BE486-7-AU Organisational Behavior and HRM Sample

BE486-7-AU Organisational Behavior and HRM Sample

Module Description

This module is designed to encourage students to think and reflect upon the nature of managing people and organisations. In particular, it encourages students to consider the main topics of Organisational Behavior and Human Resource Management. Throughout the sessions, the core issues affecting organisational behaviour and outcomes will be discussed and critically analysed. Therefore, it invites participants to consider the tensions emerging from competing views and perspectives. In so doing, the module challenges many of the taken-for-granted assumptions about people management, and provides tools to analyse organisations and to explore the realities of organisational life.

Aims

This module aims to provide in-depth understanding of key theories and principles associated with organisational behaviour and Human Resource Management. It also aims to show students how such concepts relate to the wider practice of people management and how they may have implications for various stakeholders.

Coursework Submission Requirements

The assignment should not exceed 2,500 words in length, not including the references.
It should be word-processed, double spaced, and written in an appropriate academic style. The assignment should have a clear introduction and a conclusion. You should ensure that you have fully acknowledged the work of others in the body of the text. Coursework will be processed with plagiarism detection software. The assignment should include a full list of references for all articles, books and other sources (e.g. Internet sites) that have been cited in the assignment.

All coursework will be anonymous (unless otherwise specified in the ‘Assessment’ section of this module outline), so you should ensure that only your registration number is included in the header. Provision is made for modules where it is not practical to have anonymous marking, e.g. for presentations. Assignments should be submitted electronically to FASER by 10am on the given deadline date.
For details on electronic submission, see: http://faser.essex.ac.uk/

Solution

1. Introduction 

The essay examines managing self-identity in the workplace. Employees must create a proper working environment where they can feel valued for their significant differences and contribute to the organization's success. According to MBA Assignment Expert When most individuals need to embrace their individual identities, whether in everyday life or work, they become much more confident. It is observed that individuals having bicultural identities are mainly more creative and enjoy more true professional success. It helps people get a lot of exposure to different attitudes, values, and cultures in the workplace.
The topic helps in providing a clear idea of the relationship between identity and different types of organizational controls that are used in most organizations. The readers will have a brief idea of the importance of identity, which plays an integral role in a better workplace. It will help to understand various types of approaches to properly conceptualize identity. The mentioned topic will provide a clear overview of the importance of identity in the workplace and its various assumptions. There will be a brief discussion on the different types of organisational examples in managing people.     

2. Key Concepts 

The Employment Relationship

The employment relationship is defined as the legal link between both employees and employers. When most employees get a lot of respect from their employers for their enormous role in the success of organisations, they mainly tend to this respect with both loyalty and hard work towards the company (McCann et al.,2015). Good workplace relations help the employees to give their best and perform better towards accomplishing their goals. Firm employment relations lead to better productivity and boost the morale of workers. It helps in maintaining a good environment in the workplace which is highly significant for a company's success.           

Organizational control

Direct

The mentioned organizational control states that managers rely more on their rank for exerting control. The concerned authority provides instruction to its subordinates on how to do their duties. A lot of managers monitor the behaviour of workers and analyze their performance.      

Technical

The concerned control states that higher authority is no longer vested in the person of the manager but also present in the physical structure of the company, like information technology and machinery (Hoedemaekers and Keegan, 2010). By implementing technical and organizational control, a lot of managerial issues were solved from personal to the main structural control.     

Bureaucratic 

It is mainly based on a lot of efficiency problems for two of the prime reasons, which are discussed as follows. Firstly, the work process involves a lot of uncertainty and a need for major swift changes, which hampers the workplace (van der Kolk et al.,2019). Secondly, the concept of bureaucracy is dependent more on predictions and average normalization rather than focus on outstanding performances.  

Normative

The concerned organizational culture mainly states that the control target is easily shifted more than once (Balundė et al.,2019). Normative control tends to be a lot more effective than bureaucratic control, as overall work efficiency is easily accomplished by creating a normative community.    

Definition of identity 

Identity in an organizational context is defined as specific statements where the members of the company must be distinctive, central, and highly enduring. It is highly influential to managerial and employee behaviour in various aspects within a corporate workplace. A more complete and coherent identity mainly consists of three main elements that are value, culture, and purpose (Webb, 2004). The most optimum way to enhance one's identity is mainly to prepare for promotion. A lot of employees mainly create a lot of opportunities for advancement in their careers and a lot of advancements at reaching their potential. 

How Identity Has Been Used in Organization Studies 

Identity in terms of a company's background has been highly vital as it affects the interpretation, action, and decision-making of most of the organizational management and members. It helps the employees to prepare for promotion within the organization (Webb, 2004). It acts as a strategic tool for accomplishing vision and objectives. Most workplaces state that identity has an overall impact on the changes in organizational change procedures. The identity, mainly from an organizational perspective, helps in making a more high-performing organization which is mainly associated with the key respect by individual members.

2. Different Approaches To Conceptualize Identity

This essay has identified two different approaches to conceptualise identities as Identity and social groups and identity as self-presentation. As per the study of van Bezouw et al. (2020), the social identity approach or the identity and social groups allow the workforce to strive to have a positive sense of their group self. In this way, the hierarchy of the organisation can keep them always motivated as a group so that they can evaluate their own group's positivity. By following this particular approach, each member of a social group can experience social identity in those cases when they define themselves to be a part of the group. They often are found to feel good to be a part of the group and define themselves as it is. On the other hand, Webb, (2004) has shed light on the self-presentation approach which has been elaborated to be any behaviour or action that is made having the intention to influence as well as change the way of other people can observe you. It is more an act of self-presentation that allows individuals to present themselves individually to others so that others can consider themselves a certain way. The individual presents themselves as favourably as possible in this case. 

Identity Impact on Organisational Practices  

As per the study of Walker et al., (2019), workplace identity is a relatively new field in sociological research as it has much to do with the employment relationship. This study has defined the workspace identity as an individual identity of the employees with the respect to their job positions at the workspace. Such identity can noticeably impact the employment relationship as those directly impact the workspace culture to some major extent. Upon having a desired identity at the workspace, the employees can contribute to the establishment of a successful work culture. Thus, the interrelationships between the different levels of the workforce can be improved and so the employment relationship eventually can encourage the workforce to ensure a high quality of work. Workspace identity also can provide emotional support to the other employees that ensure healthy and positive relationships among the workforce. On the other hand, Skinner et al., (2021) have stated that workspace identity can noticeably impact the internal actions, interpretation, and decision-making of the employees, and hence, internal collaboration is very much improved by the workspace identity. Thus, this can encourage the employees to contribute their best in fetching organisational success in both the long and short term. This becomes possible as identities can improve internal management to keep the employees always motivated, and thus, workspace identity can positively impact organisational control.  

Identity Impact On The Management of Individuals

According to the study of Liu et al., (2021), workspace identity can noticeably impact the internal management of an organisation as this is highly associated with the efficiency and productivity of the workforce. With the help of workspace identity, the senior managers can easily identify each employee involved in fetching the common organisational goals and allocate tasks depending on their individual performance and capability. It also becomes easy for the managers to identify each employee at the workspace with the help of workspace identity to divide the workforce into small groups according to their current positions at the organisation, and thus, each task can be completed within the deadline period more efficiently. 

Identity Impact on Employees  

Workplace identity has a positive impact on employees. There are some of the main attributes which are highly connected to one's workplace, which is mainly the type of work environment and the category of the role that is connected to the individual and employee skills. The mentioned elements depict that workplace identity is not at all dependent on employees but is also highly affected by different types of external factors like the workplace. An individual with a positive workplace identity tends to be much more productive and will provide good-quality work. These are mainly interconnected with each other, which will help the individuals to work efficiently in the organization.       

3. Analysis and discussion 

How Identity May Play a Part in How People are Managed 

According to the study by Li et al., (2019), workspace identity can play a major role in directing the workforce in the right direction to meet common organisational goals and objectives. The senior managers of the organisation can easily identify the capabilities of each employee performing their daily job roles and responsibilities in their work environment, and thus, allocate the right tasks to each of them so that they can efficiently perform those and contribute to meeting the common organisational goals within the deadline period. Workspace identity also allows the senior managers to divide the whole workforce into small teams in order to allocate the most suitable tasks according to their skill sets. Hence, the company can complete each of the responsibilities with much efficiency which eventually helps the organisation to complete the whole project within the deadline period. Apart from this, there are other benefits of workspace identity that an organisation can consider to manage its workforce more effectively which are elaborated on in the following part of the essay. 

Adequate Support 

Workspace identity can enable the senior managers to provide adequate support to all the employees as the managers can easily spot the right or eligible employees currently involved in the project. Each employee's identity displays much regarding their previous performance as well as specialisation; those can be evaluated by the senior managers to determine the tasks for the employees. The such division eventually reflects through the overall performance of the workforce in meeting both the long and short-term goals of the organisation (Haslam et al., 2019). Apart from this, the senior managers also can support the employees to some major extent while they have adequate information regarding the past experiences of the employees. It also enables the managers to provide flexibility to the employees so that they also can put their individual opinion on the overall development of the organisation as well as the current functions that have been followed.  

Allocating Resources

Workspace identity also allows the senior managers to identify the right candidates suitable for performing each function and thus, they can only allocate jobs to the right ones. As identity can shed light on the previous experiences of the employees, the hierarchies of the company can easily identify the eligible ones for promotions by evaluating their past contributions to the business. It also enables managers to appoint team leaders as they can easily judge their previous individual contributions in meeting the common objectives (Anshari, 2020). Thus, the overall efficiency can be improved to some noticeable margin while workforce identity is prioritised by the senior managers. 

Improving work culture

Workforce identity also can contribute much to improving the work culture so the managers can easily handle the employees to keep them always motivated. The senior managers can provide adequate support to each of the employees when they possess detailed information regarding the identity of each employee (Lee and Kim, 2020). Thus, the hierarchy of the company can introduce flexibility to the workspace so that each of them feels free to contribute their best in achieving common organisational success. 

Assumptions on Identity Used in Context To Individual and Organizations

According to the study of Kopp et al., (2019), assumptions on individual identity incorporate the individual personality, and ability whereas social identification focuses more on the capability of working in a group as well as connecting with coworkers. The individual identity says a lot regarding the personal background of an individual who has been involved with the company and so the senior managers can perform a background check individually. On the other hand, it also deals with the individual capability of performing the daily job responsibilities that allow the senior managers to properly determine their positions in the organisation. In the case of social identity, the capabilities of the individuals to collaborate with the teams are evaluated and in this case, their cooperative skills are judged closely. Thus, identity allows the senior managers to determine the best approaches for each of the employees and such assumptions can be evaluated for each of them which eventually helps the decision-makers to improve the efficiency of the workforce as a whole. 
Organisational Examples of the use of identity in the management of people 

Facebook has shown an efficient use of the identity of its employees and in this case, the hierarchies of the company deal with the identity of each employee to perform a wide range of actions. As per the study by Bartels et al.  (2019), the employees of Facebook use their own social media platforms to identify their colleagues. Such a method of identification has allowed them to determine which employee belongs to which department, and thus they can easily connect with them using the social media platform in case of any query or need. The hierarchies of the company also use the social media platform to identify the positions of each employee in the organisation and thus, they can allocate the relevant tasks to them without any hassle. In this case, the hierarchies of the company have been found to mostly use departmental identification to reach the right or eligible employees and allocate tasks to them. They also can ensure the quality of the employees so that they can easily trust them in providing crucial tasks. Such a workforce identification method has displayed an additional feature of highlighting the background of the users which also has helped the managers to determine the right candidates in some cases. 

4. Conclusion

The essay is mainly connected with the importance of managing self-identity in the workplace. There are discussions of healthy employment relationships that will highly motivate the staff in the organization. There are four main types of organisational controls which are mainly direct, technical, bureaucratic, and normative which are used in the company. Identity in an organizational context creates a lot of opportunities for the career development of individuals. Various types of different approaches are discussed properly to conceptualize identity. Two main approaches like identity in social groups and identity as a self-presentation. The discussions are done on the implications of identity on organizational practices and on different employees.          

The study will help everyone to understand the use of identity in the management of people and different individuals. It will help readers to assess the different approaches to mainly conceptualizing identity. A brief idea will be created to understand the types of organisational controls which need to be used in the workplace to boost business productivity. The study will help the management of the company to understand the employment relations in the organization. The motivation of all employees will be enhanced after getting recognition and rewards in the workplace.  

References 

Anshari, M., 2020, March. Workforce mapping of fourth industrial revolution: Optimization to identity. In Journal of Physics: Conference Series (Vol. 1477, No. 7, p. 072023). IOP Publishing.

Balundė, A., Jovarauskaitė, L. and Poškus, M.S., 2019. Exploring the relationship between connectedness with nature, environmental identity, and environmental self-identity: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Sage Open, 9(2), p.2158244019841925.

Bartels, J., van Vuuren, M. and Ouwerkerk, J.W. (2019). My Colleagues Are My Friends: The Role of Facebook Contacts in Employee Identification. Management Communication Quarterly, p.089331891983794.

Haslam, C., Steffens, N.K., Branscombe, N.R., Haslam, S.A., Cruwys, T., Lam, B.C., Pachana, N.A. and Yang, J., 2019. The importance of social groups for retirement adjustment: evidence, application, and policy implications of the social identity model of identity change. Social issues and policy review, 13(1), pp.93-124.

Hoedemaekers, C. and Keegan, A., 2010. Performance pinned down: Studying subjectivity and the language of performance. Organization Studies, 31(8), pp.1021-1044.

Kopp, M., Gröblinger, O. and Adams, S., 2019. Five common assumptions that prevent digital transformation at higher education institutions. INTED2019 Proceedings, 1, pp.1448-1457.

Lee, H.W. and Kim, E., 2020. Workforce diversity and firm performance: Relational coordination as a mediator and structural empowerment and multisource feedback as moderators. Human Resource Management, 59(1), pp.5-23.

Li, Y., Perera, S., Kulik, C.T. and Metz, I., 2019. Inclusion climate: A multilevel investigation of its antecedents and consequences. Human Resource Management, 58(4), pp.353-369.

Liu, Y., Vrontis, D., Visser, M., Stokes, P., Smith, S., Moore, N., Thrassou, A. and Ashta, A., 2021. Talent management and the HR function in cross-cultural mergers and acquisitions: The role and impact of bi-cultural identity. Human Resource Management Review, 31(3), p.100744.

McCann, L., Granter, E., Hassard, J. and Hyde, P., 2015. “You can't do both—something will give”: limitations of the targets culture in managing UK health care workforces. Human resource management, 54(5), pp.773-791.

Skinner, B., Leavey, G. and Rothi, D., 2021. Managerialism and teacher professional identity: Impact on well-being among teachers in the UK. Educational Review, 73(1), pp.1-16.

van Bezouw, M.J., van Der Toorn, J. and Becker, J.C., 2021. Social creativity: Reviving a social identity approach to social stability. European Journal of Social Psychology, 51(2), pp.409-422.

van der Kolk, B., van Veen-Dirks, P.M. and ter Bogt, H.J., 2019. The impact of management control on employee motivation and performance in the public sector. European Accounting Review, 28(5), pp.901-928.

Walker, S., Annison, J. and Beckett, S., 2019. Transforming Rehabilitation: The impact of austerity and privatisation on day-to-day cultures and working practices in ‘probation’. Probation Journal, 66(1), pp.113-130.

Webb, J., 2004. Organizations, self-identities and the new economy. Sociology, 38(4), pp.719-738.