1
,Organisation and management
Lecture 1, Chapter 1: Explaining organizational behaviour
Organizational behaviour is the study of the structure and management of organizations, their
environments, and the actions and interactions of their individual members and groups.
It explores:
- Environmental issues (macro level)
- Organizational and group issus (meso level)
- Individual issues (micro level)
Examples of large organizations
- Walmart - 2.3 million employees
- Amazon - 1.3 million employees
- Volkswagen 0.67 million employees
→ (these are corporate organizations)
- US Department of Defense - 3.2 million employees
- UK National Health Service - 1.7 million employees
- Indian Railways - 1.4 million employees
Why did interaction go wrong? What caused the unfriendly/impolite behaviour of the employee?
- poor staff training
- staff absences increasing the workload for other colleagues
- long hours, poor work-life balance, fatigue
- faulty equipment
- anxiety about organizational changes
- private problems (health, family, …)
- low motivation due to low pay
- dispute with colleagues
Which of the following are organizations? Controlled performance?
- A chemical company
- A whatsapp group
- A hospital
- The local street gang
- Your local football club
- A charity
- A terrorist cell
- A tribe
- The Smith family
→ preoccupation with performance + need for control
The central dilemma of organizational design is how to reconcile inconsistency between individual
needs and aspirations and the collective purpose of the organization.
Confrontation of two issues:
1. the interests of the organization as a whole
2
, 2. the interests of the members of the organization
The organizations behaviour field map
PESTEL: The political, economic, social, technological, ecological and legal context
→ Everything happening outside of the company has an impact on the way an organization works and
how they operate.
But PESTEL abbreviations does not consider cultural and linguistic environment.
The PESTEL model shows two outcomes:
- Organizational effectiveness: when an organization achieves their goals while the people
working for the organization are doing the best they can
- Quality of working life: employee perspective, they want stability, security, fair wages, be
treated well, identify with the job, good work life balance etc.
3
, This is influenced by:
- individual factors
- group factors (if the group does not perform well,
it can affect you)
- management and organization factors
- leadership process factors
However, it is not always that straightforward in that
specific direction
→ Sometimes, because you have good work-life balance
you will be able to do your job better and more efficiently
and that will have another effect on your work-life balance
and other performance outcomes
Also the organizations past, present, and future are
important factors on how the organizations works.
→ E.g. crises or misconduct among employees in the past can change the way a organization is
structured
Human resource management is the function responsible for establishing integrated personal policies
to support organizational strategy.
Employees must:
- ability: have job skills and knowledge, including how to work well with others
- motivation: feel motivated to do the work and do it well
- opportunity: be able to use skills, and contribute to team and organizational success
→ Bath model: when ability, motivation and opportunity is realised, employee performance of an
organisation can be high. High performance in turn, increases organizational profitability.
4
,Organisation and management
Lecture 1, Chapter 1: Explaining organizational behaviour
Organizational behaviour is the study of the structure and management of organizations, their
environments, and the actions and interactions of their individual members and groups.
It explores:
- Environmental issues (macro level)
- Organizational and group issus (meso level)
- Individual issues (micro level)
Examples of large organizations
- Walmart - 2.3 million employees
- Amazon - 1.3 million employees
- Volkswagen 0.67 million employees
→ (these are corporate organizations)
- US Department of Defense - 3.2 million employees
- UK National Health Service - 1.7 million employees
- Indian Railways - 1.4 million employees
Why did interaction go wrong? What caused the unfriendly/impolite behaviour of the employee?
- poor staff training
- staff absences increasing the workload for other colleagues
- long hours, poor work-life balance, fatigue
- faulty equipment
- anxiety about organizational changes
- private problems (health, family, …)
- low motivation due to low pay
- dispute with colleagues
Which of the following are organizations? Controlled performance?
- A chemical company
- A whatsapp group
- A hospital
- The local street gang
- Your local football club
- A charity
- A terrorist cell
- A tribe
- The Smith family
→ preoccupation with performance + need for control
The central dilemma of organizational design is how to reconcile inconsistency between individual
needs and aspirations and the collective purpose of the organization.
Confrontation of two issues:
1. the interests of the organization as a whole
2
, 2. the interests of the members of the organization
The organizations behaviour field map
PESTEL: The political, economic, social, technological, ecological and legal context
→ Everything happening outside of the company has an impact on the way an organization works and
how they operate.
But PESTEL abbreviations does not consider cultural and linguistic environment.
The PESTEL model shows two outcomes:
- Organizational effectiveness: when an organization achieves their goals while the people
working for the organization are doing the best they can
- Quality of working life: employee perspective, they want stability, security, fair wages, be
treated well, identify with the job, good work life balance etc.
3
, This is influenced by:
- individual factors
- group factors (if the group does not perform well,
it can affect you)
- management and organization factors
- leadership process factors
However, it is not always that straightforward in that
specific direction
→ Sometimes, because you have good work-life balance
you will be able to do your job better and more efficiently
and that will have another effect on your work-life balance
and other performance outcomes
Also the organizations past, present, and future are
important factors on how the organizations works.
→ E.g. crises or misconduct among employees in the past can change the way a organization is
structured
Human resource management is the function responsible for establishing integrated personal policies
to support organizational strategy.
Employees must:
- ability: have job skills and knowledge, including how to work well with others
- motivation: feel motivated to do the work and do it well
- opportunity: be able to use skills, and contribute to team and organizational success
→ Bath model: when ability, motivation and opportunity is realised, employee performance of an
organisation can be high. High performance in turn, increases organizational profitability.
4
