Organizational Behavior

Organizational behavior is defined as the study of human behavior in organizational settings, of the interface between human behavior, and the organization, and of the organization itself. There are many issues to discuss about organizational behavior, but I will mostly be talking about managerial perspectives and quality control.

Almost all organizations and companies have managers with titles such as marketing manager, director of public relations and plant manager. But probably no organization or company has the title “organizational behavior manager”. Because organizational behavior is a view that all managers can use to carry out their jobs more effectively and efficiently.

Managers in all organizations engage in four basic functions. The functions are organizing, planning, leading, and controlling. All organizations also use four kinds of resources. The resources are human, financial, physical, and information. Managers mix these resources through the four basic functions, with the main purpose of efficiently and effectively trying to reach the goals of the organization.

Planning is the process of determine the organization’s desired future position and deciding how is the best way to get there. Organizing is the process of designing jobs, grouping jobs into manageable units, and establishing patterns of authority among jobs and groups of jobs. This process makes the basic structure of the organization. Leading is the process of motivating members of the organization to work together toward achieving the organization’s goals. Many elements of leading are motivating employees, managing group dynamics, and the actual process of leadership. These are all related closely to major areas of organizational behavior. All managers must understand the importance of leading. The last function is controlling. Controlling is the process of monitoring and correcting the actions of the organization and its people to keep them headed toward their goals. Control is important to all businesses, but it may be especially vital to smaller ones.

Managers play many roles in an organization. Henry Mintzberg provides three general categories for basic managerial roles. The interpersonal roles are primarily social in nature. They are roles in which the manager’s main task is to relate to other people in certain ways. The manager sometimes may serve as a figurehead for the organization, taking visitors to dinner and attending ribbon-cutting ceremonies. In the role of leader, the manager works to hire, train and motive employees. The informational roles involve information processing. The monitor actively finds information that might be of value to the organization in general. The manager who transmits the information to others is carrying out the role of disseminator. The spokesperson speaks for the organization to outsiders. Finally, there are four decision-making roles. The entrepreneur voluntarily initiates change. The disturbance hander helps settle disputes between respected parties. The resource allocator decides who will get what, how resources in the organization will be distributed among certain people. The negotiator represents the organization in reaching agreements with other organizations, such as settling management and labor unions.

Another important element of managerial work is possessing the skills needed to carry out basic functions and fill fundamental roles. There are four basic critical managerial skills. They are technical, Interpersonal, conceptual, and diagnostic.

Technical skills are abilities necessary to accomplish specific tasks within the organization. These skills are connected with the operations employed by the organization in its production processes. Interpersonal skills are used