Introduction to Organizational

Behavior
(Chapter – 01)
BY:
STEPHEN P. ROBBINS
AND TIMOTHY A.
JUDGE
 OVERVIEW OF THE CHAPTER
 Demonstrate the importance of interpersonal skills in the
workplace.
 Describe the manager‘s functions, roles and skills.
 Define organizational behavior (OB).
 Show the value to OB of systematic study.
 Identify the major behavioral science disciplines that
contribute to OB.
 Demonstrate why few absolutes apply to OB.
 Identify the challenges and opportunities managers have in
applying OB concepts.
DEMONSTRATE THE IMPORTANCE OF
INTERPERSONAL SKILLS IN THE WORKPLACE
Interpersonal Skills Result In…
• Understanding OB helping to determine manager
effectiveness
• Leadership and communication skills that are
critical as a person progresses in a career
• Lower turnover of quality employees
• Higher quality applications for recruitment
• Better financial performance
DESCRIBE THE MANAGER’S FUNCTIONS,
ROLES AND SKILLS

 Manager: Someone who gets things done

through other people in organizations.

 Organization: A consciously coordinated social

unit composed of two or more people that
functions on a relatively continuous basis to
achieve a common goal or set of goals.
 Manager’s Functions:
Henri Fayol wrote that all managers perform 5 management functions:
planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating, and controlling. Most
often studied nowadays:
Planning A process that includes defining goals, establishing strategy,
and developing plans to coordinate activities.
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.
Leading A function that includes motivating employees, directing others,
selecting effective communication channels & resolving conflicts.
Controlling Monitoring activities to ensure they are being accomplished
as planned and correcting any significant deviations.
Manager’s Roles: Mintzberg concluded that managers perform ten
different, highly interrelated roles or sets of behaviors attributable to their jobs.
 Management Skills:
 Another way of considering what managers do is to look at
the skills or competencies they need to achieve their goals:
 Technical skills the ability to apply specialized knowledge or
expertise.
 Human skills the ability to work with, understand, and
motivate other people, both individually and in groups.
 Conceptual skills the mental ability to analyze and diagnose
complex situations.
 Effective Versus Successful Managerial
Activities
o Luthans and associates found that all managers engage in four
managerial activities:
o Traditional
Management;
o Communication;
o Human Resource
Management;
o Networking.
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR (OB)
o Organizational Behavior studies the influence
that individuals, groups and structure have on
behavior within organizations.

o Its chief goal is to apply that knowledge toward

improving an organization’s effectiveness.
Focal Points of
Organizational Behavior OB includes..
 Job attitude;  Motivation;
 Work;  Leader behavior & power;
 Absenteeism;  Interpersonal communication;
 Employment turnover;  Group structure & processes;
 Productivity;  Attitude development &
perceptions;
 Human performance;
 Change processes;
 Management.
 Conflict & negotiations;
 Work design.
SHOW THE VALUE TO OB OF SYSTEMATIC
STUDY
 Behavior is generally predictable
 The systematic study of behavior is a means to
making reasonably accurate predictions
 Systematic Study:
 Examines relationships.
 Attempts to attribute causes and effects.
 Bases conclusions on scientific evidence:
• On data gathered under controlled conditions.
• Data is measured and interpreted in a reasonably
rigorous manner.
 Show The Value To OB Of Systematic Study

Evidence-Based Management:
 Complements systematic study.
 Bases decisions on the best available scientific evidence.
 Forces managers to become more scientific in their thinking.
Intuition: your “gut feeling” explanation of behavior.
 About ”why I do what I do” and “what makes others tick”
 If we make all decisions with intuition or gut instinct, we‘re
likely working with incomplete information.
IDENTIFY THE MAJOR BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE
DISCIPLINES THAT CONTRIBUTE TO OB
Micro:
The
Psychology
Individual
Social Psychology

Sociology
Macro:
Groups &
Organizations Anthropology
Identify The Major Behavioral Science
Disciplines That Contribute To OB
Psychology: The science that seeks to measure, explain, and
sometimes change the behavior of humans and other animals.

Social Psychology: An area of psychology that blends concepts

from psychology and sociology and that focuses on the influence
of people on one another.

Sociology: The study of people in relation to their social

environment or culture. anthropology The study of societies to
learn about human beings and their activities.
 FEW ABSOLUTES IN OB
 Impossible to make
simple & accurate
generalizations Contingency Independent Dependent
 Human beings are Variable (Z) Variable (X) Variable (Y)
complex & diverse
 OB concepts must Boss Gives
reflect situational In American “Thumbs Up”
Understood as
conditions: Culture Complimenting
Sign
Contingency
Variables: variables
that moderate the In Iranian or Boss Gives Understood as
relationship Australian “Thumbs Up” Insulting - “Up
between two or Sign Yours!”
Cultures
more variables.
CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR OB
1. Responding to Economic Pressures;
2. Responding to Globalization;
3. Managing Workforce Diversity;
4. Improving Customer Service;
5. Improving People Skills;
6. Stimulating Innovation and Change;
7. Coping with “Temporariness”;
8. Working in Networked Organizations;
9. Helping Employees Balance Work-Life Conflicts;
10. Creating a Positive Work Environment;
11. Improving Ethical Behavior
Employment Options:
 1. Responding to Economic Pressures
 Effective management is especially important during tough economic
times.
 Employees look to their managers to provide security during the
instability of a recession.
 In good times, understanding how to reward, satisfy, and retain
employees is at a premium.
 In bad times, issues like stress, decision making, and coping come to
the fore.
2. Responding to Globalization
o Increased foreign assignments
◦ Differing needs and aspirations in workforce
o Working with people from different cultures
◦ Realize that domestic motivational
techniques & managerial styles may not
work.
◦ Management practices need to be modified
to reflect the values of the different
countries in which an organization operates.
o Overseeing movement of jobs to countries
with low-cost labor
3. Managing Workforce Diversity
Workforce diversity:
Organizations are
becoming a more
heterogeneous mix of
people in terms of gender,
age, race, ethnicity, and
sexual orientation.

 Globalization focuses on differences among people from

different countries.
 Workforce diversity addresses differences among people
within given countries.
Diversity Implications
“Managers have to shift their
philosophy from treating
everyone alike to recognizing
differences and responding to
those differences in ways that
ensure employee retention and
greater productivity while, at
the same time, not
discriminating.”
4. Improving Customer Service
o The majority of employees in
developed nations work in service
jobs and they must know how to
please their customers.
o Improving an organization’s
performance by showing
managers how employee
attitudes & behavior are
associated with customer
satisfaction.
o Management needs to create a
customer-responsive culture.
5. Improving People Skills

o People skills are essential to

succeed in today’s
organizations.
o To design motivating jobs,
techniques for improving
listening skills & how to create
more effective teams.
6. Stimulating Innovation and Change

o Flexibility
o Quality Improvement
o Staying Competitive
o The field of OB provides a
wealth of ideas and techniques
to aid in realizing these goals.
7. Coping with “Temporariness”
o Jobs are constantly changing
o Skills need to be updated for
workers to stay on target
o Workers need to be able to deal
with change
o Employees need to be able to
cope with flexibility, spontaneity
and unpredictability
8. Working in Networked Organizations
o Managers must adapt their
skills and communication
styles to succeed in an online
environment.
o Motivating and leading people
and making collaborative
decisions online requires
different techniques than
when individuals are physically
present in a single location
9. Helping Employees handle work-life
conflict
o The line between work and non
work has blurred and managers
are increasingly dealing with
conflicts that arise between work
and life away from work.
o Today’s workplace presents
opportunities for workers to create
& structure their own roles.
o The creation of global
organizations means the world
never sleeps.
10. Thinking Positive
o Creating a positive work environment can be a
competitive advantage.
o Positive Organizational Scholarship (Positive OB):
◦ Examines how organizations develop human strengths,
foster vitality and resilience, and unlock potential.
◦ Focus is on employee strengths, not their weaknesses.

◦ Positive organizational scholars have studied a concept

called “reflected best-self”—asking employees to think
about when they were at their “personal best” in order to
understand how to exploit their strengths.
1-30
11. Improving Ethical Behavior
o Ethical dilemmas and ethical choices
o Unethical practices – take bribes…
o Code of ethics
o Seminars, workshops and training programs
o Fair treatment of employees
o Ethically healthy climate
o Promote a strong ethical mission
o Encourage employees to behave with integrity, and
provide strong ethical leadership
Three Levels of OB Analysis

Chapters 14 - 16

Chapters 8 - 13

Chapters 2 - 7

Plan of the Book

 IMPLICATIONS FOR MANAGERS
oOB helps with:
◦ Insights to improve people skills
◦ Valuing of workforce diversity
◦ Empowering people and creating a
positive work environment
◦ Dealing with change in the
workplace
◦ Coping in a world of
temporariness
◦ Creating an ethically healthy work
environment
https://www.greatplacetowork.com/
best-workplaces
Thank You!