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Chapter 1 What Is Organizational Behavior? Page 1
CHAPTER 1
What Is Organizational Behavior?
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After studying this chapter, students should be able to:
1-1. Demonstrate the importance of interpersonal skills in the workplace.
1-2. Define organizational behavior (OB).
1-3. Show the value to OB to systematic study.
1-4. Identify the major behavioral science disciplines that contribute to OB.
1-5. Demonstrate why few absolutes apply to OB.
1-6. Identify managers’ challenges and opportunities in applying OB concepts.
1-7. Compare the three levels of analysis in this text’s OB model.
1-8. Describe the key employability skills gained from studying OB that are applicable to
other majors or future careers.
INSTRUCTOR RESOURCES
Instructors may wish to use the following resources when presenting this chapter.
Text Exercises
Myth or Science?: “Management by Walking Around Is the Most Effective Management”
MyLab Management
oWatch it!: Herman Miller: Organizational Behavior
oPersonal Inventory Assessments: Multicultural Awareness Scale
An Ethical Choice: Vacation: All I Ever Wanted
Career OBjectives: What do I say about my termination?
Point/Counterpoint: The Battle of The Texts
Questions for Review
Experiential Exercise: Managing the OB Way
Ethical Dilemma: There’s a Drone in Your Soup
Text Cases
Case Incident 1: Apple Goes Global
Chapter 1 What Is Organizational Behavior? Page 2
Case Incident 2: Big Data for Dummies
Instructor’s Choice
This section presents an exercise that is NOT found in the student's textbook. Instructor's Choice
reinforces the text's emphasis through various activities. Some Instructor's Choice activities are
centered on debates, group exercises, Internet research, and student experiences. Some can be
used in class in their entirety, while others require some additional work on the student's part.
The course instructor may choose to use these at any time throughout the class—some may be
more effective as icebreakers, while some may be used to pull together various concepts covered
in the chapter.
Web Exercises
ideas for researching OB topics on the Internet. The exercises “Exploring OB Topics on the
Web” are set up so that you can simply photocopy the pages, distribute them to your class, and
make assignments accordingly. You may want to assign the exercises as an out-of-class activity
or as lab activities with your class.
Summary and Implications for Managers
A. Managers need to develop their interpersonal, or people, skills to be effective in their
jobs.
B. Organizational behavior (OB) investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and
structure have on behavior within an organization, and it applies that knowledge to make
organizations work more effectively.
C. Specific implications for managers are below:
1. Resist the inclination to rely on generalizations; some provide valid insights into
context.
2. Use metrics rather than hunches to explain cause-and-effect relationships.
3. Work on your interpersonal skills to increase your leadership potential.
5. Organizational behavior can improve your employees’ work quality and productivity
by showing you how to empower your employees, design and implement change
conflicts.
This chaper begins with a vignette entitled, “Road Warriors.” The details of this story are inspiring, reflecting the
complexity and speed, of organizational life. They also highlight several issues of interest to those of us seeking to
BRIEF CHAPTER OUTLINE
Chapter 1 What Is Organizational Behavior? Page 3
I. The Importance of Interpersonal Skills
A. Better financial performance.
B. Lower turnover of quality employees.
turnover.
D. Greater social responsibility awareness.
II. Management and Organizational Behavior
A. Definitions
2. Organization: A consciously coordinated social unit composed of two or more
of goals.
B. Management Functions
1. All managers perform five primary management functions: planning, organizing,
C. Management Roles
1. Introduction
2. The ten roles can be grouped as being primarily concerned with interpersonal
relationships, the transfer of information, and decision making. (Exhibit 1-1)
a. Interpersonal Roles: Figurehead, Leader, Liaison
outsiders.
c. Decisional Roles: Entrepreneur, Disturbance handlers, Resource allocator,
Negotiator role
D. Management Skills
the job.
2. Human Skills: Ability to work with, understand, and motivate other people, both
individually and in groups.
3. Conceptual Skills: The mental ability to analyze and diagnose complex situations.
E. Effective Versus Successful Managerial Activities
managers engage in four managerial activities:
a. Traditional management
b. Communication
c. Human resource management
d. Networking
(Exhibit 1-2)
Chapter 1 What Is Organizational Behavior? Page 4
effectiveness.
4. OB studies three determinants of behavior in organizations: individuals, groups, and
structure.
III. Complementing Intuition with Systematic Study
A. Introduction
1. Each of us is a student of behavior.
B. The systematic approach used in this book will uncover important facts and relationships,
and will provide a base from which more accurate predictions of behavior can be made.
1. Systematic Study of Behavior
a. Behavior, generally, is predictable if we know how the person perceived the
situation and what is important to him or her.
C. Evidence-Based Management (EBM)
1. Complements systematic study.
2. Argues for managers to make decisions on evidence.
D. Intuition
1. Systematic study and EBM add to intuition, or those “gut feelings” about “why I do
what I do” and “what makes others tick.”
2. If we make all decisions with intuition or gut instinct, we’re likely working with
incomplete information.
E. Use a combination
F. Big Data
1. Background: The use of big data for managerial practices is a relatively new area, but
one that holds convincing promise.
2. Current Usage: The reasons for data analytics include predicting any event, detecting
how much risk is incurred at any time, and preventing catastrophes.
3. New Trends: The use of Big Data for understanding, helping, and managing people is
relatively new but holds promise.
4. Limitations: Use evidence as much as possible to inform your intuition and
experience.
IV. Disciplines That Contribute to the OB Field
A. Introduction
anthropology.
3. Exhibit 1-3 overviews the major contributions to the study of organizational behavior.
B. Psychology
1. Psychology is the science that seeks to measure, explain, and sometimes change the
behavior of humans and other animals.
C. Social Psychology
D. Sociology
Chapter 1 What Is Organizational Behavior? Page 5
1. Sociologists study the social system in which individuals fill their roles; that is,
sociology studies people in relation to their fellow human beings.
E. Anthropology
activities.
V. There Are Few Absolutes in OB
A. Introduction
1. There are few, if any, simple and universal principles that explain organizational
behavior.
VI. Challenges and Opportunities for OB
A. Introduction
1. There are many challenges and opportunities today for managers to use OB concepts.
2. Employment options today have adapted to include new opportunities for workers.
(Exhibit 1-4)
B. Economic Pressure
forefront.
C. Continuing Globalization
1. Increased Foreign Assignments
2. Working with People from Different Cultures
3. Overseeing Movement of Jobs to Countries with Low-Cost Labor
4. Adapting to Differing Cultural and Regulatory Norms
D. Workforce Demographics
E. Workforce Diversity
1. Workforce diversity acknowledges a workforce of women and men; many racial and
ethnic groups; individuals with a variety of physical or psychological abilities; and
people who differ in age and sexual orientation.
F. Customer Service
planners, and flight attendants.
2. Employee attitudes and behavior are associated with customer satisfaction.
G. People Skills
1. People skills are essential to managerial effectiveness.
H. Networked Organizations
1. Networked organizations are becoming more pronounced.
I. Social Media
Chapter 1 What Is Organizational Behavior? Page 6
1. Ethical questions regarding HR use of social media.
2. Employee use of social media at work.
J. Employee Well-Being at Work
K. Positive Work Environment
1. Positive organizational scholarship is an area of OB research that concerns how
organizations develop human strength, foster vitality and resilience, and unlock
potential.
L. Ethical Behavior
A. An Overview
1. A model is an abstraction of reality, a simplified representation of some real-world
phenomenon. (Exhibit 1-5)
2. It proposes three types of variables (inputs, processes, and outcomes) at three levels
of analysis (individual, group, and organizational).
leading to outcomes.
B. Inputs
1. Inputs are the variables like personality, group structure, and organizational culture
that lead to processes.
2. Group structure, roles, and team responsibilities are typically assigned immediately
before or after a group is formed.
customs and norms.
C. Processes
1. If inputs are like the nouns in organizational behavior, processes are like verbs.
2. Processes are actions that individuals, groups, and organizations engage in as a result
of inputs and that lead to certain outcomes.
perception, and decision making.
4. At the group level, they include communication, leadership, power and politics, and
conflict and negotiation.
5. Finally, at the organizational level, processes include human resource management
and change practices.
D. Outcomes
affected by some other variables.
2. At the group level, cohesion and functioning are the dependent variables.
3. Finally, at the organizational level we look at overall profitability and survival.
4. Attitudes and stress
Chapter 1 What Is Organizational Behavior? Page 7
negative, about objects, people, or events.
b. Stress is an unpleasant psychological process that occurs in response to
environmental pressures.
research begun to support it.
5. Task performance
a. The combination of effectiveness and efficiency at doing your core job tasks is a
reflection of your level of task performance.
6. Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB)
the workplace, is called citizenship behavior.
b. Successful organizations need employees who will do more than their usual job
duties—who will provide performance beyond expectations.
don’t.
d. As a result, OB is concerned with citizenship behavior as an outcome variable.
7. Withdrawal behavior
a. Withdrawal behavior is the set of actions that employees take to separate
themselves from the organization.
attend meetings to absenteeism and turnover.
c. Employee withdrawal can have a very negative effect on an organization.
d. Absenteeism also costs organizations significant amounts of money and time
every year.
prospects.
g. So why do employees withdraw from work?
i. Reasons include negative job attitudes, emotions and moods, and negative
interactions with co-workers and supervisors.
8. Group cohesion
a. Group cohesion is the extent to which members of a group support and validate
one another at work.
one another, the group is not cohesive.
Chapter 1 What Is Organizational Behavior? Page 8
adventure-team retreats.
9. Group functioning
a. In the same way that positive job attitudes can be associated with higher levels of
task performance, group cohesion should lead to positive group functioning.
b. Group functioning refers to the quantity and quality of a group’s work output.
c. In some organizations, an effective group is one that stays focused on a core task
and achieves its ends as specified.
d. Other organizations look for teams that are able to work together collaboratively
to provide excellent customer service.
e. Still others put more of a premium on group creativity and the flexibility to adapt
to changing situations. In each case, different types of activities will be required to
get the most from the team.
10. Productivity
a. The highest level of analysis in organizational behavior is the organization as a
whole.
b. An organization is productive if it achieves its goals by transforming inputs into
outputs at the lowest cost. This requires both effectiveness and efficiency.
c. Popular measures of organizational efficiency include return on investment, profit
per dollar of sales, and output per hour of labor.
d. Service organizations must include customer needs and requirements in assessing
their effectiveness.
11. Survival
a. The final outcome we will consider is organizational survival, which is simply
evidence that the organization is able to exist and grow over the long term.
individual, group, or organizational level.
1. As you can see in Exhibit 1-6, we will deal with inputs, processes, and outcomes at
all three levels of analysis, but we group the chapters as shown here to correspond
with the typical ways that research has been done in these areas.
2. It is easier to understand one unified presentation about how personality leads to
functions. (Exhibit 1-6)
IX. Employability Skills
A. Challenges relevant to OB can be found in just
about every function of business, from finance and accounting to management and
marketing.
Chapter 1 What Is Organizational Behavior? Page 9
government regulation, managing risks, and finding the right staff—all while growing
revenue and increasing profit.
2. Clearly, the knowledge of OB concepts such as stress management, change, attitudes,
social responsibility, and knowledge application and analysis.
B. Employability Skills that Apply across Majors
1. Throughout this text, you’ll learn and practice many skills that hiring managers
identify as important to success in a variety of business settings, including small and
large firms, nonprofit organizations, and public service. These skills will also be
situation or set of circumstances.
3. Critical thinking involves purposeful and goal-directed thinking used to define and
solve problems and to make decisions or form judgments related to a particular
situation or set of circumstances.
4. Collaboration is a skill in which individuals can actively work together on a task,
understanding.
6. Social responsibility includes skills related to both business ethics and corporate
social responsibility. Business ethics includes sets of guiding principles that influence
the way individuals and organizations behave within the society that they operate.
Corporate social responsibility is a form of ethical behavior that requires that
and social behaviors.
X. Summary and Implications for Managers
A. Managers need to develop their interpersonal, or people, skills to be effective in their
jobs.
B. Organizational behavior (OB) investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and
organizations work more effectively.
C. Specific implications for managers are:
1. Resist the inclination to rely on generalizations; some provide valid insights into
human behavior, but many are erroneous.
2. Use metrics and situational variables rather than “hunches” to explain
cause-and-effect relationships.
Chapter 1 What Is Organizational Behavior? Page 10
5. Organizational behavior can improve your employees’ work quality and productivity
by showing you how to empower your employees, design and implement change
programs, improve customer service, and help your employees balance work–life
conflicts.
