Organizational behavior

Organizational behavior (OB) or organisational behaviour is the study of behavior in organizations.

CONTENT : A - F , G - L , M - R , S - Z , See also , External links

Quotes

Quotes are arranged alphabetically by author

A - F

• All that most economists know about Herbert Simon is that he wrote about bounded rationality and organizational behavior.
  • Mie Augier, James G. March (2004) Models of a Man: Essays in Memory of Herbert A. Simon. p. 259.

• Until the mid-1970s, the prominent approach in organization and management theory emphasized adaptive change in organizations. In this view, as environments change, leaders or dominant coalitions in organizations alter appropriate organizational features to realign their fit to environmental demands (e.g. Lawrence and Lorsch 1967; Thompson 1967; Child 1972; Chandler 1977; Pfeffer and Salancik 1978; Porter 1980; Rumelt 1986). Since then, an approach to studying organizational change that places more emphasis on environmental selection processes, introduced at about that time (Aldrich and Pfeffer 1976; Hannan and Freeman 1977; Aldrich 1979; McKelvey 1982), has become increasingly influential. The stream of research on ecological perspectives of organizational change has generated tremendous excitement, controversy and debate in the community of organization and management theory scholars. Inspired by the question, Why are there so many kinds of organizations?
  • Joel A. C. Baum, "Organizational ecology." in: Stewart Clegg ed. Studying Organization: Theory and Method (1999): 71-108. p. 71; lead paragraph

G - L

• Paul R. Lawrence [was] a renowned sociologist and a pivotal figure in the intellectual history of Harvard Business School who was one of the world's most influential and prolific scholars in the field of organizational behavior.
  • Harvard Business School, "Harvard Business School Professor Paul. R. Lawrence Dies at 89." at hbs.edu, Newsroom, Press Releases, 3 November 2011.

• Argyris’s work raises profound questions about how organizations run, and casts doubt on what is widely accepted as good practice. But he offers management a profound exploration of the fundamental principles of organizational behavior and human interaction in the workplace.
  • Harvard University. Chris Argyris, Harvard University: James McKeen Cattell Fellow Award at psychologicalscience.org, May 10, 2013.

• An organization which depends solely upon its blueprints of prescribed behavior is a very fragile social system.
  • Daniel Katz (1964) ""The motivational basis of organizational behavior". In: Behavioral science, 1964. p. 132

• Organisational Behaviour (OB) is the study of human behaviour in organisational setting, the interface between human behaviour the organisation, and the organisational itself. Although we can focus on any one of these three areas, do remember that all three are ultimately relevant for a comprehensive understanding of organisational behaviour. For example, we can study individual behavior without human behavior and explicitly considering the organization. But because the organization influences and is influenced by the individual, we cannot understand the individual's behavior completely without learning something about the organization.
  • Gregory Moorhead & Ricky W. Griffin (1989). Organizational behavior: Managing people and organizations. Boston. Houghton Mifflin, p. 7

M - R

• Performance appraisal (PAR) in public organisations is the appraisal committee's impersonal evaluation of the public service rendered by publicservants in their impersonal capacity in a public setup; hence there is nothing "personal" about PAR.
  • Tapan Kumar Pradhan in Dr Tapan Kumar Pradhan vs Reserve Bank of India.

S - Z

• [Formal structures of formal organizations] never succeed in conquering the non-rational dimensions of organizational behavior.
  • Philip Selznick (1948). "Foundations of the Theory of Organization". American Sociological Review 13 (1): p. 25

• Another forerunner of modern organization theorists was Andrew Ure, a professor of chemistry. An enthusiastic proponent of “the factory system,” Ure (1835) took a step beyond Adam Smith. Whereas Smith’s pin factory was solely an example of division of labor, Ure pointed out that a factory poses organizational challenges. He asserted that every factory incorporates “three principles of action, or three organic systems”:

(a) a “mechanical” system that integrates production processes,

(b) a “moral” system that motivates and satisfies the needs of workers, and

(c) a “commercial” system that seeks to sustain the firm through financial management and marketing.

Harmonizing these three systems, said Ure, was the responsibility of managers.

• William H. Starbuck (2005). "The Origins of Organizational Theory," p. 149-150