EBSM21- Essentials in Behavioral

Sciences for Management Research

PhD for Working Professionals (AY 2021-22)

Dr. P. Murugan
Assistant Professor, OB and HR area,
IIM Shillong, Shillong 793018.
murugan@iimshillong.ac.in
Mobile: +91 9791374600
https://www.iimshillong.ac.in/facultyprofile/murugan.html
https://sites.google.com/view/muruganpattusamy
 Session 1
Contributions of the Behavioral Science Approach to
management
Summary of Session 1

• Science and common sense

• Two broader views of science
• Aims of science
• Scientific research
• Contribution of behavioral sciences in management
Science and common sense

• Whitehead (1911) has pointed out that in creative thought common sense is a
bad master.
• Common sense is a bad master for evaluating the knowledge.
• Science is a systematic and controlled extension of common sense.
• Science and common sense differed in five ways.
• These disagreements evolve around the words “systematic” and “controlled”.
Science and common sense

1. The uses of conceptual schemes and theoretical structures are strikingly

different.
2. Scientist systematically and empirically test their theories and hypotheses.
3. Notion of control.
4. Scientist preoccupied with testing the relations among the phenomena. While,
layman who invokes common sense for his explanations of phenomena.
5. Common sense and science lies in different explanations of observed
phenomena. Scientist rule out the metaphysical explanations. Metaphysical
explanation is simply a propositions that cannot be tested.
Views

https://youtu.be/8Are9dDbW24
Two broader views of science

Static Science Dynamic

Static view

• Science is an activity that contributes systematized information to the world.

• The scientist job is to discover new facts and to add them to the existing body
of information.
• Science even conceived to be as body of facts.
• Science is also a way of explaining observed phenomena.
• The emphasis, then is on the present state of knowledge and adding to it and
on the present set of laws, theories, hypotheses, and principles.
Dynamic view

• Science is more as an activity, what scientists do.

• The present state of knowledge is important.
• But it is important mainly because it is a base for further scientific theory and
research.
• This has been called as heuristic view.
• The word “heuristic” meaning serving to discover or reveal, now has the notion of
self-discovery connected with it.
• Heuristic may also be called problem solving, but the emphasis is on imaginative and
not routine problem solving.
• It stresses problem solving rather than facts and bodies of information.
Methods of Knowing or methods of acquiring
knowledge
1. Intuition- we are relying on our guts, our emotions, and/or our instincts to guide us. Rather
than examining facts or using rational thought, intuition involves believing what feels true. 
2. Authority- This method involves accepting new ideas because some authority figure states
that they are true. These authorities include parents, the media, doctors, Priests and other
religious authorities, the government, and professors. 
3. Rationalism - Rationalism involves using logic and reasoning to acquire new knowledge.
Using this method premises are stated and logical rules are followed to arrive at sound
conclusions.
4. Empiricism - Empiricism involves acquiring knowledge through observation and experience.
5. The scientific method - The scientific method is a process of systematically collecting and
evaluating evidence to test ideas and answer questions. 
Aims of science

• The basic aim of science is theory.

• The basic aim of science is to explain natural phenomena.
• Such explanations are called theories.
• “ A theory is a interrelated constructs (concepts), definitions, and propositions
that present a systematic view of phenomena by specifying relations among
variables, with the purpose of explaining and predicting the phenomena”.
• Other aims of science are: explanation, understanding, predictions and
control.
Scientific research

• Scientific research is “systematic, controlled, empirical, and critical

investigation of natural phenomena guided by theory and hypotheses about
the presumed relations among the such phenomena” (Kerlinger, 1985).
The scientific approach (Kerlinger, 1985)

• Problem-Obstacles-Idea
• Hypothesis
• Reasoning-Deduction
• Observation-Test-Experiment
Behaviuoral Science

• According to American Psychological Association “any of various disciplines

that use systematic observation and experimentation in the scientific study of
human and nonhuman animal actions and reactions. Psychology, sociology,
and anthropology are examples”.
• According to Britanica definition “Behavioral science, any of
various disciplines dealing with the subject of human actions, usually including
the fields of sociology, social and cultural anthropology, psychology, and
behavioral aspects of biology, economics, geography, law, psychiatry,
and political science”. 
Behavioral Science Knowledge and
Management Practice
• The question of behavioral science contribution to management practice is
really twofold.
• The first part, "What are the behavioral science insights, concepts, research
findings, and theories that are available for improved understanding of
management?"
• The second part of the question, "What contribution has all this made to
improved management practices?"
Contribution of Behavioral Science to
Management Knowledge
• The most significant social science contributions to management practice undoubtedly
have come from economics—the study of man as a consumer, and the development
of organizations through which economic needs can be effectively satisfied.
• The behavioral science approach, however, is usually defined more narrowly to
explain man's behavior as a member of producing organizations—individual behavior
in a social system designed to achieve productive goals through cooperative effort.
• The study of history, economics, political sciences, and anthropology provides
insights into the setting in which organizational behavior takes place, while
psychology, sociology, social psychology, and applied anthropology provide the more
immediate clues to the behavior itself.
• It is the contributions to management of these last-named areas of social science .
Business as a Social System

Hawthorne experiment
https://youtu.be/rLVp-CrBnPo
Behavioral scientists investigation
approaches
• The Small Group Approach-study of leadership, interpersonal relations, communication,
and cooperation by controlled studies of small group behavior.
• The Survey Research Center Approach-Rensis Likert 15 years study on productivity.
• The Worker and Technology Approach- Yale Technology Project concerning the worker
and the foreman on the assembly line illustrate research that can help determine the limits
of job specialization and standardization in view of the realities of human needs and the
social system.
• The Conflict of Individual and Organization-Hierarchical authoritarian organizations.
• Modern Organisation theory-Chester Barnard laid the foundations for modern organization
theory by conceiving of organizations as complex social systems.
Integrating Behavioural sciences and
management
Three major problem areas:
1. The problem of interpreting behavioral science research findings for what
still is essentially a non-scientific audience.
2. The problem of identifying the core of behavioral science knowledge and its
limitations and collecting this into more than fragmentary compendia.
3. The problem of finding or developing the quality of faculty that can ably
judge and interpret the meaning and relevance of research and that can
instill the business administration student and the business administrator
with the romance and excitement of it.
References

1. Bernthal, W. F. (1962, December). Contributions of the Behavioral Science

Approach. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 1962, No. 1, pp.
21- 28). Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510: Academy of Management.
2. Bernthal, W. F. (1960). Integrating the behavioral sciences and
management. Academy of Management Journal, 3(3), 161-166.
3. Kerlinger, F. N. (1985). Foundations of behavioral research. New York.
4. Whitehead, A. N. (1911). An introduction to mathematics. New York.