Book review

Book review

Book Review

People have always been striving to manage organizations proficiently. Without understanding the significance of human aspect within the organization, no organization can rise and survive for long period. Study of human behavior and utilization of human resources are very crucial in each operative area of an organization for its overall excellence. Therefore study of Organizational Behavior (OB) is the most important. To understand OB and to get into the depth of OB in a precise manner, basic concepts should be well grasped as the first step. Organizational Behavior (OB) is the study and application of knowledge about how people, individuals, and groups act in organizations. It does this by taking a system approach. That is, it interprets people-organization relationships in terms of the whole person, whole group, whole organization, and whole social system. Its purpose is to build better relationships by achieving human objectives, organizational objectives, and social objectives. (Schein 1987a)

This book is specifically intended for management students particularly in the Indian context and is useful in comprehensive understanding of essential OB concepts. This book is the second and revised edition of “Organizational Behaviour, Understanding and Managing and Work”. This edition is extensively revised and enhanced. Three more new chapters have also been added to the existing chapters of the first edition. Case studies on recent burning issues have been included in every chapter to illustrate the issues and to discuss the concepts. The book describes OB in the context of the emerging issues in the societies of developing countries and in relation to all the organizational units: the individual, the group and the organization. (Carnegie 1936)

This new organizational behavior (OB) text is rather traditional in many respects. Nevertheless, the authors do make a concentrated effort to differentiate their text from the multitude of other OB texts available. The text comprises four parts with a total of sixteen chapters. Part one is simply titled "Introduction to Organizational Behavior." The first chapter has an especially good discussion of the evolution of managerial culture in the last two centuries. In their summary, they state that managerial practice today is characterized as follows:

1. A clear difference exists between the duties and responsibilities of managers and nonmanagers.

2. Management duties and responsibilities include making decisions about planning, organizing, and controlling work.

3. Managers are better able to perform these duties than are nonmanagers and may even have come by this ability naturally ("it is the natural order").

4. Past influences on modem managerial beliefs and actions are so subtle that today's managers may have acquired their theory-in-use without recognizing its origins. (Fisher 1988)

Although these statements seem so obvious, students need these subtle cultural issues discussed in class. Rarely do texts treat the issue of managerial culture as well as the authors have in this case. In fact it is often ignored. A second point regarding the first chapter is that it is made very clear that this book will primarily focus on OB from a micro rather than a macro ...