ORGANIZATIONAL

BEHAVIOUR (OB)
ORGA1010

CHAPTER 1
WHAT IS ORGANIZATIONAL
BEHAVIOUR
Copyright © 2023 Pearson Canada Inc.
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RECAP

 4 Importance for Interpersonal skills to organizations

 What is OB?
 What is its goal?
 What are the 8 Core topics?

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RECAP:THE IMPORTANCE OF INTERPERSONAL
SKILLS
Good people skills are critical for the following four reasons:

2. Helps
1. Superior attract and 3. Enhances
financial keep high- quality of 4. Increases
performance performing workplace OB Principles
employees relationships
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 RECAP: WHAT IS ORGANIZATION BEHAVIOUR (OB)?

A field of study that investigates the impact

that individuals, groups, and structures have
on a behaviour within organizations.

The goal of OB is to apply that knowledge gained to make organizations work

more effectively.
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Being a top employer helps organization to attract and retain the best talent! 4
RECAP: WHAT IS ORGANIZATION BEHAVIOUR (OB)?

Specific employment-related
issues:
 Jobs
Because OB is the study of what
 Work
people do in an organization and how
their behaviour affects the  Absenteeism
organization’s performance, it is  Employee Turnover
concerned with behaviour related to:  Productivity
 Human Performance
 Management 5
RECAP: ORGANIZATION BEHAVIOUR (OB) CORE TOPICS

1 Motivation 2 Leader behaviour

and power
3 Interpersonal
communication

4 Group structure
and processes
5 Conflict and
negotiation
6 Change processes

Attitude
7 development and 8 Work Design
perception
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CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS ORGANIZATIONAL
BEHAVIOUR (OB) – SEPT 14TH, 2023
PART 2 – INTUITION VS SYSTEMATIC DECISION MAKING

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LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. Discuss the importance of interpersonal skills in the workplace.

2. Define organizational behaviour (OB).
3. Assess the importance of using a scientific approach to OB.
4. Identify the major behavioural science disciplines that contribute to
OB.
5. Explain why few absolutes apply to OB.
6. Describe the challenges and opportunities managers face when
applying OB concepts in their workplaces.
7. Compare the three levels of analysis in this text’s OB model. 8
COMPLEMENTING INTUITION WITH SYSTEMATIC
STUDY

Intuition Systematic Study

• Assumes behaviour is not
Relies on: random
• Gut feelings, • Fundamental consistencies
• Individual observation underlie the behaviour
• Common sense • Can be identified and
modified to reflect 9

individual differences
SYSTEMATIC STUDY

BASES
ATTEMPTS TO
EXAMINES CONCLUSIONS ON
ATTRIBUTE CAUSES
RELATIONSHIPS SCIENTIFIC
AND EFFECTS
EVIDENCE 10
 EVIDENCE-BASED MANAGEMENT
Bases decisions on the best available scientific evidence:

1 2 3

Complements Forces Enables

intuition about managers to employees to
what makes us become more better manage
and other “tick” scientific in relationships
their thinking and conflict 11
BIG DATA

Extensive use of statistical compilation and analysis

• Identify persistent and predictive statistics

Using big data to manage human resources

• Define objectives, develop theories of causality (cause &
effect), and test the theories
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SIX DISCIPLINES THAT CONTRIBUTE TO THE OB
FIELD

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 DISCIPLINES THAT CONTRIBUTE TO THE OB FIELD

Social Political Neuroscience

Psychology: Sociology: Anthropology
Psychology: Science

Seeks to Blends
psychology Studies Study of Structure
Measure, societies to Studies
and people in and function
explain, and learn about political
sociology to relation to of the
sometimes human behaviours
focus on their social nervous
change beings and and
people’s system and
human environment their activities
influence on brain
behaviour or culture activities
one another

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BREAKOUT ACTIVITY
Keep in Mind
Your ideas should come from:
• Textbook
• Class PowerPoint
• Your own work/life
experiences.
Disciplines that Contribute to the OB Field
Discuss and answer the following questions:
brainstorm an overview of your assigned discipline
and examples of how you think it fits into/impacts
organizations.
• Team 1 – Psychology
• Team 2 – Social Psychology
• Team 3 – Sociology
• Team 4 – Anthropology
• Team 5 – Political Science
• Team 6 – Neuroscience
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• Be prepared to share with the class
FEW ABSOLUTES IN OB

Human beings are complex, and few, if any, simple and universal
1 principles explain organizational behaviour.

2 OB concepts must reflect situational, or contingency, conditions.

The science of OB was developed by applying general concepts to a

3 particular situation, person, or group.

OB knowledge + situation-specific assessment and judgement helps

4 managers understand their workers and develop meaningful people 16

skills (based on scientific knowledge about human behaviour).

DRAMATIC ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGES:

Corporate
downsizing
and the heavy Global
use of competition
The workforce temporary requires
The typical
is becoming workers are employees to
employee is
increasingly severing the become more
getting older
diverse bonds of flexible and
loyalty that cope with
tied many rapid change
employees to
their employers
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NINE CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR OB

Responding to Dramatic
1 economic 2 increases in 3 Responding to
globalization
pressures remote work
Managing Improving
4 workforce 5 customer 6 Improving
people skills
diversity service
Enhancing Creating a
7 employee well- 8 positive work 9 Improving ethical
behaviour
being at work environment
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1. RESPONDING TO ECONOMIC PRESSURES

Effective management can be just as hard, if not harder, in ‘good’ economic times
as in ‘bad’ economic times – OB approaches sometimes differ, and effective
managers emphasize different skills depending on the economic situation.
• During ‘good’ times, managers focus on rewarding, satisfying, and retaining employees
• During ‘bad’ economic times, managers need skills that help them address stress, decision making,
and coping

Good management can be the difference between survival and failure. During
Economic uncertainty, managers are on the front lines with the employees who:

• Fear being fired

• Are asked to make do with less, and 19

• Worry about their futures

2. DRAMATIC INCREASES IN REMOTE WORK

2020 Global Office employees Remote Work Challenging

pandemic changed started working creates environment for
how people virtually from efficiencies managers and
worked home workers

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3. RESPONDING TO GLOBALIZATION

Increased foreign assignments

Working with people from different

cultures

Overseeing movement of jobs to

countries with low-cost labour

Adapting to differing cultural and

regulatory norms 21
4. MANAGING WORKPLACE DIVERSITY
Organizations are becoming a more diverse mix of people in terms of:

Age
Gender
Race
Ethnicity
Ability
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Sexual Orientation
GENERATIONAL DIVERSITY

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 HOW TO OVERCOME GENERATIONAL CHALLENGES
“There are seven values that
matter most to workers of every
age”
Source: Understanding Generational Diversity: Why It's Important To The Future Workplace by Mary Cooney
 1. Feeling respected.
 2. Being listened to.
 3. Having opportunities for mentoring.
 4. Understanding the big picture.
 5. Receiving effective communication.
 6. Receiving positive feedback.
 7. Experiencing an exchange of ideas.
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DIVERSITY POSES GREAT OPPORTUNITIES AND
CHALLENGING QUESTIONS

• How can we leverage differences within groups for competitive

advantage?
• Should we treat all employees alike?
• Should we recognize individual and cultural differences?
• How can we foster cultural awareness in employees without
lapsing into stereotyped political correctness?
• What are the legal requirements in each country?
• Does diversity even matter?

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We must recognize differences and find ways to utilize those differences to help improve
organizational performance.
5. IMPROVING CUSTOMER SERVICE
People skills are essential - OB can help managers increase the success of these interactions by
showing how employee attitudes and behaviour influence customer satisfaction.

Friendly and
courteous

It is critical to
organizational success Willing to do what’s
OB can help
that workers improve necessary to please Accessible
managers create
the customer
their customer customer-
friendly cultures
service and people in which
skills. employees are:

Prompt in 26
responding to Knowledgeable
customer needs
6. IMPROVING PEOPLE SKILLS

 People skills are essential

 Managers must adapt their skills
and communication styles
 Helps managers develop new skills
to manage diverse requirements

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7. ENHANCING EMPLOYEE WELL-BEING AT WORK

Line between work and Helping employees find

non-work has blurred
• Managers balance employee
flexibility and job demands
Employees increasingly
work-life balance is key
search for work-life
to keeping qualified
balance
staff

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8. CREATING A POSITIVE WORK ENVIRONMENT

Positive Organizational Scholarship

• Develop human strengths, foster vitality and resilience, and unlock
potential

Reflective “Best Self ”

• Employees find their “personal best” to exploit their strengths
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9. IMPROVING ETHICAL BEHAVIOUR

Employees facing ethical

dilemmas or ethical • Difficult in a global economy where different
choices are required to cultures approach decisions from different
identify right and wrong perspectives
conduct

• Encourage employees to behave with integrity

Companies promoting
strong ethical missions • Strong leadership influences employee
decisions to behave ethically
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DEVELOPING AN OB MODEL

Exhibit 1.2
A Basic OB Model

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CHAPTER: IMPLICATIONS FOR MANAGERS/HR
1 Don’t rely only on “gut instinct”

Use metrics and situational variables rather than “hunches” to explain

2 cause-and-effect relationships

3 Increase leadership potential by improving interpersonal skills

Improve technical and conceptual skills by staying current with trends

4 like big data

5 Recognize OB’s role in employee work quality and productivity

OB helps design and implement change programs, improve customer 32

6 service, and address the work-life balance conflict

HOMEWORK:

1. Complete the Brightspace Assignment: PW-W3: Self-Analysis:

 How well do you think you currently understand human behaviour in
organizations?
 Have you ever been surprised by the actions or reactions of another person?
 Select a situation and describe what happened versus what you were
expecting to happen. What do you think may have caused the difference?

2. Read Ch 1’s Case Studies on Pages 16-18 for next class if you haven’t
already done so 33