Unit 1.

Chapter # 1: What Is
Organizational Behavior?
What Managers do?
Management Functions
Importance of Interpersonal Skills
 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.
 What Managers Do?

• Managers get things done with the support of other people.

• The Activities a Manager does:

– He/she makes decisions
– They allocate organizational resources
– They direct activities of others to achieve 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.
 Management Functions

Planning Organizing
Manager
s
Leading Controlling
 Planning
• A process that includes defining goals,
establishing strategy, and developing plans
to coordinate activities.
• As managers advance, they do this function
more often.
 Organizing

• Determining what tasks are to be done, who

is to do them, how the tasks are to be
grouped, who reports to whom, and where
decisions are to be made
 Leading
• A function that includes motivating
employees, directing others, selecting the
most effective communication channels, and
resolving conflicts.
• It is about the PEOPLE!
 Controlling

• Monitoring performance, comparing actual

performance with previously set goals, and
correcting any deviation.
 The Importance of Interpersonal Skills
• Understanding OB helps determine manager
effectiveness
– Technical and quantitative skills
– Critical Skills (leadership and communication)

• Organizational benefits of skilled managers

– Lower turnover
– Higher quality applications for recruitment
– Financial performance becomes better
Unit 1.2

Chapter # 1: What Is
Organizational Behavior?
Mintzberg’s Managerial Roles
Katz’s Management Skills
Luthan’s Study of Managerial Activities
 Mintzberg’s Managerial Roles

• 10 Managerial roles

• 03 groups:
– Interpersonal
– Informational
– Decisional
 Mintzberg’s Managerial Roles:
Interpersonal

Source: Adapted from The Nature of Managerial Work by H. Mintzberg. Copyright ©

1973 by H. Mintzberg.
 Informational

Source: Adapted from The Nature of Managerial Work by H. Mintzberg. Copyright ©

1973 by H. Mintzberg.
 Decisional

Source: Adapted from The Nature of Managerial Work by H. Mintzberg. Copyright ©

1973 by H. Mintzberg.
 Katz’s 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
 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.
Successful vs. Effective Allocation by Time

Managers who promoted faster (were successful) did different

things than did effective managers (those who did their jobs well)
Unit 1.3

Chapter # 1: What Is
Organizational Behavior?
Intuition and Systematic Study
Few Absolutes in OB
Interesting OB Variables
 Intuition and Systematic Study
• Gut feelings
Intuition • Individual observation
• Common sense

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

The two are complementary means of predicting behavior.

 Few Absolutes in OB
Situational factors that make the main relationship
between two variables change—e.g., the relationship
may hold for one condition but not another.
Contingency Independent Dependent
Variable (Z) Variable (X) Variable (Y)

In American Boss Gives

“Thumbs Up”
Understood as
Culture Sign
Complimenting

In Iranian or Boss Gives Understood as

Australian “Thumbs Up” Insulting - “Up
Sign Yours!”
Cultures
 Interesting OB Variables
Productivity: Transforming inputs to outputs at
lowest cost.
Absenteeism: Failure to report to work – a huge
cost to employers.
Turnover: Voluntary and involuntary permanent
withdrawal from an organization.
Job Satisfaction: A general attitude (not a behavior)
toward one’s job; a positive feeling of one's job
resulting from an evaluation of its characteristics.
Thank you!