Chapter 1 Flashcards
What is an organization
A consciously coordinated social unit, composed of a group of people, which functions on a realtvily continuous basis to achieve a common goal or set of goals
Organizational Behaviour
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
OB as a Science
OB looks at consistencies
OB is more common sense
OB has few absolutes
OB takes a contingency approach - behaviour in context
Organizations
- are social inventions for accomplishing common goals through group effort
Ex: Universities
Social Inventions:
organizations are social inventions - their essential characteristics is the coordinated presence of people, not necessarily things
Goal Accomplishment:
individuals are assembled into organizations for a reason (usually the goal is survival)
How to complete a goal
- Be motivated to join and remain in the organization
- Carry out their basic work reliably, in terms of productivity, quality, and service
- Be willing to continuously learn and upgrade their knowledge and skills
- Be flexible and innovative
Group Effort:
orgnaizations depend on interaction and coordination among people to accomplish their goals
Informal grouping → friendships develop - can impact goal achievement
attitidues
satisfaction, committed to the goals, supportive in promoting minorites
Behaviours
conflict, innovation, resignation, or ethical lapse
Human resources managment:
refers to programs, practices, and systems to acquire, develop, motivate and retain employees in organizations
Selection → personality
Training and development → learning
Compensation → motivation
Why Study Organizational Behaviour:
- Help us understand why employees become committed to an organization and what motivates them to work hard
Important to - managers, employees, and consumers
Human Captial:
- refers to the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) embodied in an organization’s employees
-Strongly and positively related to organizational performance
Social capital:
refers to the social resources that individuals obtain from participation in a social structure
Has to do with interpersonal relationships, social ties, and one’s network of relationships with others who can assist in work and careers
Goals of Organizational Behaviour
(1) Effectively predicting, (2) explaining, and (3) managing behaviour that occurs in organizations
Management
is defined as the art of getting things accomplished in organizations through others
Management
is defined as the art of getting things accomplished in organizations through others
Evidence-based Management:
involved translating principles based on the best scientific evidence into organizational practices
Early Perscriptions Concerning Managment
Many years experts in organizations wanted to prescribe – correct way to manage
Two phases to this prescription: (1) classical viewpoint and (2) human relations movement
The Classical View:
an early perscription on managment that advocated a high specilization of labour, intensive coordination, and centralized decision making
Each department was to tend to its own affairs
Scientific management:
Fredrick Taylor’s system for using research to determine the optimum degree of specialization and standardization of work tasks
Bureaucracy
Max Weber’s ideal type of orginization that included a strict chain of command, detailed rules, high specialization, centralized power, and selection and promotion based on technical competence
Hawthrome studies:
- was research conducted in the 1920s and 1930s at the Hawthrone plant of Western Electic, near Chicago, that illustrated how psychological and social processes affect productivity and work adjustment
- Impact of fatigue, rest pauses, and lighting on productivity
Human relations movement:
was a critique of classical managment and bureaucracy that advocated managment styles that were more participative and oriented toward employee needs
contemporary managment: Contingency approach
approach to management that recognizes that there is no one best way to manage, rather, an appropriate style depends on the demands of the situation
Effectiveness of leadership is dependent on the abilities of followers, consequence of pay increase
What do Managers do?
They both influence and are influenced by organizational behaviour, and the net result can have important consequences for organizational effectiveness
Managerial Roles
- informational
- interpersonal
- decision roles
informational
Monitors - scan internal and external enviornments
Dissmeninator: send information to others (emails to inform of a conference)
Spokesperson: sending messages to external environment
interpersonal
Figurehead
leader
liaision - talk to people with other departments
Decisional Roles
Entrepreneur, Disturbance handler, Resource allocator, Negotiator
Managerial Activites
Routine communication, traditional managment, networkingl, human and resource managment
managerial agendas: agenda setting
were concerned with “people issues” and were less numerical than most formal strategic plans, managers based their agendas on wide-ranging informal discussions with a variety of people
Agenda Implementation -
the managers used networks to implement the agendas. They would go anywhere in the network for help, up or down, in or out of the organization.
Managerial Minds:
experienced managers use intuition in several ways
Contemporary Managment Concerns
Diversity – Local and Global
Employee Health and Well-Being -
mindfullness
a state in which people are highly aware of and attentive to what is happening in the present – have been found to reduce employee stress and absenteeism, and increase employee engagment
How to create positive work environment -
Workplace spirituality and organziational care
- a workplace that provides employees with meaning, purpose, and a sense of community, and a connection to others
Organizational care: i
involves values and principles centred on fulfilling employees’ needs, promoting employees’ best interests, and valuing employees’ contributions
(2) Positive Organizational Behaviour:
the study and applicaition of positiviley oriented human resources and strengths and psychological capacities that can be measured, developed, and effectively managed for performance improvement in todays workplace
Psychological capital:
refer to an individual’s positive psychological state of development that is characterized by self-efficacy, optimism, hope and resilience
Self-efficacy
refers to ones confidence to take on and put in the necessary effort to succeed at challenging tasks
Talent Management:
refers to an organizations processes and practices for attracting, developing, retaining, and deploying people with the required skills to meet current and future business needs
Work engagement
is a positive work-related state of mind that is characterized by vigour, dedication, and absorption
Alternative Work Arrangements:Precarious work:
refers to work that is risky, uncertain, and unpredictable for workers
- Unstable, shortterm, low pay, no benefits
Corporate Soical Responsibility:
refers to an organization taking responsibility for the impact of its decisions and actions on its stakeholders
- Comapnys overall impact, beyond interests of shareholders, community, environment, consumers
