8/13/2019 Material OB I

1/4

2. Basic Approaches of Organisational Behavior

i) An Interdisciplinary Approach : It is integrating many disciplines. It integrates socialsciences and other disciplines that can contribute to the Organizational Behavior. It draws fromthese disciplines any ideas that will improve the relationships between people and organization.

Its interdisciplinary nature is similar to that of medicine, which applies physical, biological andsocial scienceinto a workable medical practice. Organizations must have people, and peopleworking toward goals must have organizations, so it is desirable to treat the twoas a working unit.ii) Scientific Management Approach: The fundamental concern of the scientific managementschool was to increase the efficiency of the worker basically through good job design andappropriate training of the workers. Taylor is the father of the scientific management movementand he developed many ides to increase organizational efficiency. Taylor showed that through

proper job design, worker selection, employee training and incentives, productivity can beincreased. The scientific management school advocated that efficiency can be attainted byfinding the right methods to get the job done, through specialization on the job, by planning and

scheduling, by using standard operating mechanisms, establishing standard times to do the job, by proper selection and training of personnel and through wage incentives.iii) A Human Resources (Supportive) Approach: It is developmental approach concerned withthe growth and development of people toward higher levels of competency creativity andfulfillment, because people are the central resource in any organizations and any society. It helps

people grow in self-control and responsibility and then it tries to create a climate in which allemployees may contribute to the limits of their improved abilities. It is assumed that expandedcapabilities and opportunities for people will lead directly to improvements in operatingeffectiveness. Work satisfaction will be a direct result when employees make fuller use of theircapabilities. Essentially, the human resources approach means that better people achieve betterresults.iv) A Contingency Approach: Traditional management relies on one basic principle there is

one best way of managing things and these things can be applied across the board in all theinstances. The situational effect will be totally ignored in this traditional management. Situationsare much more complex than first perceived and the different variables may require different

behavior which means that different environments required different behavior for effectiveness.Each situation much be analyzed carefully to determine the significant variables that exist inorder to establish the kinds of practices that will be more effective.Contingency theorist argues that the external environment and several aspects of the internalenvironment govern the structure of the organization and the process of management. Effectivemanagement will vary in different situations depending on the individual and groups in theorganization, the nature of jobs, technology, the type of environment facing the organization andits structurev) A Systems Approach: This implies that organization consists of many inter related and interdependent elements affecting one another in order to achieve the overall results. Conceptually asystem implies that there are a multitude of variables in organization and that each of themaffects all the others in complex relationships. An event that appears to affect one individual orone department actually may have significant influences elsewhere in the organization. Systemstheorists describe the organization as open to its external environment, re ceiving certain inputsfrom the environment such as human resources, raw materials etc, and engaging in various

8/13/2019 Material OB I

2/4

operations to transform those raw materials into a finished products and finally turning out theoutputs in its final form to be sent to the e nvironment. The organization, since it is open to theenvironment, also receives feedback from the environment and takes corrective action asnecessary. This input-transformation process-output model with the feedback mechanism can beillustrated through a simple example.

Organizations are social systems . If one wishes to work in them or to manage them, it isnecessary to understand how they operate. Organizations combine science and people technology and humanity. Unless we have qualified people to design and implement,techniques alone will not produce desirable results. Human behavior in organizations is ratherunpredictable. It is unpredictable because it arises from peoples deep -seated needsand value systems. However, it can be partially understood in terms of the framework of

behavioral science, management and other disciplines. There is no idealistic solution toorganizational problems. All that can be done is to increase our understanding and skills so thathuman relations at work can be enhanced.

Modern organizational theory is rooted in concepts developed during the Industrial Revolution.During that period was the research of Max Weber , a German sociologist. Weber based hismodel bureaucracy on legal and absolute authority, logic, and order. Weber believed that

bureaucracies, staffed by bureaucrats, represented the ideal organizational form. In the bureaucracy, responsibilities for workers are clearly defined and behavior is controlled by rules, policies, and procedures. One can suggest that W ebers bureaucracy mimicked a machine, people were arranged to perform specific functions, each of which worked in concert withanother to form a streamlined process.

Modern organizational theory is rooted in concepts developed during the Industrial Revolution.During that period was the research of Max Weber, a German sociologist. Weber based hismodel bureaucracy on legal and absolute authority, logic, and order. Weber believed that

bureaucracies, staffed by bureaucrats, represented the ideal organizational form. Max Weber(1947) expanded on Taylor's theories, and stressed the need to reduce diversity and ambiguity inorganizations. The focus was on establishing clear lines of authority and control.Weber's bureaucratic theory emphasized the need for a hierarchical structure of power. Itrecognized the importance of division of labor and specialization. A formal set of rules was

bound into the hierarchy structure to insure stability and uniformity. Weber also put forth thenotion that organizational behavior is a network of human interactions, where all behavior could

be understood by looking at cause and effect. Administrative theory (i.e., principles ofmanagement) was formalized in the 1930's by Mooney and Reiley (1931). The emphasis was onestablishing a universal set of management principles that could be applied to all organizations.Classical management theory was rigid and mechanistic. The shortcomings of classicalorganization theory quickly became apparent. Its major deficiency was that it attempted toexplain peoples' motivation to work strictly as a function of economic reward.

4. Motivation is a psychological feature that induces an organism to act towards a desired goal andelicits, controls, and sustains certain goal-directed behaviors. It can be considered a driving force; apsychological one that compels or reinforces an action toward a desired goal. For example, hunger is amotivation that elicits a desire to eat. Motivation is the purpose or psychological cause of an action . [1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivation#cite_note-Schater2011-1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivation#cite_note-Schater2011-1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivation#cite_note-Schater2011-1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivation#cite_note-Schater2011-1

8/13/2019 Material OB I

3/4

Motivation has been shown to have roots in physiological, behavioral, cognitive, and social areas.Motivation may be rooted in a basic impulse to optimize well-being, minimize physical pain and maximizepleasure. It can also originate from specific physical needs such as eating, sleeping or resting, and sex.

Motivation is an inner drive to behave or act in a certain manner. "It's the difference between waking upbefore dawn to pound the pavement and lazing around the house all day."These inner conditions such aswishes, desires and goals, activate to move in a particular direction in behavior.

Theory X and Theory Y are theories of human motivation created and developed by DouglasMcGregor at the MIT Sloan School of Management in the 1960s that have been used in humanresource management, organizational behavior, organizationalcommunication and organizationaldevelopment. They describe two contrasting models of workforce motivation.Theory X andTheory Y have to do with the perceptions managers hold on their employees, not the way theygenerally behave. It is attitude not attributes.

Theory X of McGregor

In this theory, management assumes employees are inherently lazy and will avoid work if they

can and that they inherently dislike work. As a result of this, management believes that workersneed to be closely supervised and comprehensive systems of controls developed. A hierarchicalstructure is needed with narrow span of control at each and every level. According to this theory,employees will show little ambition without an enticing incentive program and will avoidresponsibility whenever they can. According to Michael J. Papa, if the organizational goals are to

be met, Theory X managers rely heavily on threat and coercion to gain their employees'compliance. Beliefs of this theory lead to mistrust, highly restrictive supervision, and a punitiveatmosphere. The Theory X manager tends to believe that everything must end in blamingsomeone. He or she thinks all prospective employees are only out for themselves. Usually thesemanagers feel the sole purpose of the employee's interest in the job is money. They will blamethe person first in most situations, without questioning whether it may be the system, policy, orlack of training that deserves the blame. A Theory X manager believes that his or her employeesdo not really want to work, that they would rather avoid responsibility and that it is the manager's

job to structure the work and energize the employee. One major flaw of this management style isit is much more likely to cause diseconomies of scale in large pic.

Theory Y

In this theory, management assumes employees may be ambitious and self-motivated andexercise self-control . It is believed that employees enjoy their mental and physical work duties.According to them work is as natural as play. They possess the ability for creative problemsolving, but their talents are underused in most organizations. Given the proper conditions,

Theory Y managers believe that employees will learn to seek out and accept responsibility and toexercise self-control and self-direction in accomplishing objectives to which they are committed.A Theory Y manager believes that, given the right conditions, most people will want to do wellat work. They believe that the satisfaction of doing a good job is a strong motivation. Many

people interpret Theory Y as a positive set of beliefs about workers. A close reading of TheHuman Side of Enterprise reveals that McGregor simply argues for managers to be opened to amore positive view of workers and the possibilities that this creates. He thinks that Theory Ymanagers are more likely than Theory X managers to develop the climate of trust with

8/13/2019 Material OB I

4/4