Organizational Behavior

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Organizational Behavior

• Darren C. Treadway, Ph.D.

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Organizations are

• Organizations are assemblages of interacting
  human beings, and they are the largest
  assemblages in our society that have any
  resembling a central coordinative systemThe high
  specificity of structure and coordination within
  organizationsas contrasted with the diffuse and
  variable relations among organizations and among
  unorganized individualsmarks off the individual
  organization as a sociological unit comparable in
  significance to the individual organism in
  biology (March Simon, 19584)

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Organizations are

• A consciously coordinated social unit, composed
  of two or more people, that functions on a
  relatively continuous basis to achieve a common
  goal or set of goals.
• Organizations are collectivities oriented to the
  pursuit of relatively specific goals and
  exhibiting relatively highly formalized social
  structures (Scott, 2001)

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Three Views of Organizations

• Rational
• Natural
• Open

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Views of Organizations..

• Rational Systems
• Characteristics
• Goal specificity
• Formalization
• Organizations are collectivities oriented to
  pursuit of relatively specific goals and
  exhibiting highly formalized social structures.

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Views of Organizations..

• Natural Systems
• Organizations are collectivities whose
  participants are pursuing multiple interests,
  both disparate and common, but recognize the
  value of perpetuating the organization as an
  important resource. The informal structure of
  relations that develops among participants
  provides a more informative and accurate guide to
  understanding organizational behavior.
• Consensus vs. Conflict

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Views of Organizations..

• Open Systems
• Organizations are systems of interdependent
  activities linking shifting coalitions of
  participants the systems are embedded in
  dependent on continuing exchanges with and
  constituted by- the environments in which they
  operate.

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Enter Organizational Behavior
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Contributing Disciplines to the OB Field
1-3a
E X H I B I T
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Contributing Disciplines to the OB Field (contd)
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Contributing Disciplines to the OB Field (contd)
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Contributing Disciplines to the OB Field (contd)
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Contributing Disciplines to the OB Field (contd)
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Challenges and Opportunity for OB

• Responding to Globalization
• Managing Workforce Diversity
• Improving Quality and Productivity
• Responding to the Labor Shortage
• Improving Customer Service

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Challenges and Opportunity for OB (contd)

• Improving People Skills
• Empowering People
• Coping with Temporariness
• Stimulation Innovation and Change
• Helping Employees Balance Work/Life Conflicts
• Improving Ethical Behavior

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The Dependent Variables
y
x
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The Dependent Variables (contd)
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The Dependent Variables (contd)
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The Dependent Variables (contd)
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The Dependent Variables (contd)
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The Independent Variables
IndependentVariables
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There Are Few Absolutes in OB
ContingencyVariables
x
y
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End Day 1