The uses of metrics for example for measuring employee attitudes and attributes that lead to performance analysis are also pervasive in defining human resource management strategies aimed at increasing both morale and performance (Bukowitz, Williams, Mactas, 2004). Often these metrics and more like they are integrated into a common benchmark report often called a balanced scorecard and are used for assessing strategies and their performance over time.
2. How have the fields of psychology and sociology contributed to our understanding of organizational behavior? Explain with suitable illustrations
There is direct relevance to organizational behavior of psychology and sociology across several different dimensions. First, there is the use of psychology in defining how organizational behavior is perceived across cultures and nations. The work of Dr. Geert Hofstede on Cultural Dimensions for examples show how critical the area of psychology is on international organizational behavior, in addition to managing intercultural differences on the dimensions he defined in his model (Hofstede, Neuijen, Ohayv, Sanders, 1990). There is also the need for psychology to contribute to the role of organizational behavior in overcoming resistance to change. The fact that the majority of enterprise-wide software and IT related projects fail due to resistance to change is a testament to how powerful these forces can be in any organizational culture. Psychology plays a role in defining how companies can device change management strategies that overcome massive strategic direction shifts, as IBM and Microsoft were both forced to do as the Internet threatened to rapidly make them obsolete over time.
From a sociological standpoint, organizational behavior has also...
Sociologically this forces managers to focus more on how they can serve their subordinates and be developmental as opposed to being focused on their own agendas over time. Sociologically, organizational behavior is turning more into a level paying field as a result. The reliance on knowledge as a critical catalyst in the development of entirely new approaches to competing on product development, shown in the Freestyle example, is becoming more pervasive. The Internet and with it the speed up in development cycles is forcing more companies to rely on psychologically and sociologically based approaches in managing their businesses than ever before. Psychology also is contributing to a rapid reduction in resistance to change once employees find they can internalize and excel at the objectives they are given.
3. Explain Fiedler's contingency model. In your discussion, describe the role of the LPC (least preferred coworker) questionnaire and identify the key situational factors that determine leadership effectiveness, according to this model.
The essence of Fielder's contingency model is the empirically-based observations of how any given managers' organizational effectiveness is more determined by their situation leadership vs. their absolute set of leadership characteristics. There are several key assumptions with regard to the Fielder Contingency Model, the first being that there are no empirically proven best practices of management, instead there is the need for a leader to assimilate and determine the unique role they have in a given organizational culture before they can become truly effective over time
