What do you mean by organizational behavior?
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Answer:
“Organizational behavior is directly concerned with the understanding, prediction, and control of human behavior in organizations.” — Fred Luthans.
Organizational behavior is the study of both group and individual performance and activity within an organization.
This area of study examines human behavior in a work environment and determines its impact on job structure, performance, communication, motivation, leadership, etc.
It is the systematic study and application of knowledge about how individuals and groups act within the organizations where they work. OB draws from other disciplines to create a unique field.
For example, when we review topics such as personality and motivation, we will again review studies from the field of psychology. The topic of team processes relies heavily on the field of sociology.
When we study power and influence in organizations, we borrow heavily from political sciences.
Even medical science contributes to the field of Organizational Behavior, particularly in the study of stress and its effects on individuals.
There is increasing agreement as to the components or topics that constitute the subject area of OB.
What are the three prominent trends used by contemporary of Organiational behavior?
Globalization
The melting of barriers among nations and their increasing interconnectedness, accelerated by technology, has led to a change in the world order that has had a profound impact on global business. The emergence of nations such as India and China has replaced the era of unquestioned dominance of the Western countries or any one particular region, paving the way for a flattened business arena where developments in one part of the other are certain to have a spiraling impact. Perhaps the best evidence of this is the recent financial crisis.
Technology
If the current wave of globalization has been the driving force behind the most far-reaching and powerful changes in business, then information technology has indisputably been the facilitator. Drawing attention to the fact that four out of the top five companies in Businessweek's annual list of most innovative companies are technology-driven businesses, Professor Teresa Amabile writes in Working Knowledge, Customers are courted and supply chains are managed via websites, social media, and email; marketing, manufacturing, and distribution processes are managed by sophisticated real-time information systems; colleagues working 12 time zones apart can see and hear each other as they work at their desks-or in airport lounges on opposite sides of the planet.
Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility
One evidence of this growing engagement with issues of society and sustainability is the increase in number of companies who have intensified their CSR focus and the innovative ways in which they have engaged themselves, points out professor of marketing, Michael Norton. Shifting steadily from corporate philanthropy to more direct and effective engagement, companies have devised new models of extending a social footprint. Drawing attention to the Pepsi Refresh project, Norton has highlighted how the company encouraged users to submit projects with social impact-from cleaning up a river to saving animals-and allowed other users to vote on which projects Pepsi should fund.
The Study of Psychology
Speaking of interdisciplinary influences on business, the study of human psychology - probing into cognition, motivation, behavior and performance - has become a key pillar of organizational management. From employee management to customer satisfaction and social engagement, satisfaction of business objectives requires effective analysis of both individual and institutional psychology. A good amount of research is therefore likely to be focused on how psychological theory and research can be integrated into business academics and management practice; Professor Amabile feels that with more evolved tools and access to ever-growing information databases, managers will have the power to substantially improve both the practice of business and the welfare of society.
Business Ecosystems
This has important implications for management because innovation in business ecosystems has a character distinct from traditional, vertically integrated firms. Every organization in the ecosystem has to be aware of the bigger picture. As Professor Baldwin tells Working Knowledge, Innovation in ecosystems requires collective action to both invent and appraise, efficient, cross-organization knowledge flows, modular architectures, and good stewardship of legacy systems. It rests on multiple, complementary platforms.