Organizational Behavior Paper

As a volunteer for the non-profit organization, Hong Kong Association of Washington, I

have seen psychological withdrawal behaviors exhibited by the subcommittee members. The

operations director uses strong empowerment and positive reinforcement to address these

behaviors. HKAW is national association which aims to develop and strengthen the relationship

between local business and China. The subcommittee team is comprised of sixteen talented

students and young professionals across the Seattle region. We hold student events to help young

college students to develop professionalism, and to promote Asian awareness.

Recently, three of our senior subcommittee members graduated from the Foster of

Business School and left the organization in order to pursue their career opportunities. All three

members were managers for either event planning, membership, or assistant activity

respectively. Since all three left the group at the same time, there was huge impact on the team

because the group developed close relationships with them over the course of their management.

Many members are disappointed, and feel that there is no significance in staying in the

organization. Some planned to leave the organization internally due to lack of affective

organizational commitment.

One of the members was the manager for the marketing department who worked closely

on many projects with the three group members who left. In addition, they built up strong

friendships outside the organizations and at school. He decided to respond negatively by leaving

HKAW permanently. He stated that he had personal reasons for leaving, such as engaging in

other student organizations, because of time constraints, and because of his discontentment with

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the Director of Operations. However, everyone in the team recognizes that his reasons were not

the major issues behind his resignation. He was a prime example of the social influence model

discussed in the text book.

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