Organizational Behavior, Motivation, and EI in the Workplace
This paper examines organizational behavior within a university financial aid department structured along bureaucratic and autocratic lines. Drawing on personal workplace experience, the paper explores how poor leadership shaped employee attitudes, performance, and morale. It applies Maslow's hierarchy of needs to explain why workers lacked motivation, and uses the concept of emotional intelligence (EI) to contrast the empathetic behavior of a few engaged employees against largely indifferent management. The analysis integrates scholarly perspectives from Schyns and Schilling, Bakker and Schaufeli, and Capek to illustrate how negative organizational stimuli reduce productivity and quality, while positive individual behaviors can partially offset an otherwise dysfunctional workplace culture.
- Introduction: Bureaucratic university department, stressful culture, poor leadership
- Employee Behavior and Organizational Behavior: Autocratic management caused apathy and reduced productivity
- Human Motivation: Needs Theory: Maslow's hierarchy explains unmet worker needs and low motivation
- Teams, Emotional Intelligence, and Productivity: EI absent in management but present among high-performing employees
- Conclusion: Poor leadership, unmet needs, and low EI harmed department outcomes
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper grounds abstract organizational behavior concepts in a concrete, first-person workplace narrative, making theoretical arguments immediately relatable and credible.
- It integrates multiple scholarly sources (Schyns & Schilling, Bakker & Schaufeli, Maslow, Capek) in a way that directly supports and explains observed behaviors rather than simply summarizing theory.
- The contrast between the few high-performing, emotionally intelligent employees and the disengaged majority provides a nuanced view that avoids oversimplifying the workplace dynamic.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates effective application of theory to practice. Rather than describing theories in isolation, the author consistently maps each concept — Maslow's hierarchy of needs, emotional intelligence, destructive leadership — onto specific, observed workplace behaviors. This technique shows the reader not just what the theories say, but what they look like in action.
Structure breakdown
The paper follows a clear five-part structure: an introductory context-setting section establishes the workplace setting and stakes; a section on employee versus organizational behavior applies leadership research to observed dynamics; a dedicated section applies Maslow's motivation theory; a fourth section addresses teams, EI, and their impact on productivity; and a brief conclusion synthesizes the findings. Each section builds logically on the last, moving from macro-level organizational structure down to individual employee psychology.
Introduction
The organizational structure of the university where I worked was based on a bureaucratic style. The hierarchical pyramid command structure placed my department in the mid-level range within the administrative wing of the university. Our department had a department manager and a head manager above him, and fifteen employees beneath them. The department served students with financial aid issues, so it was always a hectic place to work, as students constantly came in with questions about their aid and whether their applications were being processed correctly. Stress levels were sometimes very high within the department, as everyone was working against deadlines at certain points in the year.
Other causes of stress included the fact that the organizational workplace culture was not conducive to maintaining a positive spirit in which respect and job satisfaction were clear goals. Most of the time, it seemed the department head and head manager did not care whether their employees were productive or not — workers were simply expected to complete their work on time and without errors. In terms of offering support, there was very little from leadership, and workers had to try to support one another when things became overwhelming. This paper describes the organizational behavior of this department and shows how factors such as theory, emotional intelligence, and the relationship between employee and organizational behavior — as represented by management — were manifested.
References
Bakker, A. B., & Schaufeli, W. B. (2008). Positive organizational behavior: Engaged employees in flourishing organizations. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 29, 147–154.
Capek, F. (2007). How employee experiences drive organizational behavior. Retrieved from http://customerinnovations.wordpress.com/2007/12/05/how-employee-experiences-drive-organizational-behavior/
Maslow, A. H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50(4), 370.
McQuerrey, L. (2014). Importance of employee behavior in an organization. Retrieved from http://work.chron.com/importance-employee-behavior-organization-11019.html
Schyns, B., & Schilling, J. (2013). How bad are the effects of bad leaders? A meta-analysis of destructive leadership and its outcomes. The Leadership Quarterly, 24, 138–158.
Shanks, N. H., & Buchbinder, S. B. (2012). Introduction to health care management. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
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