Session 1

Introduction:
Behaviour, Work Organization and
Organizational Behaviour


Dr. Dhammika Jayawardena
Dept of Business Administration
University of Sri J ayewardenepura
Organization? Whats it?
Source: tobyelwin.com
Understanding (formal)
Organization?
A formal (complex) organization is a
SOCIAL SYSTEM organized around
specific goals and usually consisting of
several interrelated groups or subsystems.
The Blackwell Dictionary of Sociology (2000), p.
124
What is Society?
Source: haitianartsociety.org
What is Society?
Source: srilankaguardian.org
What is Society
Society is a particular kind of SOCIAL
SYSTEM. Like all social systems, it is
distinguished by its cultural, structural,
population/ecological characteristics .
Specifically, a society is a system that is
defined by a geographical territory within
which a POPULATION shares a common
CULTURE and a way of life under conditions of
relative autonomy, independence, and self-
sufficiency.
The Blackwell Dictionary of Sociology (2000), p. 297

Organization:
Formal Informal

Organisation:
Profit Oriented Non-Profit Oriented /Not for
Profit
Organization?
People
(shared)Objectives
Structure
Culture


(formal) Organization?
Power
Exploitation
Alienation
Exclusion
Then, What is Organization?
Organization
as
a Social Construct
or, as
a Moving Object


then, what
managing and being managed
and
organizing and being organized
are ?
Approaching Organizational Behaviour
Functionalist approach
Managerialist approach
Interpretivist approach
Critical approach


What is behaviour?
What is OB?
the understanding, prediction,
and management of human
behavior in organizations.
Luthans 2010, p.20
What is OB?
OB is a way of thinking with its own
established language, thought
processes, and practices that are
constructed out of Western
humanistic discourse
Mills et al. 2007, p.33
What is OB?
OB is a discipline that serves to
control people at work by defining
what is, and what is not, appropriate
behaviour.
Mills et al. 2007, p.33

Then, what does OB consist of
and What is (in)appropriate
behviour ?


Western humanistic
discourse/s?
and
According to western
humanistic discourse/s?
Why Organizational Behaviour is
defined
as an interdisciplinary
subject?
Why human behaviour at work
matters?
Who benefits when organization is either given
up for the market or driven by the market
ideology?
Is formal/modern organization incapable of
being emancipated from the impetuous calls of
efficiency and subordination?
When (ormal/modern organizations get busy
organizing each other, how then are we to think
of belonging?
Are there forms of affiliation and belonging that
are not based on exclusion, exploitation,
precedent and privilege?
Adapted from Jones and Munro 2005

Discussion
And so, what is meant by
(understanding and managing) Work
Behviour in the Global South?