Concept of OB

Organizational behavior (OB)

 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
The above definition has three main elements:
 first, organizational behaviour is an investigative study of
individuals and groups
 second, the impact of organizational structure on human
behaviour and
 the third, the application of knowledge to achieve
organizational effectiveness

Thus,
“Organizational behaviour is a systematic study of the
actions and attitudes that people exhibit within
organizations.”
 Organizational behavior
 Organizational behavior (OB) is a field of study
devoted to understanding, explaining, and
ultimately improving the attitudes and behaviors of
individuals and groups in organizations
 It relates to the expected behaviour of an individual in the
organization
 No two individuals are likely to behave in the same manner
in a particular work situation.
 It is the predictability of a manager about the expected
behaviour of an individual
 Scope of OB

The scope of the organizational behaviour includes:

(a) Impact of personality on performance
(b) Employee motivation
(c) Leadership
(d) How to create effective teams and groups
(e) Study of different organizational structures
(f) Individual behaviour, attitudes and learning
(g) Perception
(h) Design and development of effective organization
 Scope of OB….contd

The scope of the organizational behaviour further includes:

(i) Job design
(j) Impact of culture on organizational behaviour
(k) Management of change
(l) Management of conflict and stress
(m) Organizational development
(n) Organizational culture
(o) Transactional analysis
(p) Group behaviour, power and politics
(q) Job design
(r) Study of emotions
 Management roles, skills and
activities

What Managers do?

Managers (or administrators) are Individuals who achieve goals
through other people.

Managerial Activities
• Make decisions
• Allocate resources
• Direct activities of others
to attain goals
 Management Functions

Traditional Modern
Functions Functions
Planning
Mintzberg’s Managerial Roles
Organizing

Leading Interpersonal

Informational
Controlling
Decisional
Mintzberg’s Managerial Roles
Mintzberg’s Managerial
Roles…contd
Mintzberg’s Managerial
Roles…contd
 MANAGEMENT SKILLS

 Technical skills
The ability to apply specialized knowledge or
expertise.
 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
 Effective Versus Successful
Managerial Activities (Fred Luthans)
 Traditional management
 Decision making, planning and controlling
 Communication
 Exchanging routine information and processing paperwork
 Human resource management
 Motivating, disciplining, managing conflict, staffing and
training
 Networking
 Socializing, politicking and interacting with others
 Allocation of Activities by Time

Source: Based on F. Luthans, R.M. Hodgetts, and S.A. Rosenkrantz,

Real Managers (Cambridge, MA: Ballinger, 1988).
 Disciplines that Contribute to OB
I. Psychology
The science that seeks to measure, explain and sometimes
change the behavior of humans and other animals.
 Disciplines that Contribute to OB
II. Sociology
The study of people in relation to their fellow human beings
 Disciplines that Contribute to OB
III. Social Psychology
An area within psychology that blends concepts
from psychology and sociology and that focuses on
the influence of people on one another.
 Disciplines that Contribute to OB
IV. Anthropology
The study of societies to learn about human beings and their
activities.
Disciplines that contribute to OB

Toward an OB Discipline
1–18
 Opportunities for OB
 Globalization
 Indian workforce diversity
 Customer service
 Innovation and change
 Networked organizations
 Work-life balance
 People skills
 Positive work environment
 Ethics
I. Globalization
• The worldwide movement toward economic,
financial, trade and communications integration.

• Globalization involves technological, economic,

political and cultural exchanges made possible
largely by advances in communication,
transportation and infrastructure.

 Increased foreign assignments

 Working with people from different cultures: People have to work with
bosses, peers, and other employees that were raised in different
cultures
 Coping with anti-capitalism backlash: Capitalism's focus on efficiency
and growth is not accepted worldwide.
 Overseeing movement of jobs to countries with low-cost labor
 Managing people during War on Terror
 How does a manager deal with attendance of
employees when there are different religious
and historical holidays around the world, all on
different days and for different lengths of time?

 Unique challenges a manager would have in

scheduling work to be done, when different
offices overseas observe different holidays at
different times.

 How does a manager bring together a team of

individuals from around the world, when one
country could be feuding with another?
II. Managing Workforce Diversity
 Embracing diversity: Traditional melting pot approach to differences in
organizations assumed that people who were different would somehow
automatically want to assimilate.
 Now the challenge for organizations is to make themselves more accommodating
to diverse groups.

 Changing U.S. demographics

 Implications for managers
 Recognizing and responding to differences: Diversity, if positively managed, can
increase creativity and innovation in organizations as well as improve decision
making by providing different perspectives on problems.
 Benefits of Workforce Diversity
 A diverse workforce drives economic growth.
 A diverse workforce can capture a greater share of the consumer
market.
 Recruiting from a diverse pool of candidates means a more
qualified workforce.
 A diverse and inclusive workforce helps businesses avoid
employee turnover costs.
 Diversity fosters a more creative and innovative workforce
 Businesses need to adapt to our changing nation to be competitive
in the economic market.
 Diversity is a key aspect of entrepreneurialism
 Diversity in the workplace is necessary to create a competitive
economy in a globalized world
 Workforce Diversity…contd.
 Employees from China working in American companies
may approach a problem totally differently than do
American workers
 A company with employees fluent in Japanese and who
understand Japanese culture experiences an easier time
communicating with representatives from Japan or a
company that hires employees fluent in Mandarin to
increase the company's reputation in Chinese communities
 C-Transport is an aviation company that manufactures
airplanes. The reason for the company's success has to do with
their employees. C-Transport depends on worker diversity to
bring the aircraft to fruition.
 C-Transport's executives were against hiring females
engineers. Many executives were from the old school and
thought that the female engineers would not be as
dependable due to possible maternity breaks. C-Transport ran
a sensitivity training class for employees who were not
accepting of female engineers.
 C-Transport's recent job applicants were female engineers. C-
Transport found that they brought a unique approach to
designing aircraft.
 C-Transport recruited and utilized disabled workforce as well.
There has been an increase and appreciation for individuals
with unique talents and (dis)abilities
III. Improving Customer service
 Customer Service requires
 Instilling the meaning and importance of customer service
among all employees and
 Empowering the staff to use their best judgment in all
customer service matters
 Increased expectation of service quality
 Knowledge of OB helps in understanding that Employee
attitudes are associated with customer satisfaction
 Achieves the goal of customer service and leads to
improvement in organizational performance
 OB helps in creating Customer-responsive cultures
 Employees becoming responsive, friendly, accessible,
knowledgeable and prompt in responding to customer needs.
 Some stories to show value of
customer service….
 New York Times best-selling author Steven Levitt wrote an
article about how United Airlines turned him into a
customer for life in a couple ways.
 Steven was running late, and unlike other airlines, they
actually saved his seat until the last second. On another
occasion, United Airlines called him and informed him that
his flight was delayed by a few hours, and they saw that he
was in the airport. The call went like this:
 “I see that you’re at the airport and your flight is delayed a few
hours. A seat opened up on an earlier flight, so I grabbed it for
you in case you wanted it. It leaves in 40 minutes, so you’ll
have to hurry.”
 These two events, Levitt explains, turned him into a life-
long customer of United Airlines.
Source: https://www.americanexpress.com/us/small-business/openforum/articles/10-examples-of-
shockingly-excellent-customer-service-1/
 Some stories to show value of
customer service….
 Ritz Carlton goes Above and Beyond
 You'd expect a luxury hotel to have excellent customer service,
but this Business Week story goes well above the expected.
 "One family staying at the Ritz-Carlton, Bali, had carried
specialized eggs and milk for their son who suffered from food
allergies. Upon arrival, they saw that the eggs had broken and
the milk had soured. The Ritz-Carlton manager and dining staff
searched the town but could not find the appropriate items. But
the executive chef at this particular resort remembered a store in
Singapore that sold them. He contacted his mother-in-law, and
asked that she buy the products and fly to Bali to deliver them,
which she agreed to do."
Source: https://www.americanexpress.com/us/small-business/openforum/articles/10-examples-of-
shockingly-excellent-customer-service-1/
 Some stories to show value of
customer service….
 Schering-Plough Pays for Poison Control Calls
 It's not often that you hear goodwill toward a drug company, but
one woman and her puppy had a pleasant surprise when calling
the ASPCA poison hotline. Her dog had eaten seven Claritin
tablets, and it was uncertain whether the puppy was in danger.
 After dialing the hotline, the operator informed the distressed
owner that the call would cost $65 to speak to a professional. But
when the operator learned that a Schering-Plough product was
the harmful substance, she informed the concerned dog owner
that the drug company pays for the calls on any of its products.
 The dog is now doing great, thanks to the generosity of the drug
company.
Source: https://www.americanexpress.com/us/small-business/openforum/articles/10-examples-of-
shockingly-excellent-customer-service-1/
 IV. Stimulating Innovation and change
 Successful Organizations must foster innovation and master the art of
change or they will become extinct
 Flexibility, continuous improvements in quality, fighting competition
in the marketplace and continuous innovation in products and services
is required to be successful
 Challenge for managers is to stimulate their employee’s creativity and
tolerance for change
 Study of OB provides ideas and techniques to achieve these goals
 Coping with Temporariness: Workers need to continually update their
knowledge and skills to perform new job requirements.
 Work groups are also increasingly in a state of flux
 Organizations themselves are in a state of flux. They continually
reorganize their various divisions, sell off poorly performing businesses,
downsize operations, and replace permanent employees with temporaries
 Today’s managers and employees must learn to live with flexibility,
spontaneity, and unpredictability
V. Working in Networked Organizations
 Computerization, the internet and the ability to link
computers within an organization and between
organizations have created a different workplace
 Such technology changes allow people that are huge
distances apart to communicate and work together
 ‘Work from Home’ Concept
 Managing and leading people from distance
 Requires different skills and techniques
 Examples: NGOs, Non-Profits, E-commerce companies,
Digital campaigns etc.
 Network & Virtual Organizations
 Network Organizations
 A network organization is a collection of autonomous firms or
units that behave as a single larger entity, using social
mechanisms for coordination and control.
 The entities that make up a network organization are usually
legally independent entities (separate firms) but not always.
 Some of the entities may be wholly owned subsidiaries. They
can even be divisions within the company, but treated as
separate companies that sell to outside customers.
 For example, at BMW, they outsource about 65% of the total
production cost of a car.
 Nike is the center of a dynamic network. Their only functions
are R&D and Marketing.
 Network & Virtual Organizations
 Virtual Organizations
 A firm that contracts out almost all functions. The only function
retained by the organization is the name and the coordination
among the parties. A virtual organization might not have even
have a permanent office.
 Especially common in the fashion industry where you can have
clothing labels that are just that. Say the label is "John Taylor".
The label has a clear identity in the public eye, but when you try
to track down the John Taylor company, you find there are no
John Taylor designers, no John Taylor manufacturers. It's just 3
people in an office subcontracting out all functions.
 VI. Helping Employees achieve Work-life
Balance
 Blurring line between work and non-work times leading to
personal conflicts and stress
 A world that never sleeps- global organizations
 Development in Communications Technology
 Organizations asking employees to put in more working hours
 Dual-career couples
 Increased realization among employees about their work
infringing on their personal lives and they are not happy
about it
 Required:
 More flexible work schedules
 Designing workplaces and jobs that help employees deal with
work-life stress
VII. People skills
 Skills are important for managerial effectiveness
 Studying individual and group behavior provide insights
about how to develop people skills
 Study of OB helps in explaining and predicting behavior
of people at work
 Insights about specific skills you can use on job
 Examples:
 Creating more effective teams
 Developing techniques to improve employee’s listening skills
VIII. Positive work environment
 Concerns with how organizations develop human strengths,
foster vitality and resilience and unlock potential
 Asking employees about situations when they were at their
‘personal best’ in order to understand how to exploit their
strengths
 Challenges organizations to think about how to exploit their
employee’s strengths rather than dwelling on their limitations

Keys to Creating the Best Work Environment

 Be Flexible
 Communicate
 Recognize success
 Offer Development opportunities
 Build Trust
 Receive and Give Feedback
 Provide a sense of purpose
 IX. Ethics
 Managers in organizations face ethical dilemmas in which they are required
to define right and wrong
 Should they blow the whistle?
 Should they give inflated employee performance report to someone they like?
 What constitutes good behavior is not defined
 Blurred lines differentiating right from wrong: Members of organizations are
increasingly finding themselves facing ethical dilemmas, situations in which
they are required to define right and wrong conduct.
 There are a variety of responses to this problem.
 Write and distribute codes of ethics to guide employees through ethical dilemmas
 Offer seminars, workshops, and similar training programs to try to improve ethical
behaviors.
 Provide in-house advisors, who can be contacted, in many cases anonymously, for assistance
in dealing with ethical issues.
 Create protection mechanisms for employees who reveal internal unethical practices.
 Today’s manager needs to create an ethically healthful climate in which his or
her employees can do their work productively and confront a minimal degree
of ambiguity regarding what constitutes right and wrong behaviors.