Introduction to Organizational Behavior
Chapter 1: Introduction to Organizational Behaviour
What is organizational behaviour? * The attitudes and behaviours of individuals and groups in organizations. * How satisfied people are with their jobs, how committed they feel towards goals of the organization, how supportive jobs are of promoting women or minorities in management positions. * Includes the study of how events in the external environment affect organizations.
Goals of OB * Predicting organizational behaviour. * Anticipate how others feel when you do something. * Ex. How proffs react to a finished assignment, when salespeople and politicians are telling us the truth about a new product or the state of the nation.
* Explaining organizational behaviour and events in organizations. * Why do events occur? * Determining why people are more/or less motivated, satisfied, or prone to resign. * Ex. People may resign because they’re dissatisfied with their pay, because they are discriminated against or because they have failed to respond appropriately to an organizational crisis.
* Managing organizational behaviour. * The art of getting things accomplished in organizations. * We can often make sensible action to manage if we can truly understand the reasons for high quality service, ethical behaviour, etc.
History of OB * People have always tried to find the “correct” way of managing an organization and achieving its goals.
1. The Classical View of OB
* Classical viewpoint advocated high specialization of labour, intensive coordination and centralized decision making. * Suggested that, to maintain control, managers should have fairly few workers, except for lower-level jobs where machine pacing might sub for close supervision.
* Frederick Taylor (1856-1915), “father of Scientific Management”: * Advocated the standardization of job design rather than informal “rules of thumb” to determine optimum degree
What is organizational behaviour? * The attitudes and behaviours of individuals and groups in organizations. * How satisfied people are with their jobs, how committed they feel towards goals of the organization, how supportive jobs are of promoting women or minorities in management positions. * Includes the study of how events in the external environment affect organizations.
Goals of OB * Predicting organizational behaviour. * Anticipate how others feel when you do something. * Ex. How proffs react to a finished assignment, when salespeople and politicians are telling us the truth about a new product or the state of the nation.
* Explaining organizational behaviour and events in organizations. * Why do events occur? * Determining why people are more/or less motivated, satisfied, or prone to resign. * Ex. People may resign because they’re dissatisfied with their pay, because they are discriminated against or because they have failed to respond appropriately to an organizational crisis.
* Managing organizational behaviour. * The art of getting things accomplished in organizations. * We can often make sensible action to manage if we can truly understand the reasons for high quality service, ethical behaviour, etc.
History of OB * People have always tried to find the “correct” way of managing an organization and achieving its goals.
1. The Classical View of OB
* Classical viewpoint advocated high specialization of labour, intensive coordination and centralized decision making. * Suggested that, to maintain control, managers should have fairly few workers, except for lower-level jobs where machine pacing might sub for close supervision.
* Frederick Taylor (1856-1915), “father of Scientific Management”: * Advocated the standardization of job design rather than informal “rules of thumb” to determine optimum degree