What is Organizational Behaviour

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What is Organizational Behaviour?
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Chapter Outline

• Enter Organizational Behaviour
• The Challenges of the Canadian Workplace
• Does Managing Well Make A Difference?
• OB Making Sense of Behaviour in Organizations
• Contributing Disciplines to the OB Field
• There are Few Absolutes in OB
• Coming Attractions Developing an OB Model

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What is Organizational Behaviour?

• LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• Define organizational behaviour (OB)
• List the major challenges and opportunities for
  managers
• Identify the contributions made by major
  behavioural science disciplines to OB
• Describe why managers require a knowledge of OB
• Explain the value of the systematic study of OB
• Explain the need for a contingency approach to
  the study of OB
• Identify the three levels of analysis in this
  books OB model

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OrganizationalBehaviour

• Organizational behaviour
• . . . a field of study that investigates the
  impact that individuals, groups and structure
  have on behaviour within organizations, for the
  purpose of applying such knowledge toward
  improving an organizations effectiveness.

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Why Do We Study OB?

• To learn about yourself and how to deal with
  others
• You are part of an organization now, and will
  continue to be a part of various organizations
• Organizations are increasingly expecting
  individuals to be able to work in teams, at least
  some of the time
• Some of you may want to be managers or
  entrepreneurs

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Challenges of the Canadian Workplace

• Lack of Respect
• Changing Expectations About the Workplace
• Sharing Power
• Managing and Working in a Changing and
  Competitive Environment
• Managing and Working in a Global Environment
• Managing and Working in a Culturally Diverse
  Workplace

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Exhibit 1-1Most Respected Businesses
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Making Sense of Behaviour

• Systematic Study
• Looking at relationships, attempting to attribute
  causes and effects and drawing conclusions based
  on scientific evidence.
• Behaviour is generally predictable.
• There are differences between individuals.
• There are fundamental consistencies.
• There are rules (written unwritten) in almost
  every setting.

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Contributing Disciplines to the OB Field

• Psychology
• Sociology
• Social Psychology
• Anthropology
• Political Science

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Developing an OB Model

• Dependent Variables
• Productivity
• Absenteeism
• Turnover
• Job Satisfaction
• Organizational Commitment
• Independent Variables
• Individual-Level Variables
• Group-Level Variables
• Organizational Systems-Level Variables

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Exhibit 1-5Basic OB Model, Stage I
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Summary and Implications

• Managers and employees need to develop their
  interpersonal, or people, skills to be effective
  in their jobs.
• OB is a field of study that investigates the
  impact that individuals, groups, and structure
  have on behaviour within an organization.
• OB focuses on improving productivity, employee
  job satisfaction and organizational commitment,
  and on reducing absenteeism and turnover.
• OB uses systematic study to improve predictions
  of behaviour.