1 Organizational Behaviour
Chapter 1 Introducing organizational behaviour
Organizational behaviour = study of human behaviour in organizational settings, the interface between human
behaviour and the organization and the organization itself.
Rational organization
structure and control
work design
rationalization
--> chapter 2,3,4
Social organization
Hawthorne studies
Groups and teams
Organizational culture
--> chapter 5,6,7
Managing the individual
Individuals and personality
Motivation
Knowledge and learning
Communication
--> chapter 8,9,10,11
Managing the organization
Change
Leadership
Power and politics
--> chapter 12,13,14
The organization and its environment
Work, emotion and aesthetics
Globalization
Corporate social responsibility
--> chapter 15,16,17,18
Chapter 2 Organizational structure, design and bureaucracy: from rationality to flexibility
Why do we need an organizational structure?
To clarify relationships, responsibilities, lines of authority and ways of communicating in a way that suits the
particular organization or enterprise.
Purposes of organizational structure:
- Assigns tasks and responsibilities associated with individual jobs
- Coordinates diverse task to avoid blind spots
- Assigns formal lines of authority (power) and decision making
- Encourages specialization and expertise. Work in specific jobs & dept
- Directs information flow up and down
- Coordinates all organization activities to minimize duplication of effort or conflict
- Establishes relationship between individuals, groups and departments.
Organizational relationships:
- Formal relations = formal structure, through departmentalization and work division, provides a framework
for defining managerial authority, responsibilgity and accountability.
,2 Organizational Behaviour
- Informal relations = informal structure is generally social, with blurred or shifting lines of authority and
accountability; it also has its own channels of communication, which may distribute information more
broadly than the formal communication system.
Why do we structure?
Functional reasons: to make life easy (e.g. Time & Study planning, which is personal), to make life beautifull (e.g
Music (organizational structuring), accounting (personal structuring), to organize the mind)
Gig-economy = a modern day form of organization typical of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Development of bureaucracy in the Second Industrial Revolution
Bureaucracy = official aspect of an organization such as the hierarchical structure, rules, procedures and paperwork
which allow control to be exerted over the whole organization.
The organizations started to grow in size, which lead to indirect/impersonal control, using the bureaucratic
structures and procedures of rational organizational design.
Organizing = organizations are social units (or human groupings) deliberately constructed and reconstructed to seek
specific goals (Etzioni). Or ‘organization to me means collective action in the pursuit of a common mission, a fancy
way of saying that a bunch of people come together under and identifiable label to produce some product or service’
(Mintzberg).
Henri Fayol
One of the people who laid the foundations for our view of what orderly managing and organizing entails. His work is
known as Classic Management School (form of management (1900) that emphasizes rationality and searches for
‘one best way’ to manage an organization)(Taylor’s and Fayol’s work). Rational organizational design is about finding
the most direct and efficient means – the ‘one best way’- to achieve organizational ends.
Fayol’s five functions of management (1949): planning/forecasting, organizing, coordinating, commanding,
controlling.
Three aspect of bureaucracy
- Bureaucratic structure and hierarchy
span of control= number of employees that a
manger supervises directly.
If the span of control gets to big (mostly
larger than 5), the manager will delegate the
job/task to a lower level of the hierarchy.
Through this the organizational structure will
develop.
But the span of control can be wider when:
more similarity of tasks, less planning and
coordination, more competent/ responsible /
able, lower interaction between people, more
standardized.
But the span is narrower when: higher
frequency of new problems, greater
knowledge gap between manager and staff, more complex tasks, greater non-supervisory element in
manager’s job.
Vertical vs horizontal differentiation:
Vertical: employees are separated vertically from one level of the hierarchy to the next.
Horizontal (or functional differentiation): the different ‘branches’ of the structure.
, 3 Organizational Behaviour
Each position on an organization chart represents a office (= a role to be carried out by a person acting on
behalf of the organization in an official capacity). The bureaucratic structure maps out the relationships
between people acting in different official roles within the organization. Positions in a bureaucratic structure
have job description (outlining the level within the hierarchy, the specific tasks and duties that the office
holder is expected to perform. This highlight the power of bureaucratic structure. It also shows that it needs
more than just structure to operate, such as written rules, procedures and paperwork.
Organizational chart is a line drawing that shows the parts of an organization are linked. This establishes the
following: formal lines of authority (the official power to act), responsibility (the duty or assignment),
delegation (handover task responsibilities and authority to act to another) and accountability (the moral
responsibility).
- Rules, policies and procedures (the formal instructions in a organization)
They exist to standardize behaviors and activities throughout the organization, with control implemented in
a standardized way throughout the hierarchy. This ensures the impersonal fairness (each worker is treated
equally). By this they remove discretion (the ability for an individual manager to make their own
autonomous judgements, giving the senior management increased control over the organization).
- Bureaucratic records and paperwork
Everything (procedures, rules etc.) should be kept in records and paperwork (the official documentation in
an organization). Bureaucratic paperwork in typified by the pro-forma. There are two purposes for using a
pro-forma:
1. In order to implement rules, procedures, information about the organization and its workers.
2. Control through surveillance and monitoring of employee’s through a record.
Through the computer we can keep more records/information about an employee and access it within
seconds. The bureaucratic power of organizations is enhanced by the information processing power and
speed of computers. Computers also have the control/monitoring function of bureaucracy.
Weber
Rational-legal authority: authority comes neither from tradition nor form the charisma of an individual, but
from the office they hold at the bureaucratic rules and procedures associated with that position. He created
a ‘ideal’ type of rational, technically-efficient bureaucracy which looks similar to the one of Fayol, but he
doesn’t suggest that is the right way to manage and organize.
Formal rationality: technical form of rationality which finds the most efficient means to achieving ends.
Substantive rationality: to take account of the effects of actions in human and ethical terms.
Disenchantment: removing of ‘magical’ elements in life and replacing them with procedure, formality and
rationality. In other words bureaucracy has negative/dehumanizing effects on people/society; life becomes
predictable and dull.
‘The iron cage of rationality’ = phrase from Weber; it is a caution about the prevalence of bureaucracy within
society and its potentially negative effects.
Dysfunctions of bureaucracy
o Red tape: situations where rules/regulations get in the way of an organization achieving it goals
(create extra work rather than helping with the work that people have to do).
o The bureaucratic personality: the rules are above all the most important, to the extent that
‘conformity with the rules interferes with the achievement of the purposes of the organization’.
o Trained incapacity: people are so reliant on rules/procedures that they become inflexible/ unable to
act in other way.
Chapter 1 Introducing organizational behaviour
Organizational behaviour = study of human behaviour in organizational settings, the interface between human
behaviour and the organization and the organization itself.
Rational organization
structure and control
work design
rationalization
--> chapter 2,3,4
Social organization
Hawthorne studies
Groups and teams
Organizational culture
--> chapter 5,6,7
Managing the individual
Individuals and personality
Motivation
Knowledge and learning
Communication
--> chapter 8,9,10,11
Managing the organization
Change
Leadership
Power and politics
--> chapter 12,13,14
The organization and its environment
Work, emotion and aesthetics
Globalization
Corporate social responsibility
--> chapter 15,16,17,18
Chapter 2 Organizational structure, design and bureaucracy: from rationality to flexibility
Why do we need an organizational structure?
To clarify relationships, responsibilities, lines of authority and ways of communicating in a way that suits the
particular organization or enterprise.
Purposes of organizational structure:
- Assigns tasks and responsibilities associated with individual jobs
- Coordinates diverse task to avoid blind spots
- Assigns formal lines of authority (power) and decision making
- Encourages specialization and expertise. Work in specific jobs & dept
- Directs information flow up and down
- Coordinates all organization activities to minimize duplication of effort or conflict
- Establishes relationship between individuals, groups and departments.
Organizational relationships:
- Formal relations = formal structure, through departmentalization and work division, provides a framework
for defining managerial authority, responsibilgity and accountability.
,2 Organizational Behaviour
- Informal relations = informal structure is generally social, with blurred or shifting lines of authority and
accountability; it also has its own channels of communication, which may distribute information more
broadly than the formal communication system.
Why do we structure?
Functional reasons: to make life easy (e.g. Time & Study planning, which is personal), to make life beautifull (e.g
Music (organizational structuring), accounting (personal structuring), to organize the mind)
Gig-economy = a modern day form of organization typical of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Development of bureaucracy in the Second Industrial Revolution
Bureaucracy = official aspect of an organization such as the hierarchical structure, rules, procedures and paperwork
which allow control to be exerted over the whole organization.
The organizations started to grow in size, which lead to indirect/impersonal control, using the bureaucratic
structures and procedures of rational organizational design.
Organizing = organizations are social units (or human groupings) deliberately constructed and reconstructed to seek
specific goals (Etzioni). Or ‘organization to me means collective action in the pursuit of a common mission, a fancy
way of saying that a bunch of people come together under and identifiable label to produce some product or service’
(Mintzberg).
Henri Fayol
One of the people who laid the foundations for our view of what orderly managing and organizing entails. His work is
known as Classic Management School (form of management (1900) that emphasizes rationality and searches for
‘one best way’ to manage an organization)(Taylor’s and Fayol’s work). Rational organizational design is about finding
the most direct and efficient means – the ‘one best way’- to achieve organizational ends.
Fayol’s five functions of management (1949): planning/forecasting, organizing, coordinating, commanding,
controlling.
Three aspect of bureaucracy
- Bureaucratic structure and hierarchy
span of control= number of employees that a
manger supervises directly.
If the span of control gets to big (mostly
larger than 5), the manager will delegate the
job/task to a lower level of the hierarchy.
Through this the organizational structure will
develop.
But the span of control can be wider when:
more similarity of tasks, less planning and
coordination, more competent/ responsible /
able, lower interaction between people, more
standardized.
But the span is narrower when: higher
frequency of new problems, greater
knowledge gap between manager and staff, more complex tasks, greater non-supervisory element in
manager’s job.
Vertical vs horizontal differentiation:
Vertical: employees are separated vertically from one level of the hierarchy to the next.
Horizontal (or functional differentiation): the different ‘branches’ of the structure.
, 3 Organizational Behaviour
Each position on an organization chart represents a office (= a role to be carried out by a person acting on
behalf of the organization in an official capacity). The bureaucratic structure maps out the relationships
between people acting in different official roles within the organization. Positions in a bureaucratic structure
have job description (outlining the level within the hierarchy, the specific tasks and duties that the office
holder is expected to perform. This highlight the power of bureaucratic structure. It also shows that it needs
more than just structure to operate, such as written rules, procedures and paperwork.
Organizational chart is a line drawing that shows the parts of an organization are linked. This establishes the
following: formal lines of authority (the official power to act), responsibility (the duty or assignment),
delegation (handover task responsibilities and authority to act to another) and accountability (the moral
responsibility).
- Rules, policies and procedures (the formal instructions in a organization)
They exist to standardize behaviors and activities throughout the organization, with control implemented in
a standardized way throughout the hierarchy. This ensures the impersonal fairness (each worker is treated
equally). By this they remove discretion (the ability for an individual manager to make their own
autonomous judgements, giving the senior management increased control over the organization).
- Bureaucratic records and paperwork
Everything (procedures, rules etc.) should be kept in records and paperwork (the official documentation in
an organization). Bureaucratic paperwork in typified by the pro-forma. There are two purposes for using a
pro-forma:
1. In order to implement rules, procedures, information about the organization and its workers.
2. Control through surveillance and monitoring of employee’s through a record.
Through the computer we can keep more records/information about an employee and access it within
seconds. The bureaucratic power of organizations is enhanced by the information processing power and
speed of computers. Computers also have the control/monitoring function of bureaucracy.
Weber
Rational-legal authority: authority comes neither from tradition nor form the charisma of an individual, but
from the office they hold at the bureaucratic rules and procedures associated with that position. He created
a ‘ideal’ type of rational, technically-efficient bureaucracy which looks similar to the one of Fayol, but he
doesn’t suggest that is the right way to manage and organize.
Formal rationality: technical form of rationality which finds the most efficient means to achieving ends.
Substantive rationality: to take account of the effects of actions in human and ethical terms.
Disenchantment: removing of ‘magical’ elements in life and replacing them with procedure, formality and
rationality. In other words bureaucracy has negative/dehumanizing effects on people/society; life becomes
predictable and dull.
‘The iron cage of rationality’ = phrase from Weber; it is a caution about the prevalence of bureaucracy within
society and its potentially negative effects.
Dysfunctions of bureaucracy
o Red tape: situations where rules/regulations get in the way of an organization achieving it goals
(create extra work rather than helping with the work that people have to do).
o The bureaucratic personality: the rules are above all the most important, to the extent that
‘conformity with the rules interferes with the achievement of the purposes of the organization’.
o Trained incapacity: people are so reliant on rules/procedures that they become inflexible/ unable to
act in other way.
