Organizational Behaviour Case: How Is This Stuff Going to Help Me?

1. How would you relieve Jane’s anxiety? How is a course in organizational behaviour going to make
her a better manager?
Human resource is an integral part of any organisation. While machines can simplify the task
done by humans, they still cannot replace humans.

“Organizational behaviour is the systematic study of human behaviour, attitudes and

performance within an organizational setting; drawing on theory methods and principles from
such disciplines as psychology, sociology and cultural anthropology to learn about individual
perceptions, values, learning capacities and actions while working in groups and careful
application of knowledge about how people - as individuals and as groups- act within the total
organization; analysing the external environment’s effect on the organization and its human
resources, missions, objectives and strategies.”

Study of organizational behaviour can be used by executives and managers to understand a

business’ culture better. It can be used to facilitate productivity and ensure employee retention.
It enables a manager to evaluate candidates’ skill set and personality better during the hiring
process.
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Hence Jane should realise, OB will facilitate the process of she being a good manager and will
help her manage people and situations better.

2. Why did the professor start off with a brief overview of emerging challenges?

Organisational behaviour is an applied behavioural science. The challenges, as mentioned by the

professor, have led to a paradigm shift. These challenges have altered the way people think and
respond to situations. These problems cannot be tackled only by a functional perspective. A manager
needs information driven intuition, understanding of human behaviour and an inclusive perspective
to take decisions benefiting the workforce. She needs to have an understanding of the various
behavioural disciplines viz. psychology, sociology and anthropology in this new context to take well
informed decisions. Even with these new changes taking place, a historical foundation is still needed
to study organizational behaviour. In order to highlight this and to emphasize how dynamic this field
is, the professor started off with the overview of emerging challenges.

How does a course in organizational behaviour differ from courses in fields such as accounting,
finance, or marketing? The complexity of dealing with human behavior in a dynamic, complex
organizational setting is much different than discussing and formulating procedures for
dealing with quantitative or functional specialties of organizations. The other fields are more
clear cut and quantified than organizational behavior, but less challenging; and it could be
argued less important for performance improvement of today’s organizations.
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4. What are the challenges that managers face in India in the context of the present m
socioeconomic and political climate?