Topic:

Summary on Forty Years of Organizational Studies: Reflection

from a Micro Perspective (Lyman W. porter)

Submitted to:
Prof. Dr. Muhammad Aqeel

Submitted by:
Bilal Yousaf (L1F16MSMK0011)

MS Marketing

University of Central Punjab Lahore

Summary of the article:
Accomplishments: The psychologically rooted article by the Lyman W. Porter states the
evolutionary era of organizational studies with micro perspectives. This study draws a complete
light on the successes and failures of organizational studies along with future perspectives.
According to Layman the launching of the “journal of Administrative Sciences Quarterly in
1956” for organizational studies was a definite step but the term “Organizational Behavior” was
firstly used by Chris Argyris in 1957. Later this term has emerged a sign of professional identity.

As per Layman the answer of oftenly asked question “what has been accomplished over the last
40 year”? Can be easily stated that “the development of a truly multidisciplinary field”. The
organizational studies are composition of different studies. In recent years the OB has been
portrayed in micro spectrums by the psychologists and others but the term organizational
behavior has a vast range of scope i.e. micro, meso and macro. From the early 1970s or so, the
ASQ has played a vital role in making the organizational studies more significant. The
conceptual and empirical approaches of psychology, sociology and others have paved the way
for micro, meso and macro perspectives and paradigms. In 1950s the term “human Relations”
was coined which is the outcome of the interaction between psychology, sociology and
anthropology. A large number of people argue that organizational studies are not required to
be multidisciplinary; yes it is true but the problems and challenges of organizations in present
and future can only be cured by cross disciplines. This is the significant of organizational studies
from past 40 years. According to some scholars organizations and their managements are two
different pillars and to be treated, criticized and analyzed separately. Another accomplishment
of this field is that it provides a wide range of studies, theories and solutions to organizations
and management. The timely and contemporary changes in working styles and management
approaches along with the development of products/services can only be tackled by this
fledging field.

Failures: like all other fields the organizational studies have not completed its objectives. It’s a
time taking and ongoing process that cannot be completed. Here we will only discuss the
failures of OB in micro perspectives. Probably the most important failure in the Micro-OB is that
from a long time we are working only on “Behaviors”. The consideration for “Organization” as
factor is tending too low. We must keep in minds that the organization and its environment are
the key factors in individual’s behaviors. The major six text books on the four major Micro-OB
topics i.e. leadership, motivation, groups and communication in their 60 percent content have
not included any reference to the organizations, 35 percent included reference to organizations
as context and only 5 percent included explicit references to organizations as a factor. For a
field that calls itself “organizational behavior” to not focus on both aspects is a bit ironic.
Another failure is that Micro-OB is underemphasized. The top ranked Micro-OB journals
(Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal and Journal of Applied
Psychology) show more tendencies towards vertical researches. The ratio is 5:1 between
vertical to horizontal. This simply states the amount of studies within the organizations. The
third drawback is that the practices of the organizations are far ahead from the theories and
researches of this field. The fourth one is that organizational studies have very low practices for
global dimensions. The last and more important failure is that Micro-OB lacks clear and
compelling paradigms. In the absence of such conceptual and theoretical frameworks has not
stopped the advancement in the field but probably slowed down the process of advancement.

Looking to Future: for the advancement and more practical the link between micro and macro
factors will be strong. The meso factor along with the individuals and groups will be thoroughly
examined while affecting the human behaviors. The micro and macro analysis for the
centralization and decentralization in the organizations and their consequences will be further
highlighted in future. The research in future will be loaded with a comprehension on the both
factors i.e. organizations and behaviors. The gap between organizations and their
managements will be properly bridged by the new entrances. In future the scholars and
practitioners will be closer to bring innovation and advancement in organizations. In future
high benchmark organizations will be considered for studies to answer “how organizations
changed time to time”?

Conclusion and Comments: Conclusively we can state that like all other fields this field is also a
wok in process field. Since 1950s a large of work has been done in form of books, journals,
articles, theories and paradigms but a lot of work is still remaining. The gap in knowledge and
practices is a big issue for this field, which must be overcome in future. The more work, the
more the dimensions will be. The generalizability of the theories of organizational behaviors is
still below the mark and it seems to be high in future.

In last I would like to add some findings that the author is much excited to apply the psychology
on behaviors but like many others he gives lower attention to organizations. The paradigms
within the factors of behavior must be clear and sound. The management styles, hierarchy and
working environment of organizations must be draw under the shadow of the researches and
their results instead of vice versa. There should be more chances, recourses and scholarships
for researchers to do their work. Govt. and organizations itself should encourage researchers
and should try to provide them basics, so that they can easily do their works. Finally we can say
organizations are life blood for the economy of the nation and human capital and its behavior is
vital for organizations, so their issues, problems and challenges must be solved on priority basis
and it can be done easily by “Organizational Behavior”.