The Many Levels Of Organizational Behavior
South University Online
MGT3002 | Organizational Behavior
Week 5 Final Project
The Many Levels Of Organizational Behavior
Organizational behavior is the applied science that studies contributions made to the behavioral outcome of a professional organization. This science is built on varied observations made from multiple behavioral arenas such as psychology, social psychology, sociology, and anthropology. Organizational behavior addresses the impact on the overall behavior that individuals, groups, and structure have upon that professional establishment’s over all conceives behavior. There are many beneficial uses of organizational behavior (Robbins, 2014).
Organizational behavior consists of multiple components. This applied science specifically focuses on actions that can be taken to:
1. Improve productivity
2. Reduce absenteeism
3. Address turnover issues
4. Reduce deviant workplace behavior
5. Elevate organizational citizenship behavior
6. Improve job satisfaction
There are many methodologies designed to accomplish established goals for these key elements. Organizational behavior can improve employee work quality, job satisfaction, and productivity through empowering employees to both accomplish and maintain professional balance resulting in a more harmonious professional relationship (Robbins, 2014).
Organizational behavior can be easily classified into three basic levels. These levels are:
1. Individual behavior
2. Team level, or group behavior
3. Organizational level behavior
Individual behavior consist of factors such as personality, personal motivation. Team level influences group behavior and centers around issues such as conflict resolution and roll expectation. Organizational level behavior focuses on such issues like corporate structure, professional culture, or leadership style. These three levels of organizational behavior take light of such concepts as information input, process, and outcome. Organizational behavior is built with in a professional establishment, and each of the layers are composed upon the foundation laid from the previous one (Robbins, 2014).
One of the most important levels of organizational behavior is the individual level. This micro level has received the most contributions made to it from psychology. Some concepts that are addressed on this level in this are:
1. Ability to effectively lead
2. Appraisal of individual performance at work
3. Design demand of personal work requirements
4. Employee hiring selection
5. Employee training
6. Individual decision making ability
7. Learning ability
8. Overall job satisfaction
9. Personal motivation
10. Personality distinguishments
11. Professional emotional stability
12. Stress levels encountered at work
13. Unique perception
All of these factors are a large portion of the individual level of organizational behavior. From the individual level, both the team level which addresses group behavior, and the organizational level that addresses the overall behavior of the entire professional establishment (Robbins, 2014).
When attempting to identify a an employee with strong leadership abilities there may be some confusion which must be dealt with. To do this you must address the individuals strengths and weaknesses. The use of the situational strength theory is one way to address the strengths and weaknesses of an employee.
The situational strength theory is designed to predictively indicate the way that a person will respond behaviorally within established situations. This theory addresses the way in which personality will directly translate into behavior depending upon the strengths of the situation. There are four major elements that are addressed, which can be referred to as the four C’s of strength. These four C’s are:
1. Clarity
2. Consequences
3. Consistency
4. Constraints
These four C’s are used to predict behavioral responses which may be used on an individual level to identify specific employees that may serve as excellent leaders. Individuals who respond as expected to these four elements will be able to set a great example when functioning on a group level of organizational behavior.
The group level contains components that are derived from Social Psychology, Sociology, and Anthropology. These consist of details that address:
1. Alterations in Attitude
2. Attitude maintenance and compare
3. Behavior and actions within the group
4. Changes in behavior
5. Communication effectiveness
6. Comparative values abilities
7. Conflict and resolution processes of the group
8. Culture comparative and analysis skills
9. Decision making abilities of the Group
10. Group Processing abilities
11. Power struggles of the group
This level is the middle level of organizational behavior. It is built on the foundation provided by the individual level of organizational behavior and supports the over all macro level of organizational behavior (Robbins, 2014).
There are multiple issues that may originate here which will require the prompt implementation of strategic group oriented solutions. A great theory to implement in order to lay the group foundation needed to establish proper organizational behavior is the trait activation theory. Trait activation theory, also called TAT for short, is a theory that establishes predictions for specific events and situations involving generalized personality trait output of a group of individuals that may occur. The intervention of these occurrences are specifically implemented to “activate” one specific trait of the group over another or any combination of group traits. This theory addresses the changes in attitude effecting group actions that result in the establishment of altered behaviors based upon the processing abilities of the group as a whole entity (Robbins, 2014).
The trait activation theory involves reward-sensitive situations. These situations are formulated to offer rewards based off of the establishment of desired group traits. Things similar to commission-based pay would trigger groups of employees to become extraverted while maintaining a specific organizationally scripted sales pitch. However, if the organization is looking to encourage openness then expression of creativity in individual differences should be embraced as opposed to those designed to establish extraversion within set boundaries. Elements such as sales bonuses would establish this as opposed to straight commission based pay rates (Robbins, 2014).
All of the involved disciplines have contributed to the macro concept of organizational behavior. However both Sociology and Anthropology contribute additional concepts such as organizational:
1. Change
2. Culture
3. Environment
4. Power
5. Theories
6. Technology
factor specifically into the applied science study of the behavior established by a professional organization. This is the panicle of professional establishment behavior that is demonstrated over all. It is built off of both the individual and group levels, and is most commonly presented to the public for approval (Robbins, 2014).
Specific challenges presenting themselves as difficult behavior problems may present themselves on any level at any given moment which means that the final step of the process must present finalized organizational expectations. To compensate for possible conflicts which could arise the establishment should enforce an organizational value system (Robbins, 2014).
Values are essential convictions which pertain to specific modes of conduct that maintain an established end-state of existence that is preferable to opposing or converse examples of conduct or end-state existence. Maintaining a professionals value system that consists of a hierarchy that ranks these values is known as establishing an organizational value system. Value systems are reliable. Having an organizational value system provides a stable environment that will endure any possible interruptions which may occur. Values help establish the understood overall personality of the organization and serve as the primary comprehended foundation for understanding the organization’s attitude, motivation, and influence on public perception of the professional organization (Robbins, 2014).
These theories of organizational behavior blend and interact together in order to explain and anticipate expected behavior that may be encountered while attempting to accomplish successful organizational behavior. These theories provide insight into specific skills needed to handle people who are employed within the organization. They provide motivation skills, expanded techniques needed to elevate listening abilities, and the ability to generate, establish, and maintain teams that are more fluently effective (Robbins, 2014).
When you layer the use of the trait activation theory on top of the situational strength theory you are able to identify specific elements within the elemental debate of nurture versus nature. Being able to identify how each element affects personal behavior of an individual both within and outside of the group setting will enable you to judge how individuals will interact with each other. You will be able to predict the way that an individual’s personality might affect the establishment of behavior at work and within the final confines of a situation. When all elements pertaining to the situation have been adjusted to flow fluently towards the desired final organizational behavior outcome, the predictability of the response is elevated (Robbins, 2014).
After you have accomplished a predictable response from the employees within the organization, you are free to present the value theory of acceptable organizational behavior and combine these values with group and individual levels of organizational design in order to better enable you to accomplish the establishment, maintenance, and finalization of proper organizational behavior. Organizational design is supported by systematic study as well as evidence-based management. These studies suggest that productivity, effectiveness, and efficiency may all be affected by business organization to ensure organizational survival. Organizational survival is the ultimate end goal intended result of all organizational behavior because it ensures that the establishment not only exists but is allowed to grow and expand over periods of time (Robbins, 2014).
References
Robbins, S. P. (01/2014). Organizational Behavior, 16th Edition. [South University]. Retrieved from https://digitalbookshelf.southuniversity.edu/#/books/9781323126615/
