Discussion board responses – 24 hr turn around

Discussion 1

Emily McDuffie

7:31pmApr 29 at 7:31pm

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 Power of Politics in Organizations

 
Chapter 13 of this week’s reading was surrounding power and politics in organizations and the effects they have on both an individual level and a company-wide level. What I found particularly relevant to my role was that while politics play a big part in meeting personal interests (Robins & Judge, 2017), there are many layers of politicking that may or may not happen throughout the different employee tiers. Leaders within an organization need to understand that individual employees have different motivating factors for being employed specifically where they are and sometimes, politicking their way to obtaining power on their way through the ranks may not be what they are looking for. However, in an article for CEO World, Sophie Ireland discusses how motivation of politicking in organizations can mostly be categorized in two different ways: either an employee trying to get ahead or an employee trying to avoid fault (Ireland, 2021). Especially in the virtual, work-from-home world we are living in now, it can be argued that workplace politics may be owning a larger portion of the work day as folks are eager to earn credibility in other ways since they are not interacting with coworkers one on one in person. 
 

References

Ireland, S. (2021, April 6). Workplace politics – play to win. CEOWORLD Magazine. https://ceoworld.biz/2021/04/06/workplace-politics-play-to-win/ (Links to an external site.)

Robbins, S., & Judge, T. (2017). Essentials of Organizational Behavior (14th ed.). Pearson.

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Discussion 2

Preston James Penn

1:07pmApr 29 at 1:07pm

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Organizational culture differs from many other organizational behavior topics we have covered thus far because it is a relatively fixed asset (hopefully it is not a liability). Culture is rooted throughout the entire organization and is not readily or easily altered, particularly in larger, well-established organizations. Top management, including the founders and early leadership teams, greatly shape organizational culture and are both formally and informally tasked with keeping company culture thriving. As Robbins and Judge (2018) discuss, top management sets the tone and establishes customs that trickle down throughout the organization, including how formal relationships are, whether there is a spirit of collectivism or individualism, ethical standards, and other key factors that frame organizational climate. Founders and subsequent top managers ensure that the vision is being created and/or carried out, and their behaviors mold the makeup and strength of organizational culture, for better or worse (Robbins & Judge, 2018).(Paais & Pattiruhu, 2020) study the impact of top managers’ actions when promoting knowledge sharing practices and innovation. The authors conclude that in the context of small and medium-sized enterprises, top management can encourage and support innovation by being knowledge-oriented, and perhaps more importantly, exploit and share that knowledge, which encourages those down the chain to do the same. Furthermore, when knowledge sharing is successful and innovation flourishes, organizational performance increases because of renewed problem-solving capabilities in dynamic environments (Paais & Pattiruhu, 2020). Lastly, (Paais & Pattiruhu, 2020)make a valuable conclusion that top managers have this so-called tension between the protecting and sharing of knowledge that they must successfully navigate in order to procure the aforementioned benefits of promoting innovation. In conclusion, organizational culture is complex and reasonably stable over time, so it is vital that founders and top management know how to subtly and positively change the culture if needed, or simply keep the fire stoked if the culture is already strong and achieving desired outcomes, such as exemplary financial performance, low turnover, high levels of diversity, and constant fruitful innovation (Paais & Pattiruhu, 2020).
 
References
 
Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. (2018). Essentials of organizational behavior. New York, NY: Pearson
 
PAAIS, M., & PATTIRUHU, J. (2020). Effect of Motivation, Leadership, and Organizational Culture on Satisfaction and Employee Performance. Journal of Asian , Economics and , 7(8), 577-588. doi:doi:10.13106/jafeb

Effect of Motivation, Leadership, and Organizational Culture on Satisfaction and Employee Performance.pdf