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Organizational Behavior and Organizations

Introduction to Organizational Behavior

Organizational behavior The study of what people think, feel, and do in and around organizations Organizations Organizations Groups of people who work interdependently toward some purpose

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Why Study OB?

Satisfy the need to understand and predict Helps us to test personal theories Influence behavior get things done OB improves an organizations financial organization s health OB is for everyone

Old Perspective of Organizational Effectiveness

Goal oriented: Effective firms achieve their stated objectives No longer accepted as indicator of org effectiveness Could set easy goals Some goals too abstract to evaluate Company might achieve wrong goals

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Four Perspectives of Organizational Effectiveness

Open Systems Perspective Organizational Learning Perspective High-Performance WP Perspective Stakeholder Perspective

Open Systems Perspective

Organizations are complex systems that live within (and depend upon) the external environment Effective organizations Maintain a close fit with changing conditions Transform inputs to outputs efficiently and flexibly Open systems perspective lays the foundation for the other three perspectives or organizational effectiveness

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Organizational Learning Perspective

An organizations capacity to acquire, share, use, and store valuable knowledge Need to consider both stock and flow of g knowledge Stock: intellectual capital Flow: org learning processes of acquisition, sharing, and use

Organizational Memory
The storage and preservation of intellectual capital Retain intellectual capital by: Keeping knowledgeable employees Transferring knowledge to others Transferring human capital to structural capital Successful companies also unlearn

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High Performance Work Practices (HPWPs)

HPWPs are internal systems and structures that are associated with successful companies 1. Employees are competitive advantage p y p g
2. Value of employees increased through specific practices. 3. Maximum benefit when org practices are bundled

High Performance Work Practices

No consensus, but HPWPs include: Employee involvement and job autonomy (and their combination as self-directed teams) teams). Employee competence (training, selection, etc.). Performance-based rewards

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Stakeholder Perspective
Stakeholders: any entity who affects or is affected by the firms objectives and actions Personalizes the open systems perspective Challenges with stakeholder perspective: Stakeholders have conflicting interests Firms have limited resources

Stakeholder Perspective
Lockheed Martin is rated by engineering students as an ideal employer Pays attention to its many stakeholders Relies on values and ethics to guide decisions Strong emphasis on corporate social responsibility (e.g. photo shows clean-up after hurricane Katrina)

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Stakeholders: Values and Ethics

Values and ethics prioritize stakeholder interests Values Stable, evaluative beliefs, guide preferences for outcomes or courses of action in various situations Ethics Moral principles/values, determine whether actions are right/wrong and outcomes are good or bad
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Stakeholders and CSR

Stakeholder perspective includes corporate social responsibility (CSR) Benefit society and environment beyond the firms immediate financial interests or legal obligations Organizations contract with society Triple bottom line Economy, society, environment

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Types of Individual Behavior

Task Performance: Goal-directed behaviors under persons control Organizational Citizenship: Contextual p performance cooperation and helpfulness p p beyond required job duties Counterproductive Work Behaviors: Voluntary behaviors that potentially harm the organization

Types of Individual Behavior

Joining/staying with the Organization: Agreeing to employment relationship; remaining in that relationship g g Maintaining Work Attendance: Attending work at required times

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Globalization
Economic, social, and cultural connectivity with people in other parts of the world Effects of globalization on organizations New structures Increasing diversity Increasing competitive pressures, intensification

Increasing Workforce Diversity

Surface-level diversity
Observable demographic and other overt differences in people (e.g. race, ethnicity, gender, age)

Deep-level diversity
Differences in psychological characteristics (e g (e.g. personalities, beliefs, values, and attitudes) Example: Differences across age cohorts (e.g. Gen-Y)

Implications
Leveraging the diversity advantage Also diversity challenges (e.g. teams, conflict) Ethical imperative of diversity

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Employment Relationships
Work/life balance
Minimizing conflict between work and nonwork demands number one indicator of career success

Organizational Behavior Anchors

Multidisciplinary anchor
Many OB concepts adopted from other disciplines OB develops its own theories, but scans other fields

Virtual work Virtual

Using information technology to perform ones job away from the traditional physical workplace Telework issues of replacing face time, clarifying employment expectations

Systematic research anchor y

OB researchers rely on scientific method Should apply evidence-based management, but
Bombarded with theories and models Challenge translating general theories to specific situations Swayed by consultant marketing Perceptual biases -- ignoring evidence contrary to our beliefs
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Organizational Behavior Anchors

Contingency anchor
A particular action may have different consequences in different situations Need to diagnose the situation and select best strategy under those conditions

Multiple levels of analysis anchor

Individual, team, organizational level of analysis OB topics usually relevant at all three levels of analysis

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