Question

1. Define organizational behaviour.
2. What is an organization? Is the family unit an organization? Explain.
3. "Behaviour is generally predictable, so there is no need to formally study
OB." Do you agree or disagree? Explain.
4. What does it mean to say OB takes a contingency approach in its analysis
of behaviour?
5. What are the three levels of analysis of our OB model? Are they related? If
so, how?
6. What are some of the challenges and opportunities that managers face as
we move into the twenty-first century?

Answer 1

1. Organizational behaviour is a study that investigates the effect that individuals, groups, and structure have on behavior within organizations for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organization’s effectiveness.

2. An organization is a consciously coordinated social unit, composed by many people, which functions on a continuous basis to achieve a common goal. Yes, the family unit is an organization because it has all the characteristics of an organization. The one difference is that the goals of a family may not be explicit, and therefore many might argue that it is not an organization.

3.  "Behaviour is generally predictable, so there is no need to formally study OB ."

No, i do not agree with this statement.

OB improves managers’ predictive ability by replacing intuitive opinions with a more systematic approach. Behavior generally is predictable if we know how the person got into the situation and what is important to him or her. While people’s behavior may not appear to be rational to an outsider, there is reason to believe it usually is intended to be rational and it is seen as rational by them. There are certain fundamental consistencies underlying the behavior of all individuals that can be identified and then modified to reflect individual differences. These fundamental consistencies allow predictability.

4. The contingency approach refers to situational factors that are variables which moderate the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. There are four key dependent variables; productivity, absenteeism, turnover, and job satisfaction and a large number of independent variables for example, motivation, leadership, work processes, organized by level of analysis, that research indicates have varying effects. Because of the large number of independent variables, the study of OB is complex and requires a systematic approach within organizations as we seek to predict the behavior of people at work.

5.  The three levels of analysis of our OB model are; Individual, group and organization.

The three basic levels are building blocks—each level is constructed upon the previous level. Group concepts grow out of the foundation laid in the individual section; we overlay structural constraints on the individual and group in order to arrive at organizational behavior.

6. Some of the challenges and opportunities that managers face as we move into the twenty-first century.are:

1) CHANGING MEMBERSHIP MODELS : Members needs and expectations are changing.

2) THE TRANSFORMATIVE IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY : Harnessing the power of new technologies amd avoiding security threats.

3) DEMOGRAPHIC : Keeping a changing demographic base engaged.

4) AN UNCERTAIN FINANCIAL ENVIRONMENT : Building and maintaining sustainable associates

5) MANAGERIAL AND HUMAN RESOURCES ISSUES : Management models are becoming outdated