Application of organizational behavior concepts - Research Paper Example

?Application of Organizational Behavior Concepts: There are many major problematic issues considered toxic for organizational behavior (OB) and employee turnover rate by the researchers and human resource managers and some among them happen to be motivational issues, leadership issues, and stress-related issues. All of these grave and toxic issues for turnover rate and OB will be discussed at length in this paper while the relationship shared by each of these issues with OB will also be identified and contemplated. This paper basically strives to describe these three problematic issues which are proposed to be especially dangerous for OB and also identify effective solutions for eliminating these issues from the workplace for the betterment of the organization and the workforce in context of a Healthcare Inc. which is facing a challenge with high employee turnover. This paper will also explain how I identified the issues that were at the root of the turnover issues and why I think the measures proposed by me to the Healthcare Inc. would turn out as effective and successful. This remains a solid fact that the importance of the interview process in finding out the root causes of employee turnover is exceptional and phenomenal. This is a kind of magic tool which is totally unavoidable and unforgettable if finding out the reasons behind employee turnover is seriously intended. Even the HR professionals frequently employ this very important tool in their investigatory processes. Likewise, I also began my investigation for discovering the issues behind turnover by interviewing the employees working at the Healthcare Inc. which is apparently exposed to certain pressures consequential of high turnover. I designed a questionnaire including five questions referring to how unmotivated the employees feel at work, how stressed they feel at work, how bad the leadership is, if the workplace diversity affects them much, and if power and political issues influence the workplace environment. These questions were asked by every employee. Though a broad range of factors is reportedly responsible for OB issues like employee turnover but the results of my interviewing process highlighted three issues to be largely responsible. These happened to be motivational, leadership, and stress-related issues. I found a majority of employees to be dissatisfied with the leadership at Healthcare Inc. Some blamed the uninvolved managing style for high turnover while the rest laid the blame on the authoritarian or bossy leadership. As mismanaged behavior directly influences the workplace environment so the rate of stress at workplace also happened to remain high all the time and the workers reported about feeling stresses out and unmotivated at work. If leadership is imperfect and inappropriate, the kind of which neglects the preferences and needs of the workforce, if the workers start feeling stressed out when managers refuse to give them their time to sort out certain confusions, and if the absenteeism rate shoots up when workers get unmotivated to work proficiently, then the structural framework of OB deteriorates rapidly. The damage done to OB is first identified often when employee turnover is noticed to be rising. A high employee turnover can cost a company millions of dollars annually which certainly is no small deal because not only does it damage the position of the company in the market but also it produces a direct bad influence on the morale of the employees. Work-related stress can be painful to the point of insanity and stress arrives on the surface when work-related pressures exceed the tolerance capacity of the workers which is when the work stress starts bursting at the seams. The arrival of stress, in the same way, is directly related to excessive work or persistent boredom which can be often seen at any workplace where there is an unchanging aura due to negative attitude reserved for changes. What makes the work-related stress a serious and hazardous issue is the worst kind of depression it can lead a worker to. A depressed workforce is proved to be lethal for OB while a happy and content workforce is really an asset for a company’s future. Stress and low level of motivation often stem from poor leadership and these issues make employees unproductive which again interferes heavily with OB. Leadership exerts influence on the workplace environment either for good or worse. A peaceful and collaborative internal environment helps in grooming the hidden talents of initially unproductive employees. A domineering boss, in contrast, creates a rough workplace environment in which employees feel dissatisfied from their jobs. Research shows that job dissatisfaction among employees leads to high employee turnover. The famous Mobley model suggests that job dissatisfaction induces an employee to quit job, think about the benefits of joining another organization, and eventually employee turnover rises (Lee, 1988, p. 263). Mobley theorized that job satisfaction increases the level of commitment and job involvement. Negativity resulting from poor leadership, low level of motivation, and stress at work is an extreme dilemma which interferes with structural elements of OB like productivity and employee satisfaction. “One person's constant negativity infects the entire team and production drop. Unlike a cold, negativity doesn't disappear with time” (Norris, 2011). Happy, satisfied, and secure employees know how to deal with negativity at workplace, eliminate it, and foster productivity rate. They fully acknowledge that negativity developing due to work stress and bossy managers can be the most destructive force unleashed on a company. In context of solutions for reducing turnover, it is suggested that all companies including Healthcare Inc. which are suffering from unproductive employees related bad effects need to change the internal environment of the workplace. I think that working on the internal workplace environment would be an effective step because the difference between unsuccessful and successful companies mainly stems from the difference in the nature of internal environment. An unhappy and unproductive employee brings down productivity and foments negativity in the environment. It is also strongly suggested that the root causes which make an employee unhappy and unproductive should be addressed like tough workload, job insecurity, lack of challenge and management support, or workplace boredom (Schleifer, 2006). Research also suggests that working on the mental health state of the workforce can be very effective as a happy employee with a positive mind treating the workplace with dignity and managing other projects as if they are assigned typically to him/her hugely influences the rate of “customer satisfaction, loyalty, supply costs, turnover, sick days, project completion, quality and more” (Norris, 2011). Next, negative attitudes of the employees towards change implementation should be changes by the concerned leaders. The people in charge at the workplace should make the employees feel comfortable with the changes as much stress results when there is incompatibility between changes and employees. This cannot happen unless the managers get serious about managing behavior as mismanaged behavior produces bad consequences for turnover rate which is why managing behavior is strongly advised by making practical adjustments. Behavior analysis in many reports shows that “all sorts of targeted behaviors in organizations can be altered by practical adjustments of reinforcement contingencies and contextual variables (Daniels & Daniels, cited in Alavosius, 2008, p. 182). Working on the level of motivation is also very important as poor motivation damages OB and raises turnover rate. Workers commonly start getting unmotivated when there is less communication with the superiors at work. It is advised that orthodox communication strategies should be abandoned. Research also supports this suggestion as it is interestingly emphasized in an article by Argyris (1994) that a range of old communication tools be used by the business administrations can actually prove to be quite useless for maintaining the employee turnover rate. Old-concept based communication tools do not reflect on praising individual contribution and accountability. It is claimed in the article that it is critically important to get the employees focused on their work and behavior, rather than solely relying on tools like walk-around management to bring a productive change. Getting every individual worker entirely focused on the job assigned to him/her at the workplace should be a goal of every manager at Healthcare Inc. as this is the kind of goal which if achieved in time, underlines a reduced turnover and success of a company. Summing up, this much remains clear from the above discussion that employee turnover is undoubtedly a big issue in the present world and raises huge concern for the business companies as it relates directly to the rate of productivity and stability in the market. All three issues discussed in this paper and responsible for high turnover are directly related to OB. They infect OB and every person working for the organization which is why grave negativity starts enveloping the workplace. Both employers and employees should never ignore negativity originating from communication gap also which makes the employees dissatisfied with their jobs as a result of which turnover rises. As a precautionary measure, employees should hasten to fill the communication gap and feel motivated to do a lot of things which do not essentially fall in their assigned job circles. Such employees make a difference between companies with a soaring productivity and those struggling with turnover issues hopelessly. References: Alavosius, M.P. (2008). COMMENTS ON “THERE’S A POLICY FOR THAT”: INTERDISCIPLINARY ANALYSES OF HOSTILE WORK ENVIRONMENTS. Behavior and Social Issues, 17, 182-185 Argyris, C. (1994). Good Communication that Blocks Learning. Harvard Business Review, 72, 77-85. Lee, T.W. (1988). How job dissatisfaction leads to employee turnover. Journal of Business and Psychology, 2(3), 263-271. Norris, B. (2011). How to Create and Sustain a Positive Workplace—A Leader's Guide. Retrieved from http://www.briannorris.com/speaking/moraletraining.html Schleifer, J. (2006). Workplace Negativity: Ways to Beat It. Retrieved from http://hrdailyadvisor.blr.com/archive/2006/08/23/workplace_negativity_pessimism_how_to_beat_it.aspx Read More