Organization Behavior, Content and Process Theories - Assignment Example

Organization Behaviour (six short essays) Contents Contents 2 Answers and 2 3 Answer 3 and 4 6 Answers 5, 6, 7 and 8 8 Answers 9 and 10 11 Answers 11 and 12 14 Answer 13 and 14 16 References 18 Answers 1 and 2 Content and process theories are the two important motivational theories. Understanding employee motivation is very critical thing for the organization. By motivating the employees properly the organizations are able to improve their performance and productivity. According to content theory of motivation human wants and needs change with time. It is the oldest motivational theory in human resource management system. Another name of content theory is need theory. Content theory of motivation comprises of various motivational theories like Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, management assumption, ERG theory, Herzberg two factor theories, Affiliation and Power theory. Content theory of motivation highlights various factors which influence motivation level of individuals. Behaviour of the employees highly depends on the motivational factors which are highlighted in this content theory. This theory mainly focuses on the factors which energize people for performing their job and responsibilities perfectly. Specific needs of the people are mentioned in this theory. All of these theories discuss motivational issues in various ways. Content theory provides a strong framework for understanding different motivational principles. By applying content theory managers are able to understand the desires and goals of individual employees. Job satisfaction, reward system, behaviour of organizational members is enhanced by implementing this theory. Psychological processes which are involved in the theory affect motivation of people. Requirements and necessities of individuals are explained with the help of content theory. On the contrary in the process theories of motivation, the behavioural patterns of people for fulfilling their requirements are highlighted. This theory focuses on various ways through which behaviour directs, controls individuals. Process theories consist of expectancy, reinforcement, goal setting and equity theory. These theories focus on the individual choice and decisions which affect their motivational factors. Reinforcement theory states that rewards play a vital role in motivating organizational member. Money is an important factor in the process theories. As per these theories the needs and requirements of individuals are satisfied with the help of money. In process theories, behaviour modification describes the reinforcement and learning process of the individuals. Unlike content theories, process theories help the people in setting up their goals and objectives. With the help of goal setting theory the performance and productivity of the companies are improved. All the theories involved in process theories highlight the effect of behavioural pattern for achieving individual expectations. Content theories try to explain different things which motivate people in various situations whereas the process theories try to establish the relationship between different variable with individuals’ behaviour and their motivational level. Workplace motivation is explained in different ways with the help of process and content theories of motivation. As per content theory Maslow highlights various needs which satisfy the individual’s satisfaction level. Motivation in the workplace highly depends on job satisfaction. This theory focuses on growth and deficiency needs of individuals. When an organization fulfils these needs properly then its employees feel motivated to perform their job efficiently. By management assumption theory workplace motivation depend on some assumption. The organization assumes some factors with the help of which it can develop its human resource strategies and policies for encouraging employees to deliver good performance. ERG theory supports growth needs, existence needs and relatedness needs for motivating people. These needs significantly contribute in enhancing the performance of the employees in the workplace. When these needs are fulfilled the employees feel motivated in achieving their targets and objectives. As per Herzberg’s two factor theory workplace motivation of the employees is mainly related to various hygiene factors and growth factors. These factors help to improve the responsibility of organizational members. This theory focuses that workplace motivation of the employees depends on the facilities which are provided by the company regarding growth and hygiene issues. With the help of reinforcement theory it is explained that positive behaviour and rewards contribute a lot in motivating organizational members. This theory creates a good working environment within the company. Positive behaviour influences employees to deliver their best performance. According to expectancy theory when an employee received reward for his performance, it motivates them to perform more efficiently. Perception of employees’ differs from each other. The equity theory helps to study the perception of organizational members and it states that if the employees are treated proper by the company and they are valued then the employees feel motivated in their work. Therefore workplace motivation can be implementing by making the employees feel that they are the important part of the company. Companies’ goals and objectives often influence the employees in delivering good performance. Goal setting theory setting theory facilitate the companies in enhancing their workplace motivational factors. With the help of this theory individuals goals are achieved properly. As a result by implementing effective motivational theories a company will be able to increase the productivity of the employees. Managers of a company play a significant role in implementing these motivational theories in the workplace. They analyse the needs and requirements of the employees and as per that they develop organization rules and policies which satisfy the requirements of organizational members. Therefore the managers play a vital role in motivating employees. In many cases they support the employees in performing their works. They train them and assist the organizational members in doing their work properly. Answer 3 and 4 Organizational culture shows the behaviour of the employees within the company. With the help of this behaviour or culture the employees remain attached with each other. The culture of a company motivates organizational members in following the rules and regulations of the company. Each and every company has its own unique culture which helps the company in controlling the behaviour of employees. The concept of culture has a strong relation with organizational behaviour. The culture of company denotes the behaviour which the company follows for performing its business operations. Employees need to follow and maintain organizational culture for the growth and development of the company. The interaction of employees within the workplace is determined by the culture. It encourages the employees to stay motivated and loyal towards the company. Therefore with the help of organizational culture it can be understood the amount of effort the firm is putting in motivating and supporting its employees. Culture contributes a lot in influence the employees in performing healthy competition. As a result the performance of a firm is improved by this. The concept of culture highlights the behaviour of the organization in guiding the employees. With the help of culture a company is able to define its policies and practices for achieving its growth and objectives. When every organizational member is clear about their responsibilities and role then it is easier for them in performing their work effectively. The behaviour of the firms in supporting the activities of the employees is explained with the help of organizational culture. Companies do not have same organizational culture. Work culture of an organization is important for building its brand image. It provides an identity to the company. Effective organizational culture helps in promoting the equality among the employees with the company. With the help of culture a firm behaves properly with its employees and makes them feel that they are the important part of the company. Organizational culture can be managed effectively by conducting training and development programs effectively. These programs will help the organizational people in understanding the culture which the company follows. The importance of the culture will be highlighted in the training program which will facilitate the employees in accepting it easily. The companies can implement effective policies and practises which will influence employees in following the organizational culture effectively. The organization can influence its employees in accepting its culture by communicating with them effectively (Mondy, 2008). By this process it can help the employees in doing their work or behaving with other members with the company as per its culture. Managers put a huge effort in managing the culture of the company. It is because by this process the managers are able to influence the organizational members in performing their work effectively. Organizational culture contributes a lot in motivating employees. Therefore by managing culture the managers try to provide job satisfaction to the employees. Sometimes organizational culture plays a significant role in satisfying the needs of the employees up to some extent. So if the managers are able to establish effective and healthy organizational culture then it will facilitate the company in fulfilling some needs of the employees. Organizational culture assists the managers in influencing the behaviours of the employees working in the organization. The managers focus on improving the organizational culture in the organization, since it determines the way in which the employees interact with each other in the organization. A healthy and sound organizational culture encourages the employees to become loyal and motivated towards the organization. The manager is assigned with the responsibility of performing the task by the employees within a specific period of time; therefore the manager is expected to create collaboration and cooperation among the employees. The employees come from different back ground, the organizational culture creates a common platform through which it binds the employees and forms a group. The employees are clear about their roles and responsibility assigned to them and therefore they strive hard to achieve the task within the specific period of time. Implementing the policies set by the management is never a constraint for the organization where the employees follow a specified organizational culture. The managers impart the importance of organizational culture among the employees and make it a better place to work. The management of organizational culture can be achieved by the mangers of the organization when they are participative and receptive to the feedback provided by the employees of the organization. The managers are required to provide freedom to the employees so that they can express their views and opinions. The rewards and incentive offered by the managers to the employees for better performance acts as a source of motivation which contributes towards maintaining sound organizational culture (Harris, 1998). Answers 5, 6, 7 and 8 F W Taylor formulated the principle of Scientific Management in the year 1909. The principle formulated by him is considered as the modern principles in the theory of scientific management. Taylor focussed on the concept of division of labour; he believed that it is the best way for increasing the productivity of the workers. Taylor emphasized on imparting systematic training to the workers rather than providing them instruction for accomplishment of the task. The workload in a particular organization is required to be shared and divided among the workers and the management, with the management providing the instruction and the guidance in accomplishment of the goals and the task set by the organization and the workers performing the work accordingly. The work should be allocated to the employees on the basis of their ability. Taylor scientific management is best suited for application in the modern work place. For example the computer and car manufacturing plants, the work environment in which the workers work, the hospitals and the even the restaurants functions effectively due to the application of the principles of scientific management. The method formulated by Taylor in the modern organization influenced the workers to work systematically and quickly. Previously the workers were assigned task on a random basis. But with the advent of scientific management the workers are allocated their job on the basis of their capability and skill. Scientific management also reduced the gap between the mangers and the workers since the management will work towards planning and training to its workers whereas the workers will work towards accomplishment of the task assigned by the management. Scientific management fail in practice since it applies inadequate understanding of human motivation and merely alienates employees. The task was allocated on the basis of the ability of the workers, since he believed that every worker possess the potential of working perfectly. He focused on the continuous improvement on the performance and productivity of the workers. As a result the workers were continuously judged on the basis of their productivity or output. The managers supervised and monitored the work on a continuous basis, as a result of which the employees or the workers felt that they were losing freedom to work independently. The scientific management caused dramatic loss in the autonomy and the skill of the workers. Due to the increase in the level of supervision, the workers were no longer able to use their own skill or tools in accomplishment of the assigned task. The constant supervision by the management decreased the motivation level of the workers. The workers were no longer motivated to work efficiently. The main limitation of the Taylor scientific management principle is that it is based on the concept of autocratic leadership style where the managers are accountable for taking decision and giving orders to their subordinates. The workers disliked Taylors approach as they were assigned with boring and repetitive task. The workers also feared that the organization can lay off its workers with the increase in the productivity level which resulted in the increase in strikes and other forms of industrial actions due to the dissatisfaction of the workers (Taylor, 2004). Taylorism creates obsessive control on the workers which decreased the level of motivation of the workers. Taylor believed that human beings are machine and they will work continuously towards the accomplishment of task set by the higher level authority of the organization. He also believed that the best way to keep the employees motivated is through the payment of money. With the increase in productivity it also increased the monotony of the work. The workers became frustrated in performing the same work on a daily basis. The human factor was completely neglected in his theory as he emphasized on motivating the employees to work more by providing them monetary benefits rather than focusing on the human resource development. The scope of creativity is limited since they are developed by the managers resulting in the increase in frustration level of the workers. Taylor scientific management was developed on the concept of putting unnecessary pressure on the workers to perform their task within a short period of time. The importance was provided to profitability and productivity. This led to the exploitation of the employees working in the organization. This also created conflict between the management and the employees. He considered the workers as robot that can finish the assigned work at any cost within the stipulated time which de-motivated the workers. Taylor focused on the individual performance of the employees rather than considering the group performance, whereas group performance is considered as the important parameter in analyzing the success of the organization. The scientific management principles exploited the workers therefore it created motivational problems in the organization. The proposition of scientific Management mainly seeks to eradicate uncertainty through obsession control are the workers generally do not enjoy working and therefore close supervision and control is required in order to increase their performance and improve their productivity towards accomplishment of the assigned task within the stipulated period of time. The managers should assign the work on a partly basis for motivating the employees. Due to the increase in supervision the workers are motivated and encouraged to work hard towards maximizing their productivity. This principle focussed on accomplishment of the task efficiently by adopting scientific method. He believed that the mangers should train their subordinates and provide necessary instruction which will assist the workers in performing the task efficiently. He emphasized that the progress of the employees are required to be evaluated on a frequent basis in order to analyze their performance or progress. The effect of such formal organizing increased the productivity and profitability of the organization, but increased the level of conflict between the mangers and the workers since they were frustrated in performing the same task on a continuous basis and they were de-motivated due to the increasing level of supervision of the top management. Answers 9 and 10 Leadership is the style or art by which the leader influences his followers to do something which he wants. A leader is person who does right thing. By following different leadership styles the leaders motivate the employees in performing their jobs successfully. Leadership is also known as a process of social influence. It is mainly followed for achieving the goals and objectives of the company. Effective leadership style contributes a lot in the growth and development of a company. It helps the leader in understanding the skills and capabilities of his followers and according to that he develop and implement strategies for achieving the goals and targets of the company. Leadership mainly involves in encouraging and inspiring the followers for performing their task properly. In the changing business environment by following particular leadership style it will become difficult for the leaders in influencing and motivating the employees. There is no perfect or way or process for leading the employees. Therefore the leaders must incorporate their leadership styles as per the situations and requirements of the companies. Organizational pressure contributes a lot in selecting effective leadership styles. Situations of company keep of changing. Therefore any particular leadership style cannot provide benefits to the company in its growth and development. It will also not facilitate the companies in motivating the employees. The Contingency theory of leadership supports this statement. As per this theory there is no particular way of leading people (Harzing and Pinnington, 2011). Therefore the leadership style of the leaders should be based on various situational factors which drives or influence the performance of the company. This theory highlight that some people deliver extra ordinary performance in some situations but when they are taken out from those situations they are not able to deliver such performance. For handling such employees the leader needs to implement different leadership according to the situations. Contingency leadership theory has a connection with trait theory of leadership. This is because traits of individuals are related to situations where the leaders implement their leadership styles. There are different types of leadership styles. Therefore the leaders must choose the leadership style in which the followers give maximum response and it contribute a lot in the growth and development of the company. Different situations provide the leaders various ideas for controlling motivating and influencing the followers. As per the business strategies and objectives the leaders develop ways for achieving their targets. The needs and requirements of the followers contribute a lot in selecting leadership theories. The wants of the organizational members changes with time. By selecting different leadership styles in various circumstances the leaders will be able to satisfy the needs and requirements of the employees. This will motivate them in delivering good performances. Therefore by implementing contingency theory of leadership the organization can experience effective performance of the leaders. Behaviour of the organizational members and the entire environment of the company can be managed effectively with the help of this theory. Leaders lead people in performing job or task. But managers manage organizational members and resources effectively for the growth and development of the company. Leaders and managers differ from each other in various respects. Normally in an organization the leaders are accountable to the managers. The managers give them responsibilities in performing tasks perfectly with the help of the employees who work as per the instructions of the leaders. In many cases it has been observed that a good leader has not been able to become a good manager. This is because the leaders are guided by the managers. If the manager think that the leader is not working effectively then he assist the leader in implement effective strategies or show him the proper way. Therefore in such cases it becomes difficult for the leader to deliver good performance without the help of the manager. But in many cases it has been observed that leaders have become very efficient managers (Gold and Holden, 2013). By practicing their leadership skills for a long period of time the leaders have been able to manage its followers effectively. They have developed a proper understanding about the way of utilizing the resources effectively which will contribute a lot in the growth and development of the company. The leaders learn many things from different situations. Therefore by implementing those things properly they become capable of satisfying, motivating and managing employees effectively. There exists a strong confusion regarding the statement that a good leader becomes a good manager. The validity of this statement relies entirely on the situation. A good leader can incorporate the skills and qualities of good manager which will help the leader to become an efficient manager. But for that reason the good leader has to learn many things from the manager which will help him in enhancing and developing various managerial skills. The high level of integrity which is present within the leaders contributes a lot in managing people. But management skills and leadership skills are very different from each other. A good leader tries to understand different approaches of management for making their work or processes more effective. The leaders work very closely with the employees which helps them in understanding the proper ways through which the employees can be easily managed (Daniels, 2006). Therefore a good leader can become a good manager if he utilise his skills and qualities properly. Answers 11 and 12 Teamwork The process of working together within a group or a team for achieving particular goals and objectives is called teamwork. It is an important process followed by the business for fulfilling its targets (Blyton and Turnbull, 2004). In team work people co-operates with each other for performing different functions. Mutual benefits of teamwork Teamwork contributes a lot in fulfilling organizational and team goals efficiently within a short period of time. With the help of teamwork communication level is increased among the team members and it benefits the company in conducting its work process smoothly. Flexibilities among the organizational members are increased by teamwork. Teamwork contributes a lot in innovation of many new things. This helps the company in making its business processes or products more effective. By working in a team, the moral of the employees get improved. As a result the organization is able to enhance their culture which influences its employees to behave properly within the company. Teamwork has both advantages and disadvantages for employees as well as managers. Advantages It helps to increase efficiency among the employees and the managers. Various problems are solved effectively by doing teamwork. Good relationship developed in between the employees and the managers. Mutual support is established by teamwork. Disadvantages Unequal participation of employees hinders the effectiveness of teamwork. It sometimes limits the creativity of the employees. Managers sometimes behave in a partial way within the team which hamper the productivity of the company (Armstrong, 2007). Answer 13 and 14 Main characteristics of a theory A theory must give a proper explanation of a phenomenon Its objectives must be mentioned clearly. The concept of proposition of the theory must be described properly. Good hypothesis should be present within the theory (Armstrong, 2009). Theory is very important for managers in managing people effectively. The reasons for which theory is important to the managers are as follows: Theory helps the managers in handling various situations efficiently. By implementing proper and effective theories the managers can enhance the productivity of the companies. Theory plays a vital role in explaining various things which motivates the employees in increasing their efficiency and productivity. The formal aspect of the organization sometimes differs a lot from its informal aspect of the company which is defined by theorists. The reasons for this are: Sometimes it is not possible for the organization o implement the theory properly. In many cases a theory implemented in a company is not accepted by its organizational members. Practical output of the theory becomes very low which discourages employees in following the theory. For realigning the informal aspect of the organization the managers implement various policies and practices which helps the company in following its formal aspect. They communicate with all the organizational members for making them understand about the formal aspect of the company (Price, 2011). References Armstrong, M., 2009. Armstrongs Handbook of Performance Management: An Evidence-Based Guide to Delivering High Performance. Philadelphia: Kogan Page Publishers. Armstrong. M., 2007. A Handbook of Employee Reward Management and Practice. Philadelphia: Kogan Page Publishers. Blyton, P. and Turnbull, P., 2004. The Dynamics of Employee Relations, (3rd edition). London: Macmillan. Daniels, K., 2006. Employee Relations in an Organisational Context. London: CIPD. Gold, J. and Holden, R. et. al., 2013. Human Resource Development: Theory and Practice. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Harris, P. R., 1998. New Work culture: HRD transformational management strategies. Canada: GRIN Verlag. Harzing, A. and Pinnington, A. H., 2011. IHRM 3rd Edition. London: Sage. Mondy, 2008. Human resource management. New Delhi: Pearson Education India. Price, A., 2011. Human resource management. UK: Cengage Learning. Taylor, F.W., 2004. Scientific Management. New York: Routledge. Read More