Emerging trend in OB
The key emerging trends in OB are as follows:
Human orientation- Successful organizations are putting people first. People are regarded as the most important resources in organization.
Systems perspective- Organizations are looked upon as complex open system with interacting and interrelated parts to achieve goals. Managers are taking a systems view of OB.
Contingency perspective-Different situations required different behavioral practices. OB concepts reflect situational or contingency conditions.
Power distribution- Power distribution in organizations is changing leadership styles, power relationships, work design and organization structure. Self-managed teams are getting more popular.
Intrinsic motivation- It is self-generated through sense of satisfaction for a job well done. OB is giving emphasis to intrinsic motivation compared to extrinsic motivation (externally induced in the form of financial incentive for a job done).
Goal integration- The emerging trends is that OB is giving balanced focus on organizational as well as employee goals.
Self-discipline- Traditionally, OB assumed that discipline needed to be imposed from outside. The emerging trend is towards self-discipline, self-direction, and self-control.
Collegial role of managers- The role of managers in OB has been changing from autocratic to collegial. Team work is encouraged.
Challenges for OB
Responding to globalization- Mangers of today are required to work in foreign countries with people from different cultures. Management in cross culture situations is getting important and challenging.
Improving quality and productivity- Managers need to improve productivity and product quality, which requires greater employee participation in work place and also requires rethinking and redesign of work process through merger, acquisition creates challenges.
Managing work force diversity- It refers to differences among people in terms of educational backgrounds, talents and job perspective. Organizations are getting heterogeneous in terms of gender, race, age and mental qualities. Managing diversity among employees is a challenge of OB.
Improving people skills- People skills are important for all levels of managers. They need to learn a variety of ways to motivate people, create and manage effective work teams, and communicate and lead effectively.
Managing change- Change refers to making things different. OB needs to deal with varying environments to manage change. Workers need to continually update their knowledge and skills to cope with changing job requirements. Managers need to learn to cope with change.
Empowering employees- Empowering is putting employees in charge of what they do. Employees are given autonomy to control their work, self-managed. Employee’s expectations are also changing. It present challenges to OB.
Determinants of individual behavior
Beliefs- It is descriptive thoughts that an individual holds about something based on knowledge, opinion and faith. It influence individual behavior and serves as foundation upon which people order and structure their lives.
Attitudes- Attitudes are judgments concerning objects, people or events. They reflect how an individual feels about something. It can be favorable or unfavorable. It influences individual behavior in organizations and determine how well the job is done.
Values- They are basic convictions as to what is right, good or desirable. They carry moral flavor. It generally identifies a person’s ethical / moral structure on which the concept of good or bad and right or wrong is based.
Emotions- Emotions are intense feelings directed at someone or something. Emotions are action oriented in nature.
Behavior- A human resource manager hires an employee, trains and develops them now he needs to understand their behavior. Human behavior is caused motivated and goal directed.