Understanding the Dynamics of Organizational Behavior: Key Concepts and Applications

In the fast-paced world of business, success often hinges not only on the products or services a company offers but also on how effectively its people work together. Organizational behavior (OB) is a multidisciplinary field that examines the behavior of individuals, groups, and structures within an organization and how they influence its performance. In this blog, we’ll explore the fundamental concepts of organizational behavior, its importance in today’s workplaces, and practical applications for enhancing organizational effectiveness.

Key Concepts of Organizational Behavior

Photo by Sebastian Herrmann on Unsplash
  1. Individual Behavior:
    • Personality: Every individual brings a unique set of personality traits, values, and attitudes to the workplace, which influence their behavior and interactions with others.
    • Perception: How individuals interpret and make sense of their environment affects their decision-making and behavior within the organization.
    • Motivation: Understanding what drives individuals to perform at their best is crucial for managers. Concepts like Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory shed light on employee motivation.
    • Learning and Development: Continuous learning and skill development contribute to individual and organizational growth. Concepts such as reinforcement theory and social learning theory are relevant here.
  2. Group Behavior:
    • Team Dynamics: Effective teams are essential for achieving organizational goals. Concepts like group cohesion, roles, and norms influence team performance.
    • Leadership: Different leadership styles and approaches impact group dynamics and organizational culture. Transformational, transactional, and servant leadership are some examples.
    • Conflict Resolution: Conflict is inevitable in any organization. Understanding its sources and effective conflict resolution strategies can promote positive outcomes and strengthen relationships.
  3. Organizational Structure and Culture:
    • Organizational Structure: The formal framework that outlines roles, responsibilities, and reporting relationships within an organization. Structures can be hierarchical, matrix-based, or flat, each with its advantages and challenges.
    • Organizational Culture: The shared values, beliefs, and norms that shape the behavior and attitudes of individuals within the organization. Culture influences employee engagement, decision-making, and organizational performance.

Importance of Organizational Behavior

  • Improved Employee Performance: Understanding individual motivations and providing a conducive work environment can lead to higher employee engagement and productivity.
  • Effective Leadership: Strong leadership rooted in an understanding of organizational behavior principles can inspire and motivate teams to achieve common goals.
  • Enhanced Decision Making: Awareness of cognitive biases and perception can help leaders make more informed and rational decisions.
  • Better Conflict Management: Organizations that foster an environment of open communication and respect can effectively address conflicts and promote collaboration.
  • Adaptability and Innovation: Organizational behavior principles help organizations adapt to change and foster a culture of innovation and continuous improvement.

Applications of Organizational Behavior

  • Employee Training and Development Programs: Investing in training programs that focus on leadership development, team building, and conflict resolution can enhance organizational effectiveness.
  • Performance Management Systems: Implementing performance management systems that provide regular feedback, recognize achievements, and align individual goals with organizational objectives can improve employee performance.
  • Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives: Promoting diversity and inclusion fosters a culture of respect, creativity, and innovation within the organization.
  • Change Management: Understanding the psychological aspects of change and involving employees in the change process can increase acceptance and reduce resistance to change initiatives.

Organizational behavior plays a vital role in shaping the culture, performance, and success of an organization. By understanding the individual, group, and organizational dynamics at play, leaders can create a work environment that fosters collaboration, innovation, and employee engagement. Investing in organizational behavior initiatives not only benefits employees but also contributes to the long-term success and sustainability of the organization.

Looking to make the jump into HR? We have some tips for you!

Full disclosure: I have never worked in the Human Resource department of an organisation and almost all my knowledge of the challenges faced by an HR professional is second hand. In fact, until recently, I did not even think they faced any challenges. Yeah, yeah, I know, every job has its challenges and HR is no different, but to my mind the average HR person’s life looked so comfortable and stress free. No targets, no work pressure, no deadlines – just show up, smile, have a good time taking with your co-workers, plan team outings and play team building exercises.   

Naivety thy name be Sahil.

Those of you who read my blog on 6 Reasons to Do a Master’s Degree Programme know about my friend Jojo. Well, Jojo was an HR manager with more than 15 years’ experience as an HR professional, it was speaking with him that first gave me an insight to the challenges faced by the modern HR professional.

Challenges facing the modern HR professional

These can be broadly classified into three main categories:

  1. Environmental or external: These are challenges that are caused by changes that have been brought about by external factors that will not have anything to do directly with you or your organisation. These factors are usually generic in nature and will have an effect on multiple industries or the corporate workforce as a whole. Some of the environmental challenges are:
    • Government legislation: Governments nowadays the world over change like the seasons and each government comes with their own mandates and ideas on how businesses should be run and the country’s workforce should be managed. 
    • Global economy: Companies today operate on a truly global scale (even small companies), and this has resulted in local units and companies incorporating global best practices into their work culture. But what is best practice in some countries might not be what is best or even what works in your country. So, while companies like to standardise practices, a one size fits all policy might not work everywhere. 
    • Workforce diversity: Diversity in the workforce has had a massive and positive impact on the way business is done globally, from infusing new and fresh ideas, getting the best talent, accelerating the implementation and adaptation of technologies, opening new markets, reducing costs and increasing profits. Diversity must be encouraged; it will take your company from strength to strength. However, there can also be a number of issues that spring up on you if you are not alert and miss the warning signs, such as discrimination against certain communities or ethnicity, and divides or groupism in your workforce based on community, religion, sex or ethnicity.
    • Technology: Changes in technology have the potential for massive and sudden impacts on the nature of the workforce. Can your workforce keep up with the changes in technology? What do you have to do to get them up to speed? Will you have to downsize or hire new talent, or could technology end up substituting most of your workforce?  
  2. Organisational or internal: As the name suggests, these are challenges put on you by your organisation itself. By the work culture, management, internal policy changes or the annual performance of your organisation.
    • Cost cutting: The two departments that normally must be prepared for a company’s cost cutting measures are the marketing department and the HR department. While the marketing team might lose part of its marketing or advertising budget, the HR department will have to be prepared for anything from downsizing and layoffs to restructuring and reallocation of resources. 
    • Recruitment: Finding the right person for a job is vital to the long-term success of the organisation. Recruitment and selection are probably two of the most important functions of an HR professional. Attracting talent and ensuring you have where to choose from (in order to achieve diversity for example) almost marries HR with marketing – HR have a niche responsibility for the organisation’s brand with respect to prospective employees. And then there is the age old argument of quality versus quantity.  
  3. Individual challenges: These are challenges that an HR professional will have to overcome on an individual basis. These challenges will usually have a relation with both the organisational challenges and the environmental challenges. 
    • Building a team: For an organisation to be effective it should have an effective team of professionals working towards the success of the organisation. Finding or training people to best complement your organisation’s strengths, developing a team spirit, motivating them and providing job security will put you on the path towards building a strong team. 
    • Attrition management: Once a strong team has been built, keeping the team members motivated and secure will cultivate loyalty to the organisation. Losing a highly trained and skilled employee will not only have an immediate impact on the productivity of your team but could also be giving your competition a valuable asset who is also in the know of your organisation’s workings. Providing a good work-life balance will go a long way towards reducing the rate of attrition. 
    • Monitoring productive and counterproductive behaviours: Keep an eye out for productive employees and they should be rewarded and acknowledged for their efforts. At the same time, you should keep an eye out for counterproductive employees, they can have a negative impact on the morale and the overall productivity of the workforce. Counterproductive behaviour can also lead to a divide in your workforce caused by conflicts due to groupism and political divides. 

Where next?

These are just some of the many challenges faced by an HR professional today. You are perhaps one yourself – an “accidental HR person” as someone once described themselves, perhaps? Sound off in the comments if there are any particular challenges you are facing that we have missed out on and that you feel are important to talk about. Or perhaps you are simply an employee who feels the HR department in your organisation is facing a different kind of challenge and they are not raising up to it – let us know too! 

And of course, for those of you looking to formalise your HR knowledge, or looking for a jumpstart into an HR career, Robert Kennedy College offers an online M.Sc. programme in Human Resource Management and Development through an exclusive partnership with the University of Salford, UK. Click here to apply for the programme.

Organisational Behaviour and its Importance in Management

“There are only two ways to influence human behaviour: you can manipulate it or you can inspire it” – Simon Sinek, Author, Motivational Speaker and Marketing Consultant

Understanding why people behave the way they do and studying the complex nature of human being in an organisation is important to better manage and increase the value of the human capital in an organisation. Organisational Behaviour helps us understand this by studying the cause and effect of human behaviour within an organisation.

Some of the reasons why Organisational Behaviour is an integral part of most management programmes is as follows:

  1. Understanding the relationship between an organisation and its employees: The study of Organisational Behaviour helps in the better understanding of the relationship between an organisation and its employees thereby helping in the development of better Human Resource strategies in creating a better work environment, employee loyalty and increasing the overall value of the human capital for the organisation.
  2. Motivating employees: Studying Organisational Behaviour help managers to better understand their employees and motivate them, applying different motivational tools as per individual requirements resulting in the better performance of the organisation as a whole.
  3. Improving industrial/ labour relations: Organisational Behaviour help in understanding the cause of a problem, predict its future course and control its consequences. As a result, managers are able to maintain better relations with their employees by nipping any problem in the bud.
  4. Effective utilisation of Human Resource: Knowledge of Organisational Behaviour help managers to effectively and efficiently manage their employees, inspiring and motivating them to higher efficiency and productivity through a better understanding and analysis of human behaviour.
  5. Predicting human behaviour: This is probably the most important reason for studying Organisational Behaviour in management. Knowledge of Organisational Behaviour prepares students to become better managers by becoming a student of human behaviour from a management perspective and thereby contributing to organisational effectiveness and profitability.

Robert Kennedy College with almost 14,000 students from almost every county in the world offers one of the most diverse, accredited and globally recognised online master’s degree programmes in both Business Law, Leadership and Management through exclusive partnerships with British universities. For more information download programme catalogue.