Description
identify an organization you would be interested in studying. You will investigate the organizational behavior in this organization and research best practice solutions for any problems you observe. You may select your own organization, the organization of a family member, or an organization that interests you. Be sure to review each week’s assignments before selecting the organization to make sure you can locate necessary information. Contact your instructor early in the week if you need advice on your organizational selection. As much as possible, you should utilize actual research and real data for your project. Occasionally, you may fill in some details with hypothetical information. However, you are expected to provide documentation (e.g., citations) throughout your work. Each week, you will write on the topics identified in that week’s reading, so note any information you find related to any of the following topics: Systems theory Individual behavior Communication Change Conflict Motivation Groups and teams Making decisions Organizational culture Leadership Week 1 Assume that the human resources department of your selected organization has received disappointing results on a job motivation survey administered to all employees at all levels. The results indicate that employees reported lower-than-industry-average job motivation, and management is concerned. Employee comments on the survey included the following: My job is so boring! My boss micromanages me but never tells me how I’m doing. I’ve been in my position for fifteen years, but I am never allowed to provide any input about making the work better. You have been tasked with writing a paper that reviews the theoretical perspectives relevant to the situation in your organization. In particular, you are interested in systems theory and job motivation for this week’s analysis. Tasks: Write a paper addressing the following: Summary: Identify the organization you select and provide a summary of it. What is it? What does it do? Cite research from a variety of sources, including the company’s website, social media sites, company blogs, industry and trade sources, and other sources. The summary should include the organization’s products or services, customer or client base, areas of operation or distribution, history, main competition, and current situation (whether it is an industry leader, a start-up, or a well-established corporation). Analysis: Analyze the factors that affect job motivation and the internal and external consequences of low job motivation. At this time, you do not need to propose any solutions. Rather, you are using scholarly literature and data (e.g., observations, discussions, events, outcomes, reports, etc.) from your organization to analyze factors and consequences related to job motivation. Submission Details: Name your file: SU_MBA5001_W1_LastName_FirstInitial.doc. Submit your three- to four-page paper in APA style to the Submissions Area by the due date assigned.Textbook using – Organizational behavior a practical problem-solving approach 3rd ed. by Angelo Kinicki If you can use as a reference.
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Simple-Open System Model
An open system is any biological or social unit that receives input, transforms it, and
produces output. If your organization was a closed system, it would not receive any input
from the external environment. It would be completely self-sustaining. However, every
organization takes in some type of input (e.g., resources), transforms it (e.g., processes),
and produces output (e.g., products or services). Take a moment and think about your
organization. What are its inputs? How does it transform them? What are its outputs?
To explore organizational behavior in detail, the simple systems model can be expanded to
recognize that organizations are composed of many different components. For example,
look around any organization and you might see people, formal statements describing the
goals and strategies of the company, different technologies, and various activities. In
other words, the action of “transforming” input into output involves many different
elements. In addition, organizations exist within a specific environment (a market, a
community, etc.) and a general environment (e.g., broader national or global context).
These environments exert their own influence on the organizational system.
A helpful exercise for any work-team, unit, or organization can be drawing “itself” on
paper, a whiteboard, or a computer screen. What are the resources or inputs that come
into the organization? What are our processes, policies, structures, technologies, and
human elements that transform those inputs? What is our output?
Perhaps most importantly, does everyone on the team have the same ideas about our
inputs and output? Do they have the same view about what we do to transform one to the
other?
Human Behavior in an Organization
At the heart of the transformation process occurring in organizations is the behavior of
the humans who utilize the incoming resources and technology, operate within the culture
and structure of the organization, and seek to follow the goals and strategies of the
organization to produce the output. Although, as an academic field of study,
organizational behavior is specifically interested in the human behavior occurring in
organizations, the systems perspective of organizations suggests that each individual is
part of the greater whole (the system) and that each individual’s behavior has an effect on
others’ behaviors, individually and collectively. Accordingly, the study of organizational
behavior includes a wide range of topics related to the active processes that occur at all
levels in an organization (individual, group, and organizational) as they transform input
into output. Components include culture, technology, structure, goals, strategies,
processes, behaviors, and leadership.
Each component of the system is important for the performance of the organization. Each
component directly or indirectly influences the behaviors of individuals in the system.
Additionally, problems that can inhibit organizational productivity might occur within any
component.
From a systems view, each person is a system. In an organizational context, one way to
interpret the individual as a system is to consider the inputs, transformation process, and
outputs by the individual. We can do the same for a team. What are its inputs,
transformation processes, and outputs? We can do the same for any unit and for the
organization as a whole. A key question is whether all of those systems (individuals,
groups, and organizations) are working in harmony.
Characteristics of the Employee
When we think about describing the characteristics of an individual, we tend to first
consider variables such as the person’s abilities and skills, attitudes, diversity, emotions,
personality, perceptions, and attributes. However, there are other characteristics of the
individual that play a critical role in determining employee behavior.
Some of the variables that affect how an employee performs on the job are:
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Job satisfaction, which refers to the positive or negative feelings that an employee
has about his or her work.
Job involvement, which is the extent to which an employee devotes himself or
herself to the job, including investing time and energy, as well as seeing the job as an
important definition of himself or herself.
Organizational commitment, which is an employee’s loyalty to an organization and
his or her desire to continue to actively participate in the organization’s activities.
Organizational citizenship, which refers to an employee’s voluntary actions on
behalf of the organization (over and above what is expected at work) that contribute
to the organization’s success.
Every person is a unique blend of personal attributes, such as hereditary factors (e.g.,
gender and race), demographic factors (e.g., age and environmental background, such as
urban or rural and poor, middle class, or wealthy), abilities (i.e., the talent to perform a
mental or a physical task), skills (i.e., learned talents), temperament, and tendencies. These
factors blend together to influence how a person interacts with the opportunities and
responsibilities of his or her organizational environment. For example, why do different
people respond differently to the same situation? Differences in behaviors and job
performances among individuals can be attributed to differences in their characteristics.
The combination of job satisfaction, job involvement, organizational commitment, and
organizational citizenship contribute to our understanding of an individual’s job
performance. Each of these variables is impacted by the employee’s individual
characteristics, such as abilities and skills, attitudes, emotions, personality, perceptions,
and attributions. However, even if a manager was to fully predict all of these listed
variables, other factors will also impact performance.
Additional Materials
Personal Attributes Five-Factor Model © 2016 South University Personality Every person is a unique
blend of personal attributes, such as hereditary factors (e.g., gender and race), demographic factors
(e.g., age and environmental background, such as urban or rural and poor, middle class, or wealthy),
abilities (i.e., the talent to perform a mental or a physical task), skills (i.e., learned talents),
temperament, and tendencies. These factors blend together to influence how a person interacts with
the opportunities and responsibilities of his or her organizational environment. For example, why do
different people respond differently to the same situation? Differences in behaviors and job
performances among individuals can be attributed to differences in their characteristics. Personality is
the term commonly used to describe the relatively stable set of characteristics possessed by a person.
The Big Five Model (Digman, 1990) of personality provides some useful categories for thinking about
human personality differences. As the name implies, the model suggests five primary components that
make up personality. These include: Extroversion: Extroversion is the degree to which a person is
assertive, talkative, and outgoing compared to passive, quiet, and shy. Those high on this dimension are
considered extroverted. Those low on this dimension are considered introverted. Agreeableness:
Agreeableness is the degree to which a person is friendly, cooperative, and flexible compared to
reserved, guarded, and inflexible. Those high on this dimension are considered agreeable and easier to
work with. Those low on this dimension are considered disagreeable and more difficult to work with.
Emotional Stability: Emotional stability is the degree to which a person is consistent and deliberate in
reactions compared to inconsistent and impulsive in reactions. Those high on this dimension are
considered stable, calm, and having a positive attitude. Those low on this dimension are considered
insecure, anxious, and having a negative attitude. Conscientiousness: Conscientiousness is the degree to
which a person is dependable compared to unreliable. Those high on this dimension are considered
careful, organized, and thorough. Those low on this dimension are considered inattentive to detail,
disrespectful, and unorganized. 2 Personal Attributes Five-Factor Model Openness to Experience:
Openness to experience is the degree to which a person is interested in learning new things, meeting
new people, and going to new places compared to keeping to their current knowledge, friends, and
places. Those high on this dimension are considered intellectual, curious, and cultured. Those low on
this dimension are considered more narrow-minded and uncomfortable in unfamiliar surroundings.
Digman, J. M. (1990). Personality structure: Emergence of the five-factor model. Annual Review of
Psychology, 41. 41 7-440.
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