The Context Of Organizational Behaviour Issues Business Essay

Organization is defined as, “a consciously coordinated social unit composed of two or more people that functions on a relatively continuous basis to achieve a common goal or set of goals.” (Robbins, 2009) For the purpose of this paper, I have taken the example of one such company called Heidmar Tankers. Organizational Behaviour is defined as, “a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behaviour within organizations, for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organization’s effectiveness.” (Hiriyappa, 2009) Organizational behaviour is one of the most critical aspects for a company which trades oil tankers worldwide, to service customers such as oil majors, energy traders, big oil consumers, etc. In order, to methodically trade the assets worldwide, such a company has to run offices in different time zones, having diverse work atmosphere, constantly evolve new strategies, have common reporting tools, regulate organizational behaviour yet achieve desired goals & always have organizational effectiveness.

Since oil tankers are the most essential marine link in the global energy supply chain, hence reputation of such an organization is dependent on reliability, transparency & safety, to be a leader in this industry. In any transport & logistic business the customer should be aware of the progress of shipments, on a real time basis thus evolving the need to have very effective technology tools & dynamic work force proficient in handling such technologies.

Since the business model involves oil tanker transport, hence this industry is a capital intensive, where knowledge & competency of the shore staff, is the key to globally safe & cohesive operations. A small mistake can lead to catastrophically deadly disasters such as the Exxon Vladez, Prestige Incident, Horizon Oil rig, etc.

Objective

In the modern workplace today, there are many challenges and opportunities in the area of Organizational Behavior. Understanding OB has never been more important for management of organizations. Some of the objectives of O.B. include but are not limited to –

1.21. O.B. affectively helps Heidmar deal with issues such as –

Countering Economic Burdens –

Responding to Globalization –

Overseeing Workforce Multiplicity

Improving Quality and Efficiency

Improving Customer Service

Refining People Skills

Invigorating Invention and Revolution

Working in Networked Establishments

Facilitating Employees Balance Work-Life Conflicts

Generating a Positive Work Ambiance

Cultivating Ethical Behavior

1.22. Choosing the Right manager for the job

A skilled manager for any organization is not one only with Technical and quantitative skills but also leadership and communication skills. Management therefore in the context of an organization, is a deliberately synchronized collective constituted of two or more individuals that perform on a reasonably incessant basis to accomplish a common goal or set of goals.

1.23. Making a manager understand the role better

According to Henri Fayol, a French industrialist, “all managers perform five management functions; planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating & controlling. Today they have been condensed to four; planning, organizing, leading & controlling.” (Robbins, 2009) Pg. 5.

1.24. Disciplines such as Psychology, Social Psychology, Sociology and Anthropology, have furthered the advancement in the field of Organizational Behavior, since they are devoted to understanding behavioral sciences.

1.25. Predicting Behavior from attitudes since essential central attitudes have a strong relationship to conduct and performance.

1.26. Understanding Emotions in O.B. –

Historically the study of organizational behavior has not given much attention to emotions. Emotions were typically seen as irrational so managers tended to work to make the workplace emotion-free.

Emotional Intelligence (EI) is a growing area of study and is becoming increasingly important in the understanding of individual behavior. EI is pulling in one’s understanding of emotions and their impact on behavior. An individual who is emotionally intelligent will have a strong sense of self-awareness, recognizing your own emotions when experienced. They are also able to detect emotions in others. Emotional cues are directed and overseen by an understanding of emotions both of self and of others. Understanding emotions also gives information to make decisions.

EI plays a very important role in job performance; however, the jury is still out on the role EI plays in effectiveness in organizations

1.27. Understanding mood swings in O.B.

1.28. Categorizing personalities & measuring personalities

1.29. Decision-Making Models in Organizations

1.20. Conflict Resolution Techniques

1.2.11. Individual Differences in Negotiation Effectiveness

1.2.12. Organization design matrix

1.3 Problems

Like every organization, numerous problems have been identified in the organizational behavior of this organization.

1.3.1. Resistance to behavioral change necessary with growth of the company, beyond international boundaries –

Behavioral change: alterations in employee behavior in order to enable the organization to meet the demands of its strategy while achieving and sustaining outstanding performance.

Organizational Development (OD)

A collection of planned interpolations, built on humanistic- self-governing principles, that strive for the development of organizational efficiency and employee well-being

Constructs from Lewin’s Model

Kotter’s Eight-Step Plan

1.3.2. Slow growth of organizational capabilities, warranted to match the dynamic company image & vision –

Organizational competences are sum of the combined abilities faculties and skills of a firm’s personnel. With a confluence of so many nationalities & races,

1.3.3. Some key variables that we are concerned about when studying organizations are work outcome variables. These include productivity, absenteeism, turnover, and deviant workplace behavior.

1.3.4. Employee Responses to Dissatisfaction

Employees discontented with their jobs, have four basic responses they can utilize. These options are divided into active and passive choices. The active options are exit and voice. If employees select to exit, they choose to leave or move in a direction of leaving the organization. In voice, the employees will work toward active and constructive attempts to improve conditions. The passive options are neglect and loyalty. Employees may choose to neglect their work and just allow conditions to worsen or they may choose to remain loyal to the organization and just wait for change.

1.3.5. Frequently Used Shortcuts in Judging Others & Profiling

Members of a group may be singled out unfairly for intense scrutiny based on typecasting by a single, often racial, trait.

1.3.6. Common Biases and Errors in Decision Making

1.3.7. Organizational Constraints

There are many organizational constraints to good decision making that create deviations from the rational model defined earlier. Managers shape their decisions on performance evaluations, reward systems, and formal regulations. They also base decisions on system-imposed time constraints and historical precedents. All these factors may influence the decisions that are made.

1.3.8. Defying Norms: Deviant Workplace Behavior

1.3.9. Centralization of decision making

1.3.10. Work stress

Literature Review

Although known records of the science of organizational behavior, have been traced back to the late 19th century, however the modern era of this science only started to develop since mid of 1960’s. Since then the field has been greatly been influenced by social psychology & quantitative research. With the liberalizations of the developing countries & the phenomena of work force beyond international boundaries from the start of early 1980’s, has greatly inclined the organizational behavior studies towards cultural explanation & other behavioral sciences.

One of the very interesting works published at the end of the last century was the Images of Organizations discussing the organizations with cultural context. Morgan attributed the “recent success of Japan, the decline of industrial Great Britain, the fame of American enterprise…” to “the cultural contexts in which they have evolved.” (Morgan, 2006)

Modern books on OB however have highlighted interesting models in light of which one may study individuals for instance the “nomothetic approach” or the “ideographic approach” (Mullins, 2007) Pg. 125. Mullins has also improvised on certain basic definitions like “Organisational goals are more specific than that of a function of an organization…performance and effectiveness” Pg. 531. In addition he has also provided clear direction to the role of modern functionality for e.g. how “The manager should…remember that the task of the management is to get work done through the efforts of other people”. (Mullins, 2007) Pg. 697.

Analysis

This part of the report will analyze the abovementioned objectives & problems, in detail. In our analysis, factors being influenced by the above O.B. issues will also be evaluated.

3.1. Functions of a manager –

There are four main functions that fall under the purview of managers. The first is the planning function which includes defining an organization’s targets, developing the plan to accomplish those objectives, and coordinating a far-reaching set of plans to execute the plan.

The next function is organizing. This function sets forth what tasks are to be done and by whom, how the tasks would be categorized, who will be held accountable and to whom, and where assessments are made.

The third function is leading. This function looks at the manager’s job to direct and coordinate the people within their area of influence.

The final function is controlling. The controlling process ensures that the plans and milestones are achieved on time by scrutinizing performance. The manager should compare the results of that monitoring with the goals that have been set. The manager must take this information and determine if the goals need to be adjusted or if adjustments need to be made to the way the organization is attempting to meet the goals.

3.2. Rating good managers on basis of Luthans’ Study

Conventional Management

– Administrative, scheduling, and regulatory

Communication

-Trading regular information and dispensing paperwork

Human Resource Management

– Inspiring, disciplining, managing conflict, recruitment and instructing

Networking

– Mingling, politicking, and intermingling with others

Similarly in Heidmar, good managers are rated basis their time allocation to communication & networking.

3.3 Attitude and behavior are in explicably linked since

Precise attitudes predict Precise behavior

General attitudes predict general conduct

It uses the science of OB to carefully choose, people with appropriate attitude.

Organizational Responsibility

It entails equating with a specific organization and its aims, while desiring to preserve affiliation in the organization.

Three dimensions:

Affective – emotive connection to association

Continuance Commitment – financial assessment of continuing

Normative – principled or ethical responsibilities

For new employees, this is particularly related to performance.

Perceived Organizational Support is the extent to which personnel believe that the association appreciates their involvement and concerns itself about their well-being. The employees’ will be enthusiastic to work hard for the organization if they perceive that evenhandedness is a key factor in determining.

Employee Engagement goes beyond just job satisfaction and includes involvement and enthusiasm for the job. The more engaged the worker is, the more passionate they will be about their work.

The field of Organizational Behavior focuses on how attitudes will influence the workplace. There are several major job attitudes we will look at throughout the book

Job Satisfaction

The encouraging feeling about the job stemming from an assessment of its attributes.

Job Involvement

Degree of psychosomatic empathy with the job where perceived performance is crucial to self-esteem

Psychological Empowerment

Confidence in the authority over the employment, proficiency, job significance, and self-sufficiency

Discussion: Existence of shared tensions on performance

Job Performance

Contented employees are more constructive and more fecund workers are more gratified!

The connectedness mentioned above also holds true for the negative.

Organizational Citizenship Behaviors

Contentment influences OCB through discernments of impartiality.

Customer Satisfaction

Placated frontline employees increase customer fulfillment and allegiance.

Absenteeism

Contented personnel are moderately less likely to miss work.

Turnover

Contented employees are less likely to resign.

Many regulating variables in this connection.

Fiscal ambiance and tenure

Organizational proceedings with the aim of maintain high performers and crackdown on lower performers

Workplace Nonconformity

Disgruntled workers are more likely to unionize, exploit property, embezzle, be sluggish, and retract.

3.4 There are some who think that emotions are linked to irrationality and that expressing emotions in public may be damaging to your career or status. However, research has shown that emotions are necessary for rational thinking. They help us make better decisions and help us understand the world around us. If we are going to make decisions, we need to incorporate both thinking and feeling.

Often managers viewed emotions as disruptive to the workplace and therefore a hindrance to productivity. However, when thinking about emotions, typically managers were focusing on negative emotions. Even though there are some negative emotions that could hinder productivity, there is no doubt that workers bring their emotions to the workplace. Therefore, any study in organizational behavior would not be complete without considering the roles of emotions in the workplace.

While not unanimously recognized, there appear to be six basic emotions:

Antagonism

Anxiety

Grief

Exhilaration

Antipathy

Astonishment

3.7. Affective Events Theory (AET)

Affective Events Theory demonstrates that employees react emotionally to things that happen to them at work and this can influence their job performance and job satisfaction. The intensity of these responses will be based on sentiment and temperament.

An incidence in the work situation activates positive or negative emotional responses

Character and disposition determine response intensity

Emotions can become a stimulus for a comprehensive array of work variables

3.8. Personality Analysis – We study personality in Organizational Behavior because it impacts a number of important work outcomes. We can attempt to measure personality through a variety of methods. Often these methods are utilized in the hiring process to assist in hiring the correct individual for the vacancy and the association. The most common method is self-reporting surveys where individuals answer questions that determine what type of personality they have. Another, more accurate, method is when others observe the individual and provide an independent assessment of their personality.

Some methods used to describe personality are the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (abbreviated: MBTI). The Big Five Model is another framework used to describe personality

The Big Five model of personality sets forth that there are five basic dimensions that motivate all others and incorporate most of the noteworthy discrepancies in human personalities. The Big Five factors are: Gregariousness, Pleasantness, Scrupulousness, Emotional Stability and Desire to amass new Experiences. There is a lot of research that supports the Big Five model and it has been shown to predict behavior at work.

3.9. Judging & profiling others

There are some frequently used shortcuts we use when judging others. People will often utilize past experience, their attitudes, and their interests to interpret information about others and reinforce their own biases. Relying on these shortcuts can lead to misperceiving the situation.

The halo effect is another common shortcut where generally favorable impressions are drawn about an individual when a single characteristic is positive. The opposite is true when unfavorable impressions are drawn about an individual based on a single negative characteristic; this is called the horn effect.

Contrast effects occurs when we are making judgments about an individual and comparing them to other individuals we have recently encountered and using

3.10. Decision-Making Models in Organizations –

Judicious Decision Making

The “perfect world” prototype comprises of a decision making exercise of six steps and assumes complete intelligence with all options identified, and maximum remuneration

Bounded Reality

The “real world” model: seeks acceptable and adequate explanations from inadequate data and substitutions

Intuition

A non- cognizant procedure created from refined involvement for which the outcome is quick decisions

Depends on all-inclusive alliances

Affectively stimulating – involving the emotions

3.11. Conflict Resolution Techniques

Difficult resolution

Superordinate objectives

Augmentation of resources

Evasion

Leveling

Concession

Authoritative command

Altering the human variable

Altering the structural variables

Communication

3.11. Individual Differences in Negotiation Effectiveness

Many individual differences are interwoven in the negotiation process and impact the effectiveness of the outcomes. Personality traits will impact outcomes as extroverts tend to be weaker at negotiation because they will want people to like them. Intelligence is not an indicator of effective negotiation skills.

Mood and emotion can impact negotiations as anger is often an effective tool in distributive bargaining, whereas positive moods are helpful in integrative bargaining situations.

Gender can also impact negotiation effectiveness. Men and women tend to approach negotiations in the same way but may view the outcomes differently. Women may appear more tender in the process where men come across as tough. On the average, men are more likely to be negotiators than women.

3.12. Organization design matrix

Organizational Size

As organizations grow, they become more mechanistic, more specialized, with more rules and regulation

The mechanistic model is contrasted with the organic model in the slide above. These are two extreme structures organizations can choose from. The mechanistic model is set up to facilitate high specialization, a clear chain of command, and a large degree of formalization. The organic model, in contrast, is set up to facilitate teams, the free flow of information, decentralized, empowerment, and very little formalization. It is not that one structure is better than the other; rather each organization needs to see what will work best with their workforce and product.

3.13. Some key variables that we are concerned about when studying organizations are work outcome variables. These include efficiency, nonattendance, staff turnover, and aberrant workplace conduct.

Efficiency

Altering raw materials to finished products at lowest possible cost. Comprises of the theories of effectiveness (completion of goals) and efficiency (achieving targets at low cost).

Non attendance

Inability to turn up to work – a massive expense to employers.

Staff Turnover

Intended and spontaneous permanent departure from an organization.

Aberrant Workplace Conduct

Deliberate performance that infringes on substantial organizational standards and therefore jeopardizes the interests of the organization and/or any of its affiliates.

3.14. Defying Norms: Deviant Workplace Behavior

Deviant Workplace Behavior

Typology:

Assembly – functioning pace

Property – destruction and embezzlement

Political – nepotism and rumor

Personal Antagonism – sexual harassment

Group norms can be the stimulus for the manifestation of abnormal conduct

Ingenuously fit in with a group intensifies the probability of nonconformity

Being in a congregate allows personages to hide from view – creating a false sense of assurance that they won’t be held responsible for their actions.

3.15 Decision Making

Centralization is the degree to which a single point in the organization is in charge of the decision making.

Decentralization is the degree to which decision making is dispersed through the organization.

3.16. Tactics for Overcoming Resistance to Change

When managers face resistance to change there are some useful tactics they can utilize to help people overcome it. These tactics include education and communication, getting people to participate in the process, and building support and commitment. It can also include being sure to implement the change fairly by applying a consistent and fair process, using falsification and distortion to gain cooperation or selecting people from the beginning who are more willing to accept change. Finally, a manager can resort to coercion, using direct threats and force to make people change. This is not often a good option.

Lewin offers a three-step model to help facilitate the change process. He sets forth that change efforts need to “unfreeze” individual resistance and group conformity to help them move forward and then you need to refreeze the changes by balancing driving and restraining forces. This will help to move people through the change process and solidify the desired behaviors/outcomes moving forward.

Unfreezing

Change endeavors to astound the strains of both individual confrontation and group conventionality

Refreezing

Maintaining a change intercession by harmonizing dynamic and restrictive forces

In the unfreezing stage Lewin identifies driving and restraining forces. Dynamic forces are those that guide behavior away from the existing state of affairs. Restrictive forces are those that hinder headway from the existing equipoise.

Kotter also offers a model to look at change that builds on the initial ideas of Lewin. He sets forth the following eight steps:

Ascertain a sense of necessity

Form a alliance

Create a new concept

Publicize the concept

Authorize others by eliminating impediments

Fashion and accolade short-term “wins”

Strengthen, reevaluate, and regulate

Bolster the changes

3.15. Stress

A dynamic condition in which an individual is confronted with an opportunity, constraint, or demand related to what he or she desires and for which the outcome is perceived to be both uncertain and important

When change occurs stress is found throughout the organization. Stress is defined as a dynamic condition in which an individual is confronted with an opportunity, constraint, or demand related to what he or she desires and for which the outcome is perceived to be both uncertain and important. There are different types of stress. There is challenge stress which is stress associated with workload, pressure to get work done, and time constraints. Hindrance stressors are those things that keep you from reaching your goals such as uncooperative employees or red tape. This can cause more stress than challenge stress often does.

Types of Stress

Challenge Stressors

Stress associated with workload, pressure to complete tasks, and time urgency

Hindrance Stressors

Stress that keeps you from reaching your goals, such as red tape

Cause greater harm than challenge stressors

Question: What is your knowledge about stressors? List some examples on stressors

4.0 Conclusion –

Write about heidmar about 700 words are a minimal must.. pointers

Can write about

Recruitment and industry perception and morale

Employee satisfaction/ dis

Centralization or otherwise how many levels?

Incentives

Problems of hr operations