An Operating Definition of Organizational Behavior
vs. Successful” activities, charts and several different approaches to explaining why “systematic study” replaces “intuition.” The chapter repeated, however, that while organizational behaviors may be somewhat predictable, they are not absolute.
There are few, if any, simple and universal principles that explain organizational behavior. There are laws in the physical sciences—chemistry, astronomy, physics—that are consistent and apply in a wide range of situations. They allow scientists to generalize about the pull of gravity or to confidently send astronauts into space to repair satellites. But as one noted behavioral researcher aptly concluded, “God gave all the easy problems to the physicists.” Human beings are complex. Because they are not alike, our ability to make simple, accurate, and sweeping generalizations is limited. Two people often act very differently in the same situation, and the same person’s behavior changes in different situations. For instance, not everyone is motivated by money, and you behave differently at church on Sunday than you did at the beer party the night before. That doesn’t mean, of course, that we can’t offer reasonably accurate explanations of human behavior or make valid predictions. It does mean, however, that OB concepts must reflect situational, or contingency, conditions. We can say that x leads to y, but only under conditions specified in z (the contingency variables). (p.14)
This one paragraph put the whole thing in a nutshell. It proved my earlier hypothesis that OB is only a guide, not a science; something to be used for reasonably good guesses as to what any individual, group, team or company would do in a situation given certain conditions. I couldn’t have said it better.
“Organizational Behavior” is something X that leads to something Y when certain conditions Z exist. Remember, you heard it here.
References
McAlindon. H. R., Cole’s Quotables, downloaded from http://www.quotationspage.com
Robbins, S. (2001). Organizational Behavior, Ninth Edition, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall