Introduction /Concept of Organizational Behavior

Organizational Behavior (OB) is the study of human behavior in organizational

settings, the interface between human behavior and the organization, and the
organization itself. Organizational behavior (OB) is the study of how people act in
an organization or workplace, and what motivates them to act that way.

In other words, organizational behavior is the study of what an individual thinks

feels or does in and around an organization, both individual and in group. It
investigates people’s emotions and behavior, behavior and performances in a
team, systems and structures of organizations. It helps to explore and provide an
understanding of all the factors that are necessary to create an effective
organization

This is the study of an academic discipline concerned with describing,

understanding, predicting, and controlling human behavior in an organizational
environment. It has evolved from early classical management theories into a
complex school of thought—and it continues to change in response to the
dynamic environment of corporate cultures in which today's businesses operate.
Crafting an organization that functions as efficiently as possible is a difficult task.
Understanding the behavior of a single person is a challenge. Understanding the
behavior of a group of people, each one with a complex relationship with the
others in the group is an even more difficult undertaking. It is, however a worthy
undertaking because ultimately the work of an organization is done through the
behavior driven actions of people, individually or collectively, on their own or in
collaboration with technology. Therefore, a central part of the management task
is the management of organizational behavior.

Organizational behavior is the field of study that draws on theory, methods, and
principles from various disciplines to learn about individual perceptions, values,
learning capacities, and actions while working in groups and within the total
organization; analyzing the external environment's effect on the organization and
its human resources, missions, objectives, and strategies. Therefore, managers
need to develop diagnostic skills and be trained to identify conditions
symptomatic of a problem requiring further attention. The problems to watch for
include declining profits, declining quantity or quality of work, increases in
absenteeism or tardiness, and negative employee attitudes. Each of these
problems is an issue of organizational behavior.

Importance of organizational behavior

Organizational behavior is an essential part of people management in today’s
work culture. It is very important to study organizational behavior because it
provides an understanding of why people behave as they do in organizations. In
any organization, the importance of organizational behavior has tremendous
necessities. Organizational Behavior helps us to study human being and their
complex nature in organizations by identifying the causes and effects of that
behavior.

Some of the importance of Organizational Behavior (OB) in any type of

organizations is as follows:

1. Helps in understanding Organization and Employees in a better way .

The study of OB helps to understand the organization and people in a better way.
OB is important it helps to develop a friendly relationship between organization
and employees creating a proper working environment in an organization.
Studying OB provides a better understanding of the organization structure and
organization culture as well which further supports organizational behavior
management.

2.Organizational Behavior helps in motivating employees.

The importance of organizational behavior (OB) cannot be neglected because it

helps managers to motivate the employees bringing good organizational
performance automatically leading to job satisfaction. This helps to achieve the
organizational goals properly as we cannot neglect the importance of employee
behavior in an organization. Organizational behavior: improving performance and
commitment in the workplace creates higher job satisfaction and yields better job
performance from employees as they feel they are the part of the organization.
3. Organizational Behavior helps in improving Industrial / Labor relations.

Organizational Behavior Management helps in understanding the root cause of

the problem, predict its future course of action and control its negative
consequences. As managers are aware of the positive and negative consequences
of the behavior, it enables managers to maintain friendly and cordial relations
with their employees which creates peace and harmony in the organization.

4. Organizational Behavior helps in predicting and controlling Human Behavior.

It is the one of the most important reasons for studying Organizational Behavior.
Organizational behavior: improving performance and commitment in the
workplace. Organizational behavior and human decision processes are to some
extent related to each other. Knowledge of Organizational Behavior research is
very much important for the management students who are going to have a
career as a successful manager. If all the Organizational Behavior theories are
studied properly then it helps to bring organizational effectiveness.

5. Organizational Behavior helps in the effective utilization of Human Resources .

Knowledge of and nature of OB helps managers to manage people’s behavior and

the organization effectively. Likewise, it enables managers to inspire and motivate
employees toward higher productivity and better results as the manager is able to
analyze and understand the nature and behavior of his employees. After the
employees are provided with their job description it becomes easy to analyze
their behavior in the organization. Therefore the essentials of organizational
behavior cannot be denied.

Levels of OB Analysis (Scope of OB)

Organizational behavior offers several ideas to management as to how human
factor should be properly emphasized to achieve organizational goals and
objectives. Human factor is not merely an instrument in the organization but the
very core organizational existence.
The OB is concerned with the systematic study of what people do in the
organization and how their behavior affects organizations performance. There are
three key levels of analysis in OB. They are examining in the individual level ,the
group level, and the organization level.

1. Individual Level

Organization consists of people with differ in personal characteristics and demo-

graphical factors. The difference in individual is analyzed by understanding their
behavior and reaction to organizational policies, procedures and practices. It is
highly concerned with the psychological theories of an individual as it studies
motivation, perception, learning, creativity, value and attitudes, personality of an
individual and try to analyze how individual behave and react in different
situations. it also includes the study of turnover, task performance and evaluation,
coordinated behavior, deviant work behavior, ethics, and cognition.

Organizational behavior specially focuses on the individual activities and

behaviors. It provides information for analyzing why and how an
individual behaves in particular way. Human behavior is a complex phenomena
and is affected by a large number of factor such as psychological, social, culture,
ethical and others. In other words, organizational behavior focuses an individual
level such as individual perception, attitude, feelings, emotions, motivation,
learning, values, ethics etc. OB integrates these factors to provide simplicity in
understanding human behavior. Similarly human behavior can be understood at the
level of inter-personal interaction. Such inter-personal interaction is normally in
paired relationship. Organizational behavior provides means for understanding
these inter-personal relationships in the organization.

2. Group Level
The group level includes any groups within an organization. Groups can range in
size from a couple people working together, to a large group with dozens or
hundreds of members. As we just discussed, individuals can affect a group and a
group can affect an organization. At the group level of analysis, organizational
behavior involves the study of group dynamics, intra- and intergroup conflict,
leadership, power, norms, interpersonal communication, networks, and roles.

OB studies the impact of social and psychological group behavior factors upon the
behavior and performance of groups at the group level. Organization consists of
group, teams that work together in full co-operation and co-ordination of each
other. OB at group level focuses upon group interaction among members. It is
highly concerned with social psychology theories working in a group as it studies.

 Group dynamics: Factor that stimulates the group such as role, status, norms,
size, composition etc.
 Group performance: Various task and assignment to be performed in group.
 Leadership: Ability to influence the group family.
 Management of power and politics, conflicts and stress in a team.

3. Organizational Level
Organization behavior is the behavioral science. It has studied the behavior of an
organization as a whole to analyze how the organizational structure designs
technology influence to the organizational effectiveness. It tries to focus the
relationship between organization and environmental factor that directly or
indirectly affect organization.

OB studies the impact of sociological factors upon organizational effectiveness at

organizational system level. It tries to analyze the relationship between the
organization and environment and the influence of environment on
organizational structure, design, culture and organizational effectiveness. The
behavioral consequences of this analysis are reflected by high productivity and
quality and low absence, low conflict and turnover and customer complaints.
 Organizational behavior also focuses on the activities of the different
nature and types of organizations. Organizational level of OB persons includes
ideas or concept and meaning of organizations, ethics and values of the
organizations, types of the organizations, system of the organizations,
environment of the organizations, policies and strategies of organizations etc. It
also studies or focuses on the mission, vision, goals and objective of the
organization as a whole organizational behavior also considers organizational
climate and the organizational adaptation. Here, organizational climate refers to
the total organizational situations affecting human behavior, organizational
behavior suggests the approach to create organizational climate in totality rather
than merely improving the psychological conditions or increasing employee’s
satisfaction by changing isolated work process.

Organizational Behavior System

A system is a group of interrelated parts working together to achieve a goal.
OB system is composed of inputs, processes, outputs and feedback mechanism
with the external environment factors. Inputs are the conditions that exist prior to
group activity, whereas processes are the interactions among group members.
Outputs are the results of group activity that are valued by the team or the
organization.
Inputs
Inputs are the independent variables. It can be in three categories as individual
level , group level and organizational level. Individual working organization are the
element for group formation further when the groups are combine together can
form organization.
individual level- Biological characteristics, ability, values ,attitudes, personalities,
emotion etc.
group level- task characteristics, group composition , group size etc.
Organizational level- organizational structure culture and leadership etc.
Processes
The inputs received by the individuals , groups, organization are processed
together to bring the outputs.
They are processed by motivation perception learning and decision making at
individual level.
Whereas group level is processed by group dynamics, communication, leadership,
power and politics conflicts process etc.
Further organizational processes are design of formal organization, HR policies
and practices, interaction with external environment etc.
Output
Outputs are the dependent variables derived from the group performance. They
are measured through productivity, absenteeism, turnover, organizational
citizenship behavior OCB and job satisfaction.
feedback
Feedback measures the output to determine the deviations found in the system
to achieve the desired behavioral results and to initiate the actions of correction.

Elements/Basic assumptions of organizational behavior

The elements of organizational behavior are nature of people, nature of
organization. By understanding how these elements interact with one another,
improvements can be made.

Every field of social science has a philosophical foundation of basic concepts that
guides its development. Organizational behavior is based on the basic concept of
human relations which is a noteworthy social approach towards the
establishment of inter-personal relationship between superiors and subordinates.
Organizational behavior deals with a set of fundamental concepts revolving
around the nature of the people and organization. These concepts of
organizational behavior are as follows:
1. The Nature of People

With regard to people, there are four basic assumptions: individual differences, a
whole person, caused behavior (motivation) and value of the person (human
dignity).

a) Individual Differences
People have much in common but each person in the world is also individually
different from psychology. From the day of birth, each person is unique and
individual experiences after birth make people even more different. So,
management can get the subordinates motivated by treating them individually
and differently. Some are motivated by money, but some other by status and any
other. Hence, overall motivation plan is needed to deal with subordinates
individually. Therefore, individual differences mean that management can get the
greatest motivation among employees by treating them differently.

b) A Whole Person
Some managers think that they have employed a person just for his labor, skills or
brain. So, they are concerned with his labor of work only but he has to employ a
whole person rather than certain separate characteristics. A person should be
accepted as a whole person. That means when an employee comes to the
workplace as a complete person, he/she has his/her background, sentiments,
emotions, feelings, etc. which cannot be separated from the skills they are using
on the job. Skill does not exist apart from background or knowledge. Home life is
not totally separable from work life and emotional conditions are not totally
separable from work life and emotional conditions are not separable from
physical conditions. Hence, OB assumes that a person a whole person and
focuses on developing him/her in terms of growth and fulfillment.
c) Caused Behavior (Motivation)
We know that behavior has certain causes. These may related to a person’s
needs, and/or the consequences that result from acts. In case of needs, all normal
human behavior and his/her course of future actions, both are caused by a
person’s need structure. Motivation is essential for the operation of organization.
No matter how much machinery and equipment an organization has, these things
cannot be put to use until they are released and guided by people who have been
motivated. The management can create a suitable environment in the
organization, conductive to the fulfillment of individual needs within the overall
structure.
d) Value of the Person (Human Dignity)
Human dignity appeals for fair treatment to people. This concept tells that people
should be treated differently as compared to other resources in the organization.
It calls for self-respect and the value of people. It confirms that people are to be
treated differently from other factors of production because they are of a higher
order in the universe. The concept of human dignity rejects the old idea of using
employee as economic tool. Therefore, treatment of the working staffs as a
respectable human being, appreciation of their skills and recognition of their
personality are very important basis of human relations

2. The Nature of the Organization

With regard to organizations, the key assumptions are that they are social
systems and that they are formed on the basis of mutual interest.

a) Mutual Interest
Organization theory tells us about the mutuality of interest between individuals
and organization. mutual interest is represented by the statement “Organizations
need people, and people also need organizations”. organizations as a means to
help them reach their goals while at the same time, organizations need people to
help reach organizational objectives. There is a clear give-and-take relationship
between people and organizations. If mutuality is lacking, it makes no sense to try
to assemble a group and develop co-operation, Mutual interest provides a super-
ordinate goal that unites the variety of needs that people bring to organizations.
So, the management should try to co-ordinate the common goals and to motivate
individual in a nice manner
b) Social Systems
Organizations are social systems, consequently activities there in are governed by
social laws as well as psychological laws. In other words, each organization is a
social group having small number of groups. As people have needs, these
organizations also have their needs, status and role. The existence of a social
system implies that the organizational environment is one of dynamic change,
rather than a static set of relations.. The idea of a social system provides a
framework for analyzing organizational behavior issues. It helps to make
organizational behavior problems understandable and manageable.

Contributing disciplines to the field of organizational behavior

Contributing Disciplines to the Organization Behavior Field are:

1. Psychology.
2. Sociology.
3. Social Psychology.
4. Economics.
5. Anthropology.
6. Political Sciences.
Psychology
Psychology deals with studying human behavior that seeks to explain and
sometimes change the behavior of humans and other animals. Psychologists are
primarily interested in predicting the behavior of individuals to a great extent by
observing the dynamics of personal factors.

Those who have contributed and continued to add to the knowledge of OB are
teaching theorists, personality theorists, counseling psychologists and primary,
industrial and organizational psychologists.

Understanding Psychological principles and its models help significantly in gaining

the knowledge of determinants of individual behavior such as the learning
process, motivation technique, personality determinants and development,
perceptual process and its implications, training process leadership effectiveness
etc.

Sociology
Sociology is the systematic study of social systems. It deals with human
interaction and communication. They are the key influencing factors among
people in social settings. Sociological concepts, theories, models, and techniques
help significantly to understand better the group dynamics, organizational culture,
formal organization theory and structure, corporate technology, bureaucracy,
communications, power, conflict, and intergroup behavior.

A social system is an operational social unit that is structured to serve a purpose.

It consists of two or more persons of different status with various roles playing a
part in a pattern that is sustained by a physical and cultural base. Therefore,
organizations are viewed by sociologies as consists of a variety of people with
different roles, status, and degrees of authority.

Social Psychology
It has been defined as the scientific investigation of how the thoughts, feelings,
and behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined or implied the
presence of others. It deals with how people are affected by other individuals
who are physically present or who are imagined to be present or even whose
presence is implied.
In reality, some forms of sociology are closely related to social psychology.

Social Psychologists study an enormous range of topics at group level including,

small groups, social categories, inter-group behavior, crowd behavior, social
conflict, social change, decision making, etc.

Among them, the most important topics relevant to the organizational behavior
field are behavioral change, attitude change, communication, group process, and
group decision making.

Anthropology
The main aim of anthropology is to acquire a better understanding of the
relationship between the human being and the environment. Adaptations to
surroundings constitute culture. The manner in which people view their
surroundings is a part of the culture.

Their work on culture and environment has helped us to understand differences

in fundamental values, attitudes, and behavior among people in different
countries and within different organizations.

Anthropologists contribute to study some aspects cultural factors of

organizational settings – similar values, comparative attitudes, cross-cultural
analysis between or among the employees.

Political Science
Contributions of political scientists are significant to the understanding of
behavior in organizations. Political scientists study the behavior of individuals and
groups within a political environment. They contribute to understanding the
dynamics of power centers, structuring of conflict and conflict resolution tactics,
allocation of power and how people manipulate power for individual self-interest.

The knowledge of political science can be utilized in the study the behavior of
employees, executives at micro as well as macro level.
Economics
Economics contributes to organizational behavior to a great extent in designing
the organizational behavior Transaction cost economics influence the
organization and its structure.

Transaction costs economics implies cost components to make an exchange on

the market.

This transaction cost economics examines the extent to which the organization
structure and size of an organization varies in response to attempts to avoid
market failures through minimizing production and transaction costs within the
constraints of human and environmental factors.

So we can assume that there are various types of disciplines that involve
organizational behavior. They, directly and indirectly, influence the overall
activities of OB.

Individual behavior as an input-output system

People are considered as the "spinal cord" of every organization. Managers of
every organization must be familiar about behavior of people. Behavior is the
function of the person and environment around him or her i.e. B=f(P,E).
Individual behavior is the result of interaction between individual and both
external and internal environment Understanding an individual behavior is a very
difficult task. Therefore behavior can be observed as input-output system.

1. Traditional View of Input-Output System

According to this system, if we assume that behavior is caused and this

assumption is true, behavior takes place in the form of a process or system. Based
on the analysis of behavior processes or systems have been developed.

a) S – R Model (Stimulus⟶Response)

This is the first and oldest form of behavior. S – R process where ‘S’ stands for
stimulus and ‘R’ stands for response. The process of human behavior may thus be
regarded as stimulus-response process. The teacher is affected by student’s
behavior and in turn affects their behavior. This takes place through interaction
between/among them, and is subject to the environment in which they interact.
Thus, individual behavior is not a self-induced phenomenon, but is affected by a
larger system e.g., group, family and the society within which one functions.

Similarly, S – R model of human behavior suggests that the behavior is caused by

certain reasons. The reasons may be internal feeling (motivation) and external
environment (stimulus). A stimulus is an agent, such as, heat, light, piece of
information etc. that directly influences the activity of an organism (person).
Without the stimulus, there is no information to be handled by the internal
processes prior to action taken by the person. It implies that his behavior is
determined by the situation

Stimulus (Input) ⟶ Response (Output )

The entire situation has been traditionally described as stimulus response (S – R)

process. This S – R model, however, does not give the total concept of caused
nature of behavior because behavior is shaped by his internal feelings also. The
basic weakness of this model is that organism or person is passive or not active.
Thus, combination of stimulus – response situation and human being will give a
more comprehensive model of human behavior denoting that the situation
interacting with the human being proceeds and causes behavior.

b) S – O – R Model (Stimulus⟶ Organism ⟶ Response)

S – O – R model of human behavior is achieved by inserting O (organism) in the

classical S – R model. The S – O – R model is based upon the stimulus processed
by the organism and followed by behavior. This O is not passive and immobile as
assumed in S – R model. Rather the O is not viewed as a mediating, maintenance,
and adjustment function between S and R as a mediating function, the O is
constantly active, scanning its surroundings, monitoring its own actions, seeking
certain conditions and avoiding others. As a maintenance function, organs of O
are responsible for its health and growth. There are three categories of
maintenance organs-receptors (sense organs), connectors (nervous organs), and
effectors (muscles and glands). The adjustment function of the O monitors the
person’s activities so that he can overcome obstacles and satisfy his needs.
Though the insertion of O in S – R model gives some recognition to the
importance to the human variables. It still remains a relatively mechanistic and
simplistic approach and does not explain the complexity of human behavior.

Stimulus (Input) ⟶ Organism(Processes )⟶ Response (Output )

2. Behavior View of Input-Output System (S – O – B Model)

This view point is much more comprehensive and realistic than traditional
viewpoint of input output system.

It is popularly known as S – O – B model. S – O – B incorporates a more complex

mechanism of human behavior which modifies and extends S – O – R models. In
this model, ‘S’ stands for the situation which is more comprehensive than stimuli
of S – O – R model and incorporates all aspects of the environment – immediate
stimulus, physical environment, and socio-cultural environment. ‘O’ is the
organism but does not only represent the physiological being as in the S – O – R
model, but also the psychological being which is more complex. ‘B’ stands for
pattern of behavior, both overt and covert.

This model of behavior has significant departure from earlier models for behavior
which have consider only overt aspects.

S – O – B model tries to explain the process of human behavior. The

understanding, predicting, and directing human behavior in organizations may be
increased when we identify and analyze the different variables which go in
shaping the behavior. Various factors affecting the human behavior may lie within
the individual himself or lie in the situations with which he interacts.

3. Individual Behavior as Input-Output System (Alternative Viewpoint Model)

This view point is similar to behavioral model and presented by Kolasa. In this
model he has performed human behavior in the form of inputs, processes and
outputs.
Figure: Individual Behavior as Input-Output System

Inputs:
Environment stimuli Outcomes
Process
a.Covert responses
a. Smelling a. Selecting information
(Attitudes, motivations
b. Hearing b. Organizing information
and feelings)
C. Feeling c. Interpreting
b. Overt responses
d.Seeing information
(Behaviors)
e. Testing

1. Inputs: The inputs for individual behavior are shown in above figure. it
incorporates environmental stimuli and the internal stimulus of the person
acquired through sensation. Internal stimuli can be in the form of feeling, hearing,
seeing, smelling and testing.

2. Process (Organism): The inputs received in above forms are processed through
organism. Process can be in the form of selecting, organizing and interpreting
information received through inputs.

3. Outcomes (Behavior): In this step an individual tries to derive the outcomes

and tries to behave accordingly. The outcomes (behavior) can be in the form of:
(a) covert or hidden like attitudes, motivation and feelings, or
(b) overt or exposed like conduct, and behavior).

Mental processes
Mental processes refer to our ability to take in information and transform it, store
it, recover it, and put it to work.
Mental processes are all the things that the human mind can do naturally.
Common mental processes include memory, emotion, perception, imagination,
thinking and reasoning. Since the human mind is constantly active, mental
processes are continuously relevant and affecting or in taking events from daily
life.
Variables in mental process
Major variables in mental process are as follows. They affect the individual
behavior of the person.

1.Beliefs

A belief is an idea that a person holds as being true. A person can base a belief
upon certainties (e.g. mathematical principles), probabilities or matters of faith. It
is a pattern of meanings of a thing and the totality of the individual's cognition
about the things, A potential belief sits with the person until they accept it as
truth, and adopt it as part of their individual belief system.

Each person evaluates and seeks sound reasons or evidence for these potential
beliefs in their own way. Once a person accepts a belief as a truth they are willing
to defend, it can be said to form part of their belief system.

A person's belief has a critical impact upon motivation in two ways. First of all,
people must believe that they are capable of performing the behaviors that the
organization expects of them. Secondly, people must believe that engaging in the
behaviors desired by the organization will have positive consequences for them
personally. Each of us take action based upon our beliefs about ourselves and the
world around us.

How are beliefs formed

A belief can come from different sources, including:

 people come to believe or not belief on the basis of a person’s own

experiences or experiments in the past. If everyone who has held job A' has
been promoted within six months, thus current job A' holders are likely to
believe that they also will be promoted within six months.
 the acceptance of cultural and societal norms (e.g. religion)
 what other people say (e.g. education or Available Information) can form a
belief. If employees hear from the personnel department that job A holders
are going to be promoted rapidly, this will influence what they believe.

2.Attitude
Attitudes are the mental dispositions people have towards others and the current
circumstances before making decisions that result in behavior. People primarily
form their attitudes from underlying values and beliefs.

S.P. Robbins "Attitudes are evaluative statements or judgments concerning

objects, people or events."

However, factors which may not have been internalized as beliefs and values can
still influence a person’s attitudes at the point of decision-making. Typical
influences include the desire to please, political correctness, convenience, peer
pressure, and psychological stressors.

The definition of an attitude is a way of feeling or acting toward a person, thing or

situation. Passion for a sport, dislike for a certain actor and negativity toward life
in general are each an example of an attitude.

Components of an Attitude

Attitudes are evaluations that people make about objects, ideas, events, or other
people. Attitudes can include up to three components: emotional, cognitive and
behavioral. Example: Jane believes that smoking is unhealthy, feels disgusted
when people smoke around her, and avoids being in situations where people
smoke. "With positive attitude, people find solution in every problem but with
negative attitude people find problem in every solution. This is the single most
difference between positive and negative attitude."

Emotional: the feelings, sentiments, moods, and emotions about some person,
idea, event, or object.

Cognitive: the beliefs, opinions, knowledge, or information held by the Individual

Behavioral: the predisposition to act on a favorable or unfavorable evaluation of

something.

Types of Job Related Attitudes

A person can have thousands of attitudes, but OB has been concerned with three
attitudes -

job satisfaction,

job involvement, and

organizational commitment.

1. Jab Satisfaction:

job satisfaction refers to an individual's favorable or positive emotional state

toward his or her job.. It is related with five specific dimensions of the job i.e. pay,
the work itself, promotional opportunities, supervision, and co-workers. A high
level of of satisfaction score indicates a positive attitude towards the job and vice
versa.

2. Job Involvement:

It is the degree to which a person identifies with his or her job actively
participates in it and considers his or her performance importance to self worth. If
employees are highly involved with their job, the chances for absenteeism and
turnover will be low.

3. Organizational Commitment:

It indicates an employee's attitude towards loyalty their working organization. It

reflects an individual's identification with and attachment to the organization.
Highly loyal employees want to maintain membership in the organization. A high
level of organizational commitment of employee produces low level of
absenteeism and turnover.

Functions of Attitudes

1. The Adjustment Function:

Attitudes often help to adjust to his/her work environment.

2. Ego-defensive Function:

Attitudes also help an individual to maintain his/her dignity and self-image.

3. The Value-expressive Function: Attitudes provide an individual with a basis for

expressing their personal values.

4. The Knowledge Function:, attitudes also provide an individual the "standard

and frames of reference". It allows an individual to understand and perceive the
world around him/her.

3.Values

value denotes the degree of importance of something or action, with the aim of
determining what actions are best to do or what way is best to live or to describe
the significance of different actions. everyone of us has a varieties of value system
which guides our action and behavior. Values generally identify a person's
ethical/moral structure on which the concept of good or bad and right or wrong is
based. When behavior occurs, it is likely to be in line

According to M. Haralambos, “A value is a belief that something is good and

desirable”.

Dasgupta "Value is a framework of personal philosophy which governs and

influences the Individual's reactions and responses to any situations."

Features of Values

Some of the important features of values are: .

 They contain a judgmental element (i.e. an individuals ideas as to what is

good, right or desirable - they contain moral flavour).
 They are one of the sources of individual differences and affect individual
behavior.
 Values can differ from culture to culture and even person to person. All of
us have a value system i.e., a set of values.
 Personal values can be influenced by culture, tradition, and a combination
of internal and external factors.
  Some of the values are highly stable and enduring (long-lasting) and vice
versa. .
 They are basically learned early in life from family, friends, neighborhood
school, the mass print, visual media and other sources within the society. .
But some portion is genetically determined.
 They have a great role to play in the conduct of social life. They help in
creating norms to guide day-to-day behavior.

Sources of Value Systems

Studies show that a significant portion is genetically determined. The rest is

attributed to factors such as national culture, parental dictates; teachers, friends,
and similar environmental influences. Culture plays an important role in acquiring
values. It contains as well as reinforces them.

 Family is a great source of values. A child learns his first value from his
family.
 Friends & peers: Friends and peers play a vital role in achieving values.
 Community or society: As a part of society, a person learns values from
society or different groups of society.
 School: As a learner, school and teachers also play a very important role in
introducing values.
 Media: Media such as – Print media, Electronic media also play the role of
increasing values in the mind of people.
 Relatives: Relative also helps to create values in the minds of people.
 Organization: Different organizations and institutions also play a vital role
in creating value.
 Religion.
 History.
 Books.
 Others.

The basic values (genetically or acquired at early childhood) remain relatively

stable and longer lasting but the remaining values change easily and quickly. Basic
values remain unchanged. Or they are further re-strengthened even if people
question such values (e.g., people who believe in Hinduism would not stop
pouring water (jal or cow milk) on Shivlinga.

In summary, Values help to guide our behavior. It decides what we think as for
right, wrong, good,.Values are more or less permanent in nature. They represent
a single belief that, guides actions and judgment across objects and situations.
They derived from social and cultural mores.

Types of Values

On the basis of research findings by Milton Rokeach, a pioneer in studying human

values there are two basic types of values:

terminal value and instrumental value.

1. Terminal Values: Terminal values represent the desirable end-states of

existence; the goals an individual would like to achieve during his/her life time.
Rokeach identified 18 terminal values. These are values that we think are most
important or most desirable.

These refer to desirable end-states of existence, the goals a person would like to
achieve during his or her lifetime. They include happiness, self-respect,
recognition, inner harmony, leading a prosperous life, and professional
excellence.

2.Instrumental value.

Instrumental values deal with views on acceptable modes of conductor means of

achieving the terminal values.

These include being honest, sincere, ethical, and being ambitious. These values
are more focused on personality traits and character.

Functions of values

1.Providing meaning to life

Without values individual have no meaning in life.

2.Providing help to select a goal

Individual and organizations are goal oriented. values provide goals or ends for
the members to aim for. It helps to select certain goal.

3.Bringing group/social unity

Values provide for stabilities and uniformities in group interaction. They hold the
society together because they are shared in common. Some sociologists argue
that shared values form the basis for social unity or social solidarity.

Since they share the same values with others, the members of a society are likely
to see others as “people like themselves “. They will, therefore, have a sense of
belonging to a social group. They will feel a part of the wider society.

4.Bringing legitimacy

Values bring legitimacy to the rules that govern specific activities. The rules are
accepted as rules and followed mainly because they embody the values that most
people accept. The Americans for example, believe that the capitalist organisation
is the best one because it allows people to seek success in life.

5.Offering help to adjust

Values help to bring about some kind of adjustment between different sets of
rules. The people seek the same kinds of ends or goals in different fields of their
life. Hence it is possible for them to modify the rules to help the pursuit of this
end.

4.Needs

Concept
A need is something that is necessary for an organism to live a healthy life. Needs
are distinguished from wants. In the case of a need, a deficiency causes a clear
adverse outcome: a dysfunction or death. Needs are created whenever there is a
physiological or psychological imbalance. For example, a need exists when cells in
the body are deprived of food and water.

A need of a person signifies his/her deficiency. Human life is full of needs. Since a
need is a deficiency, which creates tension within the people. A few definitions of
human need is given below.

Kolasa "A need is a lack or deficit of something within the system or organism,"

An unsatisfied need creates tension that stimulates drives within the individual.
These drives generate search behavior to find particular goals that, if attained, will
satisfy the need and lead to the reduction of tension

Types of Needs

A need is simply something a person requires or wants. It is not a surprising fact

that most people have many different needs.

These needs can be categorized into two groups primary and secondary needs

1. Primary Needs:

Primary needs are basic needs that are based upon biological demands, such as
the need for oxygen, food, shelter and water. They are the things that people
require to sustain themselves. Needs of this type are instinctive (natural) and
physiologically based.

2. Secondary Needs:

They are the requirements based more in psychology. They are learned from the
environment and culture in which the person lives, The secondary needs are
linked to the desire for pleasure and fulfillment of the human being: Examples
include the needs for achievement, autonomy, power, order, affiliation, and
understanding.
Functions of Needs

Needs have certain roles in every individual's life. Our learning, perception,
decisions also affected by our needs. Every individual prioritizes their needs
differently. According to T. Robbins five types of human needs and their functions
are:.

1. Certainty: assures us that we can avoid pain and gain pleasure

2. Uncertainty: It is the need for the unknown and change.

3. Significance: It helps to feel unique, important, special or needed by others.

4. Love/connection: It brings a strong feeling of closeness or relation with

someone

5. Growth: It is the expansion of capacity, capability and understanding.

Each and every person tries to rank above needs differently.

5. Motives

Concept

A motive is a person's reason for choosing one behavior from among several
choices. It explains why people or animals initiate, continue or terminate a certain
behavior at a particular time. Motives are derived from needs in that most
behaviors are undertaken to satisfy one more needs For example, an individual
may decide to have lunch to satisfy a need for food. he/she might choose to go to
Lumbini Cake Shop for food because it is fast and convenient.

The Basic Motivation Process

 DRIVES/ INCENTIVE
NEEDS MOTIVES S
(Reduction
(Deficien
[Deficc cy with
of drives
and fulfils
iency) direction deficiencie
) s)

"A motive is a factor that determines a person's choice of one course of behavior
from among several possibilities."

Drives are action-oriented and provide an emerging thrust (driving force) toward
goal accomplishment. They are at the very heart of motivational process. The
examples of the needs for food and water are translated into the hunger and
thrust drives, and need for friends become a drive for affiliation.

Types of Human Motives

Human motives can be classified for the simplicity purpose, grouped under three
broad heads.

1. Primary Motives:

Such motives are variously called physiological, biological, unlearned or primary.

Two criteria must be met in order for a motive to be included in the primary
classification. It must be unlearned, and must be physiologically based. The most
commonly recognized primary motives include hunger, thirst, sleep, avoidance of
pain, sex, and maternal (motherhood) concern.

2. General Motives:

A separate classification for general motive is not always given. A motive must be
unlearned but not physiologically based. An understanding of these general
motives is important to the study of human behavior-especially in organizations.
They are more relevant to OB than the primary motives. Some of the examples of
them are: (a) the curiosity, manipulation, and activity motives (b) love or affection
drive,

3. Secondary Motives:

Whereas the general drives seem relatively more important than the primary
ones to the study of human behavior in organizations, the secondary drives are
unquestionably the most important. They are closely tied to the learning
concepts. A motive must be learned in order to be included in the secondary
classification. Some of the more important ones are power, achievement, and
affiliation. In addition, especially in reference to OB, security and status are also
important secondary motives.

Functions of Motives

Human motives have certain functions to serve. Some of them are:

1. Energize a Person: Motives energizes (gives the fuel) the behavior of the
person.

2. Gives Birth to Activity: To satisfy the motives the person starts to do something.
That means, motives arouses the activity.

3. Releases Energy: As the person starts the activity s/he starts to spend the
energy. In other words, motives are the source of releasing energy.

4. Selection: Motives are directly related to the choice of our needs.

5. Guide: Motive helps to guide our behavioral pattern.

6. Behavior

Concept

Behavior is the way in which one acts or conducts oneself, especially towards
others. Behavior can be regarded as any action of an organism that changes its
relationship to its environment. Behavior provides outputs from the organism
Human behavior can be observed, recorded and studied.

S.P. Robbins Human behavior includes anything a person does that can be
observed some way."

Behavior can be explained as any activity or action of a living organism done

either consciously or unconsciously that can be observed directly or indirectly by
other person. A human resource manager hires employees, trains and develops
them, now he needs to understand their behavior, Every employee can and is
able to work but s/he may or may not be willing to work unless s/he ensures to
meet certain incentives, motivations, Human behavior is caused motivated and
goal directed.

Types of Behavior

Human behavior can be classified in different ways. A simplified classification is

given

1. Overt (Exposed) Behavior:

Overt behavior is an observable act of a person. It is obvious. You can see it and
measure it at some point. Examples of this are eating, jogging, writing, dancing,
walking, reading, studying, singing, talking, speaking, cooking, crying, laughing etc.
Whatever overt behavior it is, it must be observable . It is a visible type of behavior
that can occur outside of human beings.

2 Covert (unexposed) Behavior:

Covert behavior is the exact opposite of the previous type. Covert behaviors have
something to do with thoughts. A person may display desirable acts such as
praising someone’s success but feel bitter inside. Insecurities are a perfect
example of covert behavior. It includes internal psychological activities and
processes of an individual. They can't be seen openly or observed directly by
merely looking that person. It demands the use of special techniques or
instruments. Some of examples of covert behavior are: feeling, thinking, dreaming,
heart beat, pulse rate, digestion, blood-pressure, hunger, etc.
3. Genetically Inherited behavior

Inherited behaviors are behaviors that are passed down through genetically
process as a gift. It includes all behaviors that are transformed from parents to
their child. They are hard to change. Examples of them are: intelligence,
aggressiveness etc.

4. Socially Acquired Behavior:

This category of behaviors are acquired either consciously or unconsciously when

interacting with others in a social context. They can also be acquired through
formal and informal learning process. Examples of them are: mode of dress-up
and get-up, choice of food, the way we eat, and some unwanted habits etc.
Culture: Is the learned behavior which is socially acquired.

5. Formal Behavior:

When our behavior is based on certain developed principles/practices it is called

formal behavior. It is aimed at achieving a particular goal. Most of official
behavior found in organizations are its best examples.

6. Informal Behavior.

On the other hand, informal behavior does not follow any given rules. They are
free in nature, not guided by any person or group. They are aimed at achieving
informal/personal goal of an individual. Examples of them are: Joking with friends,
fighting, childish behaviors and abnormal behaviors, etc.

7.Conscious behavior

Conscious behavior is an intended act. A good example of this is taking a bath or

eating your breakfast. You do it due to a certain purpose. Taking a bath, for
instance, is a necessity before going to school or work. And eating breakfast is
necessary before you start your day. These behaviors are in accordance with
certain the purpose.
8.Unconscious behaviors

Unconscious behaviors are acts that run automatically without your mind
controlling them. You might not aware of your response to a frightening situation.

You hate cockroaches. They make you scream when they crawl on your skin. It is
your automatic response. You don’t even think about it. Thus, the scream is
unconscious behavior.

Functions of Behavior (Applications)

If employees' needs, feelings and expectations are not satisfied, they may show
negative behavior towards organization. To get the job done through proper
employee behavior, the management should know, why do people behave in a
particular way? . What makes the satisfied employees? Relationship between
needs, motives and behavior? etc.

7. Emotions

Concept

the word emotion indicates a 'moved' state of an organism. It is a complex state

of feeling that results in physical and psychological changes that influence
thought and behavior. Emotional state (or behavior) is observable to the others.
An emotion consists of three experiences:

1. Biological Arousal:

It is a physical change such as increased heart rate, breathing, sweating, etc. but
not all biological arousal is emotional e.g., climbing a steep flight of stairs. may
increase heart rate or breathing but it is not an emotion.

2. Thought or Mental Evaluations:

associated with thoughts, feelings, behavioral responses. They are the process of
associating meaning with an emotion. Thought creates emotion.
3. Behavioral Expressions:

Emotions are expressed both verbally through words and nonverbally through
facial expressions, voices, gestures, body postures, and movements. We are
constantly expressing emotions when interacting with others. These are called
behavioral expression., An emotion can at once be a response to a situation (e.g.,
fear is a response to a threat), have motivating properties (e.g., anger can
motivate to act aggressively),

Emotion has important part in our life. It helps us to protect us, build social
relationship, relate with others. Emotion also helps effectively to express feeling
and actions, communicate effectively and lively,

Miller and Buckhout "Emotion is any experience of strong feeling, usually

accompanied by bodily change in circulation, breathing, sweating, etc., and often
accompanied by tense and impulsive actions. The opposite emotion is calm-
relaxation."

Functions of Emotions

Major functions of emotions are as below:

1. Preparation for Action:

Emotions prepare our bodies for immediate action, People need to adjust
themselves according to available environment. That becomes possible because
our emotions enable us to prepare (to behave),otherwise, we will be failed .When
we are afraid, our bodies shut down temporarily unneeded digestive processes,
resulting in saliva reduction (a dry mouth); blood flows disproportionately to the
lower half of the body; the visual field expands; and air is breathed in, all
preparing the body to flee. Emotions initiate a system of components that
includes subjective experience, expressive behaviors, physiological reactions, all
for the purposes of specific actions.
2. Shaping future Behavior:

Emotions motive future behavior. Regular exposure to certain stimulus forces us

to learn or unlearn a certain behavior. for example, once we have felt the
emotion of disgust when drinking the spoiled milk, we generally work very hard to
avoid having those feelings again (e.g., checking the expiration date on the label
before buying the milk, smelling the milk before drinking it,). Emotions, therefore,
not only influence immediate actions but also serve as an important motivational
basis for future behaviors.

3. Interact more Effectively:

Every day we interact with other people as per official and personal needs. We
require smooth and purposive behavior for healthy relations. So understanding
our emotions, and emotions of other enables us to sympathize with others.

The Relationship between Emotion and Behavior Emotion influences our behavior
while dealing with others. So, if we have better understanding and knowledge of
emotions, we can improve our ability to explain and predict the selection process
in organizations, decision making, motivation, leadership interpersonal conflict,
and deviant (unusual) workplace behaviors. People who know their emotions and
are good at reading others' emotions may be more effective in their jobs in the
organization.

8. Cognitive Dissonance (disagreement)

Concept

The term cognitive dissonance is used to describe the mental discomfort that
results from holding two conflicting beliefs, values, or attitudes. It is an
uncomfortable feeling caused by holding two contradictory (different) ideas. The
theory of cognitive dissonance tries to reduce dissonance (disagreement) by
changing their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors, or. But this is not always possible
to get in real life situations due to various factors available in the work
environment.
 In the late 1950s, Leon Festinger proposed the theory of "Cognitive Dissonance".
This theory tried to explain the linkage between attitudes and behavior.

S.P. Robbins "Cognitive dissonance refers to any incompatibility that an individual

might perceive between two or more of his or her attitudes, or between his or her
behaviors and attitudes."

Festinger argued that any form of inconsistency is uncomfortable. So that

individuals will attempt to reduce the dissonance (disagreement) and the
discomfort as well. Therefore, individuals will seek a stable state, in which there is
a minimum of dissonance.

Why Cognitive Dissonance Occurs?

Dissonance occurs when a person perceives a logical inconsistency in their beliefs,

when one idea implies the opposite of another. The dissonance might be
experienced as anger, frustration, etc. The idea of "sour grapes", where the fox
decides that the grapes he is unable to reach (eat) are probably not ripe enough
to eat anyway. This story illustrates an example of cognitive dissonance. This
means desiring something, then criticizing it because it proves unattainable. A
powerful cause of dissonance is an idea in conflict with a fundamental element of
the self-concept, such as "I am good person" or "I made the right decision." The
anxiety that comes with possibility of having made a bad decision can lead to
rationalization. is the tendency to create additional reasons or justification to
support one's choices.

Let's take an example of smoking: It is often presented as an example of cogniti

dissonance because it is widely accepted that cigarettes can cause lung cancer, y
virtually everyone wants to live a long and healthy life. According to the theory,
the desire to live a long Life is dissonant (contradiction) with the activity of doing
something that will most likely shorten one's life.

The Result of Dissonance

The tension produced by these contradictory ideas can be reduced by quitting

smoking (denying the evidence of lung cancer, or justifying one's smoking.) For
example, smoking could rationalize (justify) their behavior by concluding that only
a few smokers become ill. That is:

(i) it only happens to very heavy smokers,

(ii) or that smoking does not kill them, something else will.

In short, dissonance theory leads to the conclusion that humans are rationalizing
and not always rational beings. According to S.P. Robbins "It can help to predict
the propensity (degree) to engage in attitude and behavioral change". For
example, if individuals are required by the demands of their jobs to say or do
things that contradict their personal attitude, they will tend to modify their
attitude. People do so in order to make their attitude compatible with the
cognition of what they have said or done. In addition, the greater the dissonance
the greater will be the pressure to reduce it and vice-versa.

Ways to Reduce Cognitive Dissonance

To reduce the dissonance, person should try to change his belief, actions and
perceptions.

New Challenges and opoortunities for Manager in OB

There are a lot of challenges and opportunities today for managers to use Of
concepts of OB. Managers are facing varieties of behavioral issues and challenges
in their organizations. fast changing employee expectations; declining loyalty
toward working organizations; increasing number of women, old aged employees,
and minorities among others are some important changes in work places
(recently seen)

1. Globalization

Globalization is the process by which people and goods move easily across
borders. It is the process of interaction and integration among people, companies,
and governments worldwide.
2.Workforce diversity (Heterogeneity)

3.Managing temporary employees.

4.Quality and productivity

5.Improving people skills (skill deficiencies)

6.Empowerment of employees

7.Managing organizational change

8.Use of technology

9.Improving ethical behavior