Assignment 2 organisational behaviour, Exercises of Business Management and Analysis

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Botswana College of Distance & Open Learning

Diploma in Business Management

Organizational Bahaviour

Assignment: 2

Mmoniemang Motsele

Student No: 201006379

Question 1

How to reinforce good behavior in your subordinates

1. Communicate with your staff: One of the most common mistakes many managers make with their staff during difficult times is slowing or stopping the flow of communication. It’s true that no one wants to be told the ‘bad news’, but from your employees’ perspective bad news may be better than uncertainty or office gossip. Ensuring your employees are aware of changes that may affect them will foster trust between you and your staff.
2. Always give some positive feedback: One way to soften the sting of constructive feedback is to combine it with some positive feedback. In the receiver’s mind a message of positive and constructive feedback combined is better than one of purely constructive feedback. Of course, if you regularly combine positive and constructive feedback together the receiver may think.
3. Do not compare the receiver with another person: It is tempting to compare the person you are giving feedback to with a person who exemplifies the behavior you would like to see. However, no one likes to be compared unfavorably with another person. Everyone is different.

Rather than compare person A with person B, compare person A’s behavior or performance with his target or some other objective standard.

4. Criticize in private and praise in public: No one likes to be humiliated in front of other people, and even a minor suggestion can be humiliating when made in public. On the other hand, the impact of positive feedback is magnified when offered in the presence of others. Even those who profess to dislike attention secretly enjoy it when it makes them look good.
5. Identify solutions. Ask your subordinate to propose a solution to the problem, or arrive at one jointly. Imposing your own solution should be a last resort. When the person

Question 2

Why employees always oppose change

1. Fear that the new way may not be better

If things have been going well, some employees may resist change because they fear that the change will not result in improvement. Focusing only on their part of operating, they fail to realize that change is needed in order for the organization to stay competitive.

2. Unwillingness to learn

Some employees hesitate to try ne routine, express an unwillingness to learn new things. Employees may make up their minds that the change won’t be productive. They also hinder their own personal growth and development.

3. Fear of the unknown:

Employees may resist change simply because it is something unfamiliar. Not knowing much about the specific of the change they may imagine a worst case scenario which can be very scary. They let fear of the unknown become their rationale for not giving the change a chance their fear causes them to place roadblocks in the movement toward change.

4. Fear of failure:

Employee’s opposition to change may be rooted in fear. During periods of change, some employees may feel the need to cling to the past because it was a more secure predictable time. If what they did in the past worked well for them, they may resist changing their behavior out of fear that they will not achieve as much in the future.

5. (^) No obvious need:

Some people may see change only from the perspective of the impact it has on them and their particular jobs. Not seeing the big picture, they may fail to recognize the positive impact of the change on the organization as a whole. Thus they may find the change disruptive and totally unnecessary.

6. Creative habit:

Doing the things in the same routine predictable manner is comfortable. Asking people to change the way they operate or think is asking them to move outside their comfort zone. Employees may ignore or deny the change simply because it requires them to experience something beyond their normal method of operation.

Question 4

The University of Botswana is a dynamic institute of learning given to its mandate of providing Botswana’s economy with the requisite skilled manpower to drive the country beyond 2016. With the current changes in the tertiary education sector it is very necessary that the organizational strategy is revised to align it to the present challenges.

During change, staff members need management even more for management to open up. It is not too often that employees would accept change. A thorough counseling or explanatory process should be availed to staff by management.

There are tried and tested strategies in organizational development that should be put to use to effect a smooth transition to the change process. These strategies include the following:

Survey research and feed back: in survey feedback, data gathered though survey questionnaire and personal interviews are analyzed, tabulated into understandable form and shared with those who first supplied the information. Survey feedback lets people know where they stand in relation to others on important organisationl issues thus helping the resolve conflicts in a constructive manner. Effective feedback should be relevant, understandable, descriptive, verifiable and inspiring.

Team Building: These techniques used to help work groups become effective in performing their tasks.

Grid training: Grid training is an outgrowth of the managerial grid approach to leadership (Blacke and Mouton, 1978). It is an instrumental approach to laboratory training.

T- Groups: A small, unstructured group in which participants learn from their own interactions and evolving dynamics about such issues as interpersonal relations, personal growth, leadership, and group dynamics. Though T- groups are an effective organizational change strategy, they can also breed grape vine mentality which could prove detrimental to the change process, and as such strict hierarchical system should be maintained

Management should design jobs deliberately and thoughtfully to reflect the demands of the changing environment as well as the organizations’ technology and skills, abilities, and preferences of its employees. When this is done, employees are motivated to reach their full productive capabilities. Job design is not always done purposely for punishment but for the good

design approaches provided a conceptual framework for analysing jobs or for guiding managers in designing motivating jobs. However, the job characteristics model (JCM) offers such a framework. It identifies five primary job characteristics, their interrelationships, and their impact on employee productivity, motivation and satisfaction (Robbins & Coultar 1996, pp.540).

▲ Skill variety : the degree to which a job requires a variety of activities so that an employee can use a number of different skills and talents. ▲ Task identity : the degree to which a job requires completion of a whole and identifiable piece of work. ▲ Task significance, : the degree to which a job has a substantial impact on the lives or work of other people. ▲ Autonomy: the degree to which a job provides substantial freedom, independence, and discretion to the individual in scheduling the work and determining the procedures to be used in carrying it out. ▲ Feedback: the degree to which carrying out the work activities required by a job results in the individual’s obtaining direct and clear information about the effectiveness of his or her performance.

Robbins and Coultar (1996) continued emphasising that Job Characteristics Model incorporates the earlier job design concepts mentioned above (job enlargement and job enrichment). The other suggestions also involve more than vertically and horizontally expanding jobs as follows:-

i. Combine tasks – Managers should put existing fragmented tasks back together to form a new, larger module of work (job enlargement). This increases skills variety and task identity. ii. Create natural work units – Managers should design tasks that form an identifiable and meaningful whole. This increases employee “ownership” of the work and encourages employees to view their work as meaningful and important rather than as irrelevant and boring.

iii. Establish client relationships – the client is the user of the product or service that the employee works on, and the client could be an internal organisational unit or person as well as an external customer. Wherever possible, managers should establish direct relationships between works and their clients. This increases skill variety, autonomy, and feedback for the employee. iv. Expand jobs vertically – Vertical expansion (job enrichment) gives employees responsibilities and controls that were formerly reserved for management. It partially closes the gap between the “doing” and the “controlling” aspects of the job and increases employee autonomy. v. Open feedback channels – by increasing feedback, employees not only learn how well they are performing their jobs but also whether their performances are improving, deteriorating, or remaining at a constant level. Ideally, employees should receive performance feedback directly while they do their jobs, rather then from management on an occasional basis (Robbins & Coultar 1996, pp.540).

Michael Armstrong (2006) believes that the following are also some good approaches to job design:

Job Rotation : It comprises the movement of employees from one task to another to reduce monotony by increasing variety. Normally, not all of the employees find the rotation process to be beneficial to them (resistance). Sometimes they continue to ‘fight’ the system. If this approach is being implemented within the organisation, management should formally communicate to

staff, through appropriate channels and refer to organisational policies and procedures. In some instances, counselling is conducted as well (Armstrong, 2006, pp.332.)

High performance work design : which concentrates on setting up working groups in environments where high levels of performance are required.

Self-managing teams – which involves enlargement of individual jobs by including a wider range of operative skills (multi-skilling), decides on methods of work and the planning, scheduling and control of work; distributes tasks itself among its members (Armstrong, 2006, pp.332.)

Question 5

Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory

Abraham Maslow defined need as a physiological or psychological deficiency that a person feels the compulsion to satisfy. This need can create tensions that can influence a person's work attitudes and behaviors. Maslow formed a theory based on his definition of need that proposes that humans are motivated by multiple needs and that these needs exist in a hierarchical order. His premise is that only an unsatisfied need can influence behavior; a satisfied need is not a motivator.

Maslow's theory is based on the following two principles:

• Deficit principle: A satisfied need no longer motivates behavior because people act to satisfy deprived needs.
• Progression principle: The five needs he identified exist in a hierarchy, which means that a need at any level only comes into play after a lower-level need has been satisfied. ERG Theory

To address some of the limitations of Maslow's hierarchy as a theory of motivation, Clayton Alderfer proposed the ERG theory , which like Maslow's theory, describes needs as a hierarchy. The letters ERG stand for three levels of needs: Existence, Relatedness, and Growth. The ERG theory is based on the work of Maslow, so it has much in common with it but also differs in some important aspects.

Similarities to Maslow's Hierarchy

Studies had shown that the middle levels of Maslow's hierarchy have some overlap; Alderfer addressed this issue by reducing the number of levels to three. The ERG needs can be mapped to those of Maslow's theory as follows:

• Existence: Physiological and safety needs
• Relatedness: Social and external esteem needs
• Growth: Self-actualization and internal esteem needs

Like Maslow's model, the ERG theory is hierarchical - existence needs have priority over relatedness needs, which have priority over growth.

Differences from Maslow's Hierarchy

In addition to the reduction in the number of levels, the ERG theory differs from Maslow's in the following three ways:

• Unlike Maslow's hierarchy, the ERG theory allows for different levels of needs to be pursued simultaneously.
• The ERG theory allows the order of the needs be different for different people.
• The ERG theory acknowledges that if a higher level need remains unfulfilled, the person may regress to lower level needs that appear easier to satisfy. This is known as the frustration-regression principle.

Thus, while the ERG theory presents a model of progressive needs, the hierarchical aspect is not rigid. This flexibility allows the ERG theory to account for a wider range of observed behaviors. For example, it can explain the "starving artist" who may place growth needs above existence ones.

Implications for Management

If the ERG theory holds, then unlike with Maslow's theory, managers must recognize that an employee has multiple needs to satisfy simultaneously. Furthermore, if growth opportunities are not provided to employees, they may regress to relatedness needs. If the manager is able to recognize this situation, then steps can be taken to concentrate on relatedness needs until the subordinate is able to pursue growth again.

Few workplaces offer stress management programs, and it is usually up to the employee to find their own ways to reduce stress. Here are some suggestions:

• Seek out someone in the Human Resources department or a sympathetic manager and communicate concerns about job stress. Work with them in a non-confrontational way to improve working conditions, letting them know that productivity can be improved if some of the pressure is off.
• Establish or reinforce a network of friends at work and at home.
• Restructure priorities and eliminate unnecessary tasks.
• Learn to focus on positive outcomes.
• If the job is unendurable, plan and execute a career change. Send out resumes or work on transfers within the company.
• If this isn't possible, be sure to schedule daily pleasant activities and physical exercise during free time.

It may be helpful to keep in mind that bosses are also victimized by the same stressful conditions they are imposing. For example, in one study of male managers in three Swedish companies, those who worked in a bureaucracy had greater stress-related heart risks than those who worked in companies with social supports.

Prevention

A combination of organizational change and stress management is often the most useful approach for preventing stress at work.

• Ensure that the workload is in line with workers' capabilities and resources.
• Design jobs to provide meaning, stimulation, and opportunities for workers to use their skills.
• Clearly define workers' roles and responsibilities.
• Give workers opportunities to participate in decisions and actions affecting their jobs.
• Improve communications-reduce uncertainty about career development and future employment prospects.
• Provide opportunities for social interaction among workers.

• Establish work schedules that are compatible with demands and responsibilities outside the job.
• Combat workplace discrimination (based on race, gender, national origin, religion or language).
• Bringing in an objective outsider such as a consultant to suggest a fresh approach to persistent problems.
• Introducing a participative leadership style to involve as many subordinates as possible to resolve stress-producing problems