WEEK 2 – INTRODUCTION

T O O R G A N I Z AT I O N A L
BEHAVIOUR

P R E PA R E D B Y :
NADZIRUL (2018)
LEARNING OUTCOMES:
After studying this chapter, the students should be able to:
• Define organizational behaviour.
• Explain the goals and forces or elements of organizational
behaviour.
• Understand the evolution and fundamental concepts of
organizational behaviour.
• Understand the major approaches of organizational behaviour
• Discuss how organizational behaviour responds to globalization,
diversification and technological advancement.
1.0 INTRODUCTION
• An organization is an organized body of people with a particular
purpose and the people themselves are regarded as the most
important organizational asset.
• Organizational behaviour (OB) studies how interaction occurs
between people in a work setting.
• This will then enable the managers to improve job satisfaction and
stimulate innovation and creativity, thus creating a dynamic working
climate.
1.1 DEFINITION OF ORGANIZATION
• Organization can be define from three significant aspects:
1. Social inventions – it is basically referring to the gathering
of people that make up the organization.
2. Accomplishing goals – primary goal of organizations is to
money, and yet the goal is inter-related with other goals such
as personal goals of an individual associated with the
organization.
3. Group effort – this is to overcome the limitations of
individual in terms of physical and intellectual.
1.1 DEFINITION OF ORGANIZATION
• Organizational behaviour is concerned with people’s thoughts,
feelings, emotions and actions in setting up a work task.
• The management of organizational behaviour is central to the
management task – a task that involves the capacity to ‘understand’
the behaviour patterns of individuals, groups, and organizations, to
‘predict’ what behavioural responses will be elicited by various
managerial actions and finally to use this understanding and these
predictions to achieve control.
• Thus, organizational behaviour applies the knowledge gained about
individuals, groups and the effect of structure on organizational
members’ behaviour to make organizations more effective.
1.1 DEFINITION OF ORGANIZATION
• Goals of organizational behaviour are as follows:
Goals Description of Goals
• Describe systematically how people behave under a variety of
Describe
conditions.
• Understand the reasons behind the employees’ actions in
Understand
regards to certain problems or issues.
• OB studies are to predict which employees might be
Predict dedicated and productive, and which employees might cause
problems.
• Managers are to make an impact on employee behaviour, skill
development, team effort and productivity.
Control
• This is to ensure the organization can pursue the goals and
objectives.
1.1 DEFINITION OF ORGANIZATION
• Importance of organizational behaviour are as follows:
1. Developing interpersonal skills
– Organizational behaviour exposes managers to highly needed
interpersonal skills, such as leading, motivating, analytical ability,
decision-making skills and many others.
2. Personal development and understanding others
– Being able to understand others lead to personal development for
the individual, and can also lead to enhanced self-knowledge and self-
insight. Understanding others will also assist managers in making
better decisions and achieving outcomes.
1.1 DEFINITION OF ORGANIZATION
3. Achieving organizational and individual effectiveness
from inter-organization relationships
– Help managers in becoming more people-oriented, enabling them to
use their wisdom and understanding to improve interpersonal
communication between organization members, to resolve conflicts
and to build effective teams in the workplace.
4. Sharpening and refining our decisions and actions
– OB challenge us to revisit generally accepted ideas that may actually
be only partially true.
1.1 DEFINITION OF ORGANIZATION
• Forces of organizational behaviour refers to the elements in which
the organization relies on as it affecting the organizational day-to-
day management. Those elements are:
1. People – human organization changes every day and people are
the living, thinking and feeling beings who form the organization,
who try to achieve the organization’s objectives and goals.
2. Structure – different people are given different roles and they
have certain relationship with others. They all need to be related
in a structured way so that their work can be effectively
coordinated.
1.1 DEFINITION OF ORGANIZATION
3. Technology – people are given assistance by way of buildings,
machines, tools, processes and resources. While technology
allows people to do more and perform their work better, it also
restricts people in various ways.
4. Social system – organization is a part of a larger system that
contains many other elements such as government, family and
other organizations. All of these mutually influence each other in
a complex system that creates a context for a group of people.
1.2 EVOLUTION OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Approach Details
• Developed by Frederic Winslow Taylor in the beginning of the 20th
Scientific
century.
Management
• This approach assumed that employees are motivated largely by money
Approach
and the importance of giving monetary incentives to efficient workers.
• Max Weber proposed a ‘bureaucratic’ form of structure, which would
Bureaucratic work for all organizations.
Approach • This approach emphasized on the organizational structure, division of
labours, laws and orders, etc.
• The studies brought out a number of findings relevant to understanding
human behaviour at work.
• This approach emphasized on the influenced of social factors and group
Hawthorne Studies
on the individual behaviour.
• This approach also helps to usher in a more humanity-centric approach
to work.
1.2 EVOLUTION OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
• Basic organizational behaviour models are as follows:

Autocratic

System Custodial
Organizational
Behaviour
Models

Collegial Supportive
1.2 EVOLUTION OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
1. The Autocratic Model
• This model depends on power and an employee who does not
follow orders will be penalized.
• What is paramount for the employee is obedience to a boss, not
respect for a manager.
• The boss pays minimum wages because minimum performance is
given by employees as a result.
• Some employees give higher performance because of internal
achievement drivers (personally like their boss, the boss is a
natural-born leader, or other factors).
1.2 EVOLUTION OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
2. The Custodial Model
• This approach depends on economic resources and focused toward
money to pay wages and benefits.
• Since employees’ physical needs are already reasonably met, the
employer looks to security needs as a motivating force.
• If an organization does not have the wealth to provide pensions and
pay other benefits, it cannot follow a custodial approach.
1.2 EVOLUTION OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
3. The Supportive Model
• The supportive model depends on leadership instead of power or
money.
• Through leadership, management provides a climate to help
employees grow and accomplish, in the interests of the
organization, the things which they are capable.
• Employees will take responsibility, develop a drive to contribute,
and improve themselves if management gives them a chance.
• Management orientation is therefore, to support the employee’s
job performance rather than to simply support employee benefit
payments.
1.2 EVOLUTION OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
4. The Collegial Model
• The collegial model depends on the management building a feeling
of partnership with employees (people working together
cooperatively).
• Managers are seen as joint contributors rather than bosses, and the
coach that builds a better team. As a result, the employee’s
response to this situation is responsibility.
• The psychological result of the collegial approach for the employee
is self-discipline.
• Employees usually feel a degree of fulfilment, worthwhile
contribution and self-actualization.
1.2 EVOLUTION OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
5. The System Model
• Since employees are being asked to spend many hours of their day at
work, they want a work context that is ethical, infused with integrity and
trust, and able to provide an opportunity to experience a growing sense
of community among co-workers.
• To accomplish this, managers must increasingly demonstrate a sense of
care and compassion, being sensitive to the needs of a diverse workforce
with rapidly changing needs, and complex personal and family needs.
• Therefore, employees go beyond the self-discipline of the collegial
approach until they reach a state of self-motivation, in which they take
responsibility for their own goals and actions.
 1.2 EVOLUTION OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

Characteristics Autocratic Custodial Supportive Collegial System

1. Basis of model Economic
Power Leadership Partnership Partnership
resources
2. Managerial-
Authority Money Support Teamwork Teamwork
orientation
3. Employee
Dependence Dependence on
psychological participation Self-discipline Self-motivation
on boss organization
result
4. Employee needs Status and Self-
Subsistence Security Highest order needs
met Recognition actualization
5. Performance Passive Awakened Moderate
Minimum Full enthusiasm
result cooperation drives enthusiasm
1.3 FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
• The fundamental concepts of organizational behaviour can be divided into two,
namely the nature of people and the nature of the organization.

1 Individual
Differences

Nature of People
A Whole
Person 2

3 Motivated
Behaviour

Human
Dignity 4
1.3 FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
1. Individual differences
– People are different not only physically such as sex, age, height,
weight, complexion and so on, but also different in their
psychological traits e.g. intelligence, attitude, motivation,
personality, needs and perception.
– The management has to treat each individual differently to get
the best out of them.
– The diversity of people needs to be recognized and viewed as a
valuable assets to organizations.
1.3 FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
2. A whole person
– Organizations need to recognize that an individual not only
comes with skills and intelligence but also a personal life, needs
and desires.
– A person’s personal life cannot be separated from his work life
since people function as human beings.
– If the whole person can be developed, then benefits will extend
beyond the firm into the larger society in which each employee
lives.
1.3 FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
3. Motivated behaviour
– Motivation is essential for the proper functioning of organizations
and an organization can show its employees how certain actions will
increase their need for fulfilment.
– A path toward increased need fulfilment is the better way of
enriching the quality of work.
– People are motivated not by what others think they ought to have
but what they themselves want.
– Motivating employees is essential to the operation of organizations
and is the biggest challenge faced by managers.
1.3 FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
4. Human dignity/Value of the person
– People want to be treated with care, dignity, and respect and are
increasingly demanding such treatment from their employers. They
want to be valued for their skills and abilities and to be provided with
opportunities to develop themselves.
– An employee wants to be treated separately from other factors of
production and they refuse to accept the old idea that they are
simply treated as economic tools.
– Humans are the best creation of God and they want to be treated
with respect, dignity and other things from their employers and
society.
1.3 FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

1. Social
system

2.
Mutual
interest
Nature of
Organizations
1.3 FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
1. Social system
– The individuals of a society are considered as a system
organized by a characteristic pattern of relationships with a
distinctive culture and values.
– In organizations, people have social roles and status, and their
behaviour is influenced by their group’s individual drives.
– An organizational environment in a social system is dynamic and
all parts of the system are interdependent.
1.3 FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
2. Mutual interest
– Mutual interest provides a superordinate goal – one that can be
attained only through the integrated efforts of individuals and their
employees.
– Organizational relationships are most likely to be strong if different
groups can negotiate strategies in which the interests are common to
both parties and are related to the accomplishment of their
respective goals.
– Individuals who have shared mutual interests are likely to make their
organization the strongest, because even though their views may be
different, they still have a shared concern for similar objectives.
1.4 APPROACHES TO ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Human
resources

Interdisciplinary Contingency

Systems Productivity
1.4 APPROACHES TO ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
1. Human Resources Approach
– This approach concerned with the growth and development of
people towards higher levels of competency, creativity and
fulfilment because people are the central resource in any
organization.
– This approach helps employees become better in terms of work
and responsibility and subsequently tries to create a climate in
which they can contribute to the best of their improved abilities
1.4 APPROACHES TO ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
2. Contingency Approach
– Different situations require different behavioural practices for
effectiveness instead of following a traditional approach for all
situations.
– Each situation must be analysed carefully to determine the significant
variable that exist in order to establish more effective practices.
3. Productivity Approach
– Productivity is considered to be improved is more output can be
produced from the same unit of output. However, besides economic
input and output, human and social input and output are also
important.
1.4 APPROACHES TO ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
4. Systems Approach
– This approach emphasizes the interdependence of each of these
elements (people and technology) within the organization if the
organization as a whole is to function effectively.
– This approach is also emphasizes on the interaction between the
organization and its broader environment which consists of social,
economic, cultural and political environment within which they
operate.
– Two ways of dependent:
• Dependent on the environment to provide input
• Dependent on the environment to accept the output
1.4 APPROACHES TO ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
4. Interdisciplinary Approach
– This approach advocates that efficiency can be attained by
finding the right methods to get the job done through
specialization on the job by planning and scheduling, by using
standard operating mechanisms, establishing standard time to do
the job, by proper selection and training of personnel and
through wage incentives.
1.5 ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR, GLOBALIZATION
AND DIVERSIFICATION
• The multinational operations of businesses add new
dimensions to organizational behaviour, as it is a step into
different social, political and economic environments.
• Therefore, the social, political, cultural and workforce
differences among countries influence international
organizational behaviour in various ways.
1.5 ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR, GLOBALIZATION
AND DIVERSIFICATION
1. Social Conditions
– There is a shortage of managerial personnel, scientists and
technicians in many countries, due to poorly developed resources.
– Hence, the required skills must be imported from other countries
temporarily and training programmes need to be developed to train
the local workers.
– The intertwined between local culture and technology.
– The rise of ethical issues in the organization such as employee theft,
conflict of interest, sexual harassment, organizational justice and
whistleblowing.
1.5 ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR, GLOBALIZATION
AND DIVERSIFICATION
2. Political Conditions
– These include instability of government, restricting industries to a
particular area and nationalistic drives such as self-sufficiency in latest
technologies.
3. Economic Conditions
– Less developed nations are low per capita income and rapid inflation,
and these influence the introduction of advanced technology and
sophisticated organizational systems.
1.5 ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR, GLOBALIZATION
AND DIVERSIFICATION
4. Cultural Differences in an Organization
– The cultures are determining the work-related attitudes and these includes
the following:

Individualism vs Collectivism
Power distance
Uncertainty avoidance
Masculinity vs femininity
Time dimension
1.5 ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR, GLOBALIZATION
AND DIVERSIFICATION
5. Workforce Diversification
– The managerial personnel entering another nation need to
adjust their leadership styles, communication patterns and other
practices to fit their host country.
– Diversity encompasses all forms of differences among individuals
including culture, gender, age, ability, religious affiliation,
personality, economic class, social status, military attachment and
sexual orientation.
– However, it also cause resistance to change, cohesiveness,
communication problems, conflicts, and decision-making issues.
1.6 ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR AND
TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENT
• Each technological advancement adds pressure on organizational
behaviour to maintain a delicate balance between technical and
social systems.
• Technology has started affecting the very nature of management,
such as developing their technical competency and that of their
workers, motivating employees for reinvention, dealing with
employees’ stress, depression and anxiety, and helping employees to
adjust to technological changes.