Catalysts for Change in Organizational Structures and Workplace Environments

Organizational structures and workplace environments often influence human behavior in the organizational setting. This paper aims to analyze the external and internal forces responsible for affecting organizational behavior. The paper utilizes an annotated bibliography model to outline various forces from organizations’ internal and external environments. The influence from either internal or external forces can either be positive or negative. An organization’s success relies on understanding the underlying factors that affect the organization’s behavior, coming up with the best possible means of positively influencing organizational change.

Ciocirlan, C. E. (2017). Environmental workplace behaviors: Definition matters. Organization & Environment30(1), 51-70.

Ciocirlan (2017) details various organizational workplace behaviors and their impact on organizational performance. According to the article, most organizational workplace behaviors are impacted by the organization’s structure and workplace environments. The underlying organizational behavior highly relies on how the organization is structured. The environment of an organization also affects the organizations’ behavior. The research focuses on outlining the environmental workplace behaviors (EWB), which include; organization citizenship behaviors for the environment (OCBEs), environmental in-role behaviors (EIRBs), and environmental counterproductive workplace behaviors (ECWBs).

Concerning organizational structures and workplace environments and their impacts on organizational behavior, Ciocirlan (2017) outlines how OCBEs, EIRBs, and ECWBs affects the organization structure. Examples of OCBEs in organizations include altruism and sportsmanship. The culture of an organization impacts the OCBEs, making them part of organizational behaviors. EIRBs in an organization relies on the organization’s culture, such as rules and regulations that deal with recycling and effective use of resources. The ECWBs in an organization relate to how the employees deal with environmental conservation issues, where high-intensity individuals can act as whistle-blowers in case of non-conformity to regulations. From the article, it is clear that the workplace environment influences most organizational behaviors.

J’Aime, C. J., Landry, A. Y., Hearld, L. R., Weech-Maldonado, R., Snyder, S. W., & Patrician, P. A. (2019). Organizational and environmental factors influencing      hospital community orientation. Health care management review44(3), 274-284.

The article focuses on analyzing the organizational and environmental factors that impede or promote the hospital community orientation. The hospital community orientation in the article is like the organizational behavior; organizational factors are internal factors, while the environmental factors relate to external factors. Community orientation refers to the ability of the hospitals to meet the health needs of the local population. The hospital’s ability to effectively meet the community’s needs relies on internal or external factors, which requires the organization to respond to them strategically for effectiveness.

The main organizational factors, internal, which influences community orientation, and affects organizational behavior at the same time, include system affiliation and network affiliation. System affiliation refers to other hospitals’ standards and behavior at the same level that the organization showcases. Network affiliation is where an organization is associated with a certain network that enhances the management of resources. System affiliation relates to workplace environments, which directly influence organizations’ behavior. Through conforming to specific standards, employees create an environment where they maintain particular standards of operation. Network affiliations are systems of the external environment, where the relationships and networks that the organization has impact employees’ behavior.

Liden, Robert C (10/01/2014). “Servant Leadership and Serving Culture: Influence on Individual and Unit Performance.” Academy of Management journal (0001-4273), 57       (5), p. 1434.

The article explores how servant leadership influences serving culture among 961 employees from 71 restaurants. The article is a report from the research where the employees serving culture was investigated. Results found that managers’ servant leadership to the employees directly impacted their ability to come up with a serving culture. Servant leadership in the article is an internal environment, while serving culture is the organizational behavior. From the research, it is clear that most of the employees who had the serving culture were directly impacted by their managers’ servant leadership.

The internal environment has a direct influence on organizational behavior, whether good or bad. Organizational behavior, on the other hand, influences the organization’s performance. Liden (2014) confirms that the employees’ serving culture is positively related to restaurant performance, employee job performance, and customer relations. Therefore, organizations can create an internal environment that positively impacts the organization’s culture to enhance output. Through a positive organizational culture, organizational behavior is positively impacted, and the output is also enhanced, which is essential for success.

Analysis of Internal and External Factors to Change Impacts on Change in Workplace Behavior

From the three articles’ analysis, internal factors that impact workplace behavior include; organization’s structure and workplace environments, system affiliation, and organizational leadership. The external factor affecting workplace behavior is network affiliation, which refers to the partners who deal closely with the organization. According to Ciocirlan (2017), organizational behavior gives insight into how employees behave and perform in their workplaces. The internal and external factors outlined impact either how the employees conduct themselves or even perform their duties, thus impacting the organizational behavior.

The system affiliation refers to the workplace environment. The organization’s structure and workplace environment directly influence how employees relate to each other, and how they react. As detailed by J’Aime et al. (2019), the workplace environment and organization structure offer the employees a chance to conform to particular organization standards. Such compel the employees to behave in a specific manner, in a bid to meet the set organization’s standards. According to Liden (2014), leaders determine the values, culture, and employee motivation in an organization, directly influencing the organization’s behavior. The external factor that impacts organizational behavior, network affiliation, impacts the management of resources within an organization, affecting employee behavior.

Conclusion

The major internal factor that can cause a threat to an organization’s management is the organizations’ leadership. Through the organization’s managerial approach to meet their goals while motivating individuals to complete tasks successfully, an organization can either succeed or fail. Poor organizational leadership poses a major threat to an organization’s success, leading to low motivation and drive to meet goals and objectives.

As outlined by the case of Liden (2014), effective organizational leadership is a driver for success, as it enhances employee motivation for success. Poor organizational leadership is an internal factor that negatively impacts organizational behavior. The employees might lack the drive to complete tasks, which poses a challenge in managing an organization for success. Poor organizational leadership poses a significant challenge for the management of organizations’ internal environment due to the direct impact on the internal environment.