Organizational behavior is an important concept in the modern business environment since business organizations have experienced significant development and growth from the conventional times. This growth and development of business organizations that has contributed to the significance of the concept of organizational behavior has occurred in relation to organizational structure, people, and operations. As a relatively new discipline in business management, organizational behavior primarily focuses on group dynamics, execution of leadership, organizational functioning, and interactions between people in an organization. The emergence of this discipline in the 20th Century is attributed to its evolution from the conventional classical management theories to a complex concept and idea.
Definition of the Concept and Emerging Issues
Organizational behavior has widely been described as an academic field of study that focuses on explaining, understanding, forecasting, and managing human behavior within an organization or business environment. From a personal position, organizational behavior is the study of the thoughts, actions, and feelings of people in an organizational environment. This is primarily because people's behavior is a component of thoughts, feelings, and actions, which are crucial in organizational management.
Organizational behavior has been characterized by several emerging issues in the recent past that are largely attributed to changes in the modern business environment. Actually, organizations have experienced tremendous development from the olden days, especially in relation to people, operations, and structure ("Emerging Trends in Organizational Behavior," n.d.). One of the emerging issues in the study of organizational behavior is the changing workforce, which has been characterized by changes workforce demographic. In the past few years, the business environment has experienced changes in employees' attitudes, labor shortages, increase in the aging population, and immigration. These factors have not only generated changes in the workforce but also contributed to new issues in the study of organizational behavior, especially in relation to increased diversity in the working environment. Apart from the considerable change in the cross-cultural environment, the other issue in organizational behavior is the development of technical expertise and quality management. These factors are emerging issues in organizational behavior because they have generated a different environment in today's business organizations.
The other emerging issue in the study of organizational behavior is the development of social media policies given the impact of social media on today's communication. This issue has been brought by the proliferation of new technologies for communication, which continue to have huge effect on daily business operations (Gillis, 2013). Business management scholars have become increasingly concerned on the need and the process for developing social media policies in a manner that is beneficial to organizations. In essence, there are concerns on how to include topics relating to social media in organizational behavior courses and the best approach for teaching such topics in light of changes in the business environment.
Part II: Personal Conclusions
Organizational behavior is an important topic in business management given its significance and role in the development of effective management skills and processes. This unit has enabled me to obtained insights regarding the role of organizational behavior in management and the importance of examining people's behavior as part of the management process. Some of the ideas obtained from this course that are helpful in organizational management based on this concept include decision making by individuals and groups, leadership and followership, work teams and groups, interpersonal processes and behaviors, conflict and negotiation, communication and managing change.
The main lesson obtained from organizational behavior is that understanding people's behavior and the reasons for their behaviors in an organization is the basis for creating a work environment and organizational culture that enables every member to realize their full potential. In essence, it is difficult to create a collaborative environment where people interact freely towards realization of organizational goals and fulfilling their potential without an understanding of their feelings, thoughts, and actions. Organizational behavior provides important lessons for business managers with regards to the creation of a suitable work environment and organizational culture.
This course has also provided insights on how managers can ensure efficient and effective utilization of employees towards fulfillment of organizational goals and objectives. In this case, managers should not only seek to understand the behaviors of their employees but also recognize the impact of their behaviors on organizational diversity. Understanding organizational behavior provides a good basis for effective management of workforce diversity, which generates effective interpersonal processes and behaviors, effective communication, incorporation of everyone in the decision making process, and effective management of change. Moreover, understanding people's behavior in an organization necessitates understanding factors that affect individuals and how individuals impact the organization and workplace (Griffin &...
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