By definition, organisational behaviour is "the study of human behaviour in organizational settings, the interface between human behaviour and the organization, and the organization itself."
I have spent 27 years in the corporate, and my article here is based on my experiences, and in my own interest, on some genuine discussions I had had with some of my colleagues. At the outset, I must say that good and heart-warming experiences galore, and I was fortunate to have colleagues who were such good friends that even today when they call me, I feel an instant connect with them. They were the ones who had pushed me to take up things I never thought I could, because I was from a different background. In my effort to being a meaningful trainer, these friends went out of their ways to coach me into highly specialised subjects like Systems Thinking, Conflict Management; A gatecrasher that I was, I fondly recall that during my first session, some of them were outside the class just to come in for help if required; luckily, thanks to their indefatigable efforts, I did not disappoint them, but I would always keep this as my mark of respect to what organisations can do by cascading down the right culture of camaraderie and professionalism.
The three important aspects
The three important aspects
1. Colleagues are not friends
Sad but true, and why so I wonder. Most of us are groomed into thinking that colleagues cannot be friends, and it is because of our thoughts, this becomes true. I have often wondered that how is it that all mothers are good, but all mothers-in-law are you-know-what! Even before meeting them, we have an opinion of them... can this be based on logic? This mindset needs to change. How can we see peace in this world if we do not have peace at our workplace? Peace, for quite selfish reasons has a less priority over growth. This is sad. The world outside, the real world, is full of insecurities; especially now, because we are not sure if from work we'd go home safe and sound. However, inside the organisation, we fight, constantly with a win-lose approach. Look at our appraisal model and you will understand what I mean. In my brief interaction for 25 days in an organisation, I met one person who would warn me to be careful because he thought there were enemies all around. Think! Is this person alone needs to be blamed? No. If we need to change this mindset, organisations need to come forth and develop a solid and in-depth mechanism to ensure we can also see a friend in our colleagues instead of only those team-outings and events. Colleagues are made to fight because organisations think they cannot control the workforce otherwise, and per the top notch executives all of this animosity needs to be alive to ensure growth. This logic is not sound enough because if growth were so important, Peter Senge wouldn’t alert us on the limits to growth. And who says growth cannot be achieved with friendship? If this is the organisation’s mindset, then it needs to change; otherwise, every day we’d need to go to work, and every day, we’d hate to go.
2. Competition means growth
There’s another important aspect that the organisations need to focus on, competition! Throughout history, as old as time, if we have seen anything horrendous, it is competition! Competition fosters growth without understanding what true competition is, is a wrong mindset. According to the Brahmakumaris (BKs), Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer, human beings haven’t learnt to compete; the most fascinating competition – something that really fosters growth and spreads bonhomie, is competition with Self, with none else. Our entire model, from induction to promotion to attrition happens because of and despite competition. Please do not categorize me as oh he’s one of those followers of BKs or some such spiritual organisations and discard saying it is not applicable in the real world, it is very much applicable. If you have never tried anything, from the bottom of your heart, how can you say it is not...otherwise we wouldn’t have the digital world today! Organisations market competition as healthy, but according to many social behaviourists, healthy competition is an oxymoron. The expression cut-throat seems more appropriate.
3. Peace, the poor cousin
In our pursuit to achievement and growth, peace often takes a backseat. It wouldn’t be inappropriate to say that it is shelved as the poor cousin or even the black Peter. As part of OB, we need to factor in peace as an important aspect that can build relationship between people in an organisation as also between organisations. It is sad to see how organisations compete against each other and expect a peaceful world in which they inhabit. Our businesses would have a far more meaningful growth, if peace became our raison d’être! If profit and money were to be the only cornerstones for success, then there is little wonder to have surprises, sometimes from food products and sometimes from pharmaceutical products. It is this mindless and mechanically driven mindset of wanting more profit and more growth anyhow that put people’s lives at stake, killing people or back-stabbing them is fair because that's what we have learnt, and with 'enemies all around' peace indeed is that weak and the poor cousin!
People’s person, caught in between the devil and the deep sea
On this, I have spoken at length to not less than 100 people across levels, and all of them, without exception, have told me how bitter their stress is and how insecure they feel because of competition. I guess they were voicing hundreds of them out there! Some of them have also used the word cul-de-sac to define this model which fosters animosity and mistrust among people. And yet we talk about being a people’s person! My sincere appeal to people who matter would be to understand, through meaningful huddles, as to how to bring about a model where individuals can be evaluated in a much more creative way, rather than the traditional win-lose approach. This is a creative, engaging and a daunting task indeed, which can only come about through conviction and meaningful discussions! Else we could just be happy with growth and unhappy with the lack of it, and in both, peace will escape for sure! In between competition and growth, with their respective price, good and bad, organisations and their workforce are perpetually in between the devil and the deep sea.
Notes and references:
1. Moorhead, G., & Griffin, R. W. (1995). Organizational behavior: Managing people and organizations (5th edition). Boston. Houghton Mifflin, (p.4)
2. Peter Michael Senge is an American systems scientist who is a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, co-faculty at the New England Complex Systems Institute, and the founder of the Society for Organizational Learning; author of The fifth discipline
3. Brahmakumaris, a spiritual organisation
4. Deepak Chopra is an Indian-born American author and public speaker. He is an alternative medicine advocate and a promoter of popular forms of spirituality
5. Wayne Walter Dyer is an American self-help author and a motivational speaker; his first book Your Erroneous Zones is one of the best-selling books of all time
Image credit: Google images
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