Gedrag en Communicatie in organisaties
Lecture 1
Organization = system of consciously coordinated activities or forces of two or more persons
Four common denominators
- Coordination of effort (rules, policies, regulations)
- A common goal
- Division of labour (different people do different stuff, all related to the common goal)
- Hierarchy of authority (chain of command, right people do right things at right time,
organizational chart)
Organizational Behaviour (OB) -> interdisciplinary field dedicated to better understanding and
managing people at work. Not really interdisciplinary, different field study the same topic, but
language and communication about it is different, so not really harmonized. More multidisciplinary
Historical perspective of OB
- Scientific Management (1180-1930)
-> Taylorism, systematic observation, reasoning to improve organization efficiency, negative
association with mass production and Theory X
-> Good things/new: scientific selection and training people (right people in right place
instead of mess) & scientific job redesign based on time-motion research (thinking about
their workers, wanted them to be healthy, how people perform their task and change things
to make it more efficient and better for the welfare of the workers)
VB) High heels, lot of bending -> designed a chair, more efficient and better for worker
- The Human relations movement
-> Hawthorne legacy, theory Y, Mayo and Follet, human factor of organisations, satisfied
employee is a hardworking employee is not true, it’s more complicated, but employees are
seen more as active social being and managers took steps to create more humane work
environments
- The Quality movement
Quality and goods improved dramatically, continuous improvement of organisational
processes
- Internet and social media revolution
Makes virtual organizations possible (independent of location, supported by ICT)
VB) Zoom, organizations without an office, teleworking in contact with central office, since
2005 New World of Work (Microsoft, work independent of time and location supported by
technology and special office design, problem: usually used to save money, with not right
equipment or building)
VB) Telecomputing from home because of corona, huge impact, want to work from home
more, cost cuts, accelerate the trend, more productive, 15% in Holland expects to keep
working from home, lot will miss social interaction, especially new people,
Problems: not for everyone, only highly educated jobs, change towns, if you don’t need
offices why are they there, effects productivity, biggest problem is turning it off.
Benefits: commuting, sustainable, more productive, no travel time, more flexible, cuts cost
Diversity
Diversity = represents the multitude of individual differences and similarities that exist among people
based on four different layers:
- Personality
- Internal (surface-level dimensions) -> age, gender, race
, - External (secondary) dimension -> religion, educational background
- Organizational dimensions -> your management status, where you work, at what department
Diversity can be defined on different levels
Positive and negative effects of diverse work environments
Diversity is good for workgroups = information/decision-making Theory
- More informational diversity so they outperform homogenous workgroups
- Better job at earlier phases of problem solving -> more likely to use their diverse background
to generate a more comprehensive view of a problem, better at defining the problem
- During problem solving helps their diverse perspectives to brainstorm of uncover more novel
alternatives
- Diversity can enhance the number of contacts a group has (more diverse contacts)
- Research on decision making proves this
- Prevent groupthink, increase creativity, different perspectives
Diversity is bad for workgroups = social categorization Theory
- Proposes that similarities and differences are used on a basis for categorizing self and other
into groups, resulting in group dynamics with negative consequences for workgroups,
subgroups exist, dynamics that are not good exist
- Creates us vs them mentality, liking ingroup, favouritism and disliking/discriminating
outgroup, more conflict between ingroup and outgroup members
- Research on group dynamics proves this -> minimal group paradigm= Experiment, people
come into labs, two groups are formed based on an arbitrary criterium (what is their
favourite painting) -> group members are asked to divide outcomes (money, coins etc)
among their own group and the other group -> no interaction, the people don’t know the
ingroup people, they just have chosen the same painting, but they treat ingroup members
nicer (give them more money) -> group dynamics develop, which has negative consequences
because people favour their own group, can lead to conflict
A process model of diversity
- One solution to this inconstancy = different factors determine whether group dynamics are
prominent or not -> avoid fault lines
- The negative effects of group dynamics are stronger when fault lines (hypothetical dividing
lines that may spit a group into subgroups based on one or more attributes)
- Managing diversity by cross-categorization (make fault lines less salient by team
composition) and strengthening the overarching identity
VB) The Danes -> people in boxes, asked questions and new boxes/groups rise, more that
brings us together, illustrates power of social procedure
Organizational culture
Organizational culture = set of shared, taken-for-granted implicit assumptions that a group holds and
that determines how it perceives, thinks about and reacts to its various environments
- Passed on to new employees through process of socialization
- Very important, influences processes that are going on and behaviour at work
- Represented on different levels:
- Observable artifacts = physical manifestation of culture -> manner of dress, acronyms,
awards myths and stories (The VU Griffin)
- Espoused values = explicitly stated values and norms that are preferred, what organisation
aspires (Mission, Core values and Ambitions of the VU, what they want to represent)
International OB
,Understanding cultural differences
- Societal culture = set of beliefs and values about what is desirable and undesirable in a
community, set of formal or informal practices to support the values
- Employees bring their societal culture to work with them in forms of customs and language
- Societal culture may differ on various dimensions -> high-context vs low context cultures
VB) High -> more ritual, social trust first, value personal relations and goodwill (Asia)
Low -> first business, value expertise and performance, contrast, efficiency (Nort-EU)
Expatriates and cultural shock
Expatriates refers to people living/working outside their home country
- Cultural differences may lead to culture shock -> anxiety and doubt because overload of new
expectations and cues (10/20% of US managers returns early because they have difficulties
adjusting to the culture there)
- Best defence is knowing/understanding the culture a little -> comprehensive cross-cultural
training and study language
- VB) Expatriates in the NL
Lecture 2:
Individuals in Organizations: Attitudes and Behaviour
Self-concept
= concept of the individual has of himself/her. Consist of:
- Personality traits, values, attitude, behavioural intentions,
- Self-esteem (zelf-evaluatie) = belief about one’s own self-worth, based on an overall self-
evaluation (General), social performance and appearance self-esteem (specific self-esteem)
Important because -> striving for a positive self-evaluation is one of the most important
motives for human behavior
How do you get a lower of higher self-esteem:
1) Favorable comparisons with others that are doing worse (downward social comparisons)
2) Unfavorable comparisons with others that are doing better and pose a threat to your self-
esteem (upwards social comparisons)
-> to make yourself feel better and enhance your self-esteem make downward social
comparisons, but upward social comparisons can increase motivation, because they
strengthen self-efficacy beliefs
- Self-efficacy (zelf-effectiviteit) = a person’s belief about his chances of successfully
accomplishing a specific task (can I do this job)
Important because -> predicts task-accomplishments
Sources/higher self-efficacy happens because:
o Prior experience (based on feedback on task performance), if you have done
something before very well, you have more confidence you will do it again well.
o Behaviour models (observing others doing tasks, upward social comparisons of task
outcomes), looking/observing at others will make you believe you can also perform
that task or even knowing others can do it helps
o Assessment of physical/emotional state (illness, depression), more depressed
people have more realistic views
o Persuasion from others (direct encouragements, self-fulfilling expectations of others
-> Pygmalion and Golem effect)
, Pygmalion and Golem effect = others can influence our self-efficacy by self fulfilling
prophecies (on an unconscious level)
Pygmalion -> someone’s (your supervisor) high expectations for another person results in
high self-efficacy and performance for that person (you)
Golem -> someone’s low expectations for another person result in low self-efficacy and
performance for that person
How does it work -> when a supervisor thinks you are good -> will treat you different,
encourage you more, challenge you more (even if the doesn’t realise it) -> you will get better
or getting stronger self-efficacy beliefs -> more motivation, perform better -> circle
Expectation a supervisor, teacher has influence on self-efficacy beliefs.
VB) Research in schools, Pygmalion effect, effects of manipulated expectations of teachers on
the performance of students. Kids were being tested, faked results of who would get smart
was given to teachers, teachers created a warmer climate, taught more, gave more feedback
on wrong answer and there was more opportunity to response for kids “who would get
smarter later”.
Lecture 1
Organization = system of consciously coordinated activities or forces of two or more persons
Four common denominators
- Coordination of effort (rules, policies, regulations)
- A common goal
- Division of labour (different people do different stuff, all related to the common goal)
- Hierarchy of authority (chain of command, right people do right things at right time,
organizational chart)
Organizational Behaviour (OB) -> interdisciplinary field dedicated to better understanding and
managing people at work. Not really interdisciplinary, different field study the same topic, but
language and communication about it is different, so not really harmonized. More multidisciplinary
Historical perspective of OB
- Scientific Management (1180-1930)
-> Taylorism, systematic observation, reasoning to improve organization efficiency, negative
association with mass production and Theory X
-> Good things/new: scientific selection and training people (right people in right place
instead of mess) & scientific job redesign based on time-motion research (thinking about
their workers, wanted them to be healthy, how people perform their task and change things
to make it more efficient and better for the welfare of the workers)
VB) High heels, lot of bending -> designed a chair, more efficient and better for worker
- The Human relations movement
-> Hawthorne legacy, theory Y, Mayo and Follet, human factor of organisations, satisfied
employee is a hardworking employee is not true, it’s more complicated, but employees are
seen more as active social being and managers took steps to create more humane work
environments
- The Quality movement
Quality and goods improved dramatically, continuous improvement of organisational
processes
- Internet and social media revolution
Makes virtual organizations possible (independent of location, supported by ICT)
VB) Zoom, organizations without an office, teleworking in contact with central office, since
2005 New World of Work (Microsoft, work independent of time and location supported by
technology and special office design, problem: usually used to save money, with not right
equipment or building)
VB) Telecomputing from home because of corona, huge impact, want to work from home
more, cost cuts, accelerate the trend, more productive, 15% in Holland expects to keep
working from home, lot will miss social interaction, especially new people,
Problems: not for everyone, only highly educated jobs, change towns, if you don’t need
offices why are they there, effects productivity, biggest problem is turning it off.
Benefits: commuting, sustainable, more productive, no travel time, more flexible, cuts cost
Diversity
Diversity = represents the multitude of individual differences and similarities that exist among people
based on four different layers:
- Personality
- Internal (surface-level dimensions) -> age, gender, race
, - External (secondary) dimension -> religion, educational background
- Organizational dimensions -> your management status, where you work, at what department
Diversity can be defined on different levels
Positive and negative effects of diverse work environments
Diversity is good for workgroups = information/decision-making Theory
- More informational diversity so they outperform homogenous workgroups
- Better job at earlier phases of problem solving -> more likely to use their diverse background
to generate a more comprehensive view of a problem, better at defining the problem
- During problem solving helps their diverse perspectives to brainstorm of uncover more novel
alternatives
- Diversity can enhance the number of contacts a group has (more diverse contacts)
- Research on decision making proves this
- Prevent groupthink, increase creativity, different perspectives
Diversity is bad for workgroups = social categorization Theory
- Proposes that similarities and differences are used on a basis for categorizing self and other
into groups, resulting in group dynamics with negative consequences for workgroups,
subgroups exist, dynamics that are not good exist
- Creates us vs them mentality, liking ingroup, favouritism and disliking/discriminating
outgroup, more conflict between ingroup and outgroup members
- Research on group dynamics proves this -> minimal group paradigm= Experiment, people
come into labs, two groups are formed based on an arbitrary criterium (what is their
favourite painting) -> group members are asked to divide outcomes (money, coins etc)
among their own group and the other group -> no interaction, the people don’t know the
ingroup people, they just have chosen the same painting, but they treat ingroup members
nicer (give them more money) -> group dynamics develop, which has negative consequences
because people favour their own group, can lead to conflict
A process model of diversity
- One solution to this inconstancy = different factors determine whether group dynamics are
prominent or not -> avoid fault lines
- The negative effects of group dynamics are stronger when fault lines (hypothetical dividing
lines that may spit a group into subgroups based on one or more attributes)
- Managing diversity by cross-categorization (make fault lines less salient by team
composition) and strengthening the overarching identity
VB) The Danes -> people in boxes, asked questions and new boxes/groups rise, more that
brings us together, illustrates power of social procedure
Organizational culture
Organizational culture = set of shared, taken-for-granted implicit assumptions that a group holds and
that determines how it perceives, thinks about and reacts to its various environments
- Passed on to new employees through process of socialization
- Very important, influences processes that are going on and behaviour at work
- Represented on different levels:
- Observable artifacts = physical manifestation of culture -> manner of dress, acronyms,
awards myths and stories (The VU Griffin)
- Espoused values = explicitly stated values and norms that are preferred, what organisation
aspires (Mission, Core values and Ambitions of the VU, what they want to represent)
International OB
,Understanding cultural differences
- Societal culture = set of beliefs and values about what is desirable and undesirable in a
community, set of formal or informal practices to support the values
- Employees bring their societal culture to work with them in forms of customs and language
- Societal culture may differ on various dimensions -> high-context vs low context cultures
VB) High -> more ritual, social trust first, value personal relations and goodwill (Asia)
Low -> first business, value expertise and performance, contrast, efficiency (Nort-EU)
Expatriates and cultural shock
Expatriates refers to people living/working outside their home country
- Cultural differences may lead to culture shock -> anxiety and doubt because overload of new
expectations and cues (10/20% of US managers returns early because they have difficulties
adjusting to the culture there)
- Best defence is knowing/understanding the culture a little -> comprehensive cross-cultural
training and study language
- VB) Expatriates in the NL
Lecture 2:
Individuals in Organizations: Attitudes and Behaviour
Self-concept
= concept of the individual has of himself/her. Consist of:
- Personality traits, values, attitude, behavioural intentions,
- Self-esteem (zelf-evaluatie) = belief about one’s own self-worth, based on an overall self-
evaluation (General), social performance and appearance self-esteem (specific self-esteem)
Important because -> striving for a positive self-evaluation is one of the most important
motives for human behavior
How do you get a lower of higher self-esteem:
1) Favorable comparisons with others that are doing worse (downward social comparisons)
2) Unfavorable comparisons with others that are doing better and pose a threat to your self-
esteem (upwards social comparisons)
-> to make yourself feel better and enhance your self-esteem make downward social
comparisons, but upward social comparisons can increase motivation, because they
strengthen self-efficacy beliefs
- Self-efficacy (zelf-effectiviteit) = a person’s belief about his chances of successfully
accomplishing a specific task (can I do this job)
Important because -> predicts task-accomplishments
Sources/higher self-efficacy happens because:
o Prior experience (based on feedback on task performance), if you have done
something before very well, you have more confidence you will do it again well.
o Behaviour models (observing others doing tasks, upward social comparisons of task
outcomes), looking/observing at others will make you believe you can also perform
that task or even knowing others can do it helps
o Assessment of physical/emotional state (illness, depression), more depressed
people have more realistic views
o Persuasion from others (direct encouragements, self-fulfilling expectations of others
-> Pygmalion and Golem effect)
, Pygmalion and Golem effect = others can influence our self-efficacy by self fulfilling
prophecies (on an unconscious level)
Pygmalion -> someone’s (your supervisor) high expectations for another person results in
high self-efficacy and performance for that person (you)
Golem -> someone’s low expectations for another person result in low self-efficacy and
performance for that person
How does it work -> when a supervisor thinks you are good -> will treat you different,
encourage you more, challenge you more (even if the doesn’t realise it) -> you will get better
or getting stronger self-efficacy beliefs -> more motivation, perform better -> circle
Expectation a supervisor, teacher has influence on self-efficacy beliefs.
VB) Research in schools, Pygmalion effect, effects of manipulated expectations of teachers on
the performance of students. Kids were being tested, faked results of who would get smart
was given to teachers, teachers created a warmer climate, taught more, gave more feedback
on wrong answer and there was more opportunity to response for kids “who would get
smarter later”.
