The application of behaviour theory perhaps occurred when human beings organized themselves into family units and when the principle of division of labour was probably applied to improve the chances of family survival as a unit. The concept of family itself required that life be organized and resources of food be apportioned in a manner so as to maximize their usefulness. Taking proper steps to safeguard the family from attacks by wild animals, planning on where to go hunting and whom to go with are all subtle ingredients of management, group dynamics and organizational behaviour. Specialized roles were assigned to individuals who were best able to perform them. This belief suggests the likelihood that gender oriented behaviours emerged in response to certain biological and sociological necessities.While women stayed back to look after and raise the children, men took the role of hunting and providing food and other necessities for the family.
The problems of effectively managing people, which involve some aspect of human and organizational behaviour, have been perennial and the early recorded history shows the application of some management techniques as far back as 5,000 BC when the ancient Sumarians used written records in assisting governmental operations. The Egyptian pyramids built as early as 3,000 BC required the organized efforts of nearly 100,000 people. It would be natural to assume that all functions of modern management such as planning, organizing, directing and controlling, played a heavy and coordinated role in the construction of these monuments, where each pyramid covering 13 acres required 2.3 million blocks, each block weighing approximately 2.5 tons. At about the same time, written evidence is available relating to a deliberate concern about managing workers’ behaviour and the importance of specialization of labour and hierarchy of authority. These accounts have been provided by Chinese and Mesopotamians between 3,000 and 4,000 BC.In the subsequent years, some of the recorded examples of managerial skills are the highly sophisticated cities of Mohanjodaro in India and the palaces of Assur and Babylon. The writings of Socretes and Plato discuss the universality of management and specialization. Alexander the Great used a staff organization extensively in his military conquests from 336 BC to 323BC. The Roman Empire showed an outstanding expertise in general administration,political, military and judicial judgement issues, using communications andcentralized control.
Before the advent of scientific management popularized by Fredrick W.Taylor, that put emphasis on productivity in the early 1900s, many management scholars recognized the role and input of workers in the management process. For example, Robert Owen (1771–1858) believed that the returns from investment in human resources would be far superior to the investment in machinery and equipment. He believed that the workers should work because they want to work and not because they have to work. This concept is the fundamental thinking behind the study of organizational behaviour. He believed that the manager should take the worker into his confidence and should not only tell him what is expected of him but also why, because an enlightened worker is a better worker. Similarly, Charles Babbage (1792–1871) believed in the importance of human factor and suggested that the interests of employees and management are closely linked and further advocated the idea of profit sharing and participative decision- making.
Even though he was, perhaps, the first to propose that decisions be based upon investigation and accurate knowledge and pioneered the use of quantitative methods and industrial engineering techniques in order to maximize productivity, his ideas were based upon an intelligent organization of workers with worker participationn and this could be considered as a prelude to the development of behavioural approach to management.
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