BUS 610 Week 6 Assignment Final Paper Organizational Behavior Analysis

BUS 610 Week 6 Organizational Behavior Analysis

Introduction:

Any workplace is defined by its culture. The culture manifests itself in different ways in different organizations. In my organization which is a small landscaping service firm we cater to all kinds of landscaping work including basic lawn mowing to landscape design. Though the firm is a small one the culture acceptance of the firm makes it very important as we have to deal with customers on a very routine basis and so it is important that we accept the culture of customer centricism in our firm. Organizational culture is said to be that part of environment at workplace where different levels of employees interact with each other on different aspects of workplace ethos defined by formal and informal structures that are in operation. Organizational culture brings into purview the diverse experiences of employees their experiences of life, their strengths and weaknesses in skill assimilation and a wide variety of other employee’s related issues. The organizational culture is defined by leadership in action and is a collaboration of employees at work .the man power and human resources of any organization contribute to the definition of organizational culture .

Thesis sentence:

Leadership designs the organizational culture in a firm and in turn success is defined by the culture.

The organizational culture in my firm:

In my company there is lack of communications there is no leadership on what kind of orders to book and how the details of the orders to be booked are to be carried out. In a nutshell this lack of leadership has led to chaos and confusion with the result that workers get overworked and hence leads to frequent missing out on deadlines and time schedules. Being a very small company it is very important that customer calls are met and work is carried out in a timely manner where business is only generated through mouth of word. Knowing how critical this aspect of business is, we find that there are many calls from customers which go unanswered, there is overload of work on the few workers we have and this triggers off to high levels of inertia in both workers and owners who suffer from lack of leadership initiatives .( (Barney, 1986)

Organizational culture is an exhibition of different kinds of leadership styles . A mix of the different types leads to an optimal style of leadership which then brings out a good culture and belief systems in people .an ideal organizational culture would be one where there are elements of innovation, team orientation, aggression and the will to succeed .

Organizational culture or the corporate culture of my firm are a reflection of the policies ,public relations efforts and the perception of the firm in the minds of the people . In short it is the brand image of the firm in the customer’s belief systems. The organizational culture beginning with addressing the behavior and justifying the behavior by communicating the culture of the organization through a process of socialization leading to culture assimilation is followed by my organization. It is also seen that those who deviated from the culture and were not able to adjust were invariably misfits and were to introduce culture to an employee by studying individual behavior and justifying why that behavior could be modeled on a certain social culture followed by the organization. Work life balance contributes very much to organizational culture, there is great relationship building if employees find that they are able to relate to each other well and hence brings in a stress free environment for employees to work. This accentuates in the form workplace productivity and efficiency. It is very important for managers to realize that culture permeates to every level of organization and hence is the workplace is stress free it abets good relationship and partnering .

The type of culture:

Organizations which have the salad bowl culture are said to have an assimilation of diverse culture which is brought in by the diverse workforce. The resultant effect is that the organizational culture is very diverse and very assimilative of the different culture. Each of these cultures maintains their homogeneity. Organizations which have this kind of a culture are acceptable in having a very diverse work force and are very inclusive in their policies of diversity. Though a current need with managing different kinds of talent the salad bowl culture bring in great disharmony among people and workplace inefficiencies creep in due to inherent nature of the working environment and individual differences . Being a very small company we have people of different cultures working with us and this is in essence e how we need to manage our culture and grow .( Kolb, Eva 2009)

Communication models in my organization:

A small organization like ours does not have any formal communication polices though we do have ceresin ways of dealing with customers . The communication policy in this firm is very bad as there is just one person to attend to all kinds of communication both verbal and non verbal and this has ultimately led to clash of all kinds of responsibilities. This has also resulted in heavy delays in attending to customers and has cost the business very heavily. It is suggested that in such small organization like mine there have to be cellar cut roles assigned even for those who multi task .

The firm has to bring in a policy for communication both verbal and non verbal and identify communication policies very clearly. There have to be clear cut ways in which people can communicate to customers, within themselves and with suppliers and hence there will be no mix up of roles. It is also seen that the firm has to make a corporate policy for communication so that there are formal communication channels as people understand how they have to communicate with each other and to the customers. Use of verbal and non verbal cues is very important in communicating.

Nature of authority The firm exhibits high levels of centralized power positions. There is no decentralization or empowerment of employees. The chain of command is straight and decision making is totally centralized. The organizational structure is tall and pyramidical.

Employees in this firm cannot take any decisions relating to their work there are no team meetings and no communication between managers and employees. Being as very small firm if the chain of command was decentralized the firm would have worked great relationships. Unfortunately decision making was so tight that even mangers could not take even small decisions this led to delays in redressing customer grievances and lot of business was lost .The firm has to relook intro its chain of command and institutionalize empowerment and team dynamics to bring in greater customer centricism .being a very small firm there can be good interaction between people

The communication process in this company is typically straight and the chain of command is very clear. Since it is a service provider and it is handling services of a very special nature it is very important that communication channels are very straightforward and responsible. Instructions cannot be taken arbitrarily as it is a very important service and hence instructions and communication can come only from responsible people because there is lot of technicality involved. Communication should be very clear and to the specific group mentioned otherwise it will lead to serious problems on the same. Direction and responsibility of work depends upon communication hence weather ford team relies exclusively on the communication from top.

As communication plays a very vital role in delivery and in accepting orders from superiors it is very important that everyone understands that communication should not have role ambiguity. Communication charters must clearly be designed and the top down approach and the bottom up approach to communications must be clearly seen. This will help Weatherford understand its clarity in functioning.

d. Motivational techniques

The compensation policy of the firm is not very attention grabbing or any extraordinary. Though the wages are paid and integrated as per industry standards what is peculiarly lacking is any other kind of incentive that is paid to the workers . Hence a compensation package has to be designed for the workers which could be a Herzberg’s two-factor theory which speaks about how employees are motivated by hygiene factors like wages, working conditions relationships within organization and motivating factors like rewards both tangible and intangible and promotion opportunities . These should be considered for making a compensation package. Leadership has to promote the skills of motivation in employees to get good productivity and great performances
Areas of EQ embraced by the organization

A leader who can communicate well appeals to the emotions of his people. The leader has the Emotional intelligence begins with the ability to identify, evaluate, and then express emotional states. The leader here should understand the feelings of followers in order to connect with them. In this case the leader should communicate the worst case scenario that is slowly raising its head in the organization in the form of deteriorating customer relationship. Emotional states impact every kind of decision making. Moods which exhibit positivity decision-making are very creative while moods which are bad debilitate decision making and put people out of gear. Good Problem solving is very importantly sourced through these emotional states . Some problems require intuitive, broad thinking; others demand a more linear, logical approach. Emotionally intelligent leaders know how to match the mood with the problem. Further, they recognize the dangers of ignoring risks when in an optimistic frame of mind, or of being too critical when feeling pessimistic. Using emotions to facilitate thinking also means channeling feelings in order to reach goals. All these are concepts of leadership communication which can enable a leader to bring out the best in people through communication styles Interpersonal relationships also play a very important role in problem solving .Leaders should adopt the impression manager role where from a communication standpoint, leaders are made, not born. A leader will increase his leadership competence as he increases his communication skills.
Virtual elements:

The office and scale of operations are very small and hence the firm which operates only locally has not yet looked at virtual offices or tele-networking though it does use social networking locally by social groups like churches and home parties. Once the firm thinks of expanding the firm will look at opportunities of using the virtual space and e commerce strategies. For the present the firm operates only out of the town locally serving some immediate neighborhoods.

Conclusion:

In the world of business the organization culture is also called the corporate culture .a look at the working of the firm shows why there has to be an immediate change in the way the landscaping firm does business. Employees have to be compensated to retain them in the business and there has to be some leadership intervention which can motivate the workers.
A small firm is very customer centric and it is very important to understand that unless workers feel committed to the business and is rewarded properly they will not contribute to the business. It is also seen and felt that employees of this business are a demotivated lot as they are not empowered and do not function as a team hence factors like team togetherness empowerment and participation in organizational objectives will enable the landscaping firm to progress to higher levels,.

A new team spirit will be created if firms look at people oriented cultures respecting the diversity by bringing in inclusiveness. The firm will benefit by adopting this culture and there will be less attrition. If the firm is able to reward its employees well the firm can grow fast and work well. Collaborative environment and cooperation between employees leads to less conflict and greater team spirit. The firm should also showcase team oriented culture where employees can help each other and nurture relationships and partnering .a positive environment not only furthers the growth of the firm but also leads to individual growth too.

References:

Barney, J. (1986). Organizational culture: can it be a source of sustained competitive advantage?. Academy of management review, 11(3), pp.656–665.

Erdogan, B., Liden, R. C., & Kraimer, M. L. (2006). Justice and leader-member exchange: The moderating role of organizational culture. Academy of Management Journal, 49, 395–406.

Kolb, Eva. The Evolution of New York City’s Multiculturalism: Melting Pot or Salad Bowl. 2009

O’Reilly, C. A., III, Chatman, J. A., & Caldwell, D. F. (1991). People and organizational culture: A profile comparison approach to assessing person-organization fit. Academy of Management Journal, 34, 487–516

Sheridan, J. (1992). Organizational culture and employee retention. Academy of Management Journal, 35, 1036–1056.

Weber, G. (2005, February). Preserving the counter culture. Workforce Management, 84, 28–34; Motivation secrets of the 100 best employers. (2003, October). HR Focus, 80, 1–15.