Organizational Citizenship Behavior
Is environmental status based upon the employees it carries or those who pro or lack in emotional intelligence
According to LePine, Erez and Johnson (2002), the environmental status in an organization acts as a major platform upon which both the management and employees delve their outlines towards achieving the established short term and ultimate long term goals. It is perhaps from this consideration that Kurt Lewin in his theory of organization change emphasized on freezing as the most critical concept in setting new targets and objectives. The employees carried by the environment are therefore core in the following consideration.
Setting out the organization subcultures
As Byrne (2005) explains, organizations in the modern globalized setup should be able to align their operations with the extended market orientation. However, analysts indicate that this consideration can only be achievable if the organization subcultures are harmonic to the overall welfare of employees. As a result, the employees operate in small organization subcultures that are very strong in guiding the key relationship between an organization, its employees and the expected objectivities achievements. They further link the employees personal contribution in facilitating better understanding of the particular policies at the lower levels of operations.
Jacqueline and Coyle-Shapiro (2007) in their research found out that employees and organization relationship is indeed well rooted in their outsets based on each entitys consideration of the other. While introducing the notion of reciprocity, the organization and its management are required to seek greater understanding of their employees as the most crucial aspect towards addressing their problems. Under this consideration therefore, though the organization is considered to be the supreme entity, the employees are in a reciprocal outset more supreme and therefore the main determining factor towards achievement of the key objectives. While supporting this consideration, Joyce and Huang (2007) argued that most employees are able to create a central identity that aligns and realigns them with their organizations missions. Emergence of values and beliefs that seek higher levels of sustainability at the lower levels of management as Jacqueline and Coyle-Shapiro (2007) continue to say, become extended management units where the internal and external cultures effectively rhyme together.
Driving the change machinery
Organization citizenship behavior as Martha and Anne (2000) explain is based on the commitment depicted by the employees at their work places and that aligns with the organization orientation. In their view, John et al (2010) likened an organization with a sailing ship towards a certain destination. As a result, the ship is expected to encounter variant obstacles in its path. Change is therefore not considered optional if the objectives of the organization are going to be met. As indicated earlier, organization change specialists indicate that the management can only be able to articulate this change if it has the support and goodwill of the employees. At all levels, employees must be considered be used to link the visionary ideology as they further act as the platform for change itself.
Gillian (2000) brings out the concept of change agents in facilitating the ability of the organization to meet its objectives with ease. Notably, organization citizenship behavior as change management analysts indicate requires inculcation and harmonization of entities in an organization. However, this consideration as Gillian (2000) noted, has escaped the attention of many and therefore anchored their major down fall. Employees are required to play a key role in facilitating the change itself and therefore generating the new demand ideals to be central subsets of their cultural basements. Under this consideration, employees are empowered to view, analyze and propose possible areas of improvement.
Therefore, the management is expected to further harmonize and support the employees views but in tandem with the organization objectivity. Consequently, employees easily identify with improvement initiatives and reduce the overall resistance in their implementation. Gillian (2000) found out that there is a tendency by different employees to move beyond the expectations of their organizations when they act as the drivers of the change process. However, Hoffman et al (2007) call for great caution when applying this model to avoid deviation from the main organizations mission.
Facilitating teams and cohesion
Modern organizations management s as Jacqueline and Coyle-Shapiro (2007) explain, have turned out to be critical units where both the organization leadership and the lower level employees are factored as crucial elements that must cohere if objectives are to be achieved. Under this consideration therefore, the environment is set on the need to meet holistic demands for all units through cooperation.
Daniel et al (2006) found out that performance of modern organizations is largely based on team work that cut across various levels. As indicated earlier, use of teams has been factored as part of the overall organization culture to facilitate inherent contribution by all. While appreciating the complexity presented by management at different levels in an organization, Daniel et al (2006) explain that employees are able to feel part of the organization and therefore create the sense and need for improvement. Through teams therefore, a new operating environment is set out for consultation to harmonize ideologies of running and managing the key operations. As behavioral theories indicate, through teams and team operations, employees are able to effectively learn faster from their colleagues and employ key concepts to promote their positions at the group as well as the organization level (Byrne, 2005). While taking a diverse consideration from the human resources propagated outline, the self-driving team orientation creates a strong self supporting and sustainable force for all.
Daniel et al (2006) further argue that teams operations create an inherent outline for the organizations running environment and therefore aligning employees with organization citizenship behavior. While aligning an organizations teams operations, competition and rewards at the individual and team level have been credited in curving out the needed niche towards ethical operations. Michael, Duane and Hoskisson (2007) attribute the success of Southwest Airways after September 11th terrorist attach at World Trade Center in New York to teams and team operations. The management indicates that while it was considering downsizing the organization as a major remedy for cutting down the fast rising costs amidst the lowering returns, employees at the team levels proposed reduction of their salaries and cutting down some of their benefits. However, it was their emphasis to increase their quality of services to the consumers that was moving. The management indicated that even as other companies continued to close down and merge some of their flights mainly from incurring large losses, Southwest operations remained highly profitable. Under this consideration, teams operated in a reverse model not to compete with the management, but to create an inherent niche that would facilitate sustainability of the company, establish a route for improvement and most importantly emphasize on the individual commitment towards creating a competitive advantage for the company in the volatile period (Jacqueline and Coyle-Shapiro, 2007).
How to form interest in unmotivated groups
One of the currently most accepted facts in organization management is that motivation creates the inherent desire by the employees to meet variant target, set new records and therefore facilitate easier realization of an organizations mission. Notably, the following motivational considerations have been cited to delve critical standpoints in facilitating easier assimilation of organization citizenship behavior.
Establishment of achievable goals
According to LePine et al (2002), organizations are always guided by their established goals that should reflect demands in their fiscal sessions or management plans. Joyce and Huang (2007) argued that organizations must facilitate clear assessment of their goals to create the needed impetus for improvement. Joyce and Huang further explained that setting of achievable goals has the following importance at the group and management level. To begin with, it creates the sense that they would be achieved and therefore invokes the desire to move on. Then they further argued that group members with easily achievable goals view their organization to be mutual to their existence. As the mew management theory seeks to shift focus from the old mechanistic models, Joyce and Huang (2007) further point out that employees are involved in setting the goals both at the top and group level to generate identity with their immediate management units.
As Maslows hierarchy of needs theory postulates, the demands by the employees must rhyme with those of the organization and therefore grow together. The theory further indicates that as people continue shifting up the social economic ladder their demands equally shift towards self actualization (Byrne, 2005). Setting achievable goals therefore creates a room for motivation which serves as a major driver in moving up the hierarchy of need provided by Maslow. As indicated earlier, Maslows theory of human needs creates the insatiable force and desire to move up the pyramid. Joyce and Huang (2007) however outline the need to correlate the resources required and the long term objectivity in setting the goals and objectives for their organization units. Organizations should particularly be emphatic on the assessing their resources use especially where teams and their operations are independent.
Providing the effective leadership
Joyce and Huang (2007) argue that unmotivated groups in an organization form the surest way of killing it. The unmotivated groups create a vacuum that holistically threatens the ability to maintain the needed sustainability. However, the main source of poor motivation has been unclear to many scholars. Joyce and Huang (2007) consider one of the main factors contributing to poor motivation as leadership either at the group or top management level. In their argument, Joyce and Huang consider effective leadership to provide the needed role modeling for members to assimilate in their groups. Though this concept is voluntary, it has strong effects especially at the team level. Hoffman et al (2007) argue that through use of effective role models at different levels of an organization, effective leadership is easily assimilated as part of the organization culture and further used in setting high standards in the organization. Effective leadership is seen by employees to generate a sustainable outline towards their operations through higher production and higher profitability.
In their view, Gillian (2000) pointed out that effective leaders facilitate reestablishment and review of groups visions toward the holistic organizations mission. While cautioning on the mechanisms of establishing the group leaders in an organization, group management analysts concur that leaders must be able to link their groups visions with expected benefits that derives the desire to achieve them. As contingency theory of leadership indicates, the leader must be able to operate from a much higher platform compared to the members. As Jacqueline and Coyle-Shapiro (2007) adds it is this consideration that Mc Gregors theory of X and Y appreciates the inherent defiant nature of the people to work and the need for critical understanding in making them employ more efforts to their own advantage. Leaders must therefore provide the needed effective guidelines that keep the group members united and focused on the benefits they are to achieve from commitment to their work.
Enhancing competition and establishment of a reward system
Vrooms valence expectation theory provides critical insights towards creating or establishing motivation to unmotivated groups. According to this theory, most groups fail to attain the required motivation due to poor linkage of methods employed and the expected benefits. Organizations management and group leaders should therefore establish competition as one of the basis for rewarding their employees. By articulating competition, organization easily becomes self propelling as the desire to get the end price increases. However, Martha and Anne (2000) caution the model of employing the rewards without creating negative implications. Thoma (2004) argues that organizations should seek to assimilate reward systems that create a sense of success for all the members of a given group as opposed to individuals only.
Following their study on group dynamics and their operations applicability in an organization setting, Joyce and Huang (2007) explain that leaders should seek to break core goals and objectives into small units that members can easily figure our. Small win win situations are critical in that they not only act as check for the whole long term objective, but create a sense of progress to the group thereby boosting the morale for advancement. Similar to the reward system, all members of the group must be made to feel the sense of achievement while the management uses them to establish mechanisms for improving areas that performed poorly.
Creating autonomy at the local level
According to Thomas (2004), poor autonomy in an organization has remained a key de-motivating factor and therefore a major force against the holistic objectives. Whether poor motivation resulted from lack of autonomy in a given group or from other considerations, providing groups with effective autonomy creates a sense of trust by the management to its employees and therefore generates a stronger sense of identity not only with the ideologies they propose, but also the management delineations towards the organizations mission. While the level of autonomy that should be guaranteed to a given group has remained a major center of controversy, it is critical that effective assessment is done to facilitate only the level that can be effectively articulated. In addition, Yukika (2006) calls for constant assessments and review of use and implication of the established autonomy for different groups. In her model of cultural dynamics, Mary Jo Hatch indicated that composition of a group should factor internal regulatory mechanisms that further propagate and propose the need to trim or add their independence of operations.
Impact of employees contribution and satisfaction on their retention in a company
Over the years, the demand to create sustainability in an organization has led to the search for possible linkages between long term demands with employees behaviors. Though this method has equally elicited key debate with its opponents holding that it have major loopholes that are inherent to unclear definition of the employees behaviors and their identification, its preference by managers is moving. As analysts indicate, the following factors indicate why employees retention should indeed be based on their citizenship behavior.
Links long term objectivity with immediate short term objectives
From the definition of organization citizenship behavior, employees possess a holistic drive towards achieving the best for their organization s. Through clear guidance by ethical principles, their work is considered to be mutual in that they stand to equally benefit from their organizations progress. In their study, Rachel, Andy and Edwin (2010) argued that employees form the most critical element in an organization as they dictate its ability to create the needed impact both internally and externally. Rachel et al (2010) continue to say that most organizations in the 21st century have shifted their employees assessment methods from short term orientation towards long term objectivity. As a result, committed employees are therefore considered as important assets and in maintaining sustainability. Employees contribution should therefore be used as a key measure in determining their retention in any company.
Though Hoffman et al (2007) call for additional assessment to be articulated in an organization to determine the commitment of employees toward long term objectivity he strongly supports the consideration to retain employees who make stronger contribution. To support this assertion, Hoffman et al (2007) further explained that contribution in an organization creates a platform for further harmony and establishes the needed outline for certainty of various goals. Its relation with consumer satisfaction however makes it even more important by cutting out the position of the company at the external outsets. Therefore, employees contribution and job satisfaction should be used as key pointers towards the correct choice of employees to be retained.
Reduces the overall running costs of an organization
Though management styles in various organizations differs, the roles played by employees and its implications should ultimately be gauged on the ability to rhyme with employed strategies. With one of the key strategies employed by companies being to reduce the overall running costs, LePine et al (2002 argue that employees retention should factor their orientation to it. In an organization, employees and middle level managers should understand the companys policies in reducing the overall costs of production. Contribution by employees should therefore rhyme with such strategies. Using the example of the Coca Cola Company, Ricky (2007) explains that the strategy to reduce costs through minimization of water and electricity consumption could only be achieved through the employees commitment and contribution. Special orientation towards such strategies not only facilitates the company to align itself with the new demands of management in the market, but establishes it as a leader in such areas of specialization. It is from such considerations that employees should be retained as key role models in an organization for other employees to emulate.
Employees who easily focus towards satisfying the consumers and set standards in the organizations reduce the overall demand of maintaining the supervisors and their associated costs. From this consideration therefore, the employees are highly autonomous and the hierarchical structures greatly reduced. Such employees should be retained and motivated to improve their loyalty and establish a similar culture in the organization.
Provides a roadmap for change and constant improvement in an organization
While acknowledging the role played by employees in their organizations, John et al (2010) explained that that it is critical to dig deeper and assess their orientation towards further development of the company. Through further analysis, John et al (2010) found out that most of the committed employees easily rhyme with the demands for change in their organizations. Retaining such employees therefore provides the company with a platform for continued improvement and therefore maintaining a competitive advantage at the market. Though reduced resistance to change is considered to be a great step towards improvement, Gillian (2000) argues that employees should always be critical in their approach to support various sustainability demands.
Democratic and open management policy in human resources management
Unlike the traditional mechanistic style where the employees were viewed purely as factors of production, 21st century managers consider them to be crucial units both at the production and management level. Democratic and open management policies are critical in establishment of a level playing ground upon which key talents are easily identified and nurtured
Maintaining openness and positive contribution
According to Martha and Anne (2000), employees form a highly sensitive entity that requires great care to effectively manage. As a result, their operations must be objectively driven if their full potential is to be realized. Maintaining openness in key areas of operations such as promotion labor divisions and in rewards provision among other areas create the sense of commitment and the need to excel in order to reach such status. As Martha and Anne (2000) continues to say, maintaining effective open management gives the employees an important role of checking the immediate middle level implementing agencies and their efficacies. Most organizations establish clear reporting systems where malpractices are reported and addressed with speed. Byrne (2005) concurs with the views of Martha and Ann by indicating that openness derives the need for ethical orientation in decision making and their implementation. Using the case of Enron Scandal to drive the need for openness, Byrne (2005) further indicates that such incidences would be easy to check. In the case of Enron, the management failed to provide the employees with an effective reporting system and therefore could not identify the accounting problems. Lack of openness indeed has the capacity to invoke unethical demands even from the well behaved employees.
Robbins, Crino and Fredendall (2002) indicate that openness creates room for positive improvement at the management and lower levels of operations in the organization. When the employees are empowered to view an organization not just as an employer, but as an important entity of which they are part, unethical acts are easily reduced. Their reference and viewpoint becomes possessive and therefore develops internal consideration to improve it as the best methods of reaping maximally form it. As Grant (2005) explains, the restructuring of the Royal Dutch Shell Company at the onset of the 21st century sought to create openness as the main platform for positive improvement. Though the giant company had remained a major icon at the international market, lack of openness had reduced its flexibility and therefore gave the immediate competitors a chance to improve and outdo it at the global market.
Positive criticism for the management
The ability to effectively grow and develop in an organization as Thomas (2008) explains is partially dependent on the criticism provided by the employees towards the management options. Thomas (2008) continues to say that positive criticism provides the management with a chance to view the possible implications and viewpoints of the employees for their application. It is crucial to note that employees indeed possess effective skills mainly derived from their experience in dealing with similar cases for along time. Thomas (2008) argues that organizations that shun positive criticism for their operations from the employees, risk recording poor results and therefore failing to achieve their ultimate objectives. Organization citizenship behavior is held hostage by lack of positive criticism as employees in such situations view it to be out of their normal operations outline.
Discipline at all levels
It is worth noting that democratic and openness policies are effective tools that can be used by an organization to check and enhance discipline and accountability. Thomas (2004) argues that through democratic ideals in an organization, reporting cases of indiscipline is taken as the most ethical consideration towards improvement. Under this consideration, Thomas (2004) continues to say that employees do not fear victimization as they are considered to be critical forces towards articulating long term internal effectiveness and sustainability in the production or management. However, Hoffman et al (2007) argue that it is crucial for organizations to ensure that they have similar policies that protect extreme cases of indiscipline reporting such as whistle blowers. Such personalities create the sense of holistic responsibilities by all towards maintaining not just a more responsive system, but further invokes inherent responsibilities at all levels.
Implications of technology on behavior and profitability
While technological advancements as evidenced by the 21st century managements continue to intensify, analysts argue that it has key implications to the employees behavior and the overall profitability of a company. However, as Tseng (2008) concurs with emergent researchers, technology is presented to have major positive and negative implementations.
Positive implications
Application of technology in the modern organization management as Lawrence (2008) indicates has assimilated a highly differentiated outlook that guides all the key processes. Lawrence (2008) further indicates that through improved communication the employees are able to effectively communicate amongst themselves as well as with their immediate management. At this point, the management can easily facilitate the expected behavior from the employees through constant coordination with immediate managers and supervisors. As a result, the employees could easily cooperate with their managers as instructions and changes considerations are communicated well in time (Gillian, 2000).
To the employees, Yunka (2006) explains that they equally communicate within their teams and with other employees to create the needed culture of communication and coordination at all levels. Of critical importance is the enhanced capacity to address emergent problems in the organization. Tseng (2008) adds that when technology is employed in the management, the overall efficiency is enhanced through greater precision. In production units, use of technology has reduced the need for manual labor and therefore raised the production while reducing the overall costs. It is from this consideration that economies of scale have easily become the center stage in globalization outlook.
Negative implications
Though technology has increasingly resulted to massive benefits, it has also been a major factor in facilitating unethical actions (Byrne, 2005). Due to the secrecy posted by use of information technology in the management, malicious employees could easily collude without being noted and therefore causing great danger. Due to availability of technology in the market, information sharing in the organization becomes much easier and therefore leaking the secrets of an organization to its competitors. At Hewlett-Packard, the impacts of information leak through advanced technology by one of the board members is still haunting the company as competitors easily employed similar techniques to their advantage as the board members were thrown into a long term period of turmoil.
Conclusion
It is from the above consideration that this paper concludes by supporting the thesis statement, effective application of Organization Citizenship Behavior remains the most effective method of maintaining intrinsic employees commitment to their work, relation with others, cooperation with the management and contribution towards organizations missions achievements for higher profitability and sustainability. Organization citizenship behavior was brought out as a critical facet towards facilitating effective contribution at all levels of management. It was particularly emphasized at the employees level where their input is seen to be crucial as the main policies implementing units. Citizenship behavior was further brought out to be equally dependent on the management and its strategies application. It from this analysis that organizations managements should seek to create a highly conducive environment that supports organization citizenship behavior at all times for greater returns.
Categories:
0 comments:
Post a Comment