Organization Behavior

One of the most important things that I want to take out of this class is the ability to apply the concepts and theories that I have learned to real life situations. I often relate the various concepts from this course to my place of employment—the Office for University Advancement. A few weeks ago my boss asked the entire Phonathon staff of eighteen people to break into three equal groups for a "fun activity". The activity was a scavenger hunt to promote unity amongst the staff. We had a thirty-minute time limit to complete our task and had to be back at the starting point before it was up, or else the team was disqualified. Also, the team that completed the scavenger hunt the fastest and most accurately won fifteen minutes off of their work shift for one night in the semester. During this activity, I observed many concepts that we have covered in this course. I will describe the following ten themes: teams, time constraints in team decision making, organizational commitment, task interdependence, role perceptions, ethical behavior, perception, motivation, positive reinforcement, and need for achievement.
The first and most obvious theme reflected in this activity was the concept of a team. Each group of six colleagues was assigned to work together toward the common goal of completing the scavenger hunt. These teams were short-lived due to the thirty-minute time constraint to complete the activity. This leads into the concept of time constraints in team decision making. We had a limited amount of time to complete a list of ten tasks, which was challenging, but possible if done correctly. This put stress on the team, but in a motivating way.
Therefore, it was important for our team to spend the first bit of our thirty minutes planning how we would go about completing the task. This involved a "pep talk", assignment of duties, and then executing our plan by way of task interdependence. First, it was important to stress that without full (organizational) commitment to the task, we would not be able to get our job done the quickest. Therefore, as the group leader, I reminded everyone through my pep talk that we could do this if we had our minds fully committed to the task. This led to the assignment of duties. We decided it would be more efficient to break into sets of two to try to hunt for part of the list, while the other team members looked to complete other tasks at the same time. This related to the concept of task interdependence because without each member completing their separate tasks, the whole group would not be able to reach the common goal. Now that the tasks have been assigned, everyone began to understand their role perceptions. Each person knew how they were contributing to the group and exactly what it was that they were to do.
Now that the duties have been assigned and the team has broken off into their separate paths, the way that the task is completed can be analyzed further. There were a few concepts that showed potential conflicts with the task that was assigned to us, including ethical behavior and perception. It was important that each team member practiced ethical behavior throughout the hunt because we would have been disqualified for cheating. As the team leader, I needed to set a good example for my colleagues to mimic, so that they would, in turn, practice ethical behavior. Also, the way that we interpreted and/or perceived the list of tasks could have been different for each team member. For example, one of the items on the list of objects to find was a piece of toilet paper. To one person, this meant grabbing a handful of toilet paper, and yet to another person it meant exactly one piece of toilet paper. These two perceptions conflicted with one another and there was nobody there to tell us which perception was correct.
The last three themes that I witnessed during the scavenger hunt took place once all of the teams made it back to the starting point at the end of the thirty minutes. Throughout the activity, everyone was motivated to do their best and to work the fastest and most accurately in hopes of receiving the prize. In order for the motivation to be present in each person, there had to be something to work towards. In this case, it was the fifteen extra minutes of free work. This incentive served as a means of positive reinforcement because it was something that was desired by all and would be given to us if we did the best job. Another motivator for the teams was the need for achievement. A few of my teammates (myself included) were very competitive because we had that desire to always want to be the best and would never settle for less. Therefore, when combining a positive reinforcement tool with people who have a high need for achievement, it was easy to see that the motivation was definitely present to take the scavenger hunt seriously.
After the scavenger hunt was over, I had time to sit and reflect on the many theories and concepts from organizational behavior that could apply to the situation. I only discussed ten, but there were a countless number that were left unmentioned. These theories can be applied to so many other situations at the workplace, inside the classroom, and elsewhere. It is always fun to try to make a seemingly mundane task (studying for a test) into a game where I search for ways to relate the material into real life situations. It is as if the scavenger hunt is never ending.