Various Definitions on Organisational Behaviour

Organisational Behaviour seeks knowledge of all aspects of behaviour in organisation settings through the systematic study of individual,group and organisation porcesses.OB practioners, researchers and academicians around the globe have defined OB. Some of the important definitions are listed below: 

"Organisational Behaviour is a way of thinking,a way of conceiving problems and articulation rsearch and actions for solutions."- Larry L.Cummings.

"Organisational Behaviour is a subject of management activities concerned with understanding, predicting and influencing individual behaviour in organisational settings." - Robert E. Callahan.

"Organisational Behaviour is the result of interaction and interdependency between formal organisation and the human factor variables." - Fred Luthans.

"The study and application of knowledge about human behaviour in organisations as it relates to the other system elements, such as structures, technology and the external social systems.”  - Keith Davis.

"Organisational Behaviours is a field of study that investigates the impact that individual, groups and structure have on behaviour within the organisations for the purpose of applying such knowledge towards improving an organisation's effectiveness."  -  Stephen .P. Robbins.

“Study and application of knowledge how people act or behave within organization. It is a human tool for human benefit. It applies broadly to the behaviour of people in all types of organizations such as business, government, schools and services organizations.” - Davis and Newstorm.

" The study of behaviour, attitudes and performance of workers in an organisational setting; the organisation's and groups' effects on the workers' perceptions, feelings, and actions, the environments' effect in the organisation and its human resources and goals, and the effect of the workers on the organisation and its effectiveness."  -  Szilagyi and Wallace.

“Organisational Behaviour is the study of human behaviour in organisational Settings, the interface between the human behaviour and the organisation,and the organisation itself.” -  Ricky W. Griffin, Gregory Moorhead.

“Actions and attitudes of individuals and groups toward one another and toward the organization as a whole, and its effect on the organization's functioning and performance. “ - Business Dictionary.com.

 “Organizational Behavior studies encompasses the study of organizations from multiple viewpoints, methods, and levels of analysis.” – Wiki Answers.

Organisational Behaviour - Definition

With the advent of globalization, Organisations are undergoing unprecedented and revolutionary change. From the speed of Decision Making, Technological and Global Perspective pressures, Mergers and Acquisitions, the need to rethink business processes and alliances, Organisations are constantly faced with shifting demands. All these challenges complicate their task of managing an organization. If the managers are to facilitate the smooth functioning of their organization, they have to effectively manage the most important resource available to them, i.e., the human resource. This is where OB plays an important role. OB is a study that helps managers in understanding and analyzing the nature of an organization’s workgroups and the individuals within a work group.

What does Organizational Behaviour study of Organisation

The study of organizational behaviour focuses on three characteristics aspects of organization. These are behaviour, structure and process.

Behaviour: Organizations are created by people to benefit people. In order to understand organization behaviour we must be able to understand the behaviour of individuals. The study of perception, job satisfaction, motivation and learning are all concerned with the behaviour of individuals. The study of behaviour includes how individuals respond to situations exposed to them.

Structure: The term structure refers to the fixed and formal relationships of the organization such as how jobs are assigned to various departments, who reports to whom and how the jobs and departments are arranged in an organizational chart. The structure of an organization has a large influence on behaviour of individuals working and the effectiveness of the organization.

Processes: The term processes in the context of organization refers to the interactions among the members of the organization. Communication, leadership and power are examples of some of the major organizational process.

Defining Organizational behavior 

Keith Davis  defines Organizational Behaviour “An academic discipline concerned with understanding human behaviour, describing human behaviour”. OB is not a discipline like other disciplines. It is an integration of several areas of knowledge such as sociology, psychology, anthropology, political science and economics.

According to Stephen Robbins;“OB is a field of study that investigates the impact of individual, groups and structure have on behaviour within the organisation”. He adds that the purpose of this study is to apply this knowledge and improve the organisational efficiency.

 “ Organizational behaviour is directly concerned with the understanding, prediction and control of human behaviour in organizations “.Fred Luthens

 “ Study and application of knowledge how people act or behave within organization. It is a human tool for human benefit. It applies broadly to the behaviour of people in all types of organizations such as business, government, schools and services organizations “.Davis and Newstorm 

In simple terms Organizational behavior is an academic discipline concerned with describing, understanding, predicting, and controlling human behavior in an organizational environment. It attempts to apply this knowledge in the effective management of human resources in an organization. OB is a discipline that studies the effect of organizational structure and design, and the changes in the organizational environment on the behavior of the workforce.

Source: Organisational Behaviour – Stephen Robbins

Defining Organisation

 A corporation can use the Internet to work seamlessly with professionals such as lawyers and accountants who remain "outside" the corporate walls as consultants rather than company employees... companies should focus on their core competencies... Despite the emergence of new, flexible boundaries, big companies won't deconstruct themselves into per-project production companies. Companies need to excel in consistent in-house execution of their core competencies.... they'll just use technology to do it more efficiently. Every company will experiment to find its optimal size and organizational structure...  Bill Gates, Business @ The Speed of Thought. 1999. Ch.8: "Change in the Boundaries of Business," pp.133ff.

The term “Organization” is a word that is used every day in different context to mean different things. Organisation is derived from the Greek word Organon, itself derived from the better-known word Ergon - meaning a compartment for a particular job.

There are a number of perspectives as how organization is viewed; from a Process - Related perspective, an organization is viewed as an entity and the focus is to complete a set of tasks or actions. From a Functional Perspective the focus is on how businesses or state authorities are used, Institutional Perspective views organization as a purposeful structure within a social context. Simply stated Management views organization from an instrumental point of view.

According to Stephen Robbins “Organisation is a consciously created aggregate or a group with the purpose of achieving some objective(s) and has a well defined structure”.

Key Concepts of Organisation 1.Social system, 2.Mutual Interest, 3.Ethics

Social System
Just as people have psychological needs; organisations also have social needs and status. Their behaviour is influenced by their group as well as by their individual drives. Infact two types of social system exist side by side in the organisation. One is the formal official social system and, the other is the informal social system.
 

The existence of the social system implies that organisational environment is one of dynamic change rather than static set of relations. All parts of the system are interdependent and each part is subject to influence by the other part.

Mutual Interest
Organisations need people, and people need organisations. Organisations have a human purpose. Organisations are formed and maintained on the basis of some mutuality of interest among the participants. Mutual interest provides a super ordinate goal one that can be attained only through integrated efforts of individuals and their employers.

Ethics
To succeed, organisation must treat employees in an ethical fashion; more firms are recognizing this need and are responding with a variety of program. Companies are establishing Codes of Ethics, Publicized statements of Ethical Values, Provide ethics training, and reward employees for notable ethical behaviour and set up internal procedure to handle misconduct.

Organisations have begun to recognize that organisational behaviour always involves people, ethical philosophy is involved in one way or the in each action they take. When the organisations goals and actions are ethical, mutually creates a triple reward system in which individual organisational and social objectives are met.

(Source: Organisational Behaviour - Stephen Robbins)