Tilburg University: Organizational Behaviour (422057-B-5)
Summary lectures & book (Organizational Behaviour – Buchanan & Huczynski, 10th edition)
Index
Lecture 1: Introduction to OB, personality, learning & motivation (Chapter 1, 6, 5, 9). ......................... 2
Lecture 2: Perception, culture & communication (Chapter 8, 4 and 7). ................................................. 8
Lecture 3: Teams and teamwork (Chapter 10, 11) ............................................................................... 14
Lecture 4: Teamwork, individuals in groups & group structure (Chapter 12, 13) ................................. 17
Lecture 5: Leadership & decision making (Chapter 18, 19, 20) ............................................................ 23
Lecture 6: Power & Conflict (Chapter 21, 22) ....................................................................................... 31
Lecture 7: Environment & technology (Chapter 2, 3) ........................................................................... 39
Course overview:
Lecture About Subjects Chapter
1 Human actors and their Personalities, learning and motivation. 1, 6, 5, 9
qualities
2 Humans as perceivers Perception, culture and communication. 8, 4, 7
3 Humans working together Interdependence and teams. 10, 11
4 Humans working as teams Teamwork. 12, 13
5 Humans influencing their Decision-making and leadership. 18, 19, 20
organizations
6 Humans interacting Power and conflict. 21, 22
within organizations
7 Humans in an Environment and technology. 2, 3
organizational context
,Lecture 1: Introduction to OB, personality, learning & motivation
(Chapter 1, 6, 5, 9).
PART 1: INTRODUTION TO OB (CHAPTER 1)
Organizations: Machines or ecosystems?
Organizations: Social inventions (a system of people), that have a goal and are a group effort. There
are two views on organizations:
• Organizations as machines (e.g. Weber’s bureaucracy): Rigid control and specialization.
• Organizations as ecosystems (e.g. HRM, Hawthorne studies): Flexibility, group dynamics and
employee motivation.
The human side of organizations: What is OB?
It is important to understand how different units work together, and how this is being coordinated.
Organizational behaviour deals with contextual factors that often explain employee behaviour.
To survive, companies need to transform inputs to outputs efficiently, as shown in the fieldmap:
The external environment
Inputs → The organization Outputs
(e.g. raw materials, HR, subsystems and (e.g. products, shareholder
information, financial resources). processes → dividends, waste, pollution).
The processes OB cares about
The processes in organizations OB cares about:
→ → →
Organizational Individual Individual outcomes Organizational
inputs/processes inputs/processes (e.g. behaviour, performance, outcomes
(e.g. structure, (e.g. personality, values, citizenship, well-being, (e.g. open
culture, HR perceptions, motivation, decisions and creativity). systems fit,
practices and and self-leadership). learning,
strategy). Team inputs/processes Team outcomes human captial
(e.g. development, trust, (e.g. performance, decisions, development
communication, leadership collaboration, support and and satisfied
and conflict). social networks). stakeholders).
Why is OB important?
OB is important because the theories used for natural sciences, aren’t suitable for social sciences.
Natural science uses positivism, believing that the world can be understood in terms of causal
relationships between measured independent and dependent variables (variance theory).
In social sciences, it is harder to define the objective truth. Human behaviour is determined by
shared experiences, meanings and interpretations (constructivism). Factors that interact over time in
particular context can produce outcomes. All factors need to be taken into account to understand
social and organizational problems (process theory).
,Human resource management: OB in action
Human resource management: Responsible for establishing personnel policies to support
organization strategy. It is ‘OB in practice’ in the stages of the employment cycle.
HR policies affect behaviour and performance. For people to perform beyond the minimum
requirements of a job, the following things are needed: Ability, Motivation and Opportunity.
This can be seen in the HR ‘bath model’:
HR policies → AMO factors → Implementation → Response → Behaviour
E.g. training Ability Encouragement Organization ‘Going the
Motivation Respect commitment extra mile’
Opportunity Trust Job satisfaction
The bath model shows that HR policies are required to produce ability, motivation and opportunity.
Managers have to communicate trust, respect and encouragement. HR policies and management
behaviours must lead to job satisfaction and commitment.
Discretionary behaviour: Freedom to decide how work is going to be performed. This can be positive
(e.g. putting in extra effort) or negative (e.g. withholding cooperation).
PART 2: PERSONALITY (CHAPTER 6)
Personality
Personality: The distinctive way by which individuals react to people, situations and problems and
how they tend to feel, think and behave. This is relatively stable over a lifetime.
• Personality type: A label for a pattern of characteristics (e.g. introvert).
• Personality trait: An attribute of personality (e.g. shyness).
Some personality traits worth studying for organizations:
• Locus of control: The degree to which someone takes responsibility for his/her behaviour
and its consequences.
• Self-monitoring: The degree to which someone observes his/her behaviour to look
appropriate. High self-monitoring people (chameleons) are good networkers. Low self-
monitoring people (true to themselves) are adaptive to ambiguous situations.
• Self-efficacy: The belief that one possesses adequate strength and overcomes adversities.
This can increase/decrease through experience/situational factors.
Psychometrics
Personalities can be grouped using taxonomy/psychometrics (e.g. extrovert or introvert, Type A or
Type B). There are two approaches to personality assessment:
• Nomothetic: Using ‘thick box’ questionnaires (Quantitative).
o Generalizing, objective, discrete, in terms of traits and trait clusters.
• Idiographic: Using open-ended approaches to capture unique characteristics (Qualitative).
o Individualizing, in terms of identity, personality is open to change.
Although there is limited scientific foundation, these tests are used a lot in organizations. It can be
helpful to create groups with the ‘right mix’ of members.
, Psychometrics tests
Some commonly used tests in organizations to group personalities are:
• The Big 5 model (Nomothetic)
o The consistent trait clusters ‘openness’, ‘conscientiousness’, ‘extraversion’,
‘agreeableness’ and ‘neuroticism’ (OCEAN) capture the main dimensions of
personality. This is very reliable, outcomes can be predicted based on this test. If
used in the right way, all dimensions can be beneficial for organizations.
• Personality types A and B (Nomothetic)
o Type A personality: Ambition, impatience and a sense of constant time-pressure.
o Type B personality: Relaxation, low focus on achievement and the ability to take time
to enjoy leisure.
• The Myers-Briggs type indicator (Nomothetic)
o There are 16 possible letter codes, based on the categories: sensing-intuiting,
thinking-feeling, introvert-extravert, judging-perceiving.
• Strengthsfinder (Nomothetic)
o Increases engagement, job satisfaction and productivity by helping organizations to
design jobs that are consistent with employee’s capabilities.
• Thematic apperception test/projective test (Idiographic)
o Evaluates a person’s patterns of thought, attitudes and emotional responses to
ambiguous test materials.
The main criterion for choosing a selection method is predictive validity, the extent to which the
scores can predict behaviours such as job performance
Stress & Stress management
Stressor: Conditions that cause stress (e.g. inadequate physical working environment). There are two
broad strategies for reducing stress:
• Individual emotion-focused strategies: E.g. Consciousness-raising, improving self-awareness,
exercising, self-help training, meditation, relaxation, time management training.
• Organizational problem-focused strategies: E.g. Improved selection and training, improved
organizational communications, job redesign, development of teamworking.
The development of the self
According to idiographics, everyone has unique traits. We learn about ourselves through interacting,
we behave in accordance with our self-concept and we can change with social experiences.
Looking glass self: If others respond favourable towards us, we develop a positive self-concept.
The two-sided self:
The way I see myself The way others see ‘me’
What I expect of myself What others expect of me
The personal self: Perceptions, motives, feelings The social self: How I appear to others
