UNITY UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT
POST GRADUATE PROGRAM
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
PROJECT WORK
Dear Learners, here under you are given a project work to help you understand the practical application of
group behavior in organizational context. Due to the nature of the topic the project is an individual work.
The date of submission is August, 15, 2021. The maximum mark of the project is 20%. If you have
questions and need consultation contact me any time anywhere.
Instructions of the Project:
1. Select one local business organization (manufacturing and/or service) preferably an organization in
which you’re currently working in. If you are not employed anywhere, select an organization in
which you can get at least three employees who are willing to give you information regarding their
behavior at work setting.
2. The organization you select should have a minimum of 20 employees with a formal organizational
structure and governing system.
3. Write an introduction and/or background about your case company and its overall operations.
4. List and explain your personal values (espoused and enacted) and your case company values; and
critically, evaluate value congruence including: espoused verses enacted values of yours, personal
values verses organizational values.
5. Describe the practices of your case company regarding team/group, and which type of team is
commonly formed?
6. Scientifically evaluate the effectiveness of team works in your case company?
7. Do you think that the Teams in your case company are SDWTs; If not what are the major practical
challenges SDWTs you observed?
8. Have you made decisions in team; if so evaluate the effectiveness of the decision made in terms of
results obtained and/or risks experienced.
9. What are the major activities performed to build team in the case company?
10. Have you ever faced conflict while working in team/group and as an individual (the experience of
one or two group members can be presented); if so what are the actual sources of conflict and what
was the outcome?
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 Having a written (espoused values) value is essential but also having enacted value is very important. For an
organization that wants to build a good reputation with customers and fellow business organizations, good and
healthy relationships can only be built by enacted values, not written words (espoused values). Although both
are important, and espoused values can to turned into enacted values.

Why having espoused and enact values are

important?
 It helps to increase orderliness and punctuality among employees.
 It helps to increase productivity and performance.
 It helps to provide excellent customer service.
 It facilitates better product quality and production.
 It promotes creativity and innovation with product and service creation.
 It helps to build trust with customers and partners in business.
o
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It has been said earlier that espoused values are as important as enacted values. Still, people get to draw
conclusions on their encounters with people’s or company’s actions or behavior (which are the enacted
values) and not just the written behaviors or relationship traits (the espoused values). Under this topic, we
would be talking about how to turn espoused values (written values) into enacted values (action).
 Write down your espoused values: The first step of turning espoused values into enacted values is
naming your espoused values. The idea behind this is to make your values visible. Values that only exist
inside the mind might fly into thin air when other things come into the mind. Take time to make a list of what
values you like, both as an individual or as an organization. Take a long list of values you have, or you want to
start exhibiting. It will help you to look beyond your current self. Please don’t limit your list to things you have
alone, the values you see in people, and you want to have too; include them in the list.
 Reduce your espouse values: After listing your espoused values and what values you want to teach,
the next thing is to narrow them down. One of the majorities of the challenges we have with espoused values
is that we have too many of them at the same time. When we have too many values to implement at once, we
don’t know where to focus our actions, and we end up not acting on many of our values at all. Choose a few of
them from the list you have written and focus on them. When you have too many values to chase after, you
end up losing all-important values.
 Prune your habit and character: Habit and character are ingredients of values. Without a good habit or
character, it’s not possible to have good values. After selecting essential values out of the espoused values,
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 you need to work on your habit and character. It would help if you had good ethics even when nobody is
looking at you. The best time to improve yourself and your values is when you have the opportunity to cheat
on your values when nobody is looking at you. You will feel like doing it since nobody is watching, but you
cannot lie to yourself about what you stand for.
 Be determined: It’s not easy to learn and do new things, especially when it comes to things that have
to do with values and ethics. Because these are things you can’t force, either you do them, have them, or not.
Determination will help you to stand your ground on your values even when you feel compromising. The more
deterministic you become, the easier it becomes to act and defend your values. There will be a test of values
and ethics from time to time; determination will keep you moving in the face of rejection.
 Put into action what you want: If you don’t do it, it won’t become a habit, and without that, you can’t
exhibit correct values. At first, it might not be easy, especially when you have to exhibit new values, but in the
long run, it will become easy. Practice what you say. You build credibility and reputation when people see that
you do what you say
Espoused values are values declared to be believed and desired by a person or company. At every point in
time, we are judged based on the standards and values that we claim to stand for. This is constant for
individuals and also for organizations. People will question if a company stands for those acclaimed values. As
individuals who interact with and engage people, we would be checked to ascertain those values either by
usual intentions or not. Essential values are the bedrock of the success of any individual or organization.
Many people habitually test others to see their actual values because they don’t act by what they say in most
cases. To build trust and a lasting relationship among people, your values are essential. We often tend to act
based on emotions and how a particular situation affects us, neglecting what values we say we stand for. It
might be anger or any other bad habit that doesn’t go with our values. But after the deed is done, we tend to
regret those actions of ours. It’s a sign that we are human beings.
As it is for humans, so it is for organizations. Apart from having aims and objectives for the company, it is
necessary to have values too. What are values? Values are principles or standards of behavior. Values can
also be said to be the degree of importance of something or action to determine what actions are best to do or
what way is best to live.
Here are his definitions: He defined espoused values to be beliefs upon which a company is built (could mean
the code of conduct); demonstrated traits shown by the leaders as examples by modeling the values they wish
to see in their company; promotional efforts that communicate the company’s core beliefs.

Espoused values can also be said to be publicly stated values and standards of an organization which can be
found in mission statements, Objectives, Goals, Vision Statements, etc. Espoused values are often regarded
as the aspirations of a company. They directly influence how a company operates and how the employees
function. It is one of the main factors that drive an organization’s culture together with Artifacts and basic

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underlying assumptions. The three factors affect an organization’s culture.
While espoused values don’t direct employees how to operate in an organization, it only inspires them to work
according to the company’s values.
We have different values. In this post, we will be looking at espoused and enacted values. So much has been
said on espoused values already, but for emphasis’s sake, let’s check what it means again. It is the values an
organization states that it beliefs in. So, what are an enacted values? Enacted values are values that the
organization members and employees perceive to be valued by the organization. These are values that are
shown in the behaviors of everyone in the organization structure, right from the Chairman or founder of the
organization and down to the last worker in the company.

Unlike espoused values written in mission statements, goals, objectives, vision statements, etc., enacted
values are seen in the behaviors of the people in the organization. Note that both espoused values and
enacted values are essential to an organization. As individuals, we have met people who tell what their values
are, but they act otherwise.
It could have happened to us too, telling people what our values are, but, in the end, when we have
the opportunity to show it, we don’t act accordingly. It does not mean that we are lying when we say what our
espoused values are and don’t act like them. It simply means that we haven’t found a way to turn our
espoused values into enacted values (i.e., doing precisely what we say our values are).

Having a written (espoused values) value is essential but also having enacted value is very important. For an
organization that wants to build a good reputation with customers and fellow business organizations, good and
healthy relationships can only be built by enacted values, not written words (espoused values). Although both
are important, and espoused values can to turned into enacted values.

\ While choosing the right values for company, the person should be aware of why "those" values
and what is their use. They should do three things: satisfy the needs of the entrepreneurs (or
employees), meet the needs of all employers (the company) and also satisfy other stakeholders (for
example purchasers/clients, investors, local communities in which the company operates and also the
society as whole. However, espoused values cannot differ from the "mission" of the company, they
should be clearly connected with the unique character or the function of the organization (Barrett R.
2014, s. 156).

Some people indicate two types of values as following (Barrett R. 2014, s. 156):

 foundational or core values

 operational values

The first of the mentioned types of values is something that everyone considers extremely important
for the functioning of the organization. For example, in a chemical factory, employee safety and
environmental protection should be considered as fundamental values. Against that, the operational
value is the value that allows the efficient functioning of the organization. For instance, values such
as teamwork and trust should be treated as operational values - they affect all workers at the
company. The actual combination of core values and operational values will depend on the unique
function or unique nature of the organization (Barrett R. 2014, s. 156).
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 Whatever your organisation’s espoused values, it is basic underlying assumptions that
guide behaviour. When the two are misaligned, behaviours betray actual organisational
culture – and this could be bad news for your organisation as it ceases to be what it says
it is. Here are three examples of such misalignment
1. Let’s say that one of your espoused values is ‘to act with integrity and honesty at
all times’. This declared value should drive how your employees behave toward
customers and each other. But underneath this, if your organisation’s internal philosophy
is to bury mistakes so they don’t leak out to the wider market, then there is an immediate
clash between your espoused values and your basic underlying assumptions. What you
say does not match what you do.
2. You may have the worthy value of the ‘customer being first’ in everything your
organisation and its employees do. However, if commissions and bonuses are based
entirely upon profits, then it is sales that drives behaviour – potentially leading to poor
advice to customers.
3. Another common value is ‘treating others with respect’. Yet behind closed doors, if
your managers operate in an authoritarian and intimidating manner, this is likely to
undermine any sense of respect that may exist.

How do you align espoused values and actual

behaviours?
Your espoused values don’t tell your employees how to act, but rather should inspire
them in how they act. These values should link into your business strategy, goals and
ambitions, and align with organisational purpose. This gives people meaning to their
behaviour, helping them to adapt their attitudes and actions in ways in which they feel

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 comfortable. This empowering approach encourages employees to behave not in ways
they are told to behave, but in ways they want to behave.
Posting your values on your website or across the expanse of the wall in your entrance
lobby will not make employees behave the way you want them to. Creating a new
organisational culture that shapes the way your people act requires you to inspire
internal beliefs – people’s basic underlying assumptions. To do so, you should:
 Create an environment in which people are listened to
 Ensure that leaders and managers exhibit the desired behaviours
 Align employees with your organisational purpose
 Reward those who act in line with the required behaviours
When basic underlying assumptions are aligned with espoused values, you should
benefit from greater employee engagement, improved collaboration, and better
innovation. People should become more creative and receptive to new ideas. This will
help drive your organisation toward its strategic goals.

If there is any disagreement between what the organization states as its values, and in how the
organization demonstrates its values, successful individuals will go with the values the
organization demonstrates.16 As stated earlier, individuals will often go to great lengths to
rationalize their self-interest-oriented (and derived value) behavior in stated organizational
value terms to avoid this disagreement. In some cases, this disagreement often requires
management to consciously exhibit a type of organizational hypocrisy, or publicly stating
support for the stated values of the organization while acting in accordance with the contrary
demonstrated values of the organization. It also appears from reviewing the literature that truth
is an early casualty to this disagreement. That is to say, the wider the "values gulf" is
perceived, the more difficult for "bad news" to make its way through the organization and to
rise to the top management.

It is ludicrous to think that these value disagreements or dilemmas are lost on the
organization's members, even when they have "successfully" rationalized their behavior in
derived value terms. Any significant separation between the stated and actual values of an
organization causes cynicism among the organization's members in direct proportion to the
size of the separation17. Individuals that fail to adapt to the actual (not the stated) values of the
organization will not succeed in the organization. 18 Therefore, failure to act in accordance with
the actual (not stated) values of the organization is a type of professional suicide. It also
follows that those who quickly adapt to the actual values of the organization have a decided
advantage over those who do not. Substantial disconnects between the stated and
demonstrated values of an organization will have the greatest averse impact on the more
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idealistic members of the organization, because they are likely to hold onto the stated values
longer. This likely puts them at a significant disadvantage in terms of promotions, selections,
and assignments.

humans act rationally and rely on reason to perceive reality effectively. This "Objectivist"
view is basic to this paper's hypotheses and means that organization members will
individually evaluate reality and act accordingly. To state another way, it means that values
are objectively evaluated based on the direct experience of the members. The creation of
culture and the socialization of the organization's members rely heavily on learning processes
to ensure an institutionalized reality.9 In many cases this is trial and error learning.10 This
learning may take place in planned or informal, often unintended ways. 11 The reward system
of the organization (promotion, training selection, benefits, prestige, etc.) highlights what
values are truly organizationally important. Individuals will then execute behaviors that
further their long term professional survival and well being. 12 This strongly implies that if
there is a difference between what an organization declares as its values and the values
demonstrated by its policies, the rational members would put priority on the values
determined from the policies.13 The synthesis of above is the following concept: The greater
the impact of the organization's rules and policies on an individual, the more the values of
that organization are taught and reinforced in the individual's mind.

Organizational values set acceptable or expected norms or bounds of behavior for the
individual members of the organization. Without organizational values, organization members
will, by default, follow their individual value systems. These may or may not promote
behavior that the organization finds desirable. Therefore, organizations establish values to
provide their members guidelines for their behavior. Organizational values also provide the
framework for the culture of the organization. Culture is the body of custom, ideas,
assumptions, and institutional patterns transmitted from one generation to the next and are
particularly powerful in determining individual behavior. 2 It is "the collective programming of
the mind."3 Any values that has the net result of potentially changing culture must be analyzed
very carefully because it is very difficult to reverse those changes.

Obviously, the values of the organization should support the mission of the organization. It
would make little sense for an organization to espouse values that work against its long-range
goals.4 To summarize, the values of the organization should provide a guide or framework for
the organizations members in accomplishing their part of the organization's mission.

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Your values are what you think is important and meaningful and guide how you behave. They’re
the principles and standards that guide your behaviour. They’re the standard you hold yourself
to even when nobody is watching.

Your espoused values are the values you say are important to you. They’re the stakes you put in
the ground to tell others how you want to act. They may be aspirational, or you may already be
living them.

hared basic assumptions are the essence of an organisation’s culture. They’re

the enacted values — you can see them in your workforce’s behaviour.

When there’s a gap between espoused and enacted values, you’re in trouble. It means you’re
not walking your talk as a company, and that leads to all sorts of undesirable effects.

For one, it’s one of the biggest causes for employee dissatisfaction. It’s hard to feel good about
where you work when you regularly see people doing something else than what they say is
crucial.

For another, it’s responsible for lack of company success, as your objectives and goals are in
line with your espoused values, but your actions and results are in line with your enacted values.

And it’s a big part of “resistance to change.”

People aren’t that resistant to change. They’re resistant to a lack of clarity or secrecy and the
uncertainty that comes from that. What gets called resistance to change is merely the effect of
shared basic assumptions eating espoused values and desired organisational changes for
breakfast.

The secret to releasing the brakes on change is recognising shared basic assumptions, shared
values, for the force they are, and dealing with them accordingly.

In the case of value congruence, an employee is not just a subordinate who

mechanically carries out the given functions, but he is sort of raised to the level of a
partner in the discussion; thus, the relationship is changing and the organization has
to change its thinking mode by involving itself into a dynamic process. In addition, it
is necessary to consider the fact that the culture of the society that influences
employees’ personal values as well is not a static, but a changeable phenomenon.

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So it is no coincidence that the management studies capture differences in values
between different generations [71] that need to be taken into account in
management processes.
However, the solution of the problem of development and ensuring value
congruence of the employees and the organization should be understood through
the search for and installation of the mechanisms of strengthening the value
congruence. Although the importance of the concept for modern organizations is
understood, it is becoming even more important not only to understand and to be
able to properly identify the values of the organization and the employees, to
evaluate value congruence, to understand the ways of strengthening value
congruence and diagnose the changes of value congruence of the organization, but
also to real, practically applied management solutions, which ensure the
employees’ well-being and high performance results of the organizations.
Work teams

Work teams are continuing units responsible for producing goods or providing services. Their
membership is typically stable, usually full time and well-defined. Work teams are found in both
manufacturing and service settings and are traditionally directed by supervisors who make most
of the decisions about what is done, how it is done and who does it. Self-managing teams
involving employees making decisions that were formerly made by supervisors are gaining favor.

Functional Teams

These teams are permanent and always include members of the

same department with different responsibilities. A manager is
responsible for everything, and everyone reports to him. These types
of teams are more likely to be found in companies that
incorporate traditional project management.

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 Sometimes, in order to complete a project, several departments need
to work together. For example:

 Work on the new product starts with the idea from the marketing
department;
 The idea is passed down to research and development to
determine its feasibility;
 After R&D, the design department is tasked with giving it an
appealing look and feel;
 And finally, the product is made by the
manufacturing department.

This type of approach is known as ‘baton passing’. It requires a

manager that has oversight of the entire project and ensures that
there are no obstacles when it comes to transferring work from one
team to another.

Advantages:

 Handles routine work

 Line management has control of projects
 Pools technical and professional expertise

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 Disadvantages:

 Difficult communication across areas

 Pushing the decision-making process upwards
 Inflexible
ll

Factors in Effective Teamwork

First, let’s begin by identifying several factors that contribute to effective teamwork. Teams
are most effective when the following factors are met:
 Members communicate effectively. 
 Members depend on each other. When team members rely on each other to get the job
done, team productivity and efficiency tend to be high.
 Members trust one another.
 Members work better together than individually. When team members perform better as
a group than alone, collective performance exceeds individual performance.
 Members become boosters. When each member is encouraged by other team members
to do his or her best, collective results improve.
 Team members enjoy being on the team.
 Leadership rotates.

Some of these factors may seem intuitive. Because such issues are rarely clear-cut, we need to
examine the issue of group effectiveness from another perspective—one that considers the
effects of factors that aren’t quite so straightforward.

Evidence-based decision-making is an approach to decision-making that states that

managers should systematically collect the best evidence available to help them make
effective decisions. The evidence that is collected might include the decision maker’s own
expertise, but it is also likely to include external evidence, such as a consideration of other
stakeholders, contextual factors relevant to the organization, potential costs and benefits,
and other relevant information. With evidence-based decision-making, managers are
encouraged to rely on data and information rather than their intuition. This can be
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particularly beneficial for new managers or for experienced managers who are starting
something new. 

Team Building Activities

Methods of Team Building

Determining the characteristics that make up effective teams is not enough. Leaders
also need to learn how they can go about building these traits into their teams. When
forming a team, these are some of the steps that one should follow:

Make the team goals and objectives clear

Making the goals clear is crucial to the success of any project. It means that every
leader should start by providing comprehensive explanations of how each team
member’s actions help in achieving the main goals. Apart from making the goals
known, leaders also need to establish the specific activities that members should
prioritize. This way, every member knows exactly when and where his help is required.

With clear goals, it is also easier for members to see how their personal career
goals align with a project’s goals. Without this clarity, many employees may focus on
achieving their own goals at the expense of the team. The good thing is that if there
are open channels of communication, employees can always inquire how their
personal goals are related to those of the organization.

Choose team members wisely

When it comes to selecting team members, there are three key aspects that one
ought to consider – individualism, multidimensionality, and the level of the team’s
skills.

 It is a well-known fact that some individuals will always make better team
members than others. It’s also widely known that, with determination,
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 individuals can learn how to function as one unit. An individualist is one who
likes putting his or her interests before those of his team members. Such people
excel in independent roles where they’re required to work individually.
 However, there are also collectivists. They are individuals who like collaboration
and thrive better when they are part of a group. Although a collectivist makes a
better team member, in some situations it is the independent tasks that help
the whole group to succeed. However, a leader may have to apply more effort
when dealing with individualists.

 Another thing that leaders need to do is to strike a balance between the

experience and skills of different team members. It means distributing work
evenly based on the strengths of the members. On that note, new members
should also learn how to work as a fully functioning part of the team. Leaders
may have to partner the new members with those who have the experience to
mentor them.

 Team diversity is more than just a combination of skills. It also refers to how
people from different cultures, genders, and races work together to achieve
goals. Diversity may be essential, as it enables team members to view goals
from different perspectives and come up with the best way of achieving them.

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