Category: Organizational Behavior

Introduction

Marketers all over the world rely upon their understanding of the consumer decision-making process to be successful in their day-to-day practices. Consumer behaviour captures all the activities of consumers that range from searching of the suitable products or services, their utility, all the way to the disposal of such products or services. Different scholars have developed models, strategies and theories that seek to clarify the consumer decision-making process.

Marketers rely upon the knowledge of this process in their identification of the most effective points of entry to influence the choices and decisions made by the various consumers to their advantage (Bettman et al. 1998, p.195). Since it is common knowledge that the consumer decision-making is a series of steps that constitute the whole process, the knowledge of what comprises each of the steps, as presented by the different models, is vital for any marketer seeking to be successful in marketing either products or services.

The marketer takes the responsibility of a guide to the consumer. Therefore, he/ she should be able to provide a good share of information about the effect of the decision that the consumer makes (Bilkey 2010, p. 20).

Successful dissemination of correct information about the important attributes of a given product, as well as its advantages in comparison to those offered by the competitors, is important in making sales and maintaining a clientele base. This paper aims at analysing the consumer decision-making process determining why it is necessary for marketers to understand the process in details to secure sales and maintain a satisfied client base.

The consumer decision-making process

There are a number of models put in place by marketers to explain the consumers’ decision-making process. The most common model is an adaption of the scientific method, which comprises of five basic steps.

For the purposes of marketing, research, as well as understanding the buying patterns of different consumer segments, it is important for marketers to understand what each of the steps contain, which leads into each other (Doney, & Cannon 2008, p.35).

The claim holds because each of the steps corresponds to an internal psychological process that should be understood by every marketer whose aim is to lead the pack when it comes to securing product and services sales. The consumer decision-making process and the corresponding internal psychological processes are as follows:

Need recognition – Motivation

The need recognition is the initial step in the consumer decision-making process. This usually takes place when a given consumer realises the existence of a given need. As a result, he/she is motivated to venture into the decision-making process to see that the need is resolved (Bettman 1999, p.45).

It is important for any marketer to have a deep understanding of what the consumer undergoes in this particular level in the decision-making process, as well as the specific needs that they seek to satisfy to translate them into the purchase criteria. The information that marketers get at this point of the process is critical in that it allows them to portray the most-felt need of the consumer in the promotional messages (Arzen 2005, p.209).

Need recognition might be a simple process in the consumer decision-making process. However, the manner in which the consumer perceives any purchase situation and is subsequently motivated to resolve it becomes very influential to the remaining steps in the decision-making process.

To understand deeply the reasons behind a given consumer’s purchases, marketers should devote a lot of their time in understanding the motives – the factor that compel the consumer to opt for a particular option. Need recognition might take place because of a change in the current or desired consumer’s state.

Both internal and external factors might be responsible for these causes. For a marketer to align himself/herself with the most-felt need of the consumer, he or she must invest a great deal of effort to understand the factors that result to the consumer’s need recognition. These factors include, but not limited to the following:

a. Out of stock

When consumers exhaust their existing supplies, need recognition often occurs, as there is the need to replenish their stock (Ajzen, & Fishbein 1980, p.5). The understanding of this factor ensures that a given marketer keeps the consumer constantly supplied with the brands that they are familiar with or those to which they feel loyal.

b. Dissatisfaction

When a product, service, or a current situation does not satisfy a consumer, need recognition is created. For instance, the consumer might feel that a given product that they are used to is not comfortable anymore. Therefore, he/she sets out to get a more comfortable option that will ensure that they feel comfortable and satisfied. Through advertising, marketers can ensure that consumers are able to recognise when they are dissatisfied and when they need to make a purchase.

c. New needs/ wants

The lifestyles of people keep on changing drastically. With them, new needs or wants are created. A change in the day-to-day operations of a given person might result in the creation of new needs or wants. These become even more important than the previously existing ones. Through a constant market research, marketers are capable of recognising whenever new needs or wants are created by consumers to know exactly when to get involved in the process (Ajzen, & Fishbein 1980, p.16).

Information search- perception

Once consumers are sure that their need can be satisfied through making a purchase, they embark on a journey to search for useful information that will enable them make the right decisions. The search usually begins with a scan of the consumer’s memory to recall whether there is any useful information from their experiences.

According to Doney and Cannon (2008, p.41), this is termed as an internal search. If there is not any relevant or useful information, the consumer goes to the extent of conducting an external search (Bilkey 2010, p. 23). The knowledge of how the consumer gets and utilises information especially from the external sources is very important to the marketers. This is what is regarded as perception. External sources include but are not limited to

a. Personal sources

These include friends, relatives, and coworkers and so on. A consumer usually opts to get help in making the right purchase decision first from the people that are around him/ her. At this point, it is hard for the marketer to recognise and seize the opportunity unless they fortunately fall under that category.

b. Marketer controlled sources

These include information from advertisements, salespeople, displays or even the internet. It is through conducting effective market research that marketers are able to provide the information before their competitors and secure a chance to make a sale.

c. Public sources

Public sources that include information from media channels such as televisions, radios, print media such as magazine articles and newspapers provide information to consumers when preparing to make a purchase. Marketers often target the media to provide the information that influences the consumers’ purchase decision-making process.

Alternative evaluation – Attitude

After acquiring the relevant and helpful information that will enable them to make the right purchase decision, the consumers move on to the alternative evaluation stage. It is in this particular stage that the consumers make a comparison of the various product brands that they have previously identified to ensure that they settled only for what ensures their needs or wants are catered for.

The ultimate goal of most advertisement projects is to ensure that their product is involved in what is termed as the “evoked set”, which is a subset of brands that the consumer chooses as purchase options (Kohli 2009, p.61). Through effective advertisement, marketers create a “top –of –mind awareness” (Bettman 1999, p.23) to consumers to ensure that their products are not left out.

While marketers tend to think of their products as “bundles of attributes”, the consumers view them as “bundles of benefits” according to their consequences. In the discipline of consumer behavior, attitude is one of the concepts that is heavily studied (Bettman 1999, p.23). Recent perspectives by scholars view attitudes as “a summary construct that represents an individual’s overall feelings towards or the evaluation of a product” (Kohli 2009, p. 63).

Consumers express attitudes, which are of key importance to the marketers since, though them, they summarize their evaluation of a given item (brand or company) and make a representation of the positive or negative behavior tendencies (Ajzen, & Fishbein 1980, p. 12). The various attitudes are related to the purchasing choices. That is why they are of great benefit to any marketer.

Purchase decision- Integration

In the process, when the consumers feel satisfied with the options that they have taken, they end up making a purchase decision. Under the inspiration of the alternative evaluation stage, the consumer may end up developing a purchase intention (Moorman et al. 2003, p.90). This is the predisposition to purchase a given brand.

All the other personal sub-processes such as motivation and attitude formation influence the formation of the purchase intention and so on. However, one should note that the purchase decision is completely different from the actual purchase. This provides the chance for those marketers whose brands have not been chosen by the consumer for one reason or the other to attempt influencing the actual purchase, which is the most important part (Williamson 2000, p.466).

Key to this stage is the manner in which consumers combine the information that they have about the characteristics of the brands that they had sampled in the evaluation stage (Lerner, & Tiedens 2006, p.126).

Through the analysis of this process, marketers become aware of the different decision rules or strategies that a number of consumers apply while making their ultimate decision. At this point, marketers should seek to know exactly which attributes appeal more to consumers to provide them with the relevant information, which works to their advantage.

Post purchase evaluation- satisfaction

The final stage of the consumer decision-making process is not the purchase but the post-purchase evaluation. After a consumer consumes a given product, he or she goes ahead to assess the utility or the performance of the product according to how it satisfactorily suits their needs.

This stage is useful to marketers considering that the feedback gathered at this stage will definitely influence the consumers’ purchase decisions in the future (Williamson 2000, p. 472). When consumers are not satisfied with a given brand that they have purchased, they end up forming negative attitudes towards it. This can even make them influence other people in their purchase decisions.

When the consumer’s goal is achieved, this means, “the expectations have been met or have been exceeded by the consumption of the given brand” (Kohli 2009, p. 64). This means that the consumer will not hesitate in the future to purchase the same brand for a similar need or a related one. When a given brand satisfies a consumer, it does not mean that the marketer should feel aware, as the competitors are constantly devising ways to secure future sales.

Conclusion

Knowledge of the consumer decision-making process is very important to marketers in that, in every stage of the process, as described in the basic model, the marketers should be constantly involved to ensure that they influence the decisions made by the consumer.

All the way from the need recognition stage of the process, the marketer should understand the dilemmas faced by the consumer in the effort of making the right decision. This knowledge provides them with the relevant knowledge on the entry points that will have the biggest impact when it comes to securing the sales (Williamson 2000, p.484). Effective understanding of the entire process not only ensures that sales are secured, but also that the consumers remain loyal to their brands.

References

Ajzen, I & Fishbein, M 1980, Understanding Attitude and Predicting Social Behaviour. Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

Arzen, E 2005, ‘The theory of planned behaviour’, Organisational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes, vol. 50 no. 1, pp. 179-211.

Bettman, J 1999, An information processing theory of consumer choice. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA.

Bettman, J, Luce, M, & Payne, J 1998, ‘Constructive consumer choice processes’, The Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 25 no. 1, pp. 187–217.

Bilkey, W.J., 2010. A psychological approach to consumer behavior analysis. Journal of Marketing, 18, pp.18-25.

Doney, P & Cannon, J 2008, ‘An examination of the nature of trust in buyer-seller Relationships’, Journal of Marketing, vol. 61 no. 2, pp. 35-51.

Kohli, A 2009, ‘Determinants of influence in organisational buying: a contingency approach’, Journal of Marketing, vol. 53 no. 1, pp. 50-65.

Lerner, J & Tiedens, L 2006, ‘Portrait of the angry decision maker: How appraisal tendencies shape anger’s influence on cognition’, Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, vol. 19 no. 1, pp. 115–137.

Moorman, C, Deshpande, R, & Zaltman, G 2003, ‘Factors affecting trust in market research relationships’, Journal of Marketing, vol. 57 no.1, pp. 81-101.

Williamson, O 2000, ‘Calculativeness, trust, and economic organisation’, Journal of Law and Economics, vol. 36 no. 1, pp. 453-486.

The behavior of any organization depends on both the external and internal forces. The management of the organization should be keen on these forces to avoid the violation of the organization work ethics. The following are examples of the internal forces and how they affect the organization behavior (Miles & Snow, 2003).

Restructuring the organization has a great impact on the organization behavior; understanding the system of the organization and how it can be advanced contributes a lot to achieving the organizations objectives through good management and well informed employees.

Restructuring the organization will lead to confusion especially among the employees, and will require a break for the staff to adapt to the new structure which is a wastage of company time and resources. Some serious organization restructuring will call for training of some employees, to make them understand better.

Although restructuring may finally lead to improvement in organization performance, at the beginning may be costly and time consuming. The organizations should not be restructuring regularly but occasionally to control the costs.

Organization mission is another internal force that has impacts on the organizational behavior. The mission of an organization is the core statement that explains the reason for its existence. The mission of Lia Sophia organization is “ to connect women to their dreams, from obtaining beautiful jewelry to empowering their financial futures”( Matt, 2007 Par.5 ).

This mission is aimed at providing assistance to the advisors in matters concerning the organization ethics, obtaining high quality products, and becoming victorious. The mission is a guide to the community in times of offering assistance to charities. This mission of Lia Sophia has been a guiding rule to the employees on how to serve the customers and achieve the organizations set goals.

Fiscal policy is another internal force that has a great impact on the organization behavior. Fiscal policy involves government way of spending and has a great influence to the organization. These policies entail taxation system, interests’ rates, and the usage of money in government related activities so as to control the nation’s economy.

Lia Sophia organization has its own fiscal policies which impacts the organizational behavior depending on how conventional or hostile they are (Matt, 2007). For instance, the finance department of Lia Sophia can come up with its own fiscal policy on how to write off debts relative to a specific amount. The fiscal policies of an organization assists the concerned employees on how to deal with serious finance matters, to avoid the instances of an organization ending up by incurring losses.

Competition is an external force that an organization can not avoid. For instance, Lia Sophia organization has other beautiful jewelry selling competitors. During the periods when Lia Sophia is encountering competition from other institutions, there is a great demand of a continuous modification and flexibility within the organization.

Lia Sophia may be required to undertake training among the staffs to advance their skills so as to meet the demands of its customers (Miles & Snow, 2003).The flexibility within the organization will call for teamwork among the employees, better way of solving conflicts, and being dedicated to the key responsibilities.

Lia Sophia organization must provide goods of quality that satisfy the requirements of the customers. The requirements of customers increase as the tendency advances. Just as the demand of customers are increasing the Lia Sophia organizational behavior must develop and increase as well. More research concerning how to satisfy the customers demand should be done.

Globalization has resulted to the advancement of several factors that affects the organizational behavior. For instance, if there is advanced technology and dire need for interaction with other businesses, the behavior within the organization should also be adjusted to fit with the changes of globalization (Matt, 2007). Globalization has resulted to improved economy, and any organization should adjust its behaviors so as to fit with the prevailing conditions of the economy.

Reference List

Matt, W. (2007). Lia Sophia Business Information. Web.

Miles, R.E.& Snow, C.C. (2003). Organization Strategy, Structure and process. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Organizational Culture and behavior

Culture and behavior of an organization tend to have a similar meaning and are very important in determining the way the operations of an organization are carried out.

The concept is essentially concerned with the way employees of an organization think, hence become so crucial in understanding how their performance can be increased, make it cost effective, and ensure that their services are well utilized in the organization. For one to comprehend the meaning of the above statement, one should first of all have an understanding of what the term culture entail (Schermerhorn, Hunt, & Osborn, 2005).

This term implies the customs and beliefs that are followed by a certain group of people who live together. For instance, every ethnic group has specific values that it upholds and maintains from generation to generation and must be respected. So, when it comes to an organization the same meaning applies whereby there are specific stipulations and codes of conduct that each and every staff is bound to respect without any compromise.

This implies that each and every employee is supposed to behave within these stipulations. Organizational cultures can further be categorized by use of a pyramid whereby the lowest part illustrates the artifacts and behaviors which are most concrete of all cultures hence describe more about an organization. The other category comprises of the values which are responsible for controlling suppositions and conduct of the personnel.

The last and top most section shows the hypothesis and principles which form the most essential part of this pyramid and are very abstract. They are the hardest aspects to inculcate into the employees mind, but once they are assimilated they influence greatly how the staff follows the other elements of culture (Robbins & Judge, 2010).

Organizational behaviors on the other hand have some link with culture due to the fact that the later determines the kind of behaviors to be adopted in an organization. Organizational behaviors involve the kind of conduct that is followed by employees in organization. It forms a very basic and crucial aspect that needs to be put into consideration within the organization.

The kinds of behaviors that are exhibited by the staff of business are influenced by the standards that are set by the organization. This means the behaviors of employees is limited to the expectations of the firm. The importance of knowing about organizational behaviors is to help organizations come into terms with the conduct of their human resource and learn how to mould the behaviors into what they want and is best for the business (Schermerhorn, Hunt, & Osborn, 2005).

Organizational Diversity

Diversity has become a common scenario in the society since it touches on very many areas of people’s lives such as on the nationality, educational levels, social status and many other elements that have varied characteristics. All these aspects have had a diversified nature hence making organizations to put this into consideration since it is now obvious that they must cater for all these differences.

It has become a hard task for organizations to offer employment to people in a manner that ensures equitable distribution of the opportunities to all the people in a particular area so as to meet the needs of all the individuals in the society.

This therefore demands that the organizations in the present time should be ready to accept and adapt to the dynamic society that is there nowadays. For an organization to be perceived wholesome it must be at a point of having diversified team of members and at the same time should be offering goods and services that meet the needs of all kind of people in the society.

This has led to a great change in the operation of many organizations whereby they have put in place mechanisms that enable businesses to cater for the wide range of people that have come up. In typical organizations, the Information Communication Systems such as computers and the Internet have enabled managers to diversify the operations of their organization due to the fact that there is timely and accurate information.

Organizational Communication

For an organization to have a smooth running of its operations, it must have a good communication system. Organizational communication is viewed as the freedom to convey information between the executives and the staff which facilitates better performance. This helps the members of an organization to have a good correlation. This happens by selecting communication skills that are able to cut across the different class of people within the organization.

Proper communication systems in organizations have led to many positive changes which can be described by the rapid growth of a company. Communication has enabled organizations to become more innovative and has also streamlined the mode of management. Effective communication has also enabled businesses to meet the international levels of standard since they can be able to interact on a global platform.

Organizational communication has been facilitated by the advancement of technology that has made the world to seen as a global village. This has widened the organizational scope hence improving the operations and quality of work that is done by businesses (Miner, 2007).

Business ethics

Business ethics refers to the conduct that organizations are bound to follow as it executes its day to day operations with the society and the environment in general. Each and every business has its own kind of ethics that define how it carries out its deals, which does not only involve how it relate with the large population but also on the individual consumers and parties that are associated with it.

Business ethics have come in handy, more specifically on the kind of status it acquires. In the current world most of the legitimate organizations have moved from the era of being profit oriented to an era of minding the rapport they have with the customers and the world at large. The survival of many organizations in the present world has been sustained by the kind of ethics they possess (Miner, 2007).

Change management

Organizations have the role of offering goods and services to the consumers and also the duty of carrying out changes that are relevant for the company’s development. Change management refers to the way an organization carries out important amendments in a manner that depicts order and effectiveness (Robbins & Judge, 2010).

Every organization has to implement any change that is deemed relevant so as to remain competitive and within the stipulated requirements. For instance, when an organization decides to change its network system, say from local area network (LAN) to a virtual local area network (VLAN), it must consider all the costs and benefits associated with the change, among other factors.

There is need to inform all the parties involved in the change, thus appropriate strategies must be documented and implemented with the aim of making such changes feasible.

References

Miner, J. (2007).Organizational Behavior: From Theory to Practice, Behavior. New York: M.E. Sharpe.

Robbins, J. & Judge, T. (2010). Organizational Behavior, My Management Lab Series. (14th Ed.) Chicago: Prentice Hall. Print.

Schermerhorn, J.R., Hunt, J.G., & Osborn, R.N. (2005). Organizational Behavior. (9th Ed.). Chicago: Wiley Publishers.

Human beings have a tendency to interact with each other by means of communication. It is this interaction that molds behaviors in organizations. Organizational behavior can therefore be demystified as the manner in which humans behave while interacting with colleagues at their work places; this includes how communication takes place in the different levels of management in an organization DuBrin and Young (2007).

The knowledge of this kind of information is a requirement to managers if an organization is to perform optimally and enjoy a competitive edge. In fact, taking the trouble to understand appropriate organizational behavior pays off with; enhanced employees’ expertise in terms of ones technical and interpersonal skills. Also some form of self development is achieved through the fulfillment associated with people getting along and self knowledge achieved.

Besides, efficiency in the organization is boosted and the organization is placed in a better state to provide for its clients in a satisfactory manner. Eventually, a sense of rationality is enhanced by widening the boundaries of what is generally perceived and accepted as common sense. DuBrin and Young (2007) These are some of the rewards Peter Flagstaff and Lindsay Gibson are aiming at to redeem their firm.

Apparently, Flagstaff marketing group is experiencing trouble dispensing and sharing knowledge from within; if this situation goes on unchecked for long then the effects could be catastrophic for the organization. For this reason, Peter Flagstaff and Lindsay Gibson have no otherwise than get back on the drawing board to strategize. At the dinner/focus group the firm’s performance is questioned and it is clear there are a number of issues that need to be addressed.

Flagstaff suggests the main problem as the inability of the firm to keep and maintain record. Documentation of transactions is mandatory for future references in the event that the organization lacks automated systems to do that.

In the likely event that the demands of a client are similar to those already available in the records then it would be wise to borrow the idea and a little modification gives it a whole new perception and the ingenuity of the firm’s creativity is preserved. Alternatively, firms can share ideas through outsourcing.

This is the process through which an organization’s tasks are delegated to the staff in other firms whose expertise overshadows what is locally available. Better yet, the firm’s staff, which should be quick to learn, should tap some of the knowledge and experience practiced by competitors to enhance better performance. DuBrin and Young (2007)

The senior managers should cultivate a culture of experimentation through which staff members are at liberty to practice their innovative skills without the fear of failure. Managers should promote this through rewarding successful proposals and funding of such ventures. This kind of spirit drives the firm into territories no one else has been before and attracts fulfillment that comes with enhanced efficiency. Also, new Ideas in the organization create a sense of change which breaks the monotony of routine thus motivating the staff members.

While at the combination dinner and focus group several issues were raised by the professional staff. Garry was concerned with ideas leaking away to competitors when a member of staff leaves the team. Well this argument is not valid since most states have laws which protect the inventions and innovations of organizations.

The firm is given exclusive rights to implement its invention for a specified duration, after which it is expected that the firm has recovered the cost of its invention and the idea can be borrowed by others. On the other hand, Brenda’s argument seems valid as bureaucracies in some firms intimidate inventors once they are aware of the agony they will undergo to put their ideas across. Therefore, if Brenda was to be assisted with that then she would open up and share more.

Sharon’s argument is not quite valid as it does not have the best interest of the organization. No one can completely depend on himself fully for creativity. The essence of teamwork is basically to allow team members to learn and borrow from each other. Over the years teamwork in organizations has proved to be a strong link towards achieving efficiency. Lastly, Jason and Ann should ensure their creativity is at an all time high even if it means modifying their early ingenious creations.

In conclusion to improve knowledge sharing some changes need to be effected at the flagstaff such as the way in which people in the different management levels interact with each other. The best possible way would be to network their information systems such that information is conveyed freely and fairly. Also, the culture of operating at the comfort zone should seize and everything should be questioned whenever there is room for improvement to enhance efficiency.

Reference List

DuBrin, A. J., & Young, J. D. (2007). Fundamentals of Organizational Behavior (1st Canadian ed.). Toronto: Thomson Nelson

Emotional terms

The three major emotional terms incorporate “affect, emotions, and moods”. Affect refers to assortment of feelings people experience. Emotions are deep feelings directed to some source. Conversely, mood refers to prevailing general attitudes. It is usually less intense contrasted to emotions and may usually lack contextual stimulus.

Affect is evident in the form of emotions or moods. Emotions culminate from specific events and last shortly, whereas the cause of moods is unclear but last for moments, or infinitely. These phenomena are similar since they involve body arousal with an influence on behavior. On differences, emotions are usually action oriented while moods are cognitive. Moods differ from emotions in magnitude and sources realms.

Group and decision-making

The last group formed was in a biology project. Class members had to segregate themselves into groups and decide on which projects to undertake. The lecturer required each group to investigate and emerge with a single useful biological project. The techniques involved in coming up with a desirable project initially started by proposing several feasible projects. Each affiliate researched on a project of interest. Secondly, each project was reviewed from all aspects.

Consequently, elimination based on feasibility, importance, cost, and ultimate impact on the coursework was done. Finally, decision occurred on the project, which appeared lucrative enough. My input to the group helped in forming devoted group mates. Concurrently, it helped in the aspect review of each project proposal with a great influence on decision-making.

Motivation and Job satisfaction

Managers should emphasize staff motivation more than job satisfaction. This is because motivated employees execute better than their non-motivated fellows do. The ensuing productivity is improved leading to elevated job contentment. Motivated employees strive to perform better with positivity.

Their creativity and self-esteem is boosted leading more desire to offer their best. Job satisfaction depicts the exact output of workforce. It thus pegged on the real performance elicited by the workers. If managers can strive to motivate their subjects, the job satisfaction they aspire will obviously knock.

Impact of emotions and moods on customer service

Emotions, which purchasers relate to the available services, enhance pleasure. People availing consumer services usually focus on influencing clients’ emotions optimistically. Notably, this is tenable when customer service providers develop tactics to improve the emotions of purchasers.

Moods together with emotions impinge service delivery and capability of clients to memorize the services. Affirmative feelings and emotions enhance satisfaction whereas the less constructive ones hinder happiness with services provided. Emotional comments relates to this concept since individuals sentiments and disposition regularly manipulate others when they share surroundings. Emotional, behavioral, and public phenomenon amplify opportunities for transmitting one’s emotions to others.

Group formation models

Group creation in any entity follows five models. The first is “Forming,” which incorporates the group members joining themselves with relentless efforts to know each other. Consequently, they form the desired group, which is destined to construct a single objective. Second in the list is “Storming.” At this phase, the group lacks organization with members focusing on various posts while sabotaging group processes.

The characteristics of the stage involve silent chaos with every group affiliate holding divergent opinions. Formation of sub-groups is also rampant at this stage, where gangs emerge against one another. The third is “Norming,” where group cohesion comes arises; furthermore, each affiliate agrees on how the group will operate. There is undisputed concurrence on the group issues as differences diminish.

Fourth is “Performing,” which entails the group’s affectivity and determination to complete goals. Every affiliate participates in the group’s activities with full devotion. This stage indicates the triumphs of group’s destiny. “Adjourning” is the end phase, which incorporates a planned termination of the faction engagement. The warnings against the use of these models include the inability to measure the socialization process. Equally, they only describe typical individuals but neglect people with extreme traits.

Decision-making strengths and weaknesses

In groups, complete ideas and understanding, which are necessary for making better judgments, arise. Regularly, participants conform to the solutions attained thus encouraging collective implementation of the solutions. Further, commitment and inspiration by participants in judgment process escalates the ownership of resolutions thus easy execution of plans. Additionally, authenticity of decisions made is encouraged and persons will adhere to solutions.

Conversely, group decision making consumes significant proportion of time as participants engage in lengthy discussions to arrive at resolutions. Again, participants face demands from others thus buy their opinions while reducing opportunities for weaker people to speak. Notably, decisions made in groups also suffer from ambiguity since participants share responsibility in implementing resolutions without identifying persons answerable for the outcomes.

Teams in organizations

The use of teams in firms is popular due to lucrative outcomes attainable. Individuals vary in numerous aspects and when converged, each entity will donate a distinctive contribution, which could have been missing if they were operating alone.

This incorporates varied talents, innovations, and many virtues that augment the organizations performance. Concurrently, teams always commit to certain goals, which become everyone’s prerogative to ensure its accomplishment. In this context, each member endures to offer his/her best to meet the desired goals.

Additionally, tasks are handled enthusiastically while embracing specialization and dissection of labor. Lastly, an organization can easily unveil the distinctiveness in each individual for proper utilization. It is imperative to assert that triumphant organizations emerge due diverse efforts contributed by employees; however, embracing teamwork is evident to uphold prompt results and improved turnovers.

Managers and teams

Managers require skills to uplift their subjects to become team participants. They can show their strong passion for teamwork by making it a norm for employees to execute their duties. This increases the likelihood of individuals recognizing the norms of their organization. They can organize workshops to train workers on teamwork benefits. This means that each employee acquires the self-esteem required to embrace teamwork.

Having informal sessions with employees to explain that they must support one another is not an exception. Additionally, managers also need to identify behaviors, which undermine teamwork and streamline activities. They should direct the firm by example through participating in teamwork without prejudice. Each employee can partake, and feel the unity of the workforce through organized forums. Concurrently managers can also guarantee incentives to enthusiastic team players.

Introduction

Organizations often rely on human resource to implement set goals. The exploitation of the human resource capacity will always remain an important driver in implementing normal duties, purposes and goals of organizations.

As such, the behavior of employees will always remain an important element of interest to organizations. The control, regulation, monitoring and enhancement of desired behavior in workers are therefore an important area of interest to organizations.

So as to stimulate specific goals and achieve optimal performance from workers, it is useful to explore ways of stimulating fruitful behaviors from workers. Often, drastic changes in the behavior of workers may be required in an organization so as to achieve shifting goals.

An example of such an instance may occur during rebranding, change in marketing, or a need to increase output. Such instances may call for a corresponding change in the behavior of employees. In this paper, I have explored several ways in which organizational behavior can be applied so as to develop specific and desirable behaviors from employees. Here, I have explored and analyzed several academic literatures that have focused on this particular area (organizational behavior) of interest.

One of the issues that have been of interest to researchers in the area of organizational behavior is the issue of cultural intelligence. Here (so as to understand how diverse cultures at the workplace can be used for the benefit of increasing the output of workers) the characteristics of diverse cultures and values in the composition of workers are studied (Kevin, 2011). It is expected that in a few years to come, most of the employees in the United States will consist of current minorities.

In the next four decades, African Americans and Hispanics alone are expected to form more than half of the employees in the US (Kevin, 2011). In fact, by 2050, Hispanics, blacks, and Asians will compose half of the American population (Kevin, 2011). With a view of enhancing, and maintaining high productivity in organizations, it is therefore useful to study how such a change in the composition of employees may affect the output of employees.

In such a study, a demand for leaders with ability to unify and direct units with a diverse cultural composition is seen. Such leaders will be able to direct, motivate, and lead groups of employees from different ethnic groups, and with diverse values. Leaders that have the skills I have described above can be described as culturally intelligent.

A culturally intelligent individual is one that has a capacity to operate optimally in an environment that is composed of multiple cultures. Three is a need for a culturally intelligent person to be aware of multiple perspectives on issues, which can originate from different cultural backgrounds. With such knowledge, one can revise and adjust his perspectives so as to amalgamate, and work with individuals from diverse cultures (Kevin, 2011).

Several researches including the one done by Kevin have tried to establish a relationship between cultural intelligence and output (Kevin, 2011). Theoretically, it is not difficult to see the positive relationship between cultural intelligence and the output of employees. However, there has been a limited empirical approach on the above relationship.

In their research, Kevin et al. used an empirical approach to study the relationship between cultural intelligence and performance (Kevin, 2011). The sample of their study consisted of departmental and managerial leaders that were in charge of groups that consisted of individuals with diverse cultural backgrounds (Kevin, 2011).

The management of a culturally diverse group so as to enhance output is a useful skill that will remain desirable for organizational leaders (Thomas, 2009).

The interest will always remain to create an enhancing environment that can collectively utilize talents from a culturally diverse workforce (Thomas, 2009). Currently, there is a shortage of culturally intelligent leaders in organizations. Many managers do not have high degrees of cultural intelligence which are required for the emerging workforce of culturally mixed employees.

A culturally diverse workforce will continue to emerge as many companies open and amalgamate their offices in various localities around the globe (Thomas, 2009). Apart from shifting demographics, economic globalization is therefore one among several factors that will fuel a more culturally diverse workforce in the future.

Thus, the need for leaders with cultural intelligence cannot be ignored. At trend where there could be a shortage of cultural intelligent leaders in the future may especially occur since the subject on cultural that touch on intelligence has not yet been incorporated in several professional curricula on organizational leadership (Kevin, 2011).

Still, it is noteworthy to observe that, to some extent, similar catalysts of performance that apply on a homogenous group of employees are applicable to a culturally diverse workforce. Such issues include the motivation of employees, the exploitation and enhancement of talents and the enhancement of discipline (Thomas, 2009). One does not therefore need to overhaul the whole management approach; rather, a leader will need to apply an existing approach to a cultural diverse workforce in an effective way.

As I had mentioned earlier, it is often necessary for an organizational leadership to effect change in a behavior of employees so as to initiate specific goals (Thomas, 2009). Such could be the case in situations of rebranding, and a desire to increase the market share of products.

Since it is always difficult to effect change within an organization, several studies have tried to understand the causes of this (effecting change) difficulty. In order to design a successful process of organizational change, it may be important to consider various elements that involve in the process of change. So as to stimulate a change in behaviors within an organization, a general belief is the necessity for leaders to focus on an approach that progressively engages with employees (Higgs, 2011).

On the other hand, a solitary and a non consultative approach will hardly be effective in implementing desired change within an organization. However, while some researchers have emphasized on the assumption that a change process in an organization is often dependant on the leadership that is effecting the change, some have argued that such a notion is not always true.

An examination of various parameters within an organization may be useful in understanding the process of change within an organization. Among such parameters include issues on structural adjustments, the capacity of employees, and change of timelines, among others.

Therefore, although the importance of leaders in effecting behavior change within organizations cannot be ignored, it is useful to explore how the capacity of leaders to effect change in an organization interacts with other important parameters that help to bring change (Berson, 2008).

So as to understand organizational change, we can consider three models of study on organizational change. In the shaping model, the focus is mainly on the behavior of organizational leaders in effecting change within an organization (Higgs, 2011). Often, such leaders will exhibit the following characteristics.

Often, they use past experiences to design and implement a process of change within an organization. Besides, they normally distribute tasks to specific employees, and demand feedback and accountability from employees that have been assigned specific tasks.

Moreover, while holding to their perspectives and beliefs, such leaders are usually authoritative and overbearing in implementing organizational change. Another approach that may be employed to effect organizational change is through framing. Here, so as to initiate a process of change, an organizational leader will endeavor to relate with employees at an emotional level.

Such a direction will often help such a leader to bring out set goals that have necessitated change in an organization. In such a process, such a leader is often aware of dynamics that affect the pattern of initiated change in an organization. Such a leader is often desired to sacrifice personal desires and needs to widely work with all employees so as to effect change. Another approach that can be employed in effecting change is through the use of a creating technique.

Here, with recognition of diverse capabilities and talents in a workforce, creating leaders will often assign their workers with different emotional and physical roles that are desirable for implementing change. Thus, people are free to exploit their diverse capabilities as they learn on improving the organization’s system of change. Often, such an approach is applicable in situations where a leader has a high degree of trust and confidence in the workforce that has been assigned with the role of implementing change (Higgs, 2011).

In their study on organizational change, Higgs and Rawlings were able to show that for leaders to successfully effect change in their organizations, there is a need for them to adapt a creative and framing approach of effecting change.

Moreover, their research was able to show that it is often easier and fruitful for a change process to be effected from the low hierarchical employees to the top management (Higgs, 2011). Here, a change process should encompass the active involvement of all employees. In a suitable environment, it is often useful to adopt the process of change that has been described above.

However, depending on the environment, it may be fruitful to employ a different approach of change than the one that has been described above (Higgs, 2011). For example, it is hardly practical for a leader to adapt a creative approach in instances where he does not completely trust his workforce. Such trust will often rely on the capabilities and past experiences with his employees.

Therefore, while a combination of a creative and framing approach may be most useful in helping to effectively drive change within organizations, it is useful for a manager to understand his work environment so as to select an appropriate approach of driving change in his organization (Berson, 2008). It is thus useful for a leader to be creative and flexible while implementing change within an organization.

As it is often required, such a leader will be required to motivate, guide and include his workforce in implementing change within his organization. Since the leadership approaches on organizational change that I have described above are not an end in themselves irrespective of the approaches on change that they may have adopted, it is useful for leaders to be realistic and creative in effecting change (Higgs, 2011).

Below is an evaluation of an interview, which can help us to understand the process of organizational change better (Don, 2011). The director of Brooklyn Public library (Ginnie Cooper) was interviewed by Thomas about some on challenges faced while implementing changes in the library.

Overseeing a project on infrastructure, and implementing a complete change is the Brooklyn Public Library’s system were some of the important issues that were discussed in this interview (Don, 2011). Cooper understands leadership as a process of directing employees to implement a priority of changes, and goals in an institution.

As a leader in his library, specific goals of his library would include providing educational support to institutions, meeting the educational objectives of the government, and offering a wide array of literature to library users. With emerging challenges, there is a need for Brooklyn library to implement a number of changes in its system so as to serve the society better.

Such changes have been necessitated by an increasing number of library visitors, and technological changes that have affected reading behaviors. With such changes, Cooper has been able to recognize a need for library workers to frequently update and present desirable literatures to the increasing number of library visitors. Moreover, there has been a need for the Brooklyn library to adopt technological changes while presenting information to readers (For example through online presentation) (Don, 2011).

Copper does not just consider himself as a person in charge of library activities; rather, he has a responsibility of implementing a new library system at the Brooklyn library. So as to understand how he could improve the library system at Brooklyn, Cooper decided to visit other libraries in the neighborhood of Brooklyn public library. Here, he interacted with the public and various library employees so as to understand public expectations.

Furthermore, in an effort to understand the expectations of the public, he placed five types of bins at various localities in the neighborhood of Brooklyn with tags that guided the public to drop in written opinions on specific areas of interest to the library (Berson, 2008). With such a system in place, the management of Brooklyn’s public library is thus able to cater for the views of the public in its initiatives and programs (Don, 2011).

In cooper’s view, the management that is often burdened by the difficult of tasks is the middle management (Don, 2011). So as to promote leadership at his library, cooper implemented a training program with an initial target of 35 employees.

So as to understand the common difficulties that come with managing the library, the new managers were each assigned managerial duties for a single day (Don, 2011). The intention of the program above was to help in building a fruitful partnership between various departments at the library required for smooth library operations.

Among the challenges that have been faced by Cooper in running the Brooklyn public library is a deficit of budget funds. Instead of selecting specific models on budgeting that could help him in tackling the challenge of budget strains, Cooper decided to adopt a different approach; he decided to strike a balance between available expenditure and the library needs of the public. Here, deciding on priority programs is based on the impact of such programs in serving the public better.

According to this direction of measuring priorities, instead of buying more materials for the main library, it was more prudent for cooper to prioritize boosting literature materials at branch libraries (Don, 2011).

It is useful to note some of the important parameters in Cooper’s style of management which have helped to positively effect change at the Brooklyn’s public library (Bardi, 2003). As it is always useful for leaders, so as to effect any change, it is always fruitful to know about the drivers of such a change.

In the case of Cooper, the project to overhaul the entire system of the Brooklyn’s public library was not seen as just a program in itself, rather, so as to know the changes that were desired, multiple views of the public were considered. Besides it is always useful for a leader to be adaptive, innovative and involve his workers while implementing organizational change (Bardi, 2003).

Such a direction was the reason for the training of new managers at the Brooklyn’s public library. Moreover, it is also fruitful for leaders to explore positive ways of tackling challenges (such as budget deficits) that may be faced while implementing change in organizations.

Usually, the success of implementing change in organizations is often reliant of the perspectives of employees towards such changes. Several studies have been able to show the relationship between the rates of successful changes in organizations and the attitude of employees. Without the cooperation of employees, it is not possible for leaders to successfully implement changes in their organizations.

Here, it is useful for leaders to embrace fruitful relationships with their employees for beneficial cooperation in effecting change. Since the behavior of leaders can be associated with the pattern of attitudes and beliefs that develop in their workers, it is useful for leaders to adopt positive behaviors. Another important and determinant aspect that drives the attitude of workers in an organization is the value system of organizational leaders (Bardi, 2003).

A leader that has a self centered value system (rather that a self sacrificing system) may find it difficult to develop positive attitudes of change in his workforce. As such, the important challenge is for organizational managers to develop their leadership capabilities (which have been described above) so as to work with heir employees in effecting change.

Conclusion

The management of employees so as to yield positive behaviors from them (employees) which are often required to implement important changes in organizations will remain a critical role of managers. As I have described in this paper, such an effort is reliant on the capability of organizational leaders to develop and implement prerequisite behaviors within themselves and their employees.

Since organizational behavior is mostly reliant on the ability of leaders to develop certain attributes in their workers, it is fruitful for leaders to understand beneficial ways in which they can develop positive behaviors in their employees. With recognition of the value of their employees in implementing a change process, positive leaders will create an environment that would help to stimulate fruitful behaviors (necessary for desirable change) within themselves, and their workforce.

Reference List

Bardi, A. (2003). Values and behavior: Strength and structure of relations. Personality and Social Psychology 29, 1207-1220.

Berson, Y. (2008). CEO values, organizational culture and firm outcomes. Journal of Organizational Behavior 29, 615-633.

Don, M. (2010) Leadership or Management? Management Quarterly 2, 51, 31-45

Higgs, M (2011). What does it take to implement change successfully? Journal of Applied Science 47, 309

Kevin, S. (2011). Group and Organizational management Group & Organization Management 36, 535

Thomas, M. (2009) Library leadership & management Leadership and Management 23, 4, 177-9

Introduction

Organizational behavior is the field of study that focuses on application of knowledge to solve organizational problems. It pertains to how individuals and groups behave in the organization. The concept of organizational behavior utilizes the system approach to address various problems afflicting the organization. It interprets the relationships between workers and the organization in order to determine the position of the firm in the market.

The aim of organizational behavior is to create a superior relationship by realizing individual objectives, organizational aims and social objectives. The field encompasses a wide range of topics including human behavior, transformation, leadership and teamwork. Organizational behavior holds that employees should be guided by organization’s philosophies, values and goals. Organizational principles should drive organizational culture, which consist of formal and informal associations, as well as social environment.

Organizational culture determines leadership style, nature of organizational communication and group dynamics. Furthermore, employees view organizational culture as the value of life, which influences their motivation in the organization. The results of good management is high performance, employee satisfaction and individual growth and improvement in the organization.

This paper analyzes the effectiveness of organizational behavior in increasing sales at the globe limited. The organization should adopt some models and theories in order to encourage its salespersons to achieve maximum benefits for the organization. The paper looks at some theories that are related to organizational behavior as well as techniques of motivating salespersons.

The paper concludes that Globe limited must adopt supportive and collegial models of organizational behavior in order to realize its objectives. The organization must keep off from autocratic model, which suggests that employees must be forced to deliver positive results. Even though there is a problem at the company, the management must consider other techniques of motivating workers and adopt autocratic model as the last resort.

Importance of Motivation

Motivation is critical to management in the organization because it puts human resources into action. Each objective demands that physical, monetary and human resources are organized in order to realize it. Scholars have established that it is only through motivation that human resources can be used maximally.

Motivation instills the spirit of willingness and cooperation in employees. Employees might be able but unwilling to use their proficiencies to achieve organizational goals and aims. Motivation would allow Globe limited to make use of both human and capital resources.

On the other hand, motivation would improve the efficiency of salespersons, which would lead to high performance. Effectiveness of employees does not only rely on their academic qualifications and capabilities (Murphy 43). Motivation helps in filling the gap between capability and willingness. Through motivation, salespersons would improve their productivity, the firm would reduce the costs of operations and finally overall efficiency could be realized at the Globe limited.

Nonetheless, motivation leads to realization of organizational goals and objectives because organizational goals are only achieved when there is efficient use of human resources and teamwork. This means that salespersons at the Globe limited should be goal-directed in order to behave in a purposive manner.

Therefore, goals can be attained if harmonization and teamwork occurs concurrently, which can only happen through motivation. Recent researches show that motivation builds friendly relationships among employees. It naturally follows that motivation is a significant aspect of employee satisfaction.

Top managers at the Globe limited should always remember this aspect and try to frame an appealing incentive plan that would benefit sales persons. In this regard, scholars have established some plans that can be used to motivate employees, which include financial and non-monetary inducements, promotion opportunities and sanctions for non-performing salespersons.

Policy makers at the Globe limited must adopt these plans in order to motivate salespersons to perform better. Adoption of the above plans would guarantee effective collaboration, which might bring about constancy in the organization hence boosting sales. Unnecessary conflicts and inconsistencies among employees would be eliminated through adoption of the plans. Globe limited could be facing difficulties because some employees are against change.

The above plans could allow some employees to accept change and aspire to fulfill the wishes of the employer. Finally, motivation, especially monetary inducement, would allow salespersons to align their interests to those of the organization. The outcome of both financial and no-monetary motivation would be profit maximization because of increased productivity.

Motivation encourages stability in the organization because it promotes a good reputation and benevolence. In fact, research confirms that employees’ loyalty is tied to the actions of the management. If employees are involved in decision-making processes, they tend to take active roles in the organization.

Salespersons are tempted to develop extra-skills that they can use to convince customers to accept Globe’s products. Customers are encouraged to buy Globe’s products because of the assurances from salespersons not the company. In this respect, changing employees’ perception is critical to the performance of any organization. Motivated employees are easy to convince and manipulate.

From the above analysis, it is noted that motivation is a complex concept that can only be understood by the management. Motivation is related to internal feelings, which makes it hard for any individual to understand its nature. Only managers can comprehend it because they are usually in close contact with employees. Therefore, managers are supposed to frame sound motivation plans that can boost sales at the Globe limited. It is also true that motivation is a continuous process mainly because it is based on limited needs.

Increasing Sales

Some actions, programs, conditions and incentives can be employed by the management to improve sales at the Globe limited. One of the actions is making use of what is under control in the organization. The salespersons have the ability to influence buyers to purchase company products. This calls for careful handling of customers, by taking care of their demands.

Some customers have no time to meet or talk to the sales team but the salespersons must strategize in order to be awarded some time by customers. In case a customer decides to talk to one of the salespersons, maximum time must be awarded to such a customer. This would give the salesperson a chance to convince the customer to accept company products. It is believed that the more the salesperson spends time with the customer, the more he/she makes sales.

Whenever a salesperson handles a customer, he/she must present him/her self in the best way possible. Customers are influenced by the seller’s attitude and impression. In this case, customers must be handled with all the care that they deserve. Their concerns must be addressed fully and salespersons should always have positive impressions towards customers.

Salespersons must be taken through orientations in order to be able to differentiate between potential and stubborn customers. Some customers may perhaps inquire about products but they do not intend to buy them. Another action would be encouraging salespersons to familiarize themselves with the company’s products, as well as competitor’s goods and services.

This would help salespersons to be prepared than their competitors in the market. Through this strategy, sales persons would be ready to answer any question from customers touching on Globe’s limited products. However, this cannot be achieved unless salespersons are made to trust and believe in company products.

Motivation Theories

A number of theories have been formulated to explain the conduct of employees in relation to motivation in an organization. Surprisingly, not all theories have the same postulations hence it is the role of managers to apply the best. These theories apply well under different circumstances.

It should be remembered that there is no a powerful theory than others. Fredrick Winslow Tailor formulated the first theory at around 1856 to 1917. The scholar observed that workers are motivated by financial incentives. The theory was coined within the context of scientific management.

The theory notes that workers are not interested in working because of various reasons. In this regard, they should be monitored closely to ensure that they comply with the company’s rules and regulations. For efficient supervision, managers should group workers into small units. Each unit is assigned a specific task and a deadline for each task is put in place. Tailor suggested that workers should be paid according to their productivity.

The less productive workers are subjected to sanctions such as demotion and salary cuts while hardworking employees are given salary increment and promotion. Each employee would be encouraged to work hard in order to keep away from negative sanctions and try to win the confidence of managers (Cofer and Appley 90).

Tailor’s theory is closely related to autocratic theory of administration. At the Globe limited, Dave should apply this theory as the last resort. The model is however successful because Ford utilized it in Europe and realized high results. Globe limited can also use it successfully, especially after other techniques have failed.

Dave should in fact embrace Mayo’s theory, which argues that employees are not simply interested in money. Other social needs can easily distract workers from their tasks. Dave must identify that workers are human beings whose performance rely on satisfaction.

Economic contentment is not the only type of happiness that workers pursue. Other things must be considered carefully. Mayo suggests that improving communication would be helpful in boosting sales. There must be clear lines of authority and workers must have a way of airing their views and concerns.

Furthermore, Davies must participate actively in sales because it boosts the morale of employees. Mayo supports Tailor’s sentiments that workers should be encouraged to work in groups that is, forming a team with clear objectives. Maslow was not far from Mayo’s ideas when he formulated his theory that is closely related to human relations theory. In fact, his theory is referred to as Neo-human relations school.

The theory focuses on psychological needs of workers. According to Maslow, employees aspire to fulfill five human needs. The needs are hierarchically arranged meaning that one is fulfilled after the other. Workers are motivated to fulfill the higher need in the hierarchy after the lower need in the hierarchy is fully met. Maslow posits that psychological needs such as hunger and thirst are met first.

An employee dying of hunger would work hard to acquire basic salary that would help him/her obtain basic needs such as food. It is therefore the role of managers to identify the needs of each worker and move on to fulfill them. In this respect, not all employees are motivated at the same time. Therefore, managers need to learn the character of each employee in order to design an appropriate incentive.

Learning Theory

Apart from motivation theories, scholars have also formulated social learning theory to explain the behavior of workers in organizations. The theory postulates that human behavior can be explained in terms of continuous reciprocal interactions among cognitive, behavioral and ecological determinants. The theorists holding this view observe that an individual is not dependent. Therefore, the environment influences his/her behavior.

In every organization, an individual has to follow some laid down regulations. This is achieved through learning, which takes time. Unless employees are given time to adjust accordingly, they cannot deliver in their work. The management must therefore realize this and try to help workers to adjust. Dave must learn the experience of each salesperson and award tasks basing on qualifications. Some employees could have attained their experiences in different settings, which are incompatible to the existing environment (Ishmael 76).

Dave must investigate this and act immediately in case sales are to increase. Human beings have five capabilities that are used in strengthening skills and knowledge. The first one is symbolizing, which is concerned about processing visual experiences. This helps an employee to sharpen his/her wits in future. Another important technique is forethought that enables workers to plan their actions in advance. Other capabilities include observation, self-regulation and self-reflection.

Works Cited

Cofer, Charles and Appley, Mortimer. Motivation: Theory and Research. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, 1967.

Ishmael, Jones. The Human Factor: Inside the CIA’s Dysfunctional Intelligence Culture. New York: Encounter Books, 2008.

Murphy, Jim. Inner Excellence. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009.

Introduction

The modern day business environment is characterized by aggression and excessive competition. To retain profitability and relevance in the competitive arena, an organization has to exhibit innovation and enhance performance among its employees (Malhotra, 2000). Any organization aims at increasing profitability, increasing growth and innovation and introducing new values and culture.

To achieve this, leaders in an organization need to cultivate in their employees a culture of competitive performance and productivity (Christensen & Raynor, 2003). This is achieved through a well cultivated set of organizational behavior.

Organizational behavior generally refers to the actions of people, individuals and groups in an organization. Johns (1996, p.6) defines organizational behavior as the study of “attitudes and behavior of individuals and groups in organizations”. It may include organizational culture, communication, diversity, organizational learning, and organizational effectiveness and efficiency.

An understanding of these actions of individuals within an organization is an important aspect in management because it provides the tools needed to develop an effective leadership guide. Organizational success depends on its people and the core of any organization is its personnel (Metcalfe, Metcalfe, 2001).

This paper sets out to critically evaluate the relevance of organizational behavior as a management perspective. It explores the importance of interpersonal relations and facilitation of groups and leaderships in improving the organizational performance.

Importance of interpersonal relations

Interpersonal relations within employees

A well rounded employee needs to have two types of skills by which they operate with in an organizational setting. On one hand, there are those hard skills that deal with the functional and technical aspects of the job like computer knowledge, financial analysts and filling.

On the other hand are soft skills that deal with the social aspects of the job such as communication, teamwork, leadership and problem solving. These two types of skills work synergistically to come up with the overall culture in an organization (Metcalfe, Metcalfe, 2001).

Despite the amount of time that employees spend on projects, they are very independent people, who spend very little time outside of the workplace together (Jenster & Hussey, 2001).

Some employees are pedantic perfectionists, who like putting maximum amount of effort in their work and do things their way. Such people mostly have laid back personalities and have low tolerance for overly interference with their way of doing things.

On the other hand, some employees are goal oriented and put much of their efforts on deadlines and work completion. As much as managers are busy and important people, who have little free time, they need to work closely with all these types of employees to ensure that they meet their goals (Rodrigues, 2001).

Interpersonal relations between management and employees

Research has shown that a large percentage of staff would prefer to see their senior management and supervisors more often. They reportedly seek for encouragement and input as regards to their work groups and their own work efforts. Reinforcement has been shown to condition behavior.

To reinforce certain behaviors that they would like to see increased, managers should take time to meet and talk to the employees to create an ideal time for reinforcement (Peterson & Fleet, 2004).

Lack of communication between workers, incongruity with family life, and insufficient feedback from managers’ leads to conflict in the work place. Incorporating the people social skills within the work place can help decrease the amount of missed work time, the cost of training new hires and exit interview (Christensen & Raynor, 2003). This will consequently increase productivity.

Implementation of leadership programs that employees are not familiar with may lead to major conflicts in an organization if not well communicated.

Leaders need to learn how to effectively communicate to their employees and take into account their needs during the implementation of new management programs (Hankin, 2005). At times, employees join an organization with great talent, but due to poor management, they stall and along the way start engaging in high absenteeism, and increased turnover. This indicates that they are searching for something more in their jobs.

To get the most out of employees, the management needs to understand their employees’ goals by developing an interpersonal relationship with them. This is important for an organization to have willing and happy employees that are most eager to meet intended goals (Peterson & Fleet, 2004).

Studies indicate that most successful managers show genuine concern for their employees. All employees regardless of their occupation or level of demographic group in an organization incur significant amounts of stress and de-motivation at work in case of a negative relationship characterized by a lack of concern with their leaders (University of Hull, 2001).

Facilitation of groups and leaderships

In order to achieve the organizational goals of increased productivity, the development of organizational groups has been found to be vital for the survival and continued success of an organization.

Rodrigues (2001) remarked that organizational groups enable group facilitators to come up with viable interventional measures that can be implemented to alter undesirable behavioral attributes that are inherent in a particular group. For a group to classify itself as an organization there must be observable elements of cooperation and coordination within the members in accordance to a pre-prescribed format.

Importance of organizational groups in leadership

Leadership is achieved when one person uses the help and support of others towards achieving a particular goal or task. Strong leadership is not only desirable but also essential to the success of the business for it is through it that organizational goals are met (Jenster & Hussey, 2001).

Organizational groups enable a leader to identify and device countermeasures for various issues that affect a particular group or individual. This eliminates the chances of having dissatisfied employees who normally perform poorly and increases the efficiency levels of group members who not only work to achieve set goals, but also to show their commitment to their leader (Peterson & Fleet, 2004).

In all organizations, there arise contentious issues which elicit different reactions from the group members and organizational management at some point in time. How these issues are diffused may spell out the difference between success and failure of the organization. The role of a leader can play a crucial role in ensuring that the crises or contentious issues are managed in a diplomatic manner.

An effective leader should be able to diplomatically handle contentious issues and arrive at a solution that is not only workable, but also acceptable to the various parties involved. This calls for the leader to be equipped with the skills of a negotiator which will enable him/her to constructively resolve the conflict therefore leading to an agreement among all parties involved.

Key to being an effective negotiator is the ability of a leader to understand how various factors affect different members of a group. Understanding group process enables a leader to come up with fair solutions to different issues that affect group members.

Impact of organizational groups on individual performance

The performance of a group in an organization strongly relies on the strength of the relationship that exists between members of the team. Such friendship comes out as a natural force that affects individual performance either positively or negatively. If members of a group have a strong friendship, they will have much communication amongst themselves. This may in turn pull other group members into such discussions.

A social atmosphere is therefore created within the group. This enables group members to enjoy being in a group as a part of the organization (Parker & Ritson, 2005). This type of job satisfaction ensures that the group members are motivated and committed to group tasks. These positive attributes further increases the level of performance exhibited by individual members of a group (Malhotra, 2000).

Strong friendships among group members in an organizational group may also have negative implications on a group’s performance (Solo, 2000). Some group members may feel excluded and less important as regarding to the functioning of the group. These feelings of exclusion often lead to the creation of sub-groups within the main organizational group.

Effective communication in the organization will consequently be hampered because of the resultant limitation to information flow within the group. This way, the performance level of individuals in the organization will be reduced (Jenster & Hussey, 2001).

Discussion and Conclusion

Organizational behavior has gained great relevance in the past few decades due to the significant changed and added complexities in the organizational work force. In my opinion, employees’ behaviors in an organization are based on perception rather than reality.

I think organizational management needs to undertake continuous surveys to understand employees’ perception of the organization. Factors in workplace environment also directly relate to important outcomes such as job certification, intentions to quit, job performance, employee motivation and the overall organizational productivity.

At a given time, a percentage of employees in a company will proudly recommend the company to friends and relatives as a good place to work depending on a complex interrelation of factors.

The future of the organization is in many cases “in the hands of its employees” and it is therefore important to have productive employees.

There seems to be a well established link between employee satisfaction and their productivity at work. I, therefore, think employee motivation is of great importance for the welfare of the entire organization. Individual motivation is imperative for the employee to perform exemplary in the organization.

A person’s individual motivation force is mostly a function of their expectancy. The probability that an individual’s effort will result in desirable outcomes determines the motivation of that individual to act in a certain manner. Intrinsically motivated employees can be expected to perform high quality of work therefore increasing the growth and success of the organization.

Contentious issues sometimes arise in an organization and elicit different reactions from organizational group members and organizational management. To me the difference between success and failure of an organization strongly depends on how these issues are diffused. Leaders in an organization should learn how to effectively manage such crises in a diplomatic fashion.

References

Christensen, C. & Raynor, M. (2003). “Why hard-nosed executives should care about management theory”, Harvard Business Review, September, p 67-74.

Hankin, H. (2005). The new workforce: Five sweeping trends that will shape your company’s future. USA: AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn.

Jenster, P. & Hussey, D. (2001). Company Analysis: Determining Strategic Capability. New Jersey: Wiley.

Johns. G. (1996). Organizational Behavior: Understanding and Managing Life at Work. New York: Harper Collins.

Malhotra, Y. (2000). Knowledge Management & New Organization Forms: A Framework for Business Model Innovation. Information Resources Management Journal, 13(1): 5-14.

Parker, L.D. & Ritson, P. (2005). “Fads, stereotypes and management gurus: Fayol and Follett today”. Management Decision, 43(10) 1335-1357.

Peterson, T.O. & Fleet, D.V. (2004). “The Ongoing Legacy of R.L.Katz: An updated Typology of Management Skills”. Management Decision, 42, (10) 1297-1308.

Rodrigues, C.A. (2001) “Fayol’s 14 principles of management then and now: a framework for managing today’s organizations effectively”. Management Decision, 39(10) 880-889.

Solo, A. (2000). Economic Organizations and Social System. Michigan: University of Michigan Press.

University of Hull (2001).The cognitive behavioral social work review : the journal of the Cognitive Behavioural Social Work Group Hull :[Cognitive Behavioural Social Work Group].

Tuckman’s Model and the Opportunities It Offers: Small Group Development

Considering Tuckman’s model of stages of group development, Bonebright considers the model in relation to the development of smaller groups within an organization. It is essential that Bonebright not only provides an account of the model suggested by Tuckman, but also does so from the historical perspective.

According to the results of the research, the model suggested by Tuckman has stood the test of time, providing “practical perspective and commonsense approach” (Bonebright, 2010, 118). As Bonebright mentions, the given model can be considered timeless, since it introduces an approach that is likely to work in most small groups of employees: “unlikely that a model with similar impact will come out of the new literature” (Bonebright 119).

Despite the fact that Bonebright does not establish any revolutionary discoveries in the article, she still offers an honest and detailed account of the theory that seemed to have worn out its welcome several years before.

Jiatao’s Factional Groups and the Rearrangement of Organizational Behavior

Unlike the previously mentioned paper, in which no major groundbreaking ideas are offered, the article by Jiatao and Hambrick suggests a new phenomenon for consideration, namely, the one of factual groups. According to the authors of the research, factual groups are groups of people who constitute two or more social entities. Hence, the authors offer a new means to considering the conflicts within a group of employees, and, therefore, new methods to solve these conflicts.

Analyzing the relationship between the factual faultiline size, two different types of conflicts emerging in a factional group, i.e., emotional conflicts and task conflicts, and the following behavioral disintegration, the authors of the research make it evident that “in factional groups, large demographic fault-lines between factions will bring about task conflict and emotional conflict, and in turn behavioral disintegration” (Jiatao & Hambrick, 2005, 800).

The given paper is essential in learning the nature of conflicts within groups of employees and searching for the means to solve these conflicts.

Discussing the Reasons for a Workplace Deviant Behavior: Kantur’s Theoretical Premises

There is no secret that, though workplace behavior can and must be regulated according to the rules of the company, the actual behavior of the employees can sometimes leave much to be desired. Kantur considers the instances of workplace deviant behavior, detecting the key factors that contribute to the instances of the corporate behavioral rules and lead to deviant behavior among the employees. The researcher specifies nine questions, the answers to which help identify the source of the problem within the team of employees.

According to Kantur, there are two key issues that lead to poor performance of a group of employees, which are emotional conflicts and behavioral disintegration. As Kantur’s research results show, most difficulties arise in the least homogenous teams, especially if the variables are either gender or ethnics (Kantur 809). The given paper shows in a very graphic way the specifics of relationships among employees, as well as the levels of adjustment among the latter.

Virtuousness and Happiness as the Cornerstones of Successful Performance

Of all assets of a typical employee, organizational virtuousness and content are seemingly less important than the ability to provide quality services on time.

However, when considering the given issue a little bit closer, one will have to admit that the employees’ state of mind has quite an impact on the quality of services which they deliver. Hence, dealing with such issues as organizational virtuousness and happiness and their impact on employees’ performance and the citizenship behaviors, Rego, Ribeiro & Cunha contribute considerably to defining the relationships between the organizational virtuousness and the affective well-0being of the employees.

Speaking of the key research results, one will have to mention the five-factor model which Rego, Ribeiro & Cunha have introduced. According to the authors of the research, there are several elements that make together the bulk for employees’ job satisfaction and the feeling of comfort, namely, optimism, trust, compassion, integrity, and forgiveness, which together make organizational virtuousness.

As the researchers explain, with the help of the given elements, the atmosphere in a team can be improved significantly. Meanwhile, in the team with none of the above-mentioned present, the productivity will soon be reduced to zero.

The given paper helps to understand that efficient leadership system is supposed to take into account not only the needs and wants of the entire team, but also the ambitions of every single member in particular, making sure that each of the employees is perfectly content with his position and his job.

Once there is a single discrepancy and an uncomfortable element in the working process, the productivity can be hindered. With the help of the results of the given research, one can build an efficient strategy for improving the current performance of the employees. Offering a detailed account of the factors that impact the quality of employees’ work, Rego, Ribeiro & Cunha help shape the idea of an appropriate organizational behavior standard.

Reference List

Bonebright, D. (2010) A. 40 years of storming: a historical review of Tuckman’s model of small group development. Human Resource Development International, 13(1), 111-120.

Jiatao, L. & Hambrick, D. C. (2005). Factional groups: A new vantage on demographic faultlines, conflict, and disintegration in work teams. Academy of Management Journal, 48(5), 794-813.

Kantur, D. (2010). Emotional motives and attitudinal reflections of workplace deviant behavior. The Business Review, 14(2), 70-77.

Rego, A., Ribeiro, N., & Cunha, M. P. (2009). Perceptions of organizational virtuousness and happiness as predictors of organizational citizenship behaviors. Journal of Business Ethics, 93, 215-235.

The success of any business unit or organization primarily relies on the nature of work force, and management systems it adopts. It is important for all managers to note that, currently the economic world is undergoing very many transformations not only monetary wise, but also in terms of work patterns and employees’ behavior.

In this regard, it is important for organizations’ management teams to adopt measures, which will ensure organizations maintain competent workers. This is primarily possible through adoption of policies that will ensure an organization takes care of its workers needs as they arise; hence, avoid unrests that may arise in workplaces.

It is important to note here that, adoption of policies only cannot help a management team succeed, but rather these management teams must coin their understanding of an organization’s assets, resources, and tools in management practices for them to succeed. This paper will discuss concepts of employee reinforcement, evolution of job design, main differences between job stress and burnout as they relate to organizational theory and behavior.

Job Reinforcement

It is never an easy task for organizations to meet all its employees needs; psychologically human needs are unending, hence making it impossible for organization to satisfy their employees’ needs. Although this is the case, an organization can adopt a variety of mechanisms, which will ensure its employees remain motivated and goal oriented. It is important to note here that, monetary remuneration contributes very little to job satisfaction.

This is to say; although external motivators have a role to play when it comes to employees’ motivation, their contribution to performance is little. This therefore calls for adoption management mechanisms that will ensure employees always remain intrinsically motivated towards work (Moorhead and Griffin pp. 103-109).

Generally, reinforcements are stimulus that makes individuals to act or behave in a certain ways, hence strengthening the re-occurrence or repetition of a certain acts. Many organizations have adopted a variety of reinforcement strategies, but there exist great variations in terms their effects as concerns work output.

Reinforcement can be in form of a positive or a negative incentive; depending on the behavior exhibited by individuals. The four basic forms of reinforcement are positive and negative reinforcement, extinction and punishment (Villere and Hartman pp. 27-26).

Positive reinforcement involves the use of pleasing incentives as means of appreciating good deeds. Positive reinforcement can be in form of monetary rewards or appraisals, which will encourage repetition of specific behaviors. Managers use this reinforcement measure for two reasons. Firstly, they use it as a way of appreciating good performance, and secondly, as a way of showing what kind of behavior an organization desires from its employees.

Positive reinforcement is one of the main strategies that organizations use to ensure its employees always remain productive. On the other hand, this strategy is an important tool for discouraging some unwanted behavior such as absenteeism or lateness. For example, in a chemical industry, for managements to reduce accidents occurring daily, they can use buffets as incentives on top of employees’ monthly salary.

Although this method works, it is important for managers to study and understand reasons behind repetition of certain behaviors. This is because; in most cases, workers may repeat some behaviors because they know there are rewards. Verbal forms of positive reinforcement include the use of words such work “well done’, “.congratulation”, ‘keep up the good work” (Moorhead and Griffin pp.149-156).

Contrary to positive reinforcement, negative reinforcements are never desirable; hence, individuals always avoid negative them. Negative reinforcement is the act of escaping negative incentives.

It is important to understand here that, negative reinforcements are means of encouraging certain behaviors considered desirable, by application of incentives that discourage undesired behavior. This mode of reinforcement works on the principle that; once individuals experience negative conditions of specific reinforcement measures they are likely to change their behaviors.

For example, an employer can use this mechanism when employees’ quality of work goes down by explaining to them that customers are dissatisfied with their quality of work, hence the organization’s reputation is at stake. This like a case can make an employee to fill insecure; hence, they will avoid laziness and strive to ensure their work meets required standards. Although a good strategy, it is important for managers to include other mechanisms of ensuring this method works.

In addition to negative and positive reinforcement, punishment is another common method that managers use to ensure workers stay put and goal oriented. Managers use punishment when employees exhibit certain unwanted behaviors. Generally, punishment is the use of unpleasant outcomes to ensure employees follow set standards.

For example, in situations of poor work performance, managers can use suspensions as a means of reprimanding or warning employees. Although a good way of showing the degree of a mistake, in most business scenarios it never achieves desired outcomes.

The last form of reinforcement is extinction; which operates on the principle that removal of certain positive stimulus can help to eliminate undesired behaviors. Common examples used by organizations include benefit withdraws, bonuses, and other positive verbal incentives such praises. This strategy in most cases works best as compared to punishment, because employees will always feel guilty when managements appraise their fellow employees (Marcic and Daft pp. pp. 461-462).

Evolution of Job Design

Although incentives play a central role of ensuring workers remain in focus as pertains achievement of organizational goals, there is need to organize duties to fit employees’ competencies. This is because correct allocation of such duties is not only motivating, but also ensures there is job satisfaction among employees.

Job design is the endeavor to make required changes in working conditions aimed at making work more pleasant and motivating. Noting the current changes in employees’ working patterns, it is important for managements to consider varied factors that influence the motivational level of employees. Job design has undergone many transformations from the traditional approaches where talent and social motives had little significance (Moorhead and Griffin pp.164-174).

The earliest structure of job design was Taylor’s scientific management method, which emphasized adoption of mechanisms of making work more pleasant. In addition, scientific management emphasized the use of trainings to reduce the number of employees who could perform certain duties. Some aspects of this method for example specialization find wide application in current job scenarios, although the approach is a little bit different.

For example, in the past managers could achieve job specialization through using repetition of duties, which presently has taken a different approach where talent and competence plays a role in specialization. Another common form of specialization that has undergone many transformations is job rotation.

This form of job specialization helps managers to reduce stress and boredom associated with one station. In addition, when job rotation occurs in managerial position it helps managers to learn new management tricks, hence innovation.

Other forms of job design techniques that organizations have adopted currently include job enlargement and enrichment. Job enlargement involves provision of a variety of activities to employees; a strategy important for expanding employees potentials while reducing monotony and boredom. This strategy is very motivating because it helps employees build self-esteem and worthiness, which translates to increased revenues.

In addition to provision of a variety of working activities, currently many organizations have adopted other management policies that have granted employees more freedom in terms of task performance and control. In the past managers could always follow keenly on how employees perform their duties, but presently many organizations accord employees’ personal freedoms, which has contributed greatly to increased responsibility among employees.

Another common current approach to job design is the job characteristics theory. This theory uses five main characteristics: skill variety, feedback, task significance, autonomy, and task identity. Task variety involves the nature of skills that a specific job requires; autonomy determines specific levels of freedoms a job gives an individual, and feedback is concerned with a job’s reaction mechanisms on performance levels.

On the other hand, task identity is concerned with the level of a job’s tangible outcome, which depends on commencement and ending of a task, whereas, task significance is primarily concerned with effects that a job has on the overall running of an organization, individual lives and immediate surrounding environments.

Considering the nature of these design strategies, it is important for managers to combine them for organization to realize maximized outcomes from employees’ efforts (Moorhead and Griffin pp. 173- 192).

Job Stress and Burnout

Owing to the fact that everything done in business follows set time schedules, sometimes there are likelihoods of work overloads and strain. It is important to note that, most activities engaged in during normal working schedules needs a lot of physical coordination, minutiae, concentration, speed and time hence, compounding all this facts makes work tedious and strenuous leading to stress.

In addition to stress associated with real work, sometimes balancing between job duties, other employees’ demands, and social life is another major cause of stress to employees.

This is because at one point an organization has goals it wants its employees to fulfill, while on the other hand social life has its demands that individuals must fulfill. In this regard, stress is an adaptive mechanism used by individuals in reaction to pressing psychological and natural demands. Two main differences connected to stress are hardiness and hopefulness.

Primarily, the former is concerned with individuals’ ability to manage stress, where by this group of individuals have the ability to deal with stress, hence always goal oriented and focused. Optimism is characteristic in individuals who see an opportunity in everything, to this group of individuals the positive aspects of life matter more that negative discouragements, hence are too always focused and goal oriented (Moorhead and Griffin pp. 221-237).

Although optimism and hardiness are common adaptive mechanisms used by individuals to cope up with stress, sometimes due to many other job factors for example role demands, ambiguity, conflict can cause exhaustion, leading to a condition called burnout. Burnout is a consequence of build up stress, resulting from excessive demands to perform and deliver results.

Burnout primarily results when organizational demands makes individuals to forego their social demands, hence dedicate most of their time to these demands. Because of this, most individuals in the end get fatigued, strained and aggravated, hence causing a feeling of helplessness.

Although both stress and burnout are manageable, burnout has more adverse effects on individuals than stress. This is because it is easy to notice an individual suffering from burnout than normal stress, owing to the fact that burnout has more withdrawal symptoms.

In addition, although the two are related, they have clear differences in that, stress results from excessive work demands where as burnout in most cases results because individuals feel their jobs are of no significance to them. To most individuals, their lives are more crucial, hence the need to respect life demands; whose suppression leads to burnout.

Another common difference is that, although individuals can sustain stress by embracing adaptive mechanisms, burnout is never adaptive, hence inmost cases it results to resignation and loss of job interest.

On the other hand, it is important to note that primarily burnout is a motivational predicament, a characteristic differentiating it from stress, because stress’s main cause is work overload and not lack of motivation.

In conclusion, for organizations to be successful in all their endeavors there is need of adopting measures that will balance organizational and employees’ demands.

Works Cited

Villere, Maurice and Hartman, Sandra. Reinforcement theory: a practical tool. Leadership Development journal, 12(2) (1991): pp.27-33. Print.

Moorhead, Gregory and Griffin, Ricky. Organizational behavior: managing people. 6^th ed. London: Houghton and Mifflin Company, 2000. Print.