What is Organization Behavior?

Keith Davis defined “Organizational Behavior is the study and application of knowledge
about how people as individual or as groups act within organizations.” Organizational
Behavior is the study of individuals and their behavior within the context of the organization
in a workplace setting. It is an interdisciplinary field that includes sociology, psychology,
communication and management (http://guides.library.cornell.edu/organizationalbehavior).

Organizational Behavior (OB) is the study and application of knowledge about how
people, individuals, and groups act in organizations. It does this by taking a system approach.
That is, it interprets people-organization relationships in terms of the whole person, whole
group, whole organization, and whole social system. Its purpose is to build better
relationships by achieving human objectives, organizational objectives, and social objectives
(http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leadob.html).

Organizational behavior is a misnomer. It is not the study of how organizations

behave, but rather the study of individual behavior in an organizational setting. This includes
the study of how individuals behave alone, as well as how individuals behave in groups
(http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/management/Ob-Or/Organizational
Behavior.html#ixzz1004flo7t). Organizational behavior is a scientific discipline in which a
large number of research studies and conceptual developments are constantly adding to its
knowledge base. It is also an applied science, in that information about effective practices in
one organization is being extended to many others (http://www.hrfolks.com/articles/orgn
%20mgmt/organizational%20behavior.pdf).

Why Organization Behavior so important?

With this knowledge managers can achieve a successful career. Since a manager
needs to get his job done by the others, to have an organizational behavior skills become a
valuable talent. As the environment of business is always changing, the role of the managers
has become more sensitive. In order to know how to handle a new workforce, and deal with
the complication of the new environment, the supervisors need to develop their information
about attitude and behavior of individuals, and groups in organization. Now we know not
only the hard skills is important for get the job done, soft skills are helps managers to do their
job more effectively and efficiently (http://www.echeat.com/essay.php?t=27151). 
 What are hard and soft skills? “Hard skills include written communication, computer
problem solving experiences, computer skills, and ability to understand new technologies,
international business (http://www.exampleessays.com/viewpaper/51106.html).
Organizational behavior provides a useful set of tools at many levels of analysis. For
example, it helps managers look at the behavior of individuals within an organization. It also
aids their understanding of the complexities involved in interpersonal relations, when two
people (two co-workers or a superior–subordinate pair) interact. At the next level,
organizational behavior is valuable for examining the dynamics of relationships within small
groups, both formal teams and informal groups. When two or more groups need to coordinate
their efforts, such as engineering and sales, managers become interested in the intergroup
relations that emerge. Finally, organizations can also be viewed, and managed, as whole
systems that have interorganizational relationships (e.g., mergers and joint ventures)
(http://www.collegetermpapers.com/TermPapers/Business/Importance_of_Organizational_Be
havior.shtml).

Goal
Organizational behavior is concerned with developing people skills. Therefore, the
goals of organizational behavior are to help us to explain, predict, and control human
behaviour. When we seek answers to why an individual or a group of individuals did
something, we are pursuing the explanation objective. It is probably the least important of the
three goals from a management perspective   it occurs after the fact. Yet, if we are to
understand a phenomenon, we must begin by trying to explain it. We can then use this
understanding to determine a cause. For example, because if a member of valued employees
resign, we undoubtedly want to know why in order to determine if it could have been
prevented. Employees quit their jobs for many reasons. However if the explanation for a high
quit-rate is inadequate pay or boring jobs, managers often can take actions that will correct
this situation in the future (http://bupress.bu.ac.th/ebook/mba/ba511_Suthinan.pdf).

The goal of prediction focuses on future events to determine what outcomes will
result from a given action. A manager of a small factory who attempts to assess how
employees will respond to the installation of new robotic equipment is engaging in a
predictive exercise. On the basis of knowledge of organizational behavior, the manager can
predict certain behavioral responses to the change. Of course, there are various ways to
implement a major change, so the manager is likely to assess employee responses to several
change interventions. In this way, the manager can anticipate which approaches will generate
the least degree of employee resistance and use that information in making his or her
decision. 
The most controversial goal is using organizational behavior knowledge to control
behavior. For example, when a manager asks "What can I do to make an employee put out
more effort on his job?" that manager is concern with control. Why is control controversial?
Most of us live in democratic societies, which are built upon the concept of personal freedom.
Therefore, the idea that one person should attempt to get others to behave in a certain way,
while the subjects of that control may be unaware that their behavior is being manipulated,
has been viewed in some circles as unethical and repugnant
(http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/167571/goals_of_organizational_behavior_pg2.ht
ml?cat=72).

Forces

A complex set of forces affects the nature of organizations today. A wide array of
issues and trends in these forces can be classified into four areas—people, structure,
technology, and the environment in which the organization operates. When people work
together in an organization to accomplish an objective, some kind of structure of formal
relationships is required. People also use technology to help get the job done, so people,
structure, and technology interact. In addition, these elements are influenced by the external
environment, and they influence it. Each of the four forces affecting organizational behavior,
and some illustrations of each, is considered briefly in the following sections
(http://www.apexcpe.com/publications/471001.pdf).

People make up the internal social system of the organization. That system consists of
individuals and groups, and large groups as well as small ones. At the individual level of
analysis, organizational behavior involves the study of learning, perception, creativity,
motivation, personality, turnover, task performance, cooperative behavior, deviant behavior,
ethics, and cognition. At this level of analysis, organizational behavior draws heavily upon
psychology, engineering, and medicine. There are unofficial, informal groups and more
official, formal ones. At the group level of analysis, organizational behavior involves the
study of group dynamics, intra- and intergroup conflict and cohesion, leadership, power,
norms, interpersonal communication, networks, and roles. At this level of analysis,
organizational behavior draws upon the sociological and socio-psychological sciences. People
are the living, thinking, feeling beings who work in the organization to achieve their
objectives. We must remember that organizations exist to serve people, rather than people
existing to serve organizations. Everyone is different from each other, it will have different
minded, skill, talent, characteristic to others it can be prove that like our DNA is different
from everyone (http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/management/Ob-Or/Organizational-
Behavior.html).

The human organization of today is not the same as it was yesterday, or the day
before. In particular, the workforce has become richly diverse, which means that employees
bring a wide array of educational backgrounds, talents, and perspectives to their jobs.
Occasionally, this diversity presents challenges for management to resolve, as when some
employees express themselves through alternative dress or jewelry, while others present
unique challenges through their unique lifestyles and recreational interests. Other employees
have examined their values and are determined to put their personal goals ahead of total
commitment to the organization. Managers need to be tuned in to these diverse patterns and
trends, and be prepared to adapt to them. Manager need to know that is the employee need or
their expectation and try to fulfil and satisfy the employee, so that they can feel been take care
and concern; then will more loyalty to the company and willing to sacrifice their extra time
and energy for firm or organization purpose.

Due with change the some of the changes in the labour force like decline in the work
ethic and rise in emphasis on leisure, self-expression, fulfilments, and personal growth.
Indeed, a new labour force has emerged, and management’s leadership practices must
change to match the new conditions. These fast-moving developments have given new
emphasis to leadership ability. Some companies are discovering that demonstrating a sense
of caring, really listening to employees, and being concerned with both competence and
relationships are among the keys to the motivation of the present workforce. Other
companies are urging their managers to respond to a diverse workforce by building pride
without devaluing others, empowering some without exploiting others, and demonstrating
openness, confidence, authentic compassion, and vulnerability
(http://www.scribd.com/doc/25353781/Organizational-Behavior).

An organisational structure defines the formal relationship and use of people in

organisations. According to Newstrom and Devis (1997), different jobs are required to
accomplish all of an organisation’s activities. There are managers, employees, accountants,
assemblers, and others who have to be related in some structural way so that their work can
be effectively coordinated (http://strategy4sustainability.files.wordpress.com/2006/08/org-
design-complexity.pdf).
 How is the structure of the organisation related to the conduct of an organisation?
According to Thompson (1997, p.588), structure is the means by which the organisation
seeks to achieve its strategic objectives and implement strategies and strategic changes.
Assuming that these strategies and changes are concerned with relating the organisation's
resources to its goals; will these resources be used in the proper way acceptable to all in the
society?

If change is necessary, it is correct to point out that resistance to change can

constitute another concept of misbehavior. People confronting changes in their
working environments often exhibit dysfunctional behaviors like aggression,
projection, and avoidance (Hirschheim, 1995 p.160). These types of behavioral
patterns affect the overall behavior of the organisation
(http://www.ukessays.com/essays/management/organisational-behavior-
misbehavior.php).

The relationships between organizations and their environments are complex and as
yet not well conceptualized. First of all, it is difficult to define the appropriate boundaries
what size its environment is. Where do a business concern with its research departments,
suppliers, transportation facilities, sales offices and public relations offices-leave off and the
community begin? The relevant environment society as a whole, the economic and political
system, and other companies in the same market the immediate community, the union, or all
of these (http://www.management-hub.com/hr-behavior.html).
Organization environments can be characterized by the certainly information
available to managers, the intensity of competitive rivalry, the industry, the operating
technology employed, the labour markets from the organization recruits, the social culture
in which the organization located and the institutional and political context in top
management is embedded. These factors of the environment affect the behaviour in the
organization through their influences on the choice leaders make about strategy,
organization design, people, human resources policies and leadership style
(http://www.hbs.edu/research/facpubs/workingpapers/papers2/9798/98-115.pdf).
Technology provides the resources with which people work and affects the tasks that
they perform. Technology also is set of process to transform resources into good service.
They cannot accomplish much with their bare hands, so they construct buildings, design
machines, create work processes, and assemble resources. The technology used has a
significant impact on working relationships. An assembly line is not the same as a research
laboratory, and a steel mill does not have the same working conditions as a hospital. The great
benefit of technology is that it allows people to do more and better work, but it also restricts
people in various ways. It has costs as well as benefits. Examples of the impact of technology
include the increasing use of robots and automated control systems in assembly lines, the
dramatic shift from a manufacturing to a service economy, the impressive advances in
computer hardware and software capabilities, the rapid move toward widespread use of the
information highway (Internet), and the need to respond to societal demands for improved
quality of goods and services at acceptable prices. Each of these technological advancements,
in its own way, places increased pressure on OB to maintain the delicate balance between
technical and social systems (http://www.scribd.com/doc/25353781/Organizational-
Behavior).

Limitation of Organization Behavior

There are limitations of organizational behaviour which will not abolish conflict and
frustration and it can only be reducing them. There three major limitations of OB are
behavioural bias, diminishing returns, and unethical manipulation.
People who lack system understanding and become superficially infatuated with OB
may develop a behavioral bias, which gives them a narrow viewpoint that emphasizes
satisfying employee experiences while overlooking the broader system of the organization in
relation to all its publics. Concern for employees can be so greatly overdone that the original
purpose of bringing people together—productive organizational outputs for society—is lost.
Sound organizational behavior should help achieve organizational purposes, not replace them.
The person who ignores the needs of people as consumers of organizational outputs while
championing employee needs is misapplying the ideas of organizational behavior. To assume
that the objective of OB is simply to create a satisfied workforce is a mistake, for that goal
will not automatically translate into new products and outstanding customer service.
Moreover, the person who pushes production outputs without regard for employee needs is
misapplying organizational behavior. Sound organizational behavior recognizes a social
system in which many types of human needs are served in many ways.
Behavioral bias can be so misapplied that it harms employees as well as the
organization.Some people, in spite of their good intentions, so overwhelm others with care
that the recipients of such care are emotionally smothered and reduced to dependent—and
unproductive—indignity. Example like some people will only regret of the failure and keep
blame on others and trying to found excuse for that rather than taking responsibility for
progress (http://www.scribd.com/doc/25353781/Organizational-Behavior ).
Overemphasize on an organization behaviour practice may produce negative result, as
indicated by the law of diminishing returns. It states that at some point, increase of a desirable
practice produce decline returns, and eventually zero returns and then negative returns as
more increases are added. In other words, the fact that a practice is desirable does not mean
that more of it is more desirable. More of good things are not necessary good.
Why does the law of diminishing returns exist? Essentially, it is a system concept. It applies
because of the complex system relationships of many variables in a situation. The facts state
that when an excess of one variable develops, although that variable is desirable, it tends to
restrict the operating benefits of other variables so substantially that net effectiveness
declines. For example, too much security may lead to less employee initiative and growth.
This relationship shows that organizational effectiveness is achieved not by maximizing one
human variable but by combining all system variables together in a balanced way
(http://www.scribd.com/doc/25353781/Organizational-Behavior).
A significant concern about organizational behavior is that its knowledge and
techniques can be used to manipulate people unethically as well as to help them develop their
potential. People who lack respect for the basic dignity of the human being could learn
organizational behavior ideas and use them for selfish ends. They could use what they know
about motivation or communication in the manipulation of people without regard for human
welfare. People who lack ethical values could use people in unethical ways
(http://www.scribd.com/doc/25353781/Organizational-Behavior).
The philosophy of organizational behavior is supportive and oriented toward human
resources. It seeks to improve the human environment and help people grow toward their
potential. However, the knowledge and techniques of this subject may be used for negative as
well as positive consequences. This possibility is true of knowledge in almost any field, so it
is no special limitation of organizational behavior. Nevertheless, we must be cautious so that
what is known about people is not used to manipulate them. As the general population learns
more about organizational behavior, it will be more difficult to manipulate people, but the
possibility is always there. That is why society desperatively needs ethical leaders
(http://www.scribd.com/doc/25353781/Organizational-Behavior).

Conclusion, organization behaviour is the systematic study and careful application of

knowledge about how people as individuals and groups act in organizations. With
Organizational behaviour, the manager can be more effective at describing, understanding,
predicting and controlling human behaviour. The four forces needed to consider are people,
structure, technology and the internal and external environment Managers must guard against
using OB as a quick fix and failing to recognize the impact of different environments. If these
factors are overcome, OB should produce a higher quality of life in which harmony within
each person, among people, and among the organizations of the future is enhanced.
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2010]

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