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.