1. Introduction

Question 1

What is an organisation?

Answer 1

A structured social system consisting of groups and/or individuals working together towards common, agreed-upon objectives

Question 2

What is organisational behaviour?

Answer 2

The study of what people think, feel, and do in and around organisations (based mostly on social psychology).

Question 3

What is situational strength theory?

Answer 3

Situations that are ‘strong’ suppress individual differences e.g. strong group norms & rules, little leeway to make free decisions. Organisations often represent strong situations

Question 4

What is interaction?

Answer 4

People often choose what kind of situations they get into - 2 people may interpret same situation in different manner

Question 5

What is the influence of group norms & authority?

Answer 5

We behave based on what we think the ‘norms’ of the group are (particularly the in-group). Norms become ‘collectively accepted’ in group/organisation.

Over-reliance on experts/authority figures (bias: they know better). Displacement of responsibility.

Rationalisations = ‘everyone else is doing it, my boss told me to do it..’

Question 6

What is a formal system?

Answer 6

The official way a system works as described by the organisations documentation: (procedure documents, codes of conducts, values and mission statements)

Question 7

What is an informal system?

Answer 7

The way the system actually works in practice: leadership, culture, stories, informal communication

Question 8

Describe diffusion of responsibility in organisations

Answer 8

Presence of others makes you feel less responsible for responding to events - everyone waiting for someone else to act / doesn’t know exactly what others are doing - is worse in large & bureaucratic organisations

Question 9

What are some important situational influences in organisations?

Answer 9

• Competition and social comparison
• Difficult performance goals
• Hierarchies
• Type of communication
• Bureaucracy
• Self-related concerns: money, ego

Question 10

What are some examples showing that people underestimate the impact of situational forces?

Answer 10

Students asked inappropriate questions e.g. do you have a boyfriend - 62% said they would inquire reasons for questions, 68% would refuse to answer

• in reality none refused to answer

Constantly primed by environment to think/behave in certain way - game experiment found that business frame makes people behave in different manner (e.g. less collaborative in competitive environment)

Question 11

What is the fundamental attribution error?

Answer 11

When person acts, we often discount the situational winds and assume internal causes - make this error partly because when we watch them act, the person is the focus of our attention and situation almost invisible to us e.g. cutting in line seen as ‘rude’ but may be late for interview

Question 12

We perceive reality as we are (we think as it is). What factors is this filtered by?

Answer 12

Cultural background - society
Childhood/earlier experiences
Media
Our ‘identity’ etc

Question 13

What is the impact of ethics and roles in organisations?

Answer 13

Ethical stance may differ before/during/after employment in organisation e.g. Gioia at Ford

Roles e.g. Stanford prison experiment