Managing Organisational Behaviour

Welcome to the Third edition of Organizational Behaviour. During the last five years, the book has received
overwhelming support from students, teachers and researchers all over India. The clear writing style, cutting
edge content, research focus and interesting examples have turned the book into a hot selling proposition for
over 5 years now. In the interim, the way individuals, groups and organizations have adapted to a dynamic and
ever-changing environment has attracted the attention of researchers and academicians all over the globe. As
things stand now, the subject matter is inundated with articles, books, case studies and research reports – trying
to capture the dynamic nature of human relationships in an organizational setting.

I am forever indebted to my dear colleagues in S.V. College – Dr. R.K. Arora, Dr. Sarvesh, Prof V.P. Jain,
Dr. Venkat, Dr. Mamta, Prof. Sunita, Prof. Shruti, Prof Pooja, Dr. Vinodkumar, Dr. Sindhumani, Prof. Neha
Singhal, Prof. Jyoti, Prof. Neha Gupta. Prof. Anju Goswami – who generously shared their ideas with me, offered
constructive feedback and refined my thinking and understanding of human resource management. Dri. Vinit
Kapur, Khalsa College; Prof. Rekha Dayal, JMC; Prof. Jyotika, LSR; Prof. Isha Verma, SRCC; Prof. Sumita Jain,
Daulatram; Prof. Mrs. Ramesh, Maitreyi College have enriched the contents of the book through their valuable
feedback from time to time.

This document contains Contents.

People work in organisations in order to build their careers, realise their dreams and achieve success. They join
organisations with high expectations. When they get what they want, they get along with others quite happily.
Unlike in the past most employees nowadays are in search of jobs that are interesting and challenging. They want
to contribute, get recognised and rewarded. They want to find meaning in their day-to-day work life. Striking
a balance between what the employees want and what the organisation can offer – has become a knotty issue
for many managers. Organisations are nothing but groups of people who work interdependently towards some
purpose. When employees are presented with jobs that have stretch, pull and challenge – they are encouraged
to put their best foot forward and produce wonderful results. They are motivated to work with passion, zeal and
commitment. Unfortunately, the scene out there in the market place is not all that rosy. Most people work in
organisations, since they do not have a choice. They do not get what they want. They are made to work in poor
surroundings

Organisational Behaviour, as things stand now, may be studied from various angles. 1. The classical approach emphasized the need for a structure with well-defined rules, regulations and lines of authority. 2. The behavioural approach shifted the focus to human and social needs. Structure has no meaning unless you sell the idea to employees and take them along with you. 3. The quantitative approach emphasized the application of quantitative analysis to management decisions and problems. The focus was more on solving technical rather than human behaviour problems. 4. The systems approach looked at organisations as a series of inputs, transformation process and outputs. It viewed the organization as an entity with interrelated parts with a unifying purpose, surviving and flourishing in its environment. 5. The situational/contingency approach encouraged managers to use the concepts and methods of traditional, behavioural and systems viewpoints, depending on the circumstances they face at the time.

Thanks to the Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization (LPG) – era, the workplace has a different flavor of its own. It consists of people with varied backgrounds in terms of age, education, religion and region. The divide between the young and the old, the educated and uneducated, the skilled and unskilled, the male versus female continues to haunt workplaces all over the globe.

To survive and flourish in a brutally competitive world, it is not enough to improve operational efficiencies, cut costs or keep abreast of the latest technological developments.  Companies need to explore new ideas, concepts, processes through continuous learning.   They need to learn from suppliers, customers, employees, competitors and from almost anyone who matters. ‘Learning’ may be defined as a relatively permanent change in behaviour or performance resulting from experience or practice

Perception is the process by which people select, organise, interpret and respond to information from the world around them. It may be described as a person’s view of reality. Perception has three important elements. • Firstly, the perceiver who tries to interpret some observation that he or she has just made. • Secondly, the target of perception, that is what the perceiver is trying to make sense of. The target can a person, a group of people, an event, a situation or anything that attracts the attention of the perceiver. • Finally, the situation—that is the context in which the perception takes place.

Values like freedom, honesty, self-respect and equality are perceptions about what is good or bad, right or wrong. They tend to be broad views of life and are influenced by parents, teachers, peer groups and associates. In fact, peoples’ values develop as a product of the learning and experience they face in the cultural setting in which they live. Value differences basically arise because learning and experiences differ from one person to another. As a result, one person may give more importance to money whereas another person may look at honesty and truthfulness as more important than money.  Such differences are likely to be deep-seated and somewhat difficult to change, many have their origins in early childhood and the way a person has been raised.

‘A Group is a collection of two or more people who interact with each other and are interdependent on each other for a common purpose and perceive themselves and to be a group’. This definition reveals the following features of a ‘Group’

A group consists of two or more individuals, interacting and interdependent, who have come together to achieve a common goal. Members interact, share information and help each other in order to realize the goals. However, they do not necessarily engage in activities that would lead to a joint, well-coordinated effort. Their performance is equal to the sum total of each member’s individual contribution. On the other hand, a work team generates positive synergy through coordinated effort. The individual efforts result in a level of performance that is greater than the sum of those individual inputs.

Communication refers to the process of passing information and understanding from one person to another. Precisely stated, communication is the process of transferring information, meaning and understanding from sender to receiver. It involves an exchange of facts, ideas, opinions or emotions by two or more individuals.

 Introduction Motivation is the work a manager performs to inspire, encourage and impel people to take required action. It is a process of stimulating people to action to accomplish desired goals.“It is the process by which a person’s efforts are energized, directed and sustained toward attaining a goal “(Robbins, 2010). A highly motivated person will put his heart and soul into a job and complete the same to the best of his abilities. The essential job of every manager is to attract and retain talent by striking a happy balance between what the new recruit wants and what the organisation can offer in terms of stimulating growth opportunities, incentives and rewards

Leadership is the process of influencing others towards the accomplishment of goals. It is the ability of a manager to induce subordinates to work with zeal and confidence (Koontz and O’Donnell). In short, it is the activity of influencing people to strive willingly for group objective

Power is the potential ability to influence the behaviour of others. It is the ability to make things happen or get things done the way you want. Influence is a behavioural response to the exercise of power. It is an outcome achieved through the use of power. People are “Influenced” when they act in ways consistent with the desires of someone else. If a person can convince another person to change his or her opinion on some issue (say let us vote for the Union enjoying the support of management) to engage in or refrain from some behaviour (let us award contracts to dependable friends/relatives who promise lucrative commission), or to view circumstances in a certain way, that person has exercised influence—and used power. Influence, it is interesting to note, has a positive connotation, suggesting that the individual who have been influenced have gone along somewhat willingly. Managers use power to achieve influence over the people in the work setting. Control is the ultimate form of influence wherein acceptable behaviour is specified and individuals or groups are prevented from behaving otherwise.

Simply stated, it is the shared values, principles and traditions and ways of doing things that influence the way organisational members act. It is all about the set of important assumptions, often unstated, that members of an organisation share in common. It speaks about the personality a company has and the style in which it does things. Celebrations are one way, for example, Southwest Airlines differentiates itself from the competition and provides a family-like environment that cares for its people; its customers, and its communities in a fun, loving way.

The world is shrinking in all major respects. People, goods, capital and information are moving around the globe like never before with faster communication, transportation and financial flow, the barriers between nations have disappeared and the world is becoming a borderless market. In the 21st century, global companies seem to virtually dance all over the place. They are not constrained by national borders. Most corporations cover lot of ground while trying to exploit an opportunity in any part of the globe now. Globalization – the process of interconnecting the world’s people with respect to the cultural, economic, political, technological and environmental aspects of their lives— has become the order of the day. BMW builds cars in South Carolina. McDonald’s sells hamburgers in China

Great organisations are not built overnight. They are born out of a dream and they are usually built around people. People, for all practical purposes, are the backbone of a company. Any organisation, for that matter, does not consist of land, buildings and equipment. It consists of people—who are young, dynamic and fired by a lofty, pious goal. For people to achieve such a dream they need a structure. They need resources to work with. And they need to think and act like members of a well knit team. Small wonder, the word organisation is put to multiple interpretations

Everything in this world is subject to change. Technologies change rapidly. Competition springs up surprises almost every day. New products hit the markets in quick succession turning even successful products into obsolete ones. Economic shocks occur every now and then. Regulatory mechanisms may hit companies from any corner. Workers and unions might come up with a new charter of demands without giving any notice. Too much is changing too fast for an organisation or its managers to be complacent

Conflict is an essential fact of organisational life. In fact, the very nature of an organisation guarantees the emergence of conflict. Firstly, organisations consist of people with divergent personalities, perceptions, and values. Secondly, these people are put on jobs with contrasting features that impart unequal degrees of status and frequently foster competition. Finally, organisations contain groups that often compete for scarce resources while trying to achieve assigned goals. In organisations, conflict can take many forms and can stem from many sources. If the fires are not put out in time, conflict has the potential to seriously disrupt organisational life.

Conflict is an essential fact of organisational life. In fact, the very nature of an organisation guarantees the emergence of conflict. Firstly, organisations consist of people with divergent personalities, perceptions, and values. Secondly, these people are put on jobs with contrasting features that impart unequal degrees of status and frequently foster competition. Finally, organisations contain groups that often compete for scarce resources while trying to achieve assigned goals. In organisations, conflict can take many forms and can stem from many sources. If the fires are not put out in time, conflict has the potential to seriously disrupt organisational life.

Decision-making is an important part of management process. It covers every part of an enterprise. In fact, whatever a manager does, he does through decision-making only. Managers are essentially decision makers only. Almost everything managers do, involves decision-making. Managers scout for problems, make decisions for solving them and monitor the consequences to see whether additional decisions are required. Good decisionmaking is a vital element of good management because decisions determine how the organisation solves its problems, allocates its resources and accomplishes its goals. However, decision-making is not easy. It must be done amid ever changing factors, unclear information and conflicting points of view. A decision is a choice made from available alternatives. Decision-making is the process by which individuals select a course of action among several alternatives, to produce a desired result. Decision making is the process through which managers identify organisational problems and attempt to resolve them.