Reflective Essay in (organizational behavior)

Example 1

One of the most interesting concepts and ideas about behaviors in organizations that I personally could relate to as a student is motivation. In my opinion, motivation is one of the main reasons I’m able to keep going when studying. Organizational Behavior explores this topic and looks at it in different perspectives where it makes it easier to comprehend and implement. Parijat & Bagga (2014) have mentioned in their motivation theory research article that motivation in private or public enterprises is mandatory. It was also mentioned that “Humans are basically psychological beings and need inspiration whether extrinsic or intrinsic for achieving organizational as well their personal objectives and goals.” (Parijat & Bagga, 2014, p.1). If you compare two pieces of work, one done by a motivated person and the other done by a non-motivated person, you could easily notice the differences between them, the motivated one being more put-together and presentable, the other looking less interesting and rushed.

Example 2

This essay is a reflection of my learning throughout the organizational behavior course. I will be focusing on the topic attitude and job satisfaction which will split into three sections. The first section aims to discuss the knowledge gained during the course, the second section will focus on the ideas and concepts of behaviors with organizations. In the last section, I will discuss the difficulties I have faced throughout the course.

Example 3

On the other hand, The ideas and concepts about behaviors with organizations have made me relate to my personal life. One of the positive learning outcomes is that when I had the experience to become a vendor in an event. I have faced many problems, one of them was being bound to encounter angry customers. My behavior toward this problem while the angry customer was talking, I was attentive listening and understanding their feelings and point of view, later I apologized and tried to find a solution. The negative concept that is related to my personal life is during this pandemic crisis I am restricted from the freedom that made me stuck in a very limited space and this resulted in my stress and became very nervous. Therefore, I acknowledge that stress and nervousness are behavior to my attitude. I have faced one difficulty throughout this course which was not knowing the differences between attitude and behavior. This difficulty turned into beneficial knowledge that I've gained.

Example 4

Over the course of this semester, Organization Behavior (OB) has been gradually feeding my curiosity about the complexity of humans and their behaviors. Why do we behave the way we do? Why do some people react differently than others? And most importantly, how do people behave differently within an organization? All these questions were raised in my head during the first class of this subject. It is fascinating how humans are intricate creatures in which no two are the same. Each has their own perceptions, opinions, and characteristics. Although all the chapters that we studied in class are very interesting, but chapter six, which is about Perception and Individual Decision Making, resonated with me the most.

Example 5

Based on Holland’s typology of personality, I learnt that I am investigative, social, and conventional. Under the first attribute, I prefer activities that involve thinking, organizing and understanding. The second attribute in the list is a sigh of readiness to activities where I provide guidance and necessary support for other people to grow. The third attribute suggests that I prefer commitments that are controlled by rules and those that involve little or no ambiguity. In the course that I studied, I enjoyed the opportunity to learn the dimensions of national culture and evaluate our nation. For example, I learnt that our society is collectivistic.

Example 6

I have worked in different jobs and I have gained tremendous experiences from the workplaces and the people that I encountered. I have learned that every organization is different than the other, even if they were working in the same field. When I graduated from high school, I sought a degree in Graphic Design, and my first job was a graphic design intern at one of the well-known studios in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Since it was my first job, I perceived it an exciting opportunity to finally apply what I learned and see it become a reality. This brings us to the first concept, perception, which is the way individuals perceive and give meaning to their environment (Robbins, S. P., & Judge, 2013). Perception is very subjective, it explains how different individuals may go through the same experience yet interpret it differently. In my case, since I was an intern, I was not given huge responsibilities and I was not highly involved in all of the tasks, which was fine by me because what I cared about the most is that I want to learn, whereas my colleague, was constantly complaining about how trivial the tasks that she was asked to do. The way I perceived the job and my assigned tasks are different than my colleague’s; although I did not know the clear reason behind it back then, but now it makes more since to me. This is because our interpretation of things is highly influenced by our personal characteristics, attitude, personality, motives, interests, past experiences, and expectations. (Robbins, S. P., & Judge, 2013) For instance, if you expect young people to be unprofessional in the work environment, then you may perceive them as such, regardless of their actual traits.

Example 7

During one of the tutorials, our instructor showed us a video about how characters depict our primary emotions joy, fear, anger, disgust and the inner conflict it caused the kid in the clip as well as her parents. This helped me understand more about the reasons for our actions and how can emotions fully control us, however, has greatly opened my mind. Not only does this chapter catches my attention, it is also useful as it is crucial to understand that Emotions serve an adaptive role in our lives by motivating us to act quickly and take actions that will maximize our chances of survival and success.

Example 8

Another aspect other than leading is motivation, emotions play a basic role towards motivation, Individual differences in emotional tendencies engage with organizational occasions and social interactions for the reaction of emotions to essentially shape a specific goal of an individual and to have the effort present to face different obstacles, Some of the influences of emotional reactions to events done by an organization, For instance to downsize, this might weaken self-commitment to organizationally wanted goals also, job performance (Robert G. Lord, Ruth Kanfer). The performance of emotions is also involved in the achievements of entangled and longer-term goals. Individuals also differ in the regulation of various emotions, such as anger and boredom, play a central character in the effective reach of wanted goals that are involved in attentional effort. In organizational conditions, such individual differences might be essential in the outcomes of training and performances done in the jobs that are involved in functioning. The process of motivation also plays an important aspect in expressing emotions. Where it is found that motivated employees are to be found to be more emotionally committed to their job as they also tend to repay their effort with payment, promotions and so on.

This all is reflected in my life as an interior architecture student, as I face many moods and emotions that differ from one day to another. As an interior architecture student I tend to face a lot of stress levels that can affect my behavior and how I tend to achieve wanted goals no matter how stressed I am, being stress can effect my work also my sleeping hours as we tend to not sleep in order to finish up different assignments and tasks. Which also can affect my day in many ways this also affects my concentration in different classes or even the simplest conversation, Some times these moods effect my emotions where I become between angry or sad, which leads to a whole different aspects which is how would this effect my daily life with family or university life with instructors and collogues. Having stress levels or lack of sleeping would affect how can combine my time between my family and my studies. Also having high stress levels can make me sometimes behave in unconfident way of my own work. Once I have a positive mindset, I tend to have a better feeling of myself which leads to better decision making, less stress levels and better sleeping hours. This truly helps me achieve goals as an individual, also when I work within a team and in my university classes or simply my own home with family.

Example 9:

Here I will review my personal experience as a current employee. I previously moved between more than one department and worked with more than one manager at different times, which was a different experience for me. Each manager has a different method of motivation. Some of them use a moral impulse with you like praise when performing the work, while others use a different method such as that the employee is nominated for training courses, on the other hand, some do not use any method of motivation, and he believes that it is not his responsibility but the responsibility of the employee himself. This experience and various motivation methods did not give it attention, or in other words, I did not know that it is motivational methods except when this topic was explained in the organizational behavior course.

This gives me the impression that many employees believe that this behavior of managers is involuntary and not for motivation, but more importantly, from that, it is the result of this motivation, which will be reflected in the employee and the organization in a positive way.

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