Organizational Behavior - Penang 2010

This is the second time sitting in the class conducted by Dr Pete Ooi. Dr Pete is a skilled facilitator. Last time I signed for Financial Management with a assumptions that this subject would be tough. It is tough but Dr Pete approached the topic easily and to me, comfortably. This time, it is the same. There is no doubt that Organizational Behavior is something like art while Financial Management is more than with science. Organizational Behavior (hereafter called OB) "is a study of how individuals and groups perform together within an organization. It focuses on the best way to manage individuals, groups and organizations, and processes. OB is an extensive topic and includes management, theories and practices of motivation, and the fundamentals of organizational structure and design" (Steven Stralser, Ph.D, (2004), "MBA in a day", John Stralser, p.43). What is management all about? It is all about deciding what to do and getting things done thru the effective use of resources. It is also about providing direction, facilitating change and achieving results thru effective, creative and responsible use of resources. For a manager to be successful, there are some qualities:

• Balanced learning habits and skills
• Self-knowledge, self-awareness, self-disclosure
• Mental agility, toughness, determination, perseverance, and willingness to work hard
• Command of basic facts, relevant professional knowledge, sensitivity to events
• Skills in problem identification, problem solving, decision making, judgement making
• Social skills, ability to inspire enthusiasm
• Proactive attitude, willingness to take risks
• Emotional resilience
• Creativity

Are they too many for a successful manager? To me, it's rationale. It is not easy to be successful in a fast-moving economy/ industry. People have to learn more, work harder, and think smarter. There are three things that a person needs to have: Knowlege which can be learnt, Skills which can be trained, and Habits which can be practiced. However, one more thing that is so important to a person is Attitude. Everything can be achieved thru learning, training, practising but Attitutes is hard to change. Attitude influences the process of dong tasks. Positive attitudes drive people to doing things well. Negative attitudes demotivate people from passion & willingness in doing tasks. We can have richer knowledge, more skillful and better habits. But once we hold negative attitudes, it's very difficult to move to positive. These 4 elements from KASH, of which pronunciation sounds like CASH. If you want to have cash, you should have KASH! To have KASK, you just rely only 20% on training, 30% on relationship, but up to 50% on "hard knocks" (Ron Zemke (Aug 1985): “The Honeywell Studies: How Managers Learn To Manage”, p. 46-51). What is it meaning? Training provides you basical and theoretical phylosophy. Relationship can help your business go smoother. When you apply what you learn from training, with your relationship attributes, you may be successful or may not. "Hard Knocks" implies the situation in which you fail and have to pay for its price. So tough!

Everybody can talk about leadership, roles of leaders, functions of leaders. If we carry out these roles or functions effectively and efficiently, "hard knocks" will be limited. From my reading, there are 3 roles for leaders:

• Interpersonal: Leaders play the roles of Figurehead (Team Builder), Leader (Coach), and Liason (Delegator)
• Informational: roles of Disseminator & spokeperson
• Decisional: roles of Entrepreneur, Disturbance Handler, Resources Allocator, and Negotiator

and 8 functions for an effective and efficient manager are: Planning, Organizing, Communicating, Staffing, Leading, Motivating, Decision Making and Controlling.

A manager also needs skills to do go jobs:
• Conceptual skills
• Technical skills: Diagnostic skills & Time management skills
• Human skills: Interpersonal skills & Influencial skills.

John Maxell said "A leader is the person who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way". General Collin Powell said "The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership."

From these point of view, I think about three things: Competency, Charisteristics, and Care (3 Cs). If you have Competency, Charisteristics and Care, people will follow you! Again, this brings me back to General Collin Powell "Good leadership involves responsibility to the welfare of the group, which means that some people will get angry at your actions and decisions. It's inevitable, if you're honorable. Trying to get everyone to like you is a sign of mediocrity: you'll avoid the tough decisions, you'll avoid confronting the people who need to be confronted, and you'll avoid offering differential rewards based on differential performance because some people might get upset. Ironically, by procrastinating on the difficult choices, by trying not to get anyone mad, and by treating everyone equally "nicely" regardless of their contributions, you'll simply ensure that the only people you'll wind up angering are the most creative and productive people in the organization".

That's my personal understanding. What I have been learning from this MBA Program are almost similar. Yet there are some other interesting things I think I will post up. Once I do this, it helps me remember my lessons and this is considered a source of consolidation... (con't)