The study of people at work is generally referred to as the study of organizational behavior. This chapter will start by defining the term organizational behavior and briefly reviewing its origins.
Organizational behavior is the systematic study of the actions and attitudes that people exhibit within organizations. Each person regularly uses intuition or our "gut feelings" in trying to explain phenomena. For example, a friend catches a cold and we’re quick to remind him that he "didn’t take his vitamins". The field of organizational behavior seeks to replace intuitive explanations such as this example with systematic study. The objective, of course, is to draw more accurate conclusions (Wilson 1994).
What does organizational behavior study? Actions (or behaviors) and attitudes. The behaviors that get the bulk of attention in organizational behavior are three, which have proven to be very important determinants of employee performance. They are productivity, absenteeism, and turnover (Wilson 1994).
The importance of productivity is obvious. Managers are clearly concerned with the quantity and quality of the work their employees are performing. But absence and turnover are particularly cause for concern because of the adverse affect it may have on an employee’s productivity. In terms of absence, it’s hard for an employee to be productive if he or she isn’t at work. High rates of employee turnover increase costs and tend to place less experienced people into jobs (Daniels 1994).
Organizational behavior is also concerned with employee job satisfaction, which is an attitude.
There are three reasons why managers should be concerned with their employees’ job satisfaction. First, there is a link between satisfaction and productivity. Second, satisfaction appears to be negatively related to absenteeism and turnover. Third managers have a humanistic responsibility to provide their employees with jobs that are challenging and
References: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_X_and_Theory_Y http://www.csupomona.edu/~msharifzadeh/chapter1.html http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leadob.html http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/encyclopedia/Oli-Per/Organizational-Behavior.html