Organizational Behavior

Session 1

Aradhna Malik
Assistant Professor
VGSOM, IIT Kharagpur
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 Contact
 Email: amalik@vgsom.iitkgp.ernet.in,
ob.vgsom@gmail.com
 Phone:
 On campus: 81762
 Off campus: +91-3222-281762
 Office Hours: By appointment.

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Management

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What do managers do? (Squires, 2001)
Functions
 Motivate
 Direct
 Allocate
 Co-ordinate
 Monitor
 Evaluate
 Plan
 React
 Develop
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How do managers do what they do?(Squires, 2001)
Processes
 Instructional
 Technical
 Personal
 Interpersonal
 Entrepreneurial
 Political
 Administrative
 Financial
 Legal
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What affects what managers do? (Squires, 2001)

Contingencies

Mission Organization Environment

Nature Size Regulatory
Unity Structure Economic
Stability Culture Social

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A Manager’s Job
ORGANIZATIONAL GOALS

MANAGER •Money
•People
Contingencies •Society
•
•
•

Processes Functions

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 The Nature of Managerial Work
 Remarkable similarity in management jobs
 Jobs in today’s workplace cluster around
core management roles:
 Interpersonal
 Informational
 Decisional
Henry Mintzberg, The Nature of Managerial Work

Source: O’Rourke, J. & Singh, A. (2006). Management communication: A case-analysis approach (2nd Ed.). New Delhi: Pearson.

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Major Characteristics of a Manager’s
Work
 Time is fragmented.
 Values compete; the various roles are in
tension.
 The job is overloaded.
 Efficiency is a core skill.

Source: O’Rourke, J. & Singh, A. (2006). Management communication: A case-analysis approach (2nd Ed.). New Delhi: Pearson.

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 What Varies? The Emphasis
 The entrepreneur role is gaining importance.
 So is the leader role. Managers must be
more sophisticated as strategists and
mentors.
 Managers must create a local vision as they
help people grow.

Source: O’Rourke, J. & Singh, A. (2006). Management communication: A case-analysis approach (2nd Ed.). New Delhi: Pearson.

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 Management Skills Required
 Technical Skills: Most valuable at the entry
level; less valuable at more senior levels.
 Relating Skills: Valuable across the
managerial career span.
 Conceptual Skills: Least valuable at the
entry level; more valuable at more senior
levels.
Source: O’Rourke, J. & Singh, A. (2006). Management communication: A case-analysis approach (2nd Ed.). New Delhi: Pearson.

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The Bottom-line
“The key to good management is knowing
what is fundamental to success and what is
not” (Scott Adams, 1997)

A good manager just goes out and gets the

job done with as optimal use of resources as
possible.

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A manager’s challenge
 Ref: It is cool, it is hot

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Your Task as a Professional
 Recognize and understand your strengths
and weaknesses as a communicator.
 Improve existing skills.
 Develop new skills.
 Acquire a knowledge base that will work for
the 21st century.
 Develop the confidence you’ll need to
succeed as a manager or executive.
Source: O’Rourke, J. & Singh, A. (2006). Management communication: A case-analysis approach (2nd Ed.). New Delhi: Pearson.

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Organizational Behavior

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 Definitions and concepts

 Organizational behavior:

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Principles exhibited by formal
organizations (Ross & Anderson, 2000)

 Continuity principle: They are embedded in a

history, and presumably anticipate a future
 Task specialization principle: They depend
upon certain task specializations
 The control principle: They create internal
control systems in the form of bureaucracies
(chains of command, hierarchies, leadership)
and reward structures
 The multiple audience principle: They address
multiple audiences internally and externally
 Organizational behavior
 Organization
 “The act or process of organizing”
 “a body of persons organized for some end or work,”
 “the administrative personnel or apparatus of a
business”
(Merriam-Webster Inc., 1989; Rousseau, 1997)
 Organizational behavior:
 “A field of study that investigates the impact that
individuals, groups, and structure have on behavior
within organizations, for the purpose of applying such
knowledge toward improving an organization's
effectiveness.(Robbins, Judge & Vohra, 2012)

 Primarilywhat people do in an organization and how

their behavior affects the organization
 Disciplines that contribute to OB Output
(Robbins, Judge & Vohra, 2012) Contribution

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Unit of
Behavioral
Learning, Motivation, Personality, Analysis
Science
Emotions, Perception, Training,
Leadership effectiveness, Job
Psychology satisfaction, Individual decision making,
Performance appraisal, Attitude
measurement, Employee selection, Work
Individual
design, Work stress

Social Behavioral change, Attitude change,

Communication, Group processes,
Psychology Group decision making
Group

STUDY OF
Communication, Power, Conflict,
Sociology Intergroup behavior

Formal organization theory, Organizational

Technology, change, and culture
Comparative values and attitudes,
Cross-cultural analysis
Organization
Anthropology Organizational culture and environment system
Power
Challenges and opportunities for OB
(Robbins, Judge & Vohra, 2012)
 Responding to economic pressures
 Responding to globalization
 Increased foreign assignments
 Working with people from different cultures
 Overseeing movement of jobs to countries with low-cost labor
 Managing workforce diversity
 Improving customer service
 Improving people skills
 Stimulating innovation and change
 Coping with 'temporariness'
 Working in networked organizations
 Helping employees balance work-life conflicts
 Creating a positive work environment
 Improving ethical behavior
 Theoretical
Underpinnings
Classical management theory
 Based on the work of F. W. Taylor and Henry Fayol
 Organizations as producers
 Based on the belief that too many decisions were
made by leaders who did not have a clue about what
their changes would produce.
 Believes that if the managers had enough detailed
information about how workers accomplish their jobs –
both in actual and potential production – they could
better compare the likely results of proposed changes
without having to expend actual resources on
experimentation.
 Classical
Management Theories
 Scientific management theory
(Taylor, 1913, 1947, in Anderson & Ross, 2002)

 Organization as machine: Organizations or factories

were big mechanisms that fitted together smaller and
basically interchangeable mechanisms known as
workers
 Instead of demanding higher output or productivity of
labor [I-It – Martin Buber], and to back those demands
with pressures or threats, by matching men, tools, and
the tasks they were required to perform, it was
possible to increase productivity without placing
increased physical burdens upon the men [possibly I-
Though – Martin Buber???]
 Limitation to this theory: Does not take into account
the ‘rich uniqueness of the individual human person
(Ross & Anderson, 2000)
Administrative Theory
(Fayol, 1949, in Anderson and Ross, 2002)
 Application of scientific thinking to the work done by
those who administer managerial practices
 Fayol’s five part analysis of administrative science
principles (suggested by Eisenberg & Goodall, 1997, in Ross & Anderson, 2000)
 Planning: Anticipating a probable future
 Organizing: Creating clearly understood divisions of labor in
hierarchical, or, in Fayol’s terms, ‘scalar’ form
 Commanding: Setting goals realistically
 Coordinating: Relating diverse employees to each other’s
interests, and to those of the organization
 Controlling: Evaluation of work styles and subsequent
rewards
Organizations as collections of
individual needs (Anderson & Ross, 2002)
 Human relations/ resources theory:
 Organizations were capable of creating internal
communication patterns that supported their
business goals much more effectively.
Organizations increased their rationality and
self-awareness, which produced better quality
information.
 Examples:
 Hawthorne Studies
 Theory Y
Systems based theorizing:
Organizations contain
communication subsystems
Basic concepts (Anderson& Ross, 2002)
 Organization as the organism: Organization, in
addition to producing, feels, communicates, and
evolves like a biological organism
 Organization is an open system
Structural Functional Tradition
(Burrell & Morgan, 1979, in Anderson & Ross, 2002)

 Communication doesn’t move, like an object,

from person to person or from source to
receiver but is a function of complex changes in
a web of relationships.
 Examples:
 Bureaucratic Theory
 Homeostatic Theory
 Structuration Theory
Bureaucratic Theory
(Baughman, 1989; Blau, 1956; Eisenberg & Goodall, 1997, in Anderson& Ross, 2002)
 Bureaucracy is the rational structuring of organizational roles
for maximum efficiency
(Weber, 1946, in Ross & Anderson, 2000)
 Assumptions about how organizations should be structured
(Baughman, 1989; Blau, 1956; Eisenberg & Goodall, 1997, in Ross & Anderson, 2000)
 Division of labor: creation of functional roles
 Clear explicit definitions of job responsibilities (members
understand what is expected of them)
 Standardized procedures, well understood by all
 Hierarchical structures of authority (responsibility to superiors and
coordination of subordinates)
 Technical competence as a criterion for selection of and rewards
to personnel
 Management and other roles presumed to be ongoing
responsibilities, creating careers, barring ineffectivess (no
capricious termination
Homeostatic Theory
(Katz & Kahn, 1966, in Anderson& Ross, 2002)

 Every organization or system tends to maintain

homeostasis or an internal balance
 HT is a way of defining organizations both as
systems of structural roles and as human
systems with symbolic needs that must be
fulfilled for members
 Bases for Homeostatic Theory
(Katz & Kahn, 1966, in Anderson& Ross, 2002)
 Organizations are open systems (they cannot be understood
except by referring to their relations with their environments and
the way in which they exchange information with other systems
across system boundaries)
 Organizations are purposive systems (they are created and
exist to serve particular purposes, and system functioning is
constantly being compared with this central rational purpose in
mind)
 Organizations are systems composed of certain types of
subsystems:
 Production subsystems
 Supportive subsystems
 Maintenance subsystems
 Adaptive subsystems
 Managerial subsystems
 Organizations are ordered systems: Effective to the extent that
a dynamic state of internal control and balance is maintained
Structuration Theory
(Giddens, 1993, in Anderson& Ross, 2002)

 Structures are not static and definitive but

constantly in motion and contingent.
 Structures define what actions are
appropriate but the acts themselves – as
we perform them – constitute the
structures
Discuss
 What are the differences between the
classical management tradition and the
structural functional tradition?
 What is assumed about communication in
each of these traditions?
 Do these traditions apply to modern day
organizational communication? Why or why
not?
Structuration Theory
(Giddens, 1993, in Anderson& Ross, 2002)
 Structures are not static and definitive but constantly in
motion and contingent. (Giddens, 1993, in Ross & Anderson, 2000)
 Structures (organizations) define what actions are
appropriate but the acts themselves – as we perform
them – constitute the structures (organizations) (Giddens,
1993, in Ross & Anderson, 2000)

 Structure (organization) is both a medium and an

outcome of social practices (interaction) – duality of
structure (Modaff & DeWine, 2002)
 Organizational structure is not a concrete entity but is
produced as people interact on a daily basis, attempting
to accomplish their individual collective purposes. That
structure, in turn, serves to mediate and constrain future
interaction. (Modaff & DeWine, 2002)
Structuration Theory (Contd.)
(Marshak, 1998, in Modaff & DeWine, 2002)
 Talk & action are interdependent and should not be considered
as ‘disjoint’ entities
 Speech acts (Talk and corresponding action):
 Tool Talk: Goal-setting discussions, giving of task directions, and
feedback about task performance.
Function: Necessary for generation, implementation, & evaluation
of outcomes
 Frame Talk: Provides an interpretive context and the necessary
symbols for deciphering the meaning of events. e.g. explanation
of reasons for various activities in the organization
Function: Evaluation of tool-talk in relation to the basic
assumptions & values of the organization
 Mythopoetic talk: “conveys the ideogenic ideas & images… that
create & communicate the nature of reality within which
frameworks & symbols are applied.” Creates a fundamental idea
of the collective
Function: Communication of vision and ideology of the org. 36
Discourse Based Theorizing
(Ross & Anderson, 2000)

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Concepts …(Anderson& Ross, 2002)

 Organizational structure and the lives of

organizational actors are inseparable
What might the implications of this be in the context
of international business?
 Organizations, just like conversations, begin
intentionally, but then take a life of their own,
based on the preferences, needs, opinions,
cultures, and levels of mutual satisfaction of the
participants (or stakeholders), and evolve …
What affects this evolution?
 Organizations, just like conversation need to be
studied and understood ‘locally’, i.e. in their
immediate context 38
Conversational Autonomy Theory
(Taylor, 1995; Taylor, Cooren, Giroux, and Robichaud, 1996, in Anderson & Ross, 2002)

 Organizations are self-organizing systems

 Communication produces organizations (Autonomous
model) in which organizations are seen as self-shaping:
 Each organization creates its own internal coherence
through conversations (an interactive flow of discourse,
involving multiple participants in quasi-synchronized
alteration of verbal and nonverbal expressions)
 Conversation creates organization because it presumes an
organized and cooperative interpretation
 Organizations operate as a result of a pattern of these
implicit understandings that cannot be seen or heard clearly
in isolated statements
 Internal disturbances in organizations serve to maintain the
organizations and facilitate the shift potentially into a higher
and more creative level of functioning
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Organizational culture theory
(Anderson& Ross, 2002)

 Culture (in terms of organizational

communication): refers to the cohesive patterns
of making sense of the world that characterize a
particular group of people in a particular time
and place
 Organizational culture: refers to the above in
the context of a particular organization/ specific
roles, norms, rituals, and storytelling practices
that distinguish them from other organizations
even in their own industry
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Concepts in OC Theory (Anderson& Ross, 2002)
 Emic knowing: The understanding, more or less from
within the assumptions of a cultural group, that you
would achieve by knowing how an insider perceives
as a member
 Etic knowing: Understanding about an organization by
virtue of its connections with the outside world
 Ethnography: Studying an organization through
immersion
 Ritual: Familiar activities members of an organization
engage in with each other at regular intervals
Concepts (Contd.)… (Anderson& Ross, 2002)
 Performance: Attempt to manage identities in
public
 Passion-related performances: Primary function is to
give workers’ lives a dramatic interest that helps
people adapt within the culture
 Sociality performances: Maintain social roles and
relationships within the organization
 Organizational politics: Enact or demonstrate power
relations. Who is helpful, controlling, regulative,
subservient etc.
 Enculturation: How new members are integrated
into an ongoing social structure
Implications of OC Theory
(Anderson& Ross, 2002)

 Inclusivity
 Prescription: More well defined expectations
from members and the organization – We are
like this only …
 Some theorists see it as a means to describe
organizations as complex cultural achievements
 Other theorists want to use the concepts to
diagnose organizational problems and
intervene as managers and consultants to
resolve these problems/ improve these
organizations
Democratic participation theory
(Anderson& Ross, 2002)

 Organizations as sites of power

 Perspectives:
 Workplace democracy theorizing
 Feminist organizational theorizing
Workplace democracy theorizing
(Cheney et al., 1998; Deetz, 1992; Eisenberg, 1994; Harrison, 1994)
 Voice: Willingness or ability of workers to state desires or
criticisms publicly, and to participate fully in self-governing
relations
 Issues that must be addressed when planning for workplace
democracy (Cheney, 1995, in Anderson& Ross, 2002)
 Support systems (what supports workers’ social needs)
 Growth (Stresses that come as part of organizational
transformation)
 Identity (Negotiating the relation between worker-member identity
and organizational identity)
 Revitalization (Avoiding static organizational patterns)
 Managing competitiveness (Balancing cooperation and
competition)
 Implementing participation (Coordinating self-direction with holistic
goals)
 Dynamic communication (ensuring that diverse perspectives have
access to each other)
Feminist organizational theorizing
(Marshall, 1993, in Anderson& Ross, 2002)

 Gender is conceived as something we ‘do’, not

as something we are influenced by
 Does not presume that women are necessarily
better organizational communicators
 Do not assume that men are necessarily trying
to keep women out of powerful roles
 Especially relevant for male dominated cultures,
where these theories seek to highlight how
power might be enacted in gendered ways that
reduce the impact of women’s voices
The communicative organization model
Anticipate Misunderstandings
Conflict in values
Lack of information
Strategic interpretation

Social Interaction
Psychological immediacy
Real-time response
Exchange assessment
Communicative Managing relationship confusion

Organization (CO) Behavioral Flexibility

Change in relationships
Change in interaction patterns
Dialectical tensions

Source: Modaff, D.P. & DeWine, S. (2002). Strategic Communication Planning

Organizational communication: Foundations, Recognize
challenges & misunderstandings. LA: Roxbury. 109. Contain
Permission to use diagram awaited. Cope
Construct
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Communicative organization model (Contd.)
(Modaff & DeWine, 2002)

 Anticipate misunderstandings:
 Misunderstandings occur in “instances in which
people who are communicating don’t share
meaning” (Wood, 1998, in Modaff & DeWine, 2002)
 Misunderstandings can lead to new ways of
structuring tasks and roles
 Misunderstandings can help people to consider
alternative ways of acting
 Misunderstandings can lead to creative problem
solving
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Communicative organization model (Contd.)
(Modaff & DeWine, 2002)
 Anticipate misunderstandings (Contd.):
 Conflict in values:
 Disparity between individual and organizational values regarding
organizational mission
 Suppression of a minority member’s contributions or lesser valuing of
‘voices’ of particular groups of people
Most likely involve frame-talk and mythopoetic talk
 Lack of information:
 Intentional and unintentional suppression of information to
newcomers
 Interruption of the chain of communication owing to geographic
separation
 Information gaps resulting from hierarchical/ functional differences,
and
 Removal of information cues with the use of information technology
Most likely correlated with tool talk
 Strategic misinterpretations: Purposive misunderstanding because
it benefits the receiver of the message in some way 49
Communicative organization model (Contd.)
(Modaff & DeWine, 2002)
 Social interaction:
 Psychological immediacy:
 Psychological involvement with another person's message
 Active listening
 Real time response: Timely feedback
 Exchange assessment: Conscious analysis of any
impending message exchange and the conscious
choice of the media to be used
 Management of relationship confusion: Identification of
appropriate behaviors when interacting with friends, co-
workers, and romantic relationships at work
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Communicative organization model (Contd.)
(Modaff & DeWine, 2002)
 Behavioral flexibility:
 With superiors/ subordinates/ peers, when they move
from formal to semi-formal contexts e.g. office to office
party
 Change in relationship e.g. professional to professional
plus friendship/ romance
 Change in interaction patterns because of the above
 Dialectical tensions (Baxter, 1988, 1990; Baxter & Montgomery, 1996; Cissna
Cox & Bochner, 1990; Rawlins, 1992, in Anderson& Ross, 2002):

 Connection vs. autonomy

 Predictability vs. novelty
 Openness vs. privacy
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Communicative organization model (Contd.)
(Modaff & DeWine, 2002)

 Strategic communication planning

 Recognize: that organizational life is inherently
problematic and characterized by
misunderstandings
 Contain: the problem or misunderstanding so its
impact is minimal
 Cope: with communication problems or
misunderstandings
 Construct: a new interpretation of the
misunderstanding so learning can occur
(particularly, new attitudes, values, behaviors, or
practices) 52
Discuss
 What do you mean by discourse based
theorizing?
 What are the implications of the Organizational
Culture Theories in organizations:
 Based in Rural vs. urban areas
 Based in High context vs. low context communities
 Having an equitable vs. skewed male to female
ratio of employees/ organizational members
 How will knowledge of these theories help you
in your training as a manager in the
international business environment?
Thank You

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