ORGANISATIONAL

BEHAVIOUR
 Books

• Stephen Robbins and Timothy Judge(2013) ,

Organizational Behavior, 15th edition, Pearson
Education
• Udai Pareek (2004) , organization Behaviour , Oxford
Publishing
• Organizational Behavior (2008) 4th edition by
McShane, Van Glinow & Radha Sharma
 Project
1. Group of students need to visit an organization and need
to prepare a report on demographical, cultural diversity
and learning styles and tools.
2. Students need to visit an organization and need to identify
the job design, goal setting, their performance appraisal
and incentives and prepare a report.
3. Students should visit an organization and interview the
employees to know various conflicts and reasons for
stress and expected activities to be free from stress and
prepare a report.
 Organization
• A consciously coordinated social unit composed of
people having resources at their command
functioning on a continuous basis to achieve common
goal or set of goals.
Administration Management Organisation
It is the process of It is the process of It is the process of
determining the object planning the work as dividing the work into
to be achieved. per objective different tasks & duties
It prepares the policies It execute the policies It organise the work
and principles
It provides the It coordinate activities It delegate the
direction, guidance and authority and fix
leadership responsibility
It provides guidance to It follows the It is responsible for
management and administration management and
organisation administration
What is Organizational Behavior?
• The systematic study and application
of knowledge about how individuals
and groups act within the
organizations where they work.

• It is a field of study that investigates

the impact that individual, group or
structure have on behavior within the
organization for the purpose of
applying such knowledge towards
improving organizational
effectiveness.
 Definition of OB
• 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.
-Stephen Robbins

• “Organizational behavior is directly concerned with the

understanding, prediction and control of human behavior in
organization.”
-Keith Davis
 OB draws from other disciplines to make a
separate field
• Personality and motivation – Psychology
• Attitude change and group process- Social Psychology
• Individual culture and organizational culture- Anthropology
• Decision making- Economics
• Power and influence in organization- Political Science
 Objective of learning OB

• To learn about yourself and how to deal with others.

• To understand organizational culture.
• To find the right people.
• To understand how to develop good leaders.
• To develop a good team
• To foster higher productivity.
• To resolve organizational conflicts.
 Scope of OB
• The scope of OB includes the study of individual,
groups and organizational structure.
• INDIVIDUAL:
Organizations are the association of individuals. The
study of individuals includes
Perception
Personality
Attitude
Values
Job satisfaction
Learning
Motivation
• GROUP OF INDIVIDUALS:
Groups include aspects such as group dynamics, group
conflict, communication, leadership, power and politics
and the like.

• ORGANIZATION/STRUCTURE:
The study of organization/structure includes aspects
such as formation of organizational structure, culture,
change and development.
Elements of OB
UNDERSTANDING YOUR
LEARNING STYLE
(WHAT TYPE OF LEARNER ARE YOU?)
 Types of Learners

• There are mainly 3 types of learner:

1. Visual learner: If you retain more information by reading
and seeing diagrams and flow charts.
2. Auditory learner: If you primarily learn by listening to
others such as in lectures, conversations, and videos.
3. Kinaesthetic learner: If you have a preference for actually
doing things and learning from trial and error.
 Characteristics of each of the above are discussed as follows:
If you are a visual learner:
• draw pictures and diagrams to help you understand;
• take careful notes during class so you can refer back to them later on;
• summarize the main points of what you learn using charts.

If you are an auditory learner,

• join study groups so you can discuss your questions and ideas and
hear responses;
• write down any oral instructions you hear in class right away;
• consider taping lectures if your professor says it is OK and view online
lectures on topics you are interested in.
 Cont…
If you are a kinaesthetic learner,
• schedule your homework and study sessions so you
can take breaks and move around between reading
your notes or chapters;
• take good notes during class—this will force you to
pay attention and process information even when you
feel like you are “getting it”.
TOOLS FOR OB RESEARCH
 Terminology of research.
• Hypothesis: These are tentative guesses for an expected observation,
phenomenon, or scientific problem that can be tested.
• Variables: These are entities that can take on different values. Based
on the hypothesis, the relationship between different variables are
understood.
• Survey: It is a research tools used to elicit respondents’ reactions to
specific questions. A basic survey involves asking individuals to
respond to a number of questions. The questions can be open-ended
or close-ended, then summarize your findings.
• Field studies: Research conducted in actual organizations. They may
include observation, interviews, surveys, or experiments.
• Experimental design: A study having a group that receives a treatment
and a comparison group that receives no treatment. Here researcher
would assign half the employees at a company to the goal setting
condition and the other half to the control group condition.
• Control group: A group that does not receive any experimental
manipulation so it can be compared to a treatment group.
• Treatment group: A group that receives experimental manipulation.
• Lab study: Research conducted under controlled conditions and may
include observation, interviews, surveys, or experiments. In lab study, one
group is assigned one condition and the other group is assigned the
control condition (generally the control condition involves no change at
all).
• Case studies: These are in-depth descriptions of a single industry or
company. The benefits of case studies are that they provide rich
information for drawing conclusions about the circumstances and people
involved in the topics studied.
• Generalize: The likelihood that findings in a given study would be found in
another setting or study.
• Meta analysis: It is the process of summarizing research findings from
studies on related topics. This analysis is based on taking observed
correlations from multiple studies, weighting them by the number of
observations in each study, and finding out if, overall, the effect holds or not.
• Correlation: It is a statistical technique that can show whether and how
strongly pairs of variables are related.
• Regression: This is a technique used to model and analyse the relationships
between variables and often times how they contribute and are related to
producing a particular outcome together.
• Reliability: The degree to which an assessment tool produces stable and
consistent results.
• Validity: It refers to how well a test measures, what it is supposed to
measure.
DEMOGRAPHIC AND CULTURAL
DIVERSITY
 Diversity
• Diversity refers to the ways in which people are similar
or different from each other.
• It may be defined by any characteristic that varies
within a particular work unit such as gender, age,
education, tenure, or functional background (such as
being an engineer versus being an accountant).
 Benefits of Diversity
• Higher creativity in decision making: In a diverse work team, people will
have different opinions and perspectives. In these teams, individuals are
more likely to consider more alternatives and think outside the box when
making decisions.
• Better understanding and services to customers: A company with a diverse
workforce may create products or services that appeal to a broader customer
base.
• More satisfied workforce: When employees feel that they are fairly treated,
they tend to be more satisfied. On the other hand, when employees perceive
that they are being discriminated against, they tend to be less attached to
the company, less satisfied with their jobs, and experience more stress at
work.
• Higher stock prices: Companies that do a better job of managing a diverse
workforce are often rewarded in the stock market, indicating that investors
use this information to judge how well a company is being managed.
 Challenges of Diversity
• Similarity-attraction phenomenon: The tendency to be more
attracted to individuals who are similar to us. It may explain some of
the potentially unfair treatment based on demographic traits. For e.g.
If a hiring manager chooses someone who is racially similar over a
more qualified candidate from a different race, the decision will be
ineffective and unfair. In other words, similarity-attraction may
prevent some highly qualified women, minorities, or persons with
disabilities from being hired.
• Fault-line: It is an attribute along which a group is split into
subgroups. For example, in a group with three female and three male
members, gender may act as a fault-line because the female members
may see themselves as separate from the male members.
• Stereotypes: These are generalizations about a particular
group of people. The assumption that women are more
relationship oriented, while men are more assertive, is an
example of a stereotype.
• The problem with stereotypes is that people often use them
to make decisions about a particular individual without
actually verifying whether the assumption holds for the
person in question. As a result, stereotypes often lead to
unfair and inaccurate decision making.
 Demographic Diversity
• Different demographic groups face unique work
environments and varying challenges in the
workplace.
• The challenges associated with managing gender,
race, religion, physical ability, and sexual orientation
diversity in the workplace is known as demographic
diversity.
 Issues in Demographic Diversity
• Gender diversity: Despite the existence of strong legislation, women
and men often face different treatment at work.
• Earning gap: The difference between median earnings of men and
women relative to median earnings of men.
• Glass ceiling: The situation that some qualified employees are
prevented from advancing to higher level positions due to factors
such as discrimination. It is often encountered by women and
minorities.
• Racial diversity: The word is racial is related to the characteristics
people have because of their genetic or ethnic origins, the country
where they were born, their skin colour.
• Age diversity: In an organization, younger employees are considered more
efficient than the older ones. Presence of older employees in an
organization fosters lower level of absenteeism, more experience, lower
work injuries, volunteering, etc. disadvantages of having older employees
are lack of proper communication, resistance to new culture, adopting
only a particular style and no social mingling.
• Religious diversity: Intolerance and unacceptance of religious views at
workplace. The employees should not be discriminated on the basis of
religion.
• Employees with disability: The organization should consider reasonable
accommodations for the physically and mentally disabled employees. This
may include modifying the employee’s schedule and reassigning some
nonessential job functions, organizations that offer flexible work hours
may also make it easier for employees with disabilities to be more
effective, finally, supportive relationships with others seem to be the key
for making these employees feel at home.
 Cultural Diversity
• Culture: It is a social pattern that is heritage within a society. It
determines what is important and unimportant, right and wrong,
acceptable and unacceptable. Culture encompasses explicit and tacit
values, norms, attitudes, beliefs, behaviours and assumptions.
• Cultural diversity: The cultural variety among people with different
racial or ethnical backgrounds that is present in the world, societies
or organizations.
• Organizational culture: It consists of the norms and values developed
in an organization that hold it together. It is based on shared beliefs,
attitudes and rules. The culture supports the way an organization
treats its employees, customers and how it conducts its business.
• An expatriate is someone who is temporarily assigned to a position
in a foreign country.
Hofstede’s culture framework in different countries
• Individualistic cultures are those that stress the needs of the individual
over the needs of the group as a whole. These cultures value autonomy
and independence of the person, self-reliance, and creativity. Countries
such as the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia are examples
of individualistic cultures.

• Collectivistic cultures are more likely to have an interdependent view of

themselves (they see themselves as connected to others, define
themselves in terms of relationships with others, and see their
characteristics as more likely to change across different contexts). Asian
countries such as China and Japan, as well as countries in Latin America
are higher in collectivism.
• Power distance refers to the degree to which the society views an
unequal distribution of power as acceptable.
• Low power distance culture: In this culture, equal opportunity is the
norm. Members of the society value equality and democracy, and it is
more acceptable for those who are junior in age or rank to question
authority. Countries like Israel, Denmark, Ireland and Austria follow
this culture.
• High power distance culture: In this culture, hierarchy is an essential
part of the society, and unequal distribution of power is seen as
beneficial. Those higher on the hierarchy are expected to take care of
those lower on the hierarchy, and it is often appropriate for those in
power to make decisions without consulting their subordinates.
Those lower on the hierarchy generally are expected to obey their
superiors. E.g: Malaysia, Slovakia, Philippines, Russia, Mexico, etc.
• Uncertainty avoidance: It deals with a society's tolerance for uncertainty and
ambiguity. It indicates to what extent a culture programs its members to feel
either uncomfortable or comfortable in unstructured situations.
• Low uncertainty avoidance: In such cultures, those with a low level use
informality in interaction with others, they often rely on informal norms and
behaviours in most matters. Also, they will show moderate resistance to
change. Some of the lowest uncertainty avoidance countries include the
Jamaica, Denmark, Singapore, Sweden, and Ireland.
• High uncertainty avoidance: The use of formality in interaction with others,
dependence of formalized policies and procedures, apparent resistance of
change, and intolerance of untraditional ways are all characteristics of high
uncertainty avoidance. People in high uncertainty avoidance societies may be
afraid of people whom are different than them. Some of the highest uncertainty
avoidance countries include Finland, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Japan,
Mexico, Portugal, and South Korea
• Masculine cultures: These are cultures that value achievement,
competitiveness, and acquisition of money and other material
objects. Japan and Hungary are examples of masculine cultures.
Masculine cultures are also characterized by a separation of gender
roles. In these cultures, men are more likely to be self-confident and
competitive compared to women.

• Feminine cultures: These are cultures that value maintaining good

relationships, caring for the weak, and emphasizing quality of life. In
these cultures, values are not separated by gender, and both women
and men share the values of maintaining good relationships. Sweden
and the Netherlands are examples of feminine cultures.
 Suggestion for managing cultural diversity
• Help Employees Build Cultural Intelligence: Cultural intelligence is a person’s
capability to understand how a person’s cultural background influences one’s
behaviour. Employees should have the ability to work with people from many
diverse backgrounds all at the same time.
• Avoid Ethnocentrism: Ethnocentrism is the belief that one’s own culture is
superior to other cultures one comes across. Ethnocentrism leads organizations
to adopt universal principles when doing business around the globe.
• Listen to Locals: When doing cross-cultural business, locals are a key source of
information. To get timely and accurate feedback, companies will need to open
lines of communication and actively seek feedback.
• Recognize That Culture Changes: Cultures are not static—they evolve over the
years. A piece of advice that was true 5 years ago may no longer hold true. For
example, showing sensitivity to the Indian caste system may be outdated advice
for those internationals doing business in India.
 Managing diversity at workplace
• Prioritize communication: To manage a diverse workplace, organizations
need to ensure that they effectively communicate with employees. Policies,
procedures, safety rules and other important information should be designed
to overcome language and cultural barriers by translating materials and using
pictures and symbols whenever applicable.
• Treat each employee as an individual: Avoid making assumptions about
employees from different backgrounds. Instead, look at each employee as an
individual and judge successes and failures on the individual’s merit rather than
attributing actions to their background.
• Encourage employees to work in diverse groups: Diverse work teams let
employees get to know and value one another on an individual basis and can
help break down preconceived notions and cultural misunderstandings.
• Base standards on objective criteria: Set one standard of rules for all groups
of employees regardless of background. Ensure that all employment actions,
including discipline, follow this standardized criteria to make sure each
employee is treated the same.
• Be open-minded: Recognize, and encourage employees to recognize, that
one’s own experience, background, and culture are not the only with value to
the organization. Look for ways to incorporate a diverse range of perspectives
and talents into efforts to achieve organizational goals.
• Hiring: To build a diverse workplace, it is crucial to recruit and hire talent from
a variety of backgrounds. This requires leadership and others who make hiring
decisions to overcome bias in interviewing and assessing talent. If
organizations can break through bias and hire the most qualified people,
those with the right education, credentials, experience and skill sets, a diverse
workplace should be the natural result.