Lecture 1
Learning Objective 1-2: Define organizational behavior (OB)
● Organizational Behavior (OB): is a field of study that investigates the impact that
individuals, groups, and structure have on behavior within organizations for the
purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organization's
effectiveness
● Examples: decision-making, motivation, teamwork, etc
● However, technical, financial, economic aspects of the job do NOT belong in the OB
field
● Study the Impact of individuals, groups, structure on Behavior within
organizations for Improving organization's effectiveness
Learning Objective 1-1: Demonstrate the importance of
interpersonal skills in the workplace
● Management skills:
○ Technical skills: ability to apply your specialized knowledge and expertise
○ Conceptual skills: mental ability to analyze and diagnose complex
situations
○ Human skills (interpersonal skills):
■ Ability to understand, support, communicate and motivate yourself
and others in the workplace
■ Important because:
■ "Good place to work" have better financial performance
■ Better interpersonal skills result in lower turnover of quality
employees and higher quality applications for recruitment
■ There is a strong association between the quality of workplace
relationship and job satisfaction, stress and turnover
Learning Objective 1-7: Three levels of Analysis in OB
● Individual
● Group
● Organization
,Managerial activities can be grouped into four types
● Traditional management
○ Decision making, planning, and controlling.
● Communication
○ Exchanging routine information and processing paperwork.
● Human resources management
○ Motivating, disciplining, managing conflict, staffing, and training.
● Networking
○ Socializing, politicking, and interacting with outsiders.
Effective and successful managerial activities
● Effective leaders lead their team best
, ● Successful leaders get promoted/move up the hierarchy the quickest
=> If we make all decisions with intuition, we're likely working with incomplete information
-> leading to faulty conclusions => that's why we need OB of systematic study
Learning Objective 1-3: Show the value to OB of systematic
study
● Systematic study
○ Predicting behavior based on scientific evidence
○ Looking at relationships, causes and effects
○ Systematic evaluation of information (e.g. via statistics)
● Evidence-based management
○ Complements systematic study
○ Basing managerial decisions on the best available scientific evidence
Learning Objective 1-5: Demonstrate why few absolutes apply
to OB
● Only a few absolutes apply to OB (absolutes = statements that are always true),
because people are complex
○ Two people act differently in the same situation
○ The same person acts differently in different situation
Learning Objective 1-6: Identify managers’ challenges and
opportunities in applying OB concepts
Challenges
Economic pressures
For example, COVID 19:
● reduced global economic growth in 2020 to an annualized rate of around -3.2% (with
a recovery of 5.9% projected for 2021).
● But also – increased unemployment, burnout, absenteeism, mental health issues
(anxiety went up by 26%, depression by 28%)
=> Managing employees well when times are tough is just as hard as when times are good, if
not harder.
Globalization
The world is a global village.
● Increased foreign assignment
● Working with people from different cultures
, ● Overseeing movement of jobs to countries with low-cost labor => face opposition
from labor groups
● Adapting to different cultural and regulatory norms
=> How does it affect manager’s job?
Workforce Diversity
● Organizations are more heterogenous
● Gender, age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc.
=> How does it affect employees & organizations?
Employee Well-Being at Work
● Virtual workplace reduces the sense of belonging
● Working longer hours →stress, fatigue, and burnout
● “always on” access influences work-life balance
=> How can organizations help their employees achieve work-life balance?
Ethical behavior
Determining the ethically correct way to behave is especially difficult for both managers and
employees in a global economy because different cultures have different perspectives on
certain ethical issues
Opportunities
Workforce demographics
The workforce has always adapted to various in economics, longevity, and birth rates,
socioeconomic conditions, and other changes that have widespread impact. People adapt to
survive, and OB studies the way those adaptations affect individual’s behavior.
Customer service
OB can help managers increase the success of these customer interactions by showing how
employee attitudes and behavior influence customer satisfaction
People skills
Determining the ethically correct way to behave is especially difficult for both managers and
employees in a global economy because different cultures have different perspectives on
certain ethical issues
Networked organizations
Networked organizations allow people to communicate and work together even though they
may be thousands of miles apart. As more employees do their jobs by linking to others
through networks, managers must develop new skills
Social media
…These examples show that social media is a difficult issue for today’s managers, presenting
both a challenge and opportunity for OB.
Positive work environment
Positive organizational scholarship: an area of OB research that studies how organizations
develop human strengths, foster vitality and resilience, and unlock potential. It does
