Importance of Organizational Behavior

Although the importance of organizational behavior may be clear, we should still take a few moments to emphasize certain points. People are born and educated in organizations, acquire most of their material possessions from organizations, and die as members of organizations.

Many of our activities are regulated by organizations called governments. And most adults spend the better part of their lives working in organizations. Because organizations influence our lives so powerfully, we have every reason to be concerned about how and why those organizations function.

In our relationships with organizations, we may adopt any one of several roles or identities.

For example, we can be consumers, employees, or investors. Because most readers of this book are either present of future managers, we adopt a managerial perspective throughout. The value of organizational behavior is that it isolates important aspects of the manager’s job and offers specific perspectives on the human side of management: people as organizations, people as resources, and people as people.

A study of OB is beneficial in several ways. They are:

First, OB provides a roadmap to our lives in organizations. Every one of us has an inherent need to know about the world in which we live. We need to map out organizational events so that we can function in a more secure and comfortable environment.

Second, the field of OB uses scientific research to help us understand and predict organizational life. Besides, the field of OB is not a pure science. Nevertheless, it helps us make sense of the workplace and, to some extent, predict what people will do under various conditions.

Third, OB helps us influence organizational events. Though it is good to understand and predict organizational events, most of us want to influence the environment in which we live. Whether one is marketing specialist or a computer programmer, he or she needs to know how to communicate effectively with others, manage conflict, make better decisions, ensure commitment to ideas, help work teams operate more effectively, and the like. OB theories and concepts will help us influence organizational events.

Fourth, OB helps an individual understand himself/herself and others better. This helps improve interpersonal relation considerably. Of particular significance are topics like attitude, perception, leadership, communication, Transaction Analysis and conflict, and understanding of which will change the very style of talking and functioning of an individual. It is no exaggeration that the MBS/MBA/MPA graduate always remembers, with satisfaction, OB among all the subjects of his/her course, even after graduation.

Fifth, OB helps the manager or supervisor understand the basis of motivation and what he or she should do to motivate subordinates. As a manager in  abusiness is concerned with getting things done through people. His/her success depends upon how successfully he/she can motivate subordinates to work for better results.

Sixth, the field of OB serves as the basis for human resource management. It is useful for maintaining cordial industrial relations, the relations between management and employees. Human problems need to be tackled humanly. OB is very useful in this context as it helps understand the cause of the problem, predict its course of action, and control its consequences. It is also a human tool for human benefit.

Seventh, OB is also useful in the field of marketing. Consumer choice behaviour, the nature of influence, and the channels involved represent the leading topics for behaviour research in this area. Innovation and diffusion of new products, creativity and the learning or responses are equally important social and individual phenomena that contribute to the total process of flow of goods from producer to consumer.

Eighth, the most popular reason for studying OB is that the reader is interested in pursuing career in management and wants to learn how to predict behaviour and apply it in some meaningful way to make organizations more effective. A successful manage should have good ‘people skills’ which include the ability to understand one’s employees and use this knowledge effectively to make them more efficient.

Last, but not the least, effective management of all sectors of the economy is of paramount importance to develop and sustain our economy. Effective management does not mean competent utilization of technical or financial resources alone. Rather, it implies the management of human resources. This is where OB comes into picture.