My Fascination with Organizational Behavior

03.03.23 11:07 AM - Comment(s) - By Dr. Kris Lea

How I Got Interested in Organizational Development

So, many times people ask me why I got interested in organization development, how it started, and what prompted me? And I have to go back to a very early time in my life when I didn't have any sense of the word organization development. But I knew that I had a tremendous curiosity for it.

A Missed Opportunity and Desperate Attempts to Get a Job

I was around 20 years old and lived in Concord, California. There was a restaurant that was opening up new. And this restaurant was very popular and a really big place. And it was a place that if you got a job there, you knew you were making good money every, every day. And if you worked there as a server, which I, that was the work that I did at the time. I was a waitress, and I wanted to work there so badly.

It was like guaranteed good income. I desperately wanted to work there, but it just so happened that I missed the weekend the restaurant put an ad in the paper. This was when they put ads in the paper. They put an ad in the paper for a hiring event. And on the weekend I was gone, I was gone for one weekend. That was the weekend that they hired everybody. So I didn't get a job when they first opened. So then I went to great lengths to get a job there.

I went there every other day, literally every other day, and sat at the counter and had a cup of coffee cuz that's all I could afford because I was broke. And then, I finally thought, I'll talk to my professor from the Diablo Valley Community College, who was the head of the restaurant industry program at the local community college. So I went to my professor and said, do you know anybody? So he introduced me to one of the managers of this place. Emil Villa is where I wanted to work, desperately wanted to work. My professor, Jack, introduced me to Bob, the restaurant manager. I met Bob, a friendly guy, and he said, "The next opening we have, I'm gonna hire you, Kris." Which he did.

I got a job as a waitress. I was so happy and grateful for this job. Keep in mind this was back in the day, younger, and at the time when I was, I was living my life purely on a cash, cash basis.

I would go to work and be like, okay, I got my electric bill, and I got my water bill, and I got this. I need to make $80 today to cover my bills. And I would. That was, that was a place where I was as a young woman.

A Supervisor's Hardened Behavior and Its Effect on Employees

And so Bob, who was very warm toward me when I first got the job and helped me, suddenly started to interact with me in a very harsh way. And he would say things to me like, Kris, go over and bust that table, and if you don't do it, I'm gonna fire you, Kris.

Go over and take those plates over there. If you don't, if you don't do it, I'm gonna fire you. And he was commanding me around and punctuating this with these threats of termination. And I, I would always be so shocked, like, why is he talking to me like that?

Why would he think that he needs to threaten me?

I obviously wanna work there. And so this went on for a while, and I finally told him, Bob, I'm curious if you don't remember how hard I tried to get a job here and how much I really wanted to work here. I still want to work here. And you don't need to threaten me, um, when you need me to do something that you don't, you don't need to do that.

And at that moment, his whole physicality, his body just relaxed. And he was like, oh, okay.

And I was like, what?

The Start of a Fascination with Organizational Behavior

So at that moment, I was very interested in organizational behavior without understanding any words around that. But I wanted to know how people worked together and how they got along and treated each other with respect or not. How that all happened. And what I understand now through my studies is that Brian, a friend on one level, on another level as my supervisor, went into the role of a supervisor in a very, prescribed way. In a very hardened way.

Which is what happens many times with people inside organizations. They get the role, and they get role hardened. They feel that their behavior has to be consistent with the role. And, um, and then they lose the connection with other people. Therefore they lose other people's trust, which is absolutely necessary inside an organization. So, my fascination with organizational behavior started many, many years ago.

And here I am today!

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