Chapter 1 Flashcards
Organizational Behaviour
Field of study devoted to understanding, explaining, and ultimately improving the attitudes and behaviours of individuals and groups in organizations
Human Resources Management
Field of study that focuses on the applications of OB theories and principles in organizations
Strategic Management
Field of study devoted to exploring the product choices and industry characteristics that affect an organization’s profitability
Scientific Management
Using scientific methods to design optimal and efficient work processes and tasks
Bureaucracy
An organizational form that emphasizes the control and coordination of its members through a strict chain of command, formal rules and procedures, high specialization, and centralized decision making
Human Relations Movement
Field of study that recognizes that the psychological attributes of individual workers and the social forces within the work groups have important effects on work behaviours
Frederick Taylor
Scientific Management
Max Weber
Bureaucracy
What are the two primary outcomes in studies of OB?
INDIVIDUAL OUTCOMES:
1) Job Performance
2) Organizational Commitment
What factors affect the two primary OB outcomes?
1) Individual Characteristics and Mechanisms
- personality
- cultural values
- ability
2) Relational Mechanisms
- communication
- team characteristics and processes
- power, influence, negotiation
3) Organizational Mechanisms
- organizational structure
- organizational culture and change
Resource-based view
A model that argues that rare and inimitable resources help firms maintain competitive advantage
Rare
In short supply
Inimitable
Incapable of being imitated or copied
What makes a resource valuable?
- rare
- inimitable (irreplaceable)
History
A collective pool of experience, wisdom, and knowledge that benefits the organization
Numerous small decisions
Small decisions that people make everyday
Socially Complex Resources
Resources created by people, such as culture, teamwork, trust, and reputation
Why might firms that are good at OB tend to be more profitable?
- research evidence (proven fact)
Rule of one-eighth
The belief that at best one-eighth, or 12%, of organizations will actually do what is required to build profits by putting people first
Method of experience
People hold firmly to some belief because it is consistent with their own experience and observations
Method of intuition
People hold firmly to some belief because it seems obvious or self-evident
Method of authority
People hold firmly to some belief because some respected official, agency, or source has said it is so
Method of science
People accept some belief because scientific studies have tended to replicate that result using a series of samples, settings and methods
Theory
A collection of verbal and symbolic assertions that specify how and why variables are related, as well as the conditions in which they should (and should not) be related
Hypotheses
Written predictions that specify relationships between variables
Correlation
- the statistical relationship between 2 variables
- can be positive or negative
- ranges from 0 (no relationship) to 1 (perfect relationship)
Casual Inference
Concluding that one variable really does cause another
Meta-analysis
A method that combines the results of multiple scientific studies by essentially calculating a weighted average correlation across studies (with larger studies receiving more weight)
Evidence-based Management
A perspective that argues that scientific findings should form the foundation for management education
Analytics
The use of data (rather than just opinions) to guide decision making
