CHAPTER 1 & 2
CHAPTER 1 - WHAT IS ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR?
1.1 - The importance of interpersonal skills
● Can generate superior financial performance
● Developing manager’s interpersonal skills can helps organisations attract
and keep high-performing employees (costly to replace, more rare)
● Strong associations between quality of workplace relationships and
employee job satisfaction, stress and turnover
● Increasing the OB element can improve social responsibility awareness
1.2 - Management and organisational behavior
Manager = an individual who achieves goals through other people
– Make decisions, allocate resources, direct activities of others to attain
goals
– Many have no received training
– The more you can learn bout people and how to manage them = better
manger
– Can be done with OB
Organisation = a consciously coordinated social unit, composed of two or
more people, that functions on a relatively continuous basis to achieve
common goal or set of goals
Manager’s primary activities:
– Planning = a process that includes defining goals, establishing strategy
and developing plans to coordinate activities
– Organising = determining what tasks are to be done, who is to do them,
how the tasks are to be grouped, who reports to whom and where
decisions are to be made
– Leading = a function that includes motivating employees, directing
others, selecting the most effective communication channels and
resolving conflicts
– Controlling = monitoring activities to ensure that they are being
accomplished as planned and correcting any significant deviations
,Management roles:
(Henry Mintzberg concluded that managers perform 10 different,
interrelated roles - split into interpersonal, informational and decisional
roles)
. Interpersonal roles (Ceremonial and symbolic duties)
– Figurehead - performing a number of routine duties of a legal or
social nature e.g. handing out diplomas
– Leadership - hiring, training, motivating and directing employees
– Liaison - maintaining a network of outside contacts who provide
favours and information (e.g. external liaison: sales manager
contacts other managers / internal liaison: sales manager getting
info from a quality-control manager in his company)
. Informational roles (Collecting information from outside organisations
and institutions)
– Monitor - scanning news media, talking to other people to learn
change’s in people’s tastes and competitor’s plans - receives a lot of
info
– Disseminator - transmitting info to organisational members from
outsiders or other employees
– Spokesperson - transmitting info to outsiders about organisation’s
plans, policies, actions and results - serves as an expert on
organisation’s industry
Management skills:
(Skills managers need to achieve their goals)
. Technical skills - the ability to apply specialised knowledge or expertise
. Human skills - the ability to work with, understand and motivate other
people, both individually and in groups (e.g. good listeners, understand
needs, manage conflicts etc)
. Conceptual skills - the mental ability to analyse and diagnose complex
situations (e.g. identifying problems to make decisions)
Effective vs successful managerial skills
Fred Luthans and his associates studied whether “managers who move up
, most quickly do the same activities with the same emphasis as managers
who do the best job” - answer was no
– They used 4 managerial activities:
. Traditional management - decision, making, planning, controlling
. Communication - exchanging routine information, processing paperwork
. Human resources management - motivating, disciplining, managing
conflict, staffing and training
. Networking - socialising, politicking, interacting with outsiders
Results:
● Average manager: 32% of time in traditional management activities, 29%
communicating, 20% in human resources management activities, 19%
networking
● Time and effort spent on activities varied a lot between individuals
● Findings challenge historical assumption that promotions are based on
performance
● Findings illustrate importance of networking and political skills in getting
ahead in organisations
Organisational behavior (OB) = a field of study that investigates the impact
that individuals, groups and structure have on behavior within organisations
for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an
organisation’s effectiveness
– Concerned with employment-related situations
– Examines behavior in the context of: job satisfaction, absenteeism,
employment turnover, productivity, human performance, management
CHAPTER 1 - WHAT IS ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR?
1.1 - The importance of interpersonal skills
● Can generate superior financial performance
● Developing manager’s interpersonal skills can helps organisations attract
and keep high-performing employees (costly to replace, more rare)
● Strong associations between quality of workplace relationships and
employee job satisfaction, stress and turnover
● Increasing the OB element can improve social responsibility awareness
1.2 - Management and organisational behavior
Manager = an individual who achieves goals through other people
– Make decisions, allocate resources, direct activities of others to attain
goals
– Many have no received training
– The more you can learn bout people and how to manage them = better
manger
– Can be done with OB
Organisation = a consciously coordinated social unit, composed of two or
more people, that functions on a relatively continuous basis to achieve
common goal or set of goals
Manager’s primary activities:
– Planning = a process that includes defining goals, establishing strategy
and developing plans to coordinate activities
– Organising = determining what tasks are to be done, who is to do them,
how the tasks are to be grouped, who reports to whom and where
decisions are to be made
– Leading = a function that includes motivating employees, directing
others, selecting the most effective communication channels and
resolving conflicts
– Controlling = monitoring activities to ensure that they are being
accomplished as planned and correcting any significant deviations
,Management roles:
(Henry Mintzberg concluded that managers perform 10 different,
interrelated roles - split into interpersonal, informational and decisional
roles)
. Interpersonal roles (Ceremonial and symbolic duties)
– Figurehead - performing a number of routine duties of a legal or
social nature e.g. handing out diplomas
– Leadership - hiring, training, motivating and directing employees
– Liaison - maintaining a network of outside contacts who provide
favours and information (e.g. external liaison: sales manager
contacts other managers / internal liaison: sales manager getting
info from a quality-control manager in his company)
. Informational roles (Collecting information from outside organisations
and institutions)
– Monitor - scanning news media, talking to other people to learn
change’s in people’s tastes and competitor’s plans - receives a lot of
info
– Disseminator - transmitting info to organisational members from
outsiders or other employees
– Spokesperson - transmitting info to outsiders about organisation’s
plans, policies, actions and results - serves as an expert on
organisation’s industry
Management skills:
(Skills managers need to achieve their goals)
. Technical skills - the ability to apply specialised knowledge or expertise
. Human skills - the ability to work with, understand and motivate other
people, both individually and in groups (e.g. good listeners, understand
needs, manage conflicts etc)
. Conceptual skills - the mental ability to analyse and diagnose complex
situations (e.g. identifying problems to make decisions)
Effective vs successful managerial skills
Fred Luthans and his associates studied whether “managers who move up
, most quickly do the same activities with the same emphasis as managers
who do the best job” - answer was no
– They used 4 managerial activities:
. Traditional management - decision, making, planning, controlling
. Communication - exchanging routine information, processing paperwork
. Human resources management - motivating, disciplining, managing
conflict, staffing and training
. Networking - socialising, politicking, interacting with outsiders
Results:
● Average manager: 32% of time in traditional management activities, 29%
communicating, 20% in human resources management activities, 19%
networking
● Time and effort spent on activities varied a lot between individuals
● Findings challenge historical assumption that promotions are based on
performance
● Findings illustrate importance of networking and political skills in getting
ahead in organisations
Organisational behavior (OB) = a field of study that investigates the impact
that individuals, groups and structure have on behavior within organisations
for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an
organisation’s effectiveness
– Concerned with employment-related situations
– Examines behavior in the context of: job satisfaction, absenteeism,
employment turnover, productivity, human performance, management
