Leadership - Organizational Behavior

Leadership - Organizational Behavior

Introduction
Organizational Behavior is the study and application of knowledge about how people, individuals, and groups act in organizations. It does this by taking a system approach. That is, it interprets people-organization relationships in terms of the whole person, whole group, whole organization, and whole social system. Its purpose is to build better relationships by achieving human objectives, organizational objectives, and social objectives.
As you can see from the definition above, organizational behavior encompasses a wide range of topics, such as human behavior, change, leadership, teams, etc. Since these many of these topics are discussed in other sections of this leadership guide, this section will not go into topics previously discussed.

Elements of Organizational Behavior
The organization's base rests on management's philosophy, values, vision and goals. This in turn drives the organizational culture which is composed of the formal organization, informal organization, and the social environment. The culture determines the type of leadership, communication, and group dynamics within the organization. The workers perceive this as the quality of work life which directs their degree of motivation. The final outcome are performance, individual satisfaction, and personal growth and development. All these elements combine to build the model or framework that the organization operates from.


Models of Organizational Behavior
There are four major models or frameworks that organizations operate out of:

1. Autocratic - The basis of this model is power with a managerial orientation of authority. The employees in turn are oriented towards obedience and dependence on the boss. The employee need that is met is subsistence. The performance result is minimal.



2. Custodial - The basis of this model is economic resources with a managerial orientation of money. The employees in turn are oriented towards security and benefits and dependence on the organization. The employee need that is met is security. The performance result is passive cooperation.



3. Supportive - The basis of this model is leadership with a managerial orientation of support. The employees in turn are oriented towards job performance and participation. The employee need that is met is status and recognition. The performance result is awakened drives.



4. Collegial - The basis of this model is partnership with a managerial orientation of teamwork. The employees in turn are oriented towards responsible behavior and self-discipline. The employee need that is met is self-actualization. The performance result is moderate enthusiasm.
   

Although there are four separate models, almost no organization operates exclusively in one. There will usually be a predominate one, with one or more areas over-lapping in the other models.

The first model, autocratic, had its roots in the industrial revolution. The managers of this type of organization operate out of McGregor's Theory X. The next three models begin to build on McGregor's Theory Y. They have each evolved over a period of time and there is no one "best" model. The collegial model should not be thought as the last or best model, but the beginning of a new model or paradigm.

Social Systems, Culture, and Individualization
A social system is a complex set of human relationships interacting in many ways. Within an organization, the social system includes all the people in it and their relationships to each other and to the outside world. The behavior of one member can have an impact, either directly or indirectly, on the behavior of others. Also, the social system does not have boundaries...it exchanges goods, ideas, culture, etc. with the environment around it.

Culture is the conventional behavior of a society that encompasses beliefs, customs, knowledge, and practices. It influences human behavior, even though it seldom enters into their conscious thought. People depend on culture as it gives them stability, security, understanding, and the ability to respond to a given situation. This is why people fear change. They fear the system will become unstable, their security will be lost, they will not understand the new process, and they will not know how to respond to the new situations.

The chart above shows how individualization affects different organizations:

Too little socialization and too little individualization creates isolation.
Too high socialization and too little individualization creates conformity.
Too little socialization and too high individualization creates rebellion
While the match that organizations want to create is high socialization and high individualization for a creative environment. This is what it takes to survive in a very competitive environment...having people grow with the organization, but doing the right thing when others want to follow the easy path

This can become quite a balancing act. Individualism favors individual rights, loosely knit social networks, self respect, and personal rewards and careers. It becomes look out for number 1! Socialization or collectivism favors the group, harmony, and asks "What is best for the organization?" Organizations need people to challenge, question, and experiment while still maintaining the culture that binds them into a social system.

Organization Development
Organization Development (OD) is the systematic application of behavioral science knowledge at various levels, such as group, inter-group, organization, etc., to bring about planned change. Its objectives is a higher quality of work-life, productivity, adaptability, and effectiveness. It accomplishes this by changing attitudes, behaviors, values, strategies, procedures, and structures so that the organization can adapt to competitive actions, technological advances, and the fast pace of change within the environment.

There are seven characteristics of OD:

1. Humanistic Values: Positive beliefs about the potential of employees (McGregor's Theory Y).
   
2. Systems Orientation: All parts of the organization, to include structure, technology, and people, must work together
   
3. Experiential Learning: The learners' experiences in the training environment should be the kind of human problems they encounter at work. The training should NOT be all theory and lecture
   
4. Problem Solving: Problems are identified, data is gathered, corrective action is taken, progress is assessed, and adjustments in the problem solving process are made as needed. This process is known as Action Research


5. Contingency Orientation: Actions are selected and adapted to fit the need.


6. Change Agent: Stimulate, facilitate, and coordinate change


7. Levels of Interventions: Problems can occur at one or more level in the organization so the strategy will require one or more interventions
   

Quality of Work Life (QWL)
Quality of Work Life is the favorableness or unfavorableness of the job environment. Its purpose is to develop jobs and working conditions that are excellent for both the employees and the organization. One of the ways of accomplishing QWL is through job design. Some of the options available for improving job design are:

• Leave the job as is but employ only people who like the rigid environment or routine work. Some people do enjoy the security and task support of these kinds of jobs


• Leave the job as is, but pay the employees more


• Mechanize and automate the routine jobs. Let robots handle it


• And the area that OD loves - redesign the job
  

When redesigning jobs there are two spectrums to follow - job enlargement and job enrichment. Job enlargement adds a more variety of tasks and duties to the job so that it is not as monotonous. This takes in the breadth of the job. That is, the number of different tasks that an employee performs. This can also be accomplished by job rotation.

Job enrichment, on the other hand, adds additional motivators. It adds depth to the job - more control, responsibility, and discretion to how the job is performed. This gives higher order needs to the employee, as opposed to job enlargement which simply gives more variety. The chart below illustrates the differences: The benefits of enriching jobs include:

• Growth of the individual
• Individuals have better job satisfaction
• Self-actualization of the individual
• Better employee performance for the organization
• Organization gets intrinsically motivated employees
• Less absenteeism, turnover, and grievances for the organization
• Full use of human resources for society
• Society gains more effective organizations

Leadership and Behavior

Leadership - Human Behavior


Introduction
As a leader, you need to interact with followers, peers, seniors, and other people whose support you need to accomplish your objectives. To gain their support, you must be able to understand and motivate them. To understand and motivate people, you must know human nature. Human nature is the common qualities of all human beings. People behave according to certain principles of human nature. These principles govern our behavior.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
Human needs are an important part of human nature. Values, beliefs, and customs differ from country to country and group to group, but all people have similar needs. As a leader you must understand these needs because they are powerful motivators.

Abraham Maslow felt that the basic human needs were arranged in a hierarchical order. He based his theory on healthy, creative people who used all their talents, potential, and capabilities. At the time, this methodology differed from most psychology research studies which were based on the observation of disturbed people.

There are two major groups of human needs: basic needs and Meta needs.
Basic needs are physiological, such as food, water, and sleep; and psychological, such as affection, security, and self esteem. These basic needs are also called deficiency needs because if they are not met by an individual, then that person will strive to make up the deficiency.

The higher needs are called meta needs or growth needs. These include justice, goodness, beauty, order, unity, etc. Basic needs take priority over these growth needs. People who lack food or water cannot attend to justice or beauty.
These needs are listed below in hierarchical order. The needs on the bottom of the list (1 to 4) must be met before the needs above it can be met. The top four needs (5 to 8), can be pursued in any order depending on a person's wants or circumstance, as long as all the other needs (1 to 4) have all been met.

Figure 1
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
8. Self-transcendence – a transegoic level that emphasizes visionary intuition,
altruism and unity consciousness.
7. Self-actualization – to know exactly who you are, where you are going and what
you want to accomplish. A state of weel being.
6. Aesthetic - at peace, more curious about inner workings of all.
5. Cognitive - learning for learning alone, contribute knowledge.
4. Esteem - feeling of moving up in world, recognition, few doubts about self.
3. Belongingness and love - belong to a group, close friends to confine with.
2. Safety - feel free from immediate danger.
1. Physiology – food, water, shelter

Maslow posited that people want and are forever striving to meet various goals. Because the lower level needs are more immediate and urgent, if they are nor satisfied, they come into play as the source and direction of a person's goal.
A need higher in the hierarchy will become a motive of behavior as long as the needs below it have been satisfied. Unsatisfied lower needs will dominate unsatisfied higher needs and must be satisfied before the person can climb up the hierarchy.
Knowing where a person is located on this scale aids in determining an effective motivator. For example, motivating a middle-class person (who is in range 4 of the hierarchy) with a certificate will have a far greater impact than using the same motivator to motivate a minimum wage person from the ghettos who is struggling to meet needs 1 and 2.

It should be noted that almost no one stays in one particular hierarchy for an extended period. We constantly strive to move up, while at the same time forces outside our control try to push us down. Those on top get pushed down for short time periods, i.e., death of a loved-one or an idea that does not work. Those on the bottom get pushed up, i.e., come across a small prize or receive a better paying job. Our goal as leaders, is to help our people obtain the skills and knowledge that will push them up the hierarchy permanently. People who have their basic needs met become much better workers. There are able to concentrate on fulfilling the visions put forth to them, instead of consistently worrying about how to make ends meet.
Characteristics of self-actualizing people:
1. Have better perceptions of reality and are comfortable with it.
2. Accept themselves and their own natures.
3. They lack artificiality
4. They focus on problems outside themselves and are concerned with basic issues and
eternal questions.
5. They like privacy and tend to be detached.
6. Rely on their own development and continued growth.
7. Appreciate the basic pleasures of life (do not take blessings for granted).
8. Have a deep feeling of kinship with others.
9. Are deeply democratic and are not really aware of differences.
10. Have strong ethical and moral standards.
11. Are original and inventive, less constricted and fresher than others

NOTE: Transegoic means a higher, psychic, or spiritual state of development. The trans is related to transcendence, while the ego is of course, based upon Freud's work. We go from preEGOic levels to EGOic levels to transEGOic. The EGO in all three terms are used in the Jungian sense of consciousness as opposed to the unconscious. Ego equates with the personality.

In Maslow's model, the ultimate goal of life is self-actualization, which is almost never fully attained but rather is something to always strive towards. Peak experiences are temporary self-actualizations. Maslow later theorized that this level does not stop, it goes on to self-transcendence, which carries us to the spiritual level, e.g.. Gandhi, Mother Theresa, Dalai Lamao, or even poets such as Robert Frost. Maslow's self-transcendence level recognizes the human need for ethics, creativity, compassion and spirituality. Without this spiritual or transegoic sense, we are simply animals or machines.

I believe that just as there are peak experiences for temporary self-actualizations; there are also peak experiences for self-transcendence. These are our spiritual creative moments.

Herzberg's Hygiene and Motivational Factors
Herzberg developed a list of factors which are closely based on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, except it more closely related to work:

HERZBERG'S HYGIENE & MOTIVATIONAL FACTORS
Hygiene or Dissatisfies:
1. Working conditions
2. Policies and administrative practices
3. Salary and Benefits
4. Supervision
5. Status
6. Job security
7. Fellow workers
8. Personal life

Motivators or Satisfiers:

1. Recognition
2. Achievement
3. Advancement
4. Growth
5. Responsibility
6. Job challenge

Hygiene factors must be present in the job before motivators can be used to stimulate that person. That is, you cannot use Motivators until all the Hygiene factors are met. Herzberg's needs are specifically job related and reflect some of the distinct things that people want from their work as opposed to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs which reflect all the needs in a persons life.
Building on this model, Herzberg coined the term "job enrichment" to describe the process of redesigning work in order to build in Motivators.


Theory X and Theory Y
Douglas McGreagor developed a philosophical view of humankind with his Theory X and Theory Y. These are two opposing perceptions about how people view human behavior at work and organizational life.
Theory X:
1 People have an inherent dislike for work and will avoid it whenever possible.
2 People must be coerced, controlled, directed, or threatened with punishment in
order to get them to achieve the organizational objectives.
3 People prefer to be directed, do not want responsibility, and have little or no
ambition.
4 People seek security above all else.

With Theory X assumptions, management's role is to coerce and control employees.

Theory Y:
1 Work is as natural as play and rest.
2 People will exercise self-direction if they are committed to the objectives (they
are NOT lazy).
3 Commitment to objectives is a function of the rewards associated with their
achievement.
4 People learn to accept and seek responsibility.
5 Creativity, ingenuity, and imagination are widely distributed among the
population. People are capable of using these abilities to solve an organizational
problem.
6 People have potential.

With Theory Y assumptions, management's role is to develop the potential in employees and help them to release that potential towards common goals.
Theory X is the view that traditional management has taken towards the workforce. Many organizations are now taking the enlightened view of theory Y. A boss can be viewed as taking the theory X approach, while a leader takes the theory Y approach. Notice that Maslow, Herzberg, and McGreagor's theories all tie together:
Herzberg's theory is a micro version of Maslow's theory (concentrated in the work place).

McGreagor's Theory X is based on workers caught in the lower levels (1 to 3) of Maslow's theory while his Theory Y is for workers who have gone above level 3.
McGreagor's Theory X is based on workers caught in Herberg's Hygiene or Dissatisfiers, while Theory Y is based on workers who are in the Motivators or Satisfiers section.

Keirsey Temperament Sorter
Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.
- Frank Outlaw

David Keirsey and Marilyn Bates based their work on the Myers-Briggs-Type-Indicator (MBTI - which is based on the work of Carl Jung. There are four temperaments or characters that our personality is based on. Although we have the capacity for all four temperaments, we typically develop a basic attitude or predisposition for one of them. They are described with the names of Greek gods of mythology, with whom they share preferences and behaviors:

Dionysian (Artisan) - This temperament seeks freedom, values spontaneity, and resists being constrained or obligated. They do things because the process of doing them is pleasing, regardless of the goal or outcome. They are action driven, here-and-now, and thrive on situations requiring immediate response. They are optimists who are not easily controlled. They are the ultimate troubleshooters and negotiators. They tend to dislike bosses, policies, and procedures.

Epithean (Guardian) - People with this temperament have strong affiliation needs, a sense of duty, are keepers of traditions, get satisfaction from giving, and have strong work ethics. They want recognition and appreciation for they believe is merited, but will not request it. They are pessimists who elicits conformity to group norms. They like making clear cut decisions and will follow established organizational protocol without question.

Promethian (Rationalist) - This type of person understands, predicts, explains and harness phenomena. They value competence in themselves and others, thrive on challenges, and strive to control situations. They are the most self-critical of all and consistently set higher goals of perfection. They are almost never satisfied with accomplishments and are embarrassed by praise. They are imaginative, analytical, and like to build systems for the future. They will create sweeping changes if they see the need.

Apollonian (Idealist) - An Apollonian sets extraordinary goals, even transcendent, that hard for them to even explain. They strive to "be real" and are always in the process of "becoming." Work, relationships, efforts, and goals must be imbued with "meaning. "They are hard workers, if the cause is deemed worthwhile, and are tireless in pursuit of a cause. Can be a gadfly in pursuing one goal after another. They prefer the big picture over details, are centered on people and relationships, and would rather focus on ideas than tasks.

Leaders need all four types of temperaments on their team to make it well rounded. All to often, leaders tend to choose people with their same type of personality, or their favorite. But this makes a team weak, in that it cannot approach problems and implementations from all sides of the spectrum. Balance your team and choose people from all walks of life.

Existence/Relatedness/Growth (ERG)
Clayton Alderfer, in his Existence/Relatedness/Growth (ERG) Theory of Needs, theorized that there are three groups of needs:

• Existence - This group of needs is concerned with providing the basic requirements for material existence, such as physiological and safety needs. This need is satisfied by money earned in a job to buy food, home, clothing, etc.
• Relationships - This group of needs centers on or is built upon the desire to establish and maintain interpersonal relationships. Since one usually spends approximately half of one's waking hours on the job, this need is normally satisfied at least to some degree by one's coworkers.
• Growth - These needs are met by personal development. A person's job, career, or profession provides for significant satisfaction of growth needs.

Alderfer's ERG theory also states that more than one need may be influential at the same time. If the gratification of a higher-level need is frustrated, the desire to satisfy a lower-level need will increase. He identifies this phenomenon as the "frustration­paggression dimension." Its relevance on the job is that even when the upper-level needs are frustrated, the job still provides for the basic physiological needs upon which one would then be focused. If, at that point, something happens to threaten the job, the person's basic needs are significantly threatened. If there are not factors present to relieve the pressure, the person may become desperate and panicky.

Expectancy Theory
Vroom's Expectancy Theory states that an individual will act in a certain way based on the expectation that the act will be followed by a given outcome and on the attractiveness of that outcome to the individual. This motivational model has been modified by several people, to include Porter and Lawler:

Valence X Expectancy X Instrumentality = Motivation:
• Valence (Reward) = Is the amount of desire for a goal. (What is the reward?)
• Expectancy (Performance) = Is the strength of belief that work related effort will result in the completion of the task. (How hard will I have to work to reach the goal?)
• Instrumentality (Belief) = This is the belief that the reward will be received once the task is completed. (Will they notice the effort I put forth?)

The product of valence, expectancy, and instrumentality is motivation. It can be thought of as the strength of the drive towards a goal. For example, if an employee wants to move up through the ranks, then promotion has a high valence for that employee. If the employee believes that high performance will result in good reviews, then the employee has high expectancy. But if the employee believes the company will not promote from within, then the employee has low instrumentality.

Therefore, the employee is not motivated to perform any harder.