to achievement of a goal or task and/or even hurdles that may crop up while trying to accomplish the goal or task. Robbins (2001) elaborates on various factors that influence behaviour of people including knowledge, skills, abilities, and personality characteristics; in addition, formal roles/position, work groups, norms, and group status, size, composition and degree of cohesiveness also shape behaviour of people at different levels. For instance, group members’ behaviour is powered by factors such as performance evaluation, rewards and recognition attached to their behaviour with respect to performance and attitude (Robbins, 2001). Leaders, by virtue of their position, have different kinds of responsibilities at different levels. For instance, leadership at the front line level is meant to guide and/or train the front line employees, monitor their performance and provide appropriate feedback; identify gaps in terms of performance, relationships, and process; and, other responsibilities related to job like analysis, customer satisfaction, reporting etc. Leadership role at managerial level is responsible for, in addition to these, other activities such as client relationship management, process performance and improvement, audit and compliance etc. At levels higher than these, usually, leadership is involved in formulating strategies and measuring their effectiveness; framing policies related to human resources, organisational structure and systems, ethical and legal obligations etc; and, measuring and monitoring organisational performance and efficiency. Organisational groups are formed on the basis of specific tasks to be accomplished; these groups include individuals having the skills required for the task. More than one individual may be involved in performing same activity within the group, and must possess same skills. Hence, every individual within the group understands his/her role based on the skills possessed, and the task assigned. For example, in a group, if one person is assigned the role of a trainer, it is because he/she possess the skills required to supervise, such as process knowledge, ability to coach and mentor others, good communication skills etc. Therefore, the role of this individual within the group is to train other individuals to perform a specific task. Sometimes, one individual may be assigned only one position, but needs to play different roles based on different responsibilities attached to that position. For example, managers of an organisation have the responsibility of ensuring continued progress in normal work, ensuring targets are being achieved, ensuring quality of work by identifying and correcting mistakes, analyzing inflow and outflow trends, propose improvements to the work, ensuring customers and clients satisfaction, cascading management information to subordinates, performance evaluation and management of subordinates, and other administrative activities related to the subordinates. While performing different activities in different roles, the same individual tends to exhibit different behaviours. Changes in behaviour based on role can also be seen in terms of the position occupied. As stated by Robbins (2001; p.227), ‘people have the ability to shift roles rapidly when they recognize that the situation and its demands clearly require major changes.’ This change in roles can be noticed by way of behaviour and attitude because individuals believe that specific roles are identified with distinct attitude and behaviour. Robbins (2001) explains that these behaviours are shaped by the individual’s personal characteristics such as religiousness, attitude, hobbies and interests etc. Every role requires decisions to be taken at all times, and personal characteristics influence the kind of decisions made by the individual. Sometimes these personal characteristics conform to the roles and responsibilities, but sometimes they may also lead to conflicting situations. Leaders experience such conflicting situations during decision making that involve ethical and moral obligations. In an organisational context, individuals in the managerial positions are forced to adjust their decision making according to the organisational codes and standards, even if the decision may create conflicts elsewhere. Expectations from others by virtue of the individual’s role also shape individual’s behaviour. Others expect certain behaviours and qualities from an individual based on the role he/she is in. For example, a senior government representative is expected to behave in a dignified manner, whereas the coach of a sports team is expected to be aggressive, dynamic and inspiring. These stereotypes tend to generalize certain roles with specific behaviours, and can lead to significant level of unacceptability in behaviour when the roles change. For this reason, arrival of new bosses, peer promotions to next level, change in responsibilities within a group experience significant resistance at the beginning. Individuals’ expectations from others based on the role create a bond between each other, referred to as psychological contract; breakage or disturbance of this bond impacts individuals’ behaviour (Robbins, 2001; Nelson & Quick, 2007). Behaviour at the work place is also influenced by different expectations set by multiple roles. Too many expectations create stress on the individual’s mind and could lead to a devastating change in the behaviour. Multiple roles could contain conflicting expectations, which again creates stress. For example, managers expect their subordinates to deliver high productivity, i.e. accomplish more amount of work in lesser time. At the same time, they also expect the subordinates to maintain high quality by ensuring no error or mistake is made. For the subordinates, such conflicting expectations create mental tension, and may lead to demotivation, low performance, malpractices etc. This resistance can force the manager to become authoritative, strict and rigid, or even threaten the subordinates. These role identities can be further extended to Schein’s (2004) ideation of relationship between culture and leadership that can be seen at every level of leadership, based on the activities their roles demand by virtue of their position in a corporate organisation. Schein (2004) considers leadership and organisational culture to be two sides of the same coin. In an organisation, culture is shaped by individuals’ interactions, leadership behaviour, and organisational policies framed by the top executives of the organisation in favour of the organisation and its objectives. Leadership plays a significant role in driving this culture down to the greater number of masses. Therefore, culture majorly constitutes the values and beliefs of people in key positions, and it further shapes the behaviours of employees as well as other leaders. On the other hand, external and internal influences on the organisation tend to change the situation forcing leaders to change the processes, policies, methodologies and business priorities in order to make them more adaptive to the new situation or just to sustain existing business. This process changes the culture. Thus, leadership and culture go hand in hand and leaders have a major role in making this happen. Every organisation has a set of rules and policies as a part of its culture, which all employees are expected to abide by in order to ensure smooth flow of business and maintenance of healthy relationships with all stakeholders. These set of rules and policies are referred to as organisational norms. Other than this, organisational departments, functions, teams, and groups have certain standards to be followed that define expected behaviours that can be acceptable to the specific group or section of the organisation. For example, individuals of a specific team are expected to exhibit team bonding, assist each other at times of need, and readily assume roles that help in fulfilling the responsibilities assigned to them. Likewise, other group norms include maintenance of confidentiality with respect to information and data, accurate reporting of performance, timely updation of changes in work etc. These norms are usually set by the team or group based on the level at which the individuals function, and are expressed as behaviour by the individuals. For example, all team members strive to meet expected performance standards. For this, some people may work very hard, some may assist others in achieving the targets or minimizing errors, some may help others understand the work better etc. Through such behaviours individuals try to adapt to the roles in order to achieve the goals set for them (Wentland, 2009). Other types of norms include appearance norms which define the type of dress, acceptable etiquettes, express loyalty etc. For example, individuals at the executive leadership level are always formally dressed, look presentable and dignified, and inspire the employees through actions and words. Formal and informal groups frame informal norms that are expressed through the informal interactions such as getting together for a party or formation of informal groups such as a football team. Such informal groups get created by individuals with similar personal interests and hobbies of the individuals, and are usually not associated formally with the organisation (Robbins, 2001). Elton Mayo’s experiments set a firm ground for psychologists to understand social behaviour of employees, with respect to relationships, group norms, issues of control and personal recognition (O’Connor & Netting, 2009). Members may assume different roles based on personal traits and group needs. For example, Bales’ research on group members’ interactions describes different task roles that individuals assume and behave accordingly (cited in Borkowski, 2008). Benne and Sheats (1948) categorized group members into three functional groups based on the task assumed: task roles for job completion, maintenance roles for building social relations and individual roles that may downplay group’s performance. Some of the task roles include initiator-contributor, information-seeker, opinion-seeker, coordinator, evaluator, orienter, energizer, procedural-technician, recorder etc; maintenance roles include encourager, harmonizer, compromiser, standard-setter, group observer, follower; individualistic roles include aggressor, blocker, recognition-seeker, self-confessor, dominator, help seeker (adopted from Borkowski, 2008). These roles are assumed by the individuals within a group because of their personal traits and not because of the position or responsibility assigned; individuals with these personality traits tend to constantly assess the group and proactively assume the roles in order to derive personal satisfaction; hence, leaders can identify behaviours that can enhance the group’s performance and assign tasks accordingly, and need to identify the counterproductive issues in order to minimize and avoid situations that can downplay group’s performance. Leadership style is another perspective that determines organisational behaviour significantly. Psychologically, people tend to follow their leaders and emulate the leaders’ behaviour and personality traits. However, people in key leadership roles, for example managers, have specific functions or roles to be carried out such as, information roles requiring gathering and cascading of key information, decisional roles requiring important decision to be taken in different situations and for different reasons, people management role requiring them to understand, motivate and work with other people in groups and as individuals, and conceptual skills for analyzing and improving complicated situations. Leaders assuming these roles exhibit different behaviour based on their leadership styles. For example, autocratic leaders make quick decisions and order others to implement their decisions without further questioning; democratic leaders spend ample time in taking decisions and involve all team members in decision making process, whereas lasissez-faire type of leaders empower their people completely for decision making (Nelson & Quick, 2007). In addition to leadership style, motivation levels of individuals also impact their behaviour and adaptability to the roles assigned. Psychological and social-emotional factors attached to work, such as personality, values, attitudes, perception, learning, motivation, stress and sociocultural background significantly impact behaviour of workforce (Mills, 2006). In conclusion, organisational behaviour has many perspectives, with each one leading to specific and significant outcome that may be positive or negative. The entire concept of organisational behaviour is shaped by human behaviour within the organisation, organisational systems and structure, culture and leadership. In addition to these organisational concepts, it is also influenced by psychological and sociocultural aspects that every individual possesses in the organisation. Individuals within the organisation tend to exhibit specific behaviours based upon the roles assigned to them; behaviour changes as the role changes in order to adapt to the new situation and meet the new expectations. Although organisational systems and structure make this behaviour of individuals predictive, the fact that human behaviour is highly complex cannot be ignored. The reasons for its complexity may be attributed to factors such as psychological and sociocultural influences, personality traits and motivational needs. References Borkowski, N. (2008). Organisational Behaviour, Theory, and Design in Health Care. Jones & Bartlett Publishers: Canada. Mills, A (2006). Understanding Organisational Behaviour in Context. In Mills et al’s Organisational Behaviour in a Global Context. University of Toronto Press: Canada Nelson, D.L and Quick, J.C. (2007). Understanding Organisational Behaviour. 3rd ed. Cengage Learning EMEA: U.S.A. O’Connor, K, Netting, F.E. (2009). Organisation Practice: A Guide to Understanding Human Service Organisations. 2nd Ed. John Wiley and Sons: U.S.A Robbins, S.P. (2001). Organisational behaviour. 9th ed. Pearson Education Asia Limited: China Schein, E. (2004). Organisational culture and leadership. 3rd ed. John Wiley and Sons: U.S.A Wentland, D.M. (2009). Organisational Performance in a Nutshell. IAP: U.S.A. Read More