MGT 321: Organizational BehaviorChapter 1: What is Organizational Behavior

The Importance of Interpersonal SkillsBefore late 1980s, no business school realized the importance of human behavior and people skill.Sloan School of Management of MIT first emphasized on the importance of interpersonal skills of managers.Importance of developing interpersonal skillsAcquisition and retention of high performing employeesBehavioral Approach of managementHuman relation movementHawthorne StudiesIndustrial Philosophy of Humanism.Technical and people skill both are equally important for sustainability.

What Managers DoManagers get things done through other peopleMake decisionsAllocate resourcesDirect the activitiesManagement Functions

Management RolesHenry Mintzbergs management roles (1960)InterpersonalFigurehead (Symbolic Head of the organization or department)Leader (Responsible for motivation and direction)Liaison (Maintains a network of outside contacts who provide favors and information)InformationalMonitor ( Serves as a nerve centre of internal and external information of the organization)Disseminator (Transmits information received from other employees to members of the organization)Spokesperson (transmits information to outside)

Management Roles (Cont.)DecisionalEntrepreneur ( Initiates projects to bring about change)Disturbance Handler (Responsible for corrective action when organization faces important, unexpected disturbance.Resource Allocator (Makes and approves significant organizational decisions)Negotiator (Responsible for representing the organization at major negotiations.

Management SkillsTechnical SkillsThe ability to apply specialized knowledge or expertise.Human SkillsThe ability to work with, understand, and motivate other people, both individually and in groups.Conceptual SkillsThe mental ability to analyze and diagnose complex situations.

Effective Vs. Successful Managerial Activities

Organizational BehaviorOrganizational Behavior (OB)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 organizations effectiveness.

Disciplines that contribute to the OB field

PsychologyPsychologys contribution to OBLearning, motivation, personality, emotions, perceptionTraining, leadership effectiveness, job satisfactionIndividual decision making, performance appraisal attitude measurementEmployee selection, work design, and work stress

Social PsychologySocial Psychologys contribution to OBBehavioral changeAttitude changeCommunicationGroup processesGroup decision making

Sociology and AnthropologySociologys contribution to OBGroup dynamicsWork teamsCommunicationPowerConflictInter-group behaviorAnthropologys contribution to OBOrganizational cultureOrganizational environment

Intuition and Systematic Study

Challenges and opportunities for OBResponding to GlobalizationIncreased Foreign AssignmentsWorking with people from different culturesCoping with Anticapitalism backlashOverseeing movement of jobs to countries with low-cost labor.Managing people during the war on terror.

Challenges and Opportunities for OB (Cont.)Managing Workforce DiversityWorkforce diversityEmbracing diversityChanging DemographicsImproving Quality and ProductivityImproving Customer ServicesImproving People Skills

Developing an OB modelA model is an abstraction of reality: a simplified representation of some real-world phenomenon.OB model has three levels of analysis:Each level is constructed on the prior levelIndividualGroupOrganizational Systems

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