Chapter 1: Introduction to Organizational Behaviour

Meaning of Organisational Behaviour

Organisation: It is an official group of people.

Behave: The way that you behave is the way that you do and say things, and the things that you do and say.

Behaviour: People’s or animals’ behaviour is the way that they behave.

Organisational behaviour can be defined as the understanding, prediction, and management of human behaviour.

Organizational behaviour represents the human side of management, not the whole management.

Organizational Behaviour is a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behavior within organizations, for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organization’s effectiveness.

Explanation

OB is a field of study : It is a distinct area of expertise with a common body of knowledge.

What does it study?It studies three determinants of behaviour in an organization: individual, group, and structure.

OB applies the knowledge gained, about individuals, groups, and the effect of structure on behaviour in order to make organizations work more effectively.

OB is concerned with what people do in an organization and how that behaviour affects the performance of the organization.

Contributing Disciplines to the OB Field

Introduction to Organizational Behaviour

Meaning and DefinitionSignificance of OBScope of OB

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OB is an applied behavioural science that is built upon contributions from a number of behavioural disciplines.

Psychology: The science that seeks to measure, explain, and sometimes change the behaviour of humans and other animals.

Sociology: The study of people in relations to their fellow human beings.

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Social Psychology: An area within psychology that blends concepts from psychology and sociology and that focuses on the influence of people on one another.

Anthropology: The study of societies to learn about human beings and their activities.

Political Science : The study of the behaviour of individuals and groups within a political environment

Significance of OB

People are truly the competitive advantage of an organization.

The basic premise and assumptions of the field of organizational behaviour in general are that managing the people- the human resources of an organization- have been, are, and will continue to be the major challenge and critical competitive advantage.

“People are the key.”- Sam Walton ( founder of Wal Mart)

“The inventory, the value of my company, walks out the door every evening.”- Bill Gates

The technology can be purchased and copied; it levels the playing field. The people, on the other hand, cannot be copied. Although human bodies can be cloned in the future, their ideas, personalities, motivation, and organizational cultural values cannot be copied.

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The human resource of an organization and how they are managed represents the competitive advantage of todays and tomorrow’s organization and are becoming widely recognized as human capital.

Management is generally considered to have three major dimensions:

i. Technical (The ability to apply specialized knowledge or expertise.),ii. Conceptual (The mental ability to analyze and diagnose complex situations.),

&iii. Human (The ability to work with, understand, and motivate other people, both

individually and in groups.)

Human behaviour at the workplace is very complicated and diverse. The new perspective assumes that employees are extremely complex and that there is a need for theoretical understanding backed by rigorous empirical research before applications can be made for managing people effectively.

Scope of OB

OB is a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behaviour within an organization, and then applies that knowledge to make organizations work more effectively.

Specifically, OB focuses on how to improve productivity, reduce absenteeism and turnover, and increase employee job satisfaction.

OB uses systematic study to improve predictions of behaviour that would be made from institutions alone. But because people are different, one needs to look at OB in a contingency framework, using situational variables to moderate cause-effect relations.

OB offers both challenges and opportunities for managers. It recognizes differences and helps managers to see the workforce diversity and practices that may need to be changed when managing in different countries.

OB can help improve quality and employee productivity by showing managers how to empower their people as well as how to design and implement change programs.

OB offers specific insights to improve a manager’s people skills.OB can help managers learn to cope in a world of temporariness and to manage a workforce that has undergone the trauma of downsizing.

OB can offer managers guidance in creating an ethically healthy work climate.

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