Application of the Concept of Organizational Behavior Essay

Organizational behavior is an important concept in the modern business environment since business organizations have experienced significant development and growth from the conventional times. This growth and development of business organizations that has contributed to the significance of the concept of organizational behavior has occurred in relation to organizational structure, people, and operations. As a relatively new discipline in business management, organizational behavior primarily focuses on group dynamics, execution of leadership, organizational functioning, and interactions between people in an organization. The emergence of this discipline in the 20th Century is attributed to its evolution from the conventional classical management theories to a complex concept and idea.

Definition of the Concept and Emerging Issues

Organizational behavior has widely been described as an academic field of study that focuses on explaining, understanding, forecasting, and managing human behavior within an organization or business environment. From a personal position, organizational behavior is the study of the thoughts, actions, and feelings of people in an organizational environment. This is primarily because people's behavior is a component of thoughts, feelings, and actions, which are crucial in organizational management.

Organizational behavior has been characterized by several emerging issues in the recent past that are largely attributed to changes in the modern business environment. Actually, organizations have experienced tremendous development from the olden days, especially in relation to people, operations, and structure ("Emerging Trends in Organizational Behavior," n.d.). One of the emerging issues in the study of organizational behavior is the changing workforce, which has been characterized by changes workforce demographic. In the past few years, the business environment has experienced changes in employees' attitudes, labor shortages, increase in the aging population, and immigration. These factors have not only generated changes in the workforce but also contributed to new issues in the study of organizational behavior, especially in relation to increased diversity in the working environment. Apart from the considerable change in the cross-cultural environment, the other issue in organizational behavior is the development of technical expertise and quality management. These factors are emerging issues in organizational behavior because they have generated a different environment in today's business organizations.

The other emerging issue in the study of organizational behavior is the development of social media policies given the impact of social media on today's communication. This issue has been brought by the proliferation of new technologies for communication, which continue to have huge effect on daily business operations (Gillis, 2013). Business management scholars have become increasingly concerned on the need and the process for developing social media policies in a manner that is beneficial to organizations. In essence, there are concerns on how to include topics relating to social media in organizational behavior courses and the best approach for teaching such topics in light of changes in the business environment.

Part II: Personal Conclusions

Organizational behavior is an important topic in business management given its significance and role in the development of effective management skills and processes. This unit has enabled me to obtained insights regarding the role of organizational behavior in management and the importance of examining people's behavior as part of the management process. Some of the ideas obtained from this course that are helpful in organizational management based on this concept include decision making by individuals and groups, leadership and followership, work teams and groups, interpersonal processes and behaviors, conflict and negotiation, communication and managing change.

The main lesson obtained from organizational behavior is that understanding people's behavior and the reasons for their behaviors in an organization is the basis for creating a work environment and organizational culture that enables every member to realize their full potential. In essence, it is difficult to create a collaborative environment where people interact freely towards realization of organizational goals and fulfilling their potential without an understanding of their feelings, thoughts, and actions. Organizational behavior provides important lessons for business managers with regards to the creation of a suitable work environment and organizational culture.

This course has also provided insights on how managers can ensure efficient and effective utilization of employees towards fulfillment of organizational goals and objectives. In this case, managers should not only seek to understand the behaviors of their employees but also recognize the impact of their behaviors on organizational diversity. Understanding organizational behavior provides a good basis for effective management of workforce diversity, which generates effective interpersonal processes and behaviors, effective communication, incorporation of everyone in the decision making process, and effective management of change. Moreover, understanding people's behavior in an organization necessitates understanding factors that affect individuals and how individuals impact the organization and workplace (Griffin & Moorhead, 2014, p.238).

If in a position to apply these concepts of organizational behavior in an organization, the first step would entail paying considerable attention to individuals and groups within the organization. This process would entail being aware of the needs of individuals in the workforce and the various work groups established to help in the accomplishment of organizational goals and objectives. In addition to focusing on identifying individual needs of each member of the workforce, the process of applying these concepts of organizational behavior will also involve learning the interpersonal dynamics in the work group. The identification of individual needs and interpersonal dynamics will be geared towards understanding the forces or factors that affect the individual and how the individual in turn affects the organization and the working environment (Griffin & Moorhead, 2014, p.238).

Once individual needs and interpersonal dynamics have been identified, the next step would entail examining their impact on work processes and employee performance. This phase is geared towards coordinating the behaviors of these individuals towards improved performance and realization of organizational objectives. The coordination of individuals' behavior is an important aspect of organizational behavior because effective group management requires the effective coordination of people's thoughts, actions, and feelings. Actually, individuals' behaviors and interpersonal dynamics are crucial towards the success or failure of a group in the working environment.

The other measure in implementing concepts learned from this course on organizational behavior is establishing group dynamics as part of organizational culture through incorporating it into the management's vision, goals, values, and philosophy. Group dynamics that promote suitable organizational behavior will be established as the basis of the organization's operations and practices. In this case, the management will not only focus on the achievement of common goals but also focus on effective communication, personal growth and development, and individual satisfaction. These dynamics will also be crucial towards management of organizational change and conflict and negotiation processes.

PART III: Plan of Action

A personal plan of action towards implementing knowledge and skills obtained from this course is important because the concept of organizational behavior is useless if it is not applied. Upon completion of the course, the next step will entail looking for opportunities to work in an organization as a change agent. As a change agent, my role in the organization would be to initiative processes that foster teamwork and promote the realization of organizational goals through enhanced performance. Generally, strengthening teamwork in a manner that generates suitable organizational behavior entails the use of a step-by-step approach (Johnston, n.d.).

The first course of action towards effecting change in organizational behavior will be identifying current behaviors that are enhancing teamwork and issues in group dynamics that do not strengthen teamwork and team effectiveness. This will involve assessing the current leadership activities, how leaders exercise their authority or power, decision making processes in the organization, and the involvement of leaders as team players. This will be followed by determining suitable behaviors that could result in improved team performance. The existing best practices in organizational behavior will be examined relative to current practices in the organization's workplace. This step will also involve determining any gap between management's current practices and what can be done to foster teamwork. The final step is to hold discussions with and provide recommendations to the management regarding target behaviors and suitable strategies for achieving the targeted behaviors.

In conclusion, organizational behavior is an important concept that has gained significant traction in the recent past with regards to organizational management. The significance of organizational behavior in the modern business environment is largely attributed to changes in the workforce that have contributed to increased diversity. From a personal perspective, organizational behavior is the study of feelings, thoughts, and actions of people within an organization. Some of the emerging issues in the study of organizational behavior include changes in cross-cultural environment in the workplace, development of social media policies, and changes in employees' attitudes. Upon gaining knowledge and skills on organizational behavior it is important to develop a suitable plan of action for implementing the concept since this theory would be useless without implementation.

References

"Emerging Trends in Organizational Behaviour." (n.d.). Trends in OB. Retrieved from Indian School of Mines website: http://ismdhanbad.ac.in/elearning/notes/trends_in_ob.pdf

Gillis, T.L. (2013). Current Issues in Organizational Behavior: Teaching Social Media and BYOD Policies. Retrieved October 14, 2015, from http://www.abeweb.org/proceedings/Proceedings13/Gillis.pdf

Griffin, R. & Moorhead, G. (2014). Organizational behavior: managing people and organizations. Mason,…