Week 1 Intro to OB Flashcards
Organisational behaviour defined
–The study of what people think, feel and do in and around organisations
Organisations defined
–Groups of people who work interdependently toward some purpose –Collective entities
–Collective sense of purpose
Why study OB
- Satisfy the need to understand and predict •Helps us to test personal theories
- Influence behaviour—get things done
- OB improves an organisation’s financial health
- OB is for everyone
Open System Perspective sees an effective organisations as able to
–Maintain a close ‘fit’ with changing conditions
–Transform inputs to outputs efficiently and flexibly
Organsiational Effectiveness
A broad concept represented by several perspectives, including the organisation’s fit withthe external environment, the configuration of internal subsystems fo high performance and an emphasis on organistation learning and ability to satisfy the needsof the key stakeholders.
What is considered to be the ultimate dependable variable in organisational behaviour?
Organisational Effectiveness
Four Perspectives of Organisational Effectiveness
- Open systems perspective
- Organisational learning perspective
- High performance work practices perspective
- Stakeholder perspective
Is a perspective which holds that organisations depend on external environment for resources, affect that environmet through their output and consist of internal subsystems that transform inputs into outputs
Open Systems
Intellectual Capital
- Human Capital - Structural Capital - Relationship Capital
Knowledge that people possess and generate
Human Capital
Knowledge captured in systems and structures
Structural Capital
Relationship Capital
Value derived from satisfied customers, reliable suppliers, etc.
The Human Capital Advantage comprises of •Employee _______, skills and abilities •Competitive _____ because: –Helps discover opportunities and minimise ________ in the external environment –Rare and difficult to imitate –Non-substitutable: not easily replaced by technology
knowledge, advantage, threats
Organisational learning processors
Knowledge Acquisition knowledge Sharing knowledge Use knowledge Storage
Knowledge Acquisition
Learning Scanning Grafting Experimenting
Knowledge Sharing
Communication Training Info Systems Observation
Knowledge Use
Sense Making Awareness Autonomy Empowerment
Open Systems Perspective
•Organisations are complex systems that ‘live’ within (and depend upon) the external environment
According to the ______ _______ perspective organsiations are effective when they maintain a good fit with their external environment.
Open Systems.
Foundation for the other three organisational effectiveness perspectives
Open systems perspective
Closed systems
operate without dependence on or interaction with a an external environment
Describes a permeable relationship
Open Systems
Stock
Intellectual capital
organisation’s processes of knowledge acquisition, sharing, use and storage
Flow
Flow
–organisation’s processes of knowledge acquisition, sharing, use and storage
Competitive advantage
- Helps discover opportunities and minimise threats in the external environment
- Rare and difficult to imitate
- Non-substitutable: not easily replaced by technology
Organisational Learning Perspective
An organisation’s capacity to acquire, share, use and store valuable knowledge
•Need to consider both stock and flow of knowledge
–Stock: intellectual capital
–Flow: organisation’s processes of knowledge acquisition, sharing, use and storage
A companys stock of knowledge comprised of 3 forms of capital including human capital, structural capital and relationship captial
Intellectual Capital
The stock of knowledge, skills and abilities amongst employees that provides economic value to the organistaion.
Human Capital
The Human Capital Avantage consits of _____ knowledge, skills and abilities, as well as providing _____ advantage.
employee, compettive
Knowledge caprtured in Systems and Structures
Structural Captial
___________: Value derived from Satisfied customes, realiable suppliers, etc
Relationship Capital
A perspective which holds that organisational effectiveness depends on the organisations capacity to acquire, share, use and store valuable knowledge.
Organisational Learnings Perspective.
Name the four Organisational Learning Processes
- Knowledge Sharing
- Knowledge Use
- Knowledge Storage
- Knowledge Aquistition
Knowledge Sharing
- Communication
- Training
- Information systems
- Observation
Knowledge use
- Knowledge awareness
- Sense making
- Autonomy
- Empowerment
Knowledge Storage
- Human memory
- Documentation
- Practices and habits
- Databases
Knowledge Aquisition
- Individual learning
- Environment scanning
- Grafting
- Experimentation
_____ _____is the capacity to recognise the value of new information, _____ it and use it for _____-____ activities.
Absorbitive Capacity, assimilate, value-added.
The storage and preservation of interlectual capital
Organisational memory
HPWP is
High-performance work practice - Workplace practices that leverage the potential of human capital
A perspective which holds that effective organisations incorporate several workplace practices that leverage the potential of human capital.
HPWP
- Employee involvement
- Job autonomy
- Employee competence (training, selection)
- Reward performance and competencies
Four HPWPs
Stakeholder Perspective
•Personalises the open systems perspective
Individuals, Organisations and other entities who affect , or are affected by, the organisation’s objectives and actions.
Stakeholders
Organisation’s comprise of
- Customers
- Shareholders
- Labour unions
- Joint venture partners
- Suppliers
- Communities and charities
- Special interest groups
- Governments
- Employees
*
Values
Relatively stable, evaluative beliefs that guide a person’s preferences for outcomes or courses of action in a variety of situations.
The study of the moral principles or values that determine whether actions are right or wrong and whether outcomes are good or bad.
Ethics
CSR
Corporate social responisibility
Organisational activites intended to benefit society and the environmentbeyond the comny’s immediate financial interests or legal obligations.
Corporate Socisl responsibility
–Economy, society environment
•Triple bottom line
Effects of globalisation on organisations
–Cost efficiencies, innovation, knowledge
–Increasing diversity
–Increasing competitive pressures, intensification
Globalisation
- Economic, social and cultural connectivity with people in other parts of the world
- Improved communication and transportation systems have increased globalisation
Which perspective emphasises adaptiveness and relates directly to leadership and organisational change
The Open Systems Perspective’s transformation process relates to ____ _____, ______ ______ and relations between subunits in terms of _____ and power and _____
Which perspective highlights the importance of communication, creativity, employee involvement and topics regarding decision making?
Which perspective directly cats light on team dynamics, employee motivation, rewards and most individual-level topics?
Which perspective has direct relevance to values and ethics, organisational culture and decision making?
The Stake Holder Approach.
•Improved _____ and transportation systems have increased _____
communication, globalisation
The observable demographic or physiological diferences in people, such as their race, ethnicity, gender, age and physical disabilities
Differences in the psychological characteristics of employess, including personalities, beliefs, values and attitudes.
Deep-level diversity.
The degree to whcih a person minimises conflict between work and non-work demands
Work-life balance
Work performed away from the traditional physical workplace by means of information technology.
Virtual work.
What are the 4 Organisational Behaviour Anchors
Systematic Research anchor
Multidisciplinary Anchor
Contingency Anchor
Multiple levels of analysis anchor
Systematic research anchor states that OB should study organsiations using
systematic research methods.
The Multidiciplinary anchor suggests that OB should import knowledge from
other disciplines and not just create its own knowledge
Contingency anchor states that OB theory should recognis that
effects of actions often vary with the situation.
Multiple levels of analysis anchor: Ob events should be understood from three levels of analysis -
individual, team and organisation
The practice of making decisions and taking actions based on research evidence
evidence-based management.
