THE FIELD OF ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

The field of OB concerns itself with the study of the behaviour of individuals and groups in the context of organisations. The following equation provides a fundamental basis for understanding OB (French, Kast, & Rosenzweig, 1985, p. 3):

Behaviour = f (P, E)

where P refers to personal characteristics and E represents the environment.

Human behaviour thus is a function of the individual’s personal characteristics and the environmental context.

Our personal characteristics are based on genetic factors plus all the past learning experiences that have shaped who we are. We bring these personal characteristics into the organisational situation, which in turn, affects the way we think and act.

DEFINITION OF ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

OB is concerned not only with individual level behaviour within organisations, but also with macro-level processes, such as organisational strategy, structure and change. There is little doubt that although OB does not portray the whole of management (and neither does it intend to), OB has come into its own as a field of study, research, and application.

• “The study of the structure, functioning and performance of organisations and the behaviour of groups and individuals within them” (Pugh, 1971, p. 9)
• “The field that seeks knowledge of behaviour in organisational settings by systematically studying individual, group, and organisational processes” (Greenberg & Baron, p. 6)
• “A field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behaviour within organisations, for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organisation’s effectiveness” (Robbins, Judge, & Sanghi, 2009, p. 10)

Origin of Organisational Behaviour

 Organisational behaviour emerged as a unique field of study during the early 1960s. It is built upon contributions from a number of disciplines like psychology, sociology, social psychology, anthropology, political science etc. Psychology is a discipline that has had the greatest influence on the field of organisational behaviour as it seeks to understand and predict individual behaviour.

 Most of the psychological theories concerning perception, learning, personality, training, leadership effectiveness, needs and motivational forces etc. have been applied in organisational behaviour for understanding of how people behave in organisations and various other factors like job satisfaction, decision making processes, performance appraisals, employee selection techniques, job design and work stress etc.

The discipline of sociology is concerned with the study of social systems and the interactions of people within a social setting. It studies people in relation to their fellow human beings. Group dynamics, organisational culture, organisation structure, communications, power, and conflict are some of the areas within organisational behaviour where sociologists have made valuable contributions. The fields of sociology and social psychology have added to our understanding of group behaviour in organisations.

The field of anthropology is concerned with the study of relationships between individuals and their environments. Groups of individuals living together create a body of shared ideas called culture, which is reflected in their language and beliefs.

Anthropologists study cultures and environments that has contributed to the understanding of differences in fundamental values, attitudes, and behaviour between people in different countries and in different organisations. Economics, political science and history are other disciplines which have added to the field of organisational behaviour. Political science is concerned with the study of behaviour of individuals and groups within a political environment.

It has helped in understanding structuring of conflict, allocation of power, and how people manipulate power for individual self-interest. Economics has helped in our understanding of individual and organisational decision making processes.

Goals of Organisational Behaviour

The goals of organisational behaviour, as suggested by Cherrington et. al. (1989) are description, explanation and control of behaviour in organisations.

Description - Description of a problem is the first step towards understanding or explaining it.

The first goal in studying organisational behaviour is.to recognise and describe events that are predictable and occur with regularity. The focus is on labeling and defining organisational events.

Explanation and Prediction - The second goal of organisational behaviour is to explain and predict the events that occur. The identification of the forces contributing to these events helps us to predict their occurrence in future. Explanations are generally more complicated than descriptions. Theories are developed to explain various observances. These theories represent the various efforts to explain the relationships between variables and motives behind people's behaviour.

Control - The third goal of organisational behaviour is to control the behaviour that occurs in organisations. A variety of techniques and interventions to change the behaviours of individuals, groups, and organisations are there in organisational behaviour. However, controlling of behaviour has certain ethical issues attached to it.

Three Levels of Analysis: Individual, Group and Organisation

Level 1: Individual. Where the focus is on processes/phenomenon such as values, attitudes, beliefs, intelligence, motivation etc. that influence how people behave as individuals.

 Level 2: Group. This is more concerned with social and interpersonal aspects, such as group dynamics and leadership.

Level 3: Organisation. The main concern here is the behaviour of an organisation as a whole, for e.g. its culture, structure and processes.

GOALS OF ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

There are some goals of organisational behaviour which are as follows:

Describe The first goal is to describe systematically (in an objective non-prescriptive manner), often in minute detail, how people behave at work under a variety of conditions.

Understand A second goal is to understand why people behave as they do. Imagine how frustrating it would be for managers if they could talk about behaviour of their employees, but not understand the reasons behind those actions.

Predict An important reason behind understanding behaviour is that it should help managers to then predict behaviour in various situations. It is often said: ‘the best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour’. Armed with knowledge about human behaviour in organisations, managers should, for example, be able to predict which employees might be committed and productive or which ones might be counterproductive. This would help them to take preventive actions.

Control The final goal of OB is to control and develop human behaviour at work. Every organisation has specific goals such as certain levels of profits, customer satisfaction, public responsibility, and so on. It is the job of the management to mobilise and coordinate the human, technical, economic and informational resources available for the purpose of achieving such organisational goals. Managers need to be able to achieve such goals through the actions they and their employees take, and organisational behaviour can help managers meet these goals.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FIELD OF OB TODAY

OB seeks the Betterment of Human Resources

Consider this grim scenario from the early part of twentieth century: Factories were huge, noisy, hot, and highly regimented-callous and brutal places to work. Bosses demanded more and more of their employees, and treated them like disposable machines, replacing those who quit or died from accidents with others who waited outside the factory gates. The supply of labour was far greater than its supply.

It is obvious from the above that managers back then held very negative views of employees. This traditional view of management was termed Theory X by Douglas McGregor (1960). This philosophy of management assumes that people are inherently lazy, dislike work, and will avoid work if they can. As a result, management needs to closely supervise workers and develop comprehensive systems of control. Beliefs of this theory lead to mistrust, highly restrictive supervision, and a punitive atmosphere.

Now contrast this with the present day scenario: Companies are going out of their way to retain young talent, rushing to fulfill every wish of Generation Y-from giving them training and developmental opportunities to even gifting them ceiling fans for their homes (Ramnani, 2010). This sums up the Theory Y approach to management that is more optimistic and paints a more positive picture than Theory X.

Human Behaviour

Perception

 The behaviour of an individual and the decision making process are invariably linked with his or her perception of a given problem or situation. It provides a unique picture or understanding of the subject that may or may not be real.

A manager's perception of a subordinate's needs, qualities and abilities might be quite different from what the subordinate himself/herself thinks, which itself might be far from the actual truth.

The nearer a manager's perception of a situation to reality, the more likely it is to lead to proper decision making as well as leadership qualities. In perceiving one should be aware of certain psychological deceptions, such as the formation of general impressions that adversely influence judgment (halo effect), attributing one's own characteristics to other people when things go wrong (projection), and identifying a person as belonging to a single class with attributed traits, a variant of the actual (stereotyping).

Learning

Learning is a relatively permanent change in behaviour which results from reinforced practice or experience. Reinforcement or satisfaction that accompanies or closely follows the response to the same situation is considered to be the single most important factor in learning: A powerful reinforcement that affects learning is reward or punishment. A growing number of theorists and researchers in organisational behaviour believe that learning is a major concept in the study of human behaviour. Behaviour of an individual in an organisation is directly or indirectly affected by learning. A worker's skill, a manager's attitude, a secretary's mode of dress are all learned.

Motivation

Motivation is the inner drive that moves and directs an individual's behaviour towards satisfying his needs and attainment of goals. Motivation to work has been defined as, "a set of energetic forces that originate both within as well as beyond an individual's being, to initiate work-related behaviour, and to determine its form, direction, intensity, and duration" (Pinder, 1984). The meaning of, and relationship between needs, drives and goals are the key elements to understanding the meaning of motivation.

Motivators

 In organisations several motivating factors are normally employed. These include:

 • Setting sufficiently challenging goals that inspire a sense of commitment among employees

• Genuine appreciation and encouragement of good work done

 • Creation of wider opportunities for self-improvement and participation in decision making

• Arousing the feeling of achievement v Lessening anxiety

• Job enrichment

• Various types of financial incentives

• Skilful exploitation of group affiliations

• Allowing greater freedom and responsibility

• Impact of personality, integrity, and fair treatment of subordinates by the manager

• Reward and punishment.

OB uses a Contingency Approach

Traditional management relied on principles to provide a ‘one best way’ of managing. This ‘best way’ was applied regardless of the type of organisation, situation or the kind of people involved. Principles of managing were considered to be universal. No longer is there a best way. The contingency approach to OB implies that different situations require different behavioural practices for effectiveness. Behaviour in work settings is the complex result of many interacting forces. As our knowledge of behaviour on the job becomes more and more complex, it becomes more and more difficult to give straightforward answers

OB has a Multidisciplinary Focus

OB is a blended discipline that has grown out of contributions from a number of disciplines. Among those that have contributed to the study of OB are psychology, social psychology, sociology, engineering, anthropology, management, and even medicine. Let us look at them one by one. Quite obviously, the biggest influence on the field of OB comes from psychology, as psychology is primarily concerned with studying and attempting to understand individual behaviour.

OB recognizes Organisations as Open Systems

The field of OB pays a great deal of attention to the nature of organisations themselves. The open systems approach to organisation assumes that organisations operate in a self-sustaining manner, transforming inputs into outputs in a continuous manner. Inputs consist of the human, informational, material, and financial resources used by the organisation. These are transformed by the organisation’s technology component. Once the transformation is complete, they become outputs for customers, consumers and clients.

Task: An organisation’s mission, purpose or goal for existing.

People: People, both individuals and groups, make up the internal social system in the organisation. People are the living, thinking and feeling beings that created the organisation and try to achieve the objectives and goals.

Technology: The technology imparts the physical and economic conditions within which people work. It comprises the wide range of tools, knowledge, and/or techniques used to transform the inputs into outputs.

Structure: Structure defines the formal relationship and use of people in the organisation. It refers to the manner in which an organisation’s work is designed and the different roles that people are given and how they relate to others. In order to coordinate work effectively, it is imperative that people working in an organisation are given different roles and they are related in some structural way to others.

OB adopts a Cross-Cultural Approach

As the business environment is becoming global or international, a cross-cultural approach to the study of organisational behaviour is increasingly becoming crucial for two main reasons: There are potential benefits to be gained in performance terms. Each country has its unique cultural characteristics which can provide sources of competitive advantage, and in some situations may also become liabilities. Workplace attitudes and behaviour between individuals and groups in different cultural context varies. Cultural differences must be understood and managers must be sensitive to them in order to be successful in a global economy. It follows that the key concepts in the field of organisational behaviour may be influenced by national cultures and we should thus re-evaluate models and theories when applying them to other societies

Systematic Study

OB seeks to develop a base of knowledge using a systematic, empirical and research-oriented approach.

A scientific approach is said to be a central defining characteristic of modern OB. Human behaviour in organisations is complex and often difficult to understand, and thus the relevance of the scientific approach. As with any science, OB practitioners seek knowledge to describe, understand, predict, and control behaviour in organisations.

OB is scientific because of the information and methodology it represents. Its information results from inquiries carried out according to four scientific core values: accuracy, objectivity, skepticism, and open-mindedness; and its methods consist of the procedures involved in making such investigations.