Management Influence on Organization Influence Can Be

Management

Influence on organization

Influence can be defined as "a power to affect persons or events especially power based on prestige…" (wordnet, 2011). It is due to influence that in an organization many may like a particular individual in a department or a particular manager and not the other.

There are nine ways according to Johannsen (2011) that a leader can exert influence on others in an organization. The nine ways can be discussed in brief as follows;

Influence with authority; is one that comes due to the position the person exerting the authority holds. It is top-bottom and is based on obedience like patience to doctor due to authority

Influence by coaching; where one provides new knowledge and skills and in the process influence them in the organization. This may also involve mentoring and also teaching.

Influence by persuasion; this has been used for long time in history. It comes in handy where authority has failed. The aim of persuasion is to lead someone to say 'I agree.'

Influence by positive reinforcement; this is the operant conditioning and relies heavily on learning. Here consequences such as rewards are used to exert influence.

Influence by punishment; here both positive and negative punishment is used to gain influence. This method also depends upon the operant conditioning.

Influence by relationship; this is delicate way but relies on the ability to develop, maintain as well as repair relationships. This is common in the Latin American and Asian cultures where sound relationships give way for business to begin.

Influence through expertise; this is being influenced due to assurance by an expert it is the right thing. We will evoke the right to remain silent when told by our lawyers to do so.

Influence through vision; here a visionary leader will know how to influence others towards his vision and motivate the group to work with him towards it. He will influence people through raising expectations.

Influence through charisma; it is one of the most powerful means of influence though hard to establish. It is mostly associated with great preachers, prophets and famous teachers of religious beliefs and transformational leaders.

It is worth noting that influence will work in coalesce of most if not all the above and is relative from one person to another.

Significant employee behavior

One of the behaviors that the organization behavior (OB) researchers still struggle to study to finer details is the issue of absenteeism and turnover. This is because they heavily weigh on organizations in terms of monetary cost. The two are also very grim indicators of deviant behavior. According to Robbins and Judge (2007) deviant workplace behavior also referred to as antisocial behavior or workplace incivility is a "voluntary behavior that violates significant organizational norms" and these behaviors ultimately undermines the well-being of the members of an organization or even the entire organization.

The deviance may vary from an employee playing loud music in the office environment yet everyone else is silent and concentrating on their work. Other extreme deviant behaviors could be using insults against a colleague, gossiping excessively, steal or even organize acts of sabotage. It is estimated that workplace deviance costs on average $4.2 billion in form of violence to $200 billion emanating from theft to $7.1 billion experienced from corporate security against cyber attacks. This type deviance needs the Hawthorne Theory on organization behavior that was conducted in 1932. In this study Elton Mayo puts to error the assumption of scientific approach to management. The theory asserts that the human factor is more important than the physical factor in organizations' attempt to motivate their employees. Deviant behavior should be considered as a very important aspect since it displays dissatisfaction in the organization. The management should get to the root of the problem rather than treating one surface problem, for instance sorting out the lateness issue only so see theft sprout.

Managers vs. Leaders