Organizational Behaviour

… a core concept in Governance and Institutions and Atlas100

Concept description

Boundless.com (reference below) defines organizational behaviour as the field of study that investigates how organizational structures affect behavior within organizations.

Boundless goes on to say:

“Organizational behavior studies the impact individuals, groups, and structures have on human behavior within organizations. It is an interdisciplinary field that includes sociology, psychology, communication, and management. Organizational behavior complements organizational theory, which focuses on organizational and intra-organizational topics, and complements human-resource studies, which is more focused on everyday business practices.”

Reference for Business (reference below) says that:

“Organizational behavior is a misnomer. It is not the study of how organizations behave, but rather the study of individual behavior in an organizational setting. This includes the study of how individuals behave alone, as well as how individuals behave in groups.

“The purpose of organizational behavior is to gain a greater understanding of those factors that influence individual and group dynamics in an organizational setting so that individuals and the groups and organizations to which they belong may become more efficient and effective. The field also includes the analysis of organizational factors that may have an influence upon individual and group behavior. Much of organizational behavior research is ultimately aimed at providing human resource management professionals with the information and tools they need to select, train, and retain employees in a fashion that yields maximum benefit for the individual employee as well as for the organization.

“Organizational behavior is a relatively new, interdisciplinary field of study. Although it draws most heavily from the psychological and sociological sciences, it also looks to other scientific fields of study for insights. One of the main reasons for this interdisciplinary approach is because the field of organizational behavior involves multiple levels of analysis, which are necessary to understand behavior within organizations because people do not act in isolation. That is, workers influence their environment and are also influenced by their environment.

Atlas topic, subject, and course

Organizational Design and Behaviour (core topic) in Governance and Institutions and Atlas100 Governance and Institutions.

Source

Boundless (2016), What is Organizational Behavior?, at https://www.boundless.com/management/textbooks/boundless-management-textbook/organizational-theory-3/why-study-organizational-theory-28/what-is-organizational-behavior-162-3925/, accessed 19 January 2017.

Reference for Business, Organizational Behavior, at http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/management/Ob-Or/Organizational-Behavior.html, accessed 19 January 2017.

Page created by: Ian Clark, last modified on 19 January 2017.

Image: Photo by Sychugina Elena, at Reference for Business, http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/management/Ob-Or/Organizational-Behavior.html, accessed on 19 January 2017.