Organizational Behaviour

 

 

 

 

Organizational Behaviour

 

 

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Institutional affiliation

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Module 1

1. How can studying OB (Organizational Behavior) help you to be a more effective manager?

Principles of organizational behavior present five skills that would help me become an effective manager. These motivate employees to have prosocial behavior, create a positive culture at the workplace, promote positive behaviors, determine causes of antisocial behavior, and identify how employees respond to organizational change. These predictive capabilities that are enhanced by the study of organizational behavior will enable me to identify the right strategies and implement those that can produce positive results. Also, organizational behavior allows a manager to understand the psychology of those that they lead to ensure that everyone becomes a source of internal and external influence to achieving good results.

2. Think back to a time at work where there was a miscommunication. What led to it? What was the outcome? How can you avoid a similar miscommunication in the future?

A few weeks ago, there was a case of miscommunication whereby a customer had placed a direct order to deliver the construction materials. The cashier who took the order did not fill in the cost prices of the materials correctly. Upon realizing that, he forwarded the case to the manager only to find that the prices had been hiked and it would cost much more than expected. The manager had learned about the increased price of the materials but failed to inform the relevant group. We had to cancel the order too late, and the customer was upset and vowed never to order our services again. I will avoid miscommunication by promoting the right level of engagement of the relevant groups to ensure that everyone is aware of any change within the organization.

3. Four behavioral sciences contribute to OB’s understanding: psychology, social psychology, sociology, and anthropology. How does understanding each of these help managers?

Behavioral sciences seek to understand the changes in behavior and personality traits of human beings. Social psychology helps in understanding the attitudes, building trust, and identifying the individual’s communication patterns. This is important in identifying ways for handling power and conflicts at all levels of the organization. Psychological is crucial for every workplace because it helps managers select, support, and train employees. It also helps in fostering healthy behaviors and building better workplaces. This is because psychological study enables the manager to learn and understand the individual variations in the employees’ motivation. Sociology is understood as studying human relationships to determine the educational background and training that the employees need to achieve better results. This helps in enhancing their ability to handle the customers’ needs. Lastly, anthropology provides a means for analyzing and developing a particular moral focus for the whole group at the workplace. It helps create a culture where rules are established, and everyone has a feeling of belonging to achieve essential goals.

Question module 2

1. What is the relationship between attitudes and behavior? Have you ever experienced cognitive dissonance? What happened?

From a hypothetical construct, attitude is understood as the way a person thinks and feels about anything. For instance, people will develop different perspectives from a particular direct observation. On the other hand, behavior is how a person conducts oneself depending on the situation. The relationship between the two terms is that attitude leads to behavior, and they both indicate how the message is transmitted in particular cases. Cognitive dissonance occurs when an individual’s behavior conflicts with the underlying beliefs and behaviors. When I was in college, I used to smoke a lot of cigars. I did this knowing very well that smoking causes cancer, but I was in a state of cognitive dissonance and continued to smoke either way. I was later able to change and stopped smoking for good.

2. As a manager, how can you help increase job satisfaction in your employees? What are the organizational consequences when there are high or low levels of job satisfaction?

Increasing job satisfaction should be the effort of every manager to make a greater business sense. As the manager, I would begin by asking the employees about their motivations. This would help me to determine ways of improving the state of the workplace environment. Secondly, I would reduce micro-management to enhance communication across all levels. Lastly, I would create an employee recognition program where loyal and productive employees are rewarded. This would enable the employees to remain aware that their positive contributions will be recognized. Low job satisfaction leads to low morale among the employees, which produces an undesirable workplace environment where the team has a negative attitude, which negatively affects their productivity. A high level of job dissatisfaction, on the other hand, leads to a strong association among the employees. Everyone is determined to increase their productivity.

3. There are four potential employee responses to workplace dissatisfaction: exit, voice, loyalty, and neglect. Have you ever found yourself expressing one of these responses? If so, provide some context and examples.

I have experienced exit and neglect responses at the workplace. I was working at an organization where the managers were very harsh on the employees. They made changes without communicating to us and would later rash at us when something was done differently from how they wanted. This led to many conflicts at the workplace. I decided to quit the job and find a new place where managers were good communicators. Exit and neglect is a typical response for employees who experience dissatisfaction at the workplace. It occurs when there are no positive relationships, and the leadership style and tactics are not inclusive.

Question Module 3

1. Choose one of the common decision-making biases that you have either personally experienced or which you are “guilty” of and describe the following: the error involved, the circumstances, and how the bias affected the situation

‘s outcome.

I experienced psychological bias, which is a tendency to make decisions without considering enough logic. I had been chosen to lead a group of individuals for a registry undertaking in an organization I worked for. The work was required to be done in two days, but an influential executive member pressured me to prioritize another task. Because of his power in the organization, I was forced to forego what would have helped me showcase my leadership skills to complete his order first. As a result, the undertaking was late, and the supervisor stripped me of the leadership position in the next similar tasks.

2. There are six steps in the rational decision-making process, as described in Chapter 6. Using buying a car as an example, how could someone use this process?

Define the problem.

I had bought a used car that did not last before the transmission failed. My primary concern was to buy the best car that would not land me in a similar problem shortly.

Identify the decision.

I enquired from a local mechanic who advised that used cars will mostly have an underlying problem and the best option was buying a new car.

Allocate weights to the criteria.

The weight criteria included my budget, safety, and comfort. I identified Toyota Highlander as a good fit for my criteria as its price was within my budget, had a good comfort and safety score.

Develop the alternative.

I conducted a driving test for the Toyota Highlander and Jeep Grand Cherokee to determine if I could get an alternative that offered better results.

Evaluate the alternative.

Jeep Grand Cherokee is the right car, but the interior color did not interest me. It is likely to stain and would therefore not offer a lasting experience.

Select the best alternative.

I chose to purchase the Toyota Highlander, and the decision was based on my findings and observations.

3. Motivation the old- fashioned way? Readhow Bill Mork reenergized his workforce and realized real savings in the process. Choose one classic theory of motivation and one contemporary theory to explain why his program works.

Theory X and Y apply in the concept of Billy Mork’s undertaking. Mork adopted an old-fashioned approach for pushing the employees to contribute ideas for the organization’s growth (Ferdous, 2017). He introduced a rewarding system where employees who contributed a substantive idea to the organization would get a 10% benefit on savings. The theory worked for Mork because he was conversant that the employees were unwilling to work and therefore needed to be compelled to use a rewarding system to enhance the achievement of the organizational goals. A contemporary theory that would apply is the expectancy theory, where employees tend to act in a certain way when they expect a given outcome. In this case, the employees were attracted to contributing ideas because they would get the 10% benefit in return.

Questions Mod 4

1. How do group norms influence an individual’s behavior? Give one or two examples of how you have seen this play out at work.

Group norms are unwritten and often governs the behavior of the employees within an organization. They include language used during meetings, dress code, and levels of respect. The rules develop and strengthen becoming the culture of the organization. New members who join the workplace are expected to adopt the same to form formidable relationships with those they found at the workplace. Leaders and supervisors have a responsibility to ensure that they propagate the norms to new members. However, group norms do not require extreme follow up by the managers as it creates a micromanagement feeling. The team’s effectiveness can only be enhanced when the employees can moderate and reach a consensus on their behaviors.

2. How can cohesiveness and diversity support group effectiveness?

Cohesiveness occurs when a team remains united to achieve a common goal. Being cohesive means that everyone is focused on contributing towards a common goal to achieve overall success for the team. Cohesiveness enables the team members to be more open-minded, solve problems in more unique ways, and be creative. This reduces the possibility of making errors, which enhances group effectiveness. On the other hand, diversity entails the situation where everyone represents another person’s gender, nationality, culture, and race. This builds a joint intellectual potential at the workplace, which eliminates biases in the team. It also helps to develop a variety of perspectives, which produces constructive ideas.

3. In a globally connected world, what sorts of actions might you take to minimize your organization’s environmental impact from business travel?

I would encourage the team members to consider utilizing digital communication methods when a face-to-face is not necessary. Virtual means have been invented, which has reduced the need for traveling in cars that emit pollutant gases. Therefore, we can become more environmentally responsible, minimizing travels that involve energy use and unnecessary emissions. When it appears that a face-to-face meeting is necessary, the team should begin by checking the environmental profile of the means of travel they will be using and that of the hotel they are booking. This would ensure that the organization is environmentally wise and contributes towards reducing the environmental pollution in its business activities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Ferdous, J. (2017). A Journey of Organization Theories: From Classical to Modern. International Journal of Business, Economics, and Law, 12(2), 2289-1552.