ORGANISATION BEHAVIOUR

Organisation Behaviour

Organisation Behaviour

Introduction

It has been argued that the strongest asset a service organization can develop is the ability to provide high-quality customer service. High quality service is closely related to customer satisfaction. Increased customer satisfaction increases the value of a firm's customer assets and future profitability. Satisfied customers purchase more frequently, purchase in greater volume, and are more inclined to pay for the benefits received. The major task of this study is to explore a social exchange approach to influencing employee attitudes, behaviour, and performance. Social exchange theory predicts that employees will respond, in kind, to the treatment they receive from the organization. It was proposed, therefore, that organizations can influence the attitudes, behaviour, and performance of employees by attending to the relationships that develop between employees and the organization. Therefore, all the issues related to organizational behaviour will be discussed in detail.

Basic concepts of Organisation Behaviour

Leader-member exchange theory (LMX) proposes that leaders (supervisors) develop different relationships with individual workers and the quality of those relationships influences employee behaviours. Perceived organizational support (POS) theory suggests that employees personify the organizations they work for and develop perceptions about how the organization values their contributions and cares about their well being. It was predicted that higher levels of POS positively influence employee attitudes. The measure of attitudes and behaviour in a service environment is difficult to specifically define. As reviewed previously, service workers will need to demonstrate initiative, flexibility, interpersonal skills, empathy, and cooperation to deliver high quality service. Given the involvement of the customer in service encounters, the service worker's performance behaviours could be considered contextual in nature in that the service worker will adapt to the circumstances presented by the customer. The construct of organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) has been identified as a measure of contextual performance and further defined as individual behaviour that is discretionary, not directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward system, and that in the aggregate promotes the effective functioning of the company. OCB has also been theoretically and empirically linked to customer perceptions of service quality (Alvesson, 2002, 125).

Importance of Social Exchange

The likelihood that employees will tend to respond in kind to the treatment they receive from the company is related to the theory of social exchange and the concept of reciprocity. Early discussions of social exchange proposed that social behaviour is give-and-take of material and non-material goods. Reciprocity plays a significant role in social exchange. The norm of reciprocity dictates that one who receives a benefit from another is obliged to repay the favour. Reciprocity is loosely governed by the players involved and allows for some variance both in the value of benefits exchanged and the period in which the repayment occurs. Social exchange theory maintains that in society, the exchange relationship often extends beyond things of economic value to assistance, support, regard, and respect and that the significance of the benefits exchanged is linked to the interpersonal relationship of the exchange ...