ORGANIZATIONAL
BEHAVIOR AND
COMMUNICATION
2022‐2023
Semester 1
Dr. Anna Berbers
,Literature – Compulsory readings
Week 1: Introduction to Organizational Behavior & Communication
Martin, J. & Fellenz, M. (2017). Organizational behaviour and management. Cengage learning
EMEA. Chapter 1: Introducing Management and Organizational Behavior, 310
Settoon, R. P. & Mossholder K. W. (2002). Relationship quality and relationship context as
antecedents of person- and task-focused interpersonal citizenship behavior. Journal of Applied
Psychology, 87, 2, 255-267.
Week 2: Causes of Employee Behaviors (part 1)
Martin, J. & Fellenz, M. (2017). Organizational behavior and management. Cengage learning
EMEA. Chapter 5: Motivation, 128-157
Bolino, M., Long, D., & Turnley, W. (2016). Impression management in organizations: Critical
questions, answers, and areas for future research. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology
and Organizational Behavior, 3, 377-406.
Lee, Y., Li, J., Tsai, W. S. (2021). Diversity-oriented leadership, internal communication, and
employee outcomes: a perspective of racial minority employees. Journal of Public Relations
Research, 33(5), 314-334.
Week 3: Causes of employee behaviors (part 2)
Appelbaum, S. H., Laconi, G. D., & Matousek, A. (2007). Positive and negative deviant workplace
behaviors: causes, impacts, and solutions. Corporate Governance: The international journal of
business in society, 7(5), 586-598.
Barker, J. R. (1993). Tightening the iron cage: Concertive control in self-managing teams.
Administrative science quarterly, 408-437.
van Knippenberg, D., De Dreu, C. K. W., & Homan, A. C. (2004). Work group diversity and group
performance: An integrative model and research agenda. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89(6),
1008-1022.
Week 4: The Impact of Employee Behaviors
Bolino, M. C., Klotz, A. C., Turnley, W. H., & Harvey, J. (2013). Exploring the dark side of
organizational citizenship behavior. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 34(4), 542-559.
Nielsen, M. B., & Einarsen, S. (2012). Outcomes of exposure to workplace bullying: A meta-
analytic review. Work & Stress, 26(4), 309-332.
Wolfe, A. W., Blithe, S. J., & Mohr, B. (2018). Dirty Workers’ Management of Hidden
Emotions: Selling Intimacy and Seeking Social Support through the Shroud of Secrecy.
Journal of Communication, 68(1), 194-217.
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,Week 5: Solutions (part 1)
George, J. M., & Jones, G. R., (2012). Understanding and managing organizational behavior.
Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Chapter 7: Creating a motivating work setting, 182-206
Demerouti, E., Bakker, A. B., & Gevers, J. M. (2015). Job crafting and extra-role behavior: The
role of work engagement and flourishing. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 91, 87-96.
Thaler, R. H. & Sunstein, CR (2008) Nudge: Improving decisions about health, wealth, and
happiness. Chapter 5: Choice Architecture, 83-102
Week 6: Solutions (part 2)
George, J. M., & Jones, G. R., (2012). Understanding and managing organizational behavior.
Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Chapter 8: Pay, Careers, and changing employment
relationships, 212-238
Lee, Y., & Kim, K. H. (2020). De-motivating employees’ negative communication behaviors on
anonymous social media: The role of public relations. Public Relations Review, 46(4), 1-8
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, Week 1: Intro to OB & Comm
Martin & Fellenz - Chapter I: Introducing management and organizational
behavior
Organizations are social entities that are goal-directed, that have nominal boundaries yet are
inextricably linked to their environment, and that employ deliberately designed and coordinated
activities and approaches to achieving their objectives.
Characteristics:
• Social entities - characterized by its member and relationships and interactions between
them.
• Goal orientation -
• Nominal boundaries - identifiable - yet linked to the environment
• Coordinated activities and approaches
Organizations are useful and convenient abstractions rather than real physical entities.
We reify them- which is treating as real what is merely a concept or abstract idea. What we are
reifying is the nominal organization (i.e. legal entity, name, brand) along with the observable
patterns of repeated and often predictable behaviour of and interactions among individual
members and the artefacts (e.g. buildings, uniforms, logos, products) they create.
• We often anthropomorphize organizations - we treat them as real actors with human
features and abilities, for example by assuming that they act, learn, compete, make
decisions and so forth.
While all this is often criticized as a fundamental fallacy (i.e. a logical mistake) of organizational
studies, reification is the way we all conceive of, describe and experience the world (in fact,
families and other social phenomena often feel only too real!). Also, reification, unlike
anthropomorphism, is an important analytical tool in many social sciences, and particularly in
organizational studies and OB.
In summary, the reasons why organizations exist are that:
(a) they are more effective than the alternatives, i.e. organizations offer the opportunity to achieve
objectives unachievable without them;
(b) they offer efficiencies compared to their alternatives, i.e. they help achieve these goals faster or
with less economic, cultural, social, political or moral costs.
The presented definition of organizations and the above explanation for their existence are in
sociological terms functionalist, which means that they are adopting a perspective that focuses on
purpose (goals) and utility (value). While functionalist approaches to understanding organizations
can be criticized, we adopt them here because they provide the most general and comprehensive
platform from which to learn about management and OB.
Management
Management: a process that involves planning, organising, leading (or deploying) and controlling
resources in order to achieve goals
(People) Management - the process of trying to achieve goals in organizations with and through
people.
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