ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

A study of what organizational behavior is and how unethical challenges are formed when organizational
behavior and business ethics are not followed in a company
Contents
WHAT IS ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR.......................................................................................................1
IMPORTANCE OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR TO THE COMPANY...........................................................1
IMPORTANCE OF MANAGERS AND EMPLOYEES TO BE EDUCATED ABOUT ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
POLICIES AND FUNCTIONS...........................................................................................................................1
WHAT ARE BUSINESS ETHICS.......................................................................................................................2
IMPORTANCE OF BUSINESS ETHICS.............................................................................................................2
TYPES OF BUSINESS ETHICS.........................................................................................................................3
CHALLENGES THAT AFFECT BUSINESS ETHICS IF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR IS NOT FOLLOWED...........3
CONCLUSION...............................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................................5

An organization is the arrangement of individuals into a group for them to achieve a common goal. But
these individuals all have their own believes and cultures that they bring into the company. Hence the
topic of organizational behavior which studies how these individuals who have been grouped to work
together act. The study of organizational behavior is very important as it helps us to identify if
companies follow ethical rules or not. If yes to what extent do these ethics apply in an organization. If
not, what are the challenges which are being faced and why? Therefore, this essay has been written to
identify the main challenges and organizational concerns that affect the issue of business ethics.

WHAT IS ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

Organizational behavior is the study of how individuals act when they have been grouped to work
together to achieve company goals. (Brooks, I. 2006).

IMPORTANCE OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR TO THE

COMPANY
Organizational behavior is worth studying and below are some of the reasons why.

1. Organizational behavior helps us to study people’s habits, cultures, and ethics since employees
come from different places.

2. It helps us study the interaction between employees and their superiors.

3. It helps us study attitudes, goals, customs, and beliefs of an organization.

IMPORTANCE OF MANAGERS AND EMPLOYEES TO BE
EDUCATED ABOUT ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR POLICIES
AND FUNCTIONS
Managers and employees are the reason why organizational behavior exist therefore it is a necessity to
teach them the policies and functions of organizational behavior. Below are the advantages of educating
managers and employees on the policies and functions of organizational behavior.

1. Managers and employees work directly together therefore this type of education will improve
their relationship.

2. By educating managers about organizational behavior, managers will be able to predict human
behavior. This will make them better managers hence contributing to the organization’s
effectiveness and profitability.

3. Effective Utilization of Human Resources

A survey done by MACRA in 2007 shows that managers who are taught about organizational
behavior have a 70 percent chance of effectively and efficiently managing their employees,
motivating, and inspiring them than those who do not take the course (Mullins, L. J. 2008).”

4. Motivation of employees

Organizational behavior education motivates employees as they know that they can report all
misconducts they face in the organization.

With Organizational behavior education being taught in an organization it is easy for a company to
achieve its long- and short-term goals since the relationship between managers and employees is always
improved. A company that does not understand organization behavior is vulnerable to creating
unethical working environment which leads to a lot of challenges and concerns that lower company
productivity making it difficult to reach its objectives (Cole, 1995).

WHAT ARE BUSINESS ETHICS

Business ethics are ways that act as guidelines for the way a business is conducted or is supposed to be
done.

IMPORTANCE OF BUSINESS ETHICS

Business ethics is one of the most important aspects in the company, this is so because of the following
reasons.

1. They are the protectors of employees as they keep them safe.

2. They help company interaction and transactions to be clear, safe, and honest.

3. They keep business to work on the boundaries of the law, ensuring that they do not commit
crimes that are against employees, customers, and other parties.
TYPES OF BUSINESS ETHICS
For a company to call itself a top ethical company, the company must follow the following principles.

1. TRUSTWORTHINESS

 There is a popular saying that goes like trust is gained not given. Indeed, for a company
to be trusted by customers it needs to be transparent and honest in all its transactions
and communications. Consumers like companies that are open and are always willing
and appreciate to pay their money where it seems to be safe.

2. RESPECT

 If a company wants to be respected It must show respect to customers and employees

by keeping all the promises it makes to them. Where there is a necessity of apologizing
or giving out compensations the company has to do it. Lack of respect to customers will
destroy the company’s reputation as sometimes things can get out of hand when
customers sue the company to law assigned films.

3. Caring for the employees

 Businesses should not only look at the finished products and care for those who want to
consume them(customers). But they should also care for the people who made that
good or service to be produced. There is a lot of struggle and human labor that is
sacrificed for the product to be produced and at least the company should be thankful
by caring for both the producer(employee) and the buyer(customer).

CHALLENGES THAT AFFECT BUSINESS ETHICS IF

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR IS NOT FOLLOWED

1. Taking sides in an employee argument

 In every company conflict between employees arise at a certain point of time. Generally,
it is the responsibility of managers and management to handle the matter. The
challenge comes in when managers make decisions favoring or hating one party for
personal reasons. These organizational solutions are unethical and sometimes cause
serious consequences. Managers must try in all ways to be neutral without picking any
sides when solving problems.

2. Lying

 Lying breaks trust between a company and their employees or customers.

Unfortunately, trust is one of the most difficult things to get back once broken. For
example, a high performing employee might be asking for a promotion or a pay rise
from the management and the management declines the offer by stating that the
promotion or pay rise does not meet the budget of the year. A few months later another
 employee gets a promotion or pay rise these lies are challenges that most companies
have and are unethical.

3. Misuse of company time and resources

 Another unethical challenge in an organization is when employees use the company

time for personal gain e.g., extending breaks, surfing the internet during business hours,
using the companies transport services for personal meetings. All these above-
mentioned activities are unethical because the employee is being paid a salary for the
work that he or she did not complete in time or misusing the company resources for
other things rather than work.

4. Creating a hostile working environment

 Occasionally conflicts happen in a working environment, this should not be done or,
motivated intentionally. Unfortunately, some managers or employees intentionally
create unsafe working environment. This can be done by managers encouraging
unhealthy competitive environment amongst employees to drive productivity and
innovation. The root reason may not be bad but the way its conducted may create
unhealthy mental health amongst employees.

5. Ignoring conflicts of interest

 Conflicts of interest are bad as they encourage businesses to act in ways that do not
benefit the employees and customers. For example, a manager can have a relative that
reports directly to him. The manager might treat his reports differently from other
employees reports just because of their relationship hence decreasing productivity and
bringing unnecessary tensions amongst other employees. Conflicts of interest also go on
a large scale whereby businesses receive huge bribes from other businesses or
government officials to favor their deals and transactions.

CONCLUSION
Organizational behavior is the study of how individuals act in groups. Organizational behavior
education of managers and employees is important as it improves their working relationship
therefore boosting productivity. Failure of this type of proper education leads to organizational
challenges that is unethical. Business ethics is important as it is the law and rules of business
therefore it is essential for companies to be able to identify what is ethical and what is not
ethical to achieve company objectives in the right way.
REFERENCES

Bloisi, W., Cook, C. W., & Hunsaker, P. L. (2007). Management and organizational behavior.

Brooks, I. (2006). Organizational behavior. Pearson Education UK.

Cole, G. A. (1995). Organizational behavior. DP Publications.

Dailey, R., Keenan, T., & Tayeb, M. H. (1990). Organizational behavior. Pitman.

Mullins, L. J. (2007). Management and organizational behavior. Pearson education.

Mullins, L. J. (2008). Essentials of organizational behavior. Pearson Education.

Pfeffer, J., & Veiga, J. F. (1999). Putting people first for organizational success. Academy of management
perspectives, 13(2), 37-48.

Porath, C. (2015). The leadership behavior that’s most important to employees. Harvard Business
Review, 9(3), 54-64.