Organisational Behaviour - Essay Example

?Organisational Behaviour Informal Groups & Organisational Culture Introduction This paper will discuss two important concepts; informal groups and organisational culture based on the prominent organisational theories and practical evidences from modern business environment. Firstly, the concept of informal group has got great significance in modern human resource management practices since this idea offers extensive benefits to employees and thereby to organisation as a whole. Human beings as social animals, wish to get respect, power, and autonomy. An informal group is defined as an association of individuals pooled toward the objective of sharing knowledge and views. Secondly, organisational culture in a broad sense refers to the ‘character’ of an organisation. I Informal Groups Generally, an informal group belongs to a work group in an organisation and it may not possess a formal structure. Despite its unorganised feature, the group members will have common interests and attitudes. To define, an informal group is not just a collection of people but indicates an internal social structure that gives emphasis on friendship relations rather than official relations (Employee motivation). Obviously organisations contain lot of informal groups. Even big issues can be easily tackled by people working together informally if they are very responsive to events. While dealing with urgent local issues, informal groups can be the best ones since they can easily recognise the actual cause of the issue. According to Bassy (2002, p.27), the idea of informal group came to light at the Hawthorne plant of the Western Electric Company in Chicago. This study was conducted by Elton Mayo, Roethlisberger, and Dickson. Functions of an informal group An informal group carries out functions both for individual workers and their employing organisation. The informal group conducts group discussions in order to come with the group’s vision, mission, and set of goal (Informal groups). After setting certain set of goals, they are broken down into short term and long term goals as this strategy assists the group to evaluate ideas and thereby add value to group performance. As Chaneta (2006) points out, the informal groups mainly functions to deal with employee issues. The most important function of an informal group is to meet the worksite security needs of its members. Every employee has the right to get satisfactory and safety worksite environment. There are certain situations when an employee is forced to work under dangerous worksite conditions. For instance, sometimes employees are compelled to work without safety equipments in a factory where there is a chance of chemical exposure. Under such circumstances, the employees are at higher risk of adverse worksite conditions. However, this type of issue can be effectively resolved if organisation contain active informal groups. Here, the group members discuss their problems and inform their suggestions to top management; the group power drives the management to respond to the issue immediately. Similarly, solving conflicts among the employees is another major function of informal groups. Nowadays, due to tough market competition, organisations tend to make the worksite atmosphere more strict and productive. This management policy may impose additional stress on workers and naturally it would lead to workplace conflicts. However, informal groups can more effectively deal with worksite conflicts than the management. Likewise, the informal groups serve organisational interests also. Every organisation aims at making its workers maximum productive and thereby increases the profitability. The informal groups functions to encourage its members to be innovative. Although the group’s fundamental objective is the betterment of employees, ultimately it contributes to organisational efficiency. For instance, employees’ innovative ideas may assist the organisation to reduce its cost of production or to more efficiently deal with day to day operations. Although informal groups also try to promote a sense of identity and self-respect among the members, it is considered to be the utmost function of informal groups. Therefore, it is obvious that the functions and activities of informal groups largely contribute to organisational interests. As per the Hawthorne studies, (as stated in “Informal Organizational Structure: The Hawthorne Studies”), the informal groups provide valuable information to managements based on which the management can predict how workers will react to various situations. The Hawthorne studies observe an informal group as an informal social structure that has almost the same potential of an organisation with formal structure. II Organisational Culture Scholars have given their own definitions to the concept of organisational culture different times. According to Schein, organisational culture is defined as “a pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group learned as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems” (Thomas, 2005, p.18). It seems to be a comprehensive definition covering all aspects of cultural elements in an organisation. Brown gives an exemplary definition for organisational culture by which the concept refers to “the pattern of beliefs, values and learned ways of coping with experience that have developed during the course of an organisation’s history, and which tend to be manifested in its material arrangements and in the behaviours of its members” (Maier, 2007, p.222). By analysing these two definitions, it is obvious that organisational culture is comprised of the assumptions, norms, and values of organisation’s members. Though it is very difficult to explain the culture of an organisation distinctly, it is possible to sense the difference in the organisational culture between two firms. For instance, the culture of a for-profit organisation would be quite different from that of a charitable organisation which also reflects difference when compared to a university. Types of cultures Deal and Kennedy proposed a classification scheme that distinguishes between different cultures by characterising four types of organisation. This classification is based on how quickly these organisations receive feedbacks and rewards for their operations. This strategy also considers the level of risks that these organisations take. As per the classification of Deal and Kennedy, the four types of cultures are work hard or play hard culture, tough-guy macho culture, process culture, and bet-the-company culture (Deal and Kennedy’s cultural model). 1. Work hard or play hard culture The work hard or play hard culture gets rapid feedbacks or rewards for its operations and contains few elements of risk. In this type of organisational culture, stress emerges out from quantity of work rather than uncertainty (Hays: Recruiting Experts in Pharma 2009). Probably, it involves high speed actions that result in rapid recreation. It has been also identified that this type of culture may cause comparatively larger stress elements to employees. Restaurants and software companies are best examples for this type of culture. 2. Tough-guy macho culture Rapid feedbacks and rewards are the most noticeable features of tough-guy macho culture. At the same time, it involves higher levels of risk and it may affect the efficiency of the organisation. Under this condition, stress occurs because of higher risk elements. In this case, organisations focus on present results rather than future outcomes. Police and sports come under this category of culture. 3. Process culture Under this concept, slow feedbacks and rewards seem to be the most characteristic features. The risk elements are weaker in the case of process culture. The fascinating feature of this culture is that it produces low stress. However, it is often observed that stress may be caused by internal politics and inefficiency of the system. Banks and insurance companies are best examples for process culture system. 4. Bet-the-company culture In bet-the-company culture, organisations get feedbacks and rewards slowly and are affected by high risk (Culture types). Under this culture, the stress is attributed to higher risk elements. Aircraft manufacturers and oil companies are some organisations that come under bet-the-company culture. References Bassy, M 2002, Motivation and Work: Investigation and Analysis of Motivation Factors at Work, Ekonomiska Institution, Linkoping, viewed 26 May 2011 Chaneta, I 2006, “Groups and group behavior”, Journal of Comprehensive Research, Volume 5, pp. 32-39 Culture Types (Deal and Kennedy), 12Manage: The Executive Fast Track, viewed 26 May 2011 Deal and Kennedy’s Cultural Model, ChangingMinds.org. viewed 26 May 2011 < http://changingminds.org/explanations/culture/deal_kennedy_culture.htm> Employee motivation, Accel team development, Advancing employee productivity, viewed 26 May 2011 Hays: Recruiting Experts in Pharma 2009, “Work hard, play hard: The impact of office cultures and relationships on business”, viewed 26 May 2011 Informal Organizational Structure: The Hawthorne Studies, viewed 26 May 2011 Informal groups, Saskatchewan eco network, Tools, viewed 26 May 2011 Maier, R 2007, Knowledge Management Systems: Information and Communication Technologies for Knowledge Management, Springer, Berlin. Thomas, SJ 2005, Improving Maintenance and Reliability through Cultural Change, Industrial Press Inc, New York. Read More