ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR AND LEADERSHIP

Organizational Behavior and Leadership

Organizational Behavior and Leadership

Leadership and Organizational Behavior

Organizational Behavior (OB) 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.

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.

Kotter explains the value of “creating” short-term wins to the change effort in chapter nine.  Kotter states generating short-term wins allows a better chance of actually completing the change effort.  However, these short-term wins are only effective if they are visible to many, the terms are unambiguous, and the victory is closely related to the change effort.  A victory generated to meet these requirements creates excitement, certainty, momentum, and serves also to quiet critics.  So you ask, how do we do this?  Kotter states that PLANNING for results instead of praying for results is the key.  Kotter also talks about the difference between “gimmick wins” and actual short-term victories.  Kotter states that short-term gimmicks can be effective at least for awhile, but managers must not hurt the future of the company in order to provide short-term wins today.   

In conducting long term changes in companies, one of the main problems companies run into is claiming victory too soon.  Company CEOs and high level executives can derail change initiatives by celebrating small victories too much.  While celebrating small victories is important in any change operation, too much emphasis on them will produce a false sense of security.  Kotter outlines five steps to succeeding in change programs at Stage 7.  The first step is to introduce even more and harder changes in the company.  Then bring in more help to ensure the programs success.  Third, senior level managers must continue to provide a strong focus on the purpose of the change initiatives.  Next, decentralization of projects is imperative.  This allows the leadership to focus on the specific projects and give them a better chance to succeed.  Finally, companies need to eliminate unnecessary interdependencies in their company.  Following these steps should allow companies to continue to progress with their change initiatives and to ensure their success.

So a change has been made in the corporation or whatever group that required it.  Great!  Now, what's there to keep it from going back to the old way of doing business?  If the new way ...