Organisation behavior essay范文
07-07, 2015
此文章分析一个从事分配管理的工作者使用相关组织行为学理论。组织行为学是一门是对组织的结构、功能和绩效的研究，也包括团队和个人的行为。”(德里克·普的1971)。组织行为学(OB)研究可以帮助我们理解其理论和提高实际管理情况的应用能力。除此之外,组织行为学的区是域广泛而复杂的。不仅是组织环境,也关联到企业的个人、团队,以及组织管理。
在这篇文章中,主要论述个体方面对企业的影响。有几个主题,如动机、沟通、性格、思想观念等。我将会把动机放入一个实际案例中进行研究。组织行为学这方面内容会提及到Martin Gee所撰写的一篇题为“如何制止企业习惯性的加班政策”的文章。
Analysis of an allocated management practitioner article using relevant organisational behaviour theory. Organisational behaviour is the study of structure, functioning and performance of organisation, and behaviour of group and individuals within them."(Derek Pugh's, 1971 p.9) Organisational behaviour (OB) studies will be able to help us understanding of its theory and ability to apply to a practical management situation. In addition to that, the areas of organisational behaviour are wide and complex. It is not only about the organisational context, but also about individuals, group and team in the organisation, as well as organisation management.
In this essay, I will focus on the aspect of individual in the organisation. There are several topics such as motivation, communication, personality, perception etc. I am going to put motivation in the context of a practical case. This aspect of OB is referred to the article with the title of "How to stop overtime dependency" written by Martin Gee.
This article is related to the theory of motivation and its implications. It attempts to answer some of the important questions including: what drive employees to work overtime? How working overtime affects both workers themselves as well as businesses? Moreover, what are the solutions to these issues? In order to answer the questions above, this essay is divided into two main parts.
The first part is to provide an overview about the theory of motivation. Put in other words, I will mainly focus on the two theories: the Need Hierarchy Theory, Existence- Relatedness- Growth (ERG) theory and Goal-setting Theory developed by Maslow, Alderfer and A. Locke, respectively. I then consider advantages and limitations of these theories. In the second part of the assignment, I will bring the recommendations to the main points of the article which are used to support theoretical literature. The conclusion will complete this essay.
动机理论及其研究的概述—Overview of the motivation theory and its research
According to Buchanan and Huczynski (2007) motivation has been one of the most critical factors in organisational behaviour research and business management. It also influences employees' performance in both positive and negative ways. Thus, it plays an important role in business management as well as organisations success (Mullins, 2006).#p#分页标题#e#
With the purpose of explaining its importance and nature, a significant amount of motivation theories has been built and researched. The most significant works include:
Need hierarchy theory of Abraham Harold Maslow
Existence- Relatedness- Growth (ERG) theory of Clayton Paul Alderfer
Equity theory of J. Stacy Adams
Expectancy theory of Edward Chace Tolman
Goal-setting theory of Edwin A. Locke
These various theories are usually examined in two contrasting approaches- the content theories of motivation and the process theories of motivation (Buchanan, & Huczynski, 2007). The content theories, including the Need Hierarchy Theory, Existence- Relatedness- Growth (ERG) theory, attempt to explain the specific factors that energise human behaviour and motivate individuals at work. They focus on the goals to which individuals aspire (Huczynski & Buchanan, 2007). In contrast, the process theories, consisting of the Equity Theory, Goal-setting theory, Expectancy Theory, try to explore how individuals make choices with respect to their desired goals. In other words, the content theories are concerned with "what" motivates employees while process theories are concerned with "how" (or process on which) employees are motivated.
动机的内容理论—Content theories of motivation
Maslow's Need Hierarchy Theory
Figure 1: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow's hierarchy of needs was first discovered in 1943. He put forward a theory which has been considered as the most popular content motivation theory in management and organizational behaviour science. It originally contented five-stage model. His theory points out that people are wanting beings. They always want more and what they want depends on what they already have (Mullins, 2006). As a result, they are motivated at work by their needs, which are arranged in order from basic to higher levels of needs as graphically illustrated in the Figure 1.
Maslow believes that individuals will seek to higher need when their lower needs are satisfied. At the time, the original five-stage model hierarchy of needs was later adapted by others, based on Maslow's work. Since then, each one of the new motivators concerns an area of self-development and self-fulfilment that is rooted in self-actualization.
For many people, concept of self-actualizing has been widely discussed, whereas, in the organisational behaviours concept of transcendence was largely ignored. As such, the original five-level Hierarchy of Needs model remains basically representation of human motivation, and then the later adaptations perhaps serve the best to illustrate aspects of self-actualization.
On one hand, the main strength of Maslow theory of motivation is that it aims to identify individual needs for the purpose of motivating behaviour. Maslow also suggests that we all have variable differences in these needs. In essence, employees not only need money and rewards, but they also require respect and interaction. Hence, by understanding the employees' needs and expectation, managers can deal with their subordinates more effectively. Besides, they can build a working environment where employees are progressing up the need hierarchy. Fulfilments of these would be correlatively increased, and then their contributions to the organisation would be maximised. On the other hand, there are some critics in relating this theory to the work situation. First, it is not clear and cannot readily predict the behaviour of employees. Secondly, the theory seems to ignore the diversity of working fields that can change the need hierarchy or even the need itself of employees.#p#分页标题#e#
Most managers set out high expectations from their workers. Many of those are very good motivators but some just do not know how to motivate workers. Learning to be a great motivator requires skills and takes time. In fact, people are different and have variable needs as well as different academic areas. They also have different opinions about their work.
Thus a challenge task for every manager is to be able to determine what will motivate each of the people working with them. For example, in some academic areas such as medical researching, people would prefer receiving an opportunity to develop a new and effective vaccine to receiving a good pay and generous insurance policy. (Darlington, Hank; 2009; p44-48). However, although Maslow's content theory of motivation may be dated, its influence persists.
ERG theory of Clayton Paul Alderfer
From the discussion above, Maslow's hierarchy of need theory suggested that employees are motivated to increase their job performance by their individual to satisfy certain needs. His theory was one of the most widely used of the need theories and based on research. One of them is that of Alderfer (1967, 1969). He attempts to point the shortcomings in Maslow's theory. He believes that it is more realistic to consider three groups of the core needs, namely as Existence, Relatedness and Growth, which has been known as the ERG theory of motivation. (Arnolds; 2002; p 697)
ERG Theory:
Existence needs: Biological and Safety needs,
Relatedness needs: Affiliation and Esteem needs
Growth needs: Self-actualization and Self-esteem needs
Whereas Maslow was not initially concerned with work motivation, Alderfer's theory is selected to assess the influence of need satisfaction on job performance at organisation. But there are still some present studies attempts to make a more complete of the influence of need satisfaction on work behaviour by assessed the Alderfer's ERG theory.
A better empirical assessment of the Alderfer needs theory would be to ascertain what needs cause certain behaviours, rather than just showing the correlation between needs and behaviour. It also shows the concern that need theories do not necessarily predict work behaviour (Luthans; 1998).
Process theories of motivation
While the content theories fail to recognise either individual choice or social influence, the process theories can be able to give individual a cognitive decision-making in selecting goal. There are three process theories of work motivation such as; equity theory, expectancy theory and goal-setting theory. This assignment will explore Edwin Locke's Goal Setting Theory which has been considered "one of the most influential theories of work motivation applicable to all cultures" (Hannagan, 2002).#p#分页标题#e#
There are four factors of goal-setting that influence performance of employees-Difficulty of goal, Specificity of goal, Participation in goal-setting and Knowledge of results. The theory's advantages are shown by its practical implications for the managers. It implies that managers should (Bowditch & Buono, 2005; Mullins, 2006):
Set clear and specific goals for employees
Make employees' goals challenging but not so difficult or beyond their ability levels
Involve employees in goal setting when appropriate to increase their commitment
Include feedback to help them check and improve their performance if necessary
These factors, in which incentives can be linked to goals and performance, identify the strength and limitation of each individual. It helps us to explain and to predict work behaviour by relying on a series of propositions. However, there are also an argument that short-term targets can be expressed in clear and quantifiable terms whereas be vague in applying to longer term goals. Another limitation is the theory does not concentrate on team work, comparing to its applications on individual goals. (Huczynski & Buchanan, 2007)
Recommendations main points of the article to support theoretical literature
The article helps us to understand what drives employees work overtime as well as recognising the long-term affects to both business and workers. Furthermore, it gives us recommendations, which are underpinned by the motivation theories as reviewed above.
There are five recommendations that we can find from the article:
Awareness of 'overtime dependency' early.
Avoid making overtime culture by financially rewards.
Setting flexible working time for workers.
Offer alternative incentive.ie. non-pay rewards
Stabilise monthly wage for employees.
Firstly, the article suggests that manager need to be aware of 'overtime dependency' early. It pointed out symptom of overtime dependants such as; dawdling during the shift, working all weekend and then calling absence on Monday, and being available on premium- paying Sundays. Businesses are worse off by paying extra on Sunday for people's working overtime and decreases its productivity during the shift, the employees still receive amount of extra wages and be recorded as hard working employees. That seems to be unfair to others colleagues who instead of working at weekend, but still finish their task during weekdays. However, we are all different. We all have variable needs which can motive us doing certain behaviours. As Maslow theory of motivation reviewed above, it help us to identify individual needs for the purpose of motivating behaviour. It seems like for the workers who take the advantages of the extra pays and having one more day off are driving them to do so in the workplace.#p#分页标题#e#
Secondly, Martin Gee implies that businesses should not encourage subordinate to work overtime by financial rewards. He mentions that merits payments and premiums can be seen as a tangible benefit to working overtime, which may incentivise the long-hours culture or even excessive overtime working, especially during economic crisis. Once more, we can see the strength of Maslow's theory showing us what encourages employee work overtime? In that case, tangible benefit, bonus, is an answer.
Next recommendation is seen as a solution. It suggests that setting flexible working times for workers. With a new set of shift patterns, it can tackle overtime dependency. It also can help workers be able to have extra time spend with their family as well as help business has flexibility to get staff work extra with change of demand. At this point, we can both apply Maslow's theory and Alderfer in term of Affiliation. In that case, by supporting the personal relationship needs of employees, it will give these workers more energy, motivation, spirits in order to complete their duties at work. The new shift also includes time for maintenance and training which can help employees fulfil their skills as well as knowing and understanding the working environment. It can be understood in term of Esteem needs. (Maslow's the fourth stage model, figure 1 and Alderfer's Growth needs).
The fourth suggestion is to offer employees alternative incentives. This means that instead of using bonus as an incentive device, managers can offer their teams the chance to self-manage or some power over their jobs. In term of Maslow's freedom of enquiry and expression and Love needs and Alderfer's Relatedness needs (Huczynski & Buchanan, 2007) this scheme can give colleagues opportunity to exchange experience to each others as well as bringing a sense of pride and autonomy. It also can ease the pressure that the management team faced. The suggestion also gives an idea of setting 'Job and Finish'. This means that manager should pay attention collect the data such as; how long it will take a certain job or production run to be completed? It directly shows how manager should do, as Theory of Goal-setting by A. Locke implies setting clear and specific goals (should be SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-related) for employees.
Conclusion
Motivation has been and will continue to be one of the most essential factors in organisational behaviour and business management. There are various motivation theories which provide different approaches to the nature of motivation and they are usually categorised as either the content or process theories. However, none of these theories appear to be universally applicable. Each of them has its own advantages and limitations in approaching motivation and it need to be closely analysed and carefully considered before being applied into workplace.
Moreover, as individuals differ, their motivation content is diversified. As a result, diversification makes reviewed theories unable to cover comprehensively. Hence, managers and employers should consider more theories or a combination of motivation theories in order to successfully encourage employees at work.
在这篇文章中,主要论述个体方面对企业的影响。有几个主题,如动机、沟通、性格、思想观念等。我将会把动机放入一个实际案例中进行研究。组织行为学这方面内容会提及到Martin Gee所撰写的一篇题为“如何制止企业习惯性的加班政策”的文章。
Analysis of an allocated management practitioner article using relevant organisational behaviour theory. Organisational behaviour is the study of structure, functioning and performance of organisation, and behaviour of group and individuals within them."(Derek Pugh's, 1971 p.9) Organisational behaviour (OB) studies will be able to help us understanding of its theory and ability to apply to a practical management situation. In addition to that, the areas of organisational behaviour are wide and complex. It is not only about the organisational context, but also about individuals, group and team in the organisation, as well as organisation management.
In this essay, I will focus on the aspect of individual in the organisation. There are several topics such as motivation, communication, personality, perception etc. I am going to put motivation in the context of a practical case. This aspect of OB is referred to the article with the title of "How to stop overtime dependency" written by Martin Gee.
This article is related to the theory of motivation and its implications. It attempts to answer some of the important questions including: what drive employees to work overtime? How working overtime affects both workers themselves as well as businesses? Moreover, what are the solutions to these issues? In order to answer the questions above, this essay is divided into two main parts.
The first part is to provide an overview about the theory of motivation. Put in other words, I will mainly focus on the two theories: the Need Hierarchy Theory, Existence- Relatedness- Growth (ERG) theory and Goal-setting Theory developed by Maslow, Alderfer and A. Locke, respectively. I then consider advantages and limitations of these theories. In the second part of the assignment, I will bring the recommendations to the main points of the article which are used to support theoretical literature. The conclusion will complete this essay.
动机理论及其研究的概述—Overview of the motivation theory and its research
According to Buchanan and Huczynski (2007) motivation has been one of the most critical factors in organisational behaviour research and business management. It also influences employees' performance in both positive and negative ways. Thus, it plays an important role in business management as well as organisations success (Mullins, 2006).#p#分页标题#e#
With the purpose of explaining its importance and nature, a significant amount of motivation theories has been built and researched. The most significant works include:
Need hierarchy theory of Abraham Harold Maslow
Existence- Relatedness- Growth (ERG) theory of Clayton Paul Alderfer
Equity theory of J. Stacy Adams
Expectancy theory of Edward Chace Tolman
Goal-setting theory of Edwin A. Locke
These various theories are usually examined in two contrasting approaches- the content theories of motivation and the process theories of motivation (Buchanan, & Huczynski, 2007). The content theories, including the Need Hierarchy Theory, Existence- Relatedness- Growth (ERG) theory, attempt to explain the specific factors that energise human behaviour and motivate individuals at work. They focus on the goals to which individuals aspire (Huczynski & Buchanan, 2007). In contrast, the process theories, consisting of the Equity Theory, Goal-setting theory, Expectancy Theory, try to explore how individuals make choices with respect to their desired goals. In other words, the content theories are concerned with "what" motivates employees while process theories are concerned with "how" (or process on which) employees are motivated.
动机的内容理论—Content theories of motivation
Maslow's Need Hierarchy Theory
Figure 1: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow's hierarchy of needs was first discovered in 1943. He put forward a theory which has been considered as the most popular content motivation theory in management and organizational behaviour science. It originally contented five-stage model. His theory points out that people are wanting beings. They always want more and what they want depends on what they already have (Mullins, 2006). As a result, they are motivated at work by their needs, which are arranged in order from basic to higher levels of needs as graphically illustrated in the Figure 1.
Maslow believes that individuals will seek to higher need when their lower needs are satisfied. At the time, the original five-stage model hierarchy of needs was later adapted by others, based on Maslow's work. Since then, each one of the new motivators concerns an area of self-development and self-fulfilment that is rooted in self-actualization.
For many people, concept of self-actualizing has been widely discussed, whereas, in the organisational behaviours concept of transcendence was largely ignored. As such, the original five-level Hierarchy of Needs model remains basically representation of human motivation, and then the later adaptations perhaps serve the best to illustrate aspects of self-actualization.
On one hand, the main strength of Maslow theory of motivation is that it aims to identify individual needs for the purpose of motivating behaviour. Maslow also suggests that we all have variable differences in these needs. In essence, employees not only need money and rewards, but they also require respect and interaction. Hence, by understanding the employees' needs and expectation, managers can deal with their subordinates more effectively. Besides, they can build a working environment where employees are progressing up the need hierarchy. Fulfilments of these would be correlatively increased, and then their contributions to the organisation would be maximised. On the other hand, there are some critics in relating this theory to the work situation. First, it is not clear and cannot readily predict the behaviour of employees. Secondly, the theory seems to ignore the diversity of working fields that can change the need hierarchy or even the need itself of employees.#p#分页标题#e#
Most managers set out high expectations from their workers. Many of those are very good motivators but some just do not know how to motivate workers. Learning to be a great motivator requires skills and takes time. In fact, people are different and have variable needs as well as different academic areas. They also have different opinions about their work.
Thus a challenge task for every manager is to be able to determine what will motivate each of the people working with them. For example, in some academic areas such as medical researching, people would prefer receiving an opportunity to develop a new and effective vaccine to receiving a good pay and generous insurance policy. (Darlington, Hank; 2009; p44-48). However, although Maslow's content theory of motivation may be dated, its influence persists.
ERG theory of Clayton Paul Alderfer
From the discussion above, Maslow's hierarchy of need theory suggested that employees are motivated to increase their job performance by their individual to satisfy certain needs. His theory was one of the most widely used of the need theories and based on research. One of them is that of Alderfer (1967, 1969). He attempts to point the shortcomings in Maslow's theory. He believes that it is more realistic to consider three groups of the core needs, namely as Existence, Relatedness and Growth, which has been known as the ERG theory of motivation. (Arnolds; 2002; p 697)
ERG Theory:
Existence needs: Biological and Safety needs,
Relatedness needs: Affiliation and Esteem needs
Growth needs: Self-actualization and Self-esteem needs
Whereas Maslow was not initially concerned with work motivation, Alderfer's theory is selected to assess the influence of need satisfaction on job performance at organisation. But there are still some present studies attempts to make a more complete of the influence of need satisfaction on work behaviour by assessed the Alderfer's ERG theory.
A better empirical assessment of the Alderfer needs theory would be to ascertain what needs cause certain behaviours, rather than just showing the correlation between needs and behaviour. It also shows the concern that need theories do not necessarily predict work behaviour (Luthans; 1998).
Process theories of motivation
While the content theories fail to recognise either individual choice or social influence, the process theories can be able to give individual a cognitive decision-making in selecting goal. There are three process theories of work motivation such as; equity theory, expectancy theory and goal-setting theory. This assignment will explore Edwin Locke's Goal Setting Theory which has been considered "one of the most influential theories of work motivation applicable to all cultures" (Hannagan, 2002).#p#分页标题#e#
There are four factors of goal-setting that influence performance of employees-Difficulty of goal, Specificity of goal, Participation in goal-setting and Knowledge of results. The theory's advantages are shown by its practical implications for the managers. It implies that managers should (Bowditch & Buono, 2005; Mullins, 2006):
Set clear and specific goals for employees
Make employees' goals challenging but not so difficult or beyond their ability levels
Involve employees in goal setting when appropriate to increase their commitment
Include feedback to help them check and improve their performance if necessary
These factors, in which incentives can be linked to goals and performance, identify the strength and limitation of each individual. It helps us to explain and to predict work behaviour by relying on a series of propositions. However, there are also an argument that short-term targets can be expressed in clear and quantifiable terms whereas be vague in applying to longer term goals. Another limitation is the theory does not concentrate on team work, comparing to its applications on individual goals. (Huczynski & Buchanan, 2007)
Recommendations main points of the article to support theoretical literature
The article helps us to understand what drives employees work overtime as well as recognising the long-term affects to both business and workers. Furthermore, it gives us recommendations, which are underpinned by the motivation theories as reviewed above.
There are five recommendations that we can find from the article:
Awareness of 'overtime dependency' early.
Avoid making overtime culture by financially rewards.
Setting flexible working time for workers.
Offer alternative incentive.ie. non-pay rewards
Stabilise monthly wage for employees.
Firstly, the article suggests that manager need to be aware of 'overtime dependency' early. It pointed out symptom of overtime dependants such as; dawdling during the shift, working all weekend and then calling absence on Monday, and being available on premium- paying Sundays. Businesses are worse off by paying extra on Sunday for people's working overtime and decreases its productivity during the shift, the employees still receive amount of extra wages and be recorded as hard working employees. That seems to be unfair to others colleagues who instead of working at weekend, but still finish their task during weekdays. However, we are all different. We all have variable needs which can motive us doing certain behaviours. As Maslow theory of motivation reviewed above, it help us to identify individual needs for the purpose of motivating behaviour. It seems like for the workers who take the advantages of the extra pays and having one more day off are driving them to do so in the workplace.#p#分页标题#e#
Secondly, Martin Gee implies that businesses should not encourage subordinate to work overtime by financial rewards. He mentions that merits payments and premiums can be seen as a tangible benefit to working overtime, which may incentivise the long-hours culture or even excessive overtime working, especially during economic crisis. Once more, we can see the strength of Maslow's theory showing us what encourages employee work overtime? In that case, tangible benefit, bonus, is an answer.
Next recommendation is seen as a solution. It suggests that setting flexible working times for workers. With a new set of shift patterns, it can tackle overtime dependency. It also can help workers be able to have extra time spend with their family as well as help business has flexibility to get staff work extra with change of demand. At this point, we can both apply Maslow's theory and Alderfer in term of Affiliation. In that case, by supporting the personal relationship needs of employees, it will give these workers more energy, motivation, spirits in order to complete their duties at work. The new shift also includes time for maintenance and training which can help employees fulfil their skills as well as knowing and understanding the working environment. It can be understood in term of Esteem needs. (Maslow's the fourth stage model, figure 1 and Alderfer's Growth needs).
The fourth suggestion is to offer employees alternative incentives. This means that instead of using bonus as an incentive device, managers can offer their teams the chance to self-manage or some power over their jobs. In term of Maslow's freedom of enquiry and expression and Love needs and Alderfer's Relatedness needs (Huczynski & Buchanan, 2007) this scheme can give colleagues opportunity to exchange experience to each others as well as bringing a sense of pride and autonomy. It also can ease the pressure that the management team faced. The suggestion also gives an idea of setting 'Job and Finish'. This means that manager should pay attention collect the data such as; how long it will take a certain job or production run to be completed? It directly shows how manager should do, as Theory of Goal-setting by A. Locke implies setting clear and specific goals (should be SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-related) for employees.
Conclusion
Motivation has been and will continue to be one of the most essential factors in organisational behaviour and business management. There are various motivation theories which provide different approaches to the nature of motivation and they are usually categorised as either the content or process theories. However, none of these theories appear to be universally applicable. Each of them has its own advantages and limitations in approaching motivation and it need to be closely analysed and carefully considered before being applied into workplace.
Moreover, as individuals differ, their motivation content is diversified. As a result, diversification makes reviewed theories unable to cover comprehensively. Hence, managers and employers should consider more theories or a combination of motivation theories in order to successfully encourage employees at work.
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