Managers and Ob Relationships

What is the relevance of OB to practicing managers

Organisational behaviour is afield of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behaviour within organisations, for the purpose of applying such knowledge towards improving organisation effectiveness. OB applies the knowledge gained about individuals, groups, and the effect of structure on behaviour in order to make organisations work more effectively. All three of these areas are ultimately connected and necessary for a comprehensive understanding of OB in the workplace.

Organisational behaviour includes the core topics of motivation, leader behaviour and power, interpersonal communication, group structure and processes, learning, attitude development and perception, change processes, conflict, work design, and work stress. With this knowledge managers can achieve a successful career, but because the organisation influences and is influenced by the individual it is hard to completely understand the individual’s behaviour without knowing something about the organisation.

Microsoft understands how organisational behaviour affects an organisation’s performance. The company maintains good employee relationships by providing a great work environment, generous benefits, and challenging jobs. Other benefits such as valet parking, dry-cleaning and laundry services, free grocery delivery, and take-home meals help employees focus on their work. At Microsoft employee loyalty and productivity are high, contributing to the company’s growth to $44 billion in revenues since its founding in 1975.

The management of the organisation therefore needs to develop and have an understanding of their information about attitude and behaviour of individuals and groups in organisations.

OB separates important aspects of the manager’s job and offers specific perspective on the human side of management; people as organisations, people as resources and people as people.

In the late 1960’s...