Organizational Behavior

Ethical Sensitivity

a personal characteristic that enables people to recognize the presence and determine the relative importance of an ethical issue

Deculturation

acquiring firm imposes its culture on unwilling acquired firm

Team Based Structure

built around self directed teams that complete an entire piece of work

Fear of the Unknown

-People resist change out of worry that they cannot adjust to the new work requirements -Increases the "risk" of personal loss

Stage 3 - Role Management (insider)

-Strengthen work relationships -Practice new role behaviors -Resolve work-nonwork conflicts

Strategies to minimize resistance to change

communication, learning, employee involvement, stress management, negotiation, and coercion

Potentially increases the company's success by serving three important functions:

control system, social glue, sense making

Control System

culture is deeply embedded form of social control that influences employee decisions and behavior

Social Glue

culture is the social glue that bonds people together and makes them feel part of the organizational experience

Path Goal Theory

A contingency theory of leadership based on the expectancy theory of motivation that relates several leadership styles to specific employee and situational contingencies

Action Research Approach

A problem-focused change process that combines action orientation (changing attitudes and behavior) and research orientation (testing theory through data collection and analysis)

Leadership Substitutes

A theory identifying contingencies that either limit the leader's ability to influence subordinates or make that particular leadership style unnecessary

Appreciative Inquiry

An organizational change strategy that directs the group's attention away from its own problems and focuses participants on the group's potential and positive elements

Three approaches organizational change

Appreciative Inquiry, Parallel Learning Structure, Action Research Approach

First steps in a Merger to Different Organizational Cultures

Assimilation, Deculturation, Integration, Seperation

Lewin's Force Field Analysis

Change Agent: anyone who possesses enough knowledge and power to guide and facilitate the change effort

Integration

Combining the two or more cultures into a new composite

Restraining Forces

Direct costs, saving face, fear of the unknown, breaking routines, Incongruent organizational systems, Incongruent team dynamics

4-D Model of Appreciative Inquiry

Discovery, Dreaming, Designing, Delivering

learning

Example - Employees learn how to work in teams as company adopts a team-based structure When used - when employees need to break old routines and adopt new role patterns Problems - time consuming and potentially costly

Coercion

Example - company president tells managers to "get on board" the change or leave When used - when other strategies are ineffective and the company needs to change quickly Problems - can lead to more subtle forms of resistance, as well as long-term antagonism with the change agent

communication

Example - customer complaint letters shown to employees When used - When employees don't feel an urgency for change or don't know how the change will affect them Problems - time consuming and potentially costly

Negotiation

Example - employees agree to replace strict job categories with multi skilling in return for increased job security When used - when employees will clearly lose something of value from the change and would not otherwise support the new conditions; also necessary when the company must change quickly Problems - may be expensive, particularly if other employees want to negotiate their support; also tends to produce compliance but not commitment to the change

Stress Management

Example - employees attend sessions to discuss their worries about the change When used - when communication, training and involvement do not sufficiently ease employee worries Problems - time consuming and potentially expensive; some methods may not reduce stress for all employees

Centralization

Formal decision making authority is held by a small group of people, typically those at the top of the organizational hierarchy

Parallel Learning Structure

Highly participative arrangements, composed of people from most levels of the organization who follow the action research model to produce meaningful organizational change

Selection

How well a job applicant fits in with the company's culture is typically a factor in deciding which job applicants to hire

7 main components of Leadership - IS LIKED

Integrity, Self Confidence, Leadership Motivation, Intelligence, Knowledge of Business, Emotional Intelligence, Drive

Attraction

Job applicants engage in self selection by avoiding employment in companies whose values seem incompatible with their own values

Departmentalization Types

Matrix structure, Functional Structure, Divisional Structure, Team Based Structure

OCEAN

Openness to experience, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, neuroticism

Attrition

People are motivated to seek out environments that are sufficiently congruent with their personal values and to leave environments with a poor fit

Values

Stable, evaluative beliefs that guide our preferences for outcomes or courses of action in a variety of situations

Stages of Organizational Socialization

Stage 1 - Pre employment (outsider), Stage 2 - Encounter (newcomer), Stage 3 - Role Management (insider), Stage 4 - Socialization

Strong culture more effective than weak culture when

Strong organizational culture exists when most employees across all subunits hold the dominant values

Stage 2 - Encounter (newcomer)

Test expectations against perceived realities

Motivation

That which energizes, entertains, and maintains behavior

Counterculture

(1)Maintain organization's standards of performance and ethical behavior - Encourage constructive conflict and more creative thinking about how the organization should interact with its environment - Prevent employees from blindly following one set of values; therefore helping the organization to abide by society's ethical values (2)Spawning grounds for emerging values that keep the firm aligned with the needs of customers, suppliers, society and other stakeholders

Employee Involvement

**Future search** - system wide group sessions, usually lasting a few days, in which participants identify trends and identify ways to adapt to those changes Example - company forms task force to recommend new customer service practices When used - when the change effort needs more employee commitment, some employees need to save face, and/or employee ideas would improve decisions about the change strategy Problems - very time consuming; might also lead to conflict and poor decisions if employees' interests are incompatible with organizational needs

Matrix Structure

- A type of departmentalization that overlays two organizational forms in order to leverage the benefits of both a. Encourages employees to think in terms of final product, yet keeps them organized around their expertise to encourage knowledge sharing b. Usually optimizes the use of resources and expertise, making it ideal for project-based organizations with fluctuating workloads

Artifacts

- The observable symbols and signs of an organization's culture - Represent more than just the visible indicators of a company's culture

Assumptions

- a deeper element that some experts believe is really the essence of corporate culture - Unconscious taken for granted perceptions or beliefs that have worked so well in the past that they are considered the correct way to think and act towards problems and opportunities

Directive

- clarifying behaviors that provide a psychological structure for subordinates - Clarifies performance goals, the means to reach the goals, and the standards against which performance will be judged

Participative

- encourage and facilitate subordinate involvement in decisions beyond their normal - Leader consults employees, asks for their suggestions, and takes these ideas into serious consideration before making a decision

Achievement Oriented

- encourage employees to reach their peak performance - Leader sets challenging goals, expects employees to perform at their highest level, continuously seeks improvement in employee performance and shows a high degree of confidence that employees will assume responsibility and accomplish challenging goals

Supportive

- provide psychological support for subordinates - Leader is friendly/approachable; makes the work more pleasant; treats employees with equal respect; and shows concern for the status, needs and well being of employees

Rituals

- the programmed routines of daily organizational life that dramatize the organization's culture - ex. How visitors are greeted, how often senior execs visit subordinates, how people communicate with each other, how much time employees take for lunch

Stage 4 - Socialization

-Higher motivation -Higher loyalty -Higher satisfaction -Lower stress -Lower turnover

Stage 1 - Pre employment (outsider)

-Learn about the organization and the job -Form employment relationship expectations

Decentralization

disperse decision authority and power throughout the organization

Breaking Routines

employees need to abandon habits and routines that are no longer appropriate

Divisional Structure

groups employees around geographic areas, outputs (products/services) or clients

Sense Making

helps employees understand what goes on and why things happen in the company

Separation

merging companies remain distinct entities with minimal exchange of culture or organizational practices

ASA Theory

organizations have a natural tendency to attract, select and retain people with values and personality characterics that are consistent with the organization's character, resulting in a more homogeneous organization and a stronger culture

Functional Structure

organizes employees around specific knowledge or other resources

Direct Costs

people tend to block actions that result in higher direct costs or lower benefits than the existing situation

Ceremonies

planned displays of organizational culture, conducted specifically for the benefit of an audience

Incongruent organizational systems

rewards, information systems, patterns of authority, career paths, selection criteria and other systems and structures are both friends and foes of organizational change

Saving Face

some people resist change as a political strategy to "prove that the decision is wrong or that the person encouraging change is incompetent

Incongruent team dynamics

teams develop and enforce conformity to a set of norms that guide behavior

Moral Intensity

the degree to which an issue demands the application of ethical principles

Unfreezing

the first part of the change process whereby the change agent produces disequilibrium between the driving and restraining forces

Refreezing

the latter part of the change process in which systems and conditions are introduced that reinforce and maintain the desired behaviors

Transformational leaders

the primary agents of change because they form a vision of the desired future state, communicate that vision in ways that are meaningful to others, behave in ways that are consistent with the vision and build commitment to that vision

Assimilation

when employees at the acquired company willingly embrace the cultural values of the acquiring organization