IGNOU : M.COM : MCO 1 : UNIT4 : Q - 1. What do you mean by organisational Behaviour ? Explain meaning and scope of Organisational Behaviour.

 

Ans. In a simple term organisational behaviour refers to the behaviour of persons in an organisation. Everybody wants to understand others behaviour. Understanding others behaviour help the persons to influence them. As you must be aware that human behaviour is guided by the internal and external forces. The analysis of these forces provides an insight for understanding the behaviour.

According to Keith Davis, Organisational Behaviour is an academic discipline concerned with understanding and describing human behaviour in an organisational environment. It seeks to shed light on the whole complex human factor in organisations by identifying causes and effects of that behaviour. According to Joe Kelly, Organisational Behaviour is the systematic study of the nature of organisations: how they begin, grow, and develop, and their effect on individual members, constituent groups, other organisations, and large institutions. According to Luthans, Organisational Behaviour is directly concerned with the understanding, prediction, and control of human behaviour in organisations. According to Robbins, Organisational Behaviour is a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behaviour within organisations for the purpose of applying such knowledge towards improving an organisation’s effectiveness.According to Baron and Greenberg, Organisational Behaviour is the field that seeks knowledge of behaviour in organisational settings by systematically studying individual, group, and organisational processes.

On the basis of definitions stated and various other definitions, we can draw following conclusions related to nature and scope of Organisational Behaviour

• Interdisciplinary Approach: Organisational Behaviour integrates knowledge from various relevant disciplines. This issue will be clear to you after reading the section on genesis of Organisational Behaviour in this unit.

• An Applied Science: Organisational Behaviour is oriented towards understanding the forces that affect behaviour so that their affects may be predicted and guided towards effective functioning of organisation. This issue will be clearer to you after reading the section on goals of Organisational Behaviour in this section.

• Behavioural Approach to Management: Organisational Behaviour is directly connected with the human side of management, but it is not the whole of management. Organisational Behaviour is related with the conceptual and human dimensions of management. • Concern with Environment: Organisational Behaviour is concerned with issues like compatibility with environment e.g. person-culture fit, cross-cultural management etc.

 • Scientific Method: Organisational Behaviour follows the scientific method and makes use of logical theory in its investigation and in answering the research questions. It is empirical, interpretive, critical and creative science.

• Contingency Approach: There are very few absolutes in Organisational Behaviour. The approach is directed towards developing managerial actions that are most appropriate for a specific situation.

• A Systems Approach: Organisational Behaviour is a systematic vision as it takes into account all the variables affecting organisational functioning.

• Value Centred : Organisational Behaviour is a value-centred science.

• Utilizes two Kinds of Logic: It utilizes both objective and subjective logic. Objectivity is concerned with reaching a fact through empirical analyses. Subjectivity is concerned with deciding about an issue through intuition, common sense, experiences, gut feeling, metaphors, learning from stories and cases, persuasive literature etc.