THEORIES & MODELS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

REPRESENTATIONS OF HOW THE REAL WORLD FUNCTIONS

Help us organize our knowledge Summarize diverse findings & highlight relationships Tell us what to pay attention to (and what to ignore) Help us understand why events occur as they do (causal relationships) Give guidance about how to bring about change

THREE KINDS OF THEORIES/MODELS

DESCRIPTIVE PREDICTIVE PRESCRIPTIVE

80+ % 15+ % <5 %

MANAGEMENT FUNCTIONS
FAYOL (16)

PLANNING ORGANIZING LEADING CONTROLLING

MANAGERIAL ACTIVITIES
MINTZBERG

MANAGERIAL ACTIVITY IS CHARACTERIZED BY VARIETY, FRAGMENTATION, AND BREVITY

LITTLE TIME FOR QUIET REFLECTION CRISES ARE INTERSPERSED WITH TRIVIAL EVENTS MUST BE ABLE TO SHIFT GEARS QUICKLY ONLY SPENDS AN AVERAGE OF NINE MINUTES PER ACTIVITY

THE MANAGER PERFORMS A GREAT DEAL OF WORK AT AN UNRELENTING PACE

IN ONE DAY: PROCESSED 36 PIECES OF MAIL ATTENDED 8 MEETINGS TOOK A TOUR OF THE PLANT MET WITH UNHAPPY CUSTOMERS

MANAGERIAL ROLES
MINTZBERG (73)

INTERPERSONAL ROLES
Figurehead Leader (Supervisor) Liaison (Linking-Pin)

INFORMATIONAL ROLES
Monitor Disseminator Spokesperson

DECISIONAL ROLES
Innovator (Entrepreneur) Disturbance Handler (Crisis) Resource Allocator Negotiator

MANAGEMENT SKILLS
KATZ (74)

TECHNICAL
SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE & PROFICIENCY ABILITY TO WORK WITH THINGS, TOOLS & TECHNIQUES
(A FOCUS ON WHAT IS DONE)

HUMAN
WORK WITH AND THROUGH OTHER PEOPLE & GROUPS MOTIVATES, COMMUNICATES, AND RESOLVES CONFLICTS (A FOCUS ON HOW SOMETHING IS DONE)

CONCEPTUAL
UNDERSTANDS THE CORPORATION AS A WHOLE; SEES THE BIG PICTURE FUTURE-ORIENTED.THINKS STRATEGICALLY ANALYTIC AND DECISION-MAKING ABILITY INFORMATION PROCESSING & PLANNING ABILITIES (A FOCUS ON WHY SOMETHING IS DONE)

EFFECTIVE v. SUCCESSFUL MANAGERS

Luthans (88)

STUDIED FOUR MANAGERIAL ACTIVITIES:

TRADITIONAL MANAGERIAL ACTIVITIES

Plans, sets objectives, strategies, makes decisions, oversees controls, etc.

COMMUNICATION ACTIVITIES
Exchanges relevant information inside the firm, stays in touch with others

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES

Inspires and motivates, involves staff in decisions, educates & develops staff

NETWORKING ACTIVITIES
Interacts with outsiders, is politically & socially active within the organization

RESEARCH FINDINGS ON EFFECTIVE v. SUCCESSFUL MANAGERS

N = 450
MGRL ACTIVITY

Percentage of time devoted to each activity

AVERAGE EFFECTIVE SUCCESS

TRADITIONAL COMMUNICATION HUMAN RESOURCE NETWORKING

32 % 29 % 20 % 19 %

19 % 44 % 26 % 11 %

13 % 28 % 11 % 48 %

EFFECTIVE MANAGERS
Quality and quantity of performance achievement Satisfaction and commitment of workers

SUCCESSFUL MANAGERS
Speed of promotion within the organization CONCLUSION: Promotions arent necessarily based on performance but are related to social and political activity in the firm.

THE MANAGERIAL GRID

BLAKE & MOUTON (64)

9 -------------------------------------------------------------------------COUNTRY-CLUB TEAM
(1,9) (9,9)

CONCERN FOR PEOPLE

MIDDLE OF ROAD
(5,5)

IMPOVERISHED 1
(1,1)

TASK
(9,1)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------1 9

CONCERN FOR PRODUCTION

SEARCHING FOR THE PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT

MANAGEMENT THEORIES ARE DERIVED FROM:

INDIVIDUAL OBSERVATION
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE AND OBSERVATION CASE SITUATIONS AND STUDIES ARCHIVAL RECORDS AND DOCUMENTS

SURVEY RESEARCH
INTERVIEWS QUESTIONNAIRES

EXPERIMENTATION
LABORATORY FIELD NATURAL

EVALUATING RESEARCH
IS IT VALID?
DOES THE STUDY MEASURE WHAT IT CLAIMS TO MEASURE?

IS IT RELIABLE?
ARE THE MEASUREMENTS CONSISTENT WHEN REPEATED?

IS IT GENERALIZABLE?
ARE THE FINDINGS APPLICABLE TO OTHER SITUATIONS?

IS IT ETHICALLY APPROPRIATE?
WERE PRIVACY & CONFIDENTIALITY MAINTAINED IN THE STUDY?

OBSERVATION & CASES

ADVANTAGES Probes one situation in great depth Rich in details, clues and possible causes Facilitates discovery of unexpected relationships Starting point for theory development DISADVANTAGES Selective observation and biasinformation is easily distorted/lost What we know about a case is limited by the data available/provided Observation/data gathering is time consumingwhen do we stop? Data are not easily quantifiablerelationships cant be tested Generalizations are not possible from a sample of one

SURVEY RESEARCH
ADVANTAGES Questions can be standardized Collects information independent of the researcher Allows quantitative analyses Sampling of populations is possible DISADVANTAGES Often identifies symptoms (and emotions), rather than causes Requires expertise to designand time to administer Objectivity of responses
Questions may shape the responses Social desirability bias Confidentiality and sensitive questions

Issue of non-response Little control is really evident

One-shot studies Hard to really prove cause-effect relationships

EXPERIMENTS
ADVANTAGES Can infer cause-effect relationships Can be repeatedchecked for consistency DISADVANTAGES Difficult to control all the variables
Realism is lost in the laboratory Precision is lost in the field No controls over natural experiments

Manipulation may affect worker productivity When is the best time to take an observation/measurement? Subject loss Subject bias Generalizability to other organizations/settings

EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH DESIGNS