Introduction to the field of organisational behaviour

1. Chapter 1 Introduction to the field of organisational behaviour

2. Learning objectives 1.1 Define organisational behaviour and organisations, and discuss the importance of this field of inquiry 1.2 Compare and contrast the four current perspectives of organisational effectiveness 1.3 Debate the organisational opportunities and challenges of globalisation, workforce diversity and emerging employment relationships 1.4 Discuss the anchors on which organisational behaviour knowledge is based

3. Practising OB at Telstra David Thodey and Telstra employees have orchestrated a classic turnaround of the telecommunications company through organisational behaviour practices

4. Organisational Behaviour and Organisations • Organisational behaviour defined • The study of what people think, feel and do in and around organisations • Organisations defined • Groups of people who work interdependently toward some purpose • Collective entities • Collective sense of purpose

5. Why Study OB? • Satisfy the need to understand and predict • Helps us to test personal theories • Influence behaviour—get things done • OB improves an organisation’s financial health • OB is for everyone

6. Organisational Effectiveness • The ultimate dependent variable in OB • Old approach: achieve stated goals • Problem with goal attainment • Could set easy goals • Company might achieve wrong goals

7. Four Perspectives of Organisational Effectiveness Need to consider all four perspectives when assessing an organisation’s effectiveness • Open systems perspective • Organisational learning perspective • High performance work practices perspective • Stakeholder perspective

8. Open Systems Perspective • Organisations are complex systems that ‘live’ within (and depend upon) the external environment • Effective organisations • Maintain a close ‘fit’ with changing conditions • Transform inputs to outputs efficiently and flexibly • Foundation for the other three organisational effectiveness perspectives

9. Open Systems Perspective

10. Organisational Learning Perspective • An organisation’s capacity to acquire, share, use and store valuable knowledge • Need to consider both stock and flow of knowledge • Stock: intellectual capital • Flow: organisation’s processes of knowledge acquisition, sharing, use and storage

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

12. The Human Capital Advantage • Employee knowledge, skills and abilities • Competitive advantage because: • Helps discover opportunities and minimise threats in the external environment • Rare and difficult to imitate • Non-substitutable: not easily replaced by technology

13. Organisational 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

14. Organisational Memory • The storage and preservation of intellectual capital • Retain intellectual capital by: • Keeping knowledgeableemployees • Transferring knowledgeto others • Transferring human capitalto structural capital • Successful companies also unlearn

15. High-Performance Work Practices • Workplace practices that leverage the potential of human capital • Four HPWPs (likely others) • Employee involvement • Job autonomy • Employee competence (training, selection) • Reward performance and competencies • Need to ‘bundle’ practices because they work best together

16. Corporate Social Responsibility at MTN Group in Africa At MTN Group, Africa’s largest mobile phone company, employees help the community and environment through the company’s award-winning ‘21 Days of Y’ello Care’ program

17. Stakeholder Perspective • Stakeholders: entities who affect or are affected by the firm’s objectives and actions • Personalises the open systems perspective • Challenges with stakeholder perspective: • Stakeholders have conflicting interests • Firms have limited resources to satisfy all stakeholder needs

18. Stakeholders: Values and Ethics • Values and ethics prioritise stakeholder interests • Values • Relatively stable, evaluative beliefs, guide preferences for outcomes or courses of action in various situations • Ethics • Moral principles and values, determine whether actions are right or wrong and outcomes are good or bad

19. Stakeholders and CSR • Stakeholder perspective includes corporate social responsibility (CSR) • Benefit society and environment beyond the firm’s immediate financial interests or legal obligations • Organisation’s contract with society • Triple bottom line • Economy, society environment

20. Globalisation • Economic, social and cultural connectivity with people in other parts of the world • Improved communication and transportation systems have increased globalisation • Effects of globalisation on organisations • Cost efficiencies, innovation, knowledge • Increasing diversity • Increasing competitive pressures, intensification

21. Increasing Workforce Diversity • Surface-level vs. deep-level diversity • Implications • Better knowledge, decisions, representation, financial returns • Manage challenges of diversity (e.g. teams, conflict) • Ethical imperative of diversity

22. Emerging Employment Relationships • Work–life balance • Minimising conflict between work and non-work demands • Virtual work • Using information technology to perform one’s job away from the traditional physical workplace • Teleworking: issues of social isolation, emphasis on face time, employee self-leadership

23. Organisational Behaviour Anchors • Systematic research anchor • OB knowledge is built on systematic research • Evidence-based management: decisions and actions based on research evidence rather than fads, hype and untested assumptions • Multidisciplinary anchor • Many OB concepts adopted from other disciplines • OB develops its own theories, but scans other fields

24. Organisational Behaviour Anchors continued • 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, organisational level of analysis • OB topics usually relevant at all three levels of analysis

25. Chapter 1 Introduction to the field of organisational behaviour