Case Study: Organization Behaviour Essay

1.0What do you think caused Deborah react in such manner towards Melinda? Do you think these reactions are justified? Organizational change is the alteration of the way in which people are organized (Dessler Gary, 2002). This can be something as simple as an organization restructuring itself in relative to resources, for example human resources as the case may be. However the housing industry association in Brisbane brought about an organizational change relative to the human resources in the company by promoting the 2-year-old working staff in the company to be the Executive support manager. By and large, change in an organizational setting is somewhat hard basically on the part of employees in the organization as it seems hard to alter habits, attitudes, and ethics at work in response to organizational objectives. Change in the context of an organization is defined as persuasive influence, where all aspects are subjects to continual change of one form or another. (Mullins, 2005, p. 909). Melinda’s promotion in the organization created a problem for Deborah who because of the attitudes towards jobs failed to be promoted. This has actually caused her to react in many bad ways such as bad-mouthing attitude against Melinda to other staff in the organization and making some derogatory remarks about her to other staff in the company through the use of strong critics that she is an egotistical slave-driver with no respect for the people who are being supervised. Personally, it can be inferred that Deborah was caught in a change resistance. Organization change resistance threatens structures of power with members resisting and questioning the object being changed. (Smith, C. A. 2003). In this case study it can be established that change resistance crept in the organization through two ways. Firstly, she feels that way because she thinks it’s unfair to have promoted Melinda having just worked few years, precisely two years in the company. She feels like she has spent fifteen years in the company and has accrued experience and skills that matches any promotion. Secondly, Deborah resisted the change in the structure within the facet of the organization because of her own selfish acts, specifically freedom to do whatever she likes in the company. She very much understands that the new office that is created for Melinda will closely monitor all the staff and that means that she will not at liberty to do those things again. From the case study, it is learnt that Deborah misuses her office in allocating more than one hour, to be precise two hours for the break while at work and she closes always at work one hour before the normal closing hour with the reason that she would be picking up the kids for home. All these are personal reasons for Deborah and are those that are behind her resistance to the new structures of the organization which elevates Melinda. Moreover, she feels more threatened that the laziness in her at work will be corrected by a two-year old working staff in the company, a phenomenon which she really frowns at. It can be argued that none of Deborah’s reactions are justified in any forms. From the case study, it can be assumed that Melinda’s appraisal at work is interesting and encouraging to have been recommended for such position at such early year of service in the organization. It is also an assumption that the whole staff is in the know of Deborah’s bad attitude at work and for that, there is a need to make her redress. If she is performing very great, or excellently well, then she wouldn’t have felt threatened at work. It is also understood that if Deborah is recommended for the task, she will not be able to perform well in line with the duties and responsibilities which she herself is a failure. Therefore, for an organization like HIA to run well, there is a need for a positive and good attitude staff to run the affairs. 2.0What could Melinda have done to better resolve this issue with Deborah? Melinda sensed that Deborah has been acting so bad at work and realized the importance of resolving the issues with her. She established a meeting with her informally at a coffee shop where she made her understand the roles and responsibilities unto which her office is tied to and her commitment to carry them out religiously. This is considered as a communication in resolving issues and it’s very great in resolution. However while doing this; she could have compromised a little bit perhaps by giving her choices just to settle the dispute between them. Some of the choices could be rotating her job responsibilities and trying to be flexible on her work periods. It is understood that she uses more official time for herself and family and she can work these time out on some other days, preferably weekends in order to compensate for the lost official time. Melinda could have compromised her stand on insisting that Deborah should not do things in her ways in a bid to better resolve the issues. Although this seems de-motivational for other staff that have the understanding that Deborah has been indolen t in the organization. But on the note of resolution, Melinda could have granted the deal that Deborah worked and peace would have reigned in the organization. Since it is in the best interest of the organization to settle the scores, then Melinda should have negotiated and worked out some leverages on her at least to make the work go on. Negotiation theory and practice have a great strength in easing organizational problem as it offers a two-way street. (Dessler, Gary. 2002). It is my opinion also that this issues could have been reported to the management who understand all the affairs of the organization. Usually, this case is best handled by the management who will find out the sources and the causes of the problem so at to be able to better resolve the issues between them. Managers’ involvement in dispute resolution within the framework of an organization enhances resolution through proper communication and negotiation skills. (Greenberg J &Baron A.R 2003). Organizations have ways and procedures of resolving conflicts within organizational members in quest for smooth work relationship. The ways adopted by every organization could be different depending on the issues. Conflict resolution can be employed through the use of the combination of strict and stringent measures among conflicting members in an organization. (Robbins, S.P 2000). Such theory and concept can be applied to the case between Melinda and Deborah. Also, Melinda should have gone for negotiation in order to better resolve this issue between them. She should have adopted good negotiating skills and offered many choices of things to take from perhaps it may go well with her. This is because effective negotiation brings about happiness at work in employees and employer relationship. (Dent Edward, 2003). Furthermore, Deborah understands she is a long-time serving staff and deserves respect most especially from junior staff like Melinda. Following this, to better resolve the issues, Melinda could have condescended herself while discussing the issues with Deborah. That could have made Deborah changes her mind against insisting on her ways. 3.0Is organizational change more stressful for team members or for team leaders? Identify the possible stressors for organizational members experiencing change in the workplace as depicted in the case study. In every organization, the role of team leaders are not changed and are elaborate in assisting the team members in identifying key work tasks, supporting as they perform these tasks while team members are just members of the team who are executing all the tasks relative to the common goals of the team.( Bass, B.M, et.al). Because team leaders just lead the team in assisting the team members to realize the goals, it is very easy for them to see, feel the organizational change and therefore less stressful for them. Team leaders are seen to be directing and supervising the tasks no t really executing them. (Lax, D.A. and Sebenius, J.K.,(2006). For this fact, organizational changes are easily understood by them. Because team leaders are usually one person, it is less stressful for them to adapt to any corms of organizational changes that comes their way. (Hersey, P.2006) Who are the doers of the team tasks? Who are responsible for the team tasks? It is the responsibility of the individual team members within a team. Because of the numbers which ranges from three to ten depending on the size of the project or task, it is very much difficult to bear these stresses. If taken for example, one of the team members react negatively to the team task relative to the organizational change, then the outcome of the team performance will be failure. Because team members are made up of individuals, then it is very much difficult for them to adapt to any organizational change that comes their ways as compared to the leader who is only one entity that will just act accordingly to the organizational change. In a nutshell, team members because of their numbers and their respective tasks in the team feel more stressful to bear the organizational change in the organization. (Howard, L.W. 1998). One of the possible stressors for organizational members who are experiencing change in the workplace as highlighted in the case study is overloaded workload on the path of the members of the organization. All organizational members are constantly encouraged to stay back in the organization to work some hours after the completion of the official hours. This is in line with the organizational structure of that the HIA has just adopted. This has created a lot of stress and thus has enabled them to be passing some assaults unto each other. Members of the organization after being tired at work can be seen assaulting other members in the organization. Another stressor that cannot be overlooked is the lack of social support from others at workplace and the work home interface which can also be regarded as work/non-work conflict which is concerned with management of the relationship between the individual roles and responsibilities both on the job and off the job. (Howard, L.W. 1998). An example of this is shown by Deborah who is seen to be insulting Melinda for making her to stay after working hours. Another stressor that can still be noticed is bad relationships among coworkers. The organizational structural change in HIA organization has caused organizational members to experience poor interpersonal relationship with each other. An illustration of this is seen from the attitude of Deborah in the organization towards other members of the organization. Deborah is seen to be very moody and always keeping to herself at work and most times expressing reluctance to interact with members who fails to share her own point of view. 4.0How might the situation be influenced by organizational or national level culture? Organizational culture is one of the principal factors in assessing the success of an organization in managing the work stress. This is reflected in the attitudes of the organizational member, their shared beliefs about the organization, their shared value systems and common and accepted ways of behaving while at work. (Deutsch, M., 2008).It can be established that organizational culture has strength in recognizing organizational problems and how they can be solved. It has influence and can affect what is experienced as stressful, how the experience translates into health difficulties, how both stress and health are reported in the organization and how the organization shows their response into such reports being made. (Clifford, James 2000). In view of this all organizational members with inclusions to the managers must therefore be conscious of the organizational culture and make exploration in relation to the work stress management. Because there is a great influence coming in the path of organizational culture on the overloaded work situation of the members of the organization, it is very much necessary and important that all hands must be on deck in engaging in culture change activities as it is an essential part of improving the management of stress at work. (Alvesson, M. 2000) The situation can influence the organizational systems and procedures. The simplest definition of culture is â€Å"that’s the way we do things around here.† Organizational routines and processes can become so inserted that they are considered as part of the culture, and changing the culture demands that the routines be changed too. (DiBella, A. J. 2006). An organization that has the culture of having meetings weekly and monthly can therefore become more formalized and cumbersome based on the organizational change. Therefore, changing the culture to improve communication in the organization can possibly be the made realistic by changing the procedures of the meeting or eliminating the meetings completely. The situation might be influenced by organizational or national-level culture through improving the working conditions of the organizational members in the organization. (Dent, J. F. 2001). Improving the work conditions through organizational culture will undoubtedly reduce any forms of stress at work and it has involvement of identifying any stressful parts of work. (Iivari, N. 2002). For example as it has been highlighted in the case study: extreme workload, and warring members in the organization. This strategy will definitely reduce or eliminate the identified stressors in the organization. The advantage of this influence by organizational culture combats the sources of the stress at work. Sometimes, the managers disagree with this technique because of its involvement in altering the routines of work or schedules of productions, or changes in the organizational structure. Any tasks to reduce all the mentioned stressors in the organization should be given top most priority to organizational change in improving the organizational working conditions. (Kappos, A. – Croteau, A. 2002). 5.0References Bass, B.M. and Avolio, B.J. (2000). Transformational leadership and the organizational culture. Public Administration Quarterly, 17, 112-122. Bass, B.M. and Avolio, B.J. (1994).Improving organizational effectiveness through transformational leadership. Thousand Oaks, CA.: Sage. Howard, L.W. (1998). Validating the competing values model as a representation of organizational cultures. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 6(3), 231-250 Trice, H.M. and Beyer, J.M. (1992). The cultures of work organizations. Englewood Cliffs, NJ.: Prentice Hall. Stoner James A. 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