organizational behavior and culture essay

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How Does Leadership Influence Organizational Culture?

• 02 Mar 2023

Organizational culture is a powerful driver of success. Yet it’s difficult to quantify and track, making it an intimidating but necessary challenge leaders must face.

How can you, as an organizational leader, shape a strong culture? Before exploring how, here’s a primer on organizational culture and why it matters.

What Is Organizational Culture, and Why Is It Important?

Organizational culture is the collection of values, beliefs, assumptions, and norms that guide activity and mindset in an organization.

Culture impacts every facet of a business, including:

• The way employees speak to each other
• The norms surrounding work-life balance
• The implied expectations when challenges arise
• How each employee feels about their work
• The permissibility of making mistakes
• How each team and department collaborate

Having a strong culture pays off financially: It can impact employees’ motivation, which, in turn, influences their work’s quality and efficiency, ability to reach goals, and retention rates. Having a culture that fosters innovation can also pay off in the form of new product ideas and creative solutions to problems .

It’s not possible to opt out of having an organizational culture—if you don’t put effort into crafting it, a negative one can emerge. If you’re an organizational leader —especially at a large company—you can’t directly speak to every employee, so you must influence culture from a high level.

Here are three ways you can influence organizational culture, the importance of effective communication, and how to build your skills.

Access your free e-book today.

How Do Leaders Influence Organizational Culture?

1. ensuring alignment on mission, purpose, and vision.

One way you can influence your organization’s culture is by ensuring everyone’s aligned on its mission, purpose, and vision.

Think of this communication as laying the foundation for culture. What customer need does your company fulfill? How does it make a positive impact? What’s its vision for the future, and what strategies are in place for getting there?

Additionally, ensure every employee understands how their daily work contributes to your organization’s success. According to a Salesforce report , more than 70 percent of U.S. employees say connecting to their company's culture and values motivates them to do their best work.

“Leading at scale and scope requires you to treat communication as a tool to reach out to people, captivate heads, and move hearts, so those you’re leading understand your actions and goals,” says Harvard Business School Professor Joshua Margolis in the online course Organizational Leadership . “And, perhaps more importantly, so they understand where they fit and why their work matters.”

2. Inspiring Confidence in the Face of Challenges

The way you react in times of tumult can powerfully impact culture. How do you pivot your company’s goals? Do you visibly panic, keep everything under wraps, or communicate with thoughtful transparency? Your reaction sets the tone for your team.

One example of a strong leader who crafted culture during crisis is explorer Ernest Shackleton. Shackleton’s original mission was to traverse Antarctica. But when his ship, the Endurance, was trapped and crushed by icebergs, it suddenly became irrelevant. The new mission was to get his team of 28 men home alive. One important part of doing so was managing the team’s culture.

“Critical to accomplishing his mission, he had to convince the crew that, individually and collectively, they can do it,” says HBS Professor Nancy Koehn in a sample business lesson on resilient leadership . “That they, under his leadership, are going to do that.”

Shackleton not only focused on increasing morale but on containing any doubts in the group. He asked the few men uncertain of success to sleep in his tent to influence their morale and keep them from spreading skepticism to the rest of the crew. His efforts paid off, and he led his team to safety.

Although not every challenge is a life-or-death situation like Shackleton’s, you can influence culture by letting your employees know their safety and well-being are a priority and that you’re confident in their ability to endure crises .

Related: How to Become a More Resilient Leader

3. Leveraging Mistakes as a Source of Learning

If you want to foster an innovative organizational culture, embracing and learning from mistakes is crucial.

“You can’t wave a wand, dictate to people that they need to be more creative, and wake up the next day to find people taking risks and trying new things,” says HBS Professor Anthony Mayo in Organizational Leadership .

If you chastise or punish employees for making mistakes, they’re far less likely to try new ideas. To unlock innovation’s potential, make it clear that experimentation is something to celebrate—regardless of its outcome. If an experiment fails, frame it as a chance to learn what worked and what didn’t.

If encouraging experimentation and failure feels too risky for your core business, designate a space or team specifically for testing innovative ideas.

The Importance of Communication in Shaping Organizational Culture

While each organization’s culture is unique, the common thread between strong ones is effective leadership communication .

When seeking alignment, inspiring confidence, and fostering innovation, how you choose to communicate determines whether your messages have their intended impacts.

In Organizational Leadership, Margolis and Mayo present five dimensions of communicating organizational direction , which you can use to shape culture, too:

• Know your audience: Have a firm understanding of your audience’s perspective. What information do they already know? What questions or concerns do they have? What factors matter most to them?
• Cater the content: Based on your audience, craft your message’s content to align with what they want and need to learn.
• Align on purpose: Determine your communication’s purpose. Is it to inform, meant to solicit input, gain approval, or motivate your audience?
• Design the process: Logistically, decide how you’ll deliver your message. Consider timing, frequency, channel, and who’s responsible.
• Compassion: Do you show your audience you care about their perspectives?
• Clarity: Do you communicate clearly to those unfamiliar with the message?
• Conciseness: Is the message short enough to internalize?
• Connection: Do you emotionally connect with your audience?
• Conviction: Do you demonstrate your commitment to the good of your organization?
• Courage: Do you demonstrate confidence in your ability to lead through uncertainty?

For example, consider how you might communicate mass layoffs to affected employees. How would your organizational culture be impacted if you sent a generic email to them rather than delivering the news face-to-face?

What about messaging the employees who aren’t being laid off? If you communicate the reasons for the decision and show empathy toward those impacted, you can build a culture of trust—which will be crucial to maintain with your remaining employees.

Every communication you deliver can shape organizational culture; it’s up to you to decide how to use it.

Building Your Leadership Skills

While shaping organizational culture can be challenging, all leaders face it. If you aim to build your leadership skills in this area, search for courses that include real-world examples.

In Organizational Leadership , you’re presented with real-world business cases —featuring leaders from companies including General Mills, McAfee, Medtronic, and Levi Strauss & Company—and prompted to consider how to handle each situation. Afterward, you discover how each leader approached challenges, gaining insights and perspectives you can apply to your organization.

By learning from others, communicating effectively, and making purposeful choices, you can leverage your leadership skills to shape organizational culture.

Are you interested in elevating your leadership skills? Explore Organizational Leadership —one of our online leadership and management courses —and learn how to communicate direction and lead at scale.

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Essay: Organizational behavior and culture

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Organizational behavior and culture

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First, I would like to thank my advisor for his continuous support during the program, as he was always there to listen and to give advice. He taught us many different methods to approach a research methodology and the need to be consistent, to accomplish any goal.

I would like say thanks to all my colleagues at college who have always supported me in my work. I thank them for their interest, help and support, as they were always there to meet and talk about my ideas and solve my problems.

Special thanks go to my parents, for their patient support, deep love and showing confidence in me, when I doubt myself. Without their encouragement I couldn’t have completed this research paper.

Executive Summary

Organizations are considered to be the most incentive, social arrangement of today. It’s considered a marvel to know that thousands of people with individual backgrounds, skills and interests are coordinated into various organizations, so that they can pursue their common institutionalized goals and objectives. The historians of the future see today’s organizations as the greatest achievement of our time and era.

Organizational behavior and culture is actually the personality of the organization and this personality is a combination of different assumptions, perspectives, values, norms, stories and the different behaviors and attitudes of the organization’s employees towards their co-workers and their work activities. The culture of an organization is actually the perception which is held by the employees of the company, in other words the culture is considered to be a system of shared meaning. It must be remembered that the culture of the organization is sensed and not seen and hence the employees and the members of the organization soon learn and realize about it. For example the culture of a large profit making company is quite different from that organization that is a non-profit making organization and one from an educational institution. A person can tell about the culture of a company by looking at the furniture or the way people dress etc. Organizational culture is one of those things that can be sensed and the members of the company soon come to realize the culture of the company.

Introduction

This paper is based on organizational behavior and change management. This paper shall be focusing on the organization’s background; it will conduct an analysis of the mission, vision and value statement of the company. The paper shall be conducting cultural analysis, i.e. how a company goes through a change in its culture. The paper shall be focusing on the organizational structure and finally it will conduct a change plan for the company. The company that has been chosen for this paper is ABC Company.

Research Methodology

Collection, analysis and reporting of data and findings can be defined as marketing research but in a systematic and organized design, which can help the company in facing a specific situation or a problem. Effective marketing research is based on five steps define the problem and objectives of the research, developing the plan for the research, collecting information for the research, analyzing the information which is collected and finally present the findings so that it helps the marketers and mangers make the right decision.

Research Method

The most common method of obtaining information about behaviors, attitudes and other characteristics is to ask from people directly. Therefore the research method that is going to applied here is in-depth interviews and questionnaires.

• Questionnaires: questionnaires will also be used because they will help the individuals to answer those questions which they might be not able to answer when asked directly.
• In – Depth interviews: are frequently used the researchers when they want detailed information regarding an individual’s behavior attitude or needs and wants, or when the information they receive from the questionnaires is impractical, more costly and inaccurate. Therefore applying both of these methods will make sure that information that the researchers receive is accurate and not false plus it will help them to make the right and better decision.

Sampling Methods & Plans

The sampling method is one of the ways the sample units can be selected for qualitative research, there are five kinds of sampling methods; probability versus non-probability, single unit versus cluster of units, un-stratified versus stratified, equal unit probability versus unequal unit probability and single stage versus multistage.

The method that the researchers are going to be using for the research is probability versus non-probability. It must be remembered that the probability sample which are selected are selected on chance where as in non-probability sample (included convenience, judgment, quota, and purposive sample), no sample is selected on chance. From these samples the researchers are going to implement the following sampling methods for our researches:-

Cluster Sample:

the sampling method used in this research is probability sampling method, in this the researcher divides the population into mutually exclusive groups (like managers and top executives) and then the researcher draws a sample of the groups to interview and fill out the questionnaires.

Quota Samples :

the quota sampling is going to be based on managers and top executives, communication channels and the behavior .

Sample Unit

The sample unit is based on the unit which contains the elements of the population, who are going to be the sample. Since it is going to be a large scale research and this research is going to be targeting the entire organization.

Sample Size

The sample size for this research is going to be 250, and that size is taken keeping in view of the nature of the research. It must be remembered that this research is being done on a large scale and it covers the entire organization.

Measurement Technique

• In-depth Interviews: The in-depth interviews will be one to one and the interviewer is going to ask a numbers of questions from the interviewee to gain inside knowledge and which is going to provide a general perspective to the recording company.
• Questionnaires: the analysts and the managers will be provided with questionnaires to fill out, this will provide the information about the willingness of the employees for change or not.

The data which is going to be collected from in-depth interviews and questionnaires will be scrutinized and analyzed to obtain the knowledge that is needed by the researchers that how much unemployment effects business.

Response Format (in-depth interviews and questionnaires): the interviewer is going to be asking open-ended questions along with close-ended, so that in-depth information can be obtained. The interview is going to be recorded and the interviewer is also going to take notes so that the researcher can go through the information again. For example, in close-ended questions the interviewer can ask the respondent some yes and no questions and from there he or she can tabulate the actual finding and can present it in a graphical form to the recording company.

Organizational Background

ABC Company is a very famous franchise in the world that serves coffee and baked goods like donuts, bagels and other bakery products, that operates in the fast food industry. Bill Rosenberg is the founder of ABC Company. It was in the year 1950 when ABC Company opened its very first shop in Quincy, Massachusetts. The first store that he opened still stands at 543 Southern Artery Quincy, Massachusetts. The headquarters ABC Company’ Brands of ABC Company is situated on 130 Royall Street, Canton, Massachusetts. By 1954 ABC Company had opened about 5 shops. The company licensed first of their many franchises in 1955. Today ABC Company has somewhere around 7988 outlets worldwide and out of those outlets 5769 are only in the United States and the rest 2219 are internationally based franchises and by 2025 ABC Company’ plans to open somewhere around 15000 plus coffee shops throughout the US. One of the major competitors of ABC Company’ was Mister Donuts, which was acquired by the parent company of ABC Company and is now has been re-branded as ABC Company’. ABC Company operates in approximately 30 countries worldwide, they operate in countries like Aruba, Bahamas, Canada, Chile, Germany and UAE etc. The present president and chief brand officer is Will Kussell. The organization claims that America runs on ABC Company’ and the slogan of the company is “Something fresh is always brewin’ here”. (ABC Company, 2010)

ABC Company serves nearly a billion cups of rich coffee every year. The products of ABC Company are as follows:-

Baked Goods:-

Ø Donuts (52 flavors), Munchkins, Cookies, Brownies, Éclairs, Crullers, and Coffee Rolls (9 flavors)

Breakfast Sandwiches:-

Ø Egg & Cheese, Supreme Omelet and Ham & Cheese etc.

• Bulk Coffee, Espresso, Cappuccino & Lattes, Iced Coffee (flavors; blueberry, hazelnut, coconut, French vanilla etc.), Iced Lattes and Turbo
• Hot Beverages

Ø Hot Chocolate, Tea, Dunkaccino, and Vanilla Chai

Cold Beverages

Ø Coolattas (flavors; coffee, watermelon, grape etc.), Iced Teas, and Smoothies

Mission and Vision Statement

The organization claims that America runs on ABC Company’ and the slogan of the company is “Something fresh is always brewin’ here”. ABC Company is on the franchises round the globe that provide with food and beverages that are fresh, quick and quite affordable to their customers who lead busy lives. The company has been serving the best quality coffee for the last 55 years or so. ABC Company serves nearly a billion cups of rich coffee every year to their customers who are going for their work in the morning and they stop for a nutritious but a quick breakfast.

The mission statement of ABC Company is that it will work hard to be the dominant retailer of high quality donuts, bakery products and beverages in the market in where they choose to compete. The mission statement has helped the company to grow and develop itself and has also helped it to come this long way that is from where it started out to be a single coffee shop to where it is now having somewhere around 7988 outlets worldwide and out of those outlets 5769 are only in the United States and the rest 2219 are internationally based franchises and still the company plans to expand itself.

The vision of ABC Company is to be the world’s largest coffee and baked goods chain and to incorporate teamwork, effective communication, enjoyable work and honesty in the company’s work force in order to get to the goals and objectives to be successful in their mission. It basically started with keeping the customers in mind that what are their need and preferences. ABC Company have added a new range of coffee in their menus while keeping the customers in their mind. This new range of coffee is known as “Flavorology”. ABC Company has realized the fact that the customers are always looking for new tastes and flavors in coffee as they look forward for a different start for every day. And with new flavors of coffee it helps the customer to do so rather than having the old and traditional monotonous flavors of the coffee.

Department and Role

The department that I work for is the Human Resource department and the role that I play in the department is the HR officer one. The day activities for my work task are that, I have to keep a check on the expenses, create schedules, help my supervisor with payrolls etc.

Analysis of Mission, Vision and Value Statement

Relevance of Mission, Vision and Value Statement

It is with the help of a Mission, Vision and Value Statement that the company is able to identify its goals and objectives. The relevance of these statements is as follows:-

• ABC Company embraces diversity, because it operates all over the globe.
• ABC Company works for its communities and environment.
• Recognizes the fact that profit is very important for the success of the company itself.
• Being able to satisfy the needs, preferences and people who are connected with the company
• Playing a positive role in the society, so that the company is able to make a difference
• Employee safety is always first
• Customer value and loyalty plays an important role in the success of the organization

Communication of Statements within the Organization

The vision, mission and the value statement of the company are very well communicated to the employees. For example, ABC Company also makes sure that the customers get a friendly environment when they enter into one of their outlets. As soon as a customer’s enters into ABC Company’ outlet, the customer comes across colorful but appealing wall paint and images, a very well seating arrangement which gives a soothing and relaxing experience to the customer, who in return enjoy their meal in a very friendly environment. The music is not loud when one enters in an outlet of ABC Company’, there is no sound of kitchen and people behind the counter and the waiters are extremely friendly and helpful. This kind of a service helps give a customer a head, who leave the restaurant refreshed and in a jolly and relaxed mood. Although these strategies help make the customer happy, these strategies have also helped ABC Company to maintain both its existing customers and also attract new ones globally.

Influence of the Statements

The vision, mission and the value statement do leave an influence behind on individual, department and organizational level. These influences are as follows:-

Change in the Mission and Vision Statement

The mission and vision statement of the company remains essentially the same over the long-term it basically emphasizes the fact that to become the dominant market leader in the donuts and beverages retailing business one has to intercept the customer’s needs and preferences and to change with time.

The mission and vision of the company can make adjustment over the time to suit the changing environment and the changing needs of the clients and customers of the company. When the company is in the early stage of the strategy development process the management has to decide upon the vision statement of the company. The vision statement is reviewed and updated as shifts in the strategic direction of the company happen over a period of time.

Organizational Structure

Organization structure is a tool that the managers of the organization use to harness recourses for getting things done. The structure of ABC Company is considered to be a framework that shows that how the task / activities are divided among the employees and how they are carried out, how the resources of the company are deployed and how the departments of the organization are coordinated. The structure of the company is a set of tasks that are assigned to the employees of the company and to the department of t ABC Company, the organization structure also has formal reporting relationships within the company and it also includes authority within the company, the responsibility of decision making, levels within the company and the people who are considered in charge of other employees.

Structure Chart

Organic structure.

In our case the organization (ABC Company) uses an organic structure; organic structure is the horizontal structures dominate the company as in the companies that are contemporary empowered. Here the tasks are redefined very frequently so that they are able to the needs of both the employees and the organization (in our case ABC Company). Here decision making is de-centralized and informal; authority is based on expertise of the employee rather than the hierarchy. The tasks are shared, i.e. the company works on a team based system. The benefits of the system would be:-

• The employees would be empowered
• There will be flexibility and speed

Relationship between Environment and Structure

When managers use the wrong structure for the environment it reduced performance results. A rigid mechanistic structure in an uncertain environment prevents the organization from adapting to change and a loose organic structure in a stable environment is inefficient.

Influence of the Structure of the Culture of the Organization

• Keep employees motivated
• Employee training and development program
• New product targets
• Return on investment
• Focusing on opportunities
• Aims to be a leader in the industry
• Provide top quality products and services to its customers
• Helps them to stay above the competition.
• Maintain long-term relationships with the suppliers and customers
• Establish itself in every market niche.

Culture Analysis

Organizational culture is basically concerned with how the employees of the company understand the characteristics or elements of the organization’s culture and not with if they like the culture of the company or not. The understanding and perceiving of the culture of the company can be defined as a descriptive term. The descriptive term basically focuses on the differentiation of this concept from job satisfaction. A research was conducted to measure that how the employees of the company see the organization in which they work, does the company encourages team work or not and does it reward innovation or not. The management of the company should keep in mind that the term organizational culture is descriptive form and whereas the term job satisfaction is based on evaluation.

Culture within the Organization

The culture that is being implemented within ABC Company is the learning culture known as the ‘learning organization’. In this new era of the organization the main responsibility of the management is to create learning capability throughout the organization. And a lot of companies are reinventing themselves towards something called learning organization. In learning organization all the employees of the company take part in problem solving, identifying the problems, it helps the company to experiment, improve the company’s efficiency and increase its productivity. The learning organization’s focus is mostly based on customer satisfaction and quality. The learning organization also emphasizes on teams and systems rather on the hierarchy of the company to improve and maximize the company’s performance. The managers need to go through a certain changes in order to make the learning organization a successful one. The learning organization actually breaks down the former vertical structure of the company and it uses the most new ideas to achieve collaboration through work teams, task forces, and horizontal linkages and through concepts such as networks etc. Teamwork is considered more important in the learning organization rather than individual work. For example, the teams are actually given major projects to handle like producing a product or a service. The boss would no longer make the decisions that are; the members of the team would take the responsibility for innovation, dealing with customers, training, and safety etc.

Effects of Learning Culture

Harmful behaviors based on culture.

If the company is changing at a rapid pace it will lose its core values

Too much diversity due to change will create problems in the communication process

Internal Environment

• ABC Company would need a new marketing strategy because it plans to enter into a new market, i.e. the Middle East market
• The brand of the company is considered very reliable
• ABC Company is its mature phase of the market
• The company is an innovator, i.e. innovates the products of the company
• The company has a strategic advantage over its competitors due to its market portfolio.
• The company believes in change

External Environment

• There is a control of the government on export and import
• New emerging markets where the company wants to enter
• Development of new products and services which satisfy the consumer’s demand
• Economic conditions and social concerns
• Rivals or competitors of the company in the market
• Policies like quality standards that need to be adhere by the company, when it is expanding itself globally.

SWOT Analysis

• Strengths: Strengths of the company can be defined as the positive internal characteristics that the company can use to achieve its strategic performance goals. The company has gained its strength from its brand recognition of ‘ABC Company’. ‘ABC Company’ is recognized as a worldwide donut shop and it is preferred by almost everyone all over the world. The brand name has been established successfully in 31 countries and it is continuously growing as well. ABC Company also provides quality products which are fresh and wholesome and services at reasonable prices, which again strengthens the company’s position in the market.
• Weaknesses: Weaknesses of the company can be defined as the internal characteristics that inhibit or restrict the organization’s performance. The weakness of ABC Company comes from the inconsistent quality of food. This means that there are complaints that are made by customers of some particular franchises that the food quality is not satisfactory. Due to this problem the company is losing its sales along with their clientele.
• Opportunities: Opportunities of the company can be defined as the characteristics of the external environment that has the potential to help the organizations achieve or exceed in its strategic goals. The biggest opportunity for ABC Company was that when the shifted from being an only donut shop to a donut and a coffee shop which bought in new clientele for the company and which has help the company to increase its sales and make profits.
• Threats: Threats can be defined as characteristics of the external environment that may prevent the organization from achieving it strategic goals. The competitor of ABC Company is Starbucks. Starbucks is one of the market leaders in the food industries through their vertical integration strategies. Starbucks specializes in coffee only and it works very hard to retain its customers

Risks Associated With the Culture

• Sometimes it happens that the organization is not able to embrace personal mastery, i.e. if the employees of the company are empowered in an unaligned way then they can become a treat for the company itself.
• There can be a breakdown in communication
• The employees resist to change
• There are barriers which are erected by the employees towards learning (Luthans, 2006)

Change Plan

When the company is changing its culture it would face some resistance from the employees of the company. However the significant barriers and resistance to change is shown by the employees of the company, the organizational cultures can be managed and changed completely with time. The management of the company should have this in mind that changing of the company’s culture takes time that it is a slow process, it cannot be changed overnight.

Options for Change

There are different options for change, when a company is going through a change in their culture. The options are as follows:-

• Change through Global Diversity
• Change through Technology
• Change through Awareness Training

Best Option for Change

The best option for change would be through global diversity. As globalization increases diversity would also increase, as the growing number of immigrants’ increases it presents mangers with more complex communication issues with dealing with people whose native language is not the same as that of the vast majority of their co-worker. Creating a productive and enjoyable work environment is the dual responsibility of human resource managers and human resource experts. Having a diverse culture in a company is considered to be a beneficial process that will help in an employee’s growth while it also increases the cultural sensitivity and as well as the mentoring skills of the HR department members, it is considered to be a 2 way process, the employees teach their supervisors or mentors while they are learning from them. If there is a diverse culture in a company, there will be a health competition between the employees and the result of that competition would be that the employees will do well in their work activities and the company will be able to retain its employees. Acceptance of diversity is becoming especially important because of socio-cultural changes and the changing of workforce.

Change Models

There are different change models that can be implemented by the organization to implement change. These models are as follows:-

• Cultural Dimensions (Hofstede Model)
• Hall’s Context Model

Cultural Dimensions – Hofstede Model

The Hofstedes five dimensions of culture are used when a company is entering into a new culture for business. For example, ABC Company can use this dimension of culture to gain important insights when entering a new region. The five dimensions are as follows:-

• Low vs. High Power Distance; for example, there is a high power distance in the Asian culture; the people who have less or no power at all in the society acknowledge the power of those who have high powers based on their positions in the firms.
• Individualism vs. Collectivism; when entering the Asian culture ABC Company must remember that the Asian society is more inclined towards collectivism and not individualism. They believe that their family and their cultural values come first.
• Masculinity vs. Femininity; when entering the Asian culture ABC Company must remember that the Asian countries are those countries in the world whose culture is masculine. The roles of the males in the Asian society are not very fluid but are more dramatic. ABC Company must remember that the Asian culture is very different from theirs because men are given more preference over the females no matter what.
• Uncertainty Avoidance; uncertainty is based on reducing uncertainty from the society. Cultures like Asian countries have the highest rate of uncertainty avoidance, therefore they expect their employees to remain with the company for a long period of time and they prefer rules and expect their employees to follow them.
• Long vs. Short Term Orientation: this is related with the society’s future versus past and the present. ABC Company must know that the Japanese culture falls under long term orientation, where they have a sense of shame, strongly believe in values and order relationships through status, whereas ABC Company culture is completely different from that of the Asian organization’s one.

Devise Change Plan

Implementing Teamwork: Teams play an important role within the organization. With the help of work teams the organization’s productivity will increase and the performance of the organization will improve tenfold. The use of work teams within the company increases the company’s potential and provides a lot benefits for the company as well. The organization and the team members are the ones who benefit from the team when it is a success. The teams usually have a positive impact on productivity and satisfaction on the members.

Assessment of Change: It is important that with time the change is accesses, to see that whether it is working or not. The assessment of change can be done through the following:-

Ø Feedback: feedback is considered important, with the help of feedback the management of the organization will be able to identify if there are any problems related with the change if the culture within the organization.

Ø Evaluation of Employee Performance: employee evaluation can be done through a number of performance tests. These tests are based upon the employees’ knowledge or skills, these tests can be paper – pencil variety or may even require an actual demonstration of skills. These tests must be reliable and validated to be useful; even then, it is more apt to measure potential than performance and it will help the management to understand that whether the employee has adapted to the new culture or not.

Implementing Change Plan

• Recommended Options: the recommended option for change plan would be through technology.
• Benefits: the benefits are; Technological change has a huge impact on the training and development programs; it increases the need to assess the developmental requirements of current and future managers, professionals and technical people.
• Time Period: It is going to take somewhere around 6 to 8 months for the company to change itself.
• Responsibility: It is the responsibility of the leaders within the organization, for the implementation of change plan. The leaders of the organization would be able to create a successful environment and they would also create a capacity for change. And help their employees to accept change. Making a difference as a leader today and in the future requires a very different approach from the past. As the head it is the duty of leader to be able to communicate with the subordinates who work under him/her.
• Monitoring & Evaluation: monitoring and the evaluation will be done by the HR department. For example, there are several ways through which the goals and the objectives of the company can be achieved; the way they are achieved is known as theequi-finality which means that there are a lot of ways to gain the objectives. The HR department can develop the employees in such a way that he or she is adaptable to change
• Estimated Cost: The company would need to use PERT (program evaluation review technique) along with CPM (critical path method), this will provide useful aid to the managers for estimating the resources that would be needed for a project and clarifying the planning process.

Recommendations

• The organizations need to be more flexible to change
• The management needs to train and develop its employees for the future, so that they are able faces all kinds of challenges
• The management needs be accommodative towards its employees from time to time
• Focus on innovation and continuous improvement
• Empowerment of employees
• More interaction between the management and employees.

Sometimes it becomes necessary that the company has a need to change its culture so that its performance can improve. For example the current environmental context of a company has undergone a huge and a drastic change and the company has two options either adapts to the new changes and conditions of the company or not to change and if the company does not change it might not survive. It is considered important the companies in this time and age need to have a culture that learns and that it anticipates change. It is important for the company to anticipate change or moving towards change but it is not easy to let go of the culture and move towards a new one. If the employees of the company are not developed for a change they would resist it and that would decrease the efficiency of the company. Therefore it is the work of the Human Resource department to train and develop the employees so that they are more adaptable towards change.

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Article contents

Organizational behavior.

• Neal M. Ashkanasy Neal M. Ashkanasy University of Queensland
•  and  Alana D. Dorris Alana D. Dorris University of Queensland
• https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190236557.013.23
• Published online: 29 March 2017

Organizational behavior (OB) is a discipline that includes principles from psychology, sociology, and anthropology. Its focus is on understanding how people behave in organizational work environments. Broadly speaking, OB covers three main levels of analysis: micro (individuals), meso (groups), and macro (the organization). Topics at the micro level include managing the diverse workforce; effects of individual differences in attitudes; job satisfaction and engagement, including their implications for performance and management; personality, including the effects of different cultures; perception and its effects on decision-making; employee values; emotions, including emotional intelligence, emotional labor, and the effects of positive and negative affect on decision-making and creativity (including common biases and errors in decision-making); and motivation, including the effects of rewards and goal-setting and implications for management. Topics at the meso level of analysis include group decision-making; managing work teams for optimum performance (including maximizing team performance and communication); managing team conflict (including the effects of task and relationship conflict on team effectiveness); team climate and group emotional tone; power, organizational politics, and ethical decision-making; and leadership, including leadership development and leadership effectiveness. At the organizational level, topics include organizational design and its effect on organizational performance; affective events theory and the physical environment; organizational culture and climate; and organizational change.

• organizational psychology
• organizational sociology
• organizational anthropology

Introduction

Organizational behavior (OB) is the study of how people behave in organizational work environments. More specifically, Robbins, Judge, Millett, and Boyle ( 2014 , p. 8) describe it as “[a] field of study that investigates the impact that individual groups and structure have on behavior within organizations, for the purposes of applying such knowledge towards improving an organization’s effectiveness.” The OB field looks at the specific context of the work environment in terms of human attitudes, cognition, and behavior, and it embodies contributions from psychology, social psychology, sociology, and anthropology. The field is also rapidly evolving because of the demands of today’s fast-paced world, where technology has given rise to work-from-home employees, globalization, and an ageing workforce. Thus, while managers and OB researchers seek to help employees find a work-life balance, improve ethical behavior (Ardichivili, Mitchell, & Jondle, 2009 ), customer service, and people skills (see, e.g., Brady & Cronin, 2001 ), they must simultaneously deal with issues such as workforce diversity, work-life balance, and cultural differences.

The most widely accepted model of OB consists of three interrelated levels: (1) micro (the individual level), (2) meso (the group level), and (3) macro (the organizational level). The behavioral sciences that make up the OB field contribute an element to each of these levels. In particular, OB deals with the interactions that take place among the three levels and, in turn, addresses how to improve performance of the organization as a whole.

In order to study OB and apply it to the workplace, it is first necessary to understand its end goal. In particular, if the goal is organizational effectiveness, then these questions arise: What can be done to make an organization more effective? And what determines organizational effectiveness? To answer these questions, dependent variables that include attitudes and behaviors such as productivity, job satisfaction, job performance, turnover intentions, withdrawal, motivation, and workplace deviance are introduced. Moreover, each level—micro, meso, and macro—has implications for guiding managers in their efforts to create a healthier work climate to enable increased organizational performance that includes higher sales, profits, and return on investment (ROE).

The Micro (Individual) Level of Analysis

The micro or individual level of analysis has its roots in social and organizational psychology. In this article, six central topics are identified and discussed: (1) diversity; (2) attitudes and job satisfaction; (3) personality and values; (4) emotions and moods; (5) perception and individual decision-making; and (6) motivation.

An obvious but oft-forgotten element at the individual level of OB is the diverse workforce. It is easy to recognize how different each employee is in terms of personal characteristics like age, skin color, nationality, ethnicity, and gender. Other, less biological characteristics include tenure, religion, sexual orientation, and gender identity. In the Australian context, while the Commonwealth Disability Discrimination Act of 1992 helped to increase participation of people with disabilities working in organizations, discrimination and exclusion still continue to inhibit equality (Feather & Boeckmann, 2007 ). In Western societies like Australia and the United States, however, antidiscrimination legislation is now addressing issues associated with an ageing workforce.

In terms of gender, there continues to be significant discrimination against female employees. Males have traditionally had much higher participation in the workforce, with only a significant increase in the female workforce beginning in the mid-1980s. Additionally, according to Ostroff and Atwater’s ( 2003 ) study of engineering managers, female managers earn a significantly lower salary than their male counterparts, especially when they are supervising mostly other females.

Job Satisfaction and Job Engagement

Job satisfaction is an attitudinal variable that comes about when an employee evaluates all the components of her or his job, which include affective, cognitive, and behavioral aspects (Weiss, 2002 ). Increased job satisfaction is associated with increased job performance, organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs), and reduced turnover intentions (Wilkin, 2012 ). Moreover, traditional workers nowadays are frequently replaced by contingent workers in order to reduce costs and work in a nonsystematic manner. According to Wilkin’s ( 2012 ) findings, however, contingent workers as a group are less satisfied with their jobs than permanent employees are.

Job engagement concerns the degree of involvement that an employee experiences on the job (Kahn, 1990 ). It describes the degree to which an employee identifies with their job and considers their performance in that job important; it also determines that employee’s level of participation within their workplace. Britt, Dickinson, Greene-Shortridge, and McKibbin ( 2007 ) describe the two extremes of job satisfaction and employee engagement: a feeling of responsibility and commitment to superior job performance versus a feeling of disengagement leading to the employee wanting to withdraw or disconnect from work. The first scenario is also related to organizational commitment, the level of identification an employee has with an organization and its goals. Employees with high organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and employee engagement tend to perceive that their organization values their contribution and contributes to their wellbeing.

Personality represents a person’s enduring traits. The key here is the concept of enduring . The most widely adopted model of personality is the so-called Big Five (Costa & McCrae, 1992 ): extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness. Employees high in conscientiousness tend to have higher levels of job knowledge, probably because they invest more into learning about their role. Those higher in emotional stability tend to have higher levels of job satisfaction and lower levels of stress, most likely because of their positive and opportunistic outlooks. Agreeableness, similarly, is associated with being better liked and may lead to higher employee performance and decreased levels of deviant behavior.

Although the personality traits in the Big Five have been shown to relate to organizational behavior, organizational performance, career success (Judge, Higgins, Thoresen, & Barrick, 2006 ), and other personality traits are also relevant to the field. Examples include positive self-evaluation, self-monitoring (the degree to which an individual is aware of comparisons with others), Machiavellianism (the degree to which a person is practical, maintains emotional distance, and believes the end will justify the means), narcissism (having a grandiose sense of self-importance and entitlement), risk-taking, proactive personality, and type A personality. In particular, those who like themselves and are grounded in their belief that they are capable human beings are more likely to perform better because they have fewer self-doubts that may impede goal achievements. Individuals high in Machiavellianism may need a certain environment in order to succeed, such as a job that requires negotiation skills and offers significant rewards, although their inclination to engage in political behavior can sometimes limit their potential. Employees who are high on narcissism may wreak organizational havoc by manipulating subordinates and harming the overall business because of their over-inflated perceptions of self. Higher levels of self-monitoring often lead to better performance but they may cause lower commitment to the organization. Risk-taking can be positive or negative; it may be great for someone who thrives on rapid decision-making, but it may prove stressful for someone who likes to weigh pros and cons carefully before making decisions. Type A individuals may achieve high performance but may risk doing so in a way that causes stress and conflict. Proactive personality, on the other hand, is usually associated with positive organizational performance.

Employee Values

Personal value systems are behind each employee’s attitudes and personality. Each employee enters an organization with an already established set of beliefs about what should be and what should not be. Today, researchers realize that personality and values are linked to organizations and organizational behavior. Years ago, only personality’s relation to organizations was of concern, but now managers are more interested in an employee’s flexibility to adapt to organizational change and to remain high in organizational commitment. Holland’s ( 1973 ) theory of personality-job fit describes six personality types (realistic, investigative, social, conventional, enterprising, and artistic) and theorizes that job satisfaction and turnover are determined by how well a person matches her or his personality to a job. In addition to person-job (P-J) fit, researchers have also argued for person-organization (P-O) fit, whereby employees desire to be a part of and are selected by an organization that matches their values. The Big Five would suggest, for example, that extraverted employees would desire to be in team environments; agreeable people would align well with supportive organizational cultures rather than more aggressive ones; and people high on openness would fit better in organizations that emphasize creativity and innovation (Anderson, Spataro, & Flynn, 2008 ).

Individual Differences, Affect, and Emotion

Personality predisposes people to have certain moods (feelings that tend to be less intense but longer lasting than emotions) and emotions (intense feelings directed at someone or something). In particular, personalities with extraversion and emotional stability partially determine an individual predisposition to experience emotion more or less intensely.

Affect is also related as describing the positive and negative feelings that people experience (Ashkanasy, 2003 ). Moreover, emotions, mood, and affect interrelate; a bad mood, for instance, can lead individuals to experience a negative emotion. Emotions are action-oriented while moods tend to be more cognitive. This is because emotions are caused by a specific event that might only last a few seconds, while moods are general and can last for hours or even days. One of the sources of emotions is personality. Dispositional or trait affects correlate, on the one hand, with personality and are what make an individual more likely to respond to a situation in a predictable way (Watson & Tellegen, 1985 ). Moreover, like personality, affective traits have proven to be stable over time and across settings (Diener, Larsen, Levine, & Emmons, 1985 ; Watson, 1988 ; Watson & Tellegen, 1985 ; Watson & Walker, 1996 ). State affect, on the other hand, is similar to mood and represents how an individual feels in the moment.

The Role of Affect in Organizational Behavior

For many years, affect and emotions were ignored in the field of OB despite being fundamental factors underlying employee behavior (Ashforth & Humphrey, 1995 ). OB researchers traditionally focused on solely decreasing the effects of strong negative emotions that were seen to impede individual, group, and organizational level productivity. More recent theories of OB focus, however, on affect, which is seen to have positive, as well as negative, effects on behavior, described by Barsade, Brief, and Spataro ( 2003 , p. 3) as the “affective revolution.” In particular, scholars now understand that emotions can be measured objectively and be observed through nonverbal displays such as facial expression and gestures, verbal displays, fMRI, and hormone levels (Ashkanasy, 2003 ; Rashotte, 2002 ).

Fritz, Sonnentag, Spector, and McInroe ( 2010 ) focus on the importance of stress recovery in affective experiences. In fact, an individual employee’s affective state is critical to OB, and today more attention is being focused on discrete affective states. Emotions like fear and sadness may be related to counterproductive work behaviors (Judge et al., 2006 ). Stress recovery is another factor that is essential for more positive moods leading to positive organizational outcomes. In a study, Fritz et al. ( 2010 ) looked at levels of psychological detachment of employees on weekends away from the workplace and how it was associated with higher wellbeing and affect.

Emotional Intelligence and Emotional Labor

Ashkanasy and Daus ( 2002 ) suggest that emotional intelligence is distinct but positively related to other types of intelligence like IQ. It is defined by Mayer and Salovey ( 1997 ) as the ability to perceive, assimilate, understand, and manage emotion in the self and others. As such, it is an individual difference and develops over a lifetime, but it can be improved with training. Boyatzis and McKee ( 2005 ) describe emotional intelligence further as a form of adaptive resilience, insofar as employees high in emotional intelligence tend to engage in positive coping mechanisms and take a generally positive outlook toward challenging work situations.

Emotional labor occurs when an employee expresses her or his emotions in a way that is consistent with an organization’s display rules, and usually means that the employee engages in either surface or deep acting (Hochschild, 1983 ). This is because the emotions an employee is expressing as part of their role at work may be different from the emotions they are actually feeling (Ozcelik, 2013 ). Emotional labor has implications for an employee’s mental and physical health and wellbeing. Moreover, because of the discrepancy between felt emotions (how an employee actually feels) and displayed emotions or surface acting (what the organization requires the employee to emotionally display), surface acting has been linked to negative organizational outcomes such as heightened emotional exhaustion and reduced commitment (Erickson & Wharton, 1997 ; Brotheridge & Grandey, 2002 ; Grandey, 2003 ; Groth, Hennig-Thurau, & Walsh, 2009 ).

Affect and Organizational Decision-Making

Ashkanasy and Ashton-James ( 2008 ) make the case that the moods and emotions managers experience in response to positive or negative workplace situations affect outcomes and behavior not only at the individual level, but also in terms of strategic decision-making processes at the organizational level. These authors focus on affective events theory (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996 ), which holds that organizational events trigger affective responses in organizational members, which in turn affect organizational attitudes, cognition, and behavior.

Perceptions and Behavior

Like personality, emotions, moods, and attitudes, perceptions also influence employees’ behaviors in the workplace. Perception is the way in which people organize and interpret sensory cues in order to give meaning to their surroundings. It can be influenced by time, work setting, social setting, other contextual factors such as time of day, time of year, temperature, a target’s clothing or appearance, as well as personal trait dispositions, attitudes, and value systems. In fact, a person’s behavior is based on her or his perception of reality—not necessarily the same as actual reality. Perception greatly influences individual decision-making because individuals base their behaviors on their perceptions of reality. In this regard, attribution theory (Martinko, 1995 ) outlines how individuals judge others and is our attempt to conclude whether a person’s behavior is internally or externally caused.

Decision-Making and the Role of Perception

Decision-making occurs as a reaction to a problem when the individual perceives there to be discrepancy between the current state of affairs and the state s/he desires. As such, decisions are the choices individuals make from a set of alternative courses of action. Each individual interprets information in her or his own way and decides which information is relevant to weigh pros and cons of each decision and its alternatives to come to her or his perception of the best outcome. In other words, each of our unique perceptual processes influences the final outcome (Janis & Mann, 1977 ).

Common Biases in Decision-Making

Although there is no perfect model for approaching decision-making, there are nonetheless many biases that individuals can make themselves aware of in order to maximize their outcomes. First, overconfidence bias is an inclination to overestimate the correctness of a decision. Those most likely to commit this error tend to be people with weak intellectual and interpersonal abilities. Anchoring bias occurs when individuals focus on the first information they receive, failing to adjust for information received subsequently. Marketers tend to use anchors in order to make impressions on clients quickly and project their brand names. Confirmation bias occurs when individuals only use facts that support their decisions while discounting all contrary views. Lastly, availability bias occurs when individuals base their judgments on information readily available. For example, a manager might rate an employee on a performance appraisal based on behavior in the past few days, rather than the past six months or year.

Errors in Decision-Making

Other errors in decision-making include hindsight bias and escalation of commitment . Hindsight bias is a tendency to believe, incorrectly, after an outcome of an event has already happened, that the decision-maker would have accurately predicted that same outcome. Furthermore, this bias, despite its prevalence, is especially insidious because it inhibits the ability to learn from the past and take responsibility for mistakes. Escalation of commitment is an inclination to continue with a chosen course of action instead of listening to negative feedback regarding that choice. When individuals feel responsible for their actions and those consequences, they escalate commitment probably because they have invested so much into making that particular decision. One solution to escalating commitment is to seek a source of clear, less distorted feedback (Staw, 1981 ).

The last but certainly not least important individual level topic is motivation. Like each of the topics discussed so far, a worker’s motivation is also influenced by individual differences and situational context. Motivation can be defined as the processes that explain a person’s intensity, direction, and persistence toward reaching a goal. Work motivation has often been viewed as the set of energetic forces that determine the form, direction, intensity, and duration of behavior (Latham & Pinder, 2005 ). Motivation can be further described as the persistence toward a goal. In fact many non-academics would probably describe it as the extent to which a person wants and tries to do well at a particular task (Mitchell, 1982 ).

Early theories of motivation began with Maslow’s ( 1943 ) hierarchy of needs theory, which holds that each person has five needs in hierarchical order: physiological, safety, social, esteem, and self-actualization. These constitute the “lower-order” needs, while social and esteem needs are “higher-order” needs. Self-esteem for instance underlies motivation from the time of childhood. Another early theory is McGregor’s ( 1960 ) X-Y theory of motivation: Theory X is the concept whereby individuals must be pushed to work; and theory Y is positive, embodying the assumption that employees naturally like work and responsibility and can exercise self-direction.

Herzberg subsequently proposed the “two-factor theory” that attitude toward work can determine whether an employee succeeds or fails. Herzberg ( 1966 ) relates intrinsic factors, like advancement in a job, recognition, praise, and responsibility to increased job satisfaction, while extrinsic factors like the organizational climate, relationship with supervisor, and salary relate to job dissatisfaction. In other words, the hygiene factors are associated with the work context while the motivators are associated with the intrinsic factors associated with job motivation.

Contemporary Theories of Motivation

Although traditional theories of motivation still appear in OB textbooks, there is unfortunately little empirical data to support their validity. More contemporary theories of motivation, with more acceptable research validity, include self-determination theory , which holds that people prefer to have control over their actions. If a task an individual enjoyed now feels like a chore, then this will undermine motivation. Higher self-determined motivation (or intrinsically determined motivation) is correlated with increased wellbeing, job satisfaction, commitment, and decreased burnout and turnover intent. In this regard, Fernet, Gagne, and Austin ( 2010 ) found that work motivation relates to reactions to interpersonal relationships at work and organizational burnout. Thus, by supporting work self-determination, managers can help facilitate adaptive employee organizational behaviors while decreasing turnover intention (Richer, Blanchard, & Vallerand, 2002 ).

Core self-evaluation (CSE) theory is a relatively new concept that relates to self-confidence in general, such that people with higher CSE tend to be more committed to goals (Bono & Colbert, 2005 ). These core self-evaluations also extend to interpersonal relationships, as well as employee creativity. Employees with higher CSE are more likely to trust coworkers, which may also contribute to increased motivation for goal attainment (Johnson, Kristof-Brown, van Vianen, de Pater, & Klein, 2003 ). In general, employees with positive CSE tend to be more intrinsically motivated, thus additionally playing a role in increasing employee creativity (Judge, Bono, Erez, & Locke, 2005 ). Finally, according to research by Amabile ( 1996 ), intrinsic motivation or self-determined goal attainment is critical in facilitating employee creativity.

Goal-Setting and Conservation of Resources

While self-determination theory and CSE focus on the reward system behind motivation and employee work behaviors, Locke and Latham’s ( 1990 ) goal-setting theory specifically addresses the impact that goal specificity, challenge, and feedback has on motivation and performance. These authors posit that our performance is increased when specific and difficult goals are set, rather than ambiguous and general goals. Goal-setting seems to be an important motivational tool, but it is important that the employee has had a chance to take part in the goal-setting process so they are more likely to attain their goals and perform highly.

Related to goal-setting is Hobfoll’s ( 1989 ) conservation of resources (COR) theory, which holds that people have a basic motivation to obtain, maintain, and protect what they value (i.e., their resources). Additionally there is a global application of goal-setting theory for each of the motivation theories. Not enough research has been conducted regarding the value of goal-setting in global contexts, however, and because of this, goal-setting is not recommended without consideration of cultural and work-related differences (Konopaske & Ivancevich, 2004 ).

Self-Efficacy and Motivation

Other motivational theories include self-efficacy theory, and reinforcement, equity, and expectancy theories. Self-efficacy or social cognitive or learning theory is an individual’s belief that s/he can perform a task (Bandura, 1977 ). This theory complements goal-setting theory in that self-efficacy is higher when a manager assigns a difficult task because employees attribute the manager’s behavior to him or her thinking that the employee is capable; the employee in turn feels more confident and capable.

Reinforcement theory (Skinner, 1938 ) counters goal-setting theory insofar as it is a behaviorist approach rather than cognitive and is based in the notion that reinforcement conditions behavior, or in other words focuses on external causes rather than the value an individual attributes to goals. Furthermore, this theory instead emphasizes the behavior itself rather than what precedes the behavior. Additionally, managers may use operant conditioning, a part of behaviorism, to reinforce people to act in a desired way.

Social-learning theory (Bandura, 1977 ) extends operant conditioning and also acknowledges the influence of observational learning and perception, and the fact that people can learn and retain information by paying attention, observing, and modeling the desired behavior.

Equity theory (Adams, 1963 ) looks at how employees compare themselves to others and how that affects their motivation and in turn their organizational behaviors. Employees who perceive inequity for instance, will either change how much effort they are putting in (their inputs), change or distort their perceptions (either of self or others in relation to work), change their outcomes, turnover, or choose a different referent (acknowledge performance in relation to another employee but find someone else they can be better than).

Last but not least, Vroom’s ( 1964 ) expectancy theory holds that individuals are motivated by the extent to which they can see that their effort is likely to result in valued outcomes. This theory has received strong support in empirical research (see Van Erde & Thierry, 1996 , for meta-analytic results). Like each of the preceding theories, expectancy theory has important implications that managers should consider. For instance, managers should communicate with employees to determine their preferences to know what rewards to offer subordinates to elicit motivation. Managers can also make sure to identify and communicate clearly the level of performance they desire from an employee, as well as to establish attainable goals with the employee and to be very clear and precise about how and when performance will be rewarded (Konopaske & Ivancevich, 2004 ).

The Meso (Group) Level of Analysis

The second level of OB research also emerges from social and organizational psychology and relates to groups or teams. Topics covered so far include individual differences: diversity, personality and emotions, values and attitudes, motivation, and decision-making. Thus, in this section, attention turns to how individuals come together to form groups and teams, and begins laying the foundation for understanding the dynamics of group and team behavior. Topics at this level also include communication, leadership, power and politics, and conflict.

A group consists of two or more individuals who come together to achieve a similar goal. Groups can be formal or informal. A formal group on the one hand is assigned by the organization’s management and is a component of the organization’s structure. An informal group on the other hand is not determined by the organization and often forms in response to a need for social contact. Teams are formal groups that come together to meet a specific group goal.

Although groups are thought to go through five stages of development (Tuckman, 1965 : forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning) and to transition to effectiveness at the halfway mark (Gersick, 1988 ), group effectiveness is in fact far more complex. For example, two types of conformity to group norms are possible: compliance (just going along with the group’s norms but not accepting them) and personal acceptance (when group members’ individual beliefs match group norms). Behavior in groups then falls into required behavior usually defined by the formal group and emergent behavior that grows out of interactions among group members (Champoux, 2011 ).

Group Decision-Making

Although many of the decisions made in organizations occur in groups and teams, such decisions are not necessarily optimal. Groups may have more complex knowledge and increased perspectives than individuals but may suffer from conformity pressures or domination by one or two members. Group decision-making has the potential to be affected by groupthink or group shift. In groupthink , group pressures to conform to the group norms deter the group from thinking of alternative courses of action (Janis & Mann, 1977 ). In the past, researchers attempted to explain the effects of group discussion on decision-making through the following approaches: group decision rules, interpersonal comparisons, and informational influence. Myers and Lamm ( 1976 ), however, present a conceptual schema comprised of interpersonal comparisons and informational influence approaches that focus on attitude development in a more social context. They found that their research is consistent with the group polarization hypothesis: The initial majority predicts the consensus outcome 90% of the time. The term group polarization was founded in Serge Moscovici and his colleagues’ literature (e.g., Moscovici & Zavalloni, 1969 ). Polarization refers to an increase in the extremity of the average response of the subject population.

In other words, the Myer and Lamm ( 1976 ) schema is based on the idea that four elements feed into one another: social motivation, cognitive foundation, attitude change, and action commitment. Social motivation (comparing self with others in order to be perceived favorably) feeds into cognitive foundation , which in turn feeds into attitude change and action commitment . Managers of organizations can help reduce the negative phenomena and increase the likelihood of functional groups by encouraging brainstorming or openly looking at alternatives in the process of decision-making such as the nominal group technique (which involves restricting interpersonal communication in order to encourage free thinking and proceeding to a decision in a formal and systematic fashion such as voting).

Elements of Team Performance

OB researchers typically focus on team performance and especially the factors that make teams most effective. Researchers (e.g., see De Dreu & Van Vianen, 2001 ) have organized the critical components of effective teams into three main categories: context, composition, and process. Context refers to the team’s physical and psychological environment, and in particular the factors that enable a climate of trust. Composition refers to the means whereby the abilities of each individual member can best be most effectively marshaled. Process is maximized when members have a common goal or are able to reflect and adjust the team plan (for reflexivity, see West, 1996 ).

Communication

In order to build high-performing work teams, communication is critical, especially if team conflict is to be minimized. Communication serves four main functions: control, motivation, emotional expression, and information (Scott & Mitchell, 1976 ). The communication process involves the transfer of meaning from a sender to a receiver through formal channels established by an organization and informal channels, created spontaneously and emerging out of individual choice. Communication can flow downward from managers to subordinates, upward from subordinates to managers, or between members of the same group. Meaning can be transferred from one person to another orally, through writing, or nonverbally through facial expressions and body movement. In fact, body movement and body language may complicate verbal communication and add ambiguity to the situation as does physical distance between team members.

High-performance teams tend to have some of the following characteristics: interpersonal trust, psychological and physical safety, openness to challenges and ideas, an ability to listen to other points of view, and an ability to share knowledge readily to reduce task ambiguity (Castka, Bamber, Sharp, & Belohoubek, 2001 ). Although the development of communication competence is essential for a work team to become high-performing, that communication competence is also influenced by gender, personality, ability, and emotional intelligence of the members. Ironically, it is the self-reliant team members who are often able to develop this communication competence. Although capable of working autonomously, self-reliant team members know when to ask for support from others and act interdependently.

Emotions also play a part in communicating a message or attitude to other team members. Emotional contagion, for instance, is a fascinating effect of emotions on nonverbal communication, and it is the subconscious process of sharing another person’s emotions by mimicking that team member’s nonverbal behavior (Hatfield, Cacioppo, & Rapson, 1993 ). Importantly, positive communication, expressions, and support of team members distinguished high-performing teams from low-performing ones (Bakker & Schaufeli, 2008 ).

Team Conflict

Because of member interdependence, teams are inclined to more conflict than individual workers. In particular, diversity in individual differences leads to conflict (Thomas, 1992 ; Wall & Callister, 1995 ; see also Cohen & Bailey, 1997 ). Jehn ( 1997 ) identifies three types of conflict: task, relationship, and process. Process conflict concerns how task accomplishment should proceed and who is responsible for what; task conflict focuses on the actual content and goals of the work (Robbins et al., 2014 ); and relationship conflict is based on differences in interpersonal relationships. While conflict, and especially task conflict, does have some positive benefits such as greater innovation (Tjosvold, 1997 ), it can also lead to lowered team performance and decreased job satisfaction, or even turnover. De Dreu and Van Vianen ( 2001 ) found that team conflict can result in one of three responses: (1) collaborating with others to find an acceptable solution; (2) contending and pushing one member’s perspective on others; or (3) avoiding and ignoring the problem.

Team Effectiveness and Relationship Conflict

Team effectiveness can suffer in particular from relationship conflict, which may threaten team members’ personal identities and self-esteem (Pelled, 1995 ). In this regard, Murnighan and Conlon ( 1991 ) studied members of British string quartets and found that the most successful teams avoided relationship conflict while collaborating to resolve task conflicts. This may be because relationship conflict distracts team members from the task, reducing team performance and functioning. As noted earlier, positive affect is associated with collaboration, cooperation, and problem resolution, while negative affect tends to be associated with competitive behaviors, especially during conflict (Rhoades, Arnold, & Jay, 2001 ).

Team Climate and Emotionality

Emotional climate is now recognized as important to team processes (Ashkanasy & Härtel, 2014 ), and team climate in general has important implications for how individuals behave individually and collectively to effect organizational outcomes. This idea is consistent with Druskat and Wolff’s ( 2001 ) notion that team emotional-intelligence climate can help a team manage both types of conflict (task and relationship). In Jehn’s ( 1997 ) study, she found that emotion was most often negative during team conflict, and this had a negative effect on performance and satisfaction regardless of the type of conflict team members were experiencing. High emotionality, as Jehn calls it, causes team members to lose sight of the work task and focus instead on the negative affect. Jehn noted, however, that absence of group conflict might also may block innovative ideas and stifle creativity (Jehn, 1997 ).

Power and Politics

Power and organizational politics can trigger employee conflict, thus affecting employee wellbeing, job satisfaction, and performance, in turn affecting team and organizational productivity (Vigoda, 2000 ). Because power is a function of dependency, it can often lead to unethical behavior and thus become a source of conflict. Types of power include formal and personal power. Formal power embodies coercive, reward, and legitimate power. Coercive power depends on fear. Reward power is the opposite and occurs when an individual complies because s/he receives positive benefits from acting in accordance with the person in power. In formal groups and organizations, the most easily accessed form of power is legitimate because this form comes to be from one’s position in the organizational hierarchy (Raven, 1993 ). Power tactics represent the means by which those in a position of power translate their power base (formal or personal) into specific actions.

The nine influence tactics that managers use according to Yukl and Tracey ( 1992 ) are (1) rational persuasion, (2) inspirational appeal, (3) consultation, (4) ingratiation, (5) exchange, (6) personal appeal, (7) coalition, (8) legitimating, and (9) pressure. Of these tactics, inspirational appeal, consultation, and rational persuasion were among the strategies most effective in influencing task commitment. In this study, there was also a correlation found between a manager’s rational persuasion and a subordinate rating her effectively. Perhaps this is because persuasion requires some level of expertise, although more research is needed to verify which methods are most successful. Moreover, resource dependence theory dominates much theorizing about power and organizational politics. In fact, it is one of the central themes of Pfeffer and Salancik’s ( 1973 ) treatise on the external control of organizations. First, the theory emphasizes the importance of the organizational environment in understanding the context of how decisions of power are made (see also Pfeffer & Leblebici, 1973 ). Resource dependence theory is based on the premise that some organizations have more power than others, occasioned by specifics regarding their interdependence. Pfeffer and Salancik further propose that external interdependence and internal organizational processes are related and that this relationship is mediated by power.

Organizational Politics

Political skill is the ability to use power tactics to influence others to enhance an individual’s personal objectives. In addition, a politically skilled person is able to influence another person without being detected (one reason why he or she is effective). Persons exerting political skill leave a sense of trust and sincerity with the people they interact with. An individual possessing a high level of political skill must understand the organizational culture they are exerting influence within in order to make an impression on his or her target. While some researchers suggest political behavior is a critical way to understand behavior that occurs in organizations, others simply see it as a necessary evil of work life (Champoux, 2011 ). Political behavior focuses on using power to reach a result and can be viewed as unofficial and unsanctioned behavior (Mintzberg, 1985 ). Unlike other organizational processes, political behavior involves both power and influence (Mayes & Allen, 1977 ). Moreover, because political behavior involves the use of power to influence others, it can often result in conflict.

Organizational Politics, Power, and Ethics

In concluding this section on power and politics, it is also appropriate to address the dark side, where organizational members who are persuasive and powerful enough might become prone to abuse standards of equity and justice and thereby engage in unethical behavior. An employee who takes advantage of her position of power may use deception, lying, or intimidation to advance her own interests (Champoux, 2011 ). When exploring interpersonal injustice, it is important to consider the intent of the perpetrator, as well as the effect of the perpetrator’s treatment from the victim’s point of view. Umphress, Simmons, Folger, Ren, and Bobocel ( 2013 ) found in this regard that not only does injustice perceived by the self or coworkers influence attitudes and behavior within organizations, but injustice also influences observer reactions both inside and outside of the organization.

Leadership plays an integrative part in understanding group behavior, because the leader is engaged in directing individuals toward attitudes and behaviors, hopefully also in the direction of those group members’ goals. Although there is no set of universal leadership traits, extraversion from the Big Five personality framework has been shown in meta-analytic studies to be positively correlated with transformational, while neuroticism appears to be negatively correlated (Bono & Judge, 2004 ). There are also various perspectives to leadership, including the competency perspective, which addresses the personality traits of leaders; the behavioral perspective, which addresses leader behaviors, specifically task versus people-oriented leadership; and the contingency perspective, which is based on the idea that leadership involves an interaction of personal traits and situational factors. Fiedler’s ( 1967 ) contingency, for example, suggests that leader effectiveness depends on the person’s natural fit to the situation and the leader’s score on a “least preferred coworker” scale.

More recently identified styles of leadership include transformational leadership (Bass, Avolio, & Atwater, 1996 ), charismatic leadership (Conger & Kanungo, 1988 ), and authentic leadership (Luthans & Avolio, 2003 ). In a nutshell, transformational leaders inspire followers to act based on the good of the organization; charismatic leaders project a vision and convey a new set of values; and authentic leaders convey trust and genuine sentiment.

Leader-member exchange theory (LMX; see Graen & Uhl-Bien, 1995 ) assumes that leadership emerges from exchange relationships between a leader and her or his followers. More recently, Tse, Troth, and Ashkanasy ( 2015 ) expanded on LMX to include social processes (e.g., emotional intelligence, emotional labor, and discrete emotions), arguing that affect plays a large part in the leader-member relationship.

Leadership Development

An emerging new topic in leadership concerns leadership development, which embodies the readiness of leadership aspirants to change (Hannah & Avolio, 2010 ). In this regard, the learning literature suggests that intrinsic motivation is necessary in order to engage in development (see Hidi & Harackiewicz, 2000 ), but also that the individual needs to be goal-oriented and have developmental efficacy or self-confidence that s/he can successfully perform in leadership contexts.

Ashkanasy, Dasborough, and Ascough ( 2009 ) argue further that developing the affective side of leaders is important. In this case, because emotions are so pervasive within organizations, it is important that leaders learn how to manage them in order to improve team performance and interactions with employees that affect attitudes and behavior at almost every organizational level.

Abusive Leadership

Leaders, or those in positions of power, are particularly more likely to run into ethical issues, and only more recently have organizational behavior researchers considered the ethical implications of leadership. As Gallagher, Mazur, and Ashkanasy ( 2015 ) describe, since 2009 , organizations have been under increasing pressure to cut costs or “do more with less,” and this sometimes can lead to abusive supervision, whereby employee job demands exceed employee resources, and supervisors engage in bullying, undermining, victimization, or personal attacks on subordinates (Tepper, 2000 ).

Supervisors who are very high or low in emotional intelligence may be more likely to experience stress associated with a very demanding high-performance organizational culture. These supervisors may be more likely to try to meet the high demands and pressures through manipulative behaviors (Kilduff, Chiaburu, & Menges, 2010 ). This has serious implications for employee wellbeing and the organization as a whole. Abusive supervision detracts from the ability for those under attack to perform effectively, and targets often come to doubt their own ability to perform (Tepper, 2000 ).

The Macro (Organizational) Level of Analysis

The final level of OB derives from research traditions across three disciplines: organizational psychology, organizational sociology, and organizational anthropology. Moreover, just as teams and groups are more than the sum of their individual team members, organizations are also more than the sum of the teams or groups residing within them. As such, structure, climate, and culture play key roles in shaping and being shaped by employee attitudes and behaviors, and they ultimately determine organizational performance and productivity.

Organizational Structure

Organizational structure is a sociological phenomenon that determines the way tasks are formally divided and coordinated within an organization. In this regard, jobs are often grouped by the similarity of functions performed, the product or service produced, or the geographical location. Often, the number of forms of departmentalization will depend on the size of the organization, with larger organizations having more forms of departmentalization than others. Organizations are also organized by the chain of command or the hierarchy of authority that determines the span of control, or how many employees a manager can efficiently and effectively lead. With efforts to reduce costs since the global financial crisis of 2009 , organizations have tended to adopt a wider, flatter span of control, where more employees report to one supervisor.

Organizational structure also concerns the level of centralization or decentralization, the degree to which decision-making is focused at a single point within an organization. Formalization is also the degree to which jobs are organized in an organization. These levels are determined by the organization and also vary greatly across the world. For example, Finnish organizations tend to be more decentralized than their Australian counterparts and, as a consequence, are more innovative (Leiponen & Helfat, 2011 ).

Mintzberg ( 1979 ) was the first to set out a taxonomy of organizational structure. Within his model, the most common organizational design is the simple structure characterized by a low level of departmentalization, a wide span of control, and centralized authority. Other organizational types emerge in larger organizations, which tend to be bureaucratic and more routinized. Rules are formalized, tasks are grouped into departments, authority is centralized, and the chain of command involves narrow spans of control and decision-making. An alternative is the matrix structure, often found in hospitals, universities, and government agencies. This form of organization combines functional and product departmentalization where employees answer to two bosses: functional department managers and product managers.

New design options include the virtual organization and the boundaryless organization , an organization that has no chain of command and limitless spans of control. Structures differ based on whether the organization seeks to use an innovation strategy, imitation strategy, or cost-minimization strategy (Galunic & Eisenhardt, 1994 ). Organizational structure can have a significant effect on employee attitudes and behavior. Evidence generally shows that work specialization leads to higher employee productivity but also lower job satisfaction (Porter & Lawler, 1965 ). Gagné and Deci emphasize that autonomous work motivation (i.e., intrinsic motivation and integrated extrinsic motivation) is promoted in work climates that are interesting, challenging, and allow choice. Parker, Wall, and Jackson ( 1997 ) specifically relate job enlargement to autonomous motivation. Job enlargement was first discussed by management theorists like Lawler and Hall ( 1970 ), who believed that jobs should be enlarged to improve the intrinsic motivation of workers. Today, most of the job-design literature is built around the issue of work specialization (job enlargement and enrichment). In Parker, Wall, and Jackson’s study, they observed that horizontally enlarging jobs through team-based assembly cells led to greater understanding and acceptance of the company’s vision and more engagement in new work roles. (In sum, by structuring work to allow more autonomy among employees and identification among individual work groups, employees stand to gain more internal autonomous motivation leading to improved work outcomes (van Knippenberg & van Schie, 2000 ).

The Physical Environment of Work

Ashkanasy, Ayoko, and Jehn ( 2014 ) extend the topic of organizational structure to discuss, from a psychological perspective, how the physical work environment shapes employee attitudes, behaviors, and organizational outcomes. Elsbach ( 2003 ) pointed out that the space within which employees conduct their work is critical to employees’ levels of performance and productivity. In their study, Ashkanasy and his colleagues looked at the underlying processes influencing how the physical environment determines employee attitudes and behaviors, in turn affecting productivity levels. They base their model on affective events theory (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996 ), which holds that particular “affective” events in the work environment are likely to be the immediate cause of employee behavior and performance in organizations (see also Ashkanasy & Humphrey, 2011 ). Specifically, Ashkanasy and colleagues ( 2014 ) looked at how this theory holds in extremely crowded open-plan office designs and how employees in these offices are more likely to experience negative affect, conflict, and territoriality, negatively impacting attitudes, behaviors, and work performance.

• Organizational Climate and Culture

Although organizational structure and the physical environment are important determinants of employee attitudes and behaviors, organizational culture and climate lie at the heart of organizational interactions (Ashkanasy & Jackson, 2001 ). Organizational culture derives from an anthropological research tradition, while organizational climate is based on organizational psychology.

A central presumption of culture is that, as Smircich ( 1983 ) noted, organizational behavior is not a function of what goes on inside individual employees’ heads, but between employees, as evidenced in daily organizational communication and language. As such, organizational culture allows one organization to distinguish itself from another, while conveying a sense of identity for its members.

Organizational Climate and its Relation to Organizational Culture

Organizational culture creates organizational climate or employees’ shared perceptions about their organization and work environment. Organizational climate has been found to facilitate and/or inhibit displays of certain behaviors in one study (Smith-Crowe, Burke, & Landis, 2003 ), and overall, organizational climate is often viewed as a surface-level indicator of the functioning of the employee/organizational environment relationship (Ryan, Horvath, Ployhart, Schmitt, & Slade, 2000 ). For instance, a more restrictive climate may inhibit individual decision-making in contrast to a more supportive climate in which the organization may intervene at the individual level and in which the ability/job performance relationship is supported (James, Demaree, Mulaik, & Ladd, 1992 ). In a study focused on safety climate, Smith-Crowe and colleagues found that organizational climate is essential in determining whether training will transfer to employee performance, and this is most likely because organizational climate moderates the knowledge/performance relationship. Gibbs and Cooper ( 2010 ) also found that a supportive organizational climate is positively related to employee performance. They specifically looked at PsyCap, the higher-order construct of psychological capital first proposed by Luthans and Youssef ( 2004 ).

Organizational Change

The final topic covered in this article is organizational change. Organizational culture and climate can both be negatively impacted by organizational change and, in turn, negatively affect employee wellbeing, attitudes, and performance, reflecting onto organizational performance. Often, there is great resistance to change, and the success rate of organizational change initiatives averages at less than 30% (Al-Haddad & Kotnour, 2015 ). In order to overcome this resistance, it is important that managers plan ahead for changes and emphasize education and communication about them. As organizations becoming increasingly globalized, change has become the norm, and this will continue into the future.

Additionally, as organizations become increasingly globalized, organizational changes often involve mergers that have important organizational implications. In this regard, Kavanagh and Ashkanasy ( 2006 ) found that, for a merger to be successful, there needs to be alignment between the individual values and organizational cultures of merging partners. Managers during a merger situation need to be especially cognizant of how this organizational change affects the company’s original organizational culture.

Organizational development (OD), a collection of planned change interventions, may be the way to improve organizational performance and increase employee wellbeing. OD focuses on employees respecting one another, trust and support, equal power, confrontation of problems, and participation of everyone affected by the organizational change (Lines, 2004 ). Moreover, when an organization already has an established climate and culture that support change and innovation, an organization may have less trouble adapting to the change.

Organizational change research encompasses almost all aspects of organizational behavior. Individuals and employees are motivated to achieve success and be perceived as successful. In this regard, each of the individual differences—personality, affect, past experiences, values, and perceptions—plays into whether individuals can transcend obstacles and deal with the barriers encountered along the journey toward achievement. Teams are similarly motivated to be successful in a collective sense and to prove that they contribute to the organization as a whole. In addition to individual differences, team members deal with bringing all those individual differences together, which can wreak havoc on team communication and cause further obstacles in terms of power differences and conflicts in regard to decision-making processes. Last, at the organizational level of organizational behavior, it is important to account for all of these micro- and meso-level differences, and to address the complexity of economic pressures, increasing globalization, and global and transnational organizations to the mix. This is at the top level of sophistication because, as emphasized before, just as groups equal much more than the sum of individual members, organizations are much more than the sum of their teams. The organizational structure, the formal organization, the organizational culture, and climate and organizational rules all impact whether an organization can perform effectively. Organizational behavior, through its complex study of human behavior at its very conception, offers much-needed practical implications for managers in understanding people at work.

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Relationship between Organizational Culture, Leadership Behavior and Job Satisfaction

• Yafang Tsai 1 , 2  

BMC Health Services Research volume  11 , Article number:  98 ( 2011 ) Cite this article

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Organizational culture refers to the beliefs and values that have existed in an organization for a long time, and to the beliefs of the staff and the foreseen value of their work that will influence their attitudes and behavior. Administrators usually adjust their leadership behavior to accomplish the mission of the organization, and this could influence the employees' job satisfaction. It is therefore essential to understand the relationship between organizational culture, leadership behavior and job satisfaction of employees.

A cross-sectional study was undertaken that focused on hospital nurses in Taiwan. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire; 300 questionnaires were distributed and 200 valid questionnaires were returned. To test the reliability of the data, they were analyzed by Cronbach's α and confirmatory factors. Correlation analysis was used on the relationships between organizational cultures, leadership behavior and job satisfaction.

Organizational cultures were significantly (positively) correlated with leadership behavior and job satisfaction, and leadership behavior was significantly (positively) correlated with job satisfaction.

Conclusions

The culture within an organization is very important, playing a large role in whether it is a happy and healthy environment in which to work. In communicating and promoting the organizational ethos to employees, their acknowledgement and acceptance of it can influence their work behavior and attitudes. When the interaction between the leadership and employees is good, the latter will make a greater contribution to team communication and collaboration, and will also be encouraged to accomplish the mission and objectives assigned by the organization, thereby enhancing job satisfaction.

Peer Review reports

Organizational culture is described by Robbins & Coulter [ 1 ] as the shared values, beliefs, or perceptions held by employees within an organization or organizational unit. Because organizational culture reflects the values, beliefs and behavioral norms that are used by employees in an organization to give meaning to the situations that they encounter, it can influence the attitudes and behavior of the staff [ 2 ]. Understanding the organization's core values can prevent possible internal conflict [ 3 ], which is the main reason for our research into these cultural issues.

In other management fields, empirical research of organizational culture has involved the functionalist perspective, providing impressive evidence of the role of organizational culture in improving performance [ 4 ]. The pervasiveness of an organizational culture requires that management recognize its underpinning dimensions and its impact on employee-related variables, such as job satisfaction [ 5 ], organizational commitment [ 6 ], and performance [ 7 ]. Lund [ 5 ] believed that less research was done on the relationship between organizational culture and job satisfaction within the research topic of organizational culture and outcome. The organization consists of the staff, with the behavior of its individual members affecting outcomes. Since cultural research within the nursing field is not common [ 8 ], it is necessary to explore the way the culture influences the behavior of the nursing staff, and in turn how the behavior of the staff influences the organizational outcome.

A two-dimensional model of leadership that focuses on the concern for people and production has been used for many years in organizational research [ 9 ]. In the late 1970s, leadership research started focusing on behavior within organizational change and development [ 10 ]. Leadership implies authority in the broadest sense of the word and not simply the power to wield the stick [ 11 ]. It is based on objective factors, such as managerial ability, and more subjective characteristics that include personal qualities of the leaders. The factors are of even greater importance given the current emerging culture of the nurse who has a clear and assertive vision about the nature of clinical practice [ 12 ].

Currently, there is a shortage of nurses in clinical care, and good leaders can help any attrition. Furthermore, the leadership skills of nurse administrators can contribute to the success of their organization [ 13 ]. Leadership is of increasing importance in clinical nursing [ 14 ]. Although leadership and organizational culture constructs have been well studied, the relationship between them has not been established in the field of nursing [ 6 ]. This study explores the relationship between organizational culture and leadership behavior.

Berson & Linton [ 15 ] discovered that within the research & development (R&D) and administrative environments, leadership behavior of a manager is closely related to work satisfaction of the employees. Nielsen et al. [ 16 ] have stated that leadership behavior and job satisfaction will depend on the organizational context; therefore another objective of this research was to understand how the leadership behavior of the administrator in different organizational cultures affects job satisfaction. Casida & Pinto-Zipp [ 17 ] explored how nurses felt about the relationship between leadership and organizational culture, and found them to be correlated. Although the data indicated that the development of an organizational culture is related to the behavior of its leaders, the results failed conclude whether this affected their attitudes or behavior as employees. From the nursing administration perspective, the normal course of action taken to influence employee behavior and achieve the objectives set by the administrators comes through administrative management. Therefore, as well as discussing the relationship between leadership behavior and organizational culture, this research will investigate the effect of leader behavior and organizational culture towards employee job satisfaction. The findings clearly show that hospital administrators should be concerned about the effects of leadership behavior and organizational culture on the attitude towards work of their employees. This should help administrators alter their behavior in order to maintain a good mutual relationship with their subordinates, improving their working attitude and, more importantly, reducing potential conflicts.

Relationship between organizational culture and leadership behavior

Culture is socially learned and transmitted by members; it provides the rules for behavior within organizations [ 18 ]. The definition of organizational culture is of the belief that can guide staff in knowing what to do and what not to do, including practices, values, and assumptions about their work [ 19 ]. The core values of an organization begin with its leadership, which will then evolve to a leadership style. Subordinates will be led by these values and the behavior of leaders, such that the behavior of both parties should become increasingly in line. When strong unified behavior, values and beliefs have been developed, a strong organizational culture emerges. Leaders have to appreciate their function in maintaining an organization's culture. This would in return ensure consistent behavior between members of the organization, reducing conflicts and creating a healthy working environment for employees [ 20 ].

Hypothesis 1- Organizational culture is positively correlated with leadership behavior .

Relationship between leadership behavior and job satisfaction

Job satisfaction has been associated with nurses who perceive their managers as supportive and caring. A supportive manager shares values, believes in a balance of power, and provides opportunities for open dialogue with nurses [ 21 ], which in turn reduces the chances of internal conflicts. This type of leader is successful in his or her role and is supportive and responsive to clinical nurses, thereby preserving power and status within the hospital system. Such leaders are valued throughout the organization and have executive power to do what they see as necessary to create a positive environment for nursing [ 22 ]. Accordingly, they have a measurable effect on the morale and job satisfaction of nurses [ 23 ].

Hypothesis 2 - Leadership behavior is positively correlated with job satisfaction .

Relationship between organizational culture and job satisfaction

Organizational culture expresses shared assumptions, values and beliefs, and is the social glue holding an organization together [ 24 ]. A strong culture is a system of rules that spells out how people should behave [ 25 ]. An organization with a strong culture has common values and codes of conduct for its employees, which should help them accomplish their missions and goals. Work recognition and job satisfaction can be achieved when employees can complete the tasks assigned to them by the organization.

Hypothesis 3 -.Organizational culture is positively correlated with job satisfaction .

The measurement of organizational culture, leadership behavior and job satisfaction

A structured questionnaire was compiled based on similar studies published in international journals [ 26 , 27 ]. Twenty-three factors regarding organizational culture were taken from Tsui et al. [ 26 ], a study based on two groups of MBA students from two universities in Beijing, China. Our research was focused on clinical nurses in hospitals; therefore, refinements were made to the questionnaire designed by Tsui et al. [ 26 ] to cater for our particular research objective. The study invited three directors or supervisors from the medical center to validate the questionnaire. Lastly, there were 22 questions in the organizational culture section.

Thirty items regarding leadership behavior were taken from Strange & Mumford [ 27 ], and the questions structured using this literature. However, the proposed test was not empirically studied. Nurses from hospital A were used as a pilot study sample. Four question items were deleted to improve the validity of the questionnaire: "People will have an extreme reaction to the leader"; "Followers will sacrifice themselves for the leader and/or the leader's vision"; "The leader is motivated by the accomplishment of his vision"; and "The leader will take into account the needs of the organization in his decision making."

Vroom [ 28 ] classified job satisfaction into 7 dimensions: organizational, promotion, job content, superior, reward, working environment and working partners. We took into consideration that nurses' salary increases are based on promotion. Furthermore, a large number of variables in organization culture and leadership behavior were covered by this research. To prevent too few number nurses from responding to the questionnaires, we asked only 4 job satisfaction dimensions out of a total of 12 items: job recognition, reward and welfare, superior and working partners.

Study Design

A cross-sectional study was conducted in two hospitals in Central Taiwan.

Data Source and Analysis

We employed self-administered questionnaires to collect research data. Data was collected between October 1 and November 30, 2008. We selected 2 hospitals as our sample target and appointed a designated person at each to issue questionnaires to employees. The number of questionnaires issued depended on the designated person. The questionnaires were completed voluntarily by all respondents. During the research period, there were 325 nurses in hospital A; 100 questionnaires were distributed, and 57 valid questionnaires were returned. In hospital B there were a total of 572 nurses; 200 questionnaires were distributed, and 143 valid questionnaires were returned (total return rate 66.7%).

Of the subjects, 99.5% were female, 83.5% single or never married, 35.5% had a tenure at the hospital of 1-2 years, and 45.0% had had a college-level education. The majority of employees at the hospitals were general nurses (89.5%), and the average age was between 21 and 30 years (82.5%)(see Table 1 ).

All data were analyzed using the SPSS 17.0 software package. Cronbach's α coefficient was used to assessed the internal consistency reliability of scales. To explore the factor construct of scale, a series of exploratory factor analysis (EFA) were employed. Correlation analysis was used to test for the relationships among subscales of organizational culture, leadership behavior and job satisfaction scale. Finally, a series of regression analysis were used to identify the proposed hypotheses. For H1 and H3, two sets of simple linear regression were used to assess the association between independent variable and dependent variable. For H2, hierarchical regression analysis was used to assess the independent association between leadership behavior and job satisfaction after controlling for the effect of organizational culture. Partial R 2 (Δ R 2 ), F test and standardized regression coefficient ( β ) and their test statistics ( t value) were reported in all regression analysis.

Measurement

Given the latent character of the variables considered in the study, we used multi-item, 5-point Likert-type scales (1='strongly disagree' and 5='strongly agree'). After reliability analysis, the Cronbach's α of the organizational culture scale was 0.958 (22 items). The Cronbach's α of the leadership behavior scale was 0.966 (26 items), and for job satisfaction 0.855 (12 items).

The questionnaires used exploratory factor analysis. We extracted 4 factors from the organizational culture via principal component analysis, used the Varimax of the rotation method, and named them: employee orientation, customer focus, emphasizing responsibility, and emphasizing cooperation. We extracted 4 factors from leadership behavior and named them: leader's encouragement and supportiveness to subordinates, leader giving subordinates a clear vision and trust, leader's behavior is consistent with organization's vision, and leader is persuasive in convincing subordinates to acknowledge the vision. We extracted factors for job satisfaction and called them: working partners, rewards and welfare, superior and job recognition.

Descriptive statistics

The average score for organizational culture was between 3.73 and 3.19, but the highest score was 3.73: "satisfying the need of customers at the largest scale." The second highest score was 3.68: "the profit of the customer is emphasized extremely." The lowest score was 3.19: "concern for the individual development of employees" (see Table 2 ).

The average score for leadership behavior was between 3.77 and 3.42, where 2 items scored the highest score at 3.77: "the leader will act accordingly with a certain 'vision' that specifies a better future state", and "the leader will behaviorally role model the values implied by the vision by personal example". The second highest score was 3.69: "the leader will use positive rewards and reinforcement with his followers." The lowest score was 3.42: "the leader will try to persuade those who disagree with his vision to agree with it" (see Table 2 ).

The average score for job satisfaction was between 3.84 and 2.56, where the highest score was 3.84: "to certain people my work is extremely important." The second highest score was "I am satisfied with how colleagues communicate with each other in the office." The lowest score was 2.56: "I am satisfied with my salary as I have less workload compared to other employees in other divisions" (see Table 2 ).

Inferential statistical analysis

In relation to the 4 dimensions of organizational culture (employee orientation, customer focus, emphasizing responsibility, and emphasizing cooperation), the 4 dimensions of leadership behavior (leader's encouragement and support to subordinates, leader giving subordinates her/his clear vision, leader's behavior is consistent with the her/his vision and leader is persuasive in convincing subordinates to acknowledge the her/his vision), and the 4 dimensions of job satisfaction (working partners, rewards and welfare, superior and job recognition), variable analysis was carried out. The results of the analysis showed that only 2 dimensions from "leader giving subordinates her/his clear vision" and "behavior consistent with her/his vision" and "reward and welfare" under the job satisfaction were not significantly correlated, whereas the other dimensions showed significant correlation. The results also showed that organizational culture, leadership behavior and job satisfaction were positively associated with hypotheses one to three, which were supported (see Table 3 ).

Table 4 presents the results of several regression analyses. H1 was supported, as organizational culture was positively associated with leadership behavior ( β = .55, p < .001). H3 was also supported as organizational culture was positively related to job satisfaction ( β = .66, p < .001). Finally, H2 was supported as the partial regression coefficient of leadership behavior reached statistically significant ( β = .33, p < .001) after controlling the effect of organizational culture. The unique variance explained attributable to leadership behavior was 8% (Δ F = 30.58, p <.001) independent of organizational culture (see Table 4 ). The association among there three main variables was illustrated as Figure 1 .

The association between organizational culture, leadership behavior and job satisfaction . (The values shown were standardized regression coefficient and value in parenthesis was partially standardized regression coefficient)

Casida & Pinto-Zipp [ 17 ] studied nurses in determining the relationship between different leadership styles and organizational cultures, and showed a correlation between leadership and organizational culture, consistent with the findings of our research. However, by adopting regression analysis, we also found that leadership behavior impacts on organizational culture.

Laschinger et al. [ 29 ] proposed that the variables strongly correlated with job satisfaction included role conflict, head nurse leadership, supervisory relationships, autonomy, and stress. Mayo [ 30 ] argued that the key determinant of job satisfaction was group interaction, and highlighted the importance of good leadership and satisfying personal relations in the workplace. Management and leadership behavior at the hospital affected nurses' job satisfaction [ 31 ]. The research also discovered that leadership behavior will also influence employee job satisfaction. As well as the above-described individual factors, the research also showed that factors at the organization level, such as the organizational culture, also have an effect on job satisfaction. This result is consistent with the results of Gifford et al. [ 32 ]. It is recommended that it is also important for hospital administrators to establish a good organizational infrastructure in addition to improving the working environment in order to increase employee job satisfaction.

Decisions about patient care are often made by a team, rather than by a single individual [ 33 ]. To maintain open communication and better coordination, as well as avoiding possible conflicts, one must rely on the role of leaders to motivate the team to achieve the organization goal. It was found that encouragement and support by leaders, their trust and clear vision, their consistent behavior in this regard and their ability to convince subordinates to acknowledge their vision, can all influence employee job satisfaction. On the other hand, we found that the factors in achieving job satisfaction were not limited to the employee's working environment, but also included interactions between working partners. Good health care requires good team behavior, so it is also recommended that hospital administrators not only establish relationships within the health care teams, but also work to improve these relationships to increase employee job satisfaction.

Academics who study organizational culture as their research topic feel that organizational culture is complex. It will influence different employee attitudes and behavior [ 34 ]; for example Jacobs & Roodt [ 35 ] discovered a correlation between employee turnover intentions, knowledge sharing organizational commitment, organizational citizenship behavior, job satisfaction and organizational culture. Other academics have found that organizational culture is also related to organization or employee efficiency. Good examples are an organization's innovative ability [ 36 ], employee effectiveness (e.g. higher levels of goal orientation, self control) [ 37 ]. Kane-Urrabazo [ 20 ] believed that a satisfactory work environment can be created by the employees when an organisation possesses a healthy culture and thus has a positive attitude towards employee work. Therefore the relationship between organisational culture and employee behaviour/attitude has been emphasised by different academics from various fields [ 26 ]. Jacobs & Roodt [ 35 ] showed a positive correlation between organisational culture and employee job satisfaction that is consistent with the findings of our research.

Research limitations and future research

Since a wide range of variables were included in our study, only a limited number of clinical nurses were interested in participating. Furthermore, only 2 hospitals were involved in this research; therefore, it is proposed that in view of the response rate, future research should consider adjusting the research variables.

Organizations face challenges in the external environment and changing internal context, and leaders will alter their behavior to adapt to these environment changes. Therefore it is proposed that longitudinal research methods can be adopted in future investigations into how changes in organizational context impact on leadership behavior. Will these changes create a brand new organization culture? And how will these changes in leadership behavior influence employee behavior and their contribution to the organization?

Administrators usually adjust their leadership behavior in order to reach the organizational goal. It is proposed that future research can explore the type of leadership behavior that will shape a particular culture within an organization. Thus, administrators can achieve the objective of shaping a new organization culture by adopting different leadership behavior training programs.

Culture within an organization is very important, playing a large role in whether or not the organization is a happy and healthy place to work [ 20 ]. Through communicating and promoting the organizational vision to subordinates, and in getting their acknowledgement of the vision, it is possible to influence their work behavior and attitudes. When there is good interaction between the leader and subordinates, there will be contributions to team communication and collaboration, and encouragement of subordinates to accomplish the mission and objectives assigned by the organization, which in turn enhances job satisfaction.

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Acknowledgements

Special thanks to all persons who assist in distributing questionnaires and those hospital employees who assist in filling out the questionnaires.

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Organizational behavior (OB) takes a systematic approach to understand how individuals and groups behave in organizations as well as the relationship between people and organizations. This chapter examines organizational behavior from the viewpoints of professionals and researchers. First, a case is presented describing individuals’ behavior in difficult circumstances, and then a brief definition of organizational behavior follows. Next, we will analyze how organizational behavior differs from human resources. Then we will proceed to OB during the pandemic. We will also review why we study OB: from Taylor’s Principles of Scientific Management to Mayo and Roethlisberger’s Human Relations Theory (Hawthorne Effect), to understand the history of organizational behavior. The following is a synopsis of all the topics that will be discussed in the book. Last, we look at organizational behavior research. This section provides an explanation of why and how we conduct OB research, as well as breaks down various study designs and measurement issues.

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Henri Fayol developed an approach to managing businesses that have come to be known as Fayolism during his career as a mining engineer, executive, author, and director. The development of modern management is generally attributed to Henri Fayol (Fayol, 1949 ). Over the course of the twentieth century, his management theories influenced industrial management practices in a significant way. The ideas of Fayol were developed independently of other theories that were prevalent at the time, such as those of Elton Mayo and Human Relations. Fayol outlined the skills needed for effective management in his 14 Principles of Management. Fayol’s management theories are still used today. Besides the Principles, Fayol identified five basic management functions. Among the management functions are planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating, and controlling. Fayol emphasized that managerial skills are different from technical skills. Moreover, Fayol recognized that management is a field requiring research, teaching, and development. Fayol proposed 14 principles and five functions that form the basis of Administrative Theory. A variety of nonacademics shared their experiences and contributed to its progress. Fayol’s Five Functions of Management originated the planning-organizing-leading-controlling framework that remains an influential management framework throughout the world today.

Abbreviations

Captain Chengquan

Human Resources

Human Relations Theory

National Football Association

National Hockey League

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1.2 Understanding Organizational Behavior

Learning objectives.

• Learn about the layout of this book.
• Understand what organizational behavior is.
• Understand why organizational behavior matters.
• Learn about OB Toolboxes in this book.

About This Book

The people make the place.

Benjamin Schneider, Fellow of the Academy of Management

This book is all about people, especially people at work. As evidenced in the opening case, we will share many examples of people making their workplaces work. People can make work an exciting, fun, and productive place to be, or they can make it a routine, boring, and ineffective place where everyone dreads to go. Steve Jobs, cofounder, chairman, and CEO of Apple Inc. attributes the innovations at Apple, which include the iPod, MacBook, and iPhone, to people, noting, “Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have.…It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it” (Kirkpatrick, 1998). This became a sore point with investors in early 2009 when Jobs took a medical leave of absence. Many wonder if Apple will be as successful without him at the helm, and Apple stock plunged upon worries about his health (Parloff, 2008).

Steve Jobs is known for developing innovative products by hiring the right people for the job and fostering a culture of hard work and creativity.

Wikimedia Commons – CC BY 3.0.

Mary Kay Ash, founder of Mary Kay Inc., a billion-dollar cosmetics company, makes a similar point, saying, “People are definitely a company’s greatest asset. It doesn’t make any difference whether the product is cars or cosmetics. A company is only as good as the people it keeps” [1]

Just like people, organizations come in many shapes and sizes. We understand that the career path you will take may include a variety of different organizations. In addition, we know that each student reading this book has a unique set of personal and work-related experiences, capabilities, and career goals. On average, a person working in the United States will change jobs 10 times in 20 years (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2005). In order to succeed in this type of career situation, individuals need to be armed with the tools necessary to be lifelong learners. So, this book will not be about giving you all the answers to every situation you may encounter when you start your first job or as you continue up the career ladder. Instead, this book will give you the vocabulary, framework, and critical thinking skills necessary for you to diagnose situations, ask tough questions, evaluate the answers you receive, and act in an effective and ethical manner regardless of situational characteristics.

Throughout this book, when we refer to organizations, we will include examples that may apply to diverse organizations such as publicly held, for-profit organizations like Google and American Airlines, privately owned businesses such as S. C. Johnson & Son Inc. (makers of Windex glass cleaner) and Mars Inc. (makers of Snickers and M&Ms), and not-for-profit organizations such as the Sierra Club or Mercy Corps, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) such as Doctors Without Borders and the International Red Cross. We will also refer to both small and large corporations. You will see examples from Fortune 500 organizations such as Intel Corporation or Home Depot Inc., as well as small start-up organizations. Keep in mind that some of the small organizations of today may become large organizations in the future. For example, in 1998, eBay Inc. had only 29 employees and $47.4 million in income, but by 2008 they had grown to 11,000 employees and over $7 billion in revenue (Gibson, 2008). Regardless of the size or type of organization you may work for, people are the common denominator of how work is accomplished within organizations.

Together, we will examine people at work both as individuals and within work groups and how they impact and are impacted by the organizations where they work. Before we can understand these three levels of organizational behavior, we need to agree on a definition of organizational behavior.

What Is Organizational Behavior?

Organizational behavior (OB) is defined as the systematic study and application of knowledge about how individuals and groups act within the organizations where they work. As you will see throughout this book, definitions are important. They are important because they tell us what something is as well as what it is not. For example, we will not be addressing childhood development in this course—that concept is often covered in psychology—but we might draw on research about twins raised apart to understand whether job attitudes are affected by genetics.

OB draws from other disciplines to create a unique field. As you read this book, you will most likely recognize OB’s roots in other disciplines. For example, when we review topics such as personality and motivation, we will again review studies from the field of psychology. The topic of team processes relies heavily on the field of sociology. In the chapter relating to decision making, you will come across the influence of economics. When we study power and influence in organizations, we borrow heavily from political sciences. Even medical science contributes to the field of organizational behavior, particularly to the study of stress and its effects on individuals.

OB spans topics related from the individual to the organization.

Those who study organizational behavior—which now includes you—are interested in several outcomes such as work attitudes (e.g., job satisfaction and organizational commitment) as well as job performance (e.g., customer service and counterproductive work behaviors). A distinction is made in OB regarding which level of the organization is being studied at any given time. There are three key levels of analysis in OB. They are examining the individual, the group, and the organization. For example, if I want to understand my boss’s personality, I would be examining the individual level of analysis. If we want to know about how my manager’s personality affects my team, I am examining things at the team level. But, if I want to understand how my organization’s culture affects my boss’s behavior, I would be interested in the organizational level of analysis.

Why Organizational Behavior Matters

OB matters at three critical levels. It matters because it is all about things you care about. OB can help you become a more engaged organizational member. Getting along with others, getting a great job, lowering your stress level, making more effective decisions, and working effectively within a team…these are all great things, and OB addresses them!

It matters because employers care about OB. A recent survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) asked employers which skills are the most important for them when evaluating job candidates, and OB topics topped the list (NACE 2007 Job Outlook Survey, 2008).

The following were the top five personal qualities/skills:

• Communication skills (verbal and written)
• Honesty/integrity
• Interpersonal skills (relates well to others)
• Motivation/initiative
• Strong work ethic

These are all things we will cover in OB.

Finally, it matters because organizations care about OB. The best companies in the world understand that the people make the place. How do we know this? Well, we know that organizations that value their employees are more profitable than those that do not (Huselid, 1995; Pfeffer, 1998; Pfeffer & Veiga, 1999; Welbourne & Andrews, 1996). Research shows that successful organizations have a number of things in common, such as providing employment security, engaging in selective hiring, utilizing self-managed teams, being decentralized, paying well, training employees, reducing status differences, and sharing information (Pfeffer & Veiga, 1999). For example, every Whole Foods store has an open compensation policy in which salaries (including bonuses) are listed for all employees. There is also a salary cap that limits the maximum cash compensation paid to anyone in the organization, such as a CEO, in a given year to 19 times the companywide annual average salary of all full-time employees. What this means is that if the average employee makes $30,000 per year, the highest potential pay for their CEO would be $570,000, which is a lot of money but pales in comparison to salaries such as Steve Jobs of Apple at $14.6 million or the highest paid CEO in 2007, Larry Ellison of Oracle, at $192.9 million (Elmer-DeWitt, 2008). Research shows that organizations that are considered healthier and more effective have strong OB characteristics throughout them such as role clarity, information sharing, and performance feedback. Unfortunately, research shows that most organizations are unhealthy, with 50% of respondents saying that their organizations do not engage in effective OB practices (Aguirre et al., 2005).

In the rest of this chapter, we will build on how you can use this book by adding tools to your OB Toolbox in each section of the book as well as assessing your own learning style. In addition, it is important to understand the research methods used to define OB, so we will also review those. Finally, you will see what challenges and opportunities businesses are facing and how OB can help overcome these challenges.

Adding to Your OB Toolbox

Your ob toolbox.

OB Toolboxes appear throughout this book. They indicate a tool that you can try out today to help you develop your OB skills.

Throughout the book, you will see many OB Toolbox features. Our goal in writing this book is to create something useful for you to use now and as you progress through your career. Sometimes we will focus on tools you can use today. Other times we will focus on things you may want to think about that may help you later. As you progress, you may discover some OB tools that are particularly relevant to you while others are not as appropriate at the moment. That’s great—keep those that have value to you. You can always go back and pick up tools later on if they don’t seem applicable right now.

The important thing to keep in mind is that the more tools and skills you have, the higher the quality of your interactions with others will be and the more valuable you will become to organizations that compete for top talent (Michaels, Handfield-Jones, & Axelrod, 2001). It is not surprising that, on average, the greater the level of education you have, the more money you will make. In 2006, those who had a college degree made 62% more money than those who had a high school degree (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). Organizations value and pay for skills as the next figure shows.

Education and training have financial payoffs as illustrated by these unemployment and earnings for workers 25 and older.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, http://www.bls.gov .

Tom Peters is a management expert who talks about the concept of individuals thinking of themselves as a brand to be managed. Further, he recommends that individuals manage themselves like free agents (Peters, 1997; Peters, 2004). The following OB Toolbox includes several ideas for being effective in keeping up your skill set.

Your OB Toolbox: Skill Survival Kit

• Keep your skills fresh . Consider revolutionizing your portfolio of skills at least every 6 years.
• Master something . Competence in many skills is important, but excelling at something will set you apart.
• Embrace ambiguity . Many people fear the unknown. They like things to be predictable. Unfortunately, the only certainty in life is that things will change. Instead of running from this truth, embrace the situation as a great opportunity.
• Network . The term has been overused to the point of sounding like a cliché, but networking works. This doesn’t mean that having 200 connections on MySpace, LinkedIn, or Facebook makes you more effective than someone who has 50, but it does mean that getting to know people is a good thing in ways you can’t even imagine now.
• Appreciate new technology . This doesn’t mean you should get and use every new gadget that comes out on the market, but it does mean you need to keep up on what the new technologies are and how they may affect you and the business you are in.

Source: Adapted from ideas in Peters, T. (2007). Brand you survival kit. Fast Company . Retrieved July 1, 2008, from http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/83/playbook.html .

A key step in building your OB skills and filling your toolbox is to learn the language of OB. Once you understand a concept, you are better able to recognize it. Once you recognize these concepts in real-world events and understand that you have choices in how you will react, you can better manage yourself and others. An effective tool you can start today is journaling , which helps you chart your progress as you learn new skills. For more on this, see the OB Toolbox below.

OB Toolbox: Journaling as a Developmental Tool

• What exactly is journaling ? Journaling refers to the process of writing out thoughts and emotions on a regular basis.
• Why is journaling a good idea ? Journaling is an effective way to record how you are feeling from day to day. It can be a more objective way to view trends in your thoughts and emotions so you are not simply relying on your memory of past events, which can be inaccurate. Simply getting your thoughts and ideas down has been shown to have health benefits as well such as lowering the writer’s blood pressure, heart rate, and decreasing stress levels.
• How do I get started ? The first step is to get a journal or create a computer file where you can add new entries on a regular basis. Set a goal for how many minutes per day you want to write and stick to it. Experts say at least 10 minutes a day is needed to see benefits, with 20 minutes being ideal. The quality of what you write is also important. Write your thoughts down clearly and specifically while also conveying your emotions in your writing. After you have been writing for at least a week, go back and examine what you have written. Do you see patterns in your interactions with others? Do you see things you like and things you’d like to change about yourself? If so, great! These are the things you can work on and reflect on. Over time, you will also be able to track changes in yourself, which can be motivating as well.

Sources: Created based on ideas and information in Bromley, K. (1993). Journaling: Engagements in reading, writing, and thinking . New York: Scholastic; Caruso, D., & Salovey, P. (2004). The emotionally intelligent manager: How to develop and use the four key emotional skills of leadership . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass; Scott, E. (2008). The benefits of journaling for stress management. Retrieved January 27, 2008, from About.com: http://stress.about.com/od/generaltechniques/p/profilejournal.htm .

Isn’t OB Just Common Sense?

As teachers we have heard this question many times. The answer, as you might have guessed, is no—OB is not just common sense . As we noted earlier, OB is the systematic study and application of knowledge about how individuals and groups act within the organizations where they work. Systematic is an important word in this definition. It is easy to think we understand something if it makes sense, but research on decision making shows that this can easily lead to faulty conclusions because our memories fail us. We tend to notice certain things and ignore others, and the specific manner in which information is framed can affect the choices we make. Therefore, it is important to rule out alternative explanations one by one rather than to assume we know about human behavior just because we are humans! Go ahead and take the following quiz and see how many of the 10 questions you get right. If you miss a few, you will see that OB isn’t just common sense. If you get them all right, you are way ahead of the game!

Putting Common Sense to the Test

Please answer the following 10 questions by noting whether you believe the sentence is true or false .

• Brainstorming in a group is more effective than brainstorming alone. _____
• The first 5 minutes of a negotiation are just a warm-up to the actual negotiation and don’t matter much. _____
• The best way to help someone reach their goals is to tell them to do their best. _____
• If you pay someone to do a task they routinely enjoy, they’ll do it even more often in the future. _____
• Pay is a major determinant of how hard someone will work. _____
• If a person fails the first time, they try harder the next time. _____
• People perform better if goals are easier. _____
• Most people within organizations make effective decisions. _____
• Positive people are more likely to withdraw from their jobs when they are dissatisfied. _____
• Teams with one smart person outperform teams in which everyone is average in intelligence. ______

You may check your answers with your instructor.

Key Takeaway

This book is about people at work. Organizations come in many shapes and sizes. Organizational behavior is the systematic study and application of knowledge about how individuals and groups act within the organizations where they work. OB matters for your career, and successful companies tend to employ effective OB practices. The OB Toolboxes throughout this book are useful in increasing your OB skills now and in the future.

• Which type of organizations did you have the most experience with? How did that affect your understanding of the issues in this chapter?
• Which skills do you think are the most important ones for being an effective employee?
• What are the three key levels of analysis for OB?
• Have you ever used journaling before? If so, were your experiences positive? Do you think you will use journaling as a tool in the future?
• How do you plan on using the OB Toolboxes in this book? Creating a plan now can help to make you more effective throughout the term.

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U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2005). Retrieved December 8, 2005, from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Web site: http://www.bls.gov/nls/nlsfaqs.htm#anch5 .

Welbourne, T., & Andrews, A. (1996). Predicting performance of Initial Public Offering firms: Should HRM be in the equation? Academy of Management Journal , 39 , 910–911.

• Retrieved June 4, 2008, from http://www.litera.co.uk/t/NDk1MDA/ . ↵

Organizational Behavior Copyright © 2017 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Workplace Dynamics

What is organizational culture and why is it important, here's how to transform your workplace culture to skyrocket performance..

Posted December 9, 2023 | Reviewed by Ray Parker

• Organizational culture is the collective mindsets and behaviors of a company.
• A positive workplace culture increases employee engagement, motivation, and retention.
• The seven strategies for creating a positive culture include celebrating achievements to boost morale.

Organizational culture is like the personality of an organization. It's about how everyone, from leaders to the newest hires, thinks and acts. It shapes how work gets done and how people treat each other.

Organizational culture includes the unwritten rules and shared beliefs that guide people's behavior. For instance, a company that values open communication might have meetings where everyone is encouraged to speak their mind, leading to better ideas and stronger performance.

Alternatively, if an organization has a culture where only the most senior employees' ideas are welcomed in meetings, it might lead to frustration and apathy for everyone else because others may feel their voice doesn't matter.

Culture: The Unique DNA of Every Organization

Culture is the underlying DNA of every organization—it's what makes employees feel connected and invested in their jobs. When a company has a strong, positive culture, it can foster greater engagement, which means people care more about their work and go the extra mile. Positive cultures boost motivation , leading people to do their best and be happier in their jobs. Such feelings of connection and satisfaction can lead them to stay longer with the company, reducing turnover and building a strong, experienced team.

When a culture encourages new ideas and open-mindedness, employees are more likely to come up with the kind of breakthroughs that can change the game for a business. In such an environment, teams work better together, share more ideas, and push each other to be the best they can be, which often leads to greater success for the whole organization.

Seven Strategies for Creating Positive Organizational Cultures

There are many ways to foster a positive business culture. Managers and leaders can focus on the following:

Vision and Mission Clarity : A compelling vision and mission statement act as the psychological contract with employees, offering a clear narrative about what the company stands for and its aspirations. When a company like Google pledges to "organize the world's information," it sends a powerful message about its purpose, aligning the workforce towards a common goal. Leaders can facilitate workshops and discussions to ensure these statements resonate deeply with every team member, thereby internalizing these guiding principles.

Values in Action: Core values are the psychological pillars of an organization's culture. When the online retailer Zappos emphasizes "delivering WOW through service," it's not just a statement but a call to action that employees live by so they deliver exceptional service. Leaders can make these values tangible by embedding them into performance reviews, hiring criteria, and daily operations, ensuring they're not just words on a wall but principles that drive decision-making and behavior. It's also important that leaders themselves act in a way that's consistent with the values they want to see enacted more broadly.

Habitual Practices: The power of culture is often expressed in the small, repeated actions that become habitual. For example, Pixar's practice of holding candid "braintrust" meetings where creative ideas are dissected and debated creates an environment where innovation is routine. Leaders can create rituals or regular meetings that reinforce openness and collaboration , turning them into powerful symbols that reinforce the organization's culture.

Learning and Development: Cultures that prioritize learning communicate to employees that growth is both expected and supported. Amazon's " Career Choice" program is a testament to its investment in employee development, covering tuition for in-demand fields. Leaders can foster a culture of learning by actively investing in employee development and creating clear pathways for career advancement.

Psychological Safety: At the heart of a thriving culture is the sense of psychological safety, a term coined by Harvard University professor Amy Edmondson, which describes an environment where individuals feel comfortable expressing themselves without fear of retribution. Google, for example, found that its teams with high psychological safety were more successful than those with lower psychological safety. Leaders can cultivate this by modeling vulnerability, encouraging open dialogue, and celebrating learning from failures.

Recognition and Rewards: A culture that celebrates achievements—both big and small—can significantly boost morale and productivity . Salesforce, through its "Ohana Culture," has created a sense of community and belonging where recognition is part of the everyday experience. Leaders can implement recognition programs that allow peers to acknowledge each other's contributions, making recognition a regular part of the organizational rhythm.

Agility and Resilience : The most adaptable cultures are those that embrace change. Leaders can promote agility by encouraging a mindset of continuous learning and by designing systems that are flexible and responsive to feedback, ensuring the organization can navigate and thrive amidst disruptive change.

Creating a High-Performance Culture

Creating a culture that promotes high performance requires a deep psychological understanding of human behavior within a business context. By carefully crafting and nurturing the elements that constitute culture, leaders can foster an environment that not only drives innovation and high performance but also leads to a sense of purpose and belonging among its members. Building a cohesive community focused on achieving purposeful goals is a critical imperative for making organizations and the world a better place.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/magazine/what-google-learned-from-it…

Edmondson, Amy and Lei, Zhike (2014). Psychological Safety: The History, Renaissance, and Future of an Interpersonal Construct, Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, Vol. 1:23-43.

Kaplan, S. (2017). The invisible advantage: How to create a culture of innovation . Greenleaf Book Group Press.

Soren Kaplan, Ph.D. , is an author, keynote speaker, leadership development consultant, and affiliate at the Center for Effective Organizations at the University of Southern California.

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Unit 1: Organizations in Business

Let's start with the basics in considering the following question: what is an organization? An organization is a collection of individuals arranged in a particular way and embedded in an ever-changing environment to achieve a common goal. In this introductory unit, you will learn about organizations in business, focusing on how the individual plays a role in the organization's success. You must understand what influences individual behavior before you can study how individuals interact with organizations. As in psychology and sociology, the person is the focus of organizational behavior. Because sciences like psychology and sociology are older, more established fields of study than organizational behavior, we will look at them to better understand the purpose and applications of OB. This unit will provide you with an introduction to OB, including the history and emerging trends of OB. In addition, we will identify the micro-level factors that contribute to our understanding of the OB field. You will also learn about how OB is connected with other sciences. Finally, we will examine how to evaluate research in OB properly.

Completing this unit should take you approximately 3 hours.

Unit 2: Managing Individuals, Personalities, and Motivation

Organizational behavior focuses on how individuals interact within a firm. As you know, different incentives motivate and influence individuals; some people strive for success or social status, others like to keep busy, and others are focused on simply making money. These are significant differences to consider if you are at the helm of a business, as they may influence how you motivate your workforce.

This unit will explore individual personalities and what inspires people to want to succeed in the workplace. You will learn the tools used to identify these traits and recognize that certain traits, such as the ability to handle stress, are more desirable than others in a work setting. Note that different organizations will value traits differently. For example, perhaps your organization values a sense of humor more! Knowing these traits and how to identify them in people will greatly enhance the success of a business.

Completing this unit should take you approximately 15 hours.

Unit 3: Managing Groups and Teams

Is there a difference between a group and a team? Certainly! For example, groups can exist without having a specific goal in mind, or they can have a goal that fluctuates or changes to adapt to the group's needs. A book club is a group. However, the people in that book club are not part of your team.

Completing this unit should take you approximately 8 hours.

Unit 4: Leadership, Influence, and Leveraging Power

Power is a popular topic because it is so easily misused. We all have some power over others, whether earned through a promotion or as a reflection of knowledge and experience. This unit may change your understanding of power and teach you that there is nothing wrong with using power appropriately. In fact, as an employee, you are expected to use the power you have within an organization as you were likely employed for just that reason. Power comes in many forms, but it is almost always used to influence.

Completing this unit should take you approximately 9 hours.

Unit 5: Conflict Management and Negotiations

Conflict is good as long as it is productive. Insulting someone is not productive, but a healthy debate is the foundation of democracy and is valuable in business. Successful organizations encourage healthy conflict; it forces people to defend opinions and allows for a free flow of ideas. Of course, managers must prevent these conflicts from getting out of hand.

Completing this unit should take you approximately 6 hours.

Unit 6: Organizational Culture, Diversity, and Managing Change

Change is a surprisingly difficult process for firms. When two large companies merge, it can take a couple of years to reorganize and many more years before the two respective cultures truly merge. This transition process can be especially challenging if the cultures are very different. For example, suppose a bank from the south purchases a bank based in the northeast. In that case, the two different banking styles could wreak havoc within the organization, as the southern company may rely on customer service and slow growth. In contrast, the northern bank may prefer an aggressive strategy. Such mergers happen regularly, and OB specialists are involved in the process from the start.

Completing this unit should take you approximately 7 hours.

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Understanding Organisational Culture

How culture is created and maintained and predicting its impacts on people and strategy.

By the Mind Tools Content Team

Culture is a term we generally use to group together or sum up a set of social factors we can’t quite put our finger on, such as traditions, behavior patterns, attitudes, beliefs and commonalities. We usually think of culture in terms of nations or communities. However, the concept has more recently been applied to organizations as a way of understanding how social processes impact performance. An understanding of how culture is created and reinforced in organizations can help managers predict the human impacts of change and the consequences for strategy.

What is Organizational Culture?

The theory of organizational culture, pioneered by such thinkers as Tom Peters[1] and Geert Hofstede[2] in the 1980s, offered an alternative understanding of how organizations operate. Theorists turned their attention away from such rational factors as organizational functions and processes to socially constructed patterns of behavior, how these form, and what they mean for organizations.

Organizational culture is … … ‘the unique configuration of norms, values, beliefs, ways of behaving and so on that characterize the manner in which groups and individuals combine to get things done’.[3]

… ‘the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one organization from another’.[4]

To date, organizational culture remains a popular perspective, albeit one that lacks a standard definition. Common terms, however, tend to emerge from the myriad of descriptions, a few of which have been collated in the diagram below:

Although there remains no common definition, theorists do agree that organizational culture is influenced by a multitude of factors. The history of the organization and the societal culture in which the organization is situated are sited as major influences. Other important factors include the structures of power and control within the organization, its vision and mission, and the type of business conducted.

Can We ‘see’ Organizational Culture?

Although organizational culture can seem to be an intangible concept, it still manifests itself through a number of different channels. These are symbols, heroes, rituals, practices and values, which are visible to those within and outside the organization. Geert Hofstede compiles these in his model of organizational culture below:

Copyright © Geert Hofstede. Reproduced with permission from: Geert Hofstede & Gert Jan Hofstede, ‘The “Onion”: Manifestations of Culture at Different Levels of Depth’, in Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind (New York, McGraw-Hill, 2005), figure 1.2.

Words, gestures, pictures and objects, such as logos, speeches, cars and titles that carry complex meanings for the people within the organization. Symbols appear on the outer layer of the diagram as they are the most easily eroded or replaced.

People who are associated with the organization, either at the present time or in the past, who act as role models for current employees. They may be leaders, strong personalities or respected individuals who portray admired values and behaviors.

Activities undertaken within the organization which may not be essential for achieving organizational objectives, but act to consolidate cultural values and social acceptance within the group. They are often celebrations, such as reward ceremonies and special events, or rites such as training programs or office parties.

Practices are how symbols, heroes and rituals are made visible to outsiders. Although visible to anyone, they only hold meaning and significance to those within the organization. For example, stories of key events or people.

Values refer to the innate beliefs held by individuals and groups that influence how they behave and act. Values can be defined as ‘a broad tendency to prefer certain states of affairs over others’ so that specific modes of conduct are personally or socially preferable to others.[5] Values deal with such things as good and evil, decent and indecent, rational and irrational, moral and immoral. An individual’s values are programmed early on in life and are very much influenced by society, which makes them very difficult to change. Individuals will generally only behave in a way that is in accordance with their values. Therefore organizations, and especially change programs, can keenly feel the impact if a strategy contradicts people’s values.

Cultural Web

Johnson and Scholes[6] expand on Hofstede’s model in their cultural web. Here, they again attempt to represent the behavioral manifestations of culture and offer a way of understanding how culture is generated and reinforced:

Adapted from: Gerry Johnson, Kevan Scholes & Richard Whittington, Exploring Corporate Strategy , Seventh Edition (Pearson Education Ltd 2005). Exhibit 4.11 ‘The Cultural Web’ p 202.

As well as the symbols and rituals described by Hofstede above, Johnson and Scholes factor in the following elements to their model of culture:

Routines are coupled with rituals in the cultural web, as culture is generated and reinforced not only by the more significant events that take place within organizations, but also the day-to-day tasks and practices.

Stories are the tales told by members of the organization to one another, to outsiders or new recruits. They portray important events, successes and disasters from the organization’s history, and so reinforce what is important to the organization.

Power Structures

Power structures within organizations determine where the sources of power lie. The people or groups that hold the power establish the core values and beliefs that influence culture. They can also reinforce the culture by putting in place systems to encourage the desired behavior, e.g. performance management systems.

Control Systems

Control systems clearly demonstrate what is important to the organization. Additionally, measurement and reward systems influence the behavior of individuals and can, therefore, be used to encourage a certain culture. For example, rewards given for volume of sales, are likely to reinforce a competitive culture.

Organizational Structure

The structure of an organization reflects the power systems and important roles and relationships that serve to foster particular cultures. For example, a flat structure is more likely to promote a culture of collaboration and teamworking than a hierarchical structure.

The paradigm at the center of the web is the assumptions that exist within an organization – ‘the way things are done around here’. These assumptions represent collective experience of organizational life, and are usually the parts that people find most difficult to identify and explain. The behaviors observed in other elements of the cultural web are encapsulated and reinforced in these assumptions.

It is often assumed that what the organization writes down, in terms of its mission, values, objectives and strategies, represents the culture of the organization. However, more often than not, these represent the aspirations of senior management rather than what actually takes place.[7] Power structures, control systems and organizational structures are powerful influencers of culture, but it is the behavior of people on a day-to-day basis that really defines what the culture is.

It is important to remember that culture is a messy concept. So many factors combine to create culture that it can be very difficult to define and even more challenging to influence. But it is an important consideration for strategy, as collective experience can either drive or constrain change.

[1] Tom Peters and Robert Waterman, In Search of Excellence (Warner Books, 1988).

[2] Geert Hofstede, Culture's Consequences International Differences in Work-Related Values (Beverly Hills London Sage, 1980).

[3] Eldridge and Crombie (1974) cited in Andrew Brown, Organizational Culture , Second Edition, (Prentice Hall, 1998) p7.

[4] Geert Hofstede, Culture’s Consequences:Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions, and Organizations Across Nations , (Sage Publications, 2001).

[5] Geert Hofstede (2001) p 5.

[6] Gerry Johnson, Kevan Scholes & Richard Whittington, Exploring Corporate Strategy , Seventh Edition (Pearson Education Ltd 2005).

[7] Andrew Brown, Organizational Culture , Second Edition (Prentice Hall, 1998).

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How Organizational Culture Influences Employee Behavior

Explore how organizational culture shapes employee behavior, with insights on improving engagement, innovation, and open communication for a thriving workplace.

Matthew Reeves

CEO of Together

Published on 

November 30, 2023

Updated on 

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65% of millennials and 52% of Gen Xers prioritize organizational culture over salary when measuring their job satisfaction.

Your organizational culture determines the kind of candidates you attract, how long they stay with you, and their level of engagement and performance while they work with you. It is the single most powerful factor that determines the growth of your organization.

What is organizational culture?

Organizational culture defines the shared values, beliefs, and behaviors that shape how employees act in a company. It's seen in how leaders handle crises and how teams meet new challenges. Organizational culture can either be positive or negative.

• A positive work culture is characterized by supportive leadership , open communication, and shared values between the employer and employees. It results in high engagement, improved well-being for employees, and high productivity.
• A negative work culture is marked by a lack of support from the leadership, poor communication, and a mismatch between employer and employee values. It results in diminished employee morale, and an environment that often leads to high stress, low engagement, and increased turnover.

HR professionals, managers, and leaders must have a thorough understanding of organizational culture as it drives recruitment, retention, brand identity, and employee engagement. A good culture boosts job satisfaction, productivity , and innovation. A poor one causes high staff turnover and low morale. So, understanding and molding this culture is vital for a healthy workplace and achieving organizational goals.

What is the relationship between organizational culture and employee behavior?

Sometimes, you come across people that bring out the best in you. The same goes for organizations. Some organizations make you feel motivated to the point where you want to contribute to different projects outside the scope of your job, while others make you want to minimize your efforts. That is how organizational culture influences employee behavior. 

A positive culture makes you feel included and heard. Employees in positive work cultures want to be productive and stay with the organization in the long run. Employees in negative work cultures feel invisible, burned out, and are therefore less engaged and productive. In fact, as McKinsey reports, more than 60% of negative workplace outcomes are due to toxic workplace behavior, underscoring the impact of negative work cultures on employee engagement and productivity.​

When developed the right way, organizational culture is more powerful than organizational rules and regulations.

5 Ways in which organizational culture influences employee behavior

Leaders who understand culture, and its effects on employees, can build a positive, inclusive, and innovative work environment, aligning employee actions with organizational goals. If you want to see how your culture is impacting your employees, keep an eye on the following factors:

1. Engagement and productivity

A positive and empowering culture creates a sense of belonging and motivation among employees, leading to higher productivity. If you see that motivation is down across teams in your organization, and your employees are not as engaged as you want them to be, take a closer look at your company culture.

In 2022, only 32% of US employees were engaged at work and 18% were actively disengaged. Meanwhile, some organizations achieved up to 70% engagement by using their culture and values to guide their business decisions. The lesson – live your values and you will see higher engagement and productivity. Besides living your values, you can improve engagement in the following ways:

• Identify areas that negatively impact engagement and productivity with the help of employee feedback. This way, you can act on the feedback and address the issues affecting your employees’ morale.
• Invest in training programs for leaders and managers that emphasize emotional intelligence, effective communication, and employee motivation techniques . Equip them with the skills to create a more engaging and productive work environment.
• Organize team-building activities, cross-departmental projects, and inclusive decision-making processes to enhance teamwork and collective ownership of company goals.

2. Job satisfaction and retention

A supportive and appreciative culture helps in retaining top talent by making employees feel valued and satisfied with their roles. 54% of people quit because they don’t feel valued by their employers.

If your retention is low and most of your employees are not satisfied with their roles, you may have a culture where employee contributions and well-being are often overlooked or undervalued. To change that, take the following steps:

• Implement regular recognition programs or platforms where employees can be acknowledged for their contributions.
• Encourage feedback from employees on their experiences and suggestions for improvement. Act on this feedback to show that their voices are heard and valued.
• Offer training, wellness, and mentorship programs to demonstrate a commitment to the overall development and health of your employees.

3. Innovation and creativity

If your employees have stopped coming up with new ideas and do not offer suggestions to improve current processes, systems, and products, your culture may be suppressing their creativity. 

A culture that encourages risk-taking and values new ideas promotes innovation and creativity . Such an environment allows employees to think outside the box and contribute unique solutions, driving the organization forward.

To create a culture that cultivates creativity, take the following measures:

• Create spaces and opportunities for brainstorming and experimentation, and openly celebrate creative efforts and innovative thinking.
• Set aside time for creative projects and give your employees the resources to take new initiatives. Atlassian does this by giving their employees 24 hours each quarter to work on anything they want.
• Implement rewards or recognition programs to acknowledge and incentivize creative contributions and breakthroughs.

4. Communication and teamwork

Do you think your employees communicate openly? Are they hesitant to share feedback or relay how they’re feeling? If not, your culture may be part of the problem.

A culture of open communication is marked by clear, honest, and free sharing of ideas and information. In this environment, everyone feels safe to speak their mind, give and get feedback, and talk about issues without fear. It builds trust, improves teamwork, and helps in solving problems and making decisions effectively.

To create a culture of open communication:

• Practice open and transparent communication yourself. Share information freely, be approachable, and encourage questions and discussions.
• Establish regular meetings, town halls, or discussion forums where employees can voice their opinions, share ideas, and raise concerns.
• Introduce anonymous feedback tools or regular surveys to allow employees to express their thoughts and feelings candidly. Act on this feedback to demonstrate its value and importance. Organizations that listen to their employees are 12 times more likely to retain them.

5. Collaboration and knowledge sharing

A positive work culture encourages employees to share their expertise with others. In such a culture, information flows freely across different departments, and people feel motivated to expand their own skills and share what they learn with their colleagues. 

Does that sound like your organization? If not, here’s what you should do:

• Plan regular team-building exercises and cross-functional projects that require collaboration and knowledge exchange.
• Introduce collaborative tools and platforms that facilitate easy sharing of information and ideas.
• Acknowledge and celebrate teams and individuals who exemplify collaborative behavior.

But how do you actually implement this advice? A mentoring program can help! 

A structured mentorship program , powered by Together’s software, helps you match mentors and mentees to create a culture of collaboration and continuous learning. And, to make mentorship a part of the workflow, there’s Together for Teams . With the mentoring platform embedded inside Microsoft Teams, employees don’t need to switch between apps and feel like they are getting distracted by leaving the Teams environment. Mentors and mentees can find and approve matches right in Teams, while also getting notified about upcoming sessions through Teams DMs or emails, whichever they choose.

The role of mentoring in building a positive work culture

Mentoring plays a critical role in building a positive work culture. It facilitates knowledge sharing, enhances skill development, and strengthens relationships within the organization. Through mentoring, experienced employees guide and support newer team members, promoting a culture of learning and growth. This process accelerates professional development and creates a sense of belonging and purpose among employees.

Mentors act as role models, embodying the organization’s values and reinforcing its cultural norms. Their insights and feedback help mentees navigate workplace challenges and integrate more effectively into the company culture. Additionally, mentoring encourages open communication, builds trust, and enhances collaboration, further reinforcing the work environment.

For organizations looking to implement or improve their mentoring programs, Together offers a comprehensive solution. It facilitates seamless mentor-mentee matching, ensuring alignment with organizational goals and cultural values. 

Embrace mentoring to cultivate a thriving work culture in your organization. Sign up for a demo today .

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Organizational Behavior and Concepts Essay

Organizational culture and behavior, organizational diversity, business ethics.

Culture and behavior of an organization tend to have a similar meaning and are very important in determining the way the operations of an organization are carried out.

The concept is essentially concerned with the way employees of an organization think, hence become so crucial in understanding how their performance can be increased, make it cost effective, and ensure that their services are well utilized in the organization. For one to comprehend the meaning of the above statement, one should first of all have an understanding of what the term culture entail (Schermerhorn, Hunt, & Osborn, 2005).

This term implies the customs and beliefs that are followed by a certain group of people who live together. For instance, every ethnic group has specific values that it upholds and maintains from generation to generation and must be respected. So, when it comes to an organization the same meaning applies whereby there are specific stipulations and codes of conduct that each and every staff is bound to respect without any compromise.

This implies that each and every employee is supposed to behave within these stipulations. Organizational cultures can further be categorized by use of a pyramid whereby the lowest part illustrates the artifacts and behaviors which are most concrete of all cultures hence describe more about an organization. The other category comprises of the values which are responsible for controlling suppositions and conduct of the personnel.

The last and top most section shows the hypothesis and principles which form the most essential part of this pyramid and are very abstract. They are the hardest aspects to inculcate into the employees mind, but once they are assimilated they influence greatly how the staff follows the other elements of culture (Robbins & Judge, 2010).

Organizational behaviors on the other hand have some link with culture due to the fact that the later determines the kind of behaviors to be adopted in an organization. Organizational behaviors involve the kind of conduct that is followed by employees in organization. It forms a very basic and crucial aspect that needs to be put into consideration within the organization.

The kinds of behaviors that are exhibited by the staff of business are influenced by the standards that are set by the organization. This means the behaviors of employees is limited to the expectations of the firm. The importance of knowing about organizational behaviors is to help organizations come into terms with the conduct of their human resource and learn how to mould the behaviors into what they want and is best for the business (Schermerhorn, Hunt, & Osborn, 2005).

Diversity has become a common scenario in the society since it touches on very many areas of people’s lives such as on the nationality, educational levels, social status and many other elements that have varied characteristics. All these aspects have had a diversified nature hence making organizations to put this into consideration since it is now obvious that they must cater for all these differences.

It has become a hard task for organizations to offer employment to people in a manner that ensures equitable distribution of the opportunities to all the people in a particular area so as to meet the needs of all the individuals in the society.

This therefore demands that the organizations in the present time should be ready to accept and adapt to the dynamic society that is there nowadays. For an organization to be perceived wholesome it must be at a point of having diversified team of members and at the same time should be offering goods and services that meet the needs of all kind of people in the society.

This has led to a great change in the operation of many organizations whereby they have put in place mechanisms that enable businesses to cater for the wide range of people that have come up. In typical organizations, the Information Communication Systems such as computers and the Internet have enabled managers to diversify the operations of their organization due to the fact that there is timely and accurate information.

Organizational Communication

For an organization to have a smooth running of its operations, it must have a good communication system. Organizational communication is viewed as the freedom to convey information between the executives and the staff which facilitates better performance. This helps the members of an organization to have a good correlation. This happens by selecting communication skills that are able to cut across the different class of people within the organization.

Proper communication systems in organizations have led to many positive changes which can be described by the rapid growth of a company. Communication has enabled organizations to become more innovative and has also streamlined the mode of management. Effective communication has also enabled businesses to meet the international levels of standard since they can be able to interact on a global platform.

Organizational communication has been facilitated by the advancement of technology that has made the world to seen as a global village. This has widened the organizational scope hence improving the operations and quality of work that is done by businesses (Miner, 2007).

Business ethics refers to the conduct that organizations are bound to follow as it executes its day to day operations with the society and the environment in general. Each and every business has its own kind of ethics that define how it carries out its deals, which does not only involve how it relate with the large population but also on the individual consumers and parties that are associated with it.

Business ethics have come in handy, more specifically on the kind of status it acquires. In the current world most of the legitimate organizations have moved from the era of being profit oriented to an era of minding the rapport they have with the customers and the world at large. The survival of many organizations in the present world has been sustained by the kind of ethics they possess (Miner, 2007).

Change management

Organizations have the role of offering goods and services to the consumers and also the duty of carrying out changes that are relevant for the company’s development. Change management refers to the way an organization carries out important amendments in a manner that depicts order and effectiveness (Robbins & Judge, 2010).

Every organization has to implement any change that is deemed relevant so as to remain competitive and within the stipulated requirements. For instance, when an organization decides to change its network system, say from local area network (LAN) to a virtual local area network (VLAN), it must consider all the costs and benefits associated with the change, among other factors.

There is need to inform all the parties involved in the change, thus appropriate strategies must be documented and implemented with the aim of making such changes feasible.

Miner, J. (2007). Organizational Behavior: From Theory to Practice, Behavior. New York: M.E. Sharpe.

Robbins, J. & Judge, T. (2010). Organizational Behavior, My Management Lab Series . (14th Ed.) Chicago: Prentice Hall. Print.

Schermerhorn, J.R., Hunt, J.G., & Osborn, R.N. (2005). Organizational Behavior . (9th Ed.). Chicago: Wiley Publishers.

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IvyPanda. (2023, December 2). Organizational Behavior and Concepts. https://ivypanda.com/essays/organizational-behavior-and-concepts/

"Organizational Behavior and Concepts." IvyPanda , 2 Dec. 2023, ivypanda.com/essays/organizational-behavior-and-concepts/.

IvyPanda . (2023) 'Organizational Behavior and Concepts'. 2 December.

IvyPanda . 2023. "Organizational Behavior and Concepts." December 2, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/organizational-behavior-and-concepts/.

1. IvyPanda . "Organizational Behavior and Concepts." December 2, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/organizational-behavior-and-concepts/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Organizational Behavior and Concepts." December 2, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/organizational-behavior-and-concepts/.

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