Class notes
Lectures Behavior and Communication in Organizations
- Course
- Institution
All lectures of the course Behavior and Communication in Organizations (Gedrag en Communicatie in Organisaties).
[Show more]
1 review
By: douweoomens • 4 year ago
Seller
Follow
ElineRijnsburger
Reviews received
Content preview
Hoorcolleges Behavior and Communication in OrganizationCollege 1 5 feb 2020
Introduction Behavior and Communication in Organizations
Organizations: a system of consciously coordinated activities or forces of 2 or more persons
Four common denominators:
• Coordination of effort
o Achieved policies, rules and regulations
• A common goal
• Division of labor
o Individuals perform separate but related tasks to achieve the common goal
• Hierarchy of authority
o Chain of command dedicated to make sure that the right people do the right things at the
right time
▪ Often reflected in an organizational chart
Organizational behavior: an interdisciplinary field dedicated to better understand and managing people at
work
• OB indeed draws on knowledge from different disciplines
• But is it really interdisciplinary? Does it analyze, synthesize and harmonize links between disciplines
into a coordinated and coherent whole?
• Not really… In reality it is a hodgepodge of various subjects; a collection of loosely related or even
unrelated streams of scholarly and not-so-scholarly research. It is neither a discipline or
interdisciplinary, perhaps multidisciplinary.
A historical perspective of OB
Scientific management
• 1880-1930
• Creating standards established by facts or truths gained through systematic observation,
experiment or reasoning to improve organizational efficiency.
• Also referred to as ‘Taylorism’:
o Frederick Taylor (1856-1915) is seen as founder
o Negative connotation because its association with mass production, the assembly line, and
negative perception of workers.
• People did the job their parents had, not what they wanted.
• However, some principles of scientific management were groundbreaking
o Scientific selection and training of people
o Scientific job redesign based on time-mention research
▪ Reducing tasks to basic elements or motions and subsequently redesigning tasks to
reduce the number of elements and emotions. Better for the company and the
employees.
The human relations movement
• 1930- 1970
The quality movement
• 1980’s
The internet and social media revolution
• 1990’s
• Makes virtual organizations possible:
, o Organizations where people work (partly) independent of location supported by ICT
(organizations without an office)
Diversity: represents the multitude of individual differences and similarities that exist among people.
Based on 4 layers:
• Personality
• Internal (surface-level) dimensions
• External (secondary) dimensions
• Organizational dimensions
The positive and negative effects of diverse work environments
Two perspectives:
• Diversity is good for workgroups:
o Information/ decisions-making theory
• Diversity is bad for workgroups
o Social categorization theory
Diversity is good: information/ decision-making theory
• Proposes that diverse workgroups should outperform homogenous workgroups because of more
informational diversity:
o Diverse groups are expected to do a better job in earlier phases of problem solving
▪ Because they are more likely to use their diverse background to generate a more
comprehensive view of a problem
o The existence of diverse perspectives can help groups to brainstorm or uncover more novel
alternatives during problem-solving activities
o Diversity can enhance the number of contacts a group or work unit has at its disposal
• Research on decision making provides evidence for this position
Diversity is bad: social categorization theory
• Proposes that similarities and differences are used as a basis for categorizing self and others into
groups, resulting in group dynamics with negative consequences for workgroups.
o Creates ‘us (ingroup)’ vs ‘them (outgroup)’ mentality. Capturize in and without the group→
in-/ outgroup. Maximize differences, ingroup and outgroup want this→ reason war
▪ Liking ingroup members, disliking outgroup members
▪ Ingroup bias/ favoritism and outgroup discrimination
▪ Conflict between ingroup and outgroup members
• Research on group dynamics provides evidence for this position
o (research with the so-called minimal group paradigm)
Minimal group paradigm
• Two groups are formed based on an arbitrary criterium
(preference for painters)
• Group members are then asked to divide outcomes among
ingroup versus outgroup members
A process of model of diversity
The negative effects of group dynamics are stronger when ‘fault lines’ are more salient.
→ making social categorization more likely.
, Fault line: hypothetical dividing lines that may split a group into subgroups based on one or more
attributes (dimensions of diversity)
As manager you have to avoid differences/ fault lines→ less problems.
• Make fault lines less salient by team composition
(cross-categorization).
• Strengthen the overarching identity of the team
Organizational culture: set of shared, taken-for-granted
implicit assumptions that a group holds and that
determines how it perceives, thinks about and reacts to its various environments.
• Passed on to new employees through the process of socialization
• Influences our behavior at work
Layers of organizational culture
Organizational culture is represented on different levels:
• Observable artifacts
o Consist of the physical manifestation of an organization’s culture
▪ Acronyms, manner of dress, awards, myths and stories
• Espoused values
o Explicitly stated values and norms that are preferred by an organization
Understanding cultural differences
Societal culture: a set of beliefs and values about what is desirable and undesirable in a community of
people and a set of formal or informal practices to support the values.
• Employees bring their societal culture to work with them in the form of customs and language
• Societal cultures may differ on various dimensions (high-contact vs. low-context cultures)
Expatriates and culture shock
Expatriates: refers to people living and/or working outside their home country
Cultural differences may lead to culture shock:
• Anxiety and doubt caused by an overload of new expectations and cues
• People return earlier of job dissatisfaction or difficulties in adjusting to a foreign country.
Best defense is comprehensive cross-cultural training, including intensive language study.
College 2
Individuals in Organizations I: Attitudes and Behavior
The unique individual in an organization
Self-concept: the concept the individual has of himself or herself. How
you think about yourself.
Important parts of one’s self-concept:
• Self-esteem
• Self-efficacy
• Self-monitoring
The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:
Guaranteed quality through customer reviews
Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.
Quick and easy check-out
You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.
Focus on what matters
Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!
Frequently asked questions
What do I get when I buy this document?
You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.
Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?
Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.
Who am I buying these notes from?
Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller ElineRijnsburger. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.
Will I be stuck with a subscription?
No, you only buy these notes for $4.80. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.
Can Stuvia be trusted?
4.6 stars on Google & Trustpilot (+1000 reviews)
53068 documents were sold in the last 30 days
Founded in 2010, the go-to place to buy study notes for 14 years now