An organization means an organized effort of people, which satisfies the society’s needs for its own purpose

Human capital is one of the most important assets of organizations. This kind of capital includes knowledge, skill, ability and experience of individuals.

Organizational behavior (OB) is defined as the study of how employees and groups, think, feel, behave and react, in response to each other and to their organization, and the effect of these on the organization. Since, organizational behavior entails all aspects of behavior of individuals and group dynamics within organizational settings, it includes a wide variety of topics.

Intrinsic nature reflects the personal factors, in terms of feelings, perceptions, judgments, needs and experiences of the individual. On the other hand, in order to understand behavior, extrinsic view focuses on the factors apart from the individual, such as external events and circumstances, environmental forces that the individual face. 

A team is defined as two or more people with shared leadership and fate, who work together and interdependent on each other’s support towards achieving a common goal; whereas, a group is two or more people who interact with each other to achieve their individual goals which are not mutual goals. 

Organizational culture is defined as the set of shared beliefs, values, attitudes, norms, goals and practices among the organizational members, so that these shared values and behaviors form a unique psychological and social organizational environment that characterize the organization

Organizational structure is defined as how people are organized or the division and coordination of jobs; the basic dimensions of organizational structure are the key organizational parts responsible for its success or failure, coordination mechanism, and type of decentralization (Mintzberg, 1992).

Due to the influence of psychology and sociology; historically focus of the field was mainly based on individual and group behaviors and characteristics; due to this OB was referred to as ‘micro-OB’ (Staw, 1984) addressing individual and group behavior, whereas macro-OB indicated organizational effect on behavior (Schneider, 1985).

It is generally considered that systematic organizational studies began as an academic discipline, after the Industrial Revolution which took place firstly in Great Britain during the late 1700s and early 1800s. This is the first milestone for OB.

It suggests that human motivation, which was not included in the research, has an important role in work settings. The researchers found out that the surprising results they obtained were due to the effect of many factors influencing the behavior of Hawthorne employees. The employees, receiving attention of the research team, behaved differently when being studied than they might otherwise, and they were willing to cooperate with the researchers to reveal their desired results

Within the scope of contingency theory, organizations are studied as a system. The theory focuses on both the relations of sub-systems of the organization and the relation of these sub-systems with the situations outside the organizations.

Managing organizational behavior in today’s organizations is especially challenging for organizations which face many outstanding rapid changes in their external environment. These challenges can be grouped into four; which are, (1) increasing globalization, (2) need to understand diverse workforce, (3) advancing technology, and (4) managing ethical issues.

Globalization boosted the number of multinational corporations (MNC), which are defined as large-scale organizations that have facilities and other assets, used for production and selling of goods and services, in at least one country other than its home country. Coca-Cola, Nike, Microsoft are well-known examples of MNCs that produce or sell their products in countries and regions throughout the world.

Many MNCs in recent years benefited from cost advantages of outsourcing, which is defined as the completion of organization’s activities, jobs or processes, outside the organization. To do this, the organization makes an agreement with a service provider (usually in a foreign country with cost advantage) or an individual; and by using outsourcing, organizations stop doing their outsourced activity and have other organizations with expertise to complete it. 

When the organizations can not manage diversity properly, there will be a high risk regarding low performance, low satisfaction and high turnover

Mobbing is defined as systematic psychological abuse of an individual or group; the ultimate purpose of mobbing is making the individual leave the organization as a result of damaging the reputation, honor and integrity of the individual. Organizational policies are required for eliminating mobbing and other negative behaviors in organizations.

Diversity management refers not to treat everyone alike. It refers to recognize differences and respond to those differences in ways that make each employee pleasant.

it is easy to exchange knowledge and facilitate problem-solving. ICT allows people to have a real-time communication wherever they are and also work from locations other than their office. Many employees today enjoy flexibility and comfort of working while they are abroad or at their home. Organizations can easily integrate and connect their employees all around the world, through mostly e-mail, instant messaging and videoconferencing.

Business ethics is defined as the study of moral behaviors and principles that guide business activities. It helps managers to distinguish between what is “right” or “wrong”, and then make the right choice. Business ethics generally includes controversial issues, such as fraud, bribery, insider-trading, confidentiality of company records and employee rights such as equal employment opportunity and discrimination among employees, decision to produce unsafe or unhealthy products, polluting the environment.

However, since the distinction between ethical and unethical behavior is not clear, ethical codes may not be comprehensive, and as a result organizations probably face ethical dilemmas. Ethical dilemmas occur when the managers experience that some stakeholders benefit from their decisions while others are affected negatively.

Whistleblowers inform the society and other authorized parties about the unethical behaviors of their organizations. Organizations would also benefit from whistleblowing, when shareholders or managers are aware of unethical conduct of coworkers of whistleblowers.