Organizational Behavior Persuasive

The present report was developed by a well-organized and competent team of undergraduate students, who were able to adapt and associate all the theoretical concepts learned in the classes with the real case of SAMS´s enterprise, in the perspective of personality proactive and its impact in the SAMS´s performance. The opportunity to work with this company was due to the fact that one of the members could communicate in an easy and immediately way with a professional from there. Additionally, this circumstance was aligned with the overall opinion of the group that SAMS would be an excellent and very relevant choice to do more complete and comprehensive analysis and approach to this OB topic. Consequently, at all stages of developing this consultancy report, the group improved the knowledge and the main concepts related to proactive personality by gaining a full understanding how this behavioral tendency can identify opportunities to change things in the work environment and to performance on those impulses. This can lead to recognize the strategic importance of the human element for competitive advantage of enterprises of nowadays.

The methodology employed to develop this report is based on SPSS´s program procedures (Statitical Package for Social Science), which require: gathering the information provided in the surveys applied to 40 employee dyads, its analysis in order to highlight the most significant and adequate data to our support our report and consequently define the right conclusions and recommendations about the impact of personality proactive in SAMS´s performance. Moreover, it is crucial to mention that the reading of the essential bibliography and information provided by the professors was very important to complete and accomplish the finalization of this report, with precision and assertiveness. In the other hand, the different daily schedules of the members of the group, the time spend in the gathering and analysis of the information and the task coordination were existing issues in the realization of this report, but were correctly overtook. It is also important to refer the professor assistance in various issues and adversities at all stages of this report and the role of Mrs. Manuela, the coordinator of SAMS´s which helped us in the conduction of the surveys. Our team work, cooperation and resilience were fundamental to achieve the successful completion of our report.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

PART 1. SAMS´S OVERVIEW AND CORE BUSINESS

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 SAMS – ORGANIZATION CONTEXT

SAMS – Serviços de Assistência Médico-Social do Sindicato dos Bancários do Sul e Ilhas is a well-organized and diversified entreprise which operates in the health sector in Portugal. Founded in 1976 by the South and Islands Bank Clerk Trade Union, this company is organized in particular health units distributed across the country which are the SAMS Hospital, the Clinical Centre in Lisbon, the SAMS Clinics (Almada, Amadora, Barreiro, Odivelas and Parede), SAMS Optical and SAMS Pharma. In this report, our investigation and analysis only corresponds to the main departments of the Clinic Centre of SAMS in Lisbon which employs workers in several health departments. The Clinical Center of SAMS is a reference unit in Lisbon, once is one the largest private Outpatient Clinical Centers of the country, receiving daily over two thousand users to conduct consultations, examinations or treatments The mission and the main goals of this entreprise is to develop and consolidate its assistance practices and its commitment in order to guarantee with quality and excellency the increasing needs of its beneficiary population through provision of health care, sustenance maternity and seniors, as well as in other situation of social character.

1.2 THE METHODOLOGY USED

The efficacy and accuracy of any report requires a correct data collection process and its respective analysis in order to elaborate solid and real conclusions about the case we are focusing on. Therefore, the initial stage of this report was to collect the necessary dyads of the subordinates and supervisors, in which was ensured confidentiality of the responses. The surveys, elaborated by the professor, were organized in several different questions such as demographic (age, education and gender) and related to the main fundamental topics of the Organizational Behavior context (Perceived Organizational Support, Task Performance, among others).

After the collecting data process, we noticed, in general, everyone accept to participate in this study and that they delivered it mostly completed, however some people refused to finish the hand-writing part after they had accepted to participate. Besides, some of the surveys had some blank answers due to lack of attention/misunderstanding rather than not wanting to fulfil it. Nevertheless, we gather 40 completed dyads, where is constituted by 40 subordinates and 4 supervisors. Relatively to the survey, both subordinate and supervisors could choose from 1 to 5 in several questions, which for all them had the same meaning of: 1 meant “strongly disagree” and 5 meant “strongly agree”.

Majority of the employees work at SAMS less than x years but there are employees that have been working for this company over x years in our sample, x years is the average time the subordinates work in this company, and the average time supervisors work at João Mata, Lda. is x This means that, on average, employees already developed a relationship and are used to work with their supervisors. Below, graphs characterize our sample, comparing the data collected with the Portuguese health sector data Besides, with respect to the percentage of male and female employees*, x% of the company´s employees are women and x% are men. Comparing between the health sector

SOURCE:http://www.pordata.pt/Portugal/total+e+por+sexo-1966 The employee´s level of education. In this sector, most of the employees have completed and it can also be acknowledged that there is a low percentage of employees with education. Comparation with the sector and conclusion.

Taking into consideration, the employee´s age, we can verify that the company has a low percentage of young/old workers, the mainly age group is of x to x. comparation with the sector. The average age of subordinates is x years while the average age of supervisors is x years.

2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

Supervisors act as agents of the organization, who have the responsibility to organizing, evaluating and directing subordinate´s performance. In each organization, there is a management process developed everyday which corresponds to several functions in order to monitoring the performance of their subordinates, each one with a particular significance:

Planning – function of setting goals and objectives and converting them into specific plans. The planning process also establishes policies, standard operating procedures, regulations and rules. Organizing – function that allows the supervisor to line up all the available resources such as the workforce, equipment, materials, among others. Staffing – the supervisor figures out how each department should be organized by subordinates, selecting and training those who are more suitable to fill the open jobs. Leading – supervisors take advantage of tools like motivation, communication and leadership to engage people to the mission and values of the organization. This includes giving feedback to enhance their subordinates’ contributions and commitment to the organization. Controlling – once departmental plans are set in motion, supervisor must regularly maintain an evaluation of the performance of each department which is conducting periodic assessments of their subordinates’ work.

Therefore, the supervisor´s role is fundamental for the organization, as employees view their supervisor’s favorable or unfavorable orientation toward them as indicative of the organization’s support (Eisenberger et al., 1986; Levinson, 1965). Therefore, it is natural for employees to interpret their interactions with their supervisors as indicators of the organization’s judgment of their work and career promise. In other words, supervisor value employees´ contributions and cares about his/her well-being (Eisenberger, Huntington, Hutcheson, & Sowa, 1986). Supportive supervisors care about employees’ career goals, give credit for work well done, and help employees develop job-relevant skills and competencies. A supervisor like this can make all the difference in employees’ everyday work experiences. Therefore, strong supervisor support improves the quality of employment and is associated with increased job satisfaction, perceptions of a better conciliation between the employee and the organization, and reduced turnover. The support held by the supervisors can be represented in several dimensions contribute to beneficial outcomes for workers: emotional support, instrumental support, role modeling support and creative work-life support (Hammer, Kossek, Yragui, Bodner, & Hanson, 2009).

Considering the emotional dimension, we can highlight the ability that the supervisor engages in order to listen and show their subordinates that he cares about their work-life requirements. Supervisor who listen to workers as they discuss job difficulties, provide supportive statements, and relate to the emotional needs of the workers when they feel overwhelmed, stressed, or confused by their work have workers with higher rates of retention. The second dimension occurs when a supervisor reacts to employee´s work life demands on a daily basis or as it is needed. Besides, when supervisors actively demonstrate how to balance their work-life behaviors on the job, they are engaging in the third dimension of support, role modeling behaviors. The fourth and final dimension of supervisor support is creative work-life management which takes place when a supervisor rearranges a work day in order to enhance employee effectiveness on the job and off the job. All these dimensions are relevant as being very significant in the relationship established by the employee and the organizational outcomes.

On the contrary, if subordinates feel that their supervisor does not has a supportive relationship of their work-life balance, they may not utilize current work-life balance policies because they are fearful that it will make them look bad in front of their supervisor (Batt & Valcour, 2003). Overall, supervisors play an important role in whether or not employees feel comfortable with balancing their work and life responsibilities (Hammer, Neal, Newsom, Brockwood, & Colton, 2005). In the other hand, evidence suggests that supervisor support can mitigate the degree of work/family conflict that employees experience and the consequences of such conflict. Research has shown that employees who have highly demanding jobs and family responsibilities and who also have supportive supervisors tend to experience greater job satisfaction, stronger job commitment, more loyalty to the organization, and a better balance between work and family life. Supervisors act as effective mediators as well as “primary implementers of work and family policies initiated by various organizations.”

Given the prominence of work/family issues among employees today, having a supportive supervisor is a characteristic of effective family-friendly workplaces. Moreover, it is important to refer that organizational support theory contends that, on the basis of the norm of reciprocity (Levision, 1965) workers trade effort and dedication toward an organization for incentives as pay, fringe benefits and socio-emotional benefits as esteem, approval and caring (Eisenberger et al., 1986). Organizational support theory assumes that, on the basis of such reciprocity, employees experience a felt obligation to care about the organizational welfare and help the organization meets its goals. Organizational support theorists have examined the role of the support in the development of perceived organizational support. It is when employees perceived they are value and care about by supervisors that they perceived the organization cares for them.