Nature of Organizational Behavior

Organizational Behavior Organization When two or more individual are interacting with each other within a deliberately structured set up and working in an independent way to achive goals and objective. OR  Organization is an institution. Behavior Behavior is a way how people react to certain situation. Organization Behavior Roman J. Alday has defined “O.B as a branch of the social science that seeks to build theories that can be applied to predicting understanding and controlling behavior in work  organizations”. Organization Behavior is the study of application of knowledge about how people act within organizations. It is a human tool for human benefit. It applies   broa broadl dly y to the the beha behavi vior or of peop people le in all all type typess of orga organi niza zati tion ons, s, such such as busi busine ness ss,, government, school and service organizations. Nature and Features of Organizational Behavior 1. It has assumed the status of a distinct field of study. It is a part of general management. It represents behavioral approach to management. 2. It contains a body of theory, research, application associated when a growing concern for in work place. Its study helps in understanding human behavior.

3. The study of theories and research experiences of organization facilitates manager  for creative thinking to solve human problems in organizations.

4. This discipline is heavily influenced by several other behavioral sciences and social sciences like psychology, Sociology and anthropology.

5. It provid provides es ration rational al thinki thinking ng about about people people.. It concent concentrat rates es on three three level level of    behavi behavior. or. They They are indivi individual dual behavio behavior, r, group group behavi behavior or and organi organizat zation ional al  behavior.

6. O.B. O.B. has psychol psychologi ogical cal founda foundatio tions. ns. The concept concept like like learni learning, ng, percep perceptio tion, n, atti attitu tude de,, moti motiva vati tion on etc etc is borr borrow owed ed from from psyc psycho holo logy gy,, soci sociol olog ogy y and and anthropology.

7. Organization behavior is both art and science. It is considered as art because it contains knowledge about behavior of individuals. It is considered as science  because it involves application of science.

8. Organization behavior is dynamic rather than static. It essence is reflected in change in behavior of individuals in organization.

9. It attempts to reduce the wasteful activities through economic and psychological means and thus increasing the effectiveness of the people and the organization. o rganization.

The Different Fields from which Organization Behavior takes its matter include:-

Psycholog logy y is define defined d as the study of human human behavi behavior or which which tries tries to Psychology: Psycho identi identify fy the charac character terist istics ics of indivi individua duals ls and provid provides es an unders understan tandin ding g why an individual behaves in a particular way. Thus psychology provides us with useful insight into areas such as human motivation, perceptual processes or personality characteristics. Sociology: Sociology is the study of social behavior, relationships among social groups and societies, and the maintenance of social order. The main focus of attention is on the social social syste system. m. This This helps helps us to appreci appreciate ate the functi functioni oning ng of indivi individual dualss within within the organization which is essentially a socio-technical entity. Social Psychology: Psychology: Social psychology is the study of human behavior in the context of  social situations. This essentially addresses the problem of understanding the typical  behavioral patterns to be expected from an individual when he takes part in a group. Anthropology: Anthropology is the science of mankind and the study of human behavior  as a whole. The main focus of attention is on the cultural system, beliefs, customs, ideas and values within a group or society and the comparison of behavior amongst different cultur cultures es in the contex contextt of today’ today’ss organi organizat zation ional al scenar scenario. io. It is very very import important ant to appreci appreciate ate the differ difference encess that that exist exist among among people people coming coming from from differ different ent cultur cultural al  backgrounds as people are often found to work with others from the other side of the globe. Economics: Any organization to survive and sustain must be aware of the economic viability of their effort. This applies even to the non-profit and voluntary organizations as well.

Although gh freque frequentl ntly y overlo overlooked oked,, the contrib contributi utions ons of polit political ical Political Science: Science: Althou scie scient ntis ists ts are are sign signif ific icant ant to unde unders rsta tand nd arra arrang ngem emen entt in orga organi niza zati tions ons.. It studi studies es indivi individual dualss and groups groups within within specif specific ic conditi conditions ons concern concerning ing the power power dynami dynamics. cs.

Important topics under here include structuring of Conflict, allocation of power and how  people manipulate power for individual self-interest etc.

Learning Learning in all is adaptive change chan ge behavior that results from past experience. Learning is acquiring new knowledge behaviors, skills, values, preferences or understanding and may involve synthesizing different styles of information. It is relatively permanent change in  behavior that occurs as a result of experience. Definition Definition of Learning: Learning: According to Stephen Robbins, learning may be defined as any relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs as a result of experience. The present definition of learning has several components that deserve clarification. 1. Learning Involves Change: Change may be good or bad from an organizational point of view. People can learn unfavorable behaviors to hold prejudices or to restrict their output, for example-as well as favorable behaviors. 2. The Change must be Relativ Relatively ely Perman Permanent: ent: Tempor Temporary ary change changess may be only only reflexive and fail to represent any learning. So, the requirement of learning is that it must   be rela relati tive vely ly perma permane nent nt chan change ge out out of behav behavio iora rall chang changes es caus caused ed by temp tempor orar ary y adaptations. 3. Learning Involves Change in Behavior: Learning takes place when there is a change in actions. We must depend on observation to see how much learning has occurred In other words, we can say that changes in behavior indicate that learning has taken place. Similarly, no change in behavior indicates no learning has taken place. It must however   be remembered that in certain types of learning, there are some periods of time that follow the learning during which there is no indication of apparent changes. This does not necessarily mean that no learning has taken place. These periods of no apparent change in  behavior is called the ‘incubation period’, where the assimilation and internalization of  learning takes place. Types of Learning :-

1. Habituation : Learning which takes place due to continuous enforcement. 2. Sensitization : Here a person learns from the responses. 3. Associative throug ugh h asso associ ciat atio ion n with with a sepa separa rate te proc procur urin ing g Associative Learning Learning : it is thro element. 4. Enculturation : A person learns the requirement of culture by which he or she is surrounded. 5. Play: It has no particular end in itself but improves performance. 6. Informal learning: It occurs in day today situation

7. Formal Learning: It occurs in teacher student type of relation.

Some of the most important theories of learning are: 1. Class Classic ical al Condi Conditio tionin ning g 2. Op Oper eran antt Cond Condit itio ioni ning ng 3. Soci Social al Lea Learn rnin ing g