Anchors of the Organization Behavior - Essay Example

Organization Behavior Anchors of the Organization Behavior Study with examples from career Organizational Behavior (OB) is a key aspect of organizational functioning as it corners in the employees’ behavior in the work environment, particularly how they behave and interact with each other, while working together to accomplish the given tasks. There are 5 anchors that have to be focused while studying the organizational behavior namely: open systems anchor, multidisciplinary anchor, systematic research anchor, multilevel of analysis anchor, and contingency anchor. Open systems anchor specifies that the organization need to study the external environment, particularly the social and other conditions prevailing outside the organization, to form an optimal OB. Nurses for example can receive external inputs, relevant to their processes, which they can transform to apt applications during their duty. “Organizations and their environments are interconnected in an ongoing cycle, taking and receiving from each other” (Vercillo). Multidisciplinary Anchor stipulates that OB concepts can be adopted from other industries or disciplines, apart from their own circle. While developing their OB models, nursing departments can scan other related disciplines like old-age care homes, schools for challenged children, etc for different at the same relevant ideas, which can be aptly implemented. As far as the systematic research anchor, the researchers formulating OB concepts will rely on scientific, quantitative data as well as statistics procedures to test their hypotheses. “Organizations should do detailed and systematic research, collecting data and information and relying on the scientific method.” (Vercillo). Data can be gathered through methods including personal interview with the patients, by giving questionnaires to the patients, etc. Meaning of role perception and how it determines the required behavior Although computerization is being incorporated into every segments of organization, the crucial decision-making remains with the employees or humans’ ‘filled’ management groups. These employees should cooperate and coordinate in coming up with good decisions. For that, each employee’ role should be clearly defined about their roles and responsibilities and this process only means Role Perception. “It is in the organizations interest to provide a clearly-defined role to every employee as a step towards combating the ever-increasing competition in the global milieu”. So, if the role of each employee is defined as part of Role Perception, they will exhibit optimum mental and physical output, taking full responsibility and coming up with good contributions for the eventual decision. However, if they are not given distinctly defined roles, and thus an amorphous perception of their roles exists, the employees will not have clear path on what to do, and so their motivation and self-esteem could deteriorate. “A misty perception of the role may also lead to underperformance by and underutilization of the potential of the individual.” (Kiff). So, to actualize on optimal behavior among the employees including nurses, the management needs to define job specifications clearly, even communicating to them during the recruitment itself. The job specifications may include defining job expectations and working hours. This will also reduce the training costs in case the employee underperforms, because of not knowing what to accomplish. So, Role Perception of the employees acts as one of the most critical components in the workplaces today, and lays a key role in an individuals performance. Situation where we are likely to apply our value In the work environment, there will be many situations where optimal values, especially the ones related to role perception, can be applied. As role perception focuses on role definition and responsibilities of each employee, accomplishing the given responsibilities even going out of set path, can add value. One of the key responsibilities of the nurse, during which the values can be applied, is during the treatment of patients from various cultures, through the concept of Transcultural nursing. The main focus of Transcultural nursing is to point out the differences and similarities on the basis of cultural perspectives, and thereby give apt human health care on the basis of cultural values, implementing culturally harmonious nursing care to people or patients. Trans-cultural nursing is referred to the all-inclusive cultures and comparative cultural health caring and nursing phenomena. When the nurses are trained in this field, they can focus on the patient’s personal and cultural aspects, and thereby take care of them accordingly. The other responsibility or situations, during which the nurse can apply the apt values is when formulating the patient history. That is, a nurse who possesses good communication skills with good values can make the process of taking the patient history more constructive. When the patient is comforted by the approach of the nurse, he/she will not be hesitant to disclose the information needed by the nurse. The patient will tell about his/her medical problems, social life, sexual life, profession and addictive habits such as alcohol, drug dependence and smoking, without any inhibition. Nurses can also make the family help in formulating history, as some disorders are considered familial, which might help to guide the management of the patient.” (Lloyd 2007). Advantages in utilizing the perception in the organization Role Perception, as discussed above, can elevate the performance of the employees including the nurses, as it gives them the clear path, they need to travel to accomplish the given tasks. The advantage with this role definition and clear path is that nurses can move quickly from one task to another by prioritizing, organizing and assessing the processes in place to achieve their performance goals as well as the fulfillment of the organizational tasks. This advantage will lead to excellent time management skills among the employees. That is, one of the major administrative issues, nurses could face is maintaining safe staffing levels and acceptable patient to staff ratios. This issue needs to be handled more prominently in line with their role definitions, when there is unexpected staff absence. Absence of staffs could collapse the role definitions, and the available staffs have to take on additional responsibilities. However, if those staffs have clearly defined responsibilities, as mentioned above, they can finish it off quickly, and take on other responsibilities with apt time management skills. The other advantage with role perception is that, the leader or the nursing department head can counsel any staffs, who have not fulfilled their responsibilities. That is, putting forward the uncompleted tasks, they can counsel the offending staff member and make them understand how their absence affected the overall performance of the department as a whole; and also the negative effect it has on the morale of conscientious members of staff. Thus, the absent staff member must be made aware of his/her role perception and how not fulfilling that perception could negatively impact their employment future and importantly organizational processes. Differentiate between the internal and external attribution Attribution is a social psychological concept which focuses on how individuals or employees explain the causes of specific events or actions; they place their behavior as the cause or place others’ behavior as the cause or reason for the behavior. This the crucial difference between internal and external attribution. Employees’ behavior and actions are influenced by various factors. Firstly, the thoughts, attitudes and beliefs of the employees themselves could shape his/her behavior. The major factor that makes a person to do a particular activity or behave in particular manner is thoughts in his/her mind, which could be influenced by the individual himself/herself. Thus, when an internal attribution is made, the reason for the specific behavior is mainly assigned to that employees’ or nurses’ personality, attitudes, etc. On the other hand, particular behaviors of employees could be attributed to external factors starting from fellow employees to the working environment. That is, when an external attribution is made, the reason for that particular behavior will be placed on the external situation, with the external environment, social situations and importantly other individuals or employees blamed. When these two types of attribution behaviors are focused, it is clear that external attribution should not be encouraged in organizational settings. Because employees including nurses could take the credit for success but blame others when things go wrong which is not conductive to learning. (Walsh). So, employees should avoid external attribution, and should much aware of how important they were to the success as well as the failures. They should understand that what would happen to them would be a consequence of the way they behaved in running the business. Understanding the Johari window Johari window, a cognitive psychological tool, was developed by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham in 1969. It was a tool developed, mainly for the individuals or employees who work as part of a team or in-groups. Through this tool, employees or individuals can understand each other’s characteristics, attitudes, interests, personalities, etc, thereby helping them understand and actualize interpersonal communications as well as build team relationships. Interpersonal communication is the exchange of information on a two-way basis. Although, this communication could be oral, written, and nonverbal; however, interpersonal communication mostly links with verbal communication. To make that verbal communication effective and reachable to the ‘listener’, the characteristics and other attributes of the listener need to be understood. The practices of Johari Window starts off with the particular subject given a list of 56 adjectives, and instructed to pick just five or six of those adjectives, which they feel clearly describes their personality. At the same time, fellow individuals or co-workers will be also given the same list, with the instructions to pick their own five or six adjectives that aptly describe that particular subject. These results will be mapped onto a grid, and will be made available for both the stakeholders to preview. Based on the preview, self-analysis and discussions 1. Individuals can build trust between themselves by disclosing information about themselves; and 2. They can learn about themselves and come to terms with personal issues with the help of feedback from others. (). References mindtools.com, The Johari Window, viewed on November 11, 2010 http://www.mindtools.com/CommSkll/JohariWindow.htm Kiff, J, Role perception, viewed on November 11, 2010 http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Role_perception Lloyd, CS 2007, A Guide to taking a patient’s history, Nursing Standard, vol. 22, no.13, pp. 42- 48. Vercillo, K, Nine Basic Features of Organizational Culture Your Business Needs to Analyze, viewed on November 11, 2010 http://hubpages.com/hub/9-Features-of-Organizational-Culture-Your-Business-Needs-to-Analyze Walsh, M 2000, Nursing frontiers: accountability and the boundaries of care, Elsevier Health Science. Read More