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Management and organisational behaviourChapter 1 – Introduction to management and organisational behaviour
Study of management and organisational behaviour – understand how people used management
skills and how research into organisations can guide your management of people.
History foundations of management and other OB theories:
• Classical - authority, technical competence, discipline
• Human Relations - social attitudes, relationships, workgroups
• Systems - social, technical integration of HR and Classical
• Contingency - depends, no best way variables taken into account
Classical – Taylor (= scientific management). Scientific observation of people at work would
reveal the one best way to do any task → managers had the responsibility to plan, organise and
determine the best methods for performing a job.
Fayol – 5 functions of management
- Planning
- Organising
- Co-ordination
- Commanding
- Controlling
Bureaucracy theory (Weber) – work was not necessarily meant to be pleasant, but rather to
be efficient, with minimum conflicts of interest. Managers were unemotional and treated people
as they were interchangeable → impersonal treatment of people. Groups are actually social
systems, made complex because of non-mechanistic human behaviour.
Human Relations – shift in focus away from rational-economic picture of employees to a more
social-behavioural perspective (refine and extend scientific management).
➔ Hawthorne studies – determine relationship between physical working conditions and
worker productivity. Important were social elements (involvement in decision-making,
work relationships and group attitudes/values)
Illumination studies – light & productivity (light minor factor affecting performance)
Maslow – focus on the complexities of human behaviour as a critical variable in organisational
effectiveness (uniqueness of human needs)
Systems – task of managers is one of maintaining a system of co-operation in a formal
organisation → the whole is greater than the sum of the parts (the parts are related to each other)
• Homans – social systems model of group behaviour
• Katz and Kahn – emphasises the close relationship between the organisation and its
supporting environment
The systems level allows the level of analysis to run up and down the hierarchy and from the
outside environment to individual behaviour, depending on the behaviour that is the focus of
attention → examines growth and decline in terms of predicted patterns of effectiveness.
,Nature of power
- Weber – hierarchical view of authority
- Follett – power comes from the nature of the task performed. Power is function-based,
embedded in a plan of organisation (not individual)
Administrative behaviour (Simon) – managers are decision-makers who are not always
rational because they do not have the ‘wits to maximise’. The decision-maker is limited by
bounded rationality rather than perfect knowledge and ends up making satisficing instead of
maximising decisions
- Cyert and March – managers engage in sequential searches of alternative solutions,
often with ill-defined outcome preferences
Contingency – organisational behaviour cannot be engineered by consistently applying one
theory to solve a particular problem. Multiple sources influence outcomes. The contingency
model builds an ‘it all depends’ perspective into the applications of management theory.
SO – study of management form industrial engineering and the various behavioural and social
sciences to serve practical purposes → knowledge applied in organisational settings to improve
performance and efficiency.
Scientific method – the use of theory to guide systematic, empirical research from which
generalisations can be made to influence applications.
Interplay between conceptualising general explanations of phenomena (deductive reasoning)
and empirically studying the relationships among specific phenomena (inductive reasoning).
Current issues for managers:
- Acceleration of technology that affects work processes and development and
positioning of products in the market place
- Tenancy of competing interests
- Swings in social behaviour
- Uncertainties of geopolitical and economic factors
,Chapter 2 – Managers and Organisations
The systems behaviour of organisations
Systems theory – the workplace has to be seen in terms of two interrelated systems: a social
and a technical system, each with its own independent characteristics.
- System cannot operate in a vacuum. It is the total sum of its parts and must be viewed
as a whole
- Redesign must be interactive. Employees should actively participate in changes
- Redesign must be holistic. Employees’ participation and socio-technical principles have
to take place in every part of the redesign process – especially at the beginning
- Social partnership is possible. There can be a balance between the social needs of work
and the economic and production needs
Systems depend on input-transformation-output processes
Organisation consists of
subsystems. Various inputs
are imported from the
environment, then
transformed by the firm’s
subsystems into products
and services. These are
subsequently exported to
different sectors of the
environment as outputs.
Organisation systems are open and dynamic
Closed systems – operate
without environmental or
outside interference.
Open systems –
influenced by external
pressures and inputs,
making them more
complex and difficult to
control than closed
systems.
Dynamic system – changes over time as structures and functions adapt to external disturbances
and conditions → all business systems are open, therefore a business can change its product
mix, enter new markets, restructure its sources of financing, hire new managers or redesign its
compensation policy in anticipation of, or in response to, outside forces.
Systems interact with environmental forces – organisations are linked with environmental
forces through exchanges or transactions.
Boundary-spanning transactions – link an organisation to specific external sectors,
exchanges that make the system dynamic and open.
An organisational system is interdependent with environmental forces because each influences
both the organisation and its environment.
, What successful managers do – managers are responsible for working with and through other
to achieve objectives by influencing people and systems in a changing environment. They must
understand the totality of his or her organisation and then influence system components (tasks,
technology, structure, people) to achieve desired outputs.
Additionally, they must be aware of the environments in which their systems operate
and how external forces alter the performance of internal subsystems and processes → then
seeks to align the organisation and its output with its changing environment by shifting
resources and what people do to fit that alignment.
Diagnose and influence system and organisational practices by working with people and
allocating resources to carry out tasks and achieve goals.
Managers work in multiple roles
- Interpersonal (figurehead, leader, liaison)
- Informational (monitor, disseminator, spokesperson)
- Decisional (entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, negotiator)
How managers influence organisation systems – managers need to understand and diagnose
their systems and then
influence select variables to
transform system capabilities
(tasks, technology,
organisation, people and
organisational culture).
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