MODULE 1

INTRODUCTION TO OB

Organisational behaviour is the study of individual and group behaviour in the workplace
and their impact on productivity and profitability.
Organizational behavior is the study and participation of knowledge about human behavior
in organizations as it relates to other system elements, such as structure, technology, and
the external social system.

Characteristics of OB

Importance of OB

 Discover and understand human behaviour,

 Properly motivate their employees to perform better,
 Create a conducive work environment to bring about higher employee productivity,
 Ensure effective communication along with its elements,
 Maintain ethical workplace practices, and
 Build positive relationships among employees for cooperation.
It also empowers organisations acting as a:
  Conflict resolution mechanism: It gives the managers an upper hand and brings
them to the depth of the workplace behaviour and what could lead to possible
conflicts. These issues are taken care of effectively by either preventing them or
addressing them timely.
 Relation building technique: It helps the managers and supervisors understand the
relationship between employees and workplace behaviour. This builds stronger
relationships through communication, developing trust, and building effective
teamwork due to higher cooperation among employees.
 Policy framing tool: Policymakers get an insight into the aspirations of their
employees and formulate welfare policies accordingly. They can meet the
expectations of the stakeholders by close study of organisational behaviour.
 Vigilance strategy: The study of organisational behaviour helps to keep a check on
any malpractices or work-related corruption. Thus, it promotes the right kind of
business ethics and integrity within an organisation.
 Discover and understand human behaviour,
 Properly motivate their employees to perform better,
 Create a conducive work environment to bring about higher employee productivity,
 Ensure effective communication along with its elements,
 Maintain ethical workplace practices, and
 Build positive relationships among employees for cooperation.
It also empowers organisations acting as a:

 Conflict resolution mechanism: It gives the managers an upper hand and brings
them to the depth of the workplace behaviour and what could lead to possible
conflicts. These issues are taken care of effectively by either preventing them or
addressing them timely.
 Relation building technique: It helps the managers and supervisors understand the
relationship between employees and workplace behaviour. This builds stronger
relationships through communication, developing trust, and building effective
teamwork due to higher cooperation among employees.
 Policy framing tool: Policymakers get an insight into the aspirations of their
employees and formulate welfare policies accordingly. They can meet the
expectations of the stakeholders by close study of organisational behaviour.
 Vigilance strategy: The study of organisational behaviour helps to keep a check on
any malpractices or work-related corruption. Thus, it promotes the right kind of
business ethics and integrity within an organisation.
Objectives of OB

Determinants of OB

1.People

An organization consists of people with different traits, personality, skills, qualities,

interests, background, beliefs, values and intelligence. In order to maintain a healthy
environment, all the employees should be treated equally and be judged according to their
work and other aspects that affects the firm.
Example − A company offers campus placement to trainees from different states like Orissa,
Haryana, Arunachal Pradesh and many more. However, during and after training, all
trainees are examined only on the basis of their performance in the tasks assigned.

2. Organizational Structure

Structure is the layout design of an organization. It is the construction and arrangement of

relationships, strategies according to the organizational goal.
Example − Organizational structure defines the relation of a manager with employees and
co-workers.

3. Technology

Technology can be defined as the implementation of scientific knowledge for practical

usage. It also provides the resources required by the people that affect their work and task
performance in the right direction.
Example − Introduction of SAP, big data and other software in the market determines
individual and organizational performance.

4. Environment

All companies function within a given internal and external environment. Internal
environment can be defined as the conditions, factors, and elements within an enterprise
that influences the activities, choices made by the firm, and especially the behavior of the
employees. While external environment can be defined as outside factors that affect the
company's ability to operate. Some of them can be manipulated by the company’s
marketing, while others require the company to make adjustments.

Contribution of Behavioural Science in the Field of OB

Psychology

Psychology has perhaps the first influence on the field of organizational behavior because it
is a science of behavior. A psychologist studies almost all aspects Of behavior.

Psychology deals with studying human behavior that seeks to explain and sometimes
change the behavior of humans and other animals.

Psychologists are primarily interested in predicting the behavior of individuals to a great

extent by observing the dynamics of personal factors.

Those who have contributed and continued to add to the knowledge of OB are teaching
theorists, personality theorists, counseling psychologists and primary, industrial and
organizational psychologists.

Some of the numerous areas of interest within the disciplines of psychology are:

 General Psychology
 Experimental Psychology
 Clinical Psychology
 Consumer Psychology
 Personality and Social Psychology
 Industrial Psychology
 Counseling Psychology
 Educational Psychology
 Consulting Psychology

Understanding Psychological principles and its models help significantly in gaining the
knowledge of determinants of individual behavior such as

 the learning process,

 motivation techniques,
 personality determinants and development,
  perceptual process and its implications,
 training process,
 leadership effectiveness,
 job satisfaction,
 individual decision making,
 performance appraisal,
 attitude measurement,
 employee selection,
 job design and work stress.

Sociology

The major focus of sociologists is on studying the social systems in which individuals fill their
roles. The focus is on group dynamics. They have made their greatest contribution to OB
through their study of group behavior in organizations, particularly formal and sophisticated
organizations.

Sociological concepts, theories, models, and techniques help significantly to understand

better the group dynamics, organizational culture, formal organization theory and structure,
corporate technology, bureaucracy, communications, power, conflict, and intergroup
behaviour.

Anthropology

The main aim of anthropology is to acquire a better understanding of the relationship

between the human being and the environment. Adaptations to surroundings constitute
culture. The manner in which people view their surroundings is a part of the culture.

Culture includes those ideas shared by groups of individuals and languages by which these
ideas are communicated. In essence, culture is a system of learned behavior. Their work on
culture and environment has helped us to understand differences in fundamental values,
attitudes, and behavior among people in different countries and within different
organizations.

Political Sciences

Contributions of political scientists are significant to the understanding of behavior in

organizations. Political scientists study the behavior of individuals and groups within a
political environment. They contribute to understanding the dynamics of power centers,
structuring of conflict and conflict resolution tactics, allocation of power and how people
manipulate power for individual self-interest.

In a business field, organizations wanted to attain supremacy in their field and indulge in
politicking activities to gain maximum advantages by following certain tasks like
Machiavellianism, coalition formation, malpractices, etc.
 Hawthorne Experiment by Elton Mayo
In 1927, a group of researchers led by Elton Mayo and Fritz Roethlisberger of the Harvard
Business School were invited to join in the studies at the Hawthorne Works of Western
Electric Company, Chicago. The experiment lasted up to 1932. The Hawthorne Experiment
brought out that the productivity of the employees is not the function of only physical
conditions of work and money wages paid to them. Productivity of employees depends
heavily upon the satisfaction of the employees in their work situation. Mayo’s idea was that
logical factors were far less important than emotional factors in determining productivity
efficiency. Furthermore, of all the human factors influencing employee behavior, the most
powerful were those emanating from the worker’s participation in social groups. Thus,
Mayo concluded that work arrangements in addition to meeting the objective requirements
of production must at the same time satisfy the employee’s subjective requirement of social
satisfaction at his work place.

The Hawthorne experiment consists of four parts. These parts are briefly described below:

1. Illumination Experiment.
2. Relay Assembly Test Room Experiment.
3. Interviewing Programme.
4. Bank Wiring Test Room Experiment

1. Illumination Experiment:

This experiment was conducted to establish relationship between output and illumination.
When the intensity of light was increased, the output also increased. The output showed an
upward trend even when the illumination was gradually brought down to the normal level.
Therefore, it was concluded that there is no consistent relationship between output of
workers and illumination in the factory. There must be some other factor which affected
productivity.

2. Relay Assembly Test Room Experiment:

This phase aimed at knowing not only the impact of illumination on production but also
other factors like length of the working day, rest hours, and other physical conditions. In this
experiment, a small homogeneous work-group of six girls was constituted. These girls were
friendly to each other and were asked to work in a very informal atmosphere under the
supervision of a researcher. Productivity and morale increased considerably during the
period of the experiment. Productivity went on increasing and stabilized at a high level even
when all the improvements were taken away and the pre-test conditions were
reintroduced. The researchers concluded that socio-psychological factors such as feeling of
being important, recognition, attention, participation, cohesive work-group, and non-
directive supervision held the key for higher productivity.
 3. Mass Interview Programme:

The objective of this programme was to make a systematic study of the employees attitudes
which would reveal the meaning which their “working situation” has for them. The
researchers interviewed a large number of workers with regard to their opinions on work,
working conditions and supervision. Initially, a direct approach was used whereby
interviews asked questions considered important by managers and researchers. The
researchers observed that the replies of the workmen were guarded. Therefore, this
approach was replaced by an indirect technique, where the interviewer simply listened to
what the workmen had to say. The findings confirmed the importance of social factors at
work in the total work environment.

4. Bank Wiring Test Room Experiment:

This experiment was conducted by Roethlisberger and Dickson with a view to develop a new
method of observation and obtaining more exact information about social groups within a
company and also finding out the causes which restrict output. The experiment was
conducted to study a group of workers under conditions which were as close as possible to
normal. This group comprised of 14 workers. After the experiment, the production records
of this group were compared with their earlier production records. It was observed that the
group evolved its own production norms for each individual worker, which was made lower
than those set by the management. Because of this, workers would produce only that much,
thereby defeating the incentive system. Those workers who tried to produce more than the
group norms were isolated, harassed or punished by the group. The findings of the study
are:-

 Each individual was restricting output.

 The group had its own “unofficial” standards of performance.
 Individual output remained fairly constant over a period of time.
 Informal groups play an important role in the working of an organization.