Very Short Question and Answer

1. Point out the group-level input variables of the OB system.

The major group level input variables are enlisted as follows:

  • Size of group
  • Group composition
  • Role status.
  • Norms and value
  • Group cohesiveness
2. Point out the organization-level input variables of the OB system.

The organization-level input variables of the OB system are as follows:

  • Organization structure
  • Culture
  • Leadership, etc.
3. What do you mean by the term ‘behaviour’?

Behaviour refers to anything that a person does and can be observed in some way. Unlike minds, thoughts or feelings behavior can be observed.

4. Define organization and behaviour.

An organization is a consciously coordinated social unit, composed of two” or more people that functions on a relatively continuous basis to achieve a common goal or set of goals. Behaviour refers to anything that a person and can be observed in some way.

5. Define organizational behaviour.

Organizational behaviour is directly concerned with the understanding, prediction, and control of human behaviour in an organization. In other words, organizational behaviour is a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structures have on behaviour within an organization with the purpose of applying such knowledge to improve the organization’s effectiveness.

6. Enlist the few importance of OB

Some of the major importance of OB are listed as follows:

  • It helps to understand organization and employees in a better way
  • It motivates employees.
  • It helps to improve labor relations.
  • It assists in the prediction and control of human behaviour.
  • It helps in the maximization of human resources.
7. List out the critical behaviour issues confronting today’s managers.

The critical behaviour issues comforting today’s managers are enlisted as follows:

  • Globalization
  • Workforce diversity (heterogeneity)
  • Quality and production
  • Improving people skills
  • Empowerment of employees
  • Managing organization change
  • Improving ethical behaviour
8. What are the outputs of the OB system?

The key outputs of the OB system are enlisted as follows:

  • Productivity
  • Absenteeism
  • Turnover
  • Organization citizenship behaviour
  • Job satisfaction

Short Question and Answer

1. Define organizational behaviour. Explain the contributing disciplines to the field of organizational behaviour.

Organizational Behaviour

Organizational behaviour is directly concerned with the understanding, prediction, and control of human behaviour in an organization. In other words, organizational behaviour is a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups and structures have on behaviour within an organization with the purpose of applying such knowledge to improve the organization’s effectiveness. It is a human tool for human benefit and seeks to know the behaviour of people in all types of organizations.

To sum up, OB is concerned with the study of how and what people act in organizations and also how their behaviour affects the performance of the organization. Likewise, it applies knowledge gained about individuals and groups in order to make organizations work more effectively.

Contributing Disciplines to OB

Organization behaviour is an applied science that is built upon contribution from a number of behavioural science Some of the key disciplines that contribute to OB are explained briefly.

a) Psychology:

It is a science that describes the change of behaviour of humans and other animals. The major contributions of psychology in the field of OB have been in the following subject matter:

  • Learning
  • Personality
  • Perception
  • Performance appraisal
  • Individual decision-making
  • Attitude measurement
  • Employee selection
  • Motivation
  • Work design
  • Emotions
  • Work stress
  • Job satisfaction

b) Social psychology:

It is an area within psychology that blends concepts from psychology and sociology and focuses on the influence of people on one another. The major contributions of social psychology to OB are in the following subject matter:

  • Behaviour change
  • Attitude change
  • Communication
  • Group process
  • Group decision-making

c) Sociology:

It is the study of society, social institutions, and social relationships. The main contributions of sociology to the field of OB are in the following subject matter:

  • Group dynamics
  • Power
  • Conflict
  • Intergroup behaviour
  • Formal organizational theory
  • Organizational technology
  • Organizational culture
  • Communication
  • Organizational change

d) Anthropology:

It is the study of humans, past and present. The major contributions of Anthropology in the field of OB are in the following subject matter:

  • Comparative values
  • Cross-culture analysis
  • Comparative attitudes
  • Organization environment
  • Organization culture

e) Political Science:

It is the study of the behavior of individuals and groups within a political environment. The main contribution of political science in the field of OB has been concerned with the following subject matter:

  • Conflict
  • Intra-organizational politics
  • Power

2. Explain the challenges and opportunities for organizational behavior.

The most critical challenges and opportunities in the context of organizational behavior are discussed as follows:

a) Responding to Economic Pressure:

Effective management is often at a premium during difficult economic times, Anybody can manage an organization in a condition when business is booming. But at critical or bad times, managers are on the front lines to manage organizations and employees, who are asked to make do with less and who worry about their futures. Some of the employees must be fired to cope with the situation. The difference between good and bad management can be the difference between profit and loss or, ultimately, between survival and failure. Managers should follow different OB approaches on the basis of good and bad times in the organization. In good times, understanding how to reward, satisfy, and retain employees is at a premium. In bad times, issues like stress, decision making, and coping come to the front for a manager.

b) Responding to Globalization:

Organizations are no longer constrained by national borders today. Burger King is owned by a British firm, and McDonald’s sells hamburgers in Kathmandu. Exxon Mobil of a U.S. company receives almost 75 percent of its revenues from sales outside the United States. New employees at South Korea-based Samsung Company are increasingly being recruited from India, China, Nepal, and other developing countries. And all major automobile makers now manufacture cars outside their borders; Honda builds cars in Ohio, Ford in Brazil, Volkswagen in Mexico, and both Mercedes and BMW in South Africa. The world has become a global village. The process of globalization has changed the manager’s job drastically. Consequently, the manager’s job is becoming more and more challenging.

c) Managing Workforce Diversity:

Adapting and managing employees who are different from each other is a challenging job for modern managers. It is known as workforce diversity. Workforce diversity admits a workforce of women and men; many cultural and ethnic groups; individuals with a variety of physical or psychological abilities; and people who differ in age and gender. Thus, managing diversity is a global concern. Most European countries have experienced dramatic growth in immigration from the Middle East and Asia and South American countries. Nations from India to Iraq to Indonesia find great cultural diversity within their borders. Such a situation presents great opportunities and it also poses challenges for managers and employees in the countries of destination.

d) Improving Customer Service:

Today, the majority of employees in developed countries work in service jobs. Service jobs include technical support representatives, fast-food counter workers, sales clerks, waiters and waitresses, nurses, automobile repair technicians, consultants, credit representatives, financial planners, and flight attendants. Customer service is the most important responsibility of employees of modern organizations. The meaning and importance of customer service as outlined in the retail philosophy, ‘Our store is a place where the word “no” does not exist; empower staff to use their best judgment in all customer service matters.”

Many organizations have failed to make a profit because their employees failed to please customers. Hence, management needs to create a customer-responsive culture. Here, OB can provide meaningful guidance in helping managers create cultures, in which employees are friendly and courteous, accessible, knowledgeable, prompt in responding to customer needs, and willing to do what’s necessary to please the customer.

e) Helping Employees Balance Work-Life Conflicts:

Employees are increasingly complaining that the line between work and non-work time has become blurred, creating personal conflicts and stress. At the same time, today’s workplace presents opportunities for workers to involve and earn more by modifying their own roles. But this may trigger work-life conflicts. Recent studies suggest that employees want jobs that give them flexibility in their work schedules. So that they can better manage work-life conflicts. Communication technology allows many technical and professional employees to do their work at home or outside the office. It also means many feel as if they never really get away from the office.

Many employees are involved in more than one organization for the sake to earn more for a better livelihood. They rush from one company to another with a strict time bond. For instance, many lecturers from Tribhuvan University and Kathmandu University are engaging in many other private colleges in Kathmandu. These circumstances clarify the trend of dual and multiple careers. The growing multi-career makes it difficult for married employees to get time for spouses, children, parents, and friends. Millions of single-parent households and parents with dependents have even more challenges in balancing work and family responsibilities. Organizational behaviour may help employees to balance work-life conflicts with ideas and techniques.

3. Why is it important to understand organizational behaviour?

Need for Understanding Organizational Behaviour

Organizational behaviour is directly concerned with the understanding, prediction, and control of human behaviour in an organization. In other words, organizational behaviour is a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structures have on behaviour within an organization with the purpose of applying such knowledge to improve the organization’s effectiveness.

The understanding organization is important because we spend our lives interacting with them. If the world is a stage, it is a stage filled with organizations. We play our roles/parts on an organizational stage. By acting our parts, we influence organizations and organizations also influence us. In this regard, it is extremely important to understand these behavioural aspects of the organization. The necessity of understanding OB is explained through the following points.

The study of OB helps us understand ourselves and others in a better way. This helps greatly in improving our interpersonal relations in the organizations. Friendly and cordial relations between employees and management and also among the employees create a congenial work environment in organizations.

The knowledge of OB helps the managers know individual employees better and motivate employees to work for better results. It helps managers apply appropriate motivational techniques in accordance with the nature of individual employees who exhibit glaring differences in many respects.

One of the basic characteristics of OB is that it is human in nature. So to say, OB tackles human problems humanly. It helps understand the cause of the problem predicts its future course of action and controls its evil consequences. Thus, treating employees as human beings enables the managers to maintain cordial industrial relations which, in turn, create peace and harmony in the organization.

Another popular reason for studying OB is to learn how to predict human behaviour and, then, apply it in some useful way to make the organization more effective. Thus, knowledge of OB becomes a prerequisite for students of BBS who is going to assume a managerial job.

Finally, all organizations are run by humans. Human working in the organizations makes all the difference. This is where OB comes into the picture. OB helps managers efficiently manage human resources in an organization. It enables managers to inspire and motivate employees towards productivity and better results.

4. State briefly the levels of analysis of OB.

Levels of OB

Organization behaviour is the systematic study of what people do in an organization and how their behaviour affects the organization’s performance. Analysis of organizational behaviour can be done in reference to three key levels illustrated by the below-given figure.

a) Individual level:

OB views the organization as an individual’s behaviour. It studies the individual behaviour of people and how they react to the organizational plans, policies, etc. Psychological theories like learning, motivation and leadership are also considered in studying the behaviour of an individual. It also studies the factor like learning, perception, belief, and attitude of each individual.

b) Group level:

OB views the organization as group behaviour. Does it study how the group interacts with each other? How do they work? What types of tasks the groups are performing? How does leadership influence the group? etc.

c) Organizational level:

OB is the behavioural science. It studies the behaviour of an organization as a whole. Studying the organization applies the knowledge of behavioral science. OB analyzes how the organizational structure, designs, and technology influence organizational effectiveness. It tries to focus on the relationship between the organization and environmental factor that directly or indirectly affects the organization.

Long Question and Answer

1. Why is the understanding of behaviors of people at work necessary? Discuss the critical behavioral issues the modern managers are facing.

The necessity of understanding the behaviors of people at work is necessary

Organizational behavior is directly concerned with the understanding, prediction, and control of human behavior in an organization. In other words, organizational behavior is a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structures have on behavior within an organization with the purpose of applying such knowledge to improve the organization’s effectiveness.

The understanding organization is important because we spend our lives interacting with them. If the world is a stage, it is a stage filled with organizations. We play our roles/parts on an organizational stage. By acting our parts, we influence organizations and organizations also influence us. In this regard, it is extremely important to understand these behavioral aspects of the organization. The necessity to understand OB is explained through the following points.

The study of OB helps us understand ourselves and others in a better way.. This helps greatly in improving our interpersonal relations in the organizations. Friendly and cordial relations between employees and management and also among the employees create a congenial work environment in organizations.

The knowledge of OB helps the managers know individual employees better and motivate employees to work for better results. It helps managers apply appropriate motivational techniques in accordance with the nature of individual employees who exhibit glaring differences in many respects.

One of the basic characteristics of OB is that it is human in nature. So to say, OB tackles human problems humanly. It helps understand the cause of the problem, predicts its future course of action, and controls its evil consequences. Thus, treating employees as human beings enables the managers to maintain cordial industrial relations which, in turn, create peace and harmony in the organization.

Another popular reason for studying OB is to learn how to predict human behavior and, then, apply it in some useful way to make the organization more effective. Thus, knowledge of OB becomes a prerequisite for students of BBS who are going to assume a managerial job.

Finally, all organizations are run by humans. Humans working in organizations make all the difference. This is where OB comes into the picture. OB helps managers efficiently manage human resources in an organization. It enables managers to inspire and motivate employees towards productivity and better results.

Critical behavioral issues faced by Modern Manager

Human beings are a complex phenomenon. Two people act differently in the same situation. As the behavior of an individual and group are different, complexities occur, Regulating an organization smoothly hence has become a challenge. In this regard, the critical behavioral issues confronting the managers are explained briefly:

  • Responding to globalization: Globalization has turned the world into one small village. Managers of today are required to work with people from different cultures. Globalization requires managers to modify their management practices to suit differences among people from different cultures and countries.
  • Workforce diversity. Workforce diversity refers to different types of the workforce in an organization in terms of gender, race, and ethnicity. Due to workforce diversity, there is a great challenge for the manager to manage and coordinate them toward the goal of the organization.
  • Skill deficiency: Skill deficiency is another critical behavioral issue for the manager. Due to the development of the IT sector, companies are installing advanced technologies to cope with the competition. Companies, on one hand, install advanced technology, on the other hand, they lack the required skill to operate. The existing human resources do not possess the required skill and can’t be replaced. Providing training to the existing staff to eliminate the deficiencies in skill is another critical issue
  • Managing change: Change is an ongoing activity for most organizations. Change is essential for both employees and managers. Employee needs change to continually update their knowledge and skill to meet new job requirements. Managers need change to sustain and succeed in a complex work environment. In this regard, it is important to manage change in an organization which is a critical issue to confront.
  • Improvising ethical behavior: Managers of today face a lot of ethical dilemmas. Managers need to create an ethically healthy climate for employees. They should establish codes of conduct, and offer training and seminars to improve ethical behavior.
2. What is organizational behavior? Explain the critical behavioral issues confronting the managers.

Concept of OB

Organizational behavior is directly concerned with the understanding, prediction, and control of human behavior in an organization. In other words, organizational behavior is a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structures have on behavior within an organization with the purpose of applying such knowledge to improve the organization’s effectiveness. It is a human tool for human benefit and seeks to know the behavior of people in all types of organizations.

To sum up, OB is concerned with the study of how and what people act in organizations and also how their behavior affects the performance of the organization. Likewise, it applies knowledge gained about individuals and groups in order to make organizations work more effectively.

Critical Behavioral Issues Confronting the Managers

Human beings are a complex phenomenon. Two people act differently in the same situation. As behavior of an individual and group are different, complexities occur. Regulating an organization smoothly hence has become a challenge. In this regard, the critical behavioral issues confronting the managers are explained briefly:

  • Responding to globalization: Globalization has turned the world into one small village. Managers of today are required to work with people from different cultures. Globalization requires managers to modify their management practices to suit differences among people from different cultures and countries.
  • Workforce diversity: Workforce diversity refers to different types of the workforce in an organization in terms of gender, race, and ethnicity. Due to workforce diversity, there is a great challenge for the manager to manage and coordinate them toward the goal of the organization.
  • Skill deficiency: Skill deficiency is another critical behavioral issue for the manager. Due to the development of the IT sector, companies are installing advanced technologies to cope with the competition. Companies at hand install the advanced technology, on the other hand, they lack the required skill to operate. The existing human resources do not possess the required skill and can’t be replaced. Providing training to the existing staff to eliminate the deficiencies in skill is another critical issue
  • Managing change: Change is an ongoing activity for most organizations. Change is essential for both employees and managers, employees need change to continually update their knowledge and skill to meet new job requirements. Managers need change to sustain and succeed in a complex work environment. In this regard, it is important to manage change in an organization which is a critical issue to confront.
  • Improvising ethical behavior: Managers of today face a lot of ethical dilemmas. Managers need to create an ethically healthy climate for employees. They should establish codes of conduct, and offer training and seminars to improve ethical behavior.
3. Explain the fundamental concepts of OB.

Fundamental Concepts of OB

Like all other disciplines/subjects, OB is also based on certain key elements also called ‘Fundamental concepts or assumptions’. There are four key elements in OB which are explained below.

PeopleOrganizations are run by people. People consist of individuals and groups Though people have much in common (they become happy by having gained and sad by losing something valuable), they differ from each other. One can find glaring differences in people’s traits, intelligence, personality, etc. The Manager cannot adopt one formula or standard across the board for dealing with employees. The manager has to treat employees with individual differences differently. It is because of individual differences, the subject matter of OB begins with the individual.

An individual joins an organization along with his/her social background, likes and dislikes, pride, and prejudices. An individual’s family life cannot be separated from organizational life. Therefore, OB studies an individual as a whole person.

Human behavior is always caused. Behavior is directed towards some goals. There is always a cause behind every human behavior or act. For example, when a worker is absent from work, there is a cause behind it. The manager must know the cause to solve the problem. People think, feel, react, etc. The manager, therefore, needs to treat them with human dignity, not just as a machine.

Structure Organizations are social systems. There are two types of social systems that exist side by side in an organization. One is formal and the other is the informal social system. The formal relationship of people in organizations is called structure. Different jobs are required to accomplish the organizational goals and objectives. For example, there are managers, accountants, and assemblers. All people performing different jobs at different levels have to be related in some structural way so that their work can be effectively coordinated.

That people need organizations and organizations also need people. It means that OB is based on mutuality of interest. It is mutual interest that unites people and organizations to work in tandem for accomplishing individual and organizational goals.

Technology:

Technology provides the resources with which people work. It also affects the tasks that they perform. The great benefit of technology is that it allows people to do work in an advanced and efficient manner. However, it also reduces the human impact.

Environment:

No organization work in a vacuum. They operate within a given internal and external environment. An organization is a part of a larger system that contains other factors or elements, such as a government, the family, and other organizations. These entire factor mutually influence one another in a complex way. Thus, organizations are influenced by the environment. Environment affects people by influencing their attitudes, working conditions, etc. It will not be wrong to mention that an organization is an effect for which environment is the cause. Hence, the environment is another key element in the study of OB.

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