What are the 4 types of organizational behavior?

The five models of organisational behaviour are the:

Table of Contents Show

Autocratic model
Custodial model
Supportive model
Collegial model
System model
There are 4 Approaches to Organizational Behavior studies;
Human Resources Approach
Contingency Approach
Productivity Approach
Systems Approach
Inter-Disciplinary Approach

autocratic model,
custodial model,
supportive model,
collegial model and
system model.

Autocratic model

Autocratic model is the model that depends upon strength, power and formal authority.

In an autocratic organisation, the people (management/owners) who manage the tasks in an organisation have formal authority for controlling the employees who work under them. These lower-level employees have little control over the work function. Their ideas and innovations are not generally welcomed, as the key decisions are made at the top management level.

The guiding principle behind this model is that management/owners have enormous business expertise, and the average employee has relatively low levels of skill and needs to be fully directed and guided. This type of autocratic management system was common in factories in the industrial revolution era.

One of the more significant problems associated with the autocratic model is that the management team is required to micromanage the staff – where they have to watch all the details and make every single decision. Clearly, in a more modern-day organisation, where highly paid specialists are employed an autocratic system becomes impractical and highly inefficient.

The autocratic model is also a detractor to job satisfaction and employee morale. This is because employees do not feel valued and part of the overall team. This leads to a low-level of work performance. While the autocratic model might be appropriate for some very automated factory situations, it has become outdated for most modern-day organisations.

Custodial model

The custodial model is based around the concept of providing economic security for employees – through wages and other benefits – that will create employee loyalty and motivation.

In some countries, many professional companies provide health benefits, corporate cars, financial packaging of salary, and so on – these are incentives designed to attract and retain quality staff.

The underlying theory for the organisation is that they will have a greater skilled workforce, more motivated employees, and have a competitive advantage through employee knowledge and expertise.

One of the downsides with the custodial model is that it also attracts and retains low performance staff as well. Or perhaps even deliver a lower level of motivation from some staff who feel that they are “trapped” in an organisation because the benefits are too good to leave.

Supportive model

Unlike the two earlier approaches, the supportive model is focused around aspiring leadership.

It is not based upon control and authority (the autocratic model) or upon incentives (the custodial model), but instead tries to motivate staff through the manager-employee relationship and how employees are treated on a day-to-day basis.

Quite opposite to the autocratic model, this approach states that employees are self-motivated and have value and insight to contribute to the organisation, beyond just their day-to-day role.

The intent of this model is to motivate employees through a positive workplace where their ideas are encouraged and often adapted. Therefore, the employees have some form of “buy-in” to the organisation and its direction.

Collegial model

The collegial model is based around teamwork – everybody working as colleagues (hence the name of the model).

The overall environment and corporate culture need to be aligned to this model, where everybody is actively participating – is not about status and job titles – everybody is encouraged to work together to build a better organisation.

The role of the manager is to foster this teamwork and create positive and energetic workplaces. In much regard, the manager can be considered to be the “coach” of the team. And as coach, the goal is to make the team perform well overall, rather than focus on their own performance, or the performance of key individuals.

The collegial model is quite effective in organisations that need to find new approaches – marketing teams, research and development, technology/software – indeed anywhere the competitive landscape is constantly changing and ideas and innovation are key competitive success factors.

System model

The final organisational model is referred to as the system model.

This is the most contemporary model of the five models discussed in this article. In the system model, the organisation looks at the overall structure and team environment, and considers that individuals have different goals, talents and potential.

The intent of the system model is to try and balance the goals of the individual with the goals of the organisation.

Individuals obviously want good remuneration, job security, but also want to work in a positive work environment where the organisation adds value to the community and/or its customers.

The system of model should be an overall partnership of managers and employees with a common goal, and where everybody feels that they have a stake in the organisation.

Organizational Behavior relates to the relationship between employees and the employer in an organization.

Both are working towards the realization of the goals and objectives of any organization, and a close and fruitful coordination between the two is one of the major factors towards this realization.

Organizational behavior approaches are a result of the research done by experts in this field.

These experts studied and attempted to quantify research done about the actions and reactions of employees, with regard to their work environments.

It is a field that has begun developing only recently and new approaches and results are being expounded every day.

There are 4 Approaches to Organizational Behavior studies;

Human resources approach.
Contingency approach.
Productivity approach.
Systems approach.

And one more approach to study organizational behavior is Interdisciplinary Approach.

Human Resources Approach

This approach recognizes the fact that people are the central resource in any organization and that they should be developed towards higher levels of competency, creativity, and fulfillment.

People thus contribute to the success of the organization.

The human resources approach is also called as the supportive approach in the sense that the manager’s role changes from control of employee to active support of their growth and performance.

The supportive approach contrasts with the traditional management approach.

In the traditional approach, managers decided what employees should do and closely monitored their performance to ensure task accomplishment.

In the human resources approach, the role of managers changes from structuring and controlling to supporting.

Contingency Approach

The contingency approach (sometimes called the situational approach) is based on the premise that methods or behaviors which work effectively in One situation fail in another.

For example; Organization Development (OD) programs, way work brilliantly in one situation but fail miserably in another situation.

Results differ because situations differ, the manager’s task, therefore, is to identify which method will, in a particular situation, under particular circumstances, and at a particular time, best contribute to the attainment of organization’s goals.

The strength of the contingency approach lies in the fact it encourages analysis of each situation prior to action while at the same time discourages the habitual practice of universal assumptions about methods and people.

The contingency approach is also more interdisciplinary, more system – oriented and more research-oriented titan any other approach.

Productivity Approach

Productivity which is the ratio of output to input is a measure of an organization’s effectiveness. It also reveals the manager’s efficiency in optimizing resource utilization.

The higher the numerical value of this ratio, the greater the efficiency.

Productivity is generally measured in terms of economic inputs and outputs, but human and social inputs and outputs also are important.

For example, if better organizational behavior can improve job satisfaction, a human output or benefit occurs.

In the same manner, when employee development programs lead to better citizens in a community, a valuable social output occurs.

Organizational behavior decisions typically involve human, social, and/or economic issues, and so productivity usually a significant part of these decisions is recognized and discusses extensively in the literature on OB.

Systems Approach

The Systems Approach to OB views the organization as a united, purposeful system composed of interrelated parts.

This approach gives managers a way of looking at the organization as a whole, whole, person, whole group, and the whole social system.

In so doing, the systems approach tells us that the activity of any segment of an organization affects, in varying degrees the activity of every other segment. A systems view should be the concern of every person in an organization.

The clerk at a service counter, the machinist, and the manager all work with the people and thereby influence the behavioral quality of life in an organization and its inputs.

Managers, however, tend to have a larger responsibility, because they are the ones who make the majority are people oriented.

The role of managers, then, is to use organizational behavior to help build an organizational culture in which talents are utilized and further developed, people are motivated, teams become productive, organizations achieve their goals and society reaps the reward.