What Is Organizational Behavior???

Table of Contents

Meaning of Organizational Behavior:-

  • An organization is social unit formed of two or more people to achieve common objective. Behavior is anything a person or animal does that can be observed in some way. 
  • The study of behavior of individuals, groups and structure within an organization for applying knowledge found about them to improve organization effectiveness is called organizational behavior.
  • OB is concerned with psychology of human resources involved in organization. It is concerned with studying people's thoughts, feelings, emotions, sentiments, actions and motives, in a work setting which are dynamic in people to people.

Meaning of Organizational Behavior

  • First, OB tracks behavioral patterns of individual, groups and organization. Then after predicts what will be the next behaviors due to managerial actions. Finally, it uses the predictions in control.

  • It is broadly used in study of all types of organization such as business, government, schools and services organizations. Where ever organization, there is need of understanding organization behavior.
  • OB study is important to understand organization and employees in the better way, motivate them, improve industrial and labor relations, predictions of human behavior, controlling human behavior and effective utilization of HR.

"Organizational behavior is a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behavior within organizations with the goal of applying such knowledge towards improving an organization's effectiveness," says Stephen P. Robbins.

Keith Davis:-Organizational behavior is an academic subject that studies and describes human behavior in an organizational setting. It tries to illuminate the entire complex human dimension in organizations by identifying causes and effects."

Features of Organizational Behavior:-

1.Objective Focused:-

OB studies, explains and forecasts human behavior within specific environment of an organization. Due to which organization gets organizational performance towards achieving organizational objective.

2.Cause and Effect Relationship:-

OB studies employee's behavior in terms of cause and effect relationship and not in ideological terms. It assists in anticipating individual patterns of behavior. Due to which, managers can predict the impacts of specific activities on employee's behavior.

3.Human Focused:-

OB focuses on studying the behavior employee's working within an organization. It tracks their behavior and its impacts on performance. It studies state of employee performance, employment, absenteeism, job, employee turnover etc from closer.

4.Mutual Interest:-

Organization needs people and people need organization to fulfill their mutual interest. Employees need organization to achieve their personal goals. Organization needs employees to achieve its organizational goal. OB creates environment of satisfying the mutual interests of both parties.

Importance of Organizational Behavior (OB)

5.Practical Field:- 

OB is practical field. OB enforces various findings of investigations to face organizational challenges easily.

6.Impacts of Atmosphere:-  

Organizational atmosphere are two types external and internal. Factors of these two atmosphere influence human thinking, attitude, belief, values, perception, norms and psychology in different manner.

7. Three Tiers:-

OB studies in three tiers; Individual, Group-wise and organizational. Organizational behavior coordinates among all three tiers to get better outcomes.

8. Conditional:- 

Human behavior changes according to factors of external and internal atmosphere. It is difficult to say when organizational structure and activities to be changed due to changing atmosphere. So, OB is conditional discipline.

9.Multifaceted:-

OB is multifaceted. It is formed with huge contributions of psychology, sociology, social-psychology, anthropology, political science, economics, history and medicine science etc.

Importance of Organizational Behavior:-

1.Dispute Handling:-

OB tracks causes of possible dispute within organization, team and employees, it predicts results of disputes. It finds best alternatives of solution for preventing possible disputes and enforces best alternatives of solution to prevent the disputes. Due to which employee relation gets better.

2.Better Performance:-

OB makes sound working environment .As result, job dissatisfaction, job fatigue, employee turnover, absenteeism gets low. Organizational productivity, effectiveness, and employee retention rise, leading to improved performance.

3.Better Communication:-

OB properly studies which media, method, policies and types of communication employees prefer and flows fast to achieve organizational goal. It enforces best ways of communication. OB helps to make sound teammates relationships.

4.Resource Utilization:-

OB provides proper guidelines and inspiration for fruitful utilization of employees. Such utilization of employees helps to get maximum utilization of all resources; time, technology, space, employees, money and equipment to achieve organizational goal.

Importance of Organizational Behavior

5. Better Incentive:-

OB builds incentivized atmosphere for organization. So, employees get inspired to work with maximum efforts and capacity. They get excited to learn skill, knowledge, quality maintenance and new technology.

6. Anticipate Future Move:-

OB anticipates future move of both employees and management by studying their past behavior. OB studies values, norms, belief, perception, attitude, assumptions, learning and behavior of employees, team, group, division and section within organization. It helps to take right decision at right time so that organization effectiveness also increases.

7.Moral Dealings:-

OB helps to maintain rules and regulation, punctuality, discipline, proper follow up of code of conduct on employees. It also helps to develop culture of reward and punishment within organization.

8.Better Interconnection:-

OB helps to achieve reciprocal benefits of both employees and management. It creates cordial relationship between both parties by making easy to reciprocal problems, expectations, suggestions to each other. So, interconnection becomes stronger.

9. Perceiving Each Other:-

Human being is similar with each other in some extent but differs in psychological features, attitude, belief, perception, personality, skills, level of intelligence, behavior, interests and family background. Such diversity comes through psychology, by birth, society, by religion, education and experience.Individual differences influence on employees behaviors. So, OB helps to track such diversities of employees and management.

Frequently Asked Questions

1.Define organizational behavior.
2.Conceptualize organizational behavior.
3.What do you mean by organizational Behavior.
4.State organizational behavior.
5.Explain organizational behavior.
6. What are the features of OB?
7. State significance of organizational behavior.
8.Explain important characteristics of organizational behavior.
9.Why organizational behavior is important for a bank?