Organizational Behavior

Leadership And Organizational Behavior

The hierarchy of an Organization paves way for the company to set and formalize its Organizational Behavior model. Most companies have a hierarchy, where sub-ordinates report to their managers, managers to their immediate line managers and so on. This obviously means that accountability is the key at each level for the company to realize profits from each level. A close two-way 'interaction' between Organizational Behavior and Leadership will enable companies to achieve this objective.

Different styles of Leadership which impact Organizational Behavior

In some companies, the style of leadership impacts organizational behavior and that is where it ends. With the business environment changing, many companies have changed this model to a two-way model where an impact on organizational behavior of the company also changes the style of leadership. It is this closed cycle between the two which enables to drive organizational behavior ahead. Needless to say, to enforce and reinforce organizational behavior amongst new and old employees would require strong leadership skills at the helm. Lack of good leadership will mean that Organizational behavior principles will remain only on paper and will not get translated to practice.

Let us take an example. Company A comes up with a set of practices which needs to be implemented by all the employees of the company. Manager B, who is in charge of 50 people reporting to him can accomplish this in the following ways:

Autocratic Style - By telling the employees that they need to do a certain activity and if not, they would penalized or action would be taken. This style of leadership is not recommended in most circumstances except when all previous communications between you and your sub-ordinate have failed.
Supportive - The employees are given all the tools and support that they require to achieve the transitional change in the Organizational Behavior. By employing a Supportive leadership mode with employees, the leaders build good interaction levels with the employees which can only be beneficial for the company.
Collegial - This is the model which most companies adhere to when we talk about leadership and organizational behavior. Collegial mode of leadership believes in building partnerships with employees to ensure that the company objectives are met.

For all business owners who wish to adopt an organizational behavior model for their companies, must understand the expectations of the employees of the company. Integrating an organizational behavior model into the performance management mode would mean changing the styles of certain sect of employees. If the business owner could deal with the change management activity to enforce the OB guidelines in his company, he would have taken one big step towards ensuring better productivity and more importantly, best practices could be established within the company.