School of Business

Master of Business Administration

BMGT675 Organizational Behavior

Chapter 1
What is Organizational Behavior?

Fall 2020-2021
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd.
1-1
 Learning Objectives
 Demonstrate the importance of interpersonal
skills in the workplace.
 Define organizational behavior (OB).
 Show the value to OB of systematic study.
 Identify the major behavioral science disciplines
that contribute to OB.
 Demonstrate why few absolutes apply to OB.
 Identify managers’ challenges and opportunities
in applying OB concepts.
 Compare the three levels of analysis in this
text’s OB model.
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd.
1-2
LO 1 Demonstrate the Importance of
Interpersonal Skills in the Workplace
Interpersonal skills are important because…
‘Good places to work’ have better financial
performance.
Better interpersonal skills result in lower
turnover of quality employees and higher quality
applications for recruitment.
There is a strong association between the
quality of workplace relationships and job
satisfaction, stress, and turnover.
It fosters social responsibility awareness.
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd.
1-3
LO 2 Describe the Manager’s
Functions, Roles, And Skills
 Manager: Someone who gets things done
through other people in organizations.
 Organization: A consciously coordinated social
unit composed of two or more people that
functions on a relatively continuous basis to
achieve a common goal or set of goals.
 Planning, organizing, leading, and
controlling.
 Mintzberg concluded that managers perform ten
different, highly interrelated roles or sets of
behaviors attributable to their jobs.
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd.
1-4
LO 2
Describe the Manager’s
Functions, Roles, and Skills

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd.

1-5
LO 2 Describe the Manager’s
Functions, Roles, and Skills
 Management Skills
Technical Skills – the ability to apply
specialized knowledge or expertise. All jobs
require some specialized expertise, and
many people develop their technical skills
on the job.
Human Skills – the ability to work with,
understand, and motivate other people,
both individually and in groups.
Conceptual Skills – the mental ability to
analyze and diagnose complex situations.
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd.
1-6
LO 2 Effective Versus Successful
Managerial Activities
Luthans and his associates found that all
managers engage in four managerial
activities:
1. Traditional management
2. Communication
3. Human resource management
4. Networking

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd.

1-7
LO 2 Effective Versus Successful
Managerial Activities

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd.

1-8
LO 2
Define Organizational Behavior

Organizational behavior (OB) is 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
effectiveness.

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd.

1-9
LO 3 Complementing Intuition
with Systematic Study
.
Systematic Study of Behavior
 Behavior generally is predictable if we know how
the person perceived the situation and what is
important to him or her.
Evidence-Based Management (EBM)
 Complements systematic study.
 Argues for managers to make decisions based
on evidence.
Intuition
 Systematic study and EBM add to intuition, or
those “gut feelings” about “why I do what I do”
and “what makes others tick.”
 If we make all decisions with intuition or gut
instinct, we’re likely working with incomplete
information.
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd.
1-10
LO 3 Big Data
Background:
The use of Big Data for managerial practices is a
relatively new area, but one that holds convincing
promise.
Current Usage:
The reasons for data analytics include predicting
any event, detecting how much risk is incurred at
any time, and preventing catastrophes.
New Trends:
The use of Big Data for understanding, helping,
and managing people is relatively new but holds
promise.
Limitations:
Use evidence as much as possible to inform your
intuition and experience.
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd.
1-11
LO 4 Identify the Major Behavioral Science
Disciplines That Contribute to OB

Organizational behavior is an applied

behavioral science that is built upon
contributions from a number of behavioral
disciplines:
 Psychology
 Social psychology
 Sociology
 Anthropology

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd.

1-12
LO 4 Identify the Major Behavioral Science
Disciplines That Contribute to OB

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd.

1-13
LO 4 Identify the Major Behavioral Science
Disciplines That Contribute to OB

Psychology
seeks to measure, explain, and sometimes
change the behavior of humans and other
animals.

Social psychology
blends the concepts of psychology and
sociology.

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd.

1-14
LO 4 Identify the Major Behavioral Science
Disciplines That Contribute to OB
Sociology
studies people in relation to their social
environment or culture.

Anthropology
is the study of societies to learn about human
beings and their activities.

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd.

1-15
LO 5 Demonstrate Why Few
Absolutes Apply to OB
There are few, if any, simple and universal
principles that explain organizational behavior.
 Contingency variables
situational factors are variables that
moderate the relationship between the
independent and dependent variables.

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd.

1-16
LO 6 Identify the Challenges and
Opportunities of OB Concepts

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd.

1-17
LO 6 Identify the Challenges and
Opportunities of OB Concepts
 Responding to economic pressure
 In tough economic times, effective
management is an asset.
 In good times, understanding how to
reward, satisfy, and retain employees is at
a premium.
 In bad times, issues like stress, decision
making, and coping come to the forefront.

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd.

1-18
LO 6 Identify the Challenges and
Opportunities of OB Concepts
 Responding to globalization
 Increased foreign assignments.
 Working with people from different cultures.
 Overseeing movement of jobs to countries
with low-cost labor.
 Adapting to differing cultural and regulatory
norms.

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd.

1-19
LO 6 Identify the Challenges and
Opportunities of OB Concepts

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd.

1-20
LO 6 Identify the Challenges and
Opportunities of OB Concepts
 Managing workforce diversity
 Workforce diversity – organizations are
becoming more heterogeneous in terms of
gender, age, race, ethnicity, sexual
orientation, and inclusion of other diverse
groups.

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd.

1-21
LO 6 Identify the Challenges and
Opportunities of OB Concepts
 Improving customer service
 Service employees have substantial
interaction with customers.
 Employee attitudes and behavior are
associated with customer satisfaction.
 Need a customer-responsive culture.

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd.

1-22
LO 6 Identify the Challenges and
Opportunities of OB Concepts
 Improving people skills
 People skills are essential to managerial
effectiveness.
 OB provides the concepts and theories that
allow managers to predict employee
behavior in given situations.

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd.

1-23
LO 6 Identify the Challenges and
Opportunities of OB Concepts
 Working in networked organizations
 Networked organizations are becoming
more pronounced.
 A manager’s job is fundamentally different
in networked organizations.
 Challenges of motivating and leading
“online” require different techniques.

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd.

1-24
LO 6 Identify the Challenges and
Opportunities of OB Concepts
 Using social media at work
 Policies on accessing social media at work.
 When, where, and for what purpose.
 Impact of social media on employee well-
being.

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd.

1-25
LO 6 Identify the Challenges and
Opportunities of OB Concepts
 Enhancing employee well-being at work
 The creation of the global workforce means
work no longer sleeps.
 Communication technology has provided a
vehicle for working at any time or any place.
 Employees are working longer hours per
week.
 The lifestyles of families have changed —
creating conflict.
 Balancing work and life demands now
surpasses job security as an employee
priority.
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd.
1-26
LO 6 Identify the Challenges and
Opportunities of OB Concepts
 Creating a positive work environment
 Positive organizational scholarship is
concerned with how organizations develop
human strength, foster vitality and resilience,
and unlock potential.
 This field of study focuses on employees’
strengths versus their limitations, as
employees share situations in which they
performed at their personal best.

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd.

1-27
LO 6 Identify the Challenges and
Opportunities of OB Concepts
 Improving ethical behavior
 Ethical dilemmas and ethical choices are
situations in which an individual is required to
define right and wrong conduct.
 Good ethical behavior is not so easily
defined.
 Organizations distribute codes of ethics to
guide employees through ethical dilemmas.
 Managers need to create an ethically healthy
climate.
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd.
1-28
LO 7 Three Levels of Analysis in
This Text’s OB Model

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd.

1-29
LO 7 Three Levels of Analysis in
This Book’s OB Model
 Inputs
 Variables like personality,
group structure, and
organizational culture that lead
to processes.
 Group structure, roles, and
team responsibilities are
typically assigned immediately
before or after a group is
formed.
 Organizational structure and
culture change over time.
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd.
1-30
LO 7 Three Levels of Analysis in
This Book’s OB Model
 Processes
 If inputs are like the
nouns in organizational
behavior, processes are
like verbs.
 Defined as actions that
individuals, groups, and
organizations engage in
as a result of inputs, and
that lead to certain
outcomes.
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd.
1-31
LO 7 Three Levels of Analysis in
This Book’s OB Model
 Outcomes
 Key variables that
you want to explain
or predict, and that
are affected by
some other
variables.

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd.

1-32
LO 7
Outcome Variables
Attitudes and stress
 Employee attitudes are the evaluations
employees make, ranging from positive to
negative, about objects, people, or events.
 Stress is an unpleasant psychological
process that occurs in response to
environmental pressures.

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd.

1-33
LO 7
Outcome Variables
Task performance
 The combination of effectiveness and
efficiency at doing your core job tasks is a
reflection of your level of task performance.

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd.

1-34
LO 7
Outcome Variables
Organizational citizenship behavior
 The discretionary behavior that is not part of
an employee’s formal job requirements, and
that contributes to the psychological and
social environment of the workplace, is
called organizational citizenship
behavior.

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd.

1-35
LO 7
Outcome Variables
Withdrawal behavior
 Withdrawal behavior is the set of actions
that employees take to separate themselves
from the organization.

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd.

1-36
LO 7
Outcome Variables
Group cohesion
 Group cohesion is the extent to which
members of a group support and validate
one another at work.

Group functioning
 Group functioning refers to the quantity
and quality of a group’s work output.

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd.

1-37
LO 7
Outcome Variables
Productivity
 An organization is productive if it achieves
its goals by transforming inputs into outputs
at the lowest cost. This requires both
effectiveness and efficiency.

Survival
 The final outcome is organizational
survival, which is simply evidence that the
organization is able to exist and grow over
the long term.
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd.
1-38
LO 7
The Plan of the Text

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd.

1-39
 Implications for Managers
Resist the inclination to rely on generalizations;
some provide valid insights into human behavior,
but many are erroneous.
Use metrics and situational variables rather than
“hunches” to explain cause-and-effect
relationships.
Work on your interpersonal skills to increase
your leadership potential.

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd.

1-40
 Implications for Managers
Improve your technical skills and conceptual
skills through training and staying current with
OB trends like “big data”.
OB 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.

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd.

1-41