Organization and Behavior

Behaviour at Work

Kis Noemi

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Subject 1:

Organizational Structure:

Formal Structure:Every organization can be classified in a few different ways. In the following article will speak about the different classification of organizations.Objective of an organization is to establish a network in the company so that everything can be controlled. Having this kind of network is easier to identify people who work together. If an organization is structured, it’s easier to allocate different tasks to the suitable groups. Each task can be allocated to the group who deals with such issues (ex.: sales, accounting, production)Every such group must have a leader who controls the others.Having different departments in an organization it’s a good thing, as each of them deals with the appropriate task; so they don’t necessarily get involved in other departments issues. In order the meet the objective the organization must keep clear line of communication and departments must be able to work together.

Informal Structure:As every organization is made up of humans, there is an informal structure that is flexible. This is when people meet up for coffee or lunch and speak about work, so this way they share ideas and information’s. The flow of information is better, as they also share information about informal customs, unwritten rules and how employees can get things done faster. Informal organization always exist alongside formal one, and generally makes employees happier having a more interpersonal relationship. The informal organization can take over, if the employees are not happy and short cuts will be created, so the manager’s effort is very important in order to keep the information flow, and to keep a constructive work relationship.

An organization structure is made up of different activities: task delegation, supervision, and coordination, with the aim of achieving the organizational goal. Depending on the organizational goal, the structure can vary and will determine the mode in which it performs. The organizational structure provides the base on what standard operating procedures the company operates, and also shows how much individuals get involved in decision-making processes.If an organization is hierarchical, the structure will show how much free flow of communication is allowed in organization, and also clearly shows to which extent the duties are delegated, and how different levels of management communicate with each other.

Different things influence an organizational structure. Its size, as the organization grows, subdivisions are required, the communication will become more complex, the top management will be very far from the bottom of the organization.Its task, depending on what the organization is specialized on, there is a big difference on how much supervision needed on each staff.The environment the organization works in; they can reduce the number of employees due to specialization. Its age, young people run an organization, so its more experimental then an organization ran by older, traditional people. Culture and management style, how much democracy is between employees?

The organizational structure also depends on the authority and power between the employees or the different levels of management or sub-divisions.Span of control: if a supervisor has 5 employees to supervise, the span of control is 5. If there are to many employees to supervise, they might not get enough attention, but if there are just a few of them, they might get “over-supervised”.The span of control depends on few things: the manager’s way of work, the nature of his work, the employee’s work, and the communication between employees.

Tall and flat: depending on the size of the organization, and the hierarchical level between management, it’s tall if there are a lot of hierarchy between management and flat if there is less. A Tall organization has narrow span of control, while a flat organization has wide span of control. Both Tall and flat organizations have things for them and against:

Positive things in Tall Is that has narrow span of control, has small teams, and employees can enjoy lots of different promotions. This consists of facts that the information passes threw way too many people, so there could be communicational problems, strict supervision.

Positive things in Flat are that there is more opportunity for delegation, and managers have not so strict supervision on employees. The fact that there are less management level, speeds up the communication.

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Organizational structures are changing more and more. Because of the It departments less managers are required, better flow of information, and most businesses give authority to front line workers.

Organizations can be also described as centralized and decentralized organization.Centralized is when just the top management makes all major decisions, and decentralized when different levels of management can equally take decisions and the decision making process can be delegated. Good things in centralization are that the same upper management makes decisions, these people have great experience, and as they take all major decisions, they have a wide picture of the organization. Decisions will be also consistent, and they can be made very quickly, as no need to refer back to other departments. Could be also cheaper as fewer managers are needed.In case of decentralization, top managers wont be overloaded with huge amount of decisions to be made. Juniors working at the company can get more experience in making decisions, and they will be also more motivated as they feel more responsibility. With nowadays advanced communication technology, decisions are made quicker, and the head office can still take part of these decisions if any advice needed.

By Geography:When we speak about regional departmentation, the organization has different offices in different regions, where the authority is in the head office and the smaller regional offices deal with the day-to-day operations and decisions. Unfortunately in this case inconsistency may arise due to different standards or even cultural background, needs more employees to handle these cases in all regions. It might be cheaper to run an organization in this way, as there is no cost of transportation, travelling.

By Function:In this kind of organization, employees who do similar tasks will be grouped together.The benefits of this that each group will be expert in their fields, the recruitment and training will be easier. Disadvantages consist of lack of customer-focused vision, and that’s what ultimately drives a business to success. These departments might focus more on their area of expertise so communicational problems might arise between these departments.

By Product or Brand, The functional departments of the organization remain but as example the division manager will be responsible for the product line.Each manager will be responsible for the profitability of the organization, or the salespeople will need to be experts in selling the products. Unfortunately this increases the overhead costs of the organization.

Matrix organization product managers share authority and they are coordinators of all different functions. Functional departments will be responsible for their own employees and products managers will be responsible for the functional departments.

Multifunctional team is a group of employees working together from different functional areas of the company, in order to work on problems where their area of expertise will be used. The head of the team will be the managing director and the production manager, sales manager, financial manager, Hr manager and so on will work together. This kind of organization will eliminates barriers between operating departments, increased enthusiasm at work, quality of work will improve.Might cause excessive time spent in meetings, conflicts between these teams. Multidivisional structure is when an organization has different products lines and they are placed into different business units. Each division will have its own sub division for marketing, sales production and so on. The corporate headquarter staff will decide how much finance will give to each of them, and control them. In this case decision-making will be at each division level, growth of each organization is easier, and their performance is easier to measure. Disadvantaged consist of communication problems between divisions, competition.

Each organization is structured on 3 levels trying to connect its employees:-Cluster of individuals-connecting individuals of different divisions, teams-Connection of teams in a company-connecting different companies

We can also differentiate 3 types of organizational network structures.Internal network: are single firms in which divisions are given freedom the buy and sell from each other, and they employ price-transforming mechanism.Vertical or stable networks are organizations that outsource operations to other companies. This is very common in manufacturing industries to support product diversity and innovation.

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Dynamic network is the most flexible one. The organizations will connect temporarily usually organized around a brokering firm. These units, divisions are independent and they work together on a special project just for a period of time. When organizations work in networks, they can maximize the effectiveness and can operate with fewer employees, although they can create control problems. The organizations cannot see anymore the quality of the outsourced areas.

With the change the market, managers of successful companies realized there is a need for a “New Organization”. This should adopt a lot of flexibility in between divisions and its Teams.The structure should be Flat as they are more responsive and the hierarchy is less. Decentralized will mean a flexible workforce, and decisions made in different levels of the organizations. Costumer focused instead of focusing much on internal processes. And the organization needs mobile employees who can easily change their workplaces and be flexible within the carrier instead of settling in a job of one field.

Subject 2:

Organizational structure is the framework by which the company communicates, achieves its goals, and manages its employees. Looking at this structure we should clearly understand the rules and the way the company works. As we saw earlier, we can list different organizational structures, each of them have things and against them. For an organization to be good its must be efficient, therefor a clear hierarchy of command must be set, and employees should respect this hierarchy. Every employees work role must be clearly defined and good communication should be kept within all teams. In this way everyone in the company can understand whom they report to, and where to go in case of a problem. This puts also more pressure on personal performance, and employees could feel also that they give valuable input into the organization.All outcomes should be monitored and if needed action taken against employees who don’t perform well, if needed training can be introduced.In my idea a flat organizational structure is better then the tall, as there is more options for delegation, and more equality between people. This gives also more freedom of speech to employees, and people who have “bright-ideas” might share them easier. Decentralization might work better too, as helps junior managers to develop quick problem solving skills, and the organization can also find in this way the future managers. In todays business a good organizational structure must be able to change to adapt to the growing market expectations, and more costumer-focused mentality is needed. If there is a change of structure needed for a better business, the structure of the organization should be able to take these changes and employees should be also flexible and easier to relocate to other departments or into new roles.

Subject 3.

“Culture is a collective self-image and style of the organization; its shared values and beliefs, norms and symbols” – Business Essentials, Organization and behavior-2013.

Culture of an Organization can develop in different ways, and there are certain factors influencing it, like: Economic conditions: financial wealth can bring up new and smart ideas, whereby recession

depression. Nature of the business: the tasks employees have to deal with will influence their work

environment. Leadership style: how much authority is used in the organization structure, and how involved

employees feel in decision making Policies and practices: how much trust is between employees or employees and managers Structure: how flexible and controlled the organization structure is Characteristics of the workforce: the culture of the organization will depend on the demographic

nature of the employees, sex, and age…

The culture will consist of the following aspects: The basic assumptions like trust in organization, or its quality, customer orientation, innovation

level. Overt belief of the organization, where management could pressure employees to share the same

values Visible artifacts like dress rules or communication between managers and average employees Symbols, used to indicate the culture of the organization Rules, what employees are allowed to do Rituals and ceremonies, regular celebrations together will also sustain the culture

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There are 4 different types of cultures that we can differentiate:1. Power culture or Zeus, where its founder controls the organization. In these organizations the

main decision makes is the founder, other employees will have to follow his wish. Usually its not strictly structured, and it can easily adapt to a change. This culture works better in smaller organizations where the “boss” can easily communicate with its employees. Empathic initiative is strongly required for this type.

2. Role culture or Apollo, where there are clearly defined roles for every employee. Works well in big organizations, although good communication must be implemented. This style can be slowly adept to changes.

3. Task culture or Athena.There is no clear leader, and a team will work together on a project with the goal to get it done. Individuals are usually experts in their field. These organizations are usually flexible, the result matters. These cultures are expensive and the individuals are experts. Young energetic people are more attracted to these types of organization, and their job satisfaction can be high as they all participate in achieving the goal together

4. Person Culture or Dionysus where the organizations serves the individual. This type is quite rare.The culture of the organization is very important, as it can motivate people working in it. It can make them feel valued, trusted. Its important for an organization to use good values instead of rules and controls. It can motivate innovation, customer care. Also affects the image of the organization.

Subject 4:

The organizations I choose are the well known Apple and Emirates.Organizational culture is an idea in the field of organizational studies and management, which describes the psychology, attitudes, experiences, beliefs, and values (personal and cultural values) of an organization. It has been defined as "the specific collection of values and norms that are shared by people and groups in an organization and that control the way they interact with each other and with stakeholders outside the organization."Apple:

The corporate culture of apple has been changing since its been made, thus stiffness and regulation is just not on the ist of policies that are set in place. Even Steve Jobs the companies CEO would walk in the office barefoot when the company was already one of the most successful companies in the world. This reflects the casual atmosphere In the company, where is no dress code, flexible working periods and hierarchy of roles is blurred. Apple managed to create this environment where geeks were encouraged to work hard and not count how much time they spent in the office, as the environment they worked in was so pleasant.Apple is a very typical fledging company along with companies like Google. Some of the founders of Apple left or retired, and the leaving of the formal CEO, Steve Jobs, led to a change in its culture, but Apple never lost touch of its reputation for nurturing individuality and excellence among its people, especially upon the return of Steve Jobs as chief executive. This draws the countries most talented ad technologically capable people to its employ.

Apple’s Organizational Structure used to be quite simple, back in the time of Steve Jobs, he wouldn’t really want different departments to collaborate much with each other, and everything flowed threw him.

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As we can see from the chart below, the organizational structure is horizontal, flat and decentralized. The main figure in the company is Steve Jobs, everyone reports to him directly, and the rest of the management were quite equal between each other, but the most important thing is that everyone reported to him.

Apple organizational culture is very secretive, even in the company not many employees know exactly what’s the new product, and what are the features. Experts have associated the innovation at Apple with its corporate culture, where the work culture was driven by passion for new products with no end to challenges and opportunities. Apples corporate culture was exemplified by its intense work ethics. Even thought he work environment was casual there were strong commitments to deadlines.

My second organization chosen is Company where I work now, Emirates.Emirates airline was founded in 1985, started up as a small airline, and now in 2014 became one of the top brands in aviation, and employs 65000 employees, who belong to 160 different nationalities.Emirates believes in the following statements:“We firmly believe our employees are our greatest asset and their contribution to the staggering pace at which we have developed cannot be underestimated.”“Without them it would not have been possible and we acknowledge this with a range of excellent benefits, including a generous profit share scheme, and programs designed to help them fulfill their career goals.” –emirates.comEmirates has a lot of departments and I believe In each department every employee is treated in a different way. In the cabin crew department, the culture is task focused. There is a huge turnover on the crew, as also for the company it is not beneficial to have crew working for long time. The company wants flexible crew, who is young and attractive, and does anything for the company without questioning. If crew falls sick, they will be called in office easily. Also there is a negative culture, which I believe it’s an outcome of this rapid growth, as there are very different and demotivating procedures introduced. As Emirates is one of the fastest growing companies, might be this culture what they need to implement for it to grow so quickly, and to make the most out of the crew who work there.

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Though looking at other departments of emirates must better to work for, mainly the ones in head office. As there is no Union, its very different then other companies, like the ones in Europe or North America.Though the great thing in Emirates, that it has very young fleet, so the company its like a “new organization” it is able to innovate itself and to change things in management, or whatever it needs to be done in order to continue being successful. The organizational structure at Emirates is Tall and Centralized.

Comparing the culture at Apple at Emirates, they are very different.The Apple culture is a power culture, at least is used to be in the time of Steve Jobs, where everything happened around him. He would make all the big decisions in the company.Emirates is a Role culture, where every employee knows what they are responsible for, and who do they report directly.

Subject 5:

Oftentimes, employees work harder to achieve organizational goals if they consider themselves to be part of the corporate culture. Different cultures operating in one company can also impact employee performance. For example, if the organization maintains a reserved “talk when necessary” culture, employees may work accordingly; however, if the organization allows one area, say the sales team, to be outspoken and socially active, the organization may experience rivalries among areas. Thus, allowing an area to set up their own culture can affect the performance of the employees deployed elsewhere in the company.Organizations must structure their recruitment processes to attract and engage incumbents with the same beliefs and values that constitute the organization’s culture. This ensures the new employee’s assimilation to the company and further strengthens corporate culture. Companies should also ensure that they align corporate culture with performance management systems. When culture and management systems are not aligned, management must redirect them so that employee behavior results in the achievement of organizational goals.

Subject 6: Personality encompasses a person’s relatively stable feelings, thoughts, and behavioral patterns. Each of us has a unique personality that differentiates us from other people, and understanding someone’s personality gives us clues about how that person is likely to act and feel in a variety of situations. To manage effectively, it is helpful to understand the personalities of different employees. Having this knowledge is also useful for placing people into jobs and organizations.

We can differentiate The big five personality Traits:

Openness: Curious, original, intellectual, creative and open to new ideasConscientiousness: organized, systematic, punctual, achievement, oriented and dependableExtraversion: outgoing, talkative, sociable, and enjoys being in social situationsAgreeableness: affable, tolerant, sensitive, trusting, kind and warmNeuroticism: anxious, irritable, temperamental and moody

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“Perception is the psychological process by which stimuli or in-coming sensory data are selected and organized into patterns, which are meaningful to the individual.” – business essentials, organization and behavior-2013

Perception affects all senses: sight, touch, taste, smell, and hearing. Includes input to person, and choice of inputs to which the person attendsStimulus sources: people, events, physical objects, and ideasHelps adaptation to a changing environment.It is important for the managers to create a positive working environment, as employees will perform better if they perceive things in a positive way.

“Attitudes are our general standpoint o things: the positions we have adopted in regard to particular issues, things and people, as we perceive them”.Attitudes contain 3 basic components:Knowledge, beliefs or disbeliefs, perceptionsFeelings and desiresVolition, will or intention to perform an action

Our attitude towards something shows what we think and feel about the subject. It can also identify attitudes to things, and people should be able to anticipate how they will react to certain things.

Behavior at work can be influenced by:Attitudes at work: the feelings towards the organization, work conditions, etcAttitudes at work: the attitude what people have towards things like religion, politics, education, etc.

There are also non-work factors that can influence our attitude at work: Class and class consciousness Age Culture Lifestyle and interest Sex

Abilities and skills also affects ones behavior at work. A person can perform well in an organization if his abilities and skills are matched with the job requirement.in this managers play a very important role, and they suppose to match the abilities of the employee with the job requirement.

Subject 7: Organizational theory describer how different cultures manage to work together, what are the challenges that multinational and global companies are facing nowadays because of the mix of cultures, employees nowadays are more and more diverse, from different age groups and ethnical backgroundsAcademic institutions like the Harvard Business School made researches, and multinational companies, organizations use them to innovate themselves and to find ways to work better and more efficient with these diverse groups, in order for the company to be more efficient and to achieve its strategic goals.These Theories describe the code of conduct of the organization and explain how behaviors observed result in successful ventures, and explains how the organization manages its operation processes and intellectual capital.

Scientific management: In the early 1900, Frederick Winslow Taylor examined workers productivity.In his theory, managers needed to identify the best way of performing operational tasks and teach workers how to complete work efficiently.Managers responsibility is to hire the right people, train them them well, and help them to perform their jobs properly. In his theory management has to be clearly defined with fixed principles, rather then people depending on hazy ideas.

Classical administration:Henri Fayol, was a French industrialist who also lived in the early 1900 came up with the concept of the “universality of management principles” otherwise in all tall organizations should be structured and managed according to certain rational principles.

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Division of work or specialization, otherwise people should stick to what they do the best

Matched authority and responsibility. Managers should get rights to perform tasks and also they should be held accountable for them

The scalar chain of command, in a organizational structure hierarchy should always go from top to bottom.

Unity of command Subordination of individual interest

Bureaucracy: Was developed by Max Weber(1947). It is similar to Fayol’s hierarchy. The idea is to design procedures to reduce individual initiative.He identified the following reasons, why employees obeyed commands:

Charismatic leadership, where a manager has some special skills or personality Traditional or patriarchal leadership: where authority is passed down in the

“monarchy” Bureaucracy: managers are given the authority to carry out tasks. Rules and

regulations are established. The organization is separated into different divisions, and each has their specified duties.

An appraisal on classical administration.Many organizations were managed on the classical theory. However with the changing business of the late 20th century, organizations must be flexible and innovative in order to compete with each other. Managers have to be multi skilled and must be able to produce principles and techniques for greater efficiency.

Subject 8: Functions of management include the following:Basic Framework:

Planning: set the goals the organization needs to achieve and set the policies and procedures how to get there.

Organizing: set the roles for the employees and what they are expected to do, and whom to report.

Commanding: Motivate the employees and supervise them Co-coordinating: management should try and harmonize the goals of the

organization with the goals of the individuals, and focus on organizational objectives

Controlling: Monitor the procedures and the jobs of everyone, if things are done within the timeframe set. Mistakes must be corrected and addressed.

Managing Tasks: or otherwise coordinating labor, time, information, material, finance…Planning should avoid uncertainty. In order for an organization to be successful, individuals need to understand the common goals, and individual expectations. That’s why planning is very important. If this is done the workflow will be continuous, work will be done quickly, and without duplications, good quality fo work will be implemented.Management should set the objectives of the organizations, so everyone can follow them. If this is not done, people will follow their own objectives, which will create chaos. Planning its very important from strategic, tactical and operational point of view. We can also differentiate different types of plan:

Objectives, or end goals Strategies, long term plan of the organization Policies: guidelines how the management functions Procedures: the actions how the work is done. Rules: how the organization functions, what’s allowed and what are the policies Programs: Budgets: is the result of the activity, which can be then checked and compared to

the plans, to see weather the work was successful. The process of planning and controlling is called the control cycle, that has 6 stages:

1. Making a plan2. Carrying out the plan3. Monitoring and measuring4. Comparing feedback5. Evaluating the comparison6. Implementing corrective action

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Fayol wrote about the organization management, and he also outlined that they must use commanding however interpersonal dimensions are the most important values of the management.Management are also leaders, they can encourage positive atmosphere at workplace. They are should have great communicational skills, and able to resolve conflicts, and should collaborate always with other managers in order to achieve the goals of the organization. They represent the organization; therefore they should always be extremely professional.

Peter ducker worked for a number of US business companies and he realized working as a manager for a business company is more complex then any other managerial job, as they have to manage business, manage managers, manage the workers and the work.

Subject 9: “Authority is the right to do something or get others to do it”Responsibility is liability of a person called to account for the way he was exercised the authority given to him. It is an obligation to do something, or to get others to do it. Every organization should give the right to each manager to carry out different tasks. The scope and amount of authority should be clearly defined.

“Delegation is a process whereby superior A gives subordinate B authority over a defined area which falls within the scope of A’s own authority”.Otherwise if a manager decides t delegate a Task, he will be still accountable for the task and the decisions what the other individual took.

“Accountability is the duty of the individual to report to his superior to account for how he has used his delegated authority and fulfilled his responsibilities”.

In a large organization managers will have to delegate some tasks due to different reasons, like:-High workload, or the task is less important and subordinate can do it, chance for subordinates to take part in decision making and they also have to learn the process of decision making. However in real life some managers are afraid from delegating, because they have low confidence in staff, or they don’t want to be accountable for possible mistakes done by subordinates. There might be communicational problems in the organization, or just desire to be in contact with everyone, and when they delegate, they might feel loss of power.

“Power is the ability to do something, or get others to do it.”The difference between power and authority is that the person who has power can make people do things, while a person with authority might have the right to have individuals do something, but they are not able to do it because of lack of power. The following types of power exist:Psychical power, used in army or prison Personal power, if a person is popularPosition power, its associated with a job positionResource power, for example managers who have control of resourcesExpert power, when an individual holds knowledge and expertise need by others.

Another important managerial function is Conflict handling. Conflict can arise between individuals, teams, and departments, between different levels of management. “Organizational conflict arises from behavior intended to obstruct the achievement of some other persons goals.”-Business Essentials, Organization and Behavior.Some people think conflict is avoidable, while others argue its inevitable. Conflict can be managed in the following ways:

Avoidance: when one part senses the conflict and avoids it, but this put hold also on the solution of the problem.

Smoothing Compromise, where the 2 parts try to understand each other’s views, and looking

for acceptable solutions. Confrontation, where the 2 parties openly confront each other, try to face the

problem and come up with the solution for both of them. Forcing, or ones pushes her view on the other party.

Subject 10:

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The “Human Relations” approach stresses on the importance of human attitudes, values and relationships, in order for an organization to work well.

1. Neo-human relations. Herzberg suggested the design of a work, where there is positive work relationship and supervisory style along with pay. This would satisfy employees and would motivate them to work harder.

2. The system approach is described as an entity, which consists of interdependent parts. Every system consists of what’s inside and outside of the system. In this system the organizations is an open system, because the individuals who work in it are in contact with the environment, when they go to work, they bring all sort of influences from the environment, like political influences, family pressures, personal problems, etc. The organization itself takes in all sorts of inputs from the environment, and generates outputs a result to its activities.

3. The contingency approaches to organization that there are “universal principles” how to design an organization. Though threw all what I wrote before from the organization, we can see, that there is no strict rule on how to run an organization, for it, to work in the best way. The most important thing is to see the “big picture” of the organization.Managers must find the best possible way to communicate between the Task, people and environment.

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