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Organisational Behaviour > Chapter 5/6/7 > Flashcards

Chapter 5/6/7 Flashcards

1
Q

Differences between a team and a group

A 
Team
-	Limited size
-	Selection is crucial
-	Leadership is shared or rotating
-	Mutual knowledge
-	Roles are spread
-	Dynamic interaction
Group
-	Usually bigger size
-	Selection is immaterial
-	Leadership is solo
-	Focus on leader
-	Convergence conformism
-	The groups which you belong provide you with shared goals, a sense of identity and meet your social needs
-	Can also constrain thinking, limit behaviour and restrict your freedom of expression
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2
Q

Hawthorne studies

A
  • Early example of scientific study of groups in organisations
  • Initiated as a study into the effects of environmental lighting on productivity
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3
Q

Four key Hawthorne studies

A
  • Illumination experiments
  • Relay assembly test room experiments
  • The interviewing programme
  • The bank wiring observation room experiments
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4
Q

Illumination experiments

A
  • Tested how different levels of light impacted productivity

- No clear correlation was found between lighting and output

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5
Q

Relay I

A
  • Assessed the impact of rest periods on productivity
  • Also tested fatigue and monotony thesis
  • No clear correlation between rest periods and output, or fatigue and output
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6
Q

Relay II

A
  • Tested effects of wage incentive on output

- No notable increase in output from wage incentive but not sustained

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7
Q

Mica splitting experiment

A
  • Duplicated relay assembly room but without wage incentive

- Same pattern for first year then declined. Output more to do with psychological issues than wage incentives

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8
Q

Interview program

A
  • Link between morale and supervision, improvements in employee-supervisor relations and the attitude of staff
  • Workers often have obsessive and irrational views. Social groups have powerful influence over the actions of individuals.
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9
Q

Bank writing observation

A
  • The role of the group in determining output

- The informal group is key to impacting behaviour

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10
Q

Experiments 3 and 4 significant findings

A
  • Lighting and fatigue not significant; next assumption pay
  • Tried pay incentives; did not seem to be a factor
  • Instead became a ‘special group’
  • Anxieties of job losses impacted output
  • Morale and supervisory relations considered vital
  • Overall discovered the importance of the social side of the organization
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11
Q

Interview programme significant findings

A
  • Revealed workers restricting output
  • Focus on one group
  • They gave nicknames to those who worked too hard
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12
Q

Identification of group norms

A
  • You should not turn out too much work
  • You should not turn out too little work
  • You should not tell a supervisor anything that might get a colleague into trouble
  • You should not attempt to maintain social distance or act officiously
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13
Q

Key findings from Hawthorne studies

A
  • Business organization is a social system
  • Employees satisfactions and dissatisfactions impact productivity
  • Employees are more than machines
  • Want to use their own initiative
  • Introduced a new way to consider management
  • Soft skills; informal dynamics of the group
  • Challenges of getting people to work together
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14
Q

Differences between rational and human relations approach

A

Taylor scientific management
- Employees economically motivated
- Mechanical fix to problems
- Micro manage
- Increase output through individualisation
- Workers are replaceable
Mayo hawthorne
- Employees socially motivated
- Social approach to problems
- Work collaboratively towards common outcomes
- Increase output through collective collaboration
- Employee satisfaction increases productivity

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15
Q

Power of the informal organisation

A
  • The social organisation may have more power than managerial influence
  • It has social control over work habits and attitudes of the individual worker
  • Major factor in the groups productivity
  • Belonging to the group
  • Managers role in changing group norms
  • Social relations a resource for managers
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16
Q

Factors contributing to group cohesiveness and performance

A 
Membership
-	Size of group
-	Compatibility
-	Permanence of group members
Work environment
-	Nature of the task
-	Physical settings
-	Communications
-	Technology
Organisational
-	Management and leadership
-	Hr policies and procedures
-	Success
-	External threat
Group development and maturity
-	Forming
-	Storming
-	Norming
-	Performing
-	Adjourning
17
Q

Tuckmans five stages of group development

A

Forming
- Team acquaints and establishes ground rules. Formalities are preserved and members are treated as strangers
Storming
- Members start to communicate their feelings but still view themselves as individuals rather than part of the team. They resist control by group leaders and show hostility
Norming
- People feel part of the team and realise that they can achieve work if they accept other viewpoints
Performing
- The team works in an open and trusting atmosphere where flexibility is the key and hierarchy is of little importance
Adjourning
- The team conducts an assessment of the year and implements a plan for transitioning roles and recognising members contributions

18
Q

Consequences of group cohesion

A
  • Group success
  • Member satisfaction
  • Increased group influence over members
  • Cooperative behaviour between individuals
  • Greater conformity by members
  • Members evaluations become distorted
  • Increased interaction between members
  • Productivity high or low
19
Q

Groups usually do:

A
  • Increase resources
  • Increase motivation
  • Increase creativity, correct errors, resolve ambiguity
20
Q

Decision making in groups

A
  • A diverse group can produce better decisions
  • Gain variety of perspectives and insights
  • Challenges, group conflict and rivalry
  • Conjunctive tasks require everyone to contribute, group only as good as least effective member
  • Variety decision making models from votes to consensus based decisions
21
Q

Why groups might be worse than individuals

A
  • Group member characteristics
  • Group size
  • Conformity
  • Social loafing
  • Inequity based losses
  • Production blocking
  • Evaluation apprehension
  • Cognitive inertia
  • Biased information pooling
  • Confirmation bias
22
Q

Group cohesion; drawback 1 group polarization

A
  • Individuals start by taking a moderate stance on an issue, and having discussed it, end up taking a more extreme stance (riskier or more conservative position)
  • Reasons include; informational influence (information shared), normative influence (group pressure).
23
Q

Group cohesion drawback 2 groupthink

A
  • Phenomenon in which the norm for consensus overrides the realistic appraisal of alternative courses of action. In particular, Janis studied disastrous policy decisions
24
Q

Characteristics of groupthink

A 
Antecedent conditions
-	Time pressure and stress
-	High cohesiveness and social identity
-	Isolation from other sources of information
-	Directive authoritative leadership
Symptoms of groupthink
-	Pressure towards uniformity
-	Poor information search and evaluation
-	Over estimation of the group, its power and morality
-	Closed mindedness
25
Q

Overcoming groupthink

A
  • Encourage critical evaluation in every member
  • Start with an impartial stance to encourage open mindedness
  • Create evaluation groups for decisions
  • Discuss decisions with outsiders and report back
  • Invite outside experts to question decisions
  • Play devils advocate for key decisions
  • Consider rivals reactions
  • Second chance meetings to express doubts
26
Q

Issues with groups

A
  • Are groups taken seriously in western organisations; blame culture, individual responsibility
  • Cultural issues
  • Research indicates groups are superior only when they meet certain criteria including; group must have diversity among members, members must be able to communicate ideas freely and openly, the task being undertaken must be complex
27
Q

What is organizational culture?

A
  • Social or normative glue that holds an organisation together
  • Shared beliefs and values guiding the thinking and behavioural styles of members
  • External adaptation; mission, goals, methods
  • Internal integration; values, hierarchy, reward system
28
Q

Advantages of managing through culture

A
  • Increased sense of belonging
  • Increased commitment
  • Shared values
  • Shared language
  • Shared belief in purpose of organisation
  • Engages hearts and minds; common purpose
29
Q

Scheins three levels of culture

A

Basic assumptions
- The basis on which individuals are respected; the basis of the firm’s ability to compete; how and by whom decisions should be made
Values and beliefs
- Trust, honesty, basis of reward, effort, trust.
Artefacts and creations
- Norms, language, taboos, symbols

30
Q

Geert Hofstede – cultural dimensions

A

Power distance
- The extent to which power is distributed equally within a society and the degree that society accepts this distribution
Uncertainty avoidance
- The degree to which individuals require set boundaries and clear structures
Individualism versus collectivism
- The degree to which individuals base their actions on self-interest versus the interests of the group
Masculinity versus femininity
- A measure of a society’s goal orientation
Time orientation
- The degree to which a society does or does not value long term commitments and respect for tradition

31
Q

Cultural typologies – Quinn & Rohrbaugh

A 
Clan
-	Like a family organisation
-	Shared values and cohesion
-	Teamwork and employee empowerment
-	Customers are partners
-	Leaders mentors/parent figures
Adhocracy
-	Temporary and specialized; disbands when task is complete
-	No centralized power; flows from person to person
-	Emphasis on individuality and risk taking and creativity
Hierarchy 
-	Bureaucratic culture
-	Clear lines of decision making
-	Stable and efficient
-	Standardized rules and procedure with no discretion 
-	Environment is stable
-	Leaders are good organisers
Market
-	The organisation functions as a market with competition
-	Aims to reduce transaction costs
-	Profit is key
-	Meeting customer needs
-	Customers competitive for best price
-	Leaders are highly competitive
32
Q

Cultural typologies – handy

A 
Power culture; zeus
-	Power and decision making concentrated on the centre
-	Control of centre becomes weaker as firm grows
-	Tough and competitive environment
-	Few set rules
-	Family firms, small entrepreneurs
Role culture – Apollo
-	Bureaucracy in its purest form
-	Roof – senior management decision making
-	Pillars – functional units
-	Staff do their roles
-	Authority based on position in hierarchy
-	Predictable
-	Difficult to adapt to change
-	Civil service, high street banks
Task culture – Athena
-	Focus on getting job done
-	Temporary project teams to meet task needed
-	Expertise is central
-	Control through allocation of people and resources
-	Project management, construction
Personal or cluster culture – Dionysius
-	Consensus management; power is shared
-	Individual freedom is key
-	Exist for the members
-	No collective goal
-	Reject formal hierarchies
-	Self help groups
33
Q

Cultural typologies assessed

A
  • Popular
  • Quick way of capturing essence of an organisation
  • Strengths and weaknesses
  • Comparisons to other organisations
    However
  • General rather than specific
  • Organisations don’t fit easily into categories
  • Applied rigidly could lose sight of features that make an organisation unique
  • Focus on structure of culture rather than ordinary everyday factors
  • Suggest unified homogenous culture and ignore differences in departmental cultures
34
Q

Where does organisational culture come from?

A
  • Philosophy of organisations founder
  • Selection criteria
  • Top management/socialization
  • Leads to organisational culture
35
Q

How is culture transmitted?

A
  • Mission statements
  • Founders stories
  • Rituals and ceremonies
  • Symbols
  • Embedded ideas
  • Unconscious level
36
Q

Socialisation model

A 
Socialisation process
-	Prearrival
-	Encounter
-	Metamorphosis
Outcomes
-	Productivity
-	Commitment
-	Turnover
37
Q

Culture management

A
  • Recruitment and selection; P-J, P-O, P-G
  • Employee induction; rite of passage
  • Training and development; communicating and implementing espoused core values and attitudes, cross border learning
  • Payment and reward systems
  • Leadership
  • Employee relations
38
Q

Integration v differentiation/fragmentation perspective

A
  • Integration; shared values, consensus, commitment
  • Differentiation; acknowledging existence of subcultures
  • Fragmentation; conflict and struggle for power
39
Q

What do cultures do?

A
  • Break the barrier of self interest
  • Stability of the social system
  • Guide and shape attitudes and behaviours
  • Sense of identity
  • Barriers to change
  • Barriers to diversity
  • Barriers to mergers and acquisitions

Organisational Behaviour (4 decks)

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