Behavioural Analysis of Organisations in the Modern World - Essay Example

130140 COVER SHEET: OF THE REPORT: Behavioural Analysis of Organisations OF THE REPORT Behavioural Analysis TABLE OF CONTENTS Headingsand Sub headings Abstract Introduction Discussion Conclusion Bibliography HEADINGS AND SUB HEADINGS WITH THEIR PAGE NUMBERS ABSTRACT The advent of Globalisation has brought organisations, national and international both, into the forefront of world community. As all regions of the world have now transformed into consumerist societies, any change in the producing or supplying organisations will affect millions of people and hence, healthy organisations with modern and timely outlook are important. A study into these organisations, their behaviour, assessment, evaluation with recommendations for further improvements according to the needs of the day would not be out of place. The objects of study here, leadership and motivation qualities in an organisation, are thought to be benefited by a firm conceptual framework as a provider of reference and for the research purpose, administrative theory of organisations is found to be beneficial. Organisations are grouped into Mechanistic and Organic groups and this grouping is still relevant. In mechanistic organisations, tasks are broken down into specialisms, technicalities, methods, duties, powers related to positions and all behaviours and responses of workers are according to superiors' decisions without much scope for individuality. These organisations are considered to be more stable and vertically oriented. Organic organisations do not have very clearly pronounced hierarchy and instead, depend more on group decisions after interacting with people of diverse background within company framework. These organisations are considered to be more individualistic where people can make a positive contribution and are of democratic nature. While doing a study of this kind, both kinds of organisations are approached. INTRODUCTION Human behaviour is always diverse and complex and unpredictable at times. A person who is charming to the rest of the world, could be downright aggressive to people working under him. Many times it is not surprising to come across hidden psychological problems that surface only when the person can dictate terms, and dormant otherwise. In recent years, the necessity of a more psychological approach towards business organisations was felt and much study has gone into this direction. Social Scientists are dedicating time to study worker behaviour, management behaviour, and formulate theories of change for the organisations to follow. "Like the relationship between parents and children, the relationship between an organization and its members has aspects of both hate and love. Employees, manager, owners, customers, and society-at-large find themselves both beneficiaties and dependents of the organization an invention that, though man-made, seems to have a lift of its own, Bobbitt et al (1978, p.4). With the globalisation, organisations found it necessary to undergo unprecedented changes, for working with hitherto alien cultures and facing unfamiliar situations. Today solutions and decisions are made by people of diverse background and organisations have to see that all the decisions go in favour of the business. It has become imperative that certain guidelines should be laid down for all workers and managers to follow in spite of the cultural and background differences. Niccolo Machiavelli is considered to be the main political philosopher who spoke of leadership and organisational power. Max Weber followed him in discussing charismatic leadership. Psychology, after Second World War has become the main subject and organisations have created the norms of judging organisational developments from human resources angle. "Whether a manager defaults or whether he succeeds depends on large measure on his understanding of organizational behaviour and all its complexities. Although organizations appear to take on a life of their own, they remain inventions of man," says Bobbitt et al (1978, p.5). DISCUSSION What makes effective leaders This question had been a matter of constant study and discussion throughout centuries. Perhaps one answer to this question is that leaders are people in search of steady excellence and they conduct their search armed with devotion, commitment, trust, outstanding loyalty and exceptional inspiration. We are not talking about exceptional and ever-inspiring leaderships of Horatio Nelson or Alexander the Great any more, but about the leaders in business organisations, who have become important in today's globalised world. "We define leadership as the ability to influence a group toward the achievement of goals. The source of this influence may be formal, such as that provided by the possession of managerial rank in an organization" http://academia-research.com/files/message/187033_Robbins_CH11.pdf In any organisation, mobilising the workforce towards attainment of goals can be called leadership. Motivating the workforce to the level of collectivity would influence the work performance. This is a chain patterned leadership which will influence the relationship with their colleagues and workers, and worker behaviour during crises. It is supported by positive values, beliefs, and courage in decision-making. Social scientists feel that specific charismatic leadership origins and performances and should be linked with conceptual models and connection between leadership components and job performance should be established. The concept of Organisational behaviour depends on charismatic leadership a lot. "all dimensions of charismatic leadership are positively related to collective behaviour, however, the most important dimension of charismatic leadership is sensitivity to the environment for the emergence of collective behaviour and personal performance," http://www.eastweststudies.org/makale_detail.phptur=230&makale=201 Leaders are said to be self-confident, and extraverted; sure of themselves, sure of others' following their path, sure of approval. Their convictions are strong and they have moral righteousness. They can create work, monitor the work process and evaluate its results and constantly conduct self-analysis for better performance. These leaders believe in interactions and do not dishearten diverse views or suggestions. "In particular, behavioral research indicates that effective leaders spend more time talking directly with subordinates about what they are doing, and listening before responding with direction or feedback" http://www.obmnetwork.com/resources/articles/main/McSweenPounds_OffersManagers2.htm According to Bass1, there are three theories of leadership: 1. Trait theory where people are natural leaders. This theory says that leaders are born and not made. They are too important to be moulded, which might give them a second-hand look. They are born that way, born with exalted qualities of leadership, born to lead lesser men through difficult times. They cannot be ignored; they cannot be sidelined or marginalized. When they approach, their leadership qualities are highly visible and other mortals fall into place behind them. According to this theory, nothing can stop the advancement of a trueborn leader. All the others, made, or created by events, are nowhere near the born leaders. They have a sheen of their own, which cannot be matched by lesser categories. Alexander the Great is considered to be the greatest born leader the world had ever witnessed. 2. Great Events Theory: It is a historical fact that many leaders, including Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, are those who rose into importance as a reaction to a particular event, in his case; of course, it was the French Revolution and Rule of Terror in France. He still remains the finest example of this theory. These leaders are not born with any extraordinary capabilities, but could be having some dormant qualities of great leadership and such leaders rise high, due to an unforeseen event, which makes them react. Already possessing the leadership qualities, these leaders only discover themselves to become important and the rest of mankind recognises them as brilliant leaders and follows them. These leaders are next to only born leaders and history is full of them and their achievements. 3. Transformational Leadership Theory is considered to be the commonest of all theories. It says that a person can become a leader by learning and developing leadership skills through constant self-evaluation, determination, and self-assessment. As born natural leaders and leaders connected with great events are in short supply in present day world, third theory attains more prominence today and considered to be sufficient to lead the managerial organisations. The third theory shows that managers have to be in possession of certain qualities and without those qualities, however hardworking they could be, it might not elevate them to a higher position of leadership. Before learning the rest of leadership skills, it is necessary for them to imbibe qualities of sacrifice, devotion, understanding, compassion and perception. "Self-serving leaders are not as effective because their employees only obey them, not follow them. They succeed in many areas because they present a good image to their seniors at the expense of their workers" http://www.nwlink.com/donclark/leader/leadcon.html Charles C. Manz, argues in his article, 'Self-leadership: Towards an expanded theory of self influence processes in organisations2': "From an organisational perspective, recognising and facilitating employee self-regulating systems pose a viable and more realistic view of control than views cantered entirely on external influence3." Motivation is part of leadership and a leader is expected to motivate people around him. Mobilisation and galvanisation of people who are supposed to carry out his instructions are to be motivated to do so. Motivation can come from the exemplary qualities of a leader, or from his speech, or from interactions with the workers, or from the way he presents the common goal, and makes it belong to all. Workers motivation for a task comes mainly from the leader and from the work atmosphere he creates for them. A leader without motivating qualities is bound to fail in his march as a leader. CONCLUSIONS Blameless character, dedication and selfless service to organisation, makes the person a good leader, though there are other qualities as well. Motivation is part of leadership, the quality that is imbibed in a leader who can carry his followers forward. Ex: Henry Ford or today's blameless leader Bill Gates. They stand by their values and make others to do the same by motivating them in the same direction. Equality in an organisation can be the great motivator. For a motivating leadership, knowing when to delegate, support or direct is crucial. Leadership style should suit the leader, but more than that it should suit the workers around him, and most importantly, it should suit the organisation. Tailoring leadership styles have always been unsuccessful. Transactional and transformational leadership dimensions could be mentioned as the most effective forms of leadership in any organisation and the organisations should choose whichever form is relevant to that particular organisation. "Successful leaders anticipate change, vigorously exploit opportunities, motivate their followers to higher levels of productivity, correct poor performance, and lead the organization toward its objectives" http://academia-research.com/files/message/187033_Robbins_CH11.pdf Mechanistic organisations are found to be slightly behind time now, even though their management and ways of working are still considered to be more effective than Organic organisations. Mechanistic organisations do not allow differences of opinions and a single-minded approach towards every solution, whereas organic organisations are multi-voiced. Still, it is felt that keeping with the times is necessary and people of diverse background would like to have their say. This would create a more democratic trend and managers and workers, instead of mechanically doing their work as bidden, they would feel comfortable in an atmosphere where their coherent contribution is appreciated. At the same time, it cannot be denied that all organisations in the world are undergoing a serious and continuous process of change. "The impetus for organizational change comes from many sources. The general environment for any organization in society includes technological, economic, legal, political, demographic, ecological, and cultural factors," say Kast and Rosenzweig (1974, p.675). RECOMMENDATIONS It is necessary to remove many barriers of pre-globalisation days. External environment too is important for leadership and motivation. Job satisfaction has to be created, by communication, less visible supervision, and by improving physical working conditions and safety level. Organisations giving more attention to the security of workers are successful today. Management should reduce work anxiety and even managers should not be under undue pressure by their supervisors. Accidents should be avoided and absence should be handled more humanely. Discussions should be made more vocal and variety of opinions should not be discouraged. Suggestions on quality improvement, however trivial they might look, should always be appreciated. The overall organisational climate should be more humane and less forbidding, so that workers feel easy and behavioural complexities do not occur too often. "In any event the managerial and organisational forces will have behavioural repercussions and it is tentatively proposed that the social/psychological factor identified in the present analysis is a useful way of representing the constructs resulting from these complex interactions," says Knowles (1980, p.56). Customers are given the most important place in present world of consumerism. Hence, all organisations work for satisfaction of customers. This means, that the leadership has to be tuned not only in creating motivating atmosphere for workers, but also it should be consumer related. Jeremy Galbraith and Tom Rogers, in his article, 'Customer Relationship leadership: a leadership and motivation model for the twenty-first century business' say: "Customer relationship leadership, or CRL, is a new model that leaders can embrace to recreate or readjust their leadership styles in order to foster an atmosphere in their businesses to adopt and practice the principles of CRM (Customer Relationship Management)CRL is a recommended approach to bridge the gap between a CRM vision and its reality"4. It is important to have studies and researches into organisational behaviours as measuring rods of consumer satisfaction. "In an age in which we have become more and more dependent on formal organization for the goods, services, and salaries that support our whole society, anybody who can improve the effectiveness of those organization can have a significant impact on the quality of the lives of billions of individuals," Kotter (1978, p.90). BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1. Bobbitt, H. Randolph, Jr., Robert H. Breinholt, Robert H. Doktor, James P. McNaul (1978), Organisational Behaviour, Prentice-Hall Inc., Englewood Cliffs, N.J. 2. Knowles, Michael C. (1980), Organisational Functioning, A Behavioural Analysis, Gower Publishing Company Limited, Westmead, England. 3. Kast Fremont E. and Rosenzweig, James E (1974), Organisation and Management, A systems approach, University of Washington. 4. Kotter, John P. (1978), Organizational Dynamics, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, London. 5. McLennan, Roy (1975), Cases in Organisational Behaviour, George Allen & Unwin Ltd., London. 6. McLaren, Robert I. (1982), Organizational Dilemmas, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester. 7. McKinlay, Alan and Starkey, Ken (2000), ed., Faucault, Management and Organization Theory, Sage Publications, London. ONLINE SOURCES: 1. http://www.eastweststudies.org/makale_detail.phptur=230&makale=201 2. http://www.obmnetwork.com/resources/articles/main/McSweenPounds_OffersManagers2.htm 3. http://www.nwlink.com/donclark/leader/leadcon.html 4. http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/ViewContentServletFilename=Published/EmeraldFullTextArticle/Articles/1060110304.html 5. http://www.jstor.org/view/03637425/ap010043/01a00070/0 6. http://www.jstor.org/view/03637425/ap010043/01a00070/2frame=noframe&userID=82d10629@gla.ac.uk/01cc993397005011b306&dpi=3&config=jstor 7. http://academia-research.com/files/message/187033_Robbins_CH11.pdf 8. Read More