chapter 1

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. More specifically, OB explores motivation; leader behavior and power; interpersonal communication; group structure and processes; attitude development and perception; change processes; conflict and negotiation; and work design.

Human Skills

- the ability to work with, understand, and motivate other people, both individually and in groups.

Conceptual Skills

- the mental ability to analyze and diagnose complex situations.

Organization:

A consciously coordinated social unit composed of two or more people that functions on a relatively continuous basis to achieve a common goal or set of goals. It is important to keep in mind that an organization is defined as a social entity comprised of two or more people and can be found at any level within the organization.

Increased foreign assignments.

As foreign assignments increase, you will need to be able to manage a workforce that is different than what you may be used to, and which may bring different needs, aspirations, and attitudes to the workplace.

Overseeing movement of jobs to countries with low-cost labor.

As more jobs move to countries with low-cost labor, managers will need to balance the needs of their organizations with the needs of the countries in which they operate.

Identify the Challenges and Opportunities of OB Concepts

As students of OB, we can investigate what factors lead employees to make various choices and how their experiences affect their perceptions of their workplaces. In turn, this can help us predict organizational outcomes. As shown in the OB Poll for example, the days when women stayed home because it was expected are just a memory in some cultures, while in others, women still face significant barriers to entry into the workplace.

slide 18

As you can see in this exhibit, we will deal with inputs, processes, and outcomes at all three levels of analysis, but we group the chapters as shown here to correspond with the typical ways that research has been done in these areas.

Enhancing employee well-being at work The creation of the global workforce means work no longer sleeps. Communication technology has provided a vehicle for working at any time or any place. Employees are working longer hours per week. The lifestyles of families have changed —creating conflict. Balancing work and life demands now surpasses job security as an employee priority.

Because of the expansion of networked business to global competition, time is no longer a definable boundary of organizational activity and personnel responsibility. Managers and leaders of organizations are challenged to help employees find ways to balance work and life roles to ensure they remain effective and viable members of the team. Employees who feel as though they don't get a break and who believe they must work twenty-four hours a day can be less effective, suffering from burnout and dissatisfaction.

Improving people skills People skills are essential to managerial effectiveness. OB provides the concepts and theories that allow managers to predict employee behavior in given situations.

Because organizations are comprised of people, organizations cannot achieve desired outcomes without them. Therefore, the skills to manage people successfully are essential to the effectiveness of anyone in a managerial or leadership role. OB provides the concepts and theories that help predict behavior to create a more effective organization, accomplishing desired goals.

Ethical dilemmas and ethical choices are situations in which an individual is required to define right and wrong conduct.

Ethical dilemmas require managers to make decisions involving right and wrong conduct. Managers and leaders must clearly define what constitutes appropriate, ethical behavior by the organization and its people, and they must lead by example

Responding to globalization

Globalization means that organizations now exist in an environment with no national borders. As a result, the manager's job has changed. Managers today need to have a broader perspective when making decisions.

High Performance Work Practices (HPWP) Perspective

HPWPs are internal systems and structures that are associated with successful companies because employees are seen as important to competitive advantage: Valuable, Rare, Difficult to imitate, Non-substitutable Value of employees increase through specific practices. Maximum benefit when organizational practices are bundled (e.g. employee involvement + job autonomy = self-directed teams).

Adapting to differing cultural and regulatory norms.

In the new global village, managers need to understand the implications of differing cultural and legal practices on their operations. Violating local regulations and practices could have serious consequences for the organization.

Improving ethical behavior Good ethical behavior is not so easily defined. Organizations distribute codes of ethics to guide employees through ethical dilemmas. Managers need to create an ethically healthy climate.

Increased scrutiny by society and governmental entities has increased business concerns with ethical behavior. Lapses in ethical behavior have resulted in everything ranging from public sanctions against businesses to legal penalties against a firm and its managers.

Improving customer service Service employees have substantial interaction with customers. Employee attitudes and behavior are associated with customer satisfaction. Need a customer-responsive culture.

Many jobs today involve substantial interaction with customers. Managers can increase the chance that these interactions will be successful by focusing on employee attitudes and behavior. Companies need to develop customer-responsive cultures wherein employees are friendly and courteous, accessible, knowledgeable, prompt with their responses, and willing to do what is necessary to ensure that customers are satisfied.

Working in networked organizations Networked organizations are becoming more pronounced. A manager's job is fundamentally different in networked organizations. Challenges of motivating and leading "online" require different techniques.

Networked organizations are proliferating. These are organizations that are spread over geographic, time, or other boundaries and that are connected by technology. Managing and leading people who never see each other but who work together requires a different set of management and leadership skills.

Manager

Someone who gets things done through other people in organizations. The work of managers revolves around four functions: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. When thinking about these functions, one realization comes forward: that they all involve the interpersonal skills of communication for their effective implementation.

slide 16

This book proposes three types of variables—inputs, processes, and outcomes—at three levels of analysis: individual, group, and organizational. The basic OB model here proceeds from left to right, with inputs leading to processes and processes leading to outcomes. Notice that the model also shows that outcomes can influence inputs in the future.

Working with people from different cultures.

You will also have individuals who come from different cultures coming to work in your own country. You will need to find ways to accommodate their needs and help them assimilate to your workplace culture.

Mintzberg

concluded that managers perform ten different, highly interrelated roles or sets of behaviors attributable to their jobs Henry Mintzberg looked at management differently when he defined the 10 roles of managers. As shown on the next slide, you will see that they again involve implementation through the interpersonal skills of communication

Workforce diversity

organizations are becoming more heterogeneous in terms of gender, age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and inclusion of other diverse groups. As the borders are disappearing, we are seeing more and more heterogeneity in the workplace. Managers today need to embrace diversity and find ways to manage it effectively. The changing demographics have shifted management philosophy in a way that recognizes and utilizes differences to create productivity, profitability, and welcoming workplace cultures.

Technical Skills

the ability to apply specialized knowledge or expertise. All jobs require some specialized expertise, and many people develop their technical skills on the job.