Organisational Behaviour Case Study

Introduction: Organisational Behaviour

Get free samples written by our Top-Notch subject experts for taking Online Assignment Help services in UK.

Management is essential for every company to be able to define its purpose, create its strategies, and keep going for the long term (Magretta, 2012). If the management is good, the company will be able to accomplish its objectives. To find a workable solution to a problem, management scientists use an empirically grounded, factually oriented approach. On the contrary, managers who practise management as art draws on their understanding of the social and political environment to guide their approach to issue-solving (Daft, 2015). Consequently, managers need to strike a balance between the objectivity of science and the objectivity of art if they are to successfully manage companies. Managers in any given department or organisation need to be well-versed in a wide range of management theories and philosophies if they are to achieve the objectives, they have set for themselves. It is crucial for supervisors to acknowledge employees’ efforts, since this boosts morale and encourages them to continue doing their best job. This report will analyse the case study on the “humanised robot” and provide the managerial viewpoints that are relevant to the situation.

Summary of the Case Study

Helen Bowers inherited the family company when her father, Jake, died unexpectedly. Forty years ago, her father created a firm that specialises in producing replacement parts for industrial lathes and mills. Helen vowed to undo everything of her father’s previous work. She started by making the personnel take their jobs more carefully. Her father, in contrast, was constantly sensitive to his workers’ needs in the workplace. He often sought their counsel and listened patiently to their gripes. However, Helen sees herself as the boss and assumes that she knows what is best for her business. Second, she hopes to take on rivals in the global market. Even though more Japanese rivals are likely to enter the market for large industrial equipment, she plans to offer components to Japanese enterprises. For this reason, she decided to train herself to compete well with other Japanese businesses. She subsequently raised the permissible output cap to 20%. She takes charge of the staff and eventually shuts down her father’s softball firm. To save expenses and boost productivity, she has rolled back compensation to what employees should have been making all along. Salary expenditures have gone down but other training needs for employees have gone up as a consequence of the minor uptick in productivity. She had to re-evaluate her methods of people management. She recommended that if workers did not increase output by 10%, they would be forced to take pay cuts.

Case Study Questions and Answers

1. How successful do you think Helen Bowers’ new plan will be?

Management as seen through Jake Bowers’ eyes at Bowers Machine Parts, workers are the single most critical determinant in a factory’s output and profitability. Behaviour management is the study of how people behave in professional settings (Raes et al., 2013). Each person’s actions have consequences for the group as a whole. Productivity and goal attainment may be enhanced by a deeper understanding of needs, aspirations, motivations, and conflicts. So, managers must comprehend the fundamentals of behaviour management from the viewpoint of human behaviour to effectively carry out their managerial duties (Shahi et al., 2020). On the other hand, Helen Bowers’ primary concern is increasing productivity at work, which requires strict labour, standards, and conduct. Workers’ discontent with Helen’s new terms harms corporate output. The removal of the profit-sharing scheme and the subsequent salary cuts have harmed morale. There will be too many complaints from workers if management is drastically altered, as she did. It seems that Helen runs her business using a scientific management approach. She sets the objectives and demands that everyone meet them or face a pay cut.

Helen was the business’s expert on labour and assembly lines. She demanded that all lines be closely monitored by management to ensure that employees were never waiting about. This is evidence that she is a specialist in the field of labour; to perform at their best, employees need close supervision from their superiors. This relates to Taylor’s theory of management, which emphasises optimising production while cutting down on expenses (Turan, 2015). She runs an organisation using Taylor’s scientific management ideas. According to Taylor, all employees were driven by money, hence he advocated a fair day’s compensation for a fair day’s labour. Depending on Taylor’s theory, she reinstated the average income she believed the employees earned and reduced incentive spending (Su, 2017). Employees will be forced to work with less pay if they fail to meet a 10% productivity target. She was just thinking about production as a number and not as a human process, seeing labour solely as a cost. According to the tenets of scientific management, she adopted McGregor’s Theory X, a pessimistic outlook (Lawter, Kopelman & Prottas, 2015). She sped up production by keeping a tight eye on the process and enforcing rigorous limits on employees’ productivity targets. She dismantled the employee softball field that her father had constructed. She is on a mission to reduce employee slack and encourage maximum productivity.

Fig 1: McGregor’s Theory X and Y

(Source: MARKOPOULOS and KORNILAKIS, 2016)

2. What OB theories of Motivation does this case study illustrate?

An employee’s unique character and actions in the workplace are given prime attention from a behavioural management point of view. Understanding employee behaviour, including their needs, and expectations, and how to inspire people in the workplace to increase productivity, is essential for managers. Hawthorne Studies by Elton Mayo explores these stances (Brannigan & Zwerman, 2001). Research from the Hawthorne Effect suggests that several social and environmental factors—as well as informal organisation, team dynamics, the informal leader, and annon-economic reward—play a role in behaviour control. The value of people in a corporate system was highlighted, he said. Workplace needs must be met if maximum output is to be achieved. Human behaviour may be influenced by a wide range of external influences, not limited to monetary considerations. Integrating various aspects from many domains, including medicine, sociology, and biology, is important to actualize the complicated predictions of human behaviour. Abraham Maslow used this information to create his hierarchy of needs for humans. In the workplace, it is crucial to meet people’s physiological, social, safety, ego/esteem, and self-actualization needs (Hopper, 2020). Jake Bowers set up the business as an unofficial organisation. His employees are like family to him. His enthusiasm for fostering and imparting knowledge to workers is constant, and he let them be obedient and voice their preferences. His spiritual convictions serve as a source of inspiration for them.

Fig 2: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

(Source: Hopper, 2020)

This exemplifies his qualities as an informal leader, one who is approachable and keeps his staff feeling at ease. He does not believe it is his responsibility as a manager to make the workplace pleasant and supportive. Because satiating basic wants motivates employees more than monetary gain. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs suggests that meeting a person’s physiological needs is a prerequisite to addressing any of their higher-order wants(Guo et al. 2019). Thus, financial compensation is not the primary motivator for workers. He effortlessly commanded the respect of his staff because of the Behavioural Management lens he adopted. He understood that workers are motivated not only by the prospect of financial gain but also by the desire to grow personally and professionally in the workplace. He adopted the pro-worker behaviourist tenets of McGregor’s theory Y, as per the opinion of Lawter, Kopelman & Prottas (2015). As a result, he made the workplace pleasant for his workers, which should make their time there more enjoyable, promote teamwork, and ultimately lead to more productivity and better results for the company. Because he believes they work hard and are competent in their roles. He is open to recommendations and ideas from his staff to maximise efficiency. Employees that are also involved in production will have the most in-depth knowledge of the manufacturing process. As a result, workers will feel more invested in the success of the business and more excited about their jobs.

3. What challenges does Helen confront?

Helen’s first challenge will be learning how to successfully manage employees in her new role as owner, which is essential for the sustained success of the business. Building trust between employees and management takes time. She reverted to the traditional boss-and-subordinates dynamic by treating them in a more official, less cordial manner. Because of her authority, her subordinates must do what she says, and workers will experience shock and additional stress as a result of this (Rebe?ák & Farkašová, 2015). They feel that they have been treated unfairly and that what she gave them earlier does not meet their requirements. Both psychological and monetary pressure was used for her. Considering they are the driving force behind the manufacturing process, this has an impact on their efficiency at work. Although she has reduced pay expenses, other employees' training costs have grown, and profit has grown, but scrap material has risen exponentially. If employees are not fulfilled according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, they will not perform to their full potential. If she keeps managing staff the way she is, the organisation will suffer serious repercussions.

The presence of Japanese rivals in the global heavy industrial sector is Helen’s second major obstacle. Despite the market’s promise, there are dangers associated with it. To be competitive, she has to establish objectives. She struggled to effectively manage the workforce, which hampered efforts to maximise output and profits. She told her colleagues that if they didnot meet their output targets by 10%, she would reduce their compensation by the same amount. This approach could still be useful for the time being, and it is certainly feasible for personnel to carry out. However, as per Munteanu et al. (2020), eventual exhaustion and dissatisfaction with the job might lead to inefficiencies in output. It is not only money that keeps people working. With workers’ perceptions of their pay increasing, the potential for employee dissatisfaction at the corporation and a subsequent strike increases. Workers’ attitudes towards Helen are changing, which might lead to tensions at work. It would make it impossible for her to achieve her planned objectives and keep up with the competition.

4. Suggest what other programs Helen could have used for the results she was looking for.

Helen’s first problem may be addressed by changing her management style. It is essential for her management career that she integrates the scientific method with creativity. She needs to implement both the management style she is using and her father’s management style, which he calls “humanistic nonsense”. Money is not the main motivator, as shown by the research of Mayo’s Hawthorne. Many things inspire people, but the social and psychological contexts in which they live are crucial. Motivated by a pleasant workplace, workers can perform at their best(Zoller & Muldoon, 2018). She needs to be more kind and caring with the staff. Employee feedback and ideas should be acknowledged as well. Her mandates would not thrill workers as much as the flexibility and liberty they will enjoy in the workplace. She should first identify the competency, then properly teach her personnel with professional knowledge, and lastly have an artistic strategy for promoting those processes most efficiently and quickly as possible.

Helen’s second problem can be solved by removing the threat of monetary penalties for underperforming workers. She needs both punitive and positive incentive schemes to motivate her staff. She has to boost her firm’s quality and efficiency to compete with the industry leaders. She may do this by instituting both monetary and non-monetary incentives for her staff, such as annual wage increases based on performance, larger bonuses for those who go above and beyond, and end-of-year celebrations to celebrate and recognise the year’s top performers (Munteanu et al., 2020). She has to increase the credentials and attitude of employees in addition to enhancing the competence of the manufacturing process if she ever hopes to compete with Japanese firms.

Conclusion

The report is an analysis and explanation of why Helen, to effectively manage her firm and its people, must draw from the fields of both scientific and behavioural management. Managers do have to invest in their people and the technologies, they use to produce as much as possible. To reach one’s objectives, one must rely on the shrewdness and flexibility of a capable administrator who can keep up with the ever-evolving demands of the job. Considering that the management’s choices will determine whether or not the desired outcomes are achieved. Managers need a firm grasp of the management stance they adopt in the company since this will inform their decision-making and the methods, they use to put theory into practice and address issues.

References

• Brannigan, A., & Zwerman, W. (2001). The real “Hawthorne effect”.
• Daft, R. L. (2015). Management. Cengage Learning.
• Guo, J., Weng, D., Zhang, Z., Jiang, H., Liu, Y., Wang, Y., & Duh, H. B. L. (2019, October). Mixed reality office system based on maslow’s hierarchy of needs: Towards the long-term immersion in virtual environments. In 2019 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR) (pp. 224-235). IEEE.
• Hopper, E. (2020). Maslow’s hierarchy of needs explained. ThoughtCo, ThoughtCo, 24.
• Lawter, L., Kopelman, R. E., & Prottas, D. J. (2015). McGregor's theory X/Y and job performance: A multilevel, multi-source analysis. Journal of Managerial Issues, 84-101.
• Magretta, J. (2012). What management is. Simon and Schuster.
• MARKOPOULOS, E., & KORNILAKIS, I. (2016). True Knowledge in Knowledge Management, A Black Hole.
• Munteanu, A. I., Bibu, N., Nastase, M., Cristache, N., & Matis, C. (2020). Analysis of practices to increase the workforce agility and to develop a sustainable and competitive business. Sustainability, 12(9), 3545.
• Raes, A. M., Bruch, H., & De Jong, S. B. (2013). How top management team behavioural integration can impact employee work outcomes: Theory development and first empirical tests. Human Relations, 66(2), 167-192.
• Rebe?ák, M., & Farkašová, V. (2015). Managing high–potential employees. Procedia economics and finance, 23, 867-871.
• Shahi, T., Farrokhsheresht, B., Taghipourian, M. J., & Aghajani, H. A. (2020). Behavioral factors affecting talent management: Meta-synthesis technique. Iranian Journal of Management Studies, 13(1), 117-137.
• Su, Y. (2017). Taylor scientific management theory carding and significance of organization management. Social Sciences, 6(4), 102-107.
• Turan, H. (2015). Taylor’s “scientific management principles”: Contemporary issues in personnel selection period. Journal of economics, business and management, 3(11), 1102-1105.
• Zoller, Y. J., & Muldoon, J. (2018). Illuminating the principles of social exchange theory with Hawthorne studies. Journal of Management History.