1. EVOLUTION OF ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
EVOLUTION OFORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Evolution and nature of Organizational Behavior Welcome students to your module Organizational
Behaviour. Let us try to understand term organizational behaviour. ‘Organizational Behaviour’ – It has
two words ‘organisation’ and ‘Behaviour’. Now, what is an organization? We can define the term
organization as two or more individuals who are interacting with each other within a deliberately
structured set up and working in an interdependent way to achieve some common objective/s.
Organizations play a major role in our lives.We possibly cannot think of a single moment in our lives
when we are not depending on organizations in some form or the other. Right From the public
transport that you use to come to your institute, the Institute itself, the class you are attending at this
moment, are all examples of organizations. So Now dear students what is Behaviour? Is it the behaviour
of Organisation or the Behaviour of the people who are working in the organisation? Yes, it is the
behaviour of the people working in an organisation to achieve common goals or objectives. Organisation
comprises of people with different attitudes, cultures, beliefs, norms and values. So now,lets understand
organizational behavior and what it exactly it means..... ‘Organizational Behaviour’ can be defined as
the study of what people think, feel, and do in and around organizations.
The study of Organizational Behavior facilitates the process of explaining, understanding,
predictting, maintaining, and changing employee behavior in an organizational setting
. The value of organizational behavior is that it isolates important aspects of the manager’s
job and offers specific perspective on the human side of mangement : -people as organizations,- people as
resources, -people as people. In other words, it involves the understanding, prediction and control of
human behaviour and factors affecting their performance and interaction among the organizational
members. And because organizational behavior is concerned specifically with employment – related
situations, you should not be surprised to find that it emphasizes behavior as related to concerns such as
jobs, work, absenteeism, employment turnover , productivity, human performance and management
Nature Of Organizational Behavior (OB) Organizational behaviour is an applied behavioural science that
is built on contributions from a number of behavioural disciplines such as psychology, sociology, social
psychology, anthropology and economics. So now students lets see how these disciplines are related to
organisational behaviour,
• Psychology.
Psychology 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 thus provides us with
useful insight into areas such as human motivation, perceptual processes or personality characteristics.
• Sociology
. Sociology is the study of social behavior, relationships among social groups and societies, and the
maintenance of social order. The main focus of attention is on the social system. This helps us to

2. appreciate the functioning of individuals within the organization which is essentially a socio- technical
entity.
• Social psychology
. Social psychology is the study of human behaviour in the context of social situations. This essentially
addresses the problem of understanding the typical behavioural patterns to be expected from an
individual when he takes part in a group.
• Anthropology.
Anthropology is the science of mankind and the study of human behaviour as a whole. The main focus of
attention is on the cultural system, beliefs, customs, ideas and values within a group or society and the
comparison of behaviour among different cultures. In the context of today’s organizational scenario. It is
very important to appreciate the differences that exist among people coming from different cultural
backgrounds as people are often found to work with others from the other side of the globe.
• Economics
. Any organization to survive and sustain must be aware of the economic viability of their effort. This
applies even to the non-profit and voluntary organizations as well.
• Political Science
Although frequently overlooked, the contributions of political scientists are significant to the understand
arrangement in organizations. It 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 etc. The following figure depicts to highlight
the interdisciplinary nature of organizational behaviour.
NTRODUCTION
Organizations are found in all walks of life. Government offices, banks, schools, colleges, hospital,
factories, shops, institutes, political parties andso on. This is necessaryto carryon activities of each
one of them. Organizing is a basic function of management. It refers to the process involving the
identificationandgrouping of activities to be performed, definingand establishingthe authority-
responsibilityrelationship. This enables people to work most effectivelytogether inachieving the
organizational objectives. In general, organizing consists of determiningand arranging for men,
materials. Machines and moneyrequiredby an enterprise forthe attainment of its goals. In its
operational sense, the term organizingmeans defining responsibilities of the employed people and
the manner in which their activities are to be related. The final result of organizing is the creationof a
structure of duties and responsibilities of persons inorganizational different positions, groupingthem
accordingto the similarity, Behaviour and interrelatednature of activities. In brief, organizing

3. process results inthe outcome called“organization”, consistingof agroup of people working
together for the achievement of one or more commonobjectives.
1.2 ORGANIZATION
We will consider a few definitions of some authors. Moneyand Reiley: “Organization is the form of
every human associationfor the attainment of acommonpurpose”. Puffier and Sherwood
: “Organization is the pattern of ways in which large numbers of people have intimate face to face
contact with all others, are engaged in a variety of tasks, relate themselves to eachother inconscious,
systematic establishment and accomplishment of mutuallyagreedpurposes”. Organizational
Behaviour / 2 The basic feature of any organization is the hierarchyof persons init. It, therefore,
distinguishes among different persons and decides who will be superior and the subordinate.
All the organizations allow an unwritten rule that the subordinate cannot defythe orders of the
superiors.
1.1.1 Need for Organization
We need organizationto execute the management function. Study of organization has to be
made necessarilyfor followingreasons:
(a) It provides an ideal settingfor the study of human behaviour. The study of organizationleads to
man’s important discoveries that are vital for the continuedwell-beingof the institutes
particularlyand the societyingeneral.
(b) Knowledge of organization helps managers to effectively , know various things, such as how to
run the organizationand protect the environment needs, how to motivate run the organizational
subordinates, how to manage conflicts, howto introduce behavioural changes and so on.
© Organizations pervade in all the important phases of man’s life. A man is bornin organizations
(hospitals, clinics etc.);he is educatedin organizations (schools, collegesetc.), and works in
organization (factories, office etc.).
1.1.2 Process of Organizing
We have seenthat the outcome of an organizing process is the ‘Organization’. Organizing is
the process bywhich managers bring order out of chaos and create proper conditions for
effective teamwork. Organizing involves the followinginterrelatedsteps:
.
(a) Objectives:
Every organizationmust have objectives. Therefore, everymanagement essentiallyhas to identify
the objectives before startingany activity.
(b) Activities

4. Identifying and grouping several activities is an important process. If individuals of the groups are
to pool their efforts effectively, there must be proper division of the major activities. Each and every
jobmust be properlyclassifiedand grouped.
c
.
Duty
:Every individual needs to be allottedhis duty
.
Af
ter classifyingand grouping
the activities into various jobs, they should be allottedto the individuals so that they
perform them ef
fectively
. Every individual should be given a specific jobto do ac-
cordingto his ability
. He may also be given adequate responsibilityto do the job
allottedto him.
d.
Relationship:
Many individuals work in an organization. It is the responsibilityof
management to lay down the structure of relationships inthe organizationand
authority
.
e
.
Integration
:
All group
s of activities must be properlyintegrated.
This can be achieved
in the followingways: through relationshipof authority: horizontal, vertical or lateral.
The unity of objectives canbe achieved along with teamwork and team spirit by
the integrationprocess of different activities.
1.3 ORGANIZA
TIONAL
BEHA
VIOUR
Each of us is a student of behaviour
. W
e are aware that cert
ain types of behaviour
are linkedto cert
ain types of responsibilities.
As we mature, we exp

5. and our observations
to include the behaviour of others. We developgeneralizations that help us to predict and
explain what people do and will do. How accurate are these generalizations?Some may
represent extremelysophisticatedappraisals of behaviour and prove highly effective in
explaining and predictingthe behaviour of others. Most of us also carryabout with us a
number of beliefs that frequentlyfail to explain why people do what they do.
As a result, asystematic approachto the study of behaviour can improve an individual’s explanatory
and predictive abilities.
1.3.1 Importance
Organizational Behaviour (OB) is a study involving the impact of individuals, group
and structure or behaviour within the organization. This study is useful for the effective
working of an organization. It is a study of what people do within an organizationand how
their behaviour affects the performance of anorganization. Organizational Behaviour is
concernedmainlywith employment relatedmatters such as job, work, leaves, turnover
,
productivity
, human performance and management. Organizational Behaviour also includes
the core topicslike motivation, leader behaviour and power
, interpersonal communication,
group structure and process, learningattitude, perception, conflicts, workdesign and
work stress.
Organizational Behaviour introduces youto a comprehensive set of concepts and
theories, it has to deal with a lot of commonlyaccepted‘facts’about human behaviour and
organizations that have beenacquired over the years, like “you can teachan old dog new
tricks”. “T
wo heads are better than one”.
These fact
s are not necessarilytrue.
Then one
off-line objective of Organizational Behaviour is to replace popularlyheld notions.
Organization Behaviour does offer challenges andopportunities for managers since
it focuses onways and means to improve productivity
, minimize absenteeism, increase
employee jobsatisfaction, etc. OrganizationBehaviour can offer managers guidance in
creatingan ethical work climate. This is because organizational behaviour cam improve
predictionof behaviour
.
1.3.2 Need for Organizational Behaviour
Organizational Behaviour is an applied behavioural science that is built oncontri-
bution from a number of other behavioural discipline like p
sychology
, sociology
, social
p

6. sychology
, anthropologyand political science. Underst
anding Organizational Behaviour
is becomingvery important for managers. Due to global competition, it is becomingnec-
essaryfor the employees to become more flexibleandto cope with rapid changes. It is
becomingchallenging for the managers to use Organizational Behaviour concepts. Orga-
nizations are no longer constrainedbynational borders. Burger King is owned by a British
firm, and McDonald’
s sell hamburgers in Moscow
. Exaction Mobile, an
American com-
p
any receives 75% of it
s revenue from sales out
side US.
All the major automobile manu-
factures buildtheir cars out side their border
, for example, Honda builds cars in Ohio,
USA, Fordin Brazil and Mercedes andBMW in South
Africa.
This shows that the world
has become a global village. Hence, managers have to diversify work force . Workforce
diversity means the organizations are becomingmore heterogeneous interms of gender
,
race and ethnicity
.
Diversityif managed positively
, can increase creativityand innovation in organiza-
tions as well as improve decisionmaking by providing different perspective onpreplans.
Quality management is driven by the constant attainment of customer satisfactionthrough
continuous improvement of all organizational processes (productivity
, absenteeism, turn-
over
, job satisfactionand recentlyadded fif
th dependent variable is organizational citizen-
ship).
1.3.3 Overall concept
Behaviour is generallypredictable if we know how the personperceives the situ-
ation and what is import
ant to him or her
.
An observer sees the behaviour as non-rational
because he does not have the knowledge of the entire situationinthe same way
. However
,

7. predictabilitycanbe improved by replacingyour intuitionpower by a more systematic
approach.
The systematic approachconsists of important suits and relationships and will
provide a base for more accurate predictions of the behaviour
. Systematic approach be-
Organizational Behaviour / 4
holds a basic concept that behaviour is not random. It projects the individual’s belief,
concept and then interest, etc. there are differences ineveryindividual and placed in
similar situations theydo not react alike. However
, there are some fundament
al consis-
tencies ineachindividual’
s behaviour
, which can be identified and modifiedto findout the
individual differences. Systematic studymeans lookingat relationships, attemptingto
attribute causes and effectsand base our conclusions onscientific evidence. That is data
gathered under controlledconditions andinterpretedina rigourous manner
. Systematic
study replaces intuition. Systematic approachdoes not mean that things that are be-
lieved in an unsystematic way are necessarilyincorrect. Sometimes, researchfindings
may also run counter to what you thought was commonsense. The objective of system-
atic approach is to move away from intuitive views of behaviour towards a systematic
analysis.
1.4 INTUITION
AND SYSTEMA
TIC STUDY
The use of casual or commonsense approaches for obtainingknowledge about
human behaviour is inadequate. Underlying a systematic approachis the belief that
behaviour is not random. It is causedand directedtowards some end, which the individual
believes, rightly or wrongly
, in his or her best interest. Cert
ainly there are dif
ferences
between individuals. There are certainfundamental consistencies underlyingthe behaviour
of all individuals that can be identifiedand used to alter conclusions basedonindividual
differences. Behaviour is generally predictable and the systematic studyof behaviour is a
means to making reasonablyaccurate predictions. “Systematic study” means lookingat
relationship, attemptingto attribute causes and effects, andbase our conclusions, on
scientificevidence, that is, ondata gathered under controlledconditions and measured
and interpretedina reasonably rigorous manner
. Systematic study replaces intuitionor
those “gut feelings”about “why I do what I do” and “what makes others tick”.
1.5 ORGANIZA
TION

8. AND ORGANIZA
TIONAL
BEHA
VIOUR
What is organizational behaviour? (Abbreviated as OB)
OB is a fieldof study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups and
structure have on behaviour within organizations for the purpose of applying such knowl-
edge towards improving an organization’s effectiveness. It is a distinct areaof expertise
with a commonbody of knowledge. It studies 3 determinants of behaviour in organiza-
tions: individual, groups and structure. OB is also an applied field. It applies the knowl-
edge gained about individuals, groups and the effect of structure onbehaviour towards the
end of making organizations work more ef
fectively
. OB is concernedwiththe study of
what people do in an organization and how that behaviour affects the performanceof the
organization. OB includes the core topics of motivation, leader behaviour and power
, inter-
personal communication, groupstructure and process, learning, attitude development
and perception, interpersonal change and conflict.
1.6 DISCIPLINE & ORGANIZA
TIONAL
BEHA
VIOUR
OB is applied as behavioural science andas a result, is built upon contributions
from a number of behavioural disciplines. They can be illustratedby means of a diagram.
1.7 HIST
ORICAL
EVOLUTION OF ORGANIZA
TIONAL
BEHA
VIOUR
By lookingback at the historyof organizational behavioural, you gain a great deal
of insight into how the fieldgot to where it is today
.
Three individuals are import
ant who
promotedideas which had major influence inshaping the directionandboundaries of
Organizational Behaviour (OB). They are:
Adam Smith, Charles Babbage
and
Robert
Owen.
Adam Simth

9. , in his discussionmade in “The Wealthof Nations”in 1776, bril-
liantly argued on the economic advantage that organizationand societywould reapfrom
the divisionof labor — calledwork applicationin an industry
. He illustratedit with the help