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Big Dog's Leadership Page - Organizational Behavior
by Donald Clark, copyright 1998
Managers are people who do things right, while leaders are people
who do the right thing. - Warren Benniss, Ph.D. "On Becoming a Leader"
Introduction
Organizational Behavior is the study and application of knowledge about
how people, individuals, and groups act in organizations. It does this
by taking a system approach. That is, it interprets people-organization
relationships in terms of the whole person, whole group, whole organization,
and whole social system. Its purpose is to build better relationships by
achieving human objectives, organizational objectives, and social objectives.
As you can see from the definition above, organizational behavior encompasses
a wide range of topics, such as human behavior, change, leadership, teams,
etc. Since these many of these topics are discussed in other sections of
this leadership guide, this section will not go into topics previously
discussed.
Elements of Organizational Behavior
The organization's base rests on management's philosophy, values, vision
and goals. This in turn drives the organizational culture which is composed
of the formal organization, informal organization, and the social environment.
The culture determines the type of leadership, communication, and group
dynamics within the organization. The workers perceive this as the quality
of work life which directs their degree of motivation. The final outcome
are performance, individual satisfaction, and personal growth and development.
All these elements combine to build the model or framework that the organization
operates from.
Models of Organizational Behavior
There are four major models or frameworks that organizations operate out
of:
-
Autocratic - The basis of this model is power with a managerial orientation
of authority. The employees in turn are oriented towards obedience and
dependence on the boss. The employee need that is met is subsistence. The
performance result is minimal.
-
Custodial - The basis of this model is economic resources with a managerial
orientation of money. The employees in turn are oriented towards security
and benefits and dependence on the organization. The employee need that
is met is security. The performance result is passive cooperation.
-
Supportive - The basis of this model is leadership with a managerial orientation
of support. The employees in turn are oriented towards job performance
and participation. The employee need that is met is status and recognition.
The performance result is awakened drives.
-
Collegial - The basis of this model is partnership with a managerial orientation
of teamwork. The employees in turn are oriented towards responsible behavior
and self-discipline. The employee need that is met is self-actualization.
The performance result is moderate enthusiasm.
Although there are four separate models, almost no organization operates
exclusively in one. There will usually be a predominate one, with one or
more areas over-lapping in the other models.
The first model, autocratic, had its roots in the industrial revolution.
The managers of this type of organization operate out of McGregor's Theory
X. The next three models begin to build on McGregor's Theory Y. They have
each evolved over a period of time and there is no one "best" model. The
collegial model should not be thought as the last or best model, but the
beginning of a new model or paradigm.
Social Systems, Culture, and Individualization
A social system is a complex set of human relationships interacting in
many ways. Within an organization, the social system includes all the people
in it and their relationships to each other and to the outside world. The
behavior of one member can have an impact, either directly or indirectly,
on the behavior of others. Also, the social system does not have boundaries...it
exchanges goods, ideas, culture, etc. with the environment around it.
Culture is the conventional behavior of a society that encompasses beliefs,
customs, knowledge, and practices. It influences human behavior, even though
it seldom enters into their conscious thought. People depend on culture
as it gives them stability, security, understanding, and the ability to
respond to a given situation. This is why people fear change. They fear
the system will become unstable, their security will be lost, they will
not understand the new process, and they will not know how to respond to
the new situations.
Individualization is when employees successfully exert influence on
the social system by challenging the culture.
Impact Of Individualization
On A Organization
_______________________________
High | | |
| | |
| | |
| Conformity | Creative |
| | Individualism |
| | |
Socialization |_______________|_______________|
| | |
| | |
| | |
| Isolation | Rebellion |
| | |
| | |
Low |_______________|_______________|
Low Individualization High
The chart above shows how individualization affects different organizations:
-
Too little socialization and too little individualization creates isolation.
-
Too high socialization and too little individualization creates conformity.
-
Too little socialization and too high individualization creates rebellion
-
While the match that organizations want to create is high socialization
and high individualization for a creative environment. This is what it
takes to survive in a very competitive environment...having people grow
with the organization, but doing the right thing when others want to follow
the easy path.
This can become quite a balancing act. Individualism favors individual
rights, loosely knit social networks, self respect, and personal rewards
and careers. It becomes look out for number 1! Socialization or collectivism
favors the group, harmony, and asks "What is best for the organization?"
Organizations need people to challenge, question, and experiment while
still maintaining the culture that binds them into a social system.
Organization Development
Organization Development (OD) is the systematic application of behavioral
science knowledge at various levels, such as group, inter-group, organization,
etc., to bring about planned change. Its objectives is a higher quality
of work-life, productivity, adaptability, and effectiveness. It accomplishes
this by changing attitudes, behaviors, values, strategies, procedures,
and structures so that the organization can adapt to competitive actions,
technological advances, and the fast pace of change within the environment.
There are seven characteristics of OD:
-
Humanistic Values: Positive beliefs about the potential of employees (McGregor's
Theory Y).
-
Systems Orientation: All parts of the organization, to include structure,
technology, and people, must work together.
-
Experiential Learning: The learners' experiences in the training environment
should be the kind of human problems they encounter at work. The training
should NOT be all theory and lecture.
-
Problem Solving: Problems are identified, data is gathered, corrective
action is taken, progress is assessed, and adjustments in the problem solving
process are made as needed. This process is known as Action Research.
-
Contingency Orientation: Actions are selected and adapted to fit the need.
-
Change Agent: Stimulate, facilitate, and coordinate change.
-
Levels of Interventions: Problems can occur at one or more level in the
organization so the strategy will require one or more interventions.
Quality of Work Life (QWL) Quality of Work Life is the favorableness
or unfavorableness of the job environment. Its purpose is to develop jobs
and working conditions that are excellent for both the employees and the
organization. One of the ways of accomplishing QWL is through job design.
Some of the options available for improving job design are:
-
Leave the job as is but employ only people who like the rigid environment
or routine work. Some people do enjoy the security and task support of
these kinds of jobs.
-
Leave the job as is, but pay the employees more.
-
Mechanize and automate the routine jobs. Let robots handle it.
-
And the area that OD loves - redesign the job.
When redesigning jobs there are two spectrums to follow - job enlargement
and job enrichment. Job enlargement adds a more variety of tasks and duties
to the job so that it is not as monotonous. This takes in the breadth
of the job. That is, the number of different tasks that an employee
performs. This can also be accomplished by job rotation.
Job enrichment, on the other hand, adds additional motivators. It adds
depth to the job - more control, responsibility, and discretion
to how the job is performed. This gives higher order needs to the employee,
as opposed to job enlargement which simply gives more variety. The chart
below illustrates the differences:
Job Enrichment and Job Performance
_______________________________
Higher | | |
Order | | Job |
| Job | Enrichment |
| Enrichment | and |
| | Enlargement |
| | |
Accent on |_______________|_______________|
Needs | | |
| | |
| Routine | Job |
| Job | Enlargement |
| | |
Lower | | |
Order |_______________|_______________|
Few Many
Variety of Tasks
The benefits of enriching jobs include:
-
Growth of the individual
-
Individuals have better job satisfaction
-
Self-actualization of the individual
-
Better employee performance for the organization
-
Organization gets intrinsically motivated employees
-
Less absenteeism, turnover, and grievances for the organization
-
Full use of human resources for society
-
Society gains more effective organizations
There are a variety of methods for improving job enrichment:
-
Skill Variety: Perform different tasks that require different skill.
This differs from job enlargement which might require the employee to perform
more tasks, but require the same set of skills.
-
Task Identity: Create or perform a complete piece of work. This
gives a sense of completion and responsibility for the product.
-
Task Significant: This is the amount of impact that the work has
on other people as the employee perceives.
-
Autonomy: This gives employees discretion and control over job related
decisions.
-
Feedback: Information that tells workers how well they are performing.
It can come directly from the job (task feedback) or verbally form someone
else.
Notes
Created March 19, 1998. Last update - April 27, 1998.
Return to Big Dog's Leadership Page
Donald R. Clark
donclark@nwlink.com
