Organisational behavior

Hearty Welcome

Dr. Anandamma N.
HR & OB
Organisation + Behavior = OB
 Interpersonal skills
 Leadership and communication skills distinguishes
managers
 A national study of the US workforce- wages & fringe
benefits are not the drivers of job rather it is quality of
the job or the supportiveness of the work environment.
 Manager with interpersonal skills creates pleasantness in
the working environment leading to talent acquisition
and retention.
 Pleasant workplace generates superior financial
performance.
 To succeed in the competitive world, people skills are
much in need.
Understanding management functions and
roles
Management functions Management roles
Planning Interpersonal role—
Figurehead, leader, liaison

Organising Informational role—

Monitor, disseminator, spokesperson

Directing Decisional—
Entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource
allocator, negotiator

Controlling
Management skills

 Technical skills: ability to apply specialised knowledge

or expertise. These can be learnt in schools/formal
training programs/on the job.
 Human skills: ability to work with, understand &
motivate other people both individually and in groups.
These are needed to communicate, motivate and
delegate.
 Conceptual skills: mental ability to analyze and
diagnose complex situations.
Complementing Intuition with Systematic
study & EBM
 The systematic approach discloses important facts &
relationships & provides base from which accurate
predictions can be made.
 Systematic approach believes that behavior is not
random. Rather, there are certain primary consistencies
underlying the behavior of all individuals that can be
identified and modified.
 Behavior is generally predictable& the systematic
approach helps in reasonably accurate predictions.
 Complementing approach to systematic study is
evidence-based management, which involves basing
managerial decisions on the best available scientific
evidence.
 Disciplines that contribute to the OB
field
Behavioral Contribution Unit of analysis output
science

Learning, Motivation, personality,

emotions, Perception, Training, Leadership
Psychology effectiveness, Job satisfaction, Individual Individual
decision making, PA, attitude measurement,
Employee selection, work design, work
stress

Behavioral change, attitude change,

Social psychology communication, Group processes, group
decision making
Study of OB
Communication, power, conflict, intergroup Group
behavior
Sociology

Formal organisation theory, organisational

technology, orgl change, orgnl culture
Comparative values, Comparative attitudes,
Anthropology cross-cultural analysis
Organisation system
Organisational culture, organisational
environment, power
Challenges & Opportunities for OB
• Responding to Globalisation
• Managing workforce diversity
• Increased foreign assignments
• Working with people from different cultures
• Coping with anticapitalism backlash
• Overseeing movement of jobs to countries with low cost labor
• Managing people during the war on terror
• Embracing diversity
• Improving customer service
• Improving people skills
• stimulating innovation and change
• Helping employees balance work life conflicts
• Creating a positive work environment.
• Improving ethical behavior
Biographical characteristics
They are personal characteristics- such as age, gender, race &
length of tenure-that are objective.
AGE:
The relationship between age & job performance is an issue of
increasing importance for the following reasons:
 Belief that performance declines with increasing
age. .....................................Is it right...?
 Positive qualities: experience, judgement, a strong work ethic,
commitment to quality
 Negative qualities: resistance to new technology, lack of
flexibility
 Aged people are less likely to quit job(turnover)
 Aged people have lower rates of avoidable absences than
younger employees.
Age & productivity

Belief that productivity declines with age...

..................Do you agree?
 It is assumed that speed, agility, strength and
coordination decay over time, job boredom & lack of
intellectual stimulation leads to reduced productivity.
 But there are evidences that have disproved this
assumption.
Age & job satisfaction

 Most studies indicate positive association between age

& satisfaction, at least upto age 60.
 Some studies have shown U-shaped relationship-
satisfaction tend to continually increase among
professionals as they age, whereas it falls among non
professionals during middle age and then rise again in
the later years.
Gender
 Psychological studies have found that women are more
willing to confirm to authority and men are more
aggressive and have expectation of success than women.
 Increasing female participation rates in the workforce
and rethinking what constitutes male & female roles, no
significant difference is found in job productivity
between men & women.
 Evidences have shown that job quit rates of women are
similar to men.
 However, women have higher rates of absenteeism than
men. Research conducted in North America has shown
that it due to the responsibility of home and family
responsibilities being put on women.
Race
In India, races found- Indo-Aryan, Scytho-Dravidian,
Aryo-Dravidian, The Mongol-Dravidians, The
Mongoloid, The Dravidian
In employment settings, there is tendency for individuals
to favor colleagues of their own race in performance
evaluations, promotion decisions & pay raises.
Eg: African Americans receive less ratings in employment
interviews, are paid less, and are promoted less
frequently.
The issue of racial differences in cognitive ability tests
continues to be hotly debated.
Tenure
Extensive reviews have been done of the seniority-productivity
relationship and evidence demonstrates a positive relationship
between seniority and job productivity.
So tenure i.e. Work experience, appears to be a good predictor
of employee productivity.
Studies demonstrate seniority to be negatively related to
absenteeism. Tenure is the single most important explanatory
variable of both frequency of absence and total days lost at
work.
The longer a person is in a job, the less likely he or she is to
quit.
Tenure and job satisfaction are positively related. Tenure
appears to be more consistent & stable predictor of job
satisfaction than age.
Religion

 Not only do religious and non religious people question

each other’s belief systems, often people of different
religious faiths conflict.
 It may be difficult to certain employers to accommodate
some religions due to their practices.
Reference: Research on- An investigation of the
relationship between biographical characteristics and job
satisfaction among middle school teachers in four sub
by urban school districts- by Susan Scott-
Miller, Portland State University pg no.
161(implications)