Introduction

Organizational behavior analysis is an important aspect of a business enterprise. It refers to a systematic understanding of the application of human behavior, as groups or individuals, and how they affect the organization in realizing the goals. Understanding organizational behavior will be instrumental in helping the organization achieve their goals and objectives. A better relationship between the different levels of organization management will be essential in enabling social objectives, human objectives and organizational objectives at large (Baack, 2012). Through organizational behavior analysis, the organization management can be able to integrate the personal goals with the organizational objectives thus ensuring a successful running of business affairs in an organization.

Organizational behavior concept purely depends on the environment within which the organization operates. The organizational behavior analysis will involve various disciplines such as human behavior, leadership, change, culture and performance within an organization.   Nevertheless, the primary concern in the organizational behavior analysis is the understanding of human behavior, their attitudes, differences and their performances towards achieving organizational goals (Zhou & Shalley, 2008). Proper understanding of both internal and external factors will be essential to the success of the organization. Organizational behavior analysis involves an assessment of groups and individuals traits and characters and how they influence the performance of an organization. Essential aspects such as job satisfaction, staff turnover, ethical behaviors and absenteeism are some of the critical areas in organizational behavior analysis.  In this report, I will analyze the organizational behavior of the Merck Company Inc where I worked as a supervisor.

Company analysis

Merck Company Inc. is a company with its headquarters in New Jersey and has its operations in over 140 destinations all over the world.  The main areas of operations involved in the organization entail selling of medicines, vaccines, biological therapies, and consumer/animal products. It is wise to note that the company is also listed on New York stock exchange where its shares are traded. Over the years, the company has been successful that can be attributed to the practical analysis of internal and external factors affecting the operations of the organization. In essence, managing the employees has been a fundamental aspect that has immensely contribute to the success of the company.

Organizational changes such as mergers experienced in the company would have a significant impact on the employees’ performance and productivity of the organization. In the recent years, the company merged with Schering-Plough Company and as a result of the merger, the organization had to lay off at least 15% of the organization employees. Despite these changes, the organization has remained steadfast in pursuit of its goal and objectives.

Organizational culture

Merck Company Inc. has had a strong culture that has enabled to survive in the dynamic and competitive pharmaceutical industry. Even after the merger, it is a prerogative of the management to ensure that such culture is maintained to remain relevant in this market. The company remained among the top 100 companies that people wished to work for. This is due to huge salaries and working environment that employees enjoyed. Having been in operations for several years, the organization enjoyed strong brand loyalty as a consumer would fear from being exploited by generic pharmaceuticals. The company has for several years been strategized around market exclusivity for several years. To cope with the intensive competition from other pharmaceutical dealers, the company has been very aggressive in promotion and selling of their products. The company has a culture of sensitizing the employees on the need for aggressiveness to realize the organizational goals as well as individual objectives (Baack, 2012). Even after the merger, the company maintained the culture thus making a smooth transition period. A good relationship between employees and different levels of management within the organization has been instrumental in the success of the organization.

Though there was fear of cultural incompatibility after the merger, the organization has ensured proper integration that has been enabled by the open communication culture evident in the organization. The organizational culture at the company is a ‘salad bowl’ where diversity is embraced. There is a culture of mutual respect among the employees who are of different ages, races, ethnicity, and color and sex orientation.  By embracing diversity, the company has boosted productivity and profitability immensely. There is also a culture of encouraging employees to develop their skills and are therefore motivated to high performance (Williams, 2010).  Employees in this organization have a significant role in the decision-making process. As a supervisor in the company, I witnessed instances where employees would make decisions without waiting consent from the supervisors.

Merck’s company has a culture that ensures high ethical standards among all its members. It has a Merck office of ethics where all concerns and ethical queries are addressed.  Also, it is worth noting that the company has set code of conduct that guides all the stakeholders in their daily operations. All directors and everybody with responsibility for running and managing the affairs of the company must act within the provisions of the set code of conduct (Burke, Tomlinson & Cooper, 2011). This code of conduct has strict requirements of ethical regulations and procedures used in decision making. On this note, the company has a compliance office that ensures that the company acts within the global regulations. There is a culture of ensuring that ethical business practices and confidentiality, as outlined by international standards, are strictly adhered to. This is a clear indication of openness and freedom of all stakeholders in the decision-making process. It is an important organizational culture that leads to happy employees and subsequently increased productivity.

After the merger, the two companies have strived to ensure an efficient integration process. This is essential in ensuring that there is a distinct culture upon which the operations of the merger will be implemented. This has been duly inculcated in the company’s vision and mission statements that aim at ensuring that the company remains competitive in the dynamic and competitive pharmaceutical industry. The company has before, during and after merging process placed a lot of importance on the role of employees in the growth and success of the company.

Communication

Communication is an important aspect of the running and management of organizational affairs. It involves passing of information from one person to another in an organizational setting. It also helps the management to communicate the organizational goals to the other stakeholders within the organization. As a supervisor in this organization, it was evident that the company embraced a healthy communication culture, and this has been instrumental in the success story of the company. The issue of communication is evident in the company during the merging process. During the change process, employees in the organization had fear for their jobs since it was clear that employee layoff was imminent. The management had to address this issue through timely communication to ensure that employees’ productivity is not compromised.

Over the years, the company has maintained a culture of open communication between the top management and the employees. The organization has embraced both written and oral forms of communication addressing major issues that concern the daily operations of the organization.  Failure to have a proper communication policy would be disastrous to the organization especially during the merging process. For instance, employees’ morale would be negatively affected by the effects of impending layoffs since most of the employees would be preoccupied with their interests (Williams, 2010). Serving individual interests rather than corporate goals would mean decreased productivity per employee thus resulting to decreased profits. Effective communication culture within the organization has served to the best interest of the company since it has enabled bridging the gap between employees’ interest and the organization’s interests (Baack, 2012).

Effective communication in the organization was also instrumental in helping integrate the different cultures of the emerging companies. Schering-Plough Company and Merck’s company had a different culture, and it was prudent to have effective communication to promote the integration of these cultures. Proper integration is important since it ensures that the organization will have a smooth operation plan, and all stakeholders are aware of what it is expected of them (Zhou & Shalley, 2008). The management of Merck’s company used written communication to the stakeholders by publicizing the company’s business strategy in a review report. Through this report, the company was able to communicate to employees and other stakeholders on progress made by the merging process. The use of other media and company websites ensured that all the stakeholders had essential information regarding the merging process. Most of the company’s policies are well documented, thus giving an indication of how open communication in the organization is a strength. Choice of communication modes depends on the urgency of the information.

Nature of authority

The company is headed by a chief executive officer assisted by a board of directors who are involved in making major organizational goals. The board appoints this chief executive officer, and it is also the responsibility of the board to determine his remuneration.  Nature of leadership in this company is hierarchical where power and authority move from top to bottom. The company also has top leadership in all the countries where it operates and gives feedback to the headquarters in New Jersey. Nevertheless, it is the culture of the organization to allow inclusivity in decision making despite their positions in the hierarchy of power. Employees in the organization have a right to make decisions thus enabling a participative leadership in the company. There is also a culture of employees to report their grievances to their supervisors this being a clear indication of democratic space guaranteed within the organization. Human resource department also has a responsibility of ensuring that the plight of the company’s employees is guaranteed. This department was instrumental in ensuring that all the employees embraced the merging process between the two companies (Burke, Tomlinson & Cooper, 2011). Employees were made aware of the intention and the benefits they would expect from the resulting merger. Human resource heads from all the regions ensure a smooth and productive relationship between the top management and the employees. The organization also provides that all grievances are sorted out in a manner that success and organizational goals are not compromised.

The company has auditing committees and whistleblowers that ensure transparency and accountability among the leaders of the company. Corporate governance exhibited in the company is a clear indication of transparency and democracy. The top management and the employees are goal oriented, and their objective is to ensure a competitive and dynamic entity. Although employees may be a bottom-ranked in the organization, it is prudent noting that they are a critical asset to the company.

Motivational techniques

Employees’ motivation is an important aspect of the organizational behavior analysis. This is because motivation is directly related to productivity and individual performance towards the overall organizational goal. Understanding employee motivation will be critical to management in its attempt to get more out of employees and increase overall productivity (Williams, 2010). Motivation will require understanding of both internal and external factors that will lead to increased desire and commitment to the employees on their jobs. Motivated employees mean improved organizational performance thus achieving goals and expected profit margins. The level of motivation varies from one person to another, but it is a prerogative of the organization to ensure that all the employees are motivated for optimum performance.

From the analysis of this company, it is evident that the company acknowledges that employees are an important asset o the company. With this in mind, the management of the organization has strived to ensure that employees in this organization are motivated to the fullest. Having understood the importance of employees towards the realization of the organizational goal, the management has adopted both intrinsic and extrinsic motivational techniques. As a sign of the commitment a value of the employee, Merck Company has very competitive and valuable reward programs that ensure that all employees are motivated (Zhou & Shalley, 2008).

Extrinsic motivation technique is the basis upon which motivation exercise is executed in this company. The company has over the years ensured that the compensation programs adopted in the organization are critical to employees’ performance. For instance, the company has ensured that the base pay at the organization is always determined by the employees’ actual position in the company and the sustained performance over time. This implies that the company is in a continued remuneration review process that ensures that employees are paid according to their performance (Williams, 2010). Development of new skills and abilities will eventually lead to increase in base pay.  This is an essential motivation technique since the employees are always striving to ensure that their remuneration is revised upwards.

Still on extrinsic motivation technique, the company has also a program commonly referred to as incentive pay.  The management of the company has a tendency of giving cash rewards to employees whose performance is exemplary. The introduction of such awards has greatly served in increasing individual and overall performance of the employees. Improved performance by the employees means a subsequent increase in organizational productivity and profitability. The organization has also introduced long-term incentives to eligible employees to ensure that they get the desired level of output. Incentives such as equity-based incentives have been greatly adopted in the organization as a long-term incentive. This will ensure that employees will be of great importance to the company now and in future.

On the other hand, the company has also employed intrinsic motivation techniques to get the best out of the company’s employees.  This is a form of motivation where employees are motivated to work hard out of passion instead of material gain. For instance, the employees in this organization have found working in the organization an enjoyable exercise. This is because all stakeholders are made to feel an important part of the organization (Baack, 2012).  Employees in the company are involved in decision-making process thus making them feel part of the company. Having openness and accountability, especially after the merging process, has to a great extent served as motivation to the employees. Employees in the company are also motivated to acquire new skills thus leading to increased productivity.

Areas of EQ embraced by the organization

Emotional quotient also referred to as emotional intelligence is an important aspect n organizational behavior analysis. It involves gathering effective skills that will help understand, empathize and negotiate with different stakeholders within the organization. EQ will be essential for the management to understand employees in the organization, what motivates them and how to cooperate with them towards realizing organizational goals (Williams, 2010). Merck Company has over the years embraced important areas of EQ that has enabled to be a world-class pharmaceutical company.

For instance, the company has taken upon itself to giving employees an opportunity in decision-making in matters affecting the operations of the company. By so doing, the management of the company gets a chance to understand employees EQ. Seminars and workshops are consistently held to ensure that critical aspects of EQ are properly understood and integrated into the decision-making process. Understanding employees’ emotions is critical to the overall productivity of the company. The organization has put more emphasis in assessing interpersonal and intrapersonal emotions such as motivation, empathy, self-awareness and self-regulations among others. Workshops and team building sessions are continually held to ensure that employees are adequately trained in such areas.

Virtual elements

The company also has over the years embraced some components of virtual elements. For instance, the company has adopted virtual meeting software to hold virtual meetings rather than physical meetings.  The introduction of this software has enabled virtual conferencing and symposiums that have been convenient for staff all over the world. Travelling costs and resources have been reduced substantially as a result of embracing such virtual elements.

Conclusion

Organizational behavior analysis remains a critical aspect of the management of an organization. This is because it helps in identifying the behavior of all stakeholders in an organization thus improving the performance of the organization. Identifying individual’s needs will be critical to matching with the organizational needs (Burke, Tomlinson & Cooper, 2011). The management of an organization can determine the resources and changes required to improve the overall productivity within the organization. The productivity of the organization depends on individual productivity and thus understanding individual behavior is critical to the overall productivity of the organization. To sum it up, organizations and corporate bodies should form a habit of carrying out organizational behavior analysis since it is a fundamental element in business evaluation (Baack, 2012). This will be critical in identifying strong and weak points and hence taking corrective measures where necessary for better performance in future.

References

Baack, D. (2012). In D. Baack, Organizational Behavioral San Diego, CA: Education, Inc.

Burke, R., Tomlinson, E., & Cooper, C. (2011). Crime and corruption in organizations. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate.

Hantula, D., & Wells, V. (2013). Consumer behavior analysis. London: Routledge.

Williams, J. (2010). Keeping people safe. Lanham: Government Institutes/Scarecrow Press.

Zhou, J., & Shalley, C. (2008). Handbook of organizational creativity. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

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