Professional Documents
Culture Documents
ORGANISATIONAL
BEHAVIOUR
Individuals, Groups and Organisation
IAN BROOKS
Contents
xv Preface
xvii About the author
xviii Acknowledgements
1 CHAPTER 1
Organisational behaviour in an international context
1 Learning outcomes and key concepts
2 Introduction
2 What is organisational behaviour?
3 Why study organisational behaviour?
3 Organisational behaviour today
4 Four themes: diversity, change, conflict and communications
5 Diversity in the workplace
5 Global change leading to organisational change
6 Conflict and communication
7 Overview of the text
8 Case studies and examples
10 The Impact of National Culture on Organisational Behaviour
11 National culture: definition
13 Geert Hofstede
16 Individualism–collectivism
17 Power distance
17 Uncertainty avoidance
20 Masculinity–femininity
20 Long-term–short-term orientation
21 Culture shock and culture shift
22 Culture and change in China
23 The significance of communication in a cross-cultural context
25 Developing cultural competencies
27 Conclusions
27 References
28 Further reading
29 CHAPTER 2
From classical organisational theory to the gig economy
29 Learning outcomes and key concepts
30 Introduction
viii Contents
59 CHAPTER 3
Perspectives on individual behaviour
59 Learning outcomes and key concepts
60 Introduction
60 Individual Behaviour and Personality
61 Personality theories
62 Trait theory
63 Humanistic approach
64 Psychodynamic theory
64 Jung’s personality theory
Contents ix
97 CHAPTER 4
Motivation theory, practice and generational change
97 Learning outcomes and key concepts
98 Introduction and Definition
99 Motivation Schools of Thought
100 Behavioural modification theory and giving feedback
101 Expectancy theory: a framework for the analysis of workplace motivation
102 Porter and Lawler’s expectancy model
105 Needs theories
105 Needs hierarchy
108 McClelland’s achievement needs theory
111 Intrinsic and extrinsic rewards: Herzberg
115 Goal theory and self-motivation
118 Motivation and equitable treatment
x Contents
137 CHAPTER 5
Groups and teams
137 Learning outcomes and key concepts
138 Introduction
138 Why gather in groups?
139 Groups and teams: definition
140 Groups
140 Teams
141 Self-directed and self-managed teams
144 Communities of practice
145 Groups within groups
145 Formal and informal groups and teams
145 Formal groups
146 Informal groups
148 Stages of Group and Team Development
148 Bass and Ryterband
148 Tuckman
151 Roles and Routines
151 Group norms
151 Group roles
152 Belbin’s team roles
152 Building and maintaining effective teams
155 Group cohesiveness and performance
156 Conformity and groupthink
159 Intra-group behaviour and conflict
161 Inter-group behaviour and conflict
162 Into the Twenty-first Century: Mobile Communications, Virtual and
Cross-cultural Teams
166 Teamwork in a modern global context
167 Cross-cultural teamworking
Contents xi
181 CHAPTER 6
Management and leadership
181 Learning outcomes and key concepts
182 Introduction
182 From Taylor to Mintzberg
183 Frederick Taylor
183 Henri Fayol
184 Peter Drucker
186 Henry Mintzberg
188 Differentiating leadership from management
189 Transformational vs transactional leadership
191 Leadership: Schools of Thought
191 Trait theory of leadership
193 Behavioural theories
193 Leadership style
196 Theory X and Theory Y
196 Conclusions
197 Situational theory
197 Fiedler’s contingency theory
198 Conclusions
199 New Perspectives on Leadership
199 Non-Western leadership theories
200 Servant leadership
200 Cross-cultural leadership
201 Pluralistic leadership
203 Entrepreneurial leadership
204 Leaders on leadership
205 Women and leadership
206 Leadership and conflict
206 Leadership and change
207 Managerial Implications
208 Summary of Main Points
208 Conclusions
209 Questions
209 References
211 Further Reading
xii Contents
213 CHAPTER 7
Organisational structure
213 Learning outcomes and key concepts
214 Introduction
214 What is structure?
215 Talking about structure: definitions
215 Centralisation and decentralisation
216 Differentiation
216 Integration
216 Specialisation
216 Formalisation and the informal organisation
217 Span of control
217 Bureaucracy
218 Traditional Structural Types
218 Multifunctional (U-form) structures
220 Multidivisional (M-form) structures
221 Post-bureaucratic Structures
221 Matrix structures
224 Project management matrix
225 Family business
226 Network structures and virtual organisations
227 Virtual organisations
229 Comparison of the Main Structural Forms
229 Delayering and flexible working
232 Flexible working
233 Distancing
233 Numerical flexibility
233 Functional flexibility
233 Numbers on flexible working arrangements
234 What Influences Organisational Structure?
235 Strategy and structure
236 Blue ocean strategy
236 Technology and structure
237 Size and structure
238 The business environment
239 Cross-cultural influences on structure
241 Summary
242 Knowledge Workers, Holacracy and Communities of Practice
245 Holacratic structures
246 Organisational Change and Restructuring
246 Structural inertia
247 Forces for change
248 Change management models
251 Diversity
251 Managerial Implications
Contents xiii
257 CHAPTER 8
Organisational power, politics and conflict
257 Learning outcomes and key concepts
258 Introduction
258 The Political Perspective
259 Are organisations guided by rational behaviour?
261 Unitary, pluralist and radical views
263 Organisational Power
263 Sources of power
267 Covert power
268 Powerlessness
269 Empowerment
270 Summary: the pros and cons of power in organisations
271 Organisational Politics
272 Four foci of political activity
272 Structural change
272 Inter-departmental coordination
272 Resource allocation
272 Management succession
273 Politics and sport
273 Organisational Conflict
275 Conflict and diversity
276 Management of conflict
277 Conflict-handling model
279 Symbols and power
280 Power and organisational change
281 Resistance to change
283 Managerial Implications
284 Summary of Main Points
284 Conclusions
284 Questions
285 References
286 Further Reading
287 CHAPTER 9
Organisational culture: the impact on
organisational behaviour
287 Learning outcomes and key concepts
xiv Contents
288 Introduction
288 Organisational Culture
290 Subculture and professional cultures
292 Subculture and professional cultures: a source of organisational conflict
292 Sector recipes
292 Organisational culture: definitional debate
294 Culture and organisational performance
295 Cultures as an onion
296 Structural view of culture
296 Strategy view of culture
298 The interpretative view of culture
300 Diversity, Institutional Racism and ‘Culture of Fear/bullying’
301 Organisational Culture and Change
306 Managerial Implications
306 Summary of Main Points
307 Conclusions
307 Questions
307 References
309 Further reading
311 Glossary
319 Index
Preface
This significantly updated and amended fifth edition provides an introduction to organisa-
tional behaviour. It is intended for students on a range of courses including:
• Business Studies/Business Administration or similar business and management under-
graduate degrees often at level 1 or 2;
• Modules in Working with People, Organisational Behaviour, Managing and Organising
or similar subject titles including introductory programmes for advanced HRM;
• Post experience/postgraduate and professional courses, part of which comprise Organi-
sational Behaviour as an introduction or underpinning of management, HRM, the
management of change, cross-cultural management, or business strategy.
• A general reader as a focused and lively updated introduction to the subject.
This edition aims to be more accessible than the market leaders in the field. It provides a
succinct and focused, yet robust, coverage of the subject. In my experience, many under-
graduate students find a larger text inaccessible and rather daunting.
The text includes considerable new material of relevance to the modern twenty-first-
century workplace (e.g. modern communication technologies, cross-cultural management,
generational change) and changing forms of employment (e.g. gig economy) and places
OB in the international or global context that it warrants. Many OB texts virtually ignore
cultural difference, which at best is forgetful and at worst blinkered and ethnocentric. Most
OB texts tend also to ignore the changing nature of both the workplace and the genera-
tional changes taking place among students, employees, managers and in wider society.
Considerable research was undertaken prior to the design of the text to ascertain the
needs of students and tutors in this regard. Their responses and advice have directly influ-
enced the design objectives and content of the text, for which I am very grateful.
Every effort has been made to trace and acknowledge ownership of copyright. The pub-
lishers will be pleased to make suitable arrangements with any copyright holders whom it
has not been possible to contact.
essence of OB: most of the key contents that comprise this wonderful subject remain and
form the basic structure of the text.
New materials
• The book includes significant explanatory academic and practical material on national
culture in Chapter 1 and then in all subsequent chapters in the context of the subjects
covered. This provides an ongoing critique of Western models (where appropriate), the
inclusion of some non-Western theories and the impact that culture has on OB in vari-
ous geographical contexts. Many fascinating insights, particularly for the uninitiated,
are revealed: for example, did you know that despite ‘Western’ fascination with ‘leader-
ship’, there is no direct translation of that word in many ‘Eastern’ languages.
• Inclusion of a major section on the gig economy and boundaryless careers and refer-
ence elsewhere where relevant. The world of work is changing with profound individ-
ual, organisational and societal implications. These impact the subject of OB which
hitherto tended to assume traditional employment patterns. We explore some of the
consequences of change both for these involved and for the subject of OB, for example,
its impact on the psychological contract, on motivation and on management and
leadership.
• Consideration of generational changes, responding to reviewers and tutors’ arguments
that some traditional theory assumes stable, homogeneous contexts and that ‘today’s’
young people have experienced radically different contexts from those of their parents
and grandparents. We explore the attitudes, values and behaviours of Baby Boomers
through to Generation X, Y and Z, and the hypothesis that there are significant implica-
tions for behaviour in organisations. One’s own experiences are such that recognition of
generational differences reflects the realities one can observe.
• There is further updated material on many contemporary themes in OB, for example:
the impact of modern communication technologies; emotional intelligence; cultural
intelligence; emotional labour; work–life balance (WLB); knowledge workers; commu-
nities of practice; pay and motivation; self-motivation; networking; virtual teams, vir-
tual organisations and networked structures; cross-cultural working; family business
and Chinese family business; blue ocean strategy; more on change and change manage-
ment, and further material on diversity including institutionalism racism and ‘culture of
fear’.
• We have added further real-life cases (some amended/disguised), often from recent grad-
uates in work.
• A glossary of terms added for the first time.
We have removed some older, less relevant or repetitive material while preserving those key
seminal contributions in each chapter: it is a blend of the old and good and the new and
exploratory.
About the author
Dr Ian Brooks ‘retired’ in the summer of 2016, after over fifteen years as Dean of the
Northampton Business School and later Executive Dean at the University of N orthampton,
and entered the gig economy. In his executive role he held strategic responsibility for
university-wide internationalisation and for developing academic partnerships with educa-
tion organisations at home and overseas. He helped establish new franchise and similar
academic/business arrangements in New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia,
Myanmar, India, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Ghana, Kenya, Dubai (all involving travel to and
around those locations, of course) and in the United Kingdom.
Whilst a tutor he taught OB, organisational change and business strategy and has pub-
lished in many peer-reviewed journals (see Research Gate) in OB, cultural change and strat-
egy. Ian has a first degree from Nottingham University and an MBA from Bath University.
His PhD focused on organisational and professional culture and change.
In ‘retirement’ Ian does a little writing (hence this fifth edition) and international educa-
tional consultancy and is a visiting professor of the University of Northampton.
Ian was born in Gloucester and lived in Dubai for seven years in the 1980s. He is married
with children in work and at university.
Acknowledgements
Figures
Figure 2.2 adapted from Management and Organisational Behaviour, 7th edn., Financial
Times Prentice Hall (Mullins, L. J. 2005) p. 130 © Pearson Education Ltd.; Figure 2.4 from
Office for National Statistics, Labour Force Survey, Office for National Statistics licensed
under the Open Government Licence v.3.0.; Figure 4.2 adapted from Managerial Attitudes
and Performance, Richard D. Irwin (Porter, L. W. and Lawler, E. E. 1968); Figure 8.6
adapted from Conflict and conflict-management in Dunnette, M. D. (ed.) Handbook of
Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Rand McNally (Thomas, K. 1976); Figure 9.4
after Exploring Corporate Strategy, Prentice-Hall (Johnson, G. and Scholes, K. 2013)
© Pearson Education Ltd.
Tables
Tables 1.1, 1.2 adapted from Culture’s Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Insti-
tutions and Organizations Across Nations, 2nd ed., SAGE Publications (Hofstede, Geert
2001) Reproduced with permission from Geert Hofstede BV; Table 3.3 adapted from
Organizational Behavior: The Essentials, South-Western (Nelson, Debra L. and Quick,
James C. 1996) Reproduced with permission of WEST PUBL., in the format Republish in
a book via Copyright Clearance Center
Text
Newspaper Headline on page 48 from Obligations not excuses to workers are needed, The
Guardian, 28/10/2016 (Editorial), Courtesy of Guardian News & Media Ltd; Box 2.6 from
Amy Clement, Reproduced with permission; Box 5.5 from Seratio, Seratio Limited is a spin
out company of the Think Tank, the Centre for Citizenship Enterprise and Governance.
cceg.org.uk
Acknowledgements xix
Picture Credits
The publisher would like to thank the following for their kind permission to reproduce
their photographs:
(Key: b-bottom; c-centre; l-left; r-right; t-top)
Shutterstock.com: Granger / REX / Shutterstock 71b, scheresteinpapier 73t
All other images © Pearson Education
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CHAPTER 1
Organisational behaviour in
an international context
Learning outcomes
On completion of this chapter you should be able to:
• understand the nature and scope of organisational behaviour (OB) in the international
context in which we operate;
• understand the value of a behavioural approach to working in and managing
organisations;
• recognise that organisational behaviour is ever changing;
• know how this text is structured;
• understand the concept of national culture, the context of OB;
• understand the impact of culture and Hofstede’s dimensions of culture, appreciating
the major differences that exist globally;
• understand the importance of and difference between culture shock and culture shift;
and
• understand the importance of the four themes of diversity, change, conflict and
communications to the study of organisational behaviour.
Key concepts
• individual behaviour • culture shift
• group behaviour • new organisational behaviours
• organisational behaviour and forms
• organisational analysis • multidisciplinary study
• quality of work life/work–life balance • theory to practice
• international context • diversity
• national culture • change
• dimensions of culture • conflict
• culture shock • communications
2 Chapter 1 Organisational behaviour in an international context
Introduction
This introductory chapter outlines the nature of organisational behaviour. It describes how
this text is structured and styled to enable the reader to understand the often-theoretical sub-
ject matter in the context of modern organisational practice. Organisational behaviour (OB)
is the study of human behaviour in organisational contexts, with a focus on both individual
and group processes and actions. Hence, it involves an exploration of organisational and man-
agerial processes in the dynamic context of the organisation and is primarily concerned with
the human implications of such activity. We recognise that OB is impacted by national cultures
and subject to continual change and challenges resulting from globalisation and socio-political
and economic changes. Hence, this OB text differs from many by exploring the international,
cultural, context in which many, if not most, organisations and employees now operate.
National cultures profoundly impact OB. Furthermore, most of the theories covered in this
subject derive from the United States and ‘Western’ cultural models. Throughout this text we
refer to theories and practices from other global locations and consider the ethnocentric
nature of some traditional research. In this chapter, we explore the impact of national culture
generically on people and, therefore, on OB and explain the contribution made by Hofstede to
our understanding of cultural difference and its impact on organisations.
and most are influenced by the norms and values of the organisation and of the society in
which they live and work. These influences and interconnections make the study of OB
inherently interesting and enlightening, especially for those concerned with human or peo-
ple issues in organisations.
This text includes many examples of such changes. These changes will continue often in
unpredictable ways: the world of work will change. We cover many more recent changes in
this text, including the growth of newer, more flexible ways of working, the ‘gig economy’
and ‘boundaryless careers’, for example. We explore, often through short case studies, the
way in which social media and mobile communications are impacting the way real people
work. There are generational divides impacting behaviour in organisations and new organ-
isational forms often accommodating those changes.
We also explore in this text the frequent criticism of organisational behaviour as being
driven by a Western, usually Anglo-American, model and include multiple illustrations
of how different cultures behave differently in organisations. It is vital for people in
organisations to recognise that their own cultural perspectives may vary considerably
from others who come from different countries or who adhere to different values. Ethno-
centrism characterises many theories and perspectives in OB, so we attempt to illustrate
that cultural difference is very much alive and a constant feature of organisations, par-
ticularly for managers and workers who in the course of their work life interact interna-
tionally. At the very least, we hope to reduce ‘culture shock’ when people encounter
organisations, groups and individuals holding very different cultural understandings.
A subsequent edition of this text may offer sufficient evidence to include consideration
of the impact of robotisation on organisational behaviour. We know already that in certain
manufacturing environments, robots have in a large measure replaced low- and medium-
skilled labour. These technologies are now being applied to clerical work, and although
estimates vary, most commentators now believe that this will significantly impact the
nature and terms of employment for many administrative employees in the next two
decades.
melton-hunt beef.
Choose a round of prime ox beef, about thirty pounds weight, the
butcher removing the bone; examine the flap and take out the
kernels and skins, and hang it up in a dry air, where let it remain as
long as the weather will permit. Then take
Juniper berries,
bruised 2 oz.
Ten shalots, minced
Allspice, ground 2 oz.
Black pepper, ground 3 oz.
Dried bay leaves 3 oz.
Coarse sugar 2 lb.
Bay salt 2 lb.
Mix them well, and rub all parts well, particularly the flap and the void
left by the bone, every day for a week, and turning it every other day.
Then add
Rock salt or common
salt 1 lb.
Saltpetre 1½ oz.
Garlic, minced 2 heads
and never omit rubbing well with the pickle every day for ten days.
After this turn it daily for ten days more, then take it up, look well to
the centre and fat, and setting it up in proper shape, and skewer and
bind it firmly. Wipe it dry, and if not immediately wanted, coat it well
over with dry bran or pollard, and smoke it a week with
Beech chips 3 parts
Oak lops 1 part
Fern or grass turfs 2 parts
Otherwise, bake it, and when it has cooled forty-eight hours, not
less, it will cut firm and obtain for you high commendation.
breslau beef.
Take the second round or fillet of beef without fat or bone, cut it
into two equal parts horizontally, and rub them well with the following
mixture:
Black pepper, ground 1 oz.
Garlic, minced ½ oz.
Juniper berries,
bruised 2 oz.
Bay salt 1 lb.
Rock or common salt 1 lb.
Foots of sugar 1 lb.
Let them lie, being regularly rubbed and turned for fourteen days.
Boil up your pickle, skimming it thoroughly at the expiration of each
week, and add, at the end of the fortnight,
Allspice, bruised 2 oz.
Saltpetre 2 oz.
Strong vinegar 1 pint
Let them lie thus a week together, then take them up and wipe dry.
Smoke one of the pieces for three weeks, in brown paper, with oak
and fern, and hang it in a dry air to harden a month. The other
portion of the meat may be thoroughly dried in an air current, and
then coated with the gelatine composition, and exposed to the air a
month also.
Both these are intended for rubbing on a tin grater, and taken on
bread and butter, or as sandwiches, and well adapted for gentlemen
emigrating and travelling at home.
neats’ tongues.
For each tongue of seven to nine pounds weight, having cut out
the gullet and trimmed the root, take
Bay salt 1 oz.
Coarse sugar 3 oz.
Saltpetre, pounded ½ oz.
Cochineal, pounded ½ oz.
Mix well, and rub the meat well for four days, then add for each
tongue one ounce more salt and continue the rubbing and turning six
days longer. The curing is now completed, and if wanted for table,
may be boiled slowly four to five hours. If it is intended to dress them
fresh out of pickle as wanted, the rubbing, except for the first day,
must be omitted, and in such case, they would not be unpleasantly
salt for four or five weeks; nevertheless, they should be turned daily.
If they are only to be dried, wipe them well when taken out of the
pickle, and rub them all over with bran or pollard warmed, but if to be
smoked, it must be done with
Beech chips 2 parts
Dried fern 2 parts
Oak sawdust 2 parts
for a week, and they may be packed along with your hams in malt
cooms and pulverised charcoal.
a boar’s head.
Procure the head of a large well-fed bacon hog, your butcher
having had it open and taken out the tongue, gullet, eyes, and nasal
cartilages, and small bones; remove the brain and clean it
thoroughly, particularly at the roots of the ears and nostrils; wash it
quickly in salt and water, and dry with cloths. Rub it well in all parts
with rock or common salt, and hang it up to drain twenty-four hours.
Next, make a pickle of
Garlic, chopped ½ oz.
Shalots 1 oz.
Juniper berries 2 oz.
Jamaica pepper 2 oz.
Sal prunelle 3 oz.
Water 1 gal.
Bay salt 2 lb.
Treacle 2 lb.
Boil fifteen minutes, and skim, and when cold pour it over the head
and tongue, placed in a deep straight-sided earthen vessel, where it
must remain, being turned every second day, and well covered with
the pickle for a month; at the end of fourteen days take out the
tongue, boil up the pickle, adding one pound more salt, and pour it
again on the head cold. When taken out of pickle, wipe both the
head and tongue dry, and with a sharp knife cut through the rind
from the nose to the base, in lines two inches apart, but not severing
the flesh. You may now remove any superfluous fat from the base,
but not interfering with the lean part; rub all over with dried oatmeal;
peel the tongue, and skewer it inside the head, close the sides with
string, and smoke it in brown paper for three weeks, with
Oak sawdust 2 parts
Beech and birch chips 3 parts
Fern or grass turfs 1 part
Store it in malt cooms, and when wanted let it be baked.
westphalia hams.
Get your legs of pork—each about sixteen pounds weight—cut in
shape like those imported, viz. longer and more narrow than usual,
inclining to a peak at the large end, and flattened between boards
weighted down upon them. But since they may be cured at home far
finer flavoured, and of infinitely far superior quality in the feeding, this
attempt at deception is optional. The following is a good mixture, with
which let the meat be rubbed well, and turned daily for three days:
Saltpetre 1 oz.
Sal prunelle 1 oz.
Coarse sugar 1 oz.
Bay salt 1 oz.
Juniper berries,
bruised 2 oz.
Then let them lie in this way, only turning them for ten days more,
when you will boil up the ingredients, adding
Best pickling vinegar 1 pint
Water 1 pint
and when cold turn it to the meat, and baste with it a fortnight longer.
You may now take them up and dry them well. They must hang in a
current of fresh air for a week or more, and then be smoked a month
with oak lops, fern, and grass turfs.
a norfolk chine.
Take the chine of a well-fed hog of ten score weight, deprived of
the rind, and what fat may be considered superfluous, and rub it in
all parts effectually with
West India molasses 1 lb.
Bay salt 1 lb.
Laurel leaves, shred 1 oz.
Bay leaves 1 oz.
and let it be rubbed and turned daily for a week. Next boil together
the herbs used above, and
Marjoram a handful.
Thyme a handful.
Juniper berries,
crushed 1 oz.
Rock or common salt 1 lb.
Water 3 quarts
Skim it well, and when cold, pour it to the meat, and mix with the first
pickle. Take care that the pickle completely covers the chine. Handle
it attentively three weeks, and wipe it dry. It must be well coated with
bran first, and pea-flour over that, and smoked with
Oak lops 2 parts
Dried fern 2 parts
Beech or birch chips 2 parts
for a fortnight or more. One half of it will be exceedingly good, if
coated with the gelatine composition, and kept three months; the
other half may be baked, and eaten cold.
dutch beef.
Take ten pounds of any part of prime beef that has a moderate
share of fat attached, the thick flanks suit well. Displace the skin, and
rub the meat all over with foots of coarse sugar one pound, and let it
lie three days and nights, turned daily. Take then
Bay salt 1 lb.
Common salt 1 lb.
Sal prunelle 1 oz.
Garlic, minced 1 oz.
Juniper berries,
crushed 1 oz.
Vinegar ½ pint
with which mixture rub your meat well five days, and then turn it in
the pickle every three days for a fortnight more. Bind broad tape
around it as a collar, rub pea-flour over it in all parts, until it is
thoroughly coated therewith, and smoke it a month with oak lops,
sawdust, and beech or birch chips. It should be kept in store two
months at least, and then put into boiling water over the fire, done
moderately, and cut when cold.
to pickle a tongue.
Take out the gullet and rough root of a neat’s tongue, eight
pounds weight; rub it well with common or rock salt three days, then
take
Foots of sugar ¼ lb.
Saltpetre in powder ½ oz.
Rub well with this, out of the pickle, then return all to the first brine,
and keep it close covered three weeks, turning it every day. It will be
fit to be cooked if wanted, but if to be smoked, treat it with the drying
process, and when ready, smoke it with
Oak lops 2 parts
Fern 2 parts
Peat 2 parts
This is intended for tongues for general purposes. There follow some
excellent pickles for higher flavours.