What is Organizational Behavior, and Why is it Important?

Organizational Behavior

Imagine setting up an office where your employees have nobody to report to. Everyone works as it pleases them and no one is accountable for their tasks. Does it sound very organized? It certainly doesn’t! The practice of organizational behavior brings order to the chaos. Understanding human behavior will assist you in setting effective objectives, encouraging employees, and achieving the objectives. 

The most successful organizational leaders are the ones that are on the continuous lookout for methods and strategies to drive the performance of their organization, not just through enhancing employee productivity but also through their work experience and job satisfaction. They attain this by understanding how their employees interact with one another and management, as well as what stimulates the motivation in them. The most effective way to do this is to study the interrelationship between your individual employees, teams, and management for identifying what sets the most efficacious workers apart! This is what organizational behavior is all about!

Organizational Behavior

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Organizational behavior describes the behavioral dynamics that transpire between teams and individuals in the organizational setting. The study of organizational behavior will give you an insight into how employees behave and function in the workplace. It will help you to develop a cognition of the aspects that will motivate employees, enhance their performance and establish a substantial and trustful relationship with your employees. There are five crucial elements that serve as the key for studying organizational behavior.

Fundamental aspects of organizational behavior 

There are numerous aspects of organizational behavior which you have to deal with in order to know the soul of your organization. 

People

The whole behavioral study spins the employees of the organization. They truly are the soul of your organization as they are the ones that make the work happen in a systematic manner and attain the organizational objectives. The word ‘people’ covers the internal and social system of the organization – the employees and the stakeholders (the ones that are affected by the organizational actions) and groups. 

Structure

This refers to the managing body of the organization that governs how the work gets done in the organization. Without a proper structure, the organization generally crumbles. Remember that your employees are dependent on your management. Without its existence, there would be no coordination amongst the various levels of the organization. Therefore, it is more than necessary for you to maintain a robust and rigid structure. If there is any shortcoming, it will result in diminishing the workflow. 

Technology

This refers to the tools employed in an organization for acquiring its objectives. Being a boon and bane, the influence of technology in the modern world is immense. When used appropriately, it does wonders for the organization. However, a lack of proper knowledge about technology, the efficiency of the workplace can be drastically affected. The primary purpose of technology in an organization is to accomplish tasks in an easier manner and provide new and adequate solutions. 

Environment

It incorporates the external environment within which the organization operates. The work environment has an extremely significant influence on the work your employees do. There’s a direct relationship between organizational behavior and the work environment. When one changes, the other experiences a change too. As a leader, you must be familiar with how the organizational environment plays a vital role in employee engagement

Why is organizational behavior important?

Understanding people

Organizational behavior helps you and your managers to understand people, their motivation. abilities and skills. If you want to promote effective teamwork, it is vital to be aware of the subtle difference in work styles. Every employee has personal objectives that are aligned with the professional objectives. With a fantastically placed organizational culture, it is quite easier to measure progress and fulfill the needs of the employees for the best results. 

Effective decision-making

A well-designed organizational culture will help you make the decision-making process more effective for your organization. This implies that each member of your organizational team will be well-versed in their obligations and roles. You make it easier for them to act independently, be proactive and take initiative. Your managers can delegate tasks in a swift manner and assign tasks as per the varying degrees of follow-up and skills. This makes sure that everything runs steadily. 

Healthy and motivated work environment

The significance of organizational behavior can be easily comprehended in the context of a motivated and healthy work environment – one where your team members have trust in each other and operate in tandem with others. When your employees are on good terms with each other, they collaborate more effectively to attain the objectives. Mutual respect across the organizational levels and departments comprises an adequate organizational behavior strategy. 

Enhanced performance

Inspiring employees, providing incentives, and acknowledging the efforts form the pillars of organizational behavior. This helps in boosting the performance of your employees as they become motivated to put their best foot forward. When you make your employees feel that they are valuable for the organization, they are more likely to work even harder. You and your management have to assure that your employee feel like a part of the organization as this encourages them to attain the short-term and long-term objectives. 

Adequate communication channels and protocols 

Each employee responds differently to different techniques of communication and conducts in a certain way due to the structure of the workplace and the organization’s values, culture, and objectives. They are more likely to align better with their teammates and managers who reflect their behavioral strengths. As such, a keen hold of organizational behavior will enable you to build more effective teams and communicate in a better manner with your frontline employees. 

Organizational behavior is not just limited to how well your employees perform. It determines the smooth functioning of the day-to-day activities within your organization. Therefore, you have to establish an agile, pleasant, and accessible work environment. Contact us today for further assistance regarding the same! 

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Gaurav Sabharwal

CEO of JOP

Gaurav is the CEO of JOP (Joy of Performing), an OKR and high-performance enabling platform. With almost two decades of experience in building businesses, he knows what it takes to enable high performance within a team and engage them in the business. He supports organizations globally by becoming their growth partner and helping them build high-performing teams by tackling issues like lack of focus, unclear goals, unaligned teams, lack of funding, no continuous improvement framework, etc. He is a Certified OKR Coach and loves to share helpful resources and address common organizational challenges to help drive team performance. Read More

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