Organizational Behavior and Culture - Essay Example

Organizational Behavior Organizational behavior is basically the study of the whole of an organization from different perspectives and viewpoints. There are basically two components of organizational behavior, the micro approach level where the study basically focuses on individuals and how they behave within an organization and what kinds of roles the individuals play in developing and taking the organization to new heights in terms of innovation and stability. Then the study also focuses on group dynamics, which is basically how different groups in an organization behave towards each other and what are the precise reasons for such a behavior. The study also focuses on how to alter these behaviors so that the individuals benefit from these changes and this in affect leads to the progress and stability of the organization. The second point of view of the organizational study is the macro study of the organization where the study is aimed at taking a general point of view of the whole organization. Macro point of view is also especially interested in how different organizations survive in changing conditions and how they learn to adapt to these changes, it focuses specially on the systems and people that help the company make a transition from this stage to the next one. Organizational studies can play a really important role in the development of an organization because it has all the ingredients that would give the employers the power to mould their workers in to a work force which is an ideal one for them and for this very reason it has been criticized by many because it is viewed as a tool by which employers control their workers in fact the case is totally different because organizational studies are designed to benefit the employees as well as the company that they work for. Organizational studies being a form of social science the over riding goal is to achieve a level where the employee can control the environment around him and should also be able to predict what is going to happen next due to the decisions being taken within the firm or the company. Since this paper aims to tackle both the macro and the micro side of the field of organizational study, macro should be dealt with first. Culture Culture is one of the most under rated portion of any company but the companies that have reached the top or those that are considered the most successful ones have never neglected this side of their corporate environment because it is in fact one of the most important things in the corporate sector. This is so because the culture defines how the employees of a firm behave and this behavior is what is important to the field of organizational behavior because people shape up an organization and their behavior shapes up the behavior or the direction of the company. The criteria for judging employees behavior or the culture of the organization is basically to check and see whether the policies that have been drafted are implemented or not and if they are with what regularity and what level of strictness is followed. The policies should be applicable to every one because if it does not then there would be clear cut discrimination and this would be the first fault line that would bring the company down. The role of policies is to determine, to give direction to the employees of the company so that they may be able to ascertain certain things and these policies should be for every one, they should be implemented at all levels and no discrimination should be done on the basis of seniority, sex, cast or religion. This promotes healthy learning environments and people that are much friendlier and like each others company because they are being treated equally by the company and this promotes healthy working environment which is very important if a company or an organization has to grow and grow continuously and exponentially in every sense of the word growth. If such an environment is produced in the organization there would be automatic transfer of responsibility on every one to a certain degree, the role of the HR department has increased manifolds in the contemporary time because they have been handed tasks such as the drafting of policies for employees of the company and hence a sound and independent HR department is required in order to maintain this culture of merit and transparency that exists such a culture. The benefits of cultures have been stated but the downfall of the cultures may also be that people who deserve to be in a designation that they are might not just be able to work in the organization or in the department because they might not feel comfortable enough with in an environment and hence this could at times lead to severe problems amongst groups of employees, since cultures cannot be and should not be changed for just the sake of some individuals, this may lead to people leaving the organization or also underperforming and hence environments can also have negative affects on the employees, the trick is to know when such a situation is occurring due to the culture of the organization. This shows how critical cultures are for organizations and they should have systems in place so that the cultures are imposed on every one and they should also know when the culture that is supposed to make people comfortable is a possible cause of under performance in the organization and this is where the role of communication comes into the picture Communication Communication is perhaps one of the most important component of a firm in the corporate environment, if not the most important. Communication basically has three components within any organization i.e. top-down, bottom-up and horizontal. Top down informational flow or communication is basically when the top managerial level communicates with the lower levels about different policies and terms and conditions. Bottom up processing occurs when the lower level of management communicates with the top managerial level concerning different problems that they might be facing and even suggestions to make work environment a better place to work in. horizontal communication takes place when people of the same managerial level communicate with each other. Communication is a big advantage if it is given equal importance at both ends, especially not much importance is given to bottom-up informational flow because people do not usually consider this important but this is the most important form of communication because employees need the psychological security that they do have some control over their surroundings and they can change things if they want to, this gives added security to the employees in every sense and hence as the job satisfaction increases so does the productivity. A lack of communication can be particularly damaging to the company because in today's world information needs to be transmitted and received within seconds, hence if there are communication gaps within the organization then this would prove to be a huge disappointment to the firm because it would result in huge losses financially as well as in terms of opportunity. The firm needs to be very closely knit and integrated because the faster the flow of information the quicker the decisions can be made and hence the importance of communication within an organization can be judged from this. Structural Arrangements Structural arrangements refer to the whole structural formation of the firm, where by an organization decides how people will be linked and who would be the boss of whom and who would be responsible for what roles. This is particularly important because people should be linked in a logical manner, if this is not done so then there would be gaps in the flow of information in the organization and also that people who need relevant information on time because they have to make decisions will not be able to take the decisions because the people who need to carry out the job are not directly working under that person and hence that makes its impossible to receive information on time, making decision making impossible and hence once again leading to loss of opportunity and financial losses. The role of policies that has been explained before as well is extremely important here as well because people need to be guided by these policies and this attainment of a sense of direction is very important if the organization needs to be given a proper direction. On the other hand if the structural arrangement is extremely sound then the firm will be able to take decisions on time and hence would be able to meet the demands of its customers or what ever the aim of the particular firm is. Conflict Conflict is the engine of human growth, if there is conflict within an organization, it should never be seen as a hurdle, and rather it should be seen as a stepping stone to move forward. Conflicts will always be a part of the corporate structure and hence organizational studies aims to manage conflicts so that the firm as well as individuals benefit from it. Conflicts if handled in an appropriate manner would ensure that company moves forwards but if handled in an inappropriate manner it would lead to disturbance not amongst the group directly affected by the conflict but also would affect the whole organization because then every one within the organization would be stressed over the injustice done in the inappropriately handled case. Power and Politics Power is basically any control to influence a group of people or a team, power plays an important role in organizational study because the sources from where power is derived are studied in much detail, people who have power over people also have political control and hence would indulge in office politics where the need arises. When such a situation arises then policies take a back seat which should not be the case because once people lose their trust it would be next to impossible to make people believe in the policies all over again and hence the organization on the whole would be at a major loss, so the managers should ensure that such a situation does not evolve. Benefits of power might include that people would work with extra dedication and hence the performance of the people would go up drastically. Teams Teams are an essential part of any organization because for each special assignment teams need to be made. The advantage of teams is that people work in inter action with each other and people are assigned specialized roles which they perform in collaboration with the team. The only disadvantage with a team is that if the team performs badly then each and every individual would have to take responsibility for the bad performance where as there might be individuals in that group that might not be performing well enough and that is why the team fails to meet targets, hence the manager should be able to identify these individuals and devise a strategy to make them work much more efficiently. Role of HR department The personnel department plays an important role in any organization because it provides it with a resource that is indispensable for business and more than that it provides the business with people who run it, despite it being such an important role player in an organization it is mostly under valued in more than one ways because the output that it produces is not a very tangible one and cannot be measured in any unit and hence this automatically makes it vulnerable to it being a mediocre department but one should bear in mind that it is not, organizations who have failed to have a competitive personnel department have failed in the long run because the decision to invest in people was not made systematically and having systems in an organization in today's corporate world is the most important thing because the scenarios and the whole landscapes change within a very short span of time and having systems makes an organization safe and less vulnerable to huge losses where as an organization with out systems to ensure the workings of every department and individual would be very difficult and hence in the long term this can only lead to failure. a) Recruitment and Selection: The recruitment and selection section of the personnel department is an integral part of the department and it has the job of selecting people from prospective candidates. It has the basic responsibility of assessing what kind of skills are required on the job, what technical skills are required, assessing who is competent enough and also to judge how flexible the employee is required to be. While at it, the selection section also needs to take into account all the external and internal factors that would have an impact on the recruitment of employees. The external factors can be the pay scales of a competitor and the internal factors might include the ambience and the environment of the company. b) Promotions: Promotions and job appraisals are the responsibility of the personnel department and this is no easy task because it has a lot of strategic value. The highly strategic positions when vacant can not be replaced by any one from outside the organization, in this situation the department needs to select a person from within the company and interview him for the post that they think he would be able to fill in. c) Keeping Track Of performance: The personnel department also needs to keep track of the performance of all the employees in the company. This is critical in establishing a proper and true performance based culture and the personnel department can certainly play an important role with regard to this, and this is a fairly new concept and hence innovative ideas can add to the repute of any personnel department and there certainly is potential for that. d) Policy Making: What is the difference between a good organization and a bad organization Policies and their fair implementation; this is how important policies are to a company and it is the responsibility of the personnel department to formulate them, though the approval is given by the higher management levels but the formulation in it self is very important because it defines how the organization would work. Will the laissez fair way of management be employed or a proper code of conduct would be maintained within the company, would their be penalties for late coming, would employees be allowed to wear casual clothes, would smoking be allowed in the offices, these are all the questions that the policy makers in the personnel department look to answer. An important point here though is that it is easy to go with the flow i.e. you can always implement policies that every one else is applying but going against the flow can at time be a good move but you need to bear in mind the culture of the organization and the environment that it operates in. The strategic importance of the personnel department can be increased manifolds if it is given importance in decision making and if a belief is placed in the decisions that it takes but for this to happen there should be checks in place to ensure there is transparency in the organization. Since a manager in the HR department oversees these roles he has the perfect idea of people who might need to be substituted and people who should be promoted so that they fill in the gaps appropriately, since the structural arrangements should all be perfect, there is better a judge than an HR manager to assist other managers with managing the structure and hence leading to comprehensive results. References 1. Ash, M.G. 1992. "Cultural Contexts and Scientific Change in Psychology: Kurt Lewin in Iowa." American Psychologist, Vol. 47, No. 2, pp. 198-207 2. Robbins, S (2004). Organizational Behavior - Concepts, Controversies, Applications. Prentice Hall. 3. Weick, C (1979). The Social Psychology of Organizing 4. Robbins, S. (2007). Essentials of Organizational Behavior. Pearsons Education 5. George, J. (2007). Understanding and Managing Organizational Behavior. Pearsons Education. 6. Osland, J. (2007). Organizational Behavior. Pearsons Education 7. Staw, B. (2003). Psychological Dimensions of Organizational Behavior. Pearsons Education. Read More