Discuss the relationship between the management theories and organizational behavior.

How are the early management theories related with organizational behavior?

Organizational behavior may have come to be recognized as a field of its own quite late.

However, its roots can be traced back to the time of the industrial revolution when several management
theories came into being.

At the time of the industrial revolution, management styles inside companies had started changing with
the hope that it will increase organizational productivity.

However, at the same time overall culture and behavior inside organizations had also started changing
due to its heavy influence on productivity.

The industrial revolution had brought business growth at an enormous rate which had forced companies
to change their structure, workflow, policies and management styles.

Taylor’s scientific management theory was among the earliest to have influenced the foundation of
organizational behavior.

His focus was mainly on productivity.

Taylor’s theory focused on establishing ways that could help to complete each task in the most efficient
manner.

On the one hand, this theory affected the productivity of the organizations, on the other it also affected
the professional and personal dynamic between the managers and employees.

Soon after the human relations management theory was introduced, it challenged the classical
management approach and further strengthened the foundation of organizational behavior.
Organizational behavior basically studies how individual behavior affects an organization and its
productivity.

Organizational behavior takes a more psychological approach to understand the influence of members’
behavior on the organization.

Today, while organizational behavior has grown into a niche, it was not recognized as a field of study
until the 1970s.

The human relations management theory, which was born as a response to the scientific management
theory helped expand the foundation of organizational behavior.

The scientific management theory lacked a key component, which was human relations.

In the Hawthorne studies, it was highlighted that human relations and interactions had a solid impact on
employees’ productivity.

The studies established a clear relationship between productivity and the people responsible for it.

They showed that if the companies wanted to increase their employees productivity and reduce the
turnover rate, they should take keen interest in their employees and their professional development.

Apart from having proved that people performed better when provided attention, it also showed how
team work encouraged people to do more.

The studies proved that individual satisfaction and group dynamics held equal importance in terms of
organizational productivity.
Once this had come to light, people had started studying organizational behavior at all the three levels
including individual, group and the organizational level.

Another major theory that had a significant impact on the development of organizational behavior was
the X and Y Theory by McGregor.

The theory had two parts – one that dealt with the first category of managers, the X category and the
other that dealt with another category of managers called the Y category.

While the first category of managers or the X category believed people were inherently not motivated to
work and needed to be forced to perform, the Y managers thought differently.

The Y Category of managers believed that people were motivated to work and provided the right
environment and encouragement could perform well.

They also argued in the favor of team dynamics.

Organizational behavior developed into a separate field since the 1970s and has expanded a lot since
then.

Now it covers a wide range of topics related to individual and group relations inside the organizations.

7 Disciplines Contributing To The Field of Organizational Behavior (OB)

April 22, 2022 by Sujan

Page Contents

Contributing Disciplines To Organizational Behavior (OB)

Psychology

Sociology
Social Psychology

Anthropology

Political Science

Medicine

Economics

Contributing Disciplines To Organizational Behavior (OB)

Organizational behavior (OB) is characterized by being a multidisciplinary discipline in nature as so OB is

These disciplines have developed and made organizational behavior a strong separate field of study with
its own applications to use. As the complexities are increasing, OB has faced many complexities and
assumed to use ideas of some disciplines that led it to bring success in the organizational functions.

The major contributing disciplines to the field of organizational behavior are:

Psychology

Sociology

Social Psychology

Anthropology

Political Science

Economics

Medicine

Here, we will discuss all these disciplines and how they have contributed to organizational behavior to
be a better discipline.

Psychology
Psychology is the behavioral science that studies human behavior (+animals) and mental processes. It is
the science of humans. It is the best tool to understand why people think, what they think, and how
they think.

Psychology helps to know why people think and behave the way they do. Its major seven perspectives –
cognitive, behavioral, psychodynamic, humanistic, biological, socio-cultural, and evolutionary are what
let us understand human behavior in a better way.

Psychology has contributed many important concepts to OB, such as:

Motivation

Learning

Perception

Personality

Emotion

Training

Employee Selection

Attitude

Work Design

Job Stress, etc.

Since organizational behavior is also a behavioral approach the above contributions of psychology have
made better use in organizational settings. Such as motivation, is the influencer of employees when
motivation is seen in employees the organizational performance seems to be positively boosted, and
learning on the job further enhances the skills of employees, and so forth.

Sociology

Sociology is the study of human behavior in a social setting consisting of human interaction, social ties,
growth of society, structure, and regulations. Sociology believes humans are social beings, they are in
groups.
Sociologists study humans in group behavior. After psychology, sociology is one of the most important
contributing disciplines to the field of organizational behavior.

The major contributions areas of sociology are group dynamics, status, culture, status, power,
communication, socialization, organizational change, and technology. Sociologists view an organization
as a system consisting of a variety of people having different roles, statuses, power, and authorities.

A manager should use the concept of sociology to understand a group’s behavior at both group and
organizational levels and take appropriate managerial actions.

Social Psychology

Social psychology is the combination of both psychology and sociology. It studies the social behavior and
thought of people plus how people think, feel, process, and act. It explains the interaction,
interdependence, and influence of people among one another.

It studies the behavior of people at the group level. One of the main contributions of social psychology
to the OB is how to predict, manage, and change the behavior of humans in organizational settings.

Social psychologists study various areas combining both sociology and psychology but the most
important for organizational behavior are the concept of behavioral change, attitude change,
communication, group process, and group decision making.

Anthropology

Anthropology is the science of humans. It studies the evolution or development stages of human beings
consisting of human nature, different societies, and how different cultures are developed.

It also studies how humans interacted with their environment, how they are now, and how in the future
and how humans are civilized.
It helps to understand the society of humans and their activities. Its major contributions include
comparative values, attitude, analysis, and norms and it helps to understand cultural factors in
organizational settings such as organizational culture, environment, power, and so on.

Political Science

Political science deals with politics and its practices in different scenarios. It mainly concerns the
allocation of power, conflict resolution, group coalition, and how to manipulate power for individual
self-interest.

Its concerns in OB mainly deal with the allocation of power to the employees, manipulation, and
controlling of conflicts in the organization.

Today, organizations are also regarded as a political system. Thus, a manager should understand the
structure of politics and how it works.

The study of politics helps managers to understand the dynamics of power and politics and help apply
them in the organizational settings in a proper way.

Medicine

Medicine is the branch of health science that deals with the identification and treatment of diseases to
improve the health of people. It treats both physical and psychological diseases of people.

While treating people it observes their behavior of people and tries to find out the causes. Some causes
are related to the body and some are mental.

In organizational settings, employees also suffer from psychological diseases, and applications of medical
science help managers organize different wellness programs so that employees’ health will be improved
and they are ready again to work.

Economics
The science of economics is related to the cost. It is the study of how to minimize cost, how to best use
scarce resources, and achieve more from less.

To run the daily operations of the organization there is a need for money. The study of economics helps
managers to best use the organization’s limited resources. And, economic factors such as labor market
dynamics, wages, demand-supply, cost of production, etc. also influence organizational behavior.