Importance of Studying Organizational Behavior
Organizational behavior is the study of the influence group and individual interactions within an institution affects its overall performance. This discipline is essential in understanding employee behavior and developing frameworks that encompass different unique aspects of the human resource. Management studies can only inform students on the general requirements of the responsibilities they will perform in the workplace; however, organizational behavior equips them with the necessary skills to adapt to the institution-specific environment they are placed in. One such element is diversity, which is an emerging business issue emanating from globalization; diversity in the workplace requires a leader to understand the cross-cultural issues influencing organizational behavior before making tactical decisions. Similarly, studying organizational behavior equips managers with soft skills to train employees on how to adapt to different work environments. For example, new employees need to be inducted into a firm's culture without necessarily losing their beneficial individual traits. In addition, employees need to be trained on working with co-workers from other cultures by creating a balance between uniformity, to ensure standardization, and diversity, to maintain uniqueness.
Employee motivation is integral for achieving a firm's objectives; the study of organizational behavior equips a leader with the knowledge for interpreting the needs of his/her subordinates, and formulating motivational strategies that help achieve both individual and institutional goals. Adapting to an industry's culture is vital for the survival of a firm; the study of organizational behavior enables managers to develop their organizational cultures based on that of the sector they operate in, while incorporating values and norms that distinguish them from competitors in the market. Furtherance, a manager needs to be equipped with skills required to forecast elements of the industry culture that will become obsolete in the near future; this will ensure that management decisions are proactive and a firm achieves a competitive edge by being ahead of such changes.
Financial metrics measure a company's past performance; however, the firm's innovative ability, strategic decision-making, and customer satisfaction, which are integral for future performance, are dependent on its organizational structure and human resources. Studying organizational behavior helps managers select corporate structures that are a best-fit for their companies and that align with business strategies. A firm's sustainability and growth is dependent on synchronizing its resources, inclusive of its stakeholders, to reduce sub-optimality from redundant activities, duplication of responsibilities and pursuing individual goals that impede on corporate objectives. Organizational behavior emphasizes unity of vision, as a company is composed of different elements, such as employees, and thus its strength depends on the manner in which these elements co-exist.
There is no single solution to overcoming challenges at the workplace and transforming activities to be motivational and meaningful to the individuals implementing them. Through acquiring knowledge in organizational behavior, an individual can handle the tasks assigned to him or her without straining. Similarly, study of organizational behavior enables employees to develop a positive attitude towards their job, as they understand the challenges associated with different responsibilities; consequently, this ensures job satisfaction and a preparedness to solve constraints experienced at the workplace. Furthermore, studying organizational behavior ensures an employee develops self-awareness; as a result, an individual can develop and execute his/her own action plan, determine his/her current position in relation to career, and forecast the possibility of achieving professional goals.
Change Management
Change management in an organization requires the involvement of the top and lower levels of the organization; it should be an inclusive process, involving the decision-makers and implementers of the change. Accordingly, organizational leaders have a comprehensive understanding of the process of change, which is important in ensuring a sustainable success of the organization. Most organizations faced with the deficiency of, or reducing financial and human resources, realize that these put snowballing pressures on the leadership capabilities to ensure proactive responses to anticipated and unanticipated organizational changes. The main variable of the sustainable success of an entity is the top-level management’s capability to adopt change, then create and explain a clear ambition, in addition to implementing succinct strategic objectives and goals.
Implementing appropriate change management strategies is important in ensuring desired alterations are effective. An essential aspect of change within an organization is that its implementation not only affects the people within a firm, but it also depends on them. Subsequently, the pre-implementation stage of any proposed changes should involve promoting the idea to the stakeholders, especially the employees. In addition, this stage should allow for feedback from the employees, as this could improve the proposed strategy. Both of these approaches ensure that workers and other stakeholders have a sense of ownership towards the change to be implemented; consequently, they will work towards its success. On the contrary, failure to incorporate these individuals in the pre-implementation stage may result in reluctance to adapt the new changes, which would impede on the proposed strategy's effectiveness.
Leadership
Organizations with viable strategic approaches can be successful irrespective of their leadership. A good organizational structure depends on the organizational culture, a fixed modus operandi, and independent entities that ensure that the vision of the organization remains unchanged irrespective of the organizational leadership. Sustainable organizational behavior has been adopted in a wide range of organizations to ensure that they remain on operation irrespective of the leadership in place (Delarue, Hootegem, Procter, & Burridge, 2008). Sustainable organizational behavior explains why a wide range of organizations remains in operation despite undergoing consistent changes in the management. Coca cola and Woolworths PLC are some of the organizations that have maintained a successful for the past century because their success is entirely dependent on the organizational framework rather than the leadership body.
An organization can also establish a successful approach under an ineffective leader irrespective by setting targets. As long as the organization attains these targets, the leader will remain at the helm of the management team. In case the leader fails to achieve these targets, they are deemed incompetent and cannot continue leading the organization. For sustainable organizational behavior, the leader is given a passive role, which implies that they are not directly involved in the success of the organization. The board of directors, can always review the mandate of the leader in case they show exceptional skills in organizational development (Kaplan & Norton, 2001). In order for such leaders to effect any organizational changes, their proposals are presented before the board of directors in an AGM, where the changes are appended in the modus operandi of the organization. This change, however, will be followed and implemented by a future leaders to ensure that the organization undertakes a positive and sustainable development path.
Every organization can embrace a sustainable management despite the competency of the leader in place if they establish sustainable organizational policies. This approach is effective if the role of the leader is well defined and dictated by the organizational structure. Currently, organizations utilize reliable systems such as Enterprise Resource planning (ERP) system, which ensures that the board of directors and key stakeholders can evaluate the effectiveness of the organization. The role of every employee is categorically defined by the system and the employees are only required to handle their tasks within a specific time. The system queues the tasks in a hierarchical manner to ensure that there is a systematic execution of the tasks defined by the organization’s system. The success of the organization is defined by the quality and timely submission of all tasks generated by the system. In some service-based tasks, the quality is defined by feedback submitted by the customers through a customer relations management (CRM) model.
Besides the organization’s top leadership, organizations that have attained a consistent record of successful leadership have an organizational system that has empowered every individual in the organization. The organization, therefore, depends on the competency of every member of the organization, which makes the organization to depend on every employee rather than the top manager. During assessment, every individual is assessed based on their efficiency, punctuality, and contribution to the organization because their roles are well defined and the implementation of these roles is independent of the organization’s top management (Theisohn & Lopes, 2013). This organizational approach can be regarded as devolved management, where the actions of every individual are dependent on the job description rather than the directives given by the top leadership.
References
Delarue, A., Van Hootegem, G., Procter, S., & Burridge, M. (2008). Teamworking and organizational performance: a review of survey‐based research. International Journal of Management Reviews, 10(2), 127-148.
Kaplan, R. S., & Norton, D. P. (2001). The strategy-focused organization.Strategy and Leadership, 29(3), 41-42.
Theisohn, T., & Lopes, C. (2013). Ownership Leadership and Transformation: Can We Do Better for Capacity Development. Routledge.
