Organizational Behavior Agenda

• Establish realistic expectations about course

• Get to know me

• Discuss what OB is and why it is important

• Review syllabus

• Discuss why a scientific approach will be used

What is Organizational Behavior• A relatively new field of scientific study

• Concerned with human behavior that occurs in work settings

• Began by borrowing from other social sciences such as psychology and sociology

• Scientific study of the behavior and attitudes of both individuals and groups within organizations

Mini-History of OB: Scientific Management and Human Relations

Scientific Management Approach•The role of “people” in economic success and failure undervalued for a long time because of scientific management’s emphasis on efficiency

•Taylor: Workers as extensions of machines, interchangeable parts, and pig-iron handling study. Time and motion study.

Taylor’s Four Managerial Principles

• Select workers

• Train systematically

• Motivate workers to want to perform

• Discover the most efficient way to do the job

Others in Sc. Mgmt: Gantt, Frank & Lillian Gilbreth

Employees a necessary evil—minimize human variation

Human Relations Approach

People were appreciated more fully with the advent of this approach

Lessons from the Human Relations Approach

• Hawthorne Studies & Hawthorne Effect

--something common sense would not predict

• Other factors beyond pay & physiological conditions (e.g., light) influence productivity

• These factors are social and/or psychological in nature (e.g., 9/11)

• Behavior is not always rational

OB is the scientific study of the behavior and attitudes of both individuals and groups within

organizations

Why is OB important?

• Employees can be a source of competitive advantage. (Natural tendency to think one’s discipline is the most important in business, but nearly all successful leaders emphasize human factors).

• Attracting & retaining talent increasingly difficult– More frequent employee-initiated job changes

– Mergers, acquisitions, downsizings

• Developing/maintaining favorable work attitudes and behaviors a constant struggle

Why is OB important?

• Team-based work systems require collaboration

• Impact of undesirable work attitudes is increasingly well documented—text calls this “deviant workplace behavior”

Outcomes of “Bad” Employee Attitudes

Organizational Performance Job Satisfaction Absenteeism Turnover (affects

customer satisfaction) Effort Expenditure Theft (workplace deviance) Willingness to be relocated

Performance Increases Using Different Strategies

Strategy to Enhance

ROI Performance1. TQM (improve product/service

quality)

2. Downsizing or re-engineering (reduce payroll)

3. Employee Involvement (Attitude Improvement)

Results Among Firms Using Strategy

15%

15.4%

19.1%

Summary: Purpose of Course

To provide managers with the understanding and skills to manage work-related attitudes and behaviors

Organizational Behavior Course Model

OB Outcomes: Attitudes and Behaviors

EffortJob SatisfactionAbsenteeismTurnoverStressWorkplace ViolenceOrganizational Citizenship

Behavior and CommitmentEmployee TheftSafety and AccidentsSexual HarassmentGrievances

Influenced by Managers Using

Application of Individual Differences

• Perceptions• Attributions• Attitude change• Values• Personality

Group DynamicsReward SystemsJob DesignLeadership

How Do Managers Determine the “Best Way” to Manage?

• Course favors science but realizes there are other ways of determining truth

• Unawareness of evidence leads to imitation & adoption of fads

• What are the “hot” practices or emerging trends popular among managers today?

• Look at some fads over time

Management Innovation or “Fad”????

The 1950s & 60sThe 1970s The 1980sTheory Y Zero-based Budgeting 1-Minute ManagerMBO Strategic Planning Theory ZT (sensitivity) Groups Portfolio Mgmt JIT, TQM

The 1990s The 2000s 2010 & BeyondDownsizing Sustainability Relationship MarketingReengineering Emotional Intelligence Supply Chain MgmtEmployee Empowerment JIT, TQM

How Do Managers Determine the “Best Way” to Manage?

• Course promotes science but realizes Mgmt is both an art & science

• Imitating leads to fad management

• Managers must act and they rely on multiple ways of determining truth (epistemologies) that may reach different conclusions.

• Sick leave policy example

COMMON EPISTEMOLOGIES USED BY MANAGERS

1. Experience

2. Intuition

3. Common Sense or logic

4. Expert testimony/Higher authority/Consultant

5. History or Tradition

6. Science/Evidence-based management

Summary• Know your own epistemology (epistemologies)• Appreciate others’ use of alternate epistemological

perspectives• Change agents (managers) adapt to others’

epistemologies and use multiple epistemologies• Your preferred epistemology may not be able to

answer your question and epistemologies can conflict

What does it mean if you say you believe in Science/Evidence-based Management?

Characteristics of Science• Empirical

• Rational

• General– predict– explain

• Cumulative– tentative– replication– self-correcting