UNIT-I :
HISTORY OF MANAGEMENT
Management Organizational behavior (often abbreviated OB)
is a field of study that
investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and
structure have on behavior within
organizations, for the purpose of applying such knowledge
toward improving an
organization’s effectiveness.
OB includes the core topics of motivation, leader behavior
and power, interpersonal
communication, group structure and processes, learning,
attitude development and perception,
change processes, conflict, work design, and work stress.
If a manager wants to explain and predict human behavior,
he/she needs to understand how
learning occurs or how people learn. So it is very very
necessary to know the nature, process
and principles of learning.
According to S.P. Robbins, “learning is any relatively
permanent change in behavior that occurs
as a result of experience.”
LEARNING PROCESS/NATURE
Theories of Learning: Learning is part of every one’s life.
In our life, all complex behavior is
learned. Learning is defined as any relatively permanent
change in behavior that occurs as a
result of experience. Whenever any change occurs learning is
taken place in the individual. If an
individual behaves, reacts, responds as a result of
experience which is different from others, a
person has encountered some new learning experience in his
life. This definition consists of the
following four key elements:
i) Change process: Learning involves some change in oneself
in terms of observable actions
explicitly shown to others or change in one’s attitude or
thought process occur with oneself
implicitly. Change may be good or bad or positive or
negative from an organization point of
view. If a person is happened to experience some negative
incidents, that person will hold
prejudices or bias or to restrict their output. On the
contrary, if a person is encountering some
good incident, that person is likely to hold positive
attitude.
ii) Permanent change: Due to whatever exposure a person
encounters, the impact what it
generates may be long lasting and permanent. Hence, the
change must be of relatively
permanent. If change occurs due to fatigue or alcohol
consumption or temporary adaptation, it
may be vanished once the goal is achieved.
iii) Setting behavioral actions: Explicit changes occurring
in behavior is the main goal of
learning process. A change in an individual’s thought
process or attitudes without any changes
in many explicit behavior will not be considered as learning
process.
iv) Need for meaningful experiences: Some form of
experiences is necessary for learning.
Experience may be acquired directly through observation or
practice. If experience results in a
relatively permanent change in behavior, one can confidently
say that learning has taken place.
Theories of Learning: There are three types of learning
theories. These theories are classical
conditioning, ope rant conditioning and social learning.
APPLICATION OF CLASSICAL CONDITIONING PRINCIPLES AT WORK
Whenever President or Vice-President of Corporate Office
visits factory site the employees in
the shop floor will more attentive at work and look more
prim, proper and active in their work
life. It is quite natural that top management personnel
visit (Unconditioned Stimulus) evoking
or eliciting a desired response- being prim and proper at
work from the employees
(Unconditioned Response). The routine cleaning of windows or
floor of the administrative
office will be neutral stimulus never evoking any response
from the employees. If the visit of
the top
management personnel is associated with such cleaning
process, eventually the employees
would turn on their best output and look prim and active the
moment windows and floor are
being cleaned up. The employees had learned to associate the
cleaning of the windows with a
visit from the head office. The cleaning process
(conditioned stimulus) evoked attentive and
active work behavior (conditioned response). Similarly,
Christmas Carols songs bring pleasant
memories of childhood as these songs are being associated
with the festive Christmas Spirit.
OPERAND CONDITIONING
Ope rant conditioned principle is proposed by B.F. Skinner,
an American Psychologist. It is a
type of conditioning in which desired voluntary behavior
leads to a reward or prevent a
punishment. Ope rant conditioning principle emphasizes
strongly that the behavior of an
individual is a function of its consequences. If the
consequences are pleasant, the behavior
associated with such consequences will be repeated again and
again. If the consequences are
unpleasant, the behavior will be in extinct. The rationale
behind this theory is that people learn to
behave in order to get something they want or to avoid
something they don’t want.
Ope rant condition is learned process. The tendency to repeat
such behavior is influenced by
the reinforcement or lack of reinforcement brought about by
the consequences of the behavior.
The proper reinforcement strengthens a behavior and
increases the likelihood that it will be
repeated.
Skinner’s Experiment: Skinner developed an apparatus to
conduct a series of learning experiment
using rats. He named that apparatus as Skinner’s Box which
has certain features such as a lever,
bowl, light, water container etc. A highly deprived rat is
placed in the box. Once a rat nudges or
touches or hits the lever attached in the corner of the box,
a piece of food pellet is dropped in the
bowl. By trial and error, the rat learns that hitting the
lever is followed by getting a food pellet in
the bowl. Skinner coined the term ope rant response to any
behavioral act such as pressing or
hitting or nudging the lever that has some effect on the
environment.
APPLICATION OF OPE RANT CONDITIONING IN WORK LIFE
If a sales person who hits the assigned target of sales
quota will be reinforced with a suitable
attractive reward, the chances of hitting further sales
target in future will be exemplified. Skinner
argued that creating pleasant consequences (giving
attractive rewards) to follow specific forms
of behavior (hitting sales target) would increase the
frequency of that behavior. People will most
likely engage in desired behaviors if they are positively
reinforced for doing so. Rewards are
most effective if they immediately follow the desired
response. In addition, behavior that is not
rewarded is less likely to be repeated. A commissioned sales
person wanting to earn a sizable
income finds that doing so is contingent on generating high
sales in his territory.
COGNITIVE LEARNING THEORY
Cognition refers to an individual’s thoughts, knowledge,
interpretations, understandings or views
about oneself and his/her environment. Based on it cognitive
theory argues that the person tries
to form his/her cognitive structure in memory, which
preserves and organizes all information
relating to the events that may occur in learning situation.
Here an experiment was conducted on
a monkey by Kohl-er. Kohl er presented two sticks to a monkey
in a cage. Both sticks were too
short to reach a banana lying outside cage. This produced an
experience, or say, cognition,
insight monkey. What monkey did without any prior exposure,
joined both sticks together and
pulled the banana inside the cage. Clearly learning took
place inside the mind of monkey. Thus,
the learning process involved in this case is putting or
organizing bits of information in a new
manner.
Culture deals with past and current assumptions,
experiences, values, attitudes, beliefs,
expectations, customs etc. Culture relates to the informal
aspects of organisations rather than
their official elements. They focus on the values, beliefs
and norms of individuals in the
organization Culture is manifested by symbols and rituals
rather than through the formal
structure of the organization.
The way we individuals change due to age, education, change
of job, illness, change in
geographical area,organizations also change due to several
reasons over a period of time. Change
is necessary for survival and growth. Changes are constantly
taking place in our environment.
Changes occur outside organization that requires internal
adaptation. The manager has to ensure
that individual and groups in organizations, and structures,
process and behaviors of sub-systems
must adapt to the changing external and internal
environments. In effect, the manager is a change
agent who facilitates changes to occur in the various
subsystems of the organization needed. Any
alteration which occurs in the overall work environment of
an organization is called
organizational change.
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