, Chapter 1: What is Organizational Behavior?
The Importance of Interpersonal skills
LO 1: Demonstrate the importance of interpersonal skills in the workplace
● Until the late 1980s, business school emphasized the technical
aspects(economics, accounting, finance …) realize the significant
role understanding human behavior plays in determining a manager’s
effectiveness
■ attract and keep high-performing employees: the social relationships
among co-workers and supervisors were strongly related to overall job
satisfaction / lower stress at work / lower intentions to quit
■ create a pleasant workplace make good economic sense
◆ growing awareness of the need for understanding the
means and outcomes of corporate social responsibility
What managers do
LO 2: Describe the manager’s functions, roles, and skills
● Definition of manager
■ Manager : an individual who achieves goals through other people. He
or she makes decisions, allocate resources, and direct the activities of
others to
attain goals / who oversees the activities of others and is
responsible for attaining goals in the org.
■ Organization : a consciously coordinated social unit, composed of
two or more people, that functions on a relatively continuous basis
to achieve a
common goal or set of goals. Ex) service firms, schools, hospitals,
churches, military units, retail stores
● Management functions
■ Planning : defining an organization’s goals, establishing an overall
strategy, and developing a comprehensive set of plans to integrate
and coordinate
activities. From lower-level to mid-level
■ Organizing : designing an organization’s structure, 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 : direct and coordinate those people, motivate, direct
their activities, select the most effective communication
channels, or resolve conflicts
■ Controlling : monitor the performance and compare it with
previously set goals.
● Management roles
■ Interpersonal
◆ Figurehead : symbolic head, performs routine duties of a legal or
social nature
◆ Leader : motivation and direction
◆ Liaison : network of outside contacts
■ Informational
◆ Monitor : receives information (nerve center of internal/external info)
◆ Disseminator : transmits information from outsiders or from
other employees to others
◆ Spokesperson : transmits information to outsiders (expert on
org’s industry)
■ Decisional
◆ Entrepreneur : searches for opportunities and initiates projects
◆ Disturbance handler : corrective action
◆ Resource allocator : makes or approves decisions
◆ Negotiator : responsible for representing the organization at
major negotiations
● Management skills
■ Technical skills : the ability to apply specialized knowledge or
expertise.
■ Human skills : the ability to understand, communicate with,
motivate, and support other people (individually + in groups)
The Importance of Interpersonal skills
LO 1: Demonstrate the importance of interpersonal skills in the workplace
● Until the late 1980s, business school emphasized the technical
aspects(economics, accounting, finance …) realize the significant
role understanding human behavior plays in determining a manager’s
effectiveness
■ attract and keep high-performing employees: the social relationships
among co-workers and supervisors were strongly related to overall job
satisfaction / lower stress at work / lower intentions to quit
■ create a pleasant workplace make good economic sense
◆ growing awareness of the need for understanding the
means and outcomes of corporate social responsibility
What managers do
LO 2: Describe the manager’s functions, roles, and skills
● Definition of manager
■ Manager : an individual who achieves goals through other people. He
or she makes decisions, allocate resources, and direct the activities of
others to
attain goals / who oversees the activities of others and is
responsible for attaining goals in the org.
■ Organization : a consciously coordinated social unit, composed of
two or more people, that functions on a relatively continuous basis
to achieve a
common goal or set of goals. Ex) service firms, schools, hospitals,
churches, military units, retail stores
● Management functions
■ Planning : defining an organization’s goals, establishing an overall
strategy, and developing a comprehensive set of plans to integrate
and coordinate
activities. From lower-level to mid-level
■ Organizing : designing an organization’s structure, 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 : direct and coordinate those people, motivate, direct
their activities, select the most effective communication
channels, or resolve conflicts
■ Controlling : monitor the performance and compare it with
previously set goals.
● Management roles
■ Interpersonal
◆ Figurehead : symbolic head, performs routine duties of a legal or
social nature
◆ Leader : motivation and direction
◆ Liaison : network of outside contacts
■ Informational
◆ Monitor : receives information (nerve center of internal/external info)
◆ Disseminator : transmits information from outsiders or from
other employees to others
◆ Spokesperson : transmits information to outsiders (expert on
org’s industry)
■ Decisional
◆ Entrepreneur : searches for opportunities and initiates projects
◆ Disturbance handler : corrective action
◆ Resource allocator : makes or approves decisions
◆ Negotiator : responsible for representing the organization at
major negotiations
● Management skills
■ Technical skills : the ability to apply specialized knowledge or
expertise.
■ Human skills : the ability to understand, communicate with,
motivate, and support other people (individually + in groups)
