Organisational Behaviour

Organisational Behaviour (OB) is the systematic study and application of knowledge about how individuals and groups act within organisations. Stephen P. Robbins defines it as "a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behaviour within organisations, for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organisation's effectiveness." OB sits at the crossroads of psychology, sociology, social psychology, anthropology and political science.

Why OB matters

Organisations succeed or fail less because of strategy on paper and more because of the human factors that execute it. Pakistani case-studies illustrate this vividly: the cultural turnaround of Pakistan State Oil (PSO) in the early 2000s under Tariq Kirmani, or the recurring failures of restructuring at PIA despite repeated technical plans, both turn on OB variables — leadership, culture, motivation, change management.

Individual-level OB

Personality

• Big Five (OCEAN) model: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism — the dominant taxonomy with robust cross-cultural validity.
• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) — 16 types; popular but methodologically contested.
• Locus of control (Rotter): internals believe outcomes depend on their actions; externals attribute outcomes to fate or others.

Perception

• Attribution theory (Kelley) — observers attribute behaviour to internal or external causes based on consensus, distinctiveness and consistency.
• Common errors: fundamental attribution error, self-serving bias, halo/horn effect, stereotyping.

Learning

• Classical conditioning (Pavlov), operant conditioning (Skinner), social learning (Bandura). Reinforcement schedules — fixed/variable interval and ratio — shape workplace behaviour.

Motivation

Already met in HRM: Maslow, Herzberg, McClelland's needs theory (Achievement, Power, Affiliation), Vroom's expectancy, Adams' equity, Locke's goal-setting, and Deci & Ryan's self-determination theory (autonomy, competence, relatedness).

Group and team behaviour

Stages of group development

Tuckman's model (1965): Forming → Storming → Norming → Performing → Adjourning (added in 1977).

Group dynamics phenomena

• Groupthink (Janis) — illusion of unanimity in cohesive groups.
• Social loafing — individuals exert less effort in groups than alone.
• Risky shift / group polarisation — groups make more extreme decisions than individuals.

Communication

Berlo's SMCR model — Source, Message, Channel, Receiver. Common barriers include filtering, selective perception, information overload, language and cultural differences. The grapevine — informal communication — carries up to 75% of accurate organisational information.

Leadership

Approach	Key idea
Trait theories	Leaders are born; certain stable traits matter
Behavioural (Ohio State, Michigan)	Initiating structure vs consideration
Blake & Mouton's Managerial Grid	Concern for production vs people
Contingency (Fiedler)	Effectiveness depends on leader-member relations, task structure, position power
Situational (Hersey & Blanchard)	Telling, Selling, Participating, Delegating based on follower readiness
Path-goal (House)	Leader clears the path to subordinate goals
Transformational (Bass, Burns)	Charisma, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, individual consideration
Transactional	Reward exchange and management by exception
Servant leadership (Greenleaf)	Leader as servant to followers

Organisational culture and change

Edgar Schein's three layers:

1. Artefacts — visible (dress, language, office layout).
2. Espoused values — stated norms, mission statements.
3. Basic underlying assumptions — unconscious, taken-for-granted beliefs.

Hofstede's cultural dimensions — power distance, individualism-collectivism, masculinity-femininity, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation, indulgence — explain cross-national variation. Pakistan scores high on power distance and uncertainty avoidance and low on individualism, with practical implications for delegation and feedback styles.

Models of change

• Lewin's 3-step model: Unfreeze → Change → Refreeze.
• Kotter's 8-step model: Establish urgency → Form a guiding coalition → … → Anchor change in culture.
• ADKAR (Prosci): Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement.

Resistance to change springs from habit, fear of the unknown, threats to security, and selective information processing.

Conflict, power and politics

• Conflict types: task, relationship, process.
• Thomas-Kilmann conflict modes: competing, collaborating, compromising, avoiding, accommodating.
• French & Raven's bases of power: legitimate, reward, coercive, expert, referent (plus informational).

Organisational politics is unavoidable but should be channelled constructively through clear objectives, transparent procedures and ethics codes such as those mandated by the SECP Code of Corporate Governance 2019.

Pakistani applications

• NCGR (National Commission for Government Reforms, 2008) recommended performance-based culture change across the federal bureaucracy.
• Punjab Police Reforms (post-2002 Police Order) attempted to change command culture toward citizen orientation.
• The growth of National Incubation Centres (NIC) highlights how new-economy firms (Bykea, Airlift, Sadapay) experiment with flat, agile cultures very different from the inherited hierarchical norms.