Organizational Behavior as a Discipline for Discovery
Ask a manager of 35, 25 or even 15 years ago what their Organization's Behavioral patterns were or how their employees felt about certain issues and you would probably be met with blank stares. Organizational Behavior (OB) was not a part of the business world in those days. The idea that a manager need only deal with the technical skills of it's employees while disregarding their own listening skills, communication skills and interaction skills was the common mode of thought. A recent study on employee burnout by Northwestern National Life Insurance shows that at least one out of every four employees views their job as the biggest stressor in
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Robbins notes in his text that the previous 3 generations, while similar in some respects, held distinct differences in their values (p.130-2). Organizational behavior is a byproduct of the times. The workers adapted to their organization and grew with it (1940's and 50's). As time went on a shift towards quality of life, non-conforming, autonomy and loyalty to one's own values became prevalent (1960's and 70's). Another shift occurred in the mid 70's. The value system moved towards ambition, loyalty to career, hardworking, and the desire for success and achievement. This period lasted till about the mid 80's when another shift moved us towards the value system commonly held today of flexibility, value to relationships, desire for leisure time and overall job satisfaction. Robbins classified these four stages as follows: Protestant work ethic, Existential, Pragmatic, and Generation X (p.131). We can see that what worked in the 50's in terms of how an organization operated is probably not going to be as effective in today's organizations. Whether it's the Protestant work ethic of the 1940's and 50's or it's Generation X of today, the picture should be clear. We need to know what our workers value, how they feel and change with them so as to keep our organization on the cutting edge of productivity and profitability.
Research
In order to highlight the need for OB studies we need to
An organizational analysis is an important tool to become familiar with how medical businesses and organizations are able to meet standards of care, provide services for the community and provide employment to health care providers. There are many different aspects to evaluate in an organizational analysis. This paper will describe these many aspects and apply the categories to the University Medical Center (UMC) as the organization being analyzed.
Fingernails may not extend more than a quarter-inch beyond fingertips. No more than one ring
“ (Cox p.32) In 1960’s these factors began to falter in large part to the Vietnam War, which was taking economic and psychological toll on America.
I am writing this paper to reveal and describe different events that have occured over the past 50 years that have had a direct impact on the United States and affected the way we all live today. There are many economical, social, and political events that have helped shaped not only our country, but many other nations around the world as well. This paper is an attempt to reveal and speculate on some of these important events.
Having this would imply that the advancements during the 1950’s was starting to take a shift throughout this time period which led them to victory. For instance, the United States government had created computers to help decipher high level German messages. With this, industrial products were in demand, World War II came to an end, and America as a whole made improvements with their technology throughout the year; which gave them the need to build automobiles. This would corroborate with Document Six (Cruisin & Drivin’) because its states that changes in industries such as vehicles gave consumers a way to prosper
4. Do you think that a Decision-Making Process (like the one we discussed in Chapter 36) would have helped? Why or why
The United States had appeared to be dominated by consensus and conformity in the 1950s. As the commotions of the first half of the century ended, people were relieved but faced oncoming internal issues. The Great Depression and the two Great Wars caused people to seek tranquility and harmony. The fifties were the decade of change led by president Eisenhower. During this time the nation was in an up rise in many ways. The economy was booming as the Gross National Product more than doubled from the past decade. Thus there was a rise in consumer spending which had a domino effect on the economy. Though it was unexpected, many issues arrived such as the fear of communism and the suspicion of communists hiding in the government. At this period
5. Why do you think that the U.S. industry reacted with caution to attempts by politicians to reopen the trade dispute in 1993?
In the words of President Lyndon B. Johnson, “Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.” The connotation of this statement implies the strong sentiment of the 60s that defines the transition from a traditionalist society to one of free expression. Conformity shaped the American society of the 50s and continued to influence the early years of the 1960s. The 50s created a sense of false stability and unity in the United States post WWII. Economically, the country was prosperous due to the levels of wartime production, and the population was at no shortage of citizens thanks to the “baby boom.”
The age of change was coming upon America in a big way leading to political movement an advancement of technology. The country at this time was recovering from War II and the great depression which crippled America’s economy and weakened the working class in the US. Change was need in the economy and the social structure of America was in need of better leaders to take charge and restore order and balance back to society. Thus giving the name of the 50’s the booming area, a chance for America to be known for the land of opportunity. The model for 1950’s was better structure for the modern family and brings the working class status back to economical market. The demand for growth in the economy is needed to spark innovation in the poorly out come from job loss to safety nets need to run a stable economy in the
One thing the organization could do to raise the gender consciousness would be to do an ongoing series of sensitivity training for all staff. Along with this training would be annual assessment seminars that will teach people the different types of discrimination and harassment and the steps they need to take when such a situation is posed upon them. In the Cancer center where I am employed, women make up nearly 70% of the managerial and supervisory staff in all departments. At the executive level they only make up
In Management 3000: Organizational Behavior class thought me a variety of useful tools that I can use in the workplace. I am currently working as a marketing intern in the Small Business Development Center and I am also a sales associate for Express Inc. I have worked at Express for over two years and previously I also worked for a local business in Bakersfield called Bella at the Marketplace, these two places are clothing stores and I learned how different a local small business runs rather than a large company like Express. While being in this management course I realized how important it is for managers to take management classes or training because if not the company will not perform that well. For example, in chapter 9 it talks about communication and how important it is to learn how to communicate with your employees. At Express there is five managers, while being in class and reading the chapter I learned how some of our managers lack communications skills between them and to their associates. It is highly important to have an efficient communication process and make sure to give feedback. An example of poor communication is when Express opened an outlet store in Tejon Ranch. The associates and managers came to train at our Express store location and I feel like both teams had a hard time communicated with each other and it creating problems between both teams. Informal communication is the communication that involves spontaneous interaction between
Edgar Schein, a famous theorists dealing with organizational culture, provides the following definition for the term: "A pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group learned as it solved its problems that has worked well enough to be considered valid and is passed on to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems." (organizationalculture101) However, organizational culture is more than sharing assumptions used by a group to solve problems; it is the combination of the points of view, ineffectual processes, education, backgrounds of all the staff which are part of an organization way of doing things. Corporation culture should uncover from the board of the directors to the rest of
When looking back at all of the weekly written assignments there are a few things I should note. There were some questions like naming the ‘theories of rationality’ in the written assignments which I did not yet fully grasp at the moment of answering the questions. When I look back at the first assignment I now understand what was asked of me. To some degree, this also applies to some of the other exercises. What I have noticed is that my writing skills have improved hugely thanks to the Organization Theory course, which can be seen in the difference in quality between my first assignment and this final essay.
Organization Development (OD) is a deliberately planned, organization-wide effort to increase an organization's effectiveness and/or efficiency, and/or to enable the organization to achieve its strategic goals (2015, Wikipedia).