5 Organisational Behaviour- Challenges

Dr. Harpreet Singh Chahal

Learning Outcome

2. Introduction

3. Emerging challenges and opportunities for OB

4. Summary

1. Learning Outcome:

After completing this module the students will be able to: List various functions of managers

Describe various types of roles to be performed by managers. Describe important managerial skills.

2. Introduction

Challenge is a troublesome and difficult situation which has tremendous effects on achieving milestones or deadlines in any project in hand. Though a challenge can be considered a crucial decision making point, it can also provide us a new way to look for opportunities, as every challenge in work place gives us useful experience. Organisational behaviour is a useful concept for manager to justify and resolve the problems. OB affects manager’s way to think about and look at the matters and challenges from broader prospective. Now they look at challenges as a new opportunity and tackle it smartly. Every day managers have to face challenges because of expansion of MNEs (Multinational enterprises), globalisation, diverse work force, and advancement in technologies, competition, and pressure to provide quality in product and services, making innovative strategies, work life balance, expansion in product line and ways to increase productivity.

Approximately a decade ago, organisation behaviour was not considered as an important concept which should be used by managers to solve issues related to work and organisation. But, with the passage of time, drastic changes in the work culture have occurred due to increased complexity in businesses. Since then, organisational behaviour has become an important area in every organisation. In this module, we will discuss the critical challenges which are confronted by managers for which OB offers varieties of solutions and advises managers regarding how to participate in the competitive situations.

3. Emerging Challenges and Opportunities for Organisational Behaviour

Modern organisations have become very complex. Rapidly changing environment, change in the nature of work force, technological advancements and globalisation have posed major challenges for the OB managers. In order to survive in such a dynamic business world, managers have to be very sensitive and responsive to the changes occurring in the environment. Due to globalisation, business operations and activities have become globalised. Entry of MNCs in the domestic market and increased frequency of sending domestic employees on international assignments have made the job of managers more challenging and interesting. A manager has to be very attentive and need to keep track of the opportunities and challenges prevailing in the surroundings. The changes occurring in the environment have serious implications on the working of the organisations. The major challenges which are being faced by OB managers are discussed as follows:

3.1 Work force diversity: Employees are the building blocks of the organisations. Effectiveness of any organisation depends largely on how well managers understand the behaviour of employees at work and also how well they mould their behaviour according to the prevailing organisational culture. Today, in the era of globalisation, with the massive increase in workforce diversity the job of the managers has become even more challenging.

Source: Slideshare

The term workforce diversity refers to the differences amongst the employees in terms of their age, gender, race, culture, ethnicity and abilities. Diversity refers to employing people with different abilities in the organisations. Diverse workforce includes employees who are heterogeneous. The main reason to employ heterogeneous category of employees is to tap the talents and potentialities, harnessing the innovativeness, obtaining synergetic effect among the divorce workforce. Today, the number of physically handicapped, retired, old age people and women working in the organisations is continuously increasing. Not only in the developed countries but, in our country too number of working women has increased predominantly. Though, people with so many differences work together, they wish to maintain their separate identities and life styles. The challenge of managers is to learn and respect diversity. If diversity is managed properly, it can foster creativity and innovation in the organisation but, if managers fail to handle the same it may result into higher employee turnover and increased interpersonal conflicts. Managing such a diverse workforce in the organisations calls for the organisational culture that establish a congenial environment and also facilitates the growth and development of every individual. Managers have to be very sensitive to the needs, values and motives of employees in order to retain them in the organisation.

3.2 Changing demographics of workforce: The major challenge which has emerged due to changing workforce is related to the dual career couples. Dual career couples are those couples where both husband and wife are working. Today, because of globalisation and technological advancements the frequency of international assignments has significantly increased. Due to this phenomenon, majority of jobs require physical relocation. Dual career couples due to their own limitations are not flexible enough to accept such assignments and therefore, they may hinder organisational flexibility in acquiring and developing the talent. Another important change in the demographics of workforce is growing number of young workers in the organisations. Newly establish companies prefer young men and women. Even the vacant positions of retirees are being filled up by fresh graduates and young people. The average of workforce ranges between 25-30 years. Young employees are more ambitious, enthusiastic and emotional. Such people should be managed very carefully.

3.3 Responding to Globalisation: Globalisation and internationalisation of the business have significant affect on the management of human resources. Managers have to address the issues of cultural change, unfamiliar laws, change of language, change in the business environment, management styles, business etiquettes, business ethics and many more. Various functions of human resource management like recruitment and selection, training, performance management, compensation and industrial relations have to be performed in the global perspective. In order to face this challenge, management has to be very flexible and responsive. Internationalisation of the business operations has posed following challenges for the managers:

Due to globalisation, number of managers and professionals working in the organisations has been increased.

Due to globalisation, demand for certain skills has increased.

Managing career of the employees has become very difficult due to globalisation.

Broadly speaking, the globalisation calls for a new attitude or perspective towards the relationship with the people of other nations. A manager who has been groomed and brought up in a particular culture has to manage the organisations where people from various nations are working together. In such a scenario, it is very important for the managers to understand the characteristics which are common and which are different amongst the employees of different nations. Managers need to modify organisational practices so as to manage international diversities. In the global economy, on the one hand managers find it difficult to manage diverse workforce and on the other hand they have to manage organisational objectives in the interest of the host country. While managing the employees from different cultures,personal bias and prejudices of the manager may make the situation more difficult. There are predominantly three ideologies adopted by the managers of a global organisation.

Ethnocentric managers believe that management practices of the home countries are better than the other practices.

Polycentric managers believe that local managers can better manage the office in the host countries.

Geocentric managers recognise that different cultural backgrounds and skills of people from different nations can contribute a lot in the growth and development of the organisations.

In order to seek benefits from the globalisations, management must develop multicultural organisations which manage diverse workforce effectively so that they can contribute in the accomplishment of organisational objectives.

3.4 Stimulating innovation and change: Stimulating innovation and acceptance for change is the foremost important challenge faced by the managers. In today’s environment success comes to only those organisations which adopt flexible policies and methods of work, improve the quality of their products and services continuously and beat their competitors. Increased number of changes taking place in the environment lead to so many serious problems and challenges at work place. Organisations may face such problems concerning to their product, processes, people, technology and environment. Managers are expected to be creative and innovative and find out novel ways to handle the problems. It is very difficult for the managers to encourage the process of innovation and change in the organisations effectively. The process of innovation involves three phases: idea generation, problem solving, idea development and implementation. The job of the manager in such a scenario is to provide the environment in the organisation which fosters innovation and change.

3.5 Improving people skills: In recent times, technology, structure of the organisations as well as industry and the environment are changing at a faster rate in business field. Employees and executives are therefore expected to learn the skills required to adapt changes so that predetermined targets or goals can be achieved in time. There are two different categories of skills – managerial skills and technical skills. Managerial skills include listening skills, motivating skills, planning and organizing skills, leading skills, problem solving skill, decision making skills etc. These skills can be increased by organizing a series of training and development programmes, career development programmes, induction and socialization etc. Besides that, an effective performance appraisal system with built-in training facilities can also help in upgrading the skills of the employees to cope up the demands of the external environment. Lower level management is required to possess more of technical skills. Managers are required to play a vital role in enhancing human relations and conceptual skills of the employees.

3.6 Improved quality and productivity: enhancing quality and productivity of the organisations is a big challenge. To remain competitive in the market, bringing major improvements in the productivity and quality of products has become imperative for all organisations. For this purpose various programmes such as total quality management (TQM) and re-engineering are being implemented by the managers. Such programmes are implemented to introduce systematic and continuous improvements in the quality of products and services in order to satisfy the customers.

3.6.1 Total Quality Management (TQM): TQM is a philosophy of management which focuses on continuous improvement in all organisational processes in order to attain customer satisfaction. This philosophy particularly includes:

Source: kalyan-city.blogspot.in

Primary focus on the customers Active leadership

Concern for continuous improvement Organisational culture

Improvement in all organisational processes

Proper measurement of improvements through statistical techniques Empowerment of employees

3.6.2 Re-engineering: Re-engineering refers to radically rethinking and redesigning all processes which are used by the organisations to work and create value for customers. This approach focuses on reconsidering how work should be done and structural design of the organisation, if it was to start from the scratch.

For successful implementation of both TQM and re-engineering employee involvement is most desirable element. OB suggests various methods and techniques to ensure employee participation in such programmes. Besides quality aspect, improving productivity is equally important issue for the organisations. Productivity is referred to output to input ratio. Productivity is considered as the measure of managerial efficiency and hence managers have to deal with this issue very carefully and meticulously. Managers must identify the right mix of capital investment and human investment to improve productivity which means that besides, technological aspect, and behavioural aspect must also be adequately handled to achieve higher productivity.

3.7 Changed employee expectations: With the massive changes in the demographics of the workforce, expectations and attitudes of employees have also been changed remarkably. Now employees are no longer attracted and motivated by salary, incentives, housing, job security and other perks. They demand status, empowerment, participation in management and much more. Empowering the employees’ calls for redefining the jobs both at shop floor and top management. Today’s workers seek better treatment, better career prospects, enriched jobs, opportunities to learn and congenial environment. Managers must understand the expectations of employees and ensure the fulfilment of the same at workplace so as to attract, motivate and retain them.

3.8 Coping with temporariness: In recent times, product life cycles are very of short because dynamic market, continuous improvement in the methods of production and change of fashion. Today, change is an ongoing activity for most of the managers. The concept of continuous improvement means constant change. Everyone in the organization faces today the phenomenon of permanent temporariness. The actual jobs that workers perform are in a permanent state of flux. So, they need to continually update their knowledge and skills in order to perform their jobs effectively and achieve objectives. They have to learn the skills of flexibility and spontaneity. The knowledge of Organizational Behaviour will help the managers to understand the dynamic state of business, the methods of overcoming resistance to change process, the ways of creating a better organizational culture related to the process of change.

3.9 Corporate Reorganisations: Past three to four decades have witnessed so many corporate mergers, acquisitions and corporate reorganisations. OB managers face huge number of challenges posed by corporate reorganisations resulting from mergers, acquisitions and takeovers. Reorganisation of corporate structure affects the internal working of the organisations and particularly mindset of the employees to a great extent. Employees experience anxiety, worries and uncertainty about their designations, role profiles and career prospects in the new structure. Few issues concerning the employees are:

Threat of job loss

Changes in the role profile and assignments Physical relocation due to transfers

Changes in the organisational culture

Changes in the workforce including new colleagues, new subordinates and new superiors. Change in the compensation

Change in the power distribution

Such mergers and acquisitions are routine activities for any big business house. The success of every merger and acquisition lies in better management of human resources.

Besides mergers and acquisitions, internal restructuring of the organisations also pose great challenges for OB managers. Due to tough competition from MNCs and other domestic competitors, organisations are bound to opt for downsizing and flattering of organisational structures. Such downsizing and cutback in the size of organisations present serious challenges. Managers have to take a critical decision about who will leave and who will continue in the organisations. Moreover, they also have to maintain the level of confidence among those who continue.

3.10 Improving ethical behaviour: Today in the era of cut throat competition, managers and employees experience a lot of pressure to improve quality and productivity in order to obtain competitive advantages. In such a scenario, employees are more likely to be involved in the malpractices, forgery of documents, manipulation of rules and resorting to many other objectionable business practices. Hence, there is a strong need to limit the managerial activities within the periphery of social and ethical dimensions. Such activities do not affect only the organisations but also the society and other groups outside the organisation too. It is very challenging for the managers to ensure that the every decision which they are taking o enhance organisational effectiveness is also socially as well as morally acceptable. Ethics are important for the organisations for following reasons:

Ethics match the basic human needs

Ethics enhance credibility in the public

Ethics establish the credibility of the organisation before its employees. Ethics helps in improving decision making

Ethics can protect the society

OB suggests different ways to enforce ethical behaviour in the employees. Codes of conduct should be spelled out and employees should be motivated to adhere to such guidelines. Various training programmes, seminars and conferences are organised to improve ethical behaviour of the employees. Besides this, organisations provide in house advisors and counsellors who may guide the employees regarding various ethical issues. It is the duty of the managers to create an environment in the organisation which facilitates and fosters ethical behaviour.

4. Summary

Organisational behaviour is a useful concept for manager to justify and resolve the problems.

OB affects manager’s way to think about and look at the matters and challenges from broader prospective. Now they look at challenges as a new opportunity and tackle it smartly. Every day managers have to face challenges because of expansion of MNEs (Multinational enterprises), globalisation, diverse work force, advancement in technologies, competition, pressure to provide quality in product and services, making innovative strategies, work life balance, expansion in product line and ways to increase productivity.

Learn More:

1. Stephen Robins (2012). Organizational Behavior. New Delhi-110092: Prentice Hall publications.

2. Aswathappa, K. (2003). Organisational Behaviour. Himalaya Publishing House.

3. Nair, S. R. (2010). Organisational Behaviour (text & Cases). Himalaya Publishing House.

4. Prasad, L. M. (2014). Organizational Behaviour. Sultan Chand & Sons.

5. Greenberg, J. (2003). Organizational Behavior: The State of the Science. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

6. Miner, J. B. (2002). Organizational Behavior: Foundations, Theories, and Analyses. Oxford University Press.

7. Pareek, U. (2014), Understanding Organisational Behaviour, Oxford University Press (Revised and Updated by Sushama Khanna)

8. http://www.bput.ac.in/lecture_notes/ob.pdf

9. Ivancevich, J.M., Konopaske, R. and Matteson, M. (2012), Organisational Behaviour and Management, Mc

Graw Hill.

10. Moshal, B.S. (2015), Organisational Behaviour, Anne Books.