Studying Organizational Behavior: Communication and Interaction
Studying organizational behavior teaches you how to communicate with people. To be able to interact effectively with others, one must first grasp their feelings, personalities, and actions. I became fond of the topic because it allowed me to engage with my classmates, coworkers, and others without irritating them. Understanding organizational actions, in my opinion, aids in the creation of productive organizations and workplaces. This study demonstrates how studying OB has affected my thought, actions, and approach as a person and as a team member.
The Significance of Personality
One topic that interested me was that of personality, going on to explain personality traits and the development of character. Usually, people say that personality is what makes a person. After taking this unit I found myself agreeing with them, even (Mullins 2008) defines personality as that set of characteristics or attributes that tell about an individual’s behavior from specific actions or reactions. Origins of a character are related to culture, social, family, and situations. Understanding the personality of an individual helps one to know what you can expect from them. When I looked keenly, I realized it is the criteria that my manager uses while he is allocating roles to the employees. Understanding the uniqueness of personalities and assigning tasks based on that improves performance and productivity. After learning this, I went on to evaluate myself to determine my principal characters and trying to find what department I could be more productive. After carefully evaluating and consulting a few close friends, I found out that am an expert at knowing what people think and like. Therefore I could do well in the advertisement as I would find a perfect selling point and use it to market the product. Previously, together with my group had used the five-factor model to allocate certain roles like who was more confident, so they could do the presentation in front of the class. Since I learned this, whenever I meet someone new or talking with a friend, I listen to them and then try to determine what I could expect from them.
The Importance of Emotional Intelligence
Another point of interest is that of emotional intelligence, which is the situation in which one becomes aware of their emotions. Also being able to control and express their feelings and at the same time not interfere with other people’s emotions (Mullins 2007). Nowadays I can handle my own emotions without affecting the person next to me in any way.
Motivation: Driving Forces
Motivation drives people to fulfill their goals and attaining certain expectations. The way we do things is profoundly affected biological, social, emotional, or cognitive forces. These factors change our behavior. Motivations can be of two types; one, a psychological motivation which occurs when we do things out of desire or importance to gain satisfaction and two, external factors which are external motivation which drive one to do things to earn money or wages. Motivation enables people to change their attitudes to a definite end. Additionally, I was fascinated to note that motivation changes from one moment to another but one should be keen so that their motivation does not change to demotivation (Hersey 1993). What motivates most people is money, but other essential motivations factors include Position, social class, etcetera. Looking at the information my only question was what my motivation is? I later came up with the solution, good grades, and some money.
Diversity and Cultural Understanding
In any organization, employees are from different cultures, looking at my class, we are all from various diversities. I have always been keen to note how we are entirely different but the system makes things seem same and comfortable because of the rules and regulations. In the same way, any workplace has workers from different places with diverse beliefs and values. However, it is this different life experiences and backgrounds that are combined to make an essential asset to the organization (Booth 2006). The company should strive to make all feel at home and build a long-lasting organization. I have been using the knowledge with people around me and hoped to use it in the future with people in my environment so I can understand them even better.
Real-Life Application: Group Assignments
Organizational behavior knowledge has been tested and gained through assignments given, both individually and group assignments. Mainly the group assignments provide the students with a real experience of team dynamics. The group has to function as a single body without interdependence, each of the members had to contribute. For example, in my group, I felt like I got the whole organizational experience. We had members from diverse cultures thus our personalities were different. We had to classify ourselves differently using the five-factor model while allocating roles amongst ourselves. Also, I noted the various characters and capability each of us had. I also had a great experience with my emotional intelligence whereby I was able to express myself freely. We also experienced the aspect of power and its contingency; I noted that when assuming leadership one should make sure that they increase their centrality and substitution ability. We also did choose the group leader based on personality attributes, one thing he had to be confident.
Conclusion
To conclude, I can genuinely say that studying organization behavior changed the way I used to see life. I am no longer naive, and I changed my thinking, behavior, and approach as an individual and as a member of any team. I have learned that it is of much importance to understand the personality of others. Understanding their character will let you know why they do what they do and further what they are capable of doing. Emotional intelligence is something I will never take for granted because without comprehending others you cannot understand anyone else. Organization behavior has improved communication skills making me confident to fit in any conversation and team.
References
Booth, C. and Rowlinson, M., 2006. Management and organizational history: Prospects. Management & organizational history, 1(1), pp.5-30.
Hersey, P. and Blanchard, K.H., 1993. Management of organizational behavior: Utilizing human resources. Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Mullins, L.J., 2007. Management and organisational behaviour. Pearson education.
Mullins, L.J., 2008. Essentials of organisational behaviour. Pearson Education.
