Organization Behaviour: Challenges and Opportunities

This article throws light on the five major organizational behavior issues faced by
today’s manager, i.e, (1) Managerial Challenges, (2) Work Place Issues and
Challenges, (3) Organisational Challenges, (4) Global Challenges, and (5)
Environmental Challenges.

1. Managerial Challenges:

From the point of view of managers various issues relating to OB are discussed as
follows:

(i) Work force Diversity:

One of the most common and important challenges currently facing organizations is
dealing with people who are different. This challenge is termed as work force diversity.
Organizations are becoming increasingly cosmopolitan. They are becoming more
heterogeneous in terms of gender, race and ethnicity. Work force diversity, in fact,
encompasses anything which varies from the so called norms.

There can be variations from the so called norms, employees who are physically
handicapped, lesbians, gays, elderly or others who are different in some way or the
other. In earlier times, managers used to take a melting pot approach to differences in
organisations assuming that people who were different would somehow automatically
want to assimilate. Moreover, earlier members of diverse group used to be in minorities
in the organisation which were, for the most part, ignored by most of the organisations.

The managers must learn to respect the diversity. They have to shift their philosophy
from treating everyone alike to recognizing differences and responding to those
differences in a way that will ensure employee retention and greater productivity while at
the same time not discriminating. An increasingly diverse workforce presents both
opportunities and challenges for the organisations.

Diversity can become a competitive advantage in the following ways:

(i) Diversity can become a competitive advantage by improving the decision making and
team performance on complex tasks.

(ii) A diverse workforce is sometimes, essential to provide better customer service in the
global market place.

(iii) Workforce diversity brings new challenges with respect of communication, team
dynamics and dysfunctional conflict.

(iv)Diversity, if properly managed, can increase creativity and innovation in

organisations.

1
If diversity is not properly managed it can lead to higher employee turnover, more
difficult communication and more interpersonal conflicts. It can create increasing
concerns about work place discrimination and harassment. Employers thus, need to
adjust to emerging workforce expectations by replacing command and control
leadership with empowerment, giving more freedom and power to the employees.

(ii) Changing Demographics of workforce:

The major challenge from changing demographics of workforce relates to the following:

(a) Dual Career Couples:

This is a situation where both partners are actively pursuing professional careers.
Organisations had been used to physical relocation of employees. Employees moving
through organisational ranks to upper level positions need experience in variety of roles
in different organisational units. Job rotation and physical relocation had been used by
organisation for developing talent among employees. However, the dual career couples
limit the individual flexibility in accepting such assignments. This hinders the
organisational flexibility in acquiring and developing talent.

(b) Growing number of youngsters:

Another form of diversity comes from younger people entering the workforce.
Generation-X employees are on an average about 25 years of age. These employees
bring new ways of thinking about the world of work and preferred employment
relationships. The young employees are fresh, ambitions, enthusiastic and innovative.
Their personal needs have to be handled with circumspection. These people do not live
to work but work to live choosing a life that they want to have as opposed to just
bringing home a pay check.

(c) Gender factor:

Women used to have very traditional careers in earlier times like nurses, teachers,
secretaries etc. Gradually they moved into professions previously dominated by males
e.g. lawyers, doctors and executives. Nowadays, they are becoming more dynamic and
moving into civil services, engineering, information technology etc. Many blue collar jobs
are being increasingly sought by women. On the other hand, more and more men are
entering into professions previously dominated by women e.g. catering, nursing,
cooking, fashion and textile designing etc. These developments have their own
implications for human resource managers in organisations.

2. Work Place Issues and Challenges:

Work place issues and challenges also have behavioural implications.

Major issues are as follows:

2
(i) Employee Privacy:

Employers, nowadays, have started to intrude and encroach into the private lives of the
employees. Managers need to be very sensitive to this issue since this trend creates
resentment among employees.

The recent practices followed by organisations are:

1. To implement random drug tests

2. To check the background of prospective employees

3. Random check of phone calls as well as a check on internet surfing.

(ii) Employee Rights:

A concern related to employee privacy is employee rights. In this context, controversies

involve issues associated with job ownership and individual rights while at work. Issues
have also surfaced regarding uniform dress codes, right to marry within the organisation
etc. These issues tend to be controversial as more and more organisations limit or ban
certain activities.

(iii) Unionism:

In the recent years, the general trend regarding union membership has been steadily
declining. As a result, organisations carry the burden of providing the services to the
employees which were previously provided by the unions. Organisations need to take
extra precautions to ensure that workers are treated fairly; otherwise, union membership
will start increasing once again. Unionism has started increasing in other areas ranging
from professional to technical to white collar jobs.

(iv) Changed Employee Expectations:

Employee expectations are also changing with change in work force demographics.
Traditional motivators like, job securities, attractive pay package, additional perquisites
do not attract, retain or allure today’s workforce. Nowadays, employees demand
empowerment and expect quality of status with the management. Authoritative
leadership is giving way to participative managements with employee influence and
involvement along-with mechanisms for upward communications. Flexi-timings,
opportunities to work from home, leading by example are the more recent trends.
Today’s average workers demand better treatment, challenging jobs and career
advancement.

3. Organisational Challenges:

3
Managers have to face a large number of challenges at the organisational level also the
major ones are as follows:

(i) Improving Quality and Productivity:

Due to the advent of globalization, privatization and liberalization, organisations are

exposed to competition. In such a scenario, managers have to think seriously about
improving the quality and productivity. To achieve this target, managers are
implementing programmes like Total Quality Management and Reengineering
programmes.

Total quality Management (TQM) is a philosophy of management for attainment of

customer satisfaction through the continuous improvement of all organisational
processes. TQM has implication for OB because it requires employees to rethink what
they do and become more involved in work place decisions. Reengineering means
radically rethinking and redesigning those processes by which we create value for
customers and do work. It requires managers to reconsider how work would be done
and their organisation structured if they were to start from scratch.

Managers, nowadays, must understand that any effort to improve the quality and
productivity in order to succeed must include the employees. Since employees are a
major force in carrying out the changes, they should participate actively in planning
those changes also. OB offers important insights into helping the manager’s work
through these changes.

(ii) Managing Technology and Innovations:

In today’s competitive environment a significant challenge confronting the managers is

the set of issues involving the management of technology, innovations and changes.
Success will come only to those organisations that maintain their flexibility continually
improve their quality and out-beat their competitors with innovative products and
services. An organization’s employees can be the impetus for innovation and change or
they can be a major stumbling block. The challenge for managers is to stimulate
employee creativity and tolerance for change. The field of OB provides a wealth of ideas
and techniques to aid in realizing these goals.

(iii) Coping with Temporariness:

Nowadays, change is an ongoing activity for most managers, though managers have
always been concerned with change. Today, the young generation feels that the
concept of continuous improvement means constant change. Managers today face a
stage of permanent, temporariness. The actual jobs that the workers perform are in a
state of flux they have to continuously update their knowledge and skills to perform new
job requirements. The organisations are also in a state of flux as they have to
continuously recognize their various divisions, sell off poor performing businesses,

4
down size operations and replacing permanent employees with temporaries.

Today managers and employees must learn to live with temporariness. They have to
learn to cope with spontaneity, flexibility and unpredictability. The study of OB can help
in providing important insights into helping one in how to overcome resistance to
change and how best to create an organisational culture that thrives on change.

(iv)Emergence of E-Organization:

E- Commerce: It refers to the business operations involving electronic mode of

transactions. It encompasses presenting products on websites and filling order. The
vast majority of articles and media attention given to using the Internet in business are
directed at on-line shopping. In this process, the marketing and selling of goods and
services are being carried out over the Internet.

E-business: It refers to the full breadth of activities included in a successful Internet

based enterprise. As such, e-commerce is a subset of e-business. E-business includes
developing strategies for running Internet-based companies, creating integrated supply
chains, collaborating with partners to electronically coordinate design and production,
identifying a different kind of leader to run a „virtual‟ business, finding skilled people to
build and operate intranets and websites, and running the back room or the
administrative side. E-business includes the creation of new markets and customers,
but it‟s also concerned with the optimum ways to combine Computers, the Web and
Application Software. A sizable number of multinational corporations are selling goods
and services via the Internet.

E-Organizations: This embraces e-commerce and e-business. State and central

governments, municipal corporations are using the Internet for extending all the public
utility services more efficiently through internet. Implications for Managers: The
employees must acquire skills, knowledge, attitudes in learning new technology,
overcoming any resistance

(v) Ethical Behaviour:

A very important organisational challenge relates to ethical behaviours and social

responsibility. It is the duty of today’s managers to create an ethically healthy climate for
their employees, where they can do their work productively and with clean conscience.
Social responsibility is the organisational obligation to protect and contribute to social
environment in which it functions. Both these concepts have become very significant in
recent years. Leadership organisational culture and group norms are important
organisational behaviour concepts which are relevant in managing these concepts.

4. Global Challenges :

5
Global challenges are another important set of challenges facing today’s managers.

The global issues relate to the followings:

(i) Managing Global Environment:

Organisations are no longer limited to or constrained by national borders.

Internationalization of business has transformed the world into a global village.
Managers have to cope with unfamiliar laws, languages, practices, attitudes,
management styles, ethics etc. HR function must change to acquire a global
perspective. Managers have to be flexible and proactive if they are to face these
challenges.

(ii) Managing Cultural Diversity:

Today’s managers have to learn to cope with people from different cultures.
Globalization affects the managers in two ways. If they are transferred to another
country, they will have to manage a workforce that is likely to be very different in needs,
aspirations and attitudes. If they are in their own country they have to work with people
from other countries having different cultures. Hence to work effectively with these
people one has to understand their culture and learn to adapt management styles to
these different cultures.

5. Environmental Challenges:
Every Organisation exists within an external environment. The organisation, thus, must
adapt itself through continuous interaction to the environment. The environment is
dynamic and is continuously changing, thus, the adaption process of organisations must
also be dynamic and sensitive. Member of the organisation must be responsive to a
large number of environmental challenges. The organisation must understand its
responsibility to the environment and should be willing to interact with the environment,
only then it will be able to survive in the long run.

Following are the specific environmental challenges, an organisation should be aware of

(i) Ecology:

Responsibility of business towards society includes concern for ecology. Ecology is

concerned with the relationship of living things with their environment. Every
organisation must face the challenge to maintain and even create ecological standards.

(ii) Air, water and soil pollution:

The general concept recommended nowadays is that development should be

6
sustainable in the long run and every project should cater to maintain if not mend the
direct harm to the environment resulting from the development measures.

(iii) Personnel Policies:

Personnel policies of the organisation should not be discriminatory towards any

particular caste, creed, religion, sex or nationality. There should be equal pay for equal
work.

(iv) Research and Development:

To keep pace with the global challenges, the organisation must undertake technical and
scientific research.

(v) International Policies:

While doing a business on international scale, international policies pose a major

challenge. The organisation has to keep in mind the legislations and specific policies of
various countries while dealing with them.

(vii) National Economic Policies:

Due to the rising inflationary trends in the economy, there is always governmental
pressure on the organisations to reduce prices and increase the wages. To balance
between these two is a very challenging task.

Conclusion:

Organisational behaviour can help the organisations in facing and coping up with these
challenges because these cannot be eliminated. There is no perfect solution to
organisational problems, but if handled with care and diligence, these challenges can be
covered into profitable opportunities. TQM, reengineering, leadership, organisational
culture, group norms etc. are some of the OB concepts which can help in facing various
challenges.