Term Paper On Disciplines that Contribute to Organizational Behavior

Prepared by – Shambhavi Reg. no. 1220759 Class: Ist MBA – V Date : 9th July, 2012

Abstract:
This study covers different disciplines that affect the discipline of organizational behavior. Disciplines like psychology, sociology, anthropology, etc are self acclaimed disciplines that contribute to the study of organizational behavior and they determine how an individual would behave in a scenario. It also includes mention of a case study to determine corporate psychological defenses, which explains how organizations try to avoid charges even if it’s their fault. This term paper discusses how different attributes of organizational behavior are affected by disciplines of different nature. Key words: Interdisciplinary, Organizational Behavior, Psychology, Sociology, Social Psychology, Anthropology, Management, Political Science, Medicine.

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Introduction: 1. Meaning & Definitions:
Organizational Behavior is a systematic study of the actions and attitudes that people exhibit within organizations, according to P G Aquinas (2006). This study is basically concerned with the psychosocial, interpersonal, and behavioral dynamics in organizations. The term ‘Organizational behavior’ is defined by Stephen P Robbins as “a field of study that investigates the impact of individuals, groups and structures on behavior within organizations for the purpose of applying such knowledge towards improving on Organization’s effectiveness”. According to Keith Davis, “organizational behavior is an academic discipline concerned with understanding and describing human behavior in organizational environment. It seeks to shed light on whole complex human factor in organization by identifying causes and effect of that behavior.” This study deals with humans and, what causes them to behave in a particular manner in an organization.

2. Characteristics:
Few of the characteristics of organizational behavior defined by Dr. B. S. Moshal (2006), are that:   It aims at identifying factors affecting human behavior in a work set up, and also helps to develop ways for regulating, modifying and reshaping it. It is a multidisciplinary study which integrates various branches of social sciences and applies them to the people at work. It unites principles and ideas from various disciplines like economics, sociology, psychology, etc. and applies them for understanding human behavior.   It is also a multilevel analysis of human behavior. Different levels of study are individual, group and organizational. It seeks to coordinate the individual goals with the organizational goals, and make them move in one direction.

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3. Interdisciplinary Influences:
As mentioned earlier, as a characteristic of Organizational Behavior, it is a combination of many other disciplines and sciences, which have an effect on it. In the words of Aquinas (2006), “Organizational behavior is a blended discipline that has grown out of contributions from numerous earlier fields of study.” It has evolved from these disciplines and hence, has traces of each of them in it. Some of the disciplines are discussed below;

3.1. Psychology: It is one of the major determinants of organizational behavior as a discipline in itself. It is the study of the minds of the employees and helps a manager to organize an organization according to its goals along with managing a satisfied workforce. The term ‘psychology’ is derived from the Greek word “psyche”, which means soul or spirit. According to Dr. Moshal (2006), psychology can be defined as the branch of behavioral science that deals with measuring, explaining, predicting and changing behavior of human beings and other animals. As suggested by author, James S. Nairne (2009), by ‘mind’ psychologists refer to the contents and processes of subjective experience like: sensation, thoughts, and emotions. Behavior and mind are two different aspects and behavior can be directly measured. Also by Nairne (2009), as far as psychology as a discipline is concerned, it has diversified itself into a number of specialized fields like, clinical, experimental, and organizational psychology. Organizational psychology that includes working in teams, work motivation, training and development, leadership, human resource planning, and workplace wellness, are very similar to the topics under organizational behavior. As per Dr. Moshal (2006), Psychology has been “profitably” used in the field of organizational behavior, as people who contribute are actually adding knowledge to Organizational behavior are, personality theorists, counseling psychologists, industrial and organizational psychologists. They work with employees working in an

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organization and help them face and solve their problems and issues of boredom, fatigue, perception, performance appraisals, job designing, work stress, etc.

3.1.1. A gist of the Study on Corporate Psychological defenses by T. Ketola: One of the studies conducted on psychological factors in an organization, is on the topic “Corporate Psychological Defenses: An Oil Spill Case” by T. Ketola. In a nutshell, this study basically concentrates on the psychological defense mechanism of an organization. There was an oil spill due to lack of attentiveness of workers in an oil refinery. It came out in the media and the corporate heads of the organization were trying their levels best to save the reputation of themselves and the organization. According to the hypothetical model presented by Swajkowski (1992), and empirically tested by Bradford and Garrett (1995), there was a matrix of four responses to the accusations of organizational misconduct : refusals, excuses, justifications and concessions. As per this model, refusals include repression, undoing and omnipotent fantasies. The argument of this model is that with the help of these defenses organizations refuse to both net harm and responsibility. Excuses consist of defenses of splitting, projection, projective identification, regression, idealization and isolation, which facilitate the organization to avoid taking responsibility. Justifications include the defenses of rationalization, intellectualization, reaction formation, compensation, etc. Finally, Concessions contain defenses of sublimation, which helps the organization to admit both net harm and responsibility. As a result, the organization used all the defenses mentioned in this model and finally resorted to the concessions defense and that’s how they could calm down the affected groups. Hence, this model stands tested. The purpose to mentioning this case study here was just to bring up the different psychological changes an organization goes through and how psychology plays a major role in functioning of any organization.

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3.2. Sociology: Sociology can be defined as a branch of behavioral science that deals with the use of scientific methods for analyzing and understanding individuals’ behavior in the society, according to Dr. Moshal (2006). The society and environment play a major role in shaping an individual’s behavior. And, similarly in an organization sociology helps to understand the behavior of an individual in a group and socially. He continues, that the social scientists have contributed to organizational behavior through the concepts of group dynamics, informal organizations, team work, power position and conflicts, etc. According to Aquinas (2006), as sociology takes the society rather than an individual as a point of departure, the sociologist is concerned with the variety of roles within a society or culture, the norms and standards of behavior that emerge within societies and groups. This discipline basically deals with comprehending the behavior at workplace with other colleagues and in teams and groups.

3.3. Social Psychology: As defined by G.W. Allport (1985), “Social psychology is the scientific study that studies how people’s thoughts, behaviors, and feelings are influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of others.” This definition can be comprehended in this way; it is a scientific study because it is an empirical method of investigation. Thoughts, feelings and behavior can be measured in a human being. Others’ presence maybe imagined or implied, simply means that we may behave in a manner that is socially and culturally acceptable even when there is no one present around us. Like sociology, social psychology also makes contributions to the study of groups and inter group dynamics, and communication patterns, in the study of organizational behavior.

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3.4. Anthropology: Eric Wolf (1995) proposes that, it is the academic study of humanity. It deals with all that is characteristic of the human experience, from physiology and the evolutionary origins to the social and cultural organization of human societies as well as individual and collective forms of human experience. In the words of Dr. Moshal (2006), difference in human behaviors can be comprehended from the cultural upbringing and values learned by them in cultural environment. The study of anthropology can help a manager to predict and understand the behavior of his subordinates and staff. Using the contributions from this discipline, he can build a strong organizational culture, and friendly organizational environment. Aquinas (2006) says that as per researches conducted in this tradition, they have examined the effects of efficient cultures on organization performance and how pathological personalities may lead to dysfunctional organizational cultures.

3.5. Management: Management was originally called administrative science; hence it is a science that deals with the study of supervising people at an organization. It concentrates on the design, implementation, and management of various administrative and organizational systems. Management is the first discipline to take the modern corporation as the unit of analysis, and this viewpoint distinguishes the discipline’s contribution to the study of organizational behavior. This entire idea was proposed by Aquinas (2006). Management as a discipline goes hand in hand with organizational behavior because it is basically put into practice only in an organization.

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3.6. Political Science: According to Oxford dictionary of Politics, ‘Political science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government, and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state.’ Dr. Moshal (2006) suggests that many areas of political science are directly related to organizational behavior such as power politics, power structure, conflicts and resolutions, manipulations, coalitions of power, etc. The contributions of political scientists are significant to the understanding and fields of organizational behavior.

3.7. Medicine: Though it is a typical science, it has still made contributions to the organizational behavior discipline. Aquinas (2006) says, “Medicine embraces concerns for both physical and psychological health, with the concern for industrial mental health dating back at least sixty years.” These were the arguments by Aquinas (2006), that most recently the acute diseases have shifted from influenza to hypertension. This statement holds very true because as the pressure and competition is increasing in the organizations, the mental health of an individual is deteriorating day by day. Stress has become a part and parcel of daily life. These trends have helped in the growth of wellness programs in the context of corporate medicine. These programs have led to attention to medicine in organizational behavior, was also an idea given by Aquinas (2006).

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4. Analysis and Conclusion:
Organizational behavior is a multidisciplinary domain which derives its existence from many other disciplines. They have all made equal and more contributions to the field of organizational behavior. We cannot eliminate even one of these disciplines discussed above and also this list is not exhaustive. There are many more subjects like economics, engineering, mathematics, etc which have a vital role in development of organizational behavior. Especially the disciplines like psychology and sociology drive this movement. They deal with the minds of the individuals and their behaviors in a particular situation or scenario. They also deal with how an individual reacts and behaves in a group and with his colleagues. Political science and management are basically the more typical sciences which deal with the political aspects of organizational behavior, and they normally are planned and used to determine the behaviors of individuals or change them for achieving organizational goals.

Anthropology and social psychology are domains which are the disciplines of humanities that contribute to the development of organizational behavior. They focus on the cultural and environmental aspects of an individual and how those affect the behavior of an individual in an organization. The cultural differences and the environment in which an individual is born and brought up, highly influences his/her behavior at the work place and his attitude towards the job and organizational goals. Hence, I would like to conclude this paper on this note that, there are many disciplines which have blended in a way that organizational behavior has evolved as a new discipline and it really helps the managers nowadays as it is easier to study human behavior and manage manpower. They can go forward and use this discipline to channelize the organizational and individual goals in one direction.

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References:     PG AQUINAS (2006), Organizational Behaviour, pg no. 3, 12, 13, Excel Books Dr. B.S. Moshal (2006), Organizational Behaviour, Design and Applications, pg no. 5.3, 5.7, Galgotia Publications Pvt. Ltd. James S. Nairne (2006), Psychology ( fifth edition), pg. no. 5 T. Ketola, Corporate Psychological Defenses : An Oil Spill Case, published by Springer, Source: Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 65, No. 2 (May, 2006), pp. 149-161, URL : http://www.jstor.org/stable/25123778       Allport, G. W (1985). "The historical background of social psychology". In Lindzey, G; Aronson, E. The Handbook of Social Psychology. New York: McGraw Hill. Wolf, Eric (1994) Perilous Ideas: Race, Culture, People. Current Anthropology 35: 1-7. p.22 Oxford Dictionary of Political Science: Political science For Social Psychology: URL : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_psychology For Anthropology: URL : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/anthropology For Political Science: URL : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_science

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