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Understanding Issues in Organizational Behavior (1) The most recent movie, I have watched, where, in my opinion, can be found many examples of Organizational Behavior, is Fight Club, which was released in 2000. The plot of the movie revolves around person ability to completely change his outlook on life, with his act being adjusted accordingly, because the new set of socio-political circumstances comes in to the play. The character of the movie, Jack, finds it increasingly hard to exist in the Liberal society, which considers individual's leaning towards realization itself as a part of a group, to be socially inappropriate. Jack is having well paid job, he is able to buy luxury items in the store with his credit card, yet, he is deprived of the most important thing in the life of every individual the reason to exist. Ultimately, he realises that his biggest nemesis is his own consumerist instinct. This prompts him to create an image of himself, in his own mind, which gradually begins to take over, leading the protagonist to the eventual insanity.
Jack's second self, Tyler Durden, opens up a new whole world for Jack, by showing him a complete futility of atomized existence and by introducing him to the new way of life as a part of a team, which is being united by the same goals and the same corporate culture. Tyler Durden begins to organize a street fights clubs that, eventually, grow into something bigger. Being a natural born leader, Tyler is able to take the benefit of an enormous respect, which the members of Fight Club feel towards him. This enables Tyler to turn them into the highly effective team, by applying some basic methods of organizational behavior management, within the group of people. In the end, Tyler comes into the conflict with Jack over some issues that are unrelated to the topic of this essay. This conflict turns into the ultimate showdown, where Jack is finally able to regain control of himself. (2) For us, the movie is very interesting, because it is filled with the examples of what affects the Organizational Behaviour on the personal level.
If we apply the Big Five theory to the main character of the movie, it will become obvious to us that he would score highly in all five categories. Because of this, his mode of behaviour gets to be imitated by the members of Fight Club, as he is being automatically elevated to the position of leader. 1) Openness to experience Tyler is open to the new experience, whether it comes in the form of reading books or being punched in the face. He also is appreciative of arts, although he applies his understanding of art to physical action, by being overly dramatic. Tyler is filled with new ideas, which some might consider an unusual.
But his persuasive manner is able to turn his enemies into allies. Because of this, we can think that his behaviour can be predicted as non conformist at all times. 2) Conscientiousness Tyler always puts the interest of the team above his personal and he also teaches others to do the same. This gains him a lot of respect as the leader, because his followers know that he would never abandon them. Therefore, even in the most dangerous situation they feel psychologically secure, which is the main precondition for the operating effectiveness of any team.
Because of this Tyler's psychological trait, his behaviour can also be predicted as being absolutely deprived of selfishness. Also, when combined with the previous trait, it leaves no doubt that the style of his leadership is going to be authoritarian. 3) Extra version Tyler's effectiveness as an orator and organizer can only be realised in the company of others. In the beginning of the movie, we see him as having a very dull lifestyle. Of course, his ideas are fresh, but he reminds us more of a freak than a leader. It is only when he is being surrounded by his followers that it becomes clear to us that this is his natural setting. The same was being said about Hitler, who in private life was a funny little man, but while talking to the thousands of people, he would suddenly transfigure into the messenger from God.
Because of this, Tyler's ideas will always be communal, in their essence. This allows us to predict to what kind of people these ideas might appeal the most. 4) Agreeableness Tyler is cooperative, but in his own way. He does not allow his personal feeling towards his friend to affect team's mission. This is the common feature of all great leaders. He is also willing to sacrifice the friendship for the sake of something greater, but this is exactly why he is able to instill the complete confidence into the members of fight club. The reason they joined it is because they were looking for something greater than themselves.
In their eyes, Tyler is greater than anybody else they had ever met, because of his compassion is impersonal and directed inwards. Nevertheless, this trait tells us that his behaviour cannot be influenced by his emotional attachment to other people. 5) Neurotisism Tyler is highly neurotic person, although he tries to remain calm most of the time. He easily gets angry, but it gives him an extra credit, when it comes to exercising his leadership, because people want to avoid confrontation with him at any cost. Basically, this is only the one Tyler's weakness.
It appears that he has a tendency to emotionally motivate his actions. The theories of Organizational Behaviour are meant to help us to understand the driving forces behind individual's and group's actions, under different set of circumstances. But it is well known that the circumstances alone cannot be considered as the sole factors of influence. It appears that the actions of characters in Fight Club are also being motivated by their hereditary background. That is, all of them, are White.
This explains their idealism, when they readily want to sacrifice their lives for the sake of something greater. The theory of Bell Curve, which is now being accepted by great many sociologists, points out to the fact that White people have a greater capability of operating with the abstract categories, which also explains why they score better that the representative of ethnic minorities, during IQ tests. In the movie, we see people's actions being motivated by the abstract ideas, but it would not happen if they did not understand their essence. The O.
B. methods do take into the consideration the ethnic background of the people, among which they are meant to be applied. (3) In the movie we can clearly recognise an ethic dilemma, which is quite common, when it comes to practical application of O. B. methods. First of all, after having watched the Fight Club, I became more convinced that, even though the individual behaviour cannot always be the subject of statistical analysis, the group's behaviour can. The movie is a good example of which methods are the best, when it comes to influencing the behaviour of large group of people, without them knowing that they were being psychologically manipulated.
Robbins, in the 11 th edition of his book, mentions such factors of affecting people's behaviour as good communication, promoting diversity and tolerant leadership. But it appears that the only reason why he had to do it, is because he needed to incorporate some Liberal ideas in his book, so that it could be published. The Fight Club leaves no doubt about ineffectiveness of mentioned above principles. The large group of people is ruled by emotions more then by anything else. It respects authority and is willing to act, according to the wishes of the leader, for as long, as it feels a strong personality in him. Just as Jesus Christ, Tyler does not force anybody to follow him, he actually tries to discourage the newcomers by describing all the hardships they would have to undergo, in order to become what he wanted them to become.
While talking to the new recruit, who wants to join, he says: You are too fat old man, get the hell off my porch. But this, seemingly discouraging phrase, is actually a very powerful incentive, because Tyler appeals to man's manliness, while waiting, until the voice of it will overcome individual's rationale. (4) There is no doubt, in my mind, that Tyler's leadership had an absolutely positive effect on the members of Fight Club. From the bunch of whining losers, they turned into the fighting men, who did not have the need to cry to to feel sorry for themselves anymore. This, of course, could only be achieved through Tyler's leadership. What made Fight Club so effective, as a team, is the fact that Tyler was able to insure its inner hierarchical stability.
The team is the group of individuals, who are united for the sake of achieving the same goal. We can view the team as the system, than we will be able to apply formula S = XY, where S stands for the system (or team), X for the elements of the system (team member) and Y for the relations between the elements of the system. The category X signifies the division of people along the racial, cultural and religious lines. The category Y is needed to structuralism the type of relationship between the individuals, related to their cultural backgrounds. The disintegration of every system always comes as the result of one of its components loosing stability.
The degree of disintegration will directly correspond to the hierarchical status of the component, within the system. Therefore, the team will have the better chances of remaining focused on accomplishing goal, if the team members would react in the same manner to different set of circumstances. But this can only be accomplished if team remains culturally and racially homogeneous. This was exactly what Tyler managed to do with a Fight Club.
Its members were racially homogeneous, they did not have names, so that even if the member of Project Mayhem gets killed, it will not cause his friends to become emotionally unstable. They were repeatedly brainwashed, by being made to repeat slogans like: You are not unique, you are not a beautiful snowflake, you are all singing, all dancing crap of the world. The only way they felt of being empowered, is when they worked together, as a team. Tyler managed to make people to drop their personal egoism and they felt much better, as the result. There are few main principles of psychological management, applied by Tyler, which we can identify: 1) Just follow orders policy it is the most efficient way to get quick results, during the teamwork, while being able to make the team to stay focused on achieving the goal. That's why it is being practiced in army. 2) Respect the authority policy Team can never become efficient if its members do not respect the authority, and the application of brutal force is the best way to insure it.
That's why, the real authority in army is gained by the officers when they are one on one with the soldiers and when rank does not matter, only the size of one's biceps. 3) The relative unimportance of seniority policy The Fight Club members are evaluated by the quality of their performance, where their position of seniority does not really matter. This insures that the team members will never get lazy, while relying on their reputation to do their work for them. 4) Only action matters policy The words have no value in the Fight Club. If this is your first time, you have to fight says Tyler. The fights bind men more then anything else, they also help to establish a true hierarchy, within the Club. 5) Communal policy the members of Project Mayhem have no private property, they share everything. This decreases the chances of them being tempted to betray the organization, since they have no attachments outside of their commune.
It is being said that the man is a social animal. After having watched The Fight Club, I realized once again how true this description is. It is possible to accurately predict the behaviour of large group of people, because the motivational factors then become simply the anxieties of a crowd. When this happens, these motivational factors can be thought as the subject of statistics, where we can apply different formulas to predict the O. B. on different scales.
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