Emerging Challenges in the Field of OB

Organisations are deeply affected by the external environment. Organisations need to maintain, monitor and adjust to changes in accordance to the environment in which it functions. External environment keeps changing continuously over the years, however the changes in the past decade and the decades to come, are more profound than others. These changes would require corporate leader and all employees to adjust to new challenges. 

1. Workforce Diversity:

               Diversity includes differences in the psychological characteristics of employees, including personalities, beliefs, values and attitudes.This deep-level diversity Differences in the psychological characteristics of employees, including personalities, beliefs, values and attitudes. isn't as visible as surface-level diversity, but it is evident in a person's decisions, statements and actions.Diversity if managed positively enhances creativity and innovation in organization as well as ensures better decision–making by providing different perspectives on problems. When not managed, diversity leads to increased turnover, heightened inter-personal conflict and more strained communication.Managers must learn to respect diversity and live with diverse behaviours. 

2. Changed Employee Expectation:

               Traditional allurements such as job security, attractive remuneration housing does not attract, retain and motivate today’s workforce. Employees demand empowerment and expect equality of status with the management. Empowerment results in redefining jobs, both from the shop floor as well as the boardrooms. Expectations of equality break up the traditional relationship between employer and employee – top to bottom.

3. Globalization:

             Globalisation Economic, social and cultural connectivity with people in other parts of the world. Growing internationalization of business has its impact on people management.Although businesses have traded goods across borders for centuries, the degree of globalisation today is unprecedented because information technology and transportation systems allow a much more intense level of connectivity and interdependence across the planet. 

          Globalisation offers numerous benefits to organisations in terms of larger markets, lower costs, and greater access to knowledge and innovation. At the same time, there is considerable debate about whether globalisation benefits developing nations, and whether it is primarily responsible for increasing work intensification, as well as reducing job security and work–life balance in developed countries. To face this challenge the management must be flexible and pro-active. 

4. Improving Productivity and Quality:

               As organizations are exposed to competition, managers are seriously thinking of improving quality and productivity. In this context managers are implementing programmes like TQM (Total Quality Management) and Re-engineering programmes that requires employee involvement. TQM is a philosophy of management that is inspired by constant attainment of customer satisfaction of all organizational process.

               Re-engineering means radically re-building and redesigning those processes by which we create value for customers.

5. Changing Demographics Of Workforce:

               Combine globalisation with emerging workforce diversity, and add in new information technology. This lead to incredible changes in employment relationships.A few decades ago, most (although not all) employees in India and Pakistan and similar cultures would finish their workday after eight or nine hours and could separate their personal time from the workday.There were no smart phones and no internet connections to keep staff tethered to work on a 24/7 schedule.Most competitors were located in the same country, so they had similar work practices and labour costs. Today, work hours are longer employees experience more work-related stress, and there is growing evidence that family and personal relations are suffering. The emerging issues of this new century is for more work–life balance;- The degree to which a person minimises conflict between work and nonwork demands. Another employment relationship trend brought by means of information technology is virtual work, in which employees use information technology to perform their jobs away from the traditional physical workplace.

Various Definition of Management

There is no common agreement among its experts and practitioners about its precise definition. Although management as a discipline is more than 80 years old, many management experts have tried to define management. But, no definition of management has been universally accepted. Yet, a definition of management is necessary for its teaching and research, and also for improvement in its practice.

Some of the leading definitions of management: (In no specific Order)

Louis Allan, “Management is what a manager does.”

Peter F. Drucker defines, "management is an organ; organs can be described and defined only through their functions". The Principles of Management.

According to Terry, "Management is not people; it is an activity like walking, reading, swimming or running. People who perform Management can be designated as members, members of Management or executive leaders."

Ralph C. Davis has defined Management as, "Management is the function of executive leadership anywhere."

According to Mc Farland, "Management is defined for conceptual, theoretical and analytical purposes as that process by which managers create, direct, maintain and operate purposive organization through systematic, co-ordinated co-operative human effort."

Henry Fayol, "To manage is to forecast and plan, to organize, to compound, to co-ordinate and to control." Industrial and General Administration

Harold Koontz says, "Management is the art of getting things done through and within formally organized group." The Management Theory Jungle.

Howard M. Carlisle, "Management is defined as the process by which the elements of a group are integrated, coordinated and/or utilized so as to effectively and efficiently achieve organizational objectives."

William Spriegal, "Management is that function of an enterprise which concerns itself with direction and control of the various activities to attain business objectives. Management is essentially an executive function; it deals with the active direction of the human effort."

Kimball and Kimball, "Management embraces all duties and functions that pertain to the initiation of an enterprise, its financing, the establishment of all major policies, the provision of all necessary equipment, the outlining of the general form of organization under which the enterprise is to operate and the selection of the principal officers."

Sir Charles Reynold, "Management is the process of getting things done through the agency of a community. The functions of management are the handling of community with a view of fulfilling the purposes for which it exists."

E.F.L. Brech, "Management is concerned with seeing that the job gets done, its tasks all centre on planning and guiding the operations that are going on in the enterprise."

Koontz and O'Donnel, "Management is the creation and maintenance of an internal environment in an enterprise where individuals, working in groups, can perform efficiently and effectively toward the attainment of group goals. It is the art of getting the work done through and with people in formally organized groups."

James Lundy, "Management is principally a task of planning, coordinating, motivating and controlling the efforts of other towards a specific objective. It involves the combining of the traditional factors of production land, labour, capital in an optimum manner, paying due attention, of course, to the particular goals of the organization."

Wheeler, "Management is centered in the administrators or managers of the firm who integrate men, material and money into an effective operating limit."

Theo Haimann, "Management principles are universal. It may be applied to any kind of enterprises, where the human efforts are coordinated."

J.D. Mooney and A.C. Railey, "Management is the art of directing and inspiring people."

J.N. Schulze, "Management is the force which leads guides and directs an organization in the accomplishment of a pre-determined object."

Oliver Scheldon, "Management proper is the function in industry concerned in the execution of policy, within the limits set up by the administration and the employment of the organization for the particular objectives set before it."

Keith and Gubellini, "Management is the force that integrates men and physical plant into an effective operating unit."

Donald J. Clough, "Management is the art and science of decision-making and leadership".

Ralph, C. Davix, "Management is the function of executive leadership anywhere."

Association of Mechanical Engineers, U.S.A., "Management is the art and science of preparing, organizing and directing human efforts applied to control the forces and utilize the materials of nature for the benefit to man."

F.W. Taylor, "Management implies substitution of exact scientific investigation and knowledge for the old individual judgment or opinion, in all matters in the establishment."

Newman, summer and Warren, "The job of Management is to make co-operative endeavour to function properly. A manager is one who gets things done by working with people and other resources in order to reach an objective."

G.E. Milward, "Management is the process and the agency through which the execution of policy is planned and supervised."

Ordway Tead, "Management is the process and agency which directs and guides the operations of an organization in the realizing of established aims."

Mary Parker Follett defines management as the "art of getting things done through people". This definition calls attention to the fundamental difference between a manager and other personnel of an organization. A manager is one who contributes to the organization’s goals indirectly by directing the efforts of others – not by performing the task himself. On the other hand, a person who is not a manager makes his contribution to the organization’s goals directly by performing the task himself.

George R. Terry. He defines management as a distinct process "consisting of planning, organizing, actuating and controlling, performed to determine and accomplish the objectives by the use of people and other resources".

Organisational Behaviour - Definition

With the advent of globalization, Organisations are undergoing unprecedented and revolutionary change. From the speed of Decision Making, Technological and Global Perspective pressures, Mergers and Acquisitions, the need to rethink business processes and alliances, Organisations are constantly faced with shifting demands. All these challenges complicate their task of managing an organization. If the managers are to facilitate the smooth functioning of their organization, they have to effectively manage the most important resource available to them, i.e., the human resource. This is where OB plays an important role. OB is a study that helps managers in understanding and analyzing the nature of an organization’s workgroups and the individuals within a work group.

What does Organizational Behaviour study of Organisation

The study of organizational behaviour focuses on three characteristics aspects of organization. These are behaviour, structure and process.

Behaviour: Organizations are created by people to benefit people. In order to understand organization behaviour we must be able to understand the behaviour of individuals. The study of perception, job satisfaction, motivation and learning are all concerned with the behaviour of individuals. The study of behaviour includes how individuals respond to situations exposed to them.

Structure: The term structure refers to the fixed and formal relationships of the organization such as how jobs are assigned to various departments, who reports to whom and how the jobs and departments are arranged in an organizational chart. The structure of an organization has a large influence on behaviour of individuals working and the effectiveness of the organization.

Processes: The term processes in the context of organization refers to the interactions among the members of the organization. Communication, leadership and power are examples of some of the major organizational process.

Defining Organizational behavior 

Keith Davis  defines Organizational Behaviour “An academic discipline concerned with understanding human behaviour, describing human behaviour”. OB is not a discipline like other disciplines. It is an integration of several areas of knowledge such as sociology, psychology, anthropology, political science and economics.

According to Stephen Robbins;“OB is a field of study that investigates the impact of individual, groups and structure have on behaviour within the organisation”. He adds that the purpose of this study is to apply this knowledge and improve the organisational efficiency.

 “ Organizational behaviour is directly concerned with the understanding, prediction and control of human behaviour in organizations “.Fred Luthens

 “ Study and application of knowledge how people act or behave within organization. It is a human tool for human benefit. It applies broadly to the behaviour of people in all types of organizations such as business, government, schools and services organizations “.Davis and Newstorm 

In simple terms Organizational behavior is an academic discipline concerned with describing, understanding, predicting, and controlling human behavior in an organizational environment. It attempts to apply this knowledge in the effective management of human resources in an organization. OB is a discipline that studies the effect of organizational structure and design, and the changes in the organizational environment on the behavior of the workforce.

Source: Organisational Behaviour – Stephen Robbins

Emergence of E-Organization

E- Commerce: It refers to the business operations involving electronic mode of transactions. It encompasses presenting products on websites and filling order. The vast majority of articles and media attention given to using the Internet in business are directed at on-line shopping. In this process, the marketing and selling of goods and services are being carried out over the Internet. In e-commerce, the following activities are being taken place quite often - the tremendous numbers of people who are shopping on the Internet, business houses are setting up websites where they can sell goods, conducting the following transactions such as getting paid and fulfilling orders. It is a dramatic change in the way a company relates to its customers. At present e-commerce is exploding.

E-business: It refers to the full breadth of activities included in a successful Internet based enterprise. As such, e-commerce is a subset of e-business. E-business includes developing strategies for running Internet-based companies, creating integrated supply chains, collaborating with partners to electronically coordinate design and production, identifying a different kind of leader to run a ‘virtual’ business, finding skilled people to build and operate intranets and websites, and running the back room or the administrative side. E-business includes the creation of new markets and customers, but it’s also concerned with the optimum ways to combine Computers, the Web and Application Software. A sizeable number of multinational corporations are selling goods and services via the Internet.

Growth rate of e-business: The application of Internet operations are initially covers a small part of the business. At this point, their e-commerce operations are secondary to their traditional business. An increasingly popular application of e-business is merely using the Internet to better manage an ongoing business. Later, there are millions of firms that are now selling anything over the Internet, but they are using e-business applications to improve communications with internal and external stakeholders and to better perform traditional business functions. Some companies are putting maximum effort in improving its internal efficiency and providing support to its wide-reaching dealer network and to on-line sellers by crating a shared and integrated network. The companies wanted to make creasing

E-Organizations: This embraces e-commerce and e-business. State and central governments, municipal corporations are using the Internet for extending all the public utility services more efficiently through internet.

The growing use of the Internet, tablet devices, and smart phones coupled with larger consumer confidence will see that eCommerce will continue to evolve and expand.

Communicating the Social Way – Redefined:

Move around a coffee shop, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find people who don’t have their heads down using their cell phones to text, Tweet, or update their Facebook statuses—all while sharing a coffee with others at their table. Social media’s effect on our ability to interact and communicate is visible throughout all areas of society, so what does this mean for interpersonal communication?

Personal interaction is and has always been an important function of the human experience. Prior to the technological revolution and creation of personal computers and cell phones, relationships were typically developed and maintained by means of face-to-face interaction and verbal or written communication. Social media certainly affects how we engage with one another across ages. There has been a paradigm shift in the way we communicate; “We’d rather e-mail than meet; we’d rather text than talk on the phone. While emails and text messaging are a very convenient way to communicate, we are losing the personal touch as it relates to human interaction. Emails lack emotion and therefore can often be misinterpreted. Text messages resort to acronyms to avoid losing precious space in the limited character box. With technology, anyone can hide behind the text, the e-mail, the Facebook post or the tweet, projecting any image they want and create an illusion of their choice. They can be whoever they want to be.

Everyone is losing the personal touch that they use to get when having a face-to-face conversation. Studies show that only 7% of communication is based on the written or verbal word. A whopping 93% is based on nonverbal body language. Every relevant metric shows that we are interacting at breakneck speed and frequency through social media. But are we really communicating? With 93% of our communication context stripped away, we are now attempting to forge relationships and make decisions based on phrases, abbreviations, Snippets, Emoticons. Which may or may not be accurate representations of the truth.

Indeed, it’s only when we can hear a tone of voice or look into someone’s eyes that we’re able to know when “I’m fine” doesn't mean they’re fine at all…or when “I’m in” doesn't mean they’re bought in at all. With all the powerful social technologies at our fingertips, we are more connected – and potentially more disconnected – than ever before. 

Social Media – Influence on Brands

Social Media is fundamentally

transformative and is rapidly evolving the architecture of business, communications, and the dissemination of information and influence.Today, businesses that engage in social media are at least experimenting with the formidable, yet shifting landscape of intelligence and communication. Business are learning how to adapt and connect in a new world of conversation, networking, and influence.

As markets evolve, consumers gain a greater sense of adeptness and perspective. They too learn and adapt. In the process, individuals and the authoritative communities they form, possess a more sophisticated understanding of media literacy, community support, and prowess in new media communication. Consumers have choices and they’re increasingly practiced through natural selection.

In the new era of influence, those businesses that understand where and how to compete for the future will earn a genuine and advantageous position to shape and steer the perception, prominence, and impact of the brand. It is this idea of competing for attention where it is focused, as it evolves, that will help businesses connect with people and thus set a new, efficient, and effective foundation for advocacy and community.

As you interpret and process this information, it’s important to understand that the networks and adoption numbers aren't necessarily reflective of the strategies you should integrate and pursue. Everything is specific to the behavior, activity, and locations of your community and thus requires an initial listening and observation exercise and audit to uncover the answers to the questions you may have or don’t yet know to ask.

While brand hierarchy isn't necessarily established through social media alone, it is a highly concentrated and relevant amalgamation of integrated services, programs, and values that ultimately establish prominence.

In order to earn a place within online societies, we must first recognize where they’re emerging, flourishing, and thriving, and also how to engage through authentic and attested immersion

OD INTERVENTIONS

It refers to various activities which consultant and client organisation perform for improving organisational functioning through enabling organisation members. FRENCH & BELL have defined OD Interventions, “as a set of structured activities in which selected organisation units engaged with the task or sequence of task where the task goals are related directly or indirectly to organisation improvement”

OD interventions that are targeted toward individuals, skills training, job redesign, role negotiation and career planning.

Sensitivity Training: Also called T- group training or laboratory training, sensitivity training is designed to help individuals understand how their behaviour affects others. Members are is brought together in a free open environment in which participants discuss themselves. The discussion is loosely directed by a professional behavioural scientist called “facilitator”. The facilitator intervenes only to help move the group forward. The objective of sensitivity training is to increase sensitivity toward others. The outcome of such training should, therefore, help employees understand others better, become aware of their own feelings and perceptions, and improve communication.

Skill Training :  Skill training refers to increasing the job knowledge, skills, and abilities that are necessary to do a job effectively. Skill training is aroused due to the rapid changes that organisations face. The job knowledge, therefore, needs to be continuously updated to keep pace with rapid change. The objective of training is to enable a worker to be more effective on the job. For example, while new workers can be trained to achieve levels of output attained by experienced older workers, existing workers can be retained to improve their output at par.

Job redesign : As an OD interventions, job redesign alters jobs to improve the fit between individual skills and the demands of the job. We have already discussed job redesign in chapter 10. examples of job design interventions include job enlargement, job enrichment, job realigning task demands and individual capabilities, or for redesigning jobs to fit new techniques or organisation structures better.

Role negotiation : Sometimes, group members have differing expectations of one another within the working relationship. Role negotiation is a simple technique whereby individuals meet and clarify their psychological contract. In doing this, the expectations of each party are clarified and negotiated. The outcome of role negotiation is improved understanding between the members.

Career Planning: Career Planning refers to matching an individual’s career aspirations with the opportunities available in the organisation. In other words, it involves activities offered by the organisation to individuals to identify strength, weaknesses, specific goals and they would like to occupy. Career planning activities benefit both 3/4 individual and organisations. Counseling sessions are held to help employees identify their skills and deficiencies in their skills. The organisation then can plan its training and development programmes based on this information to improve individual’s skills required for assuming higher responsibilities. Such a  process may help the organisation identify and also nurture the talented employees for potential promotion.

Management Development Training : Management development encompasses a host of techniques designed to enhance a manager’s skills on the job. Training for management development generally focuses on four types of learning : verbal information, intellectual skills, attitudes, and development is through the use of action learning, an integration of classroom learning with on-the-job experiences. Action learning enables managers to know about themselves through the challengers of comrades. Simulation, business games, role playing, and case studies are other techniques that provide active learning for the participants.