UNIVERSITY OF COLOMBO

Institute of Human Resource Management

Subject : MBM 5232 – Organizational Behaviour

Topic :Introduction to Organaizational

Behaviour and Hawthorne Experiments

Facilitator : Prof.K. Kajendra, Ph.D, MBA, M.Com,

B.Com (Special).
Faculty of Management and Finance
Department of Marketing
University of Colombo.

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 What is organisation
Porter Lawler and Hackman(1975) identify the
following aspects in the organisation.

- They are composed of individuals and groups.

- They exist in order to achieve certain goals.

- They involve specialization, and require rational

co-ordination and control.

- They have some degree of permanence.

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 Definition of organization

Organization comprise two or more people

engaged in a systematic and coordinated
effort, persistency over a period of time, in
pursuit of goals which convert resources
into goals and/or services which are needed
by consumers.

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 ORGANISATIONAL GOALS

“A goal is a future state of affairs which the

organisation attempt to realise”.
Expressing Goals

The goals contains the following elements:

- It is challenging and achievable.
- It is clear and relevant
- It includes a standard or target against
which achievement may be measured.
- It includes some form of time constraint

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 Types of Organisational Goal

Most organisations have several “ Future states

of affaires” which the organisation is seeking to
achieve. These are not necessarily all of the
same type.
Approach towards classifying goals
There is a hierarchy of purposes in most
organisations, involving progressively more
specific statements of what the future state of
affairs.

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Hierarchy of Purposes:

Vision

MISSION

GOAL

OBJECTIVE

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 VISION STAEMENT
A brief and inspirational expression of
what a company aspires to be

MISSION STATEMENT

A statement of why an organization

exists, in other words, what the organization
aims to accomplish for customers, investors,
and other stakeholders

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 Vision of University Library
To support the university’s vision in building synergies
between knowledge, education and research, by striving to
create an environment conducive to learning, teaching and
intellectual advancement.

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 Mission of University Library

To underpin the mission of the university, by providing

high-quality service for the staff, students and the
researchers to satisfy their quest for knowledge.

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 Mission
An organization’s mission is a generalized statement of its
main purposes, often encompassing the key values which
underlie those purposes and the way in which it seeks to

achieve them.

Mission of local education authority:

“ The education department strives to promote
and maintain quality and quality in education,
social justice and economic regeneration”.

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 Goals
Goals build on the mission statement and provide
the long term targets for organizational activities.

There will be goals for each division.

Goals are detailed enough to give a clear picture of

the organization's targets, but not so specific.
Eg.“ensure payment of 95% of invoices
within two months of issue.”

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 Objectives

Objectives derive from goals to provide detailed,

short term targets, generally in the form of
guidelines for action in a specific time span.

These objectives are measurable.

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13
 ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

Introduction
- The success of any organisations is a direct
reflection of its managerial efficiency and
effectiveness.

- The managerial ability or inability which

determines the success or failure of an

organisation.

- The success of an is directly dependent upon the

ability of management.

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• Managerial
Concerns
Efficiency
“Doing things right”
– Getting the most
output for the least
inputs
Effectiveness
“Doing the right things”
– Attaining
organizational goals
 Effectiveness
High Low
• E
ff
• i High Slowly
c Grow die
i
e
n
c Quickly
y Low Survive
die

1–16
 Three Elements of Organisational
Behaviour
Org. Factors
(structure, processes
Work environment

Org.effectiveness

Productivity satisfaction

Individuals Groups

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 Organizational Behavior

A field of study that investigates the

impact that individuals, groups, and
structure have on behavior within
organizations, for the purpose of
applying such knowledge toward
improving an organization’s
effectiveness.

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Organizational Behavior
OB is the study of human action in
organizations.

It is a systematic and scientific analysis of

both individual and group processes and
characteristics in organization settings; its
purposes is to understand, predict, and
improve the performance of individuals and
organizations.
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 Intuition and Systematic Study

• Gut feelings
• Individual
Intuition observation
• Commonsense

• Looks at
Systematic relationships
Study • Scientific evidence
• Predicts behaviors

The two are complementary means of predicting behavior.

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systematic study

It means looking at relationships, attempting to

attribute causes and effects, and basing our
conclusions on scientific evidence—that is, on 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.

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 An Outgrowth of Systematic Study…
Evidence-Based Management (EBM)

Basing managerial decisions on the best available

scientific evidence

Must think like scientists:

Apply
relevant
Search for information
best to case
available
evidence
Pose a
managerial
question

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 Reasons for studying organizational
Behaviour (OB)

1. OB provides an integrative behavioural science

knowledge within an organaizational setting,

emphasing application.

2. Organizations are important in our society, and

therefore, the behavior in those organizations is

important.

3. People related problems are some of the most

difficult ones faced by managers and cannot be
solved by “ common sense”.
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24
.

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 Contributing Disciplines

Many behavioral sciences

have contributed to the
development of organizational
Behavior Psychology

Social
Psychology

Sociology Anthropology

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1-26
 Psychology
The science that seeks to measure, explain, and sometimes
change the behavior of humans and other animals.
Unit of Analysis:
– Individual
Contributions to OB:
– Learning, motivation, personality, emotions, perception

– Training, leadership effectiveness, job satisfaction

– Individual decision making, performance appraisal

attitude measurement

– Employee selection, work design, and work stress

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 Social Psychology
An area within psychology that blends concepts from
psychology and sociology and that focuses on the influence
of people on one another.

Unit of Analysis:
– Group
•Contributions to OB:
– Behavioral change
– Attitude change
– Communication
– Group processes
– Group decision making

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 Anthropology
The study of societies to learn about human beings and
their activities.

•Unit of Analysis:
-- Organizational
System
• Contributions to
OB:
– Organizational
culture
– Organizational
environment

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 Direct Environmental Forces
Regulatory agencies

Competitors Customers

Organisation

Suppliers
Employees /Labour

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-

Indirect Environment Forces

Social Factors Political Factors

The Organisation
People
Resources Structure
Goods & services
Purpose

Technological
Economic Factors
Factors

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 There are number of characteristics of the
environment which are likely to affect
organisations

Instability
- Environments are not constant, but are subject
to change. When change is rapid, then it is
turbulent environment. It has become
unstable and unpredictable.
- Inability and turbulence are not necessarily
harmful to all organizations. They can be
beneficial. It gives opportunities and threats
to organisations.

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• Turbulence may arise in any of the four
sectors of the environment.
Social change - changing taste and fashion,
and buying habits
Economic environment – Inflation
Technological environment – products are
unstable
Political environment – government actively
intervene the way
organisations are run.

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Constraints:
All sectors of the environment can place
constraints on organisations:
- respect of the availability of inputs
or market for outputs:
- shortage of raw materials
- unable to use acceptable technology
- falling birth rate
- High unemployment
- new legislation on working practices
like length of the working week or
minimum wage.

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 Complexity
 Environments can be extremely complex.
 The large number of very different types of people involve
with market for a given product or services
- Diversification of technology
- Complexity of the politico-economic environment
Rise of international institutions such as the
European union, international trade forums, and
agreements and multinational companies.

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 The Independent Variables
The independent variable (X) can be at any of these
three levels in this model:
•Individual
– Biographical characteristics, personality and
emotions, values and attitudes, ability, perception,
motivation, individual learning and individual decision
making.
•Group
– Communication, group decision making, leadership
and trust, group structure, conflict, power and politics,
and work teams.
•Organization System
– Organizational culture, human resource policies and
practices, and organizational structure and design.

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 Interesting OB Dependent Variables
• Productivity
– Transforming inputs to outputs at lowest cost.
Includes the concepts of effectiveness (achievement
of goals) and efficiency (meeting goals at a low
cost).
• Absenteeism
– Failure to report to work – a huge cost to employers.
• Turnover
– Voluntary and involuntary permanent withdrawal from
an organization.
• Deviant Workplace Behavior
– Voluntary behavior that violates significant
organizational norms and thereby threatens the well-
being of the organization and/or any of its members.

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 More Interesting OB Dependent
Variables

• Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB)

– Discretionary behavior that is not part of an
employee’s formal job requirements, but
that nevertheless promotes the effective
functioning of the organization.
• Job Satisfaction
– A general attitude (not a behavior) toward
one’s job; a positive feeling of one's job
resulting from an evaluation of its
characteristics.

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 Summary and Managerial
Implications

• Managers need to develop their interpersonal

skills to be effective.
• OB focuses on how to improve factors that make
organizations more effective.
• The best predictions of behavior are made from
a combination of systematic study and intuition.
• Situational variables moderate cause-and-effect
relationships – which is why OB theories are
contingent.
• There are many OB challenges and
opportunities for managers today.
• The textbook is based on the contingent OB
model.
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 The Hawthorne Experiments/ Studies

– The important contribution to the human

relations movement with in organisational
behaviour came out of the Hawthorne studies
under taken at the Western Electric company’s
Hawthorne works in Cicero, illinois.

– This study originally begun in 1924.

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Experiment Illumination
in
1 Experiment in Illumination
st

Test Group Control Group

Under
different
Di Constant
Illumination Illumination
Intensities(24 , Intensities
46 and 70 foot
candles

Production
Increased in
both groups

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Experiment in Illumination

2nd Experiment in Illumination

Test Group Control Group

Decreased
Illumination Constant
Intensities (10 Level of
to 3 foot Illumination
candles Intensities

Production
Increased in
both groups

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3rd Experiment in Illumination

Test Group

The Workers were

allowed to believe
that the illumination
was being increased
but in fact no
change in intensity
was made

Favorable
response from
workers toward
improved lighting
conditions.

No appreciable
effect on output

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4th Experiment in Illumination

Test Group

The Workers were

allowed to believe
that the intensity of
illumination was
being decreased but
in fact no change in
intensity was made

The workers
complained
somewhat about the
poorer lighting.

No appreciable
effect on output

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5th Experiment in Illumination

Test Group

The intensity of
illumination was
decreased to .06 of
foot candle which is
the intensity of
illumination
approximately
equivalent to that of
ordinary moon light

The workers
complained somewhat
about the poorer
lighting.
No appreciable effect
on output

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 Conclusion of the Illumination Experiments

•There was something very strange or unusual

situation.

Also, the experiment were not quite sure that what

was the strange– the employees or the subjects or

the results

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 The notion of a simple cause-and –effect direct relationship
between certain physical changes in the workers’ environment
and the responses of the workers to these changes.

Such a notion completely ignored the human meaning of these

changes.

Therefore, there was no relation between illumination and

industrial efficiency.

Drawback

The effect of the single variable in the test.

Therefore, it was thought that another experiment should be

devised in which other variables affecting the output of workers
could be better controlled.

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 The Relay Assembly Test Room
This test was planed to submit a segregated group of workers to
different kinds of working conditions.
Test Situation (1st Phase)
- A group of five girls were placed in a separate room where their
conditions of work could be carefully controlled.
- Their output could be measured.
- They could be closely observed.
- Introduced specified intervals different changes in working
conditions.
- The girls were studied for a period of five years.

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Purpose of this test.
The attempt to relate changes in
physical circumstances to variations in output.

Result
No correlation was obtained.
The negative result was occurred.

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 2nd Phase in Relay Assembly Test
-This test was lasted for two years.
- The following aspects were introduced:
- Different experimental conditions of work.
- In the nature of changes in the number and duration of
rest pauses.
- Differences in the length of the working and day and
night.
- Later, the rest time increased and introduced the rests at
different times of the day.

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• During one experimental period investigators served the
operators a specially proposed lunch during the rest
time.

• In the later period, investigators decreased the length

of the working day by one and half hour later by one
hour.

• Operators were given Saturday morning off.

• All together, thirteen such periods of different working

conditions were introduced in the first two years

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 Results of 2nd phase

- During the first year, and half of the experiment, every body was
happy both investigators and operators.
It was because, conditions of work improved the output rate.
- This supported their hypothesis that fatigue was the major factor
limiting output.
Later, investigators restore the original conditions of work i.e. operators
worked without rest.
Result of this rest:
Output, instead of falling, maintained its high level.
Therefore, again investigators were forcibly reminded that human
situations are likely to be complex.

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 3rd phase in Relay Assembly Test

- Investigators did everything in their power to secure the

complete cooperation of their workers.

- The operators were consulted about the changes to be made.

- The girls were questioned sympathetically about their reactions.

- The girls were allowed to talk at work and their fear was

eliminated.

- Their physical health and well being became matters of

great concern.

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Result
- This experiment had completely altered the

social situation of the room.

- Unintentionally, the customary supervision in

the room had been created great change in the

attitude of the girls and improved their rate of

work.

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Implication of the Hawthorne Studies

– With some limitations ( philosophical, theoritical

and methodological), the Hawthorne studies did
provide some interesting insights that contributed
to a better understanding of human behaviour in
organization.

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