Holmes Institute HC1052 Organizational Behavior Assignment - T2 2019

This assignment delves into various facets of organizational behavior, addressing key concepts through a series of questions. It begins with a reflection on personal movie preferences and the factors influencing differing perceptions, then moves on to explore employee motivation in security screening, and the stages of team development for a new university registration process. The assignment further analyzes leadership theories, contrasting trait and behavioral approaches, and examines the sources of power available to student leaders. A case study on conflict management and negotiation strategies is also included, followed by a personal reflection on the impact of innovation, both sustaining and disruptive. The assignment showcases an understanding of organizational behavior principles, leadership, team dynamics, and innovation.

Organizational behavior

Table of Contents
Question 1:...................................................................................................................................1
Answer 1:.....................................................................................................................................1
Question 2:...................................................................................................................................1
Answer 2:.....................................................................................................................................1
Question 3:...................................................................................................................................2
Answer 3:.....................................................................................................................................2
Question 4:...................................................................................................................................2
Answer 4a:...................................................................................................................................2
Answer 4b:...................................................................................................................................3
Question 5:...................................................................................................................................3
Answer 5:.....................................................................................................................................3
Question 6:...................................................................................................................................4
Answer 6.1:..................................................................................................................................4
Answer 6.2:..................................................................................................................................4
Answer 6.3:..................................................................................................................................5
Question 7:...................................................................................................................................5
Answer 7.1:..................................................................................................................................5
Answer 7.2:..................................................................................................................................6
References....................................................................................................................................7

Question 1:
Choose a film that you have seen recently, and which you particularly enjoyed. Now find a
friend or colleague who has seen the same film, and who hated it.
Discuss your views of that particular film. What factors (age, sex, background, education,
interest, values and beliefs, political views, past experience) can you identify that explain the
differences in perception between you and your friend or colleague?
Answer 1:
A latest movie that I have enjoyed is Alejandro González Iñárritu’s The Revenant. My taste in
movies are more inclined towards raw portrayal of nature, animal and human behavior. I have
loved the contributions made by the two string characters played by Tom Hardy and Leonardo
DiCaprio. On the other hand, a friend of mine also watched the same movie and clearly seemed
to hate the overall movie. On close observation I realized that me and my friend differs in
interest areas which are driven from the culturally different background from which we belong.
Also, his nature is a bit emotional and soft kind, whereas I find myself to be practical and logical.
These different traits of personalities set us apart and made us like and dislike an Academy
Award winning film.
Question 2:
Security screening staff at airport watch thousands of people pass through Ray machines: to do
their job well, they must maintain high levels of concentration on each and every item and
person being scrutinized, without relaxing their standards or daydreaming for even one second.
How might these employees be motivated to provide the security that travel threats now
demands?
Answer 2:
Security screening staff are a well-trained, high I.Q possessing personalities who have amazing
abilities of observation, reaction manipulation and identification of possible gaps against the
appearance of a person crossing the ray machine. It is true that they must remain motivated and
focused for each passenger crossing the bar at all time on their active duty work hour. The
primary force that motivates them is that it is their passion to help and support the country in any
way possible. But from my perspective, motivation is not always enough to deliver high
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performance. These officers are trained rigorously, their characters are built as disciplined and
consistent service providers. These factors might be the possible reason behind the staff
performing at all times on active duty.
Question 3:
Suppose that you are a leader of a team that has just been created to develop a new registration
process at your college or university. How can you use an understanding of the stages of team
development to improve your team's effectiveness?
Answer 3:
The role of a leader is very important in developing a higher performing team. In the premises of
college and at university level, where students come and move at their own will, it is very
difficult to manage the registration process. A proper and well-planned strategy is required to
make a registration desk for ease and convenience of students. The registration desk must also be
expanded to balance the load of incoming students during peak hours. Therefore, the team
members sitting together at the registration desk must have complete knowledge of the process
of registration along with other personality traits. For an efficient team building and high-
performance delivery, the teams can be designed in a manner to schedule quick and high
performers at the peak load hours. Also, the teams should have like minded members to address
the issue, suggest alternative and balance each other to deliver the best possible performance. At
the end of the registration session time, the team member with high levels of manipulation and
data accuracy measurement must be given the tasks to tally and verify the registration details.
Question 4:
Watch the following video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKUPDUDOBVo (Ten Leadership Theories in 5 minutes)
Activity: Answer the following questions:
a. What is the difference between trait and behavior theories of leadership? are the theories valid?
Answer 4a:
A trait is distinguishing characteristic that is inbuilt or inherited. The trait theory of leadership
points out that leadership qualities are observed to identify a suitable leader for the group or
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activity. The theory identifies a lot of traits that are considered good for becoming a leader, or
the downside of the theory is that there is no ideal leadership trait concept here, and neither can
there by any measurement of the extent of traits. The behavioral theory is leadership is very
different from traits theory as it considers that leadership skills can be learnt and practiced over
time for better performance. They are based on behavior and behaviors are subject to change.
b. How can organizations select and develop effective leaders? provide 1 example.
Answer 4b:
Organizations can select and develop effective leaders by many ways, considering various
leadership models. One of the models that fit in the most is that of the situational leadership
theory. A reaction or response in situations occurring out of everyday operations in an
organization says a lot about the characteristics and traits of leadership personality about a
person. For someone, who is calm and patient at the time of difficult circumstances, someone
who can manage the final delivery even at stringent timelines within stressful scenarios and
someone who can manage people and provide ideal direction of movement are considered to be
the best future leaders.
Question 5:
Suggest the sources of power that would be available to a leader of a university's student
organization/association. What sources of power may not be available? To be effective, should
student leaders keep power to themselves or delegates power to other students?
Answer 5:
The sources of power that would be with someone holding the position of student leader at a
university level would be the vast amount of support received from the students. A leader is
selected from the existing students and they are selected based on their capabilities to manage
and manifest the genuine requirements of students. Others prefer one leader over another due to
their characteristic traits measuring their potential to execute duties and of their power of
influence over others. But the leader must also possess the courage and bravery trait to stand
against the management if something goes wrong from their side and is not in the favor of the
students. The power source that would be, therefore, absent here is the support from the
management team members of the college or university.
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In my opinion, to be an effective leader and to get the work done, the power of the leader must
be divided and delegated to others as well. It is only because, the student leader is a single entity
over many students. It is very difficult to observe all areas, listen to all problems and provide
suggestions and solutions to all issues in limited time. A delegated power would not only help in
resolving problems quickly and but would make an effective and high performing team that
delivers results.
Question 6:
Please read the following case study from your prescribed textbook and answer the 3 questions at
the end:
Case study: "Choosing your battles?" p.375:
1. How would you ensure sufficient discussion of contentious issues in a work group? How can
managers bring unspoken conflicts into the open without making them worse?
Answer 6.1:
Contentious issues can be the unspoken and non-communicated problems that may become the
cause of argument or debate in a company. For any organization’s manager or leader, it is very
difficult to uncover the hidden issues that employees are reluctant to speak or discuss about. In
order to ensure a good discussion on contentious issues, a closed forum discussion between team
members, with or without their actual identities can be put together raising the most commonly
observed concern. This would help people to raise their concern and give voice for their
concerns. It is a very safe method to bring forward issues and get them for discussions with an
intention to find a possible set of solution and not to object the process or management of culture
of the organization.
2. How can negotiators use conflict management strategies to their advantage so that differences
in interests lead not to dysfunctional conflicts but rather to positive integrative solutions?
Answer 6.2:
A good negotiator has the potential of discussing and critically evaluating any scenario, weighing
its pros and cons. In case of conflicting issues at workplace, in order to solve the problem and
bring forward an all acceptance solution, it is necessary to view a problem from all sides. A
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negotiator has the best possible set of logical deductions, in order to achieve a goal. Similar
strategies can be used in conflicting scenarios to bring forward the methods and techniques for
reaching a point where both the conflicting parties can compromise on some and agree to some
conditions. These solutions become of conflict resolutions become notable techniques of
problem resolution in a company.
3. Can you think of situations in your own life in which silence has worsened a conflict between
parties? what might have been done differently to ensure that open communication facilitated
collaboration instead?
Answer 6.3:
As a part time contributor and participator to one of the community groups in the region, I
observed a conflicting scenario between an old, experienced and existing employee against a
newly hired and young manager. As the interpersonal relationship with an existing employee
with me were very fine, I used to face the frustration filled conversation from his side. The
person had the complaint that even though he was older in age and older to the company, he
must have been promoted to the rank of manager. Instead the company hired a new fresh
manager to look after things. I usually listened to him and ignored the content. What I now
understand is that, had I tried making the two people sit together and talk or communicated the
conflict of interest to another, probably the environment in the center could have changed and
got better, with no conflicting scenario. This would have opened a channel of interaction where
the possibility of experience and fresh management would have worked together to deliver high
performance overall.
Question 7:
1. Identify three to five sustaining innovations that have affected you over the past year.
Answer 7.1:
A. Groasis Waterboxx - a sustainable innovation that has helped in sustaining plant life even in
desert areas. The innovation brought by Pieter Hoff is basically a recyclable bucket holding
moisture soil for seed germination, sampling incubation and to water the plant that grows.
This could be a very useful innovation to people living in extreme climates.
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B. AirCarbon – the concern for non-degradable waste and its contribution to pollution on the
planet is extreme. Yet people are bound to use certain facility providing aids that although
harm the environment but are still a necessity in living. One such requirement is the plastic
bags. The sustainable innovation of recyclable bags by Newlight Technologies are made
from the carbon elements that would be otherwise be released in the environment.
C. Sundrop Farms – the modernized farming methods that utilizes the power of solar energy and
thermal desalinization process to empower the tools utilized in farming (Mylan, 2019).
2. Identify three to five disruptive innovations that have affected you. Did you welcome these
innovations because they were Beneficial’s, or did you have cause to complain?
Answer 7.2:
A. Artificial Intelligent Systems – the AI based systems that help and assist people in operating
machinery and equipment are one of the most disruptive innovations. They are not only
becoming smarter themselves and in turn making the mankind duffer and stupid, to a level
that writing the right spellings in many cases has become a challenge (Wilson & Tyfield,
2018).
B. Big Data analysis Models – the power of data, meta-data analysis using tools and techniques
of highly capable software is making the world and trends predictive. There aren’t any new
and first-time events in business. Most of the decisions have been taken already and the
dependency on data manipulation is extremely high.
C. Internet of things – the internet of everything now is such a disruptive hit on the backbone of
human race, as it is not only weakening the overall societies but is also pushing the people to
go live on every opportunity they get. All sort of data is placed online, all communication is
through internet and all modes of communication are making the private and peaceful life to
a competitive race that has no end line (Greenland, et al., 2018).
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References
Greenland, S., Levin, E., Dalrymple, J. & O’Mahony, B., 2018. Sustainable innovation adoption
barriers: water sustainability, food production and drip irrigation in Australia. Social
Responsibility Journal..
Mylan, J., 2019. Sustainable innovation, consumption and everyday life. In: Handbook of
Sustainable Innovation. s.l.:Edward Elgar Publishing.
Wilson, C. & Tyfield, D., 2018. Critical perspectives on disruptive innovation and energy
transformation. Energy Research & Social Science, Volume 37, pp. 211-215.
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