Organizational Behavior

The term organizational behavior could be defined as the degree of interaction between the values and norms of the workplace and the individual personality of the employee at large, this definition, highlights the dependability between the two constructs mentioned above is highlighted. This interaction between individuality and collectivity causes the firms all around the world to maintain an appropriate organizational setup, because individuals constitute the practices of an organization and then follow these rules and regulations at the later stage, therefore, the personality of those who do all the policy making, impacts on the nature of the policies, and then at the later stage, these policies govern the behavior of all the employees working for a particular organization.

However, organizational behavior has a dynamic nature, because of this fact; it is an interdisciplinary subject, drawing knowledge from various other fields, including mental and physical sciences.

In historic organizational decision making practices, the smoothness of the inbound activities were given paramount importance, to lower the production costs, but this type of thinking is rendered obsolete, due to growing international trade, which compelled the organizations around the world to align, their activities according to the culture of the country, in which they are operations.  

This above mentioned trend transformed the study of organizational behavior that is now focusing on motivating the employees, rather than improving infrastructure, so the modern form of organizational behavior is people oriented in nature. This development has caused a tilt in the management practices, which are more concerned to provide a friendly and relaxed workplace environment to the employees, so that, their creativity could be enhanced common examples of the organizations employing this strategy are Dell and Google, where flexible timing, casual dressed individuals are considered normal.

It is evident from the above discussion, that the behavior of the entire organization, towards a changing environment of the corporate sector, is fundamentally based upon the personalities, beliefs and values of those working for it. So the whole mechanism of a firm is highly dependent on human nature.  Various theories and models are developed for the understanding of human behavior, which are enlisted below:

• Machiavellian Approach
• Acquisition of Power
• Inherent Irrationality
• Social Needs Theory
• Neutralism

The study of human behavior is the fundamental requirement to understand the organizational behavior, because the organizations are made up of people, who write the destiny of these companies with their bare hands.

Machiavellian Approach

This approach states that, the humans are unethical and want power in all circumstances, therefore they become mean and selfish to acquire, what they want (Iyer). So under this strategy, the best way to control and manage them is to show them the rewards of following the organizational norms. However, this approach is considered out of date by the modern scholars.

Acquisition of power       

Another viewpoint is that, humans are always in the search of power, so in the light of this theory, the only method to win the loyalty of the employees is to develop a decentralized organizational structure, with increased job autonomy, authority along with participative strategic decision making (Iyer). Otherwise, they will become unethical and engage in negative job attitudes such as theft.

Inherent Irrationality

According to this model humans are irrational and attributed with haste in decision making, due to these attributes, they commit mistakes and overlook things (Iyer), when pressure of management to perform increases. Under this methodology, strict and formal organizational structure, with similar evaluation method is warranted to manage the organization effective. But on the other hand modern scholars, believe that, this type of management results in less commitment towards the organization among the employees. Thus raising the turnover for the firm, this in turn raises the hiring costs for the organization.

Social Needs Theory

According to this theory, the teamwork and coordination is embedded within the basic nature of the humans (Iyer). This testimony is the fundamental ingredient of Japanese organizational structure, which is built from self managing teams with high level of autonomy. Parallel to these attributes informal learning is also reported to be high in this kind of managerial structure, because of higher level of interaction and social exchange among the employees of the firm.

Neutralism

This is the viewpoint of modern scholars, which argue, that by elemental nature humans are neutral and their actions are guided by the norms and values of an organization (Iyer). So it is imperative for the organization to develop an environment that, emphasizes on the higher ethical values among its employees. The top management could play a significant role in demonstrating this behavior to inspire others.    

However, these above mentioned techniques could not be implemented in isolation in any organization, because too much of decentralization of authority could result in a directionless organizational effort, while extreme level of bureaucracy could lead an organization with less to ill motivated employees. This discussion suggests a balanced approach that, should mix some characteristics of bureaucracy with decentralization for an organization.

Now on, this essay will focus on different models of organizational structure, whose brief description is following

 Models of Organizational Behavior

Various models of organizational behavior are presented in different points of time in the history, which are enlisted below:

• Focusing on Personality
• Behavioral Assessment
• Motivational Theory
• Team Management
• Leadership

Focusing on personality

The process of managing the organizational behavior is the multi stage procedure. It starts with the practice of staffing the firm with talented employees (Iyer), who could operate it according to the dynamic needs of the changing business world. This process entails the detailed psychological assessment of each staff member so that he or she could be assigned to the job that, is in alignment with his or her talents, personality and experience.  

Behavioral Assessment

The second stage of this process is to evaluate, the psychological personality in deciding relevant and meaningful rewards for an employee under consideration (Iyer). This stage also includes the testing of employees work oriented behavior through creating artificial work environment, so that the employee’s job capability could be assessed.  

Motivational and Leadership Theory

This model is of the view that, employees are not motivated by the increase in pay, but they are motivated through inspirational leadership. A leader is a person who influences others and changes their behaviors, so that, they could accomplish things, which were considered difficult. The strong character of the top management plays an important role in motivating people to attempt to make the impossible possible.

 Team Management

 The modern organizations are managed in the form different self managed teams. The term team could be defined as a formal group designed in such a way, that it could accomplish a specific goal (Iyer). This method is based on the social needs of the employees. In teams the members develop synergies, which result is supporting each other to accomplish the team goals. At the same time, these teams in the form of different departments help others to attain the organizational goals.

The above discussion highlighted different strategies to manage the organizational behavior towards external stimuli. This process should be highly integrated within different departments of the organization, in such a way that, makes an organization sufficiently flexible to respond to changing business environment.

Conclusion

This essay concludes that the theories and models of organizational behavior are extremely helpful for the firms, in managing their responses to the changing business environment around the world.

The organization should decentralize the authority within different levels, with increased job autonomy, so that, people could take pride and enjoy their work. Another point, which is important to mention, is the usefulness of self managed teams proposed by organizational behavior theories, which result in highly specialized teams regarding their respective organizational area. This attribute increases the overall efficiency of the organization, driving the production costs down, thus blessing the firm with the leverage to lower prices in the marketplace, which could help it in outcompeting the rivals.