What is Organisational Behaviour?

Hi, and welcome to Organisational Behaviour. Im Dr Jennifer Spoor.

In this video, we will introduce organisational behavior, organisations, and organisational
effectiveness.

What is organisational behaviour?

We can define organisations as groups of people who work interdependently toward some
purpose.
Organisations can be formal or informal, public or private, large or small. The important point
is that people are working interdependently, this means that peoples outcomes, and those of
the organisation, depend on each other to some extent.
Human beings ability to organise and combine our individual knowledge, skills and talents is
one reason why we have been so successful as a species. But organisations vary greatly in
how effective they are. Because organisations are made up of people, it make sense to look
at human behaviour to understand organisational outcomes.
And this is essentially what organisational behaviour, or OB, is. Simply put, organisational
behaviour is the study of individuals and groups in organisations.

More formally, organisational behaviour is a field of study that seeks to understand, explain,
predict and change human behaviour in organisation contexts.
In OB, behaviour can refer to overt, observable behaviour, as well as the less easily
observed thoughts, feelings and physiological responses of people in organisations.
OB also examines how people behave as individuals, as well as members of groups and
organisations.

Organisational effectiveness is the ultimate variable of interest in OB, but it can be tricky to
define.
There are several contemporary perspectives that help us understand organisational
effectiveness, but we will just focus on two of these.

Organisational Effectiveness: Open Systems

The open systems perspective suggests that organisations are complex systems that live
within and are depend upon the external environment.

Thus, effective organisations maintain a close fit with changing conditions in the external
environment and are able to efficiently and effectively transform inputs into outputs.
More specifically, organisations depend upon the external environment for inputs or
resources. This includes raw materials, job applicants, financial resources, and so forth. The
external environment also places demands on how the organisation should operate through
such things as laws, national culture, and customer demands.

Within the organisation are internal subsystems, such as departments, teams, and work
processes. The organisation uses these to transform resources or inputs into outputs. How
well this is done reflects the organisations efficiency and productivity, so it is essential that
the organisation have coordination among these internal subsystems.

The organisation then directly affects the external environment through its outputs.
Organisations also need to anticipate changes in the environment so that they can rapidly
and fluidly reconfigure internal subsystems to be more adaptive. Organisations also need to
actively manage the external environment and not just be reactive.

Organisational Effectiveness: Stakeholder

The stakeholder perspective on organisational effectiveness is that effective organisations

consider the needs and expectations of various stakeholders.
Stakeholders are any entity who affects or is affected by the organisations objectives and
actions. Employees are a key stakeholder for any organisation.
Essentially, the stakeholder perspective personalises the open-systems perspective by
identifying specific people and entities in the organisations environment.
The stakeholder perspective also notes that stakeholder relations are dynamic and can and
should be actively managed by the organisation. This is important because the goals and
interests of various stakeholders often conflict.
It can be difficult to identify all the relevant stakeholders and globalisation means that most
organisations have more stakeholders than ever before.
The stakeholder perspective is a key reason that organisations are more attentive to issues
around values, ethics, and corporate social responsibility.

Organisational Effectiveness: Individual-level Outcomes

We will keep the open systems and stakeholder perspectives on organisational effectiveness
in our minds as we study organisational behaviour.

We will more often focus on individual behaviours and outcomes, which in the aggregate
affect the organisations outcomes. Here are some of the key individual outcomes that we
examine in OB:

Task performance refers to the goal-directed behaviours that are under the
individuals control and that support organisational objectives. Task performance is
essentially the extent to which people perform the activities outlined in their job or
role description.
Organisational citizenship behaviours or discretionary behaviours refer to the various
forms of cooperation and helpfulness to others that support the organisations social
and psychological context. These are behaviours that are not usually mentioned
directly in a job description, but they are essential to helping the organization function
effectively.
Deviant or counterproductive work behaviours refer to voluntary behaviours that have
the potential to directly or indirectly harm the organization, such as stealing,
sabotage, bullying or gossip.
Employee turnover refers to when employees quit their jobs. In OB we are interested
in both actual turnover and turnover intentions, which refers to the extent to which
people are thinking about leaving their jobs in the near future.
In addition to turnover, an important indicator of organization effectiveness is the
extent to which the organisation can attract and recruit good candidates.
Absenteeism is the extent to which people are absent from their jobs, particularly
when the employee is being paid to be present. Of course, some absences are
necessary or even sanctioned by the organization, such as sick days and annual
leave, so in OB we distinguish between authorized absenteeism and absenteeism
that occurs for other reasons.
What is Organisational Behaviour?
This is the end of the video. Im Dr Jennifer Spoor, and thanks for listening.