Elements
of Organizational Behavior /
4 Key Forces Affecting
Organizational Behavior
1. People:
People
make up the internal social system of the organization. They consist of
individuals and groups. Groups may be formal or informal.
People make up the internal social
system of the organization. That system consists of individuals and groups and
groups may be large and small, formal and informal.
Group form, change and disband. Since
the organization is a combination of a group of people, managers must handle
the people in the right direction.
This is very challenging to guide people
or employees who have different educational backgrounds, talent, and
perspectives. So, managers must understand predict and control the people.
They build up a relationship among the
employees and motivate themselves.
2. Structure:
Structures define the formal
relationship between people in an organization.
The structure defines the formal relationship and use of people in the
organization. There are managers and employees, accounts assemblers to
accomplish different kinds of activities.
They are related structurally so that
their work can be effectively coordinated. Because there is no organization can
be successful without proper coordination.
Many organizational structures have
become flatter. This downsizing and restructuring have occurred as a result of
the pressure to lower costs while remaining competitive.
Other structures have grown more complex
as a result of mergers, acquisitions, and new ventures. Several organizations
have experimented with hiring contingent workforces (temporary, part-time, or
contract employees).
Finally,
many firms have moved from a traditional structure to a team-based one.
3. Technology:
Technology consists of physical objects,
activities and process, knowledge, etc through which people accomplish their
tasks to achieve organisational objectives.
Technology provides the resources with which people work and affects the tasks
that they perform. They cannot accomplish work with their bare hands.
The technology used has a significant
influence on working relationships.
The great benefit of technology is that
it allows people to do more and better work, but it also restricts people in
various ways’ It has cost as well as benefits.
Examples of the impact of technology
include the increasing use of robots and automated control systems in an
assembly line.
The dramatic shift from a manufacturing
to a service economy, the impressive advances in computer hardware and software
capabilities, the rapid move toward the widespread use of the information
highway (internet).
And the need to respond to societal
demands for improved quality of goods and services at acceptable prices.
If
any person has a lack of technological knowledge, he/she cannot work. Moreover,
technology decrease per unit cost and improve the quality of the products and
services.
4. Environment:
All organizations operate within an
external environment. It is part of a larger system that contains thousands
of other elements. This includes the suppliers, customers, competitors,
governments’ agencies, employees, unions, political parties, and economic,
political, cultural, technological and social factors in which the organization
embedded.
All organizations operate within an internal and external environment. A single
organization does not exist alone.
An organization is a part of a larger
system that contains many other elements, such as the government, the family,
and other organizations. Numerous changes in the environment create demands on
organizations.
Citizens expect organizations should be
socially responsible; new products and competition for customers come from
around the globe; the direct impact of unions diminishes; the dramatic pace of
change in society quickens.
There is a direct impact of several
trade unions of organizations.
So, all the elements of environments
influence the attitude and provide competition. It must be considered in the
study of human behavior in an organization.
4 Approaches to
Organizational Behavior Studies
Organizational Behavior relates to the relationship between employees and the
employer in an organization.
Both are working towards the realization
of the goals and objectives of any organization, and a close and fruitful
coordination between the two is one of the major factors towards this
realization.
Organizational behavior approaches are
a result of the research done by experts in this field.
These experts studied and attempted to
quantify research done about the actions and reactions of employees, with
regard to their work environments.
It is a field that has begun developing
only recently and new approaches and results are being expounded every day.
There are 4 Approaches to
Organizational Behavior studies;
1. Human
resources approach.
2. Contingency
approach.
3. Productivity
approach.
4. Systems
approach.
And one more approach to study
organizational behavior is Interdisciplinary Approach.
1.
Human Resources Approach
This approach recognizes the fact that
people are the central resource in any organization and that they should be
developed towards higher levels of competency, creativity, and fulfilment.
People thus contribute to the success of
the organization.
The human resources approach is also called
as the supportive approach in the
sense that the manager’s role changes from control of employee to active
support of their growth and performance.
The supportive approach contrasts with
the traditional management approach.
In the traditional approach, managers decided what employees should do and
closely monitored their performance to ensure task accomplishment.
In the human resources approach, the role of managers changes from
structuring and controlling to supporting.
2.
Contingency Approach
The contingency approach (sometimes
called the situational approach) is
based on the premise that methods or behaviors which work effectively in One
situation fail in another.
For example; Organization Development
(OD) programs, way work brilliantly in one situation but fail miserably in
another situation.
Results differ because situations
differ, the manager’s task, therefore, is to identify which method will, in a
particular situation, under particular circumstances, and at a particular time,
best contribute to the attainment of organization’s goals.
The strength of the contingency approach
lies in the fact it encourages analysis of each situation prior to action while
at the same time discourages the habitual practice of universal assumptions
about methods and people.
The contingency approach is also more
interdisciplinary, more system – oriented and more research-oriented titan any
other approach.
3.
Productivity Approach
Productivity which is the ratio of
output to input is a measure of an organization’s effectiveness. It also
reveals the manager’s efficiency in optimizing resource utilization.
The higher the numerical value of this
ratio, the greater the efficiency.
Productivity is generally measured in terms of economic
inputs and outputs, but human and social inputs and outputs also are important.
For example, if better organizational behavior can improve job satisfaction, a human output or benefit occurs.
In the same manner, when employee
development programs lead to better citizens in a community, a valuable social
output occurs.
Organizational behavior decisions
typically involve human, social, and/or economic issues, and so productivity
usually a significant part of these decisions is recognized and discusses
extensively in the literature on OB.
4.
Systems Approach
The Systems Approach to OB views the
organization as a united, purposeful system composed of interrelated parts.
This approach gives managers a way of
looking at the organization as a whole, whole, person, whole group, and the
whole social system.
In so doing, the systems approach tells
us that the activity of any segment of an organization affects, in varying
degrees the activity of every other segment. A systems view should be the
concern of every person in an organization.
The clerk at a service counter, the
machinist, and the manager all work with the people and thereby influence the behavioral quality of life in an organization and its inputs.
Managers, however, tend to have a larger
responsibility, because they are the ones who make the majority are people
oriented.
The role of managers, then, is to use
organizational behavior to help build an organizational culture in which
talents are utilized and further developed, people are motivated, teams become
productive, organizations achieve their goals and society reaps the reward.
5. Inter-Disciplinary
Approach
Organizational behavior is an
integration of all other social sciences and disciplines such as psychology,
sociology, organizational theories etc.
They all are interdependent and
influence each other. The man is studied as a whole and therefore, all
disciplines concerning man are integrated.
