Managing People and Organizations

Module 1 - Introduction to Organizational behavior (OB)

Lecture1 - What is Organizational Behavior
BITS Pilani
Pilani | Dubai | Goa | Hyderabad
Dr. Neetu Yadav
 Course Objectives

• To provide an understanding of human behavior in organizations by exploring concepts

associated with managing organizations and the behavior of the individuals and groups
within the organizational settings.

• To understand the role of cognitive, behavioral, and emotional factors, and organizational
processes; and identify methods that can improve the behavior, attitudes, and
effectiveness of organizational members, with emphasis on decision making and change
management.

• To gain an insight into application of concepts of Organizational Behavior (OB), Human

Resource Management (HRM) and organization theory through case studies, assignments
and exercises.

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 Text Books

T1 Organizational Behavior by Stephen P. Robbins., Timothy A. Judge & Neharika

Vohra. Pearson Education, 15th Edition, 2013 (ISBN: 9789332500334 )

T2 Aswathappa K., Human Resource Management- Text and Cases, Tata McGraw
Hill, 7th Edition, 2013

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 Evaluation Scheme

No Name Type Duration Weight

EC-1 Experiential learning Offline - 15%
Quiz + Assignment Offline + Online - 5% + 5%

EC-2 Mid-Semester Test Closed Book 2 hours 30%

EC-3 Comprehensive Exam Open Book 3 hours 45%

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Learning Objectives

• After studying this lecture sequence, you should be able to:

– Demonstrate the importance of interpersonal skills in the workplace.

– Describe the manager’s functions, roles, and skills.

– Define organizational behavior (OB).

– Identify the major behavioral science disciplines that contribute to OB.

– Demonstrate why few absolutes apply to OB.

– Identify the challenges and opportunities managers have in applying OB

concepts.
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The Importance of Interpersonal Skills

• Understanding OB helps determine manager effectiveness

– Technical and quantitative skills are important

– But leadership and communication skills are CRITICAL

• Organizational benefits of skilled managers

– Lower turnover of quality employees

– Higher quality applications for recruitment

– Better financial performance

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 Good Places to Work For

• 100 Best Companies to work for (2017)-Fortune

(Source: http://fortune.com/best-companies/list) 7
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What Managers Do

They get things done through other people.

• Management Activities:
– Make decisions
– Allocate resources
– Direct activities of others to attain goals
• Work in an organization
– A consciously coordinated social unit composed of two or more people
that functions on a relatively continuous basis to achieve a common goal
or set of goals.

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Management Functions

• Define goals, establish strategy and develop

Planning plans to coordinate activities

• Determining the What, Where, Who, When and

Organizing How of tasks to be accomplished

• Motivating employees, resolving conflicts,

Leading directing employees and choosing effective
communication channels

• Monitoring activities to ensure on time

Controlling completion meeting set objectives

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Mintzberg’s Managerial Roles

Interpersonal Role

 Figurehead

 Leader

 Liaison

Informational Role

 Monitor

 Disseminator

 Spokesperson

Decisional Role

 Entrepreneur

 Disturbance handler
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NRWtd_SiU8
 Resource allocator
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 Negotiator
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Essential Management Skills

• Technical Skills

– The ability to apply specialized knowledge or expertise

• Human Skills

– The ability to work with, understand, and motivate other people, both
individually and in groups

• Conceptual Skills

– The mental ability to analyze and diagnose complex situations

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Luthans’ Study of Managerial Activities

• Four types of managerial activity:

– Traditional Management
• Decision making, planning, and controlling
– Communication
• Exchanging routine information and processing paperwork
– Human Resource Management
• Motivating, disciplining, managing conflict, staffing, and training
– Networking
• Socializing, politicking, and interacting with others

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Successful vs Effective Managers

Managers who got promoted faster (were successful) did different things
than did effective managers (those who did their jobs well)

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 Organizational Behavior

Organizational Behavior is 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.
- Study of what people do in an organization and how their behavior
affects the organization’s performance;
Core topics:
• Motivation
• Leader behavior and power
• Interpersonal communication
• Group structure and processes
• Conflict and negotiation
• Work design 14
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Complementing Intuition with Systematic
Study

• Gut feelings
Intuition • Individual observation
• Common sense

• Looks at relationships
Systematic Study • Scientific evidence
• Predicts behaviors

The two are complementary means of predicting behavior.

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An Outgrowth of Systematic Study…

Evidence-Based Management (EBM)

Basing managerial decisions on the best available scientific evidence

Apply
relevant
Search for information
best to case
available
Pose a evidence
managerial
question

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Managers Should Use All Three Approaches

The trick is to know when to go with your gut.

– Jack Welsh

• Intuition is often based on inaccurate information

• Faddism is prevalent in management
• Systematic study can be time consuming

Use evidence as much as possible to inform your intuition

and experience. That is the promise of OB.

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Management by Walking Around

• MBWA basically refers to managers spending some part of their time listening to problems
and ideas of their staff, while wandering around an office or plant.

• Management by Walking Around is a term coined by management guru Tom Peters.

Apparently, from his study of successful companies and their practices, Tom Peters noticed
that good managers tend to communicate a lot better with their team. And they do that in
informal ways, like just hanging around in the office and chatting with them, rather than
having formal interaction sessions in their cabins or boardrooms.

• Sam Walton, the founder of the largest company in the world, Walmart, was a great
exponent of this practice. He believed in visiting as many of his stores as many times as
possible and talking to frontline staff.
• MBWA: 6 tips to make it work (http://fortune.com/2012/08/23/management-by-walking-around-6-tips-to-
make-it-work/ )

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 Real Life Assessment

Delighting Employees: The Flipkart Way

(Source: https://www.peoplematters.in/article/employee-engagement/delighting-employees-flipkart-way-
13104??utm_source=peoplematters&utm_medium=interstitial&utm_campaign=learnings-of-the-day ) 19
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 BITS Pilani
Pilani Campus

Question Session
 BITS Pilani
Pilani Campus

End of Lecture