Introduction to organisational
behaviour
– What is an Organisations
– Historical background
– THE IMPORTANCE OF INTERPERSONAL SKILLS
– What is Organisational Behaviour
– nature of Organisational Behaviour
– Importance of Organisational Behaviour;
What is an organisation?
• To organise in the sense of organisation implies
arranging parts or elements to produce an outcome
that achieves a purpose in a particular manner. This
involves structure in the sense of order and regularity
in the way that activities are carried out and
operations conducted.
• An organisation can be thought of as a purposeful
system, body or entity, which attempts to achieve its
objectives through the collective actions of the
members (individuals and groups) that comprise it.
• These definitions show the following key
areas:
• The people in organisations
• The resources in and used by organisations
• The process of organising and task execution
What is work?
• Work is the exertion of effort and the application
of knowledge and skills to achieve a purpose.
• Most people work to earn a living – to make
money. But they also work because of the other
satisfactions it brings, such as doing something
worthwhile, a sense of achievement, prestige,
recognition, the opportunity to use and develop
abilities, the scope to exercise power, and
companionship.
Historical development
• Organizational behavior studies human work
activity within established organisations and
systems. The subject merged as a field of study in
the 1940s with the following theorists:
– F.W. Taylor and Scientific Management
– Mayo and Hawthorne Experiments
– Weber, Fayol, Machiavelli, the English philosophers,
Adam Smith etc had all written on human behaviour in
the context of work, politics and wealth
– Machiavelli saw humanity as basically evil but capable
of being manipulated toward the desired ends of
rulers.
Management Functions (cont’d)
Management Functions (cont’d)
Management Functions (cont’d)
Management Functions (cont’d)
WHY IS INTERPERSONAL SKILLS IMPORTANT
• Lack of interpersonal skills is the top reason why some
employees fail to advance
• Incorporating OB principles into the workplace can yield many
important organizational outcomes.
• Developing managers’ interpersonal skills helps organizations
attract and keep high-performing employees
• Strong associations between the quality of workplace
relationships and employee job satisfaction, stress, and
turnover.
• increasing the OB element in organizations can foster social
responsibility awareness.
What is organizational behavior?
• Organizational behavior is concerned with all
aspects of how organizations influence the
behavior of individuals and how individuals in turn
influence organizations.
• Organizational behavior is an inter-disciplinary
field that draws freely from a number of the
behavioral sciences, including anthropology,
psychology, sociology, and many others.
what is organisational behaviour?
• Organizational behavior is concerned with the study
of the behavior of people within an organizational
setting. It involves the understanding, prediction
and control of human behavior.
• Organizational behavior (OB) is generally the study
and understanding of individual and group
behavior, and patterns of structure in order to help
improve organizational performance and
effectiveness (Mullins 2005)
what is organisational Behaviour
Organizational Behavior studies the
influence that individuals, groups and
structure have on behavior within
organizations.
Its chief goal is to apply that knowledge
toward improving an organization’s
effectiveness
The nature of Organisational Behaviour
• The study of organisational behaviour therefore embraces
an understanding of:
• The behaviour of people;
– is the study of human behavior which tries to identify the
characteristics of individuals and provides an understanding why
an individual behaves in a particular way. This provides us with
useful insight into areas such as human motivation, perceptual
processes or personality characteristics.
• the process of management;
– the ensemble of activities of planning and monitoring the
performance of a process. This process means a series of
activities/operations undertaken/conducted for achieving a
specific objective. The management process is a systematic way
of doing things. In the management process, resources and
human efforts are used in an orderly manner for achieving
specific objectives.
The nature of Organisational Behaviour CONT’D
• The organisational context in which the process of
management takes place;
– It determines the influence and priority of stakeholder
roles and Individuals.
– It determines how readily new systems or applications or
methods can be adopted, and If customers / principal
stakeholders come from different contexts, this may
systematically shape their goals and requirements
•
• Organisational processes and the execution of work
(implementation)
– This is a disciplined process or a logical set of connected
activities that enables an organization to take a strategy
and make it work. Developing this logical approach,
represents a formidable challenge to management.
The nature of Organisational Behaviour CONT’D
• interactions with the external environment of which the
organisation is part.
– For any organization to survive and sustain itself, it must be
aware of the economic viability of the environment. Although
frequently overlooked, the contributions of political scientists
are significant to the understand arrangement in organizations.
– Political science therefore studies individuals and groups within
specific conditions concerning the power dynamics. Important
topics under here include structuring Of Conflict, allocation of
power and how people manipulate power for individual
self-interest.
Contributing Disciplines
to the OB Field
Micro:
The
Psychology
Individual
Social Psychology
Sociology
Macro:
Groups &
Organizations Anthropology
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Levels of analysis
• Individual, Group/Team, Organisational
• Why these analysis
– Individual behavior - attitudes, personality, perception,
learning, and motivation
– Group behavior - norms, roles, team building, leadership,
and conflict individuals in a group setting behave
differently from individuals acting alone
– Organizational behavior. - explain, predict, and influence
behavior manager’s success depends on getting things
done through other people
•
WHY OB IS IMPORTANT IN ORG’NS
• OB is important in every organisation because productive human
behaviour is strategic towards achieving organisational objectives
– Unproductive behaviours could bring down organizations
• OB enhances motivation and commitment by helping the HR
Managers introduce policies and processes which ensure that people
are valued as stakeholders, People are rewarded for what they do
and achieve, and for the level of competencies and skills they display.
• OB helps determine managers’ effectiveness in what they do. Thus
Technical and quantitative skills are important communication skills,
etc
• Organizations benefit from skilled managers
• Lower turnover of quality employees
• Higher quality applications for recruitment
• Better financial performance
• The overall purpose of every OB effort is to ensure that organisations
are best able to achieve success through people.
• OB can be a source of organisational capabilities that allow firms to
learn and capitalise on new opportunities (Ulrich & Lake, 1990)
IMPLICATIONS OF OBM TO
MANAGERS
– 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
The challenges facing organisations
• Organizations have resources but are yet struggling on
how to deploy them
• Many of our organisations are suffering from problems
for which there are commonsensical and simple
solutions
• People working in organizations enjoy talk, status and
recognition more than results
• People have a classic capacity for excuse giving
• Failure to realise that our service is what produces our
income
• We have divorced personal income form productivity
and
• Are Suffering from Occupational madness
• Work attitudes from top to bottom which have no
recognition of competitive advantage
