Organizational Behavior Notes

CHAPTER OUTLINE

  • What is Organizational Behaviour (OB)?
  • Why Study OB?
  • OB Foundations
  • Types of Individual Behavior
  • Challenges and Trends in OB
  • Anchors of OB knowledge
  • Conclusion

DEFINITION OF ORGANIZATION

  • According to McShane (2013), organizations are groups of people who work interdependently towards a purpose.
    • Public Sector: Provides services to the public
    • Private Sector: Aims to gain profit
    • Internal Environment: Factors that affect effectiveness within the organization
    • External Environment: Factors such as clients, legal, political, economic, and technological changes that impact effectiveness

WHAT IS ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR (OB)?

  • Definition: The study of what people think, feel, and do in and around organizations (Mc Shane, 2013).
  • Impact Study: Investigates how individuals, groups, and structure influence behavior and performance (Robbins et al., 2004; Saha, 2006).
  • Disciplines Involved: Draws on psychology, sociology, and cultural anthropology to understand human behavior within an organizational context (Ivancevich & Matteson, 2002).

THREE LEVELS OF ANALYSIS IN OB

  • Determinants of Behavior:
    • Individuals: Employee behavior, decisions, perceptions, emotional responses
    • Groups: How individuals and teams interact
    • Structure: Interaction with external environments affecting behavior and decisions

FOUNDATIONS OF OB

  • Emerged as a distinct field in the late 1930s to early 1940s.
  • Contributions from previous scholars:
    • Plato: Essence of leadership
    • Confucius: Ethics and leadership virtues
    • Adam Smith (1776): Job specialization and division of labor
    • Max Weber: Rational organizations, work ethic, charismatic leadership
  • Elton Mayo introduced the human relations movement in the 1920s, focusing on employee attitudes and informal dynamics.

WHY STUDY OB?

  • To understand, predict, influence, and control behavior in organizations
  • Personal and organizational success factors
    • Develop personal mental models and define/appraise environments
  • Multidisciplinary approach drawing from various fields
    • Importance of attitudes, perceptions, and learning capacities to enhance performance

TYPES OF INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOR

  1. Task Performance:

    • Goal-directed behaviors supporting organizational objectives
    • Related to job performance, punctuality, and contribution

  2. Organizational Citizenship:

    • Voluntary actions supporting social and psychological contexts
    • Seen in behaviors like helping colleagues and participating in voluntary projects

  3. Counterproductive Behavior:

    • Actions that harm the organization, e.g., corruption, harassment, conflicts

  4. Joining and Staying with the Organization:

    • Importance of attracting and retaining talent to avoid loss of knowledge and productivity

  5. Maintaining Work Attendance:

    • Importance of attendance and managing absenteeism

CONTEMPORARY CHALLENGES FOR ORGANIZATIONS/OB TRENDS

  • Globalization:
    • Economic, social, and cultural connectivity leading to diverse challenges and opportunities
  • Workforce Diversity:
    • Surface Level Diversity vs. Deep Level Diversity; challenges and opportunities of diverse backgrounds
  • Evolving Employment Relationships:
    • Importance of aligning workplace expectations and work-life balance
  • Virtual Work:
    • Telecommuting benefits vs. social isolation issues

ANCHORS OF OB KNOWLEDGE

  • Multidisciplinary:
    • Influences from psychology, sociology, anthropology, and emerging fields
  • Systematic Research:
    • Use of scientific methods for being grounded in theory
  • Contingency:
    • Strategy selection based on situational analysis
  • Multiple Levels of Analysis:
    • Evaluation at individual, team, and organizational levels
  • Open Systems:
    • Understanding organizations as open systems that adapt and interact with their environment

CONCLUSION

  • OB examines how individuals think, feel, and act in organizations
  • Focus on interdependence for achieving common purposes
  • Significance of analysis at three levels: individual, team, and structure
  • Understanding various trends and challenges within the field of OB to enhance organizational performance.