MMPC-011 Social Processes and Behavioural Issues Notes

Introduction to Organisational Behaviour

Block 1: Introduction to Organisational Behaviour

• Overview:
  • Block 1 consists of 3 units.
  • Gives an overview of:
    • Concept of organisational behaviour.
    • Approaches to understand organisational behaviour.
    • Evolution of the discipline.

Unit 1: Concept of Organizational Behaviour

• Objectives:

  • Understand the changing scope of Organisational Behaviour (OB).
  • Involving Micro and Macro OB.
  • The open system and institutional perspectives of society and organisation.
  • The society-environment-organisation interface.
  • Social processes as sources of human behaviour in general and at work.
  • Process levels from individual (micro) level to society (macro) level.
  • Changing society and organisations in India.

• Introduction:

  • Organisational Behaviour (OB) initially focused on the behaviour and nature of people in organisations.
  • The discipline combines cultural anthropology, economics, political science, psychology, and sociology.
  • Later, OB incorporated the behaviour and nature of organisations.
    • Micro OB: Behaviour and nature of people within organizations.
    • Macro OB: Behaviour and nature of organizations within socio-cultural, political, and economic environments.
  • Understanding social processes is important for both Micro and Macro OB streams.

• Setting Context for OB:

  • Post-COVID world has changed needs and expectations of individuals and organizations.
  • Organisational behaviour helps understand the nature, beliefs, needs, expectations, and behaviour of individuals, teams, and overall organizations.

• Organisations:

  • Groups of people work independently towards some purpose.
  • Not physical buildings.
  • Two or more individuals work together to achieve a common goal.
  • People expect each other to complete certain tasks in an organized way.

• Organisational Behaviour:

  • Studying how people act at work and applying that knowledge in managing organizations.
  • Applies to the behaviour of people at work in all types of organizations: public, private, cooperative, commercial, or service organizations.
  • Study of human behaviour in organizations to improve performance and achieve individual and organizational objectives.

• Organizations enable:

  • Increased specialization and division of labour.
  • use of advanced technology.
  • Managing theExternal environment.
  • Exert power and control to increase the value created by an organization.

• Definition of OB:

  • Studies human behaviour.
  • In the context of organisations; and
  • To improve organisation’s effectiveness.

• OB studies behaviour:

  • Of people in the context of the workplace where people, processes, and external environment interact with each other.
  • Emphasizes how individuals and teams think and act within organisations and with factors external to the organisation.
  • Knowledge helps in shaping personality, attitude to the employees and define organizational culture thus improving an organisation’s efficiency and effectiveness.

• Scope of OB:

  • Explain why employees demonstrate certain behaviours.
  • Predict how employees will react to organizational situations.
  • Influence how they act and take decisions.
  • Three main focus areas:
    • Focus on individuals/intra-individual behaviour - personality, attitudes, perception, motivations, and learning.
    • Focus on teams/group/interpersonal behaviour - group norms, roles, conflicts, leadership, and team building.
    • Focus on organization - organizational structure, systems, policies, practices, and culture.

• Nature of Organisational Behaviour:

  • Behavioural approach to general business management.
  • Helps in understanding human behaviour at work through theory building and practical application.
  • Helps in predicting the behaviour of people at work.
  • Inter-disciplinary area field that derives knowledge from fields of Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology etc. to constitute applied behavioural sciences.
  • Analyses behaviour at three levels -individual, group and organization.
  • Action-oriented and goal-directed discipline. It provides a rational thinking about people and their behaviour.
  • A science as it systematically studies human behaviour and as well as an art as it applies that behavioural knowledge.
  • Aims to fulfil both individual and organizational goals.

• The Open System and Institutional Perspectives of Society and Organisation

  • Modern society is an organisational society (Amitai Etzioni).
  • Civilization progresses through organised living in which organisations play an important role.
  • Different types of organisations are created, developed and sustained in order to satisfy the multitude and varied needs of members of the society.
  • Society places at the disposal of organisations all requisite resources, while setting out the objectives to be pursued and also keeps a tag on the organisations’ activities and functions.
  • Thus, while organisations per se are important for the society; society is the resource provider and janitor of all organisations.

• The ‘Resource Dependence Theory’ (Pfeiffer& Salancik 1978) captures this concept when it postulates two assumptions namely:

  • First that organisations and their people are interdependent with other organisations and people; and
  • Second that consequent to this interdependence and the social relationships involved, understanding is much better served by investigating the effects and the constraints emanating from the social contexts; this is true of both individual and organisational behaviour”.

• The ‘open systems’ perspective (Katz & Kahn 1966) focuses on external social constraints on organisational action.

• Organisations are sub-systems of society.

• Society subsumes many systems.

• But each system has defining characteristics such as –

  • The importation of energic inputs from the social environment.
  • Transformation of available energy as throughput, so that work is done within the system.
  • The exportation of a product or output into the environment.
  • A cycle of events in which the product exported to the environment provides the energy for repetition of the cycle.
  • The development of negative entropy, where by more energy, is imported from the environment than is expended in work, thus counteracting the entropic imperative, which inevitably tends towards disorganisation and death.
  • The existence of information inputs or signals about how the environment and the system are functioning; negative feedback from internal functioning, which provides information to correct deviations from course; and a coding process that simplifies energy and information inputs and permits their selective reception.
  • A stead state that preserves the character of the system and is marked by a stable ratio of energy exchanges and relations between the parts.
  • Movement in the direction of increasing differentiation, elaboration or specialisation.
  • The operation of the principle of equifinality, under which a system can achieve the same final state from different initial conditions and various paths.

• The open system perspective not only identifies the characteristics of system in terms of its relationship with other systems external to it, but also provides a framework to understand the internal structures and functions, and the processes which bind them.

• Governing both these external and internal aspects is done through institutionalisation.

• Institutionalisation is the creation, definition and execution of norms to regulate the behaviour of major units of society and organisation as systems.

• The norms, set out by tacit agreement of the units, determine the criteria according to which resources are allocated and purposes for which utilized; while prescribing the sanctions to ensure that such norms are upheld.

• Institutionalisation defines behaviour patterns required to regulate the flow of activities and resources between and within organised systems.

• The direct or indirect interrelatedness and dependence between organisations creates the need for institutionalisation for not only effective functioning but also for the maintenance of specific structural forms, activities and rules and degrees of exchange (Talcott & Parsons).

• Institutions regulate and organize patterns of behaviour of individual members of the system and of its component groups; and in turn it is also greatly influenced by their sentiments, attitudes and activities.

• While the collective institutions’ impact is well conceived, how the individual sentiments, attitudes and activities become exchanged and crystalized with institutions is not clear.

• Through processes of acculturation and socialisation institutions are transmitted from macro to micro units of the system, but the reverse analysis of how micro behaviour impacts on macro institutions is considered a blind spot caught in the ‘black box’ or ‘dark arena’ of throughput in the system.

• But it is an undeniable fact that, in the social exchange for achieving social order somewhere the micro and macro mutually impact one another though with differing degrees of freedom and effectiveness.

• The balance in this exchange is inherently maintained though temporary indications of disorganisation and disintegration appear.

• Organisational structures are purported to develop in highly institutionalised contexts. Thus, they are influenced to take on the practices and procedures that are defined by prevailing rationalised ideas about organisational work held in society. When they do this they increase their legitimacy and their chances of survival.

• The ‘neo-institutionalists’ challenge this postulate and call that societal expectations defined through institutions can be fictitious and mythical as it may conflict with criteria of efficiency, profit maximisation, and such other goals of organisation (Meyer and Scott 1983).

• They are critical of old institutionalists’ sacrosanct contention that ‘Institutionalisation is the process through which a given set of cultural rules in the name of collective progress and justice; and, a pattern of activities come to be normatively and cognitively held in place, so that they are taken for granted to be lawful either by formal law, customs or common knowledge; and action is not by individual choice but of broad social scripts.’ They see that in this contention the individualism loses out in large part to ‘the massive institutional features of the social system’.

• They also see a forced ‘rationalisation’ which is a purposive or instrumental process that structure everyday life within impersonal norms and rules that constitute universal social organisation and collective moral purpose.

• The neo institutionalists suggest for four ways of integrating units into institutionalisation process namely

  • Representational rules involving shared logics or modes of reasoning that help to create shared understanding of reality that have been ‘taken for granted’;
  • Consultative rules that create ‘actors’ i.e. identities and entities linked to specified behaviours and action routines;
  • Normative rules that stipulate expectations for behaviour that are both internalised by actors and reinforced by the beliefs and actions of those with whom they interact; and
  • Enforcement mechanisms, both formal and informal, involving surveillance, assessment, and the application of sanctions rewarding conformity and punishing deviance. (Scott and Meyer, 1994)

• Bringing the neo institutionalisation to still micro level, Lynne Zucker (1977, 1983) suggests that organisations shall go for potentially repeatable (objective) and socially approved (exterior) institutional processes.

• Transmission, Maintenance and Resistance are conceived as three possibilities of institutional norms getting crystalized in organisations.

• More the objectivity and exteriority, greater is the feasibility and continuity of transmission. Transmission shall be sustained by maintenance which shall be a continuous effort. When the first two fail, resistance to institutions grow and the reality is that they fail and resistance also comes up though not fully and continuously but partially and intermittently.

• Stability and change are to be judiciously balanced through institutionalisation for the continuance of the system.

• Inter-organisational institutionalisation is addressed through the concept of ‘isomorphism’ which means that ‘similarity in different organisms resulting from convergence’.

• DiMaggio and Powell (1983) identify coercive (arising from unilateral power seeking legitimacy in terms of compliance), mimetic (resulting from standard imitative responses to uncertainty) and normative (identified with professionalism) isomorphism.

• The organisation’s tendency to model their institutions on the basis of dependence on other organisations; be it political, economic, or social for resources, policies, capital and other needs; is considered as a method of institutionalisation.

• When we interpret one of the most important phenomenon of current times namely globalisation, we can clearly see how political, economic and socio-cultural systems are shaping their institutional base on the principle of isomorphism.

• The crises of systems force them to search for apparent successful and best practices elsewhere to shape their institutions.

• Institutional Change Processes:

  • Established practices are subjected to perceived crises, felt need, precipitating jolts.
  • New players emerge, existing consensus is disturbed in established institutional framework.
  • Organizations innovate on their own those are viable in response to local problems and conditions.
  • Abstract categories are developed to justify the failure of status-quo and need for replacement.
  • Local innovations are spread for gaining consensus and achieving legitimacy based on their assumed pragmatic value.
  • Cognitive legitimacy is attained as a function of the density of adoption, with the result that the ideas are taken for granted as natural and expected, and thus uncritically accepted.

• The Sociotechnical theory of the Tavistock group conceived “enterprises as an open system that engages in continuing exchanges with other enterprises, institutions, and individuals in its external environment.

• Its sociotechnical system must permit it to maintain a steady state in which work can be done in the face of changing environmental circumstances.

• This open systems approach contrasts with that of closed systems, which regard the enterprise as ‘sufficiently independent to allow most of its problems to be analysed with reference to its internal structure and without reference to its external environment’(Eric Tryst 1969).

• Eric Tryst and Fred Emery also identified four types of environments to an enterprise basing on a continuum of minimum and slow to maximum and fast changes namely; placid random, placid clustered, disturbed reactive and turbulent field.

• The environmental changes are driven by the political, economic, social and cultural changes that happen on account of either natural evolutionary causes or revolutionary processes like technological, ideological other and man made changes.

• Industrialisation, globalisation are examples of the latter category.

• The organisations respond by adaptation strategies of their own.

• James D. Thompson (1967) first provided for four categories of environment and suggests different boundary spanning activities by organisations which are provided in the Table 2.

• Variations in environmental conditions will bring about changes in decision strategies for input and output components of the firm.

• Variations in environmental conditions can penetrate the input and output ‘buffers’ and cause changes in the technical core of the organisation.

• Variations in environmental conditions will alter the dependence of input, technical core and output components relative to one another.

• When input or output components transfer uncertainty rather than absorb it, there will be conflict among input, technical core, and output components.

• He suggests four methods such as buffering, smoothing, forecasting, and rationing, by which technological core can seal off itself from environmental changes.

• Burns and stalker 1994 commented that, “As the rate of change increases in the technical field, so does the number of occasions which demand quick and effective interpretation between people working in different parts of the system.

• Two polarities, the former suitable for stable conditions, and the latter suitable for changes that introduce new problems and unforeseen contingencies.

• Paul Lawrence and Jay Lorsch (1967) defined organisation under contingency theory as “A system of interrelated behaviours of people who are performing a task has been differentiatedinto several distinct subsystems, each subsystem performing a portion of the task, and the efforts of each being integrated to achieve effective performance of the system.”

• The term ‘differentiation’ is explained as ‘the state of segmentation of the organisational system into subsystems, which tends to develop particular attributes in relation to the requirements posed by its relevant external environment.

• The term integration is explained as ‘the quality of the state of collaboration that exists among departments that is required to achieve unity of effort by the demands of the environment.’

• Human behaviour is a learnt behaviour and hence has scope for continuous learning process involving unlearning and relearning.

• Socialisation, acculturation and assimilation facilitate human learning at all life stages.

• Social institutions like family and groups; political institutions and economic institutions facilitate the socialisation process.

• Individuals as organisms shape their behaviour based on their experiential and empirical exposure.

• Society is a web of social relationships basic to which is human relations.

• Human relations are inter-personal relationship between individual and individual, individual and group, and group and group in both formal and informal settings (Elton Mayo 1946).

• The social processes shape the web of social relations (McIver and Page).

• These processes are contact, adjustment and accommodation, conflict, competition, cooperation, assimilation, acculturation and socialisation.

  • Contact: Three types of contacts are identified in social process, namely; physical contact indicating proximity, social contact based on mutuality, awareness and cognition and psychological contact indicating propinquity.

  • An employee, only after selection, becomes a member of the organisation and develops all the three levels of contacts gradually with structures, technology and people- the three components of an organisation.

  • The best behaviour of involvement and commitment are achieved when the individual employee develops propinquity i.e. psychological contact with the job, fellow employees, and the organisational goals.

  • Thus, contact as a social process is an important source of human behaviour at work.

  • Adjustment-Accommodation is an important set of social processes which indicates the human tendency to accept and live with unfavourable, non- conducive contradictions that is a reality both in society and organisations.

  • Adjustment is the preliminary stage of accepting the contradictions and putting up with them as a minimum level of ‘living and letting others live’.

  • Accommodation is the higher level of accepting and compromising with the contradictions as an unavoidable necessity failing which the ‘actor’ knows that everything would collapse to the detriment of oneself and others.

  • Human behaviour i.e. tendency and capability to develop compatibility with unfavourable conditions arises out of this social process

  • Conflict is a significantsocial process which reflects in human behaviour.

  • Conflict is endemic and sometimes essential.

  • When there is maladjustment of and lack of accommodation between interests and goals, conflict arises.

  • Conflict may occur at intra-personal levelin terms of stress caused by organisational conditions; or in the form of approach-approach, approach-avoidance and avoidance-avoidance goal conflict, or person-role conflict (Fred Luthans).

  • It may arise at interpersonal level, between person and group, group and group, and at organisational level.

  • ‘Loss is essential to gain’ defeats logically the win-win proposition underlying which there is a loss-loss possibility.

  • Competition is another social process which has relevance in all human activities in the society and organisation.

  • As resources are few and claimants are many, competition emerges to get the claim.

  • Simply framing of rules may not make competition healthy.

  • The rules shall be mutually agreed upon; institutional arrangements shall be made in order to implement the rules to the satisfaction of all.

  • Cooperation is a positive and desirable social process which shapes human behaviour towards affiliation, coalition and co-optation.

  • Structure-functions, processes, systems are institutionalised to bring orderliness in society as well as organisations.

  • There can be degrees of cooperation in terms of loyalty, involvement and commitment which have behavioural implications.

  • Assimilation is a social process that promotes taking in and absorbing external stimulus into the system.

  • It is a psychological, social and cultural tendency and ability to receive new facts and realities and internalise into the behaviour patterns of the recipient.

  • Assimilation is central to learning. As learning is crucial to behavior modification, assimilation plays a seminal role in organisational dynamics.

  • Acculturation and Socialisation processes contribute to the perpetuation, self-renewal, and continuity of society.

  • Rather, these processes occur at every stage continuously and persistently.

  • The inter-play between various social processes in a given space and time, result into learnt behaviour patterns of an ‘organism’ in the society which shapes one’s values, personality and culture.

  • These reflect in organisational behaviour which includes both the behaviour of people in organisations (micro OB) and behaviour of organisation in total environment (Macro OB).

• Individual differences:

  • The ‘organism’ is always exposed to diverse and varied socio-cultural, political and economic systems.
  • It would internalise values, customs, belief patterns, culture through processes of assimilation, acculturation and socialisation, which would shape the idiosyncratic behavior patterns.
  • When organisations have to manage behaviour of people at work they have to manage diversities.
  • In the management of people at work, knowledge of social processes is, hence essential.

• PROCESS LEVELS FROM INDIVIDUAL (MICRO) LEVEL TO SOCIETY (MACRO) LEVEL

  • Pareek (2007) observes that ‘in an organisation, several levels operate simultaneously, from individuals who work in the organisation to the whole society, which constitutes the context in which the organisation functions’.
  • He identifies nine levels between the micro level (individual) and macro level (the society).

• Table 1.3 shows different Processes at Different Levels

  • There is an intricate relationship between them.
  • Organisations can practice OB in a better way once they understand these relations.

• CHANGING SOCIETY AND ORGANISATIONS IN INDIA

  • OB processes need to be understood in the socio-historical perspective of a country.
  • Some of the discernible features of Indian social processes and other institutions over a span of time are presented in Table 1.4 below.
  • The table gives a glimpse of Indian history and the important social, political and economic events characterizing the people and society.

• In the changed context in India some paradoxical paradigm shifts in social institutions and processes can be identified.

  • These contradictions happen in vibrant and fast changing societies.
  • One has to keep them in mind while analysing human behaviour at work.

• Summary:

  • The open systems concept indicates that all systems are related to and dependent on one another directly or indirectly.
  • For civilised living organised systems are essential.
  • Society is the largest system of which organisations (socio-cultural, political and economic) are sub systems.
  • There is resource dependency between organisations that establishes their interface.
  • The society manages its interface with organisations through institutionalisation.
  • There are differences of approach between old institutional and neo institutional thinkers.
  • Society representing pluralist interests can impose institutions on organisations is the focus of old institutionalists; whereas participatory institutionalisation is advocated by the neo-institutionalists.
  • The interface between society and organisation is intervened by environment which stems from the social institutions and directly impacts the organisation.
  • The social processes regulating the human relations and behaviour in the larger society play a significant and similar role in organisations, justifying the claim that ‘organisations are miniature society’.
  • In understanding, analysing, predicting and managing human behaviour at work i.e. micro OB as well as the organisations’ behaviour in the larger environment (Macro OB), the knowledge of social processes is essential.

Unit 2: Approaches to Organizational Behaviour

• Objectives:

  • After going through this unit you should be able to understand:
    • meaning of and approaches to Organisational Behaviour (OB);
    • OB components and models;
    • systems view of OB;
    • components of formal organisation system; and
    • model for management of OB

• Meaning of and Approaches to Organisational Behaviour

  • OB is the body of knowledge and people skills (Robinson: 1993) that helps managers to understand, analyze, predict, and manage or control (Fred Luthans: 2000) human behaviour at work.
  • The body of knowledge is enriched by social sciences such as psychology, sociology, anthropology, economics, philosophy, politics, law, ethics and moral sciences, there by resorting to an inter-disciplinary approach.
  • In a limited way biological sciences like human anatomy and genetics, and physical and environmental sciences have influenced the OB theory.
  • The inter-disciplinary approach helps to understand and analyze the causes and nature of human behaviour.
  • Human or people skills of managers make use of OB as an applied science in order to proactively predict and control human behaviour in organisations.
  • The basic notion is that causes of behaviour may not be always traced to organisational conditions.
  • Besides the inter-disciplinary approach, OB is enriched by the Human Resources, Contingency and Systems approaches.
  • Human Resource approach is developmental contributing to individual, group and organisational development.
  • The Contingency approach is based on situational variations involving actors, time and space dynamics.

• OB COMPONENTS AND MODELS

  • Organization is “the pattern of ways in which large numbers of people, too many to have intimate face to face contact with all others, and engaged in a complexity of tasks, relate themselves to each other in the conscious, systematic establishment and accomplishment of mutually agreed purposes” (J.M.Pfiffner & F.P.Sherwood).

  • It is also known as “the rational coordination of the activities of a number of people for the achievement of some common explicit purpose or goal, through division of labor and function and through a hierarchy of authority and responsibility”(Edgar H.Schein).

  • It is also described as “ a continuing system of differentiated and coordinated human activities utilizing, transforming and welding together a specific set of human, material, capital, ideational and natural resources into a unique problem solving whole; engaged in satisfying particular human needs in interaction with other systems of human activities and resources in its environment (E.W.Bakke).

  • These three definitions define organisation as a structure, process and system respectively.

  • Organization is represented by pyramid design comprising people, structure and technology

  • Individual differences, whole person (Gestalt theory i.e. the whole to be greater than the sum of its parts), and human dignity (Keith Davis) are the features of People component.

  • The machines, tools and methods of production along with the technical know- how and skills indicating the human face of technology compose the Technologycomponent.

  • Technological determinism meaning that technology determines all aspects of organisational structuring and functioningis greatly emphasized.

  • Organisation Structure is created by the interface between People and Technology.

    • It embodies authority-subordinate structure reflected in the hierarchy; functional specialization and division of labour depicted in its lateral or horizontal form.

Authority

• The ‘chain of command’ determines the flow of direction or line of command.
• The ‘Span of Control’ identifies the ratio of the subordinates to superiors.
• Authority is institutional and not personal.
• The CEO has delegated authority from the institutional framework.
• Authority generates responsibility, so greater the authority more the responsibility. The CEO cumulatively is ultimately responsible for every act of omission or commission in the organisation.
• Authority can be delegated, but not the responsibility.
• If authority is more than responsibility, then it may be abused. If responsibility is more than authority then it cannot be complied with. Even though, authority generates responsibility, a mechanism should be there to maintain a balance. Because, authority has a tendency to transgress the limits. Underuse of authority is also unproductive.
• Authority flows from top to the bottom. The ‘acceptance theory’ of Chester I Barnard and ‘Giving of orders’ principle of Mary Parker Follett suggest that if the authority and orders are accepted by the subordinates, it becomes more effective. It gives a ‘bottom to top’ scheme of authority. But in organisational process it is not feasible proposition. It holds good to the extent of legitimacy and effectiveness of authority.
• Accountability establishes linkages in terms of subordinates’ compliance to the authority and gauging the extent of compliance. It is a ‘bottom-up’ process.

Elements of organizing structure process emanate from bureaucratic principles:

• Specialization and division of labor, and employment based on technical qualification; positions arranged in a hierarchy where in promotions are made according to seniority and/or achievement, ‘ideal’ bureaucrat at the apex, who is protected against arbitrary dismissal and expected to maintain impersonal relations; and a system of impersonal rules are the features of Bureaucracy.

• Modern Organization Designs

  • Project Design
  • Matrix Design
  • Free Form Organization

• Concept and approaches to the study of behaviour

  • Behaviour is activity directed towards goals (Paul Hersey & Ken Blanchard).
  • The cognitive ability that receives, organizes and responds to external stimulus thereby playing a crucial role of bringing about parity between the latent state of mind and manifest behaviour.
  • Sigmund Freud’s model is characterized by three interrelated but often conflicting psychoanalytic frames of mind, namely Id, Ego and Superego and unconscious motivation.
  • This inherent conflict in the intra-person explains the behavioural aberrations and clinical methods of treating mental illness came out of this model.
  • The cognitive approach (Edward Tolman) emphasized the positive and free- will aspects of human behaviour as against Freudian obsession with negative, irrational, sexually motivated human behaviour.
  • Behaviour is caused. Stimulus is the cause which shapes the response (manifest behaviour). It is captured by the Stimulus-Response model (S-R) espoused by the Classical Conditioning theory (Ivan Pavlov).
  • Behaviour is shaped by consequences. Behavior resulting into pleasant consequences will be repeated and behaviour resulting into unpalatable consequences will extinguish.

Behavioural Theories:

• Response-Stimulus model (R-S)

• Antecedents-Behaviour-Consequence (ABC) model

• Stimulus – Organism- Response (SOR) model

• Stimulus-Organism-Behaviour-Consequence (SOBC) model

  • Captures S-R, R-S and S-O-R features.
  • Social Learning Theory- continuous interaction between cognitive, behavioural and environmental determinants.

• SYSTEMS VIEW OF OB

  • SOBC model and Social Learning theories
  • Organizations have to pursue socially approved objectives.
  • No organization has its own resources. These are allocated to the organization by the society to pursue socially approved objectives. Objectives and resources thus are inputs drawn by the organization from the larger society which also provides the distant and immediate environment to the organisation.
  • The throughput in OB system is composed of Formal Organization System (FOS) placed in juxtaposition to Individual System (IS) and Social System (SS).
  • Formal Organization System Includes Jobs Satisfaction, Tech, Organizational Structure, tendencies to performed, authority.
  • Objectives of organization embody the inputs to the FOS.
  • Technology is essential for translating the objectives into concrete results.
  • The interface between technology and human resource culminate into a structure.
  • The structure represents both the hierarchy and functional specialization with policies and rules binding them into an organic unity. The hierarchy defines the authority-subordinate relationship in which communication plays an important role.
  • The formal requirements and expectations of the organization from its people is expressed in the vision, mission and goal statement that which is influenced both by external environment and internal imperatives.
  • Authority presupposes the existence of leadership, and decision making. Leadership indicates the managerial style which is discussed below in the model given by Chris Argyris.
  • The role of authority is to ensure compatibility between organization’s expectations and employee interests so that the organization gets the best performance from its people and the employees derive job satisfaction.
  • Such a win-win situation will lead to a tendency to perform among the human resource, which is the output of the FOS.

• OB MODELS - Framework and Mental Models

Basing on the maturity of organisations and the people in it, all the models at different periods of time and situation may be helpful.

• Managing Consequences of behaviour:
  • The managers used welfare, and HR practices to keep the employees happy. The purpose however is perhaps to add ‘organisational dependency’ atop a reduced ‘dependency on the boss’.

Unit 3 EVOLUTION OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

• Objectives

  • Trace the early development of relevant conceptual foundation of Organization Behavior.
  • Acquire knowledge about the leading contributors in the field of Organization Behavior.
  • Understand the classic theories and approaches towards Organization Behavior by early thinkers.

• Role in influencing the discipline

  • Adam Smith
  • Charles Babbage
  • Robert Owen

• Adam Smith

  • Dividing different tasks organizations can gain in correcting them at the earliest.
  • “Division of Labour” and also called as work specialization.
    Division of labour increased productivity by increasing each worker’s skill and dexterity by saving time.
  • Creation of labour saving interventions and machinery.

• Charles Babbage

  • Merits that accrue from division of labour
    • It reduces the time needed for learning a job
    • It reduced the waste of material during the learning stage.
    • It allows for the attainment of high skill levels.
    • It allows a more careful matching of people’s skills and physical abilities with specific tasks.
    • Economoies from specialization important as doing mental work with reference to physical labour.

• Robert Owen

  • Practices adopted in the factories are demeaning to workers.
  • Repulsed practices
    • Employing young children below the age of ten
    • Thirteen hour work days
    • Unhygienic working conditions he became a reformer.
  • Investment on employees is necessary for profitability of management and to end human misery.
  • Propagated in 1825 for regulated house of work, child labour laws, public education, providing meals at work and business involvements in community projects.

• THE CLASSICAL MOVEMENT

  • Classical era - 1900 to mid 1930s

• First general theories of management began to evolve
  Classical contributors are
  * Frederick Taylor
  * Henri Fayol
  * Max Weber
  * The foundation for the current management practices

  • Classical Approach Characteristics:
    • Organization in terms of its formal structure and purpose.
    • Focus on work planning, technical skills, management principles, and assumption of logic and rationality in behaviour at work.

• Two main theories under the classical approach are:

  • Scientific management
  • Bureaucracy

• The Scientific Management Theory

  • F. W. Taylor (1856–1917) “father” of scientific management, focussed on finding out one best way to perform a job.

  • Divided a job into a set of tasks and applied a scientific method to define the best possible way of doing each task in the job.

  • He timed each way of doing a particular task and rearranged them to create the most efficient set of tasks to complete a job.

  • Workers were fairly compensated based on complexity of jobs performed by workers.

• Key principles of the scientific management theory

  • Scientific approach for designing every job.
  • workers to do work in the most effective way.
  • Scientific approach to selection, training and development of the workers.
  • Cooperation with the workers to do work in the most effective way.
  • The division of work and responsibility between management and the workers.