The Field of Organizational Behavior

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CHAPTER-1

• The Field of Organizational Behavior

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Defining the field

• This is a field that seeks knowledge of all
  aspects of behavior in organizational settings

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Characteristics of the field

• Commitment to scientific field
• - systematic observation and measurement in order
• gain insights into the effects of organizations
  on people
• apply insights to improve organizational
  functioning

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Analyze the phenomena

• At three levels
• Individual-perceptions, attitudes, and motives
• group- communication and co-ordination
• Organizational- effects on individuals and groups

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Figure 1.2
Three Levels of Analysis Used in Organizational
Analysis
Organizational Processes (e.g., structure)
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Historical Overview of the field

• Scientific management
• Fredrick Winslow Taylor- founder of the approach
• Focus- emphasized the importance of designing the
  job as efficiently as possible
• Principles
• Careful selection and training of employees
• Wages should be commensurate with productivity

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Time and Motion Study

• Frank and Lilian Gilbreth
• Method- Classified and stream lined individual
  movements needed to perform a job
• Principle- One Best Wayto perform the job

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Human Relations Movement

• Elton Mayo
• Focus- the non economic social process in the
  work place
• Principle- Worker effectiveness depends on the
  physical aspects of working conditions and the
  social conditions they encounter

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Hawthorne Studies

• Illumination Studies
• Relay Room Studies
• Bank Wiring room Studies

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Classical Organizational Theory

• Henry Fayol
• Focus- The efficient structuring of the overall
  organizations
• Principles
• Division of labour
• managerial authority
• scalar chain
• Unity of command
• Subordinate Initiative

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Bureaucracy

• Max weber- a German classical organizational
  theorist proposed a form of organizational
  structure called bureaucracy
• Principle- Design the the organization ideally
  to operate efficiently through clear hierarchy of
  authority in which people perform well-defined
  objects.

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Fundamental Assumptions of Contemporary
Organizational Behavior

• Organizations can be made more productive while
  also improving the quality of peoples work life
• There is no one best approach to studying
  behavior in organizations
• Organizations are dynamic and ever changing

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Fundamental Assumptions

• Work can be both productive and pleasant
• Theory-X- people are lazy, irresponsible and must
  be forced to work
• Theory-Y- people are capable of working
  productively and accepting responsibility for
  their work

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Figure 1.7
Theory X Versus Theory Y
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Contingency Approach

• Behavior is contingent on many different
  variables at once
• personal characteristics
• Situational factors
• environmental factors

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Organizations are dynamic and ever changing

• Organizations are open systems
• - Self sustaining systems that transform input
  from the external environment into output, which
  the system then returns to the environment

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Figure 1.9
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International Business and Global Economy

• Globalization-
• process that is interconnecting the worlds
  people regarding the culture, political,
  technological and environmental aspects of their
  lives

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Increase in International Trade is due to

• Lowered cost of transportation and communication
• Less restrictive trade laws
• Expansion of third world countries

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International nature of todays Organization

• Multinational corporation(MNCs)-
• have significant operations spread throughout
  various nations but headquartered in a single
  nation

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Expatriates

• People who are citizens of one country but
  who live and work in another

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Culture and Its Impact

• Culture- Is a set of values, customs and beliefs
  people have in common with other members of a
  social unit
• Multicultural Society-A society with many
  different racial,ethnic,socio-economic and
  generational subgroups each with its own culture

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Culture and its Impact(continued)

• Subculture- A smaller cultural group, having its
  own well-defined culture, operating with larger
  primary culture
• Culture Shock-The tendency for people to become
  confused and disoriented when adjusting a new
  culture

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Repatriation

• The process of readjusting to ones own culture
  after spending time away from it

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Culture and its impact(contd)

• Parochial view- taking a narrow view of the world
  by believing there is one best way of doing
  things
• Ethnocentric view- Their way of doing things is
  best

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Culture and its Impact(contd)

• Convergence hypothesis- Principles of good
  management are universal and ones that work well
  with in the United States apply equally well in
  other nations
• Divergence Hypothesis--How to manage most
  effectively requires a clear understanding of the
  culture in which the people work

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Trends towards Diversity

• Melting-People from different racial, ethnic, and
  religious backgrounds are transformed into a
  common American Culture
• Cultural Pluralism- Social harmony does not
  require people from various cultures to
  assimilate or melt together into one but that
  peoples separate identities should be maintained
  and accepted by others

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Figure 1.11
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Demographic trends creating the diverse Work force

• Greater participation by women in work force
• Greater participation by racial and ethnic
  minorities
• People live and work longer

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Baby boom generation

• Generation of children born in the economic boom
  period following the world war ll

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Trends What todays companies are doing

• Child care facilities
• Elder care facilities
• Personal support policies

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Flexible New Working Arrangements

• Flextime programs- employees have discretion over
  when they can arrive and leave work, thereby
  making it easier to adapt their work schedules to
  the demands of their personal lives
• Improvements in performance and job satisfaction
• Less employee turnover and absenteeism

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Flexible, New Working Arrangements(contd)

• Compressed work week- work fewer days each week
  but longer hours each day(e.g., four 10hour days)
• Job sharing- form of regular part time work in
  which pairs of employees assume the duties of a
  single job,thus splitting its responsibilities,
  salary, and benefits

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Flexible, New Working Arrangements(contd)

• Voluntary reduced work time(V-time)- allow
  employees to reduce the amount of time they work
  by a certain amount with a proportional reduction
  in pay.
• -typically a 10-20 percent reduction in time
• -popular among various state agencies in the US

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Flexible, New Working Arrangements(contd)

• Telecommuting- use of communications technology
  to perform work from remote locations(e.g.,the
  home)

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Figure 1.14
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New Organizational Forms

• Leaner organizations- technology has made it
  possible for fewer people to do more work than
  ever before
• Informate-The process by which workers manipulate
  objects through inserting data between
  themselves and those objects

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New Organizational Forms(contd)

• Outsourcing- Hiring outside firms to perform
  non-core business operations(I.e., peripheral
  tasks) to enhance core competency
• core competency- organizations key capability

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New Organizational Forms(contd)

• Contingent Work Force- Temporary employees hired
  to work as needed for finite period of time
• -Includes freelancers, subcontractors, and
  independent professionals

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Virtual Corporation

• A highly flexible,temporary organization formed
  by a group of companies to a specific opportunity
• - various companies come together for special
  projects

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Quality Revolution

• Total Quality Management- organizational
  commitment to improving customer satisfaction by
  developing techniques to carefully manage output
  quality

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Quality Revolution

• Benchmarking-process of comparing ones own
  product or services with the best from ones
  competitors
• Quality control audits-careful examinations of
  how well a company meets its standards
• Malcolm Baldridge Award- Given annually to U.S
  companies that practise effective quality
  management and significantly improve the quality
  of their goods and services

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Corporate Social Responsibility

• Public is increasingly intolerant of unethical
  behavior in organizations

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Promoting ethical behavior in organizations

• Code of ethics- describes what an organization
  stands for and the general rules of conduct it
  expects from employees(e.g., to avoid conflicts
  of interest, to be honest, and so on)

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Promoting ethical behavior (contd)

• Ethics audit- process of actively investigating
  and documenting incidents of dubious ethical
  value within the company
• Challenge rationalizations-examine excuses for
  unethical behavior

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The End