Organizational Behaviour (OB) | Understanding and Managing People

Student Name
INSTITUTIONAL AFFILIATION(S)
UNDERSTANDING AND
MANAGING PEOPLE

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Contract a critical overview of the contemporary issues facing the fields of
Organizational Behaviour and how these influence HR practices.
Introduction
Organizational behaviour (OB) is one term which demonstrates the impact
employees, structures and groups have on behaviour in an organization. OB can also be
denoted as an analysis of human dynamics within an organization that assists human
resources and business leaders comprehend the relationship between employees and
themselves (Sharma, 2018). Although issues facing organizations and their influence on
human resources (HR) have not changed over the ages, the surrounding environment and
emphasis on specific contexts have changed certainly. Furthermore, while adapting
environmental challenges, HR managers have to face additional issues such as conflicting
tasks, exploitation of available resources and knowledge generation to ensure future
competitiveness is met along with the development of human capital within the organization
(Subramanian, 2017). With regards to it, this essay will throw light upon three major
organizational behaviour challenges which influence HR practices including leadership,
motivation, and organizational structure related issues.
Critical Discussion
The leadership approach of Volkswagen offers a great example of how organizational
culture influences HR practices. Increasingly, people choose to work with companies not
only because of work they do but majorly due to leadership and organizational culture.
Volkswagen famous diesel scandal developed in the internal environment when its
technological errors failed meeting desired emission standards. Instead of fixing the issue,
VW leader covered the issue by replacing the system with software which revealed phony

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data stating that VW cars were safer for the environment (Glazer, 2016). In OB literature,
contingency approaches have made a significant contribution within the field of leadership
theory and research. The contingency models of leadership explain the relationship between
the leader's effectiveness under different workplace situations ( Abba, Yahaya, &
Suleiman, 2018).
Acknowledging that employees’ issues may vary, leadership style must be undertaken
to match an individual's behaviour and workplace characteristics. It can be noted that
leadership can be triggered and challenged due to several reasons and the leader's attempt to
influence others behaviour. Fielder’s contingency theory of leadership and effectiveness
stares that leaders tend to behave in two manners including task-oriented leaders who are
more productive than relationship-oriented leaders and relationship leaders who are effective
than task-oriented ones and favour intermediate favourableness (Peretomode, 2012). From
VW case analysis, HR practices of contemporary organizations must use Fielder's leadership
model so that clear understanding and knowledge of applicability are made during the times
of issues and when undisciplined work environment is created.
Taylor’s Scientific management concept believes that every employee is motivated by
monetary benefits. In other words, if an individual does not perform efficiently, he/she does
not deserve to be paid as compared to the higher productive ones. Human resources
management today, however, faces additional issues while recruiting and selecting
individuals as ones who will be selected would play a critical role in organizational behaviour
establishment and profit-making. Accordingly, when employees are forced to multi-task, they
might prove inefficient which makes HR managers focus upon encouraging employees to
conduct some outer activities as well. Taylor’s theory of motivation considers hiring the right
person for the right job, focus on one task, compensation and having fun at work (Ferraro,
2016).