Managing Behavior in the Workplace - Term Paper Example

? Managing behavior in the workplace Managing behavior in the workplace in an appropriate manner definitely demands a lot of hard work and attention since it is not an easy job. Continuous and steady attention and care of the leaders is required in this regard as even a pinch of irresponsibility can sometimes result in blunder mistakes. That is especially important for the army leaders who should essentially remain highly cautious and attentive at all times about those working under them as mismanagement of behavior in the armies can lead to terrible consequences for the entire nation. This remains true in the case of all organizations also running on either small or bigger level as appropriately managed behavior of the employees holds utmost importance for both the leader and the company. It is a reality that today workplace issues happen to be more diverse, complex, and inexplicable than ever before. A large percentage of such issues are commonly found to be originating from negative workplace environment fraught with confusions, biases, discrimination, fear, and unhealthy criticism. Negative environment in turn originates from mismanaged workforce behavior. An army leader should be well aware of the direction in which the behavior of his men proceeds as it can influence the whole country either for the good or the worse. Major annoying issues developing due to bad or wayward behavior include excessive gossip about each other’s personal affairs, sexual or mental harassment, communication gap between leaders and employees, and mistreatment of myriad changes by workforce. It is true that changes are always for the betterment of the organization and if those changes are not welcomed by the employees due to behavior which lacks obedience and understanding, results can be disastrous and much chaos could be created. This paper basically aims to postulate that the army leaders should be highly acknowledged to the behavior of those working under them as appropriately managed behavior is especially important in the military context since it raises concern not only for the army but for the entire nation as well. Stress also results when behavior is not managed efficiently. For this purpose, it remains mandatory for an army leader to communicate more often with the people of his army so that confusion about certain instructions could be removed and general appreciation for one another could be developed. Moreover, each worker should be motivated by the army leader to do a lot of things which do not necessarily fall into the role assigned to that worker like filling communication gap, condemning negative gossip, offering creative ideas, and professional handling of the bosses who sabotage employee’s careers. Professional handling of the bosses who negatively affect employees’ careers relates to zero tolerance for harassment directed at employees. A leader should always try to set an example himself in order to see the workforce behaving appropriately. There is no chance for an employee to behave good if the leaders themselves engage in unprofessional activities like feeling tired all the time, arriving late for important tasks, and remaining absent. It becomes increasingly important for an army leader to set a good character example so that his workers could take an advice just by looking at his personality. It is repeatedly suggested by the researchers that creating a kind of culture where people feel part of the organization itself rather than merely remaining involved in their individual jobs makes a company preferable over another to work for. Many people leave army only because they do not feel themselves to be a part of the whole scene, rather they start considering their lives monotonous and boring. That is just one way by which most of the talent gets wasted. In order to keep workers from feeling monotonous, changes should be implemented by efficient leaders. Though changes are despised but “the reality is that change is natural and almost always accepted when it produced something positive for the performer” (Daniels, 1999, p. 5). Strengthening the cooperative and collaborative spirit among military people, encouraging them to maintain a balance in life and work, allowing them to own their lives, and refraining from ridiculing and oppressing them in multiples ways are also some features by which the army leaders in charge can commit themselves to winning over army people’s trust so that success could be ensured. Basically, leadership is the name of a process by which a person encourages those working with him to reach a certain objective or accomplish a certain difficult task. That is exactly why a leader should consider him/herself fully responsible whenever a task goes wrong or a strategy backfires. It is essentially important for a leader to behave in a moral and responsible manner so that he/she could have the guts to talk sense into the employees if they start behaving wrong. There is little chance of an employee to listen to an immoral or irresponsible boss if told that he/she should behave in a certain manner while on duty. It is impossible to think that behaviors could not be changed as they can be changed if practical adjustments are made. 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). Positive psychology is also an important tool which holds extreme importance in the leadership or management context. It is a science which basically lays stress on grooming the mental health of the workers so that stress free environment could be ensured. Maintaining a stress free environment remains highly necessary because one person’s negativity readily influences the entire team in a disastrous manner and it becomes hardly possible to achieve certain targets. “Unlike a cold, negativity doesn't disappear with time” (Norris, 2011). Every leader should make sure that his/her important strengths include optimism, generosity, and extroversion since capitalizing on such strengths helps many military operations survive even when things appear miserable. Conventional approaches have limited success and often fail to resolve workplace conflicts because they often overlook the core factors that cause and exacerbate certain workplace dilemma. In the case of an army, even little details hold extreme importance and strategies should be desginedIn contrast, positive psychology lays focus on grooming mental health of a worker so that he/she could produce to the best possible level by maintaining a positive culture, one in which tough workplace issues are acknowledged fully and kept from stripping satisfaction from workforce. It helps the workers acknowledge that changes are for the betterment and should not be looked down upon. Many times, workers repress changes because they are not taken in confidence by the authoritative leaders and not notified about the latest updates. That is why workers start feeling left out and not included in the whole process which makes them unproductive and misbehaved. When certain frustrations are not addressed by the leaders at the right time, the result is bad behavior and increased absenteeism. Research suggests that leadership should differ from simply bossing people around. Though a person in charge of over hundreds of people in an army can accomplish certain difficult tasks by exercising control over the people but true leadership should essentially differ from that. “Leadership differs in that it makes the followers want to achieve high goals (called Emergent Leadership), rather than simply bossing people around” (Rowe, cited in nwlink.com). This should exactly be the spirit of an army leader that he/she should motivate the people working around him to achieve goals rather than feeling bored and monotonous. When employees start feeling rejected, condemned, and criticized, their behavior starts taking a down toll and nothing could motivate them then. The root causes which make an employee unhappy and misbehaved should be addressed like tough workload, job insecurity, lack of challenge and management support, or workplace boredom (Schleifer, 2006). The arrival of bad behavior is directly related to excessive work or persistent boredom which can be observed so very often in any workplace’s environment fraught with an unchanging aura. It should be the job of the leaders to keep their employees engaged and interested in the work. What makes the mismanaged workforce behavior a serious and hazardous issue is the worst kind of depression it can lead a worker to and profoundly impact his/her life. Therefore, it can be said that though stress resulting from mismanaged behavior itself may not be called a disease, but the consequential problems it gives birth to become worth addressing once they mature into gravely complicated issues. It is a sad fact that “regardless of occupation, seniority, or salary level, we’re spending more and more of our work days feeling frazzled and out of control, instead of alert and relaxed” (Segal, Smith, Robinson, & Segal, 2011). Summing up, this much remains clear from the above discussion regarding behavior management in the military context that there is certainly no room for irresponsibility and carelessness when the future of the whole nation is at stake. Positive psychology can help the anxious leaders immensely in changing the attitudes and thinking patterns of unproductive workers who fail to reach the set targets in response to overpowering workplace dilemmas like bullying by co-workers or bosses, incapacitating employers, cultural diversity, and destructive gossip. Conventional approaches taken to each of these issues are not only likely to fail but they can also aggravate the already worsened situation. That is why every army leader should make it his/her job to inculcate positive feature in the personality so that those working with him/her could feel encouraged to be open when confronted with any problems. That is also how responsible and positive behaviors could be kept from transforming into wayward and defiant attitudes which prove to be poison for the military environment. 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 Daniels, A.C. (1999). Bringing Out the Best in People: How to Apply the Astonishing Power of Positive Reinforcement. US: McGraw-Hill Professional. Norris, B. (2011). How to Create and Sustain a Positive Workplace—A Leader's Guide. Retrieved from http://www.briannorris.com/speaking/moraletraining.html Nwlink.com. (2010, Nov 28). Concepts of Leadership. Retrieved from http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leadcon.html Segal, J., Smith, M., Robinson, L. & Segal, R. (2011). Stress at Work. Retrieved from http://helpguide.org/mental/work_stress_management.htm Schleifer, J. (2006). Workplace Negativity: Ways to Beat It. 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