Thomson South-Western Wagner & Hollenbeck 5e

1

Organizational Organizational BehaviorBehavior

Securing Competitive Advantage

Thomson South-Western Wagner & Hollenbeck 5e

2

Chapter OneChapter One

Organizational Behavior

3

Chapter Overview This chapter examines the following topics:

– Defining Organizational Behavior• Micro Organizational Behavior• Meso Organizational Behavior• Macro Organizational Behavior

– Contemporary Issues• Workforce Diversity• Team Productivity• Organizational Adaptability• International Growth and Development

– Putting Organizational Behavior Knowledge to Work• Diagnosis• Solution• Action• Evaluation• Becoming an Active Problem Solver

– Overview of the Text

4

Introduction

Throughout the world, workplace productivity has grown steadily for more than a decade, allowing standards of living to rise significantly without the threat of significant economic inflation

With recent technological advancements in such areas as information systems, manufacturing processes, inventory management, and service delivery, the current trend of increasing productivity ,may extend well into the future

Nonetheless, individual companies sometimes run into productivity problems

5

Ford Motor Company Example

This company currently faces problems as a result of:– Fierce competition in the automotive

manufacturing industry• Aggressive discounting by domestic manufacturers

• Attractive pricing by international competitors

CEO William Clay “Bill” Ford, Jr. faces the undaunting tasks of:– Cutting up to $4.5 billion in expenses– Updating aging product lines– Shoring up falling quality

6

Ford Motor Company ExampleWhat Would You Do If……

…you were a manager in a company like Ford Motor Company?

How would you improve employee productivity in the face of unacceptably high production costs?

…initial assessments indicate that productivity lapses are due to poor employee motivation, what would you do to solve this problem?

7

The Ford Motor Company Case Indicates…

…the know-how needed to solve motivational productivity problems can be found in the field of organizational behavior

The management of people through the application of knowledge from the field of organizational behavior is a primary means through which competitive advantage can be created and sustained

8

Defining Organizational Behavior

Organizational behavior is a field of study that endeavors to understand, explain, predict, and change human behavior as it occurs in the organizational context

There are three important considerations underlying this definition:– Organizational behavior

focuses on observable behaviors– Organizational behavior

involves the analysis of how people behave both as individuals and as members of groups and organizations

– Organizational behavior assesses the behavior of groups and organizations per se

9

Defining Organizational Behavior The field of organizational

behavior traces its roots back to the late 1940s when researchers in psychology, sociology, political science, economics, and other social sciences joined together in an effort to develop a comprehensive body of organizational research

It is now divided into three distinct subfields

10

Micro Organizational Behavior

Micro organizational behavior is concerned mainly with the behaviors of individuals working alone

Three subfields of psychology were the principal contributors to the beginnings of micro organizational behavior:– Experimental psychology: provided theories of

learning, motivation, perception, and stress– Clinical psychology: furnished models of personality

and human development– Industrial psychology: offered theories of employee

selection, workplace attitudes, and performance assessment

11

Meso Organizational Behavior

Meso organizational behavior is a middle ground, bridging the other two subfields of organizational behavior

It focuses primarily on understanding the behaviors of people working together in teams or groups

In addition to sharing the origins of the other two subfields, meso organizational behavior grew out of research in the fields of communication, social psychology, and interactionist sociology

12

Macro Organizational Behavior

Macro organizational behavior focuses on understanding the behaviors of entire organizations

The origins of macro organizational behavior can be traced to four disciplines:– Sociology: provided theories of structure, social status,

and institutional relations– Political science: offered theories of power, conflict,

bargaining, and control– Anthropology: contributed theories of symbolism,

cultural influence, and comparative analysis– Economics: furnished theories of competition and

efficiency

13

Contemporary Issues

The three subfields of organizational behavior offers valuable information, insight, and advice to managers facing the challenge of understanding and reacting to a broad range of contemporary management issues

Today’s managers find four of these issues especially important

14

Contemporary Issues: Workforce Diversity

Within the societal cultures of the United States and Canada, subcultural differences once ignored by many managers now command significant attention and sensitivity

Historically, the North American workforce has consisted primarily of white males; however today white males make up only about 15% of business new hires in the U.S., whereas women, African American, Hispanic, and Asian men account for increasingly large segments of the U.S. workforce

Knowledge about the workplace consequences of these differences, drawn from the subfield of micro organizational behavior, can provide managers with help in this regard

15

Contemporary Issues: Team Productivity

Management is becoming less of a process relying on top-down command and control

For various reasons organizations now use greater amounts of empowerment

Often empowerment is accomplished by grouping employees into teams, then giving those teams responsibility for self-management activities

Guidance from the meso organizational behavior precepts can help managers establish realistic expectations about the implementation difficulties and probable effects of team-based empowerment

16

Contemporary Issues: Organizational Adaptability

In today’s business world, emphasis is shifting from mass production of low-cost, interchangeable commodities to the production of high-quality goods and services, made individually or in small batches and geared to meet the specific demands of small groups of consumers

Companies are reacting by implementing programs that require new ways of dividing an organization’s work into jobs and coordinating the efforts of many employees

Implementations of this sort benefit from insights derived from macro organizational behavior

17

Contemporary Issues: International Growth and Development

Fewer firms today limit their operations to a single national or cultural region than was once the case

Multinationalism or even statelessness has become the norm

The resulting globalization is changing the way business is conducted and it promises to continue to do so at an increasing pace

All three subfields of organizational behavior have valuable advice to offer managers confronted with this challenge

18

Putting Organizational Behavior Knowledge to Work

Putting theoretical knowledge from the field of organizational behavior to practical use requires that managers develop skills in using such knowledge to identify and solve problems in an effective manner

The process of problem solving can be simplified and made more effective by breaking it into four stages

19

Putting Organizational Behavior Knowledge to Work: Diagnosis and

Solution

Problem solving begins with

diagnosis, a procedure in which managers gather information about a troublesome situation and try to summarize it in a problem statement

Information gathering may require direct observation of events in and around an organization

Summarizing information in a problem statement requires that managers use the mix of theories, experience, and intuition they have amassed to construct a statement of what is wrong

Solution is the process of identifying ways to resolve the problem identified during the diagnosis phase

Managers prescribing solutions must resist the urge to satisfice – choosing the first alternative that seems workable- and must instead push themselves to consider several potential solutions and choose the best available alternative

20

Putting Organizational Behavior Knowledge to Work:Action and

Evaluation

Action is setting a proposed solution into motion

Mangers must first stipulate the specific activities they believe are needed to solve a particular problem, then oversee the implementation of these activities

Sometimes it is possible to implement a step-by-step program that was developed earlier to solve a similar problem encountered previously or in another organization

Problem solving concludes with evaluation, the process of determining whether actions taken to solve the problem had the intended effect

Managers must identify in advance the indicators they will use to measure success and collect measures of these indicators as the action stage proceeds

The evaluation process highlights any differences between the intended results of a particular solution and the actual results

21

Becoming an Active Problem Solver

To sharpen your skills as a problem solver, study each theory presented in this book to develop a basic understanding of the variables and relationships it describes

You should practice following the theories applied during problem definition to their logical conclusions

You should also practice specifying the actions required to implement and assess your proposed solution

22

Overview of the Text

This textbook focuses on providing conceptual frameworks that will prove helpful in the future as you solve problems and manage behaviors in organizations

What you learn now will serve later as a valuable source of competitive advantage for you and your firm