1.

2  Why Study Organizational Behavior?

Defining Organizational Behavior

Organizational behavior (OB) is the study of individual and group behavior in
organizational settings. OB looks at organizations as entities, the forces that
shape them, and their impact on organizational members. The study of OB
involves three levels of study: (1) The Individual; (2) The Group (or Team);
and (3) The Organization.

OB examines attitudes, social climate, and performance within an

organization by examining both individual and group behavior on a regional,
national, or global level. Researchers examine why people (individually or in
groups) behave the way they do and how to manage these behaviors so that
the organization can achieve optimal performance.

Researchers in organizational behavior study age-old questions such as:

What are the characteristics of a good leader? And, how can a manager
motivate workers? Increasingly, questions that have social and moral
relevance, such as what makes an organization "ethical" in both action and
reputation, are also being addressed.

The Importance of Studying Organizational Behavior

In our competitive, complex, and constantly changing world, organizations
must be both efficient and effective in what they do. To do this, organizations
must have competent employees that know how to work together to reach
organizational goals. As a result, it is important to understand how to build
and maintain a competent and cooperative work force.

For example, think about the organizations that you've dealt with either as a
customer or as an employee. It's likely that your experiences have not always
been pleasant and trouble-free. Perhaps you've been kept waiting for service,
spent hours trying to get relatively straightforward information, or worked for a
 boss who gave you no direction and then criticized your work. On the other
hand, you have also most likely been exposed to organizations that
consistently maintained high standards of excellence. Organizational
behavior addresses the differences in these organizations, such as why
some organizations are more effective than others, and why some
supervisors make excellent managers.

By studying organizational behavior, both employees and managers come to

understand what makes people behave the way they do. Employees can use
this knowledge to increase their own job satisfaction and improve work
performance. Managers can use organizational behavior to accomplish goals
and help employees achieve optimal performance. More importantly, learning
about organizational behavior will help you to understand your own
behaviors, attitudes, ethical views, and performance, as well as those of the
people with whom you'll be working. This type of knowledge will assist you in
working effectively with managers, colleagues, and subordinates.

1.3  The Historical Foundations of Organizational Behavior

In order to fully understand organizational behavior and utilize its teachings in
your education and future career, it is important to understand the constantly
evolving nature of the workplace. Before the industrial revolution of the mid-
1700s, daily activity was much different than it is today. With the emergence
of centralized factories, work became something one did under strict
instructions from a manager; it also became much more hierarchical, bringing
prestige and power to a few. Changes in the workplace brought about
changes in many organizations. Unionism arose due to conflicts between
assemblers and managers; after complaints and massive uprisings,
governments became more active in protecting workers’ rights. The industrial
revolution transformed our ideas about organizations and the roles that
organizations have in our lives.

The latter part of the 20th century saw the emergence of an equally profound
revolution in the workplace. Jobs that were once abundant became scarce as
manufacturing was outsourced to other countries. Today, most new job
opportunities in the United States and Europe are in the service industries
and require specialized training. Furthermore, today’s jobs often offer much
less security when compared to the jobs of the past. This, combined with
increased competition and the short-term focus of organizations, has led
many individuals to change employers more frequently than in the past.

These changes are partially due to the globalization of the world economy.
Globalization has occurred due to the reduction of political trade barriers,
more efficient transportation, and remarkable advancements in technology.
The globalization of the economy has also led to a diversification of the
typical employee as people often move across states and even countries for
employment. Today's job applicants are more diverse in their education, work
and life experience, ethnicity, age, and lifestyle than applicants in the past.

Figure 1-1:

What is particularly interesting about the changing workplace is the evolution

of the meaning of work. In the past, work was physical in nature and often
seen as a noble endeavor. However, for many of us, our attitudes toward
work have changed. Whereas a steady job still brings status, pride, dignity,
and self-definition, unemployment can result in depression, anxiety, and
lowered self-esteem. Today many more people view work as an unpleasant
and undervalued activity that economic necessity demands they perform.

The above types of workplace changes are more sudden and more far-
reaching than most of us probably realize. These changes offer both
 opportunities and challenges to those who study and participate in
organizational behavior. To understand these changes through the lens of
organizational behavior, it is important to understand the early research that
developed before these changes took place. It is upon this historical
foundation that OB researchers are able to understand the complex changes
occurring in organizations today.

1.4  Early Research that Shaped Organizational Behavior

In the next two sections we will discuss key theories and research that helped
shaped the field of organizational behavior. By applying these theories to your
studies, you can better understand how motivation, leadership, and employee
behavior can help individuals and teams achieve organizational goals. We will
start our discussion by first describing scientific management - an early
management theory first proposed by Frederick Winslow Taylor in the late
1890s.

Scientific Management
The theory of Scientific Management argues that a task given to an employee
should be optimized for maximum efficiency. In other words, under scientific
management, a number of workers are observed performing a specific task
within the organization. Once the most efficient employee is identified, the
actions and techniques of that employee are then implemented company-wide.
Scientific management assumes that by imitating the most productive
employees, organizations can increase productivity and efficiency. As the new
company standards are implemented, the newly identified standard becomes
the benchmark against which all other workers are measured. Management
then uses this new standard as they plan and make decisions. Furthermore,
under scientific management, this new standard is the basis upon which pay
and individual productivity is measured. Taylor felt that scientific management
would ‘guarantee’ the optimal use of workers in any organizational
environment.
 Although it was later found that no single management style is highly effective
in all situations, scientific management provided important contributions to our
current understanding of organizational behavior. For example, scientific
management spurred additional research into the sources of motivation, the
development of goal-setting programs, the construction of incentive pay
systems, and the groundwork for modern employee selection techniques, as
well as a number of other dominant themes in organizational behavior.

Leadership Research
During the early 1940s, the world stage was highly dominated by a small
number of political and ideological leaders such as Churchill, Hitler, Stalin, and
Mussolini. Therefore, it is hardly surprising that early leadership studies
assumed that leaders had inherent characteristics (or traits) that made them
great leaders. Since this time, a wide variety of personal characteristics have
been evaluated with the hope of discovering which traits can be associated
with successful leadership. For example, throughout the last century, a number
of researchers have evaluated personal characteristics such as intelligence,
physical appearance, social status, social skills, and personality to identify
positive leadership traits.

Some of the earliest leadership scholars included Ronald Lippitt and Ralph
White, who examined democratic and autocratic styles of leadership as well as
French and Raven who studied the relationship between leadership and power.
Because leadership is such an important factor in determining the success of
an organization, leadership research is one of the most defining aspects of OB
research.

Job Satisfaction, Health and Employee Behavior

Research in other fields has contributed significantly to organizational behavior
discoveries. In 1915, for example, the U.S. physiologist Walter Cannon
discovered the stress response, described as a physiological response to
environmental stimuli. A generation later, organizational behaviorists would use
Cannon's findings to identify the relationship between health and employee
 behavior. Employee health is important to OB practitioners because
maximizing the health of employees can positively improve behavior and work
satisfaction, creating a competitive advantage for the firm.

1.5  Significant Research in Organizational Behavior

During the 1920s, at a Western Electric telephone assembly plant in Illinois,
company management attempted to better understand the impact of workplace
lighting on productivity. Management believed that by increasing the availability
of light, worker productivity would improve. Astonishingly, every time
management measured the light within a room (whether or not the lighting had
been changed), productivity increased.

To better understand what was going on, management hired Professor Elton
Mayo to investigate. After investigating the situation, Mayo concluded that no
matter what changes were made to the lighting, productivity increased. This
finding was the beginning of a twelve-year, four-part study on worker
productivity. Mayo’s investigation showed that many of the traditional
employees were restricting their output to some unwritten standard. Instead of
studying the impact of lighting on employee productivity within the organization,
Mayo gradually switched his attention to the attitudes, morale, and social
relations of the employees. Mayo’s research provided important insight into
informal social structures. Mayo’s research came to be known as the
Hawthorne effect.

The main takeaway from the Hawthorne effect is the remarkably energizing
effect of simply showing interest and/or paying attention to employees and
colleagues within the organization. Ever since Mayo’s initial studies,
researchers have been careful to consider the Hawthorne effect as a possible
explanation of research participants' behavior. The more formal name for this
effect on individuals is demand characteristics, meaning that the researcher
can – even without meaning to – “demand" that the participant behave in a
certain way. The Hawthorne effect also refers to how the social influence of an
informal group can determine individual behavior. Mayo's finding that working
conditions, satisfaction, and relationships with other workers can all influence
 employee behavior gave rise to the human relations approach to management,
which held that there is no one best way of managing employees.

Motivation
The first motivation theories were developed toward the end of the 1930s.
These theories are based on the assumption that behavior is largely
determined by immediate needs. Indeed, they show how the various physical,
psychological, and social needs of a person will predict behavior. The 1950s
saw the development of motivational theory based on the work of Frederick
Herzberg, which drew attention to the difference between needs that are
satisfied by the external environment (extrinsic needs) and those that are
satisfied by inner, upper-level needs (intrinsic needs).

1.6  Changes in Organizational Behavior Concepts

In addition to significant research that contributed to the development of
organizational behavior — namely, scientific management, the Hawthorne
studies, and early leadership studies — there have been a number of other
influences as well. For instance, in the 1930s, Henry Fayol (pronounced fie-ole)
designed for his fellow engineers a set of management principles that became
widely accepted throughout Western Europe. Fayol argued that (1) the role of
the manager is to plan, organize, direct, and control; (2) that each employee
should report to only one supervisor ("unity of command"); and (3) functions
should be specialized, so that experienced teams are responsible for human
resources, research and development, marketing, and so forth. At the same
time, in the United States, the social psychologist Kurt Lewin focused his
attention on group dynamics, or the influence of the group upon individual
behavior. Later, Richard Lazarus showed the need to understand how people
perceived various situations and how these perceptions relate to the stress
level of the individual.

Robert Blake and Jane Mouton, who were the some of the first to suggest that
managers can be trained, provided a diagnostic test called the managerial grid.
This grid positioned each leader along two axes, one axis addressing a
 concern for production or task completion and the other axis representing a
concern with people. This task-relational continuum has become central to both
leadership and team research and is also the basis for much of the research on
organizational conflict.

Concepts in the hard sciences, such as chaos theory, have helped

organizational behavior researchers to further study teams and organizations
as complex adaptive systems. Other researchers have included learning as an
approach to individual, team and organizational change. Other influences
affecting the field of organizational behavior include positive approaches and
multidisciplinary collaborations. As organizations continue to adapt to changes
in technology, to the political and social environment, and to an evolving
marketplace, we expect that there will be continual changes to theories and
research in organizational behavior.

1.7  Organizational Research Paradigms

Because of their large and diffuse nature, organizations often conduct research
to help them better understand their employees, customers, competition and
marketplace. Throughout this section, we will discuss five separate research
paradigms including sociometry, position analysis, communication analysis,
discretionary analysis, and comparative analysis.

Sociometry
In sociometry, all group members are asked to indicate their relationship on a
specified dimension with every member of the group. By combining all the
responses, the researcher can diagram the relationships, competence ratings,
and communication effectiveness within a group.

Position Analysis
During position analysis a researcher compares the job requirements of the
organization with the abilities of each jobholder within the organization. The
purpose is to achieve an optimal match between abilities and requirements and
 to uncover any mismatches. When a discrepancy is discovered, the tasks may
be altered or employees may be reassigned.

Communication Analysis
To perform communications analysis, the researcher traces the path of a
message to reveal at what step it is delayed or blocked, simply passed on,
elaborated, or acted upon. The formal communication structures can be
contrasted with the "grapevine" (discussed in a later topic), and the messages
can be analyzed for content.

Discretionary Analysis
One way of evaluating the status of employees is to analyze their freedom to
work unsupervised; this technique is termed discretionary analysis because it
measures how much discretion the employees have. For example, they may
be asked, "For what length of time do you perform your assigned tasks using
your own judgment, without the direct review of your superiors?" Generally, the
less the direct control, the higher the worker's competence, responsibility, and
pay expectations.

Comparative Analysis
The study of one organization can be facilitated by performing a comparative
analysis of other organizations. For instance, college students often complain
that they have too little input into administrative decisions that impact them. As
a result, student leaders may ask the administration for a response and also
survey their counterparts at other schools. They may find that, in terms of
dispute-resolution programs, other schools serve their students better. Armed
with the comparative analysis results (benchmarking), the leaders publicize the
role of students on committees and prevail upon the administration to appoint a
representative to mediate student complaints.

These internal organizational research procedures become more complicated

as we consider the globalized nature of many organizations. International
organizations have cultural variety, more challenges, and are often larger than
 many smaller organizations that are located in one centralized location. For this
reason, we have dedicated the next section to the complexities of international
organizational behavior.

1.8  International Organizational Behavior

As organizations become more international and embrace both different
nationalities and cultures, the study of organizational behavior has expanded to
involve the global environment. As we study international organizational
behavior all of the principles mentioned in previous sections become even
more important as organizations become more multicultural and multinational.
The study of international organizational behavior requires an understanding of
various regional contexts (Asia, Middle East, North Africa, Europe, North
America, South America, Central America and the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan
Africa, Australia and Oceania) and their numerous local contexts with
indigenous cultures. Furthermore, researchers need to understand the cross-
cultural and virtual interactions present especially in multinational corporations
(MNCs). Although all members in organizations are human beings, individuals
working with different cultures and nationalities experience diverse experiences
that cannot be assumed to be similar to those individuals working in a
homogenous setting.

As organizations become more team oriented to cope with the need to be

flexible and responsive to today’s volatile business environment, team research
(especially cross- cultural and virtual) is becoming more critical in international
organizational behavior. Finally, the perception of organizational change and
the rates of change in different regions and nations are now included under the
umbrella of international organizational behavior. In this course, we offer some
concrete examples that highlight the international flavor of organizational
behavior across individual, team and organizational levels.

1.9  Summary
Organizational behavior (OB) is the study of individual and group behavior in
organizational settings. OB looks at organizations as entities, the forces that shape them,
 and their impact on members of the firm. International organizational behavior (IOB) is
the study of individual and group behavior, attitudes, social climate, and performance
within organizational environments in multicultural settings. Both managers and
employees can use organizational behavior to improve work performance and achieve
organizational goals.

The impetus for the emergence and development of organizational behavior as a

discipline can be traced to the industrial revolution and later drastic changes that have
profoundly altered the structure and conditions of work. The industrial revolution, which
reached its peak in the late 18th century, was marked by a shift from the work of skilled
artisans to mass production. Globalization, reduced job security, high-tech efficiency,
and new styles of management are all characteristics of the current work environment.

In this topic, we have discussed important milestones in organizational behavior

research. Current OB research is built upon the foundations of Scientific Management
Theory, the Hawthorne Effect, and other key research studies. Today, the five most
common research procedures adopted by individual organizations include sociometry,
position analysis, communication analysis, discretionary analysis, and comparative
analysis.

Why Do We Study OB?

Following are the reasons to study organizational behavior:

• To learn about yourself and how to deal with others
• You are part of an organization now, and will continue to be a part of various organizations
• Organizations are increasingly expecting individuals to be able to work in teams, at least
some
of the time
• Some of you may want to be managers or entrepreneurs
The importance of studying organizational behavior (OB)
OB applies the knowledge gained about individuals, groups, and the effect of structure on
behavior in
order to make organizations work more effectively. It is concerned with the study of what
people do in
an organization and how that behavior affects the performance of the organization. There is
increasing
agreement as to the components of OB, but there is still considerable debate as to the
relative
importance of each: motivation, leader behavior and power, interpersonal communication,
group
structure and processes, learning, attitude development and perception, change processes,
conflict, work
design, and work stress. It is also important because it focus on the following areas.
• OB is a way of thinking.
• OB is multidisciplinary.
• There is a distinctly humanistic orientation with OB.
• The field of OB is performance oriented.
• The external environment is seen as having significant impact on OB.
Contributing Disciplines to the OB Field
Organizational behavior is an applied behavioral science that is built upon contributions
from a number
of behavioral disciplines. The predominant areas are psychology, sociology, social
psychology,
anthropology, and political science.

  
Managerial Excellence: Three Reasons for
Studying Organizational Behavior
What is the best way to manage an organization? Scientific management, training
groups, wellness programs, and organizational culture are only small part of the many
managerial approaches managers have tried to implement in order to make more
effective the workings of companies. Where does a manager begin to implement all
these concepts and ideas? Probably the best place is with an understanding of the
principles of organizational behavior.

Practical Applications

There are significant practical benefits to understanding the principles of

organizational behavior. For instance, the development of a personal leadership style
can be guided by knowledge of the results of studies that have attempted to relate
leadership style to situational requirements. The choice of a problem-solving strategy or
the selection of an appropriate employee appraisal format can be influenced by
additional knowledge of the results of studies in the associated topic areas. Particularly
in the area of performance improvement, there are numerous benefits to be gained by
applying the knowledge that has been gathered in the field of organizational behavior.

Attracting and developing talented individuals are two critically important issues to the
survival and prosperity of an undertaking. Emphasis on the human element often
distinguishes the most successful ones when it comes to organizational performance.
This occurs because all serious competitors in a given industry are likely to have nearly
the same level of technical sophistication. Thus, other input factors being equal,
organizations that have talented and dedicated employees tend to be more effective.
Furthermore, within a given industry, the variability on human dimensions across
 organizations is likely to be greater than the variability on technical dimensions.
Consequently, we can argue that the most important element to an organization’s
welfare and the most neglected because of its less tangible nature is the human
behavioral element.

As an illustration of how crucial the human element is to organizational success,

consider the various professional sports teams. All of them have the same equipment
and facilities like a stadium, trainers, practice facilities, and equipment. Further, each
team has the same number of members and essentially the same structure. Therefore,
what differs one team from another is largely traceable to the human element: the talent
and efforts of the players and coaches, the ability of managers to develop their players’
skills and competences, and the ability of the coaches and players to motivate
themselves to high levels of accomplishment.

Personal Growth

The second reason for studying organizational behavior is the personal fulfillment we
gain from understanding our fellow humans. Understanding others may also lead to
greater self-knowledge and self-insight. Such personal growth is an aspect of education
that is often cited as the greatest benefit of studying the liberal arts and sciences. Some
may question the practical value of this feature in the business world. But it can, in fact,
make a difference when it comes to advancing beyond an entry-level position. Entry-
level hiring is largely based on education and technical competency, such as cer-
tification in specialized areas. Promotions, however, are normally based on more than
technical knowledge and skills. They are often motivated by demonstrated ability to
communicate and work effectively with superiors, peers, and subordinates. In summary,
knowledge of organizational behavior may not be a “union card” that helps you to be
hired, but it will be invaluable to you once you have that first job and seek advancement.

Increased Knowledge

The third goal of organizational behavior is to gather knowledge about people in work
settings. At a minimum, the field aims to gather knowledge for its own sake. As
evidenced by the progress of many “pure science” fields, such as physics, space
research, and chemistry, the practical use of certain findings may not be apparent for
years. A similar process occurs in the field of organizational behavior. Although some
organizational behavior findings may not have yet practical applications, they are
undoubtedly valuable additions to human knowledge.

 Md. Salah Uddin Rajib · Jahangirnagar University

Because of complex human behavior and reciprocity of control

Sep 12, 2012 · Recommend



Chris Ifeta · Tai Solarin University of Education

We need scholars like you to publish and share with the world. Visit www.rennergroup.co.uk. Submit an article
to the Journal "Select Creative Genius- a journal registered with the British Library. "- Dr C. F. Ifeta

Jan 11, 2013 · Recommend

Alex Kristovics · Western Sydney University

It came as a big surprise to me that modern business is still so new and continuously developing. The industrial
Revolution was said to approx. start in 1740, but others say that it was probably 200 years in the making
(approx. 1540). Consider this timeline of an average human lifespan ..... it is only about 6 ifetimes of an 80 year
old person. That is comparatively few in relation to how long man in its present form has lived on this earth.
Therefore, because Organisational Behaviour tends to take a multi-disciplinary approach, it might be worth
looking at how some of our ancestral past may still be influential in modern businesses. The following, I
thought, was worth reading: Saad, G. (2011). The missing link: the biological roots of the business sciences. In
G. Saad (Ed.). Evolutionary Psychology in the Business Sciences (pp. 1-16). Heidelberg: Springer.

Jan 31, 2013 · Recommend

o 1 Recommendation

Imam Salehudin · University of Queensland

We study OB in order to: 1) Understand the behavior of people in our organization, then to 2) Predict the
behavior of people in our organization, and finally to 3) Control the behavior of people in our organization

Feb 6, 2013 · Recommend


snježana jurišić · Croatian Economic Association

All the best strategies could be thrown away if the culture in organization, including organizational behaviour as
unseparatable part of it, is not in the line to achieve it

Feb 25, 2013 · Recommend

o 1 Recommendation

Dr.Konapala Visweswara Rao · Gayatri Vidya Parishad College of Engineering

dr.k.visweswararao G.V.P.college of engineering for women visakhapatnam INDIA 

The basic objective of Organisational behaviour is to study the Human behaviour at work through balancing
between the work to worker,s feel, attitude, perception ,efficiency, dynamisam,receiptiveness
responsiveness,committment, involvement ,work performance ,maintaindignity,and theway how the way finises
work.

Mar 22, 2013 · Recommend

o 1 Recommendation

Victor Manuel Monteiro Seco · University of Lisbon

OB is a special discipline on understanding people traits. For instance, when we focus on work orientations we
must use some OB components. The sense of calling work orientation can be a powerful psychological force.
Researchers have begun to examine this phenomenon, both in terms of theorizing about the construct itself
(Bellah, Madsen, Sullivan, Swidler, & Tipton, 1985; 2005; Weiss, Skelley, Hall, & Haughey, 2003;
Wrzesniewski, McCauley, Rozin, & Schwartz, 1997), as well as exploring calling as a predictor of outcomes,
such as life and job satisfaction, better health, and fewer reported days of missed work (Wrzesniewski et al.,
1997).
 Mar 27, 2013 · Recommend

o 1 Recommendation

Sik Liong Ang · Universiti Brunei Darussalam

It is good to study human behaviour because sometimes people or cultural values and organisational culture
may not match especially common issues always arise in international business or cross-cultural management.

Mar 29, 2013 · Recommend

o 3 Recommendations

Muhammad Riaz · Forman Christian College

Technology and Business Processes are fairly stable and standardized and relatively easy to manage. Human
factor is the key enabler for the efficiency, effectiveness and competitive advantage of an organization.
Organizational Behavior studies this versatile and volatile 'ingredient' at various levels within the workplace in
order to produce synergies.

May 20, 2013 · Recommend

o 1 Recommendation

Markus Pausch · Fachhochschule Salzburg

I am interested in the relationship between individuals and organizations out of democratic reasons, working on
the question, how far the principle of democracy can and should go into the daily organizational structures of
enterprises and other organisations. There was a very fruitful discussion on organiziational democracy in the
1970s (e. g. Carol Pateman on Workplace Democracy) arguing that any social institution needs to be organised
in democratic ways... Although this idea has more or less disappeared in the 1990s, it comes back again in the
 last years, also in some recent management theories stressing the importance of participation and participatory
processes in enterprises (e. g. Michel Godet on Prospective 2012) .

Jul 2, 2013 · Recommend

o 1 Recommendation

Jiri Krejci · Walden University

Thank you all for your answers. I believe that there is a grain of truth is all of them. My simple answer is that
you study OB because you want to realize full human potential at work while individuals seek happiness. The
ideal is a happy individual fully motivated and aligned with the organization´s goals, experiencing "peaks"
(Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi) and thus maximizing the organizational outcomes.

Jul 6, 2013 · Recommend

o 1 Recommendation

Krishnan Umachandran · NELCAST

To shows an interesting behavioral/psychological/sociological explanation, signifies it with theoretical and

empirical contribution in line with the existing research literature. These learning's lead to identify and test the
underlying psychological mechanism for the newly discovered behavioral/psychological/sociological exhibit that
which lay more practical implications in organizational context.

Jan 25, 2016 · Recommend

Victor Manuel Monteiro Seco · University of Lisbon

 Organizational Behavior is a specialty within Social Sciences which core is people. Even considering the
interactions of Vechio I would still consider the micro,  meso and macro levels to frame the relationship of
people and organizations.

Organizational behavior is the field of study that

investigates how organizational structures affect
behavior within organizations.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE[ EDIT ]
 Define organizational behavior and the way in which computer modeling and
systematic frameworks enable further study

KEY POINTS[ EDIT ]
 Organizational behavior studies organizations from multiple viewpoints,
including behavior within the organization and in relation to other
organizations.
 Micro organizational behavior refers to individual and group dynamics in an
organizational setting.
 Macro organizational theory studies whole organizations and industries,
including how they adapt, and the strategies, structures, and contingencies that
guide them.
 Concepts such as leadership, decision making, team building, motivation, and job
satisfaction are all facets of organizational behavior
and responsibilities of management.
 Organizational behavior also deals heavily in culture. Company or corporate
culture is difficult to define but is extremely relevant to how organizations
behave.

TERM[ EDIT ]
 behavior
The way a living creature acts.
Give us feedback on this content:  

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FULL TEXT[ EDIT ]

Definition of Organizational Behavior

Organizational behavior studies the impact individuals, groups, and

structures have on human behavior within organizations. It is

an interdisciplinary field that includes sociology,

psychology, communication, and management. Organizational behavior

complements organizational theory, which focuses on organizational and

intra-organizational topics, and complements human-resource studies,

which is more focused on everyday business practices.

Behavior model

Diagram of Schein's organizational behavior model, which depicts the three central
components of an organization's culture: artifacts (visual symbols such as office dress
code), values (company goals and standards), and assumptions (implicit,
unacknowledged standards or biases).

Different Types of Organizational Behavior

Organizational studies encompass the study of organizations from

multiple perspectives, methods, and levels of analysis. "Micro"

organizational behavior refers to individual and group dynamics in

organizations. "Macro" strategic management and organizational theory

studies whole organizations and industries, especially how they adapt,

and the strategies, structures, and contingencies that guide them. Some

scholars also include the categories of "meso"-scale structures,

involving power, culture, and the networks of individuals in organizations,

and "field"-level analysis, which studies how entire populations of

organizations interact.

Many factors come into play whenever people interact in organizations.

Modern organizational studies attempt to understand and model these

factors. Organizational studies seek to control, predict, and explain.

Organizational behavior can play a

major role in organizational development, enhancing overall

organizational performance, as well as also enhancing individual and

group performance, satisfaction, and commitment.

Topics in Organizational Behavior

Organizational behavior is particularly relevant in the field of

management due to the fact that it encompasses many of the issues

managers face on a daily basis. Concepts such as leadership, decision

making, team building, motivation, and job satisfaction are all facets of

organizational behavior and responsibilities of management.

Understanding not only how to delegate tasks and organize resources but

also how to analyze behavior and motivate productivity is critical for

success in management.

Organizational behavior also deals heavily in culture. Company or

corporate culture is difficult to define but is extremely relevant to how

organizations behave. A Wall Street stock-trading company, for example,

will have a dramatically different work culture than an academic

department at a university. Understanding and defining these work

cultures and the behavioral implications they embed organizationally is

also a central topic in organizational behavior.

Source: Boundless. “What is Organizational Behavior?.” Boundless Management Boundless, 31

May. 2016. Retrieved 20 Feb. 2017
from https://www.boundless.com/management/textbooks/boundless-management-textbook/
organizational-theory-3/why-study-organizational-theory-28/what-is-organizational-behavior-162-
3925/