Definition of Organizational Behavior and Three Levels of Analysis

1. Definition of Organizational Behavior and Three Levels of Analysis

Organizational behavior (OB) is the study of what people do in an organization and how their behavior affect the performance of the organizations. It involves three levels of analysis : individual, team and organization. Individual behavior will affect individual performance and also team performance. It is an individual-level dependent variable towards organizational effectiveness, as a result, it eventually causes impact to the organizational output. Therefore, manipulating individual behavior is crucial towards achieving the goals and objectives of an organization.

 Individual level of analysis - the characteristics and behaviors of employees and the thought processes, such as motivation, perceptions, personalities, attitudes and values, that are attributed to them

 Team level of analysis - the way people interact including team dynamics, communication, power, organizational politics, conflict and leadership

 Organization level of analysis - how people structure their working relationships and how organizations interact with their environments

2. Key Factors to Influence Individual Behavior

Individual behavior is complex and everyone's individual behavior is different from another. There are four variables - motivation, ability, role perceptions and situational factors that are critical influences on individual's voluntary behavior and performance. These variables are represented by the acronym - MARS. In reality, a manager has to use the existing resources for a given task. In order to understand individual behavior and personalities, it is important to understand the basics of human cognition.