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ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

Meaning and Definition of Organizational Behavior
Organizational behavior is the study and application of knowledge about how people—as individuals and as
groups—act within organizations
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Organizational behavior is a scientific discipline in which a large number of research studies and conceptual
developments are constantly adding to its knowledgebase
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According to Fred Luthans“ Organizational behavior is understanding, predicting and controlling human
behavior at work
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”
According to Callahan,“ Organizational behavior is subset of management activities concerned with
understanding, predicting and influencing individual behavior in organizational setting
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They are:
1) An industrial enterprise is an organization of people;
2) These people must be motivated to work effectively;
3) The goals of the employee and the employer may not necessarily coincide;
4) The policies and procedures adopted in an enterprise may influence people in the directions not always
Foreseen by the policy makers
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Organizational behavior also embraces these goals
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Achieving this goal allows managers to communicate about human behavior at work
using a common language
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Managers
would be highly frustrated if they could only talk about behaviors of their employees, but not understand the
reasons behind those actions
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3) Predict Employee Behavior: Predicting future employee behavior is another goal of organizational
behavior
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4) Control Human Activity: The final goal of organizational behavior is to control (at least partially) and
develop some human activity at work
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Managers need to be able to improve results through the actions they and their
employees take, and organizational behavior can aid them in their pursuit of this goal
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It represents behavior approach to management
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ii) A Field of Study: OB is a field of study backed by a body of theory , research and application associated
with a growing concern for people at the workplace
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It inculcates creative thinking among the managers to solve human problems in
organizations
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The prominent among these are psychology, sociology and
Anthropology
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iv) Levels of Analysis: OB involves three levels of analysis of behavior –individual behavior, group behavior
and behavior of the organization itself and provides a rational thinking about people
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The major goals of organizational

behavior are to understand, explain and predict human behavior in the organizational
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It helps in understanding and predicting the behavior
of individuals
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vii) Science and Art: OB is both a science as well as an art
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The application of behavioral knowledge and skills clearly learns towards being an art
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It cannot provide specific
answers to all organizational problems
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It is possible to predict relationships between variables on a broad scale, but it is difficult to
apply predictive models in all situations
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It is the
organization’s responsibility to provide congenial climate in the organization so that people may get need
satisfaction and the organization may attain its objectives
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ix) Humanistic and Optimistic: OB focuses the attention on people from humanistic point of view
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There is an acceptance of the
value of the individual as thinking, feeling organism, and without these considerations the organizations may
not be fully operational as a social entity
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Though an organization may have
several objectives and sometimes conflicting with individual objectives, it should not be understood that OB
only emphasizes the achievement of individual objectives at the cost of organizational objectives
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For this purpose, it
suggests various behavioral approaches
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The systems approach is an integrative approach which takes into
account all the variables affecting organizational functioning
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Behavioral science, while analyzing organizational
behavior, does not take human being in isolation but as the product of socio-psychological factors
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Thus man’s nature is quite complex and OB by applying systems
approach tries to find solution of this complexity
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P
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”
1) Increasing Organizational Effectiveness: Organizational behavior is a field of study
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OB studies three
determinants of behavior in organizations: individuals, groups and structure
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2) Understanding Human Behavior in an Organizational Setting Organizational behavior is concerned
with understanding and describing human behavior in an organizational setting
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It is called a
social science because its main concern is people and their behavior
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Determinants of Organizational Behavior / Key Forces Affecting OB / Elements of OB
How people behave in an organization under a given situation is the concern of organizational behavior
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The efforts of the people are co-ordinated by the
structure of authority-responsibility relationships
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We can call people, structure and technology as the internal organizational elements
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The study of organizational
behavior, thus, involves four key elements; people, structure, technology and the environment in which the
organization operates
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That system consists of individuals
and groups, and large groups as well as small ones
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Groups are dynamic
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The human organization of today is not the same as it was yesterday,
or the day before
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Managers need to be tuned into
these diverse patterns and trends, and to be prepared to adapt to them
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Different people in
the organization are given different roles and they have certain relationships with others
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Under the structure, different duties are to be performed by different people
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All are related to each other to accomplish the goals in a
co-ordinated manner
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They cannot accomplish much with their bare hands, so they build buildings, design machines,

create work processes, and assemble resources
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The great benefit of technology is that it allows people to do more and better work,
but it also restricts people in various ways
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4) Environment: All organizations operate within an internal and an external environment
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It is part of a large system that contains many other elements, such as
government, the family, and other organizations
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Individual organizations, such as a factory or a school, cannot escape being influenced by
this external environment
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It must be considered in the study of human behavior in organizations
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Specifically, it helps in
understanding and managing human behavior as discussed below:
1) Understanding of Self and Others: The behavioral sciences help an individual understand himself and
others better
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Of particular significance are topics like
attitude, perception, leadership, communication, transactional analysis and conflict
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Human behavior can be studied at the individual level, inter-personal level, and group level and inter-group
level as discussed below:
i) Individual Behavior: The main focus of psychology is the study of individual behavior
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Human behavior is affected by a
number of psychological, social and cultural factors
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ii) Inter-Personal Behavior: Inter-personal interaction takes place because of individual’s natural desire
of socialization
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By studying the behavioral sciences an individual can understand himself and others
better
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Understanding of inter-personal
behavior is facilitated by the study of attitude, perception, role analysis, transactional analysis, etc
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His behavior is often modified by group norms
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It helps in knowing how groups are
formed, why people join groups and how groups exert pressures on the individuals, groups and management
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He will be successful in his job when he can motivate his subordinates to work for organizational
goals
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Hecan use suitable incentives to motivate the subordinates
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It is
communication through which people come in contact with each other
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4) Effective Organizational Climate: Behavioral sciences suggest the creation of organizational climate in
totality rather than merely improving the physiological conditions or increasing employee satisfactionby
changing isolated work-process
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Of greater
importance are the creation of an atmosphere of participative leadership, two-way communication, the
opportunities for the realization of personal goals, congenial relations with others at the work-place, and the
like
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If an employee is slow in his work, it is not always because of denial of promotion or poor
work environment
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Reluctance of the management to talk to
union leaders about workers’ problems might provokethem to give a strike call
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Organizational behavior helps understand the causes of poor industrial relations in the organization
and suggest suitable measures for their improvement
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It will not make up for our own
deficiencies
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It is only one of
many systems operating within a larger social system
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1) Behavioral Bias: People who lack system understanding and become superficially infatuated with OB may
develop a behavioral bias, which gives them a narrow viewpoint that emphasizes satisfying employee
experiences while overlooking the broader system of the organization in relation to all its publics
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Sound organizational behavior should help achieve organizational
purposes, not replace them
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To assume
that the objective of OB is simply to create a satisfied workforce is a mistake, for that goal will not
automatically translate into new products and outstanding customer service
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Sound
organizational behavior recognizes a social system in which many types of human needs are served in many of
their good intentions, so overwhelm others with care that the recipients of such care are emotionally smothered
and reduced to dependent—and unproductive—indignity
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They find
excuses for failure rather than take responsibility for progress ways
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8 It is a limiting factor in organizational behavior the same way that it is in economics
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After a certain point, the output from each unit of added
input tends to become smaller
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The law of diminishing returns in organizational behavior works in a
similar way
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The concept implies that for any situation
there is an optimum amount of a desirable practice, such as recognition or participation
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In other words, the fact that a practice is desirable does not mean that
more of it is more desirable
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Why does the law of diminishing returns exist? Essentially, it is a system concept
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The facts state that when an excess of one

variable develops, although that variable is desirable, it tends to restrict the operating benefits of other
variables so substantially that net effectiveness declines
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This relationship shows that organizational effectiveness is achieved not by
maximizing one human variable but by combining all system variables together in a balanced way
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People who lack respect for the
basic dignity of the human being could learn organizational behavior ideas and use them for selfish ends
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People who lack ethical values could use people in unethical ways
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It seeks to
improve the human environment and help people grow toward their potential
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This possibility is true of
knowledge in almost any field, so it is no special limitation of organizational behavior
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The possibility of
manipulation means that people in power in organizations must maintain high ethical and moral integrity and
not misuse their power
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Ethical leadership will recognize such principles as the following:
i) Social Responsibility:Responsibility to others arises whenever people have power in an organization
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iii) Cost-benefit Analysis:In addition to economic costs and benefits, human and social costs and benefits of
an activity will be analyzed in determining whetherto proceed with the activity
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That is why society desperately needs ethical leaders
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It is
concerned with the growth and development of people toward higher levels of competency, creativity, and
fulfillment, because people are the central resource in any organization and any society
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In the traditional approach, managers decided what should be done and then closely
controlled employees to ensure task performance
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The human
resources approach, on the other hand, is supportive
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It assumes that expanded capabilities and opportunities for people will lead directly to improvements in
operating effectiveness
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Essentially, the human resources approach means that better people achieve better results
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Thus it helps managers use in the most appropriate
manner all the current knowledge about people in organizations
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There was a correct way to organize, to delegate, and to
dividework
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Management
principles were considered to be universal
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A
dominant goal for many is to be productive, so this results orientation is a common thread woven through
organizational behavior
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In the same manner, when employee development programs lead to a by-product of better citizens
in a community, a valuable social result occurs
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The
fundamental elements of the systems approach include:
i) There are many variables within a system
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iii) There are many subsystems contained within larger systems
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v) The input-process-output mechanism is cyclical and self-sustaining (it is ongoing, repetitive, and uses
feedback to adjust itself)
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vii) Systems produce both intended and unintended consequences
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Types of Organizational Behavior Models
Organizations differ in the quality of the systems they develop and maintaining and in the results they
achieve
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It depends upon power
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Employees are to follow their boss otherwise they are to be
penalized
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It is just like theory X developed by
McGregor
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2) Custodial Model: Workers being managed under the autocratic model often feel insecurity and
frustration
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That is why
progressive managers felt that there must be some way to develop better employee relationships so that
insecurity and frustration could be dispelled
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The model emphasizes economic reward, security,
organizational dependence, and maintenance factors
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The result tends to be that employees do not
perform much more effectively than under the old autocratic approach
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Through leadership, management provides a climate to help
employees grow and accomplish in the interest of the organization, the things of which they are capable
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4) Collegial Theory: A useful extension of the supportive model is the collegial model
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The theory is based on the principle of mutual
contribution by employer and employees
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Management is

supported to be joint contribution and not the boss
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Contribution of Various Disciplines/Role of Behavioral Science in Management

Organizational behavior is an applied behavioral science that is built upon contributions from a number of
behavioral disciplines
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Modern authors define psychology as the science of individual behavior
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The major areas researched to understand the determinants
of behavior are attitudes, motivation and learning
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Learning is concerned with the changes and adaptations of behavior that occur over time
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2) Medicine: Medicine is perhaps the newest field affecting organizational behavior
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The study of causes and consequences of stress and use
of medicinal drugs to reduce stress is fast becoming an area of study within the organizational setting
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It specifically studies social groups, social behavior, society, customs,
institutions, social classes, status, social mobility and prestige
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It studies the behavior of people in relation to their fellow human beings
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4) Social Psychology: Social psychology is an important branch of psychology, which blends concepts from
both psychology and sociology
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The
contribution of social psychology to OB lies in the study of overcoming resistance to change and
introduction of change in organization
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Thus, Anthropology contributes
a lot in understanding the cultural effect on OB
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are the concern of anthropology
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The themes of interest
to political scientists include how and why people acquire power and such topics as political behavior, group
decision-making, conflict behavior of interest groups, formation of coalition, etc
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Industrial engineering, in particular, has long been
concerned with work measurement, productivity measurement, workflow analysis and design, and labor
relations
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Organizational behavior has learned a great deal from such
economic factors as labor market dynamics, cost-benefit analysis, marginal utility analysis, human resource
planning and forecasting and decision making
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Barriers to trade between different countries have been reduced to a great extent
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For our purposes ,a very important consideration is how
behavioral processes vary widely across cultural and national boundaries
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They also affect the nature of supervisory relationship, decision-making styles and processes, and
organizational configurations
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Thus, globalization has posed both challenges and opportunities
for the managers
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Even if the global manager is
working in his own country, he might have to manage the workers who belong to different cultures
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Similarly, one has to master the art of interacting with bosses and peers belonging to different cultures
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e
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Whereas
globalization focuses on differences between personnel from different countries, workforce diversity addresses
differences among people within the same country
3) Changed Employee Expectations :With the changes in workforce demographics, employee expectations
and attitudes have also changed
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Employees today demand empowerment and
expect quality of status with the management
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4) Increasing Quality Consciousness : Because of increased competition, both from indigenous as well as
from foreign organizations, there is increased emphasis on quality of products and services, that too at
competitive cost
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Because of increased emphasis on quality,
organizations have to change not only their technology but way of their working
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Therefore,
the managers have to adopt suitable practices to ensure that employees accept change willingly and become
part of the mission of spreading quality consciousness throughout the organization
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In the contemporary environment, organizations
must plan and implement change to survive and grow
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6) Ethics and Social Responsibility: Ethics denote the socially accepted beliefs about what is right and
wrong or good and bad
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Various trade associations and chambers of commerce and industry have developed codes of
ethics for their member-organizations to increase the credibility of business

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