Free Managing Issues at Work Place Essay Sample

Organizational behavior is a field of study which investigates the impact that individual, groups and structure have on behavior within organizations. This is done towards improving the effectiveness of an organization. Systematic study is done by looking at relationships which point at the causes and effects of these behaviors. It also draws conclusions based on scientific evidence. This study provides away of predicting behaviors. There are different disciplines which contribute to the organizational behavior such as: psychology which seeks to measure, explain and change the behavior of humans and other animals, Sociology which is a study of people in relation to their fellow human beings, Social psychology which is an area that combines both sociology and psychology and focuses on the influence of people on one another, Anthropology which is the study of societies to learn more about human beings and their activities and Political science which is the study of the behavior of individuals and groups within a political environment. The mission of organizational behavior is to use the concepts of behavioral sciences to the pressing problems of management and administrative theory and practice. A number of strategies are used when dealing with organizational behavior. Closed -systems perspective and open-systems perspective. In my analysis I will use open-systems perspective. Human sentiments, attitudes, technological and sociological forces originating outside the organizations have a greater role in analyzing organizational behavior. I will use the open perspective because it is a contemporary and more meaningful in dealing with organizations and human behavior within them.

I will examine the individuals, small groups within an organization, and the complex organization at large. To begin with, I will look at perception and specify three characteristics of the perceptual process. Opinion is characterized as a selective activity. People cannot identify all the stimuli confronting them from the neighboring environment. Thus, it is safe to say that decision-making action usually takes place on the basis of imperfect or unfinished information. The stimuli that are selected are usually those that strengthen the attitudes of the perceiver.

Perception is further characterized by conclusion. Even though people selectively screen ecological stimuli, they fill in gaps and complete the perceptual picture as if they had complete information. Finally, perception takes place within a context. The context helps people to orient themselves to reality. In practical terms, the perceptual process is important is important to management because this process determines the quantity and quality of information upon which decisions are made. Learning is discussed as a cognitive process. A distinction is made between classical and instrumental conditioning, in classical conditioning a stimulus is presented prior to or simultaneously with a response. In instrumental conditioning a response occurs in anticipation of some consequence. In recent years some of the most important implications of learning theory for management have been in the area of motivation. The cognitive process of human problem solving has been examined. It's noted that few real-world situations, present individuals with one, and only one, course of action. Usually, one must make a choice among alternatives and engage in problem solving. Applications of problem solving were shown to be evident in the managerial activity of decision making. Two approaches to decision making have been analyzed. Normative decision theory tells us how decisions ought to be made if maximizing behavior is to be achieved. Behavioral decision theory tells us how decisions are actually made and does not attempt to prescribe normative procedure

I have discussed of the small group and I have illustrated the importance of the small group within the broader topic of organizational behavior. Small group has been defined as a collection of interacting individuals who have common goals, similar values, and a structure of relationships. Groups come in a variety of forms, depending on the classification schema utilized.

The problem of defining the size of a small group is particularly troublesome. Because of their uniqueness, dyads and triads are considered special cases. Consequently, the main body of small-group theory that we discussed was related to groups of four or more, up to some theoretical limit where personal interaction is no longer possible.

One of the more important characteristics discussed is the nature of normative behavior in groups. An extremely complex relationship exists among such factors as group norms, conformity, cohesiveness, and group performance. Since performance is a manager's primary concern, care has been taken to examine this interrelationship in detail.

I have also looked at the relationship between the individuals and the organization. I have found that there is a conflict between the individual and the mature organization. This conflict produces frustration and apathy on the part of the organization members. On looking on how the organization relate with the environmental forces I used two models. The machine- model of organization which tends to minimize the importance of environmental factors that alters organization behaviors and the open system model which recognizes the importance of organizational-environmental interaction.  A view of organizational behavior shows that environmental forces are known as determinants of structure.

Using different methodologies, I have looked at issues arising in UBS. Interviews have been conducted on the workers, managers and small group working in this organization. Questionnaires, document analysis and direct or indirect observation have also been employed in this activity. After thorough investigation I found many issues in organization on managing its people. Human resource manager has a major role in the management of an organization. He is involved in evolving change in competitive market environment and the realization of any organizations success.

One of the problems we have at the UBS is work place diversity. The future of any organizations depends on the ability to manage a diverse body of talent that may bring innovative ideas, perspectives and views to their work. Challenges and other issues arising in an organization can be turned into a strategic organization asset if an organization is able to major on this pot of diverse talents. An organization like UBS can respond to business opportunities in the global arena if it uses this mixture of talents of different background, gender ages and lifestyles. Furthermore if an organization fails to support diversity it might loose talents to other organizations. This is the case at the UBS since it is a multinational company which has operations at global scale and employs people of different cultures and countries. Since working in a financial company you have to be a team these workers experience problems in their work place since they come from different countries and have different personality. As a human resource manager employing broad workforce will therefore be the most effective in growing their businesses and their customer base.

As part of recommendation on this problem there are several ways that a HR manager can adopt in ensuring effective management of workplace diversity so that the company can achieve its goals. They are:

Planning a Mentoring Program. one of the best ways to handle workplace diversity issues is through initiating a Diversity Mentoring Program this involves different departmental managers in coaching and getting information from employees who might be different from them. It is however good to provide these managers or coaches with the necessary information from experts on this field for these programs to run smoothly. Mostly, such programs encourage organization's members to air their opinions and learn how to resolve conflicts due to their diversity. In addition Diversity Mentoring Program seeks to encourage members to move beyond their own civilizing frame of reference to recognize and take full benefit of the output potential inherent in a different population.

Organizing Talents Strategically is another. Many companies are now realizing the advantages of a diverse workplace. As more and more companies are going global in their market expansions either physically or virtually there is a need to employ varied talents to understand the various niches of the market. HR Manager must be able to organize the pool of diverse talents strategically for the organization. He or She should consider how a diverse labor force can enable the company to attain new markets and other organizational goals in order to join the full potential of workplace diversity. A company that sees the existence of a diverse workforce as an organizational asset rather than a liability would indirectly help the organization to positively take in its stride some of the less positive aspects of workforce diversity.

HR should be the one leading the talk to advocate a diverse workforce by making diversity clear at all managerial levels. Without doing this some of the employees will conclude that there is no future for them in the company. As the HR Manager, it is pertinent to show respect for diversity issues and promote clear and positive responses to them. He or She must also show a high level of commitment and be able to resolve issues of workplace diversity in an ethical and responsible manner.

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A HR Manager must control and measure organizational assessments on issues like pay, benefits, work environment, management and promotional opportunities to assess the progress over the long term. There is also a need to develop appropriate measuring tools to measure the impact of diversity initiatives at the organization through organization-wide feedback surveys and other methods. Without proper control and evaluation, some of these diversity initiatives may just fizzle out, without resolving any real problems that may surface due to workplace diversity.

Another problem according to research is the level of motivation. What makes motivation a complex issue is that different individuals and groups have very different beliefs about the nature of success and about what supports or prevents success? People working in teams may define success differently than when they are working alone. Even very similar people within a culture express a dizzying variety of definitions of "success" and beliefs about the factors that enable and inhibit success so the variety is not only due to our increasingly multi-cultural work force. Since UBS is a global company with different people from different cultures it is highly affected by this problem.

Some workers who are confronted with barriers decide to confront and overcome them and others quickly decide to avoid and withdraw and so they have differences in their tendencies to avid or overcome these problems. Many people work for money and recognition and others will work for the sheer joy of doing incredible work or learning something new. Some of them are very effective at regulating their own motivation by ignoring the de-motivators and creating the conditions that creates personal success. All of them depend on coaches and friends for special motivational support. Most of them work with different values and styles in diverse situations.  The question now arises on how we make sense of such wonderful range and turn it to our advantage as performance technologists.

Most of the workers in the work place lack motivation materials room to advance what they know. The environment does not allow them expound on their skills. Work motivation is the process that encourages goal aimed performance. It adds energy to employees and makes them forget on the other challenges they face in life or within the organization. It generates mental energy that drives workers into applying their skills.  Workers if not well motivated they refuse to work hard even the most capable. Motivation leads the workers to invest more effort to enable quality and quantity work. Thus, motivational performance gaps exist whenever people avoid starting something new, resist doing something familiar, stop doing something important and switch their attention to a less valued task, or refuse to work well on a new challenge and instead use old, familiar but inadequate solutions to solve a new problem. On observations people work with no joy in their hearts and you can clearly tell that they only work because they are paid. When they are asked if they are happy in their places, many will say yes considering that if they say no they might loose their positions. However if they are encouraged and made to make their decisions while in work place they can do better.

On my investigation I came across some of the common organizational and managerial practices that destroy motivation. Some of the organizations are unfair and tell lies.  Managers refuse to keep promises or favor their families and friends. Since motivation is all about perceptions, the deeds of these managers are perceived as hypocritical and unfair. This continuous behavior leads to demoralization and people are discouraged. When workers see these things happen the best for them is to be mature enough, that is, ignore and continue working hard. However if dishonest and unfairness is directed to a worker, whether he or she is mature he will not work hard. Trust is also very vital to both workers and managers. Motivation is seen in an organization when there are no traces of unfairness, dishonesty prejudice or hypocrisy.

People can loose their motivation if there is sudden change of goals. If in an organization there are no clear well defined goals, people may substitute their own goals which may not correspond to the organization goals. Vagueness and inconsistency in a work environment make many people to assume that everything is right while this is not true. Increased work motivation is supported by solid and demanding work goals that are focused on the short term, that is, today, this week or this month. Everyone should know what they are expected to do this month and next. On the other hand, unworkable goals often damage motivation. The only exemption to this rule is when people assume that the organization could not be serious and so take to mean an impossible goal as directives to work harder.

Unnecessary rules, policy and work barriers are also major de-motivators at work. In some organizations people cannot talk or eat at work place, they cannot decorate their work places and they must be in certain dress codes. Even the most committed and devoted people quit in what they call arbitrary barriers. The only way of motivating these people is by eliminating all the arbitrary rules, policies and procedures.

Negative or prejudicial feedback is another that de-motivates the workers. This is where managers and supervisors watch over workers untill they make mistakes and jump on them. They act with anger or remind them of their past mistakes. When many of the workers are faced with this kind of feed back they feel discouraged and depressed forcing them to stop trying. Negative emotion is one of the biggest killers of motivation.  Negative feedback that focuses on mistakes actually kills performance.

However, it is crucial to note that motivation does not directly influence work performance. Instead, motivation leads workers to use their knowledge and skills and apply them effectively to work tasks.  Motivation is the force that initiates, starts, energizes and continues the application of their experience and expertise. Successful performance always involves the cooperation of motivation and knowledge in supportive work environments. Without adequate knowledge, motivation alone will not increase useful performance. Thus adequate motivation is necessary, but not sufficient for effective performance.

Motivation is the result of our beliefs about what makes us successful and effective. Workers according to investigation value the goals, working conditions and incentives that they believe will contribute to their success. They avoid situations that will prevent them from achieving their goals.  Money and recognition are nearly common motivators because they widely seem as indicators and facilitators of success for many. . On the other hand, we avoid circumstances that we think will delay, slow down or prevent the achievement of objectives. (Spitzer, 1995)

Recommendations

Since most of the strategies that develops motivation are easy and cost very little to implement it is commendable that workers are motivated in their work places. There are three points that leads to motivation. These are; building realistic levels of self confidence, positive emotion and personal values for work tasks.

Mangers and other key leaders should help people develop self-confidence in their work skills. What people believe they can do and ability to achieve their performance goals they should be free to do so. However it should not be that general but when a person says that has skills on a certain field, he should do that. If people lack confidence that they can succeed in a certain goal, they will not choose to tackle that task. On the same issue they should not be overconfident since they will not employ much effort and they may end up making mistakes it is therefore vital to understand what one belief to know. To help those who do not have confidence managers should check with them to learn their concerns and what will help them build confidence.

Another is by creating a positive emotional environment at work. Positive emotions such as joy humor, happiness support and influence work commitment while negative emotions such as anger, extreme frustration and depression kill it. Depression and anger focuses most on the past other than the future goals. Managers and organizations as large should help workers maintain positive emotions that consequently lead to maximum commitment. You can allow people listen to music while working if it does not reduce the amount of work. You can eliminate policies that reduce work enjoyment but limit it so that people remain committed.  Also by encouraging everyone to be enthusiastic, positive and supportive.

Support the development of strong personal values for performance goals. All of the advices on performance motivation up are viewed as ways to enhance people's beliefs that if they make a strong commitment and persist at their performance goals, they will become more effective. Personal confidence and emotions are intimately connected with effectiveness beliefs. Our confidence is a measure of our belief about how our own ability or how organizational processes will support (or prevent) our success and effectiveness. Some of our strong emotions are the product of our reasoning and experience about how effective or ineffective we have been and will continue to be in our work environment. Values are one of the three powerful ways people express their views about what they expect will make them effective (or reduce their effectiveness). People value what they believe helps them, and they reject what they believe stands in their way. Values can be viewed as preferences that lead people to more quickly adopt a course of action and persist in the face of distractions. Of course, different people have different values. Yet research on values and performance suggests that there may be ways to identify types of values and connect them to work goals. The goal here is to increase people's work commitment by suggesting connections between their own values and the benefit of achieving work goals. (Clark, 2002)

 

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