Managing Organisational Behaviour - Essay Example

Managing Organisational Behaviour Lecturer: presented: Introduction Organizations are facing high competition in the contemporary operating environment. Their capacity to compete is dependent on organizational behavior, which defines the workplace relations, the attitudes of employees and managers, workplace satisfaction and actions, which determine the accomplishment of organizational goals. The organization has a great influence on the employees while on the other hand the employees have an influence on the organization. This paper presents a critical appraisal of extent to which organizations implementing organizational behavior motivational strategies that encourage individual or team responsibility for work performance and quality can be said to have the interests of their employees at heart. The paper emphasizes on the motivational techniques applied by the organization, the expectations of the management and the impact of these actions on the employees as well as the organizational productivity. Implementation of Organizational Behavior Motivation Strategies Organizations strive to ensure that employees are aware of the organizational goals to enhance coordination in the workplace. The management tasks are made easy when employees are motivated through understanding the organizational goals. The goal theory postulates that people are motivated when they realize the expectations of the organization (Hitt et al. 2005). It requires that goals are set and employees adequately informed regarding the cause of action and also receive feedback appropriately. However, the question that arises is whether motivating the employees through goal setting is actually on humanistic basis or it is for the benefit of the organization. In essence, the goal of venturing in business is to generate profits for the organization. Employees are facilitators of the accomplishment of organizational goals. Their skills and commitment are required for the organization to remain competent in the operating environment. It is therefore prudent for managers to ensure that they promote a shared vision, which encourages the employees to own organizational goals. Once they own the goals and increase productivity, the organization gains in terms of profitability and therefore it is capable of offering better compensation packages. From this perspective, the employees are also portrayed as beneficiaries of motivation. In essence, there is usually a reciprocal relationship between the employer and the employees. If the organization does not perform well in the market, there can not be enough finances to cater for employees’ needs. Motivation through reward schemes is also a significant technique applied by many organizations. Rewards are usually offered to the employees as an encouragement for them to continue with good performance in a particular field. In other words, the management offers rewards to an employee so that he/she can do a particular task in the same way that it was done earlier. Such an action must have had some benefits to the organization. It is a give and take strategy to ensure that high performance is maintained. Sometimes the reward does not take the employees interests in to consideration. Rather, the organization offers a tangible or intangible incentive that is believed to demonstrate appreciation to the employee. As (Mullins, 2007) observes, rewards are targeted on influencing the employees’ behavior. In most cases, the organization reaps higher benefits than the employee through reward schemes. They are similar to performance based compensation because without the employees undertaking the predetermined actions, they may not be entitled to rewards. Strategies for training and coaching empower employees to accomplish tasks effectively. The need to continuously acquire knowledge is important especially for the constantly changing business environments. New technologies that require skilled workers can not be applied if the organization does not train its employees. Alternative would be to hire skilled workers, which is a move that might be costly for the organization. Sometimes training can be costly for the organization, which is the reason employers tend to employ highly qualified individuals with diverse skills in the various fields that the organization operates. This is an indication that training of employees may be a burden and therefore is among the unnecessary expenditures that employers should avoid. In other words, it is not in the heart of employers to incur the extra costs of motivating employees through training (Brooks, 2002). On the other hand, coaching requires constant interactions to help employees improve their performance. Coaching is usually focused on giving the employees additional skills to improve their competence. For example, when new employees are engaged in a company, they usually possess some skills but have little experience in the organizational operations. Coaching them is necessary to improve their knowledge regarding the organization. It helps them to apply the skills acquired in studies in real practice (Kesler, 2002). The coaching meetings involve time that could be used for other productive activities in the organization. Nevertheless, the result is usually positive and the employees can perform better, thereby increasing productivity among the employees. Coaching motivates the weaker employees to perform better and also facilitates the transfer of knowledge from the experienced employees to the newly employed. The overall goal of empowering employees through training and coaching is to improve their skills, mainly to maintain the organizational competitiveness and to a lesser extent for their benefit. However, in the long-run, employees benefit from the skills acquired since they make them competitive in the labor market. The skills support their promotion and future aspirations as they seek better employment opportunities in other organizations. Moreover, they can accomplish tasks better and with ease through application of the new skills, which increases self-actualization. Employee satisfaction motivates them to increase commitment and productivity. Organizations adopt different strategies for employee satisfaction. For example, flexible work practices enhance commitment. They increase the willingness of employees to accomplish organizational goals. Such practices include; non standard work whereby the organization employs workers on contract, temporary or part time among other non permanent employment. When employees are allowed to work at their most convenient time, they are motivated to work harder. Part time employment allows people to accomplish a work-life balance. They can attend to family matters and expediently undertake their workplace responsibilities. However, as much as the flexible work practices are appreciated by employees, they deny them the benefits that are entitled to permanent employees while the organization benefits from increased productivity and reduced cost of labor. The humane aspect of such motivational strategies is therefore debatable even though they might be attributed to the success of organizations in employee satisfaction and retention (Dyer, 1998). For example, non-standard work involves employees who do not belong to the permanent workforce. In other words, they are engaged and shed as often as the management deems necessary. They might be casual labourers who are employed to supplement the permanent workers, part time employees whose services are needed only at a particular time in the organization, and temporary employees who either work part time or full time but whose benefits are different from the permanent employees. They apply in the industries that experience seasonal variations in demand by the consumers such as in the tourism and fresh produce firms that have low and high seasons in one trading period. The business hires a large number of temporary staff during the high season when the sales are high, and may experience losses if such employees are maintained during the low season. Organizational behaviour that engages non-standard employees is takes advantage of avoidance of tax and other benefits that the permanent employees are entitled to (Paula et al. 2008). Non-standard work is also characterized by a relationship whereby the employer firm is not the actual firm where the employees work. For example, many banks in the UK operate with hired security personnel. The security companies are the direct employers but the employees work in the banks. Under such flexible arrangements, the banks avoid the costs associated with directly employing security personnel, such as health insurance, retirement schemes and paid leave among other benefits. The firms may also make arrangements with professionals for on-call services to avoid employing permanent technicians for services such as computer repair, electrical and building repairs among other occasional services (Hollinshead et al. 2003). The management expects a positive development in the workforce whenever motivational techniques are applied. Otherwise, it would be pointless to sacrifice time and resources engaging in motivational activities. In many cases, the managers ensure that the employees understand the sacrifices the organization makes for the sake of its employees. They appreciate by working harder and avoiding conflict to maintain a good relationship with the management, which is likely to lead to more benefits. Motivation involves generating a feeling of importance and belonging to the organization (Hatch & Cunliffe, 2006). Performance improvement is accomplished as the employees strive to reciprocate the positive approach by the management in regard to their wellbeing. Some motivational techniques demonstrate a humanistic approach to human resource management. For example, maintenance of occupational health and safety is meant to maintain a healthy workforce, which is an indication that the employers are kind-hearted as regards the employees’ wellbeing. They understand that the employees are humans who are rational and that their health needs to be guaranteed for high commitment to be accomplished in the workplace. On the other hand, the management benefits through the avoidance of compensation for injuries at work and absenteeism. Organizations are also able to avoid conflict with the employment laws of the states in which they operate. They are able to maintain sound employment relations through employee motivation. The health and safety strategies are significant in eliminating doubts of exposure to risks in the workplace (Rollinson & Dundon, 2007). Some organizational behaviour demonstrates to the employees that they are vital for the accomplishment of organizational goals. They are motivated through listening and adopting their views in regard to accomplishing tasks in the workplace. The employees who are assigned tasks on a daily basis understand the challenges faced in undertaking them. Listening to them is a move that indicates compassion in the management as well as the willingness to share the challenges with the employees. Sometimes the tasks involved are difficult or risky and the organization has to ensure that the employees are motivated to work. Workers are sometimes allowed to make decisions that are integrated by the management in to the organizational strategies. They are motivated to be inventive rather than depending on conventional practices that have been in use within the organization for many years. Managers motivate workers to discover their talents, which enhances retention and accomplishment of organizational goals. Expanding the workforce in search of the appropriate skills becomes unnecessary since the in-house inventiveness generates the desired skills for the organization (Davenport, 1999). Such motivational techniques display understanding by managers as regards the need to interact and help the employees to cope with the day to day tasks. Treating employees like heroes generates social satisfaction, which is as important in generating satisfaction as offering rewards. Humans appreciate honour and it is not different in the employer-employee relationship. Heartfelt appreciation for good work is important in the recipe for maintaining employee commitment. Team building is also a major motivation strategy that is applied by organizations. The management maintains high performance through group tasks while at the same time enhancing the relationship between team members to ensure that they work together to accomplish group activities. Each member values the others in a team and ensures that activities are in line with the shared objectives. The management avoids boss centered leadership whereby the power and authority rest at the top organizational leadership, including the entire decision making and planning. These may negatively affect the team’s performance since they do not have an opportunity to utilize their potential (Harold & Frank, 2009). Organizational behavior that encourages teamwork demonstrates the willingness of organizations to promote inter-personal relationships in the workplace. Teamwork helps in generating confidence among employees, which enables them to share knowledge and improve their performance. Problems are also addressed in a better way through teams. They also acquire collective bargaining, which at times may have a negative impact on the employer especially in matters concerning employment compensation and other benefits. In essence, allowing employees to work in teams can be described as a considerate organizational behavior that helps employees to deal with challenges that can not be handled by an individual. Some organizations sponsor employees to participate in activities outside the normal workplace tasks. For example, they can participate in sports where they are exposed to opportunities of acquiring more income through awards. Others are sponsored to participate in educative conferences, expeditions, and holidays. Most of these programs are not directly beneficial to the organization. In fact, the organization incurs expenditures that are not related to production. However, the employees are motivated to improve their performance to reciprocate the kindhearted approach towards them by the organization. In essence, organizations can do without such expensive strategies, but managers are aware of the needs of employees and hence the use of such programs. They indicate the emphasis that employers have in regard to satisfying the interest of employees (Rose, 2008). Conclusion From the discussion regarding employee motivation, the organizational behavior of firms applying the motivational approaches can be understood to have their major focus on improvement of performance for the benefit of the organization more than satisfying the interests of the employees. This is evident in the motivational strategies such as promotion of a shared goal, reward schemes, training and coaching where the organization incurs some extra costs and flexible work practices where the employer takes advantage of evading tax and employee benefits. However, there are also some motivational techniques in the organizational behavior of firms that demonstrate a compassionate approach towards satisfaction of the interests of employees. For example, maintenance of occupational health and safety, helping the employees to discover their potential, giving them a chance present their views in decision making, promotion of teamwork and exposure to opportunities outside the workplace are mainly focused on improvement of the employees’ wellbeing and enhancement of their capacity to cope with challenges especially through teamwork. Organizational behavior whereby motivational techniques are applied is therefore a give and take relationship whereby as the interests of the employees are taken care of, they are expected to reciprocate for the benefit of the organization. References Brooks I. 2002. Organisational Behaviour: Individuals, Groups and Organisation, Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall Davenport, T. O. 1999. Human Capital: What It Is and Why People Invest It, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Dyer, S. 1998. “Flexibility models: a critical analysis” International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 19, 4 pp 223-233. Hatch, M. 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