Organizational
Behavior
Chapter 1 15th Ed
Robbins and Judge
What Is Organizational Behavior?
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Define
LO 3
“Organizational Behavior” (OB.)
OB 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.
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Show the Value to
LO 4 OB of Systematic Study
.
Systematic Study of Behavior
Looking at relationships, attempting to attribute causes and
effects, and drawing conclusions based on scientific evidence.
Evidence-Based Management (EBM)
Basing managerial decisions on the best available scientific
evidence.
Intuition
An instinctive feeling not necessarily supported by research.
If we make all decisions with intuition or gut instinct, we’re
likely working with incomplete information.
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Identify the Major Behavioral Science
LO 5
Disciplines That Contribute to OB
Organizational behavior is an applied
behavioral science that is built upon
contributions from a number of
behavioral disciplines.
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Identify the Major Behavioral Science Disciplines
LO 5
That Contribute to OB
Insert Exhibit 1.3
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Identify the Major Behavioral Science Disciplines
LO 5
That Contribute to OB
Psychology
Psychology is the science that seeks to measure,
explain, and sometimes change the behavior of
humans and other animals.
Social Psychology
Social psychology blends the concepts of psychology
and sociology.
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Identify the Major Behavioral Science Disciplines
LO 5
That Contribute to OB
Sociology
Sociologists study the social system in which
individuals fill their roles; that is, sociology studies
people in relation to their fellow human beings.
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of societies to learn about
human beings and their activities.
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Identify the Major Behavioral Science Disciplines
LO 5
That Contribute to OB
Political
The study of the behavior of individuals and groups
within a political environment.
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LO 6 Few Absolutes Apply to OB
There are few, if any, simple and
universal principles that explain
organizational behavior.
Contingency variables—situational
factors are variables that moderate the
relationship between the independent
and dependent variables.
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Identify the Challenges and
LO 7
Opportunities of OB Concepts
Responding to Economic Pressure
In economic tough times, effective
management is an asset.
In good times, understanding how to
reward, satisfy, and retain employees is
at a premium. In bad times, issues like
stress, decision making, and coping
come to the fore.
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Identify the Challenges and
LO 7
Opportunities of OB Concepts
Responding to Globalization
Increased Foreign Assignments
Working with People from Different
Cultures
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Identify the Challenges and
LO 7
Opportunities of OB Concepts
Managing Workforce Diversity
Workforce diversity acknowledges a
workforce of women and men;
many racial and ethnic groups;
individuals with a variety of physical or
psychological abilities;
and people who differ in age and sexual
orientation.
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Identify the Challenges and
LO 7
Opportunities of OB Concepts
Improving Customer Service
Today the majority of employees in
developed countries work in service
jobs.
Employee attitudes and behavior are
associated with customer satisfaction.
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Identify the Challenges and
LO 7
Opportunities of OB Concepts
Improving People Skills
People skills are essential to managerial
effectiveness.
OB provides the concepts and theories
that allow managers to predict employee
behavior in given situations.
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Identify the Challenges and
LO 7
Opportunities of OB Concepts
Stimulating Innovation and Change
Successful organizations must foster
innovation and master the art of change.
Employees can be the impetus for
innovation and change or a major
stumbling block.
Managers must stimulate employees’
creativity and tolerance for change.
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Identify the Challenges and
LO 7
Opportunities of OB Concepts
Coping with “Temporariness”
Organizations must be flexible and fast in order to
survive.
Managers and employees must learn to cope with
temporariness.
Learning to live with flexibility, spontaneity, and
unpredictability.
OB provides help in understanding a work world of
continual change, how to overcome resistance to change,
and how to create an organizational culture that thrives
on change.
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Identify the Challenges and
LO 7
Opportunities of OB Concepts
Working in Networked Organizations
Networked organizations are becoming
more pronounced.
Manager’s job is fundamentally different
in networked organizations. Challenges
of motivating and leading “online”
require different techniques.
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Identify the Challenges and
LO 7
Opportunities of OB Concepts
Helping Employees Balance Work-Life Conflicts
The creation of the global workforce means
work no longer sleeps.
Communication technology has provided a
vehicle for working at any time or any place.
Employees are working longer hours per week.
The lifestyles of families have changed—
creating conflict.
Balancing work and life demands now
surpasses job security as an employee priority.
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Identify the Challenges and
LO 7
Opportunities of OB Concepts
Creating a Positive Work Environment
Organizations have realized creating a positive
work environment can be a competitive
advantage.
Positive organizational scholarship or behavior
studies what is ‘good’ about organizations.
This field of study focuses on employees’
strengths versus their limitations as employees
share situations in which they performed at
their personal best.
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Identify the Challenges and
LO 7
Opportunities of OB Concepts
Improving Ethical Behavior
Ethical dilemmas are situations in which an
individual is required to define right and wrong
conduct.
Good ethical behavior is not so easily defined.
Organizations are distributing codes of ethics to
guide employees through ethical dilemmas.
Managers need to create an ethically healthy
climate.
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LO 8 Three Levels of Analysis
in This Book’s OB Model
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Three Levels of Analysis
LO 8
in This Book’s OB Model
•Inputs
•Inputs are the variables
like personality, group
structure, and
organizational culture
that lead to processes.
•Group structure, roles,
and team
responsibilities are
typically assigned
immediately before or
after a group is formed.
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LO 8 Three Levels of Analysis
in This Book’s OB Model
•Processes
•If inputs are like the
nouns in
organizational
behavior, processes
are like verbs.
•Processes are
actions that
individuals, groups,
and organizations
engage in as a result
of inputs and that lead
to certain outcomes.
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Three Levels of Analysis
LO 8
in This Book’s OB Model
•Outcomes
•Outcomes are the key
variables that you
want to explain or
predict, and that are
affected by some
other variables.
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LO 8 Variables of Interest
Attitudes and stress
Employee attitudes are the evaluations employees make,
ranging from positive to negative, about objects, people, or
events.
Stress is an unpleasant psychological process that occurs
in response to environmental pressures.
Task performance
The combination of effectiveness and efficiency at doing
your core job tasks is a reflection of your level of task
performance.
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LO 8 Variables of Interest
Citizenship behavior
The discretionary behavior that is not part of an
employee’s formal job requirements, and that
contributes to the psychological and social
environment of the workplace, is called
citizenship behavior.
Withdrawal behavior
Withdrawal behavior is the set of actions that
employees take to separate themselves from
the organization.
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LO 8 Variables of Interest
Group cohesion
Group cohesion is the extent to which
members of a group support and validate one
another at work.
Group functioning
Group functioning refers to the quantity and
quality of a group’s work output.
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LO 8 Variables of Interest
Productivity
An organization is productive if it achieves its goals by
transforming inputs into outputs at the lowest cost.
This requires both effectiveness and efficiency.
Survival
The final outcome we will consider is organizational
survival, which is simply evidence that the
organization is able to exist and grow over the long
term.
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LO 8 Variables of Interest
Absenteeism
The failure to report to work
Job Satisfaction
A general attitude toward one’s job, the difference between
the amount of reward workers receive and the amount they
believe they should receive.
Turnover
The voluntary and involuntary permanent withdrawal from
an organization.
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LO 8 Variables of Interest
Insert Exhibit 1.5
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Managerial Summary
Organizational behavior uses systematic
study to improve predictions of behavior
over intuition alone.
Because people are different, we need to
look at OB in a contingency framework,
using situational variables to explain
cause-and-effect relationships.
Organizational behavior offers specific
insights to improve a manager’s people
skills.
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Managerial Summary
It helps managers to see the value of workforce
diversity and practices that may need to be changed
in different countries.
It can improve quality and employee productivity by
showing managers how to empower their people, and
help employees balance work–life conflicts.
It can help managers cope in a world of temporariness
and learn how to stimulate innovation.
Finally, OB can guide managers in creating an
ethically healthy work climate.
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