Elements and Scope of Organisational Behaviour

Tables of Contents:-

Scope of Organisational Behaviour – OB
Elements of Organisational Behaviour

Scope of Organisational Behaviour – OB

The nature and scope of organisational behaviour are very vast. It is a social science as it is the scientific study of human behaviour. The following points encapsulate the main elements of organisational behaviour.

The scope of organisational behaviour is clarified as follows.

1) Skill Development

Entering and surviving in a new-age organization requires a certain set of skills i.e. work-related skills and generic skills such as problem-solving and communication skills. Organizational behaviour deals directly with generic skills. Skills related to organizational behaviour are gaining momentum in the current work scenario. For example, CIOs (Chief Information Officers) today work hand in hand with information technology professionals so that they can get a better insight into the business, communicate effectively with colleagues, and interact with other departments in a better manner. Soft skills like leadership, business knowledge, and communication have started playing a very crucial role in the overall running of the business.

2) Personal Growth through Insight into Human Behaviour

As per Robert P. Vecchio, people study organizational behaviour to attain the self-accomplishment that they get while learning about others’ behaviour and attitudes. This ultimately results in improved self-knowledge and self-insight. For example, when people study the factors that drive other people, they also come to know the factors that encourage them.

3) Improvement of Organisational and Individual Effectiveness

The study of organizational behaviour offers solutions for tackling organizational issues. It also improves organization effectiveness, i.e., the potential of an organization to be efficient and to meet the requirements of the parties involved.

OB improves organizational effectiveness by revealing factors such as :

Employee motivation
Communication hurdles and
Personality factors that enhance or obstruct effective performance.

Along with organizational effectiveness OB also provides approaches and competencies that improve the effectiveness of a person. A person with knowledge of conflict resolution, interpersonal communication, and teamwork would prove to be more efficient for the organization.

4) Enhancing and Perfecting Common Sense

Gaining insight into organizational behaviour is a critical aspect of a manager’s training since it imparts the necessary skills for handling subordinates, skills not typically found in books. Common sense without the knowledge of OB is not enough to manage the workforce.

Knowledge of OB sharpens and widens the sphere of common sense. It decreases the time one might need to attain important behavioural knowledge and skills. Common sense tells us that rewarding employees based on performance is an effective way to motivate them for better performance.

The study of organizational behavior emphasizes the infrequent distribution of rewards, rather than daily rewards. Furthermore, it emphasizes the need to customize rewards for different employees, taking into account their personalities and priorities.

For example, some people prefer loud appraisals while others might prefer appreciation based on the quality of the outcome.

5) Social Environment

Social environment means the association with other organisations in the society which influence each other. OB studies the effect and interaction of different social environments and disciplines.

6) Attitudes and Situation

The system of controls influences the two principal factors of particular motivation i.e., attitudes of workers and situation factors. An ideal mix of the three will yield desirable results. All these three controls, attitudes, and situations affect each other and a slight change in one factor may differ in the motivational pattern and working situation.

7) Philosophy and Goals

The philosophy and goals of management and workers create the climate of an organization. The philosophy of organisational behaviour of a man or things in common. It is a universally accepted fact just like the law of gravitation, the law of demand and supply, etc. Values premises represent the desirability of certain goals.

Value premises control human activities and behaviour to a large extent. The goal of an organisation is to produce more for the benefit of society, i.e., workers, investors, and the common public, and to satisfy their needs to a maximum extent in a befitting manner. OB attempts to harmonize individual motives with organisational goals.

8) Control System

Control is a must to get the best results. It intermingles formal organisations, informal organisations, and social environments, and such intermingling becomes possible only through communication, group process, effective interaction behavioural aspects, etc.

9) Inter-disciplinary Approach

Organizational behaviour, OB is an interdisciplinary science. It makes effective use of psychology, sociology, social psychology, Anthropology, Political Science, Economics, History, etc. All these social sciences contribute a lot to the theory and practice of organisational behaviour.

10) Formal and Informal Organisations

Philosophy and goals can be achieved through formal and informal organisations. A formal organisation interprets the philosophy and goals of the organisation and strictly implements them. Informal organisations, on the other hand, are opposite to formal organisations and are not implemented very rigidly.

Elements of Organisational Behaviour

Elements of organisational behaviour – Organizational behaviour relies on scientific methods to develop, evaluate and modify theories about human behaviour in organizations. This discipline is influenced by many behavioural sciences and social sciences. Important among them are sociology, psychology, and anthropology. Psychology focuses on what determines a person’s behaviour.

Various subdisciplines such as industrial psychology, clinical psychology, and experimental psychology have been developed in an attempt to answer this question. Sociology deals with groups, organizations, and societies rather than individuals. In addition, it considers the actual pattern of interaction, the effect of different social statuses on the interaction, and the effect of different roles on the interaction.

Therefore, sociology is the basis for trying to understand social behaviour or the dynamics of two or more individuals. Similarly, anthropology is a broad discipline that studies the origin and development of human culture, how those cultures have functioned in the past, and how they function in the present. This information is very useful in understanding human behaviour.

Management creates organizations to achieve certain goals. In an organization, the efforts of the people are coordinated by the structure of the authority-responsibility relationship. The organization uses three elements: people, structure, and technology to achieve performance.

These elements interact with the external environment and they are affected by it. This is aptly remarked by Keith Davis in the following words. Organizational behaviour is the study and application of knowledge about human behaviour in an organization as it relates to other elements such as technology, structure, and external social systems.

Related Article: Transactional Analysis in Organisational Behaviour

(i) People

All organizations are made up of both individuals and groups of people. Groups can be formal/informal, large/small. They are interrelated and complex. People are dynamic, they interact and also influence each other. They can bring organisational change and break the organization.

Organizations exist to serve people. Therefore the basic problem of management is to understand human behaviour so that they are better motivated to contribute to maximum performance.

(ii) Structure

Structure refers to the organizational design that defines the roles and relationships of people in the organization. Different people are given different roles and they have to play certain roles in the organisation. Organizational structure leads to the division of work which facilitates the employees in performing their duties to achieve organizational objectives.

Performance is expected from different levels in different sectors. Organizational structure deals with authority relationship relations and it coordinates the performance of the employees. The structure designed should be appropriate and should also suit the organizational members.

(iii) Technology

Technology provides the physical and economic conditions with which people perform in the organisation. Employees are provided with the help of machines, tools, methods, and resources. The nature of technology depends on the scale of organizational activities and operations. Technology affects the working conditions in the organisation. It places restrictions on the freedom of individuals.

(iv) Environment

Environment refers to the external environment provided by socio-cultural factors, economic factors, political conditions, and geographical forces. These factors affect the attitudes, objectives, and working conditions of the people in the organisation. The organization also has an impact on the environment. This type of interface continues as long as the organization is alive.