Before attending the first lecture, Organisational Behaviour to me only meant a manager who went about instructing the

staff as to what work is desired to be done and what rewards and reprimands lay in store for them. This was just a narrow and ill perceived view of the organisational culture and the course transformed it forever. Organisational Behaviour is more than the sum total of all the activities, processes, actions or functions performed by the members of an organisation, deliberately or intuitively. Since its inception some 200 years ago, it has developed into a systematic and scientific field of study and draws generalisations and principles from other specialised fields of study like psychology, sociology, anthropology etc. The skills, acts or trends that mark or impact Organisational Behaviour include, but are not limited to, work attitude, personality, motivation, stress at work, organisational consulting and organisational change, leadership, job design, teams, turnover etc. Each of these is important from the point of view of the productivity and performance of the members of the organisation. For instance, Job Satisfaction is not a linear phenomenon. It involves satisfaction at multiple ends of the life spectrum like rewards, justice, suitability of job and the working conditions. Equity theory propounded by Pritchard and others by far gives the best explanation and solution for the problem of measuring and ensuring Job satisfaction. Similarly, almost all the leadership theories remain concurrent on these fronts: leadership is assumed and not delegated, a leader is the one who initiates and charts the course of action and is considerate and responsive to the feelings of all the other individuals in the organisation. The various theories like Universalist theories, Behavioural theories, Contingency theories or the New Leadership theories provide a measuring rod or defining rod for gauzing the leadership attributes in an individual. The practical exercise in seminar that asked one to assess the work relationship with ones supervisor (who was assumed to the leader) asked questions on such fronts as formal/informal relationship, mutual confidence in each others abilities, power relations etc and it was surprising to discover as to how this particular test gave rather precise results as far as the work relationship between the mangers and the employee was concerned. Organisational culture, whether it stems from the behaviour of the members or itself influences their behaviour still remains a mystery to the management world at large. Though many theories have been furnished in an attempt to better understand it, almost all are unanimous in the respect that an organisations prevailing culture continues to have a lasting effect on the working of the new and subsequently the existing members of an organisation. Bringing changes to an organisations culture is no less than bringing about a paradigm shift. The seminar

readings and practical exercises were very helpful towards understanding the concept of organisational culture. Each one of us has at one point or another been a part of some or the other organisation, so it was in a way retrospective to enlist the various values, assumptions, beliefs and artefacts, which essentially go into defining the culture of the organisation. Motivation is yet another organisational tool that affects the productivity levels. Among several theories devised to better explain it, the Reinforcement theory takes the classic approach to understanding the concept of motivation amongst the organisation members who respond favourably to the consequence of reward and reprimand and this directly reflects in their productivity level. The theory has been empirically tested and was only recently relegated its status as being one of the most important theories. Working in an organisation and excelling at work is all a matter of attitude, in relation to various other things and this was put forward in the best in the lecture on attitude formation and change in an organisation and along with the various Team management theories and guidelines, it has had the maximum influence on my attitude towards work and working in an organisation. The fact that attitude is cognitive, affective and behavioural in nature contains the entire gist of the way attitudes affect the individual performance. I no more feel as being clumsy or incapable of doing a particular job lest the thought or the feeling should became a part of my disposition and prompt me to behave in ways that would only strengthen my prejudiced opinion. Perhaps the best thing about the course was that the various theories, rationales and arguments and readings were complemented with empirical evidences and practical exercises that, in addition to helping a person better understand these theories and concepts, also help in finding out what stands true in their case. For example, emotional labour and stress at work have emerged to be two very important phenomena that have a direct bearing on a persons psychological and physical well being, not to overlook the productivity levels. The exercise was more than helpful in gauzing the level of work stress at my current job. Interestingly, in a wider context, level of stress is inversely proportional to the level of job satisfaction. This discovery, though belated, I made after successfully completing the practical exercise in which I realized that as far as my current job in concerned, the equilibrium remains suspended somewhere in between. Organisations in a way are more than just the workplace. One spends a substantial part of his day interacting and mingling with various elements of the organisations. Some are his peers others his supervisors or janitors under him. In his dealings with each category of elements, a different and definite set of protocols prevail and in order to be effective and regarded as a natural leader, a person has to keep each of these in mind while maintaining the correct attitude and disposition towards the job. As far as external factors within the organisation are concerned such as level of

autonomy, decision makings capabilities and favourable working conditions are concerned, they are managements outlook and it will not pay to grumble about them or remain dissatisfied. If at all, the dissonance can be displayed in a rather constructive way that prompts the management to take up experiments like the one done at Greenfield, in which the self managed work groups proved their mettle and decision taking abilities.