Understanding The Importance Of Self-Efficacy In Organizational Contexts

The Theory of Self-Efficacy and Its Definition

The theory of self-efficacy had been chosen as it is one of the most important theories that are used in modern organizational contexts. It is important for each and every employee to be sure about their inner strengths and their self-worth. The theory of self-efficacy can be defined as the ability or the strength that is present within an individual for meeting with different challenges. However, it must be noted in this contact that people might often get confused between the concepts of self-efficacy and that of resilience.  There are people who might think that people who have good self-efficacy will always be able to attain success. However this is not the case. This is because both success and failure can affect a person who has high self-efficacy. I was always very afraid of getting defeated in any of the tasks that I was taking up. I always tried my level best to make sure that I win in any and every situation. However, it must be noted in this context that there are three different aspects of the self-concept or the self-efficacy concept. The three concepts are complexity, consistency, clarity. It has to be noted in this concept that people often have multiple or different views about their own selves. This gives rise to the complications present within each and every individual. It has been argued by Cherniss, (2017) that people usually show the same characteristic feature during any particular situation. However, at the same time, Panadero, Jonsson & Botella, (2017) has argued that the same person might also show different emotions and different expressions.  However, Skaalvik & Skaalvik,  (2017) has suggested that it is really very essential for individuals to maintain the two aspects namely consistency and that of clarity in order to work properly within the organizational setup. In particular, people who are working at important leadership or the management positions must make sure that they are maintaining clarity about the feelings and the attributes that are present within them. This will help them to use the quality of resilience for the overall benefit of their team members as well. Conway & Briner (2009) has stated that self-efficacy can better be understood through the concept of self-evaluation. The concept of self-efficacy is about keeping a firm belief within one’s ability, motivation and all the other qualities that are needed for completing a task in a successful manner. However, Zhao et al., (2007) have argued that if the setting or the surrounding environment is altered then it might not be possible for the individuals to display the similar kinds of qualities and to attain success.

The Different Aspects of Self-Concept and Self-Evaluation

Lepak & Snell, (1999) is of the opinion that verbal persuasion is one of the best techniques that might help individuals to become confident about themselves and take proper decisions. It has been argued by Billett, (2001) that verbal persuasion might not hold well in each and every aspect. The best examples of self-efficacy can be brought to light only when the individuals are being subjected to different kinds of situations. Billett,  (2002) is also of the opinion that the misunderstandings or the misinterpretations often might lead to the false understanding of the strengths that are present within someone. The stress and the anxiety often play an essential role in making the individuals understand about the actual qualities that are present within them. Mondak et al., (2017) has also argued that the Vicarious experiences often matter a great deal while deciding the self-efficacy within any individuals. The self-efficacy is instilled by any particular leader or any particular role models. It depends upon the impact that the role models or the idols may have on the individuals. All these aspects are to be taken into account while one is working within an organizational setup. This is because of the fact that the managers have to motivate the employees to have the firm belief within themselves so that they can deal; within each and very tough situations or challenges that might come up in their ways. Collins, Brown & Newman, (1987) is of the opinion that the aspect of contract and behavior is one of the best means that can be used by the employees in order to know about the different characteristics of their employees. They have to see how the employees are reacting if any promises are being broken. The managers must be focusing on the long term duration of the psychological contracts. The management positions mainly involve high involvement teams. As a result of this, the managers must be able to focus on the teams that have a high member commitment, mutual support for a very long time, dynamism and other such aspects. This it can be said that this theory of self-efficacy is really very important to know the workplace scenario as it will be helping in adapting with the challenging and the changing conditions of the workplace.

There are several incidents taking place at the organization that often makes use of the concept of self-efficacy. The psychological contract is one of the most important aspects that must be seen by all the managers while they are operating within the organizational context. I will be narrating them with the help of a certain incident that took place in my organization. The contract and the breach is one of the major aspects that are prevalent in the organization. I was working as one of the board members in an organization and there was a sudden outbreak of a dispute in the organization. The employees were promised that they will be given promotions and also some hike in their salary. However, the management had to cancel this decision as they were not really very happy with the performance that has been set up by the employees. However, they had to somehow postpone their plan of giving a hike and also the promotions. This really angered the employees and they started feeling betrayed. They felt that the managers did a breach of trust. I had to take some steps that would be helping me to solve this problem. I realized that focusing on the types of psychological contracts will be helping me in dealing with the employees in a proper manner.

The Role of Self-Efficacy in the Organizational Context

I thought of taking the transitional approach to solving this issue. I thought that this will be helping the employees to understand the ambiguity or the uncertainty that is taking place in front of them. However, I saw that the employees were not really very happy. I also realized that the reciprocal imbalance was coming into place. In other words, the employees started feeling that they have been giving much more to the organization. I realized that I have to support all the employees so that they can actually keep up their level of loyalty with the organization. However, I realized that there are some kinds of idiosyncratic employee negotiation techniques. Thus I thought that in order to prevent the employees from resigning from their positions, I have to motivate them. I had to use some measures like setting up flexible time shifts so that the employees’ get some kinds of motivations; I thought that this will help the employees to realize they are the valuable assets of the company.  Though some of the employees realized that they need to improve their performances in order to get the promised benefits but some of them did not. Thus there were still many employees who left the organization. I think that the situation would have been handled properly if the employees were given some other benefits. The psychological states of the employees could have been improved by arranging for various stress relief sessions. This would be helpful in making the employees’ understand their self-efficacy and use of their inner strengths. This would have been able helpful for them in order to understand the methods that they need to take for

Thus, it can be concluded that it is the joint and the collaborative effort of both the management and the employees to carry on with their work in a successful manner. There are some steps or goals that need to be taken so that the managers can include the employees within their decision-making process.

Some of the steps that can be taken are as follows

• Follow the balanced aspect of the psychological contract-This will help the company or the organization to make sure that the employees are having high commitment and high involvement within the team. In other words, the employees will realize that they have some responsibilities towards the organization.
• the collaboration will be very helpful for developing a mutual understanding between the employees and the managers Thus the employees’ will try to given in their hundred percent potential before they can expect anything in return.
• The equity theory must be used so that the managers can actually get to know about the decisions and the feedbacks of their employees. Often they take one-way decisions by considering their own outcomes rather than comparing them with the outcome or the input ratio that is being forwarded by others. In other words, in the given organizational scenario, the managers must have consulted with the employees before selecting the perks of compensation as they could not keep up to what they promised.

References

Billett, S. (2001). Learning in the workplace: Strategies for effective practice. Allen & Unwin, PO Box 8500, St Leonards, 1590 NSW, Australia.

Cardon, M. S., & Kirk, C. P. (2015). Entrepreneurial Passion as Mediator of the Self–Efficacy to Persistence Relationship. Entrepreneurship theory and practice, 39(5), 1027-1050.

Cherniss, C. (2017). Role of professional self-efficacy in the etiology and amelioration of burnout. In Professional burnout (pp. 135-149). Routledge.

Collins, A., Brown, J. S., & Newman, S. E. (1987). Cognitive apprenticeship: Teaching the craft of reading, writing and mathematics (Technical Report No. 403). BBN Laboratories, Cambridge, MA. Centre for the Study of Reading, University of Illinois. January, 1987

Conway, N, & Briner, R. (2009). Fifty years of psychological contract research: what do we know and what are the main challenges? International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 24: 71-130. 

Honicke, T., & Broadbent, J. (2016). The influence of academic self-efficacy on academic performance: A systematic review. Educational Research Review, 17, 63-84.

Lepak, D. P. & Snell, S. A. (1999). The human resource architecture: Toward a theory of human capital allocation and development. Academy of Management Review, 24(1): 31-48.

Mondak, J. J., Hurwitz, J., Peffley, M., & Testa, P. (2017). The vicarious bases of perceived injustice. American Journal of Political Science, 61(4), 804-819.

Panadero, E., Jonsson, A., & Botella, J. (2017). Effects of self-assessment on self-regulated learning and self-efficacy: Four meta-analyses. Educational Research Review, 22, 74-98.

Rousseau, D. M. (2004). Psychological contracts in the workplace: Understanding the ties that motivate. Academy of Management Executive, 18(1): 120-127.

Skaalvik, E. M., & Skaalvik, S. (2017). Motivated for teaching? Associations with school goal structure, teacher self-efficacy, job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion. Teaching and Teacher Education, 67, 152-160.

Zhao, H., Wayne, S. J., Glibkowski, B. C. &Bravo, J. (2007). The impact of psychological contract breach on work-related outcomes: a meta-analysis. Personnel Psychology, 60, 647-80.