Behavior and communication in organizations
Lecture 1 Hoofdstuk 1 + artikel
Social identity
→ Example lecture: long holidays in Amerika where kids go to summer camps. A researcher did a
field experiment there, and the gave half of the children a blue cap and the other half a red cap. It
turned out that there were starting to become two groups, blue
and red caps. They liked their own group better than the other one.
→ Learning: the fact that you are a member of a group has effect
on thinking and behaviour.
Error prone situation
Very likely to bump your head against the ceiling. So what do business usually do, they put up a sign:
‘mind your head’. This snackbar where this stairs is, is called Snackbar Stoot je hoofd niet. Hierdoor is
de kans dat je je hoofd stoot lager. An other company has put a pillow on the ceiling, because people
will bump their head, and to prevent negative consequences.
→ This is called errormanagement.
This is a figure form the Everest article. What I see in organisations, a lot of people confuse errors
with other things. They confuse it the most with consequences.
→ Example: the error was bumping your head and the consequence would be a headache. Those are
not the same. If you put a pillow on the ceiling, you only care about the consequences and avoiding
that, but not for the error. It makes people free to make mistakes. Mistakes could also be with good
outcomes, like innovation and learning.
1
,Mistakes (errors) are also confused with violations. Those are actions that go against some rules. A
person decides that their gonna pass a red traffic light. It is NOT a mistake it is on purpose. Managers
confuse mistakes with violations.
→ Mistake = best intentions, but didn’t work out as you wanted.
→ Violation = is doing something on purpose.
When you manager is saying that you violate something, and you actually made a mistake then a
normal response is to think about solutions and NOT be mad.
Mount Everest
Is the highest mountain on the world.
= ADITTIONAL READING.
Error culture on Everest
→It summarizes leadership aspects and layers of culture
Leadership on horse tails
Its something that is happening between the rider and the horse. It is all about organizational
behaviour. The rider had to lead the horse, because the rider has already seen the road, and the
horse didn’t. The rides has to give confidence and inspire the horse. Thos are the things that should
also be done in organizations.
Business school VS social science
Business school
➔ Economics
➔ Accounting
➔ Finance
Technical aspects of management
Social science
People and their behavior within organizations.
Human behavior
➔ Individual
➔ Group and
➔ Organizational level
2
,Communication is key
Psychology: how people think and act and react. People are not so predictable
Organization behaviour
Organization behaviour = the people and their behaviour within organizations is central. There are
three levels.
1) Human
2) Group
3) Organizational
“A field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behavior
within organizations, for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organization’s
effectivess.”
Organization
And where an organization is… “A consiously coordinated social unit, composed of two or more
people, that functions on a relatively continuous basis to achieve a common set goal or set of goals.”
What’s what & who is who?
Worker
Why not employee?
➔ Work has become different than it used to and not everyone is employed by an organization.
They might work at flexible hours or as a freelancer or as a interim. So the word employee is
not covering the whole.
‘the gig economy’
e.g., temporary, freelance and/or flexible work
Manager
Manager vs leader
Why not leaders?
➔ Managers only give order and leaders motivate and inspire.
➔ But why do they choose the term manager? There is formal leaders and informal leaders. A
leader doesn’t necessarily have to be a formal manager. And you can sort of take a part
aspects that someone is charge has to organize and part of it is leading other people.
Organization
“A […] coordinated social unit of two or more people […] to achieve common goal(s).”
e.g., ‘network organization’ (LoHT as an example)
These terms are chosen because they fully cover the levels in behavior and communications in
organizations.
→ Nuance, common ground & special cases
3
, Example: Mount Everest
→ Who are here the workers? The people who are leading the trip on the mountain: the founder, the
head guide, the guide, the climbing sirdar and journalist. They are working toward the goal of getting
clients and bring them to the top and back.
→ Who are here the managers? Not all the workers are managers, only the founder & leading guide
are also managers.
→ What is the organization? Adventure Consultants and Mountain Madness expeditions.
Example: Leaderships on horse trails
→ Is that an organization if you look at the definition?
Yes, it is not registered, but two or more people are working on it with a common goal.
“A consiously coordinated social unit, composed of two or more people, that functions on a
relatively continuous basis to achieve a common set goal or set of goals.”
Some structure
A lot of terminology, stuff like motivation and attitude and teamwork, structure and leadership. There
is an figure in chapter 1 with al the terminology.
→ The inputs has effect on the processes and the processes has effect on the outcomes.
Manegerial activities
Do managers who move up most quickly in an organization do the same activities and with the same
emphasis as managers who do the best job?
Traditional → decision making, planning & controlling
Communication → exchanging & processing info
HR leadership (people oriented leadership) → motivating, disciplining, managing conflict, staffing &
training
Networking (keeping in contact) → socializing, politicking & interaction with outsiders
4
Lecture 1 Hoofdstuk 1 + artikel
Social identity
→ Example lecture: long holidays in Amerika where kids go to summer camps. A researcher did a
field experiment there, and the gave half of the children a blue cap and the other half a red cap. It
turned out that there were starting to become two groups, blue
and red caps. They liked their own group better than the other one.
→ Learning: the fact that you are a member of a group has effect
on thinking and behaviour.
Error prone situation
Very likely to bump your head against the ceiling. So what do business usually do, they put up a sign:
‘mind your head’. This snackbar where this stairs is, is called Snackbar Stoot je hoofd niet. Hierdoor is
de kans dat je je hoofd stoot lager. An other company has put a pillow on the ceiling, because people
will bump their head, and to prevent negative consequences.
→ This is called errormanagement.
This is a figure form the Everest article. What I see in organisations, a lot of people confuse errors
with other things. They confuse it the most with consequences.
→ Example: the error was bumping your head and the consequence would be a headache. Those are
not the same. If you put a pillow on the ceiling, you only care about the consequences and avoiding
that, but not for the error. It makes people free to make mistakes. Mistakes could also be with good
outcomes, like innovation and learning.
1
,Mistakes (errors) are also confused with violations. Those are actions that go against some rules. A
person decides that their gonna pass a red traffic light. It is NOT a mistake it is on purpose. Managers
confuse mistakes with violations.
→ Mistake = best intentions, but didn’t work out as you wanted.
→ Violation = is doing something on purpose.
When you manager is saying that you violate something, and you actually made a mistake then a
normal response is to think about solutions and NOT be mad.
Mount Everest
Is the highest mountain on the world.
= ADITTIONAL READING.
Error culture on Everest
→It summarizes leadership aspects and layers of culture
Leadership on horse tails
Its something that is happening between the rider and the horse. It is all about organizational
behaviour. The rider had to lead the horse, because the rider has already seen the road, and the
horse didn’t. The rides has to give confidence and inspire the horse. Thos are the things that should
also be done in organizations.
Business school VS social science
Business school
➔ Economics
➔ Accounting
➔ Finance
Technical aspects of management
Social science
People and their behavior within organizations.
Human behavior
➔ Individual
➔ Group and
➔ Organizational level
2
,Communication is key
Psychology: how people think and act and react. People are not so predictable
Organization behaviour
Organization behaviour = the people and their behaviour within organizations is central. There are
three levels.
1) Human
2) Group
3) Organizational
“A field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behavior
within organizations, for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organization’s
effectivess.”
Organization
And where an organization is… “A consiously coordinated social unit, composed of two or more
people, that functions on a relatively continuous basis to achieve a common set goal or set of goals.”
What’s what & who is who?
Worker
Why not employee?
➔ Work has become different than it used to and not everyone is employed by an organization.
They might work at flexible hours or as a freelancer or as a interim. So the word employee is
not covering the whole.
‘the gig economy’
e.g., temporary, freelance and/or flexible work
Manager
Manager vs leader
Why not leaders?
➔ Managers only give order and leaders motivate and inspire.
➔ But why do they choose the term manager? There is formal leaders and informal leaders. A
leader doesn’t necessarily have to be a formal manager. And you can sort of take a part
aspects that someone is charge has to organize and part of it is leading other people.
Organization
“A […] coordinated social unit of two or more people […] to achieve common goal(s).”
e.g., ‘network organization’ (LoHT as an example)
These terms are chosen because they fully cover the levels in behavior and communications in
organizations.
→ Nuance, common ground & special cases
3
, Example: Mount Everest
→ Who are here the workers? The people who are leading the trip on the mountain: the founder, the
head guide, the guide, the climbing sirdar and journalist. They are working toward the goal of getting
clients and bring them to the top and back.
→ Who are here the managers? Not all the workers are managers, only the founder & leading guide
are also managers.
→ What is the organization? Adventure Consultants and Mountain Madness expeditions.
Example: Leaderships on horse trails
→ Is that an organization if you look at the definition?
Yes, it is not registered, but two or more people are working on it with a common goal.
“A consiously coordinated social unit, composed of two or more people, that functions on a
relatively continuous basis to achieve a common set goal or set of goals.”
Some structure
A lot of terminology, stuff like motivation and attitude and teamwork, structure and leadership. There
is an figure in chapter 1 with al the terminology.
→ The inputs has effect on the processes and the processes has effect on the outcomes.
Manegerial activities
Do managers who move up most quickly in an organization do the same activities and with the same
emphasis as managers who do the best job?
Traditional → decision making, planning & controlling
Communication → exchanging & processing info
HR leadership (people oriented leadership) → motivating, disciplining, managing conflict, staffing &
training
Networking (keeping in contact) → socializing, politicking & interaction with outsiders
4
