Organizational behavior (OB) or organisational behaviour is the: "study of
human behavior
Human behavior is the potential and expressed capacity ( mentally, physically, and socially) of human individuals or groups to respond to internal and external stimuli throughout their life. Kagan, Jerome, Marc H. Bornstein, and Richard M. ...
in
organization
An organization or organisation (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), see spelling differences), is an legal entity, entity—such as ...
al settings, the interface between human behavior and the organization, and the organization itself".
[Moorhead, G., & Griffin, R. W. (1995). ''Organizational behavior: Managing people and organizations'' (5th edition). Boston. Houghton Mifflin, (p.4)] OB research can be categorized in at least three ways:
* individuals in organizations (micro-level)
* work groups (meso-level)
* how organizations behave (macro-level)
Chester Barnard
Chester Irving Barnard (November 7, 1886 – June 7, 1961) was an American business executive, public administrator, and the author of pioneering work in management theory and organizational studies. His landmark 1938 book, ''The Functions of the ...
recognized that individuals behave differently when acting in their organizational role than when acting separately from the organization.
Organizational behavior researchers study the behavior of individuals primarily in their organizational roles. One of the main goals of organizational behavior research is "to revitalize organizational theory and develop a better conceptualization of organizational life".
Relation to industrial and organizational psychology
Miner (2006) mentioned that "there is a certain arbitrariness" in identifying a "point at which organizational behavior became established as a distinct discipline" (p. 56), suggesting that it could have emerged in the 1940s or 1950s.
[Miner, J.B. (2006). ''Organizational behavior, Vol. 3: Historical origins, theoretical foundations, and the future''. Armonk, NY and London: M.E. Sharpe.] He also underlined the fact that the industrial psychology division of the American Psychological Association did not add "organizational" to its name until 1970, "long after organizational behavior had clearly come into existence" (p. 56), noting that a similar situation arose in sociology. Although there are similarities and differences between the two disciplines, there is still confusion around differentiating organizational behavior and organizational psychology.
History
As a multi-disciplinary science, organizational behavior has been influenced by developments in a number of related disciplines, including
sociology
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...
,
industrial/organizational psychology, and
economics
Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes ...
.
The
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
is a period from the 1760s where new technologies resulted in the adoption of new manufacturing techniques and increased mechanization. In his famous
iron cage
In sociology, the iron cage is a concept introduced by Max Weber to describe the increased rationalization inherent in social life, particularly in Western capitalist societies. The "iron cage" thus traps individuals in systems based purely on tel ...
metaphor,
Max Weber raised concerns over the reduction in religious and vocational work experiences. Weber claimed that the Industrial Revolution's focus on efficiency constrained the worker to a kind of "prison" and "stripped a worker of their individuality". The significant social and cultural changes caused by the Industrial Revolution also gave rise to new forms of organization. Weber analyzed one of these organizations and came to the conclusion that bureaucracy was "an organization that rested on
rational-legal
Rational-legal authority (also known as rational authority, legal authority, rational domination, legal domination, or bureaucratic authority) is a form of leadership in which the authority of an organization or a ruling regime is largely tied to ...
principles and maximized technical efficiency."
[ Weber, Max. The Theory of Social and Economic Organization. Translated by A.M. Henderson and Talcott Parsons. London: Collier Macmillan Publishers, 1947.]
A number of OB practitioners documented their ideas about management and organisation. The best known theories today originate from
Henri Fayol
Henri Fayol (29 July 1841 – 19 November 1925) was a French mining engineer, mining executive, author and director of mines who developed a general theory of business administration that is often called Fayolism.Morgen Witzel (2003). ''Fifty key ...
,
Chester Barnard
Chester Irving Barnard (November 7, 1886 – June 7, 1961) was an American business executive, public administrator, and the author of pioneering work in management theory and organizational studies. His landmark 1938 book, ''The Functions of the ...
, and
Mary Parker Follet. All three of them drew from their experience to develop a model of effective organizational management, and each of their theories independently shared a focus on human behavior and motivation.
One of the first
management consultants
Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business.
Management includes the activities o ...
,
Frederick Taylor, was a 19th-century engineer who applied an approach known as the
scientific management. Taylor advocated for maximizing task efficiency through the scientific method.
The scientific method was further refined by
Lillian and
Frank Gilbreth
Frank Bunker Gilbreth (July 7, 1868 – June 14, 1924) was an American engineer, consultant, and author known as an early advocate of scientific management and a pioneer of time and motion study, and is perhaps best known as the father and ce ...
, who utilized
time and motion study
A time and motion study (or time-motion study) is a business efficiency technique combining the Time Study work of Frederick Winslow Taylor with the Motion Study work of Frank and Lillian Gilbreth (the same couple as is best known through the biog ...
to further improve worker efficiency.
[Price, B 1989, ‘Frank and Lillian Gilbreth and the Manufacture and Marketing of Motion Study, 1908-1924’, Business and Economic History, vol. 18, no. 2] In the early 20th century the idea of
Fordism
Fordism is a manufacturing technology that serves as the basis of modern economic and social systems in industrialized, standardized mass production and mass consumption. The concept is named after Henry Ford. It is used in social, economic, and ...
emerged. Named after automobile mogul
Henry Ford
Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that ...
, the method relied on the standardization of production through the use of assembly lines. This allowed unskilled workers to produce complex products efficiently. Sorenson later clarified that Fordism developed independently of Taylor. Fordism can be explained as the application of bureaucratic and scientific management principles to whole manufacturing process. The success of the scientific method and Fordism resulted in the widespread adoption of these methods.
In the 1920s, the
Hawthorne Works
The Hawthorne Works was a large factory complex of the Western Electric Company in Cicero, Illinois. Named after the original name of the town, Hawthorne, it opened in 1905 and operated until 1983. At its peak of operations, Hawthorne employed 4 ...
Western Electric factory commissioned the first of what was to become known as the
Hawthorne Studies
The Hawthorne effect is a type of reactivity in which individuals modify an aspect of their behavior in response to their awareness of being observed. The effect was discovered in the context of research conducted at the Hawthorne Western Electric ...
. These studies initially adhered to the traditional scientific method, but also investigated whether workers would be more productive with higher or lower lighting levels. The results showed that regardless of lighting levels, when workers were being studied, productivity increased, but when the studies ended, worker productivity would return to normal. In following experiments,
Elton Mayo
George Elton Mayo (26 December 1880 – 7 September 1949) was an Australian born psychologist, industrial researcher, and organizational theorist.Cullen, David O'Donald. ''A new way of statecraft: The career of Elton Mayo and the development ...
concluded that
job performance
Job performance assesses whether a person performs a job well. Job performance, studied academically as part of industrial and organizational psychology, also forms a part of human resources management. Performance is an important criterion for or ...
and the so-called
Hawthorne Effect
The Hawthorne effect is a type of reactivity in which individuals modify an aspect of their behavior in response to their awareness of being observed. The effect was discovered in the context of research conducted at the Hawthorne Western Electric ...
was strongly correlated to social relationships and job content.
[Cullen, David O'Donald. ''A new way of statecraft: The career of Elton Mayo and the development of the social sciences in America, 1920–1940.'' ProQuest Dissertations and Theses; 1992; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Full Text.] Following the Hawthorne Studies
motivation became a focal point in the OB community. A range of theories emerged in the 1950s and 1960s and include theories from notable OB researchers such as:
Frederick Herzberg
Frederick Irving Herzberg (April 18, 1923 – January 19, 2000) was an American psychologist who became one of the most influential names in business management. He is most famous for introducing job enrichment and the Motivator-Hygiene theory ...
,
Abraham Maslow,
David McClelland
David Clarence McClelland (May 20, 1917 – March 27, 1998) was an American psychologist, noted for his work on motivation Need Theory. He published a number of works between the 1950s and the 1990s and developed new scoring systems for t ...
,
Victor Vroom
Victor Harold Vroom (born August 9, 1932, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada) is a business school professor at the Yale School of Management. He holds a PhD from University of Michigan and an MS and BS from McGill University.
Work
Vroom's primary res ...
, and
Douglas McGregor
Douglas Murray McGregor (September 6, 1906 – October 1, 1964) was an American management professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and president of Antioch College from 1948 to 1954. He also taught at the Indian Institute of Management ...
. These theories underline employee motivation,
work performance, and
job satisfaction
Job satisfaction, employee satisfaction or work satisfaction is a measure of workers' contentedness with their job, whether they like the job or individual aspects or facets of jobs, such as nature of work or supervision. Job satisfaction can be ...
.
Herbert Simon's ''
Administrative Behavior
''Administrative Behavior: a Study of Decision-Making Processes in Administrative Organization'' is a book written by Herbert A. Simon (1916–2001). It asserts that "decision-making is the heart of administration, and that the vocabulary of admin ...
'' introduced a number of important OB concepts, most notably decision-making. Simon, along with
Chester Barnard
Chester Irving Barnard (November 7, 1886 – June 7, 1961) was an American business executive, public administrator, and the author of pioneering work in management theory and organizational studies. His landmark 1938 book, ''The Functions of the ...
, argued that people make decisions differently inside an organization when compared to their decisions outside of an organization. While classical economic theories assume that people are rational decision-makers, Simon argued a contrary point. He argued that cognition is limited because of
bounded rationality For example, decision-makers often employ
satisficing
Satisficing is a decision-making strategy or cognitive heuristic that entails searching through the available alternatives until an acceptability threshold is met. The term ''satisficing'', a portmanteau of ''satisfy'' and ''suffice'', was introduc ...
, the process of utilizing the first marginally acceptable solution rather than the most optimal solution.
[ Simon, Herbert A. (1997) ''Administrative Behavior: A Study of Decision-Making Processes in Administrative Organizations'', 4th ed., The Free Press.] Simon was awarded the
Nobel Prize in Economics
The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, officially the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel ( sv, Sveriges riksbanks pris i ekonomisk vetenskap till Alfred Nobels minne), is an economics award administered ...
for his work on organizational decision-making. In the 1960s and 1970s, the field started to become more
quantitative
Quantitative may refer to:
* Quantitative research, scientific investigation of quantitative properties
* Quantitative analysis (disambiguation)
* Quantitative verse, a metrical system in poetry
* Statistics, also known as quantitative analysis ...
and
resource dependent. This gave rise to
contingency theory
A contingency theory is an organizational theory that claims that there is no best way to organize a corporation, to lead a company, or to make decisions. Instead, the optimal course of action is contingent (dependent) upon the internal and ext ...
,
institutional theory
In sociology and organizational studies, institutional theory is a theory on the deeper and more resilient aspects of social structure. It considers the processes by which structures, including schemes, rules, norms, and routines, become establis ...
, and
organizational ecology. Starting in the 1980s, cultural explanations of organizations and organizational change became areas of study, in concert with fields such as
anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...
,
psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...
and
sociology
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...
.
Current state of the field
Research in and the teaching of OB primarily takes place in university
management
Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a Government agency, government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business.
Management includ ...
departments in colleges of business. Sometimes OB topics are taught in
industrial and organizational psychology
Industrial and organizational psychology (I-O psychology), an applied discipline within psychology, is the science of human behavior in the workplace. Depending on the country or region of the world, I-O psychology is also known as occupational ...
graduate programs.
There have been additional developments in OB research and practice.
Anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...
has become increasingly influential, and led to the idea that one can understand firms as communities, by introducing concepts such as
organizational culture, organizational rituals, and symbolic acts.
Leadership studies
Leadership studies is a multidisciplinary academic field of study that focuses on leadership in organizational contexts and in human life. Leadership studies has origins in the social sciences (e.g., sociology, anthropology, psychology), in ...
have also become part of OB, although a single unifying theory remains elusive. OB researchers have shown increased interest in ethics and its importance in an organization. Some OB researchers have become interested in the aesthetic sphere of organizations.
Research methods used
A variety of methods are used in organizational behavior, many of which are found in other social sciences.
Quantitative methods
Statistical methods used in OB research commonly include
correlation,
analysis of variance
Analysis of variance (ANOVA) is a collection of statistical models and their associated estimation procedures (such as the "variation" among and between groups) used to analyze the differences among means. ANOVA was developed by the statistician ...
,
meta-analysis
A meta-analysis is a statistical analysis that combines the results of multiple scientific studies. Meta-analyses can be performed when there are multiple scientific studies addressing the same question, with each individual study reporting me ...
,
multilevel model
Multilevel models (also known as hierarchical linear models, linear mixed-effect model, mixed models, nested data models, random coefficient, random-effects models, random parameter models, or split-plot designs) are statistical models of parame ...
ing,
multiple regression
In statistical modeling, regression analysis is a set of statistical processes for estimating the relationships between a dependent variable (often called the 'outcome' or 'response' variable, or a 'label' in machine learning parlance) and one ...
,
structural equation modeling, and
time series analysis
In mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in m ...
[Brewerton, P.M., & Millward, L.J. (2010). ''Organizational research methods: A guide for students and researchers''. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.]
Computer simulation
Computer simulation is a prominent method in organizational behavior. While there are many uses for
computer simulation, most OB researchers have used computer simulation to understand how organizations or firms operate. More recently, however, researchers have also started to apply computer simulation to understand individual behavior at a micro-level, focusing on individual and interpersonal
cognition and
behavior such as the thought processes and behaviors that make up
teamwork
Teamwork is the collaborative effort of a group to achieve a common goal or to complete a task in the most effective and efficient way. This concept is seen within the greater framework of a team, which is a group of interdependent individua ...
.
Qualitative methods
Qualitative research
consists of a number of methods of inquiry that generally do not involve the quantification of variables. Qualitative methods can range from the
content analysis
Content analysis is the study of documents and communication artifacts, which might be texts of various formats, pictures, audio or video. Social scientists use content analysis to examine patterns in communication in a replicable and systematic ...
of interviews or written material to written narratives of observations. Common methods include
ethnography,
case studies, historical methods, and interviews.
Topics
Consulting
Consultants use principles developed in OB research to assess clients' organizational problems and provide high quality services.
A robust framework to analyze the consultant-client relationship is key in the success of any consulting engagement.
Counterproductive work behavior
Counterproductive work behavior is employee behavior that harms or intends to harm an organization.
Decision-making
Many OB researchers embrace the
rational planning model. Decision-making research often focuses on how decisions are ordinarily made (normative decision-making), how thinkers arrive at a particular judgement (descriptive decision-making), and how to improve this decision-making (descriptive decision-making).
Employee mistreatment
There are several types of mistreatment that employees endure in organizations including: Abusive supervision, bullying, incivility, and sexual harassment.
Abusive supervision
Abusive supervision is the extent to which a
supervisor engages in a pattern of behavior that harms subordinates.
Bullying
Although definitions of workplace bullying vary, it involves a repeated pattern of harmful behaviors directed towards an individual. In order for a behavior to be termed bullying, the individual or individuals doing the harm have to possess (either singly or jointly) more power on any level than the victim.
Incivility
Workplace incivility consists of low-intensity discourteous and
rude
Rudeness (also called effrontery) is a display of actual or perceived disrespect by not complying with the social norms or etiquette of a group or culture. These norms have been established as the essential boundaries of normally accepted beha ...
behavior and is characterized by an ambiguous intent to harm, and the violation of
social norms
Social norms are shared standards of acceptable behavior by groups. Social norms can both be informal understandings that govern the behavior of members of a society, as well as be codified into rules and laws. Social normative influences or soci ...
governing appropriate workplace behavior.
Sexual harassment
Sexual harassment is behavior that denigrates or mistreats an individual due to his or her gender, often creating an offensive workplace that interferes with job performance.
Teams
Job-related attitudes and emotions
Organizational behavior deals with employee attitudes and feelings, including
job satisfaction
Job satisfaction, employee satisfaction or work satisfaction is a measure of workers' contentedness with their job, whether they like the job or individual aspects or facets of jobs, such as nature of work or supervision. Job satisfaction can be ...
,
organizational commitment
In organizational behavior and industrial and organizational psychology, organizational commitment is an individual's psychological attachment to the organization. Organizational scientists have also developed many nuanced definitions of organiza ...
,
job involvement
Work or labor (or labour in British English) is intentional activity people perform to support the needs and wants of themselves, others, or a wider community. In the context of economics, work can be viewed as the human activity that contr ...
and
emotional labor
Emotional labor is the process of managing feelings and expressions to fulfill the emotional requirements of a job. More specifically, workers are expected to regulate their emotions during interactions with customers, co-workers, clients and man ...
. Job satisfaction reflects the feelings an employee has about his or her job or facets of the job, such as pay or supervision. Organizational commitment represents the extent to which employees feel attached to their organization. Job involvement is the extent to which an individual identifies with their job and considers it a material component of their self-worth. Emotional labor concerns the requirement that an employee display certain emotions, such smiling at customers, even when the employee does not feel the emotion he or she is required to display.
Leadership
There have been a number of theories that concern leadership. Early theories focused on characteristics of leaders, while later theories focused on leader behavior, and conditions under which leaders can be effective. Among these approaches are
contingency theory
A contingency theory is an organizational theory that claims that there is no best way to organize a corporation, to lead a company, or to make decisions. Instead, the optimal course of action is contingent (dependent) upon the internal and ext ...
, the
consideration and initiating structure
Consideration and Initiating Structure are two dimensions of leader behavior identified in 1945 as a result of the Ohio State Leadership Studies. Reviews of research on these dimensions are described in Stogdill's ''Handbook of leadership: A surv ...
model,
leader-member exchange or LMX theory,
path-goal theory,
behavioural modification and
transformational leadership theory.
Contingency theory indicates that good leadership depends on characteristics of the leader and the situation.
[Fiedler, F. E. (1978). The contingency model and the dynamics of the leadership process. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (pp. 59-112). New York: Academic Press.] The Ohio State Leadership Studies identified dimensions of leadership known as consideration (showing concern and respect for subordinates) and initiating structure (assigning tasks and setting performance goals). LMX theory focuses on exchange relationships between individual supervisor-subordinate pairs.
Path-goal theory is a contingency theory linking appropriate leader style to organizational conditions and subordinate personality. Transformational leadership theory concerns the behaviors leaders engage in that inspire high levels of motivation and performance in followers. The idea of
charismatic leadership is part of transformational leadership theory. In behavioural modification, the leader's reward power (ability to give or withhold reward and punishment) is the focus and the importance of giving contingent (vs non-contingent) rewards is emphasized.
Managerial roles
In the late 1960s
Henry Mintzberg
Henry Mintzberg (born September 2, 1939) is a Canadian academic and author on business and management. He is currently the Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies at the Desautels Faculty of Management of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, ...
, a graduate student at MIT, carefully studied the activities of five executives. On the basis of his observations, Mintzberg arrived at three categories that subsume managerial roles: interpersonal roles, decisional roles, and informational roles.
Motivation
Retaining talented and successful employees is a key factor for a company to maintain a competitive advantage. An environment where people can use their talent effectively can help motivate even the most smart, hard-working, difficult individuals. Building great people relies on engagement through motivation and behavioral practices (O'Reilly, C., and Pfeffer, J., 2000). Baron and Greenberg (2008) wrote that motivation involves "the set of processes that arouse, direct, and maintain human behavior toward attaining some goal." There are several different theories of motivation relevant to OB, including
equity theory
Equity theory focuses on determining whether the distribution of resources is fair to both relational partners. Equity is measured by comparing the ratio of contributions (or costs) and benefits (or rewards) for each person. Considered one of the ...
,
[Adams, J. S. (1965). Inequity in social exchange. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (pp. 276-299). New York: Academic Press.] expectancy theory Expectancy theory (or expectancy theory of motivation) proposes that an individual will behave or act in a certain way because they are motivated to select a specific behavior over others due to what they expect the result of that selected behavior ...
,
[Vroom, V. H. (1964). Work and motivation. New York: John Wiley.] Maslow's hierarchy of needs,
incentive theory,
organizational justice
Greenberg (1987) introduced the concept of organizational justice with regard to how an employee judges the behavior of the organization and the employee's resulting attitude and behaviour. For example, if a firm makes redundant half of the worker ...
theory,
Herzberg's
two-factor theory,
[Herzberg, F. (1968, January/February). One more time: How do you motivate employees? Harvard Business Review, 52-62.] and
Theory X and Theory Y
Theory X and Theory Y are theories of human work motivation and management. They were created by Douglas McGregor while he was working at the MIT Sloan School of Management in the 1950s, and developed further in the 1960s. McGregor's work was root ...
.
[McGregor, D. M. (1960). The human side of enterprise. New York: McGraw-Hill.]
Public Relations
Public relations is the practice of managing the communication between the public and the organization, therefore public relations is also related to organizational behavior.
National culture
National culture is thought to affect the behavior of individuals in organizations. This idea is exemplified by
Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory
Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory is a framework for cross-cultural communication, developed by Geert Hofstede. It shows the effects of a society's culture on the values of its members, and how these values relate to behavior, using a structu ...
. Hofstede surveyed a large number of cultures and identified six dimensions of national cultures that influence the behavior of individuals in organizations. These dimensions include power distance, individualism vs. collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity vs. femininity, long-term orientation vs. short term orientation, and indulgence vs. restraint.
Organizational citizenship behavior
Organizational citizenship behavior is behavior that goes beyond assigned tasks and contributes to the well-being of organizations.
Organizational culture
Organizational culture reflects the values and behaviors that are commonly observed in an organization. Investigators who pursue this line of research assume that organizations can be characterized by cultural dimensions such as beliefs, values, rituals, symbols, and so forth. Researchers have developed models for understanding an organization's culture or developed typologies of organizational culture.
Edgar Schein
Edgar Henry Schein (born March 5, 1928) is a former professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He has made a notable mark on the field of organizational development in many areas, including career development, group process consultation, an ...
developed a model for understanding organizational culture. He identified three levels of organizational culture: (a) artifacts and behaviors, (b) espoused values, and (c) shared basic assumptions. Specific cultures have been related to organizational performance and effectiveness.
Personality
Personality concerns consistent patterns of behavior,
cognition, and
emotion
Emotions are mental states brought on by neurophysiology, neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or suffering, displeasure. There is currently no scientific ...
in individuals. The study of personality in organizations has generally focused on the relation of specific traits to employee performance. There has been a particular focus on the
Big Five personality traits
The Big Five personality traits is a suggested taxonomy, or grouping, for personality traits, developed from the 1980s onward in psychological trait theory.
Starting in the 1990s, the theory identified five factors by labels, for the US English ...
, which refers to five overarching personality traits.
Occupational stress
There are number of ways to characterize occupational stress. One way of characterizing it is to term it an imbalance between job demands (aspects of the job that require mental or physical effort) and resources that help manage the demands.
Work–family conflict
Chester Barnard
Chester Irving Barnard (November 7, 1886 – June 7, 1961) was an American business executive, public administrator, and the author of pioneering work in management theory and organizational studies. His landmark 1938 book, ''The Functions of the ...
recognized that individuals behave differently when acting in their work role than when acting in roles outside their work role.
Work–family conflict occurs when the demands of family and work roles are incompatible, and the demands of at least one role interfere with the discharge of the demands of the other.
Organization theory
Organization theory is concerned with explaining the workings of an organization as a whole or of many organizations. The focus of organizational theory is to understand the structure and processes of organizations and how organizations interact with each other and the larger society.
Bureaucracy
Max Weber argued that bureaucracy involved the application of
rational-legal
Rational-legal authority (also known as rational authority, legal authority, rational domination, legal domination, or bureaucratic authority) is a form of leadership in which the authority of an organization or a ruling regime is largely tied to ...
authority to the organization of work, making bureaucracy the most technically efficient form of organization.
Weber enumerated a number of principles of bureaucratic organization including: a formal organizational hierarchy, management by rules, organization by functional specialty, selecting people based on their skills and technical qualifications, an "up-focused" (to organization's board or shareholders) or "in-focused" (to the organization itself) mission, and a purposefully impersonal environment (e.g., applying the same rules and structures to all members of the organization). These rules reflect Weberian "ideal types," and how they are enacted in organizations varies according to local conditions.
Charles Perrow
Charles B. Perrow (February 9, 1925 – November 12, 2019) was an emeritus professor of sociology at Yale University and visiting professor at Stanford University. He authored several books and many articles on organizations, and was primari ...
extended Weber's work, arguing that all organizations can be understood in terms of bureaucracy and that organizational failures are more often a result of insufficient application of bureaucratic principles.
Economic theories of organization
At least three theories are relevant here,
theory of the firm
The theory of the firm consists of a number of economic theories that explain and predict the nature of the firm, company, or corporation, including its existence, behaviour, structure, and relationship to the market. Firms are key drivers in ec ...
,
transaction cost economics
In economics and related disciplines, a transaction cost is a cost in making any economic trade when participating in a market. Oliver E. Williamson defines transaction costs as the costs of running an economic system of companies, and unlike pro ...
, and
agency theory
Agency may refer to:
Organizations
* Institution, governmental or others
** Advertising agency or marketing agency, a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising for its clients
** Employment agency, a business that s ...
.
Theories pertaining to organizational structures
Theories pertaining to organizational structures and dynamics include
complexity theory,
French and Raven's five bases of power,
hybrid organization theory,
informal organizational theory,
resource dependence theory, and
Mintzberg
Henry Mintzberg (born September 2, 1939) is a Canadian academic and author on business and management. He is currently the Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies at the Desautels Faculty of Management of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, ...
's
organigraph
An organigraph is a graphical representation of a company's structure or processes. It is used as an alternative to a traditional organizational chart as it does not imply the same degree of linear hierarchy that an organizational chart does.
Orga ...
.
Institutional theory
Systems theory
The systems framework is also fundamental to organizational theory.
Organization
An organization or organisation (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), see spelling differences), is an legal entity, entity—such as ...
s are complex, goal-oriented entities.
Alexander Bogdanov, an early thinker in the field, developed his
tectology
Tektology (sometimes transliterated as tectology) is a term used by Alexander Bogdanov to describe a new universal science that consisted of unifying all social, biological and physical sciences by considering them as systems of relationships and ...
, a theory widely considered a precursor of
Bertalanffy's
general systems theory
Systems theory is the interdisciplinary study of systems, i.e. cohesive groups of interrelated, interdependent components that can be natural or human-made. Every system has causal boundaries, is influenced by its context, defined by its structu ...
. One of the aims of general systems theory was to model human organizations.
Kurt Lewin
Kurt Lewin ( ; 9 September 1890 – 12 February 1947) was a German-American psychologist, known as one of the modern pioneers of social, organizational, and applied psychology in the United States. During his professional career Lewin applied hi ...
, a social psychologist, was influential in developing a systems perspective with regard to organizations. He coined the term "systems of ideology," partly based on his frustration with behaviorist psychology, which he believed to be an obstacle to sustainable work in psychology.
Niklas Luhmann
Niklas Luhmann (; ; December 8, 1927 – November 6, 1998) was a German sociologist, philosopher of social science, and a prominent thinker in systems theory.
Biography
Luhmann was born in Lüneburg, Free State of Prussia, where his father's fa ...
, a sociologist, developed a sociological systems theory.
Organizational ecology
Organizational ecology models apply concepts from
evolutionary theory
Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...
to the study of populations of organisations, focusing on birth (founding), growth and change, and death (firm mortality). In this view, organizations are 'selected' based on their fit with their operating environment.
Scientific management
Scientific management refers to an approach to management based on principles of
engineering
Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...
. It focuses on incentives and other practices empirically shown to improve productivity.
Contributing disciplines
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Anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...
*
Human resources management
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...
*
Industrial/organizational psychology
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Personality psychology
Personality psychology is a branch of psychology that examines personality and its variation among individuals. It aims to show how people are individually different due to psychological forces. Its areas of focus include:
* construction of a c ...
*
Social psychology
Social psychology is the scientific study of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people or by social norms. Social psychologists typically explain human behavior as a result of the ...
*
Sociology
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...
Journals
See also
References
Further reading
*
* Hatch, M.J. (2006), "Organization Theory: Modern, symbolic, and postmodern perspectives." 2nd Ed. Oxford University Press .
* Helge H, Sheehan MJ, Cooper CL, Einarsen S "Organisational Effects of Workplace Bullying" in Bullying and Harassment in the Workplace: Developments in Theory, Research, and Practice (2010)
* Jones, Ishmael (2008), ''The Human Factor: Inside the CIA's Dysfunctional Intelligence Culture.'' New York: Encounter Books .
* Richmond, Lewis (2000), ''Work as a Spiritual Practice: A Practical Buddhist Approach to Inner Growth and Satisfaction on the Job'', Broadway
* Robbins, Stephen P. (2004) ''Organizational Behavior - Concepts, Controversies, Applications.'' 4th Ed. Prentice Hall .
* Robbins, S. P. (2003). ''Organisational behaviour: global and Southern African perspectives''. Cape Town, Pearson Education South Africa.
* Salin D, Helge H "Organizational Causes of Workplace Bullying" in Bullying and Harassment in the Workplace: Developments in Theory, Research, and Practice (2010)
* Scott, W. Richard (2007). ''Organizations and Organizing: Rational, Natural, and Open Systems Perspectives.'' Pearson Prentice Hall .
*
Weick, Karl E. (1979). ''The Social Psychology of Organizing'' 2nd Ed. McGraw Hill .
*
Simon, Herbert A. (1997) ''Administrative Behavior: A Study of Decision-Making Processes in Administrative Organizations'', 4th ed., The Free Press.
* Tompkins, Jonathan R. (2005) "Organization Theory and Public Management".Thompson Wadsworth
* Kanigel, R. (1997). ''The One Best Way, Frederick Winslow Taylor and the Enigma of Efficiency.'' London: Brown and Co.
*
Morgan, Gareth (1986) ''
Images of Organization
Images of Organization is a bestseller book by Gareth Morgan, professor of organizational behavior and industrial relations at the Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the ...
'' Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications
{{Aspects of organizations
Organizational studies
Social systems
Structure