Case 3

Organizational Behavior

Tiffany Chambers

November 1, 2011

Organizational Behavior

Organizational Behavior (OB) is defined as the study and application of knowledge about how people, individuals, and groups act in organizations. This is done by taking a systematic approach that interprets people and organization relationships. The purpose of organizational behavior is to build better relationships by achieving individual objectives, organizational objectives, and social objectives. Organizational behavior is known to cover a large range of topics such as:

• personality, values, ethics

• motivation

• interpersonal communication

• leadership

• change management

• cross-cultural management

Organizational behavior is used by businesses and management to create the best environment for workers as individuals and as a component of the overall social culture. Data for implementation of change in an organization is typically gathered by studying the actions and behaviors of workers through empirical studies, questionnaires, individual and group interviews, and evaluations. “The goal of organizational behavior management is to help businesses improve their bottom line by keeping productivity up, morale boosted, and developing strong employee loyalty. OBM is the tool used by proactive businesses to stay one step ahead of their employees through behavior analysis.” (Spangler)

There are three different levels of analysis in organizational behavior. The three different levels are individual, group and organizational level of analysis. At the individual level of analysis, organizational behavior involves the study of learning, perception, creativity, motivation, personality, turnover, task performance, cooperative behavior, deviant behavior, ethics, and cognition. At this level of analysis, organizational behavior draws heavily upon psychology, engineering, and medicine. At the group level of analysis, organizational behavior involves the study of group dynamics,...