Lecture 1: Chapter 1: Introduction to Organizational behavior

Question 1

What is the study of organizational behavior?

Answer 1

Study of what people think, feel and do in and around organizations

Subjects: behavior/perception/emotional reactions of employees, teams and whole organizations as they interact with the environment

Question 2

What are organizations?

Answer 2

Groups of people that are dependent on each other and work together towards a common goal

Question 3

What 3 things does an organization require?

Answer 3

1. Communication
2. Coordination
3. Interdependence between members

Question 4

What 6 critical skills do employers look for in new hires?

Answer 4

Problem solving
Communication
Teamwork
Adaptability
Initiative
Resiliency

Question 5

What are the 3 perspectives on organizational effectiveness?

Answer 5

• Organizations as open systems
• Human Capital as competitive advantage
• Organizations and stakeholders

Question 6

What are the three levels of analysis in organizational psychology?

Answer 6

Employee - team - organization

Question 7

What are the 2 key aspects of organizations?

Answer 7

1. Interdependence: structured communication, task coordination, collabora tion
2. Collective purpose/mission

Question 8

When did organizational behavior research emerge?

Answer 8

Early 1940s, but it was also considered from the age of Plato (leadership) and confucius (leadership and ethics)

Question 9

What is organizational effectiveness?

Answer 9

An ideal state in which an organization has a good fit with its environment, effectively transforms inputs to outputs through human capital and satisfies needs of key stakeholders

Question 10

What is the view of organizations as open systems? Name 3 aspects.

How is this relevant for organizational effectiveness?

Answer 10

1. Organizations are dependent on external environment for resources
2. They consist of internal subsystems that transform inputs to outputs
3. Affect environment through outputs

Relevant: see if organizations are able to maintain a good fit with their external environment

Question 11

What does it mean when an organization has a good fit?

Answer 11

Organization’s input, process and output align with resources of environment and needs/expectations of the same environment

Question 12

What are examples of inputs and outputs in an organization? And of the transforming stage?

Answer 12

Input: materials, HR, info, finances, equipment

Output: products, waste, community support, services

Transforming: production, technology, engineering, managing, cultural subsystem, accounting

Question 13

What is human capital as the organization’s competitive advantage?

Answer 13

The knowledge, skills, abilities, creative thinking and other valued resources that employees bring to the organization

Question 14

What are boomerangs in an organization and what is their advantage?

Answer 14

Rehiring former employees
–> Boosts human capital faster

Question 15

What are the three ways an organization is more effective when they enhanced their capital?

Answer 15

1. Better job performance: more skills and knowledge
2. Better adaptation to change: skilled employees are better at tasks in unfamiliar situations
3. Better motivation in employees: organizations invest in their employees

Question 16

What is the organizational learning perspective?

Answer 16

A broader view on organizational effectiveness, which discusses that effectiveness in organizations depends on abillity to acquire, share and use valuable knowledge

Question 17

Which 3 types of knowledge in organizations are there?

Answer 17

1. Human capital: knowledge of employees
2. Structural capital: knowledge retained in organization’s structure
3. Relationship capital: knowledge in relationships with clients

Question 18

What are stakeholders? How do they affect organizations?

Answer 18

Individuals, groups and other entities that affect or are affected by the organization’s objectives and actions

Affect organizational effectiveness: organizations are more effective if they are more capable of understanding and satisfying stakeholders’ needs

Question 19

Why is understanding/satisfying stakeholders difficult? Give 2 reasons

Answer 19

• Stakeholders have conflicting interests
• Organization doesn’t have enough resources to satisfy everyone

Question 20

What is the corporate social responsibility (CSR)?

Answer 20

Organizational activities intended to benefit society and the environment beyond the firm’s immediate financial interests or legal obligations

Question 21

What is the triple-bottomline philosophy? What happens to firms that adopt this view? Which concept fits with this?

Answer 21

Companies have a contract with society in which they must serve stakeholders beyond stockholders and customers
–> Firms that adopt this, have better relationships with stakeholders, thus higher organizational effectiveness + better resources

Concept: Corporate social responsibility

Question 22

What are the 6 differenct organizational inputs and processes?

Answer 22

1. Organizational structure
2. Organizational culture
3. Organizational technology
4. Organizational change
5. Human resources practices
6. Organizational strategy

Question 23

What is the systematic research anchor?

Answer 23

Organizational behavior knowledge should be based on systematic research

Question 24

What is evidence-based management? With what anchor does this concept fit?

Answer 24

Practice of making decisions and taking actions based on research evidence

Anchor: systematic research anchor

Question 25

What are the 5 anchors of organizational behavior knowledge?

Answer 25

1. Systematic research anchor 2. Practical orientation anchor 3. Multidisciplinary anchor 4. Contingency anchor 5. Multiple levels of analysis anchor

Question 26

Why do many leaders overlook evidence-based knowledge? Give 5 reasons

Answer 26

1. Leaders are bombarded with many ideas from consultants, websites and other sources, whilst real research is limited accessible 2. Commercial advisors gain public attention because they are persuasive, not strong evidence-based 3. Leaders ignore evidence-based knowledge that contradicts their beliefs 4. OB research is generic, not specific to a situation. Leaders find it hard to figure out what is relevant to their situation 5. Leaders exhibit herd mentality when choosing new organizational practices --> look at others without considering evidence

Question 27

What is the practical orientation anchor?

Answer 27

OB theories need to be useful for organizations

Question 28

What is the multidisciplinary anchor?

Answer 28

Organizational behavior field should integrate perspectives from other disciplines (sociology, marketing etc.)

Question 29

What is the contingency anchor?

Answer 29

Specific situations moderates the effect of one variable onto the other So specific actions in certain circumstances have different consequences

Question 30

What is the multiple level of analysis anchor?

Answer 30

Everything in an organization can be analyzed on three levels: employee - team - organization

Question 31

To which 4 challenges do organizations need to adapt?

Answer 31

1. Globalization 2. Increased workforce diversity 3. Longer workdays 4. Virtual world

Question 32

What is the globalization challenge for organizations? What are advantages and disadvantages?

Answer 32

Economic, social and cultural connectivity people have around the world + : bigger markets, lower costs, more knowledge/innovation - : more competition, higher expectations of employees, relocation low-salary countries

Question 33

What are the two types of workforce diversity?

Answer 33

1. Surface-level: observable differences between people such as ethnicity, age and gender 2. Deep-level: differences in psychological characteristics in employees that are hard to see at first (personality, values, attitudes)

Question 34

Which challenges and which advantages does increased workforce diversity present?

Answer 34

+: high diversity leads to high creativity and better decision making - : communication problems, performance takes longer

Question 35

What are the challenges that occur with longer workdyas?

Answer 35

- : more work-related stress, poor work-life balance

Question 36

What is an inclusive workplace?

Answer 36

A workplace that values people of all identities and allows them to be themselves whilst contributing to the organization

Question 37

What is work-life integration?

Answer 37

The degree that people are effectively engaged in work and nonwork roles and have a low degree of role conflict across those life domains

Question 38

What is the challenge that comes with increase in presence of the virtual world?

Answer 38

Social media has altered communication patterns and dynamics

Question 39

When does work-life integration occur?

Answer 39

When one is able to balance the satisfaction of their demands with their ability to have good experiences outside of work

Question 40

What is a work-life conflict?

Answer 40

When demands of one's work exhaust personal resources, which starve other roles, leading to employees not having enough time/energy to deal with personal remaining roles in their lives

Question 41

What 4 strategies are there for improving work-life integration?

Answer 41

1. Integrate 2/more roles: bring dog to work, exercise whilst working 2. Flexible work scheduling: attend a meeting from home 3. Your job, family life etc. should align with your personality 4. Engage in boundary management between roles: keep work and non-work roles separate

Question 42

What are 4 tactics to manage role boundaries?

Answer 42

1. Schedule time blocks 2. Create physical role spaces 3. Apply technological boundaries (work devices) 4. Communicate role boundary expectations

Question 43

What is remote work? Which two variations on it exist?

Answer 43

Any arrangement where an individual works while located away from the employer's physical premises, often connected through technology - Employees located to a client workplace - Employees work away from worksite (home)

Question 44

What are 5 benefits to remote work? And 5 risks?

Answer 44

Benefits: 1. Better work-life integration 2. Higher productivity, less workstress 3. Low employee turnover 4. Attractive benefit for applicants 5. Reduction greenhouse gasses Risks: 1. Limited social interaction 2. Less word-of mouth info --> lower promotional opportunities 3. Lower team cohesion 4. Weaker organizational structure 5. More home stress

Question 45

What 3 job characteristics are necessary for a job to be able to work remotely?

Answer 45

- Low interdependence, because coordination and communication are difficult - Resources have to be able to go to another place - Task performance must be measurable

Question 46

What is the MARS model of individual behavior and performance? Which factors does it have?

Answer 46

A four-factor model of facets that influence voluntary behavior and performance in organizations M otivation A bility R ole perceptions S ituation --> Behavior & results

Question 47

What is motivation in the MARS model? Of what 3 elements does it consist?

Answer 47

Force that influences one's direction, intensity and persistence of effort for volutary behavior 1. Direction: goal directed? 2. Intensity: amount of effort 3. Persistence: amount of time individual continues to put effort in

Question 48

What is meant with ability in the MARS model?

Answer 48

The natural aptitudes and learned capabilities needed to complete a task successfully

Question 49

What is the difference between aptitude and learned capabilities? Together, what are they called?

Answer 49

Aptitude = natural talents that serve as foundations for employee task performance Learned capabilities = physical/mental skills already acquired in an individual Competencies = aptitudes + learned capabilities = characteristics of an individual resulting in exceptional performance

Question 50

What are habits? How do they differ from learned capabilities?

Answer 50

Tendencies to engage in specific behaviors in response to contextual cues and enacted with little conscious awareness/reflection Difference: habits are triggered by situational cues with no conscious thought

Question 51

What are role perceptions in the MARS model?

Answer 51

How clearly a role is understood by the employee regarding duties

Question 52

Which 2 perspectives on role perception are there? How do they interact?

Answer 52

Role clarity + ambiguity People with high clarity: accurate and efficient performance People with high ambiguity: waste time and resources by performing tasks in wrong way

Question 53

Which 3 forms of role clarity exist?

Answer 53

1. Employees understand duties or consequences 2. Employees understand priority of their tasks and expectations of performance 3. Employees understand the appropriate procedures in succeeding tasks

Question 54

What is role ambiguity?

Answer 54

Employees know many distinct ways to perform a task but don't know which way the organization prefers.

Question 55

What are situational factors in the mars model and what are the 2 main influences?

Answer 55

Situations have 2 main influences on individual behavior and performance 1. Work context strains performance or aids work-behavior --> E.g. if budget is lacking, a talented person performs poorly 2. Work context provides clues to guide and motivate people

Question 56

What is motivation, ability and role perceptions in the mars model in short?

Answer 56

Motivation: what we want Ability: what we can Role perceptions: what we know

Question 57

Which 5 types of behavior results exit the MARS model?

Answer 57

1. Task performance 2. Organizational citizenship 3. Maintaining work attendence 4. Joining/staying 5. Counterproductive work behaviors

Question 58

Which 3 types of task performance are there?

Answer 58

1. Proficiency: produce efficient product 2. Adaptive: adapting thoughts and behavior to changing environment 3. Proactive: adopting initiatives to create benefits for organization

Question 59

What is organizational citizenship behavior?

Answer 59

Forms of cooperation and helpfulness for others that support the context of the organization

Question 60

What is counter-productive work behavior?

Answer 60

Voluntary behavior that can damage the organization (stealing, harassing etc.)

Question 61

What is the benefit of long-term employment?

Answer 61

Avoids high costs and capital loss for organization

Question 62

What are 3 ways to match people with job demands?

Answer 62

1. Selecting people 2. Train people 3. Redesign job

Question 63

What are the predictors of the MARS model?

Answer 63

Motivation, ability, role perceptions