Download ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

INTRODUCTION
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Effective leadership is a critical ingredient of
successful organizations.
Unfortunately superior leadership ability is in
scarce supply.
This is quickly evidenced in political, public, private
and non profit institutions where you find the
leaders not being able to take the organizations
where it should go and the followers feel
dissatisfied with the leadership.
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The consequences of poor leadership is poor
performance, poor returns on investment for
the share holders (for private sector) and poor
service delivery to the citizenly (for NGOs and
Governments
Leadership is closely related to behaviour in
organisations.
Effective leadership can modify and influence
behaviour for effective performance of
individuals and teams
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Enhance the understanding of both
leadership and organizational behaviour
Appreciate the changing perspectives of
leadership and organization behaviour to
make a difference in organisation
Connect effective leadership and
organizational behaviour to effectively
influence performance in organisations
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Organizational Behaviour: Its Meaning, Nature And Scope
Essence Of Organizational Behaviour: Why Study “OB”
Challenges And Opportunities For OB
Leadership: Its Meaning, Nature And Scope
The Changing Perspectives (Theories) Of Leadership
Effective Leadership: Styles And Patterns Of Leadership
Behaviour
Behavioral Performance Management
Power And Politics In Organisations
Teamwork And Organizational Behaviour
Managing Conflict In Organisations
Managing Stress In Organisations
Leadership In Public Interest: Good Governance,
Responsibility And Accountability
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Case study Assignments
15%
Term Paper
15%
Continuous Assessment Test 20%
Final examination
50%
TOTAL
100%
Introduction
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It is the field of study that investigates the
impact of individuals, groups and structure
on behaviour in the organisation for the
purpose of applying such knowledge
towards improving organizational
effectiveness
It is a systematic study of the behaviour and
attitudes of both individuals and groups
within the organisations
Concerns itself with the scientific study or
the behavioral process which occurs in work
settings”
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Focuses on understanding and explaining
individual and group behaviours in
organisations
It is concerned with what people do in an
organisation and how that behaviour affects
performance
The understanding, prediction and
management of human behaviour in the
organisations
More micro than macro
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OB is a field of study that investigates the
impact that individuals, groups, and
structure have on behaviour within an
organization.
OB focuses on improving productivity,
reducing absenteeism and turnover, and
increasing employee job satisfaction and
organizational commitment.
OB uses systematic study to improve
predictions of behaviour.
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Organizational Theory
Focuses on the organisation as the unit of
analysis. Organizational attributes such as
goals, technology and culture are the subject
of study.
Organizational theory often uses an acrossorganizational approach or macro perspective
in gathering new knowledge.
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Human resources management
Attempts to apply the principles of the
behavioral sciences in the workplace
While OB is somewhat more concept
oriented, HRM is more concerned with
applied techniques and behavioral
technology.
HRM tries to provide a link between the
individual and the organisation by
designing and implementing systems to
attract, develop and motivate individuals
within the organisation
OB
 Emphasis on the
scientific study of
behavioral
phenomena at
individual and
group level
 Level of analysis Micro/theory
oriented
OT
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Focuses largely
on organizational
and
environmental
phenomena
Level of analysis Macro/theory
oriented
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HRM
Focuses on the
application of
behavioral
knowledge in
selecting, placing,
and training
personal
Level of analysis Micro/application
oriented field of
study
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OB looks at consistencies
◦ What is common about behaviour, and helps
predictability?
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OB is more than common sense
◦ Systematic study, based on scientific evidence
OB has few absolutes
OB takes a contingency approach
◦ Considers behaviour in context
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Systematic Study
◦ Looking at relationships, attempting to attribute
causes and effects and drawing conclusions based
on scientific evidence
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Behaviour is generally predictable
There are differences between individuals
There are fundamental consistencies
There are rules (written & unwritten) in almost every
setting
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Psychology
Sociology
Social Psychology
Anthropology
Political Science
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Practical application
Personal growth
Increased knowledge
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There are important practical benefits to
understanding the principles of
organizational behaviour:
◦ Development of personal styles of leadership can
be guided by knowledge of the results of studies
of OB that have attempted to relate leadership
styles to situational requirements
◦ The choice of problem solving strategy or the
selection of appropriate employee appraisal
format can be guided by an understanding of the
results of studies in the associated topic areas
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In the area of performance enhancement, benefits
can be gained by applying knowledge gathered in
the field of OB
Because the environment in which the organisation
operates is increasing in complexity, one must
understand how to design effective organizational
structures and how to relate to individuals from
diverse and often international background
Being able to deal effectively with others in
organizational settings requires understanding of
OB
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Attracting and developing talented individuals
are 2 issues critically important to the survival
and prosperity of an organisation
Emphasis of human element instead of on
technical financial and other tangible resources
often separate competing organisations when it
comes to organizational performance. This
occurs because all serious competitors in a
given industry are likely to have attained nearly
the same level of technical sophistication
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The second reason for studying OB is the
personal fulfillment we gain form
understanding our fellow human
Understanding others may also lead to
greater self-knowledge and self insight
Such personal growth is an aspect of
education that is often cited as the
greatest benefit of studying the liberal arts
and sciences
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Advancement in the business world
◦ It is also important for advancement in business world – it
can make a difference when it comes to advancing beyond
an entry level position.
◦ Entry level hiring are based largely on technical
competency, such as certification in a specialized area e.g.
CPA. Bachelor’s degree, MBA etc.
◦ Promotions however are often based on more that mere
technical competency.
◦ They are based on demonstrated abilities to understand
and work effectively with superiors, peer and subordinated.
◦ In short, an understanding of organizational behaviour may
be invaluable to you once you have that first job and seek
to distinguish yourself
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To gather knowledge about people in a work
setting
At minimum, the filed seeks to gather knowledge
for its own sake just like some sciences like
Physics and chemistry; the practical use of certain
findings may not be practical for years.
Same could apply to Organizational Behaviour.
Some early theories were not of immediate use
but are today useful
Additionally, the study of OB can help one think
in a critical fashion about matters that relate to
experience of working. Such critical thinking
ability can be useful in analyzing both employees
and personal problems
challenges facing
organisations today that
have made it necessary
for managers to Study OB
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Improving quality and productivity
More and more managers are confronted with the challenge
of having to improve their organisations productivity and
the quality of their products and services.
In improving quality and productivity, they are
implementing programmes like TQM and Business Process
Reengineering (BPR)
Improving people skills/interpersonal skills
OB gives the manager the opportunity to completely
exercise insight in behaviour, how to alter the behaviour
and generally improve interpersonal skills
The subject matter of OB helps both practicing managers as
well as potential managers to develop skills that can be
used on the job
3. Managing workforce diversity
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Workforce diversity has important implication for
management – managers will need to shift their philosophy
form treating everyone alike to recognizing differences and
responding to them in ways that will ensure employee
retention and greater productivity.
4. Responding to Globalization
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The world today is continuous becoming global village.
Organisations no longer constraint themselves to national
boarders.
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OB provides us with fundamental concepts to enable us
focus on how cultural differences might require managers
to modify their managerial practices
5. Empowering people
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Managers are empowering employees; they are
putting employees of what to do.
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They have to learn how to give up control and
employees have to learn how to take up
responsibility for their work.
6. Stimulating innovativeness and change
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This implies that today successful organisations
must foster innovation and master the art of
change, or they become extinct.
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Victory will go to organisation that maintain
flexibility, continually improve quality and
beating competition in the market place
7. Coping with temporariness
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Today change is an ongoing activity for most manages.
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Managing in the past could be characterized by long
periods of stability, interrupted occasionally by short
periods of change.
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But managing today could be described as long period of
on going change, interrupted occasionally by short periods
of stability
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The world that most managers and employees face today is
that of permanent temporariness.
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There is permanent change in the jobs themselves, so
workers need to continuously update their knowledge and
skills to perform new jobs requirements
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Today managers and employees must learn to cope with
temporariness. They have to live with flexibility and
unpredictability.
8. Dealing with employees’ loyalty
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Today, organisations seek to be lean, and mean by closing
down operations, moving to low cost regions, closing the
less profitable branches, and eliminating entire levels of
managing and replacing permanent employees with
temporary ones.
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These kinds of changes result in a decline of employee
loyally. Employees perceive that their employers are less
committed to them and as a result, they result to being
committed to their employer
The manager therefore is to devise ways to motivate
workers who feel less committed to their employers, but at
the same time maintain organizational global
competitiveness
9. Improving Ethical Behaviours
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Organisations today are characterized by cut
backs, expectations of improving workers
productivity and tough competition in the market
place.
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Due to there pressures, employees feel pressured
to cut corners, break roles, and engage in other
forms of questionable practices could also be
contracted to give guidance to employees
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Today managers need to create an ethically
healthy climate, living by example, for employees
where they can do their work productively and
confront minimal degree of ambiguity regarding
what constitutes right and wrong behaviour.
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First developed by Fredrick W. Taylor (1856 –
1915)
Taylor aimed at making management a
science abased on a well recognized, clearly
defined and fixed principles
He replaced the rule of the thumb method of
scientific management
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The rule of:
Reason,
Improved quality
Lower costs
Higher wages and higher output
Labor-management cooperation, experimentation
Clear tasks and goals,
Feedback, training, mutual help and support,
stress reduction,
◦ Careful selection and development of people.
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He was the first to present a systematic
study of interactions among job
requirements, tools, methods, and human
skill, to fit people to jobs both
psychologically and physically, and to let data
and facts do the talking rather than prejudice
or opinions
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He advocates the use of
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Observation
Measurement
Experimentation
Analysis
Rationality
Reasoning
As a chief instrument for developing
managerial systems
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Father of scientific management
Principles
Develop a science for each element of work
Select the best worker for each task
Train the worker in the prescribed method
Develop a spirit of cooperation between
management and labor
◦ Divide the work between management and labor
into equal shares, each doing what they do best
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The basic components of scientific
management as propounded by Taylor are:
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Determination of the standard of performance
Functional foremanship
Responsibilities of management
Differential piecework system of wage payment
Mental revolution
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Determining the standards of performance
Taylor introduced the “time and motion
study” to identify exactly how long it takes
to do a task and identify and eliminate
wasteful motions
Functional foremanship
Here Taylor called for separation of
planning from doing where the functional
foreman (specialist) did the planning of
various aspects of work
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Responsibility and management
Managers should accept responsibility for
planning, directing and organising
Managers should perform these functions in
a scientific way – i.e. analyse all operations
and develop scientific methods of doing
them
Workers should be scientifically selected
and trained
Managers should heartily cooperate with
workers to ensure that work is done
according to scientifically selected
managers
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Differential piece work system of payment – to ensure that
workers turn out optimal production – so that workers who
work hard get more
Mental revolution
Taylor held that the technique of determining work
standards, delimiting wasteful operations and differential
piece rate system of wage payment should benefit the worker
in form of higher wage payment and the employer in form of
higher production and this would result to a “mental
revolution” between ,management and workers
They would develop a cooperative rather than antagonistic
attitude towards each other
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Saw man as an economic being - man is only
motivated by money
Saw that man can be programmed as a
machine – in the development of standards of
performance
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The Hawthorne Experiments
The experiments were carried out between
1927 and 1933 at the Chicago Hawthorne
plant of the Western Electric Company.
Four studies were carried out namely:
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The illumination studies
The Relay Assembly Test Room Studies
The interviewing Program
The Bank Wiring Room studies
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These studies were expected to determine
the relationship between the level of
illumination and worker’s productivity.
It was expected that worker’s productivity
would increase with increasing levels of
illumination.
The studies failed to prove any relationship
between worker’s productivity and level of
illumination
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These studies were carried out to determine the
relationship between worker’s productivity and
improved benefits and working conditions.
Manipulated factors of production to measure
effect on output:
◦ Pay Incentives
◦ Length of Work Day & Work Week
◦ Use of Rest Periods
◦ Company Sponsored Meals
The studies found out that there was no cause –
and – effect relationship between
working
conditions and output.
Rather, there were other factors that affected
worker’s output such as his/her attitudes and
supervisor behavior
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A group of employees were interviewed to learn
more about their opinions with respect to their
work, working conditions and supervision. The
workers suggested that:
Psychological factors help determine whether a
worker is satisfied or dissatisfied in any particular
work situation
The person’s need for self-actualization
determines his/her satisfaction in the work.
A person’s work group and his relationship to it,
also determines his/her productivity.
Behavior of managers and workers in the work
setting is as important in explaining the level of
performance as the technical aspects of the task
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This study was expected to study the effect of group
influence on workers productivity.
Few Special Conditions
◦ Segregated work area
◦ No Management Visits
◦ Supervision would remain the same
◦ Observer would record data only – no interaction with
workers
New incentive pay rate was established for the small group
Any increases in output would be included in departmental
pay incentives
The researchers found out that an informal grouping and
relationship was a critical factor in the workers’
productivity.
The informal group determined the group’s productivity,
and functioned as a protective mechanism (served both for
internal and external purposes).
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An industrial organization is a socio technical
system. The socio part is the human aspects that
need to be taken care of in order to increase
workers’ productivity and the technical system is
the physical aspects that also need to be
improved.
Employee attitudes and morale are also
important as determinants of productivity.
Other factors include worker’s personality and
supervisor’s behavior, leadership style also
affect worker’s altitude and morale.
A worker’s social group has a prevailing effect on
his or her altitude and productivity
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The Hawthorne Studies have however made
the following contribution OB.
◦ Their finding on the importance of informal groups
is also a key to organization theory.
◦ Contribution on course effect of job satisfaction
◦ Contribution in the role of leadership and style of
leadership
◦ Their emphasis on employee altitude towards work
as an additional to other factors was a
breakthrough in OB.
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Following World War II, a new approach on
organizational behaviour began to develop
Called the contingency approach, it acknowledged
the difficulty of offering simple general principles
to explain or predict behaviour in organizational
setting
The approach sought to specify the conditions
under which we can expect to find certain
relationships.
As such it represented a search for the factors that
would aid in predicting and explaining behaviour
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Organizational behaviour researchers who subscribe t the
contingency approach believe that employee behaviour is too
complex to be explained by only a few simple and straight
forward principles. Instead, they seek to identify the factors
that are jointly necessary for a given principle to hold
Contingency researchers recognize the interdependency of
personal and situational factors in determination of employee
behaviour
therefore if you ask what is the best way for a manager to
behaviour – autocratically or democratically, the contingent
researcher will consider issues like subordinates
expectations and preferences and the situations at hand,
cultural differences, etc
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TQM is a corporate culture characterized by increased
customer satisfaction through continuous improvements, in
which all employees actively participate
Two terms that gained quick interest among managers and
organizational researcher’s wee organizational culture and
quality improvement.
The authors of several books in the early 1980s – Peter
Waterman ( In Search of Excellence), Deal and Kennedy (
Corporate Culture) and others focus on how to build a strong
set of shared positive values and norms within a corporation
(that is a strong corporate culture) while emphasizing quality
service, high performance and flexibility.
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First step in building organizational
excellence is building quality into people.
Organizational excellence is a result of
building quality into the following 4Ps:
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people;
partnership;
processes of work; and
products/service products.
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The first priority of any quality strategy must
be to build quality into people, which is the
essential foundation and necessary catalyst
for improving partnerships, processes and
products.
The quality strategy relating to building
quality into people should be designed to
strengthen two essential parts:
◦ Core Values (CV) and
◦ core competencies (CC).
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The CV are the non-changeable spiritual values such
as honesty, loyalty, integrity, goodness, trust, justice,
respect, humbleness, dignity, etc. which are
independent of culture, time, place, race and age.
If CV are ignored in the quality strategy the company
will not be able to utilize the CC, which they try to
build into the people.
Various managerial efforts seem to have small effect
if these values are lacking between employees and
between management and employees.
Research shows that trust is a prerequisite for
communication and dialogue, building people
relationships, building competencies and capabilities
and for building a co-operative culture.
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Research also shows that procedural fairness
and procedural justice in the decision making
process are associated with increased
motivation and commitment toward the
decisions made among employees.
Research show furthermore that even though
the employees have the opportunity to
participate in the decision-making process,
they will get negative motivational effects in
form of frustration if their voices have not
been respected in the process.
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Recent research results carried out indicate
strongly that one of the most critical factors
for attaining employees' motivation and
commitment is related to personal CV.
In short, it seems that CV are very critical
motivating factors of human beings.
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The CC, which comprise the capabilities
needed to satisfy human's mental needs, can
at the lowest level be subdivided into two
main areas:
◦ emotional competencies (EC); and
◦ intellectual competencies (IC).
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Some research has shown that that the
strongest determinant for human success is
emotional competence or intelligence
competencies
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And according to recent research the IC can
explain less than 10 percent of a company's
success, while the EC can explain 90 percent
of a company's success.
EC are human capabilities to feel, to see, to
listen, to aware, to sense, to taste, etc
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Do you know anybody who is extremely
bright and yet cannot put life together?
That very bright student but failed in
university?
That very bright employee but
performance is wanting?
Scientist over years have discovered
another type of intelligence which is not
IQ but EQ
 EQ is essential for survival
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EQ/EC involves a combination of
competencies which allow a person to:
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Be aware of own emotions
Understand own emotions
Be in control of own emotions
Recognize and understand emotions of others and
Use that knowledge for their own success and
success of others
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Include various types of interpersonal skills
such as techniques for emphatic listening,
dialogue, discussion, etc.
People who do not posses the EC will get
serious problems in understanding other
people.
Thus, EC are especially critical issues, which
have tremendous impacts in building
interpersonal relationships.
Category
Description
Self
to know one's inner
awareness feeling, preference,
intuition as well as
one's strengths and
weaknesses
Having realistic
understanding of our
own abilities and
strong sense of self
confidence
competence
Emotional self
awareness
Accurate self
assessment
Self confidence
Component description
Competencies
Self
•To be able to control one's •Self control
regulatory/
own feeling, impulse,
management . stress and changing
•Conscientiousness
environment
• Trustworthy
•Handling our own
emotions so that they do
•Adaptability
not interfere but facilitate
•Achievement
•Having ability to defer
gratification in pursuit of
•Orientation
goals
•Initiative
•Recovering well from
emotional stress
component
Social
awareness
Description
•Sensing what others
are feeling
•Being able to
understand situation
from other peoples
perspective
•Cultivating
relationship with
diverse range of
people
Competencies
Empathy
Organizational
awareness
Service
orientation
category
description
Competencies
Social skills
Handling emotions
in respect to other
people
Influence
Leadership
Able to read
Developing people
intricacies of social
interactions
Communication
Able to interact in
social situations well Change catalyst
Able to use this skill Building bonds
set to influence,
negotiate, persuade Team work and
and lead
collaboration
Those with High level of
EQ feel….
Those with Low levels of
EQ feel…..
Motivation, Focus
Friendship, Fulfillment
Freedom, Balance
Connection, Desire
Peqce of mind, Awareness
Balance, Self control
Autonomy, Contentment
Appreciation
Loneliness, Fear
Frustrations, guilt
Emptiness, Bitterness
Instability Lethargy
Depression,
Disappointment
Resentment, Anger
Dependence, victimization
failure
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IC are related to human capabilities, which
involve reasoning in contrast to the EC, which
involve sensing and feeling.
These include:
◦ Planning and organizing, decision making,
leadership , team building skills, professionalism,
relationship management, client/ stakeholder
focus, verbal/written communication, processing
work, taking initiative, adaptablity etc.
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A pre-condition for achieving organizational
excellence defined as “the 4P” (people,
partnership, processes and products) is to
satisfy peoples' needs in a balanced way.
The CC are those capabilities, which, together
with the CV, are important for satisfying
peoples' spiritual and mental needs so that
business excellence can be achieved.
CV and the EC especially are related to the
first 2P, i.e. people and partnership.
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Without focusing on the CV and the EC it will
be very difficult to achieve Excellency in the
last 2P, i.e. processes and products.
To build quality into the last 2P IC are
needed.
The critical or core IC are those
competencies, which are needed to satisfy
people's intellectual needs and at the same
time necessary to build Excellency into the
organization's processes and products.
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As an effective response to growing global competition high
quality was seen to be the result of high employee
commitment and loyalty, - focusing on people, CC and CV
and do this
High levels of employee commitment and loyalty is believed
to result, partially, from greater employee involvement,
In some organisations, a deliberate focus can be identified
that seeks to have employees openly discuss aspects of
corporate culture, and suggest techniques for achieving a
culture that emphasizes greater teamwork and cooperation
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Advocates of culture – quality movement
claim that productivity and financial return
can be significantly enhanced by developing
culture that emphasize key values
Presently, the evidence suggest that, properly
introduced, there are some economic
advantages to following culture-quality
movement
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Although OB is extremely complex and
includes many inputs and dimensions, three
frameworks:
◦ The cognitive,
◦ Behaviouristic,
◦ social cognitive frameworks
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Can be used to develop an overall model for
OB
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The cognitive approach to human behaviour
has many sources of inputs ( the five
senses)
Cognition, which is the basic unit of the
cognitive framework, can be defined as the
act of knowing an item from information
Under this framework, cognition precedes
behaviour and constitutes input into the
persons thinking, perception, problem
solving, and information processing
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Although Tolman believed behaviour to be
appropriate unit of analysis, he felt that
behaviour is purposeful, that it is directed
towards a goal
He felt that cognitive learning consists of a
relationship between cognitive
environmental cues and expectations
Through experimentation, he found out
that a rat could learn to run through an
intricate maze, with purpose and direction,
towards goal (food)
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Tolman observed that at each point in the
maze, expectations were established – in
other words, the rat learned to expect a
certain cogitative cue associated with the
choice point might eventually lead to the
food
If the rat actually received the food, the
association between the cue and the
expectancy was strengthen, and leaning
occurred
Tolman’s approach could be depicted that
learning is an association between the cue
and the expectancy)
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In his laboratory experiment, he found that
animals learned to expect a certain event
would follow another – for example, animal
learned to behaviour as if they expect food
when a certain cue appeared.
Thus, Tolman believed that learning consist
of expectancy that a particular event will
lead to a particular consequence
This cognitive concept of expectancy
implies that the organisms is thinking about
or is conscious or aware of, the goal.
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Thus Tolman and others espousing the
cognitive approach felt hat behaviour is best
explained by these cognitions
Applied to OB, cognitive approach has
dominated unit of analysis such as
perception, personality and attitudes,
motivation, decision making and goal setting
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The roots of behavioristic theory of human
behaviour can be trace back to the work of
Ivan Pavlov and John Watson
These pioneering behaviorists stressed the
importance of dealing with observable
behaviour instead of the elusive mind that
had preoccupied earlier psychologist
They used the classical conditioning
experiment to formulate the stimulusresponse (S - R) explanation of human
behaviour
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Both Pavlov and Watson felt that behaviour
could be best understood in terms of S-R
A stimulus elicit response
They concentrated mainly on the impact of
the stimulus and felt that learning occurred
when the S -R connection was made
Ivan Pavlov who attributed leaning to the
association or connection between stimulus
and response (S-R
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Based on Pavlov classical conditioning
experiment using dogs as subjects
When presented with meat powder (
unconditioned stimulus) - the dog
secreted saliva (unconditioned response)
When he merely rang a bell (neutral
stimulus) the dog did not salivate
When meat was accompanied with the
ringing of the bell several times, then
Pavlov rang the bell without presenting the
meat, the dog salivated to the bell alone
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Conclusion - that the dog has become
classically conditioned to salivate
(conditioned response) to the sound of the
bell ( conditioned stimulus
Thus classical conditioned can be defined
as a process in which a formerly neutral
stimulus, when paired with an
unconditioned stimulus, becomes a
conditioned stimulus that elicit a
conditioned response; in other words, the
S-R connection is learned
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Stimulus (S)
Is stuck by a pin
Is shocked by an
electric current
Is surprised by a
loud sound
Is tapped below the
kneecap
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Response ®
Flinches
Jumps/screams
Jumps/screams
Flexes lower leg
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Another psychologist whose work explains this
framework is B. F. Skinner.
He felt that the early behaviorists helped explain
respondent’s behaviours (those behaviours elicited
by stimulus) but not the more complex operant
behaviours
In other words, the S -R approach helped explain
the physical reflexes, for examples, when stuck by
a pin (S), the person will flinch ( R) or when
tapped below the kneecap (S) the Epson will
extend the lower leg ( R)
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Skinner felt that classical conditioning explains
only respondent (reflexive) behaviours. – i.e.
involuntary responses that are elicited by a
stimulus
He felt that more complex, but common human
behaviour cannot be explained by classical
conditioning alone.
He noted that the greater part of the behaviour of
an organism was under control of stimuli which
were effective only because they were correlated
with reinforcing consequences
Through his research thus , skinner posited that
behaviour was a function of consequences, not the
classical conditioning eliciting stimuli
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He felt that most human behaviour affects, or
operates on, the environment to receive a desirable
consequences.
This type of behaviour is learned through operant
conditioning
Operant conditioning is concerned primarily with
learning that occurs as a consequence of
behaviour, or R-S.
It is not concerned with the eliciting causes of
behaviour, as classical , or respondent,
conditioning is
The organism has to operate on an environment
(thus the term operant conditioning) in order to
receive the desirable consequences.
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The preceding stimulus does not cause the
behaviour in operant conditioning; it serves
as a cue to emit the behaviour. For skinner
and other behaviorists, behaviour is a
function of its contingent environmental
consequences
So behavourisitic approach is
environmentally based. It posits that
cognitive processes such as thinking,
expectancies, and perception may exist but
are not needed to predict and control or
manage behaviour
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On the other hand, Skinner found out
through his operant conditioning experiment,
that the consequences of a response could
better explain most behaviour than elicit
stimuli could
He emphasized the importance of the
response-stimulus (R -S) relationship
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Response ®
Works
Talks to others
Enters a restaurant
Enters a library
Increases
productivity
Completes a
difficult assignment
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Stimulus (S)
Paid
Meets more people
Obtain food
Finds a book
Receives merit pay
Receives praise or
a promotion
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Today operant conditioning has much
greater impact on human learning than
classical conditioning
It explain much of organizational behaviour
E.g. people go to work to feed, cloth and
house themselves and their families working (conditioned response) is
instrumental in obtaining food, shelter and
clothing
Managers can analyse the consequences of
organizational behaviour, to change the
environment, and help accomplish goals
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The cognitive approach has been accused of being
mentalistic, and the behavioristic approach has
been accused of being deterministic.
Social Cognitive theorists argue that the S-R model
and to a lesser degree the R –S model, are too
mechanistic explanation of human
The social cognitive approach tires to integrate the
contribution so both of these approaches
Social cognitive theory recognizes the importance
of behaviorism’s contingent environmental
consequences, but also includes cognitive
processes of self regulation
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Based on the work of Albert Bandura social learning
theory and David and Luthans, this framework
proposes a social learning approach to
organizational behaviour
Social learning takes the position that behaviour
can best be explained in terms of a continuous
reciprocal interaction among cognitive, behavioral
and environmental determinants.
The persons and the environmental situations do
not function as independent units but, in
conjunction with the behaviour itself, reciprocally
interact to determine behaviour
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Bandura explains that “it is largely through their
actions that people produce the environmental
conditions that affect their behavior in a reciprocal
fashion
The expediencies generated by behaviour also
partly determine what a person becomes and can
do which in turn, affects subsequent behaviour
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Social/organisational environment
Behavior
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Cognition
behavioural consequences