According to Robbins, Ob is the field of study that investigates the impact thatindividuals, groups and

structure have on behavior within organizations for the purposeof applying such knowledge towards
improving an organization’s effectiveness.”To sum up, OB is concerned with the study of how and what
people act inorganizations and also how their acts affect the performance of the organization. It
alsoapplies the knowledge gained about individuals, groups and the effect of structure onhuman
behavior in order to make organizations work more effectively.

NEED FOR STUDYING ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

OB is the study of people at work in organizations. And we study organizations because we spend our
lives interacting with them and we influence organizations andorganizations influence us.The study of
OB benefits us in several ways.

The study of OB helps us understand ourselves and others in a better way. Thishelps greatly in improving
our inter-personal relations in the organizations.

The knowledge of OB helps the managers know individual employees better and motivate employees to
work for better results. It helps managers applyappropriate motivational techniques in accordance to
the nature of individualenployees who exhibit glaring differences in many respects.

One of the basic characteristics of OB is that it is human in nature. So to say,OB tackles human problems
humanly. It helps understand the cause of the problem, predicts its future course of action and controls
its evil consequences.

The most popular reason for studying OB is to learn how to predict human behavior and, then, apply it
some useful way to make the organization moreeffectively.

All organizations are run by man. It implies that effective utilization of peopleworking in the organization
guarantees success of the organization. OB helpsmanagers how to efficiently manage human resourses
in the organization. Itenables managers to inspire and motivate employees towards higher productivity
and better results.

NATURE OF OB
Organizational behavior has emerged as a separate field of study. The nature it hasacquired by now is
identified as follows:

1.

A separate field of study and not a discipline only:

OB

has a multi-disciplinary orientation and is, thus, not based on a specific theoretical background.
Therefore, it is better to call OB as a separate field of study rather than a discipline only.

2.

An inter-disciplinary approach:

OB is essentially an interdisciplinaryapproach to study human behavior at work. It tries to integrate the

relevantknowledge drawn from related disciplines like psychology, sociology andanthropology to make
them applicable for studying and analyzingorganizational behavior.

3.

An

applied

science

: The very nature of OB is applied. What OB basically doesis the application of various researches to
solve the organizational problemsrelated to human behavior. The basic line of difference between pure
scienceand OB is that while the former concentrates on fundamental researches, thelatter concentrates
on applied researches. As OB involves both appliedresearches and its application in organizational
analysis, hence, OB can becalled both science as well as art.

4.

A Normative Science:

OB is a normative science also. While the positivescience discusses only cause-effect relationship, OB
prescribes how the findingsof applied researches can be applied to socially accepted organizational
goals.Thus, OB deals with what is accepted by individuals and society engaged in anorganization. In fact,
OB is normative as well that is well underscored by the proliferation of management theories.

5.

A humanistic and Optimistic Approach:

OB applies humanistic approachtowards people working in the organisaton. It trears people as thinking,
feelinghuman beings. OB is based on the belief that people have an innate desire to beindependent,
creative and productive.

6.

total

System

Approach

: The system approach is one that integrates all thevariables affecting organizational functioning. The
system approach has beendeveloped by the behavioral scientists to analyse human behavior in view of
his/her socio-psychological framework.

CONTRIBUTING DISCIPLINES TO OB

OB is an applied behavioral science. It has drawn heavily from a number of other applied
interdisciplinary behavioral disciplines of psychology, sociology and