ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

UNIT 1
Meaning:
OB is concerned with the study of human behaviour at work. In other words,
OB is the study and application of knowledge about how people as individuals and
as groups behave or act in organizations.

Defination:
According to Luthans, OB is directly concerned with the understanding,
prediction,and control of human behaviour in organisations.

In the opinion of Robbins, ‘’ OB is a field of study that investigates the

impact that individuals,groups,and structure have on behaviourwithin
organisations for the purpose of applying such knowledge towards improving an
organisation’s effectiveness.’’

Key elements of OB:

1. People
1. Organisations are run by people. People consist of individuals and
groups.
2. OB studies an individual as a whole person as both organisational
and family members.
3. There is always a cause behind every human behaviour or act. The
manager must know the cause to solve the problem.
4. People are living, thinking, feeling beings. The manager, therefore,
needs to treat them with human dignity, not just like an economic
tool.
2. Structure
1. Organisations are social systems. There are two types of social
systems that exist side by side in an organization. One is the formal
and other is the informal social system.
2. People need organizations and organisations also need people.
3. Mutual interest unites people and organization.
3. Technology
Technology provides the resources with which people work and also
affects the tasks that they perform.

4. Environment
All organisations operate within a given internal and external
environment.
An organisation is the effect for which environment is the cause.
Hence, environment also becomes a key element in the study of OB.

Nature and scope:

1. A separate field of study and not a separate discipline:
OB has a multi-interdisciplinary orientation and is not based
on a specific theoretical background.

2. An interdisciplinary approach:
OB integrates the relevant knowledge drawn from related
disciplines like psychology, sociology, and anthropology.
3. An applied science:
OB basically does application of various researches to solve
the organisational problems related to human behaviour.
OB involves both applied research and its application in
organizational analysis, hence, OB can be called both science as
well as arts.
4. A normative science:
OB prescribes how the findings of applied researches can be
applied to socially accepted organisational goals.
5. A humanistic and optimistic approach:
OB applies humanistic approach towards people working in
the organization.
It treats people as thinking, feeling human beings.
6. A total system approach:
The systems approach is one that integrates all the variables
affecting organisational functioning.
The systems approach tries to study his/her complexity and
find solution to it.

• Scope of OB:
1. Individuals:
Organisations are the associations of individuals.
Individuals differ in many respects. The study of individuals,
therefore, includes aspects such as personality, perception,
attitudes, values, job satisfaction, learning and motivation.
2. Groups of individuals:
Groups include aspects such as group dynamics, group
conflicts, communication, leadership, power and politics,
and the like.
3. Organisation/Structure:
The study of organization/structure includes aspects
such as formation of organisational structure, culture and
change and development.

• Need for studying organizational behaviour:

Firstly, the study of OB helps us understand ourselves and
others in a better way.
 This helps greatly in improving our inter-personal relations in
the organisations.
Secondly, the knowledge of OB helps the managers know
individual employees better and motivate employees to work
for better results.
Thirdly, OB tackles human problems humanly. It helps
understand the cause of the problem, predicts its future course
of action and controls its evil consequences.
Fourthly, to learn how to predict human behaviour and,
then, apply it in some useful way to make the organisation more
effective.
Thus, knowledge of OB becomes a pre-requirement for a person.
Finally, effective utilization of people working in the
organisation guarantees success of the organisation.
OB helps managers how to efficiently manage human resources
in the organisation.
It enables managers to inspire and motivate employees towards
higher productivity and better results.

• Contributing disciplines to OB:

1. Psychology:
It is a science that helps in understanding and predicting
behaviour.
Topics such as personality, perception, attitude, opinion,
learning and motivation describe intra-personal aspects
of OB.
2. Sociology:
Sociology is the study of people in relation to their
fellow human beings.
The field of sociology has made valuable contributions
to our understanding of group dynamics within
organisations.
 The topics from sociology include group dynamics,
formation of groups, communication, formal and informal
organisations and the like.
3. Anthropology:
Anthropology helps us understand differences in
fundamental values, attitudes, and behaviour between
people in different regions and organisations.
Organisations create a unique culture that influences
organizational members about the organisation and how
they should behave.

4.Other social sciences:

• Besides psychology, sociology and anthropology, three other
disciplines also contributed to our understanding of OB are
economics, political sciences, and history.
• Several economic models describe the behaviour of individuals.
• Power, politics, and authority are popular topics derived from
the field of political science.
• History describes the lives of great leaders and the success and
failures of organisations they managed.

• The challenges faced by management:

1. Worf-force diversity:
Work-force diversity can be defined as the
situations that exists when members of a group or
organization differ from each other in terms of age,
gender, race, ethnicity, and education
.When workers join organisations, they come with
their differing cultural values and lifestyle preferences.
If diversity is managed properly, it can increase
creativity and innovations.
 On the contrary, diversity, if not managed properly,
can result in higher turnover, heightened inter-
personal conflict, and ineffective communication.
2. Changing demographics of workforce:
The demographic characteristics of workforce have
undergone changes over the years.
3. Changing employee expectations:
Employees expectations and aspirations have
changed.
Employee expect equality with management.
Shifting them from factory place to the home.
4. Ever expanding globalization:
Globalisation of business poses at least two major
challenges for managers.
To manage a workforce that is very different in
needs, aspirations, and attitudes from the ones they
were used to back in the former country.
To work with superiors, subordinates, and peers
who were born and brought up in a different culture.
5. Towards improving quality:
The ever increasing concern for quality products
and services has given genesis to today’s buzzworld
‘Total Quality Management’.
TQM is a philosophy of modern management that
is driven by constant attainment of customer
satisfaction through the continuos improvement of all
organisational process.
Have human resources to deliver quality to
products and services to the customers and clients.
• Models of organisational behaviour:

All the models of organisational behaviour are broadly

classified into four types: autocratic, custodial, supportive, and
collegial.

1. Autocratic model:
In case of an autocratic model, the managerial
orientation is dictorial.
The managers give orders and the employees have
to obey the orders.Thus, the employees orientation
towards the managers/bosses is obedience.Under
autocratic conditions, employees usually give
minimum performance and, in turn, get minimum
wages.
The needs of the employees and ever changing
societal values and norms suggested managers to
adopt alternative and better ways to manage
people at work. This gave genesis to the second
type of models of organisational behaviour.
2. The custodial model:
Employees filled with frustration and aggression
vent them on their co-workers, families, and
neighbours.
The managers started to think how to develop
better employee satisfaction and security.
This called for introduction of welfare
programmes to satisfy security needs of
employees. Such provision for an on-site day-care
centre.
Welfare programmes lead to employee
dependence on the organisation.
 IGNOU provided its employees facilities like house-
lease facility, subsidized transport facility, day-time
child care centre etc.These made employees
dependent on IGNOU which, in turn, became
custodian of its employees.
Though the employees are satisfied, still they do
not feel motivated or fulfilled in their work they do.
The quest for a better way provided a foundation
for evolvement to the next type of model of
organisational behaviour.
3. The supportive model:
The supportive model is founded on leadership,
not on money or authority. It is the management
leadership style that provides an atmosphere to
help employees grow and accomplish their tasks
successfully.
Under supportive approach, the management’s
orientation is to support the employee’s job
performance for meeting both organizational and
individual goals.
However, the supportive model of
organisational behaviour is found more useful and
effective in developed nations and less effective in
developing nations.
4. The collegial model:
The collegial model relates to a team
work/concept.
Under collegial approach, employees feel
needed and useful.They consider managers as joint
contributors to organisational success rather than
as bosses.