Organizational effectiveness is considered the “ultimate dependent variable” in organizational behavior. It is the outcome that most OB theories are ultimately trying to achieve. There are many lessons and theories of Organizational Behavior that help to explain the problems and situations in my former workplace and help to instill organizational effectiveness. My former workplace is a small, local business in the Corpus Christi community. Some of these lessons from the textbook include organizational culture, equity theory, motivation and morale, organizational commitment, organization politics, job design, and stressors. These lessons can also provide in depth-application and guide management at the local store to improve the work situation. With such applications, there will be expected successful outcomes for the business.
The majority of the issues in the small business I worked for revolved around organizational politics when employees have self-serving behaviors at the expense of other people and the organization. These tactics are selfish and counterproductive. This was extremely frequent at my workplace with employees lying about being sick to get the day off, employees causing drama and being standoffish with other employees, or complaining about the job. It was evident that the employees who experienced organizational politics had my workplace had lower job satisfaction, organizational commitment, organizational citizenship, and task performance as well as higher levels of work-related stress and motivation to leave the organization. This was caused by the owner’s lack of resources and overworking employees because of not hiring more staff to help with the load.
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Another conflict in the workplace was equity sensitivity relating to the equity theory, how strongly one feels about outcome/input ratios when compared with others. There were employees in my workplace that felt like they did more work than another employee but did not get paid as much or compensated fairly for their input. This made them very dissatisfied decreasing their work ethic and eventually helped cause them to leave the business.
An additional problem that helped to create organizational politics and issues was the lack of job satisfaction with many of the employees. Job satisfaction is an appraisal of perceived job characteristics, work environment, and emotional experiences at work. This lack of job satisfaction led to decreased work ethics and performance as well as lower customer satisfaction. When there was discontentment in the workplace due to lack of job satisfaction, employee behavior and attitude were reflected back to the customers. The small business received complaints about employees during this time period. Job satisfaction affected many of the individual behaviors such as task performance, absenteeism, organizational citizenship, and morale. I myself as well as my peers became dissatisfied with the small business, as I learned there are four ways that employees respond to dissatisfaction. People either leave the organization or attempt to change, rather than escape from the situation or neglect the dissatisfaction. Employees who are more loyal like me in the small business tried to change the situation. Employees less loyal left their job immediately.
A very common issue in retail that occurred in the small business was high stress among several employees. Physical consequences such as moodiness, depression, and lower organizational commitment occurred as well as lower job performance, poor decision making. I and a few other employees were stressed in the workplace due to lower pay and few promotions, lack of health benefits, lack of time off, and high workload especially during holidays, and lack of task control. With these stressors, we experienced job burnout with exhaustion, cynicism, and emotional detachment from clients.
The lessons from organizational behavior that helped to explain what the issues were in the small business also correlate to lessons learned that can provide in depth-application and guide management at the local store to improve the work situation. A large part of organizational effectiveness includes having a strong organizational culture. It is evident this has been lost in my former workplace. Organizational culture consists of shared values and assumptions. Shared values are conscious beliefs in the business that help an employee evaluate what is right or wrong, good or bad. It is an important tool that shapes what happens in the workplace. Certain values that my former workplace should support include excellent customer service, having fun, growth, and learning, and being humble. Change of this business’s culture starts with the owner and the manager. They must find ways to introduce culturally consistent rewards and recognition, support stability and communication, and continue to attract, select and retain people with values consistent with the organization's character. The expected outcome with these applications would improve the effectiveness and profitability of the small business. Specifically instilling an organizational culture will improve performance, bond employees, together and help them make sense of the workplace. An adaptive culture will support ongoing change in the organization and employees' roles.
The owners and managers of the small business are victims of their own problem framing due to existing mental models. They have implicit favorite decisions that become the preferred and only alternative that is used to solve an issue. It has become outdated and ineffective as the business grows and employees change. There are three main strategies of job design that can increase the motivational potential of jobs. Job rotation, job enlargement, and job enrichment. The owner of the small business should instill job rotation to support multi-skills, create a flexible workforce, and reduce boredom in jobs. Job enlargement adds tasks to an existing job, increasing skill variety because there are more tasks to perform, improving work efficiency and flexibility. Job enrichment would give employees more responsibility for scheduling, coordinating, and planning their own work. As an expected outcome, this bit of autonomy in the workplace would increase job satisfaction and motivation in the workplace.
To remove stressors in the workplace the owner and managers at the small business I worked for should assign employees to jobs that match their skills and preferences, have a complaint system, taking corrective action against harassment, and give employees more control over the work process. Facilitating a better work-life balance is the most important stress relievers involved with work. The owner of the small business should initiate flexible and limited work time, job sharing, telecommuting in jobs that are capable of this, personal leave, and possibly child care support. It was extremely difficult and depressing for me to work at that job with my family living in a different state. I was unable to get time off between the months of October through April for any reason to see my family. This made my personal life and emotional stability difficult to manage with work and is one of the main reasons I left the small business. As an expected outcome, transforming the business to remove these stressors would help increase motivation and job satisfaction making the workplace more effective and causing the business to be more profitable.
An effective way to motivate employees is through goal setting, which is the process of motivating employees and clarifying their role perceptions by establishing performance objectives. The manager of the business I worked for should create specific goals and clarify performance expectations, so employees can direct their effort more efficiently and reliably. Goals should be measured and achievable as well as relevant. The manager should specify when the objective should be completed. Challenging goals are more exciting and get employees committed to them. Reviewing goal progress and accomplishment help employees redirect their effort and provide a source of recognition that fulfills growth needs. Instilling these goal-setting processes in the workplace will provide the expected outcome of improving employee performance in two ways. It will amplify the intensity and persistence of effort and give employees clear role perceptions so that their effort is channeled toward behavior that will improve their work performance.
To reduce equity sensitivity in the workplace it is important for leaders to know their employees well enough to minimize the risk of equity feelings. Open communication is important for employees to let decision-makers know when they feel decisions are unfair. The manager should also try to instill distributive justice over procedural justice, not only equity in the distribution of resources but also fairness in the process of making resource allocation decisions. Certain actions can be taken to try to reduce inequity tension such as changing employees' inputs and outcomes. Changing other employee’s inputs and outcomes. Changing employee's perceptions and comparison with another employee or leaving the field altogether. The expected outcome of management awareness and actions to reduce equity sensitivity will result in increased job satisfaction and employee engagement overall increasing productivity and profitability.
Organizational politics, equity sensitivity, lack of job satisfaction and lack of motivation, stressors in the workplace are lessons learned from Organizational behavior that helped to explain the problems of my former workplace. These issues caused major job dissatisfaction and caused many people to leave the small business. The local store needs to learn how to work more effectively. A large part of organizational effectiveness includes having a strong organizational culture. The owner and manager must instill core values and job design strategies such as job rotation, job enlargement, and job enrichment. The owner must work to help remove stressors in the workplace by facilitating better work-life balance. The manager should learn to motivate employees with goal setting and reduce equity sensitivity with distributive justice and open communication. If the small business considers putting into action these lessons learned from organizational behavior and theory the expected outcomes in my former workplace should result in higher job satisfaction and motivation for the employees currently working with the small business. And consequently have a fun working environment that produces productivity and efficiency leading to increased profitability.
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