MHR 300 Ch. 1: What is Organizational Behavior?

What signifies if a business productive?

A business firm is effective when it attains sales or market share goals

Organizational Behavior

A 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.

Processes

Actions that individuals groups and organizations engage in as a result of inputs and that lead to certain outcomes

Model

An abstraction of reality, a simplified representation of some real-world phenomenon

Positive Organizational Scholarship

An area of OB research that concerns how organizations develop human strengths, foster vitality and resilience, and unlock potential

Stress

An unpleasant psychological condition that occurs in response to environmental pressures

On what Level has psychology contributed to OB?

At the individual or micro-level of analysis

Why must service organizations include customer needs and requirements in assessing their effectiveness?

Because a clear chain of cause and effect runs from employee attitudes and behavior to customer attitudes and profitability

What is the underlying belief in the systematic approach to reading others?

Behavior is not random but rather there are fundamental consistencies underlying the behavior of all individuals which can be modified to reflect individual differences

How has social psychology contributed to the study of organizational behavior?

Change is a major study area for social psychology, namely how to implement it and how to reduce barriers to its acceptance

How can companies influence employees to behave ethically?

Companies that promote a strong ethical mission can influence employee decisions to behave ethically

How has sociology contributed to the study of organizational behavior?

Contributes to OB through study of group behaviors in organizations, organizational culture, formal org theory and structure, org technology, communications, powers, and conflict

What is important to remember about OB when working with different cultures

Different cultures may have different motivations, or communication styles. 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

How has psychology contributed to the study of organizational behavior?

Early industrial and organizational psychologists studied the problems of fatigue, boredom, and other working conditions that could impede efficient work performance. Nowadays they also study learning, perception, personality, emotions, training, leadership effectiveness, needs and motivational sources, job satisfaction, etc.

Return on investment, profit per dollar of sales, and output per hour of labor are often used to measure what?

Efficiency

What characterizes a divisive group?

Employees that are divided among themselves in terms of what they want to achieve and have little loyalty to one another

How do employee attitudes related to satisfaction often have behavioral consequences that directly relate to organizational effectiveness?

Employees who are more satisfied and treated fairly are more willing to engage in the above-and-beyond citizenship behavior that is vital in the business environment

What topics are included in the study of positive organizational scholarship?

Engagement, hope, optimism, and resilience

True or False: Organizational Citizenship Behavior is part of the formal job description

False

True or false: Behavior is usually unpredictable

False

What leads to positive group functioning?

Group cohesion

What does the survival of an organization depend on?

How productive the organization is and how well it fits with its environment

What signifies if an organization is productive?

If it achieves it goals by transforming inputs into outputs at the lowest costs

Why is it sometimes hard to behave ethically?

In a world characterized by cutbacks, expectations of increasing productivity and tough competition, employees feel increasingly pressured to engage in unethical behavior Furthermore, what constitutes good ethical behavior has never been clearly defined and recently the line differentiating right and wrong has been blurred

What are the three determinants of behaviors within an organization that OB studies?

Individuals, groups, structure

Together, systematic study and evidence based management add to what?

Intuition about what makes others and ourselves "tick"

What are the limitations of big data?

Issues of privacy and appropriate application, especially when data collection includes surveillance instruments

Outcomes

Key factors that are effected by some other variables

Systematic Study

Looking at relationships, attempting to attribute causes and effects, and drawing conclusions based on scientific evidence.

The systematic study of behavior helps to do what?

Make reasonably accurate predictions about behavior

What characterizes a cohesive group?

Members that trust one another, seek common goals, and work together to achieve common ends

Core duties and responsibilities are generally functions listed where?

On a formal job description

What do organizational level inputs include?

Org structure and culture are usually a result of years of development and change as the org adapts and builds up norms

What is true about organizations that have employees who go above and beyond?

Organizations that have employees who go beyond expectations outperform those that don't

What does positive organizational scholarship challenge about normal employee norms?

POS challenges organizations to make use of employees' strength rather than dwell on their limitations

Why are data analytics used?

Predicting events, Detecting how much risk is incurred at any time, Preventing catastrophes both big and small

OB is an applied behavioral science built on the contributions from a number of behavioral disciplines including what?

Psychology, social psych, sociology, and anthropology

What criticism do positive organizational scholarship researchers have about OB research?

Say that too much of OB research and management practice has been targeted toward identifying what's wrong with organizations and their employees and in response study what's GOOD about them

Contingency variables

Situational factors or variables that moderate the relationship between two or more variables

Ethical Dilemmas and Ethical Choices

Situations in which individuals are required to define right and wrong conduct

What does survival rely on?

Survival relies on perceiving the marketing successfully, making good decisions about how and when to pursue opportunities and successfully managing change to adapt to new business conditions

Evidence based management is complementary with what?

Systematic Study

Anthropology

The Study of societies to learn about human beings and their activities

Evidence Based Management

The basing of managerial decisions on the best available scientific evidence

Task Performance

The combination of effectiveness and efficiency at doing core job tasks

Productivity

The combination of effectiveness and efficiency of an organization

Workforce Diversity

The concept that organizations are becoming more heterogeneous in terms of gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and other characteristics.

Organizational Survival

The degree to which an organization is able to exist and grow over the long term

Organizational Citizenship Behavior

The discretionary behavior that contributes to the psychological and social environment of the workplace

Employee Attitudes

The evaluative statements or judgements concerning objects, people, or events

Big Data

The extensive use of statistical compilation and analysis

Group Cohesion

The extent to which members of a group support and validate one another while at work

What does the OB model illustrate about inputs and outcomes

The model illustrates that inputs lead to processes which lead to outcome and outcomes can influence inputs in the future

Group Functioning

The quantity and quality of a group's work output

Withdrawal Behavior

The set of actions employees take to separate themselves from the organization (negative)

Sociology

The study of people in relation to their social environment or culture

What effects employee well being at work?

Things like being a virtual employee effecting feelings of belonging, long hours leading to burnout, high stress, and fatigue, as well as outside commitments like being a single parent

What do you have to remember to be an effective manager in the foreign countries you do business in?

To be effective managers need to know the cultural norms of the workforce in each country they do business and the national and local regulations

What is the goal of Positive Organizational Scholarship?

To create positive work environment for employers

When do we best understand OB?

We best understand OB when we realize how both general effects and the contingencies that affect them often guide behavior

What do inputs set the stage for?

What will occur in the organization later

When did Big Data become possible?

When computers were sophisticated enough to both store manipulate large amount of information

Showing up late or not attending meetings or absenteeism/turnover is an example of what kind of behavior?

Withdrawal behavior

What do group level inputs include?

group structure, roles, and team responsibilities are typically assigned immediately before or after a group is formed

What are the three levels of analysis that the OB model proposes?

individual, group, or organizational

What are the three types of variables that the OB model proposes?

inputs, processes, outcomes

Social Psychology

· An area of psychology that blends concepts from psychology and sociology to focus on the influence of people on one another

How has anthropology contributed to the study of organizational behavior?

· Anthropologists work on cultures and environments has helped the understanding of differences in fundamental values, attitudes, and behavior among people in different countries, and within different organizations

Psychology

· The science that seeks to measure, explain, and sometimes change the behavior of humans and other animals

Inputs

· Variables like personality, group structure and organizational culture that lead to processes