ORGANIZATIONAL
BEHAVIOUR
LECTURE NOTES
, CONTENTS
Chapter Title Page No.
I WHAT IS ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR 5
II PERSONALITY 26
III LEARNING 35
IV WHAT IS PERCEPTION AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT? 44
V MOTIVATION 55
VI FOCUS ON THE INDIVIDUAL 69
VII FOCUS ON INTERPERSONAL AND
GROUP PROCESSES 92
VIII LEADERSHIP 102
IX CONFLICT 109
X FOCUS ON THE ORGANIZATION 115
XI DECISION MAKING 127
, CHAPTER – I
WHAT IS ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
OBJECTIVES
This chapter will give an idea to the reader about Management Functions, Management
Roles, Management Skills, Management Activities, Organisational Behaviour and its different major
aspects.
INTRODUCTION
In the 1990’s, we’ve come to understand that technical skills are necessary, but insufficient,
for succeeding in management. In today’s increasingly competitive and demanding workplace, managers
can’t succeed on their technical skills alone. They also got to have good people skills.
What Managers Do
Let’s begin by briefly defining the terms manager and the place where managers work – the
organization. Then let’s look at the manager’s job; specifically, what do managers do?
Managers get things done through other people. They make decisions allocate resources,
and direct the activities of others to attain goals. Managers do their work in an organization. This is a
consciously coordinated social unit, composed of two or more people, that function on a relatively
continuous basis to achieve a common goal or set of goals. Based on this definition, manufacturing
and service firms are organizations and so are schools, hospitals, churches, military units, retail stores,
police departments, and local, state, and federal government agencies. The people who oversee the
activities of others and who are responsible for attaining goals in these organizations are their managers
(although they’re sometimes called administrators, especially in non-for-profit organizations).
Management Functions
In the early part of this century, a French industrialist by the name of Henri Fayol wrote that
all managers perform five management function; they plan, organize, command, coordinate, and control.
They, may be condensed down to four: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.
If you don’t know where you’re going, no road will get you there. Since organizations exist
to achieve goals, someone has to define these goals and the means by which they can be achieved.
Management is that someone. The planning function encompasses defining on organization’s goals,
establishing an overall strategy for achieving these goals, and developing a comprehensive hierarchy
of plans to integrate and coordinate activities.
Managers are also responsible for designing an organization’s structure. We call this function
organizing. It includes the determination of what tasks are to be done, who is to do them, how the
tasks are to be grouped, who reports to whom, and where decisions are to be made.
5
, Every organization contains people, and it is management’s job to direct and coordinate these
people. This is the leading function. When managers motivate subordinates, direct the activities of
others, select the most effective communication channel, or resolve conflicts among members, they
are engaging in leading.
The final function managers perform is controlling. After the goals are set; the plans formulated;
the structural arrangements delineated; and the people hired and motivated, there is still the possibility
that something may go amiss. To ensure that things are going as they should, management must monitor
the organization’s performance. Actual performance must be compared with the previously set goals.
If there are any significant deviations, it is management’s job to get the organization back on track.
This monitoring, comparing, and potential correcting is what is meant by the controlling function.
So, using the functional approach, the answer to the question, what do managers do? Is
that they plan, organize, lead, and control.
Management Roles
In the late1960s, a graduate student at MIT, Henry Mintzberg, undertook a careful study of
five executives to determine what these managers did on their jobs. Based on his observations of
these managers, Mintzberg concluded that managers perform ten different, highly interrelated roles,
or sets of behaviors attributable to their jobs. As shown in table 1, these ten roles can be grouped as
being primarily concerned with interpersonal relationships, the transfer of information, and decision
making.
TABLE 1 Mintzberg’s Managerial Roles
Role Description Examples
Interpersonal
Figure head Symbolic head; required to Ceremonies, status
perform a number of routine requests, solicitations.
duties of a legal or social nature
Leader Responsible for the motivation Virtually all managerial
and direction of subordinates activities involving
subordinate.
Liaison Maintains a network of outside Acknowledgment of mail,
contacts who provide favors external board work.
and information
Informational
Monitor Receives wide variety of Handling all mail and con-
information; serves as nerve center tacts categorized as concer-
of internal and external information ned primarily with
of the organization receiving information .
Disseminator Transmits information received Forwarding mail into orga-
form outsiders or from other nization for informational
6
BEHAVIOUR
LECTURE NOTES
, CONTENTS
Chapter Title Page No.
I WHAT IS ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR 5
II PERSONALITY 26
III LEARNING 35
IV WHAT IS PERCEPTION AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT? 44
V MOTIVATION 55
VI FOCUS ON THE INDIVIDUAL 69
VII FOCUS ON INTERPERSONAL AND
GROUP PROCESSES 92
VIII LEADERSHIP 102
IX CONFLICT 109
X FOCUS ON THE ORGANIZATION 115
XI DECISION MAKING 127
, CHAPTER – I
WHAT IS ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
OBJECTIVES
This chapter will give an idea to the reader about Management Functions, Management
Roles, Management Skills, Management Activities, Organisational Behaviour and its different major
aspects.
INTRODUCTION
In the 1990’s, we’ve come to understand that technical skills are necessary, but insufficient,
for succeeding in management. In today’s increasingly competitive and demanding workplace, managers
can’t succeed on their technical skills alone. They also got to have good people skills.
What Managers Do
Let’s begin by briefly defining the terms manager and the place where managers work – the
organization. Then let’s look at the manager’s job; specifically, what do managers do?
Managers get things done through other people. They make decisions allocate resources,
and direct the activities of others to attain goals. Managers do their work in an organization. This is a
consciously coordinated social unit, composed of two or more people, that function on a relatively
continuous basis to achieve a common goal or set of goals. Based on this definition, manufacturing
and service firms are organizations and so are schools, hospitals, churches, military units, retail stores,
police departments, and local, state, and federal government agencies. The people who oversee the
activities of others and who are responsible for attaining goals in these organizations are their managers
(although they’re sometimes called administrators, especially in non-for-profit organizations).
Management Functions
In the early part of this century, a French industrialist by the name of Henri Fayol wrote that
all managers perform five management function; they plan, organize, command, coordinate, and control.
They, may be condensed down to four: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.
If you don’t know where you’re going, no road will get you there. Since organizations exist
to achieve goals, someone has to define these goals and the means by which they can be achieved.
Management is that someone. The planning function encompasses defining on organization’s goals,
establishing an overall strategy for achieving these goals, and developing a comprehensive hierarchy
of plans to integrate and coordinate activities.
Managers are also responsible for designing an organization’s structure. We call this function
organizing. It includes the determination of what tasks are to be done, who is to do them, how the
tasks are to be grouped, who reports to whom, and where decisions are to be made.
5
, Every organization contains people, and it is management’s job to direct and coordinate these
people. This is the leading function. When managers motivate subordinates, direct the activities of
others, select the most effective communication channel, or resolve conflicts among members, they
are engaging in leading.
The final function managers perform is controlling. After the goals are set; the plans formulated;
the structural arrangements delineated; and the people hired and motivated, there is still the possibility
that something may go amiss. To ensure that things are going as they should, management must monitor
the organization’s performance. Actual performance must be compared with the previously set goals.
If there are any significant deviations, it is management’s job to get the organization back on track.
This monitoring, comparing, and potential correcting is what is meant by the controlling function.
So, using the functional approach, the answer to the question, what do managers do? Is
that they plan, organize, lead, and control.
Management Roles
In the late1960s, a graduate student at MIT, Henry Mintzberg, undertook a careful study of
five executives to determine what these managers did on their jobs. Based on his observations of
these managers, Mintzberg concluded that managers perform ten different, highly interrelated roles,
or sets of behaviors attributable to their jobs. As shown in table 1, these ten roles can be grouped as
being primarily concerned with interpersonal relationships, the transfer of information, and decision
making.
TABLE 1 Mintzberg’s Managerial Roles
Role Description Examples
Interpersonal
Figure head Symbolic head; required to Ceremonies, status
perform a number of routine requests, solicitations.
duties of a legal or social nature
Leader Responsible for the motivation Virtually all managerial
and direction of subordinates activities involving
subordinate.
Liaison Maintains a network of outside Acknowledgment of mail,
contacts who provide favors external board work.
and information
Informational
Monitor Receives wide variety of Handling all mail and con-
information; serves as nerve center tacts categorized as concer-
of internal and external information ned primarily with
of the organization receiving information .
Disseminator Transmits information received Forwarding mail into orga-
form outsiders or from other nization for informational
6
