Research Paper Undergraduate 1,400 words

Human Behavior in Organizations Understanding Human Behavior

Last reviewed: August 8, 2013 ~7 min read
Abstract

Self-evaluation refers to the way an individual examines and analyzes their reliability and significance of their work or behavior. Although this field greatly reflects under a specialization of psychology, it is invaluable that people recognize its importance in their daily life and major tasks that people indulge in on a daily basis. This paper examines various materials to provide information on the benefits of self-evaluation, and ways of reducing prejudice in the workplace.

Human Behavior in Organizations

Understanding human behavior is critical in organizations

The existence of an organization does depend on the employees; therefore, it is important to understand human behavior. Understanding human behavior will make it easy to work in an organization composed of employees with different personality, attitudes, values, perception, motives, and abilities. Managers should understand behavior because they work with people; interact with them in terms of communication, and in terms of work. Managers should understand the likelihood of individual differences arising among the employees. When a manager notes a difference, the next thing to do is learning the source of the difference. By so doing, the manager will leverage the difference effectively because the complexity is understood; therefore, managers may understand why people behave differently. This case is evident in organizations with a diverse workforce; therefore, managers should recognize the cultural differences that may exist (Brett, Behfar and Kern, 2006).

Behavior is unpredictable and managers cannot perform satisfactorily without understanding the people around him or her. Employees behave differently in their workplaces and the organizations may require understanding their individual differences. Instead of managers wasting time in judging the differences between individuals, job tasks, they should understand the factors in the organization that may influence their behaviors. In addition, managers being in power, have the ability to influence their employee's behavior as a mode of exercising their power. Organization design, training, and development have significant influence on the behavior of a diverse workforce because behavior is modifiable. Managers should choose the most appropriate strategies when it comes to multicultural organizations by avoiding single-culture-based strategies (Brett, Behfar and Kern, 2006).

Q.1 Benefits of self-evaluation as it relates to leaders today

Comprehending human behavior is vital to managers at all levels in any organization. For instance, individual managers can benefit when conducting self-assessments. When managers are self-aware and comprehend their behavior, they will adjust accordingly to work better with other employees. In addition, self-awareness allows improvement and recognition of strengths and weaknesses in order to maximize their leadership potential. Organizational behavior provides knowledge about individuals, groups, and the influence of structure on behavior in effective organizational leadership. In order for organizations to achieve their major goals of effective leadership, it is important to evaluate the working conditions of their employees as a crucial step to deal with challenges (Brett, Behfar and Kern, 2006).

There are several ways in which a manager can help improve organization leadership, and one of the ways is through self-evaluation. Managers conducting self-evaluation and analyze many of their features and their professional performance oversome time. For example, managers can assess their goals/targets, competencies, and their behaviors. In so doing, it encourages managers and in the process recognizes the areas where they need to improve. On top of that, grading oneself based on these different aspects will help managers determine where they stand and how smoothly they fit into a criterion.

Good leaders put a lot of effort into their work because they must show dedication and how much investment they are putting into their jobs. For example, leaders have the ability to determine how much they are putting into their jobs and if one realize they are not giving their best they know that they are lacking and need to enhance what they do. Leadership calls for exceptional comprehension and effective communication in the organization especially with the subordinate staff (Brett, Behfar and Kern, 2006).

Self-evaluation tests reveal the ability of a manager to get a message across effectively and indicate whether the manager is vague in his orders. Managers also need to take care of other people's requirements, and ensure the provision of all the information needed to execute activities along with effective supervision, to ensure completion of the task. When a leader understands their workers and subsequently cooperates with them, it leads to the creation of a good working environment. The workers develop a favorable perspective towards their managers, and this contributes to effective organizational leadership. In addition, this relationship will also lead to teamwork (Brett, Behfar and Kern, 2006).

When seeking independent assistance, the leaders can work on their weaknesses by utilizing the coaches' skills to further advance or improve their leadership and acquire mentoring skills. Managers who have a strong sense and ignore their weaknesses on the self-evaluation report should welcome the fact that people have weaknesses, and work on them to improve their leadership skills. Self-evaluation helps in discovering the abilities and disabilities of leaders. Therefore, leaders must welcome their disabilities. In so doing, managers become strong in leadership and provide effective leadership towards their subjects.

Q.2 Discuss how you can personally reduce prejudice in your workplace

Prejudice refers to having a judgment about a person or a thing based on their characteristics and desirability. Although there are some positive prejudices, the term has a negative suggestion. The meaning of prejudice has no correlation with discrimination because prejudice is mental and depends on people's differences in behavior to treat them differently because of their prior knowledge of their behavior (Fernandez, 1981). However, combining prejudice and discrimination, offers an insight to the problem; that is prejudging an individual afterwards discriminating against them based on those prejudices.

Leaders have an obligation to address prejudice owing to the responsibility they have in running operations that rely on many workers. Addressing the issue of prejudice is significant because it has influence in an organization's chance for success. In addition to having support from the top management, managers must take the initiative of addressing this issue urgently. Managing this issue involves establishing awareness and then implementing strategies or steps to deal with prejudice. In a workplace setting, managing prejudice is a challenge because of the many people involved. However, a manager ensures involved people who perpetuate prejudice can manage the issue (Fernandez, 1981).

In case of prejudicial comments and behavior in meetings, the managers should remind workers of relevant things associated with the work. For instance, the manager can watch for functionality of irrelevant comments and gently but firmly redirect the comments to relevant issues that may lead to growth of the organization. By so doing, the conversation will focus on the agendas of the meeting rather than waste time on prejudicial comments. In addition, to manage prejudice in the workplace, managers should make vibrant statements in public and private. Clear statements may compel a group, although the workers may not change prejudicial behaviors overnight, persistence, without rancor, or restating the position may change a worker's prejudicial behaviors (Fernandez, 1981).

Establishing a grievance procedure may also have significant influence in managing workplace prejudices. This will allow an organization to try solving their problems internally before consulting outside the organization. The procedure should allow for confidentiality and private airing of grievances, therefore; the person in charge should have powers, be fair, and dedicated to the function to allow employees have faith and respect hoping for fairness. In addition, managers can also reinforce the discriminated dimensions in the workplace by recognizing, promoting, and reinforcing employees who show prejudicial behaviors. Therefore, an organization must change its hiring, reward, promotion, and distribution systems that reinforce prejudices (Fernandez, 1981).

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References
3 sources cited in this paper
  • Clawson, J., McNay, E., Beavan, G., (2001). Leadership Steps Assessment (LSA), University of
  • Virginia: Darden Business Publishing
  • Fernandez, P. J. (1981). Racism and Sexism in Corporate Life, Lexington, Mass.: DC. Health
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PaperDue. (2013). Human Behavior in Organizations Understanding Human Behavior. PaperDue. https://paperdue.com/essay/human-behavior-in-organizations-understanding-94237

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