Tag Archives: Organizational Behaviour

Leadership

Leadership and Management: Micromanagers vs. Leaders

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What is the difference between micromanagers and leaders? Micromanagers are people who try to control everything that their employees do. They have a “my way or the highway” mentality, which makes them difficult to work for. On the other hand, good leaders know how to let go of control and give others opportunities to grow and develop.

As someone that’s made a career out of client experience and operations, this wasn’t a lesson I immediately understood. Historically, I was so focused on fixing the issue that I didn’t really pay as much attention to how I could enable my teams to have this skill themself.

However, while this skill was helpful in getting me to the manager level, I needed to understand and gain new skills to get to the next stage in my career. One of the toughest decisions I had to make when transitioning into management and then leadership, was how much responsibility should be delegated. Control, which was a necessity in my previous roles was now a limitation with the greater scope of responsibilities I now had to carry.

While it didn’t really comfort me, I realized that a lot of people struggled with this transition and many other leaders in other organizations had the same concerns. I also realized that it was important to keep in mind that when a manager delegates responsibility, this doesn’t mean they are relinquishing their authority or power over the task at hand. It’s about sharing and delegating certain areas so you can focus on others.

Understanding the levels of leadership

Micromanagers are people who think they know everything about a subject, and so make decisions for everyone. They often have their way because they’re great at taking care of detail work, but they don’t allow others to grow into management positions. This causes an inability in companies to adjust quickly when there’s turnover or change on leadership level – it also can cause employees to feel unheard and frustrated with their jobs.

Leaders are team builders that want success not just for themselves but for those around them. They recognize the strengths in others and empower them by letting go of some control over specific parts of projects or tasks…however, must still hold tight enough to keep things moving along nicely (or else risk losing control over the product or project). I’d learned this lesson earlier in Organizational Behavior, where it was called “locus of control” however, that program might have overly complicated the lesson. Hopefully, the explanation below is a little bit less wordy.

Leaders empower their employees by giving them a sense of autonomy in various tasks, but there isn’t just one way of leading people or teams.

  • Level one – The informal leader is the unofficial person who steps in and offers some direction. The label of “boss” doesn’t necessarily apply to this type of leader.
  • Level two – The hands-on leader is a type of leader that contributes directly to the success of their team and typically takes on an active role in producing the desired results.
  • Level three – is the leadership expert. This type of leader still gets hands-on in guiding the project and offering their expertise, but this leader helps to guide subordinates rather than take control
  • Level four – The type of leadership you need changes here. It’s not just about meeting deadlines and delivering the results as it was back when your team members were followers; instead, it’s about making sure that you are working with them to achieve the objectives they’ve been set up for.
  • Level five – the highest level of leadership, is aspirational. The focus here’s on incubating a culture and creating an environment for sustainable success.

Leaders and managers come in many shapes and sizes, but the transition from expert leader to good team player is one of the most challenging. The skills that got you up to Level Three won’t work as well for Level Four: You’ll need a new skill set entirely if you ever hope to make it past Level Five.

In short, forget about micromanaging; step aside so that your people can grow and develop.

  • Leaders inspire people with vision, give them something greater than themselves to believe in when they’re feeling down or lost, show empathy for employees’ struggles without overtaxing their limited resources by giving too much personal attention. Managers administer policies set forth by senior executives but do not have any authority over day-to-day operations within an organization’s departments (they don’t really lead).
  • Good leaders create environments where people grow and develop through stretching expectations while also letting go of control which creates more opportunities for influence.
  • Micromanagers, on the other hand, tend to be more controlling. They try to maintain control by consistently monitoring and assessing employees’ work according to their own rigid standards without giving much insight or guidance into how they should do it better next time.
  • Leaders share knowledge with others so that people can continually learn from each other while micromanagers withhold information which creates a dependent relationship where followers need to seek direction for any decision.
  • Good leaders delegate authority meaningfully within an organization’s hierarchy and empower subordinates through visibility in decision-making processes but don’t give away power themselves (because no one is indispensable). Micromanagers hoard power by doing everything themselves, making decisions arbitrarily rather than consulting trusted advisors when needed because they’re afraid someone will take credit.

The starting point for effective leadership is to understand who you are and what strengths you bring. Your value resides in your personal skillset, beyond the knowledge it takes to execute a specific job. A good leader will identify talent in their team members and provide them with the opportunity to grow and develop those talents while operating within their mandates. This starts by letting go any need for perfectionism or mastery, focusing instead on empathy skills like listening, feedback and coaching that allow people around you to feel valued and understood before trying to change them or fix them.

For many, the reality of today’s work is that you just don’t have the time to be a micro-manager. Good leaders are those who know their organizational skills and let team members learn from each other as well as grow in their own ways.

You don’t need to be a superhero to be a good leader.

Poor leaders can’t bring themselves to let people grow and develop. They keep them in a state of dependency, give them little responsibility, and focus on their shortcomings rather than acknowledging their strengths. It’s no wonder that those who work for these managers either become frustrated or leave the organization altogether.

The good news is your team deserves better! You don’t have to be perfect or superhuman; you just need to learn how to lead and manage with intentionality so everyone can do what they are best at while feeling valued along the way.”

People Management

9 Crucial Metrics to Measure Customer Support Team Performance

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Have you ever had a bad-tasting dish that caused you an aversion to that food altogether? But quite often, you can’t put your finger on that one ingredient that ruined the taste of the whole dish. It becomes nearly impossible to figure out what caused that food aversion. 

Just like that, a well-set plate of an exquisite-looking dish cannot be credited as delectable if all ingredients don’t compliment each other well. Even if one of them is bad tasting, the customer will lose his appetite for the dish. Your Customer Support (CS) team is just like that. All of the individual ingredients must be flavorful so that, in the end, a delicious dish could be presented. 

But don’t worry! There are several metrics to measure your team and assess the overall performance of everyone in the team. You can detect where there’s a need for improvement or which individual is putting in a complete effort and is dedicated to offering exceptional customer service. 

But first, you must create certain standards by employing performance metrics. So, take the help of the following nine metrics to measure customer support team performance and then enhance it to make your customers’ experience a memorable one. 

Average Resolution Time

One method of evaluating how well the customer service representatives are performing is to record the average time it takes for them to resolve a customer complaint permanently. 

This is an accurate measure of productivity, as this metric determines whether the agent is good at resolving customer complaints and can deal with them quicker rather than building on to the problem and dragging it for longer. 

Just follow this formula to reckon the Average Resolution Time (ART)

ART = (Total Reply Time) / (Total Number of Requests)  

The volume of Requests Handled

First, you would want to know the total of some of the requests that were addressed to your agents in a given period. This way, you can assess the workload and work performance of the organization itself. Sadly, its very rare for clients to call to simply say how good everything is, rather, they call when they have an issue or complaint that needs to be addressed so having an idea of the volume of calls being handled by each agent is critical in resource planning.

So, to appraise the performance of the customer service agents, you must keep track of how many requests are correctly addressed and how productive your agents have been. The higher this number, the more efficient and diligent your agents will be. 

Conversation Reply Speed

Ask yourself this question: after how long did my agent respond to the follow-up questions raised by the customer? The speed at which the customer service representative responds to any sequential concerns presented by the customer after the initial response determines the productivity and performance of the agent. 

If you take too long to respond, the customer would get annoyed and probably leave a bad review or would no longer engage in business with you. 

Requests escalated to Higher-Ups.

This is an important metric that you keep track of. If a request is escalated to a superior, then it means that the agent has failed to address the concerns of the customer. You may believe that this is the endpoint that every customer service agent should dread and avoid at all costs. 

So, this metric precisely determines if a representative is good at his job or not. The higher the number of these requests, the more probable it is that the agent isn’t qualified or competent enough to cater to customers’ requests or needs. 

Number of Complaints Regarding a Customer Service Representative

It is highly likely that a single individual is unable to entertain the concern of customers. Some people are just not naturally drawn towards resolving customers’ issues, and this can gravely affect their performance. Look to your customer satisfaction surveys for this information and then make a plan.

So, by evaluating this metric, you can judge whether an individual is cut out for this job and is he/she is able to address customers’ issues properly or not. 

Time Taken to Offer Initial Response

If you aim to offer the best customer service, you must keep a meticulous record of your initial response time. The higher this number goes, the more irritated the customers will get. 

Representatives must be on their toes when it comes to addressing customers’ concerns. The customers must be instantly put through to the right person or the respective department through tools like skill-based routing, so they don’t have to wait unnecessarily. 

Customer Service Rating

This metric is the best indicator of how well your individual customer rep’s performance has been. This number shows how the customers viewed and marked the performance of the agent. This rating can be garnered by customer feedback, comments, or the star rating. 

Sales made after Contact

The objective of the customer service team should be to address customers’ concerns so they are satisfied with the product or service and continue to increase the sales of the organization. 

So, if the agents are performing well, or are providing related cross-sells or upsells of the product, then the sales would increase, and more revenue will be generated. So, this metric takes effective customer service as a determinant that affects sales. Consider these sales as a good indicator or tool to measure your customer success team.

Rate of Successful Resolutions

This rate is a major defining factor in the performance of each customer service agent. This rate shows how well individuals have performed and how successful they have been in resolving customer complaints and issues. Having an agent who doesn’t handle many requests but has a significantly high successful resolution rate is worth having in the team. 

You can calculate it by employing the formula:

Resolution Rate= (Resolved requests) / (Support Requests) 

Conclusion 

You can only deliver exceptional customer service if you know exactly what your customers are expecting from you, and you don’t have to be a mind-reader for that. Stay close to your customers and make them feel heard and valued. Just track the above-mentioned metrics periodically, and this way, you’d be able to appraise the performance of your customer service agents and the experience offered to your customers. 

People Management

THE CRUCIAL ROLE OF JOB SATISFACTION

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There are many ways that job satisfaction affects the productivity of a company. Companies and organizations with more job satisfaction among their ranks will tend to have a higher production rate compared to companies with lesser rates of job satisfaction. An organization can ensure job satisfaction in various ways depending on the set regulation and rules governing the running of the business. The relationship between the owners, the managers, and other employees are what contributes to job satisfaction. A great relationship with good salaries and remuneration, high levels of respect and trust, a healthy working environment, among other factors, enhances job satisfaction.

Job satisfaction plays a crucial role in the well-being of an organization. This can be seen in an employee who sees his or her job as fulfilling and enjoyable thus will take it with the importance deserved, unlike that employee who doesn’t give his commitment since he or she feels dissatisfied. The human resource can realize these crucial points through various factors listed below.

Lower turnover

Satisfied employees will not be in a rush to leave or look for greener pastures elsewhere. They will own the job they do, love what they do just because they are content with the systems of that particular organization.

This, in turn, gives the human resource ample time in recruitment since few employees are leaving.  Retaining employees’ cuts on the cost of recruitment and training, ensuring the valuable experience is utilized. This also gives the organization time to search for talent and improve their workforce.

Improved productivity

Once an employee is satisfied, the work input will generally increase.  Many factors will push the worker to improve their work output. A great working environment that ensures reasonable working hours, good hygiene conditions, and a nice salary will force the worker to give back in terms of salary. Such a worker will want to impress at his or her work, thus improve on their production rate. Efficiency is always improved when one has to work under favourable conditions, and these favourable conditions are what contributes to job satisfaction.

Increased profits

There are many ways that profits can be maximized through the job satisfaction of your employees. Job satisfaction, as we have seen, can lead to improvements in individual output, thus leading to greater production and efficiency. Efficiency, on the other side, is an important attribute to cutting the cost of production. Bringing these factors together maximizes profits in that particular company. There are also other factors that can lead to an increase in profits in case of job satisfaction. Since the workers of that organization will tend to stay longer than opt to search for greener pastures, the experience in the labour force will be retained, this will lead to innovation thus the development of effective ways of running things cutting on cost and eventually increasing the profits.

Loyalty

Loyalty among the employees creates goodwill among the workforce and the friends of the company. Employees who are satisfied with their job will always have a sense of belonging. They will have the feeling that that organization is trying to keep their interests at heart. Loyalty to the company will grow among the employees if there is a feeling of job satisfaction. Loyalty, in the long run, will contribute to the employee’s need to contribute to the organization’s vision and mission support by the employees, thus helping achieve the company’s objective.  Goodwill can be promoted by employees spreading the best ideas of the company promoting the sales and career opportunities making it easy in the talent search.

How to promote job satisfaction in a company

It is not hard to improve your employee’s job satisfaction. A good personnel management department can start by creating better working conditions by promoting good hygiene, safe working environment, equal opportunities for both genders and disabled people, giving out incentives, salary increments, rewarding the hard-working employees, promoting innovations and on-job learning through simple training like first aid; fire fighting and safety and other motivation aspects.  A good relationship between the management and the workforce can also play a major role in bringing in job satisfaction. These factors can bring about an understanding between the management and the workforce. This can be promoted through the following factors:

Respect

The SHRM report stipulates that a respectable treatment of the employees is a major factor in the development of job satisfaction. The management should not look down on lower workers but treat them with the required level of respect deserved.

Trust

Trusting the choices of your employees in the decision making at their post is very vital. An employee can choose to do a particular chore using a particular method that will lead to better results than the way you want him to work. Such trust builds up confidence in what they are doing thus improving on job satisfaction.

Security

A worker will be settled on his task knowing he or she has job security even during the recession period. Lack of security can cause anxiety among the workers, thus reducing the productivity and worse of all, lead to employee boycotting duty or even striking.

Healthy environment

A healthy working environment is not necessarily a hygiene issue. There are factors, especially psychological ones that can contribute to a great working environment. Such factors include harassment and discrimination based on gender, race and even nationality. A workplace free of these things will greatly promote a good working environment.

Career path

Career path simply entails personal growth. Every employee will aspire to grow career-wise, get a promotion, gain the required experience and skill that can enable him or her get a pay rise or another better paying job in case your organization goes south. Giving out new duties to employees and promotions is a good start to growing and enriching the employee’s resume.  

Pay and benefits

The major reason why people work is to get some benefits to enable them to take their living standards to a higher and better level. Ensure your employees are paid deservedly.

Education, Management

Making Sense out of Irrational Behavior

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Sometimes, perfectly sensible, intelligent and rational colleagues reject or resist rational, perfectly sensible and intelligent ideas. Have you ever wondered why this happens? Obviously, this does not happen because they are stupid. This happens because there is something going on that we can’t realize.

We can use an example of a large, and overcrowded urban hospital that is trying to free up beds by reducing long patient stays. An analysis showed that one floor never seemed to be discharging patients during the weekend.

When the administration and the nursing teams were asked about the data, the head nurse said that she did not support any attempts of increasing weekend discharges. She added that it was not a good time for patients to be discharged from the hospital.

From the surface, the decision of the head nurse didn’t make any sense. Eventually, the nurse shared the fact that a few years back, a few patients lost valuable things during weekend discharges.

She did this to ensure that the belongings of the patients could only be removed from the safe in her presence. The nurse kept the only key, and she did not come to work on weekends.

If you told someone rational this story, they would laugh thinking that the nurse was stupid, but in the real sense, the nurse did what she thought was best for the patients. This made the nurse appear irrational to others.

Once the motivation and the history behind her decision were revealed, the decision made sense. This prompted a review of the discharge procedures and how to secure the personal property of patients.

Irrational Behavior

It is essential to understand that irrational behavior is normal and part of the human condition. There are a lot of things that we know we need to avoid, but we still do them anyway. And there are also lists of good things that we know we should do, but we still avoid them.

This is why, despite knowing that cigarettes are bad, people still smoke cigarettes. People still drink alcohol and drive, and people still don’t floss their teeth.

Unconsciously or consciously, we have reasons for our actions that most people don’t understand and think that our actions are irrational. Some of the reasons why we do irrational things include lifestyle, convenience, peer acceptance and many more.

Irrational Behavior in an Organization

Organizations are composed of different people and all the people in an organization act irrationally at different times. This is the reason why we often encounter a boss, colleague or subordinate staff that can’t consider a suggestion that is completely reasonable. If you ever find yourself in this situation, you should use the following guidelines.

Don’t try to use Rationality to Fight Irrationality

When you try to use rationality to fight irrationality, it will make you more frustrated, and the other person will become more defensive. You may offer well informed and constructed arguments, but you will never win. The best way to go about it is to understand the motivation that is driving the other person to make the kind of decisions they make.

Focus on Understanding the Rationale of the Other Person

Even if you are being driven by the unconscious motivations of the other person, it is important to figure them out. Being resistant to apparent logic will always come from somewhere, and you will not be able to break through until you get to understand the underlying reason.

For instance, salespeople will resist straightforward and logical model changes because they fear that the compensation will be affected. Or maybe they fear that their relationship with customers will be harmed. You must understand and deal with the main issues to make headway.

Don’t take it Personally

Sometimes, our emotions can be blazing with anger, helplessness, frustration or confusion when we deal with irrational behavior. The actions of other people can make us confused, and we may want to label them hostile, insecure, miserable and inferior.

What can happen is that we start to see the person in that color and even trap them in a stereotype with a label that is self-fulfilling. You should not hold resentment of people you work with because it punishes you the same way it punishes them.

You will not be able to change relationships by trying to control the behavior of other people, but you can only change yourself in relation to them. Try not to place your energy in deriding and blaming someone, rather, you should focus on finding a more productive interaction with them.

It is not always easy to go back for more of the same mistakes concerning someone time after time. You should try and change something/

Don’t Focus on Positions

Basic communication problems lay not so much in conflicting positions. It lies in the conflict between every person’s needs, concerns, desires, and fears. One person may think that the other person is a perfectionist in everything they do, but this may just be an opinion of that person.

Sometimes, interests make people act the way they act. The underlying interests may be a fear of competition, lack of training and so on. Sometimes, we think that when people act irrationally, they are trying to compete with us when in the real sense they are just doing their job. Your perception is what enables conflict to arise. Sometimes, interests motivate us and are silent movers behind our positions.

If you want to achieve a solution to a problem, you should try to reconcile interests and not positions. There exist several possible solutions for every interest that could satisfy it. However, people tend to adopt the most obvious position.

You can find an alternative position that meets both your interests and other people’s interests when you look behind some opposed positions for motivating interests. When we should reconcile our interests and avoid compromising positions because this can work. Under positions that oppose each other lies more interests than the ones that conflict.

Leadership, Management, People Management

Understanding the Relationship Between Management and Organizational Behavior

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A successful business should have a good manager and good management. The manager plays a vital role in different activities in trading and helps the business to make a profit. A successful manager should be able to control employees and acquire his goals from the staff by assigning resources, making a decision and directing activities. A successful manager should also be able to perform the four main functions in a business such as organizing, planning, controlling and leading.

The Role of Organizational Behavior in Business

Apart from what we have mentioned above, organizational behavior plays a vital role in a business set-up as well as in management. Organizational behavior is the study of how groups, individuals and structure effect and get influenced by different behaviors in organizations. The knowledge gained from the study of organizational behavior is applied to groups, individuals and structure to improve or make functions more effective in organizations.

Organizational behavior is one of the most critical elements that support management in organizations. Managers can understand different behaviors of individuals in an organization and what groups, individuals and structure are doing as well as predict their actions and realize the effects and causes among relationships in a business setting. With management functions, businesses also use different resources to achieve their goals and objectives. The resources are arranged in four groups namely human, physical, financial, and information resources.

Human Resource

Human resource can be defined as the people that operate an organization. A human resource is an employee or a single person within an organization. Human resources are all the staff in your organization. Human resource can also be defined as the organizational function that deals with issues related to people such as benefits, compensation, hiring and recruiting employees, performance management, onboarding employees, training, advising managers about the impact on people of their planning, financial, and performance decisions on the employees in an organization.

Physical Resources

Every company should have physical resources. Some companies need more physical resources than others. Physical resources are tangible items in an organization, and they are essential for a business to function. The items have value, take space and are used in operating the company. All types of businesses need physical resources. Businesses that are product-based use physical resources to provide goods for sale and to operate the business. Businesses that are service-based use physical resources to deliver services such as having tools and space to work in order to deliver the services.

Financial Resources

The financial resource is the money available in business in the form of liquid securities, cash and credit lines. An entrepreneur should secure enough financial resources before going into business. This helps the entrepreneur to be able to operate and promote success sufficiently.

Information Resources

Information resources are vital for businesses. For businesses to be successful, they need information. A combination of external and internal business information resources can provide the background needed to evaluate current business performance and plan for future progress. It is essential for managers to know the types of information that is crucial for business in order to plan for getting, analyzing and using information effectively. 

When managers understand financial, human, physical and information resources, they can use it and compose the functions with four basic functions (organizing, planning, controlling and leading) with the purpose of getting effective results from the organization. Managers will follow that to show how to apply the above basic resources and functions to the organization and its goals.

Planning is the process established to determine the future position of an organization and decide on how to achieve goals within an organization. Organizing is the process of designing jobs. Leading is the process of motivating workers and resolving conflicts within an organization. Controlling is; comparing, correcting and motoring performance with the objectives of the organization. 

The Role of Managers

Managers have a role of performing effective functions and roles in an organization. Managers have interpersonal roles, and these include the figurehead, the liaison, and the leader. Managers also have the roles of making critical decisions in an organization. They act as the disturbance handler, the entrepreneur, the negotiator, and the resource allocator. These are very important roles in decision making. 

Making high-quality decisions in an organization can be productive. Managers also have an information role. This includes monitoring information, dissemination of information and breaking down of information for easy understanding by the junior employees. Information is therefore very important in an organization, and the behavioral processes help managers to get the right information.

Negative Effects of Behavior

Understanding behavior plays an important role in management. However, some behavior can affect management negatively. Several problems affect managers negatively, and managers should pay more attention to these. One of the main reasons that cause difficulty in organizations is deviant. The deviant workplace may include hostile behaviors and sabotage, insult, theft, and gossip. The organization should put in place proper firing and hiring policies to control such behavior and ensure the organization is running smoothly. A prevention plan should also, and this includes training managers to identify problems early and set up clear rules with respect to threat, violence, harassment and more. Job satisfaction can improve productivity in an organization, but it can also be a negative influence because employees can feel too comfortable and become sluggish.

Conclusion

It is important for everyone to understand the relationship between organization and management when discussing leadership. It also helps managers to face challenges within an organization and find out the best ways to deal with the challenges. Managers should have a thorough grasp of the theory and practice it. It is also important for managers to be able to administrate and face global challenges, manage diversity, improve services, empower people, provide job satisfaction and deviant workplace. From this information, organizations can run smoothly and gain more benefits through components, perceiving roles and their effects in organizations.

Leadership, Management, Organizational Behaviour, People Management

Why Managers Need To Understand Organizational Behavior

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As managers begin to study organizational behavior, they will be struck by the fact that they can apply what they have learned immediately to the problems they encounter at work. Managers will be gaining a broad view of organizational behavior disciplines, and they will also find different ways they can alter their management philosophy to reflect the knowledge newly found in the study of organizational behavior. The more the knowledge about organizational behavior grows; the more managers will become skilled in understanding and analyzing the behavioral implications of the problems facing their organization. Before we look at the necessity of managers studying organizational behavior, let’s first look at the organizational behavior theories.

Human Relations Behavioral Theory

This theory states that organizations function well when the staff feels empowered and valued. The theory is based on studying the productivity of the employees under different circumstances of work. Human relations behavioral theory also states that the staff in an organization are likely to increase efficiency and productivity if they feel validated and satisfied at work.

For example, things such as free lunch could help employees feel content and secure because their company meets their needs. When the staff believes that management cares about their needs and wants, they feel a sense of loyalty, and this boosts their productivity in return.

Decision-making Behavioral Theory

This is the most applied theory to supervisors and managers because they can make more of their decisions that affect their company. Decision making behavioral theory states that people within an organization can only make decisions based on the available information. However, the information must be complete and accurate for the decision to achieve a specific goal.

The person making the decision should have the ability to sort through the process and information correctly. Inadequate or insufficient information leads to bad decision making. Also, managers who are not strong in information synthesis are likely to make bad decisions.

Servant Leadership Behavioral T

The servant leadership theory has gained a lot of influence over the past few decades. The theory states that the leaders in an organization will achieve success only if they become servants of their employees. Leaders wield influence in an organization, unlike servants. They are therefore able to create the principles and vision that drives the company forward. The servant leadership theory allows executives to view all work protocols and processes from the point of view of their employees. If you own a company, then your primary job is to view the needs and the wants of your employees as more important as your needs and wants.

This simply means that you provide employees with all the necessary resources for them to achieve performance standards that you have established for your company. Servant leadership behavior can help you create a stronger bond with your employees, but it is important to remember that your main focus should remain on the wants and needs of your employees and not on their feelings. Managers who focus too much on the feelings of their workers may be restricted from making hard decisions and from providing honest critiques of their work.

Benefits of Organizational Behavior to Managers

There are many benefits of knowing organizational behavior for leaders and managers in any organization. We have listed the three main benefits for you to understand.

Employee Training

Organizational behavior is very important in the process of training employees. Employees with the right backgrounds get hired to do relevant jobs in an organization. However, often the background is not enough to ensure that there is effective performance over time.

Organizational behavior affects the training provided to employees internally through resources. Employee training is focused on strengthening and improving the existing skills, regulatory requirements or learning about new technology that can impact how work is done in an organization and staying updated on changes in the environment that can change how employees do work.

Engagement

Managers and employers are concerned about developing a conducive environment where employees can feel connected to their work and to the mission of the company. Managers are also concerned about their ability to offer ideas and insights to help improve the production and the work environment. The work rules in an organization affect the engagement as well as the culture.

Conclusion

Organizational behavior is an important subject. It helps leaders and managers to understand, and plan for an individual’s actions. Organizational behavior is the study of perception, attitude, and moral ethics of individuals in an organization.

Education, Education and Training, Management, Organizational Behaviour, People Management

An Introduction to Organizational Behaviour

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I’ve spoken earlier about OB and how it is used within businesses, but I thought that it might be useful to be a lot more detailed. So, over the course of this year expect regular posts on this topic which you can use in your own learnings.

Organizational behaviour can be defined as the study of how people interact within groups. This study is generally applied in an attempt to come up with more efficient business organizations. The main idea of the study of organizational is that organizations can apply a scientific approach to manage their workers. Generally, the theories of organizational are used for human resources to maximize the individual output of people from group members.

A Breakdown of Organizational Behaviour

There are different philosophies and models of organizational behaviour. The focus on these different areas of study is:

  • Increasing job satisfaction,
  • Improving job performance,
  • Encouraging leadership and promoting innovation.

Managers may adopt different management tactics to achieve the desired results. These tactics may include modifying compensation structures, reorganizing groups and changing the evaluation of performance.

Brief History of OB

The field of organizational behaviour dates back to the late 20s when a company called Hawthorne electric company set up experiments. The experiments were designed to discern how environmental change changed employees productivity.

Between 1924 and 1933, various studies were conducted by Hawthorne electric company. The studies included the study of the effects of different types of breaks on the productivity of employees. The most famous finding from the studies is what is known as the Hawthorne Effect, the change in people’s behavior when they know they are being observed.

Some people have argued that the focus on the finding is to ignore a wider set of different studies that would be credited for the development of organizational behaviour as the human resources professional and as a field of study. The idea of looking at behaviour and productivity in an organization scientifically with the aim of increasing the quality and amount of work an employee can do was backed up with the idea that employees were not resources to be used interchangeably. Instead, workers are unique regarding their potential fit with the company and their psychology.

Organizational behavior has focused on different topics. During the 1940s, organizational behavior focused on management science and logistics. The emphasis was mainly on statistical analysis and mathematical modeling to find the best answers for problems that were deemed complex.

In the 70s, theories of institutions and contingency, as well as resource dependence, organizational ecology, and bounded rationality, came to lead the study as the field concentrated more on quantitative research. These sets of theories and findings helped organizations to understand how they can improve decision making and business structure.

Since the 70s, a good amount of work being done in the field of organizational behaviour has based on cultural components of organizations, and this includes gender roles, class, cultural relativism and gender roles and their unique roles on productivity and group building. The studies take into account the ways in which background and identity can inform decision making.

Focusing On The Academic

You can find academic programs that focus on organizational behavior in business schools. You can also find them in the schools of psychology and social work. They draw from the field of leadership studies, anthropology, computer models and ethnography and use qualitative, computer models and quantitative as methods of exploring and testing ideas. One can study different topics within the field of organizational behavior depending on the program.

Organizational Behaviour in Practice

Human relations professionals and executives can use organizational behavior to understand better the culture of the business and how the culture can hinder or facilitate employee retention and productivity. Executives and human resource managers can also use organizational behavior to evaluate the skills of candidates and the candidate’s personality during the hiring process.

The knowledge or theory application from the field of organizational behaviour can be narrowed down to the following sections:

  • job satisfaction,
  • personality,
  • leadership,
  • reward management,
  • power,
  • authority, and
  • politics.

There is no single way of assessing the suitable way of managing any of these things, but researching organizational can be used to provide topics and guidelines to follow.

  • Job satisfaction theories are different, but some people dispute that a satisfying job is composed of compelling work, concrete reward system, satisfactory working conditions, and good supervisors.
  • Personality plays a significant role in the way people interact with groups and do work. You can know the personality of a person through a conversation or a series of tests. Knowing the personality of a person can give you an idea of whether they are the perfect fit for the particular environment you want to hire them into. You will also know how best you can motivate the employees.
  • Authority, power, and politics depend on each other in an organization. It is therefore essential to understand the appropriate ways and adhere to the rules at the workplace, and the general ethical guidelines in which the elements are used and exhibited are the main components of running a cohesive business.

Why Managers Should Study Organizational Behaviour

The pressures on firms continue to mount, and companies around the world need to utilize their resources in the best way possible.

The success of every organization depends on the effectiveness of the management of the employees. The people’s behaviour in an organization is governed by feelings, ideas, and activities. For businesses to effectively manage people, it is vital to perceive their needs. However, the behaviour of people can differ from one individual to another. This makes it impossible to come up with standard solutions to the problems in an organization.

For this reason, it is crucial to consider the social and psychological aspects when designing solutions to solve different issues in an organization, and that is why managers should study organizational behaviour.