Abellanida, John Rey D.

Organizational Behavior
MPA 456

1. Discuss briefly the management systems and styles developed by Rensis

Likert in the 1960s.
Dr. Rensis Likert has conducted much research on human behavior within
organizations, particularly in the industrial situation.
He has examined different types of organizations and leadership styles, and he
asserts that to achieve maximum profitability, good labor relations and high productivity,
every organization must make optimum use of their human assets.
Organizations at present have widely varying types of management style and Likert
has identified four main systems:
The exploitive - authoritative system, where decisions are imposed on
subordinates, where motivation is characterized by threats, where high levels of
management have great responsibilities but lower levels have virtually none, where there
is very little communication and no joint teamwork.
The benevolent - authoritative system, where leadership is by a condescending
form of master-servant trust, where motivation is mainly by rewards, where managerial
personnel feel responsibility but lower levels do not, where there is little communication
and relatively little teamwork.
The consultative system, where leadership is by superiors who have substantial but
not complete trust in their subordinates, where motivation is by rewards and some
involvement, where a high proportion of personnel, especially those at the higher levels
feel responsibility for achieving organization goals, where there is some communication
(both vertical and horizontal) and a moderate amount of teamwork.
The participative - group system, which is the optimum solution, where leadership
is by superiors who have; complete confidence in their subordinates, where motivation is
by economic rewards based on goals which have been set in participation, where
personnel at all levels feel real responsibility for the organizational goals, where there is
much communication, and a substantial amount of cooperative teamwork.
This fourth system is the one which is the ideal for the profit oriented and human-
concerned organization, and Likert says (The Human Organization, Mcgraw Hill, 1967)
that all organizations should adopt this system. Clearly, the changes involved may be
painful and long-winded, but it is necessary if one is to achieve the maximum rewards for
the organization.
 2. Differentiate a job-centered manager or supervisor to an employee-centered
manager or supervisor in your own understanding.
Job-centered manager or supervisor is the type of leader who is only after job
satisfaction. He is after for productive results no matter what means necessary. He is the
type of leader who will not give concern about his employees concern rather than the
output and productivity of each employee can do. He will push the employees to their
limits in the least time possible while attaining good results.
On the other hand, employee-centered manager or supervisor is the type of leader
who is after team coordinated centered group. This type of leader is sensitive to each
employees concern and its focus is maintaining team work and stability from the lowest
position to the highest position. He seeks harmony and utilizes the established trust in his
group to promote an effective output.
3. What are the consequences of having people with individual differences
working together in an organization?
Diversity in a group is a double edge sword. First consequence is, having unique
characteristics may rise chaos within the group due to misunderstanding or
miscommunication in the group. This may lead to poor work output within the group.
Second consequence is, this differences may promote competition. Competition is good,
but when mishandled this may lead to conflict.
The differences in the group can also be a motivation factor. Individuals within the
group will recognize their weaknesses and strengths and will try to cope of with other
individuals in the group.
4. What advantages do decentralized authority or control offer?

More Input, Better Results

By allowing more people to be involved in the decision making process, you are
opening up more input for solutions and innovative ideas. This is a wonderful benefit
for companies because you are able to diversify the way that the business is ran in
many ways.

Time for Bigger Things

The top people in the company much often have bigger fish to fry, rather than spend
their time making smaller decisions. By distributing the responsibilities down the chain
in the company, they are able to focus on more pertinent issues and projects.
Accelerated Decisions

With a decentralized organization structure, a business can make decisions and

implement them much quicker than if they operated underneath a centralized
structure. This is because, often times, the issues and decisions that must be handled
involve lower areas of the business. If the power is placed directly into these lower
areas hands, then the upper management doesnt have to deal with the issue and a
response can be reached much faster.

Spotting the Problem Is Easy

Many times, people can fly under the radar when they are not doing their job, simply
because the problems that they cause will fall onto upper management. Decentralizing
a business allows a company to pin point the weak links in their chain and, as a result,
run the company more efficiently.

5. Why do you think study of organizational behavior is important?

A manager's job is to manage people, who constitute the "organization". If he can't
understand these people (i.e. their behavior), how can he manage them?

Well here comes the importance of studying and understanding organizational

behavior, it is defined as " a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals,
groups, and structure have on behavior within organizations, for the purpose of applying
such knowledge toward improving an organization's effectiveness. Humans are the most
important asset of an organization. It is impossible to find an organization without any
manpower.

So, as long as organizations are consisted of individuals, it is very important to know

and learn about these fundamental elements of the firms. And that is the reason the
concept of organizational behavior is a major field of study these days. Each person has
an inherent need to understand and predict the world because much of each individual's
time is spent working in or around organization, Organization Behavior theories are
particularly helpful in satisfying this innate drive to make sense of the workplace and help
in creating an internal environment whereby an individuals work together in groups to
accomplish their group goals efficiently.