Lesson 1: Introduction to Organizational Behavior

Role of Managers in the Organization

In the business world every organization needs to have a manager who is responsible enough to
look after the organization’s day-to-day activities.
Three main levels of managers
• Top Manager
• Middle Manager
• First Line Manager (low-level management)

Top Manager Middle Manager First Line Manager

• Make decisions about the • Ex: General Managers, • Ex: supervisors, section leads, and
organization branch managers, and foremen.
• Achieve the objectives department managers • Controlling and directing
and goals • Accountable to the top • Responsibility
• Creating vison and mission management for their o Assigning employees tasks
• Strategic thinkers department’s function o Guiding and supervising
• Spent more time to the employees on day-to-day
directional functions activities
rather than the top o Ensuring the quality and
management quantity of production
o Making recommendations
and suggestions
o Up channeling employee
problems
Henry Fayol put the qualities required by managers into the following categories
• Physical – health, fitness
• Mental – ability to understand and learn; judgment, mental ability and adaptability.
• Moral – energy, firmness, willingness to accept responsibility, initiative, loyalty, tact,
dignity.

Functions of Management

Management Roles
Interpersonal Roles
• Different roles played by managers
• Can perform different duties as different characters (supervisor, floor manager, sales
manager)
• Leadership role of manager
• Liaison – thread role within the interpersonal group
Informational Roles
• Monitor – collect information from outside organization
• Disseminator – Transmit information
• Spokesman – Represent the organization to the outside
Decisional Roles
• Entrepreneur – Initiate and oversee new ideas
• Disturbance Handler – Take corrective actions in response to unforeseen problems
• Resource allocator – allocating resources
• Negotiator – Discuss the issues with relevant parties
Managerial Skills
• Technical Skills (resources, tools, techniques)
• Human Skills (communication, motivate employee, trust)
• Conceptual Skills (decision making, abstract solutions)

Based on Luthan’s study about managers in he specified that most managers do participate
following activities
• Traditional Management – Decision making, planning, controlling
• Communication – Exchanging routine information and processing paper work
• HRM – Motivating, disciplining, managing conflict, staffing and training
• Networking – Socializing, politicking interacting with others
What is the definition of an organization?
An organization is a group of people who work together, like a neighborhood association, a charity,
a union, or a corporation. You can use the word organization to refer to group or business, or to
the act of forming or establishing something.
What is Organizational behavior
Organizational behavior (OB) is the study of investigating on the ways people act within groups in
the organization and in common.

Lesson 2 - Elements of Organizational Behavior

Why Organizational Behavior?

OB examines attitudes, social climate, and performance within an organization by examining both
individual and group behavior on a regional, national, or global level.
OB applies the knowledge gained from individuals, groups, and the effect of structure on behavior
in order to make organizations work more effectively.
Advantages of learning about OB
• Organizations are expecting individuals to work in teams
• manage all the elements of organization effectively and efficiently
• maintain industrial relations which help to increase the productivity of the industry
• useful in the field of marketing.
Dependent Variables of Organizational Behavior
Make a direct impact on the performance of the organization and its growth.
key dependent variables of OB

• Absenteeism – Absence of an employee from work

• Turnover – Number or percentage of workers who leave an organization

o voluntary - employee chooses to leave
o involuntary - employer makes the decision for the employee to leave

• Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) – person's voluntary commitment within an

organization or company that is not part of his or her contractual tasks. Organizational
citizenship behavior is an evolving concept concerning how and why people contribute
positively to their organizations beyond defined work roles.

• Job satisfaction - employee feels self-motivated, Job satisfaction from an employee

perspective is to earn a good gross salary, have job stability, have a steady career growth,
get rewards & recognition and constantly have new opportunities.
 • Challengers of OB - key challenges listed in the research on OB
o Improving Peoples’ Skills.
o Improving Quality and Productivity.
o Managing Workforce Diversity.
o Responding to Globalization.
o Empowering People
o Improving Ethical Behavior.
o Improving Customer Service.

Lesson 3 – Organizational Structures

Organizing function in management process

Organizing involves assigning tasks, grouping tasks into departments, delegating authority, and
allocating resources across the organization. Organizing aligns the various resources towards a
common mission.

• Efficient Administration - Brings together various departments by grouping similar and

related jobs under a single specialization.
• Resource Optimization - Organizing ensures effective role-job-fit for every employee in the
organization.
• Benefits Specialization - organizing groups and sub-divide the various activities and jobs
based on the concept of division of labor.
• Promotes Effective Communication - Creating coordination and communication among the
various departments of the organization.
• Creates Transparency - The jobs and activities performed by the employees are clearly
defined on the written document called job description
• Expansion and Growth – Resource optimization and utilization among the employees and
departments based on the requirements
Elements of Organizational Structure

• Work specialization - work is divided into units and departments.

• Departmentalization - process of grouping activities into departments such as function,
product, geography, process, and customer.
• Authority - authority can be defined as the power and right of a person to use and allocate the
resources efficiently, to take decisions and to give orders so an to achieve the organizational
objectives. three types of authority as, Line Authority, Staff Authority, Functional Authority
• Chain of command - The chain of command in a company refers to the different levels of
command within the organization.
• Unity of Command - Unity of command provides that an employee is responsible to only one
supervisor
• Span of control - The larger an organization, the more management layers it has. As a result, a
hierarchy has introduced in the organizations. Multiple employees a department deals with a
single superior

• Centralization and decentralization

• Formalization
Tall and Flat Organization Hierarchy
Tall structures are vertical, which means a top-down Where flat structure is horizontal.
Different Organizational Structure Designs

Lesson 4 – Individual Behavior of Employees

What is individual behavior?

It is the way a person reacts in different situations and the way someone expresses different
emotions like anger, happiness, love, etc. Human behavior is a complex process and every
individual is different from the other.
Ability
Ability is the physical or mental power or skill needed to do something. In other words, an
individual’s capacity to perform the various tasks in a job. There are two types of abilities
• Intellectual Abilities (mental activities)
• Physical Abilities (stamina, dexterity, strength)

Biographical Characteristics of a person

Biographical characteristics are unique to each and every individual person. As an example, older
workers bring experience, judgment, a strong work ethic, and commitment to quality. Some of the
biographical characteristics are age, gender, race, sexual behavior, marital status etc.

Learning
Learning is the relatively permanent change in a person’s knowledge or behavior due to
experience. three components
1. The duration of the change is long-term rather than short-term
2. The locus of the change is the content and structure of knowledge in memory or the
behavior of the learner
3. The cause of the change is the learner’s experience in the environment rather than fatigue,
motivation, drugs, physical condition or physiologic intervention.”
Four stages describe in this theory are – Kolb’s Cycle (1984)
1. Learning from concrete experiences (feeling)
2. Learning from reflective observation (watching)
3. Learning from abstract conceptualization (thinking)
4. Learning from active experimentation (doing)
 Lesson 5 – Group Behavior of Employees

What is group behavior?

Group is a community consisting of one or more individuals who interact with each other in order
to accomplish a certain goal.
Different Types of Groups
Formal Groups
• Command group − It is a group consisting of individuals who report directly to the manager.
• Interest group − It is a group formed by individuals working together to achieve a specific
objective.
Informal Groups
• Task group − Working together to finish a job or task is known as task group.
• Friendship group − Brought together because of their shared interests or common
characteristics is known as friendship group.

Group Properties
Group Properties
1. Role
A role is a set of expected behavior patterns attributed to the one who occupies the position
demanded by the social unit. Group roles are divided into three types,
• Task-oriented Roles
• Relationship-oriented Roles
• Individual Roles
2. Norms
Norms govern how group members behave. There may be written rules like for attendance or just
known expectations like for punctuality
3. Status
Status can be differentiated on the basis of non-economic qualities such as honor, prestige,
ethnicity, race and religion.
4. Size
Size (the number of people involved) is an important characteristic of the groups, organizations,
and communities in which social behavior occurs.

Cohesiveness
Cohesiveness defines the degree of closeness that the members feel with the groups. The greater
the group’s cohesion is, the more committed its members are to belonging. Cohesive groups tend
to have charismatic leaders and support each member’s growth.

Lesson 6 – Employee Motivation

What is motivation?
Employee motivation describes how committed an employee is to his job, how engaged he feels
with the company's goals and how empowered he feels in his daily work.
Motivation has the following functions and characteristics:
• Initiation: it drives action. What does someone do?
• Intensity: it activates action. How hard does someone work?
• Perseverance: it sustains action. How long does someone keep working?
• Meaningful: gives meaning to action. Why does someone do something?
Different Types Motivation
Extrinsic motivations are factors external that causes an employee to act toward fulfillment of a
work task or goal.
Intrinsic motivation means that people want to make an effort for something because they are
stimulated from inside, for example by being given responsibilities.
Increasing Motivation in the Workplace
Managers can follow some basic strategies to increase the motivation level in the office and get
their employees more committed to the company's goals.
Motivation Theories
 Lesson 7 – Communication

Definition of communication
The sharing of information between two or more individuals or groups to reach a common
understanding.
Functions of communication
• Control - Organizations have Authority, hierarchies and formal guidelines that employees
are required to follow.
• Motivation - Managers use communication to motivate workers to achieve peak
performance.
• Emotional expression - The communication that takes place within the group is a
fundamental mechanism by which members show their frustrations and feelings of
satisfaction
• Information - The receiving or giving of information underlines all communication functions,
either directly or indirectly

Effective communication
There are 7 C’s of effective communication which are applicable to both written as well as oral
communication. These are as follows:
• Completeness
• Conciseness
• Consideration
• Clarity
• Concreteness
• Courtesy
• Correctness
Directions of Communication
• Downward Flow of Communication - that flows from a higher level in an organization to a
lower level is a downward communication.
• Upward Flow of Communication - that flows from a lower level to a higher level in an
organization is called upward communication.
• Lateral / Horizontal Communication - that takes place at same levels of hierarchy in an
organization is called lateral communication.
• Diagonal Communication - that takes place between a manager and employees of other
workgroups is called diagonal communication.
• External Communication - that takes place between a manager and external groups such as
suppliers, vendors, banks, financial institutes etc.
Organizations Communication
A program that focuses on general communication processes and dynamics within organizations.
Includes instruction in the development and maintenance of interpersonal group relations within
organizations
Formal communication - that can be defined as a means of communication that is normally
controlled by the managers in an organization.

Informal communication - A casual form of information sharing typically used in personal

conversations with friends or family members.
Barriers to effective communication
• Noise - refers to distractions and interference in the environment in which communication
takes place.
• Physical Barrier - It arises when there is a geographic distance between the sender and
receiver.
• Language - Language and linguistic ability may act as a barrier to communication.
• Culture - There are many cultural factors that affect to the effective flow of communication.
• Organizational Barrier - occur because of the poor organization's culture, climate, stringent
rules, regulations, status, relationship, complexity, inadequate facilities.
• Individual Barrier - may be a result of an individual's perceptual and personal discomfort.
• Channel Barrier - occurs as result of the different problems in communication channel.
• Systematic Barriers - to communication may exist in structures and organizations where
there are inefficient or inappropriate information systems and communication channels.
 Lesson 8 – Power and Authority

What is Power?
Power is the ability to exert influence on other people or power is ability to change the attitudes
or behavior of individuals or groups. Researchers have identified 5 sources or bases of power,
• Reward power - is based on one person having the ability to reward another person for
caring out orders or meeting performance requirement.
• Coercive power - based on the influences or the manager’s ability to punish the employee
for not leading requirements.
• Legitimate power - exist when an employee or influence acknowledge that the influencer is
entitle to exert influence within certain area.
• Expert power - is based on the perfection or believe that the influencer has some relevant
expertise or special knowledge in a particular field.
• Referent power - which may be held by a person or group is based on the influences desire
to identify with the influencer.

Authority
Authority is defined as the right to give orders, supervise the work of others and make certain
decisions. Authority is a form of power, especially formal authority is legitimate power.
Formal authority is the type of power that we associate with organizational structure management.
There are two views of formal authority as Classical view and Acceptance view.
 • Classical view - the authority originates at very high level. Then it legally passed down from
level to level as downward manner.
• Acceptance View - This view starts with the observation that not all legitimate laws or
commands are obeyed in all circumstances. Some are accepted by the receiver or not. The
key point is that the receiver decides whether or not to comply.

Different Types of authorities

• Line Authority - The authority of those managers directly responsible throughout the
organizational chain of command, for achieving common goals. It starts from the top
rankers of management and comes downward up to the lower level or non-managers.
• Staff Authority - The authority of those groups of individuals who provide line managers
with advice and service. This concept includes all elements of organization that are not
classified as line. Advisory staff have been used by decision makes from emperors and kings
to dictators and parliaments over cause of recorded history.
• Functional Authority - The authority of members of staff departments to control the
activities of other departments as they relate to specific staff responsibilities. Responsible
for audit functions. Right to control the activities of other departments.
Delegation
Delegation is the act of assigning formal authority and responsibility for completion of specific
activities to a subordinate. The delegation of authority by managers to employees necessary for
the efficient functioning of organization.
 Lesson 9 – Effective Human Resources Management

The term Human Resource Management, Employee Relations and Personnel Management used in
the educational context of management as well as industry context.

What is HRM?
Basically, the Human resources management is the process of acquiring, training, appraising and
compensating employees and attending to their labor relations, health and safety, and fairness
concerns.
Objectives of HRM
The main objective of HRM is to ensure the availability of a competent and motivated workforce
to an organization.

• Organizational Objectives: Human resources are essential to achieve efficiency and

effectiveness of every organization.
• Functional Objectives: Employees and managers perform so many functions in every
department.
 • Personal Objectives: Every employee required to identify his or her carrier path at the
organization.
• Societal Objectives: HRM must see that the legal, ethical, and social environmental issues
are properly attended
Factors Affecting HRM
There are many internal factors affecting to the HRM function and they are
• Mission
• Policies
• Corporate Culture
• Management style of top managers
• Employees
At the same time there are many external factors affecting such as
• Labor Force
• Legal Issues
• Society
• Labor Unions
• Shareholders
Role of Human Resources Managers
• Conducting new employee orientations and employee relations counseling
• Overseeing exit interviews
• Looking for talented and skill employees for job positions
• Conducting recruitments
• Hiring of contract workers
• Planning necessary employee training programs
Important Activities of HR Function
• Professional Development: is required for every individual employee as well as company
performances.
• Appraisals: Performance appraisals help in employee motivation by encouraging them to
work to their fullest potential.
• Maintaining Work Culture: It is the duty of the HR to maintain a healthy, safe, and fun work
environment to ensure a level of comfort amongst the employees and eliminate any
stressful atmosphere.
• Resolving Conflicts: Whether the dispute is amongst two or more employees or between
the employee and the management, an HR manager has the right to intervene and help
map out a solution.
• Rewards and Incentives: Rewarding the employees for a work well done imparts motivation
and at the same time induces a desire to excel at tasks in hope of obtaining rewards.
 Lesson 10 – Employee Training

Training is a program that helps employees learn specific knowledge or skills to improve
performance in their current roles.
Training Vs. Development
Though the terms training and development goes together, both have two different meanings.
Training focuses on specific job knowledge and skills that is to be applied in the short run. Where
the development focuses on broad knowledge and insights that many be required for adaptation
to the environment demands in the future.
Benefits of Employee Training
• Respond to technology changes – Every Organization should be ready for different changes
in technology.
• Addressing weaknesses - A training program presents an opportunity to instill the needed
skills in the employees.
• Employees support carrier development - An employee who receives training from time to
time is in a better position to improve his work productivity.
• Company profile and reputation - Conducting frequent training and development programs
is one way of developing the organization’s employer brand.
• Innovation, respond to organizational restructuring - When employees receive consistent
training and up-skilling, it fosters their creativity.
Why Training is neglected?
• Training Time
• High Cost
• Employee turn over
• Short Term Workers
• Diversity of Workers
Steps in Employee Training Program
Identifying the training needs
The training needs of each employee should be identified. Programs should be developed that are
best suited to their needs. There are multiple places which can collect training needs.
• Supervisor and peer reviews
• Self-Performance review
• Job related performance data
• Interviews with supervisors
• Tests of job knowledge
• Individual daily diary
Setting of Objectives
Training or learning objectives are the intended measurable outcome that your learners will
achieve once they’ve finished a course.
The objectives of training should be
• Desired end result
• Clear for the parties
• Concise
• Achievable goals
Designing the training Program
There are multiple training methods available. Each training method should use by checking the
training objectives defined. Some of the training methods are as follows;
• On-the-job Training - On-the-job training, also known as OJT, is a hands-on method of
teaching the skills, knowledge, and competencies needed for employees.
• Instructor-led classroom training: This method mimics other educational environments like
a college course.
• Computer Based or E-learning methods: CBT encompasses any type of training that takes
place on a computer.
• Video Training - Over the past few years, video has emerged as a game-changing media
both for external use.
Benefits of Better Training
• Standardized Performances
• Less absenteeism
• Less Turn Over
• Reduces Tension
• Consistency Maintained
• Lower costs
• Customer Satisfaction
• Better Service
 Lesson 11 – Performance Appraisal and Management

Why Appraise Performances?

There are many reasons for appraising performance of the employees. One of the main reasons is
to reward the employees. Many reasons for rewarding employees are exist and some of the
rewarding mechanisms are awarding promotions, raising of salaries, providing increments.

Steps in Performance Appraisal

Who should Conduct the Performance Appraisals?

Problems and Solutions of Appraising

Unclear Standard - When the appraisals standards are not clear, it is difficult to the evaluator to
conduct a proper evaluation based on the employee performances.
Halo Effect - The halo effect is a type of cognitive bias in which our overall impression of a person
influences how we feel and think about their character.
Central Tendency - Central tendency error is the raters’ tendency to avoid making “extreme”
judgments of employee performance resulting in rating all employees in the middle part of a scale.
This can happen either when a manager is not comfortable with conflict and avoids low marks to
avoid dealing with behavioral issues or when a manager intentionally forces all employees to the
middle of the scale.
Leniency or Strictness - A related rating problem exists when a supervisor is overly strict or overly
lenient in evaluations.
How to handle unsatisfactory employees
This is a very important and very controversial instance in many employee evaluations. The first
thing is to identify the problem carefully. The problem may occur due to many reasons and
therefore the managers must identify the exact reasons for the employees to not to perform as
per the standards.

Lesson 12 – Occupational Stress Management

What is stress?
Stress is a feeling of emotional or physical tension. It can come from any event or thought that
makes you feel frustrated, angry, or nervous.
 1. Acute stress. This is short-term stress that goes away quickly. Acute stress helps to manage
dangerous situations. It also occurs when someone does something new or exciting. All
people have acute stress at one time or another.
2. Chronic stress. This is stress that lasts for a longer period of time. You may have chronic
stress if you have money problems, an unhappy marriage, or trouble at work. Any type of
stress that goes on for weeks or months is chronic stress.

What is Occupational Stress?

Occupational stress is one of the major health hazards of the modern workplace.
Diseases occurred due to stress
Health problems caused or exacerbated by stress include:
• Depression and anxiety
• Pain of any kind
• Sleep problems
• Autoimmune diseases
• Digestive problems
• Skin conditions, such as eczema
• Heart disease
When is workplace stress too much
Common causes of workplace stress include:
• Heavy work load
• Less support from peer workers
• Lack of experience
• Less motivation
• Fear of being laid off
• More overtime due to staff cutbacks
• Pressure to perform to meet rising expectations but with no increase in job satisfaction
• Pressure to work at optimum levels
• Lack of control over how you do your work
Stress at work warning signs
Due to these reasons, employees may get them self-stress at work. When the employees feel
overwhelmed at work, you lose confidence and may become angry, irritable, or withdrawn.
Managing Workplace Stress
• Relaxation strategies
• Problem-solving.
• Mindfulness.
• Reappraising negative thoughts
 • Schedule the day
• Allocate time to eat and sleep
• Conflicts with co-workers
• Prioritize Your Priorities
• Band relaxation
• Physical Exercise
• Extracurricular activities –
Benefits by not being Stress
• Enables motivate employees
• Improves productivity
• Enables to lead people in difficult situations
• Decreases unethical issues
• Increases the chances of meeting deadlines

Lesson 13 – Conflict Management

What is a conflict?
Conflict is serious disagreement and argument about something important. If two or more people
are in conflict, they have had a serious disagreement or argument and have not yet reached
agreement.
Reasons for Organizational Conflicts
• Incompatibility of goals
• Differences over interpretations of facts
• Disagreements based on behavioral expectations
• Scarcity of Resources
• Conflict of Interest
Different Types of Conflicts
Task Conflict
Task conflicts occurs over content and goals of the work. Task conflicts involves concrete issues
related to employees’ work assignments. These conflicts can be a dispute about how to divide up
resources, differences of opinion on procedures and policies, managing expectations at work, and
judgments and interpretation of facts.
Relationship Conflict
Conflict based on interpersonal relationships. The relationship conflict, arises from differences in
personality, style, matters of taste, and even conflict styles. In organizations, people who would
not ordinarily meet in real life are often thrown together and must try to get along.
The relationship conflicts can be occurring between
• Employees and their co-workers
• Employees and Managers
• Between Managers
• Between groups

The Conflict Process

Stage 1 – Potential opposition or incompatibility

Stage one of the conflict process is the potential opposition or incompatibility. conflict can occur
regarding the structure of the organization. Size and specialization of jobs, Jurisdictional
clarity/ambiguity, Member/goal incompatibility, Leadership styles (close or participative) Reward
systems (win-lose) Dependence/interdependence of groups.

Stage II: Cognition and Personalization

There are two sides in this stage. The first is perceived conflict and second is felt conflict.
• Perceived Conflict- Awareness by one or more parties of the existence of conditions that
create opportunities for conflict to arise.
• Felt Conflict - Emotional involvement in a conflict creating anxiety, tenseness, frustration,
or hostility.

Stage III: Intentions

Stage IV: Behavior
This is a stage where conflict becomes visible. The behavior stage includes the statements, actions,
and reactions made by the conflicting parties.

Stage 5: Outcomes
The action-reaction interplay between the conflicting parties’ results in consequences.

Conflict Management Methods

Benefits of Better Conflict Management

Functional Outcomes from Conflict
• Increased group performance
• Improved quality of decisions
• Stimulation of creativity and innovation
• Encouragement of interest and curiosity
• Provision of a medium for problem-solving
• Creation of an environment for self-evaluation and change
Dysfunctional Outcomes from Conflict
• Development of discontent
• Reduced group effectiveness
• Slow down communication
• Reduced group cohesiveness
• Infighting among group members overcomes group goals
 Lesson 14 – Organizational Commitment

What is a commitment?
Organizational commitment is the individual’s psychological attachment to an organization.
Usually, organizational commitment and job satisfaction are closely correlated together with lower
levels of intention to leave the organization.
Types of organizational commitment
Affective Commitment
Employee has an emotional bond with the organization. Some researchers identify affective
commitment as the employee's positive emotional attachment to the organization.
Continuance Commitment
Continuance commitment is the level of commitment where an employee would think that leaving
an organization would be costly. More importantly an employee has a continuance in commitment
level, they want to stay in the organization for a longer period of time.
Normative Commitment
Normative commitment is where an individual feels they should stay for some reason. It is the level
of commitment where an employee feels obligated to stay in the organization, where they feel,
staying in the organization is the right thing to do.
How to Improve Organizational Commitment?
• Good teamwork culture
• Communicate organizational goals
• Better communication
• Maintain ethics
• Encourage innovation
• Better and constructive feedback
• Offer Incentives
• Foster a positive work culture
Employee Satisfaction
Job satisfaction is a measure of workers' contentedness with their job, whether or not they like the
job or individual aspects or facets of jobs, such as nature of work or supervision. There are many
aspects pertaining to job satisfaction of the employees. Many benefits that can be obtained by job
satisfaction
• Lower Turnover • Increased Profits
• Higher Productivity • Loyalty