Organization Behavior - Different Approaches to Management and Leadership - Essay Example

Organization Behavior - Different Approaches to Management and Leadership PART I Learning Outcomes (LO) Questions 1. Explore organisational structure and culture. People start new businesses and define its structure and culture necessary for increasing the effectiveness of the organization. Organizational structure It refers to the “formal system of task and authority relationships that control use of resources and coordination among people in order to achieve organizational goals” (Jones 2007). Purpose of organizational structure One of the most important purposes of defining the organizational structure is control (Jones 2007). Controlling, in terms of defining structure, refers to governing the use of resources and to direct the behavior of individuals in a way that they get motivated and coordinated with each other, in an effort of achieving organizational goals. Establishment of conducive and appropriate structure results in solving many coordination and motivational problems that may arise because of any technological, human, environmental or any other reason. As the organization grows and defines its line of command, likewise the structure gets differentiated. However, the structure of any organization can be adjusted by organizational design and change. Organizational culture Organizational culture is defined as a set of shared values and norms by an organization that controls interaction between employees, customers, suppliers and with all other entities whose interest is at stake (Jones 2007). An organization’s culture is shaped by its structure, ethics, by employment rights and by the environment surrounding the individuals. However, any two organizations operating in a similar industry might have very different cultures. Example is Coca-Cola and PepsiCo. Coca cola feels proud of its employees’ commitment to the organization and the role of top management in cautious and objective planning, provides them such an environment that most of the people spend their life time career duration in coca cola. On the other hand, in PepsiCo there occurs disputes; sometimes over the decision making process and as a result, conflicts arise between top management and employees. However, organizational culture evolves just as the structure differentiates with the passage of time and can be adjusted by organizations’ change and design. 2. Examine different approaches to management and leadership and theories of organisation. Different approaches to management and leadership: There are many approaches towards management and leadership. Few of the management approaches that are commonly adopted by organizations are as under: Managerial roles approach: In many organizations, managerial roles are categorized into three types of roles: informational, decisional and interpersonal role (Koontz and Weihrich 2006). Many of today’s multinational organizations and few other huge corporations are using this approach towards management. They became managers; aware of their roles and responsibility, and then they were responsible for achieving the organizational goals. Decision theory approach: This management approach focuses more on decision making process, both at individual level and collective level (Koontz and Weihrich 2006). This management approach is adopted in organizations where the managers and employees have to take decisions regarding their work activities. However, it is criticized by most of the theorists that this approach to management is not effective because managing organization is more than taking decisions. Group behaviour approach: This approach emphasizes on behaviour of people in groups. This approach is adopted by organizations that rely heavily on groups and prefer team work. However, this approach is not that much integrated with management. To be effective, it requires integration with organizations’ structure, culture and design. Interpersonal behaviour approach: Most of the organizations adopt interpersonal management approach. It focuses on human behaviour, relations and interaction with other people working inside the organizations (Koontz and Weihrich 2006). This approach ignores the core functions of management such as planning, controlling and organizing. However, today most of the organizations are making efforts to develop human behaviour in a way that it is directed towards the organization. Approaches to leadership: There are different approaches to leadership that are commonly practiced by organizations and they are as follows: Transformational Charismatic Authentic Servant Dynamical Adaptive Strategic (Wolinski 2010). Theories of organization: Organization theory explains what happened in the past and what may happen in future; it helps managers in designing such strategies that lead to the achievement of organizational goals. Organization theory concepts apply to all types of organizations operating in an industry. Organization theory deals with many aspects such as designing of marketing strategies and reorganizing the organization for increasing its efficiency (Daft 2009), while many others apply organization theory to increase its adaptability and flexibility. All successful companies, such as Nokia, apply concepts based on organization theory and manage their organization in a way to achieve competitive edge. However, in today’s era, organizations need to be quite flexible so that they can change their structure according to the changes taking place in the external environment. Organizations nowadays are facing quite many challenges and for facing those challenges they need to be quite flexible and this flexibility and adaptability comes from implementing organization theory. These current challenges are: Globalization Intense competition Ethics and social responsibility Digital workplace Diversity (Daft 2009) Keeping in view all these aspects, organizations need to implement organization theories in their true sense if they want to have competitive edge over the competitors. 3. Examine the relationship between motivational theories. Relationship between motivational theories: Motivation is important because it explains that why the employees behave the way they do (Lussier and Achua 2009). There are different motivational theories practiced by organizations for motivating employees. Content motivational theories explain the needs of the employees that should be met on workplace; process motivational theories explain the behaviours of the employees that they choose in order to fulfil their needs and reinforcement theory explains the ways and methods that managers should adopt to mould and direct the behaviours of the employees towards the best interest of the organization. Motivational theories deal with the needs that become motives, leading to a particular behaviour and then to a consequence, which ends up either in employee satisfaction or dissatisfaction. However the following process illustrates the relationship between motivation theories: 4. Demonstrate an understanding of working with others - teamwork, group and group dynamics. Teamwork: Teamwork is the psychological, behavioural and mental work that members of the team carry out collectively by collaborating with each other and carry out their tasks required to achieve their desired goal (Forsyth 2009). Large organizations prefer teams. Each member in a team has his own skills, knowledge and abilities related to a particular task. In groups there is interdependence and roles are inherited, but in teams, each individual’s works keeping in view his/ her own expertise implies that roles in teams are not inherited. Group: Most of the theorists have defined groups from different perspectives depending on the dimension you want to describe a group. One approach of defining a group is to describe it from a social perspective. It is suggested that groups exist for a reason and a purpose e and there is a common goal which is shared by all group members (Levi 2010). People working in groups develop relationships with their group members and they interact with each other. Formal and informal rules and norms develop in groups and they control interaction between them. Group dynamics: Group dynamics basically deals with group formation that consists of several steps. In organizations groups are formed in order to make each and every individual to work in the best interest of the organization. However, the most important aspect in group dynamics is active participation of each and every member; next most important thing which is critical to the success of groups is communication between team members. After the formation of groups, all group members work towards solving a common problem assigned to them. However, leadership is an important phenomenon that governs groups in organizations. One of the members is selected as a group leader and he directs each and every individual of a group. In addition to this, facilitating group members is also an important phenomena and it should be taken into account by organizations. Part II Questions about Dell Computers 5. Compare and contrast different organisational structures and culture. Dell’s organizational culture: Dell Company: Famous computer manufacturers who believe in developing direct relationship with their partners, which help them to target consumers belonging from different ethnic backgrounds. It believes in managing diverse workforce and provides a culture to their employee which nourishes their talent. It is regarded as an equal opportunity employer. Their focus is on promoting internal efforts in areas of policy making, training, recruitment, mentoring, development, advancement and culture change. Organizational structure: Dell’s organizational and management structure is regarded as two box management structure where two executives are held responsible for one department and they are accountable for the working of that particular department. Two managers at each and every department are responsible for controlling their employees and maintaining communication between the local and head office. 6. Analyse the relationship between an organisation’s structure and culture and the effects on business performance. Relationship between organizational culture and structure: There exists a relationship between organizational culture and structure. Organizational culture refers to the umbrella under which there are small issues confronted by businesses (web 1 2007). However, structure refers to the infrastructure within that umbrella which helps organizational culture to remain efficient and consistent. It is the hallmark of any successful organization In perspective of Dell organization they promote direct culture having being associated with flexible infrastructure that helps organization to achieve its desired goal efficiently. They bring about changes in their organizational structure and culture by organizational design and change, and transform them according to the needs of external environment. Affect on business performance: Organizational structure and culture affects employee motivation, satisfaction, behaviour, dedication, performance and builds relationship among employees (Thornton 2010). Keeping in view all these affects of Dell Computers, it takes us to the point that organizational culture and structure has deep affect on job performance. As the structure and culture of Dell is quite flexible so the employees can easily mould themselves according to the changes in external environment. This enables them to do their work activities in their own way but with full commitment. So this ultimately increases their performance and leads to the success completion of tasks. 7. Analyse the factors which influence individual behaviour at work. Factors that influence individual behaviour: According to one of the researches, there are many factors that affect the individuals’ behaviour at workplace. These factors are tenure, hours worked per week, supervisory responsibilities, perceptions of workgroup and personal lifestyle (Lambert et al 2008). This can be illustrated by an example of a sales manager working at Dell. Available resources, work time flexibility, organizational strategy, culture and structure, responsibilities determine the behaviour of small groups working inside the organization like sales department in Dell (Gitman and McDaniel 2008). Other factors that influence the behaviour of employees of sales department working at Dell include their personal characteristics such as skills, abilities and personality traits. 8. Analyse how organisational theory underpins principles and practices of organising and of management. Organization theory explains what happened in the past and what may happen in future, so that managers can design such strategies that lead to the achievement of organizational goals. Organization theory concepts apply to all types of organizations operating in an industry. Organization theory deals with many aspects such as designing of marketing strategies, reorganizing the organization for increasing its efficiency (Daft 2009). Thus, Dell company implements organization theory to forecasts the future needs and then organize their work activities in a way that leads to the successful completion of tasks. On similar lines, management also decides or changes their method of managing the organization and develop the strategies that are in the best interest of organization. This takes us to the point that organization theory supports the management principles and that of organizing too. 9. Discuss different leadership styles and the effectiveness of these leadership approaches. Leadership styles in Dell: Michael Dell: the CEO of Dell Computers has a transformational style of leadership. Transformational leaders are those that develop the vision, sell the vision, find the ways to success and take the charge. Adopting this style proved effective and helpful for the organization. Leadership is about coping with change. Manufacturing PCs is the business that operates in technological industry. New technology is being introduced almost every day and his transformational style of leadership helped him to achieve his desired goals efficiently. 10. Explain the different motivational theories and their application within the workplace. Different motivational theories: Goal setting theory: One most important theory related to motivation is goal setting theory proposed by Edwin Locke in 1960. Findings made by Edwin say that intention to work towards a common goal are a major source of work motivation (Robbins and Judge 2001), however, in order to understand the motivation in the work place there are several dimensions of goal setting theory that explains the motivation. Supervisors in contemporary times motivate employees by setting SMART goals and then reinforce them by administering intrinsic and extrinsic rewards (Warillow 2009). Intention of an employee for striving towards assigned goals matters a lot when it comes towards achieving a set goal. In order to develop the intention of employees, organizations now days set such organizational goals and objectives that are aligned with the individual’s interest and area of study. McClelland’s theory of needs: This theory focuses on three kinds of needs i.e. need for achievement that refers to the drive to achieve a set of standards and to succeed; need for power that is related to making the people in a group to behave in a way they have not behaved otherwise, and the last need that McClelland has focused on is need for affiliation which refers to the desire of an individual to get along with others in the organization (Robbins and Judge 2001). Reinforcement theory: This theory argues that behavior of an individual is affected by the environment around him. As a result of this, their behaviors are environmentally controlled. This theory maintains that individuals choose from several responses to a given stimuli and they are most likely to behave in a way that was associated with some positive outcome in past. Reinforcing individuals makes them align their responses with positive behaviors thus leading towards innovation and uniqueness. Theorists, however, maintain that reinforcement theory in its purest form ignores feelings, attitudes, expectations and other cognitive variables that impact behavior. Applications at Dell: In Dell, these motivational theories are practiced to increase job performance by motivating them through proper goal setting and reinforcing them by administering proper rewards. They are given responsibilities according to their aptitude so that employees differing on their needs can fulfill them and feel motivated. 11. Assess the relationship between motivation theory and the practice of management. In olden times organizations had traditional approaches towards managing the employees. Nowadays, it has become coherent with the needs and demands of the employee. In most of the organizations, management now develops such strategies that are in line with the requirements of employees in order to develop a sense of worth and to enable them to direct their behaviour towards achieving organizational goals. Talking about Dell’s reward system, they reward their employees according to the level of work done by them. This shows that there is coherence in management practices and reinforcement theory in Dell computers. 12. Describe the nature of groups and group behaviour within organisations. Nature of groups and group behaviour in Dell: In Dell groups are formed on the basis of common interest in areas such as race, gender, ethnicity lifestyle and sexual orientation (Dell 2007). These groups also interact with other employees belonging from different backgrounds and provide them a sense of belonging. In terms of behaviour, these groups help foster a work environment where they can communicate with all the employees irrespective of their age, race, sex and colour and where they develop an understanding and realize the importance of work force diversity. 13. Investigate the factors that lead to effective teamwork and the influences that threaten success. Factors leading to effective team work: There are several factors of effective teams. These are as under: Effective teams have good leadership. This implies that they choose competent leaders who guide their members in a way that lead to successful completion of tasks. They have clear communication between them. In effective teams, each and every member has clear cut idea about what is expected of him in terms of his roles and responsibilities. Effective teams manage themselves in a way that if any conflict arises they can solve that in a better way by following a proper procedure defined by organizations. There is one of the most prominent factors that lead towards increasing the effectiveness of teams. Dell relies heavily on workforce teams. However, their approach towards developing effective teams is Hofstede’s approach of collectivism and not individualism. They believe that each and every individual has a unique set of abilities and skills and when they collectively contribute, then that increase their effectiveness. Factors that threaten success: There are many factors that influence the success of teams. These factors are as under: Ineffective team member that are either not committed to the organization or they fail to understand what is required of them in terms of their job performance (Belcher 2008). When a team comprises of such members that do not work well or are not committed then that causes problems and under such conditions teams are not able to meet their work deadlines. Deteriorating relationships among team members is also one of the important factors that threaten the success of teams. 14. Evaluate the impact of technology on team functioning within a given organisation. As already mentioned that Dell believes in collectivism rather than individualism, so they think that each and every individual has a set of skills, knowledge and abilities and he/she contributes at his/her best. As Dell operates in technology industry, so keeping themselves updated is very much important for them. Providing their teams and groups with updated technology helps them to carry out their work activities specifically technical tasks in a much better way. Thus, technology has a positive impact on employee productivity if it is used in the best interest of the organization. 15. Compare the different approaches to management and theories of organisation used by two organisations. Approaches to management: Dell computers use decisional approach towards management because their work depends largely upon making decisions regarding the employment of a particular technology. That is why they emphasize decisional approach towards managing the organization. In addition to this, they also go for interpersonal approach where they emphasize on developing the personality of individuals belonging from different cultures so that they can cater them according to their needs and demands. Organization theories: Organization theories are related with the fact that how organizations impact work and how they are impacted by environment. Dell computers have a well organized structure and culture and they adopt participative style in which all the employees have their say in decision making process. 16. Identify and apply appropriate strategies to find solutions. Strategies employed by dell for finding solutions: Strategies employed by dell for finding solutions are as under They look and analyze the problem. They analyze the problems from all dimensions. They employ such strategies that help them to narrow down the problems and bring them into simple terms. They then solve the problems keeping in view the interest of the organization. 17. Select/design and apply appropriate methods and techniques. Methods of organizational behavior for Dell: Two methods of organizational behavior that best fits in the Dell are as under: Supportive method: This method is meant to provide support to each and every individual working at any level. Lower level employees are given support by their mangers; middle level managers are supported by their supervisors and so on (Scribd 2005). There are many benefits associated with this method. It bridges the communication gap among employees and enables subordinates to build long-term and good relationships with their supervisors and vice versa. Collegial method: This method gives managerial orientation to the team work. Using this method, the employees are motivated and direct their behaviors towards organizational goals and objectives. This method is useful because it brings self-actualization in employees and they work devotedly towards their desired goal. 18. Present and communicate appropriate findings. In my point of view all the findings that are presented, regarding Dell are justified because of the fact that all the strategies employed by them are in coherence with their organizational structure and implementation of such strategies nourishes the talent of existing employees as well as of new talent that comes into the organization. 19. Use critical reflection to evaluate your work and give valid conclusion. Dell: A famous computer manufacturer, having a well-organized, structured and cultured organization. From the analysis that I have done so far makes this point very clear that Dell is a flexible organization having participative culture and infrastructure that supports this culture. They considered employees as their important asset and make every effort to keep them inline with their strategic goals. They prefer to work through teams because they believe in collectivism. In addition to this, they develop sense of worth in employees by making them to take part in decision making processes which develops in them the spirit of commitment towards the organization. 20. Take responsibility of managing and organizing work. Dell uses two-box management system for managing and organizing their work activities. Under such system, two people work together towards the achievement of their departmental goals and when both put their combined efforts according to their own expertise, skills and knowledge, then that leads to uniqueness and successful completion of tasks. 21. Demonstrate convergent/lateral/creative thinking. In my perspective, Dell’s participative structure is justified because it has so many employees belonging to different backgrounds. Everyone has his/her own needs and requirements. Adopting participative style enables each and every employee to have their say and they can mould or change the things according to their own needs and demands and then they can use their expertise in a way that earns them huge profits. Similarly different motivational theories adopted by them, such as reinforcement theory, are also justified because rewarding employees is very important in order to keep them on the track. Similarly assigning responsibilities by defining their needs is mandatory and for that they implement McClelland’s theory of needs. On similar lines, assigning and defining departmental goals makes two box management approach justified. Moreover use of groups and work teams by Dell shows that they promote collectivism. Likewise, their nature of work is such that it cannot be done effectively by single person and for that development of work teams is mandatory. References Belcher, L., 2008. The negative impact of teamwork on companies [online]. Available at: [Accessed 10 December 2010]. Daft, R., 2009. Organizational theory and design. 10th Ed. Cengage Learning: USA. Dell.com, 2007. Culture and best practices [online]. Available at: [Accessed 10 December 2010]. Forsyth, D., 2009. Group Dynamics. 5th Ed. Cengage Learning: USA. Gitman, L. and McDaniel, C., 2008. The Future of Business: The Essentials. 4th Ed. Cengage Learning: USA. Jones, M., 2007. Organizational Theory, Design and Change. 5th Ed. Pearson Education: India. Koontz, H. and Weihrich, H., 2006. Essentials Of Management. 7th Ed. McGraw Hill: New Dehli. Lambert, A., Marler, J. and Gueutal. H., 2008. Individual differences: Factors affecting employee utilization of flexible work arrangements. Journal of Vocational Behavior 73(1), pp. 107-117. Levi, D., 2010. Group Dynamics for Teams. 3rd Ed. Sage: California. Lussier, R. and Achua, C., 2009. Leadership: theory, management and skill development. 4th Ed. Cengage Learning: USA. Robbins, S. and Timothy, J., 2001. Organizational Behavior. Prentice Hall; P.197. Scribd.com, 2005. Models of organizational behavior [online]. Available at: [Accessed 10 December 2010]. Warillow, S., 2009. Motivation in the workplace - people are motivated when they are inspired [Online]. Available at [Accessed 11 December 2010] Web 1, 2007. Organizational structure and culture [online]. Available at: [Accessed 10 December 2010]. Wolinski, S., 2010. Approaches to leadership [online]. Available at: [Accessed 10 December 2010]. Read More