DYNAMICS OF HUMAN BEHAVIOUR

Question: If you joined Branch as a Branch Head, what would be your agenda? What action do you suggest to achieve this agenda? Answer: If I would have joined the branch as a branch manager then the major agenda that I would have in my mind would be improving inter-personal communication among clerks and the employees. As this has been the major issue in the branch routine work. If all the conflicts and other issues can be resolved by taking measures then the branch performance would automatically improve. Though the bank was financially sound, there seemed to be a leadership crisis in this branch. The aggregate deposit had been consistently falling over the past three years. The branch had not been able to disburse fresh advances or recover outstanding advances. Moreover, the employees were unhappy with both the branch head and the accountant. Another point that I would like to take up would be to use different styles of power in order to motivate employee towards branchs goal. I feel that the employees have no motivation towards there work and hence by using different styles of power and leadership one can bring in sense of motivation and ownership among the employees. From the case it is very much clear that there was no integrated involvement among the employees. Instead there was lack of cooperation between the officers and the clerical staff. They blamed each other for the lack of cooperation among them. If the profitability of the bank is to be used then the prerequisite for this is to increase the cooperation between officers and the clerical staff. From the customers point of view my first and foremost agenda would be to improve the branch infrastructure, so that the customers can feel comfortable within the branch. Improving the infrastructure is basically improving the hygiene factors which actually result in employees not being dissatisfied and also contribute to the absence of complaints about these contextual conditions. But due to the highly bureaucratic work environment of the office, this would be difficult. So if not completely I would try to improve the infrastructure to some extent, for example, the providing the office with the basic amenities that are a must for any office, whether private or government. The water cooler, that not working could have been replaced by a new one, the hanging electrical tables could have been fixed by calling an electrician, moldy tables could have been take care of and the printer that was not working for so many days could have been fixed by some local IT professional since the work was getting impacted badly due the printer not working. The passbooks were being manually updated which is a very time consuming process. All these are activities which can be done without the involvement of the regional or zonal offices and all such non-value adding activities can be removed from the work cycle by being a little proactive in your work. So in essence, not only the

customer satisfaction and customer delight would be achieved through this but this would also help in increasing the job satisfaction among the employees. Satisfied employees are more likely to make positive comments about the company, refrain from complaining when things at work do not go well, and help their co workers. This would further help in improving relationships among the employees. But in order to improve relationship among the employee we must first have to identify what all problems does the employees are facing, what is that things which creates conflict. To improve inter personal relationship we must bring in the concept of group cohesion which allows members to stick together in a group which not only increase the organization productivity but also enhance the job satisfaction. What is missing in the branch employees does not have following characteristics: clear purpose or mission, well understood norms and standards of conduct, a high level of group cohesion and a flexible status structure. These are the characteristics which attributes to mature group who understand their responsibility well. In order to decrease the negative affectivity among the employees it is necessary that I being the branch head should work towards building an environment of team work. This branch currently is plagued with officers-staff conflict, inter-union rivalry and bureaucratic culture and consequently, poor financial performance, weak customer orientation and poor customers' satisfaction. The lack of cooperation among the staff and the trade union rivalry gave rise to the organizational politics manifested in the form of back biting and gossiping. So I would work towards transforming the highly politicized culture of the bank into a team-oriented customer-centric performing culture. In fact, not only conflicts among the employees, but there are examples that prove that there was a lack of motivation factors that led to unhappy employees. Atal, joined the branch as a clerical staff in 1999. He had a great urge to learn new things and used to work late hours after the normal office timings. He used to help people with those tasks for which he actually was not hired but still was doing to increase his learning and also wanted to do something good for the office. But finally he found that he was being used so he protested. The entire motivation of working was no where since then. His work was not being recognized. If I were the branch head I would have used the reward power and recognized the efforts and the extra hours he worked. Another employee, Alok, who started his career as a lecturer joined the bank after finishing his phd in 1978. He was an honest, sincere and hardworking boss. His work with the bank had been quite appreciated to the extent that he was selected as the faculty member at the regional training center. He was even with the inspection department for five and a half years. But he was unhappy and dissatisfied because inspite of the appreciation, he was not promoted in 2002. He has been promoted only twice during his

24 years of service in the bank. As per him performance was not the criteria for promotion and one should have a big boss at the top to take care of you. From this it can be clearly seen that there was no proper system in place in the office that could oversee each employee performance and give appraisal based on that. The office is in a need of a system that could take care of the employee satisfaction and appraisals so that the employees always have something to look forward to. So that they always have high spirits and have a positive outlook towards work. As a manager it is important to create a reward system personalized for your employees and find out what really motivates them to hit the numbers you are looking for. Maybe its extra time off or it may be purely money based or anything else. A lot of managers tend to think that, Well they get a paycheck and thats their reward, but going the extra mile by rewarding them will get you further loyalty as well as better employee retention. If one can increase the staff motivation and engagement, one can tap into a Gold Mine! I would try to understand the root of a performance problem before fully addressing it. Ability and motivation go together to impact performance, and the most successful performance improvement efforts combine strategies for improving each. This would create a positive environment where people feel supported to reach their performance potential; and feel valued, knowing that the organization wants to find a good fit for their abilities. Also, to improve the performance of the employees I would work towards increasing the accountability of all the employees. Everyone's contribution should be measured. The failure to set clear, measurable performance standards expected of each employee often leads to poor performance. The worker may believe he or she is meeting expectations, while the supervisor has a completely different idea on the desired outcome. Positive motivation leads to a more effective group effort and will increase productivity by building that "can do" team feeling. Motivational experts such as Herzberg, Maslow, Vroom and Hersey agree that employees are motivated more effectively for long-term periods when management uses positive versus negative motivators, non-monetary versus monetary motivators and personal managerial power versus position power. There was a high power distance due to the highly bureaucratic work environment of the office. Also, there was lack of human touch; employees were unhappy due to the insensitiveness of the branch head and the accountant to their personal problems. Deepti, a lady clerk mentioned that she was on leave for 15 days, but the branch manager did not even ask her the reason for taking such a long leave. Same case happened with Raj, who was a peon in the branch. He had served the branch for the past ten years, but on a particular day when he left the office just 15 minutes early he was scolded by Jay the next day without even asking the reason for going early.

Nothing demotivates employees faster than a feeling of being ignored. If they feel that no one cares about them or their contribution to the company, they will "shut down" and do just enough to get by. But if there is a human touch involved, concern for the employees is integrated along with the concern for results then the employees will work enthusiastically to improve productivity. One will have a better "team feeling", management credibility will go up, and one will definitely have a better handle on the employees' current attitudes, motivations and situations. Being the branch head then I would be in a better position to head off possible problems and conflicts and avoid costly downtime spent handling these situations. I would also try to use tools such as the SDI (Strength Deployment Inventory), DISC, Myers Briggs Type Indicator can be used to run People Development programmes to develop communication, understanding and engagement. Also, the current SBM was a tough disciplinarian and acted tough with undisciplined staff. He used the coercive power in dealing with the staff members but in this case what one should use is the mix of reward power, referent power and legitimate power. Using coercive power could actually promote alienative membership leading to hostile and negative feelings about being in this office. Not to forget that effective leadership produces useful change in organizations and that good management controls complexity in the organization and its environment. Democratic style and not autocratic style of leadership is required in dealing with this bank branch. Transformational leadership has positive effects on employee commitment and negative effects on employee work withdrawal. So it would be a good idea to use this and achieve the goal of increasing staff motivation, engagement and the profitability of the bank. As the branch head I would like to engage with the staff members, to build better working relationships, increase motivation, trust, respect and rapport, whilst reducing costly personality clashes, mistrust, stress and disputes. By increasing staff motivation and engagement, one can directly increase the energy levels, interest, desire and productivity, which can lead to increased productivity and profit. Submitted by: Ritu Batra (Roll No. 11) Rishabh Mathur (Roll No. 10) PGDMPT 2011-14

ANNEXURE
Integrated involvement among the employees; Organizational behavior: Nelson and Quick, page 151 Application of power distance; Organizational behavior: Nelson and Quick Perception; Organizational behavior: Nelson and Quick Job satisfaction; emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one's job or job experience; Organizational behavior: Nelson and Quick, page 117-118 High negative affectivity: due to which the employees were dissatisfied with their jobs; Organizational behavior: Nelson and Quick Organizational citizenship behaviour - that the employeesis above and beyond the call of duty; Organizational behavior: Nelson and Quick Job satisfaction and employee motivation; Organizational behavior: Nelson and Quick Organizational commitment: Organizational behavior: Nelson and Quick Importance of work values; Organizational behavior: Nelson and Quick Work teams and groups: Organizational behavior: Nelson and Quick, Group cohesion: Page 256 Motivation at work: Organizational behavior: Nelson and Quick, Page 145-149 Work values: Organizational behavior: Nelson and Quick, page 133 Use of different types of power: Organizational behavior: Nelson and Quick, page 311-317 Leadership: Organizational behavior: Nelson and Quick, Page 339-343 Need for achievement, Organizational behavior: Nelson and Quick Motivation factors, Organizational behavior: Nelson and Quick; page 149-150 Hygiene factors were not present: working condition, supervision, salary, supervision, interpersonal relations with supervisors. Excellent hygiene factors result in employees not being dissatisfied and contribute to the absence of complaints about these contextual conditions; Organizational behavior: Nelson and Quick, Page 150-151