21BAU30A – ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

UNIT – 1

Organisational behaviour – Definition:

OB refers to the behaviour of individuals and groups within organisation and the interaction
between organizational members and their external environments. OB is a field of study that
investigates the impact that individuals, groups and structure have on behaviour within
organisation for the purpose of applying such knowledge towards improving an organisation
effectiveness.

Organisational behaviour – Meaning:

Organizational behavior is the study of how individuals and groups interact within an
organization and how these interactions affect an organization’s performance toward its goal or
goals. The field examines the impact of various factors on behavior within an organization.

The focus of organizational behavior tends to center around employee productivity. For
example, organizational behavior studies have shown that employees who feel valued and
appreciated tend to be more motivated and productive, leading to increased profits for the
organization.

However, organizational behavior can also focus on the ways in which organizations can
better manage, change and improve behavior in order to achieve desired outcomes (i.e.,
productivity, employee well-being, or workplace satisfaction).

Importance of organisation behaviour:

Organizational Behavior is important because how a firm is managed provides it with

something that distinguishes it from other organizations. Organizations, (especially large
companies) all have access to capital markets (i.e., money), to marketing, to supply chains, to new
ideas and services. The need and importance of organisational behaviour are as under:
1. Skill Improvement

Study of Organisational Behaviour helps to improve skills. This includes the ability of
employees and use of knowledge to become more efficient. Organisational Behaviour study also
improves managers as well as other employees work-skill.
2. Understanding Consumer Buying Behaviour

It also an important part to improve the marketing process by understanding consumer

buying behaviour.
3. Employee Motivation
Organisational Behaviour (OB) helps to understand the basis of Motivation and different
ways to motivate employees properly.
4. Nature of Employees
Understanding of personnel and employee nature is important to manage them
properly.With the help of Organizational behaviour, we can understand whether employees or
people are Introvert , extrovert, motivated, dominating.
5. Anticipating Organisational events
The scientific study of behaviour helps to understand and predict organisational events.For
example Annual Business Planning, Demand Management, Product line management, Production
Planning, Resources Scheduling, Logistics etc.
6. Efficiency & Effectiveness
Study of organisational behaviour helps to increase efficiency and effectiveness of the
organisation.
7. Better Environment of Organisation

OB helps to create a healthy, ethical and smooth environment in an organisation.

8. Optimum or Better Utilization of Resources

Study of OB helps to understand employees and their work style and skill better way.By
understanding this, management can train and motivate employees for optimum utilization of
resources.
9. Goodwill of organization
Organisational Behaviour helps to improve Goodwill of organization.
Scope of organisation behaviour:
The scope of organizational behavior includes a vast and diverse range of topics, extending its
reach to various levels within an organization. It looks into the details of individual behavior, group
dynamics, organizational structure, and the broader external environment. The four elements are:

• Individual Behavior
• Group Dynamics
• Organizational Structure
• Border External Environment

Individual Behavior:

• Individual behavior takes a close look at how each person within an organization acts and
behaves.
• It explores the factors that improve individuals, such as their motivation, job satisfaction,
and personal characteristics.
• Understanding individual behavior is key to creating a work environment where employees
can flourish and contribute their best.
• Understanding emotional intelligence and how it influences individual behavior can help
organizations promote better relationships among employees, enhance communication,
and manage conflicts effectively.
• Examining the work-life balance of employees is crucial for their well-being and overall
performance. It includes factors such as flexible work arrangements, stress management,
and the impact of personal life on work behavior.

Group Dynamics:

• Group dynamics focus on how people interact and collaborate in teams or larger groups
within an organization.
• It looks into communication patterns, leadership dynamics, and how group members
influence one another.
 • Understanding group dynamics is important for building effective teams, managing
conflicts, and achieving collective goals.
• The dynamics of diverse teams within an organization can significantly affect performance
and collaboration. Exploring how diversity in terms of culture, skills, and backgrounds
influences group behavior is essential for promoting diversity and creativity.
• Effective conflict resolution strategies are key to maintaining a healthy group dynamic.
Studying the methods for addressing conflicts, mediating disputes, and ensuring that
conflicts lead to positive outcomes is an important component of organizational behavior.

Organizational Structure:

• Organizational structure refers to how an organization is designed and how tasks and
responsibilities are divided.
• It explores hierarchies, decision-making processes, and the impact of structure on
employee roles and behavior.
• Understanding organizational structure helps in creating an efficient and well-functioning
organization.
• Organizational culture plays an important part in influencing behavior. Investigating the
values, norms, and beliefs that shape the culture of an organization can help leaders align
it with the desired behavior and goals.
• The ability to adapt and manage change is a significant factor in modern organizational
structures. Analyzing how organizational behavior responds to change initiatives and the
strategies employed for successful change management can enhance the efficiency of an
organization.

External Environment:

• The external environment concept takes into account the broader factors that impact
organizations from the outside.
• It includes economic conditions, societal trends, and the marketplace in which the
organization operates.
 • Understanding the external environment is crucial for organizations to adapt and succeed
in a constantly changing world.
• Understanding how the organization’s behavior is affected by its rivals is important.
Analyzing competitors, market trends, and the impact on the organization’s strategies and
behavior is a crucial component of external environmental analysis.
• Laws and regulations can greatly influence an organization’s behavior. Looking into how
an organization negotiates legal and compliance issues and the impact on its operations and
policies is essential for long-term sustainability.

Individual differences:
Individual differences refer to the distinct characteristics, attributes or traits which
differentiate one person from another. These can include aspects like personality, intelligence,
attitudes, and behaviours. Individual differences can be broadly defined as the combination of
traits that make you unique. These characteristics are significant because they shape your
behaviour, abilities, and preferences.There are several aspects associated with individual
differences. Here are some noteworthy ones:

• Personality: Your distinct patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviours.

• Cognitive Abilities: This refers to your mental capacities such as attention, memory, and
problem-solving abilities.
• Lifestyle Preferences: This includes your likes, dislikes, hobbies, and interests.
• Learning Styles: This pertains to how you acquire and process information.

Individual and organisation behaviour:

Individuals are unique in terms of their skills, abilities, personalities, perceptions,
attitudes, emotions and ethics.
Individual differences represent the essence of the challenge of management, because no two
people are completely alike.
There are four basic propositions of interactional psychology:

1. Behavior is a function of a continuous, multidirectional interaction between the person

and the situation.
 2. The person is active in this process and both changes, and is changes by, situation.

3. People vary in many characteristics, including cognitive, affective, motivational, and

ability factors.

4. Two interpretations of situations are important: the objective situation and the person’s
subjective view of situation.

Skills and Abilities:

There are many skills and abilities that relate to work outcomes. Genera Mental Ability
(GMA) was introduce by Spearman (1940) more than 100 years ago. It was defined as an
individual’s innate cognitive intelligence. It was the single best predictor of work performance
across many occupations studied both, here in the United States and across different culture.
Personality:
Personality is an individual difference that lends consistency to a person’s behavior. Personality
is defined as a relatively stable set of characteristics that influence an individual behavior.
Determinants of Individual Behavior

* Heredity

* Environment where a person is exposed to

* Family

* Culture

* Education

* And other environmental forces that shape personality.

Personality is therefore is shaped by both heredity and environment.

Measurement of intelligence:

Why Do We Need To Assess Intelligence

•For placement

•For screening
 •For identification of any exceptionality .

•For guidance and counseling

Intelligence Test

• Intelligence is measured through psychological test,

• The intelligence test measures intelligence as it is defined .
• Intelligence is a construct
• and the test includes items to assess the capacity which has been included in the
operational definition of the concept ( intelligence)
• intelligence tests calculate a person’s intelligence quotient score(IQ), which is
based on a relative scale, measured against an age-based average score.

Important points:

Sir Francis Galton was the first to measure human intelligence but was in terms of
individual differences . He was particularly concerned with sensory responses (visual and
auditory acuity and reaction times) and their relationship to differences in ability.

• The first psychological attempt by developing proper test to assess the intelligence was
done by Alfred Binet in 1905 Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon, published the first modern
intelligence test, the Binet-Simon intelligence scale.

• Later Lewis Terman of Stanford University studied it and reformed it. He created and
published the first IQ test in the United States, Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale (Terman,
1916).

Types of intelligence Assessment ( based on type of item):

➢ Verbal tests
➢ Non verbal test
➢ Performance test

Types of Intelligence Measurement (based on type administration ) :

➢ Group test
➢ Individual test
Verbal test:

The tests which make use of language. The person being assessed must understand
the language used in the test for instruction as well as in items.

• The test content might consist items on

. • Information • Measures a child's range of factual information • Example: What

day of the year is Independence Day? •

• Similarities • Measures a child's ability to categorize • Example: In what way are

wool and cotton alike? •

• Arithmetic • Measures the ability to solve computational math problems •

Example: If I buy 6 rupees worth of candy and give the clerk 25 rupees, I would get
_________ back in change?

• Vocabulary • Measures the ability to define words • Example: What does

“telephone” mean? • Comprehension • Measures the ability to answer common sense
questions • Example: Why do people buy fire insurance? •

• Digit Span • Measures short-term auditory memory

Non verbal test:

• The test which uses non verbal items like pictures, symbols etc

. • The instructions are explained by the administrator in the native language .

• Ravens Progressive Matrices, Draw A Man Test. Army Beta Test Etc

• These test can be administered at group level as well as individualized.

• The items in the test may contain logical arrangement of pictures. Finding the
missing part int the series or the picture.

• these test are paper pencil test .

• The test is useful to assess the IQ of children as well as illiterate people.

Performance test:

• In this test the contents and responses are in the form of performance

. • The person being tested is supposed to manipulate the given items.

 • Some the standardized test of this category are

• Koh’s Block Design Test,

• Alexander Pass Along Test ,

• Cube Construction Test

Performance test items:

• The performance in these activities are tested.

• Some of them are;

• Block Building/Cube Construction: asked to make a structure or design by

means of blocks or cubes

. • To fit the blocks in the hole, Tracing a maze,

• Picture Arrangement -Arranging pictures to tell a story

• Block Design -Arranging multi-colored blocks to match printed design

• Object Assembly

• Putting puzzles together - measures nonverbal fluid reasoning

Stanford- Binet- Simon Scale:

The Stanford-Binet Fourth Edition (SB-4) contains four general classes of items,
and each class consists of several kinds of sub- tests:

1. Verbal Reasoning – vocabulary, comprehension, absurdities, and verbal relations.

2. Quantitative Reasoning - quantitative, number series, equation building

3. Abstract/Visual Reasoning - pattern analysis, copying, matrices, paper folding and

cutting.

4. Short-term Memory – bead memory, memory for sentences, memory for digits, memory
for objects.

Weschler Intelligence Scale: David Wechsler published the Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence

Scale in 1939.
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Third Edition -The most recent revision of WAIS that was
introduced in 1997 – Wechsler intelligence test consists of ELEVEN sub-sets

✓ SIX of them are in VERBAL INTELLIGENCE

✓ FIVE of them are PERFORMANCE INTELLIGENCE
✓ The seven major IQ -- Verbal IQ, Performance IQ, Full Scale IQ, Verbal Comprehension,
Perceptual Organization, Working Memory, and Processing Speed.

Personality test:

Personality tests provide measures of such characteristics as feelings and emotional states,
preoccupations, motivations, attitudes, and approaches to interpersonal relations. There is
a diversity of approaches to personality assessment, and controversy surrounds many aspects of
the widely used methods and techniques. These include such assessments as the interview, rating
scales, self-reports, personality inventories, projective techniques, and behavioral observation.

Personality tests – nature:

✓ It is something unique and specific

✓ It includes everything about a person
✓ It is a unique organisation of behaviour that functions as a unified whole
✓ It is dynamic
✓ It exhibits self – consciousness
✓ It is a product of heredity and environment
✓ It is a end product of learning
✓ It is always striving for certain ends
✓ It is continually adjusting to itself to environment
✓ It can be measured and appraised

Types of Personality Tests:

How do personality tests work? Personality testing is designed to elicit responses from
participants about their behaviors, preferences, emotional responses, interactions, and motivations
in order to evaluate personality characteristics and patterns.
There are two basic types of personality tests: self-report inventories and projective tests:

• Self-report inventories involve having test-takers read questions and then rate how well
the question or statement applies to them.1 One of the most common self-report inventories
is the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI).
• Projective tests involve presenting the test-taker with a vague scene, object, or scenario
and then asking them to give their interpretation of the test item. One well-known example
of a projective test is the Rorschach Inkblot Test.

The greatest benefit of self-report inventories is that they can be standardized and use
established norms. Self-inventories are also relatively easy to administer and have much
higher reliability and validity than projective tests. Projective tests, on the other hand, are most
often used in psychotherapy settings and allow therapists to quickly gather a great deal of
information about a client. For example, a therapist can look not only at a person's response to a
particular test item, but they can also take into account other qualitative information such as tone
of voice and body language. All of this can be explored in greater depth as people progress through
therapy sessions.

Uses of Personality Tests:

There are a number of reasons why a person might take a personality test. Personality tests are
administered for a number of different purposes, including:

• Assessing theories
• Evaluating the effectiveness of therapy
• Diagnosing psychological problems
• Looking at changes in personality
• Screening job candidates3

Personality tests are also sometimes used in forensic settings to conduct risk assessments,
establish competence, and in child custody disputes.4 Other settings where personality testing may
be used are school psychology, career and occupational counseling, relationship counseling,
clinical psychology, and employment testing.