Organisational Behavior

Organisational Behavior ...

Organisational Behavior
5 factor model
Emotional intelligence
MBTI
8 stages of personality development

We live in an organizational world and organisations are a necessary part of our society, they help to satisfy many important needs. So, it is important to understand how organisations function and the pervasive influences which they exercise over the behavior of people.
Organisations are “social constructs created by groups in society to achieve specific purposes by means of planned and coordinated activities. These activities involve using human resources to act in association with other inanimate resources in order to achieve the aims of the organization”. (Famham and Horton)

For example, my friend worked in a shop with a strict and captious manager. Of course, every person makes mistakes and defects and so did her, but her manager always underlined those mistakes and tried to find the faults. So it was impossible to work in such conditions and she went to the work as to the torture.At the last lecture we had some kind of practice – we were divided into small groups and every group had its own task. For example, there was a meeting in our group where one worker had a hangover and he couldn’t present his work. So, we should play this little spectacle and the manager (who hadn’t known the situation before) should understand the problem and solve it. There were 5 managers, who tried to solve this problem and everyone had his own decision. Someone decided to givethis worker the second chance, someone tried to speak with us and have a common decision, someone was strict and wanted to fire this person if it will happen again. Anyway, I think, the work of manager is rather difficult, because he should find the way to every person, he should solve different problems and be useful for both organization and workers. At the heart of successful management is the problem of integrating the individual and the organisation, and this requires an understanding of both human personality and formal organisations. Both people and organisations have expectations and some things (such as rights, privileges, duties and obligations) are not written in the agreement, but they exist and have an important influence on behavior. For example, everybody wants to be appreciated. It is an unspoken wish and when people are neglected or ignored in the company, it’s rather difficult to work, although it doesn’t interfere to do the work. The main expectations from workers to organisations are valuation of work, good staff, comfortable working place, honest work, freedom and corporate activities. And what about organisations – they expect hard work, honesty, responsibility and reliability from their workers. These expectations meet and sometimes they match or collide. It is unlikely that all expectations of the individual or of the organisation will be met fully. If organisation doesn’t want any problems and conflicts inside, it should balance and make some steps, which are:Caring (organisations should care about the employees and demonstrate genuine concern for individuals)Communicating (they should talk about what company hopes to achieve)Listening (organisations should hear not only words of their worker, but also what is behind them; what is more, they should notice employees as persons)Knowing (managers should know who works for them and it’s better know them both as workers and individuals)Rewarding (organisations should distinguish the best workers and reward them. This rewarding can be expressed not only with money, but recognition, title “worker of the month” and so on).The Peter Principle says: “In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to their level of incompetence”. It means, when you climb the corporate ladder you get new position, and then one step higher and higher – so, one day you achieve that step where you are incompetent. This principle is based on all levels of hierarchy – political, legal, educational and industrial. As I understand it everyone has his own top. For example, if you are waiter, one day you have an improvement to higher position, and then higher and higher. But one day you will reach your top and it will be impossible for you to move further.According to Parkinson law “work expands to fill the time available for its completion”. We can illustrate it with a pyramid – every worker wants to divide his work among his subordinates. These as minimum two subordinates divide their work among their own subordinates and so on.Organisation can be seen as an iceberg: we can see quite a lot, but a lot of things are under the water. As Hellreigel, Slocum and Woodman said: “One way to recognize why people behave as they do at work is to view an organisation as an iceberg. What sinks ships isn’t always what sailors can see, but what they can’t see”. So, there are two parts of organizational iceberg: the formal, overt aspects (customers, technology, formal goals, financial resources, rules, regulations and so on) and behavioral, covert aspects (attitudes, communicational patterns, personality, political behavior and so on). People differ from each other and it’s rather difficult to predict people’s behavior at work. As Saira Khan sais: “”There have been instances in my life, both at home and at work, when people have felt I’m a little crazy because I am pushy, outspoken, energetic, competitive, enthusiastic, driven, and strong. Crazy, because that’s not what’s expected of an Asian woman. Crazy, because it’s not what the majority of people are like. And crazy, because they think they know me better than I know myself. Some features of character are stable, some are changeable. And what people usually see when they work with other people is temperament. In the childhood it’s rather difficult to cope with it, but when we grow up we can control it. Some people never learn to control it and it’s impossible to predict their behavior. It means that people can’t control their emotions, thoughts and actions. But what they feel inside shouldn’t get out – it is a position of groun-up.People differ in different aspects: in ethnic origin, physique, gender, early family experiences, social and cultural factors, nation culture, motivation, attitudes, personality traits and types, intelligence and abilities, perception and so on. This set of properties forms and characterizes a person. It makes his personality.Personality may be defined as a set of quite stable characteristics that explain why a person behaves in a particular way. It is quite stable, because it is a consistent part of an individual’s behavior. There are several theories that explain people’s behavior and divide them in different groups according to their attitudes, perceiving information and making decisions. Here are these theories:Emotional intelligenceEmotional laborThe Five Factor ModelJungEricson’s 8 stages of personality development.THE FIVE FACTOR MODELThe big five are those factors which were defined as the most important during test and researches of different psychologists in different countries.The Big Five factors of personality are five broad domains which define human personality and account for individual differences. The Big Five factors are:Openness. It indicates how open-minded a person is. A person with a high level of openness to experience in a personality test enjoys trying new things. They are imaginative, curious, and open-minded. Having a high level of openness is important in jobs that require creative thinking and a flexible attitude.Conscientiousness. A person scoring high in conscientiousness usually has a high level of self-discipline. These individuals prefer to follow a plan, rather than act spontaneously. Their methodic planning and perseverance usually makes them highly successful in their chosen occupation.Extraversion. It indicates how outgoing and social a person is. A person who scores high in extraversion on a personality test is the life of the party. They enjoy being with people, participating in social gatherings, and are full of energy. At work they like to be the center of attention in groups.Agreeableness. A person with a high level of agreeableness in a personality test is usually warm, friendly, and tactful. They generally have an optimistic view of human nature and get along well with others. Agreeableness is an obvious advantage for building teams and maintaining harmony on the work floor.Neuroticism. Emotional stability refers to a person's ability to remain stable and balanced. At the other end of the scale, a person who is high in neuroticism has a tendency to easily experience negative emotions. People who score high in emotional stability (low in neuroticism) on a career test react less emotionally and are less easily upset. They tend to be emotionally stable, calm, and do not constantly experience negative feelings. A person who has a high level of emotional stability is preferred in most professions because they have more control over their emotions at work.Acronyms commonly used to refer to the five traits collectively are OCEAN, NEOAC, or CANOE depending on predominating traits.There are several methods of measurement of the Big Five:The most widely known and applicable is questionnaire NEO-PI-R. The Revised NEO Personality Inventory is a 240-item measure of the Big Five personality traits. The short version, the NEO-Five Factor Inventory has 60 items (12 items per domain).One of the latest methods for testing the Big Five is the BFI (Big Five Inventory). The Big Five Inventory (BFI) is a self-report inventory designed to measure the Big Five dimensions. It is quite brief for a multidimensional personality inventory (44 items total), and consists of short phrases with relatively accessible vocabulary. Another suitable scale for measuring model is personality test Hogan (Hogan Personality Inventory). The HPI is the industry standard for measuring personality as it relates to job performance. The deeply-ingrained personal characteristics measured by the HPI impact how individuals approach work and interaction with others. The HPI provides insight regarding the “bright side” of personality – behavioral tendencies that are quickly noticed and capable of enhancing job performance. From a development standpoint, the HPI can be used to help individuals understand the impression they make on others via their automatic and habitual response tendencies. The Big Five personality test gives you more insight into how you react in different situations, which can help you choose an occupation. Career professionals and psychologists use this information in a personality career test for recruitment and candidate assessment.These dimensions represent broad areas of personality. Research has demonstrated that these groupings of characteristics tend to occur together in many people. For example, individuals who are sociable tend to be talkative. However, these traits do not always occur together. Personality is a complex and varied and each person may display behaviors across several of these dimensions.EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCEDaniel Goleman created this model in 1995.It is said that emotional intelligence is ability to understand and sense people’s emotions, both own and others. It is all about managing other people, own and different groups’ emotions and take advantage of them. For example person who is emotionally intelligence is often very talented in different social interactions with other people. They sense the feelings and emotions and they know how to behave in different situations and they are also verbally very gifted persons.Emotion is like feeling. It is a state of mind of a person which includes physiological responses and cognitions. The basic feelings of the person are: anger, fear, happiness, love, amazement, disgust and grief. These emotions also effect to relationships. For example, happiness and fear are feelings and fear might mean, that person doesn´t like this situation or relationship and he/she wants to avoid or escape it. Happiness in the other hand shows, that a person is enjoying the situation and feels very comfortable in it. Showing own feelings is one of the most important skills of the person (Goleman, s.23-24, 146)Emotions are created in human brain, particularly in amygdala. If this part of brain is damaged, destroyed or removed the person might lost ones interest to other people.There are different ways of expressing emotions, for example Japanese people are often minimizing their expressions in front of other people and when it comes to Mediterranean people (especially Spanish and Italian) they are showing their emotions in public without any shame at all. Also small children are often showing their emotions very widely and often they are over-expressing themselves. Oriental/eastern people are behaving more like Asians. They are often replacing their unpleasant feelings with pleasant ones, even they have to fake it. (Goleman, s.146-147)Intelligence is about persons mental ability and it can be measured for example by IQ-tests. The score tells how intelligence a person is. But can the score of IQ-test predict how well people succeed in life? There was a study made about this topic. Some men who had very high scores in college, did not succeed in real life any better than those who had lower scores. They do not have any better salary or a position in their work, their satisfaction towards life and relationships are not any better eater. So there might be a test for testing IQ, but it does not guarantee success in life.Emotionally intelligent persons are able to manage their own emotions very well. They are aware of other people’s emotions and they are able to use their verbal skills in different social interactions. People who have high emotional intelligence are often very open people. They are talkative persons who are able to co-operate with other persons and work in groups with other people. The co-operation becomes easier because, emotionally intelligent people are usually more agreeable in conflict situations than people with low emotional intelligence score.Lack of emotional intelligence is sometimes seen as a disease. Many criminals and psychopaths are lacking emotional intelligence. The most common symptoms of emotional disease are: Isolation, social problems, depressions, anguish, problems with ability of thinking and focusing, anger and criminality. These all are causing many problems in persons work- and personal life.Five components of emotional intelligence:Self-awareness or knowing ones emotions is the first one of the five components of emotional intelligence. It is the ability to recognize and understand personal moods and emotions and drives as well as their effect on others. Recognizing own emotions is a cornerstone of the self-confidence. (Goleman, s.65)Self-regulation (managing emotions) the ability to control or redirect disruptive impulses and moods and the propensity to suspend judgment and to think before acting. Managing emotions helps person for example to relax before performance or calm down in intensive or surprising situation. Also people who can manage their emotions can recover faster from the problems and accidents that may happen in life. (Goleman, s.65)Internal motivation(motivating oneself) a passions to work for internal reasons that go beyond money and status, which are the external rewards such as an inner vision of what is important in life, a joy in doing something, curiosity in learning, a flow that comes with being immersed in an activity. (Goleman, s.66)Empathy(recognizing emotions in others) the ability to understand the emotional makeup of other people. A skill in treating people according to their emotional reactions is the main ability of the ”human skills”. It creates the ground for every interaction that people have. (Goleman, s.66, 127-130)Social skill (handling relationships) proficiency in managing relationships and other people’s feelings, building networks and an ability to find common ground and built rapport. People who have good social skills are often seen very popular, leaders and stars of their social life. (Goleman, s.66)EMOTIONAL LABOREmotional labor is a form of emotional regulation where in workers are expected to display certain emotions as part of their job, and to promote organizational goals. The intended effects of these emotional displays are on other,targeted people,who can be clients,customers,subordinated or co-workdersArlie Hochschild brought up the term emotional labour for the first time in her study about flight attendants in 1983. Her ideas are still valid,used and developed by other scientists.