What is OB and why should one study it

1. DR.ANJU C H A WLA
A NJU.CHAWLA1@G MAIL.COM
INTRODUCTION TO
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

2. Objective is to understand
 Nature & determinants of OB
 Need for studying OB

3. The Dynamics of people and organizations
A primary goal of management education is to
develop students into managers who can think
ahead, exercise good judgment, make ethical
decisions, and take into consideration the
implications of their proposed actions
– Jane Schmidt-Wilk

4. Why OB for Managers
 Managers need an understanding of organizational
behavior because a large part of their job has to do
with exactly that. Organizational behavior is the
study of how people behave while in groups and as
individuals. Much of what a manager does has to do
with trying to get people to work as effectively as
possible. It can involve trying to motivate an
individual worker or it can involve trying to
understand how to get workers who are part of a
team to interact with one another in such a way that
they are able to work more efficiently and effectively.

5. Food For Thought
 Regardless of the size or type of organization you may work for, people are
the common denominator of how work is accomplished within
organizations.
 Together, we will examine people at work both as individuals and within
work groups and how they impact and are impacted by the organizations
where they work. Before we can understand these three levels of
organizational behavior, we need to agree on a definition of organizational
behavior.
 What Is Organizational Behavior?
 Organizational behavior (OB) is defined as the systematic study and
application of knowledge about how individuals and groups act within the
organizations where they work. As you will see throughout this book,
definitions are important. They are important because they tell us what
something is as well as what it is not. For example, we will not be
addressing childhood development in this course—that concept is often
covered in psychology—but we might draw on research about twins raised
apart to understand whether job attitudes are affected by genetics.

6. The Individual The Group The Organization
Inputs:
Diversity
Personality & values
Inputs:
Group Structures
Group Roles
Team responsibilities
Inputs:
Structure
Culture
Processes:
Emotions and models
Motivation
Perception and decision
Making
Processes:
Communication
Leadership
Power and Politics
Conflict & Negotiation
Processes:
HRM
Change Practices
Outcomes:
Attitudes & Stress
Task Performance
Citizenship Behavior
Withdrawal Behavior
Outcomes:
Group Collesion
Group Functioning
Outcomes:
Profitability
Survival

8. Five questions that employer ask to know your
personality
 What would your best friend say is the best
part about being your friend?
 The question is to bring out a sense of candour in a candidate.
'Learning what makes an applicant a good friend allows
employers to get a feel of whether or not they would fit in with
the company culture,' Edward Fleischman, chief executive
officer of Executive Search says.

9. If you were an animal, what would you be and
why.
 This inquiry is a favourite amongst hiring managers
because it allows them to not only evaluate how
quickly someone can think on their feet, but it also
requires candidates to exercise some degree of
creativity in a relatively short amount of time, he
says.

10. What drives you in your professional life?
 4. What drives you in your professional life? Employers
ask this question to gain insight into what motivates a
candidate both in their career and as a potential
employee.
'As cultural fit becomes more important to employers
and their business as a whole, many look for candidates
whose goals align with theirs, and asking this question
allows them to assess what exactly a candidate's goals
are,' Fleischman says.

11. If you could change one thing in your approach
towards challenge, what would it be
 This question allows hiring managers to evaluate a
candidate's self-awareness and ability to admit there
are some aspects of their professional life they would
like to improve, Fleischman explains.
'Since humility is an important quality to many
employers, a response to this question is something
they listen closely to.'

12. Premises(Assumptions for basis of OB)
 Organizations are complex systems.
 Need to understand how the system operates esp. in a socio technical system – humanity
and technology.
 Human behavior in organizations is sometimes unpredictable
 Behaviors may come from deep-seated needs, lifetime experiences and personal value
systems
 Human behavior in a organization can be partially understood
 Applying the frameworks of behavioral science, management and other disciplines.
 There are no perfect solutions to organizational problems
 Increase the understanding and skills – work relationships can substantially upgraded
 We do not have the luxury of not working with or relate to
other people.
 Learn human behavior.
 Explore how to improve he interpersonal skills
 Begin to mange ones relationships with others at work.

13. Understanding human behavior
 Definition of OB
 systematic study and careful application of knowledge about
how people – as individuals and as groups – act within
organizations.
 Strive to identify ways in which people can act more efficiently
 A large number of research studies and conceptual
developments constantly adds up to its knowledge base.
 An applied science
 Provides useful set of tools at many levels of analysis from
individual, interpersonal relations, intergroup,and whole
system

14.  Describe
 how people behave under a variety of conditions.
 Understand
 Why people behave behave as they do.
 Probe for underlying explanations
 Predict
 Predict future employee behavior (tardiness, productive &
unproductive etc.)
 Provide preventive actions
 Control
 At least partially and develop some human activity at work.
Managers need to remember that organizational
behavior is a tool for human benefit
Goals of OB

15. Flip side of fat pay cheque: Executives under a lot of pressure

16.  MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: Sunil Sharma (name changed), a senior vice
president at a large multinational FMCG company, recently met with a
road accident, which later turned out to be an attempt to kill himself. With
two housing loans and a car loan hanging on his head, and the education of
his kids studying at an international school at risk, he fell into depression
when he was let go as a division of his company was shutting down.
"He was extremely worried and the entire layoff issue had adve ..
In today's competitive environment, stress has become an inevitable
component of our lives — both personal and professional," said Sanjay
Rishi, president, American Express, South Asia.
"There has been an overall increase in stress on the one hand due to work
pressure and on the other due to the lifestyle we lead. All added up, life is
becoming more stressful," said Sameer Wadhawan, vice president-human
resources & services, Coca-Cola India.

17.  Employee assistance provider 1to1help.net, which works with several top Indian conglomerates and
global corporations, said it counselled about 2,000 corporate executives who reached out to the
company with suicidal thoughts this year.
Most people do not have a buffer against stress as increasing work demand does not leave them with
the time to have interests outside of work to strike a balance, say doctors and counsellors.
"Work pressure is definitely on the rise. Jobs are more ..
"Companies are paying a high cost for top talent. As salaries go up, pressure is also mounting," said
Karuna Bhaskar, a counseling psychologist at 1to1help.net.
Amit Singh (name changed), a senior manager at a large information technology company, reached
out to a counselling service provider for help when he was unable to cope with excessive stress at work
when he was given the unpleasant task of terminating a senior team member, who was one the top
performers a year earlier but whose performance had since slowed down drastically due to personal
issues. Singh, who was finding it difficult to get sleep for several nights and was suffering from
excruciating backache, told the counsellor that he felt extremely insecure in his own role as well.
There are many cases where tremendous pressure to perform and remain on top of the game is
affecting productivity and personal life for senior a ..

18.  Increased stress at work is further leading to more cases
of marital discord and relationship issues as well.
However, with the stigma around counselling fading,
employers are actively encouraging people to use these
services. At Citibank, over 3,600 registrations have been
received from employees seeking to access articles,
psychometric assessments and avail of counselling
services.
Citi launched a programme, Find Your Balance, last year
which focused on mindfulness, meditation.

19. Key forces – complex set of forces affects the nature of organizations

20. Key Forces
• People
 Make up the internal social system of an organization
 Melting pot of diversity – talents, background and perspectives to their jobs
 Managers need to be tuned in to these diverse patterns and trends.
 Changes in the labor force
• Decline in work ethic and rise in emphasis on leisure, self expression,
fulfillment and personal growth
• Decreased automatic acceptance of authority and increase in the desire for
participation, autonomy and control.
• Skills become obsolete due to rapid technological advances – retrain or be
displaced
• Security needs are prime concern and loyalty diminishes because of downsizing
and outsourcing
• Absence of meaningful salary growth has placed renewed emphasis on money
as a motivator
 Companies address diversity by becoming compassionate and caring,
building pride without de-valuing others, empowering some without
exploiting, demonstrating openness, confidence, authentic compassion and
vulnerability.

21. • Structure
 Defines the formal relationship and use of people in organizations.
 Effective coordination of work
 Create complex problems of cooperation, negotiation and decision making
• Technology
 Provides he resources with which people work and affects the tasks they
perform
 Benefit of technology – does more and better work however it restricts people in
various ways
 OB’s challenge is to maintain the delicate balance between technical and social
systems.
• Environment
 Internal or external
 Organizations are part of a larger system and factors influence them like:
 Citizens expect organizations to be socially responsible
 New products and competition for customers come from around the globe
(globalization)
 The direct impact of unions diminishes
 Dramatic pace of change in society.
 The external environment influences the attitudes of people, affects working
conditions, and provides competitions for resources and power.

22. Positive Characteristics of OB
• Interdisciplinary in nature – integrates behavioral sciences,
social sciences and other disciplines
• Emerging knowledge, theories, models and conceptual
frameworks.
• Increasing acceptance of theory and research by practicing
managers.
 Willingness of managers to explore new ideas
 More receptive to new models
 Support related research
 Hungrily experiment with new ideas

23. Contributing Disciplines to the OB Field
 Psychology
 Sociology
 Social Psychology
 Anthropology
 Political Science

24. Contributing Disciplines to the OB Field

25. Contributing Disciplines to the OB Field
(cont’d)

26. Contributing Disciplines to the OB Field (cont’d)

27. Contributing Disciplines to the OB Field (cont’d)

28. Contributing Disciplines to the OB Field (cont’d)

29. Fundamental Concepts of OB
 Nature of people
 Individual differences
 Nature vs.nurture
 Perception
 The unique way in which each person sees, organizes and interprets things.
 Selective perception cause misinterpretation
 A whole person
 We employ the whole person not just their brains or skills
 Ergonomics is the science of fitting workplace conditions and job demands
to the capabilities of the working population
 Motivated behavior
 A path towards increased need fulfillment is a better approach
 Desire for involvement
 Hunger for a change to chare what they know and to learn from the
experience.
 Organizations need to provide opportunities for meaningful involvement –
employee empowerment
 Value of the person
 Worth before the word
 meal before the message
 they want to be treated differently from other factors of production

30.  Nature of organization
 Social systems
 or social structure in general refer to entities or groups in definite
relation to each other, to relatively enduring patterns of behavior and
relationship within social systems, or to social institutions and norms
becoming embedded into social systems in such a way that they shape
the behavior of actors within those social systems. Social systems can be
said to be the patterns of behavior of a group of people possessing
similar characteristics due to their existence in same society.
 Formal and informal social systems
 The idea of a social system provides a framework for analyzing
organizational behavior issues. It helps make OB problems
understandable and manageable
 Mutual interest
 Symbiotic relationship between organizations and people
 Provides a superordinate goal – one that can attained only through the
integral effort of individuals and their employers.
 Ethics
 Treatment of employees in an ethical fashion
 Establish code of ethics, publicized statements of wthical values, provide
ethics trainings, reward employees for notable ethical behaviors, set up
internal procedure to handle misconduct.

32. Models of Organizational Behavior

33. Model of OB

34. Social Systems and Organizational
Culture
 A social system is a complex set of human
relationships interacting in many ways. Within an
organization, the social system includes all the
people in it and their relationships to each other and
to the outside world. The behavior of one member
can have an impact, either directly or indirectly, on
the behavior of others. Also, the social system does
not have boundaries...it exchanges goods, ideas,
culture, etc. with the environment around it.

36.  Culture is the conventional behavior of an
organization that encompasses beliefs, customs,
knowledge, and practices. It influences human
behavior, even though it seldom enters into their
conscious thought. People depend on culture as it
gives them stability, security, understanding, and
the ability to respond to a given situation. This is
why people fear change. They fear the system will
become unstable, their security will be lost, they
will not understand the new process, and they will
not know how to respond to the new situations.

38. HOW AN ORGANIZATION's CULTURE CAN BE
KNOWN ?
Organization culture can be a set of key values , assumptions,
understandings and norms that is shared by members of an
organization.
Organization values are fundamental beliefs that an organization
considers to be important , that are relatively stable over time,
and they have an impact on employees behaviors and attitudes.
Organization Norms are shared standards that define what
behaviors are acceptable and desirable within organization.
Shared assumptions are about how things are done
in an organization.
Understandings are coping with internal / external problems
uniformly.

39.  LEVELS OF ORGANIZATION CULTURE
LEVEL 1---VISIBLE, that can be seen at the
surface level
-dress codes
-office layout [ open office]
-symbols
-slogans
-ceremonies[ monthly / annual awards/long
service/birthdays etc.
etc

40.  LEVEL 2- INVISIBLE , that can be cannot be seen but
only felt.
-stories about people performance
-symbols [ flag, trademark, logos, etc]
-corporate mission statements
-recruitment/selection [ methods used]
-fairness in treatment
-social equality
-risk taking in business deals
-formality in approach
-discipline
-autonomy for departments
-responsiveness to communication
-empowerment of staff.

41. Limitations of OB
 People who lack system understanding and become
superficially infatuated with OB may develop Behavioral
bias – narrow viewpoint that emphasized satisfying
employee experiences while overlooking the broader
system of the organization in relation to all its publics.
 The law of diminishing return –
 the tendency for a continuing application of effort or skill toward a
particular project or goal to decline in effectiveness after a certain
level of result has been achieved.
 Overemphasis on as valid organizational behavior practice may
produce negative results
 At some point increase of a desirable practice produce declining
returns, eventually negative returns

42.  Unethical manipulation of people
 Knowledge and techniques can be used to manipulate people
unethically
 People who lack ethical values could use people in unethical
ways.
 The philosophy of OB is supportive and oriented toward
human resources. Seeks to improve human environment and
help people grow toward their potential.
 Ethical leadership principles such as: social responsibility,
open communication, cost-benefit analysis.

43. Continuing Challenges
 Seeking Quick Fixes
 Are we tempted when pressured to seed rapid solutions?
 Varying Environments
 Can the ideas that have been developed and tested endure with
equal success under new conditions?
 Definition Confusion
 Considered as relatively new discipline, can OB in clearly
define its field of student and application?

44. Summary
 OB is a multidisciplinary social science which is
important to be understood by all managers as it
gives the right insight into what people are doing,
why are the doing and what can be done to tackle
their such behavior(both good or bad).
 Its determinants Individual->Group->Processes

45. Few Quick Questions
 What is OB?
 What are the major behavioral science disciplines
that contribute to OB?
 What are the challenges and opportunities for
managers in using OB concepts?

47. Discussion Question
 What are some of the things managers can learn by
walking around and having daily contact with line
employees that they might not be able to learn from
looking at data and reports?
 Is Ability-Job fit bare minimum requirement to
savour the job?
 What are some of the major challenges facing today’s
and tomorrow’s organizations and management?
Briefly describe these developments.
 How does a course in OB differ from courses in fields
such as accounting, finance or marketing?

48. The organization is above all social. It is
people.”
Peter Drucker

49. Thank You.
Next Topic- Foundations of Individual Behavior