Chapter 1: Introduction to the Field of Organizational Behavior

According to the open systems perspective, organizations can have a "good fit" with their environment in three ways:

1. Adapt to the environment 2. Influence the environment 3. Move to a more favorable environment

Two key features of organizations

1. Collective entities: consist of human beings who interact with each other in organized way to achieve objectives; requires interdependence and communication/collaboration 2. Collective sense of purpose: Often not explicitly defined or agreed upon

Three reasons OB personally relevant/important

1. Comprehend and predict workplace environments: Allows us to comprehend highly complex/ambiguous organizational contexts 2.Adopt more accurate personal theories: Confirm/refine personal theories and correct misleading common sense 3.Influence organizational events: Working well with others and accomplishing goals

Characteristics of effective transformation process under open systems perspective

1. Efficiency (produce more with less) 2. Adaptability 3. Innovativeness 4. Coordination of internal subsystems

OB researchers study organizational behavior at which three levels of analysis?

1. Individual 2. Team 3. Organizational

Why don't decision makers apply evidence based management and choose to follow fads and their own beliefs instead?

1. Information overload - so many articles and resources on OB research that difficult to discern what is good evidence 2. OB research typically generic so difficult to figure out which theories uniquely relevant to specific workplace 3. Heavy marketing of fads and trends 4. Confirmation bias - tendency to disregard evidence that opposes beliefs

Four perspectives of organizational behavior

1. Open Systems 2. Organizational learning 3. High performance work practices 4. Stakeholders

Four major societal developments facing organizations

1. Technological Change: Information technology one of most significant forms of tech change in recent times (Communication has changed through email and social media empowering employees with a stronger voice; However, has also led to working longer hours and induced workplace stress) 2. Globalization: Economic, social, and cultural connectivity with people in other parts of the world (In today's world, globalization at all time high; Offers benefits of larger markets, lower cost, greater access to knowledge but at same time harms developing nations as laborers may experience work intensification) 3.Emerging employment relationships: Digital age and globalization has created 24/7 Work Culture as workers are constantly connected and seek to collaborate across different time zones; Diminishing Work Life Balance; Remote workers are workers who spend most of time working at client sites (ie. technician or consultants); telecommuting 4.Increasing Workplace Diversity: Increase in both surface level diversity and deep level diversity

Four Anchors of Organizational Behavior Knowledge

1. The Systematic Research Anchor 2.The Multidisciplinary Anchor 3.Contingency Anchor 4.Multiple levels of Analysis Anchor

Organizational Effectiveness

A broad concept represented by several perspectives, including the organization's fit with the external environment, internal subsystems configuration for high performance, emphasis on organizational learning, and ability to satisfy the needs of key stakeholders

Telecommuting

An arrangement whereby, supported by information technology, employees work from home one or more work days per month rather than commute to the office -37% of US workers telecommute -Benefits: Better employee work-life balance, job applicants (especially millennials) view it as an attractive job feature, low employee turnover, higher employee productivity, lower greenhouse gas emissions/office expenses, -Disadvantages: Greater social isolation, lower team cohesion, weaker organizational culture, etc... -Successful telecommunication depends on employees who are highly self-motivated and tasks that can be performed independently, without workplace resources and whose performance is measurable

Deep-Level Diversity

Differences in the psychological characteristics of employees including personalities, beliefs, values and attitudes; Unable to be directly observed but evident in attitudes/perceptions -EX: Work beliefs across generations (Baby boomers motivated by meaningful work while millennials motivated by personal development)

Organizations

Groups of people who work interdependently toward some purpose -Key element: people (organizations have existed as long as people have worked together)

High Performance Work Practices Perspective (HPWP)

Identifies ways to generate the most value from human capital - In other words, human capital provides competitive advantage for organizations through a more effective transformation process 1. Employee Involvement: Strengthens motivation 2. Employee Autonomy: Strengthens motivation 3. Employee Competency Development: recruiting, selecting, training employees with necessary knowledge/skills 4. Rewards: Links performance and competency development to rewards

Multidisciplinary Anchor

Import knowledge from other disciplines, not just create its own knowledge -Borrowing theory: borrow from other disciplines -EX: Psychology, sociology, communications, marketing, information systems

Three types of Intellectual Capital

Intellectual Capital: Company's stock of knowledge 1. Human Capital: Knowledge/skills of employees 2. Structural Capital: Knowledge in organization's systems and structures (work procedure, production layout, data, etc...) 3. Relationship capital: Value from organizations relationships with customers, suppliers, and others (goodwill, brand image, network, etc...)

The ultimate outcome or goal organizational behavioral theories seek to achieve is __________________________________

Organizational Effectiveness

Stakeholder Perspective

Organizations more effective when they understand, manage, and satisfy stakeholder needs Stakeholders: individuals, groups, etc that affect/affected by organizations actions - Stakeholder relations dynamic (not fixed) -Stakeholders often present conflicting interests so prioritization is necessary Incorporates values, ethics, and corporate social responsibility -Values: stable evaluative beliefs that guide person's preferences for outcomes/actions in situations -Ethics: Study of moral principles that determine whether actions right or wrong -Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): Organizational activities intended to benefit society and environment beyond financial/legal interest of stockholders Triple Bottom Line: Positive returns in economic, social, and environmental spheres Contrary to Milton Friedman's Stockholder Theory

Open Systems Perspective

Perceives organizations as complex organisms that live within an external environment - External environment provides inputs (ie. raw materials) - Transformation process: Subsystems (production, management, engineering, job hires) transform inputs into outputs - Organizations receive feedback from external environment over value of outputs

Contingency Anchor

Recognize that the effectiveness of an action may depend on the situation -Theories/practices yield different results depending on the characteristics of the situation

Organizational Learning Perspective

States organizational effectiveness depends on organizations ability to acquire, share, use, and store valuable knowledge Acquiring: Employee observation/training, monitoring market and competitors, purchase complementary businesses, experimentation.... Sharing: Formal/informal communication, training/observation Using: Applying knowledge to organizational processes for competitive advantage Storing: Organizational memory - knowledge employees retain and knowledge in systems/structures

Systematic Research Anchor

Study organizations using systematic research methods -Basis of evidence based management: practice of making decisions and taking action based on research evidence

Work-Life Balance

The degree to which a person minimizes conflict between work and nonwork demands

Surface-Level Diversity

The directly observable demographic or physiological differences in people such as their race, ethnicity, gender, age, and physical disabilities

Organizational Behavior

The study of what people think, feel, and do in/around organizations (in other words, how individuals and teams relate to each other in organizations and interact with their external environment)

True or False: OB has been around for a long time but it wasn't organized into a unified discipline until around WWII

True -By the 1940s OB emerged as distinct field when Harvard researchers changed name of human relations course to organizational behavior

True or False: OB practices critical to organizational survival and success as well

True -Positive relationship between quality of leadership and company's financial performance OB characteristics act as "positive screens" for selecting companies for investment portfolios -OB practices related to indicators of hospital performance like lower patient mortality

True or False: OB is relevant to everyone, not just managers

True ("Everyone is a manager")

True or False: Workplace diversity poses both benefits and challenges

True - While teams with workplace and informational diversity (different knowledge/skills) tend to solve problems more creatively and make better decisions in complex situations, they can also take longer to perform effectively together due to communication problems, fault lines, and risk of conflict

Multiple Levels of Analysis Anchor

Understand OB events from three levels of analysis: Individual, Team, and Organization