M&OB - Introduction to Organizational Behavior

MANAGEMENT AND
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Learnito Study Series for Business Students
Notes, Presentations, MCQs and more available at
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Definition of Organizational Behavior
• Organizational Behavior (OB)
– systematic study and careful application of
knowledge about how people – as individuals and
as groups – act within organizations.
– Strive to identify ways in which people can act
more efficiently
– An applied science
– Provides useful set of tools at many levels of
analysis from individual, interpersonal relations,
intergroup,and whole system
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– Describe
• how people behave under a variety of conditions.
– Understand
• Why people behave as they do?
• Probe for underlying explanations
– Predict
• Predict future employee behavior (tardiness, productive &
unproductive, etc.)
• Provide preventive actions
– Control
• At least partially and develop some human activity at work.
Managers need to remember that organizational
behavior is a tool for human benefit
Goals of OB

Key forces – Forces affecting the nature of organizations

Key Forces
People
– Make up the internal social system of an organization
– Melting pot of diversity – talents, background and perspectives to
their jobs
– Managers need to be tuned in to these diverse patterns and trends.
• Changes in the labor force
» Decline in work ethic and rise in emphasis on leisure, self expression, fulfillment
and personal growth
» Decreased automatic acceptance of authority and increase in the desire for
participation, autonomy and control.
» Skills become obsolete due to rapid technological advances – retrain or be
displaced
» Security needs are prime concern and loyalty diminishes because of downsizing
and outsourcing
» Absence of meaningful salary growth has placed renewed emphasis on money as a
motivator
– Companies address diversity by becoming compassionate and caring,
building pride without de-valuing others, empowering some without
exploiting, demonstrating openness, confidence, authentic
compassion and vulnerability.

• Structure
– Defines the formal relationship and use of people in organizations.
– Effective coordination of work
– Create complex problems of cooperation, negotiation and decision making
• Technology
– Provides he resources with which people work and affects the tasks they
perform
– Benefit of technology – does more and better work however it restricts people
in various ways
– OB’s challenge is to maintain the delicate balance between technical and
social systems.
• Environment
– Internal or external
– Organizations are part of a larger system and factors influence them like:
• Citizens expect organizations to be socially responsible
• New products and competition for customers come from around the globe (globalization)
• The direct impact of unions diminishes
• Dramatic pace of change in society.
– The external environment influences the attitudes of people, affects working
conditions, and provides competitions for resources and power.
Key Forces, Contd.

Positive Characteristics of OB
• Interdisciplinary in nature – integrates behavioral
sciences, social sciences and other disciplines
• Emerging knowledge, theories, models and
conceptual frameworks.
• Increasing acceptance of theory and research by
practicing managers.
• Willingness of managers to explore new ideas
• More receptive to new models
• Support related research
• Hungrily experiment with new ideas

Contributing Disciplines to OB
• Psychology
• Sociology
• Social Psychology
• Anthropology
• Political Science

Contributing Disciplines to OB

Contributing Disciplines OB (cont’d)

Fundamental Concepts of OB
Nature of people
• Individual differences
– Nature vs. nurture
• Perception
– The unique way in which each person sees, organizes and interprets things.
– Selective perception cause misinterpretation
• A whole person
– We employ the whole person not just their brains or skills
– Ergonomics is the science of fitting workplace conditions and job demands to the capabilities
of the working population
• Motivated behavior
– A path towards increased need fulfillment is a better approach
• Desire for involvement
– Hunger for a change to chare what they know and to learn from the experience.
– Organizations need to provide opportunities for meaningful involvement – employee
empowerment
• Value of the person
– Worth before the word
– meal before the message
– they want to be treated differently from other factors of production

Nature of Organization
• Social systems
– or social structure in general refer to entities or groups in definite relation to each other, to
relatively enduring patterns of behavior and relationship within social systems, or to social
institutions and norms becoming embedded into social systems in such a way that they shape
the behavior of actors within those social systems. Social systems can be said to be the
patterns of behavior of a group of people possessing similar characteristics due to their
existence in same society.
– Formal and informal social systems
– The idea of a social system provides a framework for analyzing organizational behavior issues.
It helps make OB problems understandable and manageable
• Mutual interest
– Symbiotic relationship between organizations and people
– Provides a superordinate goal – one that can attained only through the integral effort of
individuals and their employers.
• Ethics
– Treatment of employees in an ethical fashion
– Establish code of ethics, publicized statements of ethical values, provide ethics trainings,
reward employees for notable ethical behaviors, set up internal procedure to handle
misconduct.

Organizational Behavior System

Models of OB

Social Systems and Organizational Culture
• A social system is a complex set of human
relationships interacting in many ways. Within an
organization, the social system includes all the
people in it and their relationships to each other
and to the outside world. The behavior of one
member can have an impact, either directly or
indirectly, on the behavior of others. Also, the
social system does not have boundaries...it
exchanges goods, ideas, culture, etc. with the
environment around it.

• Culture is the conventional behavior of an organization
that encompasses beliefs, customs, knowledge, and
practices. It influences human behavior, even though it
seldom enters into their conscious thought. People
depend on culture as it gives them stability, security,
understanding, and the ability to respond to a given
situation. This is why people fear change. They fear the
system will become unstable, their security will be lost,
they will not understand the new process, and they will
not know how to respond to the new situations.

How an Organization’s Culture can be known?
• Organization culture can be a set of key values , assumptions,
understandings and norms that is shared by members of an
organization.
• Organization values are fundamental beliefs that an organization
considers to be important , that are relatively stable over time,
and they have an impact on employees behaviors and attitudes.
• Organization Norms are shared standards that define what
behaviors are acceptable and desirable within organization.
• Shared assumptions are about how things are done
in an organization.
• Understandings are coping with internal / external problems
uniformly.

• LEVEL 1 – VISIBLE
– That can be seen at the surface level
• dress codes
• office layout [ open office]
• Symbols
• Slogans
• Ceremonies [monthly / annual awards/long
service/birthdays etc.]
Levels of Organization Culture

• LEVEL 2 - INVISIBLE
– That can be cannot be seen but only felt.
• stories about people performance
• corporate mission statements
• recruitment/selection [ methods used]
• fairness in treatment
• social equality
• risk taking in business deals
• formality in approach
• Discipline
• autonomy for departments
• responsiveness to communication
• empowerment of staff
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Levels of Organization Culture

Approaches to OB
• Human Resources (Supportive) – Employee
growth and development are encouraged and
supported.
• Contingency – Different managerial behaviors are
required by different environments for
effectiveness.
• Results-oriented – outcomes of organizational
behavior programs are assessed in terms of their
efficiency.
• Systems – all parts of an organization interact in a
complex relationship.

Limitations of OB
• People who lack system understanding and become
superficially infatuated with OB may develop Behavioral
bias – narrow viewpoint that emphasized satisfying
employee experiences while overlooking the broader
system of the organization in relation to all its publics.
• The law of diminishing return –
– The tendency for a continuing application of effort or skill
toward a particular project or goal to decline in effectiveness
after a certain level of result has been achieved.
– Overemphasis on valid organizational behavior practice may
produce negative results
– At some point increase of a desirable practice produce declining
returns, eventually negative returns

• Unethical manipulation of people
– Knowledge and techniques can be used to manipulate
people unethically
– People who lack ethical values could use people in
unethical ways.
– The philosophy of OB is supportive and oriented
toward human resources. Seeks to improve human
environment and help people grow toward their
potential.
– Ethical leadership principles such as: social
responsibility, open communication, cost-benefit
analysis.
Limitations of OB

Continuing Challenges
• Seeking Quick Fixes
– Are we tempted when pressured to seed rapid
solutions?
• Varying Environments
– Can the ideas that have been developed and tested
endure with equal success under new conditions?
• Definition Confusion
– Considered as relatively new discipline, can OB in
clearly define its field of student and application?

The organization is above all social. It is
people.”
Peter Drucker

Learnito Study Series for Business Students
Notes, Presentations, MCQs and more available at
www.learnito.com/catalog

M&OB - Introduction to Organizational Behavior

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