Introduction to Organizational

Behaviour
Unit – I
Dr. Prof. M.R. Jhansi Rani
Learning Objectives
In this unit, you will learn to:
• Explain the meaning and importance of OB
• Describe the historical development in OB
• Discuss the models of OB
• State the challenges and opportunities for OB
• Explain the application of OB in organizations
 Case Study: Building a Pipeline of Technical Talent
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24V6Xl1xWKE&t=62s
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUylP0r7QxY&t=228s
• https://hbr.org/2011/05/hbr-case-study-challenge-the-boss-or-stand-down
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMZ-iuMQmrw
• https://hbsp.harvard.edu/organizational-behavior/
• https://hbr.org/1964/11/breakthrough-in-organization-development
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5BM_OxgNMQ
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRwt25M5nGw
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvb49-Csq1o
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-Yy6poJ2zs
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xJ_hbD4TQA
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biJwCaczx7s
1-5
1-6
1-7
1-8
1-9
1-10
Commandments of Behavioural
Management
• Accept yourself as you are
• Accept People as they are
• Everyday is a Celebration
• Empathic Involvement
• Be Proactive
• Be Patient

1-11
 “Organizational behavior is It is the systematic study and
directly concerned with the
application of knowledge about how
understanding, prediction, and
control of human behavior in
individuals and groups act within
organizations.” — Fred the organizations where they work.
Luthans. OB draws from other disciplines to
create a unique field.

What is
Organizational
Behaviour?
Organizational behavior is the This area of study examines human
study of both group and behavior in a work environment and
individual performance and determines its impact on job
activity within an structure, performance,
organization. communication, motivation,
leadership, etc.

1-12
The Field of Organizational Behavior

Organizational Behavior is a field of study that

investigates the impact individuals, groups and
structures have on behavior within
organizations.

Its chief goal is to apply that knowledge toward

improving an organization’s effectiveness.

1-13
Focal Points of OB
• Jobs
• Work
• Absenteeism
• Employment turnover
• Productivity
• Human performance
• Management
Employee Citizenship Behaviour Vs
Employee Withdrawal Behaviour
1-14
Importance of OB
 Acts a human tool that aids organizations in understanding the cause
for the problem, predicting measures for action and controlling its
consequences for human benefit.
 Guides to motivate employees to work harder, resolve conflicts and
help them achieve rewards.
 Helps in determining the nature of employees such as extrovert or
introvert, motivated, confident, dominating and more.
 It also aids in understanding the basis of motivation and improving the
inter-personal relationship.
 Basis to prepare managers to Facilitate effective decision making and
communication within the organization
Historical Development in OB
Organizational behavior gained importance with the development of new management
concepts and practices. The historical emergence of organizational behavior started with
the following:
 Industrial Revolution: With the advent of the Industrial Revolution in the nineteenth
century, there were a large number of individuals working together as manager-
subordinate relationships. Prior to the nineteenth century, there existed the military rule
in large organizations wherein the authority of the leader was supreme and practically
unquestioned. It was easy to deal with behavioral problems under these conditions.
 Scientific management: The scientific management movement came in after the
Industrial Revolution with a narrower operations perspective. The scientific management
focused on economic efficiency, especially labor productivity. It stressed upon improving
the efficiency of each individual in the organization.
 Human relations movement: The human relations movement for the organizational
behavior theory began in the 1930s and continued until the 1950s. The important part of
the movement was the management, which emphasized the morale and cooperation of
employees, which was the first important step towards human relations.
Complementing Intuition with Systematic Study

• Intuition: the “gut feeling” explanation of behavior.

• Systematic study improves ability to accurately

predict behavior.
• Assumes behavior is not random.

• Fundamental consistencies underlie behavior.

• These can be identified and modified to reflect individual

differences.

1-17
Systematic Study
• Examines relationships.
• Attempts to attribute causes and effects.
• Bases conclusions on scientific
evidence:
• On data gathered under controlled
conditions.
• Data is measured and interpreted in a
reasonably rigorous manner.

1-18
Evidence-Based Management

• Complements systematic
study.
• Bases decisions on the
best available scientific
evidence.
• Forces managers to
become more scientific in
their thinking.

1-19
Contributing Disciplines
to the OB Field

Micro:
The
Psychology
Individual

Social Psychology

Sociology
Macro:
Groups &
Organizations Anthropology

1-20
Contributing Disciplines to the OB Field

Psychology
The science that seeks to measure, explain, and
sometimes change the behavior of humans and other
animals
Contributing Disciplines to the OB Field
(cont’d)
Sociology
The study of people in relation to their fellow human beings
Contributing Disciplines to the OB Field
(cont’d)

Social Psychology
An area within psychology that blends concepts from
psychology and sociology and that focuses on the influence
of people on one another
Contributing Disciplines to the OB Field (cont’d)
Anthropology
The study of societies to learn about human beings and
their activities
Few Absolutes in OB: Contingency
Approach
• Impossible to make simple and accurate
generalizations
• Human beings are complex and diverse
• OB concepts must reflect situational conditions:
contingency variables

Condition Behavior
Input “A”
“C” “B”
Pre-Recorded Session - 1
Challenges and Opportunities for OB

• The workplace is contains a wide mix of

cultures, races, ethnic groups, genders and
ages
• Employees have to learn to cope with rapid
change due to global competition
• Corporate loyalty has decreased due to
corporate downsizing and use of temp workers
• Managers can benefit from OB theory and
concepts
Responding to Globalization - OB

• Increased foreign assignments

• Differing needs and aspirations in
workforce
• Working with people from
different cultures
• Domestic motivational techniques
and managerial styles may not
work
• Overseeing movement of jobs to
countries with low-cost labor

1-28
Managing Workforce Diversity - OB

Workforce diversity:
organizations are
becoming a more
heterogeneous mix of
people in terms of
gender, age, race,
ethnicity, and sexual
orientation

1-29
Diversity Implications

“Managers have to shift their

philosophy from treating
everyone alike to recognizing
differences and responding to
those differences in ways that
ensure employee retention
and greater productivity while,
at the same time, not
discriminating.”

1-30
OB Offers Insights Into:

• Improving quality and

productivity
• Customer service and building
a customer-responsive culture
• Developing people skills and
behaviors

1-31
OB Aids in Dealing With:
• Stimulating Innovation and
Change
• Increasing “temporariness” in
the workplace
• Helping employees balance
work-life conflicts
• Improving ethical behavior

1-32
Pre-Recorded Session - 2
OB Model-Three Levels of OB Analysis

Model
An abstraction of reality
A simplified
representation of some
real-world phenomenon
1-35
 Thinking Positive
• Creating a positive work environment can be a
competitive advantage
• Positive Organizational Scholarship (Positive
OB):
• Examines how organizations develop human
strengths, foster vitality and resilience, and unlock
potential.
• Focus is on employee strengths, not their weaknesses.

1-36
Implications for
Managers/Application of OB

• OB helps with:
• Insights to improve people skills
• Valuing of workforce diversity
• Empowering people and creating a
positive work environment
• Dealing with labor shortages
• Coping in a world of temporariness
• Creating an ethically healthy work
environment

1-37
 Keep in Mind…

• OB’s goal is to understand and predict human

behavior in organizations.
• Fundamental consistencies underlie behavior.
• It is more important than ever to learn OB
concepts.
• Both managers and employees must learn to
cope with temporariness.

1-38
Case-1: Prediction That Didn’t Quite
Pan Out
Consider the following examples of predictions:
• Prediction: “More people are going to be put to work this summer.”— Vice President Joe Biden (June 17,
2010)
• Status: By August, job growth in the private sector fell by two-thirds and unemployment increased to 9.8
percent in November.
• Prediction: “The market is telling you that something is not quite right. . . . The Chinese economy is going to
slow down regardless.”—Investment analyst Marc Faber (May 3, 2010)
• Status: The Chinese economy grew by 9.5 percent over the rest of the year.
• Prediction: “My long-term opinion is that the bear market has several years left to run, and stock prices will
go a lot lower. . . . So any rally that happens is going to be a bear market rally.”—Robert Prechter, CEO at
research company Elliot Wave International (February 27, 2009)
• Status: The S&P 500 was up 64 percent from its lowest point by the middle of December, and stocks have
continued to perform well since.

1-39
Case-1: Prediction That Didn’t Quite Pan Out
(Cont..)
• Prediction: “I think this is a case where Freddie Mac (FRE) and Fannie Mae (FNM)
are fundamentally sound. They’re not in danger of going under. . . . I think they are in
good shape going forward.”—Representative Barney Frank (July 14, 2008)
• Status: Just 2 months later, the mortgage companies were in conservatorship, and
the government had pledged to invest $100 billion in each.
• Prediction: “I think Bob Steel’s the one guy I trust to turn this bank around, which is
why I’ve told you on weakness to buy Wachovia.”—CNBC commentator Jim Cramer
(March 11, 2008)
• Status: Investors fled Wachovia within the next 2 weeks, and the company nearly
failed, with shares losing half their value from September 15 to December 29.

Questions
1. Despite the difficulty of making predictions, many people confidently make
assertions about what will happen in the future. Why do you think this is?
2. What perceptual or decision-making errors can you identify in these
predictions?

1-40
Interesting Facts
about Human
Behavior

1-41
• People with low self-esteem tend to humiliate others. Subjects
who were told that the results of their IQ test were poor expressed
more national and religious prejudices, than those who reported
higher results.
• People sincerely believe that their negative opinions about
others are truthful and have no connection with them and their
self-confidence. In fact, the humiliation of others helps them restore
their own self-esteem.
• Similarly, the feeling of rigidity and hardness makes people
inflexible. People sitting on hard chairs were more
uncompromising in the negotiations. Feeling a rough surface
causes in people a sense of the complexity of human relations,
and cold is tightly connected with the feeling of loneliness.
• Lying requires a lot of mental effort. A person who is lying has to
keep in mind at the same time the lie – that it to say, and the truth –
in order to hide it. As a result, he uses simple sentences and finds
it more difficult to cope with mental tasks.

1-42
• Attractive and honest appearance can easily be
misleading. People tend to trust appearance more than
sincerity.
• Appearance plays an important role even when voting
during elections. Maturity and physical attractiveness of
politicians were mostly important for voters’ choice
(unconsciously, of course).
• More successful and rich people are considered to be
more intelligent and wise, and vice versa. Often, people
tend to think that those who are successful or those who
suffer deserve it.
• Happier is not the one who has a lot of money, but the one
who has more than his neighbour does. People constantly
compare themselves with others and feel satisfied if they are
superior in some respect.

1-43
• When people are being watched, they behave better. And
the illusion of being watched works, too. It was enough to
hang a picture of human eyes in a self-service cafeteria, so
that more people began to collect their dishes.
• The more complex the decision to be taken is, the more
people tend to leave things as they are. If the store has too
much choice and people cannot immediately find out which of
the products is better, most probably they will leave without
buying.
• Not all risks are the same. The same person can fearlessly
jump with a parachute, but be afraid of his boss. Or to train
tigers, but feel embarrassed when talking to a pretty woman.
• People regret quick decisions, even if the results are
satisfying. Not the actual time allotted for the decision
matters, but the feeling that the time was enough.

1-44
1-45
1-46
1-47
1-48
1-49
1-50
1-51
1-52
1-53
1-54
1-55
1-56
1-57
1-58
1-59
1-60
Learning Outcomes

At the end of this unit, you would:

• Assess the importance of OB
• Evaluate the OB models
• Appraise the opportunities for OB
• Assess the application of OB in organizations
• Examine the challenges for OB