Organization & Management samenvatting
Chapter 1 (Organizational behavior)
What is organizational behavior? (OB)
The study of the structure and management of organizations, their environments, and the actions and
interactions of their individual members and groups.
→ Activities and interactions of people.
A bad experience with an organization does not have to be because of one individual coworker. In
many cases, a combination of factors explain the behavior in question (structural, personal,
management issues).
The focus on management is seen by some as unhelpful, because of;
1. Power inequalities
The gap between managers and ‘normal’ coworkers.
2. The agenda
3. Multiple stakeholders
4. Fashion victims
Managers follow the latest trends in thinking and technique, to improve personal and
organizational effectiveness.
What is an organization?
A social arrangement for achieving controlled performance in pursuit of collective goals.
→ Social arrangement
Groups of people who interact with each other because of their membership.
→ Collective goals
Common membership means shared objectives.
→ Controlled performance
Setting standards, measuring performance, comparing actual with standard, and taking
corrective action if necessary.
The performance of an organization as a whole determines its survival.
Big organizations; Walmart, Volkawagen, Amazon.
Different people can give different meanings to organizations. Organizations can be social sources of;
money, meaning, order, status, power.
The central dilemma of organizational design
How to reconcile inconsistency between individual needs and aspirations and the collective purpose
of the organization.
→ Individual goals can be different.
= The organizational dilemma: how to design organizations that will achieve overall objectives,
while also meeting the needs of those who work for them?
Confrontation of two issues:
1. Individual needs/aspirations
2. Collective purpose of the
organization
,The organizational behavior field map
Everything that is happening outside of a company, has an impact on the way the company works.
→ Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, Ecological (PESTLE) (> does not involve
language and cultural differences).
The ‘field map’ explains two sets of outcomes; organizational effectiveness and quality of working life.
Fundamental attribution error: our tendency to blame individuals (within organizations).
→ Café example
- Context factors: new competitors, bankruptcy → people losing their jobs.
- Individual factors: lack of training, personality traits, motivation.
- Group factors: teambuilding, exclusion.
- Structural factors
- Management process factors: leadership style.
Four features of explanations for organizational behavior
1. Consider different factors.
2. Tempting to look for the single main cause of behavior.
3. Link factors.
4. Organizational effectiveness: a multi-dimensional concept that can be defined differently by
different stakeholders.
→ For some; profit, employees want good pay, environmental groups want to protect the
earth, etc.
Managing organizational effectiveness
- Balanced scorecard: defining organizational effectiveness using a combination of
quantitative and qualitative measures.
- Quality of working life: an individual’s overall satisfaction with their job, working conditions,
pay, colleagues etc.
Social science (problems)
Goals:
- Description
Observation, asking questions and studying
documents.
- Explanation
- Prediction
Explain events for the future →
generalizations.
We can explain, but we can not (confidently)
predict.
- Control of events
Control to change things/situations/people.
Positivism: a perspective which assumes that the world
can be understood in terms of causal relationships and
that these relationships can be studied objectively using
controlled experiments.
→ To measure something, you need an operational
definition: quantifying the variable (operationalisatie).
,Variance theory: explaining organizational behavior based on relationships between independent
and dependent variables which can be defined and measured precisely.
Many social scientists argue that the postivism and variance theory are not suitable for social
sciences.
→ Constructivism: our social and organizational worlds have no ultimate objective truth or reality,
but are determined by our shared experiences, meanings and interpretations.
Process theory: an approach to explaining org. behavior based on narratives which show how
several factors, combining and interacting over time, are likely to produce the outcomes of interest.
Human resource management (HR)
Human resource management: the function
responsible for establishing integrated personal policies
to support organizational strategy.
→ Important in a crisis.
The employment cycle: the stages through which all
employees pass in each working position they hold.
The Bath model of HR
Opportunity have job skills and knowledge, including how to work well with others.
Motivation feel motivated to do the work and do it well.
Ability be able to use skills, and contribute to team and organizational success.
If one of these factors (AMO) is weak or missing, then an individual’s performance is likely to be poor.
Most employees have some choice over how, how well, they perform their jobs.
= discretionary behavior: freedom to decide how work is going to be performed (positive or
negative).
What encourages employees to ‘go the extra mile’?
Zie pagina 25
, Chapter 2 (Environment)
It is important to understand the world outside the organization for two reasons;
1. Organizations have to respond to the shifting social, cultural, technological, economic and
geopolitical conditions in which they operate (VUCA).
2. Organizations are expected to take a stand on topical issues (climate change, inequality).
Their views can affect an organization’s reputation.
Why is it important to analyze the environment?
→ VUCA model (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). (Vluchtig, onzeker, complex, dubbelzinnig).
→ If we don't understand this, we also don't understand
why organizations make certain choices.
→ Issues (COVID, climate change etc.) create risks, but
also opportunities.
→ Organizations that ignore environmental trends and
developments could go out of business.
Environmental pressures; globalization, demographic trends, diversity, equality, inclusivity, csr,
climate change, pandemic.
The theory of ‘environmental fit’
Environmental fit: an organization’s internal structures and processes should be designed to
respond to the organization's external environment.
Environmental uncertainty: the degree of unpredictable change in the political, economic, social,
technological, ecological and legal context in which a company operates (PESTLE).
Lees pagina 36 in boek (4 problemen).
→ Strategic choice: the view that an
organization's environment, market and
technology are the result of senior management
decisions.
