Critical Overview of Contemporary OB Issues and HR Practices

This essay provides a critical overview of contemporary issues in organizational behaviour and their influence on human resource (HR) practices. It delves into the impact of leadership, motivation, and organizational structure on HR, emphasizing the importance of contingency approaches. The essay explores leadership models like Fielder's contingency theory and motivational theories such as Taylor's scientific management. Real-world case studies, including Volkswagen and IKEA, are analyzed to illustrate how these theories apply in practice. The essay also highlights the role of organizational structure and employer-employee relationships, referencing Walmart as an example. By examining these elements, the essay demonstrates how effective leadership, motivation strategies, and organizational structure can help HR managers address organizational behaviour-related challenges and foster a more productive and engaged workforce. The essay concludes by emphasizing the need for HR managers to strategically navigate these issues to create profitable opportunities.

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).

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IKEA is a furniture retailing company which have addressed motivation related issues
very excellently as human resources of the firm shows responsibility in creating a better work
environment as well as inspiring employees continuously. The HR of IKEA in every part of
the world look after recruitment and selection along with providing training to strengthen the
corporate culture of the company. The human resources policy of IKEA includes the idea of
the possibility to grow and foster its people motivation factors so that together every
employee remains committed strongly and create a better life for themselves as well as the
customers. Following Taylor’s management approach, IKEA believes in giving value to the
employees and therefore, its HR always emphasises on developing strategies that can create a
committed and satisfied workforce who in turn contributes to future success and well-being
of the organization (Devendra & Kumar, 2013).
Organizational structures are established to enable strategic direction along with
generating a competitive edge. Today’s business environment shapes organizational structure
and strategy constantly since the business environment is not static. This implies HR to
continuously modify their structures and enhance employer-employee relationship so that
flexibility and adaptability are maintained. To overcome environmental issues is the main
purpose and motives of contemporary organizations besides considering how HR can develop
a strategy to deal with issues regarding employer-employee relationship (Subramanian,
2017). The scientific study of organizational behaviour, also called as human relations was
initially developed by Elton Mayo along with his associates around Hawthorne
investigations.
Mayo believed that HR must focus upon the social needs of individuals to increase
their collaborative capacity at work. This made organizational behaviour researchers shift
from early classical theories to focus upon the organizational structure and employer-
employee relationship effects on the organizations ( Bruce & Nyland, 2011). For instance,

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Walmart organizational structure ensures that every business activity and corporate structure
imposes limits upon how HR will address its issues. Structural characteristics of the
organization facilitate HR strategic implementations to capture larger share within the retail
markets and organizational culture determines how people will respond to workplace
challenges. This makes Walmart employees receive stability, identity and satisfaction who in
turn, tend to contribute and collaborate their goals with organizational achievements.
Moreover, the organizational structure of the firm interacts with an organizational culture so
that competitive advantage can be met against other rivalry firms (Lombardo, 2019).
Conclusion
The above essay identifies that many contemporary issues are facing the fields of
organizational behaviour particularly issues related to leadership, motivation and
organizational structure. Since contingency theories of management have influenced
organizational behaviour to a great extent, the above essay demonstrated theories developed
by Fielder, Taylor and Mayo that can assist HR managers in coping with the identified issues.
Although there is no perfect situation and organizational environment keeps changing, if they
are handled strategically by HR managers, issues can be converted into profitable
opportunities. In this sense, effective leadership, motivation and strategic organizational
structure are few concepts that can help human resources of contemporary organization's in
eliminating organizational behaviour related issues.

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References
Abba, M., Yahaya, L., & Suleiman, N. (2018). explored and Critique of Contingency Theory
for Management Accounting Research. Journal of Accounting and Financial
Management, 4(5), 40-50.
Bruce, K., & Nyland, C. (2011). Elton Mayo and the Deification of Human Relations.
Organization Studies, 32(3), 383-405.
Devendra, A., & Kumar, T. (2013). Employee Motivation at IKEA Espoo. Retrieved from
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1214/bd38ed86a6f485ae1d5f579cdcf65798e475.pdf
Ferraro, S. (2016). Frederick Taylor’s other Principles. International Journal of Business and
Social Science, 7(11), 24-27.
Glazer, R. (2016). The Biggest Lesson from Volkswagen: Culture Dictates Behavior.
Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/254178
Lombardo, J. (2019). Walmart: Organizational Structure & Organizational Culture.
Retrieved from http://panmore.com/walmart-organizational-structure-organizational-
culture
Peretomode, O. (2012). Situational And Contingency Theories Of Leadership: Are They The
Same? Journal of Business and Management, 4(3), 13-17.
Sharma, N. (2018). Organization Behaviour: Challenges and Opportunities. Journal of
Business and Management, 20(1), 47-51.
Subramanian, K. R. (2017). Employer-Employee Relationship And Impact On Organization
Structure And Strategy. International Journal of Innovative Trends in Engineering,
27(43), 39-45.

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