Organizational Psychology 101
The world is really complicated, and a business organization is a miniature world.
What is so complicated about a business organization? Think about it. You have a physical environment (unless every single employee telecommutes) and an organizational structure. You have people in the environment. And these people have goals; personal goals and organizational goals that are assigned to them. To achieve the organizational goals, these people have work processes and tools.
According to Lo's (2009) theory of organizational psychology, there are two types of employees in any business organization of a respectable scale: J Type and B Type. J Types want to get the job done. They focus on the job and their work mission. Bosses are usually appreciative of J Types employees. However, J Type employees can be rather a pain in the ass at times. They tend to question the rationale behind every single project and task. They can also be over demanding in getting the tools and resources they need to get the job done. When they are not asking "whys" or demanding more resources, they work overtime and forget to switch off the office lights before they leave.
B Type employees focus on their bosses. They are caring employees who will not bother their already overloaded bosses with "why"s; they are human beings with higher than average EQ. B Type employees are usually gifted in communication skills. Assign them any project and they will tell you how valuable the project is to the organization yesterday, today, and the ever foreseeable future, ahmen. The capability of B Type employees are not very well investigated to date. This may be because B Type employees are usually promoted to higher levels in the organization before they ever have the chance to complete their given projects.
Any healthy business organization requires a mixed of J Type and B Type employees. J Types get the job done, B Types keep the boss sane. Based on absolutely no empirical data at all, Lo (2009) suggested that an optimum ratio of J to B Type employees is 8:1. Too many J Types IT department runs out of extra RAMs. Too many B Types Infrastructure department runs out of meeting rooms.
The ultimate challenge for bosses is how to design the organization so that the minority B Type employees can be evenly distributed across the organization. When the population of a department is over skewed towards J Types, say 12:1, genetic prejudice against B Type employees may take place. When the population in a department is over skewed towards B Types, J Type employees tend to resign, nothing gets done, department breaks down, and if the department is critical enough stock price eventually fall like raining cow dungs.
What is so complicated about a business organization? Think about it. You have a physical environment (unless every single employee telecommutes) and an organizational structure. You have people in the environment. And these people have goals; personal goals and organizational goals that are assigned to them. To achieve the organizational goals, these people have work processes and tools.
According to Lo's (2009) theory of organizational psychology, there are two types of employees in any business organization of a respectable scale: J Type and B Type. J Types want to get the job done. They focus on the job and their work mission. Bosses are usually appreciative of J Types employees. However, J Type employees can be rather a pain in the ass at times. They tend to question the rationale behind every single project and task. They can also be over demanding in getting the tools and resources they need to get the job done. When they are not asking "whys" or demanding more resources, they work overtime and forget to switch off the office lights before they leave.
B Type employees focus on their bosses. They are caring employees who will not bother their already overloaded bosses with "why"s; they are human beings with higher than average EQ. B Type employees are usually gifted in communication skills. Assign them any project and they will tell you how valuable the project is to the organization yesterday, today, and the ever foreseeable future, ahmen. The capability of B Type employees are not very well investigated to date. This may be because B Type employees are usually promoted to higher levels in the organization before they ever have the chance to complete their given projects.
Any healthy business organization requires a mixed of J Type and B Type employees. J Types get the job done, B Types keep the boss sane. Based on absolutely no empirical data at all, Lo (2009) suggested that an optimum ratio of J to B Type employees is 8:1. Too many J Types IT department runs out of extra RAMs. Too many B Types Infrastructure department runs out of meeting rooms.
The ultimate challenge for bosses is how to design the organization so that the minority B Type employees can be evenly distributed across the organization. When the population of a department is over skewed towards J Types, say 12:1, genetic prejudice against B Type employees may take place. When the population in a department is over skewed towards B Types, J Type employees tend to resign, nothing gets done, department breaks down, and if the department is critical enough stock price eventually fall like raining cow dungs.
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