Organizational studies: behavioral

Within the discussion about organizational learning the expression of behavioral is used in two different respects.

  • The approaches within the Carnegie School and later within the March School of organization studies are regarded as behavioral approaches that contrast the neo-classic concepts of organizing. The behavioral approaches are prominent for the notion that organizational actions are mainly rule based because the organizational members have only limited rational abilities. Therefore they need certain definite rules (or standard operating procedures) that relief them from the continuous task of creative problem solving. These rule based actions have only a satisficing outcome which contradicts the neoclassic view of a human who is able to willfully find the optimal decision by rational search.

  • The second meaning of behavioral within the discussion of organizational learning is quite similar to the meaning within the psychology of learning. In this respect behavioral is regarded as the opposite of cognitive, i.e. it is the automatic response to a stimulus of the environment. When there are some shifts in the environment of the organization the behavioral reaction to these shifts is the automatically changing of routines and strategies without reflecting cognitively what has happened and which reaction would be most appropriate (Fiol and Lyles, 1985).

    See also: automaticity, organizational learning, organization studies: cognitive, standard operating procedures

    Literature: Fiol and Lyles (1985)

    Entry by: Klaus Beck

    November 10, 1997
    Direct questions and comments to: Glossary master