|||F A Notes|||

WHAT IS ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR?
“Organizational behavior (OB) is the study of human behavior (individuals and groups) in organizational settings with the ultimate objective of enhancing organizational effectiveness”. OB focuses on the interface between human behavior and organizations. It differs from management because it deals with only the behavioral aspect of managers and employees. OB ascertains/ investigates about the productivity of workers, relationship of rewards with performance, efficiency and effectiveness of employees while working with friendly and trust worthy bosses, absenteeism lobbying of groups, conflicts among workers and management, employees turnover, and so on. OB deals with not only profit-oriented business organizations but also with non-profit organizations like clubs, charities, associations, trusts, etc.

THE EMERGENCE OF OB
Most scholars would agree that OB emerged as a field of study in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The evolutionary period noticed simple assumptions to behavioral models, concepts, and methodologies by human relation. OB emerged as a scientific discipline as a result of Hawthorne studies and human relations movements.

THE HAWTHORNE STUDIES: The Hawthorne studies were conducted between ‘1927 to 1932’ at Western Electric’s Hawthorne Plant near Chicago. Harvard university faculty members and consultants participated in the studies. The major experiment studies the effects of different levels of lighting on productivity. The researchers manipulated one group of women workers and increased the lights of the production area, resultantly the productivity went up, when they reduced lights, there was no impact, and finally, when they made the light as dim as moonlight, productivity declined. The group’s performance was measured and compared with another group whose lighting remained unchanged.
In another major experiment, piecework incentive system was established for a nine-man group. The previous studies on management suggested that workers would individually work hard to minimize their individual income. But the experiment witnessed that people performed better in groups. Every member of the group was given an acceptable level of output as target by the team and they work harder to be accepted by the group.

HUMAN RELATIONS MOVEMENTS: Hawthorne studies led to the foundation of a new school of management thought, which was called as human relations movement. The two of the most famous human relation were Douglas McGregor and Abraham Maslow. McGregor stated that some managers believe in theory X takes a negative and pessimistic side of human nature and employee behavior. And managers that believe in theory Y takes a positive and optimistic side of human nature and employee nature.
Theory X assumptions include: 1. People do not like work and try to avoid it. 2. People don’t like work, so managers have to control, direct, coerce, and threaten employees to work for organizational goals. 3. People want to be directed and avoid responsibility.
Theory Y assumptions include: 1. People don’t dislike work; work is a natural part of their life. 2. People are internally motivated to reach objectives to which they are committed, but they want personal rewards. 3. People accept responsibility under favorable conditions. 4. People have the capacity to be innovative in solving problems. 5. People are capable but mostly, their potentials are under utilized.
Abraham Maslow’s theory assumes that motivation arises from a hierarchal series of needs. As the needs at each stage are satisfied, the individuals progresses to next higher level of needs. This topic/ theory will be discussed in detail in next chapter 4.

INTERDISCIPLINARY FOCUS OF OB
Organizational behavior takes output from various domains/ fields of study including psychology, sociology, social psychology, anthropology, political science, economics, engineering, and medicines.

PSYCHOLOGY studies behavior (actions, reactions, and changes) of humans and animals. Industrial and organizational psychologists study human behavior in the context of industries and organizations. Moreover, organizational psychologists and OB specialists study employee’s perceptions, learning, motivation, attitude, personality, decision making, job satisfaction, leadership qualities, and the like. Sociology is the study of social systems such as, a social class, a family, an occupation, a mob, or an organization. Social psychology blends the concepts of psychology and sociology; it measures the impact of societal values on our behavior. Anthropology is the scientific study of the origin, behavior, physical, social, cultural development, and religious beliefs of humans. Political science is the study of political systems such as governments i.e. their formation, laws, objectives, and governance. OB studies intra organization politics, individuals approach for power, decision making, coalition formation/ formation of groups and trade/ labor unions, conflicts with each other and management. Economics is the study of production, distribution and consumption of goods and services. Economics studies labor market dynamics, productivity, forecasting, and cost-benefit analysis. Engineering is the application of scientific and mathematical principles to the design, manufacture, and operation of efficient and economical structures, such as machines, parts, processes, and systems. Industrial engineering studies work measurement, productivity measurement, work flow analysis, job design, and labor relations. Medicines field is also concerned with OB in the sense that OB measures employees’ work stress and well-being inside and outside organizational settings and after diagnosing the causes and effects, recommendations may come to treat them with right medications.

CHALLENGES & OPPORTUNITIES IN OB
The major challenges for organizational behavior will turn as opportunities, if managed appropriately. They include the following:

1. IMPROVING QUALITY AND PRODUCTIVITY: Quality is a measure of standard of something (i.e. product, behavior, etc) and productivity is a measure of efficiency. The foremost important tools to achieve the objectives of quality and productivity are the concepts or premises of total quality management (TQM) and reengineering. TQM is a philosophy management to achieve organizational goals through customer satisfaction by continually improving all processes of the organization. Reengineering is a total overhaul or dramatic changes in the entire processes/ functions of an organization in order to attain greater productivity or profitability. The processes include systems, procedures, methods, departments, sub departments, goods, services, and so forth.

2. MANAGING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND GLOBALIZATION: Companies like Matsuchitta, the Japanese electronic giant and producer of National and Panasonic brands has plants in more than 150 countries with employees from 150 plus nations, with hundreds of ethnic backgrounds, races and religions. The behavior of a large and diversified workforce is unpredictable. They form many groups and alliance and respond different to various situations. Understanding the values of a diversified workforce seems challenging and the opportunity to tap is to utilize the skills and abilities of the international labor and the global managers for completion of the organizational goals.

3. EMPOWERING PEOPLE: Empowering people is to make them in charge of their work by guiding them what needs to be done, how, and in what time frame. They will work in teams to accomplish objectives and win rewards.

4. STIMULATING INNOVATION AND CHANGE: Managers encourage workers to devise new ideas to design new products and find new ways to solve problems and enhances efficiency and effectiveness. Great leaders create positive changes in corporate and organizational culture and overall functions by involving, educating, and motivating employees.

5. DECLINING EMPLOYEE LOYALTY: Management should conduct regular studies on job satisfaction and constantly observe their loyalty because well content/ satisfied employees are committed to better performance and the employee turnover and absenteeism remains low.

6. IMPROVING ETHICAL BEHAVIOR: With increasing mergers and acquisitions of corporations around the world and formation of conglomerates, the job security of employees is endangered; many inefficient plants are closed down; workers are laid off or down sized; and similar changes become threat to organizational code of conduct. Advocates of business ethics suggest acceptable behavior of bosses, no sexual harassment to female workers, workers’ safety measures, friendly ambience, minimum pay structure, and the like.

MANAGERS, MANAGEMENT & ORGANIZATIONS
Managers are individuals who get the work done from others and manage resources to achieve organizational goals. “Management is the process of planning, organizing, leading and controlling in order to achieve organizational goals most effectively and efficiently.” Planning is foreseeing the future, or defining goals, establishing strategies, and developing plans to coordinate activities. Organizing is determining what tasks are to be done, by whom, how, and with what resources. Who reports to whom? In other words, organizing is staffing, assigning jobs to people and allocating them resources to do the job. Leading includes motivating subordinates, directing them, and resolving conflicts. Controlling is monitoring activities, evaluating results by matching with plans and goals, and correcting deviations by executing changes.

MANAGEMENT ROLES
Henry Mint berg prescribed three key roles of managers including inter personal, informational, and decisional, as depicted below:

INTERPERSONAL ROLES
FIGUREHEAD: Here the manager is a symbolic head required to perform a number of routine duties of a legal or a social nature, such as taking company guests to dinners or participating in ribbon cutting ceremonies.

LEADER: A leader is responsible for the motivation and direction of subordinates.

LIAISON: Here the manager maintains a network of outside contacts that provide favors and information.

INFORMATIONAL ROLES
MONITOR: He receives wide variety of information, handles, and transmits such information to relevant sections.

DISSEMINATOR: He transmits information received from outsiders or subordinates to members of the organization.

SPOKESPERSON: He transmits information to outsiders especially media on organization’s plans, policies, actions, and results. Examples include press releases and press conferences.

DECISIONAL ROLES
ENTREPRENEUR: He searches in the environment for opportunities and initiates projects to bring about change.

DISTURBANCE HANDLER: He is responsible for corrective actions when organization faces important, unexpected disturbances.

RESOURCES ALLOCATOR: He makes or approves budget for various activities to accomplish goals.

NEGOTIATOR: He represents the organization at various settlements of deals, or disputes, or price settlements.