Understanding and managing
organizational behavior
George, J. M., & Jones, G. R. (2012). Understanding and managing organizatonal
behavior (6th editon). Pearson.
Chapter 1: Introduction to Organizational Behavior
Organization = Is a collecton of people who wor together and coordinate their actons to
achieve a wide variety of goals.
Goals are what individuals are trying to accomplish -also what the organizaton as a
whole tries to accomplish.
The organizaton is efectve if the goals are achieved
They exist to provide goods and services that people want
o Its amount and quality them from employees behavior and performances
Organizational behavior (OB) = is the study of many factors that have an impact on how
people and groups act, thin , feel, and respond to wor and organizatons, and how
organizatons respond to their environments.
OB is a developing feld of study.
Changes in the environment constantly challenge organizatons and their owners’,
managers’, and employees’ abilites to adapt and change wor behaviors and
procedures to increase the efectveness with which they operate.
OB provides a set of tools—theories and concepts—to understand, analyze, describe,
and manage attudes and behavior in organizatons.
The study of OB can improve and change individual, group, and OB to atain
individual, group, and organizatonal goals.
OB can be analyzed at three levels:
the individual,
the group
the organizaton as a whole
A full understanding is impossible without an examinaton of the factors that afect behavior
at each level.
Using OB to understand behavior in organizatons and also to learn how to use and apply
these concepts. -> improve, enhance or change behavior so that employees, groups and
organizaton can achieve goals. (E.g. if all goal of organizaton achieved= employees get
bonus)
Employees who have been taught to wor as team, ta e pains to help, be agreeable
-> more efectve
, Knowledge of OB is important to employees -> helps appreciate wor situaton -> and
behave in ways to achieve own goals
Knowledge of OB is partcularly important to managers -> responsibility
Manager: Person who supervises the actvites of one or more employees.
Managers and top-management teams try to fnd ways to help the organizaton achieve its
goals. Try: understand behavior, shape behavior and wor attudes and increase
efectveness -> organizational efeetiveness.
5. A signifcant tas for an organizaton’s managers and employees is to use the tools of
OB to increase organizatonal efectveness, that is, an organizaton’s ability to achieve
its goals.
Top-management teams: High-ran ing executves who plan a company´s strategy so that
the company can achieve its goals.
Organizational efeetiveness: The ability of an organizaton to achieve its goals.
To increase an employee´s productvity, a manager can:
- raise employee´s self-esteem and beliefs
- change the reward system
- change the design of a job, ma e it enjoyable and easier
The 4 principals or dutes of management:
(1) Planning: here managers establish a strategy. This is complex and difcultl decisions
must be made.
OB helps how to ma e decisions, how they afect planning, avoid biases.
(2) Organizing: managers group employees into groups, teams or departments.
OB gives guidelines how to organize
(3) Leading: managers encourage the employees to do a good job.
OB explains leadership styles that match an organizaton´s characteristcs.
Way of leading is changing because of self-managed teams where people have authority
and responsibility over a part, they need advice and support from their managers, which
now act li e coaches or mentors.
Self-managing teams: groups of employees who are given the authority and
responsibility to manage many diferent aspects of their own organizatonal behavior.
(4) Controlling: managers monitor and evaluate not only performance of employees but
also if the planning, organizing and leading is done successfully. If yes: maintain, if
not: correctve acton.
, Management: The process of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling an
organizaton’s human, fnancial, material, and other resources to increase its
efectveness.
Planning: Deciding how best to allocate and use resources to achieve organizatonal goals.
Organizing: Establishing a structure of relatonships that dictates how members of an
organizaton wor together to achieve organizatonal goals.
Leading: Encouraging and coordinatng individuals and groups so that all organizatonal
members are wor ing to achieve organizatonal goals.
Controlling: Monitoring and evaluatng individual, group, and organizatonal performance
to see whether organizatonal goals are being achieved.
Example “Trader Joe´s” founded by Joe Coulombe. Decentralized authority, empowered
salespeople to ta e responsibility for meetng customer needs. -> personalized customer
service. Rewards and bonus.
Managers expect some roles in an organizaton.
Role: A set of behaviors or tas s a person is expected to perform because of the positon
he or she holds in a group or organizaton.
, OB can increase a manager´s skills.
Skill: An ability to act in a way that allows a person to perform well in his or her role.
A manager needs three principal s ills:
Conceptual s ills
The ability to analyse and diagnose a situaton and to distnguish between cause and
efect.
Human s ills
The ability to understand, wor with, lead and control behavior of other people and
groups.
Technical s ills
Job-specifc nowledge and techniques.
Changing pressures or forces in the social and cultural, global, technological, and
employment or wor environment pose many challenges for OB, and organizatons must
respond efectvely to those challenges if they are to survive and prosper.
To appreciate this changing environment: wor from open-system perspectve. -> in which
an organizaton ta es in resources from its external environment and converts or transforms
them into goods and services that are sent bac to that environment, where customers buy
them.
Open-system:
Input stage: Acquiring resources (material, employees, equipment)
Conversion stage: input is transformed into output.
Output stage: Releasing fnished goods and services
Everything with preferably high-quality but low price, atract customers
With money from output, start at input stage
Contnually alter and improve = adapt over tme
Organizational proeedure: A rule or routne an employee follows to perform some tas in
the most efectve way.
Challenge 1: Two major challenges of importance to OB today from the social and cultural
environment
are those that derive from a brea down in ethical values, social responsibility, and from the
increasing diversity of the wor force.
National eulture: a set of values or beliefs that a society considers important and the
norms of behavior that are approved or sanctoned in that society. Change ->
