CHAPTER 1: WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Principal applications of OB:
- Developing interpersonal skills to attract and keep high-performing employees
- OB principles help transform a workplace from good to great
- There are strong associations between quality of workplace relationships and employees job
satisfaction
- Fosters social responsibility awareness
The more you can learn about people and how to manage them, the better prepared you will be to be
that right candidate for the role as a managers, OB will help you get there.
Organizational behavior: field of study that investigates the impact individuals, groups, and structure
have on behavior within organizations, for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an
organization's effectiveness.
● Field of study meaning that it is a distinct area of expertise with a common body of knowledge
● It studies three determinants of behavior within organizations:
○ Individuals
○ Groups
○ Structure
● The knowledge gained about these determinants is applies to make organizations more effective
● Studies what people do within organizations and the way their behavior affects the
organization’s performance
● Concerned with employee-related situations - studies behavior in the context of job
satisfaction, absenteeism, employment turnover, productivity, human performance, and
management.
● Core topics
○ Motivation
○ Leader, behavior and power
○ Interpersonal communication
○ Group structure and processes
○ Attitude development and perception
○ Change processes
○ Conflict and negotiation
○ Work design
EFFECTIVE VS SUCCESSFUL MANAGERIAL ACTIVITIES
Fred Luthans research: do managers who move up most quickly in an organization do the same activities
and with the same emphasis as managers who do the best job?
Managerial activities which all managers in their study engaged in:
- Traditional management (32%)
- Communication (29%)
, - Human resources management (20%)
- Networking (19%)
The time an effort different individual managers spent on those activities varies:
“Successful” (speed of promotion) managers: networking most important HR management the least
“Effective” (quantity and quality of performance and satisfaction and commitment of employees)
managers: communication most important and networking the least - more in line with average
managers with exception of increase communication
COMPLEMENTING INTUITION WITH SYSTEMATIC STUDY - OB AS AN APPLIED VS SCIENTIFIC DISCIPLINE
As an applied discipline: team building
● Follows a regulative cycle: practical problems
● Related to evidence-based management (EBM): complements
systematic study by basing of managerial decisions on the best
available scientific evidence
○ These add to intuition which is the instinctive feeling
not necessarily supported by research
As a scientific discipline: theory (starts with the scientists)
● Follows the empirical cycle: scientific problem
● Systematic study: looking at relationships (behaviour is not
random), attempting to attribute causes and effects, and
drawing conclusions based on scientific evidence:
○ Data is gathered under controlled conditions
○ Mean of making reasonably accurate predictions
Big data refers to the extensive use of statistical compilation and
analysis which didn’t become possible until computers were
sophisticated enough to both store and manipulate large amounts of
information.
- The use of big data began with online retailers but has since
permeated virtually every business
- Current usage: predicting events, detecting risk, preventing
catastrophes
- New trends: use of big data for understanding, helping and
managing people is new
- Limitations: issues of privacy and appropriate application have
increased
DISCIPLINES THAT CONTRIBUTE TO THE OB FIELD
● Psychology (micro): the science that seeks to measure, explain and
sometimes change the behavior of humans and other animals
, ● Social psychology (micro): an area of psychology that blends concepts from psychology and
sociology to focus on the influence of people on one another
● Sociology (macro): the study of people in relation to their social environment or culture
● Anthropology (macro) : the study of societies to learn about human beings and their activities
THERE ARE FEW ABSOLUTES IN OB - different human beings act differently in the same situation
This simply means that OB concepts must reflect situational, or contingency, conditions, we can say that
x leads to y, but only under conditions specified in z - the contingency variables, which are situational
factors or variables that moderate the relationship between two or more variables.
CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR OB
Today’s challenges of diversity and globalization amongst others bring opportunities for managers to use
OB concepts. Critical developing issues managers face and OB solutions or insights towards solution:
● Continuing globalization: effective managers need to anticipate and adapt their approaches to
the global issues of:
○ Working with people from different cultures: what motivates you may not motivate
them, communication styles might cause uncomfortable or threatening situations. To
work effectively with people from different cultures, you need to understand how their
culture and background have shaped them and how to adapt your management style to
fit any differences.
○ Adapting to differing cultural and regulatory norms: managers need to know the cultural
norms of the workforce in each country where they do business
● Workforce demographics: variations in the economy, longevity, birth rates, socioeconomic
conditions, and other changes impact the workforce
● Workforce diversity: the concept that organizations are becoming more heterogeneous in terms
of gender, age, race, ethnicity, secual orientation, and other characteristics
● Social media: organizations struggle with employees’ use of social media- managers need to
adopt policies designed to protect employees and their organizations with balance and
understanding
● Employee well-being at work: the challenges is that workers never get away from the virtual
workplace - communication technology may result in employees feeling as if they are not part of
a team, organizations are asking employees to put in longer hours, well being is challenges by
heavy outside commitments such as family responsibilities.
● Positive work environment: positive organizational scholarship (POS) is an area of OB research
that concerns how organizations develop human strengths, foster vitality and resilience and
unlock potential
● Ethical behaviour: employees face ethical dilemmas and ethical choices which are situations in
which individuals are required to define right and wrong conduct
, COMING ATTRACTIONS: DEVELOPING AN OB MODEL
● Model: an abstraction of reality, a simplified representation of some real-world phenomenon
There are three types of variables at three levels of analysis (individual, group, organizational):
● Inputs: variables like personality, group structure, and organizational culture that lead to
processes - set the stage for what will occur in an organization later
● Processes: actions that individuals, groups and organizations engage in as a result of inputs and
that lead to certain outcomes
○ Individual level: emotions and moods, motivation, perception, and decision making
■ Central question: what makes people happy at work?
■ Job satisfaction: positive feeling about one’s job
○ Group level: communication, leadership, power and politics, and conflict and
negotiation
■ Central question: what are the pitfalls of group decision-making?
■ Groupthink: phenomenon in which the norm for consensus overrides the
realistic appraisal of alternative courses of action
○ Organizational level: HR management and change practices
■ Central question: does power corrupt?
■ Power: the capacity that A has to influence B
● Outcomes: key factors that are affected by some other variables and you want to
explain/predicT
Individual level outcomes include:
○ Attitudes: evaluative statements or judgments concerning objects, people, or events
○ Stress: an unpleasant psychological process that occurs in response to environmental
pressures
○ Task performance: the combination of effectiveness and efficiency at doing core job
tasks
○ Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB): discretionary behavior that is not part of an
employee’s formal job requirements and that contributes to the psychological and social
environment of the workplace - found in employee’s of successful organizations
○ Withdrawal behavior: the set of actions employees take to separate themselves from
the organization - it has a negative effect on an organization
Group level outcomes include:
○ Group cohesion: the extent to which members of a group support and validate one
another while at work
