Topic 1 - Introduction to BSO Flashcards
What is BSO?
The study of what people think, feel, and do (behave) in and around organizations.
Why study BSO?
To understand, predict, and influence behavior; it improves an organization’s financial health.
When did BSO become a distinct field?
Around the 1940s.
Name a few pivotal scholars before OB formed.
- Max Weber
- Frederick Winslow Taylor
- Elton Mayo
- Chester Barnard
- Mary Parker Follett
What was the old perspective of organizational effectiveness?
Goal oriented – Effective firms achieve their stated objectives, which is no longer accepted as an indicator of org effectiveness.
List the four perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
- Stakeholder Perspective
- High-Performance Work Practices Perspective
- Organizational Learning Perspective
- Open Systems Perspective
What characterizes the Open Systems Perspective?
Organizations are complex systems that ‘live’ within an external environment.
What does the Organizational Learning Perspective focus on?
An organization’s capacity to acquire, share, use, and store valuable knowledge.
What are the key processes in Organizational Learning?
- Knowledge Acquisition
- Knowledge Sharing
- Knowledge Use
What is Organizational Memory?
The storage and preservation of intellectual capital.
Define Intellectual Capital.
Intangible assets of a company, including relationship capital, structural capital, and human capital.
What are High Performance Work Practices (HPWPs)?
Internal systems and structures associated with successful companies that view employees as a competitive advantage.
Provide an example of High Performance Work Practices.
- Employee involvement
- Job autonomy
- Performance-based rewards
What defines a stakeholder?
An entity (individual/organization) who affects or is affected by the firm’s objectives and actions.
What are the challenges with the stakeholder perspective?
Conflicting interests among stakeholders and limited resources for firms.
What do values and ethics prioritize in an organization?
Stakeholder interests.
What is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)?
The commitment to benefit society and the environment beyond the firm’s immediate financial interests.
What are the types of individual behavior in organizations?
- Organizational Citizenship
- Task Performance
- Maintaining Work Attendance
- Joining/staying with the Organization
- Counterproductive Work Behaviors (CWB)
What is globalization in the context of organizations?
Economic, social, and cultural connectivity with people in other parts of the world.
Differentiate between surface-level and deep-level diversity.
- Surface-level: Observable demographic differences
- Deep-level: Psychological differences in personalities, beliefs, values, and attitudes
What are emerging employment relationships concerned with?
Work/life balance and virtual work.
What are the BSO Anchors?
- Multidisciplinary Anchor
- Systematic Research Anchor
- Contingency Anchor
- Multiple Levels of Analysis Anchor
What does the Multidisciplinary Anchor imply?
Many BSO concepts are adopted from other disciplines.
What is the Systematic Research Anchor?
BSO researchers rely on the scientific method.
