Management and Organizational Behavior

Chapter: 01. Introduction

Interpersonal Skill
The ability to communicate with understand and motivate both individuals and groups is known
as interpersonal skill.

Importance of Interpersonal Skills

 Understanding Organizational Behavior helps to determine manager effectiveness
- Technical and quantitative skills are important
- But leadership and communication skills are critical
 Organizational benefits of skilled managers
- Lower turnover of quality employees
- Higher quality applications for recruitment
- Better financial performance

Management Functions
1. Planning
The process of setting an organization’s goal and deciding how best to achieve them is called
planning. A process that includes defining goals, establishing strategy and developing plans to
coordinate activities. That means, a course of action deciding in advance.
2. Organizing
The process of determining how activities and resources are to be grouped is known as organizing.
Determining what tasks are to be done, who is to do them, how the tasks are to be grouped, who
reports to whom and where decisions are to be made.
3. Leading
Motivating and managing people to work together toward the interests of the organization. A
function that includes motivating employees, directing others, selecting the most effective
communication channels and resolving conflicts.
4. Controlling
The process of monitoring organizational progress toward goal attainment is called controlling.
Monitoring performance, comparing actual performance with previously set goals and correcting
any deviation.
Mintzberg’s Managerial Roles
1. Interpersonal Roles: The roles which involve dealing with other people is called interpersonal
roles. These roles are:
i. Figurehead
ii. Leader
iii. Liaison

2. Informational Roles: The roles which involve the processing of information is known as
informational roles. These roles are:
i. Monitor
ii. Disseminator
iii. Spokesperson

3. Decisional Roles: The roles which relate to make decisions in an organization is called
decisional roles. These roles are:
i. Entrepreneur
ii. Disturbance handler
iii. Resource allocator
iv. Negotiator

Kitz’s Essential Management Skills

1. Technical Skills: The ability to apply specialized knowledge or expertise. The skills necessary
to understand the specific kind of work being done in an organization. All jobs require some
specialized expertise, and many people develop their technical skills on the job.

2. Human Skills: The ability to work with, understand and motivate other people, both
individually and in groups. Mangers get things done through other people, they must have good
human skills to communicate, motivate, and delegate.

3. Conceptual Skills: The mental ability to analyze and diagnose complex situation. The ability
to think in the abstract. Managers can be technically and interpersonally competent yet still fail
because of an inability to rationally process and interpret information.
Organizational Behavior
The study of both group and individual performance and activity within an organization is known
as organizational behavior. 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.

Disciplines That Contribute to the OB Field

Organizational behavior is an applied behavior science that is built on contributions from a number
of behavioral disciplines. The predominant areas are psychology, social psychology, sociology,
and anthropology.
1. Psychology
The science that seeks to measure, explain, and sometimes change the behavior of humans and
other animals.
 Unit of Analysis:
- Individual
 Contribution to OB:
- Learning, motivation, personality, emotions, perception
- Training, leadership effectiveness, job satisfaction
- Individual decision making, performance appraisal attitude measurement
- Employee selection, work design, and work stress
2. Social Psychology
An area within psychology that blends concepts from psychology and sociology and that focuses
on the influence of people on one another.
 Unit of Analysis:
- Group
 Contributions to OB:
- Behavioral change
- Attitude change
- Communication
- Group processes
- Group decision making
3. Sociology
The study of people in relation to their fellow human beings.
 Unit of Analysis:
- Organizational System
- Group
  Contributions to OB:
- Group dynamics
- Work teams
- Communication
- Power
- Conflict
- Intergroup behavior
- Formal organization theory
- Organizational technology
- Organizational change
- Organizational culture
4. Anthropology
The study of societies to learn about human beings and their activities.
 Unit of Analysis:
- Organizational System
- Group
 Contributions to OB:
- Organizational culture
- Organizational environment
- Comparative values
- Comparative attitudes

Challenges and Opportunities for OB

 Responding to globalization
 Managing workforce diversity
 Improving quality and productivity
 Improving customer service
 Improving people skills
 Stimulating innovation and change
 Coping with ‘Temporariness’
 Working in networked organization
 Helping employees balance work-life conflicts
 Creating a positive work environment
 Improving Ethical behavior
Responding to Globalization
 Increased foreign assignments
 Working with people from different cultures
 Copying with anti-capitalism backlash
 Overseeing movement of jobs to countries with low-cost labor
 Managing people during the war on terror

Developing an OB Model
A model is an abstraction of reality, a simplified representation of some real-world phenomenon.
It proposes that there are three levels of analysis in OB and that, as we move from the individual
level to the organization systems level, we add systematically to our understanding of behavior in
organizations. The three basic levels are analogous to building blocks; each level is constructed on
the previous level.