Organizational Citizenship Behavior Concern: A Case Study

Learning

Discuss About The Organizational Citizenship Behavior Concern.

The below account documents my experience as a finance manager of a shopping company that initially had a good work culture till the arrival of the new manager that led to the drastc change in the organizational culture.

I have been working with the shopping centre management team for the past 4 years during the allocation of the managers by the company. The manager of the company, Alex had been employed since the establishment of the store. There are members in the company who had been associated with the company for the past 14 years. I was fortunate to have an excellent team where each member of the team are supportive of each other and encourages each other to grow and deliver their best performance. Alex trusted each of us and believed in our potential. However, things took a rather a different turn with the appointment of the new manager Sebastian who had been associated with a large shopping mall in the East Coast where major developments have been planned. The problem was that a handover was never completed between Alex and Sebastian. This indicated that there was no orientation session with the team and Sebastian. Sebastian was late by three hours on the first day and this continued to take place over a period of week and that created consternations among the members in the organization. In addition to arriving ate he was leaving early and this further upset the members of the organization. E introduced himself to the six department managers. I was manager of the finance department and he introduced to me but did not allow me to introduce with other members in the team (introduction to the staff in the team was done). Another issue that took place he started openly favouring in me in front of everyone as compared to the other staff members by giving me gifts and praising me all the time. This once again upset many of the staff who accused of not speaking to Sebastian and remaining passive to his problems. Sebastian was acerbic about the other departmental managers and began to look at their work critically and finding fault in everyone’s work. This was done under the pretext of performance evaluations and further demotivated the employees. There was no proper channels of communication between the managers and the employees. Apart from this Sebastian had an issue with the marketing manager Lucy based on the comments of the other marketing managers working in the company. Because f this attitude the marketing department was extended little support. There was perpetual backstabbing between Sebastian and Lucy. This created a rift in the office as the staff became divided by providing support to each of them. This destroyed the feel of the office and culminated to a negative atmosphere that war earlier absent in the office. Lucy was thinking of resigning the company given the new toxic work culture. The unfolding of the event have the potential to demoralize the staff in the company. Al these led to the breakdown of the team bonding and disruption in the communicati

Teams

This section of the essay will discuss the response to the given scenario in the organizational behaviour as outlined in Task 1. There is an imperative to establish and embed the values of the strong and productive organizational culture where each of the team members are clearly explained about the values, ethos and principles of the organization and most importantly their role in the team. The term productive cultures refer to the widely shared values and the norms that would inform and influence the employees (In this case the staff and the managers) to not just work hard but also to work smart. A strong organizational culture will give the company will render competitive advantage over the other companies and bolster each of the staff to become more productive and committed towards the goals of eth organization . If organizational culture is to be managed efficiently then the foundations need to be strong. In this I will focus on the themes of learning, team and communication to identify, understand and explain the areas that need to focussed to argue about the scenario that I have outlined above.

Learning- The term learning refers to the process by which an activity originates and ushers in change in the organization through reacting to the encountered situation, given the characteristics of the situation cannot be explained on the grounds of the native responses. Learning as a concept is different from the notion of maturation and it is relatively permanent. Organizational learning can be understood as the subset of the organizational behaviour and as been developed though the integration of the disciplines of psychology, education, sociology and political science and management. The importance of learning in the context of the organization is that change keeps taking place within the organization bringing in both threats and opportunities (McShane & Von Glinow 2013). In this case, it can be the new manager was substituted the previous manager Alex who was quite popular among the staff and different department managers. This new manager ushered in a series of changes that created turbulence in the organizational environment. Different people are to be learning in different ways as no two individuals are the same. Learning has been divided into three main types, these are classical learning, social learning and operant learning. Classical learning is concerned with the type of learning that indicates involuntary responses to the emotional reactions. Then there is operant conditioning that refers to learning through voluntary responses and where the learning takes place through the direct experience of the results of the behaviour. The third type of learning is concerned with the social learning where one needs to learn through observation. This kind of learning is goal-directed and enables the individual to learn through imitation of others and observations. Classical conditioning will be applicable in this case to support the staffs that are feeling disturbed by the actions of Sebastian and making them reduce their anxiety (Robbins 2010). On the other hand, Lucy who is planning to resign can benefit from classical conditioning and derive support from a compatible learning environment. In case of Sebastian who arrives late for work can be monitored through operative conditioning through a pay cut or some other kind of compensation. The staff should be motivated by proving them. The jealousy among the staff members can be understood through the operative learning where some of them feel left out especially the staff who have not been introduced to the new manager of the shopping centre, Sebastian. Sebastian’s gestures of giving me gifts and openly favouring me in front of others have created a negative environment. Maybe he was drawing his inspiration from the operative conditioning thinking that favouritism towards me will motivate the other departmental managers and the staff to deliver their best performance out of insecurity and jealousy. In this case the new learning exacerbated the condition, instead of ushering in any positive change in the organizational culture. The interpersonal relationships between the employees have been destroyed and the departmental managers are feeling demotivated.

Communication

Teams- This can be understood through the group and group dynamics that are integral for an organization and most importantly for the topic of organizational behaviour. There needs to be an understanding of the groups and types of groups along with their group behaviour. A group may be defined as comprising of two or more individuals who interacts and are interdependent and come together to achieve particular objectives. Groups maybe formal as well informal. Formal groups are referred to those who are established by the organization to meet certain needs whereas the informal groups are those who are bounded by personal needs and comprises of the networks of the associates and friends who cut across the contours of formal group (Myers & Sadaghiani 2010). Apart from this there is another basis of classifying the groups-Functional groups, project or task groups and interest or social groups. In response to the current scenario, it can be stated that its a functional group. The tem functional group refers to the formation of groups by the structure of the organization like the department, section and unit. In the above-mentioned scenario we are divided into different departments and there are staff who are working in each of the departments. The understanding of team is that it can be full-time department, a project-team or apart-time special team. In this case, it is full-time department where clashes have emerged between and among the different managers. Further it can be noted that there is a division that rose due to the conflict of interests between Lucy and the new manager Sebastian. Their rift is not limited to themselves as it has created a rift between the staff members as half of them are supporting Lucy whereas the other half is supporting Sebastian. In an organization there maybe three more types of formal groups. These are the interacting groups, coaching groups and counteracting groups. In case of interacting groups it can be seen that all the team members are dependent on each other either through project team or assemble line. In case of coaching groups, the team members work independently like the bank sellers. In case of counteracting groups, it can be found that the members work to resolve the mutual differences (Colquitt,  Lepine,  Wesson & Gellatly 2011). In this scenario it can be seen that it is a not a counteracting group as the team members are not cooperating with each other to resolve the issues and arrive at a solution. This can be stated as more of an interacting team where the team members are dependent on one another. It has been argued that if groups in the organization show the disposition to compete, then there can be both advantages as well as disadvantages. The advantages will be that the group will become closer knit and the group climate will culminate to being ore task-oriented. Group leaders mat turn more autocratic and the members are more willing to accept. In this scenario it can be observed that Sebastian’s managerial style has not helped in employee motivation and the staff members do not accept him as the leader. The transformational leadership style of Alex was more appropriate considering the situation. There is loyalty among the team members regarding the managerial style of Sebastian. Currently, the staff who has become divided is viewing each other as the enemy. Due to this rising hostility there has been a decrease in communication that will be explored in the following section.

Conclusion

The aspect of communication in organizational behaviour is quite important. It refers to the interchange of information that is indispensable for the survival and encompasses all aspects of the life. The importance of communication lies in achieving the coordinated action, this refers to the notion of effective communication that is considered to be the key to develop a more focused group of individuals who would turn out to e an asset for the organization (Wagner III & Hollenbeck 2014). The next characteristic is information that is important for the process of decision-making. The third trait is that of emotional expression that refers to the fulfilment of the social requirements and the feelings. There has been certain identified barriers that impede the process of communication. These are selective perception, snowing, jargon, cultural differences, close mindedness and lack of feedback. In the above scenario it can be observed that there has been a disruption in communication. This can be attributed to the lack of a robust approach by the new manager Sebastian manifested through his close-mindedness and the lack of feedback from the staff that could have helped him to understand the current climate in the organization. The information from the side of the manger has been one-way. He is not trying to understand the articulations and the grievances of the staff. It has been found through research that many mangers have the problem in interacting with the subordinates and understanding the issues plaguing them. It has been found that communication can be enhanced by taking into account the views of the other individual. One technique in this direction is that each of the conflicting parties are receiving the feedback. In this case, the manger should be provided with feedback about the staff as well as the different department managers (Altman, S., Valenzi & Hodgetts 2013). In the present situation, there has been a disruption in communication through the close-mindedness of the managers. The highlight of good management is that it involves the ability to receive  a message and information from the peer group and the subordinates and the superiors. In this case, the new manager Sebastian lacks the ability to understand the staff and other mangers du to his highly dogmatic nature. Non-verbal communication is also important in case that refers to communication without words, in case it can termed as the vibes. There is an overall negative atmosphere in the staff, other departmental managers especially Lucy receive negative vibes from Sebastian. It can also be manifested in the favouritism practised by Sebastian by giving me gifts in the presence of others making them feel left out.

Actions	Rationale
Development and implementation of  reward programs to offer an motivational incentive and counteracting learning	Due to feelings of negativity, management need to  be aware of the connection between attitudes and potential behaviour. It has been found that unfavourable attitudes may progress from the ‘affective’ to the ‘behavioural’ component catalysing staff resignations . These attitudes cost the company financially, hence reward programs manage attitudes long term, help value congruence, and create mutual respect (Pinders 2014). Another effective way to manage attitudes is by measuring job satisfaction via corporate attitude surveys to gain feedback on issues of advancement opportunities, working conditions, freedom of initiative, rewards and recognition, cooperation, and leadership credibility, just to name a few areas for investigation
Conducting attitude surveys to assess the collective well-being of staff.	Attitude surveys may be conducted to identify the missing links between staff ‘attitudes’ and ‘behaviours’ that would helping  creating goals and objectives to move an organisation forward, hence feedback and action planning should follow any survey implementation (Griffin & Moorhead 2011). Additionally, 360º feedback tools that rate performance via peer to peer, manager to peer etc, can be implemented to identify gaps to develop employees, hence contributing to personal satisfaction and empowerment (Goetsch & Davis 2014).
Identification and selection key players for a leadership coaching program	It is important for Sebastian to follow a transformational leadership style  and trust his employees about their abilities and potential. He needs to identify that each of the managerial leaders are an asset to the organization  and therefore they should be values and treated with respect. It si important toa mend the communication disruption with Lucy and encourage her to give her best performance. The main managerial position, management is only about climbing the ladder efficiently. He needs to understand the importance of team building, listening to the grievances of his staff and inspire the staff and the departmental managers towards the common gaol. He should not remain detached from the staff and interact more often with the staff.

 

List of References

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Kandlousi, N.S.A.E., Ali, A.J. & Abdollahi, A., 2010. Organizational citizenship behavior in concern of communication satisfaction: The role of the formal and informal communication. International Journal of Business and Management, 5(10), p.51.

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Wagner III, J.A. & Hollenbeck, J.R., 2014. Organizational behavior: Securing competitive advantage. Routledge.