Introducing Organizational

Behaviour

Dr. Kirti Rajhans

People
Make the Difference
 Organization

 An Organization is a structured social system consisting of

groups and individuals working together to meet some
agreed upon objectives.

 A group of people who have come together for a shared

cause is an example of an organization.

 There are various types of organizations.

Behavior
 Behaviour is a series of activities

 It is the way in which an animal or person behaves in

response to a particular situation or stimulus.

 In Lewin’s words, ‘to understand or to predict behaviour,

the person and his environment have to be considered
as one constellation of interdependent factors’

 Behaviour is basically goal oriented

 Common examples of Problematic
Behaviour at Workplaces:
 Taking credit for other's efforts
 Passing on blame for own mistakes on others
 Not listening
 Belittling others
 Withholding information
 Paying little attention or showing little interest in others’
opinions
 Making demeaning or derogatory remarks to someone
 Avoiding someone
 Checking e-mail or texting during meetings
Impact of Bad Behavior on Organizations
(Results of a Case Study)
 48% of the case employees intentionally decreased their
work effort
 47% intentionally decreased time at work
 38% intentionally decreased work quality
 80% lost work time worrying about the incident
 63% lost time avoiding the offender
 66% said their performance declined
 78% said their commitment to the organization declined
 12% said they exited the organization as a result of their
uncivil treatment
 Organizational Behaviour
OB is a field of study that
investigates the impact that
individuals, groups, and structure have
on behaviour within organizations for
the purpose of applying such
knowledge toward improving an
organization’s effectiveness.

OB studies three determinants of

behaviour in organizations:

➢ Individuals
➢ Groups
➢ Organizational Structure
 OB studies what people do in an
organization and how that
behavior affects the performance
of the organization.

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 Hawthorne Studies & Their Impact
Conducted at Western Electric Company, Chicago, by
researchers like Elton Mayo.
Focused on the relationship between work environment,
employee behavior, and productivity.

•Key findings:
•The "Hawthorne Effect": Employees
improve performance when they feel
observed or cared for.
•Highlighted the importance of social factors and worker
attitudes in productivity.
•Demonstrated that human relations in the workplace
significantly affect organizational outcomes.

**Shifted focus from just physical conditions and economic

incentives to psychological and social factors.
 Why Study OB?

Effective and competitive organizations

Helps you to retain the people who came up

with the good ideas and good work

Useful in any job, organization, industry, or in

general life too

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 Why Study OB?
 OB theories have widespread applications

 Knowing these theories can help you to:

◦ Evaluate “solutions” proposed by consultants and
managers
◦ Solve new problems and adapt to new situations
◦ Stay “current” in your field

 Evidence-based management is crucial

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Goals of Organizational Behavior
 Explain, Predict, and
Control human behaviour
Elton Mayo

Henry Fayol
 Importance of Interpersonal Skills in the
Workplace
Interpersonal skills are important because…
 ‘Good places to work’ have better financial performance.
 Better interpersonal skills result in lower turnover of
quality employees and higher quality applications for
recruitment.
 There is a strong association between the quality of
workplace relationships and job satisfaction, stress, and
turnover.
 It fosters social responsibility awareness.
 Intuition and Systematic Study

• Gut feelings
Intuition • Individual observation
• Common sense

• Looks at relationships
Systematic • Scientific evidence
Study • Predict behaviors

The two are complementary means of predicting behavior.

 An Outgrowth of Systematic
Study…
Evidence-Based Management (EBM)

Basing managerial decisions on the best available

scientific evidence

Must think like scientists: Apply

relevant
Search for information
best to case
available
evidence
Pose a
managerial
question
 Managers Should Use All Three
Approaches

The trick is to know when to go with your gut.

– Jack Welsh

 Intuition is often based on inaccurate information

 Faddism is prevalent in management
 Systematic study can be time consuming

Use evidence as much as possible to inform your intuition and

experience.That is the promise of OB.

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 Contributing Disciplines
Psychology seeks to Sociology studies
measure,explain, people in relation to their
and change fellow human beings
behavior

Social psychology
focuses on the
influence of people
on one another

Political science is the

Anthropology is the
study of the
study of societies
behavior of individuals
to learn about human
and groups within
beings and their activities
a political environment 16
Describe the Manager’s Functions, Roles,
and Skills
• Manager: Someone who gets things done through other
people in organizations.

• Organization: A consciously coordinated social unit

composed of two or more people that functions on a
relatively continuous basis to achieve a common goal or
set of goals.
Management Functions

Plan Organize

Managers

Lead Control
Mintzberg’s Managerial Roles

 Discovered ten managerial roles

 Separated into three groups:

◦ Interpersonal
◦ Informational
◦ Decisional
Mintzberg’s Managerial Roles: Interpersonal

Figurehead

Leader Liaison
Interpersonal Roles
Mintzberg’s Managerial Roles: Informational

Monitor

Spokesperson Disseminator

Informational Roles
Mintzberg’s Managerial Roles: Decisional

Entrepreneur

Disturbance
Negotiator
handler

Resource allocator

Decisional Roles
 Essential Management Skills
 Technical Skills
◦ The ability to apply specialized
knowledge or expertise

 Human Skills
◦ The ability to work with,
understand, and motivate other
people, both individually and in
groups

 Conceptual Skills
◦ The mental ability to analyze and
diagnose complex situations
New Perspectives on the
Manager’s Job

 The key concept in the manager’s job is sustaining

operational effectiveness, or ‘getting things done well
through people’.

 In organisations of the twenty-first century, the

manager’s job will evolve from an authority-derived
‘issuer and interpreter of rules and orders’ to creating
an
 entrepreneurial work climate that facilitates teamwork,
autonomous and timely decision making and extreme
workforce flexibility.
Luthans’ Study : Link between
Managerial Activities and Managerial
Success
 Four types of managerial activity:
◦ Traditional Management
 Decision making, planning, and controlling
◦ Communication
 Exchanging routine information and processing
paperwork
◦ Human Resource Management
 Motivating, disciplining, managing conflict, staffing,
and training
◦ Networking
 Socializing, politicking, and interacting with others
 Successful vs. Effective Allocation by
Time

Managers who got promoted faster (were successful) did

different things than did effective managers (those who did
their jobs well)
Challenges and Opportunities for
OB
The major challenges and opportunities are:
 Responding to Economic Pressures
 Responding to Globalization
 Managing Workforce Diversity

Some other challenges and

opportunities include:
 Improving Customer Service
 Improving People Skills
 Stimulating Innovation and Change
 Coping with “Temporariness”
 Working in Networked Organizations
 Helping Employees Balance Work-Life Conflicts
 Creating a Positive Work Environment
 Improving Ethical Behavior

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 Responding to Economic Pressures
 What do you do during difficult
economic times?

◦ Effective management is critical

during hard economic times.

◦ Managers need to handle difficult

activities such as firing
employees, motivating
employees to do more with less,
and working through the stress
employees feel when they are
worrying about their future.

◦ OB focuses on issues such as

stress, decision making, and
coping during difficult times.
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 Responding to Globalization
 Increased foreign
assignments

 Working with people

from different cultures

 Overseeing movement
of jobs to countries
with low-cost labor

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Managing Workforce Diversity
 The people in organizations are becoming more
heterogeneous demographically
◦ Embracing diversity
◦ Changing demographics
◦ Changing management philosophy
◦ Recognizing and responding to differences

Disability
Domestic
Gender
Partners

Race Age

National
Religion
Origin
 Developing an OB Model
 A model is an abstraction of reality – a simplified
representation of some real-world phenomenon.
 Our OB model has three levels of analysis
◦ Each level is constructed on the prior level

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Managerial Implications
 Managers need to develop their interpersonal skills to be
effective.

 OB focuses on how to improve factors that make

organizations more effective.

 The best predictions of behavior are made from a

combination of systematic study and intuition.

 Situational variables moderate cause-and-effect relationships,

which is why OB theories are contingent.

 There are many OB challenges and opportunities for

managers today.