This file contains a summary of the book: Organizational Behavior. You need this book during the CBL lessons of Stenden University in your PMO module of year 3. During these classes you have to summarize this book, now you do not have to do anything for these lessons anymore!
CHAPTER 13: POWER AND POLITICS.......................................................................................................................43
CHAPTER 14: CONFLICT AND NEGOTIATIONS.......................................................................................................46
CHAPTER 15: STRUCTURE AND OGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR.........................................................................49
,CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
- Manager’s interpersonal skills helps organizations to attract and keep high-performing employees.
ENTER ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
- Organizational Behaviour (OB) a field of study that investigates the impact individuals, groups and
structure have on behaviour within organizations, for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward
improving an organization’s effectiveness (people skills).
- It studies three dterminants of behavior in organizations: individuals, groups and structure.
OB applies the knowledge gained about individuals, groups, and the effect of structure on behavior
in order to make organizations work more effectively.
OB is the study of what people do in an organizations and how their behavior affects the
organization’s performance. Because OB is concerned specifically with employment-related
situations, it emphasizes behavior as related to concerns such as jobs, work, absenteeism,
employement turnover, productivity, human performance and management.
Core topics of OB:
- Motivation
- Leader behavior and power
- Interpersonal communication
- Group structure and processes
- Attitude development and perception
- Change processes
- Conflict and negotiation
- Work design
COMPLEMENTING INTUITION WITH SYSTEMATIC STUDY
We’ve been “reading” people all our lives, but those interpretations are based on intuition. We can
improve our predictive ability by supplementing intuition with a more systematic approach.
Underlying this systematic approach is the belief that behavior is not random. Rather, we can identify
fundamental consistencies underlying the behavior of all individuals and modify them to reflect
individual differences.
- The systematic study of behavior a means to making reasonably accurate predictions. Looking at
relationships, attempting to attribute causes and effects, and basing our conclusions on scientific
evidence.
- Evidence-based Management (EBM) complements systematic study by basing managerial
decisions on the best available scientific evidence. Managers should become more scientific in how
they think about management problems.
DISCIPLINES THAT CONTRIBUTE TO THE OB FIELD
Ob is an applied behavioral science built on contributions from a number of behavioral disciplines,
mainly psychology (individual or micro level of analysis), sociology and athropology (mainly macro
concepts such as group processes and organization).
- Psychology seeks to measure, explain and sometimes change the behavior of humans.
- Social Psychology blends concepts from both psychology and sociology to focus on people’s
influence on one another. One major study area is change how to implement it and how to reduce
barriers to its acceptance. This type of study also contributes to measuring, understanding and
changing attitudes; identifying communication patterns; etc.
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,- Sociology studies people in relation to their social environment or culture. Sociologists have
contributed to OB through their study of group behavior in organizations. Sociologists have studied
organizational culture, formal organization theory and structure, organizational technology,
communications, power and conflict.
- Anthropology the study of societies to learn about human beings and their activities. This study
has helped OB to understand differences in fundamental values, attitudes, and behavior between
people in different countries and within different organizations.
THERE ARE FEW ABSOLUTES IN OB
Every person is different, so absolutes are almost impossible in the field of OB. You can’t say that
every person like e.g. challenging work, because every person has different ideas about that.
- Contingency variables we can say X leads to Y, but only under condition specified in Z.
CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR OB
Today’s challenges bring opportunities for managers to use OB concepts.
- Responding to Economic Pressures:
During difficult economic times, effective management is often a premium. When times are
bad, managers are on the front lines with employees who must be fired, who are asked to
make do with less, and who worry about their futures. The difference between good and bad
management can be the difference between profit and loss or between survival and failure.
The OB approaches for good and bad times differ: in good times, understanding how to
reward, satisfy and retain employees is a premium. In bad times, issues like stress, decision
making, and coping are more important.
- Responding to Globalization:
Organizations are no longer constrained by national borders. The world has become a global
village. In the process, the manager’s job has changed.
Increased foreign assignments: you could be transferred to a different country. Once there,
you’ll have to manage a workforce very different in needs, aspirations, and attitudes from
those you are used to back home.
Working with people from different cultures: you’ll have to adjust your communication
style, gain knowledge about those cultures and adapt your management style to the
differences.
Overseeing movement of jobs to countries with low-cost labor: in global economy, jobs
tend to flow where lower costs give businesses a comparative advantage, though labor
groups, politicians, and local community leaders see exporting jobs as undermining the job
market at home. Managers face the difficult task of balancing the interests of their
organizations with their responsibilities to the communities in which they operate.
- Managing Workforce Diversity:
- Workforce diversity the concept that organizations are becoming more heterogeneous in
terms of gender, age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and inclusion of other diverse groups.
Whereas globalization focuses on differences among people from different countries,
workforce diversity addresses differences among people within given countries. WD
acknowledges a workforce of women and men; many racial and ethnic groups; individuals
with a variety of physical or psychological abilities; and people who differ in age and sexual
orientation. Workforce Diversity presents great opportunities and poses challenging
questions for managers and employees in all countries. E.g. how to leverage differences
within groups for competitive advantage? What are the legal requirements in each country?
- Improving Customer Service:
The common characteristic of service jobs is substantial interaction with an organization’s
customers. Management needs to create a customer-responsive culture. OB can provide
considerable guidance in helping managers with creating such cultures in which employees
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, are friendly and courteous, accesible, knowledgeable, prompt in responding to customer
needs, and willing to do what’s necessary to please the customer.
- Improving People Skills:
Concepts and theories that can help explain and predict the behavior of people at work (later
in the book).
- Stimulating Innovation and Change:
Today’s successful organizations must foster innovation and master the art of change, or
they’ll go broke. Organizations that want to survive must be flexible, continually improving
their quality, and beat their competition to the marketplace with a constant stream of
innovative products/services.
The challenge for managers is to stimulate their employees’ creativity and tolerance for
change.
- Coping with “Temporariness”
Due to the globalization, expanded capacity and advances in technology, most managers and
employees work in a quite temporary climate. Workers must continually update their
knowledge and skills to perform new job requirements. The predictability of jobs has been
replaced by temporary work groups, with member from different departments, and the
increased use of employee rotation to fill constantly changing work assignments.
Finally, organizations are in a state of flux they continually reorganize their various divisions,
sell off poorly performing businesses, downsize operations, etc.
Today’s managers and employees must learn to cope with temporariness, flexibility,
spontaneity, and unpredictability. OB can help you better understand a work world of
continual change, overcome resistance to change, and create and organizational culture that
thrives on change. Use evidence as much as possible to inform your intuition and experience.
- Working in Networked Organizations:
Networked organizations allow people to communicate and work together even though they
may be thousands of miles apart. The manager’s job is different in a networked organization.
Motivating and leading people and making collaborative decisions online requires different
techniques than when individuals are physically present in a single location. As more
employees do their jobs by linking to other through networks, managers must develop new
skills. OB can provide valuable insights to help with honing (aanscherpen) those skills.
- Helping Employees Balance Work-Life Conflicts:
Employees are increasingly complaining that the line between work and nonwork time has
become blurred, creating personal conflicts and stress. At the same time, today’s workplace
presents opportunities for workers to create and structure their own roles.
How are work-life conflicts caused? Many employees of global firms are “on call” 24 hours a
day because they need to consult with colleagues or customers 8 or 10 time zones away.
Second, communication technology allows many employees to do their work at home, in
their cars, etc. Because of this innovation, it feels like they can never really get away from
their work. Third, organizations are asking employees to put in longer hours. Finally, the rise
of the dual-career couple makes it difficult for married employees to find time to fulfill
commitments to home, children, parents and friends.
Employees increasingly recognize that work infringes their personal lives. Organizations that
don’t help their people achieve work-life balance will find it increasingly difficult to attract
and retain the most capable and motivated employees.
- Improving Ethnical Behavior:
Employees face ethical dilemmas and ethical choices, in which they are required to identify
right and wrong conduct. What constitutes good ethical behavior has never been clearly
identified, and the line between right and wrong has blurred. When caught on inethical
behavior, people use excuses such as “Everyone does it”. On top of that, different cultures
have different perspective on what is right and what is wrong.
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