Definition Of Organizational Behavior

Organizational Behavior is the key aspect to maintain and enhance interaction levels amongst employees
in the company. Other attributes like leadership, openness to discuss problems, challenge-initiative are all
tied in to this base concept of Organizational Behavior to help the business achieve its strategic and in
some cases business objectives. The proper definition of organizational behavior with its understanding
and management has resulted in development of few key offshoots to the concept of Organizational
Behavior.

What concepts make up the definition of Organization

Behavior?
Organization Design - This is the simple framework of creating roles and formal reporting relationships
for employees in an organization. An effective organization design is reflected in the joining letter which is
handed over to a new employee. The joining letter would talk about his role, his immediate line manager
and the processes which he would need to adhere to.

Organization Development - Every organization has a mission statement and the time when the
organization formalizes the mission statement it may not have the resources or the expertise to execute
the mission effectively. Organization Development involves the combined, planned effort of all the
resources of the company to ensure that the company carries its mission forward. As defined by Richard
Beckhard, organization development would involve a site-wide, planned effort from all the employees,
with the top management intervening in the organization purposes.

Organizational empowerment - This is one of the buzzwords of organizational behavior principles in

most of the companies which are evolving today. Organizational empowerment means the level of
responsibility that an organization places on its employees at all levels so that decisions can be taken
without any manager interference. The key is here though many organizations advocate this approach in
text, most of them have a certain element of mentoring and guidance to their employees at all times.

Organizational engineering - This is a typical advancement of Organization development with the only
difference that it takes a completely mathematical approach to organization development. The
mathematical equations of the company's business model is studied and different people are inserted into
the model based on formulas, and better still the outcomes are predicted from the people's roles. This is
done to ensure that company's efficiency is increased and it gets more effective with its communication.

It is most important to understand that any definition of organization behavior would be incomplete without
studying the change management curve of the employees. If you are a company planning to introduce
some OB initiatives, you would need to ensure that the OB initiatives are transitioned out smoothly to the
employees. This needs to be done very carefully because this may lead to a lot of disgruntled employees
if enough care is not taken to transitioning the processes. If one had to define organizational behavior, it
will be a set of principles followed by employees at all levels to ensure that the company meets its
strategic objectives.

We all know that companies need to adapt to changes - changes in political environment, changes in the
industry, changes within the company. A good company does this by maintaining a healthy balance between
the micro and macro level dynamics in their set up. It is with this technique that a company achieves
success on a seamless basis. This concept is known as Organizational Behavior.
What are different aspects to Organizational Behavior?

Organizational behavior attempts to target the root cause of interactions between two professionals at
workplace. As an example, for a company which does not have any organizational behavior practices will
have their employees calling each other with abusive names. And though, it may acceptable with some, it
may not be a compulsion that everyone suit to that kind of addressing. Organizational Behavior
accomplishes laying rules and guidelines for human behavior at work and asking the employees to focus and
adhere to the micro-level practices. Interaction between two employees is said to be one of the backbones
of success for organizations. Organizational Behavior targets this factor which goes a long way in targeting
in managing people further leading to the effective management of the organization.

Which methods are used to study Organizational Behavior?

Any organization which delivers businesses to its customers and has strategies in place has a very complex
dynamic behavioral setup. Social Sciences is used extensively to study organizational behavior. Techniques
like ANOVA and multiple regression designs have been at the forefront of organizational behavioral studies
for long. Computer simulation in Organizational studies have also been used for a long time now.
Ethnography, which has direct participant observation is one of the methods used for studying and
examining Organizational behavior.

Why is emphasis on Organizational Behavior so important for a company?

A company may have 500 employees, with each performing different functions. It is of primary importance
that employees interact with each other sufficiently and effectively, for the organization to achieve its
objectives. If we consider that the company has employees from all over the globe speaking different
languages and belonging to different cultures, the importance of stressing on Organizational Behavior gets
doubled. More importantly, focus on the Organizational Behavior aspect at the micro level allows the
company to focus on how it needs to plan its strategy on the macro level.

Many companies have the best of resources and strategies but fail at the top level. This is due to the fact
that Organizational behavior was not being given due to importance. If www.google.com is one of the
topmost search engines, it is also known as the Employee's choice of place to work. It is employees which
are contributing factors to the success story of a company. And Organizational Behavior looks at keeping the
employees happy by streamlining the interaction process.

Essentials Of Organizational Behavior

Organizational Behavior is all about understanding the dynamics between two people or groups and
managing them. Companies implement OB initiatives to ensure that their resources are aligned with the
strategic objectives of the company. Business Owners and company heads must be careful of transitioning
principles of Organizational Behavior smoothly in an organization just so to ensure that the employees do
not have a tough time adjusting to the new principles.

What is an essential of organizational behavior?

Essential of organizational behavior principle are the basics without which a company must not implement
the OB initiatives. Typically, companies follow these basics in the research stage for the principles.

Companies must take the effort of doing proper research on the principles and the workforce. At the
end of the day, the Organizational Behavior principles must be integrated to the professional lives of
the employees. And to do so, the company must exactly know the setup of a majority of employees.
The company must also do research to find out which organizational behavior initiative will suit their
company.

Companies must document these initiatives and communicate these well across the site. A company
cannot expect to implement organizational behavior principles without the employees at least
understanding what are the principles and how would this impact them.
 Most companies integrate the OB initiatives with the Mission and Vision of the company. By doing
so, the companies will have no need to create a completely different line of action for the
organizational behavior initiatives.

After setting up the OB initiatives in their site, the company must ensure that the OB initiatives are
managed and implemented well. If the initiatives are not managed well so that the employees
implement the organizational behavior principles. This could be achieved by frequent team meetings
and team get together which could allow the employees to voice their concerns.

Team work is one of the essential of organizational behavior. Remember, whatever the organization
thinks about organizational behavior, it needs an effective team to implement the initiatives.
Building team work would mean that the entire team would carry your mission, vision and all
related principles of the company forward.

Organizational Behavior principles are not merely a piece of text. Quite often, these principles foster
discipline and creativity in an organization. Lot of books on human psychology have reinforced the fact that
discipline is closely related to productivity. More often that not, the organizational behavior principles form
the ethics of the organization. And as we all know, a company may have good productivity to show for in the
short run, but it is the ethos of the company which will stand good for them in the long run.

Organizational Behavior Motivation

It is understood that the effectiveness of a change is an end result of how efficiently the change has been
implemented and executed by the employees without sacrificing the business objectives. For a company
which is planning to launch its set of Organizational Behavior initiatives, it is extremely important that it
motivates its employees for them to execute the organizational behavior practices across the board.
Professionals understanding Organizational Behavior categorize this as Organizational Behavior Motivation -
the factor which seamlessly ensures that employees implement the Organizational Behavior principles day in
and out.

How does one motivate the employees to implement Organizational Behavior practices?

Visualize and get the employees to visualize the big picture - This is one of the classical
motivational methods for employees of a company where organizational behavior practices have
been launched. The business owner and the employees are enforced to think at factors like how the
practices would improve the standing of the company in the industry, how the practices will enable
to company to boost sales etc. The employees being empowered to visualize the big picture will
enable them to see the benefits of implementing these practices.

Provide incentives or manage performance around implementation of Organizational

Behavior practices - We must understand this clearly that what keeps the business running year
after year is the money. And hence, at the end of the day what counts for a company is how an
employee has performed on productivity and quality. At the same time, discipline and ethics are
some things which the company cannot forsake in lieu of productivity and quality. Business owners
could ensure this by attaching metrics to the implementation of the Organizational Behavior
principles. This will ensure that employees would treat the initiatives as a part of their performance
drivers and hence the business owner can ensure that the initiatives are implemented.

Reverse Motivation - Not many companies have used this technique, but in some cases, this has
proved to be a highly effective tool for motivating employees. As per Reverse Motivation, employees
are motivated by telling them the consequences of them not implementing the Organizational
Behavior practices. The whole stream of Reverse Motivation works on a completely negative aspect
of motivating the employees.

It is important that employees are motivated to ensure that Organizational Behavior strategies and
initiatives are implemented across the board. Strategies can only be implemented properly which can be
achieved if all the employees contribute to implementing them. Employees would be implementing the
initiatives if they are motivated enough to do the same. And to do the same one would need to understand
the motivational needs of every employee.

It is a tough task, but a small price to pay in lieu of implementing the Organizational Behavior practices.

Organizational Behavior Theory

Organizational behavior is a multi-disciplined theory which draws on many domains which contribute to the
efficiency and effectiveness of the organization. If one had to study the organizational behavior of a
company, they would have effectively studied the Economics, Psychology, Sociology of the organization. The
aspect of people behavior on systems is also studied using the system based theory. In such a scenario, it is
extremely important to know and understand an Organizational Behavior theory. Understanding the theory
would be the first step to implementing organizational behavior principles to an organization.

While some organizations follow the systems based theory, some take the classical approach to
organizational behavior. The systems based theory works on the principle that every organization is like a
system defined by boundaries, inputs and outputs where each aspect plays an equally critical part in the
development of the organization. The classical approach to organization behavior taps on the concept of one
exercising power on the basis of knowledge. This gave rise to three mechanisms of classical organizational
behavior - Charismatic Authority, Traditional Authority, Rational Legal Authority.

What is Theory X and Theory Y of Organizational Behavior?

Douglas McGregor at the MIT Sloan School of management developed a set of theories in 1960 which have
gone on to become the fundamentals of organizational behavior. Known as Theory X and Theory Y, they are
extensively used in human resources, organizational behavior and developing the organization.

Theory X assumes that employees are immature towards their job roles and may require micro-
management from their managers. This theory is a close subset of directive leadership which is also
characterized by motivating the employees with incentives for the good work that has been done. Managers
adopting the Theory X for Organizational Behavior almost invariably end up blaming someone without trying
to find out more about the fault or the mistake that happened.

Theory Y advocates associative leadership for the employees. It assumes that employees are self motivated
and will do their jobs with greater care and responsibility. Managers adopting Theory Y will ensure that
employees derive satisfaction in the jobs that they are doing which further results in developing a good
creative workforce within the organization.

There have been critics of both the theories. That notwithstanding, I can say this safely that either of them
will be very helpful for organizations to integrate their OB principles. Though the McGregor's model assumes
two relative extremes of organizations, they are extremely useful for organizations to tackle the extremes.

After all, companies must remember one thing - It is the easy issues which can be handled relatively easy,
but for complex issues you need to break a lot of sweat.

Understanding Organizational Behavior

If you ask the top-ranked businesses their secrets of the success that they have achieved, all of them would
say "This is due to the hard work and commitment of the people". The underlying truth there is that the
employees have contributed to the growth and the success of the company which is possible only if the
employees of the company think that the company is worth their efforts and feel that they should do
something good for the company. This thought and feeling translates to performance which increases the
success ratings of the company.
What are the critical elements of Organizational Behavior?

Many books advocate a complex process chain to understand the different elements of Organizational
Behavior. According to me, four elements make up the Organizational Behavior life cycle. Understanding of
these four elements in entirety can easily translate to new business owners implementing Organizational
Behavior techniques in their companies.

Leadership - Any change in organizational behavior principles or new introductions would need to
be implemented across the board by all the employees. This can be achieved only if the company
has a strong leadership base at the top who can drive results. The leaders in the leadership
category would need to have enough faith in the principles of Organization Behavior themselves.

Employees of the company - If a business owner is looking at implementing organizational

behavior principles in the company, he would know that he is looking at his employees to implement
this. This means that the business owner along with the leadership of the company would need to
leave no stone unturned to ensure that the employees are communicated about changes. Frequent
interactions, circulars, team meetings with employees will address and share the concerns of the
employees.

Organization Behavior Guidelines and time frame - It is most important for a company to
realize that if an Organizational behavior principle has to be introduced in a company, it would need
to be transitioned slowly. Dramatic introduction and transition of a guideline would lead to employee
dissatisfaction.

Organizational Framework - In implementing an OB guideline for your company, you would need
to ensure that the company provides all the tools possible which would support the employees in
enabling the change. Remember, some principles are perceivably easy to accomplish by the
employees and some may require tremendous support from the top.

An effective understanding of these four basic principles would mean that the business owner is in a very
good shape to implement the OB guidelines. Please note that understanding OB in a company is just one
part of it. You can do understand Organizational Behavior before implementing them in your company or
you can do that as an Analysis tool after it has been implemented.

Organizational Behavior Managing People and Organization

For professionals who are well acquainted with the term Organizational Behavior will know well that
"Organizational behavior managing people and Organization" is more than a terminology. As per this,
Organizations would be able to integrate Organizational Behavior practices in their Standard Operating
Manuals to ensure that the strategic objectives of the company are met. One must do well to understand
that Organizational Behavior enforces discipline and ethics amongst the ranks of the company and managing
the practices would effectively mean managing people and the way the organization views the
implementation of the Organizational Behavior practices.

Companies who have not considered that employees who implement the organizational behavior practices
must be managed in order to ensure that the practices are implemented effectively across the board. The
business owner can do this by several mechanisms as enlisted below:

Holding frequent team meetings - It is important for the manager to conduct team meetings
with their teams as frequently as possible. This would enable communication interchange with the
team members. The benefits of implementing the practices and the challenges faced in
implementing the practices must be discussed in these meetings.

Due Diligence - Business owners must consider having several yardsticks in place to ensure that
these practices are followed across the board. The business owners must consider conducting Skip
level meetings with the teams in the absence of their managers to get a feedback from the
employees if their manager is driving the implementation of the practice as effectively as the
business owner had envisioned.
 Company meetings - The business owner must consider apprising the entire company of the
developments in the company after the implementation of the practices. This would give visibility to
the employees of the company on the difference made to the company by implementing the
organizational behavior practices.

Circulars - There is no effective mode of communication than the business owner distributing
daily/weekly circulars relating to the OB practice. This may not necessarily talk about profits and
bottom-lines but can definitely attest the organizations policy of sharing information with its
employees. At least employees would feel that they have been informed of the company's goings
on.

Fire the 'rotten' apples - If you have an employee who just does not wish to participate in
implementing the OB practice in your company, your first and second step should be to counsel him
separately. His problems must be understood and corrective measures must be agreed upon. Post
these steps, if the employee does not wish to improve in his conduct, you should be empowered to
fire the employee. Remember, his attitude of not adhering to the company's organizational behavior
practices may be infectious and you certainly do not want the infection to spread.

Organizational Behavior Schermerhorn

John R. Schermerhorn along with James G. Hunt and Richard R. Osborn have been credited for the creation
of Organizational Behavior, 8th edition which is also known as Organizational Behavior Schemerhorn.
Understanding Organizational Behavior from this resource would mean that the professional has got the
basics of Organizational Behavior right.

What does Organizational Behavior Schermerhorn say?

Organizational Behavior Today - Schermerhorn explains that Organizational Behavior has

revolutionized in the way it is implemented in today's world. Organizations now follow transparency
in all the policies and procedures to ensure that there are no discrepancies within the organization.

The High Performance Organization - Every company that boasts high productivity and quality
numbers will have organizational behavior practices implemented. Schermerhorn explains the group
dynamics with case studies of such organizations. These case studies are extremely helpful for
companies who are apprehensive of organizational behavioral practices being a hindrance to
productivity and quality.

Global Dimensions of Organizational Behavior - Schermerhorn explains that organizational

behavior has immense effect on the Company's growth and stability. Hence important measures are
taken by organizations to ensure any information to the employees is communicated clearly without
leaving and chance of confusion.

Diversity and Individual Differences - Many organizations now days have a cross cultural
environment. Schermerhorn explains how to effectively manage the understanding of people from
different culture and family backgrounds. It is not only the different culture that needs attention but
the differences among the individuals working for the same organization also needs also to be
handled effectively to ensure peace within the organization.

Perception and Attribution - Most of the organizations that attribute the failure of the processes
is just because of one individual or a group of individuals fail to understand that the failure of a
certain process in not contributed by a single individual because in and organization it is every
single person that contributes to the success or failure of the processes. Schermerhorn explains how
to manage employee's perception and avoid attributions within the organization.

Motivation and Reinforcement - Motivation plays a very important role in ensuring that the
employees are not bored with the monotonous work they do daily. Schermerhorn explains how
motivation acts like a refresher to the employees to work effectively all the time. Reinforcement is
 also equally important within the organization to ensure that every employee is updated with the
changes and has perfect knowledge of the work they do.

Schermerhorn's understanding of Organizational Behavior is one of the many effective sources one can find
to know more about Organizational behavior principles. What is more important is that though study of this
source is good, implementation of practices in companies is highly varied on conditions in the company?

Leadership and Organizational Behavior

The hierarchy of an Organization paves way for the company to set and formalize its Organizational
Behavior model. Most companies have a hierarchy, where sub-ordinates report to their managers, managers
to their immediate line managers and so on. This obviously means that accountability is the key at each
level for the company to realize profits from each level. A close two-way 'interaction' between Organizational
Behavior and Leadership will enable companies to achieve this objective.

Different styles of Leadership which impact Organizational Behavior

In some companies, the style of leadership impacts organizational behavior and that is where it ends. With
the business environment changing, many companies have changed this model to a two-way model where
an impact on organizational behavior of the company also changes the style of leadership. It is this closed
cycle between the two which enables to drive organizational behavior ahead. Needless to say, to enforce and
reinforce organizational behavior amongst new and old employees would require strong leadership skills at
the helm. Lack of good leadership will mean that Organizational behavior principles will remain only on
paper and will not get translated to practice.

Let us take an example. Company A comes up with a set of practices which needs to be implemented by all
the employees of the company. Manager B, who is in charge of 50 people reporting to him can accomplish
this in the following ways:

Autocratic Style - By telling the employees that they need to do a certain activity and if not, they
would penalized or action would be taken. This style of leadership is not recommended in most
circumstances except when all previous communications between you and your sub-ordinate have
failed.

Supportive - The employees are given all the tools and support that they require to achieve the
transitional change in the Organizational Behavior. By employing a Supportive leadership mode with
employees, the leaders build good interaction levels with the employees which can only be
beneficial for the company.

Collegial - This is the model which most companies adhere to when we talk about leadership and
organizational behavior. Collegial mode of leadership believes in building partnerships with
employees to ensure that the company objectives are met.

For all business owners who wish to adopt an organizational behavior model for their companies, must
understand the expectations of the employees of the company. Integrating an organizational behavior model
into the performance management mode would mean changing the styles of certain sect of employees. If
the business owner could deal with the change management activity to enforce the OB guidelines in his
company, he would have taken one big step towards ensuring better productivity and more importantly,
best practices could be established within the company.

Organizational Behavior In Education

Did you wish to know if there was a way by which you could grasp the concepts of organizational behavior
and its strategies? Organization Behavior in education provides just that to people who wish to understand
the basic reason for success of organizations. The ways of educating people on Organizational Behavior
could be many - Books, Courses, but all of them are targeted to achieve the same objective.
What is the scope of Organizational Behavior in Education?

Any course or a book would talk extensively on different strategies and aspects of Organizational behavior
and how it has impacted different organizations. Taking a course from a prestigious university will do the
candidate a world of good as it not only exposes him to the concepts of Organizational Behavior but also
opens him to practicing Organizational Behavior himself, as most of the times, Organizational Behavior can
be understood by one self by practicing how to interact with people. Most of the courses in Organizational
Behavior target the following topics:

History and Theory of Human Relations - Human relations is a very important aspect for any
organization to succeed. As they say, "People are assets to a company, they must be managed".
This subject evolves around educating participants on the importance of Human Relations to a
company.

Behavioral Dynamics - It is important to understand that no two people are the same. And with
the difference in people, you would also expect a difference in the way they behave. Behavioral
Dynamics teaches you the different possible styles of behavior and what should be your strategy to
cope with the behavior?

Conflict Resolution and Problem Solving - It is needless to say that every organization has its
share of conflicts. Bigger the size of the company, more the conflicts. But successful organizations
diffuse these conflicts by employing successful organizational behavior concepts to create a win-win
situation for the participants of the conflict.

Leadership - Any organization behavior change or process will fail due to lack of strong leadership.
It is important for the leader at the top, preferably the CEO of the company to believe in the
importance of Organizational Behavior and its advantages for a company. It is this belief which will
allow the company to outline its behavioral processes.

It is important for employees of a company to realize that focus on Organizational Behavior does not mean
that the company is trying to police your thoughts. You are still allowed to be creative and productive to the
best of your capabilities. It just focuses on creating a better workplace with reduction of conflicts and
harmonious co-existence of different professionals, all working for the same goal. And Organizational
Behavior in Education helps people achieve this objective.