Chapter I

Introducing Organizational Behavior

People
Make the Difference

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 Chapter Study Questions
The job a manager?
What is organizational behavior and why is it
important?
What are organizations like as work settings?
How do we learn about organizational behavior?

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 Managerial work?
Manager
› Someone whose job it is to directly support the work
efforts of others.

Effective manager
› One whose team consistently achieves its goals while
members remain capable, committed, and
enthusiastic.
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 What is the nature of managerial
work?
The nature of managerial work.
› Managers work long hours.

› Managers are busy people.

› Managers are often interrupted.

› Managerial work is fragmented and variable.

› Managers work mostly with other people.

› Managers spend a lot of time communicating.

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 Managerial Function

The management process.

› Planning

› Organizing

› Leading

› Controlling

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 Managerial Fuction

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 Managerial Role

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 Managerial Skills

Skill
› An ability to translate knowledge into action that
results in a desired performance.

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 Managerial Skills

Technical skill
› Ability to perform specialized tasks.

Human skill
› Ability to work well with other people.

Conceptual skill
› Capacity to analyze and solve complex and interrelated
problems.
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 Manager’s Skills

WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT

SKILL OF A MANAGER?

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 Manager’s Skills

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 Four main Managerial Activities
1. Traditional management. Decision making,
planning, and controlling.

2. Communication. Exchanging routine information

and processing paperwork.

3. Human resource management. Motivating,

disciplining, managing conflict, staffing, and training.

4. Networking. Socializing, politicking, and

interacting with outsiders
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Time Allocation for 4 activities

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Time allocation for managers

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 Organizational behavior

Organizational behavior
› Study of human behavior in organizations.

› An interdisciplinary field devoted to understanding

individual and group behavior, interpersonal
processes, and organizational dynamics.

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 Topics of OB

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 Method to study OB

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 Method for study OB?
Systematic study: Looking at relationships, attribute causes and
effects, and drawing conclusions based on scientific
evidence.
Evidence-based management (EBM): Basing of managerial
decisions on the best available scientific evidence.
Intuition: An instinctive feeling not necessarily supported by
research.

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 Scientific Thinking

Scientific thinking is important to OB:

› The process of data collection is controlled and
systematic.
› Proposed explanations are carefully tested.

› Only explanations that can be scientifically verified

are accepted.

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 Contingency thinking

Contingency thinking
› Managers must understand the demands of different
situations and develop responses that best fit the
circumstances and people involved.
› OB scientific models gather evidence of how
different situations can best be understood and
handled.
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 Contingency thinking

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 Challenges and Opportunities
Modern workplace trends
› Demographics of workforce/diversity

› Commitment to ethical behavior.

› Importance of human capital.

› Formal authority (command and control) replaced by group decisions

and consensus.
› Emphasis on teamwork.

› Pervasive influence of information technology.

› Respect for new workforce expectations.

› ChangingCopyright
concept of Wiley
© 2010 John careers.
& Sons, Inc. 1-24
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Challenges and Opportunities

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Challenges and Opportunities

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 What are organizations like as work
settings?

Organization
› A collection of people working together in a division
of labor to achieve a common purpose.

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 What are organizations like as work
settings?

The core purpose of an organization is the creation

of goods and services.
Mission statements focus attention on the core
purpose.

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 What are organizations like as work
settings?

Strategy
› Comprehensive plan that guides organizations to
operate in ways that allow them to outperform their
competitors.

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The transformation process

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Unit of analysis

Organization

Groups

Individuals

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 How to study

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 How to study

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