Value of Organizational Behavior in Theory & Practice

The Value of Organizational Behavior in Theory and Practice

As early as the late 1960s, organizational and management theorists argued convincingly that a body of theory and related practice known under the general rubric of "organizational behavior" offered managers, their organizations, and workers at all levels and in virtually all fields of endeavor a highly effective, cost-efficient, empowering, and motivating system of "best practices" that could increase a firm's productivity while enhancing employee morale and commitment (Hampton, Summer, and Weber, pp. 63 - 65). The essential principles of the approach include: recognizing the importance of motivation and its effects on workers; understanding organizational culture and the ways in which it permeates the work environment; using two-way communication to inform, motivate, and empower workers; and developing the skills, competencies, behaviors and attitudes among all staff members that will result in achievement of an organization's central mission, goals, and objectives (Bolman and Deal, pp. 8 -12). However, today some managers and hard-driving leaders believe strongly that technical competencies of individuals are far more important that the "soft skills" in making them (the individual) the most value added to the organization. In this brief report, the notion that the putatively "touchy-feeley" skills communicating and listening well, interacting well, and motivating one another are less valuable than technical ski

s, it is the opinion of Bolman and Deal (p. 150) that leadership style has a powerful impact upon both productivity and morale. Specifically, Bolman and Deal (pp. 150 - 151) state that high consideration for employees is associated with low levels of turnover, fewer grievances, and less absenteeism. Overall, effective supervisors, leaders and managers tend to be high on consideration and structure and to adapt their leadership styles or activities to the situational as well as overarching needs of their organization, team, employees, or tasks. Technical competence and efficiency, along with higher levels of technical knowledge and efficacy, are increasingly important in the information-based organizations of today, but they are no substitute for interpersonal skills and competence; in "best practices" technical skills will augment interpersonal skills. Both types of skills are vitally important today, but the notion that interpersonal skills are less significant, much less insignificant, in a technologically advanced environment is patently false. As Bolman and Deal (p. 153) point out, organizations have both formal roles requiring specific technical or work-related skills and competencies; they also contain personal roles in wh

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