Organizational Behaviour

Credit – 3
Lecture Days- 3 every week
Lecture Hours- 48
Every Sunday will have a presentation
Every Tuesday will have a quiz
Other activities will be conduct such as
Assignment, case study , Free book exam etc.
Course Objectives:
The main objective of this course is to provide
students in-depth knowledge of behavioural
processes and thereby enable them to
function more effectively in their present or
future roles as managers of human resources.
Course Description
This course aims to publicize students with
different dimensions of OB. The course
contains introduction of OB, Foundation of
Individual Behaviour, Perception and
Attribution, Personality and Attitudes, Positive
Organizational Behaviour, Motivation and
Stress Management, Group and Team in
Organization, Leadership, Communication and
Conflict and Organizational Change and
Development.
 Text and Reference Book
Writers Name of Books Publishers
Robbins, S.P. Organizational New Delhi: Pearson
Behaviour
Luthans, F Organizational New Delhi: McGraw
Behaviour Hill
Aswathappa K. Organizatinal Behaviour New Delhi: Himalayan
Publishing House
Singh K. Organizational New Delhi: Vikas
Behaviour Publishing House
Adhikari D.R. Organizational Kathmandu: Buddha
Behaviour Academic Enterprises
An organization, no matter how well designed, is
only as good as the people who live and work
in it.” - DEE HOCK

The achievements of an organization are the

results of the combined effort of each
individual. – V Lombardi

“I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because

a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.”
– Bill Gates
 Unit- 1 Introduction
- Concept of OB
- Foundation of OB
- Contextual perspective of OB- HR Approach,
Productivity Approach, Interactionalism
Approach, Contingency Approach, System
Approach
- Environmental Context of OB- Globalization,
Diversity and ethics.
- Theoretical Framework- Cognitive Framework,
Behavioristic Framework, Social Cognitive
Framework
 Unit 1: Introduction to OB
1.1 Concept of Organizational Behaviour:
The word organizational behaivour is made by two
words- organization and behaviour. Thus, firstly,
we briefly discussed both words in independently.

What is an organization:
An organization is a collection of people who are
working together in a division of work to achieve
a common purpose.
• It is a purposeful combination of two or more
number of people who are interdependent with
each other to achieve common goals.

• In other words an organization is a place where

a group of individuals with different skills and
background are brought together to perform
specific duties.

organization is the system that composed

of people, structure and technology for the
achievement of common objective in a dynamic
environment.
• “Organization is the form of every human
association for the attainment of specific
objective”
• - John D. Money
• Organization is a group of people working
together in structured and coordinated
fashion to achieve a set of goals.
• - R.W. Griffin
• An organization is a collection of people
working together to achieve common purpose
• - Schermerhorn J
What is a behaviour:
Behaviour is a response of an individual or group
to an action, idea and situation.

It is something that the human does.

Behaviour is any observable response given by a

person.

It is the sum total of human activities that could be

observed and measured by others.

• "Behaviour is anything that the human does."

-Fred Luthans
Organizational Behaviour
In simple terms, organizational behaviour is the
study of human behaviour, attitude and
performance in the organization.

Organization behaviour is the systematic study of

people and their reaction in an organization and
how their behaviour affects the performance.

It examines human behaviour in a work

environment and determines its impact on job
structure, performance, communication,
motivation, leadership etc. to estimate its effect
in organizational performance.
• Organizational behavior is the study of what
people thinks, feel and do in and around
organization.
• It seeks the answer of ……..
• why people do ?
• what work they do in organizations ?
• what influences people behavior at work.

• Organizational behaviour is concerned with

the study of human behaviour at work place.
• "Organizational behavior can be defined as the
understanding; prediction and management of
the human behavior affect the performance of
the organizations.
• - Luthans

"Organizational behaviour is a systematic study

of what people do in any organization and
how their behaviour affects the organization's
performance.
- Stephen P. Robbins
•
OB = Understand + Predict + Manage + Improved organizational
HB HB HB Effectiveness
• According to above definition organizational
behaviour is the study of understand, prediction
and manage of human behaivour for
organizational effectiveness.
• Finally, The study of OB provides a set of tools-
concepts and theories that help people to
understand, analyze and describe what goes on
in organizations and why.
1.2. Characteristics of OB
1) Goal Oriented
2) Systematic Study
3) Human Tool
4) Multi Level Study – Individual, Group and
Organizational System Level
5) A total system approach
6) Dynamic
7) Multidisciplinary- psychology, sociology,
anthropology, political science etc.
8) Scientific study
1.3. Foundations/ Basic Assumptions of OB
Every discipline has a philosophical foundations of some
basic assumptions or fundamental concepts that guide its
development. Those concept and assumptions support to the
development. The basic assumptions of OB are as follows:
Foundations of OB

The Nature of People The Nature of Organization

- Value of People - Ethical Treatment

- Individual Differences - Mutual Interest
- A whole Person – Social System
- Individual behaviour
- Desire of Involvement
- Selective Perception
A) Assumption about nature of people: Every
organization is run by people. People consist
of many individuals and groups.

They have common behaviour even though they

have some differences among each other. OB
has following assumptions about the nature of
people.
1) Value of People: This assumption appeals for
fair treatment to people.
This concept tells that people should be
pleasured differently as compared to other
resources.
People have mind to think and heart to feel.
Thus, They want to be delighted with respect
and dignity.
2) Individual Differences: Every individual has
different physical characteristics, priorities,
perception and expression.
Each one possesses unique talents, intelligences,
personality and so on. Manager needs to
consider these differences because they affect
on the job behaviour of employees.
Therefore, every person should be selected,
trained and treated on the basis of what kind of
person he is.
3) A whole person: OB should be accepted an
employee as a whole person.
It means, when an employee comes to the
workplace as a complete person with his/her
background, sentiments, emotions, feeling etc.
Individual emotions cannot separated from
physical work settings. Family life and social
setting directly affects to the organizational
performance.
4) Individual behaviour: OB assumes that
every individual has different behaivour due to
the education, experience, ability, religion, sex,
language, culture, age and so on.
He/she has own interest, desire, need and
fashion. They need financial and non-financial
facilities.

Therefore, Manager should be considered

individual behaivour.
5) Desire of Involvement: OB assumes that
each individual desires to involve in task
performance, role fulfillment, contribution for
organization and meet to challenges.
They seek opportunities at work to become
involve in relevant decision and contribute
their talents to the success of organization.
Therefore, Management needs to provide
opportunities for meaningful involvement.
• 6) Selective Perception: OB assumes that
employees have tend to act on the basis of
their selective perception.
• Every person has different perception and
desire. He/she can makes different perception
on the same thing or subject. He/she develops
perception on the basis of their own desire and
needs.
• Therefore, management should consider
selection perception of the employees.
B) Assumption about nature of Organization:
Individual behaivours of the group are different according to
nature, size and pattern of the organization. Therefore, OB
has following assumptions about the nature of
organizations.
1) Mutual Interests:
Organization needs people and people also need
organization. People need organization as a means to
achieve their goals and organizations need to people to
achieve organizational goals. There is a clear given and
take relationship between people and organization.
Thus, OB suggests managers to fulfill individual goals
in order to satisfy organizational goals.
2) Ethical Treatment:
Ethic is a basic sense of social right or wrong
conduct. It has involve moral issues and
choices.
OB assumes that the organization need to
establish written code of conduct regarding
employees behaviour.
Manager should need to train employees for
ethical behaviour.
3) Social System:
Organizations are social system which are
established by human association and governed
by psychological laws or rules like in social
system, interrelation, interaction and
interdependency between people and
organization.
An organization receives inputs from the society
and forwards its outcomes to the society and it
also receiver feedback for the improvement from
the society. Thus, every organization is a social
system.
• Ganga Acharya wants to be a manager. She enjoyed her
accounting, finance, statistics and marketing course. Each of
theses provided her with some clear cut answer. Now the
professor in her OB course is telling her that there are really very
few clear cut answers when it comes to managing people
(HR+OB). The professor has discussed some of the emerging
challenges and the historical background and ways (ideas) that
behavioural science concept play a big role in the course. Ganga is
very confused . She came to collage to get answer on how to be
an effective manager but this course surely doesn't seem to be
helping in that direction.
1) How would you relieve Ganga's anxiety? How is a course in OB
going to make her a better manager?
2) Why did the professor start off with a brief overview of emerging
challenges?
3) How does a course in OB differ from course in field such as
accounting, finance, statistics or marketing ?
• "Self development, self esteem (ego) and a
winners attitude are high."

• "Winners see the potential, losers see the

past."

• "Winners see the gain, losers see the pain."

• "The winners is always part of the answer, the

loser is always a part of the problem."
1.3. Contextual Perspective of OB
Contextual Perspective is a comprehensive
guide to contemporary illustration. It provides
readers with an understanding of the theory,
research, conceptual processing and contexts
involved in illustration practice.
Organizational behaviour has some special
contextual perspective that are called
approaches or concepts of OB. They explained
as below:
1) Human Resource Approach: This approach is
concerned with the growth and development
of people towards higher level of
competency, creativity and fulfillment
because people are the central resource in
any organization and society.

It highlights the impact of behaviour on

performance.
• This approach can be understood by comparing
it with the traditional management approach of
the early 1900s. In the traditional approach
managers decided what should be done and
then closely controlled employees to ensure
task performance. Management was directive
and controlled.

• This approach helps employees be come better,

more responsible people and then it tries to
create a climate in which they may contribute
the limits of their improved abilities.
It assumes that expanded capabilities and
opportunities of people will lead directly to
improvement in operating effectiveness.

Essentially the human resource approach means

that better people achieve better result. It is
somewhat illustrated by the ancient proverb
that follows:
Give a person a fish and you feed that person for a day
Teach a person to fish and you feed that person for life.
- Dr. Stephen Covey
Another name of the this approach is the
supportive approach because the manager's
primary role changes from control of
employees to active support of their growth
and performance.
2) Productivity Approach: Productivity is a ratio
that compares units of output with units of
input. It is often measured in terms of
economic inputs and outputs.

If more outputs can be produced from the same

amount of inputs, productivity is improved. Or
if fewer inputs can be used to produce the
same amount of outputs, productivity has
increased.
The idea of productivity does not involves that
one should produce more output, rather it is a
measure of how efficiently one produces
whatever output is desired.

Consequently, better productivity is a valuable

measures of how well resource are used in
society.
It means that less in consumed to produce each
unit of output. There is less waste and better
conservation of resources.
3) Contingency Approach:
This approach assumes that there is no one best way
available in any organization. Organization situation and
outcomes are contingent. CA and OB differ from
universal approach.

A contingency approach to OB implies that different

situations require different behavioural practices for
effectiveness.

Each situation must be analyzed carefully to determine

the significant variables that exist in order to establish
the more effective practices.
The strengths of this approach is that it encourage
analysis of each situation before to action while
at the same time discouraging habitual practice
based on universal assumptions about people.

This approach also in more interdisciplinary, more

system oriented and more research oriented
than the traditional approach.

Thus it helps managers use in the most

appropriate manner all the current knowledge
about people in organization.
4) System Approach
A system is a set of interrelated components.
This approach gives manager a way of looking
at the organization in totality or as a whole
individual, group and social system .

This approach makes managers to take a holistic

view of the subject. Holistic organizational
behaviour interprets people-organization
relationship in terms of the whole person,
whole group, whole organization and whole
social system.
It takes an across the board view of people in
organizations in an effort to understand as
many of the factors as possible that influence
people's behaviour. Issues are analyzed in
terms of the total situation affecting them
rather than in terms of an isolated event or
problem .
5) Interactionalism Approach:
• Interactionalism is a relatively new approach to
understanding behavior in organizational settings.
• First presented in terms of interactional
psychology, this view assumes that individual
behavior results from a continuous and
multidirectional interaction between the
characteristics of a person and characteristics of a
situation.
• More specifically, interactionalism attempts to
explain how people select, interpret, and change
various situations.
According to following illustration The
individual and the situation are presumed
to interact continuously. This interaction is
what determines the individual's behaviour
 Discussion Questions:

1) Why do we study organizational behaviour ?

2) Select one of your friend. Identify the

behavioural qualities that make that person
different from you. In what ways are you
basically similar.
1.4. Environmental Context of OB:
1) Globalization:
- Internationalization of business activities and
the shift toward an integrated global economy.

• It is the free movement of products, services

and people across the world in a seamless and
integrated manner
• It means to increase their base of operation,
expand their workforce with minimal
investment and provide new service to a broad
range of consumers.
All the organizations are directly and indirectly
affected by globalization. They get better market
opportunity as well as challenges.

Managers need to hire HR from different part of

world. They have to work with people from
different socio economic background. They need
to satisfy the diverse needs of not only customers
but employees as well.

Globalization has increased the challenges of

maintain cost of production.
2) Workforce Diversity:
The term diversity refers to differences among
people. It is the degree of differences of
employees in terms of age, sex, qualification,
abilities, religions, attitude, beliefs, norms,
values, desire, interests, fashion, ethnicity,
goal etc.
Because of diversity, number of female
employees are significantly increasing. Issue
of inclusion increased with political change.
It diversity is managed properly, it increases
creativity and innovation. If it not managed
properly can result in higher turnover,
increase inter-personal conflict and ineffective
communication.
But it also created challenges to organization to
make people accommodating to diverse
groups of people at work place by addressing
their different lifestyle, cultural factors, family
needs and work styles.
3) Ethics:
• Ethic deals right or wrong behaviour. Ethical behaviour is
accepted as good and right as opposed to bad and wrong
in a particular setting.

• Members of organizations are increasingly finding

themselves facing ethical contradiction situation in which
they are required to define right and wrong conduct.

• All the employees whether they personally like or not

should follow the ethical code of conduct. Managers on
behalf of their organization should be responsible to any
unethical conduct either to the consumer or to the
government.
Thus, Managers need to convince all employees
to behave ethically.
Organization should prepare and distribute codes
of ethics in written form to their employees.

Seminar, workshop and training programs can be

beneficial to improve ethical behaivour.

OB helps managers to identify understand and

change unethical behaivour of employees.
• Other Environmental Context:
1) Improving customer service
2) Stimulating Innovation and Change
3) Improving people skills
4) Improving quality and Productivity
5) Managing organizational change
6) Working in network organization
7) Creating a positive environment
1.5. Theoretical Framework of OB
A theoretical framework is the structure that can hold
or support a theory of a research study. It introduces
and describes the theory that explains why the
research problem under study exists.

Although, OB is extremely complex and includes many

inputs and dimensions that are related to theoretical
framework of OB. They can be used to develop an
overall model for OB with research support. Here is
explained three frameworks of OB:
1) Cognitive Framework:
This framework was introduced by an American
psychologist the Edward Tolman in 1948. This model is
based on stimulus- stimulus (S S) It means one
stimulus leads to another stimulus.

The basic unit of this model is cognition.

Cognition is the process of acquiring knowledge. It is

individual's thought, knowledge level of understanding
and interpretation of any event, object, or person.
.
This model states that learning involves a
relationship between cognitive cues and
expectations. Learning is the outcome of
thinking and knowing.

This framework emphasizes the positive and

free determination aspects of human
behaviour and uses concepts such as
expectancy, demand and incentive.
The cognitive approach to Human behaviour has
many sources of inputs (the five senses)

Under this framework, cognition is head

behaviour and constitutes input in to the
persons thinking, perception, problem solving
and information processing.

According to Tolman, learning consists of the

expectancy that a particular event will lead to
a particular consequence.
2) Behavioristic Framework:
This framework wad developed by Ivan Pavlov
and J. B. Watson
This study is learning by focusing on observable
event both environmental and behaivoural.
Behavioristic Framework is depend on classical
conditioning theory and operant conditioning
theory which are
Classical conditioning theory S R
Operant Conditioning Theory R S
Ivan Pavlov and J. B. Watson advocated that
behaviour could be best understood in terms
of stimulus and response. And B.F. skinner
advocates that behaviour in response to a
stimulus is contingent on environmental
consequences.

Thus behaviortistic approach is based on

observable behaivour and enviornmental
variables
3) Social Cognitive Framework:
This framework introduced by Albert Bandura in 1977
He states that behaviour is learned from the
environment through the process of observational
learning.
This framework takes the position that behaviour can
explained in terms of a continuous reciprocal
(mutual) interaction among cognitive, behavioral and
environmental determinants.

The person and the environmental situation do not

functions as independent units but in conjunction
with behaviour itself, reciprocally interact to
determine behaivour.
• It means that cognitive variables and
environmental variables are relevant but the
experiences generated by previous behaviour
also partly determine what a person becomes
and can do which in turn affects subsequently
behaviour.
• A persons cognition or understanding changes
according to the experience of consequences
of past behaviour.
If you put bananas and money in front of
monkeys, they will choose bananas because
monkeys do not know that money can buy
more bananas." In reality, if you offer job and
business to people, they would chose job
because most people do not know that
business can bring more money than salaries.
"Profit is better than salaries because salaries
can make you living but profits can bring you a
fortune."- Jack Ma Chinese Richest man