Assignment

On
Review the four approaches of organizational behavior.
Select an approach, which you think affects you and your
job performance. In what ways and why your selected
approach will influence your job performance?

Course Title:
Organizational Behavior (PA-321).

Submitted to:
Dr. Mohammad Razaul Karim
Associate Professor
Department of Public Administration
Comilla University

Submitted by:
Name: Rubaiya Tabassum
Class ID:11803059
Session:2017-18

Date of Submission: 26-12-2021

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Table of Contents

Serial. Page
No. Topics No.

1 Essence 02

2 Preamble 02

3 Organizational Behavior 02

4 Approaches to Organizational 03
Behavior

5 Selection of An Approach, Which I 08

think Affects Me and My Job
Performance

6 In What Ways and Why My Selected 08

Approach Will Influence My Job
Performance?

7 Epilogue 09

8 References 09
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Essence:
Running an organization is not an easy task. The absence of organizational behavior creates
the gap in the stairs of achievement. The field of organizational behavior provides many
helpful insights into understanding the complexities of people’s behavior on the job.
Organizational Behavior is the study and application of knowledge about how people act
within organizations. The key elements in an organization are: people, structure, technology,
and external environment in which the organization operates. Within the basic 4 approaches
of organizational behavior, the desired goals, performance, management can be ensured in an
organization.
The 4 basic approaches introduced organizational behavior as a new era to the field of
achievement in human resources, systems, opportunities, feedback and desired things. And
these approaches define the way in which an organization can handle demanding situations.
In modern terminology, organizational behavior is an interdisciplinary approach to the study
of human behavior in organizations.

Preamble:
Organizational Behavior is an applied behavioral science that is built on contributions from a
number of other behavioral disciplines like psychology, sociology, social psychology,
anthropology and political science. Due to global competition, it is becoming necessary for
the employees to become more flexible and to cope with rapid changes. It is becoming
challenging for the managers to use an organizational behavior approach.
Managers in organizations need to achieve desired targets whereas the employees behavior
and performance issues became the challenging tasks to cope up with. Here the approaches of
organizational behavior are focused on the issue of which one is more preferable to
organization.
The approaches determine the employee-manager relationship in an organization which may
be in the right or wrong direction. Finding out the demanded areas, the approaches match the
behavior of employee and manager to be an effective organizational effort.
Actually, the approaches of organizational behavior support the ways and challenges through
which it can be best one and which may affect our practical life.

Organizational Behavior:
The term organizational behavior can be assumed from the following thoughts:

According to Keith Davis, "Organizational Behavior is an academic discipline concerned

with understanding and describing human behavior in an organizational environment. It seeks
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to shed light on the whole complex human factor in organizations by identifying causes and
effects of that behavior."

According to Joe Kelly, "Organizational Behavior is the systematic study of the nature of
organizations: how they begin, grow, and develop, and their effect on individual members,
constituent groups, other organizations, and large institutions."

According to Luthans, "Organizational Behavior is directly concerned with the

understanding, prediction, and control of human behavior in organizations."

Robbins defined, "Organizational Behavior is a field of study that investigates the impact that
individuals, groups, and structure have on behavior within organizations for the purpose of
applying such knowledge towards improving an organization’s effectiveness."

Therefore, organizational behavior studied the perspective of understanding, perception,

investigation, discipline, and control of human behavior for having better performance.

Approaches to Organizational Behavior:

Organizational behavior has 4 basic approaches to define the support and effort of it.

❖ Human Resources Approach:

The human resources approach is concerned with the growth and development of people
towards higher levels of competency, creativity and fulfillment, because people are the
central resource in any organization. This approach helps employees become better, more
responsible and then it tries to create a climate in which they may contribute to the limits of
their improved abilities.
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The nature of the human resources approach can be understood by comparing it with the
traditional management approach of the early 1900s. In the traditional approach, managers
decided what should be done and then closely controlled employees to ensure task
performance.
Human resources approach assumes that expanded capabilities and opportunities for people
will lead directly to improvements in operating effectiveness. Work satisfaction also will be a
direct result when employees make fuller use of their abilities. Essentially, the human
resources approach means that better people achieve better results. It is somewhat illustrated
by the ancient proverb that follows:
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.

This approach is also known as ‘supportive approach’ because the manager’s primary role
changes from control of employees to active support of their growth and performance. For
instance, the superiors and managers should practice a style where workers are given the
opportunities and encouragement to perform under loose supervision. By treating individuals
as mature adults, organizations can increase productivity and at the same time meet the needs
of individuals for independence and growth.

❖ Contingency Approach:
A contingency approach to organizational behavior implies that different situations require
different behavioral practices for effectiveness instead of the traditional approach to one best
way for all situations. Each situation must be analyzed carefully to determine the significant
variables that exist in order to establish the kinds of practices that will be more effective.
The approach stresses that there is no single way to manage effectively under all
circumstances. The methods of behaviors which work effectively in one situation may fail in
another. The organizational structure and the processes of management are governed by the
external environment and several aspects of the internal environment. Effective management
processes will vary in different situations depending on the individuals and groups in the
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organization, the nature of the job and technology, the environment facing the organization
and its structure.
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. Thus, the manager will have to analyze each situation prior to action and
different managerial practices and styles are needed for effective management.

The strength of this approach is that it encourages analysis of each situation prior to action.
Thus it helps to use in the most appropriate manner all the current knowledge about people in
organization.

❖ Productivity/Result-Oriented Approach:
Productivity is a ratio that compares units of output with units of input. It is often measured in
terms of economic inputs and outputs. If more outputs can be produced from the same
amount of inputs, productivity is improved. Or if fewer inputs can be used to produce the
same amount of outputs, productivity has also increased.

All organizations need to achieve some relevant outcomes, or results. A dominant goal for
many is to be productive, so this results orientation is a common thread woven through
organizational behavior. The idea of productivity does not imply that one should produce
more output; rather, it is a measure of how efficiently one produces whatever output is
desired. Consequently, better productivity is a valuable measure of how well resources are
used in society. It means that less is consumed to produce each unit of output. There is less
waste and better conservation of resources—a result increasingly valued by many in society.
But besides economic inputs and outputs, human and social inputs and outputs also are
important. For example, if better organizational behavior can improve job satisfaction, a
human output or result occurs. In the same manner, when employee development programs
lead to a by-product of better citizens in a community, a valuable social result occurs.
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Organizational behavior decisions typically involve human, social, or economic issues. Many
of these measures are intertwined in the popular practice of total quality management (TQM).
TQM is an integrated attempt to improve the quality of a firm’s products or services through
a variety of techniques and training. It typically focuses on creating high customer
satisfaction through listening carefully to customers, building partnerships with suppliers,
searching for continuous improvements in operational methods, training employees in the
understanding and use of statistical tools, and meaningfully involving employees in
team-based systems.
The role that organizational behavior plays in creating organizational results can be illustrated
by a set of factors and the relationships between the factors:

Knowledge * Skill = Ability

Attitude * Situation = Motivation

Ability * Motivation = Potential human performance

Potential performance * = Organizational results

Resources * Opportunity

Virtually, result oriented or productivity approach is a term used to describe an individual or

organization that focuses on outcome rather than process used to produce a product or deliver
a service.

❖ Systems Approach:
A system consists of several components or subsystems which depend on each other. A
system is defined as a unified whole or set of interrelated and interacting components.
Therefore, each system consists of boundaries, components, interactions between
components, inputs and outputs.
New discipline which brings together theoretical, practical, and methodological approaches,
relating to the study of what is recognized as too complex to be approached in a reductionist
way, and which poses the problems of borders, internal and external relationships, structures,
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laws or emerging properties characterizing the system as such, or the problems of: mode of
observation, representation, modeling or simulation of a complex totality is system approach.
Within the organization ‘people’ employ ‘technology’ in performing the ‘tasks’ that they are
responsible for, while the ‘structure’ of the organization serves as a basis for coordinating all
their different activities. The system view emphasizes the interdependence of each of these
elements within the organization, if the organization as a whole is to function effectively. The
other key aspect of the systems view of organizations is its emphasis on the interaction
between the organization and its broader environment which consists of social, economic,
cultural and political within which they operate.

Organizations are dependent upon their environment in two main ways:

First, the organization requires ‘inputs’ from the environment in the form of raw material,
people, money, ideas and so on. The organization itself can be thought of as performing
certain ‘transformation processes; on its inputs in order to create outputs in the form of
products or services. Secondly, the organization depends on the environment i.e., public to
accept its output i.e., products.
The systems view of organization, thus emphasizes the key interdependencies that
organizations must manage. Within themselves the organizations must trade off the
interdependencies among people, tasks, technology and structure in order to perform their
transformation processes effectively and efficiently. Organizations must also recognise their
interdependence with the broader environments within which they exist.

Treating an organization as a system is critically important to its success. The fundamental

elements of the systems approach include:
● There are many variables within a system;
● The parts of a system are interdependent;
● There are many subsystems contained within larger systems;
● Systems generally require inputs, engage in some process, and produce outputs;
● The input-process-output mechanism is cyclical and self-sustaining;
● Systems produce both positive and negative results;
● Systems produce both intended and unintended consequences;
● The consequences of systems may be short-term, long-term, or both.
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Thus, the systems approach compels managers to take a holistic view of the subject. Holistic
organizational behavior interprets people-organization relationships in terms of the whole
person, whole group, whole organization, and whole social system.

Selection of An Approach, Which I think Affects Me and My Job

Performance:
I select the system approach, which I think affects me and my job performance.

System approach compels managers to take a holistic view of the subject.

Place a look on it like, the clerk at a service counter, the machinist, and the manager all work
with people and thereby influence the behavioral quality of life in an organization and the
organization's outputs.
Managers, however, tend to have a larger responsibility, because they are the ones who make
more of the decisions affecting human issues and most of their daily activities are people
related.
Thus, in a system approach, the role of managers is to use organizational behavior to help and
achieve individual, organizational, and societal goals.

In What Ways and Why My Selected Approach Will Influence My Job

Performance?
System approach is the approach of subsystems, where all the related consequences are
interdependent within a holistic view as well as growth.
System approach indicates that managers help to 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 rewards which actually involve the
environmental aspects. The environment has great influence with fundamental elements in
system approach since all the tasks are accomplished in a system within an external and
internal corner like an organization receives several inputs from its environment such as
material, human and financial.

Moreover, a system approach has to determine whether potential actions will have a net
positive and negative effect within its system or subsystem which can be identified by the
cost-benefit analysis of organizational behavior.

If I am an employee of an organization, the system approach will influence my job

performance because I will be influenced by the fundamental elements, systems, process,
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resources, environments, tools, motivations, performance, rewards, development, and goals

of an organization required in a system approach.
Likewise, the utilization of talents, further development, and societal goals encourage me to
do things in better ways which will be more productive. Again, managers' support, behavioral
quality intended me to move forward to organizational effectiveness.

Inherently, the system approach policy of cost-benefit analysis is acceptable to me where I

know the destination whether I have the right or wrong directions to achieve the goals.

So, in the mentioned ways the system approach will influence my job performance if I am an
employee of an organization.

Epilogue:
Organizational Behavior relates to the relationship between employees and the employer in
an organization where both are working towards the realization of the goals and objectives of
organization, and a close and fruitful coordination between the two is one of the major factors
towards this realization. And these major factors work their following approaches to
organizational behavior in organization. The 4 basic approaches of organizational behavior
are the inputs while the efficiency of organization becomes the feedback.

In fact, organizational behavior approaches are a result of the research done by experts in this
field.

References:
Saravanakumar, Dr. AR. (2019). ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR. Alagappa University
SIM Mode Book.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330409514_UNIT_1_ORGANISATIONAL_BEHA
VIOUR

Donnadieu, G., Durand, D., Neel, D., Nunez, E., & Saint-Paul, L. (2003). The Systemic
Approach: what is it all about?
https://www.afscet.asso.fr/Archives/Systemic-Approach-eng.pdf

Newstrom, J.W. (2007). Organizational Behavior. McGraw-Hill Press.

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