Organizational Behavior

By:Imran Akbar

1. Define organizational behavior (OB).

2. Describe what managers do.

3. Explain the value of the systematic study of OB.

4. List the major challenges and opportunities for managers to use OB concepts.

5. Describe why managers require a knowledge of OB.

6. Explain the need for a contingency approach to the study of OB.

Learning Objectives

What is an Organization?

An organization is a collection of people who work together to achieve individual and organizational goals.

What is Organizational Behavior?

1. Organizational behavior (OB) is the study of factors that affect how individuals and groups act in organizations and how organizations manage their environments.

2.The study of human behavior, attitudes and performance in organizations.

• Value of OB: Helps people attain the competencies needed to become effective employees, team leaders/members, or managers

• Competency = an interrelated set of abilities, behaviors, attitudes and knowledge needed by an individual to be effective in most professional and managerial positions

Insert Figure 1.1 here

What is Management?

Management is the process of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling an organization’s human, financial, material, and other resources to increase its effectiveness.

What Managers Do

Managerial Activities

• Make decisions

• Allocate resources

• Direct activities of others to attain goals

Managerial Activities

• Make decisions

• Allocate resources

• Direct activities of others to attain goals

Management Functions

Managerial Skills

• Conceptual Skills: The ability to analyze and diagnose a situation and distinguish between cause and effect.

• Human Skills: The ability to understand, work with, lead, and control the behavior of other people and groups.

• Technical Skills: Job-specific knowledge and techniques.

Study of OB

Contributing Disciplines to the OB

Contributing Disciplines to the OB

Basic OB Model

Facts in OB

ContingencyContingencyVariablesVariablesx y

The Dependent Variables

x

y

The Dependent Variables

The Dependent Variables (cont’d)

The Dependent Variables

The Independent Variables

IndependentIndependentVariablesVariables

IndependentIndependentVariablesVariables

Individual-Level Individual-Level VariablesVariables

Individual-Level Individual-Level VariablesVariables

OrganizationOrganizationSystem-LevelSystem-Level

VariablesVariables

OrganizationOrganizationSystem-LevelSystem-Level

VariablesVariables

Group-LevelGroup-LevelVariablesVariables

Group-LevelGroup-LevelVariablesVariables

Challenges for Organizational Behavior

• Using new information technology to enhance creativity and organizational learning.

• Managing human resources to increase competitive advantage.

• Developing organizational ethics and well-being.• Managing a diverse work force.• Responding to Globalization• Improving Quality and Productivity

Challenges and Opportunity for OB

• Responding to the Labor Shortage• Improving Customer Service• Improving People Skills• Empowering People• Stimulation Innovation and Change• Helping Employees Balance Work/Life Conflicts• Improving Ethical Behavior

• Information technology: The computer systems and software that organizations use to speed the flow of information around an organization and to better link people and subunits within it.

• Creativity: The decision-making process that produces novel and useful ideas that lead to new or improved goods and services or to improvements in the way they are produced.

Using IT to Enhance Creativity and Organizational Learning

Developing Organizational Ethics and Well-Being

• Ethics: Rules, beliefs, and values that outline the ways in which managers and workers should behave when confronted with a situation in which their actions may help or harm other people inside of or outside an organization.

• Well-being: The condition of being happy, healthy, and prosperous.

• Social responsibility: An organization’s moral responsibility toward individuals or groups outside the organization that are affected by its actions.

Career Development

• A career is a sequence of work-related positions occupied by a person during a lifetime.

• Career development involves making decisions about an occupation and engaging in activities to attain career goals.

• A career plan is an individual’s choice of occupation, organization, and career path.

Ethics

• Definition: Values and principles that distinguish right from wrong. Ethics are often based upon laws, organizational policies, social norms, family, religion, and/or personal needs, and may be subject to differing interpretations with problems in proving “truth”

• Ethical Dilemma: A situation in which an individual or team must make a decision that involves multiple values.

Selected Categories of Diversity

• Primary Categories: Genetic characteristics that

affect a persons self-image and socialization, appear to be unlearned and are difficult to modify

– Age, race, ethnicity, gender, physical abilities and qualities, and sexual and affectional orientation

• Secondary categories: Learned characteristics that

a person acquires and modifies throughout life

– Education, work experience, income, marital status, religious beliefs, geographic location, parental status, behavioral style

Individualism

• Individualism = the tendency of people to look after themselves and their immediate family, which implies a loosely integrated society

• In cultures that emphasize individualism, people view themselves as independent, unique, and special; value individual goals over group goals; value personal identity, personal achievement, pleasure, and competition; accept interpersonal confrontation; and are less likely to conform to other’s expectations

• Such cultures include the United States, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom

• Example: “Stand on your own two feet!”

Collectivism

• Collectivism = the tendency of people to emphasize their belonging to groups and to look after each other in exchange for loyalty

• Cultures that emphasize collectivism are characterized by a tight social framework, concern for the common welfare, emotional dependence of individuals on larger social units, a sense of belonging, a desire for harmony, with group goals being viewed as more important than individual goals, and a concern for face-saving

• Such cultures include Japan, China, Pakistan and India

Organizations as Open Systems

• Organizations are “open systems,” such that their long term effectiveness is determined by their ability to anticipate, manage, and respond to changes in their environment, with such changes resulting from external forces and/or stakeholders

• External forces include the labor force, the natural environment, the economy, and different cultures, while stakeholders include shareholders, customers, competitors, suppliers, creditors, governmental agencies and their regulations – The impact of these environmental influences on individual,

interpersonal, team, and organizational processes; organizations that do not effectively adapt to environmental change will fail

Thank You