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Samenvatting Organizational Behavior, ISBN: 9781260570373 Organizational Behavior
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Complete summary of all course material and book subject matter of the course Organizational Behavior.
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Chapter 1 - Making OB work for meWhat is OB and why is it important?
You learned that OB is an interdisciplinary field that focuses on understanding and managing people at work.
Your understanding of the practical value of OB knowledge was increased further with the Organizing
Framework for understanding and applying OB and the 3-Step Problem-Solving Approach.
1.1 The Value of OB to My Job and Career
How can I use knowledge of OB to enhance my job performance and career?
Definition of Organizational behaviour (OB): An interdisciplinary field dedicated to understanding and
managing people at work.
OB is an interdisciplinary and applied field that involves managing the behaviours of individuals,
groups/teams, and organizations.
How OB fits into my curriculum and influences my success (benefit of learning OB)
The effective application of OB is critical to your success in all disciplines of work and all job levels. As you’ll
learn, technical knowledge associated with any given job is important, but your ability to influence, get along
with, manage, and get things done through others is what makes the difference.
An important part of your success is your ability to know which tools to use and under what
circumstances. This is described as a contingency approach to managing people.
A contingency perspective - the contemporary foundation of OB
The practical benefits of OB are based on the contingency approach: the best or most effective approach
requires us to apply the knowledge and tools appropriate to a given situation, rather than relying on one best
way across all situations. (there is no single best way to manage people/teams/organizations)
How self-awareness can help you build a fulfilling career
Effectively applying the contingency approach requires knowing yourself—your own skills, abilities,
weaknesses, strengths, and preferences. Such knowledge is called self-awareness, and it is key to your success
in both the short and long term.
OB is far more than common sense
At first glance the contingency perspective may look like simple common sense. But it’s different. Common
sense is often based on experience or logic, both of which have limits, and it suffers 3 major weaknesses you
need to be aware of and avoid:
Overreliance on hindsight. Common sense works best in well-known/stable situations with predictable
outcomes—what worked before should work again. But modern business situations are complex and
uncertain and require adapting to change. Common sense is especially weak in responding to the
unknown or unexpected. And because it focuses on the past, common sense lacks vision for the future.
Lack of rigor. People comfortable with common-sense responses may not apply the effort required to
appropriately analyse and solve problems. If you lack rigor, then you are unlikely to define the problem
accurately, identify the true causes, or recommend the right courses of action.
Lack of objectivity. Common sense can be overly subjective. In such cases we are not always able to
explain our reasoning to others, which is a sign that common sense lacks objectivity.
Employers want both hard and soft skills
OB helps you enhance your attractiveness to employers, who want employees with both hard and soft skills.
Hard skills are the technical expertise and knowledge required to do a particular task or job function, such
as financial analysis, accounting, or operations.
Soft skills relate to human interactions and include both interpersonal skills and personal attributes.
, What do you notice about
these 4 items? Which are hard
skills? None! Instead, all are
soft skills, the skills you need to
interact with, influence, and
perform effectively when
working with others.
- The rise of soft skills is a consequence of managers “listening to clients and what they value”.
- One other key aspect of soft skills is that they are not job specific. They are instead portable skills, more or
less relevant in every job, at every level, and throughout your career.
How OB fits into my career
It illustrates how technical or job-specific skills decline in
importance as you move to levels of higher
responsibility, while personal skills increase.
Knowledge of OB is critical to your individual
performance, your ability to work with and manage
others, and your career success (promotions, pay raises,
increased opportunities).
1.2 Right vs. Wrong—Ethics and My Performance
Why do people engage in unethical behaviour, even unwittingly, and what lessons can I learn from that?
Ethics guides behaviour by identifying right, wrong, and the many shades of grey in between. We will weave
discussions of ethics throughout the book for three key reasons.
1. Employees are confronted with ethical challenges at all levels of organizations and throughout their career
2. Unethical behaviour damages relationships, erodes trust, and thus makes it difficult to influence others
and conduct business.
3. Unethical behaviour also reduces cooperation, loyalty, and contribution, which hurts the performance of
individuals, teams, and organizations.
Forms of unethical conduct at school and work.
(1) Cheating. Cheating is everywhere (sports/school..)
(2) Ethical lapses (vergissingen) - legality, frequency, causes, and solutions.
The vast majority of managers mean to run ethical organizations, yet corporate corruption is widespread. Most
employees probably knew little/nothing about any unethical activities, while others were deeply involved.
Unethical does not mean illegal. The truth is that very few unethical acts are also illegal, most are not
punished in any way, and even if illegal, few are prosecuted. This means you should not rely on the legal
system to manage ethical conduct at work.
Why ethics matters to me and my employer. Unethical behaviour negatively affects the individual targets,
the perpetrators, co-workers, and entire organizations.
Employees often encounter ethical dilemmas. Ethical dilemmas are situations with 2 choices, neither of which
resolves the situation in an ethically acceptable manner. They highlight the fact that choosing among available
options is not always a choice between right and wrong.
,What causes unethical behaviour?
Reasons for unethical behaviour at work
1. Personal motivation to perform (“I must be the best”).
2. Pressure from a supervisor to reach unrealistic performance goals along with threats for underperforming.
3. Reward systems that honour unethical behaviour.
4. Employees’ perception of little or no consequences for crossing the line.
What can I do about it?
Whistle-blowers are rarely protected and often suffer substantial emotional and professional costs.
1. Recognize that it’s business and treat it that way. Collect data and present a convincing case against the
unethical conduct just as you would to develop a new product or strategy.
2. Accept that confronting ethical concerns is part of your job. Whether it is explicit in your job description or
not, ethics is everybody’s job. If you think something is questionable, take action.
3. Challenge the rationale. Many lapses occur despite policies against them. If this is the case, ask, “If what
you did is common practice or OK, then why do we have a policy forbidding it?”
4. Use your lack of seniority or status as an asset. While many employees rely on their junior status to avoid
confronting ethical issues, being junior can instead be an advantage.
5. Consider and explain long-term consequences. Many ethical issues are driven by temptations and benefits
that play out in the short term. Frame and explain your views in terms of long-term consequences.
6. Suggest solutions—not just complaints. When confronting an issue, you will likely be perceived as more
helpful and be taken more seriously if you provide an alternate course or solution.
1.3 Applying OB to Solving Problems
How can I apply OB in practical ways to increase my effectiveness?
Now that you know that OB is not just common sense, the challenge is to find a way to organize and apply its
many concepts and theories. In this section, we explain how you can apply OB to effectively solve problems at
work, at school, and in your life. We use a 3-Step Problem-Solving Approach.
We all encounter problems in our lives. A problem is a difference or gap between an actual and a desired state
or outcome. Problems arise when our goals (desired outcomes) are not being met (actual situation). So it is
important to carefully consider what your goal or desired outcome is in order to define the problem
appropriately. In turn, problem solving is a systematic process for closing these gaps.
, A 3-step approach
The 3-step problem solving approach defines the problem, uses OB concepts and theories to understand the
causes of the problem, and makes recommendations and action plans to solve the problem.
Step 1: Define the problem.
Define problems in terms of desired outcomes. Then ask yourself, “Why is this gap a problem?”
Step 2: Identify potential causes using OB concepts and theories.
Test your causes by asking, “Why or how does this cause the problem?”
Step 3: Make recommendations and (if appropriate) take action.
In some workplace situations you will make/implement recommendations.
1.4 Structure and Rigor in Solving Problems
How could I explain to a fellow student the practical relevance and power of OB to help solve problems?
The person-situation distinction
OB concepts and theories can be classified into 2 broad categories: person factors and situation factors. The
person–situation distinction is a fundamental way to organize, understand, and apply OB concepts.
Person factors are the infinite characteristics that give individuals their unique identities.
Situation factors are all the elements outside ourselves that influence what we do, the way we do it, and
the ultimate results of our actions.
The bottom-line implication for OB and your work life is that knowledge of one type of factor without the
other is insufficient. You need to understand the interplay between both person and situation factors to be an
effective employee and manager.
Levels - Individual, Group/team, Organization
OB distinguishes among 3 levels at work: individual, group/team, and organizational. To illustrate how
considering levels helps in solving real-world problems, think about the many reasons people quit their jobs.
Some people quit because their job doesn’t fulfil what they value, such as challenging and stimulating
work (an individual-level input).
Others quit because of conflicts with their boss or because they have nothing in common with their co-
workers (a group/team-level process).
A common reason people quit is a faulty reward system that unfairly distributes raises, bonuses, and
recognition (an organizational-level process).
1.5 The Organizing Framework for Understanding and Applying OB
How can the Organizing Framework help me understand and apply OB knowledge to solve problems?
A basic version of the organizing framework
The organizing framework is a tool that helps you to organize, understand, and apply your knowledge to solve
problems. The foundation of the Organizing Framework is a systems model wherein inputs influence outcomes
through processes. The person and situation factors are inputs. We’ve organized processes and outcomes into
the 3 levels of OB—individual, group/team, and organizational.
The framework implies that person/situation factors are the initial drivers of all outcomes that managers
want to achieve. This is the case because inputs affect processes, and processes affect outcomes. Because
events are dynamic and ongoing, many outcomes will in turn affect inputs and processes.
Using the organizing framework for problem solving
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