Managing People & Organizations

1. Managing People & Organizations Week 1: Introduction What is Organizational Behavior?

2. MPO Agenda • Review syllabus & textbook • What is a manager? • Organizations-what are they? • How do we study organizations? • Behavioral sciences and the study of organizations • What are the roles in an organization? • How have organizations evolved? • What is the impact of globalization on management?

3. MPO introduction • What is a manager? • Individuals who achieve goals through other people. They make decisions, allocate resources, and direct the activities of others to achieve goals. (Robbins, pp. 5-6)

4. MPO introduction • What’s an organization? • A consciously coordinated social unit, composed of two or more people, that functions on a relatively continuous basis to achieve a common set of goals.(Robbins, pg. 5) • Who defines the organization’s goals and how to achieve them?

5. Fayol - Management functions Henri Fayol’s Management roles: • Plan—defining the organization’s goals and how to achieve them • Organize—design the organization’s structure • Lead—direct & coordinate people • Control—monitor performance, compare with plan, change if need be

6. Mintzberg - Management roles Henry Mintzberg’s management roles • Interpersonal • Figurehead—symbolic head • Leader—motivate & direct employees • Liaison—outside contacts • Informational • Monitor—center of internal & external information • Disseminator—transmits information within the organization • Spokesperson—transmits information to outsiders

7. Mintzberg - Management roles • Decisional • Entrepreneur—initiates projects • Disturbance handler—corrective action • Resource allocator—makes or approves significant organizational decisions • Negotiator—represents organization at major negotiations

8. Katz – Management skills • Robert Katz’ essential management skills • Technical skills • Human skills—the ability to work with, understand, and motivate people • Conceptual skills—mental ability to analyze and diagnose complex situations

9. Effective vs. successful managers • Fred Luthans—who gets promoted? • Effective versus successful managerial activities • Traditional management • Human resource management • Communication • Networking—socializing, politicking, interacting with outsiders • The importance of people skills

10. Organizational Behavior (OB) • Why do we study behavior within organizations? OB defined • A field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behavior within organizations, for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organization’s effectiveness.(Robbins, pg. 9) • OB is concernedis concerned with the study of what people do in an organization and how that behavior affects the performance of the organization.

11. Organizational Behavior (OB) • OB is an applied behavioral science built on several behavioral disciplines: • Psychology • Sociology • Social psychology • Anthropology • Political science

12. Behavioral Disciplines • Psychology: individual behavior • Sociology: group behavior • Social psychology: influence of people on one another (change) • Anthropology: organizational culture • Political science: the political environment—conflict, power

13. Organizational Evolution • How have organizations changed over the years? • What is the effect of a nation’s economic development on organizational design? • How has the employee/employer relationship changed as an economy develops? • What has been the impact of globalization on organizational design? • How does a manager’s role change as an economy develops?

14. Increased foreign assignments A diverse workforce Anticapitalism backlash Movement of jobs to countries with low-cost labor Demographic changes Networked organizations (online work) The quality movement Process reengineering Empowering employees Productivity Job satisfaction Ethical behavior “temporariness” Balance work/life conflicts Challenge & Opportunities for OB

15. Developing an OB Model • Some basic terms • Model—a simplified version (abstraction) of something • Dependent variable—a response affected by an independent variable (5) • Independent variable—the presumed cause of some change in the dependent variable • Contingency variable—situational factors that effect the relationship between variables

16. Dependent Variables • Productivity • Effectiveness—achieving goals • Efficiency—use of resources (reduce costs, use fewer resources for the same or greater output) • Absenteeism • Turnover • Job satisfaction • Organizational citizenship

17. Dependent Variables • Organizational citizenship—discretionary behavior not part of the formal job • Helping others • Avoiding unnecessary conflicts • Respecting the spirit of rules • Tolerating work-related impositions

18. Independent Variables • What are the presumed causes of change in the dependent variables? • Individual-level variables • Individual characteristics • Group-level variables • Behavior of individuals in groups • Organization system level variables • Impact of the organization’s structure

19. Contingency Variables • Situations that affect the relationship between variables • Change and stress • Linkages between the 3 levels of analysis, e.g., communication link between individual and group behavior • Contingency variables are many

20. Summary • Managers need to develop people skills to be effective—OB helps them do this • OB studies the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behavior in an organization, then applies that knowledge to make organizations more effective • OB uses systematic study to improve predictions about behavior