AN OVERVIEW OF HUMAN

BEHAVIOR IN
ORGANIZATIONS

Chapter 1
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
An overview of Human Behavior in Organizations 4
What is Human Behavior 5
What is Organizational Behavior 6
The Goals of Organizational Behavior 6
The Elements of Organizational Behavior 7
The Benefits of Studying Organizational 8
Behavior
1. Development of Skills 9
2. Personal Growth 10
3. Enhancement of organizational and
11
Individual Effectiveness
4. Sharpening & Refining of Common Sense 12
A Brief History of Organizational Behavior 13
The Origin of Organizational Behavior 14
The Scientific Management Theory 15
by Frederick W. Taylor
The Human Relations Approach by Elton Mayo
16
and others.
Freudian Motivation Theory 17
The Behaviorist Approach
by Watsons & Skinner 18
The Humanist Approach by Carl Rogers,
20
Fritz Perls and Abraham Maslow
Ethics and Organizational Behavior 23
What is Ethics 24
Ethical Behavior 25
Organized Ethics 26
Ethical Issues 27
Lesson Assessment 29

About Us 30
OBJECTIVES
AT THE END OF THIS TOPIC, WE WILL:

Understand the concept of human behavior

01 and its relevance in organizational settings.

Define Organizational Behavior (OB) and its

02 goals.

Identify the key elements influencing

03 behavior in organization.

Recognize the benefits of studying

04 organizational behavior for personal and
organizational development.

Explain the historical developments that have

05 shape the field of organizational behavior.

Analyze the importance of ethics in

06 organizational behavior; and

Identify common ethical issues in

07 organization.
AN OVERVIEW OF HUMAN
BEHAVIOR IN ORGANIZATIONS

For so long, man-made serious attempts to

be productive, economic, or otherwise. He did
it either individually or in a group. In his
quest to fulfill his dreams, he is constantly
confronted with the risk of failure, and the
risk is most often associated with the human

INTRODUCTION
factor, i.e., him and the others. Even if a
machine disrupts the production process, the
person who decides 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 know human behavior are better
equipped to interact with individuals, groups,
or organizations.

04
WHAT IS HUMAN
BEHAVIOR?
Human behavior refers to the physical actions of a person that can
be seen or heard such as smiling or whistling. With thoughts,
feelings, emotions, and sentiments, the person exhibits behaviors
similar or different when he is in or out of the organization. Human
behavior in organizations is more appropriately referred to as
organizational behavior (OB).

04

05
WHAT IS ORGANIZATIONAL
BEHAVIOR?
Organizational behavior or OB may be defined as the study of
human behavior in an organization or the interaction between
individuals and the organization, and of the organization itself.

The Goals of Organizational Behavior

to explain to predict to control

behavior behavior behavior

OB needs to OB must be used to OB can offer some means

systematically predict behavior so for management to control
describe how people
support can be provided the behavior of
behave under a variety
of conditions and to productive and employees. As control is
understand why dedicated employees, an important component
people behave as they and measures could be of effective performance,
do.
instituted to control the usefulness of OB must
disruptive and less not be overlooked.
productive ones.

06
 THE ELEMENTS OF
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

People
The internal social system of the organization is
composed of people consisting of individuals and
groups. The person is inducted as a member of a
formal group, but soon, he or she may become a
member of an informal group.

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

T echnology

Technology refers to the combination of

resources, knowledge, and techniques with which
people work and affect the tasks that they perform.
It consists of buildings, work processes, and
assembled resources.

Environment
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.

07
The Benefits of
Studying
Organizational
Behavior

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;
4. sharpening and refinement of common sense.

08
THE BENEFITS OF STUDYING ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

D E V E L O P M E N T O F
P E O P L E S K I L L S

Two types of skills that a person will

need to succeed in his chosen career

1. 2.
the skill the skill
in in
doing his work relating with people

A person who is much more 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. Is it not surprising to see
many dentists with an 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.

09
THE BENEFITS OF STUDYING ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

For instance, knowledge of the

PERSONAL
behavior of others through the
study of OB will help the person

GROWTH
understand his behavior. A person
who strives to know himself better
is entering the realm of
Personal growth makes a intrapersonal intelligence, which is
person highly competitive in a very useful type of intelligence
for one who wants to achieve his
the workplace. The chance
personal goals. Intrapersonal
to achieve personal growth
thinking may be described briefly
is enhanced by knowledge
as one possessed by a person with
of OB. a highly accurate understanding of
himself or herself.

10
THE BENEFITS OF STUDYING ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

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, some people 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 knew OB.

11
THE BENEFITS OF STUDYING ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

CATEGORY
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 types of concerns,
knowledge of OB may be very useful.

12
A
BRIEF HISTORY OF
ORGANIZATIONAL
BEHAVIOR
History tells us that behind
every major accomplishment of
man is some sort of
organization.

Thousands of 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 What we see in the movies is the whip,
perform better can be the which as we understand was designed
subject of inquiry.
to make the workers do their assigned
tasks. It is modern history, however, that
provides us with records of how
concerned scientists and experts made
studies that have a direct or indirect
bearing on OB.

13
 The Scientific Management Approach
01 by Frederick W. Taylor
THE ORIGIN OF
ORGANIZATIONAL 02
The Human Relations Approach by
Elton Mayo and others
BEHAVIOR
The Personality Theories by
03
Freud's model

The Behaviorist Approach

04 by Watson and Skinner

The Humanist Approach by

05 Carl Rogers, Fritz Perls, and
Abraham Maslow

14
Frederick W. Taylor
Frederick W. Taylor was a well-
known disciple of the scientific
management movement. The primary
purpose of scientific management
was the application of scientific
methods to increase the individual
worker's productivity. Taylor used
scientific analysis and experiments to
increase worker output. He did it by
regarding individuals as equivalents
of machine parts and assigning them
specific repetitive tasks.
15
 Elton Mayo and his research team
conducted the Hawthorne studies in
1920 to determine what effect hours
of work, periods of rest, and lighting
might have on worker fatigue and
productivity. It was discovered that
the social environment has an
equivalent if not greater effect on
productivity than the physical
environment. Mayo concluded that
social interaction is a factor in
Elton Mayo increased productivity.

16
 Sigmund
Freud
A great contributor is Psychologist Sigmund Freud who
brought the idea that people are motivated by far more
than conscious logical reasoning. Freud believed that
irrational motives make up the hidden subconscious mind,
which determines the major part of people's behavior.
17
 J.B. Watson
Through an approach called
behaviorism, another eminent
psychologist, J.B. Watson,
formulated the
Theory of L earned
Behavior. This theory indicates
that a person can be trained to
behave according to the wish of
the trainer.

18
B.F. SKINNER

B.F. Skinner extended Watson's theory with his

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.

19
CARL
ROGERS
Rogers focused on the person as
an individual instead of adhering
to a rigid methodology. He believes
that people should acquire their
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 can develop their
values and adapt to a changing
NOMADIC | 24
environment.
20
 FRITZ PERL
GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY

Fritz Perls' contribution is Gestalt

Psychology wherein the person is seen as
being plagued by numerous split, or
conflicting desires and needs, which
dissipate energy and interfere with the
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.

21
 Abraham Maslow

Hierarchy of Needs

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.
22
ETHICS AND ORGANIZATIONAL
BEHAVIOR

May an organization use

whatever means, fair or foul, to
achieve its objectives? Is it all
right for a firm to ask its
employees to obtain confidential
information through espionage
regarding the operations of a
competitor? Is it right for a
business firm to adopt a policy
of hiring only those who are
members of a certain religious
If allowing such actions Philosophers maintain the view
sect? Is it right for organizations
becomes the norm rather than that a society that has low regard
to allow executives to play
the exception, would it be in the for morals will disintegrate after
favorites in the workplace? These
best interest of everyone, some time. To avoid chaos and
similar behaviors in the
especially employers and destruction, and to make life in
organization happen now and
employees? Answers to the society possible, adherence to the
then. Should the propriety of
foregoing questions permeate a practice of moral principles
such behaviors be the concern of
body of principles that modern regulating human relations
organizations?
man tries to consider in the becomes necessary.
pursuit of his goals. The above concerns bring us to the
23 topic of organizational ethics.
WHAT IS ETHICS

Ethics refers to the moral choices a person makes based

on what he or she ought to do.

LONNA

24
ETHICAL BEHAVIOR
This refers to behavior that is accepted as morally "good"
and "right" as opposed to "bad" and "wrong".

Ways to demonstrate work ethics

MINIMIZE
DISTRACTIONS.
PRACTICE
BALANCE.

SET
GOALS. BELIEVE IN
WHAT YOU’RE
WORKING ON.
TAKE NOTICE
OF HOW YOU
SPEND YOUR
TIME. MANAGE YOUR
TIME WISELY.

STAY
ORGANIZED.

25
ORGANIZATION ETHICS
THESE ARE MORAL PRINCIPLES THAT DEFINE RIGHT OR WRONG BEHAVIOR
IN ORGANIZATIONS.

WHAT CONSTITUTES RIGHT AND WRONG BEHAVIOR

IN AN ORGANIZATION IS DETERMINED BY:

The Public InterestKINGroup

Organizations The individual's

morals and values
FAUGET MAGAZINE 26
IMPORTANT ETHICAL ISSUES THAT
CONFRONT ORGANIZATIONS.

ETHICAL
ISSUES

27
ETHICAL ISSUES

A conflict of interest exists when a

person is in the position of having to decide
whether to advance the interests of the
organization or to operate in his or her
interests. For instance, the purchasing
officer of a university is in a situation
where there is a conflict of interest when
he owns the shop that sells office supplies
to the university.
In organizations that practice 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 now
knowingly harm customers, clients, 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
conditions they describe to the job
applicants would be identical to what the
foreign employer 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
executive before employee A can present it
himself. This action is highly unethical and it
is to the detriment of the organization if
such activities are allowed to flourish.

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ANSWER ME

LESSON ASSESSMENT
1. What is the main focus of organizational behavior?
2. How do people skills contribute to individual success in
the workplace?
3. Why is it important for organizations to consider ethical
issues in their operations?

For Extended Response

How has the study of organizational behavior evolved over time,

and what are its key components and goals?
Additionally, how do ethical considerations intersect with
organizational behavior, and what are some important ethical issues
organizations must ddress in their operations?

29
ABOUT US

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