Organizational Behavior

Why do people behave a certain way in an organizational environment? What factors affect job
performance, employee interaction, job commitment, leadership and managerial styles?
Individuals have studied this very topic for decades in order to find ways of increasing
organizational performance. Organizational behavior is the study of both group and individual
performance and activity within an organization.
This area of study examines human behavior in a work environment and determines its impact on
job structure, performance, communication, motivation, leadership, etc. Internal and external
perspectives are two theories of how organizational behavior can be viewed by companies

Organizations are social systems. If one wishes to work in them or to manage

them, it is necessary to understand how they operate. Organizations combine
science and people technology and humanity. Unless we have qualified people
to design and implement, techniques alone will not produce desirable results.
Human behavior in organizations is rather unpredictable. It is unpredictable
because it arises from peoples deep-seated needs and value systems. However,
it can be partially understood in terms of the framework of behavioral science,
management and other disciplines. There is no idealistic solution to
organizational problems. All that can be done is to increase our understanding
and skills so that human relations at work can be enhanced
ORGNISATION BEHAVIOUR - CONCEPTS

Organizational Behavior is field of study that investigates the impact that

individuals, groups and structure have on behavior within organization. It is the
study and application of knowledge about how people act within organizations. It
is a human tool for human benefit. It applies broadly to the behavior of people in
all types of organizations, such as business, government, schools and services
organizations. It covers three determinants of behavior in organizations:
individuals, groups, and structure. OB is an applied field. It applies the knowledge
gained about individuals, and the effect of structure on behavior, in order to
make organizations work more effectively. OB covers the core topics of
motivation, leadership behavior and power, interpersonal communication, group
structure and process, learning, attitude development and perception, change
process, conflict, job design and work stress. Before studying organizational
behavior, it is desirable to know the meanings of organization and management.
Organization : Organization as a purposeful system with several subsystems
where individuals and activities are organized to achieve certain predetermined
goals through division of labor and coordination of activities. Division of labor
refers to how the work is divided among the employees and coordination refers
to how all the various activities performed by the individuals are integrated or
brought together to accomplish the goals of the organization.
Management It refers to the functional process of accomplishing the goals of the
organization through the help of others. A manager is an individual who is given
the responsibility for achieving the goals assigned to him or her as part of the
overall goals of the organization and who is expected to get the job done. The
terms of top management, lower management are frequently used to indicate
the hierarchical levels of those who are engaged in the process of getting the
goals of the organization accomplished.

Key Elements of Organisational Behavior The key elements in organizational

behavior are people, structure, technology and the external elements in which
the organization operates. When people join together in an organization to
accomplish an objective, some kind of infrastructure is required. People also use
technology to help get the job done, so there is an interaction of people,
structure and technology. In addition, these elements are influenced by the
external environment, and they influence it. Each of the four elements of
organizational behavior will be considered briefly.

Structure : Structure defines the official relationships of people in organizations.

Different jobs are required to accomplish all of an organizations activities. There
are managers and employees, accountants and assemblers. These people have
to be related in some structural way so that their work can be effective. The
main structure relates to power and to duties.

For example, one person has authority to make decisions that affect the work of
other people. Some of the key concepts of organization structure are listed as
below:
a) Hierarchy of Authority: This refers to the distribution of authority among
organizational positions and authority grants the position holder certain rights
including right to give direction to others and the right to punish and reward.
b) Division of Labour: This refers to the distribution of responsibilities and the
way in which activities are divided up and assigned to different members of the
organization is considered to be an element of the social structure.
c) Span of Control: This refers to the total number of subordinates over whom a
manager has authority
d) Specialization: This refers to the number of specialities performed within the
organization.
e) Standardization: It refers to the existence of procedures for regularly recurring
events or activities
f) Formalization: This refers to the extent to which rules, procedures, and
communications are written down
g) Centralization: This refers to the concentration of authority to make decision.
h) Complexity: This refers to both vertical differentiation and horizontal
differentiation. Vertical differentiation: outlines number of hierarchical levels;
horizontal differentiation highlights the number of units within the organization
(e.g departments, divisions)

People :
People make up the internal social system of the organization. They consist of
individuals and groups, and large groups as well as small ones. People are the
living, thinking, feelings beings who created the organizations. It exists to
achieve their objectives. Organizations exist to serve people. People do not exist
to serve organizations. The work force is one of the critical resources that need
to be managed.
In managing human resources, managers have to deal with:
i)
ii)
iii)
iv)

Individual employee who are expected to perform the tasks allotted to

them
Dyadic relationships such as superior-subordinate interactions
Groups who work as teams and have the responsibility for getting the
job done,
People outside the organization system such as customers and
government officials

Jobs and Tasks :

Job refers to the sum total of an individuals assignment at the workplace. Tasks
refer to the various activities that need to be performed to get the job done. The
nature of tasks, its executives by various individuals, nature of interdependence
and inter-relatedness, group activities etc have implication for organizational
effectiveness. Thus the jobs and tasks have to be designed and managed
properly. Core Job Characteristics: There are five job characteristics which are
central to providing potential motivation to workers. They are: Skill variety, Task
identity, Task significance, Autonomy, and Feedback from the job itself.
i)

ii)

iii)

iv)

v)

Task Variety: This denotes the extent to which any particularly job
utilizes a range of skills, abilities and talents of the employees. If
number of different skills is used by the employee on the job, the job is
going to provide challenge and growth experience to the workers.
Task Identity: This indicates the extent to which the job involves a
whole and identifiable piece of work. If the job involves the whole
components (eg painting a portrait), then the individual can identify
with the ultimate creation turned out by him and derive pride and
satisfaction from having done a good job.
Task significance: This refers to the meaningfulness or significance of
the impact that a job has on the lives of others both inside and
outsider of the organization. If what one does has an impact on the
wellbeing of others, the job becomes psychologically rewarding to he
person who performs it.
Autonomy: This refers to the extent to which the job provides an
employee the freedom, independent and discretion to schedule work
and make decision and formulate the procedures to get the job done
without interference from others. The greater the degree of autonomy,
the more the person doing the job feels in control.
Feedback from the Job itself: This indicates the extent to which the
person who is working on the job can assess whether they are doing
things right or wrong even as they are performing the job. That is, the
job itself is stimulating one and enjoyable.

Job Design:
Jobs can be designed to range from highly simple to highly complex tasks in
terms of the use of the workers skill. Some of the job design options are as
follows:

i)

ii)

iii)

iv)

Job Simplification: The jobs are broken down into very small parts as in
the assembly line operations where a fragmented task is repeatedly
done over and over again by the same individual.
Job Rotation: This involves moving employees among different tasks
over a period of time. Management does not have to bother with
combining tasks, but at the same time, the workers do not get bored
with doing one simple task over several years. The employee is
periodically rotated from one job to another within the work setting
Job Enlargement: This involves simply adding more tasks to the job so
that the workers have a variety of simple tasks to perform rather than
doing just one task repetitively. Two or more tasks are combined and
the individual does the combined tasks altogether.
Job Enrichment: This offers a greater challenge to the workers because
it requires the use of variety of skills possessed by them. This involves
building in motivating factors into the job, giving the workers more
responsibility and control over work, and offering learning opportunities
for the individual on the job.

Technology
Organizations have technologies for transforming inputs and outputs. These
technologies consist of physical objects, activities and process, knowledge, all of
which are brought to bear on raw materials labour and capital inputs during a
transformation process. The core technology is that set of productive
components most directly associated with the transformation process, for
example, production or assembly line in manufacturing firm.
Technology provides the physical and economic resources with which people
work. They cannot accomplish much with their bare hands, so they build
buildings, design machines, create work processes and assemble resources. The
technology that results has a significant influence on working relationships. An
assembly line is not the same as a research laboratory, and a steel mill does not
h aver 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.
Classification of Technology: Thomson classified technology into three categories:
Long-linked technology, Mediating Technology and Intensive Technology.
i)

Long linked Technology: In this, tasks are broken into a number of

sequential and interdependent steps, where the outputs of one unit
become the input of the next. (eg. Assembly line) this facilitates to
have high volume of output and efficiency. This technology calls for
mechanistic structures with high levels of specialization,
standardization and formalization.

ii)

iii)

Mediating Technology: This links different parties who need to be

brought together in a direct or indirect way (eg. Banks use mediating
technology to lend money to borrowers by taking money from
depositors)
Intensive Technology: It is used when a group of specialists are brought
together to solve complex problems using a variety of technologies (eg.
Hospital parties are treated with the help of experts drawn from
different fields of specialization). Coordination of the different activities
is achieved in the system primarily through mutual adjustment among
those engaged in solving the problem in the different units. Organic
structures would fit in this system using intensive technology.

Environment All organizations operate within an external environment. A

single organization does not exist alone. It is part of a larger system that
contains thousands of other elements. All these mutually influence each other
in a complex system that becomes the life style of the people. Individual
organization, such as a factory or school cannot escape from being influenced
by this external environment. It influences the attitudes of people, affects
working conditions, and provides competition for resources and power. Every
organization interacts with other members of its environment. The
interactions allow the organization to acquire raw material, hire employees,
secure capital, obtain knowledge, and build, lease or buy facilities and
equipment. Since the organization process a product or service for
consumption by the environment, it will also interact with its customers.
Other environmental actions, who regulate or over see these exchanges,
interact with the organization as well (distributors, advertising agencies, trade
associations, government of the countries in which business is conducted)

Fit between Environment and Structure: Firms facing a fast changing or

turbulent external environment were very effective when they had more
organic structures which provided flexibility for quick changes to be make
within the internal environment of the system. Similarly, firms which operated
in a relatively stable external environment were very effective when they had
more mechanistic structures. This mechanistic structure allowed the system
to operate in a predictable manner since authority, responsibility, procedures,
and rules were clearly specified.

Basic Approaches of Organisational Behavior

i)

An Interdisciplinary Approach: It is integrating many disciplines. It

integrates social sciences and other disciplines that can contribute to
the Organizational Behaviour. It draws from these disciplines any ideas

ii)

iii)

iv)

that will improve the relationships between people and organization. Its
interdisciplinary nature is similar to that of medicine, which applies
physical, biological and social science into a workable medical practice.
Organizations must have people, and people working toward goals
must have organizations, so it is desirable to treat the two as a working
unit.
Scientific Management Approach: The fundamental concern of the
scientific management school was to increase the efficiency of the
worker basically through good job design and appropriate training of
the workers. Taylor is the father of the scientific management
movement and he developed many ides to increase organizational
efficiency. Taylor showed that through proper job design, worker
selection, employee training and incentives, productivity can be
increased. The scientific management school advocated that efficiency
can be attained by finding the right methods to get the job done,
through specialization on the job, by planning and scheduling, by using
standard operating mechanisms, establishing standard times to do the
job, by proper selection and training of personnel and through wage
incentives.
A Human Resources (Supportive) Approach: It is developmental
approach concerned with the growth and development of people
toward higher levels of competency creativity and fulfillment, because
people are the central resource in any organizations and any society. It
helps people grow in self-control and responsibility and then it tries to
create a climate in which all employees may contribute to the limits of
their improved abilities. It is assumed that expanded capabilities and
opportunities for people will lead directly to improvements in operating
effectiveness. Work satisfaction will be a direct result when employees
make fuller use of their capabilities. Essentially, the human resources
approach means that better people achieve better results.
A Contingency Approach: Traditional management relies on one basic
principle there is one best way of managing things and these things
can be applied across the board in all the instances. The situational
effect will be totally ignored in this traditional management. Situations
are much more complex than first perceived and the different variables
may require different behavior which means that different
environments required different behavior for effectiveness. Each
situation much be analyzed carefully to determine the significant
variables that exist in order to establish the kinds of practices that will
be more effective. Contingency theorist argues that the external
environment and several aspects of the internal environment govern
the structure of the organization and the process of management.
Effective management will vary in different situations depending on the
individual and groups in the organization, the nature of jobs,
technology, the type of environment facing the organization and its
structure. For example, if the employees are highly matured and willing
to take more responsibility, the managers can follow delegating style

v)

and give full freedom to their employees. If the employees are not so
matured and avoid taking any responsibility, the managers must follow
directing style. Depends upon the situation, that is, employees level of
maturity, managers will adopt different style of leadership to ensure
more successful results.
A Systems Approach: This implies that organization consists of many
inter related and inter dependent elements affecting one another in
order to achieve the overall results. Conceptually a system implies that
there are a multitude of variables in organization and that each of them
affects all the others in complex relationships. An event that appears to
affect one individual or one department actually may have significant
influences elsewhere in the organization. Systems theorists describe
the organization as open to its external environment, receiving
certain inputs from the environment such as human resources, raw
materials etc, and engaging in various operations to transform those
raw materials into a finished products and finally turning out the
outputs in its final form to be sent to the environment. The
organization, since it is open to the environment, also receives
feedback from the environment and takes corrective action as
necessary. This input-transformation process-output model with the
feedback mechanism can be illustrated through a simple example.

We have briefly discussed about the concepts and key elements of

organizational behaviour. The key elements in organizational behavior
are people, structure, technology and the external elements, in which
the organization operators, various approaches have been developed
for managerial analysis. We have also discussed the five major
approaches to organizational behaviour.