Organisational Behaviour
Unit 1
Definitions:
1. Organisation:- is an organized group of people with a particular purpose.
Behavior:- the way in which one acts or conducts oneself, especially towards others
Organizational behavior is the study of both group and individual performance and
activity within an organization.
2. OB is the study of the way people interact within groups. Normally this study is applied
in an attempt to create more efficient business organizations.
3. OB is defined as the actions and attitudes of individuals and groups toward one another
and toward the organization as a whole, and its effect on the organization's functioning
and performance.
4. According to Keith Davis "organizational behaviour is the study and application of
knowledge about how people act within organizations. It is human tool for the human
benefit. It applies broadly to behaviour of people in all type of organization such as
business, government, schools, etc. it helps people, structure, technology, and the external
environment blend together in to an effective operative system".
5. Stephen Robins defines as a "field of study that investigates the impact that individuals,
groups, and structure have an organization for the purpose of applying such knowledge
improving an organization's effectiveness".
6. Organisational behaviour is the study of what an individual thinks feels or does in and
around an organisation, both individual and in group. It investigates people's emotions
and behaviour, behaviour & performances in a team, systems & structures of
organisations. It helps to explore and provide an understanding of all the factors that are
necessary to create an effective organisation.
Goals of OB:-
The following are the goals of OB(source OB by Shuchi Sharma-McGraw Hill publication):-
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to describe systematically how people behave under variety of conditions
To understand why people behave as they do
To predict future employee behavior
to control & develop human activity at work
The above process ensures that organizational goals are achieved ie:-
To encourage the people, to work enthusiastically in the organization.
To create an environment for the development of effective leadership.
To develop effective group behavior among the employees.
To identify the reasons for conflict and to resolve the conflict.
To find out the reasons for frustration and reduce or eliminate the reasons.
To increase the moral of employees of the organization.
To maintain the organizational environment favorable for the work.
To find out the ways for effective organizational development.
To emphasize on employee productivity, reduce absenteeism, and turnover.
Organizational citizenship—a fourth type of behavior becoming important in determining
employee performance.
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Fundamental Concepts of Organizational Behavior:
Individual differences:
All people are different from each other and behave different under similar conditions. Thus,
people have to be treated differently and managers should realize this and eliminate any
stereotypes they hold for workers.
Whole Person:
Companies should consider its employees as the whole person, not just a pair of hands.
Employees should be treated as people with wants and needs, which should be addressed
accordingly. It should be noted that employees interact with each other, and the behavior of one
employee may influence the behavior of others, and the entire community.
Motivation:
If managers respect their employees, they'll get respect in return. Motivation is a theoretical
construct used to explain behavior. It represents the reasons for people's actions, desires, and
needs. Motivation can also be defined as one's direction to behavior or what causes a person to
want to repeat a behavior and vice versa. Internal and external factors that stimulate desire
and energy in people to be continually interested and committed to a job, role or subject, or to
make an effort to attain a goal.
Motivation results from the interaction of both conscious and unconscious factors such as the
(1) intensity of desire or need, (2) incentive or reward value of the goal, and (3) expectations of
the individual and of his or her peers. These factors are the reasons one has for behaving a
certain way. An example is a student that spends extra time studying for a test because he or
she wants a better grade in the class.
Human Dignity:
This concept is very philosophical. Every human being needs to be treated with dignity and
respect, whether it's the CEO of the company or a labourer.
Perception:
Peoples perceptions are also differ when they see an object. Two people can differently present a
same object. And this is occurring for their experiences. A person always organizes and interprets
what he sees according to his lifetime of experience and accumulated value.
Employees also see work differently for differ in their personalities, needs, demographics factors,
past experiences and social surrounding.
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Desire for involvement:
Every employee is actively seeking opportunities at work to involve in decision-making
problems. They hunger for the chance to share what they know and to learn from the
experience. So, organization should provide them a chance to express their opinions, ideas and
suggestion for decision-making problem. A meaningful involvement can bring mutual benefit for
both parties.
Value of the person:
An employee wants to be treated separately from other factor of production (land, capital, labor).
They refuse to accept the old idea that they are simply treated as economic tools because they are
best creation of almighty. For this reason, they want to be treated with carrying respect, dignity
and other things from their employers and society.
Models of OB
1) Autocratic Model
This model relies on power. For example, managers have the ability, authority to control their
employees. The employee’s performance in this model will be much lower than expected. The
manager has the power to demand “you do this or else” – and an employee who does not follow
orders is punished. The manager has formal, official, authority over employees. This model
assumes that employees have to be directed and pushed into doing the work. In this model,
management does the thinking, employees obey orders and depend on the manager. Employees
are tightly controlled. The manager can hire, fire and “perspire” them. Employees may obey
managers but employees may not respect management.
Typically, employees receive minimum pay for minimum expected performance. Employees
may have lower skills. Often, employees work in the authority model because they have to….to
provide subsistence for themselves and their families. Its weakness is that it leads to “micro
management” With micro management, managers control all details of daily operations.
Managers control time and processes, they put their needs above those of employees, they insist
on complicated approval processes for even the smallest things and closely monitor all
results.The problem with the autocratic model and micro management is that it leads to low
employee morale, poor decision-making (no one will make a decision because he/ she is afraid of
the decision being over turned) and high turnover. As well, employees kept quiet about hating the
workplace, they certainly made their feelings known at home and in the community.
This model can get things done BUT it has high human costs. It can be useful in crisis situations,
within armies or with short-term employees. The autocratic model was acceptable 100 years ago.
However, today’s understanding of people’s needs as well as changing society values show better
ways of to organize behavior.
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2) Custodial Model
This model usually depends on economic resources (money) to motivate employees. For
instance, managers can simulate their employees by offering them facilities, and benefits, but in
this model the employee’s won’t work as a team (Less sharing with others) because everyone
will depend on himself to get more benefits than the others. The company has to have enough
money to cover these costs. By the 1930’s most employers were offering welfare programs for
example, housing, medical care and insurance, fewer working hours sick pay, pensions and paid
vacation time off.
The problem with the custodial model is that it leads to dependence on the organization by the
employee because of the security offered. Employees do not want to leave the organization, not
so much because they like the job, but because they like or depend on the benefits that go with it.
They cannot afford to quit.In this model, employees may focus on economic rewards. They may
be reasonable content, but may not be highly motivated – just passively cooperative.
Companies that adopt the custodial approach normally have a lower staff turnover. However,
employees do not produce their best work and are not motivated to grow to their full potential.
The custodial model is a good foundation for organizations to grow to the next approach.
3) Supportive Model
This model relies on leadership. For example, managers support their employees by encouraging,
and supporting them to perform a better job, get along with each other and as well as developing
their skills. The Performance results will be awakened drives. The supportive model assumes that
employees want to work and will take responsibility. Employees are encouraged to be involved
in the organization.
Employees are more strongly motivated because their status and recognition needs are better met
than with earlier models. The supportive approach is not about money, but about the way people
are treated at work. A supportive manager helps employees solve problems and accomplish their
work. However, some managers may agree with the model but not actually practice it at work.
This model is followed widely, especially in the West, because it responds to employee drives for
complex needs. It is especially useful in production work places. Employees in developing
countries are aware of management practices around the world and are demanding more modern
approaches.
4) Collegial Model
This model means that employees depend on each other cooperatively and work as a team to do
the task. Everyone will be having a normal enthusiasm self-discipline, and responsible behavior
towards their tasks. This model began about 50 years ago. Collegial means people working
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together cooperatively. In this model, management builds a feeling of partnership with
employees. The environment is open and people participate.
The collegial model is about team work. Managers are coaches to help build better teams.
Employees are responsible – they feel obliged to others on the team to produce quality work.
Employees must be self-disciplined. Many employees feel satisfied that they are making a
worthwhile contribution. This leads to self actualization and moderate enthusiasm in the way
they perform.The collegial model is especially useful for creative work, like marketing or
communications or in thinking environments, like education or planning.
5) System Model
This model is based on trust, self-motivation, and the performance results will be more than
expected, because employees will be committed to do their tasks as expected, and as well as
organizational goals. This is the most recent model. In this model, people want more than
money, job security and cooperative teams. Employees today want trust, an ethical workplace,
managers who show care and compassion and a workplace that has a sense of community.
The system model focuses on “identifying developing and managing the strengths within
employees”. Managers focus on “helping employees develop feelings of hope, optimism, self
confidence, empathy, trustworthiness, esteem, courage, efficacy and resiliency.” In the system
model, “Managers protect and nurture their employees…to develop a positive workplace culture
which leads to organizational success and committed employees.” Both managers and employees
need social intelligence in this model with managers as facilitators.
Historical Background of Organizational Behavior
OB is an old concept because every civilisation has taken interest in behaviour within
organisation. In the past organisational behaviour has tended to be based on psychology. The
development of OB has been an integral part of the development of business and management
studies as a whole. However , it was only 100 years ago that people first became interested in
studying behaviour in organisation and only during the last 50 years that it gained widespread
acceptance. Briefly we can search for the roots of modern OB and the most influential forces in
its development within four major eras of its development.
Early practices and thinking
1. The classical era
2. The behavioural era
3. OB today
OB today has become an interdisciplinary conglomerate. It can be viewed as an interdisciplinary
application of behavioural science knowledge.
Scientific Management
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The Industrial Revolution that started with the development of steam power and the creation of
large factories in the late Eighteenth Century lead to great changes in the production of textiles
and other products. The factories that evolved, created tremendous challenges to organization
and management that had not been confronted before. Managing these new factories and later
new entities like railroads with the requirement of managing large flows of material, people, and
information over large distances created the need for some methods for dealing with the new
management issues.
The most important of those who began to create a science of management was Frederic
Winslow Taylor, (1856-1915). Taylor was one of the first to attempt to systematically analyze
human behavior at work. His model was the machine with its cheap, interchangeable parts, each
of which does one specific function. Taylor attempted to do to complex organizations what
engineers had done to machines and this involved making individuals into the equivalent of
machine parts. Just as machine parts were easily interchangeable, cheap, and passive, so too
should the human parts be the same in the Machine model of organizations.
This involved breaking down each task to its smallest unit and to figure out the one best way to
do each job. Then the engineer, after analyzing the job should teach it to the worker and make
sure the worker does only those motions essential to the task.. Taylor attempted to make a
science for each element of work and restrict behavioral alternatives facing worker. Taylor
looked at interaction of human characteristics, social environment, task, and physical
environment, capacity, speed, durability, and cost. The overall goal was to remove human
variability.
The Human Relations Movement
Despite the economic progress brought about in part by Scientific Management, critics were
calling attention to the "seamy side of progress," which included severe labor/management
conflict, apathy, boredom, and wasted human resources. These concerns lead a number of
researchers to examine the discrepancy between how an organization was supposed to work
versus how the workers actually behaved. In addition, factors like World War I, developments in
psychology (eg. Freud) and later the depression, all brought into question some of the basic
assumptions of the Scientific Management School. One of the primary critics of the time, Elton
Mayo, claimed that this "alienation" stemmed from the breakdown of the social structures caused
by industrialization, the factory system, and its related outcomes like growing urbanization.
The Western Electric (Hawthorne Works) Studies (1923-1933)
The most famous of these studies was the Hawthorne Studies which showed how work groups provide
mutual support and effective resistance to management schemes to increase output. This study found
that workers didn't respond to classical motivational approaches as suggested in the Scientific
Management and Taylor approaches, but rather workers were also interested in the rewards and
punishments of their own work group. These studies, conducted in the 1920's started as a
straightforward attempt to determine the relationship between work environment and productivity. The
results of the research led researchers to feel that they were dealing with socio-psychological factors
that were not explained by classic theory which stressed the formal organization and formal leadership.
The Hawthorne Studies helped us to see that an organization is more than a formal arrangement of
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functions but is also a social system. In the following chart, we can see a comparison of traditional
assumptions vs. a newer "human relations" view.
Human relations Assumptions
organizations are social systems, not just technical
economic systems
we are motivated by many needs
we are not always logical
we are interdependent; our behavior is often shaped
by the social context
informal work group is a major factor in determining
Traditional Assumptions attitudes and performance of individual workers
people try to satisfy one class management is only one factor affecting behavior;
of need at work: economic the informal group often has a stronger impact
need
no conflict exists betwene job roles are more complex than job descriptions
individual and organizational would suggest; people act in many ways not covered
objectives by job descriptions
people act rationally to there is no automatic correlation between individual
maximize rewards and organizational needs
we act individually to satisfy communication channels cover both
individual needs logical/economic aspects of an organization and
feelings of people
teamwork is essential for cooperation and sound
technical decisions
leadership should be modified to include concepts of
human relations
job satisfaciton will lead to higher job productivity
management requires effective social skills, not just
technical skills
Results of the Hawthorne Studies and the related research
These studies added much to our knowledge of human behavior in organizations and created
pressure for management to change the traditional ways of managing human resources. The
Human Relations Movement pushed managers toward gaining participative support of lower
levels of the organization in solving organization problems. The Movement also fostered a more
open and trusting environment and a greater emphasis on groups rather than just individuals
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Douglas McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y
Douglas McGregor was one of the great popularizes of Human Relations approach with his Theory X
and Theory Y. In his research he found that although many managers spouted the right ideas, their actual
managers indicated a series of assumptions that McGregor called Theory X. However, research seemed
to clearly suggest that these assumptions were not valid but rather a different series of notions about
human behavior seemed more valid. He called these Theory Y and urged managers to managed based
on these more valid Theory Y notions.
Work is inherently distasteful to most
people Work is as natural as play if the conditions
are favorable
Most people are not ambitious, have
little desire for responsibility, and Self-control is often indispensible in
prefer to be directed achieving organizational goals
Most people have little capacity for The capacity for creativity is spread
creativity in solving organizational throughout organizations
problems
Motivation occurs at affiliation, esteem,
Motivation occurs only at the and self-actualization levels, not just
physiiological and security levels security, physiological levels
Most people must be closely controlled People can be self-directed and creative at
and often coerced to achieve work if properly motivated
organizational objectives
