Abstract
Organizational behaviour is concerned with refining our knowledge about the behaviour of individuals and groups in organizations and their role in the growth, development and decline of organizations. These various outcomes are also determined by the financial, political and technical environment in which the organization functions, so researchers also study these organization-environment relations and their consequent impact on the behaviour of individuals and groups. It is a multi-disciplinary enterprise involving economics, politics, engineering, management science, systems theory, industrial relations, sociology and psychology. Given this complexity the student will not be surprised to discover that our ability to predict accurately what will happen to individuals, groups and organizations is very limited. In searching to achieve this ‘scientist’s stone’, however, a variety of frameworks, conceptual schemes and even a few facts have emerged which can facilitate our ability to perceive, interpret and organize this social complexity. This chapter concentrates on presenting some of these frameworks.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Alderfer, C.P. (1969) An empirical test of a theory of human needs. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 4, 142–175.
Argyris, C. (1974) Behind the Front Page. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Argyris, C. and Schon, D.A. (1974) Theory in Practice: Increasing professional effectiveness. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Argyris, C. and Schon, D.A. (1978) Organizational Learning. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley.
Ashby, W.R. (1956) An Introduction to Cybernetics. London: Chapman & Hall.
Bass, B.M. (1967) Social behavior and the orientation inventory. Psychological Bulletin, 68, 260–292.
Blake, R.R. and Mouton, J.S. (1978) The New Managerial Grid. Houston: Gulf Publishing Co.
Burns, T. (1954) The directions of activity and communication in a departmental and executive group. Human Relations, 7, 73–97.
Campbell, J.P. and Pritchard, R.D. (1976) Motivation theory in industrial and organizational psychology. In M.D. Dunnette (ed.), Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Chicago: Rand McNally.
Caplow, T. (1966) Rumours in War. In A.H. Rubenstein and C.H. Haberstroth (eds), Some Theories of Organization. Homewood, Ill.: Irwin-Dorsey.
Chandler, M.K. and Sayles, L.R. (1971) Managing Large Systems. New York: Harper & Row.
Cooper, R.C. (1966) Leader’s task relevance and subordinate behaviour in industrial work groups. Human Relations, 19, 57–84.
Davis, K. (1953) Management communication and the grapevine. Harvard Business Review, Sept.–Oct., 43–49.
Evans, M.G. (1979) Leadership. In S. Kerr (ed.), Organizational Behavior. Columbus, Ohio: Grid Publishing.
Farris, G.F. (1979) The informal organization in strategic decision-making. International Studies of Management and Organization, 9, 131–152.
Fiedler, F.E. (1967) A Theory of Leadership Effectiveness. New York: McGraw-Hill.
French, J.R.P. Jr and Raven, B. (1959) The bases of social power. In D. Cartwright (ed.), Studies in Social Power. Ann Arbor, Mich.: Institute for Social Research.
Goldstein, A.P. and Sorcher, M. (1974) Changing Supervisor Behavior. New York: Pergamon Press.
Gowler, D. and Legge, K. (1980) Evaluative practices as stressors in occupational settings. In C.L. Cooper and R. Payne (eds), Current Concerns in Occupational Stress. Chichester: Wiley.
Hamner, W.C. and Organ, D.W. (1978) Organizational Behavior: An applied psychological approach. Dallas: Business Publications Inc.
Herzberg, F. (1966) Work and the Nature of Man. Cleveland: World Publishing.
Hickson, D.J., Pugh, D.S. and Pheysey, D.C. (1969) Operations technology and organizational structure: an empirical reappraisal. Administrative Science Quarterly, 378–397.
House, R.J. and Wigdor, L.A. (1967) Herzberg’s dual-factor theory of job satisfaction and motivation: a review of the evidence and a criticism. Personnel Psychology, 10, 368–389.
Humble, J. (1970) Management by Objectives in Action. London: McGraw-Hill.
Kahn, R.L., Wolfe, D.M., Quinn, R.P., Snoek, J.D. and Rosenthal, R.A. (1964) Organizational Stress. New York: Wiley.
Lawrence, P.R. and Lorsch, J.W. (1967) Organization and Environment. Boston: Harvard Business School.
Locke, E.A. (1976) The nature and causes of job satisfaction. In M.D. Dunnette (ed.) (1976), Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Chicago: Rand McNally.
Luthans, F. and Kreitner, R. (1975) Organizational Behavior Modification. Glenview, Ill.: Scott, Foresman & Co.
Maslow, A.H. (1954) Motivation and Personality. New York: Harper & Row.
Maslow, A.H. (1965) Eupsychian Management. Homewood, Ill.: Irwin-Dorsey.
Metcalfe, L. and McQuillan, W. (1977) Managing turbulence. In P.C. Nystrom and W.H. Starbuck (eds), Prescriptive Models of Organization. Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Co.
Mintzberg, H. (1973) The Nature of Managerial Work. New York: Harper & Row.
Mintzberg, H. (1975) The manager’s job: folklore and fact. Harvard Business Review, July–August, 49–61.
Mintzberg, H. (1979) The Structuring of Organizations. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Peter, L.F. (1969) The Peter Principle. New York: William Morrow.
Pugh, D.S. and Hickson, D.J. (eds) (1976) Organizational Structure in its Context. Farnborough: Saxon House/Teakfield Press.
Pugh, D.S. and Hinings, C.R. (1976) Organization Structure Extensions and Replications. Farnborough: Saxon House.
Schein, E.H. (1965) Organizational Psychology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Scott, W.E. Jr (1966) Activation theory and task design. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 1, 3–30.
Skinner, B.F. (1976) About Behaviorism. New York: Vintage Books.
Steers, R. and Porter, L.W. (1975) Motivation and Work Behavior. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Stewart, R. (1967) Managers and their Jobs. London: Macmillan.
Vickers, G. (1968) Value Systems and Social Process. London: Tavistock.
Vroom, V.H. (1964) Work and Motivation. New York: Wiley.
Warr, P.B., Finemen, S., Nicholson, N. and Payne, R.L. (1978) Developing Employee Relations. Farnborough: Saxon House/Teakfield.
Weick, K.E. (1976) Educational organizations as loosely coupled systems. Administrative Science Quarterly, 1–19.
Woodward, J. (1965) Industrial Organization: Theory and practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Annotated reading
Mintzberg’s ideas are only available in his recent book (1979) The Structuring of Organizations. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. This is a detailed review and synthesis of a mass of literature on organizations. The first chapter describes the five co-ordinating mechanisms and the last describes the five types of structures and the pentagon model.
Child, J. (1977) Organization: A guide to problems and practice (paperback). New York: Harper & Row. A readable and informed account of the meaning of organizational structure. It discusses the choices managers have when faced with designing an organization around the issues of shaping the jobs/roles people do, having tall or flat chains of command, grouping activities by function, product or some mixture, mechanisms for integrating the divisions so created, and how to control the humans working in the system. Child also discusses how to change organizations and the future forms they may need/choose to adopt.
Handy, C. (1976) Understanding Organizations. Harmondsworth: Penguin. This is an extremely well-written and lively book, rich with pertinent examples. The first part introduces basic concepts for understanding organizations: motivation, roles, leadership, power and influence, group processes, structure and politics. The second part applies the concepts to problems such as how to design organizations, how to develop and change them and the working of the various aspects of organizations as systems (budgets, communications, computers, bargaining). The last chapter describes what it is like to be a manager and the dilemmas they face. The book has a very useful third section which is a guide to further study for each of the 12 chapters.
Warr, P.B. (ed.) (1978) Psychology at Work (2nd edn). Harmondsworth: Penguin. This book contains 16 chapters, each written by different authors. It is moderately technical in places, but much of it is quite understandable to the non-psychologist. The chapters cover the following topics: hours of work and the 24-hour cycle, workload and skilled performance, training, the design of machines and systems that optimize human performance, accidents, computers and decision making, selection, interviewing, negotiation and collective bargaining, leadership, attitudes and motives, job redesign and employee participation, work stress, counselling in work settings, how to change organizations and organizational systems as psychological environments. Some journals which cover these subjects but which aim their content at practitioners and which are widely available in UK are: Harvard Business Review, Personnel Review, Personnel Management, Management Today.
Copyright information
© 1981 The British Psychological Society
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Payne, R. (1981). Organizational Behaviour. In: Psychology and Management. Psychology for Professional Groups. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-16551-3_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-16551-3_9
Publisher Name: Palgrave, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-31875-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-16551-3
eBook Packages: Palgrave Religion & Philosophy CollectionPhilosophy and Religion (R0)