ORGANISATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS

Overview &Concepts: Survival of the organization for a long run is the measurement of
effectiveness.

• Effectiveness can be defined as the degree to which organization realizes its

goals.
• Organizational effectiveness is the extent to which an organization given certain
resources and means, achieve its objectives without placing a due strain on its
members.
• Effectiveness is the ability of an organization to mobilize its centers of power for
action, production and adaptation.

Approaches of organizational effectiveness:

1. Goal attainment approach – The primary concern of an organization is to accomplish

goals, where goal attainment is widely been used for organizational effectiveness. This
approach can be made by assumptions like –

• Each organization will have an ultimate goal.

• All the organizational members must understand the organization goals.
• These goals must have general consensus.
• The goals to be attained must be manageable.
• The goals progress must be measurable.

Goal statements can be a single variable that includes rate of return on investment.
The actual performance is measured and compared with the goals set to know the
extent of effectiveness by organization.

Limitations of Goal Approach –

• If the organization does not produce the tangible outputs, than the implication of
the approach is not possible.
• As the organization has different types of goals in short-run, long-run, individual,
organizational and operational, it is difficult to consider and measures all these
goals.
• The goals can compete with each other and in certain cases, they also
incompatible.

2. System approach –
• In this case an effort would make to know whether the existing organization
system is capable of acquiring input and transforming these inputs to desire
output. The total system effectiveness is dependent on its sub-parts of the
performance. The interrelation between various parts of the organization and
organization environments influences the effectiveness of the organization.
 • The job satisfaction level of the employee and the clarity of the communication
etc. are the inputs for the Managers to understand the nature of their environments
and help to set realistic goals that accommodate the environments.
• If the organization can successfully adapt the structure, work, technologies,
policies according to the changing environments, than it is said to be more
effective.

Limitations of system approach –

• Limitations to respond to the environment changes and such qualitative variable

may lead to appropriate measurement.
• It focuses on means rather than the ends.

Strategic Constituencies approach –

• It considers the interdependencies among the different subsystems in the

organization like system approach but does not consider the entire environment. It
considers only that part of environment which effects the survival of the
organization.
• It assumes that the organization environments both inside and outside faces
competing demand from various interest groups. Thus, the management must
avoid unimportant and no competing demand by selecting strategic constituencies
for the organization to survive.
• The steps to be followed for being effective –
1. The management for the survival of the organization must identify integral
constituencies in the environment.
2. Each constituency’s power must be evaluated by considering the extent to
which the organization depends on them.
3. The management must identify the expected constituencies for
organization effectiveness.
4. The constituencies must be arranged in power and expectations by the
management.
5. The effectiveness of the organization is known by assessing its ability to
satisfy these constituencies that are ranked.

Limitations of strategic constituencies approach –

• It is difficult to separate the strategic constituencies from the larger environment.

• The critical constituencies’ expectations are difficult to be assigned.
• The constituencies’ expectation holds on for the organization requires
identification and measurement.

Behavioral approach –

• The approach advocates for the people who determine the quality and quantity of
organization response to the demand made by the environment. As the
 organizational failure or success depends upon the individual, this approach
focuses on the individual behavior.
• When the employees accept the organization objectives then it results in perfect
integration of the individual and the organization’s goal which in turn leads to
organizational effectiveness. This is for the reason that when the goals cover the
individual expectation, he put forward his effort to maximum extent.
• The ideal situation arises by perfect integration of individual and organizational
goals.

Measurement of Organization effectiveness –

Organization survival is a long-run measurement of effectiveness. However, the adequate

indicators must be available to the management in order to survive the organization.
Those are Short-run indicator which includes production, efficiency and satisfaction
measurement, the other is Intermediate indicator which includes adaptive ness and
development.

Short-run Indicators –
• Production – Indicates whether the organization has the ability to produce the
things demanded by the environment. It includes profit, sales, market share,
clients served measurement.
• Efficiency – Is the ratio of output to input, which includes the measure of rate of
return, unit cost, scrap and wastage generation, downtime cost, cost per client or
employee.
• Satisfaction – Measurement of employee’s satisfaction through their attitude
turnover, absenteeism and grievances etc.

Intermediate Indicator –
• Adaptive ness – Is the extent to which the organization can respond to both
internal and external changes.
• Development – Is an effort through training program for the managerial personnel
and new incumbents to the organization.

Achieving organizational effectiveness:

Following are the steps recommended by Tannenbaumm for achieving organization

effectiveness –
• Understanding – The degree to which the relation are accurately perceived.
• Normative conformity – The degree to which the actual behavior confirms to the
perceived behavior.
• Affective conformity – The degree to which the actual behavior confirms to the
desires and reflections.
• Satisfaction & Dissatisfaction – The degree to which the perceived and actual
relation are accepted or rejected.
 • Affective Atmosphere – The balance between the +Ve & -Ve choices in an
organizational unit.
• Centralisation - The degree of concentration for the prescribed, actual, desired,
perceived, choices in a specified person or group.

ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE& CLIMATE

An individual join an organization with the values, beliefs and the expected behavior that
is common in his family and surroundings. However the organization will expect that the
individual will adopt with the existing culture of it and for that matter the individual will
be taught about the values, beliefs and expected behavior that are common in the
organization.

The training attempts to psychologically strip down the new recruits and then restructure
their way of thinking and their values. The key challenge for the new economy,
Information Age organizations is to instill and sustain a corporate wide culture that
encourages knowledge sharing.

The most important part in organization culture is the shared norms and values that guide
organizational participants’ behavior. It is important to note here that the organizations
are not only active to teach the newcomers about organization’s norms and values, it is
the newcomers who also seek out and want to learn about their organization’s culture.

Definition –

Edgar Schein defined - As a pattern of basic assumption, invented, discovered or

developed by a group as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaptations and
external integration that has worked well enough to be considered valuable and therefore
to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to
those problems.

Taylor defined - As the complex whole, which includes knowledge, belief, art, law,
custom and any other capability and habits acquired by man as a member of the society.

Characteristics –
• Observed behavioral regularities – When organizational participants interact with
one another, they use common language, terminology and rituals related to
deference and demeanor.
• Norms – Standard of behavior exists, including guidelines on how much work to
do, which in many organizations come down to “ Do not do too much; do not do
too little”.
• Dominant values – There are major values that the organization advocates and
expects the participants to share. Typical examples are high product quality, low
absenteeism and high efficiency.
 • Philosophy – There are policies that set forth the organization’s beliefs about how
employees and/or customers are to be treated.
• Rules – There are strict guidelines related to getting along in the organization.
Newcomers must learn those “ropes” in order to be accepted as full-fledged
members of the group.
• Organizational climate – This is an overall “feeling” that is conveyed by the
physical layout, the way participants interact, and the way members of the
organization conduct themselves with customers or other outsiders.

Uniformity of Culture – A common misconception is that an organization has a uniform

culture, which is not true in reality. Although an organization culture is a common
perception held by the organization’s members and every one in the organization has to
share this perception but in most cases all the members may not do so to the same degree.
This will result a dominant culture and subcultures throughout a typical organization.

Dominant culture – It is consist of a set of a value being shared by the majority members
of the organization. This creates a certain values in the organization, which helps by
guiding the day-to-day behavior of the employees.

Sub-culture - It consist of a set of values being shared by the small minority members of
the organization. This reflects a common problem, situations or experiences that are faced
by the members and are developed in large organizations.

Sub-culture can weaken and undermine an organization if they are in conflict with
dominant culture and/or the overall objectives. Successful firms, however, find that this is
not always the case. Most sub-cultures are formed to help the members of a particular
group deal with the specific day-to-day problem with which they are confronted.

Strength and weakness of organizational culture - The strength of the organization is

determined by two factors. These are shared ness and intensity. Shared ness refers to the
extent the organization members share the core values. While the intensity is the extent to
which the organizational members commit to the core values. Further, the shared ness
consist of two affecting major factors namely orientation and rewards. Orientation occurs
when the boss and co-workers share the values either by work or day-to-day habits.
Reward will occur when the members’ who share the core values be awarded by the
organization in the form of promotion, raise or recognition. The result of the reward
system is the degree of intensity.

Functions of culture - Culture performs several functions within the organization

• It creates a distinction between one organization to other.
• A sense of identity is conveyed to the members of the organization.
• It facilitates the people to get committed to something large then their own self
interest.
• Provide appropriate standards to say and perform.
 • It guides and shapes the attitude and behavior of the employees through a control
mechanism.

Creation of organization culture – There are three basic way for creation of
organization culture. These are
• The employees are hired and kept by the founders who think and feel the way
they perform and set the norms is the organization’s culture..
• The employees are encouraged by the founders’ role model behavior so as to
identify the behavior within them and will internalize their beliefs, values and
assumption.
• Some time the founders may create weak culture, where the organization can
survive, the organization has to employ a new top manager who will take
necessary steps to strengthen the culture of the organization.

However the processes of the development of culture have following steps-

• A single person (founder) has an idea for a new enterprise.
• The founder brings in one or more key people and creates a core group that shares
a common vision with the founder. That is, all in this core group believe that the
idea is a good one, is workable, is worth running some risks for, and is worth the
investment of time, money, and energy that will be required.
• The founding core group begins to act in concert to create an organization by
raising funds, obtaining patents, incorporating, locating space, building and so on.
• At this point, others are brought into the organization, and a common history
begins to be built.

Maintaining Organizational Culture – Once the organization is created and developed,

the next step is to maintain the organizational culture. The steps involved are –

• Selection of entry level personnel – Is done with the help of standardized

procedures and specific traits measurement which leads to effective performance,
the recruiters who are trained must interview the individuals and must remove the
individuals whose styles and values does not match with the organization culture.
Only the suitable individuals will let the culture to turn out better.
• Placement on the job – The individual who has been hired will be placed in the
job and will be given more work to handle and see that how far they perform it
and honor & accept the organization norms and values.
• Job mastery – It is carefully reinforced through training and performance is
evaluated. If necessary additional responsibility is assigned by establishing a step-
by-step approach to their future career plan.
• Measuring & rewarding performance – The step involves in measuring
operational results and rewarding individuals’ performance. The operational
measures are concerned with three main factors; they are building volume, profit
& making change in order to increase the effectiveness and to add job satisfaction.
Based on the success, the promotions and merits are paid.
 • Adherence to important values – Through identifying these values, the
employees are helped to reconcile their personal sacrifies brought in by their
membership in their organization. In this way the values are accepted by the
employees and also trust the organization for not doing anything that huts them.
• Reinforcing the stories and folklore – The next step involves reinforcing
organizational folklore. This entails keeping alive stories that validate the
organization’s culture and way of doing things. The folklore helps explain why
the organization does things a particular way. One of the most common forms of
folklore is stories with morals the enterprise wants to reinforce.
• Recognition & promotion – These are given for the individual who perform well
in their job & behavior as a role model for the new people joining the
organization.

Changing organization culture – In some cases the organizations would require certain
changes. In case if there is a drastic change in the external environment, the organization
adapt to new changes otherwise it cannot survive. However, the change of culture would
face resistances, those include skills, staff, relationship, roles and structure that works
together to reinforce the traditional cultural pattern.

Culture can be changed and managed over time but it takes many different forms of
history, creating a sense of humor, promoting a sense of membership and increasing
exchange among members are helpful.

Organizational Climate –
• Organizational climate occurs in human environment within organization where
the employee performs their work.
• Anything that occurs in the organization will affect the climate.
• Organization climate is relatively enduring quality of the internal environment
that is experienced by its members, influences their behavior and can be described
in terms of values of particular set of characteristics of the organization.
• Organization climate describe an organization and that a) distinguishes one
organization from another b) are relatively enduring over a period of time and c)
influences the behavior of people in organization.

Elements for a favorable climate – A climate may vary from favorable to neutral to
unfavorable. A favorable climate is necessary for both the employer and the employees as
it will help the employer to maintain peace & harmony along with productivity and the
employees to perform good with job satisfaction.

There are several elements been required to have favorable climate, like :
• Quality leadership.
• Amount of trust
• Communication upward & downward.
• Feeling of useful work.
• Responsibility.
 • Fair awards.
• Reasonable job pressure.
• Opportunity.
• Reasonable control, structure & bureaucracy.
• Employee & participation.

Measuring organization climate – An attempt to capture the essence, environment,

order and pattern of an organization is similar for measuring the organizational climate.
In general it is measured through a questionnaire usually consisting of 25 questions for
which that the employees have to respond. These questions are answered in some form of
a scale, which vary from two to six points/ten points scale. e.g.

(1)Decision making in the organization is too cautious for maximum effectiveness

Definitely Inclined Neutral Inclined to

Definitely
Disagree Disagree Agree Agree

1 2 3 4 5

Changing organizational climate –

• It is possible through changes of structure, design, management development and
planning system.
• It is usually done through stages.
• As climate is the manifestation of the attitudes to the members of the
organization, it takes some time to change the managerial philosophy, changes
the rules, regulation and procedure as well as observes the changes in the human
resources.

Factors affecting organizational climate –

• Organizational context – The basic factor that affect the climate is management
philosophy. The climate will be good only when the company utilizes both human
& non-human resources.
Favorable climate will results when the existing management techniques and
organizational goals matches the employees expectation.
• Structure – The organization structure has an impact on its climate. If the
management has a strong belief in participative decision-making, it will promote a
decentralized structure. While in case the management feels to maintain at a
greater degree in operations consistency regarding decision making, than it
becomes a centralized structure.
• Process – The management carries out objectives through the process of
communication, decision-making, motivation and leadership. These process
involves in the relationship between superior and subordinates. All these process
affect the climate in the organization. If they –ve.ly influence the climate, the
performance of the employees may be influenced.
 • Physical Environment – The climate may get affected due to the external
conditions of the environment. If the employees work is performed in a clean &
safe environment that will lead to a favorable climate.
• System values & norms – Formal value system like policies, rules and
regulations which are communicated to the employees and results encouragement
and rewards influence the employees’ behavior and thus the climate.

POWER & POLITICS

• Power is a term which can be felt exercised but difficult to define. The difficulty
.is for multidimensional nature of power.
• Power is the ability of an individual to control others.
• The managers are given the power to manage the organization & help to attain the
organization goal.
• The power makes the manager to influence the employees and make them to
listen to their advice for goal achievement.
• On the basis of quantum & momentum of power the leadership style differ. It is
the power, which influence the style of management & behavior of the
organization.

Definition of Power: “Power is the ability to get things done the way one wants them to
be done.”

As per Max Weber – Power is the probability of one actor within a social relationship
that will be in position to carryout his own will despite resistance.

As per Robin – Power is the capacity the A has to influence the behavior of B, so that B
does something he would not do otherwise.

Characteristics of Power :
• Dependency relationship :Fundamental character of power is dependency. If the
dependence is higher by one person on another than the amount of power will also
be higher.
• Power is specific : Power can be exercised by some one at some circumstances.
The range of power can not be exercised by all the people at all the time.
• Reciprocal relationships: The relationship of power in the organization is
essentially reciprocal in nature. The power is of two-way concept i.e. influencing
others & being influenced by the others.

Sources of Power : It consists of two types of sources namely – Interpersonal sources of

power & Structural sources of power.
Interpersonal sources of power are of 5-types –
• Reward Power – It is given to the person who has the ability to others. E.g. the
employees may co-operate with the managers so as to influence their behavior or
they may expect a reward for their interactions.
• Coercive Power – The coercive power is given to individuals to have the ability
to punish the undesirable behavior of others. Such necessity arises that the
subordinates have to comply with the leader, as they may be punished if they fail
to respond favorably to managerial directives.
• Legitimate Power – Derived from position based on organization hierarchy. It
disappears outside the zone.
• Expert Power - : Possession of some expertise, knowledge or special skill gets
the respect & compliance of the followers.
• Referent power : Based on some personal traits such as ability to express clearly
or confidence for performing the job. It develops an admiration on other persons
& desires to be like that person. By admiring a particular person, the others will
model his behavior & attitude, thus the admired person will possessed a referent
power on others.

Structural sources of power are of 4-types –

• Knowledge - It indicates that in the organization the individuals, group or
departments must have essential knowledge for attaining the organizational goals.
By acquiring knowledge about the future events and plans shows that they have
more power to influence others behavior.
• Resource - The organization requires variety of resources, which includes
capital, materials, human, equipment, suppliers & customers to survive. The
important resource depend on situation, organizational goals, economic climate
and goods & services that the organization produces.
• Decision making – The decision making process in the organization is done by
the individuals & groups. It decreases difference in power. It recognizes that the
power can be acquired either by an individual, group or department to the extent
they affect the decision making process.
• Network – It consists of various affiliations, channels of information & coalition
represents the power in both inside & outside the organization. These are

1.Information link – It will be effective only when the managers & employees
become closer both formally & informally.

2.Supply link – The managers will be given a chance to bring materials, money
or other resources into their organization, departments or groups by having a link
with outsider.

3.Support link – The manager must have a link with the important people in the
organization, which can be said to be a support for other resources.
The network analysis can be done by manager & employees to know how to work
together, where they can drew a picture of knowing the important network relationship
needed within the organization.

POLITICS –

• The politics is closely related to power. When a power is converted to action

than it is said that the individual is engaged in politics. If the individual has a
good political skill than he can be able to use his power effectively.
• The political behavior includes key information from decision makers, leaking
confidential information about the activities of the organization to the
outsiders.
• It consists of legitimate & illegitimate political behavior.
• Legitimate political behavior refers to politics that occur everyday i.e.
complaints made to the superiors about the others, by passing chain of
command, forming coalition, obstructing organizational policies & having
outside contacts to share the organizational in formations.
• Illegitimate political behavior involves extreme activities like sabotage,
employees in a group often falling sick.

Definition –
• As per Robin’s – are those activities that are not required as part of ones formal
role in the organization. But that influence or attempts to influence the
distribution of advantages & disadvantages within the organization.
• As per Tushman – It is the structure & process of the use of authority & power to
effect definition of goal, direction & other major parameters of the organization.
Decisions are not made in a particular or formal way but rather through
compromise, accommodation & bargaining.

Organizational politics – It consists of intentional acts of influence undertaken by

individuals or groups to enhance or protect their self-interest when conflicting courses of
action are possible. Following are the usual reasons for organizational politics –

• Resource – The encouragement of politics will happen when there is an infusion

of new, unclaimed resources.
• Decision – the decisions that are lead to more politics compared to routine
decisions including ambiguous decision, decisions on which there is lack of
agreement and uncertain.
• Goals – The politics will be more when the goal is unclear & ambiguous.
• Technological & External environment – The politics will arise when the internal
technology of the organization is complex. It also includes the turbulent
environment where the organization operates.
 • Change – If the external forces which brings a change by reorganizing or planning
the organization development.

Political Strategy for Acquiring power in the organization –

• Taking counsel.
• Promoted limited communication.
• Exhibiting Confidence.
• Controlling access to information & person.
• Making activity central & no substitutable.
• Stimulating competition among ambitious subordinates.
• Neutralizing potential opposition.
• Making strategic replacement.
• Forming or winning coalition.
• Using research data to support one own point of view.
• Restricting communication about real intentions.
• Withdrawing from petty disputes.

Control of Power in the Organization – The power can be controlled by the manager
through following approaches –
• Embrace or Demolish – In a conflicting situation a manager may punish an
employee in the form of downgrading or being sacked. However, if the employee
is sacked he will be powerless, whereas if he is simply downgraded he will again
try to unite with other employees to gain power.
• Divide & Rule – Is a widely known policy for controlling power.
• Manipulate Classified information – In order to gain power, the member of
political oriented organization carefully control by demonstrating the importance
of obtaining & disseminate the information.
• Make a quick showing – Involves in taking part in right way to get the attention of
the right person & through gaining this attention, power is acquired.
• Avoid decisive engagement – Is a strategy to slowdown the decision process.
• Progress one step at a time – Another way to slow down the progress in the
organization for controlling the power.
• Wait for crisis- To show one own political power during this situation.

Two Phases of Power – Refer to Fred Luthans pg. 442

Individual Power :

Social Power :
 CONFLICT

• Conflicts are experienced every day by both individuals & groups

• A conflict is a perception in the mind of an individual or a group of individuals
that the other person or group is hindering the first party from achieving a goal.
• Conflicts can be between two or more individuals (interpersonal), between groups
or teams (inter group), or between organizations Inter organizational).
• The interest of studying conflict is to understand - Why does conflict arise? Is
conflict always dysfunctional? How does conflict be prevented?
• There are several sources of conflict . However, these sources depend on the
mode (mindset) of the parties involved in a situation - conflict-escalation mode or
conflict-avoidance/resolution mode. The mutual understanding, trust and
openness determine the mode.
• Conflict in organizations occurs primarily when : concerns are narrow and goal
conflict, resources and power are seen to be limited, and values and norms are
regarded as undesirable.

Definition : It is the condition of objective incompatibility between values of goals, as

the behavior of deliberately interfering with another’s goal achievement, and emotionally
in terms of hostility.

Descriptive theorists have explained conflict behavior in terms of objective conflict of

interest, personal styles, reactions to threats, and cognitive distortions. Normative
recommendations range over the establishment of super ordinate goals, consciousness
raising, selection of compatible individuals, and mediating conflict.

Super ordinate goals are those which are critical for all individuals in a group but cannot
be achieved by any one person alone. When they take a long term view and realize that
the interest of all can be served when they work together, they will not be in conflict but
search for a solution together.

Sources of conflict : A variety of factors can lead to conflict. Some of these are :
• Organizational change – Organizations undergo changes due to new
technological, political and social developments that affect them or due to
changes in the competitive forces. As people may hold different views about the
changes and the future direction of an organization, conflicts may arise.
 • Personality clashes – Individual’s personalities varies widely due to differences in
their levels of maturity, emotional stability and their behavior. When they do not
recognize or appreciate these differences, conflict occurs.
• Differences in value sets – Different people have different opinions, values and
beliefs. When people with contradicting values and beliefs interact with each
other, conflicts are likely to occur. These conflicts are irrational and difficult to
remove.
• Threats to status – Most individuals associated their identity with their status in
the society or the organization. When an individual feels that another person’s
acts may harm or damage his image, which in turn may affect his status, conflict
is likely to arise.
• Perceptual differences – People perceive different things, issues and their
environment differently. When they act as though their perception is the only
reality, without attempting to understand or accept another person’s view, conflict
arises.

Classification of conflicts :Conflicts are common in the organizations and occur when
people fail to arrive at a consensus regarding the organizational goals or the means to
achieve them. Organizational conflicts can be classified as follows –

Intraindividual conflict - As per need-goal motivational cycle an individual will be

motivated for his own satisfaction or in case the incentives on goal achievement is
attractive. These process of fulfillment of one’s role expectations do not always occur in
reality. Within every individual there are usually (i) a number of competing needs &
roles. (ii) a variety of different ways that drives and roles can be expressed. (iii) many
types of barriers that can occur between the drive and the goal. & (iv) both +ve & -ve
aspects attached to desired goals. These complicate the human adaptation process and
often results conflict. Intraindividual forms of conflict can be analyzed in terms of the
frustration paradigm, goals & roles.
• Conflict out of frustration – Frustration occurs when a motivated drive is
blocked before reaching a desired goal. The barrier may be either overt (physical,
outward) or covert (inward, mental-socio psychological).

Need ------------------Drive----------------------------Barrier ------------ Goal

(deprivation) (deprivation with drive) (a)overt (reduction of
(b)covert the drive)
|
|
|
Frustration
|
|
|
Defensive mechanisms
(a)aggression
(b)withdrawal
 ©fixation
(d)compromise

• Goal Conflict - A common source of conflict for an individual is a goal which

has both +ve & -ve features, or two or more competing goals that block one
another. There separate types of goal conflict are generally identified –
1.Approach-approach conflict – Where the individual is motivated to approach two or
more +ve but mutually exclusive goals. This type of conflict usually has the least impact
on organizational behavior. e.g. the young person who is faced with two excellent job
opportunities.

2.Approach-avoidance conflict – Where the individual is motivated to approach a goal

at the same time is motivated to avoid it. The single goal contains both +ve & -ve
characteristics for the individual. This type of conflict is most relevant to analyze thw
organizational behavior. Normally organizational goals have both +ve & -ve aspects for
organizational participants. Accordingly, the organizational goal may arouse a great deal
of conflict within a person and may actually cause the person indecision at the point
where approach equals avoidance. e.g. manager engaged in long-range planning
typically are very confident of a goal (plan) he has developed for the future. Yet, as the
time gets near to commit resources and implement the plan, the –ve. Consequences seem
to appear much greater then he did in the developing stage. The manager involved may
reach the point where approach is equal to avoidance. This will result great deal of
internal conflict and may cause indecision, ulcers or even neurosis.

3.Aovidance-avoidance conflict – Where the individual is motivated to avoid two or

more –ve. but mutually exclusive goals. This type of conflict does not have a great deal in
organizational behavior. It may be simply resolved in the way of avoiding all possible
-ve. goals under which the individual is exposed. e.g. the employee having been offered
with a unfavorable transfer & a promotion for which he is not ready to accept.

• Role conflict – Role is defined as the position that has expectations evolving from
established norms. Roles often carry conflicting demands and expectations. e.g.
the first line supervisor is often described as the person in the middle. One set of
expectations of this role is that the supervisor is part of the management team &
should have the corresponding values & attitudes. A second set of expectations is
that the supervisor came from and is still part of the workers’ group and should
have their values & attitude. A third set of expectation is that the supervisors
should have unique values & attitude.

Interpersonal conflict : This type of conflicts are important dynamic of organization

behavior. Conflict situations inevitably are made up of at least two individuals who hold
polarized points of view, who are somewhat intolerant of ambiguities, who ignore
delicate shades of grey, and who are quick to jump to conclusion.

Insight of interpersonal conflict can be explained through a model known as JOHARI

WINDOW – Is a framework to analyze the dynamics of the interaction between self &
others. It helps to identify several interpersonal styles, shows the characteristics & results
of these styles, and suggests ways of interpreting the conflicts that may develop between
self & others.

The person knows The person does not

about the other know about the other
1. 2.
The person
knows about OPEN SELF HIDDEN SELF
him or herself

3. 4.
The person
does not know
BLIND SELF UNDISCOVERED SELF
about him or
herself

1.Open Self – In this form of interaction the person knows about himself or herself and
about the other. There would generally be openness and compatibility and little reason to
be defensive. This type of interpersonal relationship would tend to lead to little, if any,
interpersonal conflict.

2.Hidden Self – In this situation the person understand himself or herself but does not
know about the others. The result is that the person remains hidden from the other
because of the fear of how the other might react. The person may keep his or her true
feelings or attitude secret and will not open up to the other. There is potential
interpersonal conflict in this situation.

3.Blind Self – In this situation the person about the other but not about himself or herself.
The person may be unintentionally irritating to the other. The other could tell the person
but may be fearful of hurting the person’s feelings. There is potential interpersonal
conflict in this situation.

4.Undiscovered Self – This is potentially most explosive situation. The person does not
know about himself or herself and does not know about the others. In other words there is
much misunderstanding, and interpersonal conflict is almost sure to result.

Resolution of interpersonal conflict is possible through self-disclosure & feedback. There

are three basic strategies for conflict reduction –
• Lose-lose – Is the one where both the parties lose. The common approach is to
compromise or take the middle ground in a dispute. Another alternative is to use
an outside third party or an arbitrator. A final type is to depend on bureaucratic
rules or existing regulations.
• Win-lose – In a competitive type of culture, one party in a conflict situation
attempts to marshal its forces to win, and the other party loses. The biggest
problem, however, with a win-lose strategy is that someone always loses. Those
who suffer loss may learn something in the process, but losers also tend to be
bitter and vindictive. e.g. superior-subordinate relationship, line-staff
confrontation, union-management relationship.
• Win-win – This is the most desirable approach form a human & organizational
standpoint. The needs of both the parties in the conflict situation are met and both
the parties receive rewarding outcomes. Although it is often difficult to
accomplish a win-win outcome of an interpersonal conflict, this should be a major
goal of the management of conflict.

Inter group conflict – In an organization, people from different departments compete

for limited resources such as funds, personnel and support services. This competition
often results in conflict. Sometimes conflict occurs when one group attempts to take
the entire credit for the successful completion of a task, to the completion of which
another group may have also made significant contributions. Perceived inequitable
treatment in matters of working conditions, rewards and status, in comparison to other
groups can also lead to inter group conflict.

Organizational conflict – Conflict in the organization level depends on the extent to

which resources are shared and tasks are interdependent in the organization. Chances
of organizational conflict are high if the organizational goals are inconsistent and
require employees to perform tasks that are interdependent and involve a greater
sharing of resources.

There are four causes of organizational conflict : (i) an incompatible goals situation.
(ii) the existence of incompatible means or incompatible resource allocation. (iii) a
problem of status crisis. (iv) a difference in perceptions.

In classical organization there are four structural areas where conflict is most
pronounced –
• Hierarchical conflict – There may be conflict among the various levels of the
organization. The board of directors may be in conflict with top management
or there may be general conflict between management and the union leaders.
• Functional conflict – There may be conflict among the various functional
departments of the organization. Conflict between the production and
marketing departments in an industrial organization is a classical example.
• Line-staff conflict – There may be conflict between the line and staff. It often
results from situations where staff personnel do not formally possess authority
over line personnel.
 • Formal-informal conflict – There may be conflict between the formal and
informal organizations. For example, the informal organization’s norms for
performance may be incompatible with the formal organization’s norms for
performance.

Strategies for managing organizational conflicts - There are three major approaches to
resolve the organizational conflicts. Those are –

• Bargaining approach – This model of conflict deals with interest groups who
compete for limited resources. The strategy to resolve the conflict revolves around
either the attempt to increase the pool of available resources or to decrease the
demands of the competing parties.
• Bureaucratic approach – This model of conflict deals with the vertical, authority
relationships in a hierarchical structure. Conflict occurs when superiors attempt to
control subordinates, and they resist such control. The strategy to resolve the
conflict is to substitute impersonal bureaucratic rules for personal control.
• System approach – Whereas the bargaining model emphasizes the problems of
competition and the bureaucratic model is concerned with the difficulties of
control, the system model is about coordination problems. Specifically, the
system approach deals with the lateral or horizontal relationships between
different functional group of the organization. There are two main strategies to
reduce functional conflict and attain coordination. First, reduce goal
differentiation by modified incentive or by proper selection, training or
assignment procedures. Second, reduce functional interdependence by reducing
dependence on common resources, by reducing pressure for consensus, and by
loosening up schedules or introducing buffers (e.g. inventories or contingency
funds).

The conflict resolution can be carried out as per following schedule –

Conflict Resolution technique

Problem solving Face to face meeting of the conflicting parties for the purpose of
identifying the problem and resolving it through open discussion.
Super ordinate Creating a shared goal that cannot be attained without the
goals cooperation of each of the conflicting parties.
Expansion of When a conflict is caused by the scarcity of a resource – say,
resources money, promotion opportunities, office space – expansion of the
resource can create a win-win situation.
Avoidance Withdrawal from, or suppression of, the conflict.
Smoothing Playing down differences while emphasizing common interest
between the conflicting parties.
Compromise Each party to the conflict gives up something of value.
Authoritative Management uses its formal authority to resolve the conflict and
command then communicates its desires to the parties involved.
Altering the human Using behavioral change techniques such as human relations
variables training to alter attitudes and behavior that cause conflict.
Altering the Changing the formal organization structure and the interaction
structural variables patterns of conflicting parties through job redesign, transfer,
creation of coordinating positions, and the like.
Employee’s Empowerment

• Empowerment may be defined as – Recognizing & releasing into the organization

the power that people have in their wealth of useful knowledge & internal
motivation.
• Empowerment is the authority to make decision within one’s area of
responsibility without first having get approval from someone else.
• Empowerment although has similarity to traditional delegated authority, there are
two characteristics that make it unique. One is that employees are encouraged to
use their own initiative (authority). The second is that the empowered employees
are not only the authority, but also the resources, so they are able to make
decisions and have the power to get them implemented.
• Empowerment assumes that employees are willing to accept responsibility and
improve their daily work process and relationship.
• Empowerment program can transform a stagnant organization to a vital one by
creating “shared purpose among employees, encouraging greater collaboration
and delivering enhanced value to customers”. To do so there must be a linkage of
the power with self-reliance, managerial authority and expecting individual
contributor commitment. Empowerment thus embedded in an organization’s
cultural values operationalised through participation, innovation, access to
information and accountability.
• The process of employee’s empowerment in an organization may have different
opinion among the operating managers. One group emphasizes it as ‘relinquish
control’ while others consider it as ‘maintain control’. Research study establishes
that empowerment & participation have been found to work best when they open
new avenues for action among all members of the organization and strengthen
their resolve to go along with the new ideas.

Characteristics of employee’s empowerment –

• Innovation implications – Empowerment encourages innovation because
employees have the authority to try out new ideas and make decisions that result
in new ways of doing things.
• Access to information – When employees are given access to information
(knowledge) as a vital part of their empowerment, their willingness to cooperate
is enhanced. The common organizational information is profit & loss statements,
manufacturing process, purchase procedures etc. Accessibility to information will
favor a team to work more effectively than hierarchical bureaucratic and secretive
one.
• Accountability & responsibility – Employees who are empowered to make
decisions in the organization level are also accountable & responsible for the
results. Accountability ensures that collaborative efforts will be made in best
 possible way towards the agreed goal of the team. Again empowering employees
will raise their trust in the organization. The employees are of the opinion that
they should act responsible.

Process of empowerment -
There are a number of ways that managers can implement empowerment. The two
common approaches are - (i) Kaizen & ‘Just do it’ principles (JDIT). & (ii) Trust
building.

(i)‘Just do it’ – Is an approach to tie empowerment with action driven result. This
approach is practiced at ‘Cummins Engine’.
‘Kizen’ – Is a Japanese term means continuous improvement.

The Cummins Engine practice a five day training program in which “JDIT” is combined
with Kaizen. The operation guidelines utilized include – (i) discard conventional, fixed
ideas about doing work. (ii) think about how to do it rather than why it cannot be done.
(iii) start by questioning current practices. (iv) begin to make improvements immediately,
even if only 50% of them can be completed & (v) correct mistakes immediately.

(ii)‘Trust building’ – It is an important tool for employee’s empowerment. Optimal trust

will occur when managers and employees reach an agreement. Trust is a state when the
psychological contact on faith & belief on a particular subject is established between two
parties.

Bowen & Lawler have suggested that organizations should identify which of following
four levels of empowerment they should operate –
(i)Very little involvement, as reflected by traditional production-line firms.
(ii)Moderate involvement as reflected by organizations that employ suggestion programs
& quality circle.
(iii)Fairly substantial involvement as reflected in organizations where jobs are designed
so that employees can employ a variety of skills and have a great deal of autonomy in
carrying out those jobs.
(iv)High involvement as reflected by organizations in which personnel share information
& work together to solve problem & complete tasks.

Total Quality Management - Is a management philosophy that focuses on customer

relationships and tries to build an environment of trust & openness. All the TQM
initiatives & techniques necessitate high levels of communication, adaptation, co-
ordination & sequencing, which is possible only in extremely effective teams. The
concept of TQM therefore requires managers to encourage employees to share ideas by
forming teams.

It has been observed in most cases that TQM through team effort results in better &
quicker solutions to problems, thereby ensuring improvements in processes & operations.
This in turn, enhances the quality & productivity of the organizations.
In the early 1980s, the Ford Motor Company initiated TQM to deal with the problems
faced by the organization. While designing the problem – solving teams, Ford’s
management decided that –
 The size of the teams should be small in order to promote
effectiveness & efficiency.
 The teams should have properly trained members who possess the
required skills for the job or task.
 The teams should be given enough time to work on problem to be
addressed.
 The teams should be authorized to study the problem in depth &
implement remedial action to resolve them.
 Each team should have a ‘champion’ whose main task is to help
the team to overcome various problems as they crop up.

Quality of Work Life (QWL) - The term is coined by Louis Davis. Is a more worker
oriented approach wherein a series of attitudinal surveys of employees were carried out to
find ways to improve the quality of life of individuals at the work place. The objective of
the surveys was to draw the attention of managements of organizations to the quality of
employment.

QWL may be defined as the extent to which the environment at the work place stimulates
or hinders the productivity of the employees. It can also be defined as ‘the quality of
relationship between employees and total working environment’.

QWL programs aim at developing work conditions that satisfy employee needs. The
satisfaction of employees can be determined by the degree to which an employee needs.
The satisfaction of employees can be determined by the degree to which an employee is
‘engaged’. The term ‘engaged’ refers to the emotional & intellectual involvement of the
employees. The key drivers for this ‘engagement’ are the work design, the opportunity
offered by the job & recognition received on completion of the job. Thus the QWL
activity initiated by the organization should cater to satisfy the physical & emotional
needs of employees.

Some of the important physical & emotional needs those are necessary for the
organization to fulfill –
• Provision of safe & healthy environment – Organization must provide its
employees with a safe & hygienic work place that not only safeguards their health
but also stimulates and encourages them to perform well.
• Establishment of effective supervision & management – Creation of an working
environment that attracts, keeps & motivate the employees lies entirely on the
managers & supervisors. It is the primary responsibility of the managers &
supervisors to communicate honestly & explicitly to the subordinates, their
expectation of behavior at the work place. They must act as the role models for
 their employees. The managers & supervisors must therefore be properly selected,
trained & held responsible for all management results.
• Adequate & fair compensation – The compensation should not only be
competitive but it should also motivate the employees & able to retain the best
talents. Attempt should be made to develop variable pay system that adequately
recognize good performance & encourage the employees to raise their
productivity levels.
• Development of work skills – Organization must create learning opportunities for
its employees that will develop the all round development of the human capital of
organization.
• Creation of a positive attitude towards work & the organization – Organization
must act towards development of positive attitude of its employees. This will
motivate the employees to raise their productivity level and enhance job
satisfaction.
• Effective management of change & transaction – Organization must develop its
systems & the participants to adapt the changes in the organization level which
are obvious for the technological up gradation, globalization etc. These will help
to facilitate the organization from one stage of development to other.