Organisational Behaviour Notes

LECTURE 1
The study of what people think, feel and do in and around organisations.

Micro/Meso = Individual/Group Level – Weeks 1-6

Macro = Organisational Level – Weeks 8-12

The Formal Organisation – Tangible policies, procedures, job descriptions, mission

statements, production efficiency levels
The Informal Organisation – Intangibles like friendship groups, emotions, group norms,
cultures, sentiments, prestige and power struggles

Four Principles of Scientific Management (Frederick Winslow Taylor)

Explains how people should be managed at work for maximum efficiency:
1. Job Design
a. Managers should design jobs efficiently, specifying precisely every element of
an employee’s work
2. Human Resource Management
a. Managers should select, train, teach and develop employees
3. Performance Management
a. Managers should be responsible for ensuring all work is done according to
their specifications. In return, workers are paid according to output.
4. Development of Management Profession
a. Managers should divide labour based on expertise. Managerial authority over
workers should be based on scientific impartiality.

Tends to downplay the psychological and social aspects of work – i.e. managers ‘think’
workers ‘do’, people are “cogs in the machine,” interchangeable parts

Human Relations was a conscious move away from Scientific Management – how do
workers feel?

LECTURE 3
Perception
A whole bunch of those perception games

The Limits of Perception

 Humans are very good at recognising patterns from very limited data (probably an
evolutionary adaptation)
  However, those patterns very quickly become fixed and we have difficulty seeing
anything that is NOT that pattern
 Thus, we are less effective at dealing with complexity and ambiguity over an
extended time than we are dealing with a single imminent threat
 Not only this, but our background, education and social upbringing also influence our
perception of ourselves and others.

Theory of Mind
Seeing is believe… maybe, but when it comes to others, we still need an explanation of why
they do what they do! We need to consider what other people are thinking when
considering their behaviour.

We need to have our own conception of how other people think and how their thoughts
influence their behaviour.

These theories (beliefs) influence our own thoughts, judgements and behaviour

Our theory of mind is not independent of our culture and experience (e.g. will people be
self-interested or will they be altruistic?; do they always say what they mean and mean
what they say?

Cognitive Biases
Self-Concept is an individual’s beliefs and evaluations about

Unskilled and unaware of it – “The Double-Curse”

 Our lack of skill not only deprives us of the ability to improve on poor performance,
but also deprives us of the ability to recognise our performance is poor in the first
place!
 The less skilled and knowledgeable we are, the less likely we are to recognise our
deficiencies.

“Arguing with a smart person is difficult but arguing with an idiot is impossible” – The Art of
War, Sun Tzu 

Dunning-Kruger Effect
Finding from Dunning et al., (2003) research

Study asked students to predict their performance before an exam

 The lower 75% overestimated their ranking in the class
 The top 25% underestimated their ranking
Dunning et al., (2003) research also found that women tended to underestimate their
performance while men tended to overestimate their performance.

Attribution Theory
Attribution Theory is concerned with how individuals perceive the information they receive,
interpret events, and how these form causal judgements

Humans are “intentional”

1. Our consciousness is directed at things beyond the limits of our physical body; and
2. We do things for a reason or a purpose (behaviour has motivations)

When we observe people’s behaviour we ask ourselves – “Why did they behave in this way?
Was this caused by internal or external factors?” Factors in their control or out of their
control? In the case of success humans tend to attribute the cause to internal factors, while
external factors tend to be blamed for failures. This is the self-serving nature of attribution
error.

The Contrast Effect

If you want to look attractive, stand next to someone unattractive. (The Art of War, Sun Tsu)

Biases and other sources of error in decision making

 Stereotyping: The process of assigning traits to people based on their assumed
membership of a social category
 Confirmation Bias: We see what confirms our assumptions and suits our desired
course of action
 The Halo Effect: We assume that, if someone is good/bad at one thing, they are
good/bad at everything
  Anchoring: The tendency to use the first piece of information we come across as the
comparison for subsequent experiences (Kahneman and Tversky)
 Availability: The tendency for people to base judgements on info that is readily
available to them
 Escalation of commitment: An increased commitment to a previous decision, even if
mounting evidence suggests otherwise
 Non-Decision Making: Often we rely on taken-for-granted conventions to make the
decision for us

Herbert Simon – Bounded Rationality

 Simon awarded Nobel prize in Economics for his work on decision making processes
in economic organisations
 Individuals can never make decisions on a truly rational basis as they have limited
information processing capabilities
 Suggests that decisions are made on the basis of satisfying i.e. being able to satisfy
certain minimum standards

Bounded Rationality
 Decision making is always a social process
 All decision are arrived at using a combination of “facts” and values that have social
origins
 We are thus acting on incomplete information that exists in a social context and our
biases then further shape the conclusions we draw
 Essentially we STOP researching when we’ve decided it’s enough

Different Types of Decision Making Rules

 Heuristics
 Formal Decision-Making Rules (eg. First look left, then right)
 Experiential decision-making rules (e.g. how fast traffic travels)
 Culturally-based decision-making rules (eg. Road laws in a certain country may
dictate which side of the street people walk)
Lecture 4
Advantages of teamwork
 More productive
 Improves team members’ quality of working life
 Improves org’s problem-solving capabilities
 Working in groups is more “natural” form of organisation: recognises need for
socialising in employees

-
Discipline of Teams
Conduct (desirable behaviour) + Values (what’s important) + Identity (who we are in relation
to other people) + Influence (ability to persuade/dissuade others) = Discipline

Group Dynamics

Teams vs Groups

Team Effectiveness Model

Organisation and Team Environment
 Rewards
 Communication
 Org structure
 Org leadership
  Physical space

Team Design
 Task characteristics
o Complex task?
o Possible with one person alone?
 Team size
o Too big/small?
o Process losses, coordination
 Team composition
o Various skills + knowledge required?
o Who does the work/task affect?

Team States
 Norms: Do we have a shared understanding of how to work together?
 Cohesion: Do we feel part of the group?
 Team Efficacy: Confidence task can be achieved?
 Team Trust: Can we rely on each other? Risktaking?

Team Process
 Taskwork
 Teamwork
 Boundary Spanning

Team Effectiveness
 Accomplish Tasks
 Satisfy Team Member Needs
 Maintain Team Survival
Tuckman’s Model of Team Development

Gersick’s Punctuated Equilibrium Model

Team “Spirit” (Heerman)
1. Build sense of relationship (belonging and trust)
2. Creating a sense of possibility (common purpose)
3. Experience team solidarity (certainty about what needs to be accomplished)
4. Mutual recognition of other peoples’ potential to contribute
5. Establishment of a sense of freedom (the team as an entity becomes taken-for-
granted)
6. Strongest manifestation of the team as a unified entity.

Group Dynamics:
Two types of generic activities:
 Maintenance/Process activities where the team is working on its own internal
processes and focuses its effort on establishing common purpose and effectiveness
  Task activities where the team focuses on the actual job

Downsides of Teamwork
 Groupthink
 Social Loafing
o “Ringelmann Effect”
 Free-riding
 Cultural differences – “Individualism” vs “collectivism”

Groupthink

Social Loafing
The Ringleman Effect

Tug-of-war example
The tension of the rope and the number of people had an asymptotic relationship,
diminishing returns

As the group gets bigger, less people pull as hard as there is an assumption that someone
else will pick up the slack.

As the group gets bigger, it gets easier to hide. Social loafing is the social expectation that
someone will step in, whereas freeriding is a conscious effort to leave your work to
someone else.
Leadership in Teams
 Traditional ideas of leadership aren’t always compatible with teamwork.
 Led Barry (1991) to develop the concept of “Distributed Leadership”
 Importantly, all these leadership qualities aren’t likely to be found in one singular
person, but rather must be shared throughout the team depending on the situation.
 Different leaders required at different times.

Consider the Tuckman phases

 Forming
 Storming
 Norming
 Performing
There are four types of necessary leadership for a successful team.
LECTURE 5 – Value, Attitudes and Work Behaviours
Values => Attitudes => Behaviour
Values are more abstract than attitudes, which are more concrete. Then we assume that
these attitudes will influence our behaviour.

Values are enduring personal beliefs about what is important or of worth

An expression of what they think is the “right way” to behave in accordance with a set of
social arrangements.

Values can be characterised in terms of their:

 Intensity (level of significance/importance)
 Content (terminal or instrumental values)

Attitudes
 Evaluative statement about an object, person or event
 A persistent tendency to feel and behave in a particular way towards something
 Attitudes are characterised by their persistence, valance and direction

Attitudes to Behaviours
Attitudes include three components that are theoretically distinct but in reality are difficult
to separate

 Emotional Component
o What you feel
 Informational Component
Why you feel that way/the logic/reason.
 Behavioural Component
o What you’ll do about it

E
I don’t like my job
I
Nightshifts interfere with my family life and I dislike anything that hurts my family
B
I will speak with my boss to change to a day shift. If unsuccessful I will look for a new job

The Functions of Attitudes

 Attitudes can help predict behaviour at work
 Employee attitudes can be changed, but there are barriers to this
o Eg prior commitments
 o Eg insufficient knowledge

There are ways to change attitudes such as:

 Providing more information
 Involving dissatisfied people to improve the situation

Job Satisfaction - A Multidimensional Attitude

 A positive emotional response resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or job
experience
 Represents several related attitudes towards:
o Job content
o Pay
o Career path
o Supervision
o Co-worker
 Influenced almost entirely by personal values

Outcomes of Job Satisfaction

Correlated with
 Human Relations approach
 Training
  Greater input to decisions
Illustrates that attitudes influence behaviour and management can influence attitudes

Organisational Culture: Shared Values, Attitudes, Behaviours

 Organisational culture is a shared understanding or set of beliefs about how people
should behave in an organisation
 A system of shared values, attitudes and behaviours is the ‘bedrock’ of culture; the
GLUE that holds an organisation TOGETHER
 Importantly, culture is a characteristic of groups not individuals
 Although the way individuals behave (i.e. interact, make decisions, communicate…)
is shaped by culture

TUTORIAL 6
Study empowerment theory (Quinn reading) as people get caught on that. Will be on the
exam if the examiners want to trip us up

Culture is the customary and traditional way of thinking and doing things which is shared to
a greater or lesser degree by all members and which new members… must learn in order to
be accepted in to the services of the firm. (Jacques, 1952)

LECTURE 6
MOTIVATION
 What motivates people in organisations?
 How does motivation occur (process theories of motivation()
 Demonstrate how theories of motivation translate to practical policies such as pay
structures and job design

Why is motivation important?

Theories of motivation form the basis for practical interventions in organisations designed
to encourage desirable behaviours and discourage undesirable behaviours

Reward can include:

 Money
 Status
 Recognition
 Holidays
 Autonomy at work

Motivation is the degree of effort and persistence directed towards a goal

Effort
Amount of physical and cognitive effort put into work
Persistence
Level of persistence in application of effort put into work
Direction
Persistent effort toward legitimate goal

Content theories of motivation

Need theories of motivation

Motivation is a process that starts with
1. Physiological or psychological deficiency or need that
2. Activates a behaviour or drive that is
3. Aimed at a goal or incentive

Need => Behaviour Incentive

Maslow’s Need Hierarchy

Maslow argued that:
 Human actions are motivated by certain universal needs that cluster into five main
categories
 This assumes an escalating degree of conscious intent – we pursue a need if we think
it is in deficit but, once satisfied, we move onto pursue another need (the
‘progression’ principle)
 Needs can be arranged in a hierarchy of importance
  Content theories lack explanatory power regarding complexities of work motivation
 Little evidence of “progression” principle. People will forego lower order needs to
pursue higher order ones
 But, has had an enduring influence on our understanding of motivation (e.g.
Seligman’s Positive Psychology Movement)
 Provide us with an attractive and appealing idea of how thing should be
 Crucial influence on our ideas about intrinsic and extrinsic rewards in organisations
(needs are directly related to motivators)

‘Learned or Acquired’ Needs Model (McClelland)

People vary in their needs for
 Achievement (Individual responsibility; challenging but achievable goals; clear
feedback)
 Affiliation (interpersonal relationships; opportunities to communicate; desire social
approval, avoid conflict, support others)
 Power (exercise control over environment and others; benefit themselves or group;
seek leadership)

Process Theories of Motivation

Expectancy Theory (Vroom, 1964)
 Motivation is determined by the outcomes that people expect to occur as result of
their work activities
  People will be motivated to perform in work activities they find attractive (lead to
favourable outcomes) and feel they can accomplish
 If rewards are not attractive and/or if people feel that they cannot accomplish the
activities that lead to rewards, their effort will decrease
 Different individuals will perceive different outcomes as more or less desirable (e.g.
pay vs job security): different things will motivate different people

Equity Theory
 We compare the effort we invest in a job with the reward we receive (an exchange
relationship)
 Individuals are motivated to maintain an equitable exchange relationship
 We make comparisons with others with similar levels of skill who are doing similar
jobs
 We come up with a ratio thqat expresses the comparative equity of effort and
reward
 Example: two people doing the same amount with the same qualifications and same
experience receive different amounts
 Usually – we don’t have ALL of the data to find out if someone is truly equal

Practical Implications to Learned or Acquired Needs

 Tie reward to performance
 Preferably have them closely tied to recent performance
 Use valued rewards
 Watch equity and fairness of the distribution of rewards
 Incentives: looks to the future (getting your needs met)
 Reward: looks to the past (rewarding prior performance)
Intrinsic – motivation that stems from the direct relationship between worker and task (the
job itself is literally motivating the worker) e.g. feelings of competence, challenge,
achievement, making a difference

Extrinsic – motivation that stems from the environment external to the task e.g. comes from
others like public recognition, status, bonus payment,

Money and Motivation

“The love of money is not only one of the strongest moving forces of human life, but money
is, in many cases, desired in and of itself.” – John Stuart Mill, English Philosopher 1806-1873

Using Job Design to Motivate People at Work

 The generation of any product or service involves the performance of tasks
 Job design involves the combination of tasks into jobs

Principles of Human Relations and Job Design:

 Jobs that have variety, are autonomous, provide feedback, significance for others,
anf is a complete task are intrinsically motivating, especially when employees are
“empowered” – Human Relations School

LECTURE I LOST COUNT

ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE
Learning Objectives:
 Analysing organisational change systematically
 Understanding what makes organisational change difficult
 Managing organisatoinal change (Beer and Eisenstadt, 2000)
o Six Silent Killers
o Organisaitonal Fitness Profiling

Model of Organisational Change

Forces Initiating Change: External and Internal
External Forces
Socio-cultural factors:
Shifts In market tastes/preferences
Technological factors:
Digital technology, R&D intensity e.g. Chat GPT affecting online exams
Economic Factors:
Inflation, Income levels (restaurants buying more expensive stock)
Political and Legal factors:
Standards on safety, environment, labour practices (construction gets affected)

Internal Factors:
Performance Outcomes:
Employee absenteeism, shareholder activism e.g. if shareholders demand things
Internal Processes
Ineffective decision-making, cumbersome procedures
New Management Philosophy
Culture/vision
New Strategies
Objectives, products, markets, businesses

Role of the Change Agent (someone who drives change)

 Identify and interpret forces causing the change
  Diagnose the problem (what needs to change)
 Decide objectives
 Generate solutions (what type of interventions are needed)
 Champion the change (communicate vision)
 Implement change (unfreeze>change>refreeze)
 Monitor, review results & get feedback (determine effectiveness)

What Needs Change:

 Power: Perhaps your company has too much top-down decision-making
 Communication: Perhaps your company is withholding important information from
its employees
 Culture: Perhaps your company has fallen prey to greed?
 Strategy: Perhaps your company has fallen behind technologically

Types of Interventions: Evolutionary and Revolutionary

Types of Interventions: Unplanned and Planned

Lewin’s Three-Step Model
Unfreeze, change, refreeze

Overcoming Resistance to Change

Championing Change:
 Learning and Communication: reduce misinformation
 Involvement and Participation: enhance commitment, increase quality of change
decision
 Facilitation, Support, Stress Management: reduce anxiety and fear
 Negotiation: reduce and overcome conflict

More forceful ways:

 Manipulation and co-optation: make change more appealing
 Coercion: enforce change
 Realigning Staff Profiles: dismiss resistors, hire adopters of change

Refreezing: Supporting Permanent Change

Reward allocation system
Rewards that meet expectation and are aligned to new priorities
Transformational Leadership
Person with power and authority to provide legitimacy for the change
Coalitions, Social Networks
In-group members accept and support the change
Effective Transmission of New Information
People need to know what is expected of them
Diffusion in the change effort
Widespread change carries greater legitimacy
Six Silent Killers (Beer and Eisenstat, 2000)
Common mistakes in managing change
1. Management style is either too top down or too laissez faire
2. Unclear strategy/conflicting priorities
3. Ineffective senior management tea
4. Poor vertical communication
5. Poor horizontal coordination
6. Inadequate skills at lower levels
Lecture 10
Communication
Transmission Model of Communication

Distortion or Noise in Communication

Messages are encoded by the sender before they are sent. Messages are decoded by the
receiver before they are received.

Encoding and Decoding processes are shared by

- Environment, background, experiences
- Values, attitudes, personality
 - Relationship between sender/receiver
- Non-verbal communication
- Perceptual limitations

Functional Theories of Communication

Organisations are rational information processing systems

Distortion can be identified and eliminated by correctly identifying:

1. The function of the message
2. What network to use
3. What channel to use
4. What direction to send
5. How much and often to send

If a manager has a problem with org. communication it is because the msg was not well
designed or transmitted properly

Function
 Organising
o Is it about getting people to do things and establishing rules, regulations,
policies, etc.
 Relationships
o Is it about establishing relationships between people
 Change
o Is it about learning, problem-solving and adaption?
 Design your message to fit the function

Networks
What networks should I use?
 Networks can be formal, informal, technological
 A manager needs to accurately identify the networks they are targeting
 Networks are always “leaky” (comms can leak from one network to another)
 The grapevine is an important network

Channel
Choosing the right channel
 Notify everyone in the department of the day, time and venue of a meeting
 Coordinate two close colleagues to set up a meeting
 Provide information on discounted health club facilities offered to employees by the
hotel next door
  Give negative feedback to a member of your department on their performance
 Ask your boss for a raise

Direction
To whom should I direct my message?
 Horizontal (colleague)
 Upward (your boss)
 Downward (your subordinates)
 External (media or your customers)

Frequency and Load

What is too much and too little info?
 How many messages does it take to get the message across
 How detailed does the message need to be?

Advantages of Functional Theories

 Logical approach to comms
 Identifies key aspects of the comms process where things can go wrong
 Helps managers choose between different ways of crafting their message

But
 Assumes too much rationality; doesn’t deal well with organisational complexity

Disadvantages of Functional Theories

Meaning-Centred Theories: Assumptions

 Communication is not simply about transmitting messages on a one-off basis
 All human interaction is communicative whether intended or not
  Individuals and groups are constantly communicating and on this basis shared
understandings/meanings develop
 These shared meanings shape our experience of what we believe the organisation
is/what it represents
 People act on the basis of the meaning they make out of situations (what they see
and hear), and whether they share those meanings\

All interaction in an org communicates a message.

In organisations, the way we:
 Organise and make decisions
 Use power to influence others
 Socialise people (i.e. create culture);
 What we say and how we say (e.g. managers using particular metaphors
All say something about the organisation

Using Language (Metaphors) to Communicate a Message

 The use of metaphors demonstrates how mangers can use language to shape how
others think and, consequently, how they act
 A metaphor is a figure of speech containing an implied comparison or association
 Managers can use metaphors to:
o Change the way we think and act as individuals
o Legitimise organisational practices
Comparing the Theories

Lecture 11
 Importance of power
 Employees affected by power
 Managers exercising power
  The three dimensions of power
o First dimension – resource management – strategy to defeat resistance
o Second dimension – process management – strategy to sideline resistance
o Third Dimension – meaning management - strategy to prevent resistance
 The ‘invisibility’ of power increases from first to third

First Dimension
 Mobilising resources to defeat resistance
 Power derives from control over resources
 Based on dependency: if someone is dependent on you for a scarce and valued
resource, then you (potentially) have power over them
 Whether a resource confers power depends on context

Resources and Power

 Reward Power: You have tangible and intangible ways to reward and punish people
 Coercive Power: you can injure or damage somebody
 Authority Power: You have a formal position in the hierarchy
 Referent Power: you can establish a personal rapport. You have charisma
 Expert Power: you can do things that others cannot. You have credibility, a record of
valued achievements
 Information Power: You have information that others do not
 Affiliation Power: Connected to powerful people
 Budgets, equipment: You can allocate budgets, equipment to others

First Dimension of Power

 Based on control of (scarce, valued) resources on which others depend
 Resources have to be mobilised
 This form of power is relational, context-specific and dynamic
 Any resources can be a source of power, depending on the situation
 Intention: someone (A) wants to get someone else (B) to do something they would
not otherwise do
 Resistance: B’s opposition/resistance is directly confronted by A
 Action: A mobilises resources
 Power Use: relatively visible
 Conflict: overt
 Such power used by senior managers is generally deemed acceptable ; when used by
other it is often dismissed as “political”

Second Dimension of Power

 Managing decision-making processes to sideline resistance
  Nondecision making (Bachrach and Baratz)
o Challenged Dahl who argued that power was shared equally among all groups
with access to decision making processes
 They argued many people that threaten power-holders never make it to the decision
arena
 Resistance is sidelined by managing decision making processes
o Control of access through invites and attendance
o What gets discussed (what is on the agenda)
o When and how it gets discussed (at end of agenda, when people are tired)
o Criteria for decision-making (some people don’t get to vote)
 Intention: A wants to get B to do something they would not otherwise do
 Resistance: B’s resistance/opposition is indirectly confronted (side-lined/avoided) by
A, by playing the “rules of the game”
 Action: A manages decision making processes
 Power Use: Less visible
 Conflict: sidelined (possibly only for a while)

Third Dimension of Power

 Rests on managing meaning to prevent resistance
 Meaning is created for desired outcomes so that they are seen as legitimate,
inevitable, natural, beneficial etc.
 Often by associating outcomes with symbols and skillful use of language
 There is no opposition because outcomes are accepted
 By targeting what people think about outcomes, behaviour is influenced indirectly
 Challenges the view that power is used only in response to resistance or conflict
 Power can be used unobtrusively to prevent conflict and resistance – a safer option
 A manages the meaning of the desired outcome to ensure B feels favourably
towards it and, therefore does not oppose it in the first place
 Power can be largely invisible because of apparent cooperation between A and B
 It is still a conscious and deliberate use of power to achieve desired outcomes
 Intention: A wants to get B to do something they would not otherwise do
 Resistance: B’s resistance/opposition is pre-emptively eliminated by A by getting B
to desire what A also wants
 Action: A manages meaning making processes to control and manipulate B
 Power Use: Almost invisble
 Conflict: averted
Theranos
Change
Forces
External
 Political and legal factors -
 Socio-cultural factors – New York article exposing Theranos

Internal
 Poor performance – numbers went up to speed
 New management philosophy – “Fake it til you make it”

Role of the Change Agent

 No one that has power is willing to be the change agent

What is to be changed?
 Power – too much top down power. Employee reviews
 Communication – poor horizontal and vertical communication. Balwani and Holmes
di
 Culture – secretive culture. Culture of unethical behaviour.
 Strategy – Falling behind in performance.
All four of these can be changed. Too much top down power. Employee reviews

Interventions
 Revolutionary change the company is trying to achieve –
 Planned evolutionary change – adaptive change
o Could be unplanned – transitory

Three step model

Forces driving change in unfreeze stage
 Unethical behaviour
 Employee concerns
 New York Times Article
 Holmes and Balwani getting charged in court
Forces resisting change
 Holmes and Balwani’s mindset – unwillingness to listen to criticism


Refreeze
 Monitor changes

CULTURE
Integrationist
Evidence of culture being “engineered” – yes entirely controlled by Holmes
Uniform culture across the oganisation
 All under Holmes

People are socialised into the culture

 Party

Apparent benefit to organisational performance
 Employees need to buy into the culture
 Expectations of work hours were high
 Benefit is they can get shareholders due to being secretive about performance

Differentiationist
 There’s so much splitting of departments that employees literally don’t know what
happens in other departments, so employees are likely fail to carry shared meanings
across departments, meaning sub-culture clusters

What would a researcher have to do to see if the culture is differentied?

 Employee reviews
 Opinions

Critical
 Elizabeth Holmes benefits from the culture
 Impossible to resist – firings from CFOs to employees
 If they did resist – either shut down, verbally abused or fired
 Employees feel like they can’t speak out against parts of the culture – either outcast
by peer pressure
 Resistance – employees resigning
 Might benefit employees
o As they feel they’re doing something for the world
o Money
 Critical research
o Not take sides

POWER

1st dimension

2nd dimension
 Withholding the Edison from FDA to sideilne resistance
rd
3 dimension
 Yes men were promoted – managing meaning to encourage outcomes

Boost Juice
Ethics
  Anaphylaxis
 Summer Warrior campaign
 High sugar content
o Misinformation about the content of sugar in the drinks
o Cause is rewards for this unethical behaviour
 They are bringing in revenue for a product which they have not
necessarily promised, but because it tastes better than healthier
 Bad for children’s diets

Organisational activity

Causes of unethical behaviour

 Misinformed decisions about marketing choices

Formal and Informal

Consequences of unethical behaviour

 In 2018, Boost came under fire again for a Facebook post by one of its franchisees
that appeared to make fun of anaphylaxis in promoting Boost’s new range of peanut
butter smoothies
 Boost accused of cultural appropriation, losing customer retention

Culture
Integrationist
 Love life culture applies in

Differentiations
 The sub-cultures in overseas countries are created due to the need to adapt to local
tastes and preferences
 The idea that the organisation branches to different countries can suggest different
cultures due to the differences in views and values

Critical theory of culture

 The cultural appropriation
 Who benefits from culture -
 How easy is it to resist culture


Communications
Causes of distortion
Facebook Marketing Post
 Message was misguided
  Channel – perceptual limits, lots of non-verbal communication,

Machine Metaphor
Apology for Peanut Butter controversy – punitive culture, and centralised decision making

Transitional Metaphor
 Use of video games and technology

Transformational
 NO evidence that video game marketing would work, intuitive decision making led it
to work, Janine Allis did visionaruy

Developmental
 Love life philosophy

CBA
Main points
 Unethical sale of CCIs
o Head of retail banking
 Unethical redistribution of bonuses at top management levels
o
 Hayne Report changed
Power
Pressure tactics are used to make people buy CCI when they wouldn’t otherwise do it.

“Pressure tactics, harassment, and misguided representations.”

Information power over intellectually disabilities

Head of retail banking raised concerns – arguing the products were of low value. The CEO
said “

First Dimension
 Shareholders used their authority power and mobilised resources (a strike) to defeat
opposition

Second Dimension
 Sidelined the Head of retail banking

Third Dimension
 CBA employees manage the meaning of CCI sales to prevent opposition from victims
in the first place
Change
Stepping down of CEO

Unplanned + Evolutionary = Transitory

Shareholder Strike

Change agent = shareholders

Head of retail banking

What needs change

Power
Culture
Strategy
Communication

Unfreeze
Factors affecting change
External
 Political and legal – Hayne Report

Internal
 Performance outcomes
 New management philosophy

Communication

UBER
Change
Main points
 The interaction between the CEO and the driver recorded on the dash cam was
released into the public, and therefore socio-cultural factors are influenced as public
opinion of Kalnick is affected.

Internal factors
 management philosophy
 Performance outcomes (employee absentism) due to strike
 New strategies – change in prices to gain more rider share
External Factor

Intervention
The strike is an planned Evolutionary intenverntion = transitory

Driving Forces

Restraining Forces
Kalanick’s change to the Uber Black prices

Unfreezing

Change

Refreezing

Power

1st Dimension
Management were allowed to harass and physically assault people only because they were
in authority. Cocaine girl too

Violence erupting is a way to defeat resistance

Kalanick leaking a memo to Recode about what

2nd Dimension
2nd Dimension of power is when the CEO apologised to the driver and the driver accepted –
momentarily sidelined the resistance toward getting Uber Black prices back up

3rd Dimension
When employees are pitted against one another, winners are praised and losers are shamed
– manages meaning by making winners look more desirable

Tesla
Ethics
 Elon Musk forced individuals to stay weekends
 Securities fraud
 Secret meeting with shareholders to fire CEO
 Bullying employees – the ones that would disagree with him

Revise what reasons for this might occur

Causes of unethical behaviour

 Self interest
 Rewards for unethical behaviour
 Cognitive bias

Structural
 Unethical norms – standard to work weekends and late hours
 Low costs of unethical behaviour – musk is the boss
 Shareholder orientation – musk holds a large amount of shares

Consequences of unethical behaviour

  Unhappy employees
 $20 million fine for securities
Culture
 Musk “engineers” culture by making productivity the primary focus of work – the
employee who had booked for him Laser eye surgery
 Individuals have strong organisational commitment under integrationist theory –
they are changing the world
 Top down control
 Consensus an widely shared understanding
 This culture seems to influence effectiveness as high performance is very much part
of Elon’s vision

Communication
The Transformational Metaphor
Risk-taking culture
Charismatic power

Suggests the organisation is

Machine Metaphor
Authoritarian
Focus on efficiency producing outputs with inputs
Top-down
Centralised decision-making
Punitive

Musk decoding the message sent by the New York Times was interpreted that he wasn’t as
hard a worker as he was

Meaning Centred Theories

When Musk fires Mary-Beth, under Functional Theories of communication, the grapevine
metaphor is applied as meaning can be passed on to employees. However, under meaning
centred theories, this meaning is more shared than paseed on