Essay Example: Identification of Areas of Organizational Behavior

Organizational behavior is the study of how people interact with each other and with the organization to find with the aim of improving effectiveness and efficiency within an organization (Luthans, 2015). The major elements of organizational behavior include the relationships of the individuals in the organization, the organizational structure, processes of the organization, the culture of the organization as well as the human behavior. The organization is a term used to mean a group of people who come together to attain a given goal collaboratively. In this analysis, the case study will be used to identify various aspects of organizational behavior presented the scenario.

The organizational structure takes a central role in the scenario explaining the formal relationships existing between the players and the reporting procedures. The individuals involved in the strategic management in the case study is the Vice President Baden Winder. He is seen to oversee the organizational activities with the head of operations reporting directly to him. The head of operations is the boss of the fourteen district managers who report to him. The district managers form the final group of the management for that organization. When Alexis was interviewed for the position of a district manager, he was given a fellow district manager who had worked for three years overseeing five district stores. He was Alexis peer mentor as they are at the same level now that Alexis is hired. Their immediate supervisor is the head of operations, David Jupsen. The rest of the employees in the Gona Foods work under this management that spearheads the company to ensure that the goals are achieved. This group of managers had the responsibility of coming with the goals and policies of the organization, scheduling and carrying out interviews as well as implementing policies in the organization. One of the policies was that once an employee resigned from Gona Foods, they would not get another opportunity to return. That is why it was difficult for Alexis to make a decision in his last month whether to pick the graduate school scholarship by resigning or forfeit the graduate school opportunity and lose it forever.

The organizational processes and culture are such that once a district manager is hired, they are taken for a rigorous one-year training to equip them with the necessary skills they need to work in that position as well as exposing them to the culture of the organization. The one-year training comes with its own benefits like being given a company car that is fueled and a good salary at the end of the month. These benefits are essential for the new managers are they motivate them to remain in training to the end (Pinder, 2014). According to Alexis, the monetary returns provided by Gona Foods compensate the difficult training sessions that are so demanding in terms of time, energy and what one is required to grasp within a short span of time. The organizational culture is such that one year period is enough to orient the new employees in all the departments and stores. That exposure assists the management trainees by providing them with an opportunity to ask questions, to learn the process and acquire necessary skills that they would later use once fully hired to work independently. However, the training presents some challenges for the trainees in terms of their roles and responsibilities and whom they are supposed to report to. For example, at one instance, Alexis found himself in a difficult situation in trying to figure out who his boss was because he was in the in-training store. He was working under Amon, who was reporting to John who happened to be reporting to Alexis boss, David. At that time, he felt lost and unable to understand who he was working for. However, the good thing was the training would be for a time and soon he would have to work on his schedule with a defined job description.

Additionally, the people are friendly desiring to incorporate new staff in the system. For instance, when Alexis first started the training the other administrative assistants commenting that either they had not seen him before or welcoming him to Gona Foods. Within the first week, he was happy to be addressed by his name and have some employees finding out how the training was progressing. That made him feel like part of Gona foods. The employees know very well their relationships with workmates, some are co-workers, or supervisors or subordinates. Such reporting relationships are important since they reduce conflicts once a person is hired since they know the parameters within which they work and also accountability is easy when relationships within an organization are well defined.

References

Luthans, F., Luthans, B. C., & Luthans, K. W. (2015). Organizational behavior: An evidence-based approach. IAP.

Pinder, C. C. (2014). Work motivation in organizational behavior. Psychology Press.