Chapter 1

The Elements of Organizational Behavior

An Overview of Human Behavior in Organizations 1. people
2. structure
For so long, manmade serious attempts to be productive, 3. technology
economic, or otherwise. He did it either individually or 4. environment
in group. In his quest for fulfilling his dreams, he is
always confronted with the risk of failure, and the risk is The internal social system of the organization is
most often associated with the human factor, i.e., him composed of people consisting of individual persons and
and the groups. The individual person is inducted as a member
others. Even if it was a machine that disrupted the of a formal group, but soon, he or she may become a
production process, the person who decided to buy or member of an informal group. The structure defines the
use the machine faces the risk of placing his character formal relationship of people in the organization. It
under suspicion. It has become clear that the quality and describes how job tasks are formally divided, grouped,
quantity of the output of the individual, the group, or the and coordinated. Technology refers to the
organization depend heavily on the actions of the person. combination of resources, knowledge, and techniques
It follows that those who have knowledge of human with which people work and affect the task that they
behavior are better equipped to interact with perform. It consists of buildings, work processes, and
individuals, groups, or organizations. assembled resources. Environment refers to institutions
or forces outside the organization that potentially affect
What is Human Behavior? the organization's performance. It includes
Human behavior refers to the physical actions of a suppliers, customers, competitors, government
person that can be seen or heard such as smiling or regulatory agencies, public pressure groups, and the like.
whistling. With the thoughts, feelings, emotions, and
sentiments, the person exhibits behaviors similar or The Benefits of Studying Organizational Behavior
different when he is in or out of organizations.
The study of OB offers certain benefits. They are as
Human behavior in organizations is more appropriately follows:
referred to as organizational behavior (OB) 1. development of people skills;
2. personal growth;
What is Organizational Behavior? 3. enhancement of organizational and individual
Organizational behavior or OB may be defined as the effectiveness; and
study of human behavior in organization, of the 4. sharpening and refinement of common sense.
interaction between individuals and the organization,
and of the organization itself. Development of People Skills:
The Goals of Organizational Behavior
The three goals of OB are as follows: Two types of skills that a person will need to succeed in
1. to explain behavior; his chosen career:
2. to predict behavior; and 1. the skill in doing his work; and
3. to control behavior 2. the skill in relating with people

The Places Where the Person Exhibits His Behavior A person who is much adept in the performance of his
In explaining behavior as a goal, OB needs to work may be successful up to a certain extent, but he
systematically describe how people behave under a will require another skill to make other people believe
variety of conditions, and understand why people behave that he should be more successful that his current
as they do. OB must be used to predict behavior so achievement.
support can be provided to productive and dedicated An example is the dentist who is well-trained in his
employees, and measures could be instituted to control discipline but is avoided by many would-be patients. Is it
disruptive and less productive ones. OB can offer some not surprising to see a number of dentists with
means for management to control the behavior of insufficient number of patients. Many of these dentists
employees. As control is an important component of would benefit from acquiring people skills through the
effective performance, the usefulness of OB must study of OB Another example is the group of highly
not be overlooked productive employees who complain that they are
always bypassed in promotions. Studying OB may help
them find answers to their queries
 concerned scientists and experts made studies which
have direct or indirect bearing to OB.
Personal Growth
Personal growth makes a person highly competitive in
the workplace. The chance to achieve personal growth is The origin of OB can be traced to the following:
enhanced by knowledge of OB. For instance, knowledge 1. the human relations approach
of the behavior of others through the study of OB will a. the scientific management approach by Frederick W.
help the person understand his own behavior. A person Taylor
who b. the human relations approach by Elton Mayo and
strives to know himself better is entering the realm of others
intrapersonal intelligence, which is a very useful type of 2. the personality theories
intelligence for one who wants to achieve his personal a. Freud's model
goals. Intrapersonal thinking may be described briefly b. the behaviorist approach by Watson and Skinner
as one possessed by a person with highly c. the humanist approach by Carl Rogers, Fritz Perls, and
accurate understanding of himself or herself. Abraham Maslow

Enhancement of Organizational and Individual Frederick W. Taylor was the well-known disciple of
Effectiveness the scientific management movement. The primary
purpose of scientific management was the application of
Effectiveness is a major attribute of successful scientific methods to increase the individual worker's
organizations, as well as individuals. When the right productivity. Taylor used scientific analysis and
decisions are made, effectiveness follows. In decision experiment to increase
making, knowledge of OB can be very useful. For worker output. He did it by regarding individuals as
instance, there are persons who perform better when equivalents of machine parts and assigned the specific
they work in the afternoons. It would be a mistake to repetitive tasks.
make them work in the morning and expect that they
will perform better. Such errors could be avoided if the Elton Mayo and his research team conducted the
one authorized to decide on work assignments have Hawthorne studies in 1920 to determine what effect
knowledge of OB hours of work, periods of rests, and lighting
might have on worker fatigue and productivity. It was
Sharpening and Refinement of Common Sense discovered that the social environment have an
equivalent if not greater effect on productivity than the
People differ in the degree of common sense they physical environment. Mayo concluded that social
possess. Improvements in this type of ability, however, interaction is a factor of increased productivity.
can still be made and great benefits can be derived if this
is done. For instance, common sense dictates that Another group of researchers espoused the
persons working in hot and humid places cannot perform personality theories and made significant contributions
well. Common sense, however, cannot easily to the development of OB.
provide information on the exact temperature that
will make them work at optimum levels. In A great contributor is the psychologist Sigmund Freud
those types of concerns, knowledge of OB may be who brought the idea that people are motivated by far
very useful. more than conscious logical reasoning. Freud believed
that irrational motives make up the hidden subconscious
mind, which determines the major part of people's
A Brief History of Organizational Behavior behavior. Through an approach called behaviorism,
History tells us that behind every major accomplishment another eminent psychologist, J.B. Watson,
of man is some sort of organization. Thousands of years formulated the theory about learned behavior. This
ago, the pyramids of Egypt and the temples in Central theory indicates that a person can be trained to behave
and South America were built by workers recruited from according to the wish of the trainer.
among the populace. Whether or not there were attempts
to make these types of workers perform better can be the
subject of inquiry. What we see in the movies is the Some Key Behavioral Science Assumptions, Concepts
whip, which as we understand was designed to make and Principles:
the workers do their assigned tasks. It is modern
history, however, that provide us with records of how ASSUMPTIONS:
 1. Every person is significantly different from the
moment of conception.
2. Every person is constantly active, goal-seeking
organism.
3. Every person is dynamic.
4. The characteristics of an organization influence
the behavior of the entire organization.
5. Behavior cannot be predicted with one hundred
percent accuracy.
6. There are no simple cookbook formulas for
working with people.

CONCEPTS:
1. Almost all behavior is learned.
2. Human beings adapt.

PRINCIPLES:
1. Thorndike’s law of effect.
The Law of Effect says that behaviors that lead to
satisfaction in a specific situation are likely to be
repeated when the situation recurs, and behaviors that
lead to discomfort in a specific situation are less likely to
be repeated when the situation recurs.
2. Stimulus and response pattern.
3. Pavlov’s classical conditioning.

Methods of Studying Human Behavior:

The methods used in studying human behavior are

almost the same as those in other sciences.
 Experiments
 Observations
 Interview
 Survey
 Introspection

Other methods:

1. Three – Level Model

2. Interdisciplinary Model
3. Developmental Model
4. Systems Model
5. Contingency Model