Importance of Organizational Behavior
Organizations are involved in every facet of our lives. Everyone whether they like it or not are members of multiple organizations. Personally to argue that the study of organizational behavior or to propose any negative response to a structure that is closely involved with our lives is moot. The reality is that organizations organize our lives. Our schedules are almost entirely set by organizations.
What happens in the economy and in the courts and in technology (all elements of the environment of organizations) affects all of our lives profoundly. The reason most organizations do things the way they do is largely a function of what they can make money doing, what is legal, and what technology permits.
Organizations have a tremendous impact on our professional lives and organizational structure. Prestige in industrialized nations is determined by occupation, and by rank within the organization we work for. So bankers (an occupation) have a certain status in society, and bankers who are senior vice-presidents (a high rank) are particularly blessed.
Most people's income is derived from their jobs in organizations, so organizations also largely determine the amount of money that individuals have. Organizations wield considerably more power than individuals do, so the individuals who control organizations also have considerable power.
The discipline of Organizational Behavior encompasses three broad areas:
1. The Behavior of People in Organizations
OB draws on psychology, anthropology and sociology to gain insight into the behavior of individuals in organizational settings. Topics studied include:
perception, cognition, learning
personality and motivation
leadership, power, conformity, communication
decision making
2. Organizational Structure
Organizations consist of people organized to achieve organizational goals (like manufacture computers). One of the most important strategic elements of an organization is its structure: how the people are arranged so as to produce what the organization produces. Topics include:
task identification and division of labor
departmentation
coordination and control mechanisms
processes and procedures, such as promotion, hiring policies, compensation
organizational form (e.g., bureaucracy)
size
centralization of decision-making
the relationships among these variables
3. Behavior of organizations
Just as we can study the interactions of individuals with the organization and with each other, we can also study the interactions of organizations with their environments, which include individual citizens and other organizations including the government. Some of the behaviors of organizations that we are interested in include:
adoption of new practices such as
Organizations are initially structured around tasks, and as the organization continues to grow, the structure within the organization takes on many characteristics. Not all structures are advantageous, especially if they are lacking in some areas. There is a relationship between structure and size of the organization that affect the centralization of the organization. At the highest levels, the personality of the chief executive may amend the organizations' structure. The structure within an organization helps define the roles and responsibilities among the members from each department and work group. The four general types of organization structure are functional, divisional, matrix, and project based. “Organizational structure is the skeleton of an organization” (Feigenbaum, 2013) and how these individuals relate to each another. Structure is a statement of the current affairs, not the ideas, intentions or improvement within an organization. When business leaders develop their initial plans for an organization, he or she looks at how to design a company and takes inventory of all the tasks, functions and goals of the business. The leader then develops groupings and ordering of job positions, departments, and human resources to effectively and efficiently perform these tasks. Technology, size, environment, strategy and goals affect an organizational structure and effects, whether they are categorized as mechanistic or organic.
The organizations that dominate our society are known as formal organizations. Businesses, schools (colleges and universities, corporations, governments, churches and other religious institutions all fall under the category of a formal organization. Basically any institution you come into contact with on a daily basis. The harsh reality is that every person in this world, your friends, family, professors, bosses, especially you are a member of an organization; possibly several. And each of us contributes to the organization in our own way whether we want to or don’t.
Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (2007). Organizational Behavior (12th ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, United States of America: Pearson Prentise Hall.
People who want to have a successful organization in business world; first they should be able to define OB which helps the organizations to be more effectively. “Organizational behavior is a study and an application of knowledge about how people, individuals and groups act in organizations” (Clark, 2000). Frankly, OB can help to indentify people behavior and to have a work relationship among the worker. Moreover, it can affect an organization to enhance its profitability and innovation by showing organization resources which can depends on customers. As well, it helps to achieve a job satisfaction by understanding the importance elements of motivation, communication and leadership.
A society of organizations is one in which organizations enter our lives as influential forces in a great many ways — in how we work, what we eat, how we get educated and cured of our illnesses, how we get entertained, and how our ideas are shaped’ (Henry Mintzberg 1989)
Ivancevich, John, Knopaske, Robert, Matteson, Michael, Organizational Behaviour and Management (10 edition (January 30, 2013). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin
Organizational structure within an organization is a critical component of the day to day operations of a business. An organization benefits from organizational structure as a result of all it encompasses. It is used to define how tasks are divided, grouped and coordinated. Six elements should be addressed during the design of the organization’s structure: work specialization, departmentalization, chain of command, spans of control, centralization and decentralization. These components are a direct reflection of the organization’s culture, power and politics.
For a company to be successful it is important that it has very good organization. Organization can be defined in many different ways. Bateman and Snell define organizing as assembling and coordinating the human, financial, physical, informational,
Organizations can be configured in many different ways. Their overall classifications can be summarized by characteristics of complexity within the system, the level of formalization, and the centralization of decision-making power. The structure of each organization is influenced by many factors. Such factors include; the goods and services provided, the overall individuality of the staff providing the service and producing the products. The overall beliefs and values of the individuals performing the services that are being delivered, the technology that is utilized to help deliver the services and aid in product production, as well as the needs, desires, and generalized characteristics of the consumer population that requires or demand the product or service. (Yoder-Wise, 2007, p. 145) The organization will have different operating priorities based on its ownership. The main goal behind most business is to make money. The private owned institution strives to make its shareholders money, while a non-profit institution reinvests all of its revenue back into the orga...
Organizational structure is the way that an organization arranges people and jobs so that work can be performed and goals can be achieved. Good organizational design helps communications, productivity, and innovation. Many organization structures have been created based on organizational strategy, size, technology, and environment. Robbins and Judge (2011, p. 504) listed three common structures: simple, bureaucracy, and matrix. In this post the author will describe the matrix structure, and discuss its advantages and disadvantages.
Organizational behavior is the study of the many factors that have an impact on how people and groups act, think, feel, and respond to work and organizations and how organizations respond to their environments. (George & Jones, 2005) Organizational behavior is particularly important to managers, who are responsible for supervising the activities of one of more employees.
Organizational behavior is important to many organizations because it helps management understand their employees’ attitude as well as behavior while they interact with one and other at the work place. There are several aspects of organizational behavior and attitude is one that can hinder and help job performance. In the past, organizations were defined almost exclusively by the products produced or the services provided. This has changed a great deal over the years. They are now defined by the way they provide their products and services. Attitude plays a major role in and outside of the workplace as it does in most aspects in everyday life.
The manager should be able to select and know these factors. As organization is created systems by people, the internal factors are mainly the result of management decisions. Not all of the internal factors are completely controlled by the management. Organization is influenced by many environmental factors. In the new millennium we have to learn how to live in a market economy. And the most important condition for this is a highly skilled managers. Ability to identify and analyze the internal elements of the organization and external factors is the key to the success of the business. The main factors in the organization that require management attention are objectives, structure, tasks, technology and people. An organization can be seen as a means to achieve the objectives that allows people to perform collectively what they could not carry out individually. Goals are desired outcome, which aims to achieve a group working together. The main objective of most organizations is profit. Income is a key indicator of the organization. People are the basis of any organization. Without people there is no organization. They shape the culture of the organization and its internal climate. They determine what the organization is. Manager generates frames, establishes a system of relations between people and include them in the process of
Hellriegel Don, Slocum John W., & Woodman Richard W. Organizational Behavior. Ohio: South Western College P, 2001
Organizations are established in specific ways to obtain different objectives, and the structure of an organization can help or restrain its advance toward accomplishing these goals. Organizations of different sized and types can achieve higher sales and other profit adequately by identifying their requirements with the structure they use to operate.