MHA 701 Module 1

Organizational Behavior

The study of individual and group dynamics within an organization setting

Goals of Organizational Behavior

- Attempts to explain why individuals and groups behave the way they do within the organizational setting

- Tries to predict how individuals and groups will behave based in internal and external factors

- Provides managers with tools to assist in the management of individuals' and groups' behaviors so they willingly put forth their best efforts to accomplish organizational goals

Ott (1996) Organizational Behavior questions

1. Why do people behave the way they do when they are in orgs?

2. Under what circumstances will people's behavior in organizations change?

3. What impacts do organizations have on the behavior of individuals, formal groups, and informal groups?

4. Why do different groups in the same organization develop different behavior norms?

Why is OB important to Health Care Managers?

- Different mix of health-related occupations

- Service-related intensity of the industry

- Changing demographics of patients and the health care workforce

- Interrelating forces shaping tomorrow's healthcare organizations

History of Organizational Behavior

- Taylorism

- Hawthorne Studies

- McGregor's Theory X and Y

Taylorism

- Traditional or classic management approach

- Efficiency was achieved by creating jobs that economized time, human energy, and other productive resources

- Time-and-motion studies, Taylor scientifically divided manufacturing processes into small, efficient units of work

- Taylor's book The Principles of Scientific Management

Hawthorne Studies

- Significant to the beginning of the human relations/ behavioral management movement

- Hawthorne Effect: bias occurs when you know you are being observed

- 4 phases to the Hawthorne Studies: illumination of experiments, relay-assembly group experiments, interviewing program, and bank-wiring observation-room group studies

- Researchers found that employees were not isolated, unrelated individuals; they were social beings and their attitudes toward change in the workplace were based upon personal social conditioning and human satisfaction

McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y

- Theory X (negative/ pessimistic) and Theory Y (positive/ optimistic)

- Theory X and Y reflect polar positions and are ways of seeing and thinking about people, while, in turn, affect their behavior

- Theory X states that employee are unintelligent and lazy

- Theory Y states that employees are creative and competent

Diversity definition

The full range of human similarities and differences in group affiliation including gender, race/ ethnicity, social class, role within an organization, age, religion, sexual orientation, physical ability, and other group identities

Hofstede's Cultural Dimension

- Indulgence vs Restraint

- Long Term vs Short Term

- Masculinity vs Femininity

- Tolerance of Uncertainty

- Individuality

- Power Distance

Individualism/Collectivism

- Measures culture along a self-interest vs group-interest scale

- Individualism

- Collectivism

Power Distance

- Culture applies power and wealth relative to its inequalities

- Large power distance= society is hierarchical

- Small power distance= equalization

Uncertainty Avoidance

Avoidance reflects the degree to which members of a society feel uncomfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity

Weak Uncertainty

Avoidance societies maintain a more relaxed atmosphere in which practice counts more than principles and deviance is more easily tolerated

Masculinity vs Femininity

Masculinity vs Femininity measures the division of roles between the genders

Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions affects on healthcare

- Patients/ providers of varied cultures and backgrounds

- Healthcare workforce needs to mirror patient populations

- Cultural competence affects the provider-patient relationship

- Linguistic competence can lead to communication breakdown

- Can expose lack of awareness

- Can expose unequal treatment/ biases (race, gender, orientation, ageism)

Cultural Competency definition

A set of congruent behaviors, attitudes and policies that come together in a system, agency or among professionals that enables effective work in cross-cultural situations

Culture definition

Refers to integrated patterns of human behavior that include the language, thoughts, communications, actions, customs, beliefs, values, and institutions of racial, ethnic, religious or social groups

competence definition

Implies having the capacity to function effectively as an individual and an organization within the context of the cultural beliefs, behaviors and needs presented by consumers and their communities

Diversity Management definition

A strategically driven process whose emphasis is on building skills and creating policies that will address the changing demographics of the workforce and patient population

Attitude definition

A mind set or tendency to act in a particular way due to both an individual's experience and temperament

3 components of attitudes

- Actions

- Feelings

- Beliefs

Cognitive Dissonance

Any inconsistency that a person perceives between two or more of one's attitudes or between one's behavior and attitudes

Equity theory

Predicts that employees pursue a balance between their investments in and the reward gained from their work

Step-by-step process for changing attitudes in the workplace

- Assessment of attitudes

- Adjusting attitudes

- Common management mistakes

- Resolving conflict

- How to work with problem behaviors and attitudes

- The last resort: employee termination and legal issues

- Creating a positive work environment

Perception

Process by which individuals interpret and organize sensation to produce a meaningful experience of the world. An individual's perception is their reality

Perception Process

When people are presented with information that does not support their world view, often they will skip over that information (negative feedback)

Attribution Theory

- Offers an explanation for why people do the things that they do

- Social psychology

- More concerned with the individual's cognitive perceptions than the underlying reality of events

Halo Effect

Classifying the individual on the basis of a single characteristic

Contrast effect

Evaluating a person's characteristic by comparison to each other

Projection

Perceiving others in a way that reflect a perceiver's own attitudes and beliefs

Stereotyping

Judging someone on the basis of one's perception of the group to which the person belongs to

Pygmalion effect

Causing a person to act erroneously on the basis of another person's perception

Impression management

Controlling another persons perception of one's self

Employee Selection

Identify key invariant (skills, character, etc) qualities of individuals that match up well with the demands of the position and the culture of the organization

Different forms of feedback

- Descriptive

- Evaluative

- Prescriptive

Different levels of feedback

- Task or procedural

- Relational

- Individual

- Group

Descriptive feedback

Telling someone the way they communicated and what they said

Evaluative feedback

Feedback that provides an assessment of the person who communicated

Prescriptive feedback

Provides advice about how one should behave or communicate

Issues that relate to task feedback

Quantity or quality of a group's output

Procedural feedback

refers to whether a correct procedure was used appropriately at the time by the group

Relational feedback

- feedback that provides information about interpersonal dynamics within the group

- emphasizes how a group gets along

- Effective when combined with descriptive and prescriptive forms of feedback

Individual feedback

focuses on a particular individual in a group

Group feedback

focuses on how well a group is performing

Johari window

- model that improves understanding between individuals

- disclosure and feedback

- used to open channels of communication

Johari window areas

- Open area (info known to everyone)

- Blind area (info others know but you are unaware)

- Hidden area (info you know but unknown by others)

- Unknown area (unknown to everyone)

Verbal communication channels

- Dialogue

- Written Communication/Email

Nonverbal communication channels

- Proxemics

- Kinesics

- Facial and eye behavior

- Paralanguage

Environmental barriers to communication

- Characteristic of the organization and its environmental setting

- Ex: listening, time, hierarchal structure, power of status relationships, terminology

Personal barriers to communication

- Arise from the nature of individuals and their interaction with others

- Ex: cultural, self-promotion, selective perception, status quo, evaluating the source, lack of empathy

Strategic Communication

An intentional process of presenting ideas in a clear, concise, and persuasive way

Flows of intraorganizational communication

- Upward

- Downward

- Horizontal

- Diagonal

Communication Networks

- Interaction pattern between and among group members

- Centralized or decentralized

Centralized communication networks

- Chain pattern

- Y-pattern

- Wheel pattern

- Circle pattern

Decentralized communication patters

All-channel pattern

4 Assessment criteria for picking communication process

- Degree of centralization

- Leadership predictability

- Average group satisfaction

- Range of individual member satisfaction

Cross-Cultural Communication

Difficulties arise from differences in cultural values, languages, and points of view

Stakeholder Analysis

- Scan environment of organization

- Identify strategically important issues

- Monitor these issues

- Forecast trends

- Assess their importance

- Diffuse information