Organizational behavior is simply defined as the manner in which people act or perform in the workplace. It is the combined set of their perceptions, beliefs, and attitudes. Essentially, it also includes the motivations that make them act in a certain manner. Considering the fact that hiring, training, and professionally developing employees is so necessary in the workplace, organizational behavior is very important.

There are a few critical concepts that you need to understand that make up your organizational behavior. It’s important to note that these concepts are not just limited to organizational behavior, but they can also be found in nature. Here are the main organizational behavior concepts.

Perception

Perception is defined as the way people perceive different things when they actually see an object. The same object could be perceived in very different ways by two different people. This is primarily borne out of their experiences. Depending on their experiences, a person is always going to organize and interpret things in a different manner.

Employees also see work in a different light depending on their personality and their experiences. Demographic factors also play an important role in this, and so do social surroundings. For instance, employees who are quite passionate about work will be more excited to stay and work for longer hours.

On the other hand, older employees are unlikely to be as motivated to work harder and better. Their ultimate aim will be to just get the bare minimum done so that they can get their salaries. You can’t expect such employees to be as engaged or as active as others. It’s a common thing based on the experiences that they have had.

Individual Differences

Understanding and respecting individual differences in the workplace is very important. Every person in this world is different, and carries a separate genetic DNA. Science supports this, and it’s important that you understand this so that you can shape the workplace accordingly.

Psychology also sheds a great deal of light on the concept of individual differences. From the moment they are born, each person has a different set of experiences, and they are generally different from each other not just in their perception, but also their experiences. Two people born and raised in the same house are likely to have very different viewpoints.

Respect Their Lives Outside of Work

You also have to understand that an employee’s personal life plays an important role in their daily performance. For instance, if you are thinking that an employee is just going to give their 100% at work, you might have to recalibrate your expectations. For example, a mother who is at work will get anxious as it’s time for her child to return from school.

This is obviously going to impact her concentration. It’s something that you need to look at in a different manner. Your employees are people with lives outside of work, and you need to treat them as whole people, not just employees. Understand and talk to them about things that might be bothering them so that you can eventually come up with solutions that maximize their performance.

Motivation

Motivations are usually necessary to enhance the quality of an employee’s work. According to most psychological theories, there are several needs that an employee has inside of them. They come to work because they want to fulfill as many of these needs as they can.

That is one of the reasons why they also want to perform well in the organization. By performing well in the organization, an employee will not just earn an increment in their salary, but they will also be able to get more satisfaction out of their work. As the employees’ needs are met, it’s going to enhance the quality of their work by a considerable margin.

The Desire to Be Involved

Each employee seeks different opportunities to be involved in problems that require decision-making. Employees have an innate hunger to seek opportunities that make them feel included and allow them to learn from their experiences. The organization needs to take steps to learn from their experiences.

The managers should actively focus on providing opportunities for employees where they can give their ideas, suggestions, and ideas. Their opinions should be valued to make them feel included in the decision-making process. Meaningful involvement in business processes can automatically enhance motivation and also provide mutual benefits to all parties concerned.

Intrinsic Value

Employees do not want to be treated like another factor of production. They are different from capital and land, and should be treated as such. Employees want to be treated with dignity and they want society and above all, their employers, to treat them as such.

Employees want to feel that their intrinsic value is acknowledged by the company and they want to be treated with dignity and respect. These are essential requirements for employees to feel valued in the organization. If they are not met, an employee will not feel good.

Interest Mutuality

Mutual interest must be present within the organization. Organizations need people just as much as people need them. There is a duality that must be maintained at all times. All organizations serve a human purpose, and this must be respected at all times.

People perceive organizations as a means of achieving their personal objectives, whereas organizations need humans to meet the organizational targets. For instance, if an organization decides it wants to post a million dollars in revenue, they will want to galvanize their workforce to perform better.

Mutual interest is necessary by both parties to achieve success. If the employee feels that the organization does not regard its human capital the way it should, they are simply going to lose interest. Mutual interest helps both the people in the organization and the organization’s upper echelon to come together and agree on different things.

The Emergence of a Holistic Concept

The emergence of a holistic concept is expected when all of these different concepts are brought together. This is a simple concept that shows how people-centric organizations are able to achieve their objectives by caring for their employees and focusing on the social systems that evolve within the organization.

The organizational culture and behaviors within the organization are going to be formed by the employees who work there. As a result, it is important for the managers to pay attention to the people and keep a check on what’s influencing their behavior. This holistic concept takes inspiration from the fact that employees in the organization are like one large family.

Issues must be analyzed in terms of the actual situation rather than focusing on isolated events or individual issues. A larger picture of the problem should be tackled instead of looking at smaller things. These are just a few of the many concepts that you should know that play a role in organizational behavior of modern companies.