Introduction to the Field of Organizational Behavior

1. Introduction tothe Field ofOrganizational Behavior

2. Organizational Behavior and Organizations • Organizational behavior • The study of what people think, feel, and do in and around organizations • Organizations • Groups of people who work interdependently toward some purpose • Collective entities • Collective sense of purpose

3. Why Study OB? • Satisfy the need to understand and predict • Helps us to test personal theories • Influence behavior – get things done • OB improves an organization’s financial health • OB is for everyone

4. Organizational Effectiveness • The ultimate dependent variable in OB • Old approach -- define effectiveness as achievement of stated goals • Problem with goal approach • Could set easy goals • Some goals too abstract to evaluate • Company might achieve wrong goals

5. 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 of organizational effectiveness

6. Organizational Learning Processes Knowledge Acquisition Knowledge Sharing KnowledgeUse Knowledge Storage • Communication • Training • Info systems • Observation • Awareness • Sensemaking • Autonomy • Empowerment • Human memory • Documentation • Practices/habits • Databases • Learning • Scanning • Grafting • Experimenting

7. Intellectual Capital HumanCapital Knowledge that people possess and generate Structural Capital Knowledge captured in systems and structures Relationship Capital Value derived from satisfied customers, reliable suppliers, etc.

8. High Performance Work Practices (HPWPs) • Workplace practices the leverage the potential of human capital • Human capital – employee knowledge, skills, and abilities – is competitive advantage • Help realize opportunities and minimize threats in the external environment • Not easily available nor duplicated • Can’t be replaced by technology • Companies apply these practices to leverage human capital

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

10. Types of Individual Behavior Task Performance Goal-directed behaviors under person’s control Organizational Citizenship Cooperation and helpfulness beyond required job duties Counterproductive Work Behaviors Voluntary behaviors that potentially harm the organization Joining/staying with the Organization Agreeing to employment relationship; remaining in that relationship Maintaining Work Attendance Attending work at required times

11. 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

12. Increasing Workforce Diversity • Surface-level vs deep-level diversity • Implications • Leveraging the diversity advantage • Manage challenges of diversity (e.g. teams, conflict) • Ethical imperative of diversity

13. Emerging Employment Relationships • Work/life balance • Minimizing conflict between work and nonwork demands number one indicator of career success • Virtual work • Using information technology to perform one’s job away from the traditional physical workplace • Telecommuting – issues of replacing face time, clarifying employment expectations

14. Organizational Behavior Anchors • Multidisciplinary anchor • Many OB concepts adopted from other disciplines • Systematic research anchor • OB knowledge is built on systematic research – evidence-based management • Contingency anchor • A particular action may have different consequences in different situations • Multiple levels of analysis anchor • Individual, team, organizational level of analysis