INTRODUCTION

TO
ORGANIZATIONAL
BEHAVIOR

INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY
Psychology touches almost every aspect of our
lives. As society has become more complex,
Psychology has assumed an increasingly
important role in solving human problems.
Knowledge of Psychology is helpful even to
people who do not plan to pursue it as a career.
Studying psychology provides insight into why
people behave as they do. It also helps us better
understand our own thoughts, feelings,
behaviors, and attitudes, and hopefully, it can
strengthen our appreciation of and tolerance for
the wide differences that exist among people.

PSYCHOLOGY AS SCIENCE OF SOUL

The earliest attempts at defining psychology owe their
origin to the most mysterious and philosophical concept,
namely that of soul. Etymologically, the very word
'Psychology' means the study of the soul as it is derived
from two Greek words Psyche, meaning soul and
Logos, signifying a rational course of study. The term
soul did not at first have religious implications such as it
has today. For some it was an inner flame, for some a
form of motion and for others a function of bodily
processes.
Soul has no existence. It cannot be seen and heard. It
has no weight and volume. It is a metaphysical concept.
It makes psychology more of a religion than of Science
because it is theological concept and implies certain
theories of religion and relationships to God.

PSYCHOLOGY AS SCIENCE OF MIND

Psychologists considers minds as a combination
of sum total of mental processes and it stands
for personal internal experiences of man.
There are three kinds of mental activities :
Cognitive : knowing (like thinking, reasoning
and imagining)
Conative : Doing (like walking, swimming and
dancing)
Affective : Feeling (like feeling happy, sad and
angry)

PSYCHOLOGY AS SCIENCE OF
CONSCIOUSNESS
There are three states of consciousness.
Consciousness : Awareness of processes that are
going inside or outside our bodies. The conscious mind
can contain only a limited amount of thought;
perceptions, and memories at any given time.
Subconscious : Some thoughts and memory exist on
the fringe of awareness, which can be pulled back into
consciousness fairly earlier.
Unconscious : Certain ideas, feelings and memories
are repressed or banished to unconscious because they
are too painful, or traumatic to deal with at conscious
level.

PSYCHOLOGY AS SCIENCE
OF BEHAVIOR
By behavior we mean those acts of organism that can
be observed recorded and studied. Behavior is always
the starting point in any psychological study and
psychologists can further study motivation personality
and emotion. Behavior is what a person does. More
precisely, it is defined as the observable and measurable
activity of human beings. This is known as overt
behavior. Activities that qualify under this category show
great variation: these may be in the form of mental
process like decision making or in the form of physical
process like handling a machine. There is another
aspect of behavior which is non-observable or
measureable known as covert behavior like feelings,
attitude formation etc.

PROCESS OF BEHAVIOR
Stimulus Any energy change which excites a
receptor, employed loosely of any object- or
event which has such an effect, if a stimulus is
normal stimulus for a receptor it is described
adequate, if it is not and yet effective, it is
described inadequate.
Response The activity, muscular, or glandular,
of an organism with reference to a situation with
which it is faced, or as a result of stimulation.

S.R. MODEL
S.R. Model of human behavior suggests that the
behavior is caused by certain reasons. The reasons
may be internal feeling (motivation) and external
environment (stimulus). A stimulus is an agent, such as
heat, light, piece of information, etc. that directly
influences the activity of an organism (person). Without
the stimulus, there is no information to be handled by
the internal processes prior to action taken by the
person. It implies that his behavior is determined by the
situation. Inherent in the situation are the environmental
forces that shape and determine his behavior at any
given moment. The entire situation has been
traditionally described as stimulus response' process.

 INDEPENDENT
VARIABLE
:
An
independent variable is that factor
manipulated by the experimenter in his
attempt to determine its relationship to an
observed phenomenon.
DEPENDENT VARIABLE : A dependent
variable is that factor which appears,
disappears or varies as the experimenter
introduces, removes or varies the
independent variable.

INTRODUCTION TO
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Organizational Behavior : Often abbreviated as OB is
a field of study that investigates the impact that
individuals, groups, and structure have on behavior
within organizations, for the purpose of applying such
knowledge toward improving an organisation's
effectiveness.
Organizational behavior (OB) A field of study that
investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and
structure have on behavior within organizations, for the
purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving
an organization's effectiveness.
Define Organization : A social unit or group of people
working together to meet common goals.

CONTRIBUTING DISCIPLINES TO THE

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR(OB) FIELD
PSYCHOLOGY: Psychology is the science that seeks to
measure, explain and sometimes change the behavior of
humans and other animals. Psychologists concern themselves
with studying and attempting to understand individual behavir.
Those who have contributed and continue to add to the
knowledge of OB are learning theorists, personality theorists,
counseling psychologists, and most important, industrial and
organizational psychologists.
Early industrial / organizational psychologists concerned
themselves with the problems of fatigue, boredom, and other
factors relevant to working conditions that could impede efficient
work performance. More recently, their contributions have been
expanded to include learning, perception, personality, emotions,
training, leadership effectiveness, needs and motivational
forces, job satisfaction, decision making process, performance
appraisals,
attitude
measurement,
employee-selection
techniques, work design and job stress.

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
Social psychology blends concepts from both psychology
and sociology, though it is generally considered a branch
of psychology. It focuses on peoples influence on one
another. One major area receiving considerable
investigation from social psychologists has been changehow to implement it and how to reduce barriers to its
acceptance. In addition we find social psychologists
making significant contributions in the areas of measuring,
understanding, and changing attitudes; communication
patterns; and building trust. Finally, social psychologists
have made important contributions to our study of group
behavior, power and conflict.

SOCIOLOGY
While psychology focuses on the individual,
sociology studies people in relation to their
social environment or culture. Sociologists have
contributed to OB through their study of group
behavior in organizations, particularly formal
and complex organizations. Perhaps most
importantly, sociology has contributed to
research on organizational culture, formal
organization theory and structure, organizational
technology, communications, power and
conflict.

ANTHROPOLOGY
Anthropology is the study of societies to learn
about human beings and their activities. For
instance, anthropologists' work on culture and
environments has helped us understand
differences in fundamental values, attitudes, and
behavior between people in different countries
and within different organizations. Much of our
current understanding of organizational culture,
organizational environments, and differences
between national cultures is the result of the
work of anthropologists or those using their
methods.