Management
Introduction
Organizational behavior is an academic discipline that is concerned with describing, understanding, predicting, and controlling human behavior in an organizational set-up . The current paper analyses the organizational behavior of my previous organization. Various factors such as organizational culture, mode of communications in the organization, the nature of authority, motivation techniques, emotional quotient areas and virtual elements are analyzed in the paper. The thesis statement for the current paper is that the organizational behavior of the analyzed organization contributes positively towards the growth of the organization.
Type of culture (Pluralism, Dualism or Salad bowl)
Organizational culture is defined as a system of shared values that guide the individual attitudes and behaviors in an organization . A pluralistic culture in an organization is identified by the existence of a consensus within the existing subcultures and an absence of an overall integrating or a unifying culture .The relationships between the various sub-cultures may vary and may have a substantial impact on the organizational innovation and productivity. If the organization has many programs in different locations, each location may develop its own sub-culture . An integrated pluralistic culture is characterized with a consensus that exists between the various sub-cultures that results in an overall unifying culture in the organization . An organization that runs different types of programs in one location may possess an integrated pluralistic culture.
Corporate culture is a culture that is formulated by the company management and is imposed, marketed and transmitted to the members of the organization, including their beliefs and values and commitment towards the organization . A dualism may arise in the organization due to differences in the organizational culture and the corporate culture.
A salad bowl culture is actually a multi-cultural or diverse organization set up in which each employee comes from a different cultural background and contributes towards the formation of the organizational culture
The evaluated organization was an Information Technology based organization and therefore innovation was one of the top concerns of the organization. The organization essentially had a mix of integrated pluralistic culture and salad bowl culture within the setup. The organization was sub-divided into distinct departments such as human resources, finance and accounts, legal, marketing, information technology, servers, administration and operations department and each department had its own sub-culture. Since, the departments were located at the same address in the same building, the various sub-cultures closely interacted with each other to form a unified overall culture in the organization. The organization had a diverse workforce that included employees from various languages and religion and therefore was a salad bowl to a certain extent.
Modes of communication in the organization (i.e., written or verbal)
Communication is defined as the sharing of information between two or more people to reach a common understanding . A communication is considered effective when the information is shared between the different members of the organization and the members understand clearly what the information means to them. A communication may be considered ineffective when the people do not get the information they need or they are not clear about what it actually means.
There are two means of communication in organizations – verbal or non-verbal. Verbal communication means the sharing of information through words that may be either written or spoken . The oral communication may involve telephonic interactions, video conferencing interaction and face to face communication. The written communication may consist of emails, memos, policies, brochures and reports that may be distributed electronically or through hard copies.
Verbal forms of communication in the past organization included face to face interactions during meetings and seminars, telephonic conversations, written interactions through emails, newsletters, reports, memos and text chats. All important organizational based information was shared with the employees through the official communication channels that included official email system and social media networks. The organization had established itself on leading social media websites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn and used these media to engage with the employees, share information and also attract talent.
The nature of authority (i.e., recognized social rank)
Status is defined as the social rank of an individual in a group . The status is defined as the amount of importance, respect and power is given to an individual. The individuals are bound together in status groups that define their status in relation to the other members in the group . The members of higher status tend to interact with the individuals of their own status and avoid low status interactions. In the case of organizations, the status is defined so as to determine the level of authority for various individuals to help the organizational members to coordinate with each other.
The sources of status in organizations may vary and depend on a number of factors such as age, education, seniority, job skills, education, job level and abilities.
Figure 1 Sources of Status in Job
The recognized social ranks of the organization included: Freshers (trainees), executives, assistant managers, deputy managers, managers, senior managers, CEO (Chief Executive Officer), CFO (Chief Financial Officer), Vice President and President. The social ranks help to define the responsibilities, job functions and power of the employees in the organization. For example the managers of the organization supervised the performance of the assistant managers directly and those of the executives and trainees in the team indirectly.
The CEO and the President had the highest power in the organization along with the Board of Directors. All strategic decisions were taken by the top management of the organization that included CEO, President, Vice President and CFO. The middle management was involved in the tactical decisions of the organization and consisted of the managers. The organization, however followed a transparent system of communication and performance appraisals in order to ensure that there was no abuse of power in the organization.
Motivational techniques (e.g. Intrinsic or extrinsic used to influence productivity and performance)
The extrinsic motivation involves the satisfaction of the needs of the employees through monetary means or financial rewards . The monetary compensation and benefits act as a motivator for employees and the employees strive hard to achieve higher performance for rewards. The organization follows a performance based compensation system in which the compensation (financial benefits) of the employees is directly related to the performance of the organization. Such a performance based compensation plan is an effective means of aligning the goals of the employees with the organizational goals and objectives. Performance based compensation plan ensures that high performing employees are suitably rewarded and that the employees work hard to achieve the organizational goals that are directly related to their personal goals. The non-financial rewards used by the organization to motivate employees included recognition for their efforts.
Intrinsic motivation is the motivation to complete a certain task that comes from within and not due to some external factor . The organization used employee empowerment, challenging project assignments and a positive work environment as tools to increase intrinsic motivation of the employees.
Both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation techniques were effectively used by the organization to achieve higher productivity and employee commitment.
Areas of EQ (emotional quotient) embraced by the organization
Emotional intelligence involves a clear understanding of the emotional needs of the situation and the level of emotional skills and self-awareness that is necessary to deal with the situation . The people that have a higher level of emotional intelligence tend to better deal with the emotional situations in the organization. The areas of emotional quotient include self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills . All areas are embraced by the organization. The organization trains its employees in the field of emotional intelligence through training sessions organized in the company that are conducted by experienced HR trainers. Such a training increases the level of emotional quotient of individuals and results in better management of organizational relationships between the employees. Such a training is especially important at managerial level as it helps managers in taking better decisions and adopting a supportive and participative leadership style for managing people in the organization.
Virtual elements (i.e., teleworking and virtual offices)
Teleworking and virtual offices were also a part of the organization as many employees were located at geographically distant locations (different countries and cities). The interaction between the geographically dispersed employees or employees with different time zones were coordinated through modern communication media such as video conferencing, text chatting, Skype voice calls, telephonic conversations and written emails. Virtual teams are an efficient means of completing the organizational job functions by a group of employees that do not physically meet with each other or interact face to face but are in touch though modern information technologies.
For example, the content divisions of the past organization were based in a different city and therefore the team of writers was managed through Skype chats and telephonic conferences. The content team would deliver the content via email and the management at the head office would manage and review the content and provide feedback via emails. In the case of web designing team, the employees were based in a different country with a different time zone. The work in this case was managed through Skype conversations and mails. A communication time lag would always exist between the team members due to different time zones.
Conclusion
The past organization was essentially an IT (information technology) based organization and therefore innovation and adaptability was an important factor for the growth of the organization. The organization had a positive organizational culture that was conducive to the growth of the employees and also that of the organization. The paper thus justifies the thesis statement that the organizational behavior of the analyzed organization contributes positively towards the growth of the organization.
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