Importance Of Organizational Behaviour To Managers Management Essay

Business is created and managed by people. Whether it is a small enterprise or a big enterprise, organizations are created and run by the people in order to satisfy the human objectives. Organizational behaviour is a term that is related to the individuals and the people working in teams (Middleton J, 2002). Following are some definitions of organisational behaviour.

“It is a field of study that investigates the impact of an individual, a group or the structure of an organization on the behaviour within the enterprise so that this knowledge can help in the improvement of organizational effectiveness.” This definition of organizational behaviour has three parts. First part is that organization behaviour is the analytical study of people. Second part is the affect of structure of organization on the human behaviour. Third part is using this knowledge in order to improve the effectiveness in the organization. All these parts are interactive in nature and helps in the achievement of the goals (Gregory M, 1994).

According to Stephen P Robins, “Organizational behaviour is the systematic study of the actions and attitudes that people exhibit within the organizations.”

This study is getting very important and the reason behind this is that people from different ethnic groups have to work in collaboration very efficiently. It is not only a study but application of managerial skills so that individual or group behaviour can be identified with this knowledge (Middleton J, 2002).

Importance of organizational behaviour to managers

Managers in the organizations have important roles. They help in the planning, organizing, directing and controlling. Along with these, managers perform ten managerial roles developed by Henry Mintzberg (1960). These roles are divided into three major categories as mentioned below:

Interpersonal Roles

These are the roles in which managers spend lots of time with others within and outside the organization like colleagues, peers, customers etc. These interactions have the basic requirement of the understanding of the personal behaviour. Managers perform different roles of Figure, Leadership and Liaison role. As in a figure role, managers need to complete legal and social obligations. As in a leadership role, managers need to coordinate with their colleagues and subordinates in a unit or an organization. As in liaison role, manager needs to keep in touch both within and outside organization so as to be aware of the competitive external environment and market (Stephen P, 1992).

Informational Roles

Manager can also act as the source of information in various issues in an organization. In these circumstances, manager performs the monitor, disseminator and spokesperson role. As in a monitor role, managers always keep an eye on the internal as well as external environment and keeps on reading reports and periodicals. As in an information disseminator role, managers keep on passing on the information related to the policies and procedures. As a spokesperson, manager represents his or her department or unit and keeps on sharing relevant information with other units (Stephen P, 1992).

Decisional Roles

Manager can also act as the decision maker so as to sort out the organizational problems. In this capacity, manager can play the role of entrepreneur, conflict handler, resource allocator and negotiator role. As an entrepreneur, managers always look for innovative ideas for the improvement of their units. As a conflict handler, managers act as judge between two parties in order to solve the conflicts. As a resource allocator, managers make sure that relevant resources have been allocated to projects on a priority basis. As a negotiator, manager helps in negotiating the deals in and out of organization (Stephen P, 1992).

All these roles and very important and vary from manager to manager in the organization. Managers can’t perform these roles unless they have the understanding of the organizational behaviour. As all these roles are related to the communication between the managers and other staff whether inside or outside, lower level of higher level. This relevant communication motivates the employees in the organization and improves the performance of the organization (Gregory M, 1994).

Importance of Organizational Behaviour @ Tesco

Let’s take the example of Tesco. Individuals are very important and play a significant role in the Tesco and so is their behaviour. The personality and behaviour of an employee can affect the way how a business runs. If the employees represent themselves properly, they will attract customers. Their interaction among themselves and with the customer is also important. IF a customer is not happy with the service provided in Tesco, the customer will not come back and hence Tesco can lose a customer. This can show a bad image in the eyes of customer. This is outside the organization. This if happens within Tesco means an argument that can lead to conflict between the employees. This conflict can affect the performance of the organization. Some good personality traits can help improve the performance of the organization. A good personality trait will tell the manger that a particular individual is capable of handling the work alone and will do maximum to improve the performance of organization.

Manager must be able to identify the individual personality trait as it will help them develop human resource management techniques at Tesco and thus they will be able to hire the best people for Tesco and out them into relevant sections of the business. Also this will help the managers to identify the relevant training needs of the individuals as everyone has different needs and learning strategies e.g. kinaesthetic learner, visual learner, auditory learner etc. Thus the managers at Tesco will be able to choose the individuals according to their characteristics and Tesco’s needs.

Section II

Belbin Team Roles

These roles were developed by Belbin in 1981.This has been the most widely used tool for efficient team building. Belbin identified the nine roles that are grouped into three categories. There are three action oriented roles, three people oriented roles and three cerebral roles as mentioned in the following table. According to Belbin (1981), “a team role is a tendency to behave, contribute and interrelate with others in a specific way”.

Belbin team role theory has several practical applications in order to diagnose and influence behaviours of the teams. The team roles portray a pattern related to the behaviour and it depicts the behaviour of an individual in context with other so that the team can progress. Belbin team roles theory can be used in several ways- whether it is balancing of a team before project starts, highlight and manage personal differences or develop an individual as a team player.

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Figure 1: Belbin Team Roles. (Source: Belbin R, 1996)

Practical Application of Belbin Team Roles

Managers can identify the strengths and weaknesses of a team in order to analyze it. Belbin team role theory can be applied in following way.

Assess the behaviour of the individuals in the team with respect to their contribution in the team for some time.

List down the strengths and the weaknesses of each member of the team that has been observed.

Compare the strengths and weaknesses with the defined roles in the Belbin team role descriptions.

After this comparison, the manager can find the roles that are missing in his team and its corresponding missing strengths. Also managers can find about the team role that is shared by many team members.

Once these weaknesses, missing strengths etc have been identified then the manager can think about the ways to improve on this and plan it carefully.

An ideal team must possess all nine team roles and that too healthy ones. Stronger teams have a co-ordinator, a monitor evaluator, an implementer, team worker, resource investigator and a finisher (Forster N, 2005). If any of the roles is missing in the team then it can be filled in by some relevant individual.

Importance of Team Roles @ HMRC

Let’s talk about UK Tax office i.e. HMRC. The employees working in these offices need to be compliant with more strict rules and regulations. Legal standards are very rigid & important and must be followed in this organization. Thus in such an organization more monitors and finishers are required to accomplish the tasks as opposed to shapers and resource investigators in a software development organization. Monitors are the ones who are good at evaluating the ideas critically and test the ideas proposed. Finishers are the ones who are perfectionist and like to see if the overall things fit for the purpose and that everything has been completed successfully and are very much concerned about even very small details. In HMRC, people like monitors and finishers play a significant role. As it is concerned with the strict adherence of the procedures and rules thus it is very important to choose people who look for each and every minute detail carefully and can provide the critical evaluation of the new ideas. The Belbin theory of team role can help the managers to compare their team members with the roles defined and see what type of people are there in the team and what the team is lacking in characteristics so that weaknesses can be recovered (Forster N, 2005).

Section III

Motivation Theories

Motivation is the power that commences, directs and preserves the goal-oriented behaviour. It is related to get the things done. E.g. someone wants to earn a degree, so he or she takes admission in college. The power behind motivation can be emotional, social or biological in nature. It is the duty of manager to get the work done from the subordinates and for this he should be able to motivate employees. But motivating someone is not as easy as it seems to be. Plenty of motivation theories have been in place but all these are not clearly understood and poorly practiced (Cherry K, nd). Couple of these theories are described here.

Maslow’s Theory

According to the Maslow theory of motivation, five essential needs are important for the motivation of human beings. A pyramid known as hierarchy of needs has been formed demonstrating the five essential needs (Maslow, 1949).

Bottom of the pyramid shows basic needs like food and shelter that motivate people to work hard. People get the salaries and these needs are met. After these needs are satisfied, people look for their safety and security through good and safe job. Then comes the social needs like the need to belong to a group. Self esteem is the next need after social needs. Self-esteem is the need that can be satisfied with the recognition or the promotion. And the topmost need is the self-fulfilment. Self fulfilment means personal development, creativity and interests. If a person gets his need satisfied for one level then he gets motivated to the next level (Maslow, 1949).

Maslow’s Theory @ Tesco

Tesco keeps perfect inclination towards the motivation of its employees. The management at Tesco looks for the basic needs of the employees that can be done with the regular monthly salary. In the next level of needs, Tesco provides the safe jobs by providing the formal agreements with the employees and helping them with the sickness and pension scheme and takes care of their health and safety at work place. Tesco managers also make sure that employees work in groups at different levels. This will make sure that they learn from each other and promote their skills. Tesco management also promotes the self respect and the respect for others. Tesco has launched a 360 degree feedback system in which the contributions from every person are recognised and rewarded. Hard work pays and this keeps the motivation high in the employees. Tesco management has also kept the options for the self development open for it employees. All the employees get the opportunity to receive training for the career progression and promotions. These levels motivate employees one after another and thus they work together in order to improve the performance of the organization.

Herzberg Theory

Frederick Herzberg developed a theory in 1959 known as two factor theory of motivation. According to his research, some factors are considered as the real motivators or satisfiers and others were hygiene factors. Absence of hygiene factors could be troublesome and can cause frustration. If there is improvement in the hygiene factors then the frustration can be reduced but hygiene factors alone don’t provide motivation. Hygiene factors include pay and benefits, company policy, relationship with colleagues, working conditions, job security, status and personal life. Satisfiers like achievement, recognition, promotion and growth (Herzberg, 1959). Thus it is very important that an enterprise creates such conditions that could make an employee feel fulfilled.

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Figure 3: Herzberg Two factor Theory (Source: Herzberg M, 1960)

Herzberg Theory @ Tesco

Tesco management keeps an eye on both hygiene factors as well as satisfiers. These factors help motivate and empower the staff and that is done by delegation on responsibility, accurate communication, engage them in decision making. Thus the staffs that make contributions can be identified and rewarded with the appropriate recognition. Staff members in Tesco can also chose the restaurant menus that can increase the use of restaurants and benefit Tesco and thus employees feel motivated. Tesco provides the better opportunities for its employees to share a bigger interest in their employment and keep them motivated. Every individual has his own needs and thus different review plans are important to keep them motivated. Tesco’s rewards programme is a motivating factor. Tesco does much more than just paying straight salaries so that its employees remain motivated. It gives them other benefits that help them maintain their life style. Other motivating factor is the responsibility. Tesco gives the responsibility to work to its staff and thus the feel that they have been considered sensible and they try to perform better so that they get recognition and this keeps them motivating (Herzberg, 1959).

Enterprises need such employees that are motivated and as proven by Maslow and Herzberg; there are different factors that can motivate employees