Organisation behaviour is a very important concept of effective management

Introduction:

Management is process of organise ideas, activities and people. Without organise activities individuals and teams are not involved in successful performance of work organisations. All the managers in organisation perform certain functions to get things done by teams and individuals. Organising is the process of allocating work, arranging team and groups, allocating power and recourses among the members of organisation to achieve goals and objectives of the organisation.

Stephen P. Robbins (1997) defines ‘Organisation behaviour as a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behaviour within organisations for the purpose of applying such knowledge towards improving organisations effectiveness’. Thus Organisation Behaviour is fundamentally concerned with what people do in organisations. It applies the knowledge gained by individuals, teams and group which makes organisation work more effectively.

Organisation behaviour is a very important concept of effective management in modern era of business. Organisation behaviour is the study of people’s behaviour in the organisation because organisation is not known for their buildings and locations but for their human recourses. Now a day Multi National Companies (MNCs) are operating their business globally and they are adopting cross cultural approach to the managing people from different cultures and regions thus the study of organisational behaviour is very important for companies to achieve their goals (Mullins L, 2005).

Most Important factors to effective Organisational performance:

The factors like leadership, motivation and rewards, organisational culture, and training and development which are most important for the successful performance of work organisations.

Leadership is the process in which followers and situations are involves as a process ingredients and catalyst respectively. The Effectiveness of a leader is too important for any organisation, society and country. Effective leaders create results, attain goal, and realize vision and other objectives more quickly and at a higher level of quality than ineffective leaders (Hughes et al, 2006). There was substantial uncertainty in the integration that was only made poorer by the external environment such as financial markets’ crisis.  The leadership plays a critical role in the beginning of the integration of the businesses. Management usually viewed as getting things done by other people in the organisation while leader can work as group member to achieve goals. The functions of leadership are carried out by managers who behave like group members they can achive organisational goals more effectively.

The leadership is key factor in the effectiveness of the integration and successful performance of the organisation, with social influence theory guiding the argument in the development of trust between the employees and the leaders.  Based on the organisational behaviour theories, it appears the performance going forward to build the organisational commitment for workforce and ensures the effectiveness of the managers. 

Organisational Culture: Organisations build up their culture through history, tradition, structure and organisational goals. Organisational Culture gives an idea of organisation’s mission, organisation’s leaders, rituals, beliefs, values and normal behaviour pattern. An organisations’ culture summarized what it has been good at and what has achieved in the past.

Types of Organisational culture:

A power culture is one based on the authority of one or a few number of persons within an organisation. They make important decisions for the organisation.

A role culture is present in large hierarchical organisations in which managers have clear roles to complete which are personally specified. Managers tend to work closely to their job description according to rules and regulations of the organisation.

A task culture exists when teams are formed to complete particular tasks. A separate team culture develops, and because the team is empowered to make decisions.

A person culture is the most unique form of culture and exists when persons are fully allowed to express themselves and make decisions for them.

Culture change involves moving an organisation on from one form of culture to another, usually through a culture change programme (Schein, H 1992).

Motivation and rewards: Motivation is a behaviour that you can influence but not create. Even highly motivated individuals can get frustrated, discouraged, or tired on a project. Team members need to know they are valued, their efforts are noticed, and their good work is appreciated. Managers are usually aware to some extent of the ways in which both intrinsic and extrinsic types of motivation affect performance and work satisfaction, but there are many complexities in how these different types of motivations and their relevant rewards affect behaviour. One of the most subtle and demanding complexities has been found to occur when extrinsic rewards are given for performance in a task which would otherwise have been undertaken purely out of interest. But effects of the interaction are not simple and have been a subject of extensive debate in recent years.

How extrinsic rewards affect intrinsic motivation obviously has many implications for the management of incentives for work and study where both extrinsic rewards and intrinsic motivation are very often found together.

Extrinsic rewards have been found to reduce intrinsic motivation, but not in all circumstances. The majority of published research has dealt with the effect on motivation rather than performance, but consequent effects can be evident in performance, and there are many theoretical predictions supported at least in part by empirical findings. When people are intrinsically motivated they tend be more aware of a wide range of phenomena, while giving careful attention to complexities, inconsistencies, novel events and unexpected possibilities. They need time and freedom to make choices, to gather and process information, and have an appreciation of well finished and integrated products, all of which may lead to a greater depth of learning and more creative output. Extrinsic rewards tend to focus attention more narrowly and to shorten time perspectives, which may result in more efficient production of predefined or standardised products. Job satisfaction and long term commitment to a task may also be affected (Mullins L, 2002).

By intrinsic motivation we mean a process of stimulation and satisfaction in which the rewards come from carrying out an activity rather from a result of the activity. We speak of the rewards being intrinsic to a task rather than the task being a means to an end that is rewarded or satisfying. By contrast, one might work hard at a task in order to eat or gain social approval. Such work, undertaken as a means to an end, is typically deficit motivated behaviour, in which there is a reward as a consequence of effort to reach a goal where the deficit is reduced. Intrinsic motivation tends more to be appetitive, new information arousing a slight interest leading to an appetite for more.

Training and development: Well-trained employees are the key to business success. Studies have shown that the most successful, productive employees are those who have received extensive training. They are the cream of the crop, often having the strongest stake in the company’s future. Employee training and development initiatives can transform organisations with providing extra skills to your employees to not only increase safety and productivity but training leads to higher job satisfaction, which shows up successful work performance of the organisation (Brooks I, 2003).

Valuable training also includes situational training that provides personnel the skill sets that allow them to make timely, knowledgeable decisions that benefit both the customer and the company. The quality of employees and their development through training and education are most important.

Benefits of Training and Development:

Building a more efficient, effective and highly motivated team, which enhances the company’s competitive position and improves employee morale.

Ensuring adequate human resources for expansion into new programs.

Research has shown specific benefits that an organisation receives from training and developing its workers, including:

Increased productivity.

Reduced employee turnover.

Increased efficiency resulting in financial gains.

Decreased need for supervision.

Employees frequently develop a greater sense of self-worth, dignity and well-being as they become more valuable to the firm and to society. Generally they will receive a greater share of the material gains that result from their increased productivity. These factors give them a sense of satisfaction through the achievement of personal and company goals (Steven S, 2000).

Case Study on Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Firm “Sutherland”

Sutherland Global Services was founded in 1986 as a global BPO and Technology Enabled service company offering  an  integrated  set  of  back‐office  and  customer  facing  front office  services  which maintain and support the complete customer lifecycle thorough out the many countries and regions. It is one of the largest, independent global BPO companies. It currently has main Headquartered in Rochester, N.Y; Sutherland employs over 26,000 professionals and has 25 global delivery centres in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Nicaragua, India, the Philippines, Bulgaria, and the United Kingdom (http://www.sutherlandglobal.com/).

Prior to pursuing this course, I had an experience in this BPO at my home country India where I used to work as a Customer Sales Executive. Where, I personally felt the experience of working under good knowledgeable highly skilled leaders who used to keep their team as a strong benchmarking level. The quality of leadership offered was too generous. Every employee used to given a chance or suggestion for exchanging their views and opinions in order to reformulate management or other exhibit activities.

The Sutherlands’ leadership will be key factor in the effectiveness of the integration and successful performance of the organisation, with social influence theory guiding the argument in the development of trust between the employees and the leaders.  Based on the organisational behaviour theories, it appears the performance going forward are to build the organisational commitment of the global workforce and ensure the effectiveness of the Sutherland’s senior managers. 

Such a diverse and huge BPO have human resources from 25 countries with different cultures, religions and diversities. The organisational culture of the Sutherland is a role culture type   where regional managers have clear roles to complete which are personally specified. All managers tend to work closely to achieve their organisational goals and objectives as per their job description and according to rules and regulations of the Sutherland. Teams of every BPO local centre are using task culture where teams are formed to complete particular tasks. A separate team culture develops, and empowered to make decisions.

Furthermore, employee motivation and rewards system was excellent out there. Employee itself works hard to achieve certain goal which let them feels like special amongst the rest. Moreover, two types of rewards in the form of motivation used to given out to the employees. first was the financial Incentive, bonus, Arius and commission was the categories while second was the individual appraisal, promotion and recognition was the formalised rewards system carry out. In a way whole paradigm of organisation meant to increase company’s revenues. Sutherland’s policy to motivate employee and invest on them is create more stable and effective workforce which are important for BPO companies.

However, employee training was beyond the boundary, company mainly puts emphasis on each and individual employee they understands and gives feasible amount of training to respective employee irrespective of level of employees work. (Katz and Kahn, 1978).Core areas of employee training were to understand and make them confident enough to sustain against every situation comes around while employee hits the floor. Sutherland provides education to their staff to effective communicate with customers from everypart of the world. Through training and development of the Sutherland’s employees take any challenge and support other members of staff to achieve organisational goals more effectively. Thus these four factors leadership, organisational culture, motivation and rewards and training and development are important for any successful work organisations.

Main Obstacles affecting Organisation Performance:

There are some obstacles are affecting successful performance of the work organisation which are mainly inner conflicts and resistance to change

Inner conflicts: internal conflicts usually when there is a lack of communication between two departments or say individuals. It can also arise if there is a lack of enthusiasm among the different individuals working in the same company. It also give arise to a conflict if at all there is some deficiency in the vision of seeing towards the managing of system.

One of the critical obstacles which potentially distracts the overall management of an organisation which leads to conflicts between all the levels of employee such as top middle and low level of management. Furthermore, individual difference such as gender difference or cultural difference may affects the companies’ inner environment which leads to loss of trust in each other and portray lack of integrity in teams as well as overall moral of team gets down (Dale and Fox, 2008).

One more reason of the internal conflicts is the generation gaps among the employees working in the same departments that is the younger generation has got more independent thoughts and also they are more enthusiastic in order of adapting new working patterns, as a result of which the conflicts starts arising between them.

Resistance to Change: According to Fischer (2008) resistance to change is a main obstacle for successful organisation in the working environment or say degradation of the system. This would make difficult for the employees working in the organisation to get adapted to the new change. This kind of conflict arise because personality, perception and learning ability of every individual is different hence its create insecurity in employees mind that they can not face this new change and might loss their job or status in the organisation due to lack of knowledge or understanding which imparted by new technology.

In most of the firms when the system gets upgrade or when there is any new change or new technology come into the working style most of the employees found a major conflict in adapting it. The reason behind that is most of the employees after a specific pattern; it becomes a tradition of working in that style. Hence after using such a tradition and if suddenly a new pattern is introduced, it becomes very difficult for the employees to adapt the new concept which ultimately gives a raise to conflict.

A Case Study of State Bank of India:

In order to make this concept clearer let us take one case study, when I was back in India there was a big issue with one of the most prestigious bank of India that is “State Bank of India”. State Bank of India (SBI) was founded in 1806 as a banking service company. SBI offer all kind of banking services. In addition to being the largest commercial bank in India with over 11,500 branches, Bank has offices in 32 countries with a network of 93 branches spanning all the time zones so your investment is always working for you. State Bank of India is the 50th largest bank in the world.

SBI have branches in every small towns, cities and metro in India. The individual difference and role relationship conflict arise in many branches because of all the people of different race, communities and culture working on same branch of bank. Internal conflicts arise due to lack of communication and enthusiasm. Lower management and upper management conflict arise and employees are doing strike and shut down bank operations some times

All the banks in India going to get upgraded and were going to get computerised. SBI was also became computerised hence the conflicts have arisen and most of the employees were working with the traditional system from more than last 30 years and more over none of the employees had any knowledge regarding computers, so when computerised system was introduced it become so hard for them to adapt it thus resistance to change created conflicts in SBI. But eventually after giving them lots of trainings it finally came into existences. Thus it is the best example which can explain it more specifically (http://www.sbiuk.com/about-us.aspx).

How to overcome from these obstacles to successful work organisation:

To overcome from internal conflicts like individual differences and role relationship conflicts, many organisation follows conflict management model where they can change the behaviour and inter-relate difference. An assertive conflict comprises competition, collaboration while a non-assertive conflict comprises avoidance, accommodation in the form of co-operative and non co-operative methods of solving inner conflicts (Lau et al, 2008).

To overcome from resistance to change conflicts mostly organisation delivers seminars to change their perception, provides training and education to employees regarding new technology and computers. Make the new change enjoyable for employees which lead to them more output in less time. Hence SBI needs to try these suggestions to overcome from obstacles which are affecting successful performance of work organisation.

Changing nature of Modern work organisation:

New forms of work organisation have come up in last 25 years which is known as modern work organisation. Many organisations have adopted these new forms and become more successful work organisation. Work has been restructured by new technologies; new looms that attempt to involve staff in improving product quality using less inventories. Employee’s involvement can provide employees with control over their operational lives or it can provide employees with the opportunity to mention on work organisation but leave the real authority relationships untouched.

The work organisation was changed a lot over the time from 19th century (traditional work organisation) to 21st century (modern work organisation). Traditional work organisational structure was layered with functional departments while Modern work organisational structure is more flat containing process teams. Traditional work organisations’ employees were controlled and did specified task only while modern work organisations’ employees are empowered and doing multi tasks. Managers and executives were supervisors and scorekeepers in traditional work organisation; they become coaches and leaders in the modern work organisation. Working system value was protective in traditional work organisation which is productive in modern work organisation. New job started with training in traditional organisation but in modern work organisation new job start with learning. Employee’s promotion was based on performance and activities in traditional work organisation while in modern work oganisation employees’ promotional is based on their ability and outcomes of their their activities (Mullins L, 2002).

The changing nature of modern work organisation is due to globalisation, more customer focused markets, change in telecommunication, fast spread of Information technology and worldwide competition. The Modern work organisation is like now more flexible and fundamentally changed from generally accepted management theories and techniques. Social, economical and legal factors have changed the concept of corporate social responsibilities (CSR) and business morals. Modern work organisation’s philosophy is based on trust among employee, teamwork, individual responsibilities and personal development of staff. These changes can have a variety of results. Computers can create new and challenging jobs and they can also be used to make existing jobs more repetitive. There are ongoing debates on modern work organisation, how effective they are in making firms more productive and disagreement on whether they allow workers to work smarter or simply force them to work harder. At the same time many proposals that call for greater worker control are seen as being mismatched with the rights of management.

‘Management is a cornerstone of organisational effectiveness, and the integrating activity that permeates every facet of the operations of the organisation’.

I agree with this statement because Management is a vital part of successful organisation. Organisational goals are achieved by employees through management’s direction, guidance and integration. Without people there can be no organisation and no productive activity thus managing people effectively is the responsibility of management. Effective management of people in the organisation is very important because physical recourses are owned by organisation but human recourses are not owned by organisation. People have their own feelings, perception, attitude, ideas and working style towards organisation. Thus the role of successful management is to integrate individual and the organisation. The changing nature of modern work organisation is also affect the management but the integrating activity of management which permeates every part of the operations of the organisation.

Management as the cornerstone of organisational effectiveness:

Management includes a collection of diverse functions undertaken to complete an organisational goal successfully. In the simple word, management is all about ‘getting things done’. The term management may be defined recently, but it was present at a time when humankind started learning the art of organising and simply planning.

Peter Drucker (1993) defined management as “Supplying knowledge to find out how existing knowledge can best be applied to produce results is, in effect, what we mean by management. But knowledge is now also being applied systematically and purposefully to determine what new knowledge is needed, whether it is feasible, and what has to be done to make knowledge effective. It is being applied, in other word to systematic innovation” thus it is clear from definition that management is an innovative as well as a efficient flow of knowledge that can be applied to achieved organisational goals by using people and other recourses in an effective way.

Management theories are mainly of two types, one concentrates mainly on efficiency and another concentrates mainly on effectiveness. Efficiency is about doing things the right way and Effectiveness is about doing the right things. Combination of efficiency and effectiveness is very important for good management style. Organisational effectiveness depends on the organisational structure, operations of organisations, and the process of management and the behaviour of people at work but management is the key factor of organisational effectiveness. Process of management is influenced by legal, social and environmental factors.

Managerial roles are mainly five types; organising, commanding, coordinating, controlling and planning.

Organising is key role of manager which means being responsible for jobs and tasks being carried out by individuals within organisation.

Commanding is important role which means giving orders and instructions to individuals and expecting them to be carried out to achieve organisational goal.

Coordinating (Integrating) is essential role of manager which means all activities are arranged, adjusted and integrated in time and situation to ensure smooth running of all organisational operations.

Controlling is supervising role of manager which involves directing, inspecting and controlling individuals and teams.

Planning is fundamental role of manager which means determines in advance what should be consummated and how it should be consummated (Bounds et al, 1994).

It is clear from above discussion that management is a cornerstone of organisational effectiveness and without management is not easy to carry out all operations to achieve organisational goals.

Management as an integrating activity:

Management is heterogeneous and is accepting at all levels of the organisation, as it is an integrating activity. Managers have to manage in order to achieve the organisational goals. Every organisation is seeking effective managers, and the quality of management is a key element of organisational effectiveness. There are mainly four things which influence on organisation behaviour: The Individual, the group, the organisation and the environment.

The Individual: Organisations are made up of individual members. Individuals are essential to the study of organisational behaviour. Conflict starts if requirements and demands of the organisation and the individual are mismatched, thus the role of management is to integrate individuals and the organisation as a way to accomplishing organisational goals.

The Group: Groups are important to organisational work and performance. Groups are either formal or informal. Groups often build up their own hierarchies and leaders. Groups can influence personality behaviour and performance of the individual, thus managerial understanding is very important for group processes can help the task of integration.

The Organisation: Prescribed organisational structure is produced by management. It establishes internal relationships between management and the employees. It provides order and systems among staff and managers. Organisational design can have an impact on the behaviour of people within organisations, thus management helps to direct the organisation towards the achievement of organisational goals through integration of organisational activities.

The environment: External environmental factors like technological and scientific development, economic activity, social and cultural influences and the impact of government actions affects the organisation to achieve its goals, thus management needs to integrate the opportunities and risks presented by the external environment to the achievement of goals.

Management can integrate the Individual, the group, the organisation and the environment which influence on organisation behaviour. To improving relationship of people and organisation is based on following four points (Gerstein and Shaw, 2008).

Organisational processes and execution of work: Management needs to improve organisational processes to help individuals within the operations, who can plan and execute their job effectively to get optimum output using fewer inventories.

Coordinating efforts of members of the organisation: Management needs to coordinate efforts of individuals within the organisation, which can create new organisational climate in which they can work more effectively and willingly.

Coherent Pattern of activities within total work organisation: Management needs to adapt rational pattern of activities within total work organisation, which can create employee friendly pattern of activities to improve individual speed and style of work.

Systems of motivation, job satisfaction and rewards: Management needs to give motivation and rewards to individuals within the organisation, which can satisfy needs of people at work. Job satisfaction and motivation is very important for employee to work hard for attain organisational goals.

It is clear from above discussion that management is an integrating activity that permeates every facet of the operations of the organisation. The integrating activity of organisational effectiveness and without management is not easy to carry out all operations to achieve organisational goals.

Conclusion:

The overall study comprises Management is a critical part of organisational effectiveness. Organisations are known by their people which are the important asset of the modern work organisations thus the behaviour of the people is very important for study point of view which create organisational behaviour and culture. Organisational behaviour is a very important concept of effective management in modern era of business. The Multi National Companies (MNCs) are operating their business globally and they are adopting cross cultural approach to the managing people from different cultures and regions thus the study of organisational behaviour is very important for companies to achieve their goals.

This study also comprises of different aspects mainly which are leads to successful performance of the work organisations. According to my research I thought most important factors for organisation’s improvement such as employees training; rewards and motivation, organisational culture and further how nature of working environment remains healthy by excellent leadership, but there so many other factors which also important for successful performance of organisation. It is clear from the case study of Sutherland Global (BPO) Company that training and development, motivation and rewards, leadership and organisational culture are most important factors for successful performance of work organisation. There are several obstacles to effective organisational performance but the main obstacles like inner conflicts and resistance to change highlighted along with the case study of State Bank of India (SBI) and how to overcome from it while the factors described which affects the performance of an organisation.

Lastly, the changing natures of modern work organisations create flexibility and improve management roles on each step to shaping successful organisation. Due the globalisation and new technologies the traditional management style change a lot, the structure of modern work organisation is mostly decentralise, employee friendly and employee can share their ideas and thoughts with management to improve organisational effectiveness, but the integrating activity of the management that permeates every facet of the operations of the organisation which makes management a cornerstone of the organisational effectiveness.