Organisational Behaviour: Factors Affecting Employee Productivity

This essay delves into the multifaceted aspects of organisational behaviour and its profound impact on employee productivity. It examines key factors such as job design, emphasizing the importance of aligning tasks with employee skills and preferences, as well as the role of job enlargement, rotation, and enrichment. The essay also explores the influence of working conditions, highlighting the significance of a comfortable and safe physical environment, along with a positive psychosocial environment that fosters respect for diverse cultures and promotes open communication. Furthermore, the essay discusses the critical role of goal setting, advocating for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals to enhance employee motivation and performance. It also touches upon the importance of motivation and rewards in driving productivity. The essay concludes by emphasizing the active role managers play in shaping a productive and supportive work environment, offering practical strategies to enhance employee engagement and overall organisational success.

Running head: ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................2
Design of jobs:.................................................................................................................................3
Working conditions:........................................................................................................................5
Setting of goals:...............................................................................................................................6
Motivation and rewards:..................................................................................................................8
Conclusion:......................................................................................................................................9
References:....................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction:
Employee and workplace productivity are interconnected terms. Managers play an
important function in maintaining the enthusiasm of employees in ways that result in producing
the highest productivity. Often it is seen that different types of factors may induce job stress
among the different employees. The development of job stress often affects the productivity for
which organizational goals are either not met, or the results are delayed (Davis et al. 2014).
Therefore, it becomes extremely important for the managers to identify the factors that which are
responsible for developing job stress among the different employees. They should then
implement proper interventions that would help the employees to overcome the various issues
that are faced by them. Therefore, they will be able to concentrate and enjoy their work. Their
motivation would help them to increase the productivity, and hence the organization will receive
success. Some of the proper managerial interventions that managers can take are maintaining a
workplace climate where all cultures will be equally respected and cared . The managers can also
improve employability skills by proper training and encourage autonomy by micromanaging.
Moreover clear communication, boosting productivity by encouraging self-care are some of the
initiatives they can take that will make the employees feel loved and cared for (Tims and Bakker
2014). This, in turn, assures greater productivity. The present study will show how certain
important factors like design jobs, proper working conditions, setting goals, motivation and
rewards affect productivity. It will also suggest how managers can take active roles and help in
providing productivity.

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Design of jobs:
Job design can be defined as the procedure of putting together various elements that help
in forming a job at the same time keeping in mind the various organizational and individual
worker requirements. The job design should be done in such a way that it should also contain
proper considerations of health, safety and different ergonomics. Researchers define this aspect
as the particular way by which a task is set, or an entire position of an employee is developed
(Roos and Shroff 2017). The managers should take an active part in developing a proper job
design, which aligns with the skills and knowledge of the employees.
The managers first try to understand the working preferences of the employees and the
activities that they are comfortable within the organization. The mangers should try to develop
the idea what tasks are to be done, when and how the tasks are to be done and how many tasks
the employees should do. The managers should also ensure that in which order the tasks need to
be done and what factors affect the work. The managers should also ensure proper organization
of the content as well as the tasks so that there remains a proper clarity in what is expected from
the employees and what needs to be done. Researchers are of the opinion that good job design
helps employees to properly understand the relationship of their responsibilities and duties with
that of the organizational goals and values (Truss et al. 2014). Therefore, it becomes very
important for the employees to align and thereby prioritize with the job responsibilities properly.
The managers should allow the input of the employees. Employees should be given the
option to choose activities according to their personal needs, work habits and the circumstances
in the workplace. Moreover, they should also give the employees to develop a sense of

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accomplishment. They should also include training requirements so that employees can
understand what tasks are needed to be done and how those tasks can be completed successfully.
The managers should also ensure that they develop proper working and resting schedules so that
it does not harm their health or causes stress in them due to overworking. The managers should
also ensure that proper feedback is provided to employees about their expected job performance
(Truss et al. 2014).
Managers in this scenario can follow three important techniques. The first one is the job
enlargement that helps in expanding the job horizontally. It helps in increasing the number of
different operations that are required for the job and helps in increasing the job scope and the
frequency with which the job cycle is repeated. By increasing the job diversity, boredom faced
by the employees can be prevented. However, it is stated by many researchers that job
enlargement cannot motivate employees, as the nature of the job remains same. Another is the
job rotation that can be applied by managers for the systematic as well as planned rotation of
individuals in pre-determined jobs. These give scope to employees to gain additional knowledge
and skills. Job enrichment helps to focus on the increase in the depth of the job by developing the
amount of discretion and responsibility of the job-holder. All these helped in designing of jobs
which are suitable for the employees and helping them to develop their performance which is
directly associated with the increase of productivity in the organization (DeBeen and Beijer
2014).
The benefits of proper designing allow effective employee input, employee training, proper
work-rest schedules, and adjustments of physically demanding jobs by reducing the energy spent
doing the job and aligning manpower requirements for the same.

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Example: Managers may rotate jobs between employees like an indoor architect who mainly
designs infrastructure can be sent to outdoor projects like monitoring the work of masons and
similar others. This will result in prevention of boredom and increase of productivity.
Working conditions:
The working environment can be defined as the zone within the organization where employees
work to achieve their goals set by the organization. This aspect can have some areas such as the
physical working environment that ensure overall health and safety of the employees. This
mainly includes the identifiable workplace, causes of accidents and different illness. A
comfortable physical environment in the office helps the employee to work comfortably keeping
different physical barriers away such as inappropriate sitting and working conditions, suffocating
workplace, overcrowded areas and others (Pencavel 2015). All these help the individuals to
develop job satisfaction that in turn increases productivity as the employee looks forward to
coming to his working place. This reduces absenteeism due to physical ailments and productivity
is increased.
Another aspect of the proper working environment is the psychosocial working environment.
This aspect mainly involves many important factors like the set of job factors, which involves
interaction among people, their work and the organization. Well being of the employees needs to
be ensured by maintaining the proper working environment, which boosts the confidence of the
employees. This makes them align with the mission and vision of the organization. One of the
most important attributes that the working environment should possess is respect for all cultures
with equal values. In the present generation, when most of the organizations are competing in the
global market, it becomes important for the managers to maintain proper multi-cultured

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environment where every of the cultures should be equally respected and valued (Jain and Kaun
2014). Present day researchers are of the opinion that when organizations provide respect to
different cultures and provide importance to cultural preferences and inhibitions, employees feel
respected and cared for the organization. This satisfaction ensures higher productivity as the
employee feels integrated into the system.
Moreover, proper relationship building among the employees and continuous exchange
of positive feedbacks among the employees ensure the release of stress experienced by the
workers. They overcome inferior or superior complexes and help each other in ways which helps
to not only meet the organizational goals but helps each other to overcome job stress and
increase productivity. Besides, the workplace which constantly promotes a learning environment
among the employees, motivates them to perform better in a positive manner and acknowledges
the dedication of the workers ensure high productivity (Kozluk and Zipperer 2015). Therefore,
not only hygiene and physical factors in the working environment ensures lower turnover, lower
absenteeism and higher productivity but also psychosocial factors also helps to achieve higher
productivity by developing greater job satisfaction.
For example, if the working area is too much crowded and is not hygienic, it may lead to
different physical issues like transmissions of different infections. Moreover, a crowded working
environment often becomes noisy. This affects concentration of the employees that affects their
productivity.
Setting of goals:
Researchers have stated that goal setting is an important attribute of organizations, for
team building and for individual employees that assures role clarity of the employees and help

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them to meet the organizational vision. Organizational mission usually are broad aspects `which
can never help individuals to understand how to proceed properly to achieve the mission.
Therefore, researchers are of the opinion that it is the responsibility of the managers to break the
mission into some goals, which are easily understood and can be achieved by the employees.
Breaking down the mission into simple goals provides the chance of employees achieving them
easily and hence they become active. They get back motivation and thus by completing each
small goal, they thrive for achieving the organizational mission (Deschamps and Mattijs 2017).
Present day researchers have set particular criteria for the managers in their goal-setting
task for the employees. These attributes make the task easy achievable ensuring that the
employees do not feel demotivated by failing to achieve goals that are not possible to achieve by
them. The goals which are to be set by the managers need to be specific, that it should be clear
about what is needed and how to achieve the goal (Yoon et al. 2015). Setting specific goals helps
the employees to use proper tools that align with the goals and managers at the same time should
provide guidance one needs to improve and attain the goals. Moreover, the goals that will be
developed by the managers for the employees should be measurable. This means that the
employees should make sure that they measure the goals qualitatively or quantitatively over time
(Welsh and Ordonez 2014). It is extremely important for them as measurable goals help them to
develop the feeling that they achieved certain part of the broad mission and this keeps them
motivated. The managers should also ensure that the goals that are developed should be
attainable. Often setting up gaols that are difficult and can never be achieved, demotivate the
employees. The employees feel that they are not competent enough and raise questions about
their strength and credibility. These make them demotivated, and their productivity is hampered.
Therefore, managers should make sure that the goal, they create could be attained properly by

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the employees (Favero et al. 2014). Moreover, managers also need to make sure that the
employees learn how to set timeframes for achieving their goals. These would prevent delaying
in the achieving of the goals and help them to complete the organizational objective within the
deadline fixed by them. Moreover, the managers should also ensure that the goals developed by
them should be relevant which matches the requirement for the broader objective. Setting up
goals that do not help to achieve an aspect of the broader aim should be considered irrelevant and
should not be set for employees. When goal setting is conducted by mangers in the ways
discussed, it ensures productivity from the employees as goals (when achieved) help in meeting
the broader aims set by organizations (Kaasinen et al. 2015).
For example, an organization would have the vision of achieving a certain amount of
profit. However, this vision cannot help employees to understand how to proceed with work.
Managers should make sure that each of them aligns with short SMART goals like meeting
everyday targets, taking workshops to develop skills, reflecting properly each day about how to
develop better, recognizing weak points and many others. All these would ultimately help them
in meeting the vision.
Motivation and rewards:
Managers are often seen to use both positive reinforcements as well as negative
reinforcements for motivating employees to develop their performance and achieve higher
productivity. Many managers believe positive motivation techniques help in encouraging the
different employees to produce more and better quality work to meet the productivity targets set
by organizations (Faisal Ahammad et al. 2015). This technique usually helps in praising the
winning employee by acknowledging his or her dedications and efforts. This not only motivates

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him to be more active to meet the productivity target but also helps the others to try their best to
receive such rewards from their managers (Becker et al. 2015). In addition, many managers
provide negative reinforcements to motivate the employees to change their bad behaviours.
Written warning, suspensions and many others are examples. However, researchers are of the
opinion that negative reinforcements may affect the image of employees for which there might
be increased absenteeism, job stress, or even higher turnover. Therefore, managers should mainly
provide positive reinforcements to ensure that both the quality and quantity of their work is
increased.
Researchers are of the opinion that reward system also has positive impacts on the
productivity of individuals. Incentives, which are one form of rewards, can come in variety of
forms. This usually includes bonuses, travel benefits, vouchers and paid time offs. All these are
provided by the managers as human psychology states that if whatever done by the humans are
appreciated, it results in the development of a sense of accomplishments. This, in turn,
encourages the employees to keep achieving and keep receiving recognition (Howard et al.
2016).
Examples: Managers can help employees get motivated by giving them incentives,
acknowledging their success and dedication and many others.
Conclusion:
The managers have the duties to care for the employees in ways that by which the
employees can perform better and achieve higher productivity. Different factors are directly and
indirectly associated with increase of productivity of the employees. Proper job designs,
workplace environments, motivation and rewards, goal setting all ensure higher satisfaction

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among the employees that release job stress and tensions among them. This ultimately results in
higher productivity.
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