Organizational Consistency As A Predictor of Behavior

Abstract

Management creates the environment within an organization. Good, bad, or indifferent, the environment results not so much from what management does, but how it does it. Management by Values is a methodology that an employer could use to determine rather effectively the quality of the environment within an organization. The genesis of this model is found in Talcott Parson's General Theory of Action and Neil J. Smelser's Theory of Collective Behavior. In assessing the degree of consistency between the several elements of the model, the predictability of employee behavior may be determined. The problem is that in too many cases, in order to increase predictability, employers create rule-oriented organizations within which employees are “rewarded” by their degree of conformity to the rules with an awesome price paid in the stifling of creativity and initiative. In such organization's only the objectives (the what) and the norms (the how) are stressed. But, employees want to know why. Management by Values provides the needed answers to the question why. As management performs the requisite functions of planning, controlling, and organizing it is important that how these functions are performed be consistent with the values of the organization. Because management creates the organizational environment, it is a basic responsibility to create an environment which is more conducive to employee retention than to employee turnover. Concern is expressed over the decrease in the traditional hospitality labor pool. The concept of Management by Values may well be a significant first step in the solving of this problem.