Tag Archives: Management Concepts

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Concept of Personality in Organizational Behavior

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The term personality has been derived from the Latin word “Persona” which was associated with Greek theater in ancient times. The Greek actors commonly used to wear masks on their faces during their performances on the stage. The mask worn by the actors was called persona. Personality was thought to be the effect and influence which the individual wearing a mask left on the audience.

Personality is a term that has many general meanings. Sometimes the word refers to the ability to get along well socially. For example, we speak of experiences or relationships, which are said to give a person “more personality.” The term may also refer to the most striking impression that an individual makes on other people. We may say, ‘she has a shy personality’. To a psychologist, personality is an area of study that deals with complex human behavior, including emotions, actions, and cognitive (thought) processes. Psychologists study the patterns of behavior that make individuals different from one another. The word personality is used not only in the field of psychology, but can be applied in most of the other fields of one day-to-day life.

Personality in Organizational Behavior refers to a dynamic concept that describes the growth and development of an individual’s whole psychological system, which looks at some aggregate whole that is greater than the sum of the parts. Personality is the dynamic organisation within the individual of those psychological systems that determine his unique adjustment to environment. The conduct, behavior, activities, movements and everything else concerning the individual are known as personality.… Read the rest

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Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions

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Dr. Greet Hofsted had conducted a comprehensive study and explained how culture influences the values at the work place. He worked as a psychologist in IBM from 1967 to 1973. In the time of working in IBM he has collected the analyzed data from aver 100000 individual from more than forty different countries. To the above study he made some additions and he developed four dimensions and later on he added fifth dimension that is long term outlook. Geert Hofstede’s dimensions investigation can support the trade individual in enhance understanding the intercultural variance within regions.

“Culture is more often a source of conflict than of synergy. Cultural differences are a nuisance at best and often a disaster.” – Dr. Geert Hofstede

The different dimensions of the Geert hofstede are explained below they are

  1. Power distance index (PDI)
  2. Individualism (IDV)
  3. Masculinity (MAS)
  4. Uncertainty avoidance index (UAI)
  5. Long term orientation (LTO)

Power distance index (PDI)

This dimension explains about the degree of equality or inequality between the people in the society of a nation. A high power ranking shows the inequalities of power and wealth which have been allowed to grow with in the society. The societies are mostly following a caste system which does not permits upward mobility of its citizens. Power distance is defined as “the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organisations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally”.

Individualism/collectivism (IDV)

The second dimension of hofstede is individualism/collectivism. The concept in this dimension is discussed most frequently and it is the researched concept.… Read the rest

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Guidance in Management

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The Concept of Guidance

Guidance in management can be defined as: – “The act or process of guiding” or “The one who shows the way by leading, directing, or advising. “ or “The one who serves as a model for others, as in a course of conduct.”

Good manager guide their employees to continually learn new skills and work toward organizational goals, while being sensitive to their needs. This kind of guidance gives employees a vested interest in their organization, which will affect the quality of their work. The good manager is a leader, not an order giver.

When a manager tells an employee what he want done, instead of giving an order, the manager give their employees the freedom to come up with their best way of getting that task done. It may not always be the best way, and the manager may have to do some monitoring and guiding, but there is also the chance that they will come up with something better than what the manager has planned.

When an employee is given an instruction, they have to think. They have to think of ways to get the job done. They have to decide which is the best way. They have to invest a little of themselves in the solution.

Also, when a manager give an employee an instruction, and lets his employees decide for themselves the best way to accomplish the task, they are more likely to get their buy-in and support. If they have made the decision about the best way to accomplish the task they are more likely to believe it is correct and valuable.… Read the rest

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Jay Galbraith’s Star Model of Organizational Design

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Organizational design is not simply about structure and the resulting organizational chart. It is about the relationships between people, work, formal structures and informal practices and behaviors. It is about the way in which an organization structures and coordinates its people and process so it can benefit from its unique capabilities over the long-term. It determines who makes decisions and how those decisions will be made. It changes the role of the leaders as they become less decision makers and more decision shapers. Through organizational design, leaders become the shapers of the organization’s decision-making process. Organizational design and the resulting capabilities are the last sustainable sources of competitive advantage.

Star Model of Organizational Design is a well-known model that has been used for decades to identify the key elements of an organization and focus on the issue of strategy and strategy implementation. Developed by Jay Galbraith, an American consultant and manager in the 1970s, Star Model of Organizational Design looks at how an organization’s framework can be used to guide decision-making and behavior. The star model is a widely accepted organizational design model because of the strategy approach that seamlessly links competitive advantage to strategy to structure, people, lateral processes and reward mechanisms.

  1. Strategy: Determine direction through goals, objectives, values and mission. The strategy specifically delineates the products or services to be provided, the markets to be served, and the value to be offered to the customer. It also specifies sources of competitive advantage. It also defines the criteria for selecting an organizational structure (for example functional or matrix).
… Read the rest

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Delegation – The future of People Management

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Many managers or team leaders feel quite threatened by the whole concept of delegation – after all they may have taken some time to reach their current position, so why should they start to give their much coveted job away?

Benefits of effective Delegation

Benefits to the organization:

  • Optimum use of staff resources
  • Tasks performed at the cheapest rate consistent with quality
  • Wider ownership of company mission and objectives
  • Reduce vulnerability to unexpected absences

Benefits to the manager:

  • Free time for more vital tasks
  • Develops staff for wider role
  • Increased staff motivation
  • Spreads the ownership of achieving departmental objectives

Benefits to the individual:

  • Develops increased skills or knowledge
  • Motivation
  • Shows wider view of the company
  • Builds trust and confidence

Trying to decide what to delegate is made easier if we first of all decide which tasks should not be delegated.

Things to consider when deciding what to delegate:
  • Ruthlessly analyse your abilities and the limits of your time, so that you can identify what can best be delegated.
  • By delegating, leave yourself free to do the work that only you can do.
  • Re-examine the tasks you find particularly easy – it may be appropriate to delegate these as well as the tasks you don’t want to do
  • Don’t delegate exceptional tasks, such as tasks only you can do in time or to the required standard
  • Don’t delegate tasks involving confidentiality or particularly sensitive info
  • Use the delegation of important tasks to enrich the team member’s task, improve performance and raise morale.
… Read the rest
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Leadership and Followership

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All-important social accomplishment requires complex group effort and, therefore, leadership and followership. Leader-follower relationship is two way, leader as well as followers have great capacity to influence the relationship. Just as a leader is accountable for the actions and performance of followers, so followers are accountable for their leaders. Followers support leaders when necessary and help them correct their actions, just as leaders must support followers and help them to correct their actions. This is partnership and both sides must be proactive. Organizations are successful or not partly on the basis of how well their leaders lead, but also in great part on the basis of how well their followers follow. Courageous followers help leaders stay on track and manage their decision-making processes in the right direction. Responsible and effective followers have a critical role in maintaining the desired partnering dynamics. In his book The Courageous Follower, Ira Chaleff points out that the old paradigm of the leader/follower is based on power. The leader has traditionally had the power to reward and promote, this has led to a relationship in which the follower avoids jeopardizing their chances of obtaining these rewards. Hence, the follower tends to do what the leader wants and, just as important, not offend or create a negative impression of them. A relationship based on this kind of power does not serve the organization, it shuts down the open flow of communication and candor a leader needs to order to optimize their effectiveness. Chaleff sees a very different kind of relationship between leader and follower.… Read the rest