By Juma CJO
An important factor in strategic
management is the appreciation of the fact that the management teams have a
great influence on employee behaviour. 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.
The employee is increasingly becoming
the main factor in contemporary strategic management. 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
influences 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 strategic management must be applied in coming 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 strategic management 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). Strategic management should
therefore result in the generation of appropriate company policies 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).
Effective strategic management yields
high levels of employee motivation; especially where the best-fit approach to
HRM is applied. 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. Appropriate strategic management approaches must therefore consider
the merits of each and apply a combination that would not only bring out the
uniqueness of the organisation; but also ensure that there is sustainable
competitiveness. 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 apply
effective strategic management both at the operational and corporate levels.
The focus of such trainings also extends to people management where they are
trained 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.
References
References
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