Chapter-7

The Dynamics of People and

Organization

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Organization is a group of role related people working together to
achieve a set of common goals.

According to R.W. Griffin, organization is a group of people working

together in a structured and coordinated fashion to achieve a set of
common goals.
Example:
A group of police is an organization but a group of thief is not an
organization. Because they don’t have any role relationship.

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Organizational behavior is the systematic study and careful application
of knowledge about how people as an individual and as a member of a
group act within an organization.

 It helps managers look at the behavior of individual within an

organization.
 It also helps to understand the complexities involves in interpersonal
relation.
 It is valuable for examining the dynamics of relations in groups.

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1. Describe: How people behave under a variety of conditions.
2. Understand: Why people behave as they do.
3. Predicting: Managers would have the capacity to predict which
employees might be dedicated and productive or which employees
might be absent or disruptive.
4. Control: Develop some human activity at work. Since managers are
responsible for performance outcome, they should focus on skill
development, team effort and productivity of employees behavior.

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 Forces of Organizational Behavior

1. People: People make up the internal social system of organization. That

system consists of individuals and group. We have to remember that
organization exist to serve people and people existing to serve the
organization.

2. Structure: Structure defines the formal role relationship and use of people in
organization. Many organization structure have become flatter. Example:
private banks in our country.

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 Forces of Organizational Behavior

3.Technology: Technology has a significant influence on working

relationship. It has both costs and benefits.
For example: The use of robots and automate machineries can produce
batter product but it reduces the number of work force in the organization.

4. Environment: Environment refers to the set of forces and factors that

influence the performance of an organization. A single organization does not
exist alone. It is a part of large system, that contains other elements, such as-
Government, family, etc.

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 Fundamental Concepts
(A)The nature of people
1.Individual differences: People have much in common but each person in the
world is also individually different. According to science, each parson’s DNA
profile is different. The idea of individual differences is also proved by
psychology. From the day of birth, each person is unique.

2.Perception: People see the world but explain differently. Even when
presented with the same object, two people may view or explain it in two
different ways. Perception is the unique way in which each person sees,
organizes and interprets things.

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3. A whole person: Family life is not totally separable from work life. People
function as total human beings. So managers need to consider and care about
the effect of job stress on personal life.

4. Motivated behavior: Motivation is set of forces that cause people to behave

in a certain ways. Motivation increases the willingness to do the work.

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5. Desire for involvement: Many employees today are actively seeking
opportunities at work to become involved in relevant decisions thereby
contributing their talents and ideas to the organization’s success.

6. Value of the person: People are the best creature in the universe. They want to
be treated with caring, respect and dignity. They want to be valued for their skills
and abilities and to be provided with opportunities to develop themselves.

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 (B) The Nature of Organization

1.Social system: System is a set of interrelated or interconnected parts of

elements working as a whole. One part may be affected by other parts.
From sociology we learn that organizations are social system. The
existence of social system implies that the organizational environment is
not static rather it can be changed.

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2. Mutual interest: “Organization needs people and people need
organization”.
Organizations need employee in order to achieve organizational goals and
people need organization to gain their own advantages and to achieve
individual goals.

3. Ethics: Ethics is the individual choice to determine what is right or

what is wrong. Every company should have a code of ethics. The Ethical
values should be communicated to all employees. The people who will
follow the ethical codes, they will be rewarded.

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 Basic Approaches of OB

1. Human Resource Approach

This approach is concerned with the growth and development of people
toward higher levels of competency, creativity and fulfillment. Another name
for this approach is the supportive approach. Here the manager’s primary role
changes from control of employees to active support of their growth and
performance.

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.

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2. Contingency Approach
This approach means that different situations require different
behavioral practices for greatest effectiveness. Managers need to know
under what conditions they should choose one behavioral approach over
another, and the contingency framework can help them do this.

No longer is there one best way. Careful analyze of situation

will help to determine the best way.

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3. Results-Oriented Approach
All organizations need to achieve some relevant outcomes, or results. A
dominant goal for many is to be productive.

Productivity is the ratio of output and input within a time period with due
consideration of quality.

Productivity = output/ Input

(within a time period, quality considered)

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4. System Approach
Treating an organization as a system is critically important to its success. A
system is a set of interrelated or inter-connected elements or parts working
together or as a whole one. One part affects and be affected by the another.

 There are many variables or sub systems within a system.

 The parts of a system are interdependent.
 Systems generally requires inputs, engage in some process, and produce
outputs.

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1. Responding to economic pressures
2. Responding to globalization
3. Managing workforce diversity
4. Improving people skills
5. Stimulating innovation and change
6. Balance work family life conflict

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 Diversity
We aren’t all the same.
This is obvious enough, but managers sometimes forget that they need to
recognize and capitalize on these differences to get the most from their
employees.
Effective diversity management increases an organization’s access to the widest
possible pool of skills, abilities, and ideas. It is important to know how individual
characteristics like age, gender, race, ethnicity, and abilities can influence employee
performance.
 Levels of Diversity

Surface level diversity

• Diversity in age, race, gender, ethnicity, religion, and disability status.

Deep-level diversity
• Diversity in personality and values.
Example of Diversity
Steve and Dave are two unmarried white male college graduates from Oregon
who recently started working together. Superficially, they seem well matched.

But Steve is highly introverted, prefers to avoid risks, solicits the opinions of
others before making decisions, and likes the office quiet.

while Dave is extroverted, risk-seeking, and assertive and likes a busy, active,
and energetic work environment.
Their surface-level similarity will not necessarily lead to positive interactions
because they have such fundamental, deep-level differences.

It will be a challenge for them to collaborate regularly at work, and they’ll have
to make some compromises to get things done together.
 Ability
Everyone has strengths and weaknesses that make him or her relatively
superior or inferior to others in performing certain tasks or activities.

What does ability mean?

Ability is an individual’s current capacity to perform the various

tasks in a job.
 Ability

Intellectual Physical
Abilities Abilities
Intellectual Abilities

Intellectual abilities are abilities needed to perform mental activities—

thinking, reasoning, and problem solving. Most societies place high value on
intelligence, and for good reason.
 Smart people generally earn more money and attain higher levels of
education.
 They are also more likely to emerge as leaders of groups.
Physical Abilities

Physical ability refers to the capacity to do tasks that demand stamina, dexterity,
strength, and similar characteristics.
Though the changing nature of work suggests intellectual abilities are increasingly
important for many jobs, physical abilities have been and will remain valuable.
Not surprisingly, there is also little relationship between physical
abilities and mental abilities.
A high score on one is no assurance of a high score on others.
For Example: Though Stephen Hawking cannot move physically, he is
continuously delivering lecture to his students.
 Learning
The acquisition of knowledge or skills through experience, study, or by being
taught.

 Learning does not happen all at once, but it builds upon and is shaped by
previous knowledge.
 Human learning may occur as part of education, personal development,
schooling, or training.
Principles of learning
Motivation
The concept of motivation is basic because, without motivation learning does
not take place. Learning occurs when the learner is motivated.

A thirsty rat will learn the path through a maze to a dish of water; it is not
likely to do so well or even more purposefully at all if it satiated.
Reinforcement
Reinforcement is process of encouraging or establishing a belief or pattern of
behavior.
Reinforcement can be both positive and negative.

Reward should be received for better performance.

Punishment should be received for performing below the

standard.
Learning curves
Learning curve is the rate of a person's progress in gaining experience or
new skills. It is a diagrammatic presentation of the amount learned in relation
to time.
Meaningfulness of material
A definite relationship has been established between learning and
meaningfulness of the subject learnt. The more meaningful the materials,
the better does learning proceed.
Learning styles

The final principle of learning is the learning styles.

Technically, an individual’s learning style refers to

the preferential way in which the person absorbs,
processes, comprehends and retains information
and knowledge.
 Attitudes

Attitudes are evaluative statements—either favorable or unfavorable—about

objects, people, or events.They reflect how we feel about something.

When I say “I like my job,” I am expressing my attitude about work

Components of Attitudes

Cognitive Component
The statement “My pay is low” is the cognitive component of an attitude—a
description of or belief in the way things are.

Affective Component
Affect is the emotional or feeling segment of an attitude. It can be reflected in
the statement “I am angry over how little I’m paid.”

Behavioral Component
The behavioral component of an attitude describes an intention to behave
in a certain way toward someone or something.
For example, “I am going to look for another job that pays better.”
Major Job Attitudes
We each have thousands of attitudes, but OB focuses our attention on a very
limited number of work-related attitudes.

Job Satisfaction
Job satisfaction describes a positive feeling about a job, resulting from an
evaluation of its characteristics.
A person with a high level of job satisfaction holds positive feelings about his or
her job, while a person with a low level holds negative feelings.
Job Involvement
Job involvement measures the degree to which people identify
psychologically with their job and consider their perceived performance
level important to self-worth.
Employees with a high level of job involvement strongly identify with and
really care about the kind of work they do.

Organizational Commitment
The degree to which an employee identifies with a particular organization
and its goals and wishes to maintain membership in the organization.
Perceived Organizational Support
Perceived organizational support (POS) is the degree to which
employees believe the organization values their contribution and cares about
their well-being.
For example, an employee believes his organization would accommodate him
if he had a child care problem or would forgive an honest mistake on his part.
Employee Engagement
A new concept is employee engagement, an individual’s involvement with,
satisfaction with, and enthusiasm for, the work she does. We might ask employees
whether they feel their work is important and meaningful.
Highly engaged employees have a passion for their work and feel a deep
connection to their company.