organisational behaviour UNIT 1

 

CONCEPT OF ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR 

here is no shortage of quotes in which inspirational business leaders describe the sources of their success. Their reasons are often diverse, but almost everyone comes back to the same thing: people. The people are the company; they create success. Even so, there is more to successful business leadership than managing human capital, since you must also have a suitable structure and culture at your firm. I

imagine the U.S. military: it boasts some of the best-trained soldiers in the world, but that talent would be wasted without a structure designed to appropriately deploy forces. In other words, the military would not be as successful without streamlined organizational behavior. Organizational behavior (OB) is the study of how people interact in organizations. These interactions are governed by a number of factors, including your personal life, the personality of your boss or your boss' boss, a direct report, the team you have been assigned to, or the direction that the top of the organization has given to you. OB researchers carefully monitor these dynamics within an organization, because any time there is friction, money is lost. A certain level of friction is to be expected (and often even desired), but most of the friction that occurs within an organization is counterproductive and detrimental to the bottom line. 

what is an organization? An organization is a collection of individuals arranged in a particular way and embedded in an ever-changing environment in order to achieve a common goal. 

organizations in business, focusing on how the individual plays a role in the success of the organization. You will learn that you must understand what influences individual behavior before you can study how individuals interact with organizations. As in psychology and sociology, the individual person is the focus of organizational behavior. Because sciences like psychology and sociology are older, more established fields of study than organizational behavior,

in very simple words, organizations can be defined as group of people coming

together to achieve a common goal.

What Is Organizational Behavior?

1. Organizational behavior (OB) is defined as the systematic study and application of knowledge about how individuals and groups act within the organizations where they work. As you will see throughout this book, definitions are important. They are important because they tell us what something is as well as what it is not. For example, we will not be addressing childhood development in this course—that concept is often covered in psychology—but we might draw on research about twins raised apart to understand whether job attitudes are affected by genetics.
2. OB draws from other disciplines to create a unique field. , you will most likely recognize OB’s roots in other disciplines. For example, when we review topics such as personality and motivation, we will again review studies from the field of psychology. The topic of team processes relies heavily on the field of sociology. relating to decision making, you will come across the influence of economics. When we study power and influence in organizations, we borrow heavily from political sciences. Even medical science contributes to the field of organizational behavior, particularly to the study of stress and its effects on individuals.

behaviour. So, what is behavior? In general, psychology is considered to be study of behavior. So, what is behavior? In a very simple way, behaviour is a response to a stimulus. So, for example, you are

supposed to learn through what I am teaching or what I am lecturing; so learning is a behaviour or a response which happens because of the stimuli which you get, which is my lecture.

Why Organizational Behavior Matters

OB matters at three critical levels. It matters because it is all about things you care about. OB can help you become a more engaged organizational member. Getting along with others, getting a great job, lowering your stress level, making more effective decisions, and working effectively within a team…these are all great things, and OB addresses them!

It matters because employers care about OB. A recent survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) asked employers which skills are the most important for them when evaluating job candidates, and OB topics topped the list.

The following were the top five personal qualities/skills:

1. Communication skills (verbal and written)
2. Honesty/integrity
3. Interpersonal skills (relates well to others)
4. Motivation/initiative
5. Strong work ethic

SO  organizational behaviour is understanding human behaviour at work. When you say human behavior, it can be of many levels; it can be at individual level, which is like their
motivation, attitude, perception and things like that. It can be interpersonal, interpersonal means between people; conflict, cooperation and things like that. Group dynamics, in more than two people; in groups and teams, is what kind of things happen within a team.

Nature of OB can be well understood with the following definitions:

  “Organisation behaviour is the study which is used to evaluate overall recourses (Physical resources and human recourse) and helps to enhance the productivity of the organisation.”  “Organization behaviour is a systematic study to examine the knowledge of individual at work and their act within the organisation.” 

 V.G. Kondalkar defined ‘it is the study to investigate the impact of behaviour on an individual, group of individuals and organisational structure within the organisation. The focus is given to enhance and apply such knowledge to gain organisational effectiveness. 

Further he has divided the definition in three key elements: a. Organizational behaviour is an investigative study of an individual or groups of individuals. b. The impact of organisational behaviour studies on human behaviour. c. The proper utilization of knowledge to achieve organisational goal effectively. 

Concepts of OB Organisational behaviour is based on fundamental concepts which involve the nature of people and nature of the organisations. 

The basic assumptions underlying the concept of OB are given as below:

  Individual differences- Every individual is different from another individual in terms of his/her intelligence, personality, physique etc. The concept of individual differences is evolved from the field of psychology. It is assumed that every individual differs from another individual from the very first day of his/her birth. But, unique experiences which the individual face during different stages of life make him/her even more different. The concept of individual differences has motivated management to treat employees differently and find broad ways of dealing with employees.  Good human relations- 

Organizational behaviour has attempts to maintain interpersonal relationships between employers and employees. It provides directions regarding how to maintain good relation with employees and how to solve their problem.

  Effective Organizational climate- OB stresses upon maintaining a good climate by developing sound interpersonal relations, hygienic working conditions, fair and adequate 

ORGANIZATION GROUP OF INDIVIDUAL INDIVIDUAL compensation, better and safe operation equipment, effective leadership, employee participation etc. 

 Motivation of Human Resources- Field of OB has motivated managers to motivate the employees by giving them various kinds of rewards and appreciate them on the basis of quality of work.

  Perception- Perceptions of people differ when they see an object. In the similar way, in organizations, employees see and perceive work differently. This is primarily because of their different personalities, needs, demographics factors, past experiences and social surroundings. 

 Desire for involvement- Every employee is actively seeking opportunities so as to involve him/her in decision-making problems and to share what they know and to learn from the new experiences. Therefore, organizations should provide employees a chance to express their opinions, ideas and suggestions for decision-making problems. A meaningful involvement can bring mutual benefit to both parties. 

 A whole person- When an organisation recruits a new employee, only skills and qualities of that employee is not hired but, his/her social background, like and dislikes, needs, motives, pride, motivations and prejudices are also hired. Organisations accept the employees along with their personal lives and attempt to create home away from home.

  Caused behaviour- Human beings are rational beings and therefore the behaviour expressed by the employees in the organisation is also caused and not random. Behaviour of employees is always directed towards some goals or ends which suits their interest. The challenge for OB managers is to understand the cause behind a particular behaviour of an employee and the ways to modify the behaviour. 

 Human dignity- The concept of human dignity is driven by ethical philosophy rather than the scientific principles of management. The concept guides that every individual should be treated with dignity and respect. The concepts also suggests that human beings are of higher order than other factors of production and therefore any comparison between human beings and non human factors of production is not fair. This philosophy rejects the old philosophy of considering human resources as an economic tool.

  Organisations are social systems- Organisations are social systems and therefore their activities, policies and procedures are governed by the social as well as psychological laws. Like individuals, organisations also have social norms and status. Growth and performance of the organisations are influenced by the behaviour of groups and individual drives of people working in it. In every organisation, two types of social systems run in parallel: formal system and informal social system.