Organizational Trends
MGT/307

Organizational Trends In today’s society and the faced paced atmosphere, companies are looking at the most efficient, cost saving, quality way to run their business. Incorporating work teams to solve problems and to accomplish goals are utilized in various organizations to increase productivity and streamline production issues quickly as well as increase motivation in workers. Companies must also be adaptable to the change and prepare to continually change to maintain success. With the strive to increase productivity, drive down cost, and stay current on new technologies, leadership, and workers alike find stress slowing them down. Organizations are promoting healthy mental exercises and practices to maintain happy employees as well as high motivation and production.
Characteristics of High-Performance Workplaces A high-performance team or a group of individuals who commit to work together for the same goal have formed a strong base of productive communication and most always achieve astonishing results together. These high-performing teams are highly dedicated, and in return can experience less stress. Dr. TC North, who is a CEO and founder of Catalyst High Performance, coach’s leaders in taking their teams from average to high-performers and has come up with nine characteristics of high-performers in the workplace. Dr. North’s nine characteristics include willingness to fail in order to succeed. According to Dr. North this is one of the most important characteristic because greatness is a requirement in the success to be different and standing out among average individuals. Dr. North believes sharing values will drive interactions among team members, and when a team is motivated by excitement, not fear they will focus on success and not failure (North, 2010-2012). Positive accountability occurs when goals are successfully reached, and agreed upon. When these goals are completed successfully teams will celebrate, and goals that fail are discussed and corrected (North, 2010-2012). Additional characteristics Dr. North covers is respect, obsessive focus, alignment, and no whining complaining, or excuses. When these characteristics are met Dr. North says that the last and final meet and exceed characteristic is obtained. This happens when all critical goals are met or exceeded successfully and ultimately is the goal of the team (North, 2010-2012).
High-Performance Versus Traditional
Historically businesses that provided the consumer with only quality products at an affordable price may have done enough to turn a profit. To remain successful in the current market takes more than superior goods and excellent customer service. Modern firms need not only to compete but also to continue to be agile and motivated in a rapidly changing world. The determination of the level of success is by a company’s ability to efficiently change and adapt to pressures. Flourishing companies most never settle and must continue to improve process and product. Another obstacle in modern business is organizational dynamics. For modern organizations to run more effectively than organizations in the past, they must remain competitive in the perspective markets. A successful company not only needs to plan how individuals will work together but also in a growing business, companies must continue to change because of social sustainability pressures, government regulations, and outsourcing. “The old politics of bureaucracy needs to be displaced with an emphasis on constructive negotiation” (Schermerhorn, Hunt, & Osborn, P. 437, 2008). The constant change needed for new process, regulation, and product development can cause stress in the workplace that did not exist decades ago. Superior companies seek creative ways to implement change by motivating the associates and by providing adequate training and education.

Stress Management
"Stress is defined as a dynamic condition in which an individual is confronted with an opportunity, demand, or resource related to what the individual desires and for which the outcome is perceived to be both uncertain and important" (Robbins & Judge, 2009). There are four strategies that an employee can reduce stress, which are time-management techniques, physical exercise, relaxation training, and acquiring a social support network. Employees well-organized can usually accomplished double the work as a poorly organized employee. Physical exercise can increase heart capacity, lower the at-rest heart rate, provide a mental diversion from work, and offer a means to "let off steam" (Robbins & Judge, 2009). Some examples of stress reducing exercises are walking, aerobics, and swimming. Relaxation techniques, such as hypnosis, biofeedback, and meditation helps reach a state of deep relaxation. Deep relaxation reduce tension and provides a sense of peacefulness. Social support networks help reduce tension by talking to others and receiving an objective perspective on situations (Robbins & Judge, 2009).
Emerging Trends
With the job market becoming increasingly competitive, companies are trying to acquire and keep the top talent. In doing so, most companies at the top of their respective areas have adopted the latest trends in creating a high performance work environment. Gone are the days of manager/worker relationships. Companies who are a part of the new trends use methods such as 360 degree evaluations and group/team evaluations as methods of assessing the talent level of their employees. These methods not only leaders to evaluate their employees, but also provide peer reviews and self-evaluations of the employee. Both of these are used in high performance work environments (Schermerhorn, Hunt & Osborn, 2007). High performing work environments also breed stress. To combat stress in the high performance work environments, companies have adopted the latest in stress management. Job sharing, flex time, and working from home ensure that employees may have a work/personal balance that will allow them to be focused at their job and not be over stressed. Also, the company still gets the maximum out of the employee. Employee assistance programs help workers deal with issues such as, chemical dependency and depression. The company makes sure that the employee has access to treatment for dealing with such stress (Schermerhorn, Hunt & Osborn, 2007). More on the trending side of stress management is mindfulness training. This concept involves helping the mind to focus attention on the moment. This technique reduces stress and increases productivity through exercise and relaxation regimens (pg. 11, Health Advocate, Inc.). More trending techniques may include stress workshops, health risk assessments, and even pets in the workplace (pg. 12).
Stress certainly can bring down production, motivation, and the health of all workers within a company; therefore employers have set up options for employees to benefit help physically and mentally. At the same time organizations are streamlining projects and goals by implementing high performance teams or groups to accomplish tasks to improve production and to motivate employees by involvement. Watching, listening, and learning from a variety of experience, skill, and knowledge within the organization will surely add to the likelihood of success. Organizations today are looking for many ways to become more adaptable to today’s society, meet the needs of employees, and to continually change toward the ever changing demand of its consumers.

Reference
Health Advocate, Inc., 2009, Meeting the Challenge retrieved from: http://www.healthadvocate.com/downloads/webinars/stress-workplace.pdf
North, Dr. T. (2010-2012). High performance business coaching; Consulting and Speaking; Nine Characteristics Of High-Performance Workplace and Organizations Retrieved from http://www.tcnorth.com/HighPerf.Article.html
Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (2009). Organizational Behavior (13th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc..
Schermerhorn, J., Hunt, J., Osborn, R. (2008). Organizational Behavior, Tenth Edition, Chapter 15. copyright, John Wiley & Sons. ISBN: 9780470086964 Retrieved from University of Phoenix library