Management, Marketing and Organizational Behaviour

Business Essay: Management, Marketing and Organizational Behaviour

If I had asked customers what they wanted, they would have said ‘a faster horse’ – Henry Ford

Management

Many students have to write essays in business. The purpose of the present business essay is to outline marketing, managerial and organizational behaviour theories. Business, commerce, administration and management studies are a popular cluster of majors across the world. Admission to the mostly associated professional degree, the MBA, Master of Business Administration, requires both an academic and working experience-based background. The situation is similar with the many professional accreditations common in the field (accounting: CPA – Certified Public Accountant, CA – Certified Accountant, CMA – Certified Management Accountant, CGA – Certified General Accountant; finance: CFA – Chartered Financial Analyst).

The situation is less clear-cut when it comes to managers, although theoretical constructs are abundant. Managerial theories often examine the growth and development of an organization through time, such as with leadership crises and related stages. An article published in the Harvard Business Review (HBR) also outlined the newcomer advantage was likewise defined as a factor in attaining commercial success, making profits being the goal. Organizational behavior is a close sub-discipline bordering on industrial psychology.

Porter (2008) establishes five strategic forces that impede profitability in business: savvy customers, powerful suppliers, market entrants, alternatives and strong rivals. The author proceeds to enumerating possible strategies to overcome these obstacles, reviewed in more detail elsewhere.

For managers, there are many fish in the sea. Image: Elena

Human resource management is an important process in a firm’s functioning, and Dunn & Short (2008) looked at when entrepreneurs feel they need to get external resources in the personnel management. Function were defined as hiring, termination, training, motivation, performance evaluation, compensation and other employment related actions. Successfully managing human resources may even bestow a competitive advantage. Organizations of all sizes must engage in HRM (human resource management) but smaller firms tend to be more informal. In their study, they found that smaller businesses with less than 11 employees tend to see HRM as less of a priority than larger small businesses (those with 11 employees or ore but fewer than a 100 employees).

Marketing Theories

Almost any introductory level marketing course will start with the explanation of the marketing mix, or the 4Ps, mainly place, promotion, product and price. However, besides this core aspect of the social discipline, professional marketers look at many aspects to promote a business or a non-profit organization, goods and services, or even an idea.

As Crane et al. (2011) explain, the most important questions a producer must answer to be successful is what does the customer want. As a brief reminder, for marketing purposes, need are defined as deprivations of basic necessities, while wants are the form those needs take according to one’s culture and past experiences. Thus, the goal of the marketer is to find out what they are, and then shape the customer’s wants. Typically, a marketing plan must be developed, implementation of which facilitates commercial growth. Also, there are four lines of growth: product development, market penetration, market development and diversification. Diversification, in turn, could be related or unrelated to the industry the organization is currently in. Competitive advantage and points of differences must also be kept in mind. Additionally, Eliaz & Spiegler (2011) write that in modern, given the quasi-infinite number of available alternative, positioning (differentiating a product from those of competitors and influencing how it is perceived by consumers) became even more significant for success. The authors also point out an amazing fact: marketing cannot change consumer preferences, as they are set. One assumes that the statement is not to be understood simplistically, but as related to truths such as impossible need creation (no matter how amazing an advertisement, a bald person will refrain from buying hair conditioner).

The sea provides many opportunities. Image: Elena

Naturally, it is impossible for a company to satisfy everybody. Therefore, the focus should be on the target market or target audience, those customers most likely to be interested by the product offered.

Interestingly, Crane et al. (2011) note that companies have undergone major changes in this century and the last. For example, in the beginning of the 20th century the focus was on production, then it turned to sales, and finally centered more on the market and the customer. The latest development, and the most important of these is believed by many, to be the transition the social media marketing era. Today, most organizations try to develop an online presence of some sorts. Further, popularity of social networking platforms such as Facebook, twitter and MySpace have resulted in a sort of customer based marketing. On these sites, as well as on YouTube, blogs, wikis, podcasts and other resources, individuals can act as remote promoters (or demoters) of brands they like (or dislike). Of course, this new ability at mass broadcast by the public has also created problems for some companies who have less control on commentaries published about them. But there is also a positive side. To illustrate, most software publishers offer tutorials on their websites which both facilitates use of their programs (increasing customer satisfaction) and enhances customer experience (a key point in the new marketing era). Logically, product placement on popular television shown or brand endorsements by celebrities represent additional means corporations possess to advance their offerings.

Given increased emphasis on customers and customer relationships building and management, information became even more important. Countless psychologists and marketers engage in trend research everyday. CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software to keep databases organized has gained prominence, while KM (Knowledge Management) is now a business and management field in its own right. Nonetheless, relationships differ, and purchasing behavior may vary according to state (Kumar et al., 2011).

Organizational behaviour theory predicts that personal attributes influence individuals’ behaviour in organizations. Image: Elena

Regardless of theories, to succeed a product must appeal to customers. For instance, the textbook authors give examples of failed products (such as Coca-Cola’s C2 or Pepsi’s Blue), which went away despite good marketing campaigns because people simply failed to enjoy it.

Obviously, advertising and related activities must be socially responsible. Also, social marketer refers to marketing that is done to promote something that benefits society at large, or at least someone else than the marketer. To illustrate, McKenzie-Mohr (2000) describes how community based social marketing could bring about more ecologically sound behavior, thusly in time, helping the environment. A similar idea was voiced by U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill Senator on the Daily Show with John Stewart, who proposed resolving national postal service troubles by a campaign glamourizing the written letter. Potentially, one could argue that such a stance likewise constitutes social marketing.

Organizational Behaviour

Organizational behaviour or behaviour in organizations draws on both management and business studies, and psychology. For example, from one point of view, the field examines structure and which design allows for efficiency and effectiveness. Ancona et al. (2011) differentiate between the two terms as follows:

• Efficiency – achieving most with less
• Effectiveness – ensuring high quality of the end result
• Furthermore, the authors attest that there are several ways of looking at organizational behaviour. 

The alternative perspectives represent the strategic design, political and cultural lenses.

Team work is a key component of organizational behaviour theory. Image: Elena

From a dissimilar viewpoint, psychological insight comes into play when explaining such statements as politicking and socializing leads to faster upward movement along the career ladder. Additionally, cognitive styles and personalities may also play a role in crucial aspects of work related behaviours, such as teamwork.

Likewise, the discipline is highly relevant in other workplace settings. For example, Avey et al. (2010) examined the relationship between leadership, behaviour and self-esteem. The literature reviewed in their introduction showcases several types of leadership: charismatic, transformational, authentic and spiritual. Moreover, the researchers found that ethical leadership is positively correlated with followers’ prosocial actions, a relationship mediated by followers’ self-esteem. Thus, the purpose of the present paper was to discuss business, covering dome of the major theories in marketing, management and organizational behaviour.

References:

Ancona/Kochan/Scully/Van Maanen/Westney (first names unspecified, 2011). Managing for the future: Organizational behavior and processes. Nelson Education Ltd.: Toronto, On.

Avey, J. B., Palanski, M. E. & Walumbwa, F. O. (2010). When leadership goes unnoticed: The moderating role of follower self-esteem on the relationship between ethical leadership and follower behavior. Journal of Business Ethics, DOI 10.1007/s10551-010-0610-2.

Crane, F. G., Kerin, R. A., Hartley, S. W. & Rudelius, W. (2011). Marketing, 8th Can. Ed. McGraw-Hill Ryerson: United States of America.

Eliaz, K. & Spiegler, R. (2011). Consideration sets and competitive marketing. Review of Economic Studies, 78: 235-62.

Kumar, V., Sriram, S., Luo, A. M. & Chintagunta, P. K. (2011). Assessing the effect of marketing investments in a business marketing context. Marketing Science, [forthcoming]: 1-48.

McKenzie-Mohr, D. (2000). Promoting sustainable behavior: An introduction to community-based social marketing. Journal of Social Issues, 56 (3): 543-54.

Dunn, P., Short, L. E. & Liang, K. (2008). Human resource management importance in small business. Small Business Institute Journal, 2: 1-22.

Porter, M. E. (2008). Five competitive forces that shape strategy. Harvard Business Review, January: 1-19