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Take a look at my mind map!

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Key features that makes a company successful.

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Successful company cultures manifest seven distinct characteristics as well. These are company cultures that indicate growth and an upward dynamic, and they are typically characterized by a high level of teamwork and engagement. Here are the seven characteristics of successful company cultures.

1. A purpose-driven company culture

Successful company cultures are company cultures in which employees have a clear sense of purpose; employees understand their immediate and long term goals. This is important, because an organization with purpose shifts people and resources forward in order to achieve goals rather than simply managing them, and achieving goals is what it's all about, isn't it? So purpose is a key ingredient for a strong, sustainable, scalable organizational culture.

It's more than that, though. Purpose is an inspirational driver for engaging employees and communities. When a leader establishes a clear purpose for the organization, it will become the inspirational driver for engaging employees and so provide them with a concrete source for motivation. In other words, the organization's strategies, capabilities, and culture become the engine behind the organization's purpose.

What's more, the connection between purpose and performance is clear. There's mounting evidence that aligning an organization with a higher purpose drives business results. A 2014 study by Deloitte found that an organization that focuses on purpose is an organization that inspires higher levels of confidence among stakeholders and one that boosts growth. Similarly, a 2010 Burson-Marsteller/IMD Corporate Purpose Impact study found that a strong and well-communicated corporate purpose can contribute up to 17 percent improvement in financial performance. And that's just in the short term. The longer-term benefits of having employees aligned with a strong sense of purpose are incalculable.

2. Effective communication patterns

Effective communication patterns within successful organizations have three main characteristics: clarity, courtesy, and proactivity.

Clarity is a vital element in effective communication, because it's important for messages and information to be transferred in a transparent, clear, and concise manner. This is true regardless of where the messages com: managers to employees or within teams. It's the clarity of these messages that allows them to be heard and processed by the receiver -- and that makes clarity invaluable! Often, people don't communicate their messages clearly enough, because they are afraid of upsetting people. They may be afraid to say what they really want to say, or they dance around the actual message, hoping to get avoid saying what they actually want to say. In organizations where employees express themselves clearly and safely, teams work together better, and productivity is increased as a result.

Courtesy is another important aspect of communication, as it allows for messages to be transmitted within an atmosphere of safety and respect. It manifests respect for the other person and gets the message across within the safe limits of that respect. In this way, feedback, information, and messages can be transferred with minimal concern for getting hurt or hurting others.

Proactivity is a yet another crucial aspect of an effective communication pattern, because the only way to conduct a productive discussion is to conduct a proactive one. In real terms, this means that all parties in the discussion are forward looking rather than engaging with the past, which leads to blame and accusations. A forward-looking discussion is based on the notion that whatever happened has happened, and it can't be changed, so the discussion is more centered on what we can do from this point going forward in order to reach our goals or operate better as a team.

Feedback is great for so many reasons, and fostering a culture of feedback is crucial to the success of every organization. Why? Because feedback pushes higher levels of performance. Creating an open, feedback-oriented company culture requires people to be receptive to giving and receiving feedback and to understanding when and how to give it. Feedback can come from many different people and places. These people or places could be internal or external, and the feedback could be about any aspect of organizational life, including leadership and vision, management and internal practices, and operations. A culture of feedback means not only that feedback is given and received but that it is given and received safely, clearly, and productively, with sensitivity to diversity of cultures, personalities, and situations.

Cultural sensitivity is the awareness of practices and cultures that are different from your own. A culture that embraces diversity has an awareness of different cultures, of how these cultures should be properly approached, and how to communicate with them accordingly. Leaders and team members evaluate how certain cultural differences affect how people work, communicate, and interact without judging, making assumptions, discriminating, or stereotyping.

A company culture that embraces diversity is centered on tolerance and acceptance of others, which fosters teamwork and a general sense of collaboration.

Creating, enhancing, and celebrating teamwork is at the heart of every successful company culture. A culture of teamwork focuses on team accomplishments rather than on individual accomplishments, encourages collaboration, and allows for tasks to be completed in a faster, better, and more efficient manner. One of the most common misconceptions about teamwork is that the success of a team is based on the personalities of the team members. The truth is that while personalities that work well together certainly make teamwork easier, the real success or failure of teamwork is derived from structure. Teams need to know what the expectations are and what the roles and rules are. Those need to be reinforced and clarified to all team members, and once this structure is in place, teamwork becomes much easier.

6. Engagement and loyalty

Employee engagement is a hot topic at the moment, and raising employee engagement has become one of the highest priorities for organizations around the world. The problem is that while leaders have come to appreciate the importance of having a fully engaged employee, they often have a very limited understanding of what really drives employee engagement and of how to actually maintain or even increase it. In the 1990s, William Kahn, professor of organizational behavior at Boston University, introduced the term "engagement" based on his observation that people have a choice as to how much of themselves they're willing to invest in their jobs. Kahn discovered that employees were far more emotionally and physically engaged when they experienced the following:

Psychological meaningfulness: a sense that their work was worthwhile and made a difference.

Psychological safety: a feeling they were valued, accepted, respected, and able to perform their job in a positive work environment.

Availability: routinely feeling secure and self-confident in terms of their ability to perform their job.

Nearly twenty-five years later, these three elements remain at the heart of most theories of employee engagement. The most interesting fact as far as engagement is concerned is that pay isn't even on the list! While fair compensation will always be a key component of job satisfaction, the research shows us that it's not necessarily a day-to-day motivator of engagement. The conclusion for organizations everywhere is this: Employee engagement can never be bought; it must be earned.

7. Growth and development

Successful company cultures always offer their employees opportunities for growth, both in terms of training and in terms of their ability to grow as individuals or as teams -- acquiring new skills and, as a result, new possibilities. It's the manager's job not only to obtain the best possible performance from employees but to obtain the best possible performance from them while at the same time helping them to grow. Opportunities for growth are an incredibly determining factor in employee engagement, and there are various types of growth opportunities that companies can offer employees.

Motivated people who work hard would typically expect to move forward and upward in terms of their position. If they do not see any possibility for position-based growth at any point, it may decrease their engagement, and in some cases it may cause them to leave.

Engaged and motivated employees would also seek the opportunity to enhance their skills and improve their knowledge. People desire to feel that they are progressing as professionals and that their workplace allows for that growth.

Financial growth is important to employees, as it can act as an indicator of their value and worth to the company -- and of course, they hope to increase this over time. Lack of financial growth is perceived by employees as lack of growth in terms of their own value for the company, which may lead to disengagement and even increased staff turnover.

Employees perform best when the environment is growth oriented, which is an essential characteristic of successful company cultures.

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The Seven Characteristics Of Successful Company Cultures

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Successful company cultures manifest seven distinct characteristics as well. These are company cultures that indicate growth and an upward dynamic, and they are typically characterized by a high level of teamwork and engagement. Here are the seven characteristics of successful company cultures. 1.

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As a result of changing economy and workforce also our nature of organization changes check the link to find out detailed information.

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Introduction

Imagine you went to sleep and woke up to a work day in 1960. How different is your work life today, compared to what it was 40 years ago? Clearly, there would not be a Starbucks on every corner or a cell phone in every pocket-but what else has changed and why?

In today's world, the structure, content, and process of work have changed. Work is now:

more cognitively complex

more team-based and collaborative

more dependent on social skills

more dependent on technological competence

more time pressured

more mobile and less dependent on geography.

In today's world, you will also be working for an organization that is likely to be very different due to competitive pressures and technological breakthroughs. Organizations today are:

leaner and more agile

more focused on identifying value from the customer perspective

more tuned to dynamic competitive requirements and strategy

less hierarchical in structure and decision authority

less likely to provide lifelong careers and job security

continually reorganizing to maintain or gain competitive advantage.

This Resource Page explores the changing nature of organizations and work, the drivers behind the changes, and the consequences for workers and the workplace.

Description

A. The Key Drivers for Changing Nature of Work

Although many factors ultimately contribute to the changing patterns of work, organizational theorists point to two key drivers:

Increasing pressures on organizations to be more competitive, agile, and customer focused-to be a "lean enterprise."

Communication and information technology breakthroughs, especially mobile technologies and the Internet that enable work to be separated from time and space.

Changes in Organizational Focus: What does it Mean to be Lean?

The Lean Enterprise model was introduced to the world by Toyota in the 1970s. Since then, it has fueled changes in organizations across the globe, particularly-but not exclusively-in manufacturing and product development.

The key principles of Lean Enterprise (or "lean thinking", as it is sometimes called) are:

Define value from the customer's perspective.

Identify internal activities and processes that add value for the customer and identify linkages between them (the "value chain").

Eliminate non-value added activities (or "waste") across the organization.

Reduce waste and inefficiencies in support (e.g., overhead) functions.

The lean enterprise principles enabled many organizations to respond more rapidly to the marketplace by reducing cycle time, developing mass customization processes, and supporting continual change and innovation.

Creating the Lean Machine: Changes in Organizational Structure and Relationships

Adopting lean principles and lean thinking has led to numerous changes in organizational structure to improve the efficiency of internal processes, with a goal of eliminating waste and defining customer value.

These changes have been supported and enabled by transformations in information and communications technology, especially the Internet and mobile computing and communication devices.

Key organizational changes include:

Reduced hierarchical structure -Hierarchies are cumbersome and cannot respond quickly to changing market demands, such as pressures for reduced cycle time and continuous innovation. Hierarchies are being replaced by cross unit organizational groupings with fewer layers and more decentralized decision making.

Blurred boundaries -As organizations become more laterally structured, boundaries begin to breakdown as different parts of the organization need to work more effectively together. Boundaries between departments as well as between job categories (manager, professional, technical) become looser and there is a greater need for task and knowledge sharing.

Teams as basic building blocks -The move toward a team-based organizational structure results from pressures to make rapid decisions, to reduce inefficiencies, and to continually improve work processes.

New management perspective -Workers are no longer managed to comply with rules and orders, but rather to be committed to organizational goals and mission. The blurring of boundaries also affects organizational roles. As employees gain more decision authority and latitude, managers become more social supporters and coaches rather than commanders.

Continuous change -Organizations are expected to continue the cycles of reflection and reorganization. However, changes may be both large and small and are likely to be interspersed with periods of stability. Kling and Zmuidzinas identify three types of change-"metamorphosis" (far reaching, fundamental change), "migration" (shifts toward a new form), and "elaboration" (changes that enhance some aspect of work).

B. How Work is Changing for Individuals and Groups

Over the past two decades, a new pattern of work is emerging as the knowledge economy realizes the full potential of both new technologies and new organizational models. The changes fall into the following domains:

Cognitive competence

Social and interactive competence

The new "psychological contract" between employees and employers

Changes in process and place

Although these domains are discussed separately, they overlap. We briefly discuss the overlaps, where they exist, and point to the benefits and concerns the new work patterns present for workers and managers.

Cognitive Competence

Cognitive workers are expected to be more functionally and cognitively fluid and able to work across many kinds of tasks and situations. The broader span of work, brought about by changes in organizational structure, also creates new demands, including:

Increased complexity of work -Workers need to know more, not only to do their jobs and tasks, but also to work effectively with others on teams. Many knowledge-based tasks require sound analytical and judgment skills to carry out work that is more novel, extemporaneous, and context based, with few rules and structured ways of working. Although demand for high cognitive skills are especially prominent in professional, technical, and managerial jobs, even administrative tasks require more independent decision making and operational decision making.

Continuous competency development -Not only do workers need to keep their technology skills up to date, they need to be continuous learners in their knowledge fields and to also be more conversant with business strategy. Time to read and attend training classes is no longer a perquisite of only a few, it is essential for all workers.

Different ways of thinking -Rosabeth Kantor argues that cross-functional and cross boundary teams require "kaleidoscope thinking," the ability to see alternative angles and perspectives and to create new patterns of thinking that propel innovation. Workers also need to be able to synthesize disparate ideas in order to make the cognitive leaps that underlie innovation.

Cognitive Overload: The Cost of Complexity

Vastly increased access to information has made work both easier and more difficult. The ease comes from ability to rapidly locate and download information from diverse web sites. The difficulty comes with the need to consume and make sense of new information in a timely fashion. Information overload, coupled with time pressures and increased work complexity, lead to what psychologists call "cognitive overload syndrome (COS)." Symptoms of COS include stress, inability to concentrate, multitasking, task switching, and a tendency to focus on what is easy to do quickly rather than what is important.

Social and Interactive Competence

In a 2001 report on the changing nature of work, the National Research Council called attention to the importance of relational and interactive aspects of work. As collaboration and collective activity become more prevalent, workers need well-developed social skills-what the report calls "emotional labor."

Good social skills are necessary for:

Team work and collaboration -Conflict resolution and negotiation skills are essential to collaborative work. Conflicts often occur about group goals, work methods, assignments, workloads, and recognition. Team members with good conflict and negotiation skills are better equipped to deal openly with problems, to listen and understand different perspectives, and to resolve issues in mutually beneficial ways.

Relationship development and networking -Sharing important information, fulfilling promises, willingness to be influenced, and listening are building blocks of reciprocity and the development of trust. When workers trust one another, they are more committed to attaining mutual goals, more likely to help one another through difficulties, and more willing to share and develop new ideas.

Learning and growth -Many organizations strive to be learning centers-to create conditions in which employees learn not only through formal training but through relationships with coworkers. Learning relationships build on joint problem solving, insight sharing, learning from mistakes, and working closely together to aid transmission of tacit knowledge. Learning also develops from mentoring relationships between newcomers and those with experience and organizational know-how.

The Costs of Collaborative Environments

In a collaborative work setting, the fate of individuals is inextricably bound to collective success. Dependence on others for one's own success is often uncomfortable. As Susan Mohrman and Susan Cohen write in a chapter from The Changing Nature of Work:

"We have been socialized to value individual responsibility and individual achievement, and feel discomfort with the thought of relying on others."

Comments about the fear of not having individual efforts recognized are common in the literature on team work.

Collaboration and relationship development also take time and effort. Understanding coworkers' perspectives and "thought worlds" requires time spent listening, integrating, and synthesizing. For those workers recognized as both knowledgeable and approachable, the demands of interaction may be especially high.

C. The New Psychological Contract

As work changes, so does the nature of the relationships between employees and employers. In the new work context, the informal, "psychological contract" between workers and employers-what each expects of the other-focuses on competency development, continuous training, and work/life balance. In contrast, the old psychological contract was all about job security and steady advancement within the firm. As already discussed, few workers expect, or desire, lifelong employment in a single firm.

As job security declines, many management scientists see clouds on the horizon, including:

Corporate indifference-Shoshana Zuboff and James Maxmin, in The Support Economy, describe a new individualism among U.S. workers. These new individuals are invested in "psychological self determination." They desire participation, expression, identity, and quality of life-all values which are espoused by organizations, but largely ignored in practice as organizations continue to focus on reducing fixed labor costs.

Reduced loyalty and commitment -With little expectation for advancement, workers feel less committed to organizational goals and more committed to their own learning and development. The knowledge and technological skills that employees bring with them to the workplace are transportable and are not lost when a new job is taken.

Increased time burdens -Years of downsizing and outsourcing have produced what Lesie Perlow calls a "time famine"-the feeling of having too much to do and too little time to do it. In order to keep up with workloads, many workers are spending longer hours at work, according to reports by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Center for Workforce Development.

Flexible work arrangements do not keep up with employee preferences -The Work Trends 2000 report found that 74% of workers were not allowed flexible hours and work arrangements (such as telecommuting). Those with flex hours have limited freedom regarding when and where to work. The vast majority of workers have to commit to a specific day to work at home or a specific day to take off if they work four10-hour days.

D. The Changing Workplace

The changing workplace is driven by the organizational issues described above and enabled by technologies that support mobility and easy access to information. These pressures and opportunities, however, have not resulted in a specific new workplace model. Many models and ideas exist concurrently, with designs depending upon the organization, its work practices, culture, and customers. Table 1 highlights key drivers, solutions, and potential issues raised by the solution.
Table 1. Drivers, Solutions, and Issues for the Changing Workplace

Drivers

Workplace and technology solutions

Issues and concerns

Increased use of teams and cross unit work; more pressure for communication and information flow

More meeting space

Greater variety of meeting spaces (open & enclosed, large & small)

Smaller individual workspaces

More open individual workspaces

Unassigned workspaces

Greater interior visibility to support awareness

Mobile supports (phones, laptops, PDAs, wireless)

Personal video, instant messaging, desktop team software

More use of project rooms

Displayed information and work progress

Small rooms for individual focus

Lockers for personal belongings

Increased noise

Increased distractions and interruptions

Potential for "over communicating"

Cultural barriers to behavioral change

Individuals working longer hours to compensate for lack of time to do individual tasks

Expectations that workers are always available

Greater use of dispersed work groups-often global

Increased use of video conferencing, computer-based team tools

More reliance on conference calls

Greater need for mobile technological supports for meeting rooms

Use of facilities beyond normal working hours

Expansion of the workday to accommodate geographically dispersed team meetings

Loss of opportunity to develop trust through face to face interaction

More difficulty managing and coordinating

Very high dependence on technological reliability

Continual reorganization and restructuring

Acoustical problems with loss of good enclosure

Potential for reduced ergonomic effectiveness

Reduced costs/more efficient space use

Shared or unassigned workspaces

Centralized filing system

Reduced workstation size and increased overall densities

Greater overall spatial variety to enable different kinds of work to be accommodated at same time

Increased distractions and interruptions

Increased noise

May meet with employee resistance

More difficult for paper intensive work

Improved quality of work life and attraction of new workers

More equitable access to daylight, views, and other amenities

More equitable spatial allocation and workspace features

Amenities for stress reduction and quiet relaxation

Resistance from those who support hierarchical space allocation

Application

Examples

Denver Federal Center, Denver, Colorado. Owner: U.S. General Services Administration (GSA)

The Denver workplace project was responding initially to GSA's "Worldclass Workplace for a Worldclass Workforce" program to provide better work environments for associates and to ultimately attract and retain new workers. However, as the project developed, the GSA Public Buildings Service (PBS) team grew more interested in using the workplace as a catalyst for social change and the development of work relationships with the ultimate goal of improving responsiveness to customers.

Key Goals

Improve internal working relationships, especially cross-group communication and collaboration

Reduce workplace stress and increase the overall quality of life for GSA associates

Use the workplace as way to show that PBS is a thought leader, not a follower, in workplace design

Workplace Solutions

Open spaces at central notes for spontaneous interaction

More meeting spaces of a greater variety

A centrally located café for meetings and lunch

A new daylit entry space

A "de-stress" space with pool table, ping pong, exercise room and lounge furnishings (all paid for by the staff through fundraising efforts)

Outcomes for the Denver Project

A research program is currently underway to assess changes in social networks and communication behaviors, workplace stress, and workplace quality. Preliminary findings show that:

Compared to other GSA workplaces, the new Denver workplace scored higher on a number of social outcomes as measured by a web-based survey administered by the University of California, Center for the Built Environment.

A preliminary social network analysis conducted by researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory show that face-to-face interactions are significantly higher than virtual communications among associates in the space. The social network survey will be administered again when the final phase of the workplace renovation is completed.

Workplace stress research is currently underway. Physicians and psychologists at the National Institutes of Health are using innovative technologies to monitor stress over a 24-hour period and are also using behavioral sampling to gather periodic data on mood, activity, and location.

Cisco Systems, Connected Workplace Proof of Concept, San Jose, CA

Like many other organizations today, Cisco came to the conclusion that their workplace environment was at odds with the way they worked. People were seldom at their desks. Meeting spaces were in short supply. Communication was ever more variable-face-to-face, instant messaging, desktop video, phone, e-mail. And work hours shifted dramatically as the need to work globally increased. With these changes in mind, Cisco created the "Connected Workplace." It is currently in the Proof of Concept phase with a new demonstration office space on their campus in San Jose.

Key Goals

Encourage collaboration

Reduce real estate costs

Reduce infrastructure costs

Accommodate different work styles

Project Hypothesis

A flexible, collaborative workspace could improve productivity and increase employee satisfaction while reducing real estate space and costs by increasing user density (from "Cisco Connected Workplace Enhances Work Experience and Cuts Costs," www.cisco.com).

Workplace Solutions

Unassigned workspaces

Increased number and variety of meeting spaces, from enclosed conference rooms and informal areas with comfortable chairs to a centrally located café

Small individual workstations

Highly mobile furnishings and space dividers

Lockers for personal items

Increased density; the space used for the POC would normally hold 88 employees compared to the 140 actually assigned to the workplace

High visibility throughout the space

High daylight and views to the surrounding outdoor landscape

Enabling Technologies

Wireless infrastructure and wireless LANS

Laptops and docking stations

Cisco work support software for individuals and groups

Cisco IP Communications Technology, including software that enables calls over PCs using wired or wireless headsets

Mobile video conferencing tools and software for web meetings

Interactive white boards

Instant messaging, e-mail and voice mail

Tools for enabling workers to quickly locate each other in different areas of the building

Outcomes

Although project evaluation is still underway, preliminary results show:

Employees expressed generally high levels of satisfaction with the technologies, light, openness, and increased opportunity for collaboration

Those who typically spent the most time at their desks were more challenged by the mobility

Cost savings of 37% to 60% across categories such as rent, construction, furniture, cabling, and workplace services.

Additional Resources

WBDG

Building Types / Space Types

Applicable to building types and space types that are regularly occupied or visited.

Design Objectives

Accessible, Aesthetics, Cost-Effective, Functional / Operational, Productive, Productive-Integrate Technological Tools, Productive-Assure Reliable Systems and Spaces, Productive-Design for the Changing Workplace, Secure / Safe, Sustainable

Building Commissioning
Building Commissioning
Tools
Building Life-Cycle Cost (BLCC)
Publications

"A Few Thoughts on Cognitive Overload" by D. Kirsh. Intellectia, 1(30): 19-51, 2000.

The Changing Nature of Work by A. Howard, Ed. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1995.

The Changing Nature of Work: Implications for Occupational Analysis by National Research Council, Committee on Techniques for Enhancement of Human Performance: Occupational Analysis. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 2001.

Cisco Connected Workplace Enhances Work Experience and Cuts Costs by Cisco Systems, 2003. Available: www.cisco.com.

Cisco IT Case Study/Real Estate/Cisco Connected Workplace Available: www.cisco.com.

The Machine that Changed the World by J.P. Womack, D.T. Jones, and D. Roos. Old Tappan, N.J.: Macmillan, 1990.

"The New Workforce Meets the Changing Workplace" by R. M. Ranter. In The Nature of Work: Sociological Perspectives. K.Erikson and S.P. Vallas (Eds). New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1990.

The Support Economy by S. Zuboff and J. Maxmin. New York: Penguin Group, Viking Press, 2002.

"Technology, Ideology, and Social Transformation: The Case of Computerization and Work Organization" by R. Kling, and M. Zmuidzinas. Revue Internationale de Sociologie, 2-3: 28-56, 1994.

The Time Bind by A. Hochschild. New York: Metropolitan Books, 1977.

"The Time Famine: Toward a Sociology of Work Time" by L. Perlow. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44: 57-81, 1999.

Tomorrow's Organization by S.A. Mohrman, J.A. Gailbraith, E.E. Lawler III, and Associates. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998.

The Toyota Way by J. Liker. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003.

When People Get Out of the Box by S.A. Mohrman and S. G. Cohen. In The Changing Nature of Work. A. Howard (Ed). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1995.

Work Trends, 2000. Nothing but Net: American Workers and the Information Economy by John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development, Rutgers University and Center for Survey Research and Analysis, University of Connecticut.

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The Changing Nature of Organizations, Work, and Workplace

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Imagine you went to sleep and woke up to a work day in 1960. How different is your work life today, compared to what it was 40 years ago? Clearly, there would not be a Starbucks on every corner or a cell phone in every pocket-but what else has changed and why?

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Impacts of organizational behavior on businesses

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Impacts of Organizational Behavior in Business

Employees naturally behave differently at work than they do in social settings, largely due to the structured organizational environment of business. A variety of factors influence organizational behavior, including the company's structure, policies and procedures, management effectiveness and interactions between colleagues. All of these elements can inspire employees to work harder or contribute to disengagement. By understanding how to get the best out of your employees, your company can become more productive and competitive.

The Influence of Organizational Culture

When new employees join your company, the way they behave is heavily influenced by the organizational culture. As social beings, people strive to fit in the environment around them. If your company culture encourages employees to speak up without fear of reprisal, new employees will gain confidence in expressing their ideas, whereas if the culture is to "shoot the messenger," new employees tend to keep their opinions to themselves. You can influence company culture by clarifying your vision and values and putting them into practice on a daily basis.

Use Reward Systems

While the need to earn a salary ensures people will show up for work, organizational behavior suggests that employees need other motivational elements to perform to the best of their ability. Employees are most likely to feel motivated when they see a clear link between the effort they put in and the reward they receive. Employees must consider the reward system as fair and equitable to inspire them to increase performance.

Managers can motivate employees by setting realistic, achievable goals and measuring progress. Employees should receive rewards for attaining these goals, either financially or through recognition from the manager.

Influence on Decision Making

Whether at the organizational or individual level, people make the decisions. Organizational behavior influences the decisions that people make. Companies with robust, effective communication mechanisms enable managers and employees to make informed decisions, because they understand the business context. The organization's approach to risk will determine the extent to which managers and employees feel comfortable taking risks in their decision making. Organizations that encourage informed risk-taking foster innovation and creativity.

Response to Change Management

All companies must respond to changing markets, technical advances and customer demands to survive. However, employees often prefer the familiar ways of doing business, making change and adaptation difficult. Companies can manage change effectively by understanding organizational behavior. Discuss the the need for change in an open forum that allow employees to ask questions freely without fear of reprisal.

Managers must set the standard for accepting and negotiating change. Key employees resistant to change should be sought out and persuaded to accept and adapt to organizational changes.

About the Author

Lynne MacDonald has experience in the fields of human resource management, training, organizational development and law. MacDonald received a law degree from the University of Dundee in 1990 and holds diplomas in personnel management and legal practice. She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development.

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Impacts of Organizational Behavior in Business

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Understanding organizational behavior provides insight into why employees behave the way they do in the workplace. Here you'll find how organizational culture, reward systems, decision making and adaptation to change work together to encourage productive employee behavior in the workplace.

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Behavioral Sciences That Impact and Influence Organizational Behavior

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Program and courses BSc International Business Administration

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The International Business Administration program is the ideal preparation for a career in one of the many aspects of international business: Management, Marketing, Accounting or Finance. Together with students from all over the world, you will study how international organizations function and will become well equipped to deal with the dynamic environment of a multinational.