ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on the individual employee of governmental organizations, the forces that account for his behavior, and the influences that the organization brings to bear on him in order to secure his contribution to the organization's tasks. Organizational behavior is an obvious part of everyday experience that we are seldom conscious of the psychological reasons for its successes and failures. Important in the explanation of organization behavior are the premises upon which employees behave—that is, the criteria or guides they use in narrowing down the multitude of possibilities to the single actuality. There are certain types of value premises that one will encounter repeatedly in organization decisions. Perhaps the most important of these are the organization objectives, the criterion of efficiency, standards of fair play, and the personal values of the individual making the decision. Many government agencies have specialized units whose function it is to see that employees possess the correct factual premises for dealing with their jobs.