Analyse Organisational Behaviour Theories for Employee Performance

This essay delves into the realm of organisational behaviour, exploring its critical role in shaping employee performance within corporations. It begins by defining organisational behaviour and highlighting its significance in attracting and retaining talented employees. The essay then analyses vari...Read More

Running head: ENCOURAGING PRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE
[Organisational
Behaviour]
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ENCOURAGING PRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE
Analysing Organisational Behaviour Theories for Encouraging
Employees’ Productive Performance
A study of human and group behaviour in a corporation in order to influence their performance is defined as
organisational behaviour; it is described as an application of psychology in a business environment for
positively influencing employees’ performance. The popularity of organisational behaviour theories has
grown with the requirement of qualified employees; corporations focus on establishing a positive working
environment to attract talented employees throughout the world and retain them in the firm (Bakker and
Schaufeli, 2008). Managers play a crucial role in formulating and implementing organisational behaviour
theories across different processes of an enterprise to positively influence employees’ productive
performance. Effective managers use organisational behaviour theories to study their employees’ attitude
and behaviour which provide them information that can be utilised by them to influence their performance
(Robbins, 2009). This essay will discuss the role of organisational behaviour theories in positively influencing
employees’ productive performance. The essay will analyse various organisational behaviour theories to
understand how managers can use them to improve employees’ performance and implement them across
different processes. Further, the essay will evaluate recommendations that assist managers in effectively
implementing organisational behaviour theories to improve employees’ productive performance.
A manager is a person who supervises employees and groups in corporations to coordinate their work in
order to accomplish common organisational objectives. Managers focus on establishing a positive working
environment in the company by establishing a positive relationship between different entities and resolving
their quarries (Umphress, Bingham and Mitchell, 2010). One of the primary roles of managers is to supervise
employees’ related issues to ensure that workers are performing collaboratively to achieve corporate
objectives. There are various factors in a workplace which influence employees’ performance, such as job
design, working condition, motivation policies and others, and managers are required to take special care
while performing these activities. These factors have a significant influence on employees’ performance, and
managers should ensure that these factors positively work towards increasing workers’ performance (Kim
and Brymer, 2011). There are various reasons due to which modern corporations implement organisational
behaviour theories, and they result in addressing various human capital related issues. One of the primary
issues faced by modern companies is diverse work environment. Due to digitalisation and globalisation, it is
easier for corporations to hire employees from different countries, nationalities, cultures, race, and religion.
Organisational face various cross-cultural related issues which negatively influence employees performance;
these issues can be resolved by the implementation of organisational behaviour theories in the enterprise.
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While designing jobs for employees, managers have to pay special care towards employee’s personality to
ensure that the work is suitable and challenging for him because it influences his/her productive
performance. The job which is not suitable for employee’s personality increases the issues of job
dissatisfaction, absenteeism, disputes, and others. For example, an employee with extraversion personality
can be a great supervisor but giving him desk job can result in decreasing his/her performance (Lounsbury et
al., 2009). The ‘Personality-Job Fit Theory’ given by John Holland can be implemented by managers to ensure
that jobs assigned to each employee match their personality. The theory divided personalities into six parts:
investigative, artistic, conventional, realistic, social and enterprising. An employee’s satisfaction with his/her
job directly correlates with the degree to which his/her personality matches the occupational environment.
In addition, managers who understand employees’ personalities also get benefits during decision-making,
problem-solving, job interactions and others (Nauta, 2010). In order to implement this theory across
different processes in a company, managers should implement it during recruitment and selection process. It
will assist them in hiring candidates who are suitable for company’s environment and assigning them jobs
based on their personalities which will result in increasing their productive performance.
Other than designing suitable jobs, positive working environment is a key requirement in modern
corporations which encourage employees to increase their performance. Negative working environment can
decrease employees’ morale and performance, it increases retention rate and decreases the quality of
customer service (Kaptein, 2008). Employees feel discouraged in a negative working environment which
increases dispute between workers. To address these issues, managers can implement organisational
behaviour theories which analyse employees’ behaviour and attitude to establish a positive working
environment that encourages workers to improve their performance. Managers should implement ‘Conflict-
resolution theory’ to resolve the dispute between workers which focus on five key actions: competing,
collaborating, compromising, avoiding and accommodating. Competing focus on personal goals rather than
relationships whereas collaborating search for a solution which is suitable for everyone (Behfar et al., 2008).
Compromising is also called mid-way solution which is suitable in a situation where both conflicting parties
are equally liable. Avoiding is ignoring the conflict to resolving it through time. Accommodating is searching
for a common ground to settle. Managers should implement this theory after assessing the situation.
Managers should ensure that employees with different religion and caste receive similar respect and
employees are treated equally across different process (Tjosvold, 2008). It results in improving company’s
working condition which increases employees’ productive performance.
Setting goals for employees can assist managers in establishing a competitive working environment which
encourages employees to increase their productive performance and achieve organisational objectives. The
study of IZA (2015) provided that setting right goals can boost business productivity by lifting employees’
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performance. Similarly, the research of Gallo (2011) provided that managers should establish small goals for
employees that are connected with large company’s goals which result in increasing firm’s profitability.
Organisational behaviour theories can assist managers in determining goals for employees which challenge
them to increase their performance but at the same time, not too difficult that they discourage them. ‘Goal-
setting theory’ can be implemented by the managers that encourage employees to increase their productive
performance. In this strategy, incentives of employees increase along with the achievement of each goal
which result motivates employees to improve their productive performance. Managers have to follow
various principles in order to increase the effectiveness of this strategy (Senko, Hulleman and Harackiewicz,
2011). The goals must be clear and measurable, and they must have a specific timeline. The objective must
have a decent level of difficulty which encourages employees to strive towards achieving them. Commitment
of employees is necessary, and they must put deliberate effort to meet the goals. Managers are requiring
taking feedback from employees regularly to ensure that goals are not too difficult for them. The task
complexity is another crucial factor, and the goal must have a learning curve for employees (Latham,
Borgogni, and Petitta, 2008). Managers should set different goals for employees in different processes to
ensure that this strategy is applied to different divisions.
Highly motivated employees perform at their highest capacity which increases companies’ profitability and
provide them a competitive advantage over competitors. The ‘Hierarchy of Needs’ is one of the most
popular motivation theory given by Abraham Maslow. The theory divided needs of employees into five
categories based on their hierarchy and managers can assess them to implement motivational strategies for
their employees. The needs include physiological, safety, belonging, esteem and self-actualisation.
Physiological needs include basic requirements such as food, drink, air, water, sleep (Cao et al., 2013). Safety
needs include protection from different elements such as law, order, security, freedom from fear.
Belongingness needs include social needs such as friendship, trust, acceptance, and intimacy. Esteem needs
include two categories: esteem for oneself and desire for reputation. Esteem for oneself includes
independence, achievement, and dignity whereas the desire for reputation is the need for respect. Self-
actualisation includes self-fulfillment needs such as realising personal potential, personal growth and others
(Udechukwu, 2009). Employees working in different processes have different need requirements, for
example, top-level executive have self-actualisation and esteem needs whereas low-level workers have
safety or belongings needs. Managers should evaluate needs of employees from different process to
implement a motivation strategy that increases their productive performance.
While implementing these theories, following recommendations should be implemented by managers to
implement it across different processes and increase the effectiveness of theories. The managers should
understand that one organisational behaviour theory is not suitable for different processes and issues.
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Managers should assess their business structure before implementing an organisational behaviour theory to
ensure that it covers desired processes. The managers should interact with employees to learn more about
their behaviour and issue face by them; such information can be used by the manager while developing an
organisational behaviour theory. Different employees have different motivators; some workers prefer
monetary benefits such as higher salary, bonus or incentives whereas other prefer non-monetary rewards
such as appraisal, recognition, belongings and personal growth. Therefore, managers should analyse their
company’s requirements to ensure that organisational behaviour theories are suitable for their business, and
they are focused towards increasing employees’ productive performance.
In conclusion, managers can use organisation behaviour theories to increase employees’ productive
performance which is beneficial for companies’ growth. Managers have to take special care while
performing business activities which influence employees’ performance such as working conditions, setting
goals, job designing and motivation and reward. Various organisational behaviour theories can be
implemented managers such as Personality-Job Fit Theory, Conflict-resolution theory, Goal-setting theory
and Hierarchy of Needs theory to positively influence employees’ performance. Various recommendations
have been discussed above that can be followed by managers to ensure that they develop appropriate
organisational behaviour theories and implement them across different processes. Effective organisational
behaviour theories assist corporations in increasing their employees’ productive performance which
enhances companies’ profitability and provides them a competitive advantage.
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