Chapter 1 ....Introduction to Organizational Behavior
Introduction
[chapter.1]
Introduction to Organizational Behavior
After reading this chapter, you should be able to
• Define organizational behavior and give three reasons for studying this subject.
• Discuss the potential benefits and challenges of an increasingly diverse workforce.
Google has leveraged the power of organizational behavior to attract talented employees who want to make a difference in the Internet world.
• Identify two ways that employers attempt to increase workforce flexibility.
• Explain why values have gained importance in organizations. • Define corporate social responsibility and argue for or against its application in organizations.
• Identify the five anchors on which organizational behavior is based.
• Diagram an organization from an open systems view. • Define intellectual capital and describe the knowledge management process.
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Friends were puzzled when Rob Pike decided in 2002 to leave his 20-year career at the prestigious Bell Labs in New Jersey to join a Web search start-up in California with a name that sounded like baby talk. The respected computer scientist’s move had nothing to do with money. “I took a huge pay cut to come here,” says Pike about his decision to join Google. “The reason is, it’s an exciting place to work.” Google, the company behind the ubiquitous search engine, has a freewheeling, geeky culture that attracts Rob Pike and other creative thinkers who want to make a difference in the Internet world. Employees are expected to devote a quarter of their time on new ideas of their choosing, and to get those ideas into practice as quickly as possible. “Here, you can have an idea on Monday and have it on the Web site by the end of the week,” says Pike, citing Google Maps and Gmail as examples of the company’s rapid innovation. Google’s culture has clashed to some extent with its meteoric global