Ch. 8 - Organizations and Organizational Change

Alternatives to mass layoffs

- offering incentive for early retirement - don't replace job when natural attrition occurs (ex. an employee leaves to take a job elsewhere.)

culturally loose societies

more variability in how people behave, indicative of less imposing cultural prescriptions.

Role Overload

occurs when an individual feels overwhelmed from having too many responsibilities. - Can occur from having too many demands within one particular role, or from having too many roles in one's life.

Role Conflict

occurs when an individual is faced with incompatible or competing demands. - individuals experiencing role conflict feel like they're being pulled in different directions and are unable to easily meet all demands placed on them.

Staff Functions

Support the line's activities but are regarded as subsidiary in overall importance to line functions (ex. human resources and quality control).

Three Layers of Organizational Culture

1. Observable Artifacts 2. Espoused Values 3. Basic Assumptions

Target

Organization being acquired

Sustainability is the intersection of....

economic ("profit"), social ("people"), and environmental ("planet") goals.

Culture

the languages, values, attitudes, beliefs, and customs of an organization.

Properties of Norms

1. "oughtness" or "shouldness" - prescriptions for behavior. 2. usually more obvious for behavior judged to be important for the group. 3. enforced by the group. (sometimes, formal rules and group norms clash).

Barriers to Sustainability

1. Immediacy - we're more responsive to issues that produce current hardships. 2. Technosalvation - belief that someone will think of something that will make it all work out. 3. Perceived Inequity - not fair that we should change lifestyle when people in other nations cause more problems and don't change. 4. Denial - "the behavior of people has nothing to do with climate change, and maybe the climate isn't really changing".

Four key dimensions that most affect global organizations

1. Leadership Roles and Expectations 2. Individualism and groups 3. Communications (communication style) 4. Decision making and handling conflict

Three-Step Process for developing and communicating norms

1. Norm must be defined and communicated (can be done explicitly or implicitly). 2. Group must be able to monitor behavior and judge whether the norm is being followed. 3. Group must be able to reward conformity and punish nonconformity.

Classical Theory - Four Basic Components to any Organization

1. System of differentiated activities 2. People 3. Cooperation toward a goal 4. Authority

Why has the past 35 years witnessed an ever-growing and expanding need for organizational change?

1. greater strength of environmental pressures prompting change. 2. speed at which change must occur. 3. acceptance that responsiveness to change is a continuous organizational process. 4. pervasiveness of organizations caught up and affected by changing environmental conditions.

Five aspects of Roles

1. impersonal 2. related to task behavior 3. can be difficult to pin down 4. learned quickly and can produce major behavior changes 5. not the same as jobs - person in one job might play several roles.

Downsizing (reduction-in-force)

An organization cutting jobs because it believes it has too many employees to be responsive to its environment. - Greatest losses typically come from the middle line, technostructure, and support staff. - Decision making often becomes more decentralized following a downsizing.

Parent

Acquiring organization

Basic Assumptions

Are unobservable and at the core of the organization. - Frequently start out as values but over time become so deeply ingrained that they are taken for granted. (ex. questioning a university about the value of education in society would represent a challenge to a basic assumption of academic insittutions.)

Roles (component of social systems)

Component of social system. Defined as the expectations of others about appropriate behavior in a specific position.

Functional Principle

Concept behind division of labor. Organizations should be divided into units that perform similar functions. Relates to horizontal growth of organization.

Scalar Principle

Deals with organization's vertical growth. Refers to the chain of command that grows with levels added to the organization.

Competing Values Framework

Describes 4 types of organizations. The organizations are guided by different (or competing) values.

Line/Staff Principle

Differentiating organizational work functions by "line" and "staff"

Unity of Command

Each subordinate should only be accountable to one superior. "Best way to overcome organizational fragmentation caused by division of labor is through well-designed chain of command.

Structure

Formal component of an organization. an adaptive mechanism that permits the organization to function in its surroundings.

Horizontal Growth

Formation of new functional units along the horizontal dimension.

Outsourcing

Having a job function performed by a group outside the company to save money compared to hiring own employees to perform the work.

Individualism-Collectivism

Individualism refers to the belief that people in a society primarily look after themselves and their family members. Collectivism is the belief that people in a society are integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups. (ex. United States scores highest on individualism)

Issue Sellers

Individuals who act as change agents inside mainstream business organizations by trying to convince others to direct attention and resources to issues.

Corporate Social Responsibility

how organizations contribute to the society or environment in which they are situated. - volunteering, sustainability, etc.

Masculinity-Femininity

Masculinity - society in which social gender roles are distinct. Femininity - society in which social gender roles overlap. (ex. Japan scores highest on masculinity)

Norms (component of social systems)

Shared group expectations about appropriate behavior. - define acceptable group behavior.

A deviant

a nonconforming employee.

An isolate

a rejected employee who no longer has the pressure to conform, as they are tolerated at work but excluded from group activities and relationships.

Social System

a structuring of events or happenings. - has no formal structure apart from its functioning. - Sometimes referred to as the informal component of an organization.

Benefits of achieving fit

accelerated adjustment process, which facilitates increased job performance and reduced turnover.

Global Organization

an organization that has a global organizational culture, structure, and communication process.

Creative Cultures

assume business environment is turbulent and dynamic, leaders emphasize innovation and creativity, and effectiveness is achieved by designing new products and services.

Controlling Cultures

assume the business environment is stable, leaders emphasize the following of company policies and procedures, and effectiveness is achieved by standardization and control.

Collaborative Cultures

assume their business environment can best be managed through teamwork and by regarding customers as partners, their leaders emphasize developing relations, and effectiveness is achieved through loyalty and internal cohesiveness.

Competing Cultures

assume their business environment is hostile, their leaders are tough and demanding, and use aggressive strategies to achieve productivity.

Ecological Fallacy

assuming the results for a group (for example, a nation), are accurate for an individual within that group.

Ideology

belief system that compels commitment to a particular value. - Strong ideology can produce high internal cohesion - need for few formal rules.

Operating Core

consists of those employees who are responsible for conducting the basic work duties that give the organization its defining purpose. (ex. those who manufacture the goods in a manufacturing organization)

culturally tight societies

cultural norms and sanctions dictate behavior more than individual preferences and styles.

Precombination phase of merger process

emphasis is on financial issues, such as what a target company is worth, tax implications, and expected returns on investment. - little thought or concern is directed to psychological or cultural issues.

Middle Line

employees who have the day-to-day authority for ensuring that the overall goals set by the strategic apex are being carried out by the operating core. Mid-level bosses.

Technostructure

employees who possess specific technical expertise that facilitates the overall operation of the organization. (ex. accounting, human resources, IT, etc.)

Power Distance

extent to which less powerful members of an organization expect and accept that power is distributed unequally. - Malaysia scores highest on power distances.

Vertical Continuum of Competing Values Framework

flexibility vs. stability

Line Functions

have the primary responsibility for meeting the major goals of the organization (ex. production dept. in a manufacturing organization)

Postcombination phase of merger process

importance of integrating the two cultures becomes acute. - concerned with implementation. - There is not predetermined date when the merger is declared to be "finalized". All parties involved in the merger must continue to understand and adapt to the new culture.

Combination phase of merger process

individuals jockey for power and cultures class as people focus on differences between the partners and which side won which battles.

Horizontal Continuum of Competing Values Framework

internal vs. external focus

Vertical Job Cut

involves the elimination of all jobs within a department. - results in outsourcing whatever work that department had been performing.

Horizontal Job Cut

involves the loss of jobs within a dept., but the dept. remains within the organization.

Onboarding

process organizations use to shorten the time new employees need to feel that they fit.

Attraction-Selection-Attrition (ASA) Cycle

proposes that people with similar personalities and values are drawn to (attraction) certain organizations, hired into these organizations (Selection), and people who don't fit into the pattern of shared values eventually leave the organization (Attrition). - Happens over time, not immediately.

Support Staff

provide services that aid the basic mission of the organization. (ex. mail room, security, janitorial services, etc.) difference from technostructure - embers of technostructure give advice to organization, while support staff performs services.

Span of Control Principle

refers to the number of subordinates a manger is responsible for supervising. Small spans of control produce tall organizations, and larges spans of control produce flat organizations

Role Ambiguity

refers to uncertainty about the behaviors to be exhibited in a role, or the boundaries that define a role.

Strategic Apex

responsible for the overall success of the entire organization. Associated with the executive leadership of the organization.

Observable Artifacts

surface-level actions that can be observed from which some deeper meaning or interpretation can be drawn about the organization. 1. symbols - physical objects or locations. 2. language - slang, humor, gossip. 3. narratives - stories, legends, myths about organization 4. practices - rituals, taboos, and ceremonies

Uncertainty Avoidance

the extent to which members of a culture feel threatened by uncertain or unknown situations. (ex. Greece scores highest on uncertainty avoidance)

Person-Organization Fit

the likelihood an individual will be a good fit or match with the organization.

Organizational Merger

the marriage or joining of two organizations of equal status and power. - Union is mutually decided.

Organizational Change

the process of altering organizations to be more adaptive and congruent with their business environments.

Acquisition

the procurement of property (in this case, an organization) by another organization. - purchasing organization is in dominant or more powerful role.

Espoused Values

those beliefs or concepts that are specifically endorsed by management or the organization at large. (ex. "Safety is our top priority".)

Enacted Values

those values that are actually converted into employee behavior.

Hostile Takeover

union between two organizations where only one party agrees to the new relationship.

Politics

use of power that is neither formally authorized or widely accepted within the organization. - the destabilization of legitimate power opens up the opportunity for selected individuals and groups to gain illegitimate power.

Offshoring

work performed domestically (often jobs in the operating core) is exported to cheaper labor markets in overseas countries.