Understanding organizational behavior is important for everyone involved in an organization, not just the leadership and management teams. By gaining and understanding this knowledge each employee should be able to realize how their individual actions contribute to the big picture of the company. In order to understand this there are some key concepts and terminology that must be explained to make the learning process more manageable.
Organizational Behavior
Organizational behavior is the study of human behavior in organizational settings, the interface between human behavior and the organization, and the organization itself.
What is organizational behavior? According to Schermerhorn, Hunt, & Osborn it "is the study of individuals and groups in organizations." OB, as organizational behavior is called in short, is multidisciplinary. This means it does not only understand the individuals and groups of an organization but how interpersonal processes and dynamics relate to organizational behavior.
Historical roots of organizational behavior
Management had two approaches in the beginning.
• Scientific management ( work by Taylor )
According to Mr. Fredrick w. Taylor, manager is supposed to play the roles of planner and coordinator. An additional aspect of tailors approach reflected in his enthusiasm for piece rate pay system was his belief that all employees are economically motivated .that is, he assumed that monetary rewards were the primary incentive managers could use to motivate workers to achieve higher levels of output.
• Classical organization theory ( work by Weber )
According to Mr. Max Weber, classical organization theory was concerned with structuring organizations effectively. Whereas scientific management studied how individual workers could be made more efficient, classical organization theory studied how a large number of workers and...