Challenges and opportunity in organization behaviour

Understanding organizational behavior has never been more important for managers. A quick

look at a few dramatic changes now taking place in organizations supports this claim. For

instance, the typical employee is getting older; more and more women and nonwhites are in the

workplace; corporate downsizing and cost cutting are severing the bonds of loyalty that

historically tied many employees to their employers; and global competition is requiring

employees to become more flexible and to learn to cope with rapid change.In short, there are a

lot of challenges and opportunities today for managers to use OB concepts.

Responding to Globalization

Today’s business is mostly market driven; wherever the demands exist irrespective of

distance, locations, climatic conditions, the business operations are expanded to gain their

market share and to remain in the top rank etc. Business operations are no longer

restricted to a particular locality or region. Company’s products or services are spreading

across the nations using mass communication, internet, faster transportation etc. An

Australian wine producer now sells more wine through the Internet than through outlets

across the country. More than 95% of Nokia hand phones are being sold outside of their

home country Finland. Japanese cars are being sold in different parts of globe. Sri

Lankan tea is exported to many cities across the globe. Executives of Multinational

Corporation are very mobile and move from one subsidiary to another more frequently.

Implications for Managers: Globalization affects a managerial skills in at least two

ways: i) an Expatriate manager have to manage a workforce that is likely to have very

different needs, aspirations and attitudes from the ones that they are used to manage in

their home countries. ii) Understanding the culture of local people and how it has shaped

them and accordingly learn to adapt ones management style to these differences is very

critical for the success of business operations. One of the main personality traits required

for expatriate managers is to have sensitivity to understand the individual differences

among people and exhibit tolerance to it.

Managing Workforce Diversity

This refers to employing different categories of employees who are heterogeneous in

terms of gender, race, ethnicity, relation, community, physically disadvantaged,

homosexuals, elderly people etc. The primary reason to employ heterogeneous category

of employees is to tap the talents and potentialities, harnessing the innovativeness,

obtaining synergetic effect among the divorce workforce. In general, employees wanted

to retain their individual and cultural identity, values and life styles even though they are

working in the same organization with common rules and regulations. The major

challenge for organizations is to become more accommodating to diverse groups of

people by addressing their different life styles, family needs and work styles.

Implications for Managers: Managers have to shift their philosophy from treating

everyone alike to recognizing individual differences and responding to those differences

in ways that will ensure employee retention and greater productivity while, at the same

time not discriminating. If work force diversity is managed more effectively, the

management is likely to acquire more benefits such as creativity and innovation as well

as improving decision making skills by providing different perspectives on problems. If

diversity is not managed properly and showed biases to favor only a few categories of

employees, there is potential for higher turnover, more difficulty in communicating and

more interpersonal conflicts.

Improving Quality and Productivity

Quality is the extent to which the customers or users believe the product or service

surpasses their needs and expectations. For example, a customer who purchases an

automobile has certain expectation, one of which is that the automobile engine will start

when it is turned on. If the engine fails to start, the customer’s expectations will not have

been met and the customer will perceive the quality of the car as poor. Deming defined

quality as a predictable degree of uniformity and dependability, at low cost and suited to

the market. Juran defined it as fitness for use. The key dimensions of quality as follows:

i) Performance: Primary operating characteristics of a product such as signal

coverage, audio quality, display quality etc.

ii) Features: Secondary characteristics, added features, such as calculators, and

alarm clock features in hand phone.

iii) Conformance: Meeting specifications or industry standards, workmanship of the

degree to which a product’s design or operating characteristics match preestablished

standards.

iv) Reliability: The probability of a product’s failing within t a specified period of

time.

v) Durability: It is a measure of product’s life having both economic and technical

dimension.

vi) Services: Resolution of problem and complaints, ease of repair.

vii) Response: Human to human interface, such as the courtesy of the dealer.

viii) Aesthetics: Sensory characteristics such exterior finish.

ix) Reputations: Past performance and other intangibles, such as being ranked first.

More and more managers are confronting to meet the challenges to fulfill the specific

requirements of customers. In order to improve quality and productivity, they are

implementing programs like total quality management and reengineering programs that

require extensive employee involvement.

Improving People Skills

Technological changes, structural changes, environmental changes are accelerated at a

faster rate in business field. Unless employees and executives are equipped to possess

the required skills to adapt those changes, the achievement of the targeted goals cannot be

achieved in time. There two different categories of skills – managerial skills and technical

skills. Some of the managerial skills include listening skills, motivating skills, planning

and organizing skills, leading skills, problem solving skill, decision making skills etc.

These skills can be enhanced by organizing a series of training and development

programmes, career development programmes, induction and socialization etc.

Implications for Managers: Designing an effective performance appraisal system with

built-in training facilities will help upgrade the skills of the employees to cope up the

demands of the external environment. The lower level cadre in management is required to

possess more of technical skills. As they move towards upward direction, their roles will

be remarkably changed and expected to have more of human relations and conceptual

skills.

Total Quality Management (TQM):

It is a philosophy of management that is driven by

the constant attainment of customer satisfaction through the continuous improvement of

all organizational process. The component of TQM are (a) intense focus of the customer,

(b) concern for continual improvement (c) improvement in the quality of everything the

organization does (d) accurate measurement and (e) empowerment of employees.

Reengineering: This refers to discrete initiatives that are intended to achieve radically

redesigned and improved work process in a bounded time frame. Business Process

Reengineering employees a structural methodology that reduces work process to their

essential composite activist and provides cost performance matrices to facilitate a

business case for dramatic improvements. Both functional and cross-functional processes

are evaluated through workflow analysis and activity based costing. In many cases, the

application of new technology and industries best practices will enable quantum

improvement in an organization’s cost and performance.

Implications for Managers: Today’s managers understand that any efforts to improve

quality and productivity must influence their employees. These employees will not only

be a major force in carrying out changes, but increasingly will participate actively in

planning those changes. Managers will put maximum effort in meeting the customer’s

requirements by involving everyone from all the levels and across all functions. Regular

communications (both formally and informally) with all the staff at all levels is must.

Two way communications at all levels must be promoted. Identifying training needs and

relating them with individual capabilities and requirements is must. Top management’s

participation and commitment and a culture of continuous improvement must be

established.

Empowering People

The main issue is delegating more power and responsibility to the lower level cadre of

employees and assigning more freedom to make choices about their schedules, operations,

procedures and the method of solving their work-related problems. Encouraging the

employees to participate in work related decision will sizably enhance their commitment

at work. Empowerment is defined as putting employees in charge of what they do by

eliciting some sort of ownership in them. Managers are doing considerably further by

allowing employees full control of their work. An increasing number of organizations are

using self-managed teams, where workers operate largely without boss. Due to the

implementation of empowerment concepts across all the levels, the relationship between

managers and the employees is reshaped. Managers will act as coaches, advisors,

sponsors, facilitators and help their subordinates to do their task with minimal guidance.

Implications for Manager: The executive must learn to delegate their tasks to the

subordinates and make them more responsible in their work. And in so doing, managers

have to learn how to give up control and employees have to learn how to take

responsibility for their work and make appropriate decision. If all the employees are

empowered, it drastically changes the type of leadership styles, power relationships, the

way work is designed and the way organizations are structured.

CUSTOMER SERVICE

American Express recently turned Joan Abraham’s worst nightmare into a nonevent. It was 10

P.M. Joan was home in Mumbai, packing for a week-long trip, when she suddenly realized she

had left her AmEx Gold Card at a restaurant in Colaba, Mumbai earlier in the evening. The

restaurant was 30 miles away. She had a flight to catch at 7:30 the next morning and she wanted

her card for the trip. She called American Express. The phone was quickly answered by a

courteous and helpful AmEx customer service representative. He told Ms.Abraham not to worry.

He asked her a few questions and told “help was on the way.” To say Joan was flabbergasted

would be an understatement when her doorbell rang at 11:45 P.M.-less than 2 hours after she had

called AmEx. At her door was a courier with a new card. How the company was able to produce

the card and get it to her so quickly still puzzles Joan. But she said the experience made her a

customer for life.

Today, the majority of employees in developed countries work in service jobs. For instance, 80

percent of the U.S. labor force is employed in service industries. In Australia, 73 percent work in

service industries. In the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan the percentages are 69, 68 and

65, respectively. Examples of these service jobs include technical support representatives, fast-

food counter workers, sales clerks, teachers, waiters or waitresses, nurses, automobile repair

technicians, consultants, credit representatives, financial planners, and flight attendants. The

common characteristic of these jobs is that they require substantial interaction with an

organization’s customers. And since an organization can’t exist without customers-whether that

organization is DaimlerChrysler, Merrill Lynch, L.L.Bean, a law firm, a museum, a school, or a

government agency-management needs to ensure that employees do what it takes to please its

customers. OB can help in that task.

Organizational Behavior can contribute to improving an organization’s

performance by showing managers how employee attitudes and behavior are associated with

customer satisfaction. Many an organization has failed because its employees failed to please the

customer. So management needs to create a customer-responsive culture. And OB can provide

considerable guidance in helping managers create such cultures-cultures in which employees are

friendly and courteous, accessible, knowledgeable, prompt in responding to customer needs, and

willing to do what’s necessary to please the customer.

INNOVATION

Whatever happened to Montgomery Ward, Woolworth, Smith Corona, TWA, Bethlehem Steel,

and WorldCom? All these giants went bust. Why have other giants, such as Sears, Boeing, and

Lucent Technologies implemented huge cost-cutting programs and eliminated thousands of jobs?

To avoid going bust.

Today’s successful organizations must foster innovation and master the art of change or

they’ll become candidates for extinction. Victory will go to the organizations that maintain their

flexibility, continually improve their quality, and beat their competition to the marketplace with a

constant stream of innovative products and services. Domino’s single-handedly brought on the

demise of thousands of small pizza parlors whose managers thought they could continue doing

what they had been doing for years. Amazon.com is putting a lot of independent bookstores out

of business as it proves you can successfully sell books from an Internet Web site. Dell has

become the world’s largest seller of computers by continually reinventing itself and outsmarting

its competition.

An organization’s employees can be the impetus for the innovation and change or they

can be a major stumbling block. The challenge for managers is to stimulate their employees’

creativity and tolerance for change. The field of OB provides a wealth of ideas and techniques to

aid in realizing these goals.

WORKING IN NETWORKED ORGANIZATIONS

A network organization is a collection of autonomous firms or units that behave as a single larger entity, using social mechanisms for coordination and control. The entities that make up a network organization are usually legally independent entities (separate firms) but not always. Some of the entities may be wholly owned subsidiaries. They can even be divisions within the company, but treated as separate companies that sell to outside customers.

Computerization, the internet, and the ability to link computers within organizations and between organizations have created a different workplace for many employees-a networked organization. These technology changes allow people to communicate and work together even though they maybe thousands of miles apart. The Managers job different in a networked organization, especially when it comes to managing people. For instance, motivating and leading people and making collaborative decisions “online” requires different techniques than are needed in dealing with individuals who are physically present in a single location.

Coping with TemporarinessMeaning:

With change comes temporariness. Globalization, expanded capacity, and advances in technology have combined in recent years to make it imperative that organization be fast and flexible if they are flexible to survive. The result is that most managers and employees today work in a climate best characterized as “temporary”.

Evidence of temporariness is everywhere in organizations:

Jobs are being continually redesigned; tasks are increasingly being done by flexible teams rather than individuals; companies are relying more on temporary workers; jobs are being subcontracted out to other firms; and pensions are being redesigned to move with people as they change jobs.

Employees need to update their knowledge and skills continually to perform new job requirements. For example, employees at nationalized banks like the State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank and Corporation bank now need to know how to operate computers. That was not part of their job description 20 years ago.

Work groups are also in a state of flux. In the past, employees were assigned to a specific work group, and that assignment was relatively permanent. There was a considerable amount of security in working with the same people day in and day out. That predictability has been replaced by temporary work groups, teams that include members from different departments and whose members change all the time, and the increased use of employee rotation to fill constantly changing work assignments.

Finally, organizations themselves are in a state of flux. They continually reorganize their various divisions, sell off poorly performing businesses, downsize operations, subcontract non-

critical services and operation to other organizations, replace permanent employees with temporary workers, and outsource various activities.

Cope with temporariness:

Today’s managers and employees must learn to cope with temporariness. They have to learn to live with flexibility, spontaneity, and unpredictability. The study of OB can provide important insights into helping to understand better a work world of continual change, how to overcome resistance to change, and how best to create an organizational culture that thrives on change.

Work-Life balanceMeaning:

Work-Life balance means a harmonious balance of work and domestic life. It allows an employee to fulfill all the roles in his/her life effectively and efficiently. Researchers have proved that employees are at their best when they are contented and motivated both at work and home.

Achieving a work-life balance is not as easy as it seems. In the corporate world, change is constant and imminent. The impact of globalization has further fuelled hese changes. The corporate world signifies uncertainties, too many responsibilities, and long work hours. These changes in the environment disturb he balance between domestic and work life of employees. He increasing competition and demands of society further aggravate the situation. All this adds up to stress.

Importance of work-life balance:

The corporate is realizing the importance of the work-life balance. Companies are realizing the fact the work-life balance of employees has a direct effect on the productivity of their organizations.

The importance of work-life balance is due to the following reasons:

Changing social scene : In today’s world, maintaining work-life balance is the greatest challenge employee face. Employees have realized that their personal lives have an effect on their work-life. Hence, they are striving hard to maintain the balance.

Changing work culture: There is a shift in the organizational work culture. Today’s work culture provides flexible work hours, focus on results, and recognition of achievements. However, this has made the workplace even more competitive as employees are expected to always give their best, and this leads to stress.

Increased work time: With globalization, organizations are working 365 days, and 7 days a week irrespective of time zones. Businesses are focusing more on customer care. With the coming of call centers, this focus has doubled. The technology has added to the speed of work but the workload remains the same.

Dual income families: The shift in attitudes, work styles, and cultures has disturbed the work-life balance. Working mothers have major responsibilities of managing both and work place. This makes it all the more important for them to balance work and life. Organizations are helping women by providing facilities like work from home, day care etc.

Benefits of work-life balance:

Achieving a work-life balance benefits both employers and employees. While the employers get the benefit of productive and active employees, the employees feel secure and loyal. It also improves confidence, concentration, self-esteem, and loyalty among the employees. The concept of work-life balance is still fresh in India. Indian IT companies are probably the first ones to provide a fun-work environment. Some companies are now investing in recreational facilities at the worksite.

Steps to achieve work-life balance:

To build up an awareness of the importance of work-life balance in employees, companies should regular workshops and programs on work-life balance.

The following measures have to be taken by employees :

Discourage employees from working late. Take a regular employee satisfaction survey that can identify the pitfalls in the work

pattern. Provide vocations and encourage employees to take breaks. Provide opportunities like work from home, flexi times.

Creating A Positive Work Environment.

Positive Organizational Scholarship An area of ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

research that concerns how organizations develop human strength, foster vitality and resilience,

and unlock potential.

Although competitive pressures on most organizations are stronger than ever, we’ve

noticed an interesting turn in both ORGANZANTIONAL BEHAVIOUR research and management

practice, at least in some organizations. Instead of responding to competitive pressures by

“turning up the heat,” some organizations are trying to realize a competitive advantage by

fostering a positive work environment. For example, Jeff immelt and Jim McNerney. Both

disciplines of Jack Welch (former CEO of GE), have tried to maintain high performance

expectations (a characteristic of GE’s culture) while also fostering a positive work environment

in their organizations (GE and Boeing). “In this time of turmoil and cynicism about business,

you need to be passionate, positive leaders, “Mr.Immelt recently told his top managers.

At the same time, real growth area in ORGANZANTIONAL BEHAVIOUR research has

been positive organizational scholarship (also called positive organizational behavior), which

concerns how organizations develop human strengths, foster vitality and resilience, and unlock

potential. Researchers in this area argue that too much of ORGANZANTIONAL BEHAVIOUR

research and management practice has been targeted toward identifying what’s wrong with

organizations and their employees. In response, these researchers try to study what’s good about

organizations.

For example, positive organizational scholars have studied a concept called “reflected

best –self”- asking employees to think about situations in which they were at their “personal

best” in order to understand how to exploit their strengths. These researchers argue that we all

have things at which we are unusually good, yet too often we focus on addressing our limitations

and too rarely think about how to exploit our strengths.

Although positive organizational scholarship does not deny the presence (or even the

value) of the negative (such as critical feedback), it does challenge researchers to look at

ORGANZANTIONAL BEHAVIOUR through a new lens. It also challenges organizations to think

about how to exploit their employees’ strengths rather than dwell on their limitations.

Improving ethical behavior

In organizational world characterized by cutbacks, expectations of increasing worker

productivity, and tough competition in the marketplace, it’s not altogether surprising that many

employees feel pressured to cut corners, break rules, and engage in other forms of questionable

practices.

Members of organizations are increasingly finding themselves facing ethical dilemmas,

situations in which they are required to define right and wrong conduct. For example, should

they “blow the whistle” if they uncover illegal activities taking place in their company? Should

they follow orders with which they don’t personally agree? Do they give an inflated performance

evaluation to an employee whom they like, knowing that such an evaluation could save that

employee’s job? Do they allow themselves to “play politics” in the organization if it will help

their career advancement?

What constitutes good ethical behavior has never been clearly defined, and in recent

years, the line differencing right from wrong has become even more blurred. Employees see

people all around them engaging in unethical practices-elected officials are indicted for padding

their expense accounts or taking bribes; corporate executives inflate company profits so they can

cash in lucrative stock options; and university administrators “look the other way” when winning

coaches encourage scholarship athletes to take easy courses in place of those needed for

graduation in order to stay eligible. When caught, these people give excuses such as “every one

does it” or “you to seize every advantage nowadays.” Is it any wonder that employees are

expressing decreased confidence and trust in management and that they’re increasingly uncertain

about what constitutes appropriate ethical behavior in their organizations.

Mangers and their organizations are responding to this problem from a number of

directions. They’re writing and distributing codes of ethics to guide employees through ethical

dilemmas. They’re offering seminars, work-shops, and other training programs to try to improve

ethical behaviors. They’re providing in-house advisors who can be contacted, in many cases

anonymously, for assistance in desaling with ethical issues, and they’re creating proection

mechanisms for employees who reveal internal unethical practices.

Today’s mangers needs to create an ethically healthy climate for his or her employees,

where they can do their work productively and confront a minimal degree of ambiguity regarding

what constitutes right and wrong behaviors. In upcoming chapters, we’ll discuss the kinds of

actions mangers can take to create an ethically healthy climate and help employees sort through

ethically ambiguous situations. We’ll also present ethical-dilemma exercises at the end of each

chapter that will allow you to think through ethical issues and asses how you would handle them.

Declining Employee Loyalty

Corporate employees used to believe that their employers would reward their loyalty and

good work with job security, generous benefits, and steady pay increases. But beginning in the

mid-1980’s in response to global competition, unfriendly takeovers, leveraged buyouts, and the

like, corporations began to discard traditional policies on job security, seniority, and

compensation. They sought to become “lean and mean” by closing factories, moving operations

to lower-cost countries, selling off or closing down less-profitable businesses, eliminating entire

levels of management, replacing permanent employees with temporaries, and substituting

performance- based pay systems for seniority-based programs. It is important to note that this is

not just a North American phenomenon. European companies are doing the same. For instance,

Barclays, the big British bank, recently cut staff levels by 20 percent. And some German firms

have trimmed their workforce and management ranks: Siemens, the electronic engineering

conglomerate, shed more than 3,000 jobs in one year alone; and steelmaker Krupp-Hoesch cut its

management hierarchy from five levels to three.

There changes have resulted in as harp decline in employee loyalty. Employees perceive

that their employers are less committed to them, and as a result, employees respond by being less

committed to their compines.

An important ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR challenge will be for mangers to devise

ways to motivate workers who feel less committed to their employers, while maintaining their

organization’s global competitiveness.

References

“Organizational Behavior" Stephen p Robbins & Timothy.A.j 13th Edition.

“ Essential of Organizational Behavior” – Stephen p Robbins 7th Edition