Chapter 1 Flashcards
What is an organization
A consciously coordinated social unit, composed of a group of people, which functions on a realtvily continuous basis to achieve a common goal or set of goals
Organizational Behaviour
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
OB as a Science
OB looks at consistencies
OB is more common sense
OB has few absolutes
OB takes a contingency approach - behaviour in context
Organizations
- are social inventions for accomplishing common goals through group effort
Ex: Universities
Social Inventions:
organizations are social inventions - their essential characteristics is the coordinated presence of people, not necessarily things
Goal Accomplishment:
individuals are assembled into organizations for a reason (usually the goal is survival)
How to complete a goal
- Be motivated to join and remain in the organization
- Carry out their basic work reliably, in terms of productivity, quality, and service
- Be willing to continuously learn and upgrade their knowledge and skills
- Be flexible and innovative
Group Effort:
orgnaizations depend on interaction and coordination among people to accomplish their goals
Informal grouping → friendships develop - can impact goal achievement
attitidues
satisfaction, committed to the goals, supportive in promoting minorites
Behaviours
conflict, innovation, resignation, or ethical lapse
Human resources managment:
refers to programs, practices, and systems to acquire, develop, motivate and retain employees in organizations
Selection → personality
Training and development → learning
Compensation → motivation
Why Study Organizational Behaviour:
- Help us understand why employees become committed to an organization and what motivates them to work hard
Important to - managers, employees, and consumers
Human Captial:
- refers to the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) embodied in an organization’s employees
-Strongly and positively related to organizational performance
Social capital:
refers to the social resources that individuals obtain from participation in a social structure
Has to do with interpersonal relationships, social ties, and one’s network of relationships with others who can assist in work and careers
Goals of Organizational Behaviour
(1) Effectively predicting, (2) explaining, and (3) managing behaviour that occurs in organizations
Management
is defined as the art of getting things accomplished in organizations through others
Management
is defined as the art of getting things accomplished in organizations through others
Evidence-based Management:
involved translating principles based on the best scientific evidence into organizational practices
Early Perscriptions Concerning Managment
Many years experts in organizations wanted to prescribe – correct way to manage
Two phases to this prescription: (1) classical viewpoint and (2) human relations movement
The Classical View:
an early perscription on managment that advocated a high specilization of labour, intensive coordination, and centralized decision making
Each department was to tend to its own affairs
Scientific management:
Fredrick Taylor’s system for using research to determine the optimum degree of specialization and standardization of work tasks
Bureaucracy
Max Weber’s ideal type of orginization that included a strict chain of command, detailed rules, high specialization, centralized power, and selection and promotion based on technical competence
Hawthrome studies:
- was research conducted in the 1920s and 1930s at the Hawthrone plant of Western Electic, near Chicago, that illustrated how psychological and social processes affect productivity and work adjustment
- Impact of fatigue, rest pauses, and lighting on productivity
Human relations movement:
was a critique of classical managment and bureaucracy that advocated managment styles that were more participative and oriented toward employee needs
