Changing Employee Behavior - Essay Example

Running Head: BEHAVIOR CHANGE IN EMPLOYEES Changing employee behavior Name Course Tutor Date Introduction Learning has been defined as a relatively permanent change in behavior that takes place as a result of a person’s interaction with the environment. Based on this definition, it would appear that managers would find it hard to change the behavior of employees. Learning is a continuous process that is deemed to be endless in the life of human beings. Every experience that employees go through is a learning process in one way or another. Over time and after several experiences, people pick up habits that soon define and shape their behaviors. The nature of behavior for each individual person is highly dependent on the environment which they interact with regularly. The nature of people that individuals interact with on a regular basis also affects their behavior to a large extent. As people attain their maturity age, behavior and personality are usually entrenched in their character and others can use it to define them. It becomes increasingly difficult for people at the adult stage to change their behaviors and adopt new ones. As a result, managers may find it difficult to control their workforce in terms of behavior (Sims, 2002). In the contemporary management practices, managers are increasingly looking for personnel to fit their specific needs. In this view, background checks and in depth profiling is always done on candidates seeking particular positions. It is no longer about academic qualification but more on personality and what employees can bring to an organization, given the strict and specific requirements in personality and behavior. In a competitive environment, organizations are looking beyond educational qualification and focusing on the individual person and what their behavioral characteristics entail. Managers have often faced challenges in shaping employee behaviors to suit the image and needs of the organization. Hence the argument that the learning processes that people pick up throughout their lives is relatively permanent and hard to change (Makin & Cox, 2004). Changing employee behavior Apart from the environment of interaction, there are other factors which determine the behavioral shape that individuals pick. Factors such as culture and norms within a society affect the kind of behavior that people take. Certain behaviors are associated with certain cultures and can be traced even in specific regions. In a bid to hire, manage and control employees, management profiles need to have an understanding of individual employees for them to make positive impact in the organization despite their behavior affiliations. However, some positions call for certain behavioral traits that an individual must posses (Zhang, Walumbwa, & Aryee, 2013). For instance, a customer handler should have public relations characteristics and have impeccable personal etiquette. Instead of changing personal employee behavior there are several ways that employers use to get the best of their employees without changing their behaviors. In this essay, how the environment affects employee behavior will be evaluated. The difficulty or challenge of changing employee behavior will also be studied based on theoretical and practical arguments and theories. In a competitive work environment, employees are necessitated to check their behaviors in order to positively impact on their resumes. Further, enhancing job security is paramount for most employees and they would therefore avoid being at loggerheads with employers at all costs. The mangers and leaders also affect how employees respond to changes and how fast they adopt. First, a leader is a person who has the ability of influencing people towards achieving organizational goals. In this view, they should be able to deal with people with different personalities and qualities effectively to have a positive impact on the organization (Hoogervorst, van der Flier & Koopman, 2004). First, leadership attributes should be well oriented to help them change employee behavior. They should have respectable and acceptable personalities both professionally and socially. They should also be persons of high integrity with high accountability and transparency reputations. In this view, their self esteem should be reflected on how employees behave and perceive the organization. Leaders should also possess high motivational skills and the ability to impact action oriented strategies both in human resource issues dealing with employees and organizational performance as well. Leaders being in the business for a long period of time should know the industry and its dynamics to the letter. This way, they can easily determine the kind of employees that the organization would need and the appropriate behavioral features that would fit the organization. They should also have emotional intelligence when dealing with personnel in the organizations. These core competencies in leadership help them to appropriately impact on employee behavior in a way that makes necessary transition easy for employees. Theorists have developed several leadership styles that can be used in leadership portfolios to affect employee behavior. These theorists have suggested that leaders should employ authentic leadership in their portfolios. Employees and people generally, learn more about themselves. Through this learning, they comprehend their inner purpose and behave in a way that is consistent with it. Most leaders usually have this aspect in their achievements. The same way, they should impact employees and help them discover their purpose in line with the organizations. Competencies are only potential aspects that leadership should have. They should be appropriately reflected on performance, organizational behavior and design. One way of impacting on employee behavior is through motivation of employees. Though changing behavior may be challenging for both employers and employees, motivational strategies are an effective way to help employees put more effort and positively change their behaviors. The expectancy theory of motivation has been extensively used by leaders in changing employee attitudes, performance and behaviors. In this theory, path goal leadership has been advocated for as an effective leadership style when dealing with employees. Paths refer to the expectations that employees have from an organization when they join it and as they progressively continue being a part of it. Goals on the other hand relate to the level of performance that employees achieve. It is also the expected level of results that employers require when hiring. Behavior in the work place determines the overall performance of employees (Locke, & Latham, 2002).. In this case, the theory states that better performing employees should receive higher value in rewards than those who perform poorly. When given such an incentive, employees will obviously be motivated to work harder and alter their behavior in a way that will make them perform better to receive the higher valued rewards. Path goal theory has several perspectives that leaders can use to affect behavior and behavioral change. First, leadership has to recognize that employees pass through different learning and educative processes which in the long run affect their overall behavior. Employers would like to see all employees behave in a particular way that maximizes the objectives of the organization. In the directive function of leadership, jobs should be psychologically structured with tasks that enhance the intended behavior in the work place. Employees should be made to understand that the job structure entails a learning process which they should expect and adhere to in order to achieve personal and organizational goals. In the long run, the task oriented behavior will be reflected in the overall perception and job daily routine. This way, employees can be able to handle challenges on their own without supervisory requirements. As leaders direct what employee behavior strategies should look like, they should also offer support services and systems as wells. This helps employees lo learn quickly and adapt to a competitive environment. Support system should involve team building and tension relieving strategies that will free employees from any psychological challenges regarding the job. In this sense, employers should also offer support in terms of personal issues that are not wok related. Colleagues in the work place also play a huge role in the learning process (Bommer, Rich, & Rubin 2005). They should therefore be well trained on tactics to support each others’ learning process. The interaction should be both on a social perspective and a work related one. Employees should also undergo participative forums and strategies to enhance their learning process. The forums should focus on employees and how their behavior should affect their portfolio as employees in the organizations. Participative facilitation helps to build employee confidence in handling challenges in the work place. Leaders can also use an achievement oriented approach to affect the behavior of employees. When goals are set and strategies to achieve them devised, a self motivational atmosphere is created where employees would not like to lag behind. Apart from the path goal leadership methods of affecting employee behavior, leaders should combine them with other strategies that work best in specific circumstances. Some of the strategies depend on organizational culture, nature of industry, political environment among other aspects. These strategies could also be used to influence the behavior of employees and how fast they adapt to new environments. For instance, the situational leadership style advocates for participatory and delegation strategy when dealing with employees. It is viewed as a learning process which eventually influences employee behavior. Fiedler’s contingency theory advocates for building on personal capacities and capabilities. Though it has its own challenges, the approach is common due to its flexibility capabilities (Newstrom & Davis,1986). The powers that managers and leaders have in an organization also have the capability of affecting how employees learn and change behavior to suit a specific organization. Power is in the ability of leaders to influence individuals. The power has to be practical for it to works effectively towards behavioral change. This is because power may be held but not influenced. Influence in this case is the authority management uses to persuade employees into action. Power and influence achieves control when effectively conducted. Power comes with attributes such as relativity, specificity, and complementation which should all be used toward impacting positive behavior. When power and authority are fused to influence the learning of employees, the possible results or consequences are compliance, resistance or commitment. Depending on where power is sourced from, physical, charisma, or position, the methods of influence vary accordingly (Markey, & Townsend, 2013). For instance, when power is sourced fro a physical perspective the influence used will be forceful. When it is sourced from the management potions, rules and regulation apply. Each source achieves different levels of consequences depending on the type of organization and employee portfolios. For example, in a banking institution, rules and regulations may be the influence from position of power while in a marketing organization; managers can have charismatic influences on personnel. Influencing employees may also be carried out in a silent or assertive manner. Assertiveness calls for frequent reminding and expression of vocal authority confrontation and frequent supervision is also common in an assertive environment. The purpose achieved by this is letting the employees know what is expected of them on a regular basis in a bid to get them to learn and adopt a working behavior that will yield productivity (Ghitulescu, 2013). For silent authority, it is based on emulation and legitimate power that has no overt influence. Conclusion The learning process is a continuous one and it is renewed every time an employee gets a new position. Experience is paramount is achieving the objectives of a specific job description. However, every organization is different and so are the requirements and objectives. This is the reason why managers are faced with the constant challenge of having to change the behavior of their employees to suit organizational needs. The learning process applies for both new and continuing employees. This is necessitated by a dynamic environment where underlying issues are unpredictable and call for flexibility in strategies and management. In so doing, changing individual behavior can be a challenging task for managers and employees as well. This is influenced by pervious learning and character that has already formed part of individual personalities. It all depends on leadership and management skills and their abilities to effectively use strategies and resources available to them to shape employees to desirable and workable levels. Negative attributes and behavior fro previous engagements are eliminated and new ones adopted to fit current positions. The success is also dependent on employee perceptions and attitudes towards learning and changes. The rigidity or flexibility of employees determines to a large extent the level of achievement in behavioral change. References Bommer, W. H., Rich, G. A., & Rubin, R. S. (2005). Changing attitudes about change: Longitudinal effects of transformational leader behavior on employee cynicism about organizational change. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 26(7), 733-753. Ghitulescu, B. E. (2013). Making change happen: The impact of work context on adaptive and proactive behaviors. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 49(2), 206. Retrieved from http://0-search.proquest.com.alpha2.latrobe.edu.au/docview/1350310246?accountid=12001 Hoogervorst, J., van der Flier, H., & Koopman, P. (2004). Implicit communication in organisations: The impact of culture, structure and management practices on employee behaviour. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 19(3), 288-311. Newstrom, J. W., & Davis, K. (1986). Human behavior at work. New York. McGraw-Hill. Hoogervorst, J., van der Flier, H., & Koopman, P. (2004). Implicit communication in organisations: The impact of culture, structure and management practices on employee behaviour. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 19(3), 288-311. Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (2002). Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation: A 35-year odyssey. American psychologist, 57(9), 705. Markey, R., & Townsend, K. (2013). Contemporary trends in employee involvement and participation. The Journal of Industrial Relations, 55(4), 475. Retrieved from http://0-search.proquest.com.alpha2.latrobe.edu.au/docview/1427373368?accountid=12001 Makin, P. J., & Cox, C. (2004). Changing Behaviour at Work: A Practical Guide. London: Routledge. Sims, R. R. (2002). Managing Organizational Behavior. Indiana: Greenwood Publishing Group . Zhang, X., Walumbwa, F. O., & Aryee, S. (2013). Ethical leadership, employee citizenship and work withdrawal behaviors: Examining mediating and moderating processes. The Leadership Quarterly , 24 (1), 284-297. Read More