ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

Psychology 101, UKZN

2008
M.J. Kometsi,
M.A. (Clin.Psych.)(UCT)

Reference:

Robbins, S.P. & Judge, T.A. (2007).

Organizational Behavior (12th Ed.).
Prentice Hall: New Jersey.
Chapter 1
Reserved copies under Psych 304
Notes

What Managers Do

Make decisions, allocate resources &

direct activities of others to attain
goals
Work in an organization

Consciously coordinated social unit,

composed of 2 or more people, that
functions on a relatively continuous basis
to achieve a common goal or set of goals
3

Management Functions

Planning: defining organizational goals

& establishing strategy for achieving
them
Organizing: design organizations
structure
Leading: direct and coordinate
employees
Controlling: ensure things are going as
they should
4

Management Roles

Henry Mintzbergs (1960) study

Interpersonal
Informational
Decisional

Exhibit 1-1 (pp-6)

Management Skills

Robert Katz- 3 essential

management skills

Technical Skills: ability to apply

specialized knowledge or expertise
Human Skills: work with, understand,
motivate employees
Conceptual Skills: mental ability to
analyze & diagnose complex situations
6

Organizational Behaviour
(OB)

Studies 3 determinants of behaviour in

org. (individuals, groups & structure)

Apply this knowledge to improve orgs

effectiveness

The study of what people do in an

organization & how their behaviour
affects the organizations performance

Contributing Disciplines to OB
field
Psychology: seeks to measure,
explain & sometimes change
behaviour

Learning & personality theorists,

counselling, Ind/Org Psych

Social psychology: peoples

influence on one another

Attitudes, communication patterns,

group behaviour & conflict
8

Contributing Disciplines to OB field

(cont)

Sociology: people in relation to

their social environment & culture

Group behaviour in organizations

Anthropology: study societies to

learn about human beings & their
activities

Differences in values, attitudes &

behaviour btwn people in diff.
countries & within diff. org.
9

Challenges & Opportunities for

OB

Responding to Globalization:

Increased Foreign Assignments

Org. no longer constrained by

national borders
Workforce is likely to be different

Overseeing movement of jobs to

countries with low-cost labour

Economic values arent universally

transferable
10

Coping with anticapitalism backlash

Managing people during the war on

terror

Compete against cheap labour

Criticism from labour groups, politicians

business travellers cut on their trips

Managing workforce diversity

Heterogeneous mix- gender, age, race,

sexual orientation
11

Working with people from different

cultures
Embracing diversity

Diverse cultural values, lifestyle

preferences
Orgs. need to be accommodating

12

Implications

Improving quality & productivity

Industries suffer from excess supply

Translates into increased competition

Responding to labour shortage

Decline interest by older workers to

stay in workforce
Need for sophisticated recruitment &
retention strategies
13

Improving customer service

Improving people skills

Empowering people

Need for interaction with customers

? Please customers

Decision making

Stimulating innovation & change

flexibility
14

Coping with temporaries

Working in networked organizations

Jobs are being subcontracted out

Job security?
Networked organization

Helping people balance work & life

Gone are 8am to 4pm shifts

Creates personal conflicts & stress
15

Improving ethical behaviour

Pressure on productivity & tough

competition

Break rules
Ethical dilemmas
Codes of ethics
Workshops/seminars to improve ethical
behaviour
16

Coming Attractions: Developing

an OB model
A model is an abstraction of
reality

A simplified representation of some

real world phenomenon
3 levels of analysis in OB

Individual
Group
Organizational system
17

The Dependent Variables

A dependent variable: key factor to

be explained or predicted & is
affected by some other factors

Productivity: transferring inputs to

outputs at lowest cost

? Concern re: effectiveness & efficiency

Absenteeism: failure to report to work

Cost implications, delays decision

Are all absences bad?
18

Turnover: voluntary/involuntary
withdrawal from an organization

Increased recruiting, selection & training

costs
Can be positive

Deviant workplace behaviour

Voluntarily violating organizational norms

Understand why?

19

Organizational citizenship behaviour

(OCB)

Behaviour not part of formal job

requirement, but promotes effective
functioning of the org.

Job satisfaction: positive feeling about

ones job

Affects productivity
Jobs must be intrinsically challenging &
rewarding
20

The Independent Variables

An independent variable cause

some change in/on/to the
dependent variable

Individual-level variables: individual

characteristics that will influence
behaviour at work

Age, gender, marital status, values,

attitudes, perception, decision making,
learning, motivation
21

Group-level variables: more than the

sum total of all individuals acting on
their own way

People behave differently in groups

Understand group influence on
individuals
Degree to which group members are
attracted to each other

22

Organizational systems level

variables:

The design of the formal organization

Organizations internal culture
Human resource policies & practices

23