Observe Organizational Behavior Firsthand

Question: Give a brief discussion on organization behavior. Answer: The organization behavior is influenced by plethora of dimensions such as organizational culture, organizational structure, team spirit, organizational change, communication, diversity, power, leadership, motivation (Gordon, 1991) etc. It is quite essential to get into the organization and closely monitor the processes so as to have an insight into the domains of organizational behavior. The organization selected for the purpose of critical analysis is a supermarket and retail outlet having plethora of products for sale. The supermarket is present in the residential cluster providing buying facilities to the consumers of the region. The supermarket is fully equipped with various products to offer and is composed of highly trained staff at different levels of management and customer service. I got into the organization of this retail store as an intern to refine my skills of management and got a chance to closely observe the sales representatives and all the functions handled at the s upermarket. As an intern, my role was to observe the customer support representatives and give an honest review of the employees in the form of a written report and analysis sheet given to me by the top management of the supermarket. Other roles included helping the sales representatives to set up the supermarket according to the code of display and provide help services to them as and when required. It would help me to have deep insights into the operations and strategies adopted by the management team organized in a hierarchy and would help me to acquire high level of management skills and principles. I got well into the organization when I talked with the higher management to allow me to observe the processes and the operations going on in the organization in return I would be able to give honest and in depth reports for the employees of the organization and would help them in the in store tasks. This was quite a new experience for me in the contemporary times as I never had a job experience and this internship taught me a lot about the inherent secrets of a retail store or a supermarket and all the marketing strategies deployed by the top management to attract and allure the customers towards their brand. It was an altogether enthralling and exciting experience which helped me to learn many new skills and gain a command over in depth practical knowledge about management of a supermarket. The activity in which I got engaged was a routine activity of the supermarket for customer service and retail marketing. Therefore, the action under analysis is a routine action of the organizat ion for which I helped the entire team and provided them with reviews at the end of my internship period. Action Component and Analysis Two of the main determinants of organization behavior are organizational culture and the team management under the supervision of efficient leadership. Organizational culture is the system of shred meaning involving shared value system and belief system. This set of values and rituals act as an adhesive to glue the members of the organization together. The core values that form the framework of the organizational culture of this supermarket are respect towards the individuals, integrity in action, service for the customers and excellence in the strategic management (Jones, 2010). The associates of the customer service department are motivated to serve the customers being the topmost priority of the company. The value system of the company is held high by the means of open communication and ways to share information. The foundation of the supermarket is based over integrity which is fueled by honesty, fairness and objectivity to make decisions. The company strives for excellence by innovating and improving with positive modeling and by working in a team. The management believes that the organizational culture initiates from the top l evel of the company and then permeates down to other employees. The employees of the supermarket have a particular code of conduct which is taught to them in the period of their training. They have a unique uniform which have a quote saying, How May I Help You?. This quote opens up doors of interaction between the customers and the representatives of the supermarket team when they will be humble and generous in their approach (Casey, 1999). The culture of the company is upheld with plethora of benefits given to the employees in return of their hard work and commitment. They are provided with competitive pay, healthcare facilities, retirement plans, and promotions to make them feel as a part of the whole big family of the retail store. The hard work of the employees are rewarded to make a strong work culture of the team. The culture of the supermarket is characterized customer orientation and giving best of the value at some lowest prices. Employee is projected to be an image of a so cially responsible entity serving the company. The employees are tracing the roots of the organizational culture and are formulating them in coherence with the growth and success of the company. The culture of the supermarket is quite interactive and innovative. There have been use of latest trends and technologies in the campus of the supermarket which forms a part of the contemporary culture of the retail store. The corporate culture of the supermarket is very well refined and as per the norms of this industry. The employees are quite humble and when anyone says Thank you in return of their favor and service, the customer support representatives say Its my pleasure in return (Ogbonna, 1988). This culture is imbibed in the behavior of the employees and it presents a form of politeness and regard. The culture of the company is sustained by regular intervention from the top management in the form of discussions and value enrichment of the employees. It was a long time back when the company and the top management realized that the rule based culture of the company was no longer able to cope with the agility of the world demanding a higher pace of globalization and technological development and hence the culture had to be made flexible and value based to win over the trust of the employees and make them understand the value delivered by the company. The company lays a higher amount of stress over the values that are required in the sustainable environment with thorough training given over the performance with purpose (Russell, 1985). The culture of the company is more than just ethical culture rather it is a conglomerate of all the belief systems of the company, the rituals followed at plethora of events strengthening the bond of the employees, the values imbibed followed by the entire management team, the stories that are disseminated by the management in regular meetings of the staff and the symbols in variety of forms. The symbols used in the supermarket to uphold the culture of the staff are the uniform of the customer service representatives that follows a serviceable message, the posters on the walls guiding the customers to correct stalls, the employee of the month displayed over bulletin board in the entrance to motivate the employees, the badges worn by some highly efficient employees and other forms. The success stories are discussed by the team in every informal meeting where the top management narrates their experience and inspires the team. The values of the company totally restricts an inflexible and harsh culture of blind obedience and therefore, there is no top down hierarchical strict culture rather a democratic culture where everyone participates in the decision making to give their valuable suggestions to improve the marketing content and the customer service facilities. Management of the entire team is a challenging task for the leader and which in turn has an effect over the organ izational behavior. The leaders of the supermarket forming a large share of the top management like to be surrounded by the right kind of people having big and widespread domain of ideas and are not afraid to take any kind of risks to implement those ideas (Boye, 1997). The supermarket have developed a leadership training program for the managers and employees in other management roles. This training includes real world based simulation techniques to be able to train the team to coherently bind with each other and work with each other under the supervision of the leader. The leaders are responsible for motivating the employees for every kind of task such as stock replenishment, online shopping aid, administrating services, customer service, food safety and sales driving. The department managers have glued and integrated the teams in one single unit for an effective and efficient job. Management must play a brilliant role to determine the capability of the individuals and to leverage it efficiently in the field of operational approach. The team management is done in the front line to make the employees learn by the means of experience. The team is divided into various roles but each of the role in integrated into one single functional unit. The team leader, administration roles, online shopping, counter assistance, customer service assistance, warehouse assistance, merchandizing control, online customer service assistance, general assistance and other roles are coherently tied up to each other to form a comprehensive team of support. Hence, the leadership of this store and supermarket is handled efficiently and flexibly. As per the observation it can be noticed that the supermarket has strengths of having a great flexible and friendly culture which is upheld by various determinants of culture. The leadership and the formation of the team of the organization is very well in coherence with the trends of the retail market. The employees are inspired to get themselves aligned around the core mission of the company. This democratic and participative culture of the company have given birth to the culture of innovation wherein the supermarket have adopted various innovative strategies to attract the customers in a sustainable environment (Damanpour, 1991). Some of recommendations that can be considered by the team in order to attract the customers and form a huge base of loyal customers are use of tablets installed in the campus wherein the customer can give their feedback, look for discounts, find the location of a particular product in the supermarket; technical improvements in payment system by the means of optical scanning machines; use of membership cards to give away points and discounts on the same and other related innovations made for the support services of the customers. The supermarket need to orient their strategies towards inclusion of diversity in the work group to invite innovation in their operations and strategies. 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