Organizational Behavior

Organizational Behavior: An Overview

There are many facets to the managerial actions of a group. Organizational behavior (which generally sums up them all), organizational culture, diversity, communication, organizational effectiveness, and organizational learning are areas of major concern for those seeking an efficient, structured system. To understand the roles each aspect plays, one must first understand its meanings and concepts.

Organizational behavior (OB) is not the "actions" of a business, but rather the behavior of individuals as they act separately or together in an organization. The organization can be a business, a community gathering, or even the day to day operation of a home. OB is the study, a system, and a continually changing concept of the behaviors between an organization and its populace. The idea behind OB is to create an environment that breeds maximum productivity and harmony from all divisions. Of course, the actions of a few, or of many, combined into one system creates a culture; thus, organizational culture.

Organizational culture can be explained as a system of shared ideas and principles that develops within an organization that guides the behavior of its members. The big idea behind this culture is to help promote reliability, bring staff members closer together, and enhance performance. Just as with our society, there can be many different cultures. Some of these cultures will and some will not follow suit. The thought is to create an accord that allows for alien cultures to coexist and even perform equally with the dominate cultures. These separate cultures often exist because of the diversity of people in the workplace.

Diversity in the workplace has long been known as an ethnic equality issue. Now, however, diversity is being accepted as an advantage that will contribute to increased profit margins. It has been shown that increased employee and customer satisfaction end up as increased productivity. Diversity in the workplace represents an organizations need for similarity in job performance not a difference in culture. These actions express value in the differences and help maximize the potential of all employees. Regardless of the amount, color, and work ethic of members, many problems would arise without effective communication.

There are many factors that effect overall communications, both literally and logistically. It is no secret that a sub-par phone system would limit the accessabiltiy to communicate and electronic communication has paved an entirely new era in communication. However, when one speaks of a communication setback, he or she is usually referring to deterioration in intent and understanding. This problem could be as simple as not reprimanding in public to praising in public or choosing words that promote professionalism and removing emotion from arguments. Effective communication does not always involve expressive comments; it also means being able to articulate