MGT 328: Organizational Behavior Lecture Notes

Flashcards covering key vocabulary related to organizational behavior, learning, decision making, and biases.

Organizational Structure

The way in which power, authority, and communication are organized in a company.

Mechanistic Structure

An organizational structure that is efficient, rigid, and standardized, suited for stable environments.

Organic Structure

An organizational structure that is flexible and adaptive, suited for dynamic environments.

Learning

The process of acquiring knowledge and skills that distinguish experts from novices.

Explicit Knowledge

Knowledge that is easily articulated, documented, and shared, typically found in manuals and documentation.

Tacit Knowledge

Personal knowledge that is more difficult to transfer, often gained through experience.

Reinforcement

A method of learning which involves the use of rewards to encourage desirable behavior.

Goal Orientation

An individual's predisposition toward achieving certain types of goals when learning new skills.

Programmed Decision

Routine decisions that follow established guidelines or procedures.

Non-Programmed Decision

Decisions that are unstructured and involve complex processes requiring careful evaluation of options.

Heuristic

A simple, efficient rule or method that helps people make decisions and solve problems quickly.

Escalation of Commitment

The tendency to continue a failing course of action rather than change or abandon it.

Cognitive Bias

Systematic patterns of deviation from norm or rationality in judgment, affecting decision-making processes.

Satisficing

Choosing an option that is satisfactory and sufficient rather than the optimal solution.

Framing Bias

The influence of how information is presented on decision-making.

Selective Perception

The tendency to interpret situations based on personal biases and expectations.

Availability Bias

A cognitive bias that leads people to overestimate the likelihood of an event based on how easily they can recall instances of it.

Operant Conditioning

A learning principle where behaviors are modified based on the consequences that follow them.

Behavioral Modeling

Learning by observing the actions of others and replicating those behaviors.