Introduction to Organizational Behavior

Research the issues of the case and develop substantiated recommendations to resolve the issues. Analysis, findings and recommendations should be constructed into a professionally presented report.

Organizational behavior is the study of individual and group performance, an activity of an organization. There are various factors that affect job like employee interaction, leadership, job performance, managerial styles and employee interaction. It studies human behavior at a work environment and its impact on performance, communication, job structure, leadership and motivation. It plays an important role in achieving organizational goals, enhancing the group as well as individual performance, commitment, satisfaction and organizational development (Aswathappa, 2005).

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The case study talks about the educational institute, Newton College of applied arts and technology which is growing day by day in terms of student’s admission. They have also increased the number of staff which comprises of Professors and administrative members. It was observed that with the increase on the number of staff the level of job satisfaction has declined. Hence, they prepared and did a survey with their staff members to see their attitude and perception towards college; at the end of it the president of college has given some recommendation for the betterment of system. Hence, the organizational behavior as a subject has helped to understand the internal and external factors that create employees attitude and behavior toward the organization. It also helps in defining the corporate culture which is very important for any organization to understand.

As companies continue to expand, the issues at workplace gets intensify. The potential conflicts that management faces are team, employee or organization wide issues. There may be several reasons for it like wrong organizational structure, closed communication channels or bad culture (Hosie , Smith ,2009). In the given case study, there are some problems which re prevailing and are hampering the growth of the organization. With the growing number of staff members these issues are increasing. In 1970 , Newton college there are 1500 total staff members comprises of 700 faculty members, 600 support staff, 150 administrators where as in 1991 it had 100 faculty , 20 administrators and 80 support staff. With the increase in the staff members and growing number of students , there were turbulent conditions prevailing in the college in terms of relationship and behavior. The indicators were like there was decline in the job satisfaction of employees which was affecting the quality of working life of the members. This resulted in the first strike in the history of college and the formation of college union for forcing the management for workforce changes. The faculty members stopped applying for the promotions. There interpersonal relationship with in the staff was also affected, there was poor response for volunteering in the different college committees, external tie ups and ceremonies. There was bad advertising and reviews given to press and external media about the college and the dissatisfaction.  Anger, mistrust and hopelessness existed within the staff members which lead to communication gap between management and staff members. There were no significant changes within the policies and structure by the management with the growing number of business demands. The prevailing situation and problems were creating threat for the college existence for further operation with in college. This was leading to the bad reputation of the college with in the education industry. Hence, the current situation required the immediate attention of the management (Prati, McMillan & Karriker, 2009).

Case Study: Newton College of Applied Arts and Technology

The concerned has become visible to the management of the Newton with the increase in the number of staff members and the growing job dissatisfaction amongst them that they have to take action towards solving the organizational behavior issues (Rothwell, Stavros, and Sullivan, 2009).  A survey was conducted in 1990 with the staff members about their attitude for the college in different areas like job, attitude, career and the college. Once the results were out, the president of the college MacDonald proposed solutions for the betterment of the organization and better working relationships. His proposed ideas were good for the organization but not sufficient. There are various steps that are taken for the betterment. His main focus was on communication, upward and downward communication in the organization is not right. He thought of putting better communication channels in place to solve the issue. It was evident from the questionnaire response that people does not know where to go when they have toconvey their feelings (Staw, 2003).They introduced a hot line number where a person will keep a record of all the ideas and concerned shared by the staff members.The another idea proposed was of ‘Newtonians update’ in which small circular will be distributed regularly across the Newtonians and it will cover the activities happening within the college. He also proposed management training as an idea in which the staff members have to undergo some mandatory training program and it will be for all levels and departments. It will benefit the development of the staff member. Excellence Award is another idea for the reward and recognition of the staff members who are out performers. A committee has been set up for the same to understand the issues that enhances or hampers the performance of an individual.  

For a beginner and for a start the steps taken by the president are sufficient. Organizational behavior is very wide concept and all of it cannot be imbibed at one go. Hence, the first step of understanding the behavior through a questionnaire and on the basis of those taking steps toward the main issue wassufficient. But the monitoring on the successful implementation of the new policies should be regularly done so that the next steps can be taken in the near future for the long term success of the college and development of the human resources (Wagner and Hollenbeck, 2010). 

All the organizations have their missions and goals. Goals are the aspirations which an organization would like to accomplish. To accomplish those goals of the organization, employees plays a very important role, they are the assets of the organization. The growth of every organization depends on the contribution of the employee individually as well as group performance (Robbins , Judge and Sanghi, 2009). There is growing need due to advance technology, various socio economic factors to perform well. It is very important for the organization to keep their staff members motivated, their goals and the organizational goals should go hand in hand  and they becomes the contributor in achievement of organizational goals. The task can only be completed with the right attitude of the employees. The employees of Newton College were highly dissatisfied and it had negative impact on the goals of the organization. Their goal is to offer the excellent academic program but that cannot be delivered without the right attitude of the faculty members. They are the ones who deliver the lectures in the college but they were not satisfied. Another goal was to improve the quality of student life which can done forming different academic communities and participating in activities (Miner, 2006).  The faculty members of the college were least interest in participating in any activity rather they had gone on strike twice. Management was focused on building new relationships outside the college with other authorities and communities for a better future but the staff members were disrespecting the college by criticizing them in public and press. The goals of the college also includes effective counseling and placement service for students, improving the quality of life of the employees, creating the atmosphere of wellbeing and providing right administrative and support staff for all the divisions. All these goals are not possible and were getting affected due to negative attitude of the staff members. There were no respect, distrust, anger towards the college management, there were no interpersonal relationship with each other, and they were forming unions and went on strike twice in college history. Hence, in such an environment the goals of the organization cannot be accomplished or rather this degrades the goodwill of the college in market and builds competitors for them. This will also leads to the decline in the number of admissions every year because of the bad quality of education and not a good  environment for the students to flourish. The lecturers had their own dissatisfactions and were not involved in the development of students (Jex and Britt, 2008). 

Issues in the Workplace and their Impact on Employee Performance

For the continuous development of an organization the steps towards it should take very often. It is an ongoing process and focused on the better future policies, better human resource, working environment and profitability (Taylor and Hansen, 2005). Organizational behavior is broad concept of study which involves the study of attitude and behavior of the staff members towards the growth of organization. In case of Newton College, the behavior of the staff members was very negative and it was hampering the growth of college. So, a survey will be conducted after 2yrs to see the effect of new policies on the staff members.  Management would want to see how these changes have impacted the culture, attitude and behavior of the staff member towards the college and on the basis of that the future course of action will be decided. The below changes were observed after 2 years (Hughes, Clegg, Robinson and Crowder, 2012).

The number of respondents in the survey has increased. Earlier the staff members who participated in the survey was less but after 2 years there will be increase in the percentage of responses.

There were very less staff members who responded positively towards it earlier keeping in mind their distrust towards the management, but next time the attitudes will be more positive towards college and management. Earlier policies must have created trust towards the college and now the staff members will be looking for better future here (Rayner and Keashly, 2005).

The likeness towards the college will be grown in next 2years. So, the answers will be more in the favor of better job satisfaction, good working relations, better supervision , better planning, good area of growth and development, Job security , recognition and growth, working culture and conditions etc. The staff members will respond in the favor of the college (Balzer and Gillespie, 2007).

The above change will leads to a better summary report, the management will take the policies of the organization to the next level if they see that people are supporting in achieving organization goals and profitability. The management will re-implement better existing policies and will bring some new policies which will foster the growth of employees and the organization. All of this will also leads to the better reputation and goodwill of the college in the education industry and hence there will more number of admissions every year and  better services provide to the students. So, all the areas of the college are interconnected for its growth (Khurana, 2010).

Conclusion

Thus, it is evident from the case study that organizational behavior plays an important role in the business management. It helps in the running the organization effectively and smoothly by understanding the behavior of individual and group. Also in accomplishing the tasks and for strong relationship with each other. From this point of view, we can say that Newton College will choose the correct direction in future as well for their staff members that will enhance their job satisfaction. For this purpose they will they to understand the employee needs better and helps them in growth of career as well as achieving the college’s objectives (Davis, Eisenhardt and Bingham, 2007).

Proposed Solutions for Better Employee Performance

The below are few recommendations that will helps the management in achieving the better job satisfaction for their employees and enhances the good culture, attitude and behavior towards the college.

Globalisation: With the onset of globalization, there is diversity in the culture of the organization. Now the organization is not limited to one country. So the organizationsshould be more proactive and flexible and should plan to execute on global scale (Elizabeth and Minton, 2014). 

Improving Productivity and quality: Processes like total quality management, reengineering should be implemented for improving the productivity and quality. In today’s business scenario there is a lot of competition so it is important to improve productivity and quality.

Improving skills of people: Organizational behavior also helps in gaining an insight on people skills thus helps in creating effective team and better job designs.

Innovation: There should always be openness towards the innovation and creative ideas from staff members which will help in removing the monotony (Carlson, 2010). 

Work Life balance: Work life balance brings a lot satisfaction in employees towards their Job. If they are able to spend quality time with their family they will be more productive in the work. It also helps in retaining the talented employees of the organization(Tang and Liu, 2012).

Creating positive work environment and ethical behavior: Today there is more competitive pressure  organizational behavior helps in developing the human strength and foster vitality. The environment should be ethically healthy and helps in enhancement of productivity and job satisfaction.

Goal Setting: Every individual in the organisation should have goals and encouragement to achieve those goals should be the part of the process.This gives them empowerment and responsibility to succeed.

References

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