Introducing Organizational

Behaviour

Dr. Kirti Rajhans

People
Make the Difference
Organization

 An Organization is a structured social

system consisting of groups and
individuals working together to meet
some agreed upon objectives.
Organization
 Organizations are hard to see
 Whole organization is vague and abstract
 Organizations are made up by people and
their relationship with one another
 An organization exists when people
interact with one another to perform
essentials function
 There are various types of organizations
Behavior
 Behaviour is a series of activities

 The way in which an animal or person behaves

in response to a particular situation or
stimulus.

 Lewin‟s words, „to understand or to predict

behaviour, the person and his environment
have to be considered as one constellation of
interdependent factors‟ (1946:338)

 Behaviour is basically goal oriented

 Common examples of Bad
Behaviour:
 Taking credit for other's efforts
 Passing blame for our own mistakes
 Not listening
 Belittling others
 Withholding information
 Paying little attention or showing little interest in
others‟ opinions
 Making demeaning or derogatory remarks to
someone
 Avoiding someone
 Checking e-mail or texting during meetings
 Organizational Behaviour
OB is a field of study that
investigates the impact that
individuals, groups, and structure have
on behaviour within organizations for
the purpose of applying such
knowledge toward improving an
organization‟s effectiveness.

OB studies three determinants of

behaviour in organizations:

 Individuals
 Groups
 Structure
 OB studies what people do in an
organization and how that
behavior affects the performance
of the organization.

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 Why Study OB?

Effective and competitive organizations

Helps you to retain the people who came up

with the good ideas and good work

Useful in any job, organization, industry, or in

general life too

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 Why Study OB?
 OB theories have widespread applications

 Knowing these theories can help you to:

◦ Evaluate “solutions” proposed by consultants
and managers
◦ Solve new problems and adapt to new
situations
◦ Stay “current” in your field

 Evidence-based management is crucial

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Goals of Organizational Behavior

 Explain, Predict, and

Control human behaviour

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 What Managers Do

They get things done through other people.

 Management Activities:
◦ Make decisions
◦ Allocate resources
◦ Direct activities of others to attain goals

 Work in an organization
◦ A consciously coordinated social unit composed of
two or more people that functions on a relatively
continuous basis to achieve a common goal or set of
goals.
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Management Functions

Plan Organize

Managers

Lead Control
Mintzberg‟s Managerial Roles

 Discovered ten managerial roles

 Separated into three groups:

◦ Interpersonal
◦ Informational
◦ Decisional
Mintzberg‟s Managerial Roles: Interpersonal

Figurehead

Leader Liaison
Interpersonal Roles
Mintzberg‟s Managerial Roles: Informational

Monitor

Spokesperson Disseminator

Informational Roles
Mintzberg’s Managerial Roles: Decisional

Entrepreneur

Disturbance
Negotiator
handler

Resource allocator

Decisional Roles
 Essential Management Skills
 Technical Skills
◦ The ability to apply specialized
knowledge or expertise

 Human Skills
◦ The ability to work with,
understand, and motivate other
people, both individually and in
groups

 Conceptual Skills
◦ The mental ability to analyze and
diagnose complex situations
Luthans‟ Study of Managerial
Activities
 Four types of managerial activity:
◦ Traditional Management
 Decision making, planning, and controlling
◦ Communication
 Exchanging routine information and processing
paperwork
◦ Human Resource Management
 Motivating, disciplining, managing conflict, staffing,
and training
◦ Networking
 Socializing, politicking, and interacting with others
 Successful vs. Effective Allocation by
Time

Managers who got promoted faster (were successful) did

different things than did effective managers (those who did
their jobs well)
Contributing Disciplines

Many behavioral sciences

have contributed to the
development of
Organizational
Psychology
Behavior

Social
Psychology

Sociology Anthropology
 Contributing Disciplines
Psychology seeks to Sociology studies
measure,explain, people in relation to their
and change fellow human beings
behavior

Social psychology
focuses on the
influence of people
on one another

Political science is the

Anthropology is the
study of the
study of societies
behavior of individuals
to learn about human
and groups within
beings and their activities
a political environment 21
Challenges and Opportunities for
OB
The major challenges and opportunities are:
 Responding to Economic Pressures
 Responding to Globalization
 Managing Workforce Diversity

Some other challenges and

opportunities include:
 Improving Customer Service
 Improving People Skills
 Stimulating Innovation and Change
 Coping with “Temporariness”
 Working in Networked Organizations
 Helping Employees Balance Work-Life Conflicts
 Creating a Positive Work Environment
 Improving Ethical Behavior

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 Responding to Economic Pressures
 What do you do during difficult
economic times?

◦ Effective management is critical

during hard economic times.

◦ Managers need to handle difficult

activities such as firing
employees, motivating
employees to do more with less,
and working through the stress
employees feel when they are
worrying about their future.

◦ OB focuses on issues such as

stress, decision making, and
coping during difficult times.
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 Responding to Globalization
 Increased foreign
assignments

 Working with people

from different cultures

 Overseeing movement
of jobs to countries
with low-cost labor

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Managing Workforce Diversity
 The people in organizations are becoming more
heterogeneous demographically
◦ Embracing diversity
◦ Changing demographics
◦ Changing management philosophy
◦ Recognizing and responding to differences

Disability
Domestic
Gender
Partners

Race Age

National
Religion
Origin
 Developing an OB Model
 A model is an abstraction of reality – a simplified
representation of some real-world phenomenon.
 Our OB model has three levels of analysis
◦ Each level is constructed on the prior level

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Interesting OB Dependent Variables
 Productivity
◦ Transforming inputs to outputs at lowest cost.
Includes the concepts of effectiveness (achievement
of goals) and efficiency (meeting goals at a low cost).
 Absenteeism
◦ Failure to report to work – a huge cost to employers.
 Turnover
◦ Voluntary and involuntary permanent withdrawal
from an organization.
 Deviant Workplace Behavior
◦ Voluntary behavior that violates significant
organizational norms and thereby threatens the well-
being of the organization and/or any of its members.
Managerial Implications
 Managers need to develop their interpersonal skills to be
effective.

 OB focuses on how to improve factors that make

organizations more effective.

 The best predictions of behavior are made from a

combination of systematic study and intuition.

 Situational variables moderate cause-and-effect relationships,

which is why OB theories are contingent.

 There are many OB challenges and opportunities for

managers today.