How can OB help you in your organization as well
as personal life? Current organizations have started posing human capital as a
competitive advantage. Why should an organization give this a consideration?
Organizational
behavior (OB) is defined as the
systematic study and application of knowledge about how individuals and groups
act within the organizations where they work, it refers to the study of
individual, group performance, and activity within an organization, which
specifically deals with how people and groups behave in organizations.
Organizational
behavior shows the important key points as Regulatory, and Radical. Basically,
Regulatory helps to draw what goes on in organizations, possibly to present
minor changes that might improve them, but not to make any basic judgment about
whether what happens is correct or incorrect. Radical tends to make judgments
about the way that organizations ought to be and provide recommendations on how
this could be accomplished. Traditional organization used to practice
Regulatory while new modern organization tends to act Radical. To well organize
in budget controlling, new modern organization in today doesn't willing to give
a long time for bank credit card's salesperson to hit their sales target. New
modern organizations urge to get the results from salesperson whereas the
salesperson should hit their monthly sales on time and accurately, if the
salesperson failed to hit the target continuously in few months, employers
reserved the rights to terminate the employee. Conversely, traditional
organizations used to act Regulatory whereas Hire and Fire policy will never be
the options for a traditional organization to behave. Employers are patient
enough and they're willing to spend times to educate, guide, and monitor an
employee's performance.
Organizational
Behavior (OB) is the study of human behavior at organizational settings, the
interface between human behavior and the organization, and the organization
itself. Organizational Behavior researchers study the behavior of individuals
primarily in their organizational roles. Organizational Behavior has included
two terms in it. Therefore, these two terms should be detailed first before
diving into the title in question.
Organization is
a group of people who are collected to work for a common goal with collective
efforts. Organization works through two concepts i.e coordination and
delegation among its group members. Delegation is necessary to allocate group
members with equal work according to their capability, and coordination is
required to achieve organizational goal with precision.
Behavior is a verbal or physical response shown by a
person as a consequence of the impact of his/her surroundings. Individual
Behavior varies in accordance with their mental reactivity to particular
circumstances because of their deeply imbibed morals and value system.
Organizational
Behavior is the observation of
individual and/or group Behavior in response to the other individuals or group
as a whole. It studies Behavior of people or group to know their attitude
towards particular circumstances.
Based on (Taylor,
1911: Fayol, 1949), the orthodox view in organization theory has been based
predominantly on the metaphors of machine and organism. The metaphor of a
machine underwrites the work of the classical management theorists. According
to Figure 1, it draws the three concepts for understanding the nature and
organization of social science, which is Paradigms, Metaphors, and Puzzle
Solving. Metaphor plays an important role in organization behavior. Metaphor is
frequently regarded as no more than a literary and descriptive device for
embellishment, but more fundamentally is a creative form which generates its
effect though a crossing of images.
Origin of Organizational Behavior
can trace its roots back to Max Weber and earlier organizational studies. The
Industrial Revolution is the period from approximately 1760 when new
technologies resulted in the adoption of new manufacturing techniques,
including increased mechanization. The industrial revolution led to significant
social and cultural change, including new forms of organization. Analyzing
these new organizational forms, sociologist Max Weber described bureaucracy as
an ideal type of organization that rested on rational-legal principles and
maximized technical efficiency .In the 1890’s; with the arrival of scientific
management and Taylorism, Organizational Behavior Studies was forming it
as an academic discipline. Failure of scientific management gave birth to the
human relations movement which is characterized by a heavy emphasis on employee
cooperation and morale.
Human Relations Movement
from 1930’s to 1950’s contributed in shaping the Organizational Behavior
studies.
Works of scholars like
Elton Mayo, Chester Barnard, Henri Fayol, Mary Parker Follett, Frederick
Herzberg, Abraham Mas low, David Mc Cellan and Victor Vroom contributed to the
growth of Organizational Behaviour as a discipline.
Works of scholars like
Elton Mayo, Chester Barnard, Henri Fayol, Mary Parker Follett, Frederick
Herzberg, Abraham Maslow, David Mc Cellan and Victor Vroom contributed to the
growth of Organizational Behaviour as a discipline. Herbert Simon’s
Administrative Behavior introduced a number of important concepts to the study
of organizational behavior, most notably decision making. Simon along with
Chester Barnard; argued that people make decisions differently in organizations
than outside of them. Simon was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics for his
work on organizational decision making. In the 1960s and 1970s, the field
became more quantitative and produced such ideas as the informal organization,
and resource dependence. Contingency theory, institutional theory, and
organizational ecology also enraged.
Starting in the 1980s, cultural
explanations of organizations and organizational change became areas of study. Informed
by anthropology, psychology, and sociology, qualitative research became more
acceptable in OB.
The behavior of the
customer helps the organization to decide what products and services to be
offered. When an organization builds a strong connection with the customer, an
organization will get an idea about the customer needs. With the help of OB we
can understand the behavior of customers. OB helps employee as well as customer
reviews on a regular basis to discuss the improvements. With the better
knowledge of OB, managers can use various organizational behavioral skills to
better perform their duties and responsibilities. OB helps to managers to
maintain a professional dignity between his staff and himself.
Time Management helps the
managers to establish department goals and determine the objectives to reach
those goals on deadline. OB helps the manager on effective time management. There
should be a regular communication between the managers and employees. Managers
should have the learning skills in order to see career progression with the
organization. Organizations are mix of people in terms of age, gender and race
etc. Managers have to deal with the groups and the employees belongs to the
different cultures. They have to exercise control and channelize the behavior
in every direction. OB helps in better management as it helps in improving the
skills. OB helps the management ensure that employees do everything to satisfy
the customer needs.
When dealing with employees OB looks at the whole employee, their
needs, financial compensation, skills, motivations, circumstances, training,
home lives, quality of work-life balance, and so on. Likewise, when looking at an
organization in a holistic manner OB will look at all aspects that may affect
behavior within the organization.
The culture of an organization is essentially the collective
personality of those who work there. The assumptions, values, norms, and practices
will all cumulate to display a unified organizational character. Employees and
organizations have come to realize that for people to be productive and
effective on the job, they must have a balance between work life and personal
life. More and more organizations have come to realize that workplace stress
leads to low productivity. Numerous studies have been done which indicate that
workplace stress leads to higher incidences of employee turnaround, mental and
physical illness, high absenteeism, lack of creative thinking, low motivation,
decreased job satisfaction, and even violence and substance abuse.
OB helps to recognize the negative effects of stress on the job. Some
of these factors are directly related to personal issues that are unique to the
employee; however, this is the exception rather than the rule. With the help of
OB various programs and human resource interventions have been developed to
help workers deal with stress before it becomes a serious issue. Organizational
restructuring and rethinking management and culture styles has also given way for
the improvement of stress on the job.
Some of the most talented and desirable employees will choose to
work for an organization over another if the organization has taken into
consideration the importance of family and personal lives of employees. These
companies are more satisfying to work for as they tend to encourage whole
person growth and job satisfaction. In fact many companies call these policies
work-life balance programs as they can be applied to those with or without
families.
With better understanding of OB, organization can achieve its goal
in effective manner with the support of the human capital.
These days Human Capital is considered most important element of
competitive advantage in organization. It is not just one of the organization’s
intangible assets; it is basically all of the competencies of the people within
an organization. These competencies are various skills, education, experience,
potential and capacity. It is believed that if a company know how its human
capital contributes to their success, it than can be measured and managed
effectively.
The competitors of the firm always try to employ better peoples
for the job, so firms should constantly evaluate the human factor. The ability
to create unique team is the most cost effective way to create sustainable
advantage. The strategic human resources management or the human capital is
mean of gaining competitive advantage through one of the most important asset:
its people.
These days Human Capital is considered most important element of
competitive advantage in most of the organizations. In is just one of the organization's
intangible assets; it is basically all of the competencies of the people within
an organization. These competencies are various skills, education, and
experience, potential and capacity. It is believed that if a company know how
its human capital contributes to their success, it than can be measured and
managed effectively. Developing human capital in the organization is the major
challenge for the leaders for formulating future competitive strategies.
“Dynamic and complex competitive landscape has created considerable uncertainty
for firms, however conditions of uncertainty also present opportunities”
(Hittet al 1998). “The competitors of the firm always try to employ better
peoples for the job, so firms should constantly evaluate the human factor.
(Eric D. brown 2007) he also concluded that the ability to create unique team
is the most cost effective ways to create sustainable advantage”. The way in
which the organizations manage its peoples can influence its performance (Peter
& Watermann 1982). “The employee participation empowerment and job design,
including team based production system, extensive employee training and
performance contingent incentive are widely believed to improve the performance
of organization” (Pfeffer 1994). “The strategic human resources management or
the human capital is mean of gaining competitive advantage through one of the
most important asset: its people” (Richard.W 2001). “The other sources of
competitive advantage, like technology and physical resources are comparatively
easier to emulate and transfer.
Therefore, the crucial differentiating factor between companies
can be how human resources are developed and nurtured in particular organization”
(Yazdani 2008).The human capital can become key source of competitive
advantage, if it has worth, continue to be hard to emulate and is exceptional.
“Human capital has long been argued as a critical resource in most companies
and recent research suggest that human capital attributes like education,
experience and skills and the effect of leadership affect the firms
performance” (Hittet al 2001) “The human element has grown in importance
because knowledge has become a critical ingredient to gain competitive advantage, particularly in the
new economy landscape” (Grant, 1996).
Survey after survey has found that executives believe finding and
developing the right talent should be one of their top priorities, and that
their company’s human capital is one of their most important assets. Yet few
corporations are designed to operate in ways that recognize the importance of
human capital. Most companies understand how to leverage financial capital,
machinery and equipment, but when it comes to human capital, it is a very
different story. Jobs are designed to follow a simplified, standardized approach
to the execution of work processes, and individuals are controlled through
well-defined hierarchical reporting relationships, budgets and close
supervision. Rather than encouraging people to be important contributors, most
of the systems in organizations are designed to control their behavior. If we
really took human capital seriously, we’d run companies in a very different
way. Yes, we would treat people well and say they are important, but we would
do much more. We would design organizations so that people are a source of
competitive advantage. Hiring some highly talented individuals won’t do it!
Training programs won’t do it, either! Even being a best place to work won’t do
it. Making human capital a source of competitive advantage requires much more
than making some quick fixes to a control-focused organization. It requires
attracting and retaining the right people as well as organizing and managing
them effectively. Attracting and retaining the right people is not easy, but
most organizations can get it done if they devote enough resources to it.
Actually developing and employing organizational structures and operating
systems that lead to an organization’s human capital being a source or the
source of competitive advantage is another story. It requires the right
managerial behaviors as well as the right design of most of an organization’s
major operating systems in order to create a Human Capital centric (HC-centric)
organization. What does a company that’s truly built to leverage its human
capital look like? First, it has corporate board members armed with sufficient
expertise and information to advise on human capital and organizational
effectiveness issues. In fact, the board would regularly receive the kind of
detailed information about the condition of the organization’s human capital as
it does about its financial situation. Second, it would develop executives who
practice shared leadership and are committed to developing leaders throughout
their organization. Third, it would consider the human resources (HR) function
its most important staff group. HR’s ranks would be filled with individuals who
understand the business as well as know the intricacies of human capital
management systems. Finally, it would have information systems that report accurately
on the strategically important competencies and capabilities of the
organization and of each employee.
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