Organizational Behaviour: Understanding People at Work

Organizational Behaviour
 Organizational behaviour is a field of study that

investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and
structure have on behaviour within organizations,
 for the purpose of applying such knowledge towards

improving an organization’s effectiveness.
 That is OB is the study of what people do in an

organization and
 how their behaviour affects the organization’s

performance.
Organizational Behaviour...
 So, it is concerned specifically with employment
related situations such as,
 jobs,
 work,
 absenteeism,
 employment turnover,
 productivity,
 human performance, and
 management.
 Systematic study looking at relationships, attempting
to attribute causes and effects, and drawing
conclusions based on scientific evidence.
 That is data gathered under controlled conditions and
measured and interpreted in a reasonably rigorous
manner.
 Evidence based management (EBM) complements
systematic study by basing managerial decisions on
the best available scientific evidence.
 Eg: doctors need to make decisions about the patient

care based on the latest available evidence.
 Intuition a gut feeling not necessarily supported by

research.
 So, we need to use systematic study and EBM for

building our intuition.
 Organizational behaviour is the study of human
behaviour in organizational settings,
 the interface between human behaviour and the
organization, and
 the organization itself.

Nature of OB
Environment
Human Behaviour
in Organisational
Settings
The Individual -
organisation
interface
The Organisation
Environment
Nature of OB…
 That is it shows the linkages among human behaviour
in organizational settings,
 the individual organization interface,
 the organization itself, and
 the environment surrounding the organization.

Foundations of OB
Individual
difference Social systems
Whole person
OB Mutuality of interests
Caused behaviour
Holistic concept
Human dignity
Need for
Management
Foundations of OB…
Individual differences:
 Each individual is different from others in several

ways.
 The management need to understand and respect

these differences and motivate them to achieve the
organizational goals.
A whole person:
 When an individual is appointed, his/her skill alone is

not hired,
 his/her social background, likes and dislikes,
 pride and prejudices are also hired.
Caused Behaviour:
 The behviour of the employee is caused and not

random.
 This behaviour is directed towards some one that the

employee believes, rightly or wrongly, is in his/her
interest.
 The manager must identify the cause and correct the
behaviour and tackle the issue at its root.
Human dignity:
 It confirms that people need to be treated with

respect and dignity.
Social systems:
 People have psychological needs, they also have social

roles and status.
 Their behaviour is influenced by their group as well as
by their individual drives.
Mutuality of interest:
 People see organizations as a means to help them

reach their goals,
 while at the same time, organizations need people to

help attain organizational objectives.
 Mutual interest provides a superordinate goal that
unites the variety of needs that people bring to
organizations.
Holistic Concept:
 When the above six fundamental concepts of OB are
placed together, a holistic concept emerges.
 This concept interprets people-organization
relationships in terms of the whole person,
 whole group, whole organization, and the whole
social system.
Need for Management:
 Management is the attainment of organizational goals

in an effective and efficient manner through, planning,
organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling
organizational resources.
 Success or failure of an organization depends on

these people and their decisions.
Disciplines That Contribute
to the OB Field
Psychology:
 Seeks to measure, explain and sometimes change the
behaviour of humans and other animals.
 That is, the study of individual behaviour.
Sociology:
 It studies people in relation to their social
environment or culture.
 That is, the study of group behavioiur in
organizations.
to the OB Field...
Social Psychology:
 Generally considered as a branch of psychology,
 blends concepts from both psychology and sociology

to focus on peoples’ influence on one another.
 It contributes to measuring, understanding, and

changing attitudes,
 identifying communication patterns, and building

trust.
to the OB Field...
Anthropology:
 Is the study of societies to learn about human beings

and their activities.
 Anthropologists work on cultures and environments

has helped them to understand differences in
fundamental values, attitudes, and
 behaviour between people in different countries and

within different organizations.
Behavioural Contribution Unit of Output
science analysis
Learning
Motivation
Perception
Training
Leadership effectiveness
Job satisfaction
Psychology Individual decision making
Performance appraisal
Attitude measurement
Employee selection
Work design
Work stress
Individual
Group dynamics
Work teams
Communication
Power
Conflict
Intergroup behaviour
Sociology
Formal organization theory Study of

Organizational technology Organizational
Group
Organizational change Behaviour
Organizational culture
Behavioural change
Attitude change
Social psychology Communication
Group processes
Group decision making
Organization
system
Comparative values
Comparative attitudes
Cross-cultural analysis
Anthropology
Organizational culture
Organizational environment
Challenges and Opportunities
for OB
Responding to Economic Pressures:
 During difficult times like recession, pandemic

situation, etc., effective management is often at a
premium price.
 When times are bad, though managers are on the

front lines with employees who must be fired,
 who are asked to make do with less, and
 who worry about their futures.

for OB...
Responding to Globalization:
 Organizations are no longer constrained by national

borders.
 The world has become a global village.
 In the process, the managers job has changed and
 they will anticipate and adapt their approaches to the

global issues.
for OB...
 Increased Foreign Assignments: because of
these managers have to manage a workforce very
different in needs, aspirations, and attitudes.
 Working with People from different Cultures:

to work effectively with people from different
cultures,
 managers need to understand how their culture and

background have shaped them and
 how to adapt the existing management style to fit any

differences.
for OB...
 Overseeing Movement of Jobs to Countries
with Low Cost Labour: its increasingly difficult for
managers in advanced nations, where minimum wages
are typically higher for an hour,
 to compete against firms that rely on workers from

China and other developing nations where labour is
available for cheap for an hour.
 In a global economy jobs tend to flow where lower

costs give business a comparative advantage.
for OB...
Managing Workforce Diversity:
 One of the most important challenges for
organizations is adapting to people who are different.
 Workforce diversity acknowledges a workforce of
women and men,
 many racial and ethnic groups,
 individuals with a variety of physical or psychological
abilities, and
 people who differ in age and sexual orientation.
for OB...
Improving Customer Service:
 Managers needs to ensure employees do what it

takes to please customers.
 OB can contribute to improving an organization’s

performance,
 by showing managers how employee attitudes and

behaviour are associated with customer satisfaction.
 Management needs to create a customer responsive

culture.
for OB...
Stimulating Innovation and Change:
 Successful organization must foster innovation and

master the art of change, otherwise they will die in
the market.
 An organizations employees can be the driving force

for innovation and change, or they can be a major
stumbling block.
 The challenge for managers is to encourage their

employees creativity and tolerance for change.
for OB...
Coping with Temporariness:
 In the past, employees were assigned to a specific

work group,
 gaining a considerable amount of security working

with the same people day in and day out.
 That predictability has been replaced by temporary

work groups,
 with members from different departments, and

for OB...
 the increased use of employee rotation to fill
constantly changing work assignments.
 Today’s managers and employees must learn to cope
with temporariness,
 flexibility, spontaneity, and unpredictability.

for OB...
Working in Networked Organizations:
 Networked organizations allow people to

communicate and work together even though they
may be thousands of miles apart.
 Motivating and leading people and making

collaborative decisions online requires different
techniques,
 than when individuals are physically present in a single

location.
for OB...
 As more employees do their jobs by linking to others
through networks, managers must develop new skills.
Helping Employees Balance Work Life Conflicts:
 Recent studies suggest employees want jobs that give

them flexibility in their work schedules so they can
better manage work life conflicts.
 Today many organizations are trying to help their

people achieve work life balance,
for OB...
 in a bid to attract and retain the most capable and
motivated employees.
Creating a Positive Work Environment:
 Positive organizational scholarship/learning or positive
organizational behaviour,
 studies how organizations develop human strengths,
 promote vitality/vibrancy and resilience, and unlock
potential.
 Positive organizational scholars have studied a
concept called reflected best self,
for OB...
 asking employees to think about when they were at
their personal best in order to understand how to
exploit their strengths.
 The idea is that we all have things which we are

usually good,
 yet too often we focus on addressing our limitations

and
 too rarely think about how to exploit our strengths.

for OB...
Improving Ethical Behaviour:
 Today’s manager must create an ethically healthy
climate for his or her employees,
 where they can do their work productively with
minimal uncertainty about what right and wrong
behaviours are.
 Companies that promote strong ethical mission,
encourage employees to behave with honesty and
 provide strong ethical leadership can influence
employee decisions to behave ethically.
A Basic OB Model
Developing an OB Model
 It proposes three types of variables inputs, process,
and outcomes,
 at three levels of analysis individual, group, and

organizational.
Inputs:
 Inputs are the variables like personality, group

structure, and organizational culture that lead to
processes.
Developing an OB Model…
 These variables set the stage for what will occur in an
organization later.
 Individual diversity characteristics, personality, and

values are shaped by a combination of an individual’s
genetic inheritance and childhood environment.
 Group structure, roles, and team responsibilities are

typically assigned immediately before or after a group
is formed.
 Finally, organizational structure and culture are usually
the result of years of development and change,
 as the organization adapts to its environment and

builds up customs and norms.
Processes:
 Processes are actions that individuals, groups, and

organizations engage in as a result of inputs and that
lead to certain outcomes.
 At the individual level processes include emotions
and moods, motivation, perception, and decision
making.
 At the group level they include communication,

leadership, power and politics, and conflict and
negotiation.
 Finally, at the organizational level processes include

human resource management and change practices.
Outcomes:
 Outcomes are the key variables that you want to

explain or predict, and that are affected by some
other variables.
 At the individual level outcomes like attitudes and

stress, task performance, citizenship behaviour, and
withdrawal behaviour.
 At the group level cohesion and functioning are the

dependent variables.
 Finally at the organizational level overall profitability
and survival.
 Attitudes and Stress: employee attitudes are the

evaluations employees make, ranging from positive to
negative, about objects, or events.
 Stress is an unpleasant psychological process that

occurs in response to environmental pressures.
Task Performance:
 The combination of effectiveness and efficiency at

doing the core job tasks is a reflection of the
employees level of task performance.
 Task performance is the most important human

output contributing to organizational effectiveness.
Citizenship Behaviour:
 The discretionary/non compulsory behaviour that is
not part of an employee’s formal job requirements,
and
 that contributes to the psychological and social
environment of the work place is called citizenship
behaviour.
 Successful organizations need employees who will do
more than their usual job duties and
 who will provide performance beyond expectations.
Withdrawal Behaviour:
 It is the set of actions that employees take to

separate themselves from the organization.
 There are many forms of withdrawal, ranging from

showing up late or failing to attend meetings to
absenteeism and turnover.
 It can have a very negative effect on an organization.

Group Cohesion:
 It is the extent to which members of a group support

and validate one another at work.
 When employees trust one another, seek common

goals and
 work together to achieve these common ends, the

group is cohesive.
Group Functioning:
 It refers to the quantity and quality of a group’s work

output.
 That is group functioning in work organizations is

more than the sum of individuals task performances.
Productivity:
 An organization is productive if it achieves its goals by

transforming inputs into outputs at the lowest cost.
 Productivity requires both effectiveness and efficiency.
 A business firm is effective when it attains its sales or

market share goals,
 but its productivity also depends on achieving those

goals efficiently.
 Popular measures of organizational efficiency include

return on investment, output per hour labour, etc.
 Effectiveness: is the degree to which an
organization meets the needs of its customers.
 Efficiency: is the degree to which an organization
can achieve its goals at a low cost.

Survival:
 Organizational survival is simply evidence that the

organization is able to exist and grow over the long
term.
 The survival of an organization depends not just on

how productive the organization is,
 but also on how well it fits with its environment.

 So survival factors in things like perceiving the market
successfully,
 making good decisions about how and when to

pursue opportunities, and
 engaging in successful change management to adapt

to new business conditions.
Implications for Managers
 Organizational behaviour investigates the impact that
individuals, groups, and structure have on behaviour
within an organization, and
 it applies that knowledge to make organizations work

more effectively.
 OB focuses on how to improve productivity,
 reduce absenteeism,
 reduce turnover, and

Implications for Managers…
 reduce irregular workplace behaviour, and
 increase organizational citizenship behaviour and
 job satisfaction.
 OB uses systematic study to improve predictions of

behaviour over intuition alone.
 OB offers specific insights to improve a manager’s

people skills.
 It helps managers to see the value of workforce
diversity and practices that may need to be changed
in different countries.
 It can improve quality and employee productivity by

showing managers how to empower their people,
 design and implement change programs,
 improve customer service, and
 help employees balance work life conflicts.

 It can help managers survive in a world of
temporariness and learn how to stimulate innovation.
 Finally, OB can guide managers in creating an ethically
healthy work climate.

References
 Stephen P. Robbins, Timothy A. Judge and Neharika Vohra (2018), 18th Ed.
Organizational Behaviour. Pearson Education Asia.
 Aswathappa, K. (2016). Organizational Behaviour (Text, Cases and Games), 12th Ed.
Bangalore: Himalaya Publication.
 Fred Luthans (2017). Organizational Behavior: An Evidence - Based Approach, 12th

Ed. McGraw Hill Education.
 Gupta, C. B. (2014). A textbook of organisational behaviour: With text and cases.

New Delhi: S Chand & Company.
Thank You…
Dr. Ajai Krishnan G

Organizational Behaviour: Understanding People at Work

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Organizational Behaviour: Understanding People at Work

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Organizational Behaviour

 Organizational behaviour is a field of study that

 for the purpose of applying such knowledge towards

 That is OB is the study of what people do in an

 how their behaviour affects the organization’s

to attribute causes and effects, and drawing

conclusions based on scientific evidence.

 That is data gathered under controlled conditions and

measured and interpreted in a reasonably rigorous

 Eg: doctors need to make decisions about the patient

 Intuition a gut feeling not necessarily supported by

 So, we need to use systematic study and EBM for

behaviour in organizational settings,

 the interface between human behaviour and the

 the organization itself.

 the individual organization interface,

 the organization itself, and

 the environment surrounding the organization.

 Each individual is different from others in several

 The management need to understand and respect

 When an individual is appointed, his/her skill alone is

 pride and prejudices are also hired.

 The behviour of the employee is caused and not

 This behaviour is directed towards some one that the

 It confirms that people need to be treated with

 People have psychological needs, they also have social

 People see organizations as a means to help them

 while at the same time, organizations need people to

 Management is the attainment of organizational goals

 Success or failure of an organization depends on

 Generally considered as a branch of psychology,

 blends concepts from both psychology and sociology

 It contributes to measuring, understanding, and

 identifying communication patterns, and building

 Is the study of societies to learn about human beings

 Anthropologists work on cultures and environments

 behaviour between people in different countries and

Formal organization theory Study of

 During difficult times like recession, pandemic

 When times are bad, though managers are on the

 who are asked to make do with less, and

 who worry about their futures.

 Organizations are no longer constrained by national

 The world has become a global village.

 In the process, the managers job has changed and

 they will anticipate and adapt their approaches to the

 Working with People from different Cultures:

 managers need to understand how their culture and

 how to adapt the existing management style to fit any

 to compete against firms that rely on workers from

 In a global economy jobs tend to flow where lower

 Managers needs to ensure employees do what it

 OB can contribute to improving an organization’s

 by showing managers how employee attitudes and

 Management needs to create a customer responsive

 Successful organization must foster innovation and

 An organizations employees can be the driving force

 The challenge for managers is to encourage their

 In the past, employees were assigned to a specific

 gaining a considerable amount of security working

 That predictability has been replaced by temporary

 with members from different departments, and

constantly changing work assignments.