Chapter 1. Explaining Organizational Behavior

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• Organizational Behavior Study of structure and management of organizations, their environment, actions, intersections of their members and groups.
• Organizational Behavior explores Environmental(macro), Organizational and group (meso) issues, Individual (macro) factors
• Individual experiences are affected by contextual group, structural, personal and management issues.
• Controversial The relationship between organizational behavior and management practice
• Multiple-stakeholders-inclusive-agenda is a view of organizational behavior that encourages adoption a critical, challenging approach to research, theory and practice
• The field map explains organizational behavior
• PESTLE analysis approach to understanding context and explores the issues and how they affect the organization and its members
• PESTLE Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, Ecological
• PESTLE analysis explains two outcomes Organizational effectiveness, Quality of working life
• Factors that explain outcomes of PESTLE Individual, Group, Management and Organization, Leadership Process Factors
• Organizations are not static and depend on past, present and future
• Fundamental Attribution Error Tendency to explain the behavior of others based on their personality or disposition, and to overlook the influence of wider contextual influence.
• Our tendency to blame individuals can lead to False explanations for the behavior of others
• Organizational Effectiveness A multi-dimensional concept that can be defined differently by different stakeholders
• Balanced Scorecard Approach to defining organizational effectiveness using a combination of quantitative and qualitative measures
• Quality of Working Life Individual's overall satisfaction with their job, conditions, pay, colleagues, management, culture, work-life balance, training, development, career opportunities.
• Context Factors economic factors, social issues
• Individual Factors learning deficit, personality traits, motivation problems
• Group Factors group formation issues, a newcomer, group structure problems, group norms
• Structural Factors hierarchy problems, work design problems, decision-making issues
• Management Process Factors leadership style, change problems, management decision making problems.
• Goals of science Description, explanation, prediction, control
• Natural science describes an objective reality (stable)
• Social science describes how people understand and interpret their circumstances (change)
• Positivism Understand phenomena that can be explained as causal relationships between observable and measurable variables, studied objectively using controlled experiments
• Scientific positive approach that is objective and rigorous, using observations and experiments to find universal relationships
• Operational definition The method used to measure the incidence of a variable in practice.
• Variance Theory Identify universal relationships between independent and dependent variables which can be defined and measured precisely.
• Constructivism Understand social and organizational worlds have no ultimate objective truth or reality, instead determined by our shared experiences, meanings and interpretations
• Process Theory Explain how the outcomes in which we are interested are affected by a number of factors, at different levels of analysis, combining and interacting over time, in a particular context.
• Positivism uses Variance Theory, offers definitive explanations
• Constructivism uses Process Theory, offer probabilistic explanations
• Positivist perspective of field map Encourages the search for consistent causal links, look for methods, for techniques, for universal solutions
• Constructivist Perspective of field map Seek to trigger new ideas and change by stimulating self-critical awareness.
• Human Resource Management Responsible for establishing integrated personnel policies to support organization strategy. HR enhances the quality of working life
• Organizational behavior in practise HR
• Employment cycle The sequence of stages through which all employees pass in each working position they hold, from recruitment and selection, to termination
• Bath People-Performance Model Understand how HR management policies and other organizational factors affect work performance, and how discretionary behavior is encouraged.
• Three factors needed to perform beyond the minimum requirements Ability, Motivation, Opportunity
• AMO Three factors needed to perform beyond the minimum requirements
• Discretionary Behavior Freedom to decide how work is going to be performed, can be positive(putting in effort), negative (withholding information, cooperation)
• Data Analytics use of powerful computational methods to reveal and to visualize patterns and trends in very large sets of data.
• Big Data Information collected in real time, from sources such as internet clicks, mobile transactions etc
• Big data contributes to HR by providing objective information on which to base decisions and solve HR problems
• Human Capital Analytics An HR practice enabled by computing technologies that use descriptive, visual and statistical analyses of data to establish business impact and enable data-driven decision-making.
• Organization A social arrangement for achieving controlled performance in pursuit of collective goals
• Organizations populate our Physical, Social, Cultural, Political, Economic environment
• Organizations are a Social arrangement
• Social arrangement groups of people who interact with each other because of their membership.
• Organizations have Collective goals
• Collective goals Common membership implies shared objectives
• Organizations use Controlled performance in the pursuit of goals as the performance determines its survival
• What distinguishes Organizations from other social arrangements? The preoccupation with performance and the need for control
• Organizations are both Social arrangements, political systems
• Political systems some individuals exert control over others
• Social arrangements- people control resources to produce goods and services efficiently
• Main mechanism of organizational control The hierarchy of authority
• Controlled Performance Setting standards, measuring performance, comparing actual with standards, and taking corrective actions if necessary
• Advantages with controlled performance Easier to plan, organize, coordinate the efforts of large number of people
• Disadvantages with controlled performance Conflicts with the desire for freedom of expression, autonomy, creativity and self-development
• Organizational Dilemma How to reconcile inconsistency between individual needs and aspirations, and the collective purpose of the organization
• Human aspiration limitation Not dependent on intellect or equipment, Lies in our ability to work together

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