Organizational Behavior

Abstract

Organizational Behavior is the study and application of knowledge about how people, individuals, and groups act in organizations. It does this by taking a system approach. That is, it interprets people-organization relationships in terms of the whole person, whole group, whole organization, and whole social system. Its purpose is to build better relationships by achieving human objectives, organizational objectives, and social objectives.

Organizations are social inventions for accomplishing common goals through group effort. The basic characteristics of organizations are that they involve the coordinated efforts of people working together to accomplish common goals. They are open systems that take inputs from the external environment, transform some of these inputs, and send them back into the environment as outputs. The external environment includes all the events and conditions surrounding the organization that influence this process. Major components of the environment include the economy, customers, suppliers, competitors, social/political factors, and existing technologies.

Organizational behavior refers to the attitudes and behaviors of individuals and groups in an organizational context. The field of organizational behavior systematically studies these attitudes and behavior and provides advice about how organizations can manage them effectively. The goals of the field include the prediction, explanation, and management of organizational behavior. Management is the art of getting things accomplished in organizations through others. It consists of acquiring, allocating, and utilizing physical and human resources to accomplish goals.

Personality is important for organizational behavior because there are a lot of different characteristics that people deal with from day to day. Different personalities working together could be good and bad for an organization. Employee's attitudes and behavior will be influenced when there is confrontation or tension in the work place.

The five dimensions of personality are:

§ Extraversion. Sociable, talkative vs. withdrawn, shy.

§ Emotional Stability/Neuroticism. Stable, confident vs. depressed, anxious.

§ Agreeableness. Tolerant, cooperative vs. cold, rude.

§ Conscientiousness. Dependable, responsible vs. careless, impulsive.

§ Openness to Experience. Curious, original vs. dull, unimaginative.

Employees learn practical skills to include job-specific skills, knowledge, and technical skills; intrapersonal skills such as problem solving, critical thinking, learning about alternative work processes, and risk taking; interpersonal skills including interactive skills such as communicating, teamwork, and conflict resolution; and cultural awareness which involve learning the social norms of organizations, understanding company goals, business operations, and company expectations and priorities. They can learn these skills through the Operant Learning Theory which works through positive and negative reinforcements. Or the Social Learning Theory which is learned from modelling, self efficacy, and self-management. Understanding personalities is important to a manager to have a successful organization.

Values are broad preferences for particular states of affairs. Values tend to differ across occupational groups and across cultures. Critical cross-cultural dimensions of values include power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity/femininity, individualism/collectivism, and time orientation. Differences in values across cultures set constraints on the export and import of organizational behavior theories and management practices. They also have implications for satisfying global customers and developing globally aware employees.

Motivation is the extent to which persistent effort is directed toward a goal. In the workplace there is intrinsic motivation that stems from the direct relationship between the worker and the task; which is usually self applied. There is also extrinsic motivation that stems from the work environment external to the task; others usually apply it.

According to Abraham Maslow a psychologist who developed and refined a general theory of human motivation, humans have five sets of needs that are arranged in hierarchy, beginning with the most basic and compelling needs. These needs include: Physiological- the needs that must be satisfied for the person to survive; Safety- the need for security, stability, freedom from anxiety, and a structured and ordered environment; Belongingness- the need for social interaction, affection, love, companionship, and friendship; Esteem- the need for feelings of adequacy, competence, independence, strength, and confidence, and the appreciation and recognition of these characteristics by others; and self-actualization which is the most difficult to define, is the desire to develop one's true potential as an individual to the fullest extent and to express one's skill talent, and emotions in a manner that is most personally fulfilling.

Clayton Alderfer developed a three level hierarchy need based theory called ERG theory, which is a compression of Maslow's need theories. These needs include: existence- needs that are satisfied by some material substance or condition; relatedness - needs that are satisfied by open communication and the exchange of thoughts and feelings with other organizational members; and growth - needs that are fulfilled by strong personal involvement in the work setting.

According to psychologist David McClelland's theory of needs, needs reflect relatively stable personality characteristics that one acquires through early life experiences and exposure to selected aspects of one's society. There is a need for achievement, affiliation and power.

In contrast to need theories of motivation, which concentrate on what motivates people, process theories concentrate on how motivation occurs. There is an expectancy theory, equity theory and goal setting theory.

Goals are motivational when they are specific, challenging, and when organizational members are committed to them through acceptance. In addition, feedback about progress toward goal attainment should be provided.

Socialization is the process by which people learn the norms and roles that are necessary to function in a group or organization. It is a process that involves learning about one's tasks, roles, group, and organization, and achieving high levels of person