publi. ad chapter 7

8/3/2019 Publi. AD Chapter 7

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Chapter 7

Organizational Behavior


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Organizational Behavior

Focus on the understanding of humanbehavior in organization.

Hugo Munsterberg pioneered the application

of psychological findings from laboratoryexperiments to practical matters.

He sought to match the abilities of new hireswith a companys work demands, to positivelyinfluence employee attitudes toward theirwork and their company, and to understandthe impact of psychological conditions onemployee productively.


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In contrast on organizational behavior, a newstyle of applied behavioral science emerged.

It focused attention on seeking to answerquestions such as how organizations could

encourage their workers to grow and develop.

The belief was that organizational creativity,flexibility, and prosperity would flow naturallyfrom employee growth and development.

According to Munsterbergs day did notbelieve that codependence was the rightrelationship between an organization and itsemployees.


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The whole purpose of organization theory isto create mechanisms for regulating thebehavior of people in organizations.

Analyzing organizations focused on people,groups, and the relationships among themand the organizational environment. It wasbuilt around 4 assumptions (pg.271).

Previously, there was no concern about whatthe workers would think about such changes.


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The assumptions of the Munsterbergtraditional perspective continue to be aliveand well in many less-sophisticated

organizations where it is still assumed thatpeople should be fitted to the organization.

Yet, under the right circumstances, peopleand organizations will grow and prospertogether.


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Group Dynamics

The workplace organizations have been

constructed on the foundation principles of

specialization and division of labor.

The result from specialization is employee

learning curves are minimized.

Work groups attract people with like

backgrounds. All such shared backgroundsinvolve the socialization of people into

common value/belief/behavior systems.


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Develop their own sets of norms of behavioralassumptions about things like the nature of theirorganizational environment and appropriaterelations with other groups.

All groups expect their members to conform; to their norms.

Motivate employees through combinations ofrewards and punishments.

Acceptance of and adherence to groupnorms permits people to know what to expectfrom each other and to predict what othermembers will do in different circumstances.


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Group dynamics is the subfield of

organization behavior concerned with the

nature of groups, how they develop, and how

they interrelate with individuals and othergroups.

Usually the term group refers to what is

more technically known as a primary group.

There are two basic kinds of primary groups:

formal and informal.


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Formal groups are officially created by a

larger organization, usually for the purpose of

accomplishing tasks.

There are two basics types of formal groups.

There are command groups that are specified

in a formal organization chart.

Second, there are task groups.


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Informal groups are made up of individualswho have spontaneously developedrelationships and patterns of interactions inwork situation.

Their primary reasons for existence arefriendship, affiliation, and sharedinterests.

Their norms, values, beliefs, andexpectations have significant impacts onwork-related behavior and attitudes.


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Organization Development

Organization development (OD) is planned

organizational change.

The responsibility of OD advisers, specialists

on applied behavioral science, is to facilitate

change to use their knowledge of the

behavioral sciences for organizational

improvement. Can be internal/external independent

consultants.


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A frequently desired change is the installationof a beneficent managerial philosophy.

More modest goals might be the creation of

an atmosphere of trust in order to facilitatecommunications or the development ofparticipatory mechanisms that wouldstimulate productivity.

OD itself is not a philosophy. It is an approachor strategy for increasing organizationaleffectiveness.


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It is usually associated with the idea that

effectiveness is found by integrating the

individuals desire for growth with

organizational goals.

There is no universal OD model that can

easily be plugged into a trouble

organization.

The basic task of the OD adviser is to adaptappropriate portions of the generally available

OD technology to the immediate demands of

his or her organizational problem.


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The OD adviser must be thoroughly

conversant with the findings of thebehavioral technology of modern

management. The OD process is made all the more difficult

to implement in the public sector.

Employee participation and collaborationprobably would create a great sense of shock

and suspicion among employees.


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All changes in organizational climate orculture must be well planned in advance andimplemented gradually.

OD is not something that can beaccomplished in an afternoon.

It is a slow process and requires thecommitment and cooperation of all of theprincipal actors in the organizational drama.

All OD models is the education of topmanagement in basic OD objectives andstrategies.


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OD as a process is one that must flow from

the top down.

OD is concerned with deep, long-lasting

organization-wide change or improvement not in superficial changes in isolated

organization pockets.

OD advisers have developed numerous

strategies and techniques for improving

organization.


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Most of them utilize interventions

facilitated by outsiders. Some of the most

common strategies include organizational

diagnosis, process consultation, teambuilding, action research, data feedback,job

enlargement,job enrichment,

and conflict management.


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The specific understanding of organizational

behavior-oriented change processes was

came out of the sensitivity training (orT-

group) movement. (pg.277)

The early T-groups focused primarily on

individual growth and development, they

quickly were adapted for organizational

application.


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T-group became the method by whichorganizational members learned how tocommunicate honestly and directlyabout facts and feelings.

Thus T-groups became a keystonestrategy for increasing organizationaleffectiveness by improving interpersonalcommunications, reducing defensiveness,and otherwise helping organizations achievegreater effectiveness through thedevelopment of coping processes.


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The meaning of coping is twofold: coping withthe job and coping with fellow workers.

But the T-group needed to be part of a larger

overarching methodology, that issurvey research methodology.

The action research model is a process forindentifying needs for organizationalimprovement.

There are 5 steps for action research(pg.277).


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Social change must be viewed as a three-

step process of unfreezing, change, and

refreezing.

The process is called action researchbecause the thing being experimented on, the

organization, is constantly in action.

The ultimate question here is notwhether

organization should change.


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The home you left, because ofthe simple

passage oftime,isno longerthe home to

which you return.

OD as planned change is just a tool formanagers to gain control of and give direction

to the inevitable changes within

their organizations.


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The Impact of Personality

There was an inherent conflict between the

mature adult personality and the needs of

modern organizations.

While this nicely dovetailed withconcerns for greater productivity and

effectiveness, the inherent problem of

personality was not so much superseded

as ignored.


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After all, in the era of equal employmentopportunity and workforce diversity, efforts toaddress the impact of individual personalitieson organizations could be dangerous.

Nevertheless, organizational analysts haveonce again begun, despite the diversity issueminefield, to look anew at theimpact of personality.


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There are four basic human temperaments

first described in ancient Greece which are

still commonly used today.

Sanguine (optimistic and energetic)

Melancholic (moody and

withdrawn )

Choleric (irritable and impulsive)

Phlegmatic (calm and slow)


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The Impact of Bureaucratic

Structure on Behavior

Each organization has structures that definethe unique ways labor is divided, howspecialized roles and functions arecoordinated, how information flows amongpeople and groups, and how the system tocontrols is to work.

In the form of an organization chart,establish how roles, expectations, and

resource allocations are determined forpeople and groups in any given organization.


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Attitudes and behavior are also shaped

by peer group pressure, shared group

norms of behavior, social and technical

aspects of work tasks, and the organizationinternal and external.

The structures of a large bureaucracy are

inherently conservative in that they

are slow to change.


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The ideal structural form inside thebureaucracy allowed for pervasivecontrol from the top of an organization

pyramid. But tight control is a good news/bad news

story.

Employees in organizational straitjackets;

are unlikely to exercise initiative.


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Bureaucratic Dysfunctions

Contemporary writers have argued that

bureaucracies have inherent dysfunctional

and pathological elements that make

them inefficient in operations. Merton found that bureaucracies have a

trained incapacity.

Bureaucracy exerts constant pressures

on people to be methodical anddisciplined, to conform to patternsof obligations.


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Bureaucratic structure also stressesdepersonalized relations, and power andauthority gained by virtue oforganizational position rather than thought oraction.

There is a danger that a leader will sufferfrom evaporation.

As a form of organization, bureaucracy hasmany advantages: order, predictability,stability, professionalism, and consistency.


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Nevertheless, the behavior consequences of

bureaucratic structure are often negative.

All-too-familiar bureaupathic official.


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Bureaucratic Impersonality

Administrative characterized by such

irrational elements as nepotism, personal subjugation, and capricious

and uninformedjudgment,impersonality can be seen as a step in the

direction of greater rationality.

It has three major advantages.

First, it increases organizational effectivenessby enabling administrators to do things that

are otherwise difficult for people to do.


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Secondly, efficiency also suffers when

emotions or personal considerations

influence administrative decisions.

Finally, impersonality tends to producerelatively evenhanded rule application.By the book behavior requires equal

treatment of those in the same categories,

regardless of their social status. Denied that it was an abridgment of anyones

freedom to do the general will.


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Although impersonality may further

procedural justice, it may at the same time fail

to provide substantive or actual justice.

The decisions bureaucrats reach may fail tofit the individual cases in terms of providing a

just resolution.

Tendency of bureaucracy has often aroused

considerable hostility sometimeseven violence.


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Motivation

The perennial problem for managers isto motivate the workers to do more than is

minimally necessary to keep that job.

While there always has been consensusabout the need for motivated employees, the

same cannot be said for beliefs about how to

induce higher levels of motivation and

concomitant productivity.


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Some theories assume that employees act

rationally: Managers simply need to

manipulate rewards and punishments

logically, fairly, and consistently. Other theories start from the position that

managerial assumption about employees

which undergird such systems of

rewards and punishments actually stifle employee motivation.


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The Hawthorne Experiments

The experiments started out as traditionalscientific management examinations of therelationship between work environment andproductivity.

Factories and other work situations are first ofall social situations.

The workers, as Mary Parker Follett hadsuggested a decade earlier, were moreresponsive to peer pressure than tomanagement controls.


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Redefined the Hawthorne problems as social

psychological problems in such terms as

interpersonal relations in groups, group

norms, control over ones own environment,and personal recognition.

They showed that complex, interactional

variables make the difference in motivating

people. The Hawthorne effect


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The Needs Hierarchy

Maslow asserted that humans had five sets of

goals or basic needs arranged in a hierarchy

of prepotency: (1) physiological needs,

(2)safety needs, (3) love or affiliation needs,(4) esteem needs, and (5)self-actualization

needs.


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The Motivation-Hygiene Theory

Five factors were isolated as determiners of

job satisfaction: (1) achievement, (2)

recognition, (3) work itself,(4)

responsibilities, and (5) advancement. Five factors associated withjob

dissatisfaction were similarly realized: (1)

company policy and administration, (2)

supervision, (3) salary, (4) interpersonalrelations, (5) working conditions.


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The satisfying factors were all related tojobcontent, the dissatisfaction factors tothe environmental context of the job.

The opposite of job satisfaction would not bejob dissatisfaction, but rather NO jobsatisfaction; and similarly the opposite of jobdissatisfaction is NO job dissatisfaction - not

job satisfaction.


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The environment context of jobs were served

as preventatives, they termed hygiene

factors. The job-content factors were

termed motivators because these are thethings that motivate people to superior

performance.

At the psychological level, the two dimensions

of job attitudes reflected a two-dimensionalneed structure.

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