Management
and their influence on employee behaviour
The fact that management has a great
influence on employee behaviour is not in dispute. One of the main important
roles of the management is to promote the desired organisational culture which
basically dictates how employees relate to each other and to the management
(Hersey and Blanchard, 1972). The organisational culture also helps in defining
how employees relate to their duties and responsibilities in the organisations.
Managers can influence employee behaviour in a number of ways. These include
the provision of leadership in the organisation, performance management,
influencing of the work place conducts and others (Rowold, 2007). It must be
appreciated that the management is tasked with the responsibility of ensuring
that the organisation performs in accordance with the set vision and mission
and the employee behaviour is part of this performance.
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The employee behaviour is critical to
the performance of any organisation and any effective management team should be
aware of this fact. The employee behaviour could lead to harmony in the work place
and lead to the strengthening of a culture of cooperation and team work; or it
could lead to the deterioration of working conditions where the employees are
involved in unhealthy competition and even in acts of sabotage to ensure that
their colleagues do not make considerable achievements (Pudelko and Harzing,
2007). The employee attitudes could also determine the level of satisfaction
that the customers being served can experience. Surveys into the customer
satisfaction in the UK retail industry indicated that the good treatment of
customers by employees has been largely responsible for the high customer
satisfaction levels among their clients (Datamonitor, 2011). The management of
employee behaviour is therefore crucial to ensuring the survival and the
progress of the whole organisation. It is a proven fact that the existence of a
healthy working environment characterised with mutual trust and respect among
the employees and the management helps in the improvement of the level of
productivity in the organisations in question (Rana, 2010). Organisations whose
employees are embroiled in constant strife and no respect tend to be less
effective in the pursuit of their vision and strategies.
Actions by management contribute
significantly to how employees behave in the organisations. The management
influence these behaviours by instituting systems and policies that regulate
behaviour as desired. One of the most common tools is the use of the employee
code of conducts where the management spells out the kind of behaviours that
are prohibited at the work place. Most professional organisations have policies
directly outlawing such habits as fighting, name calling and quarrelling at the
work place (Ferner, 1997). The regulations are accompanied with information on
the penalties available for the misconduct which may range from verbal
warnings, written warnings, suspensions and even dismissal in the extreme cases
(Ferner, 1997). However, behaviours that relate to the attitude of the
employees are hard to pin point and therefore difficult to regulate through
policy (Rana, 2010). This is why the management must come up with additional
measures to ensure that the employee feelings are well taken care off.
Many of the actions that are taken by
the managers impact how employees behave towards each other and towards the
organisation in one way or another. The most common ways that managers use to
ensure this include the provision of a healthy working environment, the
emphasis on the desired communication channels, empathy towards employees and
their plights, the provision of motivation incentives, and the organisation of
the work in the organisation.
Communication is one of the most
important aspects of any organisation and without it the organisation ceases to
be one. Organisations consist of individuals who must work together to achieve
the shared goals (Bisco and Schuler, 1995). Various styles of communication can
be used with most organisations opting to use the different styles depending on
the situations. For instance, written and communication is crucial for
communicating official instructions. Informal communication on the other hand
is common in scenarios where colleagues are simply consulting with each other.
The style of communication chosen by managers help in determining whether or
not the employees can freely air their views with most organisations striving
towards the creation of a mild form of informality in order to encourage
employees to feel free in the work place (Bisco and Schuler, 1995). The
strength of Wal-Mart has traditionally been based on the fact that employees
are free to make observations and make suggestions on the best ways of
utilising arising opportunities (OneSource Information Services, 2011). The
employees of the global conglomerate may be termed as the organisation’s source
of strength and this is only achieved by ensuring that employees are free to
air their views and that these views are taken seriously (OneSource Information
Services, 2011).
The frequency with which directions and
objectives are communicated to the subordinates also plays a critical role in
shaping the employee behaviour in the organisations. Scanty communication can also
easily lead to the generation of unnecessary negativities which may be fronted
by rumourmongers. Almost all organisations have potential rumourmongers who in
their quest to attract attention and the trust of their colleagues may distort
the available facts into falsities of monumental proportions (Ferner, 1997). If
such negativities are allowed to take root, the management may find it
difficult to reverse them. Infrequent formal communication also creates room
for speculation with some employees largely viewed as ‘special’ due to their
perceived closeness with the management (Walonick, 1993). Such scenarios often
lead to animosity and lack of teamwork hence bringing down productivity levels.
Proper and frequent communication in ensuring that the views of the management
remain clear and that there is no room for distortion. The management at Tesco
plc is well aware of the risk associated with insufficient communication and
has been keen to communicate every strategic, technical and operational
decisions with remarkable speed (Tesco, 2011). It is the company’s policy to
ensure that all the members of the organisation remain well informed of what
all departments are up to and this helps in ensuring that there is little room
for speculation (Tesco, 2011).
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The behaviour of employees in
organisations is often closely related to their motivation levels. Highly
motivated employees tend to be very positive in their work and this positivity
always translates into acceptable conduct which may in turn inspire motivation
on the part of their colleagues. The pursuit of employee motivation strategies
is perhaps the most common approach that the management takes when trying to
influence the behaviour of employees in organisations. For instance, the
provision of incentives such as commissions enables employees to pursue their
personal financial goals as they work for the organisations. This fit between
their personal objectives and their organisation’s goals enables them to work
with renewed dedication and the dedication often translates to positive
behaviour on their part. Wal-Mart provides its employees with a wide range of
monetary and non monetary incentives which enable the employees to relate with
the organisation more meaningfully (OneSource Information Services, 2011). Other
motivation methods may include the provision of challenging tasks and other
motivation styles as job rotation which help boost motivation levels. A
motivated employee tends to adopt the values and philosophies of their
organisations with ease where many of these values define how the members of
the organisation view and relate to each other. One of the defining
characteristics of Wal-Mart is the apparent compatibility between their values
and the personal traits of the employees. Observers attribute this to the fact
that the employees may be intentionally trying to live the vision of the
organisation (OneSource Information Services, 2011). The focus on the level of
satisfaction of employees is also crucial with many management teams tending to
reward employees who receive frequent endorsements by satisfied customers.
These management actions certainly have an impact on how employees behave.
The manner in which operational
procedures are designed and how the performance is evaluated also contributes
greatly to how employees behave in organisations (Rana, 2010). For instance,
where workers are organised into teams and are evaluated as such, they tend to
treat each other with decorum in order to ensure each tem member plays their
role in order to ensure the team meets the targets set. This may be different
where focus on individual responsibility is emphasised. Focus on individual
responsibility is frowned upon by many observers who hold the opinion that the
practice turns colleague who need to be working together into competitors who
must outdo each other. Those in support of this style however hold that some
measure of individual responsibility must be demanded to ensure everyone plays
their role. A more favourable approach is the combination of teamwork and
individual responsibility in a cocktail that ensures both aspects. Such an
approach is well implemented at Sanofi Aventies, a top pharmaceutical company
which organises its work force into teams that are answerable both individually
and collectively (Sanofi, 2011). This unique approach has been useful in
promoting a culture of innovation and result-driven endeavours that have seen
the company develop one of the healthiest working environments in the world
(Sanofi, 2011). Whatever happens, managers must remain alive to the fact that
the organisation functions better as a team and they must enact policies that
encourage compatible employee attitudes and behaviours (Rana, 2010). The
employee behaviour is certainly affected by the work structures.
The realisation that employees can make
or break the organisation seems to have shaped the current trends in
organisations where the decisions and practices of human resource management
are increasingly being factored in the generic strategies of the organisations
(Rana, 2010). Companies seem to be keen on ensuring that their employees can
form their source of competitive advantage in the market and this uniqueness
can be derived from a number of features. The most important feature refers to
the unique employee behaviour and how it leads to the creation of the desired
organisational culture, desired productivity levels, and more importantly, the
satisfaction levels among customers (Rowold, 2007). Managers are increasingly
being put through trainings in order to help them understand how to manage
their subordinates in a manner that motivates them to conduct themselves in a
certain manner. The focus of these training is taking a new direction where
managers get trained on non-traditional dimensions such as psychology and human
behaviour and this is an illustration of the fact that employee behaviour is of
a great significance to any organisation (Pudelko and Harzing, 2007). Of course
the trainings are also a manifestation of the acknowledgement that management
plays a pivotal role in determining how employees behave.
The members of the organisations are
human like and are likely to be influenced by the behaviour of others towards
them and towards others. This is natural and it is expected that employees’
behaviour be not only influenced by the management, but also by their own
colleagues. The role of the management in influencing employee behaviour is
however quite pivotal in the sense that, it is the managers who are charged
with the task of creating a healthy working environment. A healthy working
environment must be characterised by employees and managers who treat each
other with respect and with the acknowledgement of the critical role that each
party plays in ensuring the delivery on the organisations’ goals. Employee
behaviour at work relates to how workers communicate with each other, the
seriousness with which they treat their work, their willingness to share ideas
with the management and colleagues, and the adherence to the set policy
regulations. The management plays a critical role in shaping these behaviours
and they do so by forming policies that prohibit certain actions, implementing
motivational strategies, formulation of compatible operation designs and
ensuring effective communication with subordinates. From the observations made
in this paper, and from the experiences of Tesco Plc, Wal-Mart and Sanofi
Aventis, it must be concluded that the management indeed helps in influencing
employee behaviour at work.
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