Organizational Behavior
In order to study it and analyze it an organization or business can
be comparable to an iceberg, where just a ten per cent of it is recognizable
with the eye. This ten per cent is composed by the formal organization,
which means, the departmentalization, the authority and responsibility,
the norms and procedures, etc. But, as we have seen, in order to study
an organization in its totality and complexity, it is not enough to
study its organizational chart and structures, it is necessary to
study the people and groups that are part of it as well.
The non-visible part of the organizational chart is composed by this
last aspect: by the people and groups, their attitudes and behaviors,
their degree of motivation or demotivation, their satisfactions and
displeasures, the social harmony and the conflicts, etc... The story
of the collapsing of the Titanic, which tragedy was originated after
it crashed with the non-visible part of the iceberg, is very suggestive.
Definition of organizational behavior
Organizational Behavior is the discipline that studies, within the
formal structures of the business, the different conducts and behaviors
of every individual, of the groups that integrate it, and the interrelations
born between them, analyzing the organizational culture with the goal
of optimizing the results as much in favor of the individuals as in
favor of the organization.
The behavior and its different denominations
This discipline has received different denominations through its
short history. Its first precedents were born from the need of properly
organizing the big industries that arise from the Industrial Revolution,
and therefore it is not surprising finding it under the label "Industrial
Psychology" (J.A.C. Brown). It also receives the name of "Human
Relations", which has been widely accepted and, nowadays, is
still effective.
