Organizational Trends Discussion - Essay Example

Introduction One of the most valuable business functions is organizational behavior. The applications of OB can help managers improve the operation of an organization. High performance organizations know how to utilize teamwork to increase the effectiveness of the workers. It is important to motivate employees to achieve greater performance, but this must not be done at the expense of causing work related stress. The major topics discussed in this paper are high performance organizations and stress in the workplace.

High Performance organizations (HPO) are described as environments that are especially designed to bring out the best performance out of its participants. This type of organization creates superior organizational capabilities that help sustain high performance driven results. HPO's tend to be organized around operational business processes and its human resource policies are designed to enhance employee's motivation, flexibility and knowledge. The main characteristics of an HPO are: employee involvement where decision making is delegated at all organizational levels, self directed work teams provide empowerment for organizational teams to be involved in planning, performing and evaluating their own performance, integrated production technologies to combine technology, resources and knowledge to better serve the organization's needs, and a total quality management philosophy to everyday business.

“High performance organizations strive to deliver superior service, quality and financial performance” (Schermerhorn & Hunt & Osborn). HPO's tend leaders in their respective industries have successful track records and they have the inherent flexibility and resourcefulness to respond to a rapidly changing and dynamic business environment. This type of organization tends to have a clear emphasis towards intellectual capital or the sum total of knowledge, expertise and dedication that is part of the organization's workforce.

High performance organizations are characterized by a relentless pursuit towards continuous improvement of its products, services and organizational processes. Their innovation, speed to market, and flexibility to rapidly respond to market forces allows this type of organization to achieve maximum operational performance. There are a number of stress management techniques utilized in today's organizational environment in order to better address the needs of today's workforce. Some of the techniques used are: a) Stress prevention - which entails taking action to prevent stress from reaching unmanageable or destructive levels in the first place.

Stress factors must be recognized and appropriate actions must be taken in order to eliminate or mitigate their impact in the workplace. b) Stress management- after recognizing the adverse factors that create stress symptoms and taking steps to address them. c) Personal wellness-taking proactive steps to help employees maintain a balanced and healthy state of mind and body in order to better help employees deal with potentially stressful situations or work environment. High performance organizations operate in a stressful competitive operational environment where it requires a relentless focus towards high efficiency and performance.

Some of the emerging factors demanding high organizational performance are: a) Changing customer expectations-through continuous improvement and the implementation of total quality management in its operations the organization is better able to align itself to better meet changing customer demands and expectations. b) Changing workforce -increased workforce diversity is a trend that continues to change the structure of our workforce and organization. Globalization, technology and team based work environments have pushed the need to integrate and better align resources to met organizational demands and needs. c) Changing organization-a constant need to re-invent themselves and adapt to the ever changing business environment has driven companies to adopt new ways of doing things and to constantly improve.

Trends such as process re-engineering, e-commerce, and team based work environments characterize today's businesses Conclusion Companies in today’s competitive environment have to find ways to become more efficient. The use of high performance teams is a great way to achieve that goal. It is imperative to obtain the best possible performance from the workforce of the organization. In order to prevent inefficiencies managers must ensure that the workers do not suffer from work related stress.

Stress can have a detrimental effect on the lives of the worker. As we move forward in the 21st century high performance team are going to become a critical success factor for many organizations. References Schermerhorn, J., Hunt, J., Osborn, R. (2003). Organizational Behavior (8th ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons.