Botswana College of Distance & Open Learning

Diploma in Business Management

Organizational Bahaviour

Assignment: 2

Mmoniemang Motsele

Student No: 201006379

Question 1
How to reinforce good behavior in your subordinates
1. Communicate with your staff: One of the most common mistakes many managers make
with their staff during difficult times is slowing or stopping the flow of communication.
Its true that no one wants to be told the bad news, but from your employees
perspective bad news may be better than uncertainty or office gossip. Ensuring your
employees are aware of changes that may affect them will foster trust between you and
your staff.

2. Always give some positive feedback: One way to soften the sting of constructive
feedback is to combine it with some positive feedback. In the receivers mind a message
of positive and constructive feedback combined is better than one of purely constructive
feedback. Of course, if you regularly combine positive and constructive feedback
together the receiver may think.

3. Do not compare the receiver with another person: It is tempting to compare the
person you are giving feedback to with a person who exemplifies the behavior you would
like to see. However, no one likes to be compared unfavorably with another person.
Everyone is different.

Rather than compare person A with person B, compare person As behavior or

performance with his target or some other objective standard.

4. Criticize in private and praise in public: No one likes to be humiliated in front of other
people, and even a minor suggestion can be humiliating when made in public. On the
other hand, the impact of positive feedback is magnified when offered in the presence of
others. Even those who profess to dislike attention secretly enjoy it when it makes them
look good.

5. Identify solutions. Ask your subordinate to propose a solution to the problem, or arrive
at one jointly. Imposing your own solution should be a last resort. When the person
receiving the feedback has some input into the solution he is more likely to change. After
all, it was his idea.

6. Be proactive: Conduct yourself in a frank and direct manner. Reinforce good behavior as
it occurs and confront unacceptable behavior before it gets repeated.
7. Offer help the way they like it: Attune yourself to how people take in information and
show respect in communicating it. Some people prefer to be praised in public, and others
trust a simple pat on the back. Go with whatever it seems like your employee prefers.

Question 2
Why employees always oppose change
1. Fear that the new way may not be better
If things have been going well, some employees may resist change because they fear that the
change will not result in improvement. Focusing only on their part of operating, they fail to
realize that change is needed in order for the organization to stay competitive.
2. Unwillingness to learn
Some employees hesitate to try ne routine, express an unwillingness to learn new things.
Employees may make up their minds that the change wont be productive. They also hinder
their own personal growth and development.
3. Fear of the unknown:
Employees may resist change simply because it is something unfamiliar. Not knowing much
about the specific of the change they may imagine a worst case scenario which can be very
scary. They let fear of the unknown become their rationale for not giving the change a chance
their fear causes them to place roadblocks in the movement toward change.
4. Fear of failure:
Employees opposition to change may be rooted in fear. During periods of change, some
employees may feel the need to cling to the past because it was a more secure predictable
time. If what they did in the past worked well for them, they may resist changing their
behavior out of fear that they will not achieve as much in the future.
5. No obvious need:
Some people may see change only from the perspective of the impact it has on them and their
particular jobs. Not seeing the big picture, they may fail to recognize the positive impact of
the change on the organization as a whole. Thus they may find the change disruptive and
totally unnecessary.
6. Creative habit:
Doing the things in the same routine predictable manner is comfortable. Asking people to
change the way they operate or think is asking them to move outside their comfort zone.

Employees may ignore or deny the change simply because it requires them to experience
something beyond their normal method of operation.

Question 3
Money: Money is the means by which employees are directly rewarded for their contributions
towards the achievements of organizational goals. I believe however that the extent to which
money can act, as a motivator will depend upon the individuals, the types of job they are
engaged in and the culture.

Akintoye (2000) asserts that money remains the most significant motivational strategy. As far
back as 1911, Frederick Taylor and his scientific management associate described money as the
most important factor in motivating the industrial workers to achieve greater productivity. Taylor
advocated the establishment of incentive wage systems as a means of stimulating workers to
higher performance, commitment, and eventually satisfaction. Money possesses significant
motivating power in as much as it symbolizes intangible goals like security, power, prestige, and
a feeling of accomplishment and success. Katz, in Sinclair, et al. (2005) demonstrates the
motivational power of money through the process of job choice. He explains that money has the
power to attract, retain, and motivate individuals towards higher performance. For instance, if a
librarian or information professional has another job offer which has identical job characteristics
with his current job, but greater financial reward, that worker would in all probability be
motivated to accept the new job offer. Banjoko (1996) states that many managers use money to
reward or punish workers. This is done through the process of rewarding employees for higher
productivity by instilling fear of loss of job (e.g., premature retirement due to poor performance).
The desire to be promoted and earn enhanced pay may also motivate employees.

The primary reason why people have to work is because of money. People are motivated by
money the most, and cash is a fair and effective way for management to show appreciation to
hardworking staff. Employers know this, and many companies reward outstanding employees
with bonuses and cash rewards for good work

It is widely accepted that poor or low pay acts as a de-motivator. Someone who feels
undervalued or under-paid may soon leave to find better-paid employment. However, it is less
clear that paying people more results in better motivation.
For most people, motivation (the will to work) comes from within. More money can help us
feel better about out work, but it is unlikely to encourage us to work harder or to a higher
standard.

Question 4
The University of Botswana is a dynamic institute of learning given to its mandate of providing
Botswanas economy with the requisite skilled manpower to drive the country beyond 2016.
With the current changes in the tertiary education sector it is very necessary that the
organizational strategy is revised to align it to the present challenges.
During change, staff members need management even more for management to open up. It is not
too often that employees would accept change. A thorough counseling or explanatory process
should be availed to staff by management.
There are tried and tested strategies in organizational development that should be put to use to
effect a smooth transition to the change process. These strategies include the following:
Survey research and feed back: in survey feedback, data gathered though survey questionnaire
and personal interviews are analyzed, tabulated into understandable form and shared with those
who first supplied the information. Survey feedback lets people know where they stand in
relation to others on important organisationl issues thus helping the resolve conflicts in a
constructive manner. Effective feedback should be relevant, understandable, descriptive,
verifiable and inspiring.
Team Building: These techniques used to help work groups become effective in performing
their tasks.
Grid training: Grid training is an outgrowth of the managerial grid approach to leadership
(Blacke and Mouton, 1978). It is an instrumental approach to laboratory training.
T- Groups: A small, unstructured group in which participants learn from their own interactions
and evolving dynamics about such issues as interpersonal relations, personal growth, leadership,
and group dynamics. Though T- groups are an effective organizational change strategy, they can
also breed grape vine mentality which could prove detrimental to the change process, and as such
strict hierarchical system should be maintained

Management should design jobs deliberately and thoughtfully to reflect the demands of the
changing environment as well as the organizations technology and skills, abilities, and
preferences of its employees. When this is done, employees are motivated to reach their full
productive capabilities. Job design is not always done purposely for punishment but for the good
or benefit of both the organization and the employees. The following are identified approaches
to job design:
Job Enlargement: Job design historically has concentrated on making jobs smaller and more
specialised. Yet when jobs are narrow in focus and highly specialised, it is a real challenge to
motivate employees. Thus many organisations have looked at other job design options. One of
the earliest efforts at overcoming the drawbacks of specialisation involved the horizontal
expansion of a job through increasing job scope the number of different tasks required in a job
and the frequency with which these tasks are repeated. For instance, a mail sorters job could be
enlarged to include physically delivering the mail to the various departments or running outgoing
letters through the postage meter as well as sorting the mail. This type of job design option is
called job enlargement (Robbins & Coultar 1996, pp.540).
Efforts at job enlargement that focused solely on task enlargement have had less than exciting
results. As one employee who experienced such a redesign said, before I had one lousy job but
now, thanks to job enlargement, I have three lousy jobs! However, a recent study that looked at
how knowledge enlargement activities (expanding the scope of knowledge used in a job)
impacted workers found benefits such as more satisfaction, enhanced customer service, and less
errors. Even so most job enlargement efforts provided few challenges as little meaning to a
workers activities, although they addressed the lack of diversity in overspecialised job (Robbins
& Coultar 1996, pp.540).
Job enrichment: Another approach to designing motivating jobs is through the vertically
expansion of a job by adding planning and evaluating responsibilities job enrichment. Job
enrichment increases job depth, which is the degree of control employees have over their work.
In other words, employees are empowered to assume some of the tasks typically done by their
supervisors. Thus, the task in an enriched job should allow workers to do a complete activity
with increased freedom, independence, and responsibility. And these tasks should also provide
feedback so individuals can assess and correct their own performance. Although job enrichment
9

can improve the quality of work output, employees motivation, and satisfaction, the research
evidence on the use of job enrichment programs has been inconclusive (Robbins & Coultar
1996, pp.540).
Job characteristics Model:

Even though many organisations have implemented job

enlargement and job enrichment programs and experienced mixed results, neither of these job
design approaches provided a conceptual framework for analysing jobs or for guiding managers
in designing motivating jobs. However, the job characteristics model (JCM) offers such a
framework. It identifies five primary job characteristics, their interrelationships, and their impact
on employee productivity, motivation and satisfaction (Robbins & Coultar 1996, pp.540).
Skill variety: the degree to which a job requires a variety of activities so that an
employee can use a number of different skills and talents.
Task identity: the degree to which a job requires completion of a whole and identifiable
piece of work.
Task significance,: the degree to which a job has a substantial impact on the lives or
work of other people.
Autonomy: the degree to which a job provides substantial freedom, independence, and
discretion to the individual in scheduling the work and determining the procedures to be
used in carrying it out.
Feedback: the degree to which carrying out the work activities required by a job results
in the individuals obtaining direct and clear information about the effectiveness of his or
her performance.
Robbins and Coultar (1996) continued emphasising that Job Characteristics Model incorporates
the earlier job design concepts mentioned above (job enlargement and job enrichment). The
other suggestions also involve more than vertically and horizontally expanding jobs as follows:i)

Combine tasks Managers should put existing fragmented tasks back together to
form a new, larger module of work (job enlargement). This increases skills variety

ii)

and task identity.

Create natural work units Managers should design tasks that form an identifiable
and meaningful whole.

This increases employee ownership of the work and

10

encourages employees to view their work as meaningful and important rather than as
iii)

irrelevant and boring.

Establish client relationships the client is the user of the product or service that
the employee works on, and the client could be an internal organisational unit or
person as well as an external customer.

Wherever possible, managers should

establish direct relationships between works and their clients. This increases skill
iv)

variety, autonomy, and feedback for the employee.

Expand jobs vertically Vertical expansion (job enrichment) gives employees
responsibilities and controls that were formerly reserved for management. It partially
closes the gap between the doing and the controlling aspects of the job and

v)

increases employee autonomy.

Open feedback channels by increasing feedback, employees not only learn how
well they are performing their jobs but also whether their performances are
improving, deteriorating, or remaining at a constant level.
Ideally, employees should receive performance feedback directly while they do their
jobs, rather then from management on an occasional basis (Robbins & Coultar 1996,
pp.540).

Michael Armstrong (2006) believes that the following are also some good approaches to job
design:
Job Rotation: It comprises the movement of employees from one task to another to reduce
monotony by increasing variety. Normally, not all of the employees find the rotation process to
be beneficial to them (resistance). Sometimes they continue to fight the system. If this approach
is being implemented within the organisation, management should formally communicate to
staff, through appropriate channels and refer to organisational policies and procedures. In some
instances, counselling is conducted as well (Armstrong, 2006, pp.332.)
High performance work design: which concentrates on setting up working groups in
environments where high levels of performance are required.
Self-managing teams which involves enlargement of individual jobs by including a wider range
of operative skills (multi-skilling), decides on methods of work and the planning, scheduling and
control of work; distributes tasks itself among its members (Armstrong, 2006, pp.332.)
11

Job design is essential in all organisations around the world, it does help to increase the
productivity in an organisation.
In conclusion with the above, envisaged change that need to be effected at the university should
be smooth and should be embraced by all the stakeholders concerned.

12

Question 5
Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory
Abraham Maslow defined need as a physiological or psychological deficiency that a person feels
the compulsion to satisfy. This need can create tensions that can influence a person's work
attitudes and behaviors. Maslow formed a theory based on his definition of need that proposes
that humans are motivated by multiple needs and that these needs exist in a hierarchical order.
His premise is that only an unsatisfied need can influence behavior; a satisfied need is not a
motivator.
Maslow's theory is based on the following two principles:

Deficit principle: A satisfied need no longer motivates behavior because people act to
satisfy deprived needs.

Progression principle: The five needs he identified exist in a hierarchy, which means
that a need at any level only comes into play after a lower-level need has been satisfied.

ERG Theory
To address some of the limitations of Maslow's hierarchy as a theory of motivation, Clayton
Alderfer proposed the ERG theory, which like Maslow's theory, describes needs as a hierarchy.
The letters ERG stand for three levels of needs: Existence, Relatedness, and Growth. The ERG
theory is based on the work of Maslow, so it has much in common with it but also differs in some
important aspects.
Similarities to Maslow's Hierarchy
Studies had shown that the middle levels of Maslow's hierarchy have some overlap; Alderfer
addressed this issue by reducing the number of levels to three. The ERG needs can be mapped to
those of Maslow's theory as follows:

Existence: Physiological and safety needs

13

Relatedness: Social and external esteem needs

Growth: Self-actualization and internal esteem needs

Like Maslow's model, the ERG theory is hierarchical - existence needs have priority over
relatedness needs, which have priority over growth.
Differences from Maslow's Hierarchy
In addition to the reduction in the number of levels, the ERG theory differs from Maslow's in the
following three ways:

Unlike Maslow's hierarchy, the ERG theory allows for different levels of needs to be
pursued simultaneously.

The ERG theory allows the order of the needs be different for different people.

The ERG theory acknowledges that if a higher level need remains unfulfilled, the person
may regress to lower level needs that appear easier to satisfy. This is known as the
frustration-regression principle.

Thus, while the ERG theory presents a model of progressive needs, the hierarchical aspect is not
rigid. This flexibility allows the ERG theory to account for a wider range of observed behaviors.
For example, it can explain the "starving artist" who may place growth needs above existence
ones.
Implications for Management
If the ERG theory holds, then unlike with Maslow's theory, managers must recognize that an
employee has multiple needs to satisfy simultaneously. Furthermore, if growth opportunities are
not provided to employees, they may regress to relatedness needs. If the manager is able to
recognize this situation, then steps can be taken to concentrate on relatedness needs until the
subordinate is able to pursue growth again.

14

15

Question 6
Influence in Individuals reaction to stress
Job stress results from the interaction of the worker and the conditions of work. Views differ on
the importance of worker characteristics versus working conditions as the primary cause of job
stress. The differing viewpoints suggest different ways to prevent stress at work. According to
one school of thought, differences in individual characteristics such as personality and coping
skills are very important in predicting whether certain job conditions will result in stress. In other
words, what is stressful for one person may not be a problem for someone else. This viewpoint
underlies prevention strategies that focus on workers and ways to help them cope with
demanding job conditions.

Work and Stress

In a study of 46,000 workers, health care costs were 147% higher in workers who were stressed
or depressed than in others who were not. Furthermore, according to one survey, 40% of
American workers describe their jobs as very stressful, making job-related stress an important
and preventable health hazard.
Several studies are now suggesting that job-related stress is as great a threat to health as smoking
or not exercising. Stress impairs concentration, causes sleeplessness, and increases the risk for
illness, back problems, accidents, and lost time from work. Work stress can lead to harassment or
even violence while on the job.
The following are job stressors

Having no say in decisions that affect one's responsibilities

Unrelenting and unreasonable performance demands

16

Lack of effective communication and conflict-resolution methods among workers and

employers

Lack of job security

Night-shift work, long hours, or both

Too much time spent away from home and family

Wages not matching levels of responsibility

Reducing Stress on the Job

Few workplaces offer stress management programs, and it is usually up to the employee to find
their own ways to reduce stress. Here are some suggestions:

Seek out someone in the Human Resources department or a sympathetic manager and
communicate concerns about job stress. Work with them in a non-confrontational way to
improve working conditions, letting them know that productivity can be improved if
some of the pressure is off.

Establish or reinforce a network of friends at work and at home.

Restructure priorities and eliminate unnecessary tasks.

Learn to focus on positive outcomes.

If the job is unendurable, plan and execute a career change. Send out resumes or work on
transfers within the company.

If this isn't possible, be sure to schedule daily pleasant activities and physical exercise
during free time.

17

It may be helpful to keep in mind that bosses are also victimized by the same stressful conditions
they are imposing. For example, in one study of male managers in three Swedish companies,
those who worked in a bureaucracy had greater stress-related heart risks than those who worked
in companies with social supports.
Prevention
A combination of organizational change and stress management is often the most useful
approach for preventing stress at work.

Ensure that the workload is in line with workers' capabilities and resources.

Design jobs to provide meaning, stimulation, and opportunities for workers to use their
skills.

Clearly define workers' roles and responsibilities.

Give workers opportunities to participate in decisions and actions affecting their jobs.

Improve communications-reduce uncertainty about career development and future

employment prospects.

Provide opportunities for social interaction among workers.

Establish work schedules that are compatible with demands and responsibilities outside
the job.

Combat workplace discrimination (based on race, gender, national origin, religion or

language).

Bringing in an objective outsider such as a consultant to suggest a fresh approach to

persistent problems.

18

Introducing a participative leadership style to involve as many subordinates as possible to

resolve stress-producing problems

19