organizational behavior chapter 1

Introduction tothe Field ofOrganizational Behavior

McGraw-Hill/IrwinMcShane/Von Glinow OB 5e Copyright © 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

John LassiterChief Creative Officerof Pixar and Disney

Pixar Animation Studios

OB practices have helped Pixar Animation Studios to become the world’s most successful animation studio• Employee competencies• People-centered• Teamwork and org learning• Constructive conflict

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John LassiterChief Creative Officerof Pixar and Disney

Organizational Behavior and Organizations Organizational behavior

• The study of what people think, feel, and do in and around organizations

Organizations• Groups of people who work

interdependently toward some purpose

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OB Foundations

Distinct field around the 1940s OB concepts discussed for more

than 2,000 years Some pivotal scholars before OB

formed include:• Max Weber• Frederick Winslow Taylor• Elton Mayo• Chester Barnard (shown)• Mary Parker Follett

Chester Barnard

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Why Study OB?

Satisfy the need to understand and predict Helps us to test personal theories Influence behavior – get things done OB improves an organization’s financial

health OB is for everyone

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Old Perspective ofOrganizational Effectiveness Goal oriented -- Effective

firms achieve their stated objectives

No longer accepted as indicator of org effectiveness• Could set easy goals• Some goals too abstract to

evaluate• Company might achieve

wrong goals

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Four Perspectives of Organizational Effectiveness

Stakeholder Perspective

High-Performance WP Perspective

Organizational Learning Perspective

Open Systems Perspective

NOTE: Need to consider all four perspectives when assessing a company’s effectiveness

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Organizations are complex systems that “live” within (and depend upon) the external environment

Effective organizations• Maintain a close “fit” with changing conditions• Transform inputs to outputs efficiently and

flexibly

Open systems perspective lays the foundation for the other three perspectives or organizational effectiveness

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FeedbackFeedback

FeedbackFeedback

Environment

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Organizational Learning Perspective

An organization’s capacity to acquire, share, use, and store valuable knowledge

Need to consider both stock and flow of knowledge• Stock: intellectual capital• Flow: org learning processes of acquisition,

sharing, and use

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Intellectual Capital

Relationship Relationship CapitalCapital

Value derived from satisfied customers, reliable suppliers, etc.

Structural CapitalStructural CapitalKnowledge captured in systems and structures

HumanHumanCapitalCapital

Knowledge that people possess and generate

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Organizational Learning Processes (also known as Knowledge Management)

Applying knowledge to organizational processes in ways that improves the organization’s effectiveness

Distributing knowledge throughout the organization

Extracting information and ideas from its environment as well as through insight

KNOWLEDGEACQUISITIONKNOWLEDGEACQUISITION

KNOWLEDGESHARING

KNOWLEDGESHARING

KNOWLEDGEUSE

KNOWLEDGEUSE

Examples in practice

Hiring skilled staff

Posting case studies on intranet

Giving staff freedom to try out ideas

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High Performance Work Practices (HPWPs)

HPWPs are internal systems and structures that are associated with successful companies

1. Employees are competitive advantage

2. Value of employees increased through specific practices.

3. Maximum benefit when org practices are bundled

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High Performance Work Practices

No consensus, but HPWPs include:

• Employee involvement and job autonomy (and their combination as self-directed teams).

• Employee competence (training, selection, etc.).

• Performance-based rewards

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Stakeholders: any entity who affects or is affected by the firm’s objectives and actions

Personalizes the open systems perspective

Challenges with stakeholder perspective:

• Stakeholders have conflicting interests• Firms have limited resources

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Lockheed Martin is rated by engineering students as an “ideal” employer• Pays attention to its many

stakeholders• Relies on values and ethics to

guide decisions• Strong emphasis on corporate

social responsibility (e.g. photo shows clean-up after hurricane Katrina)

Lockheed Martin

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Stakeholders: Values and Ethics Values and ethics prioritize

stakeholder interests Values

• Stable, evaluative beliefs, guide preferences for outcomes or courses of action in various situations

Ethics• Moral principles/values,

determine whether actions are right/wrong and outcomes are good or bad

Lockheed Martin

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Stakeholders and CSR

Stakeholder perspective includes corporate social responsibility (CSR)• Benefit society and

environment beyond the firm’s immediate financial interests or legal obligations

• Organization’s contract with society

Triple bottom line• Economy, society, environment

Lockheed Martin

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Types of Individual Behavior

Organizational Organizational CitizenshipCitizenship

Contextual performance – cooperation and helpfulness beyond required job duties

Task PerformanceTask PerformanceGoal-directed behaviors under person’s control

more

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Types of Individual Behavior (con’t)

Maintaining Work Maintaining Work AttendanceAttendance

Attending work at required times

Joining/staying with Joining/staying with the Organizationthe Organization

Agreeing to employment relationship; remaining in that relationship

Counterproductive Counterproductive Work BehaviorsWork Behaviors

Voluntary behaviors that potentially harm the organization

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Globalization

Economic, social, and cultural connectivity with people in other parts of the world

Effects of globalization on organizations• New structures• Increasing diversity• Increasing competitive pressures,

intensification

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Increasing Workforce Diversity Surface-level diversity

• Observable demographic and other overt differences in people (e.g. race, ethnicity, gender, age)

Deep-level diversity• Differences in psychological characteristics (e.g.

personalities, beliefs, values, and attitudes)• Example: Differences across age cohorts (e.g. Gen-

Y) Implications

• Leveraging the diversity advantage• Also diversity challenges (e.g. teams, conflict)• Ethical imperative of diversity

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Employment Relationships

Work/life balance • Minimizing conflict between work and nonwork

demands number one indicator of career success

Virtual work• Using information technology to perform one’s job away

from the traditional physical workplace• Telework – issues of replacing face time, clarifying

employment expectations

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Organizational Behavior Anchors

Multidisciplinary anchor• Many OB concepts adopted from other disciplines• OB develops its own theories, but scans other fields

Systematic research anchor• OB researchers rely on scientific method• Should apply evidence-based management, but…

- Bombarded with theories and models- Challenge translating general theories to specific situations- Swayed by consultant marketing- Perceptual biases -- ignoring evidence contrary to our beliefs

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Organizational Behavior Anchors (con’t)

Contingency anchor• A particular action may have different consequences

in different situations• Need to diagnose the situation and select best

strategy under those conditions

Multiple levels of analysis anchor• Individual, team, organizational level of analysis• OB topics usually relevant at all three levels of

analysis

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KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT Knowledge – is the driver of competitive advantage. Knowledge management processes

• Knowledge acquisition- Occurs when information is brought into the

organization from the external environment.- Include hiring people, acquiring companies and

scanning the environment.• Knowledge sharing

- Occurs through electronic whiteboards, wikis blogs and other computer-mediated technology.

• Knowledge use- Application of knowledge to organizational processes

in ways that improve the organisation’s effectiveness.

McShane/Von Glinow OB 5e© 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights

reserved26

ORGANIZATIONAL MEMORY

The storage and preservation of intellectual capital

Retain intellectual capital by:• Keeping knowledgeable employees• Transferring knowledge to others• Transferring human capital to structural

capital Successful companies also unlearn

McShane/Von Glinow OB 5e© 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights

reserved27

organizational behavior chapter 1

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