Organisatioanl Behaviour Issues - Assignment Example

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR Name Course Tutor Institution Date Organizational Behaviour Question 1 The five bases of power within organizations are reward, coercive, legitimate, referent and expert (Randolph & Kemery 2011, p. 96). Coercive power happens when one is forced to comply in acting in a manner he or she does not desire, through the threat of force. Force may be in form of political, emotional, social, economic or physical (Randolph & Kemery 2011, p. 96). The influencing tactics may be personal and impersonal use of force. For example, an employee is made to believe that if he does not accomplish certain tasks; his manager will impose a monetary fine on him or have him dismissed. The influence of personal and impersonal coercion can have some negative short term problems, including abuses and other unhealthy behaviours in the work place. The performance of the organization in the long term might be affected negatively due to dissatisfaction in the workplace (Randolph & Kemery 2011, p. 106). Reward power happens when some people use their rights, to offer social, emotional, tangible and spiritual rewards to others who have done a good job (Kozan, Ergin & Varoglu 2014, p. 39). The same people can use their rights to deny others something tangible, political, spiritual, emotional or social for failing to perform well, or refusing to do what is expected of them. For example, the top performing employees may be given a party annually and their salaries increased. This kind of power has positive short term and long term outcomes for the performance of an organization because the workforce is motivated to work hard to be rewarded positively. The workforce will avoid negative behaviours in the workplace to avoid negative rewards such as fines and therefore the productivity of the organization will improve (Kozan, Ergin & Varoglu 2014, p. 49). Legitimate power happens when a person of authority uses his abilities to administer notions of responsibility and obligation to others (Kozan, Ergin & Varoglu 2014, p. 39). This kind of power is derived from the social norms of the appointed or elected position of authority. The influencing tactics in this kind of power would be rewarding and punishing employees according to the formal leadership role of the managerial position. For example, a chief executive officer is given the role of determining the direction of a company and the resources the company needs. The short and long term effect of this is that there will be a shared vision and goals emanating from a central position of authority, which will improve the productivity of an organization (Kozan, Ergin & Varoglu 2014, p. 45). Referent power is when one is respected and trusted (Randolph & Kemery 2011, p. 106). One gains referent power when other people trust what one does and respect how one handles situations. For example, a human resource manager who is respected for making sure that all employees are treated fairly and come to the rescue of those who are not given fair treatment. This type of power has many positive short and long term effects in the organization such as increased job satisfaction and good communication (Randolph & Kemery 2011, p. 106). Expert power is gained from ones experiences, knowledge and skills (Randolph & Kemery 2011, p. 96). When people gain experience in specific areas, people regard them as being leaders, and later they get expert power that is utilized by others to meet organizations goals. For example, an individual who is an expert in solving particular challenges is elected as a project manager to make sure the project is accomplished successfully. Expert power makes sure that an organization meets its specified goals and objectives by having experts handling specific challenges (Randolph & Kemery 2011, p. 106). Question 2 Personality traits are the durable characteristics of an individual while the personality types are collection of the character traits of an individual that are said to occur at the same time (Mischel 2013, p. 12). Personality types can be used in various ways to improve organizational performance. When coming up with business strategies, it is critical to align behaviours, skills and people personality styles with the business strategy (Mischel 2013, p. 12). First of all, the employees will understand their preferences and tendencies, helping them to work in collaboration with other individuals with different personality types in the best way possible. Secondly, managers will take into consideration different ways of communicating with the employees according to their personality types improving communication, work satisfaction and productivity of the organization. The Myers Briggs Type Inventory is one of the widely used and best known personality test. The theory states that there are four pairs of opposing psychological elements which are opposing. The theory, therefore, states that within each pair, everyone has a preference for one of the characteristics, which they use most of the time. Myer Briggs Type Inventory can be used to improve organizational performance by applying it in managing people, career guidance and developing education and training (Mischel 2013, p. 12). Question 3 Mohandes Gandhi, having been a leader between 1869 and 1948, show that his leadership style was trait spotting. Mohandes Gandhi was a strong driven leader. In addition, he had self-confidence and had the ability to influence others to perform their tasks effectively and enthusiastically(Allison-Napolitano 2014, 12). Mohandes Gandhi’s leadership style would not be effective in the 2014 because trait leadership is categorized by integrating personal characteristics that reflect differences and consistency in the effectiveness of a leader in various group and organizational situations. There are various changes happening today in organizations, which need different kinds of traits to handle different situations. Trait spotting leadership is not effective in 2014 because it depends on the individual traits of an individual that makes him a leader rather that learnt leadership behaviours as a result of incremental change and changing situations (Allison-Napolitano 2014, 12). Question 4 Generalizability is important in the study of organizational behaviour because it is aimed at making sure that the organizational behaviours are relevant to other cases beyond the immediate context of study (Fisher & To 2012, p. 869). Reliability is also important because, when studying organizational behaviour, the tests have to be reliable and repeatable in different occasions and situations to make sure there is consistency (Fisher & To 2012, p. 869). Validity is important to avoid cases of deceptions, and thus, various theories can be tested to make sure the findings of organizational behaviour studies are valid. For example, when studying the need for motivation or its implications, one can use different theories of motivation, including equity theory and incentive theory to study the extent to which motivation affects organizational behaviour (Fisher & To 2012, p. 869). Question 5 Perception is the way in which one thinks about or understands someone or a situation (Heider 2013, p. 2). The ways people perceive of others and situations influence how they will behave in the organization. Perception, according to Heider (2013, p. 2), describes the way in which people filter, organize and interpret sensory information. When employees make accurate perceptions, they are able to make decisions, act ethically and complete tasks effectively. Three frequently used shortcuts in judging others are selective perception, halo effect and contrast effects (Heider 2013, p. 2). Selective perception occurs when a manager interprets what they see selectively on the basis of attitudes, experience and background. This bias might affect team performance negatively because some of the perceptions are inaccurate, and therefore, the expected outcome may be different. Halo effect happens when one draws a general perception of another based on ones’ characteristic. Contrast effects happen when there are different evaluations of person’s characteristics (Heider 2013, p. 2). Question 6 Self contained vertical organizational structures, self contained horizontal organization structures and boundary less organization structure are the three eras of organizational structure over the last two centuries (Schein 2010, p. 3). Technology has contributed to these changes greatly because it has eased the sharing of information, document creation and handing of shared information, which shapes organizational culture. In organizations without boundaries, organizational culture is maintained by sharing common organizational goals and working as a team (Schein 2010, p. 3). Question 7 Force field analysis is a decision making technique that involves analyzing the forces that support and do not support a change before making a decision (Jonassen 2012, p. 342). This kind of analysis helps one to communicate the reasoning behind ones decision. Kotter’s eight-step plan builds on Lewin's three-step change model to create a more detailed approach for implementing change by expanding on the steps of making changes. Lewin's three-step change model focuses on three stages of change only, which are unfreeze, transition and refreeze (Jonassen 2012, p. 342). Kotter’s eight-step plan, however, makes the need to change a campaign, whereby leaders have to convince their employees to make the necessary changes. The leaders have to convince the employees that the need for change is urgent. Secondly they have to build a team that will be dedicated to change, create the vision and communicate the need for change. The staffs are then empowered with the ability to change short term goals that are created, and through persistency, the change is made permanent (Jonassen 2012, p. 342). Question 8 Advantages of group decision making Group members have different specialties, and therefore, they provide more knowledge and information. Implementation of a decision made by a group is more effective because the people needed to implement the decision most probably participated in the decision making which increases commitment. There are reduced chances of biases that occur due to individual decision making (Yue, Z. (2011 p. 1927). Disadvantages of group decision making The process of group decision making is time consuming because assembling the right people takes a lot time and effort, and coming to a consensus takes time because there very many opinions to be considered. Personality conflicts may arise when some participants try to protect their self interest, which may lead to interpersonal obstacles and later reduced efficiency in the process and quality of decision making. Some participants may agree with the opinions of others to avoid being the odd ones out and to favour consensus (Yue, Z. (2011 p. 1927). Three common decision making biases include action oriented bias, self interest bias and pattern recognition bias. Action oriented bias happens when people feel pressure of taking action, are optimistic about the future, are overconfident in the ability to influence events and disregard the effect chance occurrences might have. This may occur when an organization makes plans based on past economic times without considering that the environment is changing. This bias may weaken the organizational culture because it will be unprepared for change (Yue, Z. (2011 p. 1928). Self interest bias happens when the wrong behaviours are rewarded. People are motivated to have favourable outcomes for themselves. For example, different people with different expertise may view the same company goal differently, and therefore, apply different course of actions. This may weaken the organizational culture because there is lack of collaboration causing conflicts (Yue, Z. (2011 p. 1927). Pattern recognition bias happens when people look for and cerate patterns that do not exist. They give more weight to recent events and give more intention to events that are more memorable. For example, when managers choose to fire some employees based on looking at some facts in a biased way. This affects the organizational culture negatively because there is lack of enough evaluations and analysis when making decisions (Yue, Z. (2011 p. 1937). Question 9 Situational theories and functional theories are two examples of leadership theories. Situational theory states that different situations demand for different characteristics. Situational or contingency theory claims that a leader with a single optimal psychographic profile does not exist (Chemers 2014 p. 3). This theory defines leadership as acting in dependence to the characteristics of the situation he functions. Functional leadership theory , on the other hand, states that the main job of a leader is to make sure that the group needs are taken care of (Chemers 2014 p. 3). For a modern workplace, the argument that leadership can be learnt is true. Before the 1940s, it was clear that true leadership depended on the traits such as mental, social and physical characteristics of individuals. There was, however, no evidence in many leadership studies linking effectiveness of leadership to individual traits. It is, therefore, clear that the behaviours of leaders determine their effectiveness. Leaders can learn to be task oriented by planning, organizing and coordinating subordinates. Using the contingency approach, leaders learn to behave effectively based on the characteristics of the situation at hand. Using the servant leadership approach, leaders learn to be servant leaders by placing the interest of the community, customers and subordinates ahead of their own (Chemers 2014 p. 3). Question 10 Hawthorne studies make an important contribution to our understanding of norms in determining individual work behaviour by determining the relationship between work environment and productivity. The studies focused on identifying what other elements influenced productivity other than lighting. The studies came up with the conclusion that social and psychical conditions affect productivity (Lunenburg & Ornstein 2011, p. 4). Asch conformity experiments were laboratory experiments that sought to demonstrate how the opinions of an individual are influenced by majority’s opinions in a group. These experiments have an effect on the problem of ‘group think’ because they tend to favour some group members, and fail to evaluate alternative opinions to avoid conflicts when coming to a consensus (Lunenburg & Ornstein 2011, p. 45). Reference List Allison-Napolitano, E, 2014, ‘Bounce Forward: The Extraordinary Resilience of Leadership,’ Corwin Press. Chemers, M, 2014, ‘An integrative theory of leadership,’. Psychology Press. Fisher, CD, & To, ML, 2012, ‘Using experience sampling methodology in organizational behaviour,’ Journal of Organizational Behavior, 33(7), pp. 865-877. Heider, F, 2013, ‘The psychology of interpersonal relations,’ Psychology Press. Jonassen, DH, 2012, ‘Designing for decision making,’ Educational Technology Research and Development, 60(2), pp. 341-359. Kozan, M K, Ergin, C, & Varoglu, K, 2014, ‘Bases of power and conflict intervention strategy: a study on Turkish managers,’ International Journal of Conflict Management, 25(1), pp. 38-60. Lunenburg, F, & Ornstein, A, 2011, ‘Educational administration: Concepts and practices,’ Cengage Learning. Mischel, W, 2013, ‘Personality and assessment,’ Psychology Press. Randolph, WA, & Kemery, ER, 2011, ‘Managerial use of power bases in a model of managerial empowerment practices and employee psychological empowerment,’ Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 18(1), pp. 95-106. Schein, EH, 2010, ‘Organizational culture and leadership (Vol. 2),’ John Wiley & Sons. Yue, Z, 2011, ‘A method for group decision-making based on determining weights of decision makers using TOPSIS,’ Applied Mathematical Modelling, 35(4), pp. 1926-1936. Read More