INTRODUCTION TO ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR Meaning

Historical Evaluation of organisational Behaviour: Formal study of organisation behaviour began in 1890’s following industrial revolution movement.

In 1890’s F. W. Taylor identified the positive effect of precise instructions, goal setting and reward or motivation. These ideas became scientific management, considered as the beginning of the formal study of organisation behaviour.<br>

Scientific Management: Scientific Management is based on the belief that productivity is maximized when organisations are rationalised with precise sets of instructions based on time and motion.
F. W. Taylor is often called as “Father of Scientific Management ”.

Four principles of Scientific Management:
Studying task using time and motion study.
Scientifically select, train and develop workers.
Managers provide detailed instructions.
Divide work between workers and managers.<br>

Human Resources Movement: Failure of Scientific Management gave birth to HR Movement.
Characterised by heavy emphasis on workers co-operation and morale.
People are treated as human beings and not machines, giving more importance to their needs and problems.<br>

Three reasons contributed to the recognition of Human Factor in an organization are: Great Depression of 1929.
Hawthorne Experiments.
Labour Movements.<br>

Great Depression: Crash of American Market lead to world wide depression, unemployment , collapse of economy.

It was realised that production alone is not management function, but marketing ,finance and human resources are required for survival of business.

Aftermath human problems, role of personal department and human relations got direct/indirect significance.<br>

Labour Movement: Continuous exploitation made workers to realise their protections lies in their own hands.

Formulated labour union that had desired effect on management.

Working hours, conditions and Wage policies.

Unions incorporated human relation in organisations.<br>

Hawthorne Experiments/Effect: Series of experiments that came to be known as the Hawthorne studies were conducted on western electric plant workers in Hawthorne.

This effect occurs when people improve same aspect of their behaviour or performance simply because they know that they are being assessed.<br>

Hawthorne Experiments/Effect (cont…) Research involved the following study

Illumination Experiments (1924-27)
Light decreased for experimental group and kept constant for other.
Productivity increased in same rate.
Workers work harder when watched.<br>

Relay Assembly Test Room Experiments (1927-28): Workers segregated on the basis of a definite range of working condition variables such as work room temperature, work schedule, work break etc.

Recorded the time taken by employees to collect telephone relay.

Productivity increased Irrespective of how factors manipulated.

Employees attitude and Sentiments such as psychological attachment with organisation were critically important variables .<br>

Experiments in Interviewing Workers 1928: Directly interviewed workers to find out what is important to them in their opinion.

Workers were allowed to open up and talk freely about what is most important and what are at time problematic issues in their minds.

Led to the informal organisation and its relationship to the formal organisation.

Led to a rich understanding of the social, interpersonal dynamics of people at work.<br>

Back Wiring Room Experiments: This experiment confirmed the effect of the power of the peer group and importance of group influence on workers behaviour and productivity.

The higher the norms, the greater the productivity and vice versa.

Conclusion:
The history of organisation behavior begins with the work of F. W Taylor when he developed scientific management and encompasses the studies with Hawthorne studies.<br>