Organizational Behavior

What ultimately determines the performance of an organization is the behavior of the people that make up that organization. It depends on what individual employees do, and on how they relate to and interact with one another.So to help ensure an organization's business success, you can focus on promoting the types of individual behavior that will result in the achievement of the organization's goals. Before you can do this though, you need to understand the factors that influence individual behavior, perceptions, and attitudes.To manage performance effectively, you need to start by recognizing that each employee is a person with a unique background and set of characteristics.For example, employees' particular personality traits affect the ways they perform and interact with others in the workplace.If you're familiar with these personality traits, it makes it easier to match employees to the right jobs and tasks. In turn, this can help employees perform to the best of their abilities and contribute to the overall success of your organization.The ways employees perceive their work and organization typically affect their behavior. Positive perceptions generally lead to greater motivation. And when people are motivated, it's easier to engage them actively at work. So it's important for managers to pay close attention to their individual employees' perceptions and know what factors trigger certain perceptions.Like perceptions, employees' attitudes to their work can have a dramatic effect on their job satisfaction and performance. Understanding the factors that affect individuals' attitudes is the first step in changing these attitudes.In this course, you'll learn how understanding organizational behavior can benefit you and your organization. You'll also learn more about the personality traits that affect individual behavior, and about what affects individual perceptions and attitudes.Understanding what drives individual behavior and how this affects performance in the workplace will equip you to manage employee performance better in your organization.Organizations don't depend just on the work their employees do in isolation. They also depend on employees working together, interacting and combining their efforts in ways that support high-level business strategies and goals.Effective collaboration and good group work are critical to an organization's success. So it's important to know what makes a group successful and to do what you can to remove any obstacles that prevent it from performing optimally.In this course, you'll learn more about what a group is in the context of an organization, and about the internal and external factors that may affect group performance.You'll learn why it's beneficial to understand group dynamics and the factors that affect group performance.And you'll learn about the characteristics of effective groups.For a group to be successful, it has to have the commitment of all its members and support from others, including management. And all group members need enough time to focus on their roles as part of the group, rather than other tasks taking up their time. So as well as learning about groups generally, you'll learn how to overcome resistance to the group and to collaboration, and how to resolve situations where group members have conflicting priorities.Another important issue to address as part of managing group performance is conflict. In any group situation, some conflict is inevitable. But failing to manage negative types of conflict can prevent people from working together effectively, or at all.So in this course, you'll learn about typical causes of group conflict. You'll also learn how to address group conflict, using a clear sequence of steps.Once you've completed this course, you'll be better equipped to promote healthy group interactions and to optimize the performance of groups. In this way, you'll contribute to the success of your organization as a whole.