REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES

OCCIDENTAL MINDORO STATE COLLEGE

Brgy. Labangan, San Jose, Occidental Mindoro 5100
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Co
llege of Business, Administration and Management

CHAPTER I

An Overview of Human Behavior in

Organizations (HBO)
 What is Human Behavior

 What is Organizational Behavior (OB)

 The Benefits of Studying Organizational Behavior (OB)

 A Brief History of Organizational Behavior (OB)

 Ethics and Organizational Behavior (OB)

 CHAPTER I

AN OVERVIEW OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR

For so long, man made serious attempts to be productive, economic or otherwise. He did it either
individually or in group. In his quest for fulfilling his dreams, he is always confronted with the
risk of failure, and the risk is most often associated with the human factor, i.e., him and the
others. Even if it was a machine that disrupted the production process, the person who decided to
buy or use the machine faces the risk of placing his character under suspicion.

It has become clear that the quality and quantity of the output of the individual, the
group, or the organization depend heavily on the actions of the person. It follows that those who
have knowledge of human behavior are better equipped to interact with individuals, groups,
or organizations.

DEFINING HUMAN BEHAVIOR

Human behavior refers to the physical actions of a person that can be seen or heard such as
smiling or whistling. With his thoughts, feelings, emotions, and sentiments, the person exhibits
behaviors similar or different when he is in or out of organizations.

Human behavior in organizations is more appropriately referred to as Organizational

Behavior (OB).

WHAT IS ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

Organizational behavior or OB may be defined as the study of human behavior in

organization, of the interaction between individuals and the organization, and of the
organization itself.

The Goals of OB

The three (3) goals of OB are as follows:

1. To explain behavior;
2. To predict behavior; and
3. To control behavior.

(Figure 1: THE PLACES WHERE THE PERSON EXHIBITS HIS BEHAVIOR)

In explaining behavior as a goal, OB needs to systematically describe how people behave

under a variety of conditions, and understand why people behave as they do.

OB must be used to predict behavior so support can be provided to productive and

dedicated employees, and measures could be instituted to control the disruptive and less
productive ones.
OB can offer some means for management to control the behavior of employees. As control
is an important component of effective performance, the usefulness of OB must not be
overlooked.

The Elements of OB

Four (4) elements operate in OB. They are:

1. People
2. Structure
3. Technology
4. Environment

The internal social system of the organization is composed of people consisting of

individual persons and groups. The individual person is inducted as member of a formal group,
but soon, he or she may become a member of an informal group.

The structure defines the formal relationship of people in the organization. It described how job
tasks are formally divided, grouped and coordinated.

Technology refers to the combination of resources, knowledge and techniques with which
people work and affect the task that they perform. It consists of buildings, machines, work
processes, and assembled resources.

Environment refers to institutions or forces outside the organization that potentially affect
the organization’s performance. It includes suppliers, customers, competitors, government
regulatory agencies, public pressure groups, and the like.

THE BENEFITS OF STUDYING ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

(OB)

The study of OB offers certain benefits. They are as follows:

1. Development of people skills;

2. Personal growth;
3. Enhancement of organizational and individual effectiveness; and
4. Sharpening and refinement of common sense.

Development of People Skills

There are two types of skills that a person will need to succeed in his or her chosen career:

1. The skill in doing his work; and

2. The skill in relating with people.

A person who is much adept in the performance of his work may be successful up to a certain
extent, but he will require another skill to make other people believe that he should be
more successful than his current achievement.
An example is the dentist who is well-trained in his discipline but is avoided by many would-be
patients. It is not surprising to see a number of dentists with insufficient number of
patients. Many of these dentists would benefit from acquiring people skills through the study
of OB.

Another example is the group of highly productive employees who complain that they are always
bypassed in promotions. Studying OB may help them find answers to their queries.

Personal Growth

Personal growth makes a person highly competitive in the workplace. The chance to
achieve personal is enhanced by knowledge of OB. For instance, knowledge of the
behavior of others through the study of OB will help the person understand his own
behavior. A person who strives to know himself better is entering the realms of
intrapersonal intelligence, which is a very useful type of intelligence for one who wants to
achieve his personal goals.

Intrapersonal thinking may be described briefly as one possessed by a person with highly
accurate understanding of himself or herself.

Enhancement of Organizational and Individual Effectiveness

Effectiveness is a major attribute of successful organizations, as well as individuals when

the right decisions are made, effectiveness follows. In decision making, knowledge of
OB can be very useful.

For instance, there are persons who perform better when they work in the afternoons. It would be
a mistake to make them work in the morning and expect that they will perform better. Such
errors could be avoided if the one authorized to decide on work assignments have
knowledge of OB.

Sharpening and Refinement of Common Sense

People differ in the degree of common sense they possess. Improvements in this type of ability,
however, can still be made and great benefits can be derived if this is done.

For instance, common sense dictates that persons working in hot and humid places cannot
perform well. Common sense, however, cannot easily provide information on the exact
temperature that will make them work at optimum levels. In those type of concerns,
knowledge of OB may be very useful.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

(OB)

History tells us that behind every major accomplishment of man is some sort of
organization. Thousand years ago, the pyramids of Egypt and the temples in Central and
South America were built by workers recruited from among the populace. Whether or not there
were attempts to make these types of workers perform better can be the subject of inquiry. What
we see in the movies is the whip, which as we understand was designed to make the workers do
their assigned tasks.
It is modern history, however, that provide us with records of how concerned scientists and
experts made studies which have direct or indirect bearing to OB.

The origins of OB can be traced to the following:

1. The human relations approach

a. The scientific management approach by Frederick W. Taylor b.
The human relations approach by Elton Mayor and others
2. The personality theories
a. Freud’s model
b. The behaviorist approach by Watson and Skinner
c. The humanist approach by Carl Rogers, Fritz Perls, and Abraham Maslow

Frederick W. Taylor was the well-known disciple of the scientific management

movement. The primary purpose of scientific management was the application of specific
methods to increase the individual worker’s productivity. Taylor used scientific analysis and
experiment to increase worker output. He did it by regarding individuals as equivalents of
machine parts and assigned them specific repetitive tasks.

Elton Mayo and his research team conducted the Hawthorne studies in 1920 to determine
what effect hours of work, periods of rests and lighting might have on worker fatigue and
productivity. It was discovered that the social environment have an equivalent if not
greater effect on productivity than the physical environment. Mayo concluded that social
interaction is a factor for increased productivity.

Another group of researchers espoused the personality theories and made significant
contributions to the development of OB.

A great contributor is the psychologist Sigmund Freud who brought the idea that people are
motivated by far more that conscious logical reasoning. Freud believed that irrational
motives make up the hidden subconscious mind, which determines the major part of people’s
behavior.

Through an approach called behaviorism, another eminent psychologist, J.B Watson,

formulated the theory about learned behavior. This theory indicates that a person can be trained to
behave according to the wish of the trainer.

B.F Skinner extended Watson’s theory with his own theory of behavior modification.
Skinner concluded that when people receive a positive stimulus like money or praise for what
they have done, they will tend to repeat their behavior. When they are ignored and receive no
response to the action, they will not be inclined to repeat it.

The humanist movement is another important aspect in the development of OB. It is

composed of a group of psychologist and three prominent contributors – Carl Rogers, Fritz Perls,
and Abraham Maslow.

Rogers focused on the person as an individual instead of adhering to a rigid

methodology. He believes that people should acquire their own values and attitudes rather
than be committed to a fixed set of prescribed goals. The more self-directed and aware people
are, the better they are able to develop their own individual values and adapt to a changing
environment.

Fritz Perls’ contribution is the Gestalt psychology wherein the person is seen as being
plagued by numerous split, or conflicting desires and needs, which h dissipate energy
and interfere with that person’s ability to achieve his potential. The object of Gestalt
psychology is to integrate conflicting needs into an organized whole, in which all parts of a
person work together towards growth and development.

For his part, Abraham Maslow forwarded his model which espouses the idea of
developing the personality toward the ultimate achievement of human potential. This
process is referred to as self-actualization. To achieve this objective, the person must work his
way up the succeeding steps of a hierarchy of needs.

ETHICS AND ORGANIZATIONAL

BEHAVIOR

May an organization use whatever means, fair or foul, to achieve its objective? Is it
alright for a firm to ask its employee to obtain confidential information through
espionage regarding the operations of a competitor? Is it right for a business firm to
adapt a policy of hiring only those who are members of a certain religious sec? Is it right for
organizations to allow executives to play favorites in the workplace? These and similar
behavior in the organization happen every now and then. Should the propriety of such behaviors
be the concern of organizations?

If allowing such actions become the norm rather than the exception, would it be the best
interest of everyone especially employers and employee? Answers to the foregoing questions
permeate a body of principles that modern man tries to consider in the pursuit of his goals.

Philosophers maintain the view that a society that has a low regard for morals will
disintegrate after a period of time. To avoid chaos and destruction, and to make life in society
possible, adherence to the practice of moral principles regulating human relations and
become necessary.

The above concerns bring us to the topic of organizational ethics.

What is Ethics?

Ethics refers to the set of moral choices a person makes based on what he or she ought to do.

Organizational Ethics. These are moral principles that define right or wrong behavior in
organization.

Ethical Behavior. This refers to behavior that is accepted as morally “good” and “right”
as opposed to “bad” and “wrong”.

What constitutes right and wrong behavior in organization is determines by:

1. The public
2. Interest groups
3. Organizations
4. The individual’s personal morals and values

Ethical Issues

There are important ethical issues that confront organizations. They consist of the
following:
1. Conflict of interest
2. Fairness and honesty
3. Communication
4. Relationship within the organization
A conflict of interest exist when a person is in the position of having to decide whether to
advance the interest of the organization or to operate in his or her own personal interests.
For instance, the purchasing officer of a university is in a situation where there is conflict of
interest when he owns the shop that sells office supplies to the university.

In organizations which practices ethical behavior, people do not accept bribes to influence
the outcome of a decision.

People in organizations are expected to be fair and honest. Ethical behavior demands that,
beyond obeying the law, they should not knowingly harm customers, client, and competitors
through deception, coercion or misinterpretation. For example, a certain agency of the
government would not normally release documents unless a certain amount of money is
handed down to the releasing clerk.

People can become victims of organizations that provide false and misleading
information about their products and services. For instance, a recruitment firm makes it appear
that the employment condition they describe to the job applicants would be identical to
what the foreign employee would offer. This practice is, of course highly unethical.

Within the organization, people may still be performing unethical acts. For example,
employee A developed an idea that will be very useful to the organization. Employee B steals the
idea and presents it to the top executive before employee A could present it himself. This action
is highly unethical and it is to the detriment of the organization If such actions are allowed to
flourish.

SUMMARY

People exhibit certain in and out of organizations. The realization of individual, group, or
organizational goals will depend on the human factor, specifically human behavior.

The goals of OB are to explain, predict, and control behavior.

The elements of OB are people, structure, technology, and environment.

The benefits of studying OB are: (1) the development of people skills; (2) personal
growth; (3) enhancement of organizational and individual effectiveness; and (4)
sharpening and refinement of common sense.

OB is not an instant invention of man. Instead, it is a product of several stages of inquiry into
how people behave and how they can be managed to be more productive. Personalities,
great and small, contributed to the development of OB. Taylor, mayo, Freud, Maslow, are
only some of the more prominent names in the field of OB. The development of OB has
not stopped, however, and the process is still ongoing.

If the organization is expected to survive, its actions must be in consonance with ethical behavior.