What is Organizational Behavior? PDF

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1. Define OB

 Organizational Behavior (OB): is a field of study that navigates the impact that individuals, groups have within organizations for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organization’s effectiveness; how people behave within groups...

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What is Organizational Behavior? 1. Define OB  Organizational Behavior (OB): is a field of study that navigates the impact that individuals, groups have within organizations for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organization’s effectiveness; how people behave within groups

- OB also examines the following core topics: Motivation, Leader Behavior and Power, Interpersonal Communication, Group Structure and Processes, Attitude development and perception, Change processes, Conflict and Negotiation, Work Design

- OB can be applied to: Job satisfaction, Absenteeism, Employment Turnover, Productivity, Human Performance, Management

- We spent half of our lives in work so, studying OB: enhances your self-awareness and capacity for self-improvement, equips you to serve in managerial roles in organizations and enables you to understand, interact with, and influence others

- OB is relevant anywhere that people come together and share experiences, work on goals, or meet to solve problems not just for managers, employees or entrepreneurs. Examples can be

interactions between family members, students working as a team, etc

- OB provides a systematic approach to the study of behaviour in organizations. Underlying this systematic approach is the belief that behaviour is not random. It stems from and is directed toward some end that the individual believes, rightly or wrongly, is in his or her best interest.

Organization  Organization: A consciously coordinated social unit, composed of a group of people, that functions on a relatively continuous basis to achieve a common goal or set of goals.

- Referring not only to large manufacturing firms (schools, hospitals, retail stores, etc.) but also to small mom-and- pop stores, as well as to the variety of other forms of organization that exist.

- Categories include and are not limited to Companies: corporate firms, agencies, enterprise Government: crown corporations, schools, healthcare Non-for-profit: Charities, advocacy, education Community groups: faith based, sports, support groups

2. Importance of Interpersonal Skills at Workplace

- Until the late 1980s, business schools emphasized the technical aspects of management; focusing on economics, accounting, finance and quantitative techniques. There was no focus on the importance of interpersonal skills in the workplace.

- Research has shown that interpersonal skills play a crucial role in a manager’s effectiveness.

 Interpersonal Skills: How you get along with other people— how you communicate, how you interact with others, and how you deal with behavioural issues—has become an increasingly important skill that organizations seek when hiring new staff

- Organizations that invest in the development ofemployees’ interpersonal skills are more likely to attractand keep highperformers.

- Survey showed that the social relationships among co-workers and supervisors were strongly related to overall job satisfaction.

- Positive social relationships also were associated with lower

stress at work and lower intentions to quit.

- Having managers with good interpersonal skills is likely to make the workplace more pleasant, and research indicates that employees who know how to relate to their managers well with supportive dialogue and proactivity find that their ideas are endorsed more often, further improving workplace satisfaction.

- Creating a pleasant workplace appears to make good economic sense, particularly because wages and benefits are not the main reasons people like their jobs or stay with an employer.

- For these reasons, universities have begun to incorporate social entrepreneurship education into their curricula in order to train future leaders to address social issues within their organizations with interpersonal skills.

3. Major behavioural sciences that contribute to OB

- OB is an applied behavioural science that builds upon contributions from a number of behavioural disciplines: mainly psychology, social psychology, sociology, and anthropology.  Pyschology: seeks to measure, explain, and sometimes change the behaviour of humans and other animals. Those who have contributed and continue to add to the knowledge of OB are learning theorists, personality theorists, counselling psychologists, and, most important, industrial and organizational psychologists.

- Early industrial and organizational psychologists studied the problems of fatigue, boredom, and other working conditions that could impede efficient work performance. More recently, their contributions have been expanded to include learning, perception, personality, emotions, training, leadership effectiveness, needs and motivational forces, job satisfaction, individual decision making, performance appraisal, attitude measurement, employee selection techniques, work design, and work stress.  Social Psychology (branch of psyc): focus on people’s influence on one another. One major study area is behavioural change—how to implement it and how to reduce barriers to its acceptance. - Social psychologists also contribute to measuring, understanding, and changing attitudes; identifying communication patterns; and building trust. Finally, they have made important contributions to our study of communication, intergroup behaviour, power, and conflict.

 Sociology: studies people in relation to their social environment or culture; group - Sociologists have contributed to OB through their study of group behaviour in organizations, particularly formal and complex organizations. * Important- sociologists have studied organizational culture and change, formal organizational theory and structure, organizational technology, communication, power, and conflict.  Anthropology: study of societies to learn about human beings and their activities. - Anthropologists’ work on cultures and environments has helped us understand differences in fundamental values, attitudes, and behaviour between people in different countries and within different organizations. - Our current understanding of organizational culture, organizational environments, and differences among national cultures is the result of the work of anthropologists.

4. Understand the value of systematic study of OB

 Systematic Study: looking at relationships, attempting to attribute causes and effects, and drawing conclusions based on scientific evidence - Underlying this systematic approach is the belief that behaviour is not random. Rather, we can identify certain fundamental consistencies underlying the behaviour of all individuals and modify them to reflect individual differences. - These fundamental consistencies are very important because they allow predictability. Behaviour is generally predictable, and the systematic study of behaviour is a mean to make reasonably accurate predictions.  Evidence-based management (EBM): basing managerial decisions on the best available scientific evidence.  Example- A doctor of medicine is dealing with a rare disease and attempting to make a decision about patient care. He is using the best available scientific evidence and applying it to the case at hand Research Methods in OB a. Field Studies- data collected on-site through observation of individuals and groups b. Surveys- data collected through questions conducted by phone, email, interview, etc.

c. Laboratory Studies- data collected in laboratory settings d. Case Studies- data collected through an in-depth investigation of an individual or a group over time through direct observations, interviews, etc e. Meta-Analyses- data collected by combining and analysing the findings of multiple studies 

Intuition: an instinctive feeling not necessarily supported by

research. - Jack Welch (former CEO of GE) noted: “The trick, of course, is to know when to go with your gut.”

- If we make all decisions with intuition, we are likely working with incomplete information - Relying on intuition is made worse because we tend to overestimate the accuracy of what we think we know.

5. Demonstrate why few absolutes apply to OB

 Contingency Approach: an approach taken by OB that considers behaviour within the context in which it occurs.

- For example, OB scholars would avoid stating that everyone likes complex and challenging work (the general concept) because not everyone wants a challenging job. Some people prefer routine over varied work, or simple over complex tasks.

- Not everyone is motivated by money (extrinsic incentive), some are motivated by intrinsic incentives (pride in work, personal growth).

6. Identify workplace challenges that provide opportunities to apply OB concepts

 Management: is the process of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling human and other organizational resources toward the achievement of organizational goals

Critical issues confronting managers for which OB offers solutions

i. Responding to economic pressures - When times are bad, managers are on the front lines with employees who must be fired, who are asked to make do with less, and who worry about their futures. The difference between good and bad management can be the difference between profit and loss or, between survival and failure. Managing employees well when times are tough is just as hard as when times are good. But the OB approaches sometimes differ. In good times, understanding how to reward, satisfy, and retain employees is at a premium. In bad times, issues such as stress, decision making, and coping come to the fore.

ii. Responding to Globalization - As multinational corporations develop operations worldwide, as companies develop joint ventures with foreign partners, and as employees increasingly pursue job opportunities across national borders, managers and employees must become capable of working with people from different cultures.

- To be successful, managers and employees need to know the cultural practices of the workforce in each country where they do business (in some countries a large percentage of the workforce enjoys long holidays). Country and local regulations must be taken into consideration, too.

- Managers need to be aware of differences in regulations for their competitors in that country; many times, the laws will give national companies significant financial advantages over foreign subsidiaries.

- The ever-changing global competitive environment means that not only individuals but also organizations have to become increasingly flexible by learning new skills, new ways of thinking, and new ways of doing business.

iii. Understanding Workforce Diversity

 Workforce Diversity: The mix of people in organizations in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, ability, sexual orientation, age, and demographic characteristics such as education and socioeconomic status; Canadian environment is very diverse.

- Whereas globalization focuses on differences among people from different countries, workforce diversity addresses differences among people within given countries.

- We now recognize that employees don’t set aside their cultural values and lifestyle preferences when they go to work. The challenge for organizations, therefore, is to accommodate diverse groups of people by addressing their different lifestyles, family needs, and work styles.

iv. Improving Customer Service - Today, the majority of employees in developed countries work in

service jobs. 78% in Canada work in service jobs. Service employees include: technical support representatives, fast-food counter workers, sales clerks, nurses, automobile repair technicians, consultants, financial planners, and flight attendants. The shared characteristic of their jobs is substantial interaction with an organization’s customers. - OB can increase the success of these interactions by showing how employee attitudes and behaviour influence customer satisfaction. - Many an organization has failed because its employees failed to please customers. - Management needs to create a customer-responsive culture. OB can provide considerable guidance in helping managers create such cultures—in which employees are friendly and courteous, accessible, knowledgeable, prompt in responding to customer needs, put customers at ease, show genuine interest, are sensitive to a customer’s individual situation, and willing to do what is necessary to please the customer.

v. Improving People’s Skills - learn how to design motivating jobs, improve your listening skills,

and create more effective teams. vi. Working in Networked Organizations - Networked organizations allow people to communicate and work together even though they may be thousands of kilometres apart via computer to workplaces around the globe and change employers as the demand for their services changes. - Software programmers, graphic designers, systems analysts, technical writers, photo researchers, book and media editors, and medical transcribers are just a few examples of people who can work from home or other non-office locations. - The manager’s job is different in a networked organization. Motivating and leading people and making collaborative decisions online requires different techniques than when individuals are physically present in a single location. - As more employees do their jobs by linking to others through networks, managers and employees must develop new skills. OB can provide valuable insights to help with improving those skills.

vii. Enhancing Employee Well-Being at Work - 1. Communication technology allows employees to do their work

at home, in their cars, but it also means many feels like they are never really part of a team. It is hard for employees to get a sense of belonging if they are working alone. - 2. Organizations are asking employees to be available in off-work hours via cell phones and email. According to one study, one in four employees shows signs of burnout, and two in three report high stress levels and fatigue. - 3. Employee well-being is challenged by heavy outside commitments. Employees who are single parents or have dependent parents have even more significant challenges in balancing work and family responsibilities, for instance. - More employees want work life balance and flexibility. - Organizations that don’t help their people achieve work–life balance will find it increasingly difficult to attract and retain the most capable and motivated employees. - OB offers a number of suggestions for designing workplaces and jobs that can help employees deal with work–life conflicts.

viii. Creating a Positive Work Environment  Positive organizational scholarship: an area of OB research that

concerns how organizations develop human strength, foster vitality and resilience, and unlock potential. - A real growth area in OB research is positive organizational scholarship. Instead of focusing on what is bad, focus on what is good and what works!

ix. Improving Ethical Behavior  Ethics: the study of moral values or principles that guide our behaviour and inform us whether actions are right or wrong.  Ethical dilemmas and ethical choices: situations in which individuals are required to define right and wrong conduct. - In an organizational world characterized by cutbacks, expectations of increasing productivity, and tough competition, it’s not surprising that many employees feel pressured to cut corners, break rules, and engage in other questionable practices. Increasingly they face ethical dilemmas and ethical choices. - Should employees “blow the whistle” if they uncover illegal activities taking place in their company? Do they follow orders with which they don’t personally agree? Do they “play politics” to advance their careers? Ethics is the study of moral values or principles that guide our behaviour and inform us whether actions are right or wrong. Ethical principles help us “do the right thing.”

- People all around us engage in unethical practices: • Elected officials pad expense accounts or take bribes • Corporate executives inflate profits to cash in lucrative stock options • University administrators look the other way when winning coaches encourage scholarship athletes to take easy courses - Also what is legal may not be ethical and what is ethical may not be legal. o Business must operate within the legal boundaries and not necessary within the bounds of ethics. o A good company culture and practice would be to endorse and practice ethical behaviour and decision making. o Ethics has a positive impact on customers and employees because there is transparency and trust can be established.

Summary - OB considers the multiple levels in an organization: individual, group, and organizational.

- OB is built from the wisdom and research of multiple disciplines.  Psychology, sociology, social psychology, and anthropology. - OB takes a systematic approach to the study of organizational phenomena. It is research-based. - Highlights the understanding that OB pulls from different areas us study to help us understand organizations better and be more effective.

Study Plan 1.1: Demonstrate the importance of interpersonal skills in the workplace.

1. Having managers with good interpersonal skills improves workplace satisfaction. (T)

2. Until the late 1980s, course work in human behaviour and people skills received minimal attention in business school curricula. (T) 3. Organizations that invest in the development of employees' interpersonal skills are more likely to attract and keep high performers. (T) 4. How you get along with other people—how you communicate, how you interact with others, and how you deal with behavioural issues—has become an increasingly important skill that organizations seek when hiring new staff. These skills are known as interpersonal skills. 5. Human behaviour plays a specific role in determining organizational effectiveness, and how people get along with others is an important skill required in today's workplace. Most business schools have now incorporated courses on the development of interpersonal skills into their curriculum.

1.2: Define organizational behaviour (OB)

1. Organizational behaviour focuses on how to improve productivity, reduce both absenteeism and turnover, and increase employee job satisfaction. It also helps us understand how people can work together more effectively in the workplace. (T)

2. Entrepreneurs and self-employed individuals can benefit from an understanding of organizational behaviour. (T) 3. It has been stated that organizational behaviour is for everyone, not just managers and leaders of organizations. This is especially true when we consider that organizations today have informal leadership opportunities where non-management employees are asked to share in the decision-making processes rather than just follow orders. 4. An organization is a consciously coordinated social unit composed of a group of people that functions on a relatively continuous basis to achieve a common goal or set of goals. 5. Much of organizational behaviour is relevant beyond the workplace.

1.3: Understand the value of systematic study to OB.

1. Relying on intuition is better because we tend to overestimate the accuracy of what we think we know. (F)

2. If understanding behaviour were simply common sense, we would not observe many of the problems that occur in the workplace because managers and employees would know how to behave. (T)

3. A doctor of medicine is dealing with a rare disease and attempting to make a decision about patient care. He is using the best available scientific evidence and applying it to the case at hand. This approach complements systematic study and is known ...