Factors Affecting Organisation Behavior: Fire and Rescue Services - Case Study Example

Organisation Behavior Title Factors Affecting Organisation Behavior: Fire and Rescue Services Case Study Outline a) Essay Introduction An introduction to organisation behavior (meaning and elements) and essay structure induction. b) Internal Structure and External environment Factors in Organisation Behavior The relationships between internal organizational structures and the external environmental factors c) Internal Publics of an Organisation Behavior Individual’s roles and group dynamics (teams) of organizations in learning, motivation, communication, perception, group formation, team work, etc. d) Role Definition and Separation How roles are defined and separated in organizations based on organization design, culture, structure and strategy. e) Organisation Development How organization development accrues, reaction to change, formation of culture and solving of conflict. f) Organisation Management How organization management influences decision-making, conflict management, power allocation and management politics etc. g) Essay Conclusion The role managers and individuals play in contextualizing all the detailed elements of organisation behavior into their organization and the scenario in modern organizations Organisation Behavior Essay Introduction Organizational behaviour is a common term now used to refer to the a collection of studies directed at understanding how individuals act in the context of an organisation, how they interact as groups and then applying this psychological knowledge in improving productivity of an organisation (Sims, 2002, pp. 127 - 142). In this regard, organisation behavior incorporates the behaviour of employees as individuals and as collective groups. Organisation behavior is the product of an individual’s actions at a personal level and as a member of an organisation. The behaviour helps each employee to know how to act in very circumstances in accordance to the prescribed organisation behavior (Sims, 2002, pp. 127 - 142). This essay evaluates some central factors that affect organisation behavior, how internal structures relate with external environmental factors, the place of teams and groups in defining organisation behavior, how individuals are assigned roles in an organisation, how organization development affects the organisation behaviour and finally the role of management in chartering the organisation behaviour to positive grounds. To exemplify effectively the factors affecting the organisation behavior of a firm, a case study of a fire and rescue services has been used. Internal Structure and External environment Factors in Organisation Behavior Organizations like individuals have a place setting in which they exist alongside a particular environment (Katz and Kahn, 1978, pp. 322). Organizations exist in the context of an environment. Here, the term environment refers to the interrelation of elements within a particular context such that the factors existing in the world outside a person or organisation interacts influentially with such a person or organisation. Managers always consider the environment in which their organization is placed and how this affects their day to day operations. The important thing here is how internal structures of that organisation such as the Public relations department, interact with the external factors to influence core operations of the organisation. Individuals in an organization behave in a particular way due to the influence of internal structures and external environment factors. Cape Town Fire Services is the leading fire and rescue services in South Africa offering 24 hours rescue services to the capital. The firm is structured in six departments including, operations, in-house training, service and maintenance, community liaison, finance and fleet management departments. The firm’s operations are overseeing by the operations department, training is conducted by the in-house training department, stores and resources are maintained by the service and maintenance department, all finance matters such as salaries, procurement etc are conducted by the finance department and so on. Now how each department performs always affects the entire firm (Newstrom and Davis, 1993, pp. 96). The six departments have specialist tasks that together help serve the mandate of the firm, each working best in its area of specialization. Any department that fails in its role will adversely delimit the performance of the other departments such as operations being delimited by poor fleet management or poor servicing and maintenance of fire engines. Organisation behavior will accrue and be determined by how each of these six departments serves its role and how they complement each other in serving the firm’s mandate. An organization is dependent on the internal structures to work independently and in team work approach in building a comprehensive output. A fire and rescue services firm must be internally structured in such a way as to enable maximal workforce performance and overall productivity (Newstrom and Davis, 1993, pp. 96). The firm must have structural systems that respond to any emergencies both reactively and pre-emptively by assigning specialist sub-systems to each department such as having fire fighters, crash site rescuers, water rescue specialists etc all under the same Operations department. Now each department will be diverse enough to respond to emergencies with the right sub-system of expertise (Vibert, 2004). Organization behavior is the product of the systems and sub-systems within the organization and which operate as mutually interdependent sections as well as cohesive units if that organisation. Similarly, organizations must also interact with an outside environment (Locke, 2004, pp. 321). Fire and rescue services for instance operate in a social context where what is happening outside the company affects their behavior. Cape Town Fire Services for instance operates in an area riddled with numerous gold and diamond mines. The most common disasters in the region is the cave-in of mining shafts. In response to this, the firm has more underground rescue operatives and equipment than the fire specialists or engines. They also have a vibrant community liaison department that mostly specializes in educating miners and mining companies on how best they can avoid cave-ins. Such an external environment factors and realities have a direct impact to the organisation behavior of a firm. Organisation behavior is always crafted in an amicable resonance with facts of the environment in which it operates (Vibert, 2004, pp. 332). Internal Publics of an Organisation Behavior As already established organisation must be thought of as a system that adopts the synergy of different individuals and translates it to a singular behavior. The idea of regulating, inspiring or moderating organization behavior is to stimulate useful output targeted as defined by the organisation objectives. The organizational behavior can be detected from how individuals and groups are given roles in that organisation. The system usually formulates, regulates and modifies its behavior based on the policies, values, missions, rules and leadership styles adopted time after time. Such a behavior is the product of individuals harnessed accumulatively to be the uniform behavior of the organisation. Individual employees are thus units of a larger system, the organisation. Each of these individuals are allocated an area of operation. This area is in most cases involved interaction of other individuals in a team like context, thus forming work groups. The groups can be broken further into sub groups (Mullins, 2004, pp. 872 - 888). Each o subsystem (subgroup) influence an individual’s behavior just as the subgroup’s behavior also accumulates the tally of an individual’s behavior. One’s ability to work as a member of the team is central to his or her own success in the organisation. How well people can work in groups defines the success of that organization. Individuals must therefore be assigned the roles of their job description for them to function well in the respective teams. The team also needs to be structured with a leadership framework, channels of communication and a chain of authority. The importance of this is that it backgrounds the motivation levels of employees. An employee is more motivated to perform depending on how he or she relates within the team. The team’s performance is the accumulation of individual success of the team members. The effectiveness of work groups, the group formation processes, the communication channels that individuals exploit within their work groups and the level of motivation are elements of group dynamics, central to the success of an organisation (Mullins, 2004, pp. 872 - 888). The group dynamics are part and parcel of the organisation behaviour. Role Definition and Separation Once individuals are assigned respective groups and teams to work with (also called duty positions) the next thing is to define their responsibilities in those teams (Likert, 1961, pp 193 - 225). Role definition to the identification of a person’s job description, an elaboration of responsibilities mandated to that job position. The individual learns his or her part in the context of the assigned team. When an individual knows the job expectations and he or she is then given the space to do it, he or she performs better. That is the essence of role definition and separation. Defining and separating roles help to amplify motivation in employees since they feel important to a team and to the company at large now that they have something to participate in driving production forth. Individuals judge that their contribution is important if it is defined and separated, and are thus motivated to do it well, especially when an organization is apt in rewarding performance (Likert, 1961, pp 193 - 225). Roles can only be defined and separated according to the organisation culture, design, and structure. The first thing an organisation does in role definition is to prioritize by an organisation their objectives so as to identify who to assign which responsibilities and at which job station. Organisation is the way things are always done within an organisation and it is very influential to how roles are defined, separated and assigned to individuals. Organisation Development Individual behaves in context of an organisation in which the individual operates. As such, organization behavior is an accumulation of assorted behaviors of numerous individuals engaged in an organisation by a network of interdependent relationships. As such, the attitudes of individuals, their actions and their reactions is what turns out to the organisation behavior. One distinct element of such a behavior is the responsiveness to change. Being dynamically responsive to such changes as policy, technology and leadership changes, or being static, are a central element of organisation behavior. Adapting to changes is what helps the organizations to survive. Yet organizations cannot accept changes themselves. Individuals in that organisation adopt and accept the change. Changes are only accepted or opposed depending on how the individuals of that organisation feel (Sims, 2002, pp. 127 0 142). If they feel threatened, they oppose the changes. If they fell excited, they accept the changes. Responsiveness to changes helps organizations to be more innovative, creative, competitive and responsive to the contemporary needs of their market niche. Organization behavior also includes conflict management. As long as individuals are interacting in the organisation, there will be conflicts. How individuals address those conflicts, the systems and channels existing in the organization to help address conflicts is part of the organization behavior (Sims, 2002, pp. 127 0 142). The ability to handle conflicts determines motivation of employees, productivity and employee turnover at the end of the day. Some conflicts might actually result to great losses if not handled well, such as sexual harassment cases when the organization is sued for not protecting its employees against sexual harassment. Organisation Management The management function of every organisation is the heart beat of that organisation. The management sets the policies that drive a company forth, with the organization behavior stepping from the decision made by the management (Gary, 2006, pp. 386–408). The management determines how employees are recruited, motivated, assigned roles and supervised in their performance. The management determine ideal values and to be instilled in all parties. The management is responsible of strategizing on future exploits, planning the changes to introduce etc. As such, the management will have a central role in defining the elements of organisation behavior such as role definition and separation, motivation, response to changes, group dynamics etc. A good management helps the organisation to establish a befitting organizational behavior. To do this, efficient and standardized decision making policies and frameworks are necessary. The organisation behavior will be a product of good decision making or poor decision making. Standardized and comprehensive decision making frameworks help the management to be reliable and impartial in all circumstances and to inculcate a culture of justice and fairness as the blue print of organization behaviour. It is important that an organisation has a firm structure detailing the power distribution and authority centers so that politics in the organisation are reduced if not eliminated. Organizations usually cripple under the weight of politics especially in succession scenarios (Likert, 1961, pp 193 - 225). The idea is to formulate a culture, a structural guide on how power is awarded and inherited to individuals so that competing employees know the channels to use when seeking for that authority. When the channels of attaining seniority are clear in an organisation, individuals behave in accordance to those stipulated channels and thus avoid politics. Essay Conclusion Contemporary organizations conceive organization behavior as a scientific analysis of the way individuals act in an organisation, either as individuals or as groups (Mullins, 2004, pp. 872 - 888). An organisation in this regard becomes a set of interrelated units involving successfully larger units until they result to the organisation as the ultimate unit. To be able to study organizations effectively, managers use psychology, management and sociology theories. Understanding human behavior is central to establishing a positive organization behavior since the net organisation behavior accrues from the collection of assorted behaviors of individuals in the organisation (Gary, 2006, pp. 386–408). The management also sets the organisation behavior by their decision making, their policies, their introduction of changes, their motivation initiatives such as promotion and compensation. All these have been described by the essay as pertinence factors influencing and determining the organisation behavior. References Gary, Johns, 2006, The Essential Impact of Context on Organizational Behavior, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 31, (2), pp. 386–408.  Katz, D., and Kahn, R., 1978, The social psychology of organizations, Wiley, New York. pp. 322. Likert, R., 1961, New Patterns of Management, McGraw-Hill, New York, pp 193 – 225. Mullins, L 2004, Management and Organisational Behaviour, Prentice Hall, New York, pp. 872 - 888 Locke, E., 2004, The Blackwell handbook of principles of organizational behavior, Blackwell Publishing Inc, pp. 321. Newstrom, J. & Davis, K., 1993, Organization Behavior: Human Behavior at Work, McGraw-Hill, New York, pp. 96 Sims, R., 2002, Managing organizational behavior, Quorum Books, Westport, pp. 127 - 142. Vibert, C., 2004, Theories of macro organizational behavior: a handbook of ideas and explanations, M. E. Sharpe, New York, pp. 332. Read More