Challenges & Opportunities in Organizational Behavior

With fluctuating economies, the workplace can be an uncertain environment for many employees. It’s important for businesses and managers to take note of how they affect organizational behavior in their teams and what kinds of challenges and opportunities arise. Rigid job descriptions no longer work in many businesses since employees often take on several roles and have to constantly learn new skills to keep up with the changing pace of business.

Challenges and opportunities for organizational behavior are linked to the increasingly diverse workforce. People of all genders, races, ethnicities, sexual orientations, abilities and ages are joining the workforce. This is a great opportunity for businesses to tune in to the vast experiences, insights and viewpoints that come with a diverse team. However, this also means that managers need to recognize individual differences and nurture the unique talents of their teams without being discriminatory.

Companies can increase employee retention and lower turnover if they pay attention to the needs of their diverse workforce. By understanding and encouraging diversity, businesses can foster greater innovation and creativity.

Today, most business isn’t just conducted between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. With a global economy, business is happening at all hours. Technology makes it possible for employees to remain connected even while they are not physically in the office. It’s important for organizations to take note of how they can help their employees manage work-life balance so they don’t burn out.

In addition to providing flexible hours so their teams can manage any work-life conflicts, organizations can implement policies to help employees take time off. For many organizations today, a certain amount of vacation is mandatory, which helps people to unplug and spend time with their families.

Opportunities and challenges of organizational behavior in management include understanding ethical and unethical behavior. As business and technology become more complex, the lines between right and wrong start to blur in many cases. It’s important for companies to set guidelines that help their teams to improve ethical behavior. At the very least, employees should have someone to turn to at work to discuss what to do if they take part in or witness unethical behavior.

By creating a strong ethical mission and core values, businesses can help to lessen the ambiguity around ethical dilemmas at work. Modeling ethical behavior at the executive level also shows employees how to act with integrity.

How employees treat customers is one of the challenges of organizational behavior in management. Businesses need to create a culture focused around the customer experience and create customercentric processes that enable employees to more easily respond to customer needs.

Being friendly to customers isn’t enough. In addition to a good attitude, customers are looking for expedient service, knowledgeable representatives and a pleasant overall experience. Businesses need to build those elements into their employee training and day-to-day processes in order to guide their teams to better cater to their audience.

In relation to customer service, organizations are tasked with improving product and service quality. This not only helps them gain a competitive edge but also builds a sense of pride and empowerment for employees.

By constantly looking at product and service quality, organizations can develop a learning and improvement culture in the workplace. When employees are held to a high standard, they have more motivation to produce better-quality work.

By being familiar with the challenges and opportunities for organizational behavior, small businesses can proactively work to build guidelines and processes that better enable their employees to succeed. Potential challenges can be turned into opportunities if businesses take action before issues snowball and affect the workplace.