Key Learnings from OB-2 course
(Submitted by Rajat Dhingra, Roll No 26, PGPM-PT April 2014 batch)
An organisation consists of individuals and each person has an inherent need to understand it because much of each individual's time is spent working in or around an organisation. Organisation Behaviour plays an important role in the management of business. It is that field of study which finds out the impact that individuals, groups and structure have on behaviour within an organisation and it applies that knowledge to make organisations work more effectively.
Organisations are open social systems and have complex structures. Companies use various structures such as- functional, divisional, ...view middle of the document...
Organisational uncertainty is the result of stable-unstable and simple-complex dimensions of the environment. Organisations try to survive and achieve efficiencies in a world characterized by uncertainty and scarcity.
Conflict, power and politics are natural outcomes of organizing. Differences in goals, backgrounds, and tasks are necessary for organisational excellence, but these differences can throw groups into conflict. Managers use power and politics to manage and resolve conflict.
Organisational culture has visible and hidden elements. Culture is a man made part of the environment. Culture can be interpreted by looking at the organisation’s rites and ceremonies, stories, symbols, structures, control systems and power relationships. Four types of culture exist in an organisational context- mercenary culture, network culture, communal, fragmented culture. For example, the company that I work for, viz. IFCI Ltd has ‘Network Culture’ with characteristics of many rituals, coalitions, people focus etc. Through the course we also learnt about task and people orientation with discussion on Telling, Participating, Selling or Delegating Styles and their applicability in various organisational contexts.
Through the cases of British Airways and GE we learnt about the important construct of Succession Planning which is a roadmap for identifying & developing tomorrow’s leaders today. The main purpose of ensure that essential knowledge and abilities will be maintained when employees in critical positions leave.
Managers prefer to organize day to day activities in a predictable, routine manner. However, change not stability is the natural order of things in today’s global environment. The present state not being very satisfactory can lead to stagnation and therefore requires interventions to reach the future goal state. We learnt about the 5 key factors behind change (PRESS) and Jack Welch’s strategy...
