Chapter 1 - Explaining Organisational Behaviour NEC Flashcards
Define organisational behaviour.
The study of the structure and management of organisations, their environments, and the actions and interactions of their individual members and groups.
Covers the environment (macro), organisational (meso) and individual (micro).
Define organisation.
A social arrangement for achieving controlled performance in pursuit of collective goals.
Define controlled performance.
Setting standards, measuring performance, comparing actual with standard, and taking corrective action if necessary.
What is the key distinction between organisations and other social groups?
The preoccupation with performance and the need for conntrol.
What are the eight lenses through which organisations can be viewed? Who, and where was the source?
Machines Biological organisms Human brains Cultures and subcultures Political systems Psychic prisons Systems of change and information Instruments of domination
By Gareth Morgan (Images of Organisation, 2006)
Define organisational dilemma.
The issue of reconciling inconsistencies between individuals needs and wants, and the collective purpose of the organisation.
An example would be an employee wanting higher wages, while the company needs to make a profit.
What is the fundamental attribution error?
A tendency to explain behaviour based on personality or disposition, overlooking the wider contextual influences, such as context, individual, group, structural and management factors.
Define organisational effectiveness.
A multi-dimensional concept defined differently by different stakeholders, related to how well the organisation achieves its goals.
What is a balanced scorecard?
A method to define effectiveness using quantitative and qualitative measures.
Define quality of working life.
Satisfaction with job, working conditions, pay, colleagues, management, culture, work-life balance, training, development and career opportunities.
What are the four steps of social science?
Description
Explanation
Prediction
Control
Define positivism.
The assumption that the world can be understood through causal relationships between observable and measurable variables which can be studied objectively using controlled experiments.
Define operational definition.
The method to measure the incidence of a variable.
Define variance theory.
An attempt to explain organisational behaviour through universal relationships between independent and dependent variables which can be defined and measured precisely.
Provides definitive explanations where the relationship between the cause and outcome does not change.
Define constructivism.
The perspective that social and organisational worlds have no objective truth or reality, and are instead determined by shared experiences, meanings and interpretations.
Define process theory.
An attempt to explain organisational behaviour through narratives showing how several factors, combing and interacting over time in context, are likely to produce outcomes of interest.
Provides probabilistic explanations.
What is evidence based management?
Using the best research evidence to inform decisions about how to manage people and organisations.
What is human resource management?
A function which establishes integrated personnel policies to support organisation strategy.
What is the employment cycle? (Definition and 11 stages)
The stages through which employees pass in each job, from recruitment and selection to termination.
Recruitment, selection, induction, training, performance appraisal, reward, discipline, career planning, promotion, termination, recruitment.
Define discretionary behaviour.
Freedom to decide how work is going to be performed. Can be positive (overtime, maximum effort), or negative (not cooperating).
What are the three factors required to perform beyond the minimum requirements of a job?
Ability, motivation and opportunity.
What is big data?
Information from sources such as web use, mobile transactions, social media and purchases.
What is data analytics?
The use of powerful computational methods to reveal and visualise patterns and trends in very large sets of data.
What are human capital analytics?
HR practices enabled by computing technologies that use descriptive, visual and statistical analyses of data related to HR processes, human capital, organisational performance and external economic benchmarks to establish business impact and enable evidence-based, data-driven decision making.
What types of data for description do positivism and constructivism use?
Positivism - observable, quantifiable information.
Constructivism - Qualitative information, inferences, local meanings and interpretations.
What theories do positivism and constructivism use?
Positivism - variance theories
Constructivism - process theories
What types of prediction comes from positivism and constructivism?
Positivism - deterministic, knowledge of consistent relationships.
Constructivism - probabilistic, understanding and awareness of social and organisational realities.
How do positivism and constructivism aim to control and affect organisations?
Positivism - shape behaviour through variable manipulation to achieve desired outcomes
Constructivism - simulate critical self awareness to lead to social and organisational changes
