Organizational Behavior
An Examination of Group Dynamics
Group work is often times the most honest and productive type of work because of the challenges, the exchange of ideas and the creativity-promoting environment it inherently contains. Group work, however, is most productive when group dynamics function smoothly. It is for this reason that organizational behavior is important to study in order to see what, in fact, achieves the kind of productive behavior expected of good group dynamics. The paragraphs below will describe both theory and give practical examples of a selected group that can demonstrate the kinds of structures and dynamics that are most useful.
The group selected for these purposes is one that deals with customer service requests at a said company, the name of which is withheld in this examination for privacy purposes. This group's sole purpose is to ensure the complete satisfaction of customers who either call or e-mail with questions or service requests for the said company's various services, which are offered to the customer on a subscription basis.
The group thus has a common goal, but its various members are paid based on their individual performance as well. However, in order to satisfy various requirements relating to their positions, these individuals must always interact with their team-members, especially in order to achieve these individual and thereby common goals, or vice-versa. Just as in any company, one individual does not always simply work for himself or herself, but contributes to the general well-being of the company and this is precisely the case in this example.
The group's goals therefore rotate around ensuring and achieving realistic customer satisfaction quotas, but also enabling customers to be able to receive working services and even increase the use of services, which is done by transferring questions to the sales department. This department also made of a group...
Organizational Psychology An interesting subfield, organizational psychology is that portion of Industrial/Organizational Psychology which concerns itself with understanding social processes within organizations (Jex, 2002). Further, it is an applied psychology in that organizational psychologists use the information regarding social processes within organizations to improve the effectiveness within those organizations (Jex, 2005). Organizational Psychology has evolved from a variety of related disciplines and as a result of various influences (Koppes and Pickren,
(Work and Organizational Psychology) What the above quotation points out is that the complexity and dynamic nature of the modern interconnected and networked world has resulted in an increasingly complex organizational structure. This has necessitated professional insight into the way the individual interact and relate to one another in the organization - which is basically the function that the organizational psychologist performs. Organizational psychology is therefore concerned with aspects such as
Adding conflict and competition to that precarious situation can be difficult, but is an important part of workplace group dynamics. However, conflict and competition can be both positive and negative components within a group dynamic situation. Jehn and Mannix (2001) discuss intragroup conflict and performance in their Academy of Management article, finding consistent results that implied the important nature of some conflict within workplace groups. The researchers found that
The groups I attended were well organized. There is a rule however that was constantly broken in each of the group sessions I attended. The rule is called cross-talk and when a member is sharing their story or whatever it is they decided to participate to the group, the other members are supposed to be in complete silence. Each member is given between three to five minutes to speak as
Leader-Member Exchange Theory: Another Perspective on the Leadership Process. International Journal of Management, Business, and Administration, 1-5. The LMX theory might be interesting to look into. The basic idea behind the leader-member exchange (LMX) theory is that leaders form two groups, an in-group and an out-group, of followers. Naor, M., Linderman, K., & Schroeder, R. (2010). The globalization of operations in Eastern and Western countries: Unpacking the relationship between national and
Psychology Organizational Psychology Organizational psychology is a discipline that sets out on understanding some of the facets of organizational performance and organizational behaviors and altitudes held by the organization's members in order to gain a level of understanding which can it turn be used to improve the performance of the organization in pursuit of organizational goals. Researchers apply the scientific method and rigorous methodologies in order to further the understanding of
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