Organizational Behavior: Characteristics Of This Field Of Study
Human behavior has been studied from many perspectives, and one of them is that which has to do with organizations.
In this article we will discover What does the concept of organizational behavior consist of? the different disciplines that are involved in this study, what their functions are and the various approaches that exist in this regard.
Organizational behavior is the systematic study of the behavior of people in the context of organizations , being able to establish three levels of study depending on the point of view we take. The most specific would be the micro level, and would look at the behavior of the individual himself within the company or administration. The second would be the meso level, which would refer to the behavior of a work team. Finally there would be the macro level, which would study the behavior of the entire organization.
The objective of studying the behavior of people within organizations is to acquire valuable information that allows us to make changes in order to improve efficiency in all organizational processes. This science arises in contrast to decisions based on intuition and that is, human behavior can be studied and therefore predictions can be made with a high percentage of success, based on the data that organizational behavior provides us.
In addition to the system of levels that we mentioned at the beginning, we can also make a distinction between studies in this discipline based on the position on the concrete-abstract axis that we find ourselves in. In this sense we would have a level with maximum concreteness, relative to the behavior that we can observe and measure. Secondly, we would have attitudes, which give us clues to predict ways to act. And finally there would be the values, more difficult to measure but equally important.
Related disciplines
Organizational behavior is a field of study that draws directly from very diverse branches of knowledge Let’s get to know some of the most important ones.
It is evident that, when it comes to a study of human behavior, psychology is the science that has the most to say about it, which is why it is the first source of knowledge on this list. The first studies in this regard were focused on better understanding the effects of working conditions on factors such as the physical or mental fatigue of operators. Over time they have expanded their range and today it is about knowing and quantifying all the variables that exist in the workplace and see their effect on people.
Therefore, to investigate organizational behavior, personality, skills, satisfaction, leadership skills, job performance, personnel selection processes, the stress generated, the needs of workers, and many others are assessed. other variables. Psychology (and especially the branch of social psychology) is, of course, a source of invaluable value to understand in depth the organizational behavior developed in a corporation.
2. Sociology
As with psychology, sociology is key to nourishing our information about organizational behavior, and it is a science that is also responsible for investigating the behaviors of human groups and their evolution, which serves to develop predictive models that can be extrapolated to the organization. In this way we can anticipate and create the most optimal work teams.
Likewise, sociology will allow us to work so that the structure of groups, dynamics and communication is as efficient as possible. Also provides a lot of information about conflict situations in formal human groups and the most effective means to find the best solution Regarding the organization, another compelling reason to take this science into account.
3. Anthropology
Anthropology is also a way to obtain a complex database about the development of human societies throughout History and the way in which they have been grouped and related. Added to the other disciplines that we saw, it will give us clues to better understand organizational behavior and anticipate situations of a very varied nature, which have already taken place in other contexts and which therefore allow us to make very useful analogies to evaluate our state. current.
4. Communication sciences
Of course, communication sciences are another field of study that we cannot forget, since Communication between people itself is what makes up a large part of organizational behavior and if we want this to be adequate to achieve our objectives, we must of course have a reliable and standardized source from which to extract the most efficient communication models in this human group that is the company.
Administration is inherent to organizations, so we must know its peculiarities to be able to manage all the company’s resources, whether material, human and of course financial, in search of maximum coordination between all of them and the different departments. This entire process is key to a greater understanding of organizational behavior hence the importance of administration science in this list.
6. Political science
Although a priori it may seem that political science has little place in an organizational environment, far from it. And this field of study It is vital to be able to anticipate problems derived from hierarchical distribution in the corporation the interests that bias the business behavior of individuals and other types of cases that are very important for a complete understanding of organizational behavior.
Diferent models
As in other fields, in organizational behavior there are different models that have been developed as the industry and the way of understanding labor relations have evolved. Below we will take a brief tour of the most important of them all.
1. Supporting model
In this model of organizational behavior, The group leader is in charge of generating a work environment in which all members are motivated because they know that they have their support to achieve the objectives and resolve possible problems that may arise throughout the development of the projects. Therefore, the leader would show the way forward and would be a constant support for the entire team. It is a typical model in companies in the developed world.
2. Collegiate model
The collegiate model is similar to the previous one, but It delves into the feeling of the team and that each member of it is vital to achieving the objective that they all have in common, and therefore they must all support each other, since they share interests that they cannot achieve if they do not row in the same direction. This model of organizational behavior emerged in research environments, although it has subsequently been extrapolated to other contexts.
The system model, or systemic seeks to segment organizational behavior into its simplest parts, in order to study the sequences that occur , the relationships between the various components and the most effective way to structure that set of behaviors to make the organization’s processes the most appropriate for the interests we have. It is a very deep and analytical model that requires extensive study, but whose benefits can be very significant if applied correctly.
4. Autocratic model
The autocratic model is outdated today, as it has evolved enormously in labor matters, but it was nevertheless the predominant type of organizational behavior in past times. What this model basically says is that The company’s senior management, that is, those who hold power, are in a position to demand that employees achieve certain objectives and these must follow orders simply out of obedience to their authority.
The boss is not a leader, and therefore is not part of the team, as we saw in other models. Operators must abide by the rules and comply with the requests of those responsible without considering whether these actions are correct or not to achieve the established goals, since it is understood that their criterion is the correct one and therefore the one that must be met.
5. Custody model
The last model of organizational behavior that completes this list is custodial, and it is the antithesis of autocratic. In fact, it arises as a contrast to this, since, logically, this work environment encourages the appearance of general dissatisfaction among workers, and therefore they need a change that ends their frustration and gives them greater security in their job. job.
The objective of the custody model, therefore, is employ a series of resources to achieve a greater perception of well-being among staff members , that their needs would be met and they would feel listened to and valued within the organization. The problem with this model is that workers can become complacent and become less efficient than they could be.
