Human Resource and Organizational Behavior - Assignment Example

Human Resource & Organizational Behavior Human Resource & Organizational Behavior Assignment 1 Ans. 1 Organizational behavior is referred to as the study that analyzes why and how people behave in a particular organization (GRIFFIN, 2010, p.1). Ans. 2 The three different approaches to management are the scientific approach, the administrative approach, and the bureaucratic organization approach. The scientific approach has provided managers with the logical way of solving a problem. The steps involved in solving a problem scientifically includes: problem definition, data collection, data analysis, identification of various solutions and selecting the best solution (GRIFFIN, 2010, p.92). The administrative approach has provided managers with the roles that managers have to play in an organization to operate successfully, these roles include: planning, organizing, hiring, directing and controlling (GRIFFIN, 2010, p.447). The bureaucratic organization approach suggested the importance of employee empowerment for managers (GRIFFIN, 2010, p.455). Ans. 3 Personality is referred as the actions exhibited by individuals and the way an individual thinks about the world due to his/her experiences (GRIFFIN, 2010, p.67). Perception is the procedure through which an individual analyzes the stimuli available in the world around them (GRIFFIN, 2010, p.76). Ans. 4 According to the behaviorist approach, personality is the total outcome of the connections that an individual has with his/her environment (GRIFFIN, 2010, p.69). Behaviorist gives importance to the behaviors that are easily observable and rejects the importance of inner drives. According to trait approach, an individual acts in a particular way because of the characteristics that have been invested within him since birth (GRIFFIN, 2010, p.70). Ans.5 The two common distortions of the process of perception formation are stereotyping and halo effect. The procedure of identifying certain acts or behaviors with all the members of a particular group is recognized as stereotyping (GRIFFIN, 2010, p.76). Believing that if an individual has certain qualities; he/she may even have other qualities regarded as halo effect (GRIFFIN, 2010, p.76). Assignment 2 Ans. 1 a) The two ways of learning proposed by the behaviorist are operant and classical conditioning. Classical conditioning example: An individual had food at a restaurant and experienced food poisoning, next time when ever the individual crossed that restaurant he experienced nausea (GRIFFIN, 2010, p.108). Operant conditioning example: employee rewarded with increased pay due to his excellent performance throughout the year. The employee works harder while expecting that the he will be rewarded again if he continuous to perform well each year (GRIFFIN, 2010, p.107). b) One way of learning something is by observing and learning, in this method, an individual first observes the act being carried out and then he/she conducts that same task in the same manner (GRIFFIN, 2010, p.184). Managers can use this learning perspective in changing attitudes, or example: an employee has a negative attitude towards the use of a new technology. Managers can provide training to this employee and the employee can observe how the technology operates and then use the same technology in his job. Ans. 2 According to the scientific view of management, employees or individuals are motivated through the means of financial factors. This means that employees will work hard if they are financially awarded for their hard work (GRIFFIN, 2010, p.92). Ans. 3 According to McClelland’s need theory, all individuals have three needs and the degree of these needs vary among individuals, these needs include: need for accomplishments, need to be around friends and family members and need for authority (GRIFFIN, 2010, p.563). Vroom’s expectancy theory states that an individual’s selects to exhibit only those behaviors that will result in particular expected results or outcomes (GRIFFIN, 2010, p.104). Ans. 4 Report a) High morale refers to high level of energy and enthusiasm that individuals exhibits while conducting tasks and jobs and while communicating with others and low morale is the low level of energy and enthusiasm that individuals exhibit while conducting jobs and socializing (GRIFFIN, 2010, p.274). Alienation from work takes place when the worker has no control over how the task needs to be conducted, what tools the worker will be using to conduct the task and alienation even takes place when one employee starts competing with another employee in the same organization (GRIFFIN, 2010, p.441). b) When workers experience low morale and alienation, they lose interest in their jobs, they avoid their jobs and their absenteeism rate increases, they even leave their current positions and start looking for other options, and they feel alone (GRIFFIN, 2010, p.274). c) In order to improve the level of morale among the employees working in the garment manufacturing organization, managers can increase the variety of skills needed to perform the job, they can provide authority to employees to use their own creative side in completing tasks, they can assign different task to different employees and can provide continuous feedback on how a particular employee is doing his or her job (GRIFFIN, 2010, p.130). d) Employers can rotate employees in different jobs so employees do not get bored of doing the same job again and again and this will even increase the skills of the employees (GRIFFIN, 2010, p.128). Employers can even provide employees with higher responsibility along with power to complete tasks according to how employees want to complete those tasks (GRIFFIN, 2010, p.130). Assignment 3 Ans. 1 While developing an effective team, the team development process goes through stages recognized a forming, storming, norming and performing. In the forming stage employees do not know what tasks they will be performing and with whom these tasks will be performed. In storming stage team members are informed about the methods of doing the tasks, in norming stage team members connect with each other and learn about which member of the team is best to perform a particular job. In performing stage, the team members perform the assigned tasks (BOHLANDER, 2001, p.173). Ans. 2 Necessary roles required for effective teams includes the role of coordinating in which different team members coordinate with each other and decide about the tasks that different team members will work on how they will accomplish those tasks. The role of implementation is very important as it ensures that team members give priority to the benefits of the organization, the role of shaper ensures that team members are aware of the benefits of working as a team, the role of plant is to create novel strategies for attaining objectives, the role of resource investigator is to conduct an analysis of the concepts that may affect team performance. Another important role is the task of evaluating how well the team is performing; the role of team workers is to ensure that the coordination between the team members is of optimum quality and the role of finisher is to make sure that the assignment is completed and desired results are achieved in an effective and efficient form (PARIKH, 2010, p.266). Ans. 3 Leadership refers to the activity through which an individual influences another individual to attain aims and objectives; management is the science and arts of managing individuals and resources for the accomplishment of tasks and objectives (PARIKH, 2010, p.519 & p.13). Leadership is related to the use of different skills such as communication and interpersonal in order to influence people, management is related to the use of technical, and conceptual skills required managing the working environment. Managers and leaders both perform the task of directing individuals, leaders perform this task by becoming an example, and managers perform this task by using motivational techniques. Ans. 4 All organizational activities conducted in different department are dependent on each other; a network is representation of how activities are dependent on each other. Networks are important so people working in different departments can share ideas and information with each other. Communications networks represent how different individuals within the organization connect with each other, these networks are important for smooth flow of information from one end to another (BOHLANDER, 2001, p.218). Ans. 5 The leader’s personal characters such as their values and their aims, the characteristics of the followers such as their expectations, the authority that is embedded into a leader by the organization and the tasks that a leader have to make sure are accomplished are the four variables that effect leadership in a work setting. Ans. 6 Conflicts do not always have a negative impact, conflicts helps in making better decision as when difference of opinion arises, different ways of doing a particular task can be identified and these different methods can help in decreasing costs. Conflicts may even compel teams to compete with each other and teams may try to perform in a better way, this increases productivity of the organization. Due to immense conflict, employees experience stressful situations, team, and group members stop cooperating with each other and they give importance to personal interest over organization’s interest (PARIKH, 2010, p.315). Ans. 7 One way through which managers can solve conflicts or counter its effects is making changes to the situation. While using this method, managers add or remove certain elements from the environment due to which the conflict has taken place. For example: if a new technology has been adopted by the organization and members of the organization are against the adoption of the technology, managers can provide training to the employees so they even become ready to accept the change. Another method through which conflicts can be resolved is involving a party that is not a part of the conflict. This party can discuss the conflict with the parties that are involved in the conflict and they can suggest ways through which the conflict can be solved (PARIKH, 2010, p319). Assignment 4 Ans. 1 a) The role of the human resources in performance management is to set the guidelines of what needs to be appraised. This means that HR creates the criteria on which an individual’s performance has to be appraised. The line managers have the responsibility of appraising performance of their subordinates in accordance to the criteria developed by the HR (GRIFFIN, 2010, p.344). b) Line managers are in direct contact with the employees, they identify that individual who needs training, and they even identify the areas in which needs to be conducted. The line managers pass this information to HR and HR develops training programs in according to the analysis conducted by line managers. Line managers have enough know how of the tasks being performed by the employees, thus they provide mentoring and coaching services to employees at the work setting (GRIFFIN, 2010, p.733). c) The line manager’s role in communication is to act as a middle man between the top level management and the employees, the line managers communicates the aims and objectives of the organization to the employees and similarly they communicate the interest of the employees to the top level management. HR has to ensure that all the policies of the organization are being followed by the employees and employees are getting equitable benefits for their hard work. Ans.2 a) Companies that implement systematic approach to training first determines who needs to be training and what kind of training is needed to be provided. Next organizations have to determine the results and the outcomes of the process of training implemented. Next the organization has to identify the tools and the resources that will be required to conduct the training program and the program for training is developed. After the development of training program, the program is implemented and on the completion of the program, results and effectiveness of the training program is evaluated (GRIFFIN, 2010, p.295). b) Training is provided with a short term aim, the aim of providing training is to solve the problems that are currently faced by the organization, learning is provided with a long-term perspective, learning is provided with the aim of problems that the organization might face in future. Training is provided for a particular issue while learning is provided to cover a broader issue such as management (GRIFFIN, 2010, p.300). Ans. 3 a) Performance appraisal is conducted for administrative purposes, appraisals conducted for the reason of firing or promotion is said to be done for administrative purposes. Appraisal conducted with the idea of enhancing an individual’s skills and abilities and appraisals done to figure out training needs is said to be done for developmental purposes (GRIFFIN, 2010, p.346). b) One of the major problem faced while developing a performance appraisal for both the developmental and administrative purposes is that certain times performance appraisal need to be conducted with the view of firing individuals and the developmental approach top performance appraisal does not promote firing. Another problem is that if only developmental approach is used, employees may quit the organization for better financial rewards after getting training. Ans. 4 a) The process of human resource planning is divided into four levels, firstly the hr is responsible to figure out the number of employees they will be needing in future, next they have to interpret the fluctuations and the supply and demand situation of the labor market, next the hr has to create plans to meet and fluctuations in supply and demand and lastly they monitor the effectiveness of the plans after the plans have been implemented (GRIFFIN, 2010, p.65). b) i. Organizations need to continuously carry out assessment of the current employees working in the organization, these assessments are not only conducted on the bases of age, and sex, these assessments even includes analysis of skills and abilities. These assessments need to be carried out with the analysis of future need of the employees. This means that the organizations need to interpret what kind of employees and what skills will be required in future. Once the need is identified, employees are assessed and training is provided to those employees who do not have the skills and abilities that will be required in future (GRIFFIN, 2010, p.100). ii. Organization that focus on developing the current workforce and filling empty positions with employees already working in the organization benefit because their employees experience continuous development. Secondly, those organizations that assess their employee on continuous basis are well aware of the skills that their employees do not have and can help in development of these skills (GRIFFIN, 2010, p.225). Assignment 5 Ans. 1 a) The advantage of hiring individuals within the company and moving them from one position to another position is that current employees are well aware about the policies of the organization and have already adjusted in the culture of the organization. Promoting employees within the ranks help in development and retaining employees. When more responsibilities are assigned to current employees, their morale level increases. When current employees fill an empty position, the process of filling that position which includes recruitment, selection, training, and orientation is decreased. On the other hand, if new employees are hired for a position, they bring in creative ideas and methods of problem solving (GRIFFIN, 2010, p.260). b) While conducting the task of recruitment, it is necessary to first analyze the person that will best fit the position. While figuring out the best person fit for a position, the HR department analyzes the characters, skills, and abilities that a person is required to own in order to fill in a particular position. These characteristics have been identified in the seven point plan provided by Rodgers and the grading system of Fraser. These approaches can be used while hiring as guidelines only because if these approaches are strongly adhered, the chances of the selection process lacking equal opportunity is increased (GRIFFIN, 2010, p.266). Ans. 2 The process of communication involves encoding, transfer of message through the best means, decoding of message conducted by the receiver, feedback provided by the receiver in shape of conducting the desired action and noise that disturbs the smooth flow of communication. During briefings, the element of feedback rarely exists and in most cases does not exist at all. The encoder encodes the message and delivers it through face to face communication. In case of presentation the element of noise exist as the reviver may fail to understand the encoded message or might not be interested in the message (PARIKH, 2010, 287). Ans. 3 a) The definition of job design proposed by L.E. Davis is not valid in instances where organizations give more importance to their own interest and the interest of employees is of less value to them (GRIFFIN, 2010, p.157). b) Employees that work from home for one particular organization or different organizations have higher control over their management of time but they experience difficulties in managing their time if they are working from home and not from a professional setting (GRIFFIN, 2010, p.170). c) Businesses are encouraging employees to work from home rather than working from organizational settings because this helps in motivating employees and they become more committed to their work as they believe that the organization believes in their abilities and higher level of satisfaction helps in retaining employees. When employees work from home, line managers face various difficulties such as loss of control, supervision of the employees, communication becomes difficult, and the notion of home based jobs decreases the importance of participative style of management (GRIFFIN, 2010, p.180). Ans. 4 a) One way through which the problem faced by David can be solved is providing flexible working hours to him. Managers can provide him with leave or relaxation from work when work pressure is low and when the work pressure is high they may retain him for working extra hours. This may have a negative impact on the morale of other staff members because they might be doing overtime along with their contracted hours of work and they might see that the management is providing special treatment to David (GRIFFIN, 2010, p.165). b) A disciplinary action against David might cost the company as the employment contract says that if reasonable then employees have to work overtime or conduct extra work. David might not feel that it is reasonable for him to work overtime as working overtime might be causing issues in work life balance. Thus it is unethical to make David work overtime if he is not willing to. References BOHLANDER, G. W., SNELL, S., & SHERMAN, A. W. (2001). Managing human resources. Cincinnati, Ohio: South-Western College Pub. GRIFFIN, R. W., & MOORHEAD, G. (2010). Organizational behavior: Managing people and organizations. Australia: South-Western/Cengage Learning. PARIKH, M., & GUPTA, R. K. (2010). Organisational Behaviour. New Delhi, Tata McGraw Hill Education Pte. Ltd. Read More