The Role of a Manager in Organizational Performance

In order to encourage productive performance from employees, care needs to be taken with the design of jobs, working conditions, setting of goals, motivation and rewards.  Explain how and why all these factors impact upon productive performance and evaluate how a manager may be able to impact upon the processes across the organisation.

A study of human and group behaviour in a corporation in order to influence their performance is defined as organisational behaviour; it is described as an application of psychology in a business environment for positively influencing employees’ performance. The popularity of organisational behaviour theories has grown with the requirement of qualified employees; corporations focus on establishing a positive working environment to attract talented employees throughout the world and retain them in the firm (Bakker and Schaufeli, 2008). Managers play a crucial role in formulating and implementing organisational behaviour theories across different processes of an enterprise to positively influence employees’ productive performance. Effective managers use organisational behaviour theories to study their employees’ attitude and behaviour which provide them information that can be utilised by them to influence their performance (Robbins, 2009). This essay will discuss the role of organisational behaviour theories in positively influencing employees’ productive performance. The essay will analyse various organisational behaviour theories to understand how managers can use them to improve employees’ performance and implement them across different processes. Further, the essay will evaluate recommendations that assist managers in effectively implementing organisational behaviour theories to improve employees’ productive performance.

A manager is a person who supervises employees and groups in corporations to coordinate their work in order to accomplish common organisational objectives. Managers focus on establishing a positive working environment in the company by establishing a positive relationship between different entities and resolving their quarries (Umphress, Bingham and Mitchell, 2010). One of the primary roles of managers is to supervise employees’ related issues to ensure that workers are performing collaboratively to achieve corporate objectives. There are various factors in a workplace which influence employees’ performance, such as job design, working condition, motivation policies and others, and managers are required to take special care while performing these activities. These factors have a significant influence on employees’ performance, and managers should ensure that these factors positively work towards increasing workers’ performance (Kim and Brymer, 2011). There are various reasons due to which modern corporations implement organisational behaviour theories, and they result in addressing various human capital related issues. One of the primary issues faced by modern companies is diverse work environment. Due to digitalisation and globalisation, it is easier for corporations to hire employees from different countries, nationalities, cultures, race, and religion. Organisational face various cross-cultural related issues which negatively influence employees performance; these issues can be resolved by the implementation of organisational behaviour theories in the enterprise.

Factors that Influence Employee Performance

While designing jobs for employees, managers have to pay special care towards employee’s personality to ensure that the work is suitable and challenging for him because it influences his/her productive performance. The job which is not suitable for employee’s personality increases the issues of job dissatisfaction, absenteeism, disputes, and others. For example, an employee with extraversion personality can be a great supervisor but giving him desk job can result in decreasing his/her performance (Lounsbury et al., 2009). The ‘Personality-Job Fit Theory’ given by John Holland can be implemented by managers to ensure that jobs assigned to each employee match their personality. The theory divided personalities into six parts: investigative, artistic, conventional, realistic, social and enterprising. An employee’s satisfaction with his/her job directly correlates with the degree to which his/her personality matches the occupational environment. In addition, managers who understand employees’ personalities also get benefits during decision-making, problem-solving, job interactions and others (Nauta, 2010). In order to implement this theory across different processes in a company, managers should implement it during recruitment and selection process. It will assist them in hiring candidates who are suitable for company’s environment and assigning them jobs based on their personalities which will result in increasing their productive performance.

Other than designing suitable jobs, positive working environment is a key requirement in modern corporations which encourage employees to increase their performance. Negative working environment can decrease employees’ morale and performance, it increases retention rate and decreases the quality of customer service (Kaptein, 2008). Employees feel discouraged in a negative working environment which increases dispute between workers. To address these issues, managers can implement organisational behaviour theories which analyse employees’ behaviour and attitude to establish a positive working environment that encourages workers to improve their performance. Managers should implement ‘Conflict-resolution theory’ to resolve the dispute between workers which focus on five key actions: competing, collaborating, compromising, avoiding and accommodating. Competing focus on personal goals rather than relationships whereas collaborating search for a solution which is suitable for everyone (Behfar et al., 2008). Compromising is also called mid-way solution which is suitable in a situation where both conflicting parties are equally liable. Avoiding is ignoring the conflict to resolving it through time. Accommodating is searching for a common ground to settle. Managers should implement this theory after assessing the situation. Managers should ensure that employees with different religion and caste receive similar respect and employees are treated equally across different process (Tjosvold, 2008). It results in improving company’s working condition which increases employees’ productive performance.

Designing Jobs for Employees

Setting goals for employees can assist managers in establishing a competitive working environment which encourages employees to increase their productive performance and achieve organisational objectives. The study of IZA (2015) provided that setting right goals can boost business productivity by lifting employees’ performance. Similarly, the research of Gallo (2011) provided that managers should establish small goals for employees that are connected with large company’s goals which result in increasing firm’s profitability. Organisational behaviour theories can assist managers in determining goals for employees which challenge them to increase their performance but at the same time, not too difficult that they discourage them. ‘Goal-setting theory’ can be implemented by the managers that encourage employees to increase their productive performance. In this strategy, incentives of employees increase along with the achievement of each goal which result motivates employees to improve their productive performance. Managers have to follow various principles in order to increase the effectiveness of this strategy (Senko, Hulleman and Harackiewicz, 2011). The goals must be clear and measurable, and they must have a specific timeline. The objective must have a decent level of difficulty which encourages employees to strive towards achieving them. Commitment of employees is necessary, and they must put deliberate effort to meet the goals. Managers are requiring taking feedback from employees regularly to ensure that goals are not too difficult for them. The task complexity is another crucial factor, and the goal must have a learning curve for employees (Latham, Borgogni, and Petitta, 2008). Managers should set different goals for employees in different processes to ensure that this strategy is applied to different divisions.

Highly motivated employees perform at their highest capacity which increases companies’ profitability and provide them a competitive advantage over competitors. The ‘Hierarchy of Needs’ is one of the most popular motivation theory given by Abraham Maslow. The theory divided needs of employees into five categories based on their hierarchy and managers can assess them to implement motivational strategies for their employees. The needs include physiological, safety, belonging, esteem and self-actualisation. Physiological needs include basic requirements such as food, drink, air, water, sleep (Cao et al., 2013). Safety needs include protection from different elements such as law, order, security, freedom from fear. Belongingness needs include social needs such as friendship, trust, acceptance, and intimacy. Esteem needs include two categories: esteem for oneself and desire for reputation. Esteem for oneself includes independence, achievement, and dignity whereas the desire for reputation is the need for respect. Self-actualisation includes self-fulfillment needs such as realising personal potential, personal growth and others (Udechukwu, 2009). Employees working in different processes have different need requirements, for example, top-level executive have self-actualisation and esteem needs whereas low-level workers have safety or belongings needs. Managers should evaluate needs of employees from different process to implement a motivation strategy that increases their productive performance.

Creating a Positive Work Environment

While implementing these theories, following recommendations should be implemented by managers to implement it across different processes and increase the effectiveness of theories. The managers should understand that one organisational behaviour theory is not suitable for different processes and issues. Managers should assess their business structure before implementing an organisational behaviour theory to ensure that it covers desired processes. The managers should interact with employees to learn more about their behaviour and issue face by them; such information can be used by the manager while developing an organisational behaviour theory. Different employees have different motivators; some workers prefer monetary benefits such as higher salary, bonus or incentives whereas other prefer non-monetary rewards such as appraisal, recognition, belongings and personal growth. Therefore, managers should analyse their company’s requirements to ensure that organisational behaviour theories are suitable for their business, and they are focused towards increasing employees’ productive performance.

In conclusion, managers can use organisation behaviour theories to increase employees’ productive performance which is beneficial for companies’ growth. Managers have to take special care while performing business activities which influence employees’ performance such as working conditions, setting goals, job designing and motivation and reward. Various organisational behaviour theories can be implemented managers such as Personality-Job Fit Theory, Conflict-resolution theory, Goal-setting theory and Hierarchy of Needs theory to positively influence employees’ performance. Various recommendations have been discussed above that can be followed by managers to ensure that they develop appropriate organisational behaviour theories and implement them across different processes. Effective organisational behaviour theories assist corporations in increasing their employees’ productive performance which enhances companies’ profitability and provides them a competitive advantage.

References

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Cao, H., Jiang, J., Oh, L.B., Li, H., Liao, X. and Chen, Z. (2013) A Maslow’s hierarchy of needs analysis of social networking services continuance. Journal of Service Management, 24(2), pp.170-190.

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Latham, G.P., Borgogni, L. and Petitta, L. (2008) Goal setting and performance management in the public sector. International Public Management Journal, 11(4), pp.385-403.

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Robbins, S.P. (2009) Organizational Behavior, 13/E. Delhi: Pearson Education India.

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Tjosvold, D. (2008) The conflict?positive organization: It depends upon us. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 29(1), pp.19-28.

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Umphress, E.E., Bingham, J.B. and Mitchell, M.S. (2010) Unethical behavior in the name of the company: the moderating effect of organizational identification and positive reciprocity beliefs on unethical pro-organizational behavior. Journal of Applied Psychology, 95(4), p.769.