Organizational Behavior an Employer of Any Number

Organizational Behavior

An employer of any number of employees must consider it a basic duty to provide a stress free workplace for all his employees. It is a well-known fact that stress at a workplace induces animosity among the employees and creates problems that would not have been present under ordinary circumstances. Stress at the workplace also reduces the productivity of the workers therein and creates tension for the management, which finds itself under a lot of pressure. In a medical sense stress at the workplace actually affects the powers of the brain in such areas as concentration, learning and being able to memorize details that are an important function of the brain. In a legal sense, stress is a factor that leads to a whole lot of litigation when the employees sue the company for bad stress management in the workplace. This in turn results in bad publicity and a loss of the good reputation of an organization. Employers have the duty of seeing to it that all the stress at the workplace is reduced to a practical extent wherein the workers would find it easy to concentrate on their work and do their jobs in a better manner.

The stress at the workplace can be seen as occurring from two different sources. One is the 'external stressor', which is related to the physical conditions of the workplace such as the heat or the cold, or the psychological conditions at the workplace such as the stress that may occur when one person bullies the other for any reason. The 'internal stressor' is the stress that is related to the physical well being and health of the worker such as nay infection that is present in the workplace, or some psychological factor such as when the employee worries ceaselessly about something that is happening in the workplace. Work stressors can also be described under two headings: 'short-term' or 'long-term'. A short-term stressor is one that is extremely acute and is caused by a reaction to any threat or danger as an immediate reaction. It is also referred to as the 'fight or flight' syndrome. When the threat is removed the person would return to a normal level. In a long-term stressor, which is also known as a 'chronic' stressor, there are present in the workplace a number of factors that are continuous and cause the fighting spirit to die down. Such conditions become chronic and long lasting and would have to be tackled efficiently by the employer in trying to remove them. (Stress Management)

When the design and the layout of a workplace are poor, then the risk of psychological stress to the worker is considerable higher. For example, when the worker has to spend a lot of time near a source of loud noise or near a source of chemical hazard, then he would suffer from work-induced stress. A worker may suffer mentally too when faced with stressful circumstances. For example, he may suffer from poor concentration levels, or he may find it difficult to assimilate the ideas that he needs to perform at his optimum best. This is something that can be easily avoided by the proper planning of the design of the workplace. (Workplace Layout and Design) The deviance of the workers of an organization from ordinary or normal behavior patterns is known as 'deviance'. Deviance is supposedly the result of workplace stress. However, some recent research has demonstrated that stress and the resultant deviance may be caused by external circumstances too. One of the circumstances is that there may be violence in the community surrounding the workplace, and related to the conditions in the workplace.

Another reason for deviance is the fact that in many organizations, the wealth, or in other words, the salaries of the personnel may be quite unequally distributed, and the disparity between the CEO's salary and the basic employee's salary may be so very vast that the health of the lower paid employee would suffer. This can cause stress. When the psychological health and well being of the employee are affected, then what the result would be in terms of the workplace efficiency can be estimated precisely. The loss in productivity would be huge, and the loss in financial resources and also in the payment of insurance premiums for the employee would be astronomical. All this would be avoided if the amount of workplace stress were to be reduced to a significant level. (Organizational Deviance)

The RSI syndrome is one more factor to be considered in the analysis of the psychological as well as the psychosocial elements that would affect the workplace. An RSI is in other words referred to as the 'repetitive strain injuries' that occur at the workplace and affect almost one third of the working people of the United States of America. These invisible and extremely painful injuries to the joints or tendons or other parts of the body often end up limiting the ability of the worker to fulfill his duties, and causes him endless stress. Correct posture, better seating arrangements, and other similar changes would help these people to be more productive, or else they become a burden on the employer since they will not be able to do their jobs well. (Workplace Psychosocial Risk Factors for RSIs)

As defined by Hellriegel and John C. Slocum, an Organization has as its basic duty the responsibility of 'organizing' the workplace in a manner that would bring out the best in the employees as well as work well for the management in terms of productivity and efficiency. Therefore, organizing is the function of the management in creating and structuring a plan of relationships within the organization so that the employees can achieve the numerous goals and plans that the management has set out for them. When the workplace is organized in such a way that this is done at an extremely efficient and optimum level, then the employees as well as the management are happy, and the physical and psychological factors affecting the workplace are well avoided. (Strategic Planning Cycle: Organizational Behavior)

An Organization may be defined as a group of coordinated people who all work together in search and achievement of a particular, common goal. (Hellriegel; Jackson; Slocum, 2002) Organizational behavior is the in-depth study and analysis of the way in which a group of people or an individual act when they are within an organization. The approach that is generally used is the 'system approach' whereby the inter-connections and relationships that are to be found in the analysis of the whole individual or the whole group or the whole organization and the entire social system within the organization are taken into consideration. The entire exercise is conducted in the hope of building better relationships within the organization by achieving the various objectives set out, like for example, the human objectives, the objectives based on the organization, and the various socially applicable objectives. The elements of organizational behavior are based on the philosophy of the management and its values and objectives. These make up the 'culture' of the workplace and the culture determines the workings of the group of employees of the organization.

The group dynamics is what constitutes and also determines the 'quality' of the work life of the employees, and the better this is, the better motivated they are in the pursuit and achievement of the goals of the management. The organization generally adopts one particular method of operation. There are several different types of models to choose from and these are the 'autocratic', the 'custodial', the 'supportive', and the 'collegial'. The autocratic, as the name indicates, is the model of organization that is based on the demarcation of authority. The Manager is seen as the most powerful man or Boss, and the employees learn to either fear him or respect him and obey his commands to the best of their ability. An unhealthy dependence on the man in power is established, and this does not and never has given good results. The custodial type of organization is based on a distribution of economic resources with the manager as the leader. The employees find a sense of security in this form of organization and try to depend on the organization to indulge in their sense of peace and security.

The result achieved is a sense of passive co-operation from the employees. In the supportive model, the manager is meant to offer support to the employees of the organization, and there is participation of the employees in a large number of activities within the organization, in a manner that will bring out the team spirit of co-operation and competitiveness among the employees. The employees are recognized and awarded for their efforts by the management. The collegial model is based on the concept of teamwork under the leadership and guidance of the manager. The team of employees learns discipline and behaves according to the guidelines allotted to the team. The result is that the employees learn to self-analyze, and though this is good, only brings out moderate enthusiasm in them. The truth of the matter is that though the different models of operation of an organization have been identified, it is a fact that no one organization can function with just one type of operation; in fact, it is a combination of all the models that is the most effective sort of organizational model, though, in some cases, one particular method may dominate and take precedence over the others. (Big Dogs Leadership Page: Organizational Behavior)

Manager, according to Hellriegel, Don, and John C. Slocum, is a person who is in possession of a definite set of attitudes as well as skills and innate knowledge in a lot of pertinent areas and subjects, and this would help him take up a position of responsibility within the organization and enable him to control or be in charge of the team of group of employees under him. In short, he must be 'competent'. Competency in the sense of managerial capabilities and abilities means skill in the areas of communication, and the planning and implementation of the various strategies that make up the duties of the workforce of the organization. Teamwork is also important and the manager must be competent in the handling of teamwork. In today's world, a manager must be in possession of basic global awareness and knowledge of the current happenings in his field of business. When the manager is a well read and aware person, the employees will benefit immensely from him, as he would definitely act according to the world standards that he is aware of. (Hellriegel; Jackson; Slocum, 2002)

Self-management is also important in a manager, as this would be demonstrated in his work with the team of employees. A good manager would be very much aware of all the activities that are taking place both within and without the organization, and of the goals that he has to achieve with the cooperation of the team of employees under him. Any organization would have a specific set of goals to achieve, and the innate duty of a manager would be to set his employees in the direction of the fulfillment of these goals and standards to the best of his ability. A manager, therefore, is a person who organizes and plans and allocates the various types of resources within the organization so that the goals of the organization would be fulfilled successfully. There are several different types of managers. They may be Department Managers, Division Managers, District mangers, or Product Managers, and so on. (Hellriegel; Jackson; Slocum, 2002)

Whatever be the type of manager, his duty is to set his team of employees to work using the resources that the organization has provided him with, in the achievement of a common goal. A manager has to perform, among his duties, the task of training of the work personnel, the development of the plans of the organization, and be in charge of or be aware of the information systems within the organization. A manager is evaluated on the basis of the perfection and the accuracy and the completeness of the tasks performed not by him, but of his entire team. Individual evaluations and assessments are not necessary in the case of managers, since they are in charge of directing the team or group of employees and not perform tasks on their own. (Hellriegel; Jackson; Slocum, 2002)

There are different levels of management within an organization. While small organizations have a single manager, and this manager would be the Director or the Founder of the Company, other larger organizations have several managers with a set of duties to perform. These are the First-line Managers who are in charge of the production aspect of the goods and services offered by the organization. Sales managers and Production Supervisors belong to this category. The Middle Managers are the people who work in conjunction with the top management level, and the goals and objectives set up by the top management are to be implemented by these managers. This is generally done by providing the First level managers with specific goals with which to work towards the achievement of the goals. The third type of manager is the Top Level Manager. (Hellriegel; Jackson; Slocum, 2002)

The top manager is responsible for overseeing the entire operational level of the organization. These are the people who develop the various strategies and goals that are to be implemented by the rest of the organization. These are the people who also lead their organization in any world events or even in various community affairs and any sort of negotiations of business deals with the Government. The top managers spend almost 75% of their time in planning and leading, and it is not part of their duties to directly supervise or be responsible for the workings of the rest of the team of employees of the organization. And finally, top managers have the duty of keeping up the image of the organization that they are working for. The 'good' image is extremely important in the conduct of business and this image might very well make or break a company single-handedly. The top manager sees to it that there is no problem with this image, though there is a saying asking if an old dog can be taught to perform new tricks within a management. In this case, adaptability is important and the management must learn new ways of tackling the problems, and grow with the times, although this may result in the changing of the original image of the company. (Hellriegel; Jackson; Slocum, 2002)

How can the competency as well as the performance levels of an employee be assessed accurately? Are there any particular strategies with which to conduct this type of assessment? What are these, and are they accurate enough to assess an employee's performance in a proper and acceptable manner? These are the questions that must be answered so that a proper judgment can be made. The traditional and time tested age-old method that was followed for the evaluation of employees is the 'supervisor-subordinate' evaluations. In today's world, however, this method does not exist any more, and is seen as being ineffective. Today the method of evaluation is based on a system of a complete feedback from both internal as well as external customers of the company. This evaluation method provides employers with a broad perspective of the employees of their organization. It is generally referred to as the 360-degree approach. (Companies evaluate employees from all perspectives)

Wherein in the older method where a supervisor would interact with his employees for just a few minutes per day, and in those few minutes the employee may behave at his best, the method now followed is one whereby the people who interact with the employee, like, for example, his peers and colleagues, and his clients and customers on a daily basis give in a feedback and create a virtual pool of facts and information about the employee, upon which the supervisor may safely and without prejudice evaluate his employee. One example of the practical benefits of this sort of evaluation is that of the Johnson and Johnson Advanced Behavioral Technology, an organization that wanted to evaluate an employee. The system of direct reports was used and this involved getting the reports on that employee's performance from those in contact with him directly. It was discovered after reading this report that the employee was in fact being extremely critical towards other employees and this was resulting in a lot of tension in the workplace. Corrective actions could be taken immediately and the problem was sorted out quickly. The 360-degree method works for the benefit of the employee too. This is because he will interact and communicate better with his peers and his customers so that he would get a good report, and this is good for all concerned. (Companies evaluate employees from all perspectives)