Human behavior in an organization

The term “organizational behavior” refers to the study of human behavior both inside and outside of a company, including how employees interact with both the business and each other. Organizational behavior analysis is broken down into three tiers. They include research on workgroups, the organization as a whole, and individual behavior within the organization. A flexible and effective business environment within the company is typically the goal of organizational behavior research. Organizational behavior theories are incorporated into scientific approaches to employee management, which boosts production and staff productivity. Employees from different cultural, racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds come together in the majority of firms to realize the goals of the firm. As such, the study of organizational behavior is instrumental is instrumental in determining the success of a company. Organisational expression plays a critical role in ensuring employee’s job satisfaction, corporate social responsibility as well as achievement of regulatory goals. The paper describes how different types of culture such as dualism, salad bowl, and pluralism; modes of communication; authority; methods of motivation; levels of emotional quotient; and technology influence the organizational behavior

Type of Culture and Influences on Organisational Behaviour

Organisations are social infrastructures that combine humanity with technology to derive and achieve its goals. Culture is an essential determinant component of a social system as it controls individual behavior and beliefs. With close consideration of Coca-Cola Company, its organizational behavior is essential in determining its global success. The presence of its products in multicultural global market employs a range of behavioral theories required to create cultural harmony within the foreign markets as well as its products. Culture influences how employees perform their duties within an organization. Organisational behavior focusses on how such cultural influences affect employees’ performance in achieving the organizational goals. According to Hiriyappa (2009), different types of culture influence organizational behavior of different organizations differently. Some of the kinds of cultures applicable in organizations include dualism, pluralism and salad bowl. Hiriyappa (2009) defines dualism as a philosophy of thoughts with a clear distinction between mind and body. However, the work environment consists of people from a diverse cultural background who conglomerate together to work under one management in the organization. Therefore, the organization structure of the company should appreciate different values held by every individual hence adopting the type of culture called pluralism.

My former employer embraced pluralism. Pluralism is a social structure within an organization that gives room for racial, religious, national and ethnic diversity within a group (Wang, 2016). Successful managers embrace diversity in the recruitment of the human resource. Due to the globalization of businesses, cultural integration and decentralization of management to various geographical locations assist in creating a culturally responsive organization. Cultural integration and harmonization within an organization help in creating an organizational structure that protects individual beliefs and unique characteristics. Management regularly conducts corporate behavior analysis to comprehend how cultural interactions within the organization influence the growth of the firm. My former employer incorporated cultural diversity in recruiting and hiring employees. The company established employment policies that protect individual cultural differences that uniquely contribute to the success of the organization. Research by Hiriyappa (2009) indicates that employees working within an agency either as individuals or in teams tends to build constructive relationships irrespective of their cultural difference. Independent research conducted by Lamm and Thomas (2017) confirms cultural pluralism is a recipe for success of organization just like it has contributed to the steady growth of the United States after independence. The population of the US is composed of people of global origin who contribute unique talents towards its growth thereby becoming the leading global economy surpassing the economic growth of its colonizer (Hiriyappa, 2009).

Contrastingly, pluralism sometimes poses challenges to the management. Lamm and Thomas (2017) underscore that behavioral adjustments among employees are not a spontaneous occurrence. The process of acculturation may take a long time, which may cause cultural conflict within the organization. Secondly, culture determines the roles played by men and women within the group. According to Lamm and Thomas (2017) cultural diversity if not well managed, may create cultural conflicts and evils such as favoritism and nepotism in appointments and promotions within an organization. Besides, Wrench and Punyanunt (2017) note cultural diversity within a group may cause communication barrier (Wang, 2016). For instance, global companies operating in markets with strange dialect may face the challenge of effective communication when promoting products.

Modes of Communication and Influence on Organisational Behaviour

According to Wrench and Punyanunt (2017), methods of communication refer to the mediums through which discussion takes pale. The plans are categorized into there: interpersonal, interpretive and presentational. Wrench and Punyanunt (2017) define interpersonal communication refers to sharing of information between two or more people within an organization. It involves the use of verbal and nonverbal cues to achieve personal relational and organizational goals. Interpersonal communication promotes corporate behavior as it includes social and physical engagement between employees as they attempt to achieve the goals of the firm. Within organizations, interpersonal communication consists of the sharing of ideas with colleagues using methods such as gestures, tonal variation, facial expression and body language. Interpersonal skills are the lifeblood of efficient communication that determines operational effectiveness and teamwork. It defines the efficiency of critical business functions such as managing, training, selling and conflict resolution within an organization (Wang, 2016).

However, poor interpersonal skills among management may create confusion among employees and customers. Interpersonal skills are crucial to the individual within the firm tasked with the responsibility of ensuring workplace trust and cooperation among employees. Inaccurate communication may create conflict among employees in different departments as well as encourage boredom through repetition of tasks. However, Wrench and Punyanunt (2017) underscore that people interpret information differently that may have adverse consequences on the business market. Therefore, poor communication skills may have adverse effects on an organization’s bottom line.

Secondly, internal employee training within the organization reinforces the organizational behavior. The training of new employees is aimed at gaining effective interpersonal skills that are necessary for giving both formal and informal instruction within the organization. Efficient interpersonal communication enables business professionals to effectively mobilize the factors of production within the body to achieve the goals of the firm. However, the social structures cannot be void of conflict thereby creating the need for social and interpersonal skills that are necessary for solving misunderstandings between employees. As such, organizational behavior reinforces excellent communication and interpersonal skills, which help in conflict resolution among employees in the firm or between the employees and the organization.

Nonetheless, useful communication distinguishes functional organization structure from an arbitrary miscellany of employees within the firm (Wang, 2016). Communication improves the comprehension of employees as they accomplish organizational goals in groups. As such, my former employer designed an efficient communication system that facilitated competent discussion of business tasks within the organization aimed at realizing the organizational goals while maintaining its vision at the same time. The firm employed a hierarchical debate that enhanced smooth flow of conversation vertical and horizontally reaching all departments thereby creating efficiency. Research by Lamm and Thomas (2017) indicates that a well-organized structure of communication within a firm foster transparency, accountability, and effectiveness that increases the productivity of the labor force within the organization. Consequently, inaccurate information has severe impacts on employees’ productivity that may even cause injuries to employees (Lamm & Thomas (2017). Also, competent managers create a supportive communication system that encourages comradeship and make employees feel that they contribute to the overall success of the organization. Good communication system establishes essential communication among employees, which enables them to work and freely share their views with the management efficiently.

Nature of Authority and Influences Organizational Behavior

As this paper investigates the different forms of organization structure, a hierarchical that distributes responsibilities from top to bottom creates lower, and higher levels of authority offer a high degree of power to the management. The role of the administration is to give direction and orders/instruction to the junior employees. As such, the ability to act over junior employees is a reserve for the management. An effective organizational structure confers authority to specific organs of the organization that ensures that all the employees implement the organizational objectives. According to Lamm and Thomas (2017), organization authority is classified as staff authority, line authority and functional power control employee responsibility. Line authority is a direct rule where the junior employees are answerable to the senior employees. The senior employees are accountable to the departmental heads who are finally responsible for the management. Staff authority involves employees’ rights and responsibility in passing information and advice concerning the assigned duties.

Moreover, functionality authority refers to the right to give direction to employees but not to discipline (Wang, 2016). The Coca-Cola Company has instituted a hierarchical but autonomous administrative structure that incorporates all the three forms of authority. Every regional company practices line jurisdiction involving top to down communication approach. However, each department practices functional authority over the members of the department by meeting objectives and advice the management on employees who fail to obey such instructions. Wrench and Punyanunt (2017) observed that authority or social rank is a motivating factor for employees. Scientific management theories by Wefald et al. (2017) indicate that employees are motivated to work more effectively if given the opportunity to rise in social ranks within an organization. Such ranks are associated with monetary rewards. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs confirms that the achievement of basic needs give rise to emergent needs that reflect vertical movement along the pyramid of satisfaction until one realizes self-actualization. The same principle applies to organizational management. Wefald et al. (2017) suggested that creating reward systems within the organization increases the productivity of employees as they rise through the social ranks. Research by Wrench and Punyanunt (2017) indicates that promotion motivates uncooperative employees to change their stance and work tirelessly towards achieving organizational goals. The management controls their effort in influencing of other employees to work towards achieving the goals of the organization.

Virtual Elements Influence Organizational Behavior

The advent of technology has changed the way managers coordinate, control and organize business resources to achieve the intended goals. Es-Sajjade and Wilkins (2017) state that technology is transforming the global economy into a single semiautonomous market segment increasing competition among firms. Technology has reorganized the way organizations conduct business activities. Organizations are changing from traditional methods of production and product promotion to capital-intensive methods of production and digital advertisements (Es-Sajjade & Wilkins, 2017). The traditional business environment involved the use of personal selling as a means of product promotion among others. However, the introduction of technology has created digital platform where products that facilitate procurement and promotion of products. For instance, the rise of major online retail outlets like amazon, alibaba.com among other e-commerce providers are making product distribution and promotion cost effective. Today, businesses can outsource personnel that is creating intensive competition in the labor market where ineffective employees are replaceable immediately instead of the traditional method where they underwent in-service training (Es-Sajjade & Wilkins, 2017).

Business focus is rapidly shifting from traditional business models of B2C to C2B. B2C is a conventional method of productions where the manufacturers produced products for consumers without putting customer taste and preferences into consideration (Es-Sajjade & Wilkins, 2017). Most businesses are adopting customer to business models that provide customers with the opportunity to design their products according to personal taste and preferences. Es-Sajjade and Wilkins (2017) underscore that the use of technology has increased the scale of production as well as the quality of products. The improvement in quality has increased the competitiveness of merchandises in the global market thereby increasing sales volume, revenue, and stock turnover. Increase in revenue facilitates the expansion of firms into developing markets. Expansion into such markets creates challenges for management as well as market opportunities for products.

My previous employer incorporated the use of technology in the production line to increase the quantity and quality of syrup concentrate distributed to regional bottlers for packaging and resale (Es-Sajjade & Wilkins, 2017). Technology simplified work thereby increasing productivity per worker. The positive effect of using technology in production and management was the constant growth in productivity of each employee thus improving the productivity and profitability of the organization, which satisfies clients’ needs and the stakeholders alike. Besides, technology-enabled managers to facilitate communication between teams that helped in reducing time wastage and additional expenses associated with such activities (Es-Sajjade & Wilkins, 2017). The company adopted video conferencing technology to hold meetings and communicate with regional managers distributed across the globe. The technology provided real-time interaction between workers at different departments, which are error-free, compared to the use of end-user encrypted messages that could contain errors. The use of virtual elements within the firm reduced traveling among team members that negatively affected the group operation.

The adoption of product management software assisted in the management of teams and groups through centralization of group budgets, scheduling meetings and other aspects of the process. The established management information system supported each member to input his/her achievements into the program thereby enabling the managers to monitor project developments and stage-wise results (Es-Sajjade & Wilkins, 2017). The use of mobile phones allowed members of the team to use digital communication platforms to communicate, share information at different locations through cloud computing as well as video conferencing that saves the company thousands of dollar used in accommodation and travel.

However, the use of technology in the organization has a negative impact on organizational behavior. Some member of the club may not be technology compliant hence creating friction within the organization. Besides, the use of technology in production and communication reduces physical interaction that makes employees work like machines thereby forming boredom (Es-Sajjade & Wilkins, 2017). Machines may also replace human labor leading to the layoff of workers hence increasing unemployment rate within a country.

Emotional Quotient Influence Organizational Behavior

Emotional quotient or intelligence refers to the ability to monitor individual and other people’s emotions by using the sensitive information to guide individual thinking and behavior (Srivastava, 2013). Organisational managers have a straight effect on the work environment. As such, Srivastava (2013) indicates that leaders need to manage their emotional intelligence as well as those of other employees to influence the actions of the employees within the organization positively. The strong organizational leadership has an unwavering impact on the extent to which human resource increase the emotional intelligence of members. Emotional management involves insight of others emotions that enable an individual to understand others attitude, interests and goals which will allow the organization to identify, comprehend and understand the needs of employees (Wrench & Punyanunt, 2017). Understanding other’s emotions assist in improving the performance of teams or groups. Therefore, managing emotions empower members of a team to support others’ sentiments that help in achieving a stable state of mind necessary for employee productivity.

Srivastava (2013) documented that emotional intelligence is a significant variable in predicting individual effectiveness within an organization or the society. People react differently to negative stimuli that may create irreparable damage to personal interest (Wang, 2016). Learning of emotional intelligence is possible although research indicates that it is hereditary (Wang, 2016). The manager needs to possess high emotional knowledge because they handle myriad of issues with the organization that determines the propensity of the organization to succeed or fails (Srivastava, 2013). As such, managers can decide on emotional stability of employees to organize task that much their emotional needs as well as coordinating shifts to relieve employees whose emotional quotient begins to diminish.

Motivational Techniques Influence Organizational Behavior

Motivation refers to the combination of forces that make people select specific behaviors from a range of possible responses. Increasing level of motivation in a firm is likely to improve organizational behavior. While extrinsic motivation like the desire to earn more money many elicit positive reactions from an employee, organizational behavior requires that employees are motivated to conduct their duties extraordinarily. Employee motivation is effective within an organization if the employer establishes a connection between efforts applied and the reward received. However, Hiriyappa (2009) notes that skewed reward system may demotivate employees within the firm. The forms of motivations must be fair and equitable to inspire workers to be industrious. Nevertheless, Wefald et al. (2017) suggest that managers should create specific, measurable, achievable and realistic goals that employees can manage to handle. Most importantly, organizational behavior influences the decisions that people make within the organization. Managers should design efficient communication systems within the group that ensures clarity of information that enables the employees to understand the business framework that creates intrinsic motivation among employees.

However, differences in culture may affect the motivation mechanism adopted by the organization. For instance, Hiriyappa (2009) noted that businesses that operate in regions where collective responsibility is fashionable, individual motivation reward system might discourage efforts and leads to organizational failure. In countries like Japan and China, designing motivation programs that motivate individuals creates embarrassment and may hinder the employee from working hard. Besides, masculinity versus femininity plays a crucial role in determining the reward mechanism (Hiriyappa, 2009). In masculine societies, materialistic rewards may motivate employees to work hard (Wrench & Punyanunt, 2017). Contrastingly, feministic society requires rewards such as non-materialistic rewards such holiday as stimulating factors (Wrench & Punyanunt, 2017).

However, the best method to motivate employees is the intrinsic motivation that creates a long-lasting self-driven effort to accomplish assigned tasks. My former employer initiated reward schemes that motivated an employee from within himself or herself. The firm recognized the value of each employee’s role and contribution towards the success of the firm (Wang, 2016). Individual contribution towards the success of the firm builds team spirit. The employer also matched the skills of each employee with relevant tasks. The human resources department used hiring and skill assessment tool to fit employees to tasks that require their skills. Ineffective employees underwent training and supervision to increase productivity. Also, the employer rewarded team achievements and extraordinary efforts of individual employees through competitive selective programs (Wang, 2016). The company sought the opinion of employees before introducing new plans and constantly correct unexpected behaviors.

Conclusion

Organizational behavior is an essential field of study that increases the success of the organization as well as the productivity of employees. It assists employees in managing emotional quotients, influence level of motivation as well as communication system adopted by an organization. Hierarchical organizational structure confers authority to employees by creating social ranks, which enables people to exercise control. As such, the paper has described how different types of culture such as dualism, salad bowl and pluralism; modes of communication; authority; methods of motivation; levels of emotional quotient; and technology influence the organizational behavior.

References

Es-Sajjade, A., & Wilkins, T. (2017). Design, Perception and Behavior in the Innovation Era: Revisiting the Concept of Interdependence. Journal Of Organization Design, 6(1), 1-12.

Hiriyappa, B. (2009). Organizational Behavior. New Delhi: New Age International.

Lamm, E., & Thomas, T. E. (2017). Organization OR Environment? Disentangling Employees’ Rationales Behind Organizational Citizenship Behavior for the Environment. Organization & Environment, 30(3), 187-210. 

Srivastava, K. (2013). Emotional intelligence and organizational effectiveness. Retrieved 10 December 2017, fromhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4085815/

Wang, W. (2016). Examining the Influence of the Social Cognitive Factors and Relative Autonomous Motivations on Employees’ Knowledge Sharing Behaviors. Decision Sciences, 47(3), 404-436.

Wefald, A., Smith, M., Gopalan, N., & Downey, R. (2017). Workplace Vigor as a Distinct Positive Organizational Behavior Construct: Evaluating the Construct Validity of the Shirom-Melamed Vigor Measure (SMVM). Employee Responsibilities & Rights Journal, 29(4), 197-220. doi:10.1007/s10672-017-9296-2

Wrench, J., & Punyanunt, N. (2017). Organizational Communication: Theory, Research, and Practice 1.0 | FlatWorld. FlatWorld. Retrieved 10 December 2017, from https://catalog.flatworldknowledge.com/bookhub/reader/7635?e=wrenchorgcomm_1.0-ch06_s02