Organizational Behavior

Introduction A happy worker makes for a good worker you say? Well, United Airlines had somewhat of an “all for one” employee attitude in July 1994. They announced the purchase of their own company for which they work for $5 billion through ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan). So now, in the case of United Airlines, there obviously is a soar in employee productivity and spirits. Stocks have risen 120% due to this buyout (almost three times higher than the airline industry average gain). Every company or small business owner desires a positive employee attitude within his or her organization for high productivity and quality. United Airlines achieved this because the employees themselves took action, but for the majority, it is the management’s first move. Taking the Apple from the tree The Idiot’s Guide for Changing Employee Attitudes would say to pay the employee what O.J. paid his defense team. Take away the money part of a job then no one except an old volunteer worker for a Save the World Foundation or a simple dork is going to show favorable attitudes towards the job. Now let’s get real…but I thought that we were! Money can hypnotize some employees to become a more productive worker, but not all employees. (And even the ones that are motivated at the first glimpse of dead presidents will soon want…. you guessed it, more money in order to drag their lazy ass up the next step). What about Bill Gate’s techno wizards at Microsoft? What sum of money short of Bill’s own bank account is going to motivate these 30-year-old Gulfstream owners to change their snobbish attitudes? On a more practical basis, what about those employees who value intrinsic rewards over the monetary type? Not all employees will be weaned with the flash of cash. So we all must consider the fact that human beings will be consistent towards the general sense of satisfaction, but what sort of things lead to this satisfaction? What kind of satisfaction are we looking for? More so, what is going to satisfy an employee? Most of the research in the study of OB (Organizational Behavior) are concerned with job satisfaction, job involvement and organizational commitment. (Robbins, 1997) The second two attitudes, job involvement and organizational commitment, are more or less the results of job satisfaction. An employee who has a high level of job satisfaction tends to bear attitudes, which are favorable to the organization. When a prospective employee goes to that interview, there are going to be friends of that prospect who will give the most simple advice of “Sell yourself! This is your chance to prove yourself to that important company!” Little do those simpleton friends know that this is also the chance for the company to lay a sales pitch on the prospect too! Managers are concerned with the efficient operation and profit margin of the company more so than an employees job satisfaction. (Robbins, 1997) To managers, an employee’s job satisfaction is just an insurance that the employee will be productive and not skip work, and of course, to get the best man for the job. So of course, when a manager giving the interview favors a prospect, only the job’s favorable side will tend to be revealed. The prospect is told of a wonderland where the corporate ladder is actually a stepping stool. There is no mention of the negative sides, to which the manager does a David Copperfield on. The applicant now has expectations about this job that has to be met by the job or there will be a lot of dissatisfied employees. Balancing the positives with the negatives is important so that the employee will not be disappointed and become a problem that could’ve been avoided from the beginning. (Robbins, 1997) Mirror, mirror on the wall…. Successful leaders have vision, communicate well, make effective decisions, and motivate their followers. Employees are more likely to respond to a leader who is likable and credible. A leader who would want to change attitudes must have a very unbiased one. The management’s attitude is going to give employees a very visual idea of how his or her job at the organization is going to generally be, and once an image is set in people’s mind it is difficult to change. From the start, the management must be thought of as fair and consistent. The organization’s workforce must see the manager as a “better” person than they are, a person with integrity, a person who employees won’t feel prideful towards when taking orders from. So even if the leader of an organization is a couch potato at home, he or she must show otherwise in front if the employees; strong leadership qualities must be clear and visible. Lend me your ear, no not you Hollyfield. Many people can talk and talk till they have spoken the extent of their vocabulary, but few individuals have true listening skills. Listening to an employees reason for a certain attitude or behavior is the data gathering part of this science if you will. In order to listen, a manager must be able to put aside his shotgun and really pay attention to the praises and complaints of an employee. He or she must also be able to retain that information. There must be good eye contact so that a speaker will feel that the listener has interest in the material presented. Visual confirmations of the main points of the material must be shown; head nods, facial expressions, etc. This allows you to respond without interrupting the speech of the speaker. Then, when it is the appropriate time, the listener must be able to ask viable questions from the retained information. This helps the speaker feel that the listener is not rushing the conversation, and instead, the listener will appear more interested in solving the conflict. (Van Mechelen, 1997) One small step for mankind There are a variety of attitudes, and a variety of commitment levels to attitudes. Try changing a Japanese manager’s attitude. Ever seen it done before? Yeah, I saw it in a certain number of movies like” Mr. Baseball” or “Gung Ho”. These Japanese attitudes in these movies are fictional, but there are attitudes out there that come from beliefs that are as strong as, if not stronger than, the ones from Hollywood. It should be a good manager’s job to be able to decide whether a certain attitude will be easily changed or not. Once this is established, the balancing of techniques and timeliness must be applied. Attitudes cannot be changed drastically nor quickly. There is a reason why people have attitudes; it is a part of them. To change a person takes patience and lots and lots of skills, especially in a boss/employee relationship where it is more formal. Sometimes, all it takes is a warning in simple words to