organizational behavior

Actions and attitudes of individuals and groups toward one another and toward the organization as a whole, and its effect on the organization's functioning and performance. Models of Organizational Behavior The Autocratic Model The Custodial Model The Supportive Model The Collegial Model Chapter Summary Organizational behavior is the study and application of knowledge about how people as individuals and as groups act within organizations. It can be defined as the understanding, prediction and management of human behavior in organizations. OB is related to other disciplines like Organizations Theory, Organization Development and Personnel/Human Resources Management. Henry Mintzberg classified management roles depending on the extent of interpersonal relationships, the transfer of information and decision-making involved in the job. Managers need certain skills and competencies to successfully achieve their goals. The most significant management skills are the technical, human and conceptual skills. People develop generalizations by observing, sensing, asking and listening to various people around them. They use these generalizations to explain or predict the behavior of others.

A systematic approach to the study of behavior will bring to light important facts and relationships that provide the basis for more accurate understanding, prediction and control of behavior. It is important to know how a person perceives a situation to predict his behavior. There are differences as well as consistencies that can be seen in people's behavior. An overall model of organizational behavior can be developed on the basis of three theoretical frameworks. They are the cognitive, behavioristic and social learning frameworks. The cognitive approach gives more credit to people than the other approaches and is based on the expectancy, demand and incentive concepts. Edward Tolman has made significant contributions to this approach. Behavioristic framework focuses on observable behaviors. Ivan Pavlov and John B.Watson were the pioneers of the behavioristic theory. They explained human behavior on the basis of the connection between stimulus and response. The social

learning approach incorporates the concepts and principles of both the cognitive and behavioristic frameworks. In this approach, behavior is explained as a continuous reciprocal interaction between cognitive, behavioral and environmental determinants. The organization behavior model (S, O, B, C) has incorporated the best aspects from the three frameworks of human behavior. In this model, the letters S, O, B, C represent situation, organism, behavior and consequences, respectively. In modern times, managers confront many challenges and opportunities. The greatest challenges among all of them are the result of environmental changes occurring due to globalization, information technology, total quality, and diversity and ethics. OB models help managers to face these challenges and take appropriate actions. The four models of OB are the autocratic model, the custodial model, the supportive model and the collegial model. The autocratic model is based on power. It works well especially in times of an organizational crisis. The custodial model of OB takes into consideration the security needs of employees. A custodial environment gives a psychological reassurance of economic rewards and benefits. The supportive model of OB seeks to create supportive work environment and motivate employees to perform well on their job. In the collegial model, the management nurtures a feeling of partnership with its employees, and makes the employees feel themselves as an asset to the organization. Understanding People and Organizations Chapter Summary Human beings are unique compared to other animals in terms of their linguistic abilities and creativity. Their behavior is influenced partly by genetic make-up and partly by environment. Both internal factors such as instincts, genetic background, cognitive influences, and personality traits and external environment are important determinants of behavior. People can acquire new behavior by learning. Learning can be both formal and informal. Formal learning occurs through training and educational programs while informal learning is acquired through experience. The two processes associated with informal learning are associative and instrumental. Organization is the setting in which all work behavior occurs. People come together to form organization to achieve personal as well as collective goals. They use various resources and work processes to achieve those goals. Management is responsible to coordinate the resources and the production activities across the organization. In modern organizational set up, expansion in size, complexity and technological advancement are a challenge to the manager. Structural and task characteristics of organizations are important elements of the organizational environment. A successful organization establishes a trade-off between efficiency of the work system and motivation of employees to improve the overall performance of the organization.

Diversity and Ethics Chapter Summary Modern organizations have a very diverse workforce. In an organization, diversity can be defined as the presence of employees who differ from each other in terms of age, gender, ethnicity or education. There are various approaches for managing diversity. These approaches can be applied at the individual level or at the organizational level. The 'individual' approaches to managing diversity include 'learning' and 'empathy.' The organizational approaches include testing, training, mentoring and the use of alternative work schedules. Since most organizations have to employ a diverse workforce, they must strive to develop into multicultural organizations. A multicultural organization is one which is determined to eliminate all forms of social oppression within it and includes members of various cultural and social groups in the decision-making process. Such an organization acknowledges the contributions of people of various cultural and social groups, and reflects their interests in its mission, operations, products or services. An organization progresses through various stages before it develops into a multicultural organization. These include the exclusionary organization, the club organization, the compliance organization, the affirmative action organization, and the redefining organization. A truly multicultural organization aims at eliminating all forms of social inequities and involves members from diverse groups when taking decisions that are crucial for the survival and growth of the organization. Ethics is concerned with moral issues and choices and deals with right and wrong behavior. In recent times, the importance of ethics has increased considerably in the study of OB. Many factors in the cultural, organizational and external environment influence ethical behavior. The major ethical issues that organizations have to address are sexual harassment, discrimination in pay and promotion, and the right to privacy. Sexual harassment at the workplace refers to unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors and other verbal or physical conduct which can be construed to be of a sexual nature. The issue of pay and promotion discrimination addresses the fact that women and minorities do not receive pay and promotion opportunities on par with men. Getting personal information through the use of computer technology, and mandatory drug testing and controlling the lifestyles of employees are regarded as a violation of the privacy of employees. Organizations should try to address these ethical issues and develop a work environment which allows people from various groups to work together to achieve organizational goals.