Organizational Behavior Concepts: General Electric Essay

IntroductionEvery blood has a knack of key characteristics or value that make up an judicatureal polish which is unique to its business. Organizational demeanor examines the impact that individuals, companys, and structure support on carriage inwardly organizations for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward change an organizations aftermathiveness (Robbins, 2005). The purpose of this research paper is to identify and evaluate General galvanics (GE) organisational culture, organizational behavior, and customer service standards. We result in auxiliary uncover how boffo GE has been in implementing organizational behavior concepts in the following three categories (1) motivation, (2) radical behavior, (3) organizational culture.General electric car has their organizational values posted right on their website. By doing so, they have brookd written expectations to their employees regarding ethical behavior and integrity in the work surroundings. These values r eflect the energy, spirit, and solid foundation of thecompany, articulating a common code of organizational behavior. Also, GEs bold set of management strategies is aimed at increasing innovation and improving productivity to make the company more competitive. GEs organizational culture is considered integrity of full(prenominal) ethical standard in the corporate world. According to The Age of Ethics (KPMG, 2007) GE now has i of the best ethics compliance programs in existence__, says Larry Ponemon, stateal director of Business Ethics Services at KPMG.General ElectricSince Thomas Edison started General Electric in 1876, the company has steadily grown into a tremendously palmy organization and one of the largest companies in the world. Several management and organizational strategies have been utilise through out the years in order to attain the current status of the firm. When looking at an organizations cultural appeal, one must first decide what they are looking for what appeals to me whitethorn or may not appeal to someone else. There are a few categories within GEs organizational culture that appeals to me personally. These categories admit but are not limited to leadership It is important for a company to allow leaders to have the freedom and flexibility to contribute their knowledge and expertise in both their daily job and at company levels. At the top, we dont run GE like a big company. We run it like a big partnership, where every(prenominal) leader stinkpot make a contribution not just to their job, but to the entire participation (Immelt, J., 2005).Work Environment A company should provide a pleasant and vitalizing work environment that is easy to balance with my personal life. GE is an invigorating head to work. Ours is a high- process culture that emphasizes high-integrity business practices as well as work/life balance (Our Culture, 2008).Training and Education Programs Successful companies provide conductitional training and educa tional benefits that will provoke employee leadershipcapabilities. We invest nearly $1 jillion a year in career development for our employees at every level of professional growth. (Leadership Programs, 2008). soften of the culture and behavior of GE is the use of sigma six. Six Sigma is a highly disciplined process that fosters us emphasis on developing and delivering near-perfect products and services (Six Sigma, 2008). Sigma is a statistical term that measures how far a presumption process deviates from perfection. The central idea behind Six Sigma is that if you can measure how many defects you have in a process, you can systematically figure out how to eliminate them and get as close to nobody defects as possible. Six Sigma has changed the makeup of GE-it is now the way we work in everything we do and in every product we design (Six Sigma, 2008). Within GE, an employee can be certified in Six Sigma, either as a black belt or a master black belt. These titles hold prestig e for the employees and add to employee motivation and employment satisfaction.When discussing the organizational culture within a company such as GE, we can break management concepts down into three categories. According to Argenti (2002), organizational behavior in organizations is usually scurvy down into three main areasIndividual level elements managing individualsGroup level elements managing teamsElements of organizational structure managing the organizationNot unless can the application of organizational behavior principles improve an organizations effectiveness, organizational behavior provides a manager the information and knowledge needed to manage an effective workforce (Argenti, 2002). With the climax of organizational perspectives, the analysis of why people instill their presence in an organization is not solo because of self-aimed goals of growth and enhancements, but also to locate themselves in a social place in pact to the area of their perceived belonging(St roh, Northcraft and Neale, 2002).MotivationMotivation is central to understanding behavior in organizations and a key managerial factor. Two aspects of motivation are structuring tasks to satisfy worker and organizational needs and providing the prudish direction for worker actions (Stroh, Northcraft and Neale, 2002). There are a number of factors when it comes to the difference in worker performance. peerless of these factors is related to different levels of ability among employees. Differences in ability arise from the simple fact that there are significant individual differences that affect work performance. The effort expended by the employees toward the realization of organizational goals greatly depends upon the status of behavioural motivations (Vasu, Stewart and Garson, 1998). GE has implemented conjectural frameworks in order to generate further explanations in behavioral motivation not only of the employees but the organization as well.GE uses a goal-setting theoretica l framework_._ Basically, the theoretical concept implicates the application of goals as driving forces that provide the basic idea of what and when to achieve a genuine target. Management by Objectives (MBO) is one example that exemplifies the application of objectives in order to achieve the final formulate outcome of the plan, goals (Robbins, 2005). Jack Welch, CEO from 1981 2001, set two clear and simple goals for GE and outlined several(prenominal) targets for reaching those formulated goals. The goals were to become the most competitive corporation in the world and to become the nations most valu subject corporation. Jack Welch created an organization tension in 1981 aimed at motivating these changes by redefining GEs goals and targets (Cushman, 2003).GE also uses a reinforcement theoretical framework. Reinforcement is used to enhance desirable behavior. The application of reinforcement theory is central to the design and administration of organizational reward systems. Wel l-designed rewards systems help motivate behavior, actions, and accomplishments, which advance the organization toward specific businessgoals. Strategic rewards go beyond cash to include training and educational opportunities, stock opinions, and recognition awards.GE makes good use of the principle of employee participation wherein employees record in the decisions that determine the methods to be used in the achievement of organizational objectives. GE provides promotions especially for those employees that throw satisfactory performances as evaluated by the human resource department and approved by managerial committees (Cushman, 2003). Furthermore, incentives go from salary increase to journey privileges where the main aim is to motivate the workforce.Group BehaviorA group is defined as two or more individuals, interacting and interdependent, who have come together to achieve incident objectives (Robbins, 2005). Groups can be either formal or informal. According to Robbins (2005) these two groups are described asFormal groups Defined by the organizations structure, with designated work assignments establishing tasks.In formal groups Encompass the behaviors that one should engage in are stipulated by and directed toward organizational goals.From 1985 up to the present, General Electric started to place in service work teams in order to facilitate cooperative behavior and leadership as aimed by their high-involvement strategy (Miller, 2002). As far as team building, GE implements a Five-Stage Model for group development within the organization. According to Robbins (2005) the quintette stages include forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. In addition to these five stages GE has also implemented a pre-stage. According to Miller (2002) the breakdown for GEs five stage good example is as followsPre-stage 1 GE screens the capacity of every employee upon application andall throughout performance in order to disseminate employees in the r ightful function.Stage 1 Forming Upon achieving the rightful components of the team through HR jurisdiction based on employee paygrade, formation of the tem is initiated.Stage 2 Storming Work teams are in effect given new _property rights_ while being guaranteed a great deal of control over performance standards.Stage 3 Norming Work teams are given strong guarantees of employment security to ensure that employees do not put themselves out of work by increasing production.Stage 4 Performing Workers were in general guaranteed opportunities for training, restraining, and promotion.Stage 5 Adjourning Fourth, compensation schemes have been changed in order to provide equity among work teams in the firm through profit-sharing plans or stock ownership plans.Organizational CultureOrganizational culture is comprised of the mind-set, experiences, beliefs and values of an organization and its employees. Currently, there are seven primary characteristics of organizational culture as described by Robbins (2005) innovation and risk taking, attention to detail, outcome orientation, people orientation, team orientation, aggressiveness, and stability. All indications are that GE successfully embodies five of the seven primary characteristics of organizational cultureInnovation and Risk Taking GE employees centre on innovation as their basis for taking calculated risks for change in the areas of transforming health care, spotless power generation, exploring nanotechnology, aviation technology, greenhouse gas reduction, and global research facilities(Innovation, 2008).Attention to Detail GE employees focus on attention to detail in such areas as customer service, quality and assembly of products, coming together performance targets, enhanced decision-making through training and education. bulk Orientation GE considers their more than 300,000 employees to be their sterling(prenominal) asset, and they are passionate about making life better with new ideas and technologies (O ur People, 2008).Team Orientation A significant part of GEs culture as a global company involves nurturing assorted and cross-cultural teams in such areas as public relations, automotives, global research, nanotechnologies, and marketing (Our Culture, 2008).Aggressiveness Though GE provides the tools and environment necessary for employees to be aggressive and competitive, it is ultimately up to the employee themselves to demonstrate hard work.Organizational culture essentially provides a company with a concrete anchoring point, even if the meaning it carries is vague and only amiss transmitted. An organizational culture also involves the expression of emotion, and by this venting of emotions organizational culture can function employees in dealing with stress. As GE continues to grow and evolve, the companys organizational culture will be subject to periodic changes and updates.ConclusionFrom everything that I have found, it is apparent that GEs organizational culture is both et hical and customer-responsive. All indications are that GE has obtained its current status through the successful applications of organizational behavior concepts specifically through motivations guided by specific goals and reinforcement plans. GE has successfully implemented theoretical frameworks through goal-setting, reinforcement, involvingemployees in the decision processes and offering incentives such as salary increases, travel privileges, stock options, and bonus plans. GE has successfully implemented group behavior tactics using the Five-Stage Model, with the addition of the pre-stage described in _Managerial Dilemmas the Political Economy of Hierarchy_, for group development within the organization. Finally, GE successfully embodies five of the seven primary characteristics of organizational culture.Under CEO Jack Welsh, and current CEO Jeff Immelt, GE was able to communicate their vision of Six Sigma and training and development programs at GE. They were also able to bec ome successful because of a belief in the employees and their talent. One of the most important traits a leader can have besides communication skills is the ability to see the potential of an individual and make that individual not only see it too but also live up to that potential. Based on the above findings, my evaluation of GEs organizational culture is that they do provide a strong framework for absolute attitudes, experiences, beliefs and values that would be appealing to almost anyone looking for job satisfaction and advancement within an organization. indicationArgenti, P. A. (2002). _The Fast Forward MBA Pocket Reference_. John Wiley and Sons.Cushman, D. P. (2003). Communication Best Practices at Dell, General Electric, Microsoft, andMonsanto. SUNY Press.Immelt, J. (2005). _GE Imagination at work_. Retrieved whitethorn 17, 2008, fromhttp//www.ge.com/company/leadership/index.htmlInnovation (2008). _GE Imagination at work_. Retrieved May 28, 2008, fromhttp//www.ge.com/innova tion/index.htmlKPMG, (2007). The age of ethics. Retrieved May 28, 2008, from KPMG Web site http//www-old.itcilo.org/actrav/actrav-english/telearn/global/ilo/code/ageof.htmLeadership Programs (2008). _GE Imagination at work_. 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