final ob intro class

WHAT IS ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIORChapter 1, Stephen P. Robbins and Nancy Langton, Fundamentals of Organizational Behaviour, Second Canadian Edition. Copyright © 2004 Pearson Education Canada Inc.
Chapter 1
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Chapter 1, Stephen P. Robbins and Nancy Langton, Fundamentals of Organizational Behaviour, Second Canadian Edition. Copyright © 2004 Pearson Education Canada Inc.
What is Organizational Behaviour?
What is organizational behaviour?
What challenges do managers and employees face in the workplace of the 21st century?
How does knowing about organizational behaviour make work and life more understandable?
Isn’t organizational behaviour common sense? Or just psychology?
What are the building blocks to understanding organizational behaviour?
Questions for Consideration
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Organizational Behaviour
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This material is found in more detail on page 3.
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
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This is one of the slides I use on the first day of class to help motivate the course.
Exhibit 1-1 Challenges Facing the Workplace
Workplace
Group Level
The material for this illustration is found on page 5.
Today’s Challenges in the Canadian Workplace
Challenges at the Individual Level
Job Satisfaction
Working With Others
This material is found in more detail on pages 5-9.
1. In a 2002 survey of 1100 Canadian and American employees, more than half reported negative feelings about their jobs.
2. Overall job satisfaction in the Canadian workplace has been declining.
• In 1991, 62% of employees reported they were highly satisfied with their jobs.
In 2001, only 45% of employees reported they were highly satisfied with their jobs.
3. Managers are empowering employees. They are putting employees in charge of what they do. And, in the process, managers are learning how to give up control, and employees are learning how to take responsibility for their work and make appropriate decisions.
4. In addition to the more obvious groups—women, First Nations peoples, Asian Canadians, African Canadians, Indo-Canadians—the workplace also includes people with disabilities, gays and lesbians, and the elderly.
Today’s Challenges in the Canadian Workplace
Challenges at the Organizational Level
Productivity
Managing and Working in a Global Village
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1. Absences in 2001 resulted in the loss of 3.4% of weekly work time. Absenteeism’s annual cost has been estimated at over $18 billion for Canadian firms and $60 billion for U.S. organizations.
2. In recent years, Canadian businesses have faced tough competition from the United States, Europe, Japan, and even China. To survive, they have had to cut fat, increase productivity, and improve quality.
3. As multinational corporations develop operations worldwide, as companies develop joint ventures with foreign partners, and as workers increasingly pursue job opportunities across national borders, managers and employees must become capable of working with people from different cultures.
Productivity
Productivity
Effectiveness
Efficiency
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This material is found in more detail on pages 9.
Effective Employees
Turnover
Organizational citizenship behaviour
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Exhibit 1-2 Companies Respected for their HR Management
1.
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The Globe and Mail
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Many of the firms that made the KPMG-Ipsos-Reid top 10 list of Most Respected Corporations for Human Resource Management also scored high on financial performance, and investment value.
Five of the companies placed in the top 10 on both financial measures
Eight scored in the top 10 of at least one of the financial measures.
How Will Knowing OB Make a Difference?
For Managers
Knowing organizational behaviour can help you manage well and makes for better corporations.
Managing people well leads to greater organizational commitment.
Finally, managing well may improve organizational citizenship.
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The material for this illustration is found on pages 13-14.
Organizational commitment refers to an employee’s emotional attachment to the organization, resulting in identification and involvement with the organization.
This type of commitment is often called affective commitment and represents the attitude of managers and employees who go beyond expected behaviours to provide extra service, extra insight, or whatever else is needed to get the job done.
How Will Knowing OB Make a Difference?
For Individuals
What if I’m not going to work in a large organization?
The theories generally apply to organizations of any size.
What if I don’t want to be a manager?
To some extent, the roles of managers and employees are becoming blurred in many organizations.
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Organization: A consciously coordinated social unit, composed of a group of people, that functions on a relatively continuous basis to achieve a common goal or set of goals.
Bottom Line: OB Is For Everyone
Organizational behaviour is not just for managers.
The roles of managers and employees are becoming blurred in many organizations.
Managers are increasingly asking employees to share in their decision-making processes rather than simply follow orders.
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Contributing Disciplines to the OB Field
Psychology
Sociology
This material is found in more detail on pages 15-16
Psychology is the science that seeks to measure, explain, and sometimes change the behaviour of humans and other animals.
Sociology: Whereas psychologists focus on the individual, sociologists study the social system in which individuals fill their roles; that is, sociology studies people in relation to other human beings.
Social psychology is an area within psychology, but it blends concepts from psychology and sociology. It focuses on the influence of people on one another. One of the major areas receiving considerable investigation from social psychologists has been change--how to implement it and how to reduce barriers to its acceptance. processes.
Anthropology is the study of societies to learn about human beings and their activities. Anthropologists’ work on cultures and environments, for instance, has helped us understand differences in fundamental values, attitudes, and behaviour between people in different countries and within different organizations.
Political science studies the behaviour of individuals and groups within a political environment. Specific topics of concern include structuring of conflict, allocation of power, and the manipulation of power for individual self-interest.
Exhibit 1-3
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The Rigour of OB
OB looks at consistencies
OB is more than common sense
Systematic study, based on scientific evidence
OB has few absolutes
Considers behaviour in context
This would be a good place to get students’ views on questions such as: (1) Are happy workers always productive workers? (2) Are individuals always more productive when their boss is a real “people person?” (3) Does everyone want a challenging job?
Beyond Common Sense
Systematic Study
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Exhibit 1-4
Summary and Implications
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, reducing absenteeism and turnover, and increasing employee job satisfaction and organizational commitment.
OB uses systematic study to improve predictions of behaviour.
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OB at Work
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For Review
1. Define organizational behaviour.
2. What is an organization? Is the family unit an organization? Explain.
3. “Behaviour is generally predictable, so there is no need to formally study OB.” Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Why?
4. What are some of the challenges and opportunities that managers face as we move into the 21st century?
5. What are the three levels of analysis in our OB model? Are they related? If so, how?
6. Why is job satisfaction an important consideration for OB?
7. What are effectiveness and efficiency, and how are they related to organizational behaviour?
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For Critical Thinking
1. “The best way to view OB is through a contingency approach.” Build an argument to support this statement.
2. “OB is for everyone.” Build an argument to support this statement.
3. Why do you think the subject of OB might be criticized as being “only common sense,” when one would rarely hear such a criticism of a course in physics or statistics? Do you think this criticism of OB is fair?
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Learning About Yourself
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The material for this exercise is found on page 23.
Use this to remind students of the scoring key as they fill out the survey.
Learning About Yourself Exercise
5. Motivating others
7. Planning
8. Organizing
9. Controlling
11. Evaluating routine information
14. Interpersonal communication
15. Developing subordinates
16. Team building
23. Negotiating agreement and commitment
24. Negotiating and selling ideas
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Ask students for a show of hands to determine which skills they deem most important. You can then related this to the competing values framework to indicate which areas of OB/mgt. behaviour would be weakened because of omitted skills.
Breakout Group Exercises
Form small groups to discuss the following topics:
1. Consider a group situation in which you have worked. To what extent did the group rely on the technical skills of the group members vs. their interpersonal skills? Which skills seemed most important in helping the group function well?
2. Identify some examples of “worst jobs.” What conditions of these jobs made them unpleasant? To what extent were these conditions related to behaviours of individuals?
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Working With Others Exercise
This exercise asks you to consider the skills outlined in the Competing Values Framework to develop an understanding of managerial expertise. Steps 1–4 can be completed in 15–20 minutes.
1. Using the skills listed in “Learning About Yourself,” identify the 4 skills that you think all managers should have.
2. Identify the 4 skills that you think are least important for managers to have.
3. In groups of 5–7, reach a consensus on the most-needed and least-needed skills identified in Steps 1 and 2.
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From Concepts to Skills
Exhibit 1-5
In teaching this, you may want to start by having students do the Learning about Yourself and Working with Others exercises on pages 23 and 24. Debriefing the exercise will provide information about what skills students think are important, and what skills they believe they already have.
You can then point to the skill gaps, and the problems that organizations and managers would face as a result.
Competing Values Framework
Inwardly toward employee needs and concerns and/or production processes and internal systems
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Outwardly, toward such factors as the marketplace, government regulations, and the changing social, environmental, and technological conditions of the future
Flexibility-Control Dimension
Flexible and dynamic, allowing more teamwork and participation; seeking new opportunities for products and services
or
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Exhibit 1-6 Skills for Mastery in the New Workplace
Source: R.E. Quinn. Beyond Rational Management. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc., 1988, p. 48.
Flexibility
Internal
External
Control
Mentor
Innovator
Supplemental Material
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Exercise
Pick an interviewer
Decide on questions or topics you want interviewer to ask me
The interview
Introduce interviewer to me and the class
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On the first day of class I permit students to do a round-robin interview of me—each group asks one question, and we go around the room, several times until all questions have been answered. I let them ask anything they want: about the course, about me, about anything the want to know. I have found this has worked well to set the tone that all questions will be treated with respect (even if in some cases I do not give them the answer they request—for instance, my salary). I have done this for years, and have been quite happy with the results.
Figure 1.6 Diversity
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Figure 1.6 illustrates the characteristics used to define the bases of diversity.
Insert Figure 1.1 here
Figure 1.1 illustrates how organizational behavior concepts and theories allow people to correctly understand, describe, and analyze the characteristics of individuals, groups, work situations, and the organization itself.
Exhibit 1-2
Research Methods in OB
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Exhibit 1-2
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Exhibit 1-2
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Flexibility
Control
Mentor
Innovator
Broker
Facilitator
Monitor
Producer
Coordinator
Director
Roles and Skills in the New Workplace
Autocratic
Custodial
Supportive
Collegial
System
Social Organization BADHON
Some Corporate Firm
Personality
Perception
Learning
Work Stress

final ob intro class

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