Organizational Behaviour - INFOSYS IT Company - Assessment Answer

Organizational Behaviour Assignment

Assignment Task

Negative or unhelpful organisational culture at INFOSYS IT Company

According to research conducted in anIT industry named as INFOSYS from India, the negative or unhelpful organization culture is as a result of job stress. The pressure brought about by the demands to achieve the organization’s set targets creates physical and emotional stress among the workers. This triggers some element of negativity in the workers towards the organization. The consequences are dire since it results in low productivity among the workers. The workers become less passionate in their work and even get stress induced illness as a symptom of less job satisfaction (Taylor & Hansen, 2005). This paper will discuss the causes and symptoms of stress in an INFOSYS company and find ways in which organization’s top management can reduce job stress among the workers so as to improve on productivity. INFOSYS is a company that deals with information technology, business consulting and outsourcing. Job stress is an observable symptom of organization behaviour problem that is observable and measurable as discussed in this paper. Among the theories discussed in this paper include: systems approach, neo-human scale, scientific leadership, decision-making approach and the human relations approach.

Problem Analysis

Stress can be defined as the reaction of a person to threatening scenarios in the workplace. Such scenarios or factors may include new management or newly set targets that may seem unattainable by the worker. Therefore, the organization’s working environment becomes unconducive to the worker. The main cause of organizational stress, anxiety (Taylor & Hansen, 2005). Anxiety is as a creation of future expectation, making the worker to focus his or her attention away from what is happening at that particular time in the organization. Workers at INFOSYS become tense by thinking too much about their own future and subsequently develop a negative attitude towards the organization. High levels of stress or elevated stress levels has a negative repercussions of lowering performance resulting in decreased productivity within the organization. Consequently, the INFOSYS might not reach her set objectives and probably run at a loss due to low productivity.

Development of Alternative solutions

The three alternative solutions that can be developed to combat stress at INFOSYS includes, improvement of the working conditions, worker motivation, and improving interpersonal relationships. To start with, the working conditions of the workers at INFOSYS is wanting. For example, overcrowding in an office or working for long on the computers are the source of stress in this company (Taylor & Hansen, 2005). The alternative solution to reduce job-related stress in INFOSYS be achieved through the introduction of “work shifts” and create enough office space to reduce overcrowding. In a work shift, some employees may come to work in the morning and leave by midday and another set of employees can report to work in the afternoon in “two shift” kind of set up. This will depend on the INFOSYS 's ability and available resources to accommodate such shifts. An organization can even have more than “two shifts” for improved productivity. However, as have already been noted, the shifts will depend on the organization’s resources and financial ability to facilitate such kind of arrangement.

The second alternative strategy that can be developed by INFOSYS to reduce on workplace stress is improving interpersonal relationships (Tepper, 2000). Research has shown that poor interpersonal working relationship in an organization is a key factor in causing stress among the employees. There a variety of interpersonal relationships that can trigger stress reaction. For example, if the worker is exposed to long contact hours with clients, if the worker has too much contact with workers from other different departments as well as hostile and unfriendly organizational environment (Spector & Fox, 2005). The alternative solution that can be developed to reduce this kind of stress among the workers is to improve on the interpersonal relationships, such as training the workers who deal with clients for a prolonged period of time on how to handle the clients and being patients. This can be done by INFOSYS through organizing seminars where the employees will be taught on how to be patient and dealing with stubborn clients. In such seminars and training, communication will be taught as one of the core pillars of improving on the relationship between the worker and the client. In addition, INFOSYS may opt to engage workers with good interpersonal skills to be in the front office and to be at the customer care department (Spector & Fox, 2005). The rest of the workers with poor interpersonal skills can be redeployed to serve in other departments where they will not deal directly with the clients. To improve on the interpersonal relationship between workers at different department, the organization can opt to train the workers as have been discussed or alternatively develop a workplace code of conduct and ethics. Every worker will be expected to follow the laid down code of ethics and avoid insults or improper communication that can induce stress among fellow colleagues. This is likely to enhance the negative organizational culture. With improved interpersonal relationships among workers from different departments, their organization is likely to realize increased productivity due to less workplace stress and cooperation among workers (Tepper, 2000).

The third alternative strategy that can be developed by INFOSYS to reduce on workplace stress is workers motivation. Usually the low care workers feel so forgotten and develop a negative attitude towards the organization. The hatred towards the organization slowly develop into stress among the workers who may be oblivious of the same. The workers begin to dislike their jobs with immense passion leading to low productivity in the organization (Baron & Greenberg. 2008). Therefore, motivation of the workers comes in handy to counter this negative scenario. Worker motivation can come in the form of appraisal and promotion to a higher job position. This promotion may be based on the job experience or alternatively on academic achievement. The implication is that the workers will be encouraged to pursue further education so as to be promoted to the next job group. In addition, those who have served for several years in the same position will have to be promoted. A mechanism will have to be put in place such that after a given period of time or years, the worker qualifies automatically to the next job group after being evaluated based on some form of performance contract. The other form of motivation that the organization can develop as a strategy to improve on the organization productivity is to reward exemplary workers. For example, workers who attain certain set targets need to be rewarded either financially or through job promotion (Balzer & Gillespie, 2007). The workers can also be given a certificate of excellence.

The best solution

The best alternative solution to eliminate the negative or unhelpful organizational culture that is as a result of the increased stress level at work place is motivation. Many research findings have documented that humans are so egocentric and get a sense of satisfaction when they are recognized and well remunerated. Most people get passionate about their jobs when they give some bonuses after attaining the laid down targets of the organization (Tepper, 2000). They actually feel more appreciated and with feels so attached to the organization and strive to do better. Financial motivations also go a long way in improving the standards of living of the workers. This is stipulated in the neo-human relation school theory which says that workers must me motivated. Notably, in INFOSYS the improvement of living standards is usually their priority if not corporate responsibility. Therefore, by financially motivating the workers the company will be directly impacting positively on the workers' lives and indirectly reducing the stress levels among the employees. This has an effect of improving the organization's productivity.

Intervention Design/ implementation plan

The task to be implemented is the motivation, implementation plan. This will be based on the “scientific leadership theory” of organizational behaviour. The motivation will be designed based on the objectives’ of INFOSYS as stipulated by the “scientific leadership theory”. The design of the motivation, action plan will be divided into two categories, that is; exemplary performance and long serving workers. A standard time for job performance will be defined. Exemplary performance will be based on meeting the goals and objectives of the organization such as the set targets in terms of sales and productivity (Taylor & Hansen, 2005). This can be done quarterly, biannually, or even annually. The worker who attains the set target will be financially motivated by being given some bonus or give a holiday treat with the family. A certificate of excellence will also be awarded to the exemplary employee that he or she can present during appraisal and promotion (Taylor & Hansen, 2005). In the second category, the longest serving worker will be rewarded based on the number of years he or she has served the organization. For example, after serving for about five years, the worker automatically qualifies to move to the next job group with an improved pay package and allowances.

Implementation

The implementation of the above motivation, action plan at INFOSYS will be done by the top management. This is because it is the top leadership that are privy to the organization’s resources and financial capabilities. It will follow the “human relations theory” of organization behaviour which focuses on the employees’ productivity. The management will enforce the action plan in consultation with the human resource managers who knows the productivity of individual workers. The human resource management will table the files that contain all the information of the worker to the top management for evaluation and recommendation (Taylor & Hansen, 2005). The top management will relay back the information to the human resource manager about the worker to be rewarded. It will be the duty of the human resource manager to inform the exemplary worker or longest serving employee. This is stated in the system approach theory that says that all resources (including human) and processes must be managed and coordinated as one.

A timeframe in implementing each activity/activities

As has been discussed above, the implementation of each motivational activity will be made either quarterly, biannually and annually. The annual motivation will be done yearly to crown any other motivation that has been done within a year. This will be done after an elaborate motivation, action plan described above has been approved by the directors and top managers of the organization. In this case study, the three phases of motivation, an action plan will be incorporated in the timeframe.

Resources needed to implement the action plan

The resources needed to implement the motivation, action plan are basically funds. Money will be needed in the form of bonuses to give to the workers to be motivated. In addition, money is the main resource to treat the exemplary employees. However, technical expertise will be required to draft and implement the above motivation action plan. The technical expertise will be in the form of human resource. INFOSYS may lack the technical expertise and therefore they may require to engage the services of accredited firms which can conduct such activities. All these implementation strategies cannot proceed without the good will of the board of directors or board of management. Therefore, the input of the directors of the organization will be essential so as no one is left out of this important motivation action plan. This implies that the directors of the organization will also form an important component of human resource needed to design the action plan. It is also worth to note that the workers will be required to provide useful information on what they think should be in this motivation, action plan since they are the one that are going to be affected directly. They will be required to propose what kind of motivations they prefer. They will also provide useful information on which motivation should be made a priority. The implication is that even the workers will actually form a useful component of human resource needed to develop the action plan.

Conclusion

Organization behaviour problem can manifest itself within an organization in various forms such as negative or unhelpful organizational culture that is normally as a result of job stress. Job stress manifests itself in a workplace when negative attitude is observed among the workers. The main cause of organizational stress, anxiety. Anxiety is as a creation of future expectation, making the worker to focus his or her attention away from what is happening at that particular time in the organization. The three alternative solutions that can be developed to combat stress includes, improvement of the working conditions, worker motivation, and improving interpersonal relationships. The best alternative solution to eliminate the negative or unhelpful organizational culture that is as a result of the increased stress level at work place is motivation. The implementation of the motivation, action plan will be done by the top management. The implementation of each motivational activity will be made either quarterly, biannually and annually. Finally, the resources needed to implement the motivation, action plan is basically funded.