The Importance Of And My Understanding Of Organizational Behavior

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The Importance of and My Understanding of Organizational Behavior That Helped me Have a Successful Career

DM686 Organizational Behavior

DR. Lyle J. Hogue

October 26, 2007

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Introduction

The importance of Organizational Behavior and personal success as a manager or leader entail a great amount of effort, knowledge, skills, training and commitment by the individual leader or manager. I am in the beginning of starting a career outside of the military. In the military leadership and management is bestowed upon an individual in a very fast and some times too premature way. In the Army I became a successful leader, retiring as a Master Sergeant/E-8, through the application and some of the skills discussed in this organizational management course. Through some of the past skills, training, and experiences I have enjoyed in the Army coupled with new challenges and the formal education I know some of the things I learned formally about Organizational Behavior is going to play an important role in developing managerial skills and organizational management in a second career in the civilian world. Right now, I am not in a leadership position at current job. I do become a Lead Instructor when I am on the road training our first responders.

I am going to discuss the importance of organizational behavior and how it plays a role in the success of a manager or leader. Using the lessons, information and ideals from our course material and discussions, I will use that information and other sources to qualify why I think Organizational Behavior is important in the success of a manager.

Needs Assessment

A successful manager will have to do two things in assessing the needs. The manager will have to be able to assess the needs of the organization and have to assess the needs of the individuals and teams working in the environment. I intentionally said

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environment and not office environment, because a lot of my “organizational behavior” experience also occurred in a tactical field environment.

Assessment of the organization aids the manager/leader by giving them the focus and direction they will need to be successful. In the organizational structure leaders at all levels need to know the needs and issues of the organization so they can work on the right things. There is no need to fix things that are not broken. If the leaders can keep up with what is not right about the organization, they can work to fix the problems. In addition the leadership can focus on the big picture by addressing the needs of the organization and keep companies moving in the right direction.

In conjunction with addressing the needs of the organization, looking at the needs of the personnel who work in the organization will help keep an organization moving in the right direction. Addressing the needs of the organization without addressing the needs of the people is kind of like building a house and not intending to put people in it to make it a home. There are basic needs that have to be filled for each individual to make workers feel “happy”, welcome and part of the organization and team.

In my current position I do not get to use these skills much because I am not in a management position. While I was in the Army as a Platoon Sergeant, in charge of three supervisors who had ten soldiers of their own, I had to employ both the task of assessing the needs of the organization and that of the soldiers (all 33) who served with me. I had to always keep focused on the units’ mission and objectives. Some took care of themselves, but for the most part it was a daily mission to ensure our unit was effective and mission ready. The same applied with each individual soldier including the leaders that were under my charge. Each individuals needs had to be met before I could even think about

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having them accomplish a unit mission. Their housing and home needs had to be taken care of whether they were single and in the barracks or living in a family home environment. The basic needs were usually taken care of. The social needs of the team had to be fed. In most locations I have been, usually on Thursday afternoons, organizations gave us either time to socialize or play sports with the troops, and let us off earlier than normal to have family time. Addressing and fulfilling these needs assisted me in being a successful leader at that particular point in my career.

Ability to Create Vision

Organizational Behavior incorporates all types of philosophies, trained and learned processes. Another aspect I believe that helped and will help me to be a successful manager is the ability to create vision. I am not just thinking about myself when it comes to creating a vision, but also the team members that I will be working with or the staff that will support me. Usually with all tasks there is an objective that we must reach to be successful. Managers have to be able to get themselves and those who work for them to see where they are going. The manager, or as in the case of me being in the Army, the leader has to provide the leadership that provides the direction, focus, and motivation to get the team members to see where he is trying to get them to is worth it. The team members have to see the vision the leader is attempting to get them to accept. Once the team members believe in the leaders’ ability to get them to the final objective, successfully, they too will begin to have the ability to create vision, accept the direction and obtain the final objective with success.

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Creating vision almost simultaneously creates and instills another important characteristic that benefits organizational behavior. The other characteristic is creativity. The manager that instills creativity in his team, that allows them to achieve a successful mission accomplishment, will make the team feel as though they were part of something important and that they are a part of the successes the organization shares as a whole.

Vision is an important aspect for a manager to have. If the manager can pass this on to the members of the organization this will help to transcend the behavior in the organization to