Elements of Individual Behavior in The Organization

Elements of Individual Behavior in The Organization

Introduction

Employee behavior, attitudes, and perception are vital to the success of an organization. Employees are at the center of efficiency and overall performance of the organization. Understanding individual employees implies that the managers understand the organization. For managers to have a better understanding of the individuals they use organizational behavior tools.  Griffin and Moorhead, (2011) refer to organizational behavior as to how people either individually or as a group act within the context of an organization.

Individual differences and organizational behavior

Each person is different from any other individual, as the behavior of human beings is viewed to be complex. Griffin and Moorhead, (2011) define the individual difference as the variations among individuals to several characteristics. The differences in human beings pose a challenge in an organization’s performance and efficiency. Also, the organization can influence directly or indirectly the behavior of the employees. Managers need to know the individual differences among the employees as people see situations differently, and they have a direct effect on behavior.

The impact of individual differences affects the entire organization. For instance, in the recruitment and selection process, the individual differences have an immense role to play. The organizational managers need to identify the various tasks assigned to a particular job, determine the necessary skills to achieve the tasks while cross-checking the individual differences that best fit the task and skills and hence form a team that will handle the task. Consequently, the manager’s job is to take into account the individual differences by matching individuals to specific jobs which yields to the formation of individual-organization fit. The individual-organization fit has enabled organizations to effectively manage people. Moreover, individual differences are the core makeup of an organization’s diversity. In modern business, diversity offers more benefit than damage. Therefore, individual differences are import at the workplace as they may affect individual performance which consequently influences the overall organization’s performance.

Attitudes and Individual behavior

According to Kehoe, and Wright, P. M. (2013) an attitude is how a person responds to his or her environment can either be positive or negative. As a result, an individual can have different responses towards a particular person, environment or object. These differences further indicate that individual attitudes can be complex to understand. Other than being complex, it might be difficult to identify for oneself to identify certain attitudes as most times they are ignored because they can either be subconscious or very conscious. This goes to show that attitudes are important and that they are not a bad thing.

In an organizational setting, one employee’s attitude affects the others around them. Subsequently, individuals with positive or negative attitudes can negatively or positively affect their counterparts. Over time, the attitudes may affect the employee’s work performance and the performance of their co-workers. Furthermore, Griffin and Moorhead, (2011) show that attitudes are infectious and are inherent in people. Attitudes are demonstrated in an individual’s behavior. For instance, an individual with a good attitude such as contentment will be seen to be constructive at their work and this attitude will be spread amongst the people around this individual. Similarly, an individual with a negative attitude such as discontentment will be seen to be destructive and complaining at their work and this attitude will spread to their co-workers who will behave in the same way.

Although complex, the organization heads or managers need to identify and acknowledge the individual employee attitudes and how they would either benefit or destroy the overall organization. The managers can alter the individual attitudes for the improvement and performance of the organization. For an effective organization, the managers ought to adopt plans and projects that bring about a positive work environment. Besides, all employees need to be dedicated to the success of strategic activities.

Perception and individual behavior

Individual behavior is influenced by their perception. According to Escriba-Carda, Balbastre-Benavent, and Canet-Giner, (2017) perception is the intellectual process through which individuals detect and interpret environmental stimuli. Perception goes beyond responding to stimuli, individuals pay attention to some elements of the environment and ignore the elements. At times, the human perception of the environment may be subjective as people see the environment in terms of their values, needs, and emotions. Perception can be categories based on the five human senses of sound, touch, taste, sight, speech and smell and the bonus of social interaction.

Perception does not automatically occur; it has a process behind it. The perceptual process involves the four different stages; receiving, selecting, organizing and interpreting. The initial stage of perception is receiving involves an individual receives the environmental stimuli through the sensory organs. The individual receives the environmental stimuli selectively based on either the internal factors or the external factors. After selecting the individual arranges the data received in an organized manner through grouping mechanisms such as similarity, continuity. Finally, the individual makes sense of the data by interpretation of useful information. (Griffin, and Moorhead, 2011).

Organizational managers must understand the complexity in individual perceptions and the role they play in individual and organizational performance.  The individual behavior of employees stems from individual perceptions.  A manager needs to understand their perceptions and that of their subordinates. As a result, the manager will avoid instances in which they might underestimate performance, undervalue capabilities, or even view the subordinates in a negative manager. The understanding will foster an environment in which perceptions can be improved for the overall good of the organization. Managers must also be keen on the impression they make subordinates. Just as they ensure that the organization fulfills the desired brand image, they too need to be promoting the company brand image. As a result, both managers and employees need to cultivate perceptions that boost the desired brand image.

Stress and organizational behavior

The complex nature of individual behavior may lead to discomfort and later on stress.  Saufi and his colleagues (2017) describe stress as an individual’s response to a strong environmental stimulus. Stress is an inevitable component of life and in turn, there is a need to manage stress.

Workplace stress is caused by demands that are within and outside of the workplace. Within the workplace, stress may result from working conditions that are too demanding to some people lie job redesign or uncertainty of a particular job. Although most workplace stress is a result of working conditions, individual behaviors also a role to play. As stress does not happen all at once, it goes through a process. The General Adaption Syndrome is outlining the stress process in three stages; alarm, resistance, and exhaustion. The alarm stage the stressor surprises that individual and insists on an action to be taken. If the response is sufficient, the body can reset otherwise it moves to the second stage; resistance. in resistance, the body tries to adjust to stress by tapping into the reserves of fats and sugars and the individual feels cold and hunger. Over a short period, the individual can adapt otherwise the stress moves to the exhaustion. After the reserves have been depleted the individual is weaker and begins to reach out for foods (Buchanan, and Huczynski, 2019).

In the organizational setup, stress occurs when an employee observes to be too vigorous which then threatens their well-being. Consequently, the organizational environment should be one that nurtures individual behavior as well as working conditions.  Similar to behaviors, stress can also be contagious. For instance, if stress is not identified and addressed by managers, it could lead to a lowering of the synergies and the organization’s overall performance. Therefore, managers are responsible for setting the work environment stress free by ensuring that they explore job satisfaction with the employees and seek professional help when necessary. Also, managers should be aware of the consequences of mismanaging and inducing stress. (Lu, and Kuo, 2016).

Individual behavior and performance

Workplace behavior can directly or indirectly influence organizational effectiveness and performance. For instance, if employee behaviors are positive, they could lead to enhanced performance, effectiveness and productivity. On the other hand, negative individual behaviors could lead to conflict, damage, and misbehaviors in the workplace. As employees behave differently it is difficult at times for managers to know whether an individual is having a good or bad day at work.  As a result, individual behaviors have a role to play in an employee’s ability to perform tasks and their willingness to perform.

Buchanan and Huczynski, (2019) note that the level of an employee’s performance is a result of the individual’s motivation and ability to work. Consequently, the level of employee performance is viewed in terms of them performing their duties and responsibilities as assigned by the organization over a certain period. Therefore, managers use the employees’ responsibilities to measure the level of performance. Additionally, Buchanan and Huczynski, (2019) define performance appraisal as the process of evaluation of personality traits, work habits, and the work of an employee.  Performance appraisal may involve tools that measure performance levels of individuals such as the duties assigned and the corresponding results of the work by formulating the achievement of organizational goals. Additionally, performance appraisal may use judgment-based performance measurement. This tool measures achievement based on specific behavioral descriptions, the quantity of work, quality of work, job knowledge, cooperation, personal qualities and the like. Employee performance can generally be measured by the quantity of work, quality of work, knowledge of the work, opinions or statements made, decisions taken, and planning work. As a result, managers need to understand how to get the best out of your employees, thus ensuring that the organization becomes more productive and competitive. Managers should be able to understand which employees are more likely to perform depending on their behavioral fluctuations and those who perform regardless of how behave or feel.

Conclusion

Organizational behavior is a vital facet of the organizational culture and overall business conduct. The overall organizational behavior is influenced by individual differences, attitudes, perceptions, motivation and how people handle stress. These factors form the basic elements of individual behavior in organizational behavior, as a result, they affect the organization’s performance. The individual behaviors are important to managers as they aid in decision making and human resource allocation to activities and tasks. Managers must enhance their skills to develop the right organizational behavior that will yield the desired organizational outcomes.

References

Buchanan, D. A., & Huczynski, A. (2019). Organizational behavior. Pearson UK.

Escriba-Carda, N., Balbastre-Benavent, F., & Canet-Giner, M. T. (2017). Employees’ perceptions of high-performance work systems and innovative behavior: The role of exploratory learning. European Management Journal, 35(2), 273-281.

Griffin, R. W., & Moorhead, G. (2011). Organizational behavior. Nelson Education.

Kehoe, R. R., & Wright, P. M. (2013). The impact of high-performance human resource practices on employees’ attitudes and behaviors. Journal of Management, 39(2), 366-391.

Lu, C. S., & Kuo, S. Y. (2016). The effect of job stress on self-reported safety behavior in container terminal operations: The moderating role of emotional intelligence. Transportation research part F: traffic psychology and behavior, 37, 10-26.

Saufi, R. A., Leong, K. T., Chua, B. S., & Eranza, D. R. D. (2017). The effects of organizational factors and extra-organizational factors on work stress. Journal of the Asian Academy of Applied Business (JAAAB), 2.