Organizational Behavior Leadership Analysis Social Work Essay
“Academic theories about employee motivation, empowerment and performance are just that theories, they are of little practical use to business leader or their companies, with reference covered to the material cover on the OBL course, and the people management of one Employee of Choice, please evaluate the validity of this statement.
Organizational Behavior is the study of behavior of individual, group and people in the organization. It focuses in the relationship between individual and organization in the holistic manner. It focuses on meeting the social objectives, organizational level objectives and individual level objectives. (Leadership and Organizational Behavior, 2010)
In managing the organizational behavior with in the organization, there are various managerial theories being proposed by various people to meet the organizational and individual requirement. The role of business leader is to effectively manage the workforce with in the organization to achieve the maximum output from the employees. It is also required from the business leaders to increase the productivity of the organization, to reduce employee turnover, to increase job satisfaction, to reduce absenteeism among the employees, to establish organizational citizenship.
The productivity of the employees could be increased by increasing the motivational level of the employees and by imparting training and development programs. An organization is said productive if it converts its inputs into outputs at lowest operating costs. Organizational behavior studies help managers to understand the general behavior of the individuals, but not the exact behavior of the individual. For example Douglas McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y give an idea about type of people in the organization. According to Theory X, people would tend to avoid the work and are not responsible, on the other hand according to Theory Y, people are self directed and self motivated. Now this theory does not highlight the exact reasons for being lazy and self-motivated. In this way organizational studies only direct the managers about the general concepts, but could not point the exact behavior of the individual. It is so because the behavior of individual may vary from situation to situation and may also differ from person to person. (Douglas McGregor-Human Relations Contributors, Theory X and Theory Y)
The turnover of the employee is another important managerial duty to be considered by leaders. The increase in turnover costs high for the organization by increasing the recruitment, interview, selection and training costs. It is one of the essential parameter to be considered by the managers for increasing the efficiency of the organization. There could be various reasons for increased in turnover. It could be because of work environment, job position mismatch, compensation and rewards, job stress etc. It is required from the leaders to find out the reason for the increase in turnover. As there could be various different reasons for the increase in turnover, the organizational theories could not find the exact reason for the increase in turnover. The method that could be used by manager to find exact reason for the increased turnover could be interviews or survey. With the help of organizational behavior theories leaders could find out the general behavior of the group of employees in the organization, but it is required to carry out individual analysis to find the exact reason for the absenteeism with in the organization.
Increasing the Job satisfaction is another important managerial duty. It is essential for leaders to maintain the job satisfaction level of the employees with in the organization. This would not only decrease the turnover of the employees but also generate the healthy environment with in the organization. Organizational Behavior theories help the managers to understand the general behavior of the employee about job satisfaction, but it does not showcase how to increase job satisfaction for a particular employee. According to dispositional theory individual who is happy in his life is happy at his job as well. According to this theory there are the factors affecting job satisfaction i.e. positive and negative affectivity, personality attributes and self evaluation. This theory as well does not find the actual reason specific to a particular individual and hence managers would need to carry out the analysis specific to the individual.
Another important function of the business leaders is to reduce absenteeism among the employees. The reduction in absenteeism is directly related to the job dissatisfaction and improper work environment. It is required for the leaders to understand the individual needs and expectations of the individuals from the organization and meet those expectations. It is also observed that unhealthy work environment creates problem for the employee and in turn reduced their efficiency and hence productivity of the organization. Here as well leaders have to sit individually with the employees and seek out the possible hindrances for the employees with respect to work environment. The reasons for the unhealthy work environment could be racial discrimination, manager-subordinates relationship, gender discrimination, work pressures etc.
Organization Behavior theories works as the general framework for the leaders but could not act as the specific solution for a particular organizational problem. It require extensive analysis and thorough understanding of the organization and individual behavior to meet the objectives of the organization.
Question 2:
With reference to Organizational Behavior leadership on gender inequity in organization, and you own work experience if relevant, evaluate the extent to which this issue will require further attention from public and private sector organization in the UAE now and in the future. How can local organization ensure that there is true equity of opportunity for their women Emirati employees and what will be the likely commercial benefits of doing this?
Answer:
Gender Inequality means differentiation between individuals on the basis of their gender. As per gender inequality the responsibility, human and social possibilities differ from men to that of women. (Long, 2001)
It is found that most of the theories showcase the organizational structure as the reason for gender inequality. It is as per organizational structure which causes differences in roles, difference in position, and difference in behaviors between men and women.
Materialist theory: As per this theory the connection of men and women with the society’s economic structure causes the gender inequality. As per this theory, women’s role of mother and wife in the society devalued its right to access high valued resources. Women are less paid as compared to the men in the labor class market. The reason for this is the social responsibility attached to women to take care of family and children.
Division between Domestic and Public Work: Their role of mother and wife devalued their role social roles and hence high profile. Women are bound with the domestic responsibilities and hence have to take care of the family and have to invest time there as well. On the other hand men are free from domestic responsibilities and have greater access to high valued resources.
It is noticed that there is inequality in pay of men and women, and women are paid less than men. It is also found that two-third of the women works in areas low profile areas like catering, cleaning, clerical jobs, caring jobs. The reason for women being paid less than men is that their job includes discontinuity because of maternity leaves, and to take care of family and children. Moreover still the ratio of highly qualifies women is less than that of men. This gives men an edge to work in high profile jobs and so being paid more than women.
Gender Inequality in UAE: The UAE government is trying their best to reduce the gender inequality in UAE. In the year 2008, UAE is participating actively in reducing the gap of gender disparity by organizing various conferences for the same. Dubai School of Government along with Centre of Arab Women for Training and Research and World Bank, organizes a conference to narrow down the gender gap in North Africa and Middle East. The conference named “Gender and Economics in MENA: from Theory to Policymaking” (ZPRESS, 2008). The main purpose of the conference was to highlight the importance of high education over women. In the conference, Nabeel Al Yousuf, vice chairman of trustee board in Dubai School of Government, focused on gender inequality for the social, national and economic development. Community Development Authority is coordinating with various government and non-government organizations to maintain gender equality. (ZPRESS, 2008)
In the recent years UAE has worked well in reducing the gender gap in the emirates. As per a report, UAE has topped in human development chart among gulf countries. Though the ratio of educated women is increasing, but still UAE needs to improve on gender equality. This gender inequality further drags the human development index of the country.
The gender equality could be improved with the help of combined effort from public and private companies.
Protect Women Rights: It is essential to get women aware of their rights and also make them aware how to fight against the violation of any basic right. This education would help them to fight for their basic rights. It is required for both public and private organizations to coordinate with Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) to protect the rights of women.
Women Education: To increase the status of women in the society it is required to further increase the level and quality of education for women. To achieve the same it is required for public and private educational institutions to work together to achieve the common objective.
Healthy Work Environment: It is required for the private and public organizations to maintain healthy work environment for the women at workplace. It could be done by providing facilities for women like pick and drop from home, work from home etc.
The local organization could ensure the equal opportunity for women by ensuring that jobs are offered as per the qualification and not on the basis of gender. The pay should be equal as per the caliber and qualification of the individual. It is required for the local organization to create equal opportunities for both men and women and should not create any disparity between the two.
Gender equality would ensure equal status for the women in the society and would increase their standard of living. It would ensure right investment of the income and less wastage of money. It has been found that women invest 90% of her income on family whereas men only invest 35% of his income on family. This would change political and public welfare policies would increase focus on women as well. Increase in education level of women would reduce the health problems and diseases in the society.
