1. INTRODUCTION TO
ORGANIZATIONALBEHAVIOR

2. Chapter outline
 Organizational Behavior: Meaning, scope and
Foundations
 Systematic study of behavior
 Scope of OB
 Fundamental concepts of OB
 Importance of OB
 Model of OB

3. Organizational Behavior: Meaning, scope and
Foundations
1-3
Organizational Behaviorstudies the influence that
individuals, groups and structure have on behavior
within organizations.
Organizational behavior (often abbreviated as OB)
is a field of study that investigates how individuals,
groups, and structure affect and are affected by
behavior within organizations.
Behaviorrefers to what people do in the
organization, how they perform, and what their
attitudes are.
 This study is done so that we can use the knowledge to

4. Organizational Behavior: Meaning, scope and
Foundations …
1-4
 Main Points fromthe definition:
 Organizational behavioris a field of study, meaning
that it is a distinct area of expertise with a common
body of knowledge.
 It studies three determinants in organizations:
individuals, groups and structure.
 OB applies the knowledge gained about individuals,
groups and the effect of structure on behavior in
order to make organizations work more effectively.
 To sum up our definition, OB is concerned with the
study of what people do in an organization and how
their behavior affects the organization’s
performance.

5. SYSTEMATIC STUDY: Complementing
Intuition with Systematic Study
1-5
 Often our intuition leads us in the decision making
process.
 Intuition: your “gut feeling” explanation of behavior.
 Our intuition relies on gut feelings, individual
observation and commonsense.
 It does not give us the complete picture.
 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.

6. Systematic Study…
1-6
 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.
 By doing so we can better determine
cause and effect and then by applying
scientific evidence to our conclusions

7. Scope of OB
 Organizational Behaviour is concerned with the
understanding, prediction and control of human
behaviour in organizations.
 It focuses on the individuals, the groups and the
organization and also on theirinteractional
relationships.
 It is the study and application of knowledge about
how people act with organizations.
 It applies broadly to the behaviourof people in all
types of organizations. Whe re ve r o rg aniz atio ns
are , the re is a ne e d to unde rstand o rg aniz atio nal

8. Scope of OB…
 The scope of OB involves three levels of
behaviour in organizations: individuals, groups
and structure.
 Individual Behaviour
 Personality
 Perception
 Values and Attitudes
 Learning
 Motivation

9. Scope of OB….
 Group Behaviour
 Workgroups and group dynamics
 Communication
 Leadership
 Organization: Structure, Process and
Application
 Organizational Climate
 Organizational Culture
 Organizational Change
 Organizational Effectiveness
 Organizational Development

10. Fundamental Concepts of OB
 Organizational behaviour starts with a set of six fundamental
concepts revolving around the nature of people and
organizations. They are as follows:
 The Nature of people:
 Individual differences
 A whole person
 Motivated behaviour
 Value of the person (human dignity)
 The Nature of organizations:
 Social systems
 Mutual Interest
 Result:
 Holistic organizational behaviour

11.  1. INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES:
 People have much in common, but each person in
the world is also individually different. Each one is
different from all others. This is a fact supported
by science.
 Individual differences mean that management can
get the greatest motivation among employees by
making manager’s approach to employees
individual, not statistical.
 This belief that each person is different from all
others is typically called the LAWOF INDIVIDUAL
Fundamental Concepts of OB……

12.  2. A WHOLE PERSON:
 Organizations actually employ a whole person,
rather than certain characteristics orskill.
 Human life is not totally separable from work
life and emotional conditions are not separate
from physical conditions.
 People function as total human beings.
Fundamental Concepts of OB……

13.  3. MOTIVATEDBEHAVIOUR:
 From psychology we learn that normal behaviour
has certain causes.
 In the case of needs, people are motivated not by
what we think they ought to have but by what they
themselves want.
 This act leaves management with two basic ways
to motivate people.
 It can show them how certain actions will increase
theirneed fulfillment, or
 it can threaten decreased need fulfillment if they
follow an undesirable course of action.
Fundamental Concepts of OB……

14.  4. VALUE OF THE PERSON (HUMAN
DIGNITY):
 This concept asserts that people are to be
treated differently from otherfactors of
production because they are of a higherorderin
the universe.
 It recognizes that because people are of a higher
order they want to be treated with respect and
dignity – and should be treated this way.
 The concept of human dignity rejects the old
idea of using employees as economic tools.
Fundamental Concepts of OB……

15.  5. SOCIAL SYSTEMS:
 From sociology we learn that organizations are
social systems; consequently activities there-in
are governed by social laws as well as
psychological laws.
 Their behaviour is influenced by theirgroup as
well as by theirindividual drives.
 The existence of a social system implies that the
organizational environment is one of dynamic
change rather than a static set of relations.
 All parts of the system are interdependent and
Fundamental Concepts of OB……

16.  6. MUTUAL INTEREST:
 Mutual interest is represented by the statement
“organizations need people, and people also
need organizations”.
 People see organizations as a means to help
them reach their goals, while organizations need
people to help reach organizational objectives.
 Mutual interest provides a super-ordinate goal
that integrates the efforts of individuals and
groups.
Fundamental Concepts of OB……

17.  7.HOLISTIC ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR:
 When the six fundamental concepts of
organizational behaviour are considered together,
they provide a holistic concept of the subject.
 Holistic organizational behaviour interprets
people-organisation relationships in terms of the
whole person, whole group, whole organisation,
and whole social system.
 Issues are analyzed in terms of the total situation
affecting them rather than in terms of an isolated
event or problem.
Fundamental Concepts of OB……

18. Few Absolutes in OB
There are few absolutes in organizational
behavior.
 When making decisions you must always take
into account situational factors that can change
the relationship between two variables.
 For example, as seen in the following chart one
message from a boss in an Ethiopian/American
culture can mean a completely different thing in
an another culture. It is always important to
take context into account.

19. Few Absolutes in OB…
1-19
 Impossible to
make simple
and accurate
generalization
s
 Human
beings are
complex and
diverse
 OB concepts
must reflect
situational
conditions:
contingency

20. Importance: Challenges and
Opportunities forOB
1-20
 Understanding OBhas neverbeen more important for
managers as organizations are changing at a much more
rapid pace than historically seen.
 In the workplace today there are many challenges
and opportunities in the area of Organizational
Behavior.
 Responding to Economic Pressures
 Responding to Globalization
 Managing Workplace Diversity
 Improving CustomerService
 Improving People Skills
 Stimulating Innovation and Change
 Coping with “Temporariness”
 Working in Networked Organizations
 Helping Employees with Work-Life Conflicts

21. Responding to Economic
Pressures
1-21
 Effective management is especially important
during tough economic times.
 Employees lookto their managers to provide
security during the instability of a recession.
 Often when there are economic pressures
managers are forced to make decisions based
on resource constraints.
 These situations may include laying off
employees, motivating employees when there
are limited resources and encouraging
employees when they are stressed about their

22. Responding to Globalization
1-22
 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
 Adapting to different cultural and regulatory norms
Thus managers require to respond to globalization
Challenges and Opportunities

23. Managing Workforce Diversity
Workforce diversity:
organizations are becoming
a more heterogeneous mix of
people in terms of gender,
age, race, ethnicity, and
sexual orientation
Managers must recognizes
these differences and ways to
utilizes those differences to
improve organizations

24. Diversity Implications
1-24
“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.”

25. Improving Customer
Service and People Skills
 The majority of employees in developed
nations work in service jobs
 They must know how to please their
customers
 People skills are essential to success in
today’s organizations

26. Stimulating Innovation
and Change
 Organizations must be innovative and able
to change in order to succeed in the
marketplace today
 This includes a commitment to
 Flexibility
 Quality Improvement
 Staying Competitive.

27. Coping with Temporariness
 Jobs are constantly changing
 Skills need to be updated for workers to stay
on target
 Workers need to be able to deal with change
 Employees need to be able to cope with
flexibility, spontaneity and unpredictability

28. Working in Networked
Organizations
 Managers must adapt their skills and
communication styles to succeed in an
online environment
 As technology continues to become an
integral part of organizational effectiveness
workers will find that their communication
styles and needs will change as well.
 Managers must stay on top of what is
needed to motivate workers in this
environment.

29. Helping Employees Handle Work-
Life Conflict
The line between work and non work has blurred
and managers are increasingly dealing with
conflicts that arise between work and life away
from work
Managers must face the reality that people bring
their life at home with them to the office, and they
must find ways to help workers deal with the
conflict that arises

30. Model of OB
 In Organizational Behavior (OB) we utilize the
representation of the world as broken down into
three levels.
 The first level of analysis we will lookat is the
Individual level. At this level we look at
individuals’ behavior.
 Next, recognizing that individuals make up
groups, we analyze how group behavioroccurs.
 Finally, organizations are made up of groups of
individuals, so we analyze the organization at a
systems level.

31. Model of OB: Three Levels of OB
Analysis

32. A BASIC OB Model

33. Ke e p in Mind…
1-33
 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.

34. Summary
1-34
1. DefinedOrganizational Behavior(OB).
2. Show thevaluetoOBof systematic study.
3. Demonstratedhow few absolutes applyinOB.
4. Identifiedthemajorchallenges andopportunities
managers haveinapplyingOBconcepts.
5. Identifiedthethreelevels of analysis inOB.