Chapter 1

Margie Parikh & Rajen Gupta

Organisations and Organisational Behaviour

Chapter 1

Social Organisation – Family or community made of members of the same caste where membership is by birth.

Work Organisation – are created to accomplish work goals and they are different criteria for membership.

Meaning of Organisations

Organisations are made by people who operate within them, and when these people enter organisations, they bring in with them their ‘soft’ luggage of beliefs, experiences and much more.

For example – The outlet of Pizza hut ,they are not the same everywhere, even when the organisations have the same product.

Differing Perspective of Organisation in different region

Western Perspectives of Organisationsv/sIndian Perspective of Organisations

Indian Perspective Western PerspectiveWork and personal lives overlaps. Work and personal domains are clearly

separate.

Modern Design of organisations in India carry the influence of westernization of work as introduced by the British.

Modern Design of organisations developed during industrial revolution in the west.

Organisational design reflect rational work arrangement , but underlying organisational process reflect fusion of family centrality.

Highly work centered structures give first priority to work discipline.

Highly divergent and layered socio-cultural context adds complexity to already complex organisation dynamics.

Organisational theories, structures and the context of socio-cultural environment are in tandem.

The organisational roles often conflicts with r\traditional value and culture.

Organisational values are derived and evolved from protestant work ethic.

Features of Indian organisations are – dominated relationship, personalized loyalty, external locus of control.

The qualities considered to be highly functional are – readiness to take responsibility, autonomy, initiative.

Bernad (1938) - “A system of consciously coordinated activities…of two or more persons”.

Weber (1947) – “A social membership which limits or closes admission of outsiders by rules…so for as its order is enforced by the action of specific individuals”.

Bakke (1959) – “A continuing system of differentiated and coordinated human activities utilizing, transforming and welding together a specific set of human, material, capital, ideational and natural resources into a unique problem solving whole engaged in satisfying particular human needs in interactionwith other system of human activities and resources in the environment”.

Definitions of Organisations

An organisation is a powerful tool created by human beings

Organisations become versatile entities with far greater potential than any individual

Organisations live longer

Organisations are not open for everybody

Organisations are systems designed for stability and control

Organisational process go beyond being simply rational

Organisational relationships are interdependent

Features of Organisations

Features of Organisations

An organisation is a powerful tool created by human beings whether this tool is applied for accomplishment or problem solving or whatever purpose, it is satisfying some human need. The resultant activity may be aimed at providing for-profit service or not-for-profit social service, or for producing consumer goods.

Organisations become versatile entities with far greater potential than any individual with their purposeful existence, strength of the members, command over multiple resources, They can serve as well as harm – intentionally or unintentionally – the society, though most organisations fall somewhere in between the two extreme possibilities.

Contd…

Organisations live longerAs organisations strive to achieve their objectives, they may live far beyond the tenure and even life of their individual members, unless the organisation is severely mismanaged or is forced to close down. The organisations have a life cycle with different phases that we can call Launch, Growth, Maturity and Pause.

Even in the last phase of decline, the managerial effectiveness can launch the organisation in to the next cycle of renewal and launch into the next cycle of organisational life.

Features of OrganisationsContd…


Organisations are not open for everybody

Appointed members can act within and on behalf of them. Thus, organisations are separated from their environments by a boundary. Within the boundaries, the members share roles, responsibilities and entitlements associated with these roles. In acting out of the roles, members enjoy access to and use of privileges, organisation’s resources and facilities that are out of bounds for non-members.

Organisations are systems designed for stability and control

Organisations have stable arrangements for work and related matters. These include assignment of work to people, assignment of places for specific activity and determining procedures that define how things should be done.


Organisational process go beyond being simply rational

Various activities and processes are subject to ambiguity, uncertainty and possibility of unfavorable outcomes. In contrast, organisational members participating in these processes may prefer predictability, control, certainty and favorable outcomes.

Organisational relationships are interdependent

People with higher authority and status also need to depend on subordinates because of work pressure, demands of various work roles and personal styles, preferences and limitations.


Morgan (1986) wrote about viewing organisations symbolically, as metaphors. He described it as a “means … that allows us to grasp and deal with many sided character of organisational life.”

This is a relevant perspective for going beyond structural understanding of organisations.

Organisations as Metaphors

Metaphor Orientation Features

Machines Efficiency - Importance of predication, control, precision, exact timing and calculation and identical properties of given material - Are made by using assembly-subassemblies

Organisms Adaptation - Evolve within changing environment

Brains Learning - Complex thinking systems. - Collect and process information in logical order

Cultures Social - Members construct their own realities which shape their actions and interrelationships in turn

Political Systems

Success - Decision making and other important internal process shaped by activity of politically motivated groups seeking outcomes favorable to themselves

Organisations as MetaphorsContd…

Metaphor Orientation Features

PsychicPrisons

Often-unconscious ideological trapping of the individuals

- Trapped in their own frames and patterns of beliefs from which there is no escape, affects the behaviour and performance

Flux andTransformation

Continual change

- At first glance they might appear stable, but they undergo continual change of different scales, which should be understood

Vehicle of domination

Control - Positions within organisations give power and control to a few in a way that individual actions can impact the entire organisations, people within and the people around

Organisations as MetaphorsContd…

Peter Drucker (1974) - “Effectiveness is doing the right things. Efficiency is concerned with doing things right.”

We can say that effectiveness is equivalent to success in achieving the goals that matter. Since organisations are likely to have several goals and often competing ones, we can also say that effectiveness reflects how many goals can be achieved and how well.

Meaning of Organisations Behaviour

Definition of Organisational Behaviour

“Organisational behaviour is an applied field of inquiry encompasses the study of all aspect of behaviour in and by formal organisations. It treats as units of analysis everything from individuals acting, feeling and thinking in an organisations to groups, larger subunits such as departments or divisions, the organisations as a whole and even populations of organisations and their relationship to larger social structures such as the state and the society.”

Organisational Behaviour as one of Several Approaches to Management

Features of OB

A Field of Inquiry

Focus on Behaviour Within the Organisation

Humanistic and Positive

Importance of Groups

Ongoing Process

A field of inquiryA field open to inquiry is open to anyone who wants to examine, explore and understand. Even evaluate and predict. That makes all of us ‘lay scientists of sorts, because all of us have our own theories that describe, explain and prescribe behaviour and some of us want to test them, share them and improvise upon them. A scientific theory explains a phenomenon on the basis of a plausible general principle or body of principles.

Focus on behaviour within the organisationOB requires not just individual or group focus and inquiring how they behave at work, but also the characteristic patterns of organisational actions over time, which reflect that organisation’s knowledge, values and goals, the kind of people, the system, and the control methods it employs, as well as the sociopolitical and economic context in which those actions occur

Features of OBContd…

Humanistic and positiveEveryone in organisations has such a potential for development, learning and choice, then collective human effort should be organized in a democratic manner and through goodwill and fairness and to nurture, support and facilitate the effort to realize the human potential. This would lead to satisfaction and a feeling of well-being for the individual and effectiveness of the organisation.

Importance of GroupsA work group is generally understood as a collectivity of people who have individual as common work goals, and who depend on each other for achieving those goals. Just like the family, work group also has a strong impact on the individual’s behaviour.


Ongoing ProcessOrganisational effectiveness as an objective for OB implies continuous effort to change and develop in the context of dynamic environment. Thus, OB assigns special importance to planned change, individual as well as organisational learning and creation of organisational culture that supports these.


Major Contributions in the Development of OB Field1911:Fredric Taylors writes on scientific management

1922:Max Weber gives the concept o Bureaucracy

1925:Mary Parker Follette writes on Power, conflict and leadership

1938:Chester Bernard writes about Functions of Executive

1939:Hawthorn studies are carried out and its findings are published

1947:Herbort Simon wrote about Bounded rationality in decision making

1949:Second translation of Henry Fayol’s Management principles is published

1951:Kurt Lewin’s Field Theory about managing change is published

1954:Abraham Maslow discusses Humanistic theory of personality and motivation

1960:Douglas McGregor gives theories X and Y

1961:Rensis Likert gives employee centered management style

1985:Peter F. Drucker gives the concept of MBO

1990:Peter Senge writes about Learning and Change

A Comprehensive Review of Research in the Field of OB

Disciplines Contributing to the Knowledge of OB

Sociology

Psychology

Economics

Political Science

Anthropology

Sociology


Concerned with the study of groups, and how membership of formal and informal groups affects the behaviour of people.

Psychology


How the mental functions of a person – including physiological and neurological processes affect human behaviour.

Economics


Views all human behaviour as a relationship between limited means and their alternative uses - after all, the work organisations are systems created for business, even if not-for-profit.

Political Science


How power for decision-making and action is allocated and transferred across diverse groups.

Anthropolgy


It traces evolution of human behaviour over long term and its branches like cultural anthropology studies differences in human behaviour across cultural groups.

Division of Organisation Behaviour

Organisational Behaviour

Micro OB Macro OB

Individual Group Behaviour Whole Organisations

Micro OB deals with the dynamics individual and group behaviour within organisations, Macro OB, also called Organisational Theory, studies whole organisations, how they adapt, and the strategies and structures that guide them.

Model of Organisational Behaviour

Individual Effectiveness

Effectiveness of Systems and

Processes

Perception Attitude Motivation Personality

Organisational Design Organisational Structure Organisational Roles Organisational Culture

Thresholds of Interpersonal Behaviour

Understanding Groups & Teams

Communication Conflict, Stress &

Negotiation Decision Making Power & Politics

Effectiveness of Group

Relationships

Effectiveness of Organisational

Roles

Organisational

Effectiveness

Group Effectivenes

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Understanding Individuals in Organisations

Understanding Groups in

Organisations

Understanding How

Organisations Shape

Behaviour

Effectiveness Through

Managing and Leading Human

Behaviour at Work


Processes

Organisational

Effectiveness

Group Effectivenes

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Roles


Processes

Organisational

Effectiveness

Group Effectivenes

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Roles


Processes

Organisational

Effectiveness

Group Effectivenes

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Relationships



Roles


Processes

Organisational

Effectiveness

Group Effectivenes

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Roles


Processes

Organisational

Effectiveness



Roles


Processes

Organisational

Effectiveness


Relationships



Roles


Processes

Organisational

Effectiveness

Group Effectivenes

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Relationships



Roles


Processes

Organisational

Effectiveness

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Relationships



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Organisational

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Group Effectivenes

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Organisational

Effectiveness


Relationships



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Processes

Group Effectiveness

Organisational Effectiveness

Effectiveness of Group Relationships


Effectiveness of Organisational Roles

Features of the Model of OB

1. The central concerns for study and practice of Organisational Behaviour concepts are two-fold: the first is the core focus on organisational effectiveness, and not the traditional concern for “understanding, managing and controlling the behaviour within the organisations.” The emphasis on understanding and managing that would be instrumental in controlling can be put to dysfunctional, self-serving or arbitrary ends, just like the two faces of power.

2. The central role of leadership in enhancing the

organisational effectiveness reflects the need of the hour. In the face of the unprecedented decline, slow-down and down-turn in the developed world since the World War – II, India has just entered a phase that promises to be a sustained phase of growth and development for the economy, but at the same time remarkable contribution to the world economy and markets.

Features of the Model of OB

3. The individual, group and organisational dynamics of behaviour determine the organisational effectiveness under the OB perspective. The three factors leading to organisational effectiveness are related to one another: The individuals influence the organisational design and systems through their role relationships. Individuals are also related to others in the organisation through interpersonal and group relationships. Similarly, the groups are related to the rest of the organisation through the work systems and processes.

Contd…

Chapter 1

Documents

powerful tool

macro ob

organisational

organisational

organisational

simply rational

versatile

disciplines