“Organizational behavior is a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structures have on behavior within an organization, and then it applies that knowledge to make organizations work more effectively. Specifically, organizational behavior focuses on how to improve productivity, reduce absenteeism and turnover, and increase employee citizenship and job satisfaction”. (Robbins, 2001, p. 26) Additionally it must be said that while technical skills are essential to job function, they must be combined with human and conceptual skills in order to facilitate communication and motivation. The study and practice of organizational behavior concepts is essential in today’s business world in order for companies to keep up with rapid and dramatic changes brought on by competition, globalization, outsourcing and diversity in the workforce. By understanding elements of organizational behavior that are vital to the workforce such as an individuals values, attitudes, perceptions and l

“Perception is a process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment.” (Robbins, 2001, p. 70) There are also several personal characteristics that affect perception and they include attitudes, motives, interests, past experiences and expectations. When dealing with people we generally will have perceptions about them. The text covers the attribution theory which suggests that “when we observe an individual’s behavior, we attempt to determine whether it is internally or externally caused”. (Robbins, 2001, p. 70) That is to say that internal caused behavior is under the control of the individual and externally caused behavior is the result of outside causes not under the control of the individual. Essentially this boils down to making judgments about people and ascertaining why they behave a certain way. It is important for managers to evaluate their team members; as a result they will have to make judgments about their performance. It is important for a manager to not take shortcuts such as stereotyping and or taking only one characteristic into consideration (halo effect) while judging in order to be as fair as possible to the individual.

There is much more to the management of a company than hiring a group of technically proficient people. Robbins also states that “the ability to work with, understand, and motivate people, both individually and in groups, describes human skills”. (p. 7)

In order to effectively manage an individual in today’s workforce, the manager must understand the major psychological contributions to organizational behavior which are; values, attitudes, perception and learning. The diversity in the workp

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