Positive Organizational Behavior

Synopsis based on case discussion: High Tech High Fear

By

2010/MBA/WE/MKT/16 G.N.P. Nanayakkara

2010/MBA/WE/MKT/19 K.L.C. Gunawardana

2010/MBA/WE/HRM/06 N.S. Haputhanthiri

2010/MBA/WE/HRM/07 T.M.N. Abeysooriya

2010/MBA/WE/HRM/08 K.D.T.K.Wijayawardena

2010/MBA/WE/MKT/05 H.S. Sandamali

Semester І – First Half

February, 2010

Course: MBA 531 – Organizational Behavior

Lecturer: Dr. Kumudini Dissanayake
 Postgraduate and Mid-Career Development Unit
Faculty of Management and Finance
University of Colombo

Flow of the assignment

Introduction to the case by using the example from Sri Lankan context which
is more similar to the real case and exploring the objectives of the presentation

2010/MBA/WE/HRM/08 K.D.T.K.Wijayawardena

Answer to the question no: 01 by emphasizing the impact of advanced

technology on employees

2010/MBA/WE/HRM/07 T.M.N. Abeysooriya

Answer to the question no: 2

Introduction to the concept “POB”

Illustration of six constructs in POB

2010/MBA/WE/MKT/16
Self-efficacy G.N.P. Nanayakkara

Optimism

Hope

Resiliency

Subjective Well-Being 2010/MBA/WE/MKT/19

K.L.C. Gunawardana
Emotional Intelligence

Answer to the question no: 3

Use of POB constructs to overcome the problems and issues mentioned in the case

2010/MBA/WE/MKT/05 H.S. Sandamali

Implementation of POB constructs in specific environment which is mentioned in the

case

2010/MBA/WE/HRM/06 N.S. Haputhanthiri

 Introduction to the case

To understand what Positive Organizational Behavior (POB) is and to discuss the significance of
implementing POB constructs in organizations we got the case named” High Tech High Fear”.
But for the convenience of the study we used the real example from Sri Lankan context to get
more familiar to the issue. The selected example is based on one individual and throughout the
analysis the report will be using specific situations, symptoms, facts in line with the discussion
questions.

This was happened in few years ago in the semi government organization in Sri Lanka. This
organization had manual system to do their operations and majority of employees were well
experienced and did their work appropriately. The key person in our example is Mrs. Siriwardena
and she was a senior clerk and typist of said organization. She was happy and satisfied with her
duties and she was able to satisfy her managers all the time. As management identified the
importance of having computerized system in the workplace they tend to implement it soon as
possible. They asked old employees to used the computers and quick trainings were conducted.

Mrs. Siriwardena was not adapted with it and she was so nervous and got distress. Further
management recruited school- leavers those who had bit of computer literacy to work with Mrs.
Siriwardena. She was overwhelmed and ashamed of not being able to keep up with the job
requirement as very committed employee previously. She was expressing some stress symptoms
and ultimately she gave up her job and resigned from it.

Based on the case above the report will discuss the importance of POB constructs while
answering the questions.

Answers for the questions

Question 1

What is the trade-offs in today’s organizations between the positives and the negatives of
advanced technology? Does it really matter if some of the older employees are having a hard
time adjusting; aren’t they on their way out anyway and they can be replaced by the
technology? On balance what do you feel about the impact of the technology?

The Information Technology has brought the world so close together. It has allowed the whole
economy to function as a single system. This is a result of sharing information efficiently and
effectively bringing down barriers of geographical and linguistic boundaries. With the help of
information technology, communication has also become cheaper, quicker, and more efficient.
The internet has also played a major role in direct communication from different parts of the
world. Information technology has helped to computerize the business process thus streamlining
businesses to make them extremely cost effective. This increases the productivity which gives rise
to profits. IT gives more time to operate and this made a huge impact of 24x7 market function
time. The organizational planning process can be very much effective and efficient with easy and
sophisticated data manipulation systems and uplifts the decision making.
Technology made the process so easy and efficient but still it is not 100% reliable all the time.
Though it gives a huge strength to the organizations to streamline the business process, it also has
created downsizing and job redundancies. Many people are left unemployed because their
contribution is replaced by the technology. Availability of the information is very much helpful
but on the other hand it has also bought along privacy issues. It is clear that the internet has made
job security a big issue as since technology keeps on changing with each day. This means that one
has to be in a constant learning mode, if he or she wishes for their job to be secure. As with any
new technology there can be some deficiencies of adapting to it, especially with older generation.
The specialists term this as ‘Technophobia’. It is very challenging to have a smooth transition
between the older practices to the new systems.

Human resources are the most valuable assets among all. Their capacity cannot be replaced by
anything. More over the people who are facing a hard time adapting to new technologies are
typically the old and who has the highest experience in the field. Further it is clear that the one’s
experience and domain knowledge are more useful for the organization than any taught
knowledge. With those concerns it is believed that replacing people to technologies is not
recommended. As it can be a definite loss for the organization.

One can argue that implementing advance technology is must and to get competitive advantage
all should do it. But it is important to look at in deferent perspective. Therefore to have fruitful
results it is very much need to concern on the behavior of human in the organization. When
individual are given the opportunity to work in organizations which gives them space to unleash
their potential they actually support the creation of new positive behavioral norms in the
organization. Organizations should take the advantages of technology to enhance the businesses
but at the same time have to minimize the disadvantages it brings. In this perspective Managers
have a huge duty to implement a better environment for employees to adapt to technology and
make their skills upgraded and not downgraded by the technology.

Question 2:

In the “dark side” of IT presented in this case, there are many implications for POB
constructs. Describe a specific example of each of those POB construct.

Introduction to the POB

According to the Luthans( 2002) POB is “the study and application of positively oriented human
resource strengths and psychological capacities that can be measured, developed and effectively
managed for performance improvement in today’s workplace”. It can be explained as collective
term for positive behaviors of individuals in organizations.

There are six constructs discussed under POB concept.

1. Self -Efficacy

According to Alfred Bandura the successful performance does not automatically raise the level of
efficacy. Rather, the efficacy depends on how the individual interpret s and cognitively process
the success. In order of performance 4 major sources of information are

• Mastery experience – Performance attainments

• Vicarious experience – Modeling

 • Social persuasion

• Physical and psychological arousal

Example: “Mrs. Siriwardena lost her confidence to proceed with IT terminals.”

2. Optimism -“Power of Positive Thinking”

Optimism is a cognitive characteristic in terms of generalized positive outcome expectancy and/or

a positive casual attribution.

Example: “If Mrs Siriwardena would have thought the new technology will reduce her
work the story would have being different”

3. Hope

Hope is a positive motivational state that is based on an interactively derived sense of successful.

(a) Agency (goal-directed energy) and

(b) Pathways (planning to meet goals)

Example: “The goals in her personnel life scattered with new technology”

4. Resiliency

Resiliency is one of the essential POB construct for today’s organization. It has a reactive nature.
According to Fred Luthan, Resiliency means the capacity to rebound or bounce back from
adversity, conflict, failure or even positive events, progress and increased responsibility. There is
resistance to change in human nature. They always like to continue what ever they are doing. If
you throw a stone into the water, you can observe a turbulent condition. i.e. there are lots of
waves generating, fish in the water tend to swim here and there etc. But after sometime it comes
to normal condition. That explains the resiliency.
Example: Mrs Siriwardana took long time to prepare a report which her manager wanted
by using new IT system. That implies Mrs. Sririwardana didn’t adapt to the change. Then
her productivity went down and it impacted the organization’s productivity as well.

5. Subjective Well-Being (SWB)

Luthans classified SWB under potential POB constructs. Subjective well-being is the scientific
word for happiness. Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi noted that recently. People like happiness
over Money. In a survey of 7204 college students in 42 countries, only 6% rated money is more
important than happiness.

Example: Mrs. Siriwardana was not social after the introduction of IT. She was a very social
character before and everyone likes here since she was always happy on what she was doing.

6. Emotional Intelligence (EI)

Daniel Goleman defined EI in year 1995 in his best selling Emotional Intelligence as the capacity
for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating our-selves, and for managing
emotions well in our-selves and in our relationships. He identified five dimensions of EI in the
work place. Those are self-awareness, self-management, self-motivation, empathy and social
skills.

Example: Mrs. Siriwardana got angry when the new employee talks to her. She was feeling
overwhelmed, intimidated and ashamed of not being able to keep up with job demands.
With that feeling, she tended to think that new younger staff was a threat to her job. That is
because she was not intelligent enough to manage her emotions.

Question 3

In general how can the understanding of the POB constructs help overcome the list of
problems presented in the case?

1. The feeling of being overwhelmed, intimated and ashamed of not being able to keep up with job
demand. Because of that they have come to a particular psychological state/feeling where they
think that they are overwhelmed, intimated and ashamed. This is mainly due to their lack of self
 efficacy/confidence on their job and new technology and negatively developed emotional
intelligence.

2. Some employees believe that they are actually being enslaved not empowered by new
technology. This is mainly due to lack of optimism rather they are pessimistic about their job and
they are not ready to face the change (resilience). They are not risk taking, not innovative and
fears to face change.

3. Fears of appearing inept, unintelligent or resistance to changes.

This is another possible situation that may occur due to lack of resilience in employees. That is
they are not flexible, adaptable and confident enough to face the change. By upholding their
inability and fears in their mind they start to resist the new change despite of its benefits. Because
those benefits are not realistic to them as they are not confident enough to take up the challenge.

4. A diminished ability to solve a problem fostering a sense of hopeless and wrong

In this situation the problem is generating sense of hopelessness among the employees caused by
their inability to solve problems. Thus they are at a hopeless state due to lack of self efficacy.

5. Loss of respect by the boss, peers and my subordinate

Since their failure and continuous resistance to new technology, they have loss the respect of their
boss, peers and subordinates and also due to poor workplace relationships.

6. Psychological distance brought on by longer hours, time pressure and even hormone
shifts brought on by being physically isolated

The employees who are not compatible are now terrified, reluctant and emotionally downward
because this change made them physically isolated at the work place. They had to stay longer
hours at the office with time pressure to meet deadlines. This has badly affected their
happiness/SWB. Thus their SWB is very low despite of potential benefits of the new technology.

7. Mood swings, depression, exhaustion and attention deficits

These sets of employees who are incapable of handling new technology are down with stress,
depression and exhausted. They have become so as they are not adjustable and not positive to the
change. Their inefficacy/unconfident has not motivated them resulting lack of focus and attention
on work.

In the given scenario these employees are down in all 5 POB constructs depending on their
personal capabilities. However managers should understand the causes for particular behaviors of
their employees. Thus we need to look at these problems from the employee’s perspective to
understand their emotions and to predict their reactions (behaviors). This is the emotional
intelligence of managers comes in to practice; their empathy and social skills will help them to
handle the situation well. Then after having proper understanding their problems and expectations
work should be reorganized in a particular way that matches with their caliber. Follow by a proper
on the job training program to lift up their confidence. On the other hand the experience and
confidence they had on the manual system should be taken as a motivating factor and convert
them to be more optimistic on the new IT system as well. They should be thoroughly educated
about the benefits of the new IT system and it is purely to make their work easy but not to exploit
them. Since they are hopeless and frustrated it is needed to guide what they can be them how they
can achieve certain goals with the new technology.

Their resistance to adapt to this new technology could be eradicated by a risk taking leadership.
Thus these set of people should be lead by a risk taking, challenging leadership. And also
socialization is another factor that will help them to move with people who are capable with new
technology and they should be attached to such working groups. This will make sure that they are
not isolated and not spent long hours on small work. Close monitoring and training will make sure
that they are satisfied with their job under the new working environment. Further job satisfaction,
job involvement and organizational commitment will ensure their subjective wellbeing rather
happiness.

How can the manager of a unit consisting of mostly older, computer anxious, if not illiterate,
employees who were very effective under the old system use these concepts to make a more
successful transition to a new, technologically sophisticated operating system?

In the turbulent environment with the advancement of technology the biggest challenge face by
the management is to keep their employees more flourish in achieving the set goals efficiently &
effectively.
Unlike in traditional approaches which heavily believed in monitoring and commanding from top
to bottom, today organizations expects employees to become more proactive, collaborate
smoothly with others , take own responsibility for career development and work with high
standards of professionalism. Achieving this is much complicated if the staff is less exposed to
new technological advancements.

Therefore the manager should have a clear sense to identify which working conditions drive them
negatively, ways of overcoming those and how to creates a committed, innovative and engaged
work force to grasp the maximize benefit from a changing processes.

In this scenario POB plays a major role in achieving organizational success & employee
happiness. It is not much difficult to identify the resistant from a staff who worked very well in an
old system with the conversion to a sophisticated computerized system. Their resistant will be
indicated through poor performances, low motivation, unwell being & Disengagement. In a
situation like this rather than believing on heavy disciplinary procedures which ultimately leads to
employee terminations and /or resignation, the manager should be skillful enough to identify core
factors as to why they are behaving negatively. In such a situation a radical shift is needed to
create positively oriented strengths and psychological capacities for over and above negatively
based conditions. Therefore following factors need to be concerned in a successful transition.

Training and development

Formal training sessions are highly essential for a successful system transition. These can be
arranged internally and externally. Before commencing, it is better to group the staff according to
their skills and knowledge. During the training sessions employees need to be given opportunities
to use that knowledge in their activities and it will make their learning easy.

Performance feed back

This provides the information necessary for maintaining the performance in the expected level.
Genuineness of feedback is highly essential as even a small negative comment or nonverbal
gesture can make a big impact on a person’s emotions & performance

Socialization
In a diversified work environment developing a positive communication throughout the
organization is highly essential. This refers to the emotional support from the team members. The
management can arrange more team activities which will enhance positive relationship among the
staff.

References

Luthans, F. (2008). Organizational Behavior,11th edition., Chapter 9. New York: McGraw-

Hill/Irwin.

Henry, J. W. (1994). Resistance to Computer- bases Technology in the Workplace. University

Press 7(1),20-23