ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

Organizational Behavior: Improving Performance and Commitment in the Workplace

Organizational Behavior: Improving Performance and Commitment in the Workplace

Introduction

Organizational behavior (OB) is a term related to the study of individual and group dynamics in an organizational setting, as well as the nature of the organizations themselves. Whenever people interact in organizations, many factors come into play. The subject of Organizational Studies attempts to understand and model these factors. This subject is becoming more important as people with diverse backgrounds and cultural values have to work together effectively and efficiently. OB seeks to emphasize the understanding of behavior in organizations so as to develop competencies in foreseeing how people are likely to behave. This knowledge may then help in controlling those behaviors that are not befitting the objectives of the organizations. Factors like objectivity, reliability and sustainability are important while selecting the methods for this purpose. Questionnaire, interview, simulation and survey are generally used to elicit responses of individual's located indifferent types of organizations. To large extent their personalities affect the nature of their responses (Hoboken, 2000, 95).

Discussion and Analysis

As understanding personality is crucial for knowing behavior of an individual in an organization, we will discuss in this section of the unit the interface between personality and organization.

Personality refers to some qualities, characteristics skills and competencies of individuals along with certain other traits like grooming and attitude. Personality means very specific patterns of behavior of an individual in a defined situation. But there are certain uniform characteristics which always emerge in a person on the basis of which certain inferences can be drawn. Examples could be dominant or submissive nature, aggressiveness or politeness. Personality consists of organization of feelings, thoughts, cognitions and visible behavior. However certain patterns of behavior are not visible and are known only after proper testing. Let us therefore discuss how to measure personality (Hoboken, 2000, 95).

Measuring Personality

Since personality of an individual plays a crucial role in shaping an organization, several methods have been evolved to measure personality. By and large three methods of assessment are being used. These are Personality Inventories, Projective Tests and Assessment Centre. Let us now briefly discuss each method (Motowidlo, 1994, 475).

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Personality Inventories

As a widely used method of measuring personality, it consists of several statements related with a specific dimension of personality and individuals are asked to indicate their degree of agreement or disagreement. This is usually done by asking both negatively and positively worded statements on selected common themes.

Projective Tests

This test is conducted to investigate more difficult and sophisticated aspects of an individual's personality. The assumption is that some of the dormant fantasies, feelings, hopes and aspirations can be measured to asses a personality. The test consists of ten pictures; one half being the same as other half. These are ambiguous, unstructured inkblots and the individuals are asked to indicate what they see in these pictures. Another projective method is the thematic appreciation. Morgan and Murray (1935) developed this test. It consists of twenty pictures, each of which represents a social ...