Role of organizational behavior theories in improving employee performance
Question:
Discuss About The Practices Organizational Citizens Behaviour?
In today’s competitive business world, corporations focus on hiring qualified and talented employees that are capable of efficiently performing assigned tasks. According to Wood et al. (2016), organisational behaviour assists companies in determining job performance and personality of an employee. It studies people’s behaviour in an enterprise to analyse the performance of individual and group. This essay will discuss the role of organisational behaviour theories in positively influencing employees’ performance in a firm. In recent years, corporations implement organisational behaviour strategies to enhance the productive performance of employees by maintaining a positive working environment. As per Suppiah and Singh (2011), effective organisational behaviour enables employees to interact with others positively. Leadership approach is a crucial element which assists in evaluating the impact of organisational behaviour in an enterprise and implementing various strategies to improve employees’ performance. This essay will analyse why effective care is needed from leaders while performing various business functions such as setting goals, designing jobs, working conditions and motivating employees. Further, the essay will evaluate how managers can influence productive performance of employees and impact upon different organisational processes.
Modern corporations use organisational behaviour theories for human resource purposes which assist them maximising the outputs of individual and group members. In recent years, managers pay special care while performing various business activities such as motivating employees, designing jobs, establishing positive working conditions and others in order to encourage employees’ productive performance (Snape and Redman, 2010). Managers use organisational behaviour theories to analyse the structure and processes of an enterprise to understand its internal and external interactions. While encouraging employees, managers reveal various hard and soft dimensions of their personality which they can utilise to encourage and motivate workers. There are various major contributing factors in organisational behaviour approach such as psychology, sociology, social psychology, anthropology, political science, and economics. Manager analyses these factors while developing and implement organisational behaviour theories. The psychological factors evaluate how individual behave in response to incentive and sociology analyse employee relationship with groups and others (Kashyap, 2018). Social Psychology observes individuals behaviour in threat, conflicts and stress situations. Anthropology examines customer, traditions and social norms of a company since it is a part of larger society. Political Science assesses the power, authority and corporate politics which influence corporation’s hierarchy and economics focus on monetary and non-monetary incentives to motive employees’ performance.
Job design strategies to increase employees’ productivity
Job design focus on reducing job dissatisfaction among employees and assigning them jobs based on their qualifications and skills. In recent years, managers use job design strategy to increase employees’ productive performance by offering non-monetary incentives, such as personal achievement, promotion, job satisfaction, increasing responsibilities and challenges in their jobs (Erez, 2010). Organisation use job enrichment, job rotations, job enlargement and job simplification techniques during job design process. Various organisational behaviour theories assist managers in improving the efficiency of job design process and increasing job satisfaction. The ‘Common Sense Theory (Theory X and Y)’ provides that there are different types of people in a corporation; ‘Theory X’ employees focus on monetary benefits, and they did not care about anything else whereas ‘Theory Y’ employees focus on improving their lives and independence (Sorensen and Minahan, 2011). Theory X employees are considered as lazy, unreliable and untrustworthy, whereas, Theory Y employees are moral, responsible and good for company’s development. Steve Jobs, former CEO and co-founder of Apple Incorporation, used Douglas McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y approach in the company to increase employees’ productive performance (Baker, 2013). He used this theory to motivate the team as a whole rather than managing individual staff which allowed employees to perform with full potential.
In the technology industry, job satisfaction is a key factor because most of the employees are millennials who do not prefer to work for another company and believe in establishing start-ups. High rate of retention in software companies can be reduced by Theory X and Y approach because it assists in designing jobs that satisfy employees’ requirement and increase their productive performance. Similarly, ‘Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory’ also assist corporations in job designing process because it analyses various motivators that cause job satisfaction or dissatisfaction in a company and managers can use them to positively influence employees’ performance (Tan and Waheed, 2011). Google Incorporation uses this approach to increase the satisfaction of their employees because of which company has won the title of ‘the best place to work’ many times (Fortune, 2017). Managers can implement these organisational behaviour theories into various operations in order to impact upon processes across the company, for example, implementing these policies into recruitment and selection process can allow the corporation to hire qualified employees based on job requirements.
Working conditions referred to the organisational environment which affects employees in a company such as legal rights, responsibilities, job hours, safety standards, positive relationships and others. Managers focus on establishing positive working conditions in the workplace since it encourages employees to work at their full potential. Organisational behaviour theories focus on increasing job satisfaction of employees and motivating them in order to improve their working conditions (Chiang and Hsieh, 2012). Effective conflict resolution techniques also assist managers in establishing a positive relationship between workers. Many companies implement ‘Behavioural management theory’ which provides that managers should have a better understanding of human nature, and they should treat every employee equally (Gavetti et al., 2012). The theory is based on ‘Human relation approach’ which focuses on establishing positive organisational relationships that encourage workers to perform better. Effective communication is one of the major issues in large corporations, and it reduces company’s performance because decision-making process takes a considerable amount of time. Managers can implement ‘Weber’s Theory of Bureaucracy’ to address communication issue; the theory provides that role and responsibilities should be clearly defined which assist in establishing structured, hierarchical and clear communication channels. Managers should implement this theory across different divisions in order to address issues relating to poor communication (Merz, 2011).
Motivational theories to positively influence employees’ performance
Modern corporations are facing the issue of high retention because people did not prefer to do repetitive tasks that are boring and does not require any cognitive or challenging skills. To address this issue, managers implement ‘Goal-Setting Theory’ which set achievable goals for workers that challenge them to improve their productive performance (Sullivan and Strodes, 2010). Goal setting theory enables the manager to set “SMART” goals for employees which is an acronym for smart, measurable, assignable, realistic and time-based. These goals are based on employees’ skills and qualification, and they should be clearly communicated by the managers (Zahorsky, 2018). Google Incorporation uses this strategy because it reduces employees’ dissatisfaction by providing them new roles, responsibilities, and obligations which increase job satisfaction. Motivation is another approach which is used by modern corporations to increase employees’ productive performance and job satisfaction. The ‘Expectancy Theory’ given by Porter and Layman Porter and Edward Lawler provide that employees are motivated by what they want and how likely they are going to get it.
Porter and Lawler used the model given by Victor Vroom and added new aspects to improve it. The theory provides that there are two types of rewards: intrinsic and extrinsic (Estes and Polnick, 2012). Intrinsic rewards include personal growth, achievement, accomplishment, and sense of pleasure. Extrinsic motivation is based on tangible rewards such as increase in salary, bonus, and others. Managers should offer rewards based on employees’ requirement and their performance. ‘Hierarchy of Needs’ Theory provided by Abraham Maslow is another popular motivation approach which encourages employees to increase their productive performance. The theory divided employees’ needs into five parts: physiological, security, social, self-esteem and self-actualisation (Jerome, 2013). The managers are requiring analysing employees’ requirements and providing them incentives accordingly. Kellogg’s, an American food manufacturing company, has implemented Hierarchy of Needs theory throughout its divisions in order to establish a positive relationship with employees and increase job satisfaction (Sharaf, 2014). This strategy assist company is reducing employee retention rate because it operates in food processing industry in which the work in repetitive and boring, and rate of employee retention is high.
In conclusion, the organisational behaviour is a study of individuals and group in a company which focus on increase employees’ performance and establishing positive relationships. Managers pay special care while performing various business functions such as job designing, goal setting, establishing effective working conditions, motivating workers and others. Various organisational behaviour theories encourage employees’ to increase their productive performance such as Weber’s Classic Theory, Goal-Setting Theory, Hierarchy of Needs, Common Sense Theory and others. These theories assist managers in addressing various organisational issues which negatively influence employees’ performance. Following recommendations can assist managers in encouraging employees’ productive performance and influencing processes across the organisation.
Effective working conditions to encourage employees to work at their full potential
Modern corporations should analyse their workplace environment and business structure before implementing an organisational behaviour theory because one theory cannot apply to different companies and managers should develop a strategy based on firm’s requirements. The organisational behaviour theory should also be flexible, so it can be transformed by rapidly changing market conditions. The organisational behaviour theory should be similar and applied across different division of an organisation, or else it can give rise to employee disputes because one division might receive better incentives than others which create organisational conflict. These recommendations can be implemented by companies to encourage their employees’ productive performance which provides them a competitive advantage and sustains their future growth.
References
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Estes, B. and Polnick, B. (2012) Examining motivation theory in higher education: An expectancy theory analysis of tenured faculty productivity. International Journal of Management, Business, and Administration, 15(1), pp.1-7.
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Jerome, N. (2013) Application of the Maslow’s hierarchy of need theory; impacts and implications on organizational culture, human resource and employee’s performance. International Journal of Business and Management Invention, 2(3), pp.39-45.
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Merz, F. (2011) Max Weber’s Theory of Bureaucracy and its Negative Consequences. Grin Verlag.
Sharaf, A. (2014) Kellogg’s strategy (K-Values) of motivating employees. [Online] LinkedIn. Available at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140722081552-40947926-kellogg-s-strategy-k-values-of-motivation-of-employees [Accessed 17th January 2018].
Snape, E. and Redman, T. (2010) HRM practices, organizational citizenship behaviour, and performance: A multi?level analysis. Journal of Management Studies, 47(7), pp.1219-1247.
Sorensen, P.F. and Minahan, M. (2011) McGregor’s legacy: the evolution and current application of Theory Y management. Journal of Management History, 17(2), pp.178-192.
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Suppiah, V. and Singh Sandhu, M. (2011) Organisational culture’s influence on tacit knowledge-sharing behaviour. Journal of knowledge management, 15(3), pp.462-477.
Tan, T.H. and Waheed, A. (2011) Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory and job satisfaction in the Malaysian retail sector: The mediating effect of love of money.
Wood, J.M., Zeffane, R.M., Fromholtz, M., Wiesner, R., Morrison, R., Factor, A., McKeown, T., Schermerhorn, J.R., Hunt, J.G. and Osborn, R.N. (2016) Organisational behaviour: Core concepts and applications. John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd..
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