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Organizational BehaviourOrganizational Behaviour

Section F

WelcomeWelcome

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AgendaAgenda

• Introduction

• What is OB & Why Do We Care

• Historical Roots

• Contemporary OB

• Research In OB

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IntroductionIntroduction

• John Coffey– Who Am I?– Office: (Shared) P2045– Office Hours: by appointment– E-Mail: jcoffey@wlu.ca

• Evaluation– 3 In-Class Exams 60%– Final Exam 40%

• OB/HRM Research Participation System• Keys to Your Success

– Preparation– Attendance– Participation

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MOB Research Participation SystemMOB Research Participation System

• The Management & Organizational Behaviour Group in SBE is initiating a voluntary research participation system for the following courses:

- BU288 (Organizational Behaviour I)- BU354 (Human Resources Management)

• A maximum of 3 research credits are allowed per course (3% of course grade). ½ hour of participation in a research study translates to 0.5 research credits. On-line studies are worth ½ that of in-person studies.

• Students interested in participating in the research participation system should log in to: http://sbe.sona-systems.com/ and follow the directions for requesting an account for a new participant.

• If a student is unable to participate in on-campus or on-line studies, they can complete an alternative written assignment available at http://www.wlu.ca/page.php?grp_id=1825&p=6219 (click on “MOB Journal Articles”). You must still request an account as a participant in the system if you are interested in pursuing this option.

• Documentation on the system can be found at: http://www.wlu.ca/documents/18091/ems_v265_docs.pdf.

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Organizational BehaviourOrganizational Behaviour

• Study of Human Behaviour in Organizations– Human Behaviour in Organizational Settings– Individual-Organization Interface– Organization

• Why Study It?– Predict, explain and manage behaviour in an organizational

setting– People impact the success of every type of organization – Affects our individual success

• Our lives are integrally bound to/affected by them

• Our success depends on our ability to navigate them

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Organizational BehaviourOrganizational Behaviour

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Organizational Behaviour Organizational Behaviour (cont’d)(cont’d)

What people do in an organization.What people do in an organization.

Core Concepts:Core Concepts:Values, Attitudes, PerceptionsPersonality, Motivation, etc.

OrganizationGroup

Individual

Structure, Processes,Communication & Conflict

Leadership, Power, Structure, Work Design & Change

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Historical RootsHistorical Roots

• Management predates organizations– Aristotle & Plato

• Scientific Management (Fredrick Taylor)– Efficiency & productivity– Believed money the only motivator – Became mainstay of business practice– Specialization, mass production

• Classical Theory –Bureaucracy (Max Weber)– Set optimal levels of specialization & standardization– Model embraced logic, rationality & efficiency

Little regard for effect of people’s behaviour on organization

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Ideal Bureaucracy (Weber)Ideal Bureaucracy (Weber)

Elements Comments

1. Rules and Procedures A consistent set of abstract rules and procedures.

2. Distinct Division of Labour Each position should be filled by an expert.

3. Hierarchy of Authority The chain of command should be clearly established.

4. Technical Competence Employment and advancement should be based on merit.

5. Segregation of ownership Professional managers, rather than owners, should run the organization.

6.Rights and Properties of the Position

These should be associated with the organization, not the person who holds the office.

7. Documentation A record of actions should be kept regarding administrative decisions, rules, and procedures.

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Human Relations MovementHuman Relations Movement

• Many Classical Views counter productive to long term success

• Hawthorne: Special attention can positively affect productivity

• Douglas McGregor: Theory X & Theory Y

• Abraham Maslow: Hierarchy of Needs (Chapter 4)

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McGregor: Theory X – Theory YMcGregor: Theory X – Theory Y

Theory X Assumptions Theory Y Assumptions1. People do not like work and try to avoid it. 1. People do not naturally dislike work; work

is a natural part of their lives.

2. People do not like work, so managers have to control, direct, coerce, and threaten employees to get them to work toward organizational goals.

2. People are internally motivated to reach objectives to which they are committed.

3. People prefer to be directed, to avoid responsibility, to want security; they have little ambition.

3. People are committed to goals to the degree that they receive personal rewards when they reach their objectives

4. People will seek and accept responsibility under favourable conditions.

5. People have the capacity to be innovative in solving organizational problems.

6. People are bright, but under most organizational conditions their potentials are underutilized.

Source: Douglas McGregor, The Human Side of Enterprise (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1960), pp 33, 47-48.Reprint by permission of the McGraw-Hill Companies.

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Contemporary OBContemporary OB

• Interdisciplinary: Draws from Sociology, Psychology, Anthropology, Political Science

• Descriptive Nature: Describe relationships between variables

• Three Central Concepts:

– Individual processes

– Interpersonal (Group) processes

– Organizational processes

• Several Contextual Perspectives:

– Systems

– Contingency

– Interactionalism

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Systems Approach to OrganizationsSystems Approach to Organizations

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System: interrelated set of elements that function as a whole

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Systems and Peter SengeSystems and Peter Senge * *

• Today's problems come from yesterday's "solutions".

• The harder you push the harder the system pushes back.

• Behaviour grows better before it grows worse.

• The easy way out usually leads back in.– if the solution was easy it would have already been done

• The cure can be worse than the disease– short-term improvements lead to long term dependency

• Faster is slower.

* Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The learning organization, (2006)

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Systems and Peter SengeSystems and Peter Senge

• Cause and effect are not closely related in time and space.

• Small changes can produce big results but ..... – highest areas of leverage are often least obvious

• You can have your cake and eat it - but not at once.– the law of "and“ (i.e. high wages and lowest costs)

• Dividing an elephant in half doesn't produce two small elephants.– living systems have integrity, character depends upon the whole

– optimizing one component can sub-optimize the whole

• There is no blame.– you and the cause are part of a single system

– if you think the problem is out there, that thinking is the problem

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Five Disciplines of a Learning Organization * Five Disciplines of a Learning Organization *

1. Personal masteryPersonal mastery -- clarifying personal vision, focusing energy, and seeing reality

2. Shared visionShared vision -- transforming individual vision into shared vision

3. Mental modelsMental models -- unearthing internal pictures and understanding how they shape actions

4. Team learningTeam learning -- suspending judgments and creating dialogue

5. Systems thinkingSystems thinking -- fusing the four learning disciplines; from seeing the parts to seeing wholes

* Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The learning organization, (2006)

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Contingency ApproachContingency Approach

What works best?

For situations and problems management must decide:

Answer:

““It Depends”It Depends”

Especially true for

Motivation, Job & Organizational Design, & Leadership

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Universal Vs Contingency ApproachUniversal Vs Contingency Approach

Organizationalproblems or situationsdetermine…

the one best wayof responding.

Universal Approach

Contingency Approach

Organizationalproblems or situationsmust be evaluated interms of…

elements of thesituation, whichthen suggest…

contingent waysof responding.

(Earlier View 1950’s & 60’s))

(Current View)

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InteractionalismInteractionalism

• Individuals and situations interact continuously to determine individuals’ behaviour

• Attempts to explain how people select, interpret, and change situations

• Implies that simple cause & effect aren’t enough

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved

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Research in Organizational BehaviourResearch in Organizational Behaviour

• Based on research that involves objective and systematic information gathering.

• Research Types: – Basic: discover new knowledge– Applied: solve a particular problem

• Scientific Research Process:Question or ProblemLiterature reviewHypothesisResearch designData Collection & AnalysisInterpretation

• Separates OB from opinion and “common sense”

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Key Research ComponentsKey Research Components

• Hypothesis: a formal statement of the expected relationship between two variables.

• Variable: refers to a measure that can take on two or more values

Independent Variable: One that predicts or causes changes in another variable

Dependent Variable: One that is expected to vary as a result of changes in the independent variable

Moderating Variable: One that affects the nature of the relationship between an independent and dependent variable

Mediating Variable: One that intervenes or explains the relationship between an independent and dependent variable

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Key Research Components Key Research Components (cont’d)(cont’d)

• Reliability: an index of the consistency of a research subject’s responses.

• Validity: an index of the extent to which a measure truly reflects what it is supposed to measure

– Internal Validity: extent to which one can be confident that changes in the dependent variable are due to changes in the independent variable

– External Validity: extent to which results generalize to other samples and settings

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Research DesignResearch Design

• Types of Design– Case Study: In-depth of single situation;– Field Survey: Questionnaire– Laboratory Experiment: Most control of variables– Field Experiment: Conducted in real organizational setting

• Data Gathering Methods– Questionnaires– Interviews– Observation– Non-reactive Measures

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Related IssuesRelated Issues

• Causality: difficult to determine due to inter-relationships of variables in a social system– Spuriousness: elimination of other causes (3rd variable) of

outcome

• Ethical Concerns: – Adequate protection of participates– Privacy not violated– Candid & faithful reporting of results (honesty)