Organizational Behavior and Performance Management

Subject: Organizational Management
Pages: 10
Words: 2795
Reading time:
11 min
Study level: PhD

Executive Summary

The objective of this research paper is to represent a depth analysis of organizational behavior and performance management from different complex dynamics of employees and managers coordination within the organizational environment that will provide a better understanding for the stakeholders in these regards. This paper will present the complexity of human behavior in organizational settings, key five mindsets of managers to organizational behavior and performance management, leadership, decision-making, diversity, interpersonal dynamics, organizational change and performance management, the five mindsets of a manager, important aspects of the performance management and reason of importance, and effective performance feedback.

The complexity of Human Behavior in Organizational Settings

George and Gareth (4) and Hutchison & Charlesworth (6) stated that the complexity of human behavior in organizational settings illustrates a multi-dimensional approach of behavior and interaction within the organization while the organization responds independently and it makes emergence to have a better understanding of organizational behavior. Hutchison and Charlesworth (2) added that the complexities of human behavior have strongly accorded with multiple dimensions of personal attitude, environmental influences, and time occupied in human behavior in the organization where some special criteria would be used to evaluate the complexity of human behavior in organizational settings. Such criteria are involved with the systems perspective that considers human behavior as a consequential outcome of the mutual interactions of individuals working within linked organizational settings where conflict perspectives draw exacting attention to the conflict, dominance, inequality, and oppression in with the organizational environment.

The theory of rational choice perspective identifies human behavior as a standpoint of self-interest along with rational choices regarding successful conduct of achieving the targeted goals while the social constructionist viewpoint emphasis the way of people’s learning, their thoughts, techniques interactions, and understanding the global workplace environment to compare with their workplace. On the other hand, the psychodynamic viewpoints would like to investigate with internal processes that have been put into practice to address the needs of people involved with the organization, their drives, emotions, and the process of motivating human behavior while the developmental viewpoints emphasize the unfolds life course of the human behavior. At the same time, social-behavioral viewpoints are interesting weight upon individuals interact with their environments and the humanistic viewpoints urged to take into account of inherent values of the people, the extent of freedom of action allowed in the organizational setting, and look for meaningful coordination.

George and Gareth (5) added that the study of Organizational behavior represent the complexity of human behavior within organizational settings in the way of individual’s interaction with his organization, organizational response to such behavior, and expected standard of interaction, these three attributes are independent, but strongly influenced by each other that has presented the complex dimension with the following diagram

Nature of Organizational Behavior
Figure 1: Nature of Organizational Behavior. Source: George and Gareth (5)

The above figure illustrates linkages between human behavior and organizational setting where every individual unite under the organizational umbrella with unique personal characteristics, ethical background, and different experience and the organizational environment bring them together to attain the organizational goals while the organizations incorporate the people’s expectations and personal goals within the framework to reduce employees turnover. Under the organizational settings, people do not work in an isolation manner, rather they interact with each other in various ways where managers have an enhanced role to introduce formal policies, and procedures to reduce the complexities of human behavior in the organization by motivational initiatives of performance evaluation along with reward systems providing additional insight to attract people.

Brown and Svyantek (1) pointed out that the behavior of system complexities are influenced by so many variables those work together robustly with each other while nonlinear systems analysis could be applied instated of the traditional approach of linear analysis to determine both stronger and weak factors that commonly known as complexity theory. It is a general assumption in this regard that system behaviors may not be enlightened by breaking down the entire system into small elements while the behavior is a complex system essential to an understanding with associated variables, their way of interconnection between each other, and the factors of weights linked with each other through behaviorally significant way (Brown and Svyantek 1).

Key Five Mindsets of Managers to Organizational Behavior

Leadership

Leadership is the prime factor in coordinating and aligning organizational processes, concentrating on the performance and achieving desired outcomes (Gosling & Henry 6; and Tisserant, Wagner & Barth 4); at the same time, leadership is the process by which a person influences target people to attain common objectives and strategies by motivating and inspiring the people (Packard 2). Leadership comprises visioning, change management, strategic improvement, organizational structure, diversity management, and community collaboration; in addition, effective implementation of management actions often needs leadership as it plays a vital role in evidence-based practice (Packard 2; Gosling & Henry 6; Robbins & Timothy 272; and Tisserant, Wagner & Barth 4). However, the following figure provides a Heuristic model to analyze leadership Issues influencing organizational performance:

Issues influencing Organizational Performance: A Heuristic Model
Figure 2: Issues influencing Organizational Performance: A Heuristic Model. Source: Packard (3)
Description of the Leadership Theories and Models
The Trait Approach Traits associated with effective leaders must have intelligence, self-confidence, fortitude, honesty, and friendliness; however, this approach does not present exhaustive explanations of how traits influence organizational outcomes (Packard 4; and Robbins & Timothy 372);
Charismatic Leadership Such leaders promote the development of trust and can inspire individuals to a new vision; however, it is risky since power can be misused for which effective leaders should not be sturdily charismatic
(Packard 8; and Robbins & Timothy 227)
Transactional and
Transformational Leadership
These are the most popular, common, and studied models; however, Transactional leadership has two components, such as contingent rewards and management by exception (Packard 3; and Robbins & Timothy 227). On the other hand, Packard (9); and Robbins & Timothy (430) stated that in the latter approach, the leaders transform and motivate a group by informing about the significance of task results and suggesting about transcend their self-interest for the benefit of the companies and triggering their higher-order needs;
Exemplary Leadership This model is based on five practices and ten commitments of leadership; however, exemplary leaders challenge the process (Packard 3; and Robbins & Timothy 272)
Visionary Leadership A realistic, credible, and attractive vision is vital for the future of the companies for which it is a significant aspect of leadership to give meaning, concentrate, and simplicity of purpose for the employees; however, leaders must focus followers’ aspirations to set vision (Packard 3; and Robbins & Timothy 272)
Servant-Leadership This is a non-traditional model of leadership, which was introduced by the triumphant career executive; however, it concentrates on leader behaviors (Packard 3; and Robbins & Timothy 272)

Table 1: Key leadership theories and models. Source: Self-generated

Decision-making

Organizational behavior and decision making is a complex process that amalgamates with various factors influenced by the stakeholders aimed to attain organizational goals and objectives, although the board of management is the final decision-making authority of business operation, the behavioral decision treated another way by the participants and it’s more familiar, causally complex, and morally redolent domains.

Diversity

From the 1980s, diversity aspects have received increasing attention to the multinational companies due to the influence of globalization and the changing trend of the corporate world; however, a leader-subordinate style match was significant to higher satisfaction (Cox & Stacy 45; DiStefano & Martha 3; Esty, Richard and Marcie 35; Gosling & Henry 6; Robbins & Timothy 540; and Tisserant, Wagner & Barth 4). On the other hand, the leaders of the companies need to acknowledge the challenges to mitigate the issues related to diversity management (Cox & Stacy 45; DiStefano & Martha 3; Esty, Richard and Marcie 35; Gosling & Henry 6; Lacy 4; and Tisserant, Wagner & Barth 4).

  • DiStefano and Martha (2) identified mainly four cross-cultural sectors both for individual level and organizational level that the leaders of the organizations need to focus on to ensure equality and fairness for all the employees (irrespective of their backgrounds, ethnicity, race, color, or gender) in the workplace (Gosling & Henry 6; and Robbins & Timothy 272)
  • The previous research on diversity management pointed out that diversity is crucial to reduce staff turnover rate and develop employee performance (Cox & Stacy 45; DiStefano & Martha 3; Esty, Richard and Marcie 35; Gosling & Henry 6; Lacy 4; and Tisserant, Wagner & Barth 4)

Interpersonal dynamics

Employees and managers spend enough time working together and interacting with others while interpersonal skills play a vital role and it is essential for excellent management, influential leadership, as well as successful organizations while interpersonal relationships in the organizational environment are awry of managerial intentions. Successful interpersonal behavior in the organizations consists of skills of understanding difference between the managerial theories and practice, escaping self-protective interpersonal interaction that may blame others, upholding common organizational goals and capabilities to contributing advocacy with inquiry to the coworkers by communicating with the public testing assumption as well as social beliefs.

Organizational change and performance management

There are many crucial factors, which influence the leaders to bring organizational change, such as, dissatisfaction with the present structure, necessitate to reach objectives, attain feasible way to meet the vision, and minimize costs to run the business more effectively; however, renowned scholars have identified three levels of change, for example, Developmental, Transitional and transformational change (Packard 15). However, the key steps of organizational change include:

  • Create a sense of urgency: This is the first step of organizational change; however, the leaders will communicate with the employees and provide information related to performance management to understand the importance of cost-effectiveness, development of efficiency level, and the urgency for the large-scale service integration change efforts (Packard 15; and Robbins & Timothy 320);
  • Develop an action system: It should develop a broad-based action system to implement and oversee the change initiative (Robbins & Timothy 320)
  • Explain the change imperative to the members
  • Assess the present condition
  • build and execute the plan for change
  • Evaluate, institutionalize, and celebrate

The five mindsets of a manager

Description of the five mindsets of a manager
Managing Self: Reflective mindset Gosling and Henry (1) stated that this type of mindset allows a manager to be thoughtful for which he would be able to see behind to look ahead and be able to perceive familiar things in unfamiliar ways; however, management is mindless without reflection because it puts actions into innovative and clear viewpoint. At the same time, Gosling and Henry (1) argued that reflective mindset provides the opportunity to give attention both inwards and outwards; therefore, a manager will assess own reaction, frustration, anger to learn experience, which will open a new dimension of thoughts to take different decision to manage human resources and other organizational challenges. In this context, Gosling and Henry (1) pointed out that it is essential to consider both past and present to become successful in the future, for instance, Kofi Annan applied this approach to manage successfully a complex body like the United Nations
Managing organizations: Analytical mind-set According to the view of Gosling and Henry (5), analysis happens everywhere particularly in the organization to organize the company by sharing the views and understanding of the individuals to find out driving efforts; under this theory, a manager takes decision considering in-depth data, for example, quantitative and qualitative data. However, this approach plays a vital role intake effective decisions or making an organizational change in a complex situation because the managers get a chance to take into account the views of employees (Gosling and Henry 6; and Robbins & Timothy 430);
Managing Context: Worldly mindset In the era of globalization, multinational companies are expanding business in the global market for which these organizations need to be careful, thoughtful, and tailored to foreign market conditions and need to minimize cultural gaps and to understand the diverse contexts to operate the companies (Gosling and Henry 6). Therefore, a manager of a global company should observe the environment of production place and marketplace, for instance, ‘Shell Oil’ extracts oil and distributes it to markets upholding local regulation and disrupting environments (Gosling & Henry 6; and Robbins & Timothy 430);
Managing Relationships: Collaborative mindset A manager who considers this approach must listen more than he talks to allow other employees to manage the tasks; in addition, it needs to develop relationships among the members to encourage teamwork (Gosling and Henry 6; and Robbins & Timothy 430);
Managing Change: Action mind-set Gosling and Henry (7) stated that plain old management is complicated and confusing while managers have a bias for action to determine teams’ capabilities and organization’s needs to control the company in the right direction; however, it strengthens a manager to create and accelerate the best plans for attaining strategic goals

Table 2: The five mindsets of a manager. Source: Self-generated

Important aspects of the performance management and reason of importance

Bae (1) stated that companies have faced with the new competitive situation due to the influence of globalization and other related factors, which adversely affect the products; therefore, the effective performance management system can play a vital role to provide a new shape to the company. In this context, Bae (2) described three most significant issues of performance management, such as-

  • Defining employee performance: it is one of the most difficult tasks to measure performance standards or outcomes, knowledge, attitudes, and behavior (Bae 2); however, skills, and abilities assist the staff to perform a particular function following the strategic needs
  • Evaluating employee performance: According to the view of Bae (5), it is significant to give frequent and regular feedback, prepare reward plan, observe staff reaction, execute HRM plan and propose assessment procedure
  • Providing feedback on employee performance: it is important to give feedback to develop their efficiency level
Important aspects Analysis of these aspects of the performance management
Planning Correct planning needs to use during performance management to reach precise objectives and to control both internal and external business functions; in this case, goals have to be realistic for which it is essential to take the time to create a real plan (Marchington and Adrian 113)
Monitoring After proper implementation of the planning, it should require to ensure an effective monitoring process to get a fruitful result from the performance management system. However, the leaders have to monitor the functions of the staff and should give prompt feedback by way of reward or criticism to reach exact goals according to the plan; in this context, the leaders will take initiatives to improve the performance of the staff by providing training (Marchington and Adrian 113)
Rewards Employees deserve rewards for employee satisfaction, boost productivity, and to ensure an effective performance management process

Table 3: Important aspects of the performance management and reason of importance. Source: Self-generated

Effective Performance Feedback

Busser (1) and Puckett (2) pointed out that it is a challenge for the organization to attain organizational goals through effectively providing feedback on the performance appraisal of the employee by the managers with their collaboration to ensure a superior job accomplished. Delivering and accepting effectual performance feedback is a bilateral process where the employees and managers both are familiar with their duties and responsibilities and have a better understanding of what to do and how to do, as a result, the process would provide further opportunities for the managers and employees to put into practice of live communication among them. The basic principle underlies for performance management method for employees is to provide feedback to the employees for their every action taken as an outcome of their learning element that the organizational environment taught while feedback makes it wisdom to the employees to improve their performance standards and motivates them to align with the positive attributes (Puckett 1).

Busser (3) added that the method of providing and accepting feedback would be aimed to attain win-win knowledge for the employers and similarly to the managers, in case of productive performance, the organizational environment would provide an opportunity to strengthen the organizational values, improve workplace culture, along with the objectives to attain strategic goals. The employees would feel respected and inspired to engage their highest efforts for further performance while they get appropriate feedback, as a result, managers would be interested to improve their learning scheme if the feedback is not poorly offered, less feedback would dishearten the employees and the organization would lose potential innovation, thus, regular communication with the managers is essential. It is essential to understand by all involved parties that performance is not a personal issue, but measured as a collective outcome while performance review improves performance, morals, and arrange rewards; although providing the right feedback in time is a very critical issue to the managers for legal factors, skills improvement training, and procedural confrontation escaping.

Works Cited

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Brown, Linda, and Svyantek Daniel. Complex Systems, Time and Graphical Analysis of Organizational Behavior. IJOA, 2001. Web.

Busser, Deborah. Delivering Effective Performance Feedback. ASTD, 2012. Web.

Cox, Taylor and Stacy Blake. Managing cultural diversity: implications for organizational competitiveness. Ecampus, 1991. Web.

DiStefano, Joseph and Martha Maznevski. Culture in International Management: Mapping the Impact. 2003. Web.

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Packard, Thomas. Leadership and Performance in Human Services Organizations. Harvard Business Review, 2013. Web.

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