Understanding Organizational Behavior
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dhruvUnderstanding Organizational Behavior
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dhruvOrganizational
Behavior
Understanding Organizational
Behavior
• What is organizational behavior. What
makes it different
• Cause and effect relationship
• Understand, predict, control and modify
• Components
• We watch people – explain & interpret
• Intuition: the “gut feeling” explanation of
behavior
• Often we predict behaviour –
The question is whether this
prediction is correct?
E.g : Happy workers produce more
Explaining People are motivated by money
Behavior Difficulty in prediction calls for a systematic
study
• Systematic approach invites us to
a. Move away from intuitive view
of behavior to systematic
analysis so as to improve
accuracy in our prediction &
explanation of behavior
OB – Systematic b. The approach is based on the
Study belief - Behavior is not random.
It is caused & directed toward
some end
c. Though individuals are different,
there are fundamental
consistencies underlying the
behaviour of all individuals
which (i) allows
predictability; & (ii) help us
identify the individual
difference
• Org. theory prior to 1960: Generalized principles of
management. “what business did yesterday or day
before
• Scientific management (Early 20th century):F. W. Taylor
Four basic principles: To find the one "best way"
to perform each task, carefully match each
worker to each task, closely supervise workers,
Schools Of Historical and use reward and punishment as motivators,
Thought
and the task of management is planning and
control
• Max Weber- Expanded on Taylor's theories
Weber's bureaucratic theory emphasized the need for
a hierarchical structure of power. It recognized the
importance of division of labour and specialization
Hawthorne studies (1924 – 1945) :
• Studies were carried out between
1927 and 1933 at the Chicago
Human Hawthorne plant of the Western
Relations Electric Company :
(Importance • Illumination experiment
of attitudes • Relay assembly test room study
and feelings • Bank wiring observation room
experiment
of workers) • Mass interviewing program
The illumination studies
– These studies were expected to determine
the relationship between the level of
illumination and worker’s productivity.
– It was expected that worker’s productivity
would increase with increasing levels of
illumination.
The studies failed to prove any relationship
between worker’s productivity and level of
illumination
The Relay Assembly Test Room Studies
– These studies were carried out to determine the relationship
between worker’s productivity and improved benefits and working
conditions.
– The studies found out that there was no cause - and - effect
relationship between working conditions and output.
– Rather, there were other factors that affected worker’s output
such as his/her attitudes and supervisor behavior
The Bank Wiring Room studies
– This study was expected to study the effect of group influence on workers
productivity.
– The researchers found out that an informal grouping and relationship was
a critical factor in the workers’ productivity.
– The informal group determined the group’s productivity, and functioned as
a protective mechanism (served both for internal and external purposes).
The Interviewing Program
– A group of employees were interviewed to learn more about their
opinions with respect to their work, working conditions and supervision.
The workers suggested that:
– Psychological factors help determine whether a worker is satisfied or
dissatisfied in any particular work situation
– The person’s need for self-actualization determines his/her satisfaction in
the work
– A person’s work group and his relationship to it, also determines his/her
productivity.
Conclusions on Hawthorne experiments
• An industrial organization is a socio technical system. The socio
part is the human aspects that need to be taken care of in order to
increase workers’ productivity and the technical system is the
physical aspects that also need to be improved.
• Employee attitudes and morale are also important determinants of
productivity.
• Other factors include worker’s personality and supervisor’s
behavior. These two also affect worker’s attitude and morale.
• A worker’s social group has a prevailing effect on his or her attitude
and productivity
Criticisms of the Hawthorne studies
Methodology
• The study methodology lacks the basis for
generalizations
• The participants were aware that they were a part
of an ongoing experiment
Findings
• The cause – and – effect relationship conclusions
lack general support and scientific verifiability.
Models of Individual behaviour
• Person x Situation= Performance
• Ability x Motivation= Performance
[Skill-and-will model]
MARS Model of Individual Behavior
Types of Individual Behavior in the Workplace
Types of Individual Behavior in the Workplace
Counterproductive Voluntary behaviors that potentially harm
Work Behaviors the organization
Joining/staying with Agreeing to employment relationship;
the Organization remaining in that relationship
Contributing Fields to Organizational Behavior
Sociology
the science
Psychology of society
the science of Engineering
human behavior the applied science
of energy & matter
Interdisciplinary
Anthropology Influences on
the science of the Organizational Medicine
learned behavior
of human beings
Behavior the applied science of
healing or treatment of
diseases to enhance an
Management individual’s health and
the study of overseeing well-being
activities and supervising
people in organizations
Contributing Disciplines to the OB Field
Micro:
The Individual Psychology
Social Psychology
Sociology
Macro:
Groups &
Organizations
Anthropology
Open Systems View of Organization: Leavitt's Model
Task environment:
Competitors
Unions
Regulatory agencies
Clients
Structure
Inputs:
Material Outputs:
Capital Task Technology Products
Human Services
People
(Actors)
Organizational Boundary
(Leavitt’s Model)
Task - an organization’s mission,
purpose, or goal for existing
People - the human resources of the
organization
Structure - the manner in which an
organization’s work is designed at
the micro level; how departments,
Components of an
divisions, & the overall organization
Organization are designed at the macro level
Technology - the intellectual and
mechanical processes used by an
organization to transform inputs into
products or services that meet
organizational goals
Practical application
Why study
Organizational Personal growth
Behavior
Increased knowledge
Let people be themselves
Unleash the flow of information
Magnify people’s strength, company
To design the best adds value to its employee
company on earth to
work for Stand for more than shareholder
value
Show how the daily work make sense, that the
organization stands for something meaningful
Have rules people can believe in
Thinking Positive/ Positive
Organizational Behaviour
• Creating a positive work
environment can be a
competitive advantage
• Positive Organizational
Beahviour :
– Examines how
organizations develop
human strengths, foster
vitality and resilience, and
unlock potential.
– Focus is on employee
strengths, not their
weaknesses.
It will provide solutions to all
managerial problems
Emphasizes employee satisfaction
at the cost of organizational
effectiveness and efficiency
Four pitfalls
Techniques are often considered
not reliable and unethical
Interdependencies and
incompleteness of understanding of
OB can blind us to valuable
information
• No one best way
• Not all are equally effective
• Solutions cannot be used by unlimited degrees of
freedom
• It helps in understanding motives, personality,
perception…
• OB concepts must reflect situational conditions:
contingency variables
Conclusio
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