Organizational behavior is the study of how individuals and groups act within organizations and how organizations manage their employees. It draws from psychology, sociology, anthropology, and economics to understand factors influencing behavior such as personality, stress, attitudes, gender, leadership, culture, and economic theories. The main approaches to studying organizational behavior are the psychological, sociological, anthropological, and economic approaches.

2.  ‘Too much or too little bureaucracy in an
organisation demotivates employees and causes
dissatisfaction.’ Discuss. Support your answer with
reference to theory and practice.
 Two indicators of an organisation’s performance
are the level of productivity and the degree of
employee satisfaction. Contrast approaches to
improving organisation performance that are
focused on these two aspects. Support your answer
with reference to theory and examples where
appropriate.

3.  What is organizational behavior?
◦ Study and understanding of individual and group
behavior and patterns of structure in order to
help improve organizational performance and
effectiveness.
 Study of Organisational Behaviour focuses
on
◦ Behavior of people
◦ Process of management
◦ Organisational context in which the process of management take
place
◦ Organisational process and the execution of work
◦ Interactions with the external environment

4.  Influences on the behavior of the
organisation
◦ Individual
◦ Group
◦ Organisation
◦ Environment

5.  Psychological Approach
 Sociological Approach
 Anthropological Approach
 Economic Approach

6.  This approach enables to understand the individual
better.
◦ Personality
 Function of Adult work experience(achievements,
roles, work experience) Dynamics(Traits, gender,
abilities, perceptions) and Early development
experience (social, family , culture)
 Eysenck’s Personality index
 Extroversion vs Introversion + Neuroticism vs Stability
◦ Stress

7. ◦ Attitudes
 Beliefs / Values
 Attitudes become unchallengeable making them highly
resistant to changes
◦ Gender
 Stereotyping
 Glass Ceiling
◦ Work Groups

8.  This approach is more concerned with
the study of social behavior,
relationships among social groups and
societies and the maintenance of order.
 Main focus and attention is on the
analysis of social structures and
positions in those structures.
◦ Leadership behavior
◦ Social influences on the organizational culture

9.  Anthropology focuses on the science of
mankind and the study of human
behavior as a whole.
 OB under this approach is focused on
cultural system, beliefs, customs, ideas
and values within the society
 Hofstede’s Cultural Dimension

10.  Behavioral Theory
◦ This sees organisations as made up of different
participants who each have their own interests
◦ Stakeholder Model of Firms

12.  Agency Theory
o Makes a distinction between the principal and the
agent and assumes that the agent always shirks
and attempts to satisfy their own benefits. Thus
monitoring is required.
 Transaction Cost Economics
◦ This looks at the main reason to have an
organisation is the transaction cost being high and
thus not being able to get a particular task through
the market

13.  Psychological Approach
◦ Expectation of an employee working at Aitken
Spence VS Expectation of an employee at HSBC
 Sociological Approach
◦ Organisational style of Hindustan Unilever VS
Unilever GMBH
 Anthropological Approach

15.  Economic Approach
◦ Principal and Agent Theory
 De Beers having a ratio of 1:150 supervisors for their
mines in South Africa and 1:50 supervisors in Nigeria
◦ Transaction Cost Economics
 HDPL doing all the BPO activities of HSBC Global

16.  Discuss the major ways in which individual
employee differences are demonstrated at
work and why the manager should be aware
of them. Support your answer with reference
to theory and practice.

17.  When managing a diverse workforce, it is important
to understand differences between individuals and
also between groups of people. In this context,
examine two of the areas below and assess their
importance to a manager today:
◦ a. Motivation
◦ b. National culture
◦ c. Gender
◦ d. Personality