The Classical Management School
The Classical Management School
The Classical Management School
The field is particularly concerned with group dynamics, how individuals relate to and participate in groups, how leadership is exercised, how organizations function, and how change is effected in organizational settings. When organizational behavior theory is directed specifically at ways in which management can control an organization, it is sometimes known as organizational behavior management, or OBM. Organizational behavior is a fairly new discipline, dating back to the early 20th century, although some experts suggest that it came into existence right after the U.S. Civil War. Organizational behavior has evolved from early classical management theories into a complex school of thought, and it continues to change in response to the dynamic workforce in which today's businesses operate.
He, like most classical managers, had no concept of the importance of workers as members of groups. The next wave of theorists, the human relations experts, addressed the issue of group behavior.
Managers were encouraged to make use of whatever training was necessary to ensure maximum performance. The training could take a variety of forms, i.e., technical, human, or conceptual. They were also advised to open communication lines in all directions to promote organizational effectiveness. After all, the theorists emphasized, workers welcome self-direction and self-control and will perform well when managers take an interest in their lives. In short, the human resources advocates said, managers should place their primary emphasis on using workers as if they are important human assets.
the individual the formal organization the informal organization the fusion process, in which the first three modify and shape one another the physical environment
Each part is essential. None can exist alone in the system. This system approach is the basis for modem organizational theory, which is founded on behavioral science studies.
Organizational behavior scientists study four areas: individual behavior, group behavior, organizational structure, and organizational processes. They investigate facets of these areas like personality and perception, attitudes and job satisfaction, group dynamics, politics and the role of leadership in the organization, job design, the impact of stress on work, decision-making processes, the communications chain, and company cultures and climates. They use a variety of techniques and approaches to evaluate each facet and its impact on individuals, groups, and organizational efficiency and effectiveness. In regard to individuals and groups, researchers try to ascertain why people behave the way they do. They have developed a variety of models designed to explain individuals' behavior. They investigate the factors that influence personality development, including genetic, situational, environmental, cultural, and social factors. Researchers also look at personality types such as authoritarian (people who adhere closely to conventional values) and dogmatic (people who are extremely rigid in their beliefs). They want to find out what causes a person to form either type of personality and learn whether one or the otheror neitheris a positive trait for people in the business world. Researchers have also studied a number of concepts, including: 1. Stereotypingthe process of categorizing people based on limited information 2. Halo effectthe use of known personal traits as the basis for an overall evaluation 3. Perceptual defensethe process of screening out or distorting information that is disturbing or that people do not care to acknowledge 4. Projectionpeople attribute their own undesirable traits or characteristics to others. They evaluate perception versus reality, individuals' locus of control (whether they believe they or outside forces are in control of their lives), and common problems resulting from these personality traits and characteristics. Finally, they look at an individual's attitudes and correlate them to job satisfaction and job performance.
The study of job satisfaction is central to organizational behavioral scientists. Companies want to know why their employees are or are not satisfied. If they are not happy, executives look to the behavioral scientists for ways to improve individuals' attitudes and to suggest ways of improving the work environment. This implies that the theorists have to look well beyond the tangible factors influencing job satisfaction, such as pay, benefits, promotional opportunities, and working conditions. They have to study how groups influence the workplace and individuals' expectations.
tasks, whereas leadership is the process of getting things done by influencing other people. Another question is whether leaders are "born or made." In order to answer that question, researchers have sought common characteristics shared by leaders. They have found a fewintelligence, dependability, responsibility, social activity, and high originalitybut there appear to be too many competing variables to form any universal conclusions of common leadership characteristics.
process, however, they often create conflict. This prompted researchers to study conflict and its possible solutions. Organizational behavior scientists recognize that conflict exists at both the individual and group levels. They have devised a number of ways to deal with it. Among them are mutual problem solving, compromise, and avoidance. Significantly, they discovered that conflict resolutions are most often temporary, and they have looked for ways to make them more permanent. In order to find permanent solutions, they have performed more in-depth studies of organizational structure and processes and how both affect individuals and groups.
efforts, which gave a wider variety of people opportunities to comment onand implementnew ideas in the workplace. One prominent organizational behavior scientist, William Ouchi, recommended that American companies integrate more Japanese management concepts into their management practices. His approach became known as Theory Z. The ideas promulgated by organizational behavior scientists have caught on in managerial circles. Not surprisingly, not all of the programs can be used by all companies. If there is one thing that researchers have recognized, it is that no two companies are alike. To compensate for the dissimilarities, behavioral scientists reformed detailed cultural profiles to determine which programs fit individual companies' needs. These profiles have illustrated the importance of culture in the field of organizational behavior. Researchers have examined how company cultures control individual and group behavior, promote innovation, foster personnel commitment, and so on.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE
Another subject of special interest to organizational behavior scholars is how change affects people in an organization and how the process of change can be managed to maximize its success and minimize unintended disruptions. Change is compelled by many sources: social and demographic trends, economic cycles, competition, technology, and politics and regulation, to name a few. Scholars distinguish between change that is incremental and ongoing, sometimes called first-order change, and change that is radical and episodic, termed second-order change. While each form can have both positive and negative consequences, radical changes are commonly seen as requiring the most caution and skill at pulling off. For example, one of the most visible trends in corporate America since the 1980s has been the rise of sudden mass layoffs at large corporations, or downsizing. This clearly represents one of the largest kinds of changes a company might face, and its scope affects not only the workers who lose their jobs but also those who remain.
Researchers have found that downsizing can have both positive and negative effects on the employees who stay on. In some cases, for example, layoffs can induce employees to work harder and engage in other behaviors that benefit the company. One obvious explanation is that these workers might fear losing their jobs if they don't improve their performance, but there are likely other reasons as well, such as a move to fill a performance vacuum left by the departing workers. Still, other workers may respond by diminishing their performance; they may be demoralized by the corporate policies and may lower their mental and emotional investment in their jobs. However, studies in organizational behavior suggest that all of these responses aren't inevitable. Scholars have suggested that the way in which the company goes about managing the change, in this case, the events leading up to and following downsizing, can have a significant effect on how employees react. This is not to say all negative reactions can be eliminated, but that there is a good chance they can be reduced. In the downsizing example, taking actions that foster trust in the management (such as open communication or demonstrating objective and consistent criteria for decision making) and that increase employee feelings of empowerment (letting workers have a say in some aspects of change) have been posited as methods of reducing some of the negative shocks of massive organizational change. Similar principles apply to managing other forms of organizational change. More broadly, scholars like psychologist Kurt Lewin have identified basic models for managing change in organizations. In Lewin's widely cited three-step process, outlined in his 1951 classic Field Theory in Social Science, management must first "unfreeze" the status quo in the organization, facilitate a move to a new set of practices or environment, and then solidify or "refreeze" the new practices or environment into a permanent state. The process of unfreezing the current status involves introducing new policies or initiatives that begin to actively move employees away from the old way of doing things and/or removing policies or practices that tie them to the old. The second step, the shift to the new practices, is the formal implementation of the changes, for example, reorganizing a division or closing a branch office. Third, during refreezing management must solidify the changes by ensuring all the policies and practices are now geared toward maintaining the new equilibrium, and not throwbacks to the supplanted