UNIVERSITY OF SAN AGUSTIN

COLLEGE OF COMMERCE

MODULES FOR HUMAN BEHAVIOR IN ORGANIZATION

MODULE I - COURSE ORIENTATION AND INTRODUCTION TO ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

Dear Augustinian students:

Welcome to our online class in Human Behavior in Organizations or HBO.

I am Mrs. Vergie A. Salvoza, your professor for HBO, (Elec 4). Chat session will be held twice a week every
Wednesday and Saturday, starting 2pm to 5pm.

Success in an online class requires just as much work and effort as success in a traditional classroom. You
will find that, as an online learner, self-motivation and discipline are paramount. This means that you are
completely responsible for the same standards of excellence that are required in the face-to-face courses.

I look forward to meeting all of you ONLINE!

I am presenting to you the first module which covers the following:

MODULE 1
(by: Griffen and Moorhead, ch. 1)

Topics
1. Introduction of Faculty and Students
2. Presentation of course requirements, instructional design, expectations and tools for evaluation
3. Presentation of the USA Vision, Mission statements, and AGA and ask students to explain their
significance
4. Re-visit the PEOs and Pos and ask students about their importance
5. Overview of Organizational Behavior
a. The meaning of Organizational Behavior
b. The Importance of Organizational Behavior
c. Organizational Behavior and the Management Process
d. Organizational behavior and the Manager’s Job
e. Critical Managerial Skills
f. Contemporary Organizational Behavior
g. Contextual Perspective on Organizational Behavior
h. Managing for Effectiveness

INTRODUCTTION TO ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

Organizational Behavior, usually referred to as OB is an interdisciplinary field of study committed to

improve comprehension and handling people at work. It draws upon a diverse range of disciplines,
including ethics, human stress management, anthropology, economics, vocational counseling, political
science, information technology, statistics, psychometrics, ergonomics, and psychology. This rich legacy has
generated several opposing views and theories about human work behavior.
OB is defined as the study of human behavior in organizational settings, of the interrelatedness between
human behavior and the organization, and of the organization itself. Although we can concentrate on
anyone of these areas, we must also put in mind that all three are equally necessary for a complete
comprehension of organizational behavior. For instance, we can study individual behavior without directly
considering the organization. But because the organization influences and is influenced by the individual,
we cannot entirely understand the individual’s behavior without understanding something about the
organization. By the same token, we can study organizations without concentrating precisely on the people
within them. But again, we are looking only at a fragment of the puzzle. In due course, we must consider
the other pieces, as well as the whole.

THE IMPORTANCE OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

The importance of OB may now be obvious, but despite that, we should take a little while to make it even
more precise. Majority of people are born and educated in organizations, earn most of their material
resources from organizations, and pass away as valuable parts of organizations. Much of our activities can
be regulated by several organizations that make up the leadership. Most adults spend the better part of
their lives working in organizations. Because organizations shape our lives so strongly, we have all the bases
to be interested about how and why those organizations operate.

The study of organizational behavior can strongly explain the factors that impact how managers handle
people. Thus, the field aims to depict the complicated human context of organizations and to mark the
opportunities, difficulties, challenges, and concerns relevant to the field of study.

The importance of organizational behavior is that it separates relevant areas of the manager’s job and offers
distinct insights on the human side of managing people as organizations, people as resources, and people as
people. Undeniably then, an understanding of organizational behavior can play a significant role in
managerial work. To wisely use the knowledge granted by this field, managers must fully comprehend its
various notions, assumptions, and premises.

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR AND THE MANAGEMENT PROCESS

A. Planning - Behavioral processes pervades in all activities of planning.
B. Organizing – the processes of designing jobs are the major theme of OB.
C. Leading - the process of motivating people to be effcacious necessitates understanding OB.
D. Controlling – The process of monitoring and correcting towards achieving organizational goals
requires the understanding of OB for smooth operation.

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR and the MANAGER’S JOB

Basic Managerial roles
A. Interpersonal roles – the task of relating to people further subdivided into three specific roles.
1. Figurehead – ex. Attend employee retirement ceremony
2. Leader – ex. Encourage workers to increase productivity
3. Liaison – ex. Coordinate two or more activities of different units.

B. Informational roles – the tasks of processing information for organizational productivity further
subdivided into three specific roles.
1. Monitor – ex. Scan Business Week magazine for information about competition.
2. Disseminator – ex. Send out memos outlining new policies
 3. Spokesperson - ex. Hold press conference to announce new project.

C. Decision-making – the tasks of making decisions for organizational productivity further subdivided
into four specific roles.
1. Entrepreneur – ex. Develop idea for new product and convince others of its merits.
2. Disturbance handler – ex. Resolving disputes or conflicts.
3. Resource allocator – ex. Allocate budget requests
4. Negotiator – ex. Settling of labor disputes or new labor contracts

CRITICAL MANAGERIAL SKILLS:

1. Technical skills – skills associated with the operations employed by the organization in its production
processes.
2. Interpersonal skills – skills relating to motivating and influencing people to be at their best.
3. Conceptual skills – the ability to abstract what is good for the organization.
4. Diagnostic skills - the ability to understand the cause-and-effect relationships and recognize the
optimal solutions to a problem.

CONTEMPORARY ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

Characteristics of the Field (OB)
a. Interdisciplinary focus – as such it synthesizes or borrowed concepts from other field like sociology,
anthropology, political science, economics, engineering, medicine and etc.
b. Descriptive – it is never prescriptive but simply describe behavior
c. Basic Concepts of the field can be summarized in Figure 1.

Figure I- illustrates the linkages among human behavior in the individual level, team or group level, and the
organizational level.

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

TEAM/GROUP ORGANIZATIONAL
PROCESSES PROCESSES
INMDIVIDUAL
PROCESSES Interpersonal and Foundations of
Group Behavior Organizational
Foundations of
Individual Behavior, Structure
Teams and the
Organization Organizational
Motivations,
Design
Power, Politics and
Stress
Organizational Organizational
Management and
Justice Culture
Decision- Making
Conflict and Development and
Negotiation Change

Framework of Organizational Behavior (Griffin, Moorehead. Human Behavior in Organization, 2014)

 The individual processes may result to individual-level outcomes which are:
- Productivity
- Performance
- Absenteeism
- Attitudes
- Turnover
- Stress

The interpersonal or group processes may have the following group-level outcomes:
- Productivity
- Performance
- Norms
- Cohesion
- Group satisfaction

The organizational processes may have the following organization-level outcomes:

- Productivity Performance Turnover
- Survival
- Stakeholder satisfaction
CONTEXTUAL PERSPECTIVE of OB
A. The systems perspective – it follows the input–process–output approach of understanding
phenomenon in organization.
B. The situational or contingency perspective – it suggests that the appropriateness of managerial
actions or behavior in a given situation depends on elements of that situation.
C. Interactionalism: People and Situations – the behavior of people in the organization is prompted by
the situation the individual is in.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:
At the end of this module, the student will be able to:
1. Discuss the importance of Augustinian Education vis-à-vis its relationship to the attainment of Cos,
PEOs and Pos
2. Discuss the course outcomes and how they relate to PEOs and Pos
3. Describe the scope and account the importance of the course
4. Discuss Organizational Behavior and its relation to management functions and the contemporary
roles of managers.
5. Illustrate the framework of Organizational Behavior

EXPECTATIONS AND TOOLS FOR EVALUATION

1. Case studies
2. Written Quiz
3. Assignments
4. Answering of critical questions

Professor: Email Address: Vsalvoza@usa.edu.ph

Consultation hours: 5pm – 7pm (M, T, Th, F)
Mrs. Vergie A. Salvoza
College of Commerce
University of San Agustin