Organizational Behaviour
Organizational Behaviour is a new topic that was first published by Philip Selznick in the year 1948 in an article he wrote named American Sociological Review, and from that point onwards the study and review of the term organizational behaviour were adapted (Huczynski & Buchanan, 2019). This shows that the tern organizational behaviour is new in the business world because its popularity began in the mid-twenty century. In the year 1962, organizational behaviour was acknowledged as a subject. Later, Yale University began publishing its studies.
Organization behavior is an integrated approach to the understanding of the structure and management of an organization, concerning their environment, and the actions affecting their individuals and the interactions between or among its ranks. It studies the behaviour of all people involved in a work environment, and their impact on performance, job structure , communication and even motivation (my assignment, 2015). Practising ethical behaviour rewards also though individuals’ attitude towards it restricts good organizational behaviour. In an organization both the manager and the employee need to implement certain measures that will help in maintaining a healthy and effective organizational behaviour, this requires that the manager has to be cautious of his or her employees, differences in beliefs, culture and values.
The goal of studying Organizational behaviour is to be able to describe how individuals act under a variety of conditions and to comprehend why people in the organization are behaving
as they are. Secondly, it aims at predicting the behaviour of the employees in the future and gains control of the human activities in the workplace at least partially. Lastly to be able to understand and gain full knowledge of how individuals can be motivated to their responsibility which will enhance the person and group’s performance which in the long run will improve the performance of the organization (Aithal & Kumar, 2016).
In this field of study, three major categories are discussed. These are macro (which covers environmental issues), meso (covers the organization and group issues) and micro (tackles individual factors). The environment consists of competitors, investors and customers, the economic situation and the market. Under the macro category, the environment and the organization go hand in hand since both aspects influence each other directly or indirectly. The environment and an organization constantly interact because for example, European countries can choose whether to manufacture and sell their cars in China or not to (Huczynski & Buchanan, 2019). For two companies that are in the same environment for them to have a good working environment, they should emulate similar organizational structures. However, two mangers in the same environment may perceive the environment differently and come up with two different structures but the two of them will be equally successful and yield great results.
In addition to the above, understanding the dynamics is central to the organizational survival. Organizations need to fit with the trends in the environment, for example printing of books while people are steadily migrating to the use of e-books. The other category meso, which deals with the how the group interact between themselves, mostly dealing with communication and decision making. It’s a mode of behavior or belief that the group assimilates either formally or informally. When a group is aware of their takes and manages them in a professional manner, then their possibility of achieving great outcomes is increased (Huczynski & Buchanan, 2019). For example, when one is appointed as the supervisor of the group the other group members will listen to him more often and his or her instructions followed closely. The leader should mostly focus on building the group cohesion which is the attraction and positives that the group members have individually and among each other.
The last category talks about the micro issues that tackles individual factors, they are referred to as micro issues because they are hardly noticed by and at times excluded in the formulation of the organizational structure. This are individual factors that phycologists insist that we focus on since they affect the organizational behaviour. They include attitudes, motivation, absenteeism and work stress. Macro issues are indirectly affected by these issues because an organization often rely on the individuals and the small groups of people. This issue is well positioned by the human resource department which works towards creating a positive perception and commitment pf the employees in the organization structure and in turn the staff become committed to the organization due to the positive perception created.
In an organization pluralism, dualism and Salad bowl are the three common types of cultures. Pluralism donates a culture where different people who join the culture still maintain their culture which in the end are accepted into the culture. Dualism denotes a culture that has two major elements that interchange on whether the culture helps meet the objectives or not. Salad bowl is a little bit like pluralism because it talks about where different factors are brought together and bond by common elements. In Pluralism there is more assimilation while in Salad bowl the assimilation is few.
Starbucks assimilates both pluralism and Salad bowl, it is popularly known for its acceptance of various cultures and employees’ diversity. This creates unique qualities for the company in addition to increasing creativity in comparison to other competitors. This has birthed great results because different people are motivated to be a partner or work for Starbucks. Also, after their recruitment they are taken through a training that helps the employees to adjust into the new environment. Dualism couldn’t survive because in the organization there is the utilization of more than one a single culture that prevails in the specific location the shop is in (Starbucks, 2017).
There are different modes of communication namely, verbal, non-verbal, written, visual communication and listening. They could be passing both formal or informal information, verbal communication is speaking to each other either face-to-face, using a mobile phone or zoom etc., non-verbal communication includes facial expressions, eye contact, posture and hands movements. Written communication occurs when we send an email, distribute a memo, a Facebook post, a tweet or a contract while visual communication occurs when we view images, memes and videos on social media platforms such us Instagram, Facebook and Twitter which is an emerging trend. The last mode of communication is active listening which is the most important because if we cannot effectively listen, we cannot have a constructive engagement with them. In an organization all the modes are utilized interchangeably but the most used the written and verbal communication.
In the past organizations used the one-way-top-down ways of communicating with their employees: the meetings, videos, conferences, noticeboard, team briefing
and emails but with the coming of the new technology, social media in particular they now allow a range of two-ways communication channels (Huczynski & Buchanan, 2019). This allows even the customers to give feedback and reviews through the platforms meaning that choosing the correct mode of communication will positively affect the organization. For example, in Starbucks collaboration and communication is taken seriously, as an organization that provides service in the hotel and management industry, Starbucks advocates for collaborative efforts through effective communication. The baristas must communicate very clearly with each other to fulfill the customers’ orders. This culture supports efficiency in the business process and thus the employees can provide quality service, a good customer experience and hence business effectiveness (Ferguson, 2019).
Authority is the power to direct, give orders, make decision and command obedience over lower-level employees, the nature of authority can also affect the organizational behavior within an organization. It can either be classified under the top-down perspective or the bottom-up perspectives . Under the top-down perspectives, there are three divisions of authority namely, line authority, staff authority and functional authority. Line authority is a direct type of authority characterized by the horizontal lines in an organization, staff authority gives the right to give and receive advice while functional authority is characterized by the right to direct but not to instill discipline (Yuki, 2004).
For the authority to exist and be implemented it has to be accepted by the subordinates, and for them to accept it they have to understand the nature of the authority and become convinced that the implementation of the authority is consistent with the motive of the organization’s. The subordinates will accept the authority openly if their personal interests are compatible to it and they are complying with them. With authority comes power and power is the ability to influence the actions of employees either formally or informally. Managers empower employees by placing them in charge of what they do, this is not only delegating authority, but it gives the employees freedom to achieve the objectives set and hold themselves responsible for the outcomes. However, employees are involved in four main areas that is, decision making, goal setting, problem solving and planning process in the bottom-up authority.
The recognized social ranks in many organizations in operation is from the CEO to the executives, to the managers, to the supervisors, to the employees and then followed by the customers, which is the top-down approach. Combining the two top-down and bottom-up processes of authority will give the best results because it picks the best of both approaches (Stewart et al, 2015). The use of top-down only doesn’t create enough commitment from employees and the bottom-up approach does not produce the needed resources to implement the organizations initiative. The combination of both will give a positive effect to the organisational behaviour, in Starbucks they use both approaches, and this have helped to maintain their customers and build their brand.
The work motivation affect a lot of skills that an individual develops, the career he/she pursues, the manner in which the individual will allocate their resources (attention, time and social capital) that will affect the direction and the ways they persist on activities during work. Motivation at work is critical and of importance to public policymakers, human resource, practices that promote employees’ adjustments and organizational success. Work motivation stands as the pivot of organizational success and society (Kanfer et al., 2017, p.338). Motivation is drawn from intrinsic awards or extrinsic awards.
In organizational behaviour the motivational techniques for the employees can bring about a positive or negative effect. Starbucks utilizes extrinsic awards like monetary bonus and the performance of this is very high. Intrinsic rewards also used to maintain, inspire and nature the spirit of productivity. They pay a significant amount of tuition fees for both the full and part time employees when they want to enrol into a class program. This highlights their efforts to promote education and show its importance (Starbucks, 2017).
Emotional intelligence is the intrinsic capability to manage emotional cues and information that one is given so that when dealing with a customer one has self-management and good social skills. It is represented by domains such as managing one’s emotions, understanding other employees’ emotions, being able to manage other employees’ emotions and motivating oneself. In organizations where there are low intelligence employees are greatly affected by how the management behaves like conflict avoidance, ego management and politics of office. Where there is high EQ, high performance, valid reasons for disagreement, respect among employees and more productivity. This will in the long run give a positive impact because the management will understand the emotions of the people in the workplace.
In Starbucks the emotional intelligence is high because they are interacting with the customers every minute, whether one is purchasing over the counter or seating in to eat. If the employees are not satisfied this means that there will be a negative effect because they will not give quality service. However, in Starbucks during the hiring of new employees the customer relation factor is really emphasized especially after the racism incident that one’s faced them.
A virtual element is usually associated with virtual office and telecommunicating. Telecommunicating is a form of virtual organization where the employees do not meet at a certain place of work because they are either working from home or through mobile communication from one location to another. This is helpful because it usually saves on the transportation cost of travelling to the workplace. It also saves on time because the employer can talk to you anytime.
Starbucks offers both work from home and work from an office, for baristas they have to the physically in the office location but for the managers they can work from home. The virtual organization has some of the managers working from different places, but the objectives and goals are still met. It is characterized by the use of technology to communicate because the employees are in different geographical locations. The new trend is very helpful because even during a maternity leave and in case of an emergency the employees can create a virtual environment where they can still work from as opposed to the traditional method where the employees have to be at the exact geographical location of the building. Virtual offices have affected the businesses both positively and negatively, some of the cons are communication gaps because of use of internet to relay information. However, it also has advantages because it allows the employee to work from the comfort of his or her home.
Organizations influence our daily life greatly and are created by either an individual or a group of people. Through the formation of an organization one can delegate duties, cover a large scale, manage the external environment variables, reduce expenses and division of power and control. Organizational Behaviour is simply an interdisciplinary subject that studies the human behaviour. It gives the managers both the challenges and opportunities they need to help the organisation fulfil its goals and objectives by recognizing differences and loopholes and therefore allowing the managers to see the value of diversifying the workforce. It helps in directing the managers on how to improve quality of an employee’s productivity through empowering them and finally it provides a guidance to creating an ethical working climate/environment.