Wk 1

• Organizational behavior (OB)


  A field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behavior within organizations for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organization's effectiveness
• Importance of interpersonal skills in the workplace

  • Good places to work have better financial performance
  • Better interpersonal skills result in lower turnover of quality employees and higher quality applications for recruitment
  • Strong association between the quality of workplace relationships and job satisfaction, stress, and turnover
  • Fosters social responsibility awareness
• Manager


  Someone who gets things done through other people in organizations
• Organization


  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
• Manager's functions


  • Planning
  • Organizing
  • Leading
  • Controlling
• Mintzberg's managerial roles


  • Figurehead
  • Leader
  • Liaison
  • Monitor
  • Disseminator
  • Spokesperson
  • Entrepreneur
  • Resource allocator
  • Negotiator
• Management skills


  • Technical skills
  • Human skills
  • Conceptual skills
• Managerial activities


  • Traditional management
  • Communication
  • Human resource management
  • Networking
• Effective versus successful managerial activities
• Evidence-based management (EBM) complements systematic study and intuition
• Big data


  The use of big data for managerial practices is a relatively new area, but one that holds convincing promise
• Behavioral science disciplines that contribute to OB

  • Psychology
  • Social psychology
  • Sociology
  • Anthropology
• Psychology


  Seeks to measure, explain, and sometimes change the behavior of humans and other animals
• Social psychology


  Blends the concepts of psychology and sociology
• Sociology


  Studies people in relation to their social environment or culture
• Anthropology


  The study of societies to learn about human beings and their activities
• There are few, if any, simple and universal principles that explain organizational behavior
• Contingency variables


  Situational factors that moderate the relationship between the independent and dependent variables
• Challenges and opportunities of OB concepts

  • Responding to economic pressure
  • Responding to globalization
  • Managing workforce diversity
  • Improving customer service
  • Improving people skills
  • Working in networked organizations
  • Using social media at work
  • Enhancing employee well-being at work
  • Creating a positive work environment
  • Improving ethical behavior
• Levels of analysis in OB model

  • Inputs
  • Processes
  • Outcomes
• Outcome variables


  • Attitudes and stress
  • Task performance
  • Organizational citizenship behavior
  • Withdrawal behavior
  • Group cohesion and functioning
  • Productivity and survival
• The plan of the text
• Implications for managers


  • Resist the inclination to rely on generalizations
  • Use metrics and situational variables rather than "hunches" to explain cause-and-effect relationships
  • Work on your interpersonal skills to increase your leadership potential
  • Improve your technical skills and conceptual skills through training and staying current with OB trends like big data and fast data
  • OB can improve your employees' work quality and productivity
• The three types of motivation are intrinsic, extrinsic, and social.
• Intrinsic motivation is the desire to do something because it is inherently interesting or enjoyable.
• Extrinsic motivation refers to doing an activity to gain some separable outcome other than the activity itself.