Organisational Behaviour Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

Organisational Behaviour - Essay Example Studying organizational behaviour helps to explain, predict and control organizational development, and overall its performance. Organizational climate, on the other hand, ascribes to the observable, powerful force that defines the organization, thus, it can be said to stem from organizational behaviour as it sets the pace for the force. The customs, procedures, policies and practices are what define the organizational climate as these are perpetual. It is important to identify how these come about as such an understanding will help develop models that positively impact performance, behaviours and attitudes of among individuals and groups within the organization. For managers, understanding organizational climate becomes crucial when planning to undertake transformational change. This is because it is more measurable and definable than organizational culture as a tool for driving change. In gaining this understanding, management may gauge the perception of the employees by asking how they feel working there; weighing their level of morale and finding out if there is any goodwill in the business. By asking how the employees feel about working there, management can also deduce their sense of loyalty and belongingness to the organization. This will facilitate designing a strategy for change that will be easily embraced by the employees making it effective (Griffin and Moorehead 2010, p.472). Broken down, organizational climate, following the micro organizational theory, is defined using two relationships between the people and the organization; and between the superiors and subordinates. This lays emphasis on leadership as the most significant determinant of organizational climate. Other determinants include organizational culture, historical forces, standards of accountability, standards of behaviour, rewards, communication, trust and commitment, organizational networks and vision and strategies. Looking into these makes the concept of organizational culture more definable and facilitates modelling to improve performance, attitudes and behaviours. Often, managers focus on organizational culture, which is rather detached from the actual situation (Srivastava 2005, p.42). Leadership is the most significant determinant since a leader will influence the behaviour and expectations of every person within the organization. This may be outlined in two ways, the course followed by management and styles of leadership. A leader sets the climate within an organization going by how he engages with employees to gain their commitment as well as strategizing on the changes that need to be made in order to improve performance. The process of management ascribes to the relationships set by the organizational structure; that is, how superiors interact with their subordinates and vice versa. In addition, it refers to how management initiates change, bureaucracies, policies and procedures. For example, an organization that is reluctant to reward well-performing employees or invest in team-building activities will reflect a negative attitude from employees as they will have no commitment (The Kennedy Group n.d). Of importance as well, leadership practices employed when fostering a desirable organizational climate, that will in turn breed good organizational performance, should focus on competition as an external goal. That is, guiding employees to be better than their counterparts