Managing Organisational Behaviour

Many organisations have increasingly realised the fact that the employees in an organisation are very important towards the completion of the various tasks and the achievement of the goals of an organisation. It is therefore imperative that the workers in the organisation cooperate so that they can be able to complete the various tasks that they are given. Organisational behaviour refers to the study of and the application of the knowledge about how individuals and groups act in their organisations. Organisational behaviour (OB) works to interpret the different relationships between people in terms of the persons, the groups in which they belong and the whole organisation (Bobbins, 1997). The main goal of OB is to enable the building of better relationships between the people involved in the interactions through helping them to achieve their different social objectives, human objectives as well as the organisational objectives. Every individual in an organisation bring with them some sorts of belief, attitudes, personal characteristics and values. An interaction takes place between the different characteristics of the individuals to create organisational setting. OB allows for the understanding of the organisational context especially be considering the people who make up the organisations first as the organisation itself, as resources and also as people. There are four elements that make up the organisational behaviour. They include the people; who make up the social and the internal systems of the organisation, technology; which enable work to be carried out in the organisation, structures; refers to the various forms of relationships that exist in the firm and the environment; the larger system that surrounds the organisation (Aselage and Eisenberger, 2003). The essay is a critical discussion of whether exploitative tendencies can develop towards employees when managers have adequate knowledge of OB and are able to predict and sometimes control the behavior humans in the organisation. Knowledge of organisational behaviour offers insights to the managers regarding the how to properly emphasise the human factors towards the achievement of the organisational goals. Since the organisation is a conscious interaction between tow or more people, the people must be given adequate importance in the endeavour to manage the organisation. Through OB it can therefore bee said that the management gets an opportunity to analyse the behaviour of the people thus allowing for the shaping of their behaviours towards a particular direction. Secondly, when the managers have adequate knowledge of the OB, they will be able to understand how and why an individual behave in a particular way and thus helps in understanding human behaviour (Dunlop and Lee, 2004). The statement “Knowledge of organisational behaviour should enable you to explain and predict human behavior in organisations and even control it” by Brooks does not suggest that organisational behavior is exploitative towards employees. This paper will argue that knowledge of OB will ensure that there is a higher rate of team work and team leader development in the organisation (Appelbaum, 2005). OB provides mean through which the achievement as well as the understanding of cooperation between the members of groups can be achieved especially noting their interactions, the rotation of the members within the group, helping towards increasing the focus of the members of the group towards the achievement of the goals of the group and avoiding a situation where some members of the group feel they have been disadvantaged by their involvement with the group. There are three types of working teams or groups. First are the functional groups which have come together so that they can accomplish the diverse goals of the organisation. The activities of the members of this group are not planned by themselves but are done by others. The functional groups re governed by regulations, policies and rules. Secondly, there are task groups which are temporary in nature since they are formed to accomplish some goals. When these goals are achieved, the groups will no longer exist. Thirdly, there are informal groups which are formed between individual because of mutual interests between the members of the group or sometime friendship between the members of the group. These groups are not in the active radar of the organisation but they are formed by the employees during the course of their work for the organisation (Hackman, 1990). Team working in an organisation has been has been considered as a major leverage for many firms as it can be very rare to find and is also very powerful. All the well performing companies all over the world have some forms of teams which enable the carrying out of the different tasks of the firm. The types of teams which can be found in typical companies include standing committees, teams that are involved in ensuring that projects are completed and even some work teams which are self directed (Luthans, 1995). For the teams to be effective, there should be a high level of trust between the members of the teams, there should also be a commonality in purpose regarding what should be accomplished in the organisation (Wayne, Shore and Liden, 1997). The existence of skills between the members of the team will enable the completions of various tasks that are being undertaken. The team leader should also be able to satisfy the needs of the other members of the team. Knowledge of organisational behaviour will help in directing as well as controlling the behaviours of the members of the groups so that the interactions of the members of the groups with their team leaders can be in conformity with the standards which are set which will enable the achievement off the goals of the organisation. This control comes in a number of ways; there is the use of power and sanctions. Power enables the group leaders to take specific actions which will effect the required for the achievement of both the objectives of the organisation and those of the people who are found in the organisation. Sanctions is also used so that no one objective, either that of the individuals or the organisation, cannot override the other (Davis, 1991). It can therefore be noted from the above use of knowledge of organisational behaviour that works towards equal benefit for both the employees as well as for the organisation which the employees work for. Secondly, knowledge of the organisational behaviour will be important for the managers and the group leaders in determining the leadership style that can work in the organisation. The leadership style to b used will be decided on after the individual aspirations, aspirations of the organisation as well as the influence of the environment have been considered. This will ensure that what is chosen is the mid ground for all the members of the group. The element of exploitation of the employees clearly misses in this group and team leader relationship thus Brooks statement cannot be construed as meaning that the leaders can exploit the employees (Gordon, 1993). Knowledge regarding organisation behavior also ensures that the communication method that is most effective is used in the organisation for the relationship between the employees and the leaders and between the employees in their group relationships. Moreover, organisational behaviour knowledge also ensures that the various employees who are under a team leader in their group relationships easily adapt to the various changes in the organisation which may be brought about by the changes in the organisational environment. OB recognises the individual differences, focuses on the value of the persons and also supports motivated behaviour. It leads to the development of organisations which highly recognise the fact that when mutuality is developed between the groups, there will be a higher success rate in the achievement of the goals of the organisation (Moorehead and Griffin, 1994). The team working and team leaders has been a new phenomenon that has increasingly been seen in the work place of modern organisations. This change has been brought about by the new found democracy in the modern workplaces. The work in the organisations is duly undertaken through the use of work and team committees that are headed by leaders. All the members of the group are accorded recognition after they have effectively carried out a given task. The members of the group are also willingly given chances to participate in the deliberations of the groups where they belong and thus most of the decisions that are arrived at in the organisation are a product of the effort of all the members of the group including their leader (Lane, DiStefano and Maznevski, 1997). After the careful understanding of the organisational behaviour, the managers form working teams and team leaders who will b able to monitor the work due to the complexities of work that are carried out in the modern industries. This ensures that the employees in the organisation enjoy the various tasks that they undertake. The allocations are undertaken after the managers have become aware of the strengths, aspirations and values of the employees therefore they will have a higher out put levels and a lower level of stress as they greatly understand the various tasks that they are supposed to carry out (Moorehead and Griffin, 1994). In addition to the above, when the employees work in groups, the management of the organisation becomes more participative thus instance where the employees will be exploited are greatly reduced to very negligible levels (Earley and Gibson, 2002). All the work teams in the organisation will be incorporated into all types and kinds of activities that take place in the organisation for instance the human relations and even the allocation of the production duties. This will ensure that there is a high level of effectiveness in the organisation. Understanding and knowledge regarding the organisational behavior also helps in the allocation of the team working group and their leaders as the employers or the managers will have a clear understanding of the skills and the different abilities of the employees that the firm has (Lane, DiStefano and Maznevski, 1997). Different tasks are given to different groups thus ensuring the tasks are carried out to their conclusive completion. The coordination of the efforts of may people towards the completion of the tasks will ensure that the members of the group all carry out approximately same kind of duty and carry similar responsibility due to the fact that the members of the groups have almost similar aspirations. Also, the judgment of a people working as a team is better than that which can be conceived by an individual. It is therefore clear that when there is a team working together with a leader, they are most likely not to be exploited by the management as compared to one person (Earley and Mosakowski, 2000). A single person may be coerced into accepting engagement terms which may not be favourable to him. Individual ability may limit the person from carrying out any action which may lead to hi dismissal from the organisations. In instance where there are many employees working together in a group, such forms of exploitation cannot occur. Team working may also lead to the development of a high skill level in the organisation due to the fact that the members of the group can use their creative capacities to innovate new ideas which could not be achieved individually. High level of skill has been considered a source of power and thus the employees who are members of the group will carry out their activities with very little interference from the management or the employer in the organisation which they work for. Again, there is a better communication between the people who are team working as compared to people who carry out their tasks individually (Earley and Gibson, 2002). Suggestions between the members of the group regarding how work should be carried out will help in increasing the outcomes of work in the organisation. However in some instances, there may develop tendencies that will lead to the exploitation of the employees in their relationship with the group. This depends on the failure of the group leader to correctly satisfy the needs of the different members of the group. When the teams are too large, the team leader may not be able to effectively understand the aspirations of all the members of the group thus sometimes resorting to some dictatorial tendencies which may greatly limit the personal liberties of the members of the group (Williams, 2006). Also, when some members of the group dominate the discussion for any given reason for instance their skill levels. They will not take in the suggestions of the other employees and will only rely on the control that is provided by their ability to determine the behaviour of the different employees. Secondly, the leaders may manipulate their powers to install dictatorial tendencies in the organisation. This may be done so that the employees can not question their actions. These tendencies may also be exploited further as the team leaders already know the aspirations of all the employees who are under them. A common problem that occurs lies in the wrong use of the knowledge that they have regarding the employees of the firm. When the employees are hungry for power, the team leaders will decide to use dictatorship thus significantly making the employees do things which are against their will. Communication has also been abused sometimes especially when the communication that is being used in the firm is that which is skewed towards asserting the ideologies of the team leaders (DuBrin, 2004). Team working also leads to the delay in decision making process as consensus has to be built regarding all the issues affecting operations in the organisation. The managers can exploit the employees through the consensus building avenue as they can delay consensus reaching regarding the issues that greatly affect the employees for instance working conditions in the groups, issues concerning remuneration and career development in the organisation. When this happens, the employees may not get what they aspire for or their receipt of the benefit will be delayed (Guest, 1986). In conclusion, clear understanding and knowledge regarding the organisational behaviour is a two sided knife that brings benefits and some problems when applied to team working. Organisation behaviour considers four different elements for instance the people who are the greatest resources of the organisation, the structure of relations in the organisation, the technology that enable the comple3tion of the work and finally the environment. To be able to realise the goals of the organisation, the power and sanctions that may be brought about by the organisational behaviour should not be abused by the team leaders. Also, the leadership should be modeled around the varied aspirations of the members of the teams and always geared towards the satisfaction of the needs of the members of the teams. Also, communication is important as it will ensure that the interpersonal dynamics between the employees was maintained cordially in their team working. After the consideration of the costs and benefits of knowledge of organisational behaviour, it can be realised that the knowledge does not majorly lead to exploitation of employees. Bibliography Appelbaum, S. H. 2005, “A Case Study Analysis of the Impact of Satisfaction and Organizational Citizenship on Productivity”, Management Research News, 28(5): 1-26. Aselage, J. and Eisenberger, R. 2003, "Perceived organizational support and psychological contracts: a theoretical integration", Journal of Organizational Behavior, 24: 491–509 Bobbins, S. 1997, Organisational Behaviour, New Jersey: Prentice Hall Davis, K. 1991, Human Behaviour at Work, New York, NY: McGraw Hill Book Co. DuBrin, A. 2004, Human relations: interpersonal, job-oriented skills, Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall Dunlop, P. and Lee, K. 2004, "Workplace deviance, organizational citizenship behavior, and business unit performance: the bad apples do spoil the whole barrel", Journal of Organizational Behavior, 25: 67–80 Earley, P. and Gibson, C. 2002, Multinational Teams: New Perspectives, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates Earley, P. and Mosakowski, M. 2000, "Creating hybrid team cultures: An empirical test of transnational team functioning", Academy of Management Journal, 43(1): 26-49 Guest, R. 1986, Work teams and team building, New York: Pergamon Press Gordon, J. 1993, A Diagnostic Approach to Organisational Behaviour, Allyn & Bacon Hackman, J.R. 1990, Groups that work (and those that don’t): Creating conditions for effective teamwork, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers Lane, H., DiStefano, J. and Maznevski, M. 1997, International management behavior, Oxford: Blackwell Business Luthans, F. 1995, Organisational Behaviour, New York, NY: McGraw Hill Book Co. Moorehead, G. and Griffin, R.S. 1994, Organisational Behaviours: Managing People and Organisations, Jaico Wayne, S., Shore, L. M., and Liden, R. C. 1997, "Perceived organizational support and leader–member exchange: a social exchange perspective," Academy of Management Journal, 40: 82–111 Williams, C. 2006, Management, Mason, Ohio: Thomson/South-Western