Hoorcolleges Behavior and Communication in Organization
College 1 5 feb 2020
Introduction Behavior and Communication in Organizations
Organizations: a system of consciously coordinated activities or forces of 2 or more persons
Four common denominators:
• Coordination of effort
o Achieved policies, rules and regulations
• A common goal
• Division of labor
o Individuals perform separate but related tasks to achieve the common goal
• Hierarchy of authority
o Chain of command dedicated to make sure that the right people do the right things at the
right time
▪ Often reflected in an organizational chart
Organizational behavior: an interdisciplinary field dedicated to better understand and managing people at
work
• OB indeed draws on knowledge from different disciplines
• But is it really interdisciplinary? Does it analyze, synthesize and harmonize links between disciplines
into a coordinated and coherent whole?
• Not really… In reality it is a hodgepodge of various subjects; a collection of loosely related or even
unrelated streams of scholarly and not-so-scholarly research. It is neither a discipline or
interdisciplinary, perhaps multidisciplinary.
A historical perspective of OB
Scientific management
• 1880-1930
• Creating standards established by facts or truths gained through systematic observation,
experiment or reasoning to improve organizational efficiency.
• Also referred to as ‘Taylorism’:
o Frederick Taylor (1856-1915) is seen as founder
o Negative connotation because its association with mass production, the assembly line, and
negative perception of workers.
• People did the job their parents had, not what they wanted.
• However, some principles of scientific management were groundbreaking
o Scientific selection and training of people
o Scientific job redesign based on time-mention research
▪ Reducing tasks to basic elements or motions and subsequently redesigning tasks to
reduce the number of elements and emotions. Better for the company and the
employees.
The human relations movement
• 1930- 1970
The quality movement
• 1980’s
The internet and social media revolution
• 1990’s
• Makes virtual organizations possible:
, o Organizations where people work (partly) independent of location supported by ICT
(organizations without an office)
Diversity: represents the multitude of individual differences and similarities that exist among people.
Based on 4 layers:
• Personality
• Internal (surface-level) dimensions
• External (secondary) dimensions
• Organizational dimensions
The positive and negative effects of diverse work environments
Two perspectives:
• Diversity is good for workgroups:
o Information/ decisions-making theory
• Diversity is bad for workgroups
o Social categorization theory
Diversity is good: information/ decision-making theory
• Proposes that diverse workgroups should outperform homogenous workgroups because of more
informational diversity:
o Diverse groups are expected to do a better job in earlier phases of problem solving
▪ Because they are more likely to use their diverse background to generate a more
comprehensive view of a problem
o The existence of diverse perspectives can help groups to brainstorm or uncover more novel
alternatives during problem-solving activities
o Diversity can enhance the number of contacts a group or work unit has at its disposal
• Research on decision making provides evidence for this position
Diversity is bad: social categorization theory
• Proposes that similarities and differences are used as a basis for categorizing self and others into
groups, resulting in group dynamics with negative consequences for workgroups.
o Creates ‘us (ingroup)’ vs ‘them (outgroup)’ mentality. Capturize in and without the group→
in-/ outgroup. Maximize differences, ingroup and outgroup want this→ reason war
▪ Liking ingroup members, disliking outgroup members
▪ Ingroup bias/ favoritism and outgroup discrimination
▪ Conflict between ingroup and outgroup members
• Research on group dynamics provides evidence for this position
o (research with the so-called minimal group paradigm)
Minimal group paradigm
• Two groups are formed based on an arbitrary criterium
(preference for painters)
• Group members are then asked to divide outcomes among
ingroup versus outgroup members
A process of model of diversity
The negative effects of group dynamics are stronger when ‘fault lines’ are more salient.
→ making social categorization more likely.
, Fault line: hypothetical dividing lines that may split a group into subgroups based on one or more
attributes (dimensions of diversity)
As manager you have to avoid differences/ fault lines→ less problems.
• Make fault lines less salient by team composition
(cross-categorization).
• Strengthen the overarching identity of the team
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 the process of socialization
• Influences our behavior at work
Layers of organizational culture
Organizational culture is represented on different levels:
• Observable artifacts
o Consist of the physical manifestation of an organization’s culture
▪ Acronyms, manner of dress, awards, myths and stories
• Espoused values
o Explicitly stated values and norms that are preferred by an organization
Understanding cultural differences
Societal culture: a set of beliefs and values about what is desirable and undesirable in a community of
people and a set of formal or informal practices to support the values.
• Employees bring their societal culture to work with them in the form of customs and language
• Societal cultures may differ on various dimensions (high-contact vs. low-context cultures)
Expatriates and culture shock
Expatriates: refers to people living and/or working outside their home country
Cultural differences may lead to culture shock:
• Anxiety and doubt caused by an overload of new expectations and cues
• People return earlier of job dissatisfaction or difficulties in adjusting to a foreign country.
Best defense is comprehensive cross-cultural training, including intensive language study.
College 2
Individuals in Organizations I: Attitudes and Behavior
The unique individual in an organization
Self-concept: the concept the individual has of himself or herself. How
you think about yourself.
Important parts of one’s self-concept:
• Self-esteem
• Self-efficacy
• Self-monitoring
College 1 5 feb 2020
Introduction Behavior and Communication in Organizations
Organizations: a system of consciously coordinated activities or forces of 2 or more persons
Four common denominators:
• Coordination of effort
o Achieved policies, rules and regulations
• A common goal
• Division of labor
o Individuals perform separate but related tasks to achieve the common goal
• Hierarchy of authority
o Chain of command dedicated to make sure that the right people do the right things at the
right time
▪ Often reflected in an organizational chart
Organizational behavior: an interdisciplinary field dedicated to better understand and managing people at
work
• OB indeed draws on knowledge from different disciplines
• But is it really interdisciplinary? Does it analyze, synthesize and harmonize links between disciplines
into a coordinated and coherent whole?
• Not really… In reality it is a hodgepodge of various subjects; a collection of loosely related or even
unrelated streams of scholarly and not-so-scholarly research. It is neither a discipline or
interdisciplinary, perhaps multidisciplinary.
A historical perspective of OB
Scientific management
• 1880-1930
• Creating standards established by facts or truths gained through systematic observation,
experiment or reasoning to improve organizational efficiency.
• Also referred to as ‘Taylorism’:
o Frederick Taylor (1856-1915) is seen as founder
o Negative connotation because its association with mass production, the assembly line, and
negative perception of workers.
• People did the job their parents had, not what they wanted.
• However, some principles of scientific management were groundbreaking
o Scientific selection and training of people
o Scientific job redesign based on time-mention research
▪ Reducing tasks to basic elements or motions and subsequently redesigning tasks to
reduce the number of elements and emotions. Better for the company and the
employees.
The human relations movement
• 1930- 1970
The quality movement
• 1980’s
The internet and social media revolution
• 1990’s
• Makes virtual organizations possible:
, o Organizations where people work (partly) independent of location supported by ICT
(organizations without an office)
Diversity: represents the multitude of individual differences and similarities that exist among people.
Based on 4 layers:
• Personality
• Internal (surface-level) dimensions
• External (secondary) dimensions
• Organizational dimensions
The positive and negative effects of diverse work environments
Two perspectives:
• Diversity is good for workgroups:
o Information/ decisions-making theory
• Diversity is bad for workgroups
o Social categorization theory
Diversity is good: information/ decision-making theory
• Proposes that diverse workgroups should outperform homogenous workgroups because of more
informational diversity:
o Diverse groups are expected to do a better job in earlier phases of problem solving
▪ Because they are more likely to use their diverse background to generate a more
comprehensive view of a problem
o The existence of diverse perspectives can help groups to brainstorm or uncover more novel
alternatives during problem-solving activities
o Diversity can enhance the number of contacts a group or work unit has at its disposal
• Research on decision making provides evidence for this position
Diversity is bad: social categorization theory
• Proposes that similarities and differences are used as a basis for categorizing self and others into
groups, resulting in group dynamics with negative consequences for workgroups.
o Creates ‘us (ingroup)’ vs ‘them (outgroup)’ mentality. Capturize in and without the group→
in-/ outgroup. Maximize differences, ingroup and outgroup want this→ reason war
▪ Liking ingroup members, disliking outgroup members
▪ Ingroup bias/ favoritism and outgroup discrimination
▪ Conflict between ingroup and outgroup members
• Research on group dynamics provides evidence for this position
o (research with the so-called minimal group paradigm)
Minimal group paradigm
• Two groups are formed based on an arbitrary criterium
(preference for painters)
• Group members are then asked to divide outcomes among
ingroup versus outgroup members
A process of model of diversity
The negative effects of group dynamics are stronger when ‘fault lines’ are more salient.
→ making social categorization more likely.
, Fault line: hypothetical dividing lines that may split a group into subgroups based on one or more
attributes (dimensions of diversity)
As manager you have to avoid differences/ fault lines→ less problems.
• Make fault lines less salient by team composition
(cross-categorization).
• Strengthen the overarching identity of the team
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 the process of socialization
• Influences our behavior at work
Layers of organizational culture
Organizational culture is represented on different levels:
• Observable artifacts
o Consist of the physical manifestation of an organization’s culture
▪ Acronyms, manner of dress, awards, myths and stories
• Espoused values
o Explicitly stated values and norms that are preferred by an organization
Understanding cultural differences
Societal culture: a set of beliefs and values about what is desirable and undesirable in a community of
people and a set of formal or informal practices to support the values.
• Employees bring their societal culture to work with them in the form of customs and language
• Societal cultures may differ on various dimensions (high-contact vs. low-context cultures)
Expatriates and culture shock
Expatriates: refers to people living and/or working outside their home country
Cultural differences may lead to culture shock:
• Anxiety and doubt caused by an overload of new expectations and cues
• People return earlier of job dissatisfaction or difficulties in adjusting to a foreign country.
Best defense is comprehensive cross-cultural training, including intensive language study.
College 2
Individuals in Organizations I: Attitudes and Behavior
The unique individual in an organization
Self-concept: the concept the individual has of himself or herself. How
you think about yourself.
Important parts of one’s self-concept:
• Self-esteem
• Self-efficacy
• Self-monitoring
