Introduction to Organizational Behavior Lecture Notes

Comprehensive flashcards covering the nature of Organizational Behavior, management functions, diversity, globalization, ethics, and individual reactions like perception and stress based on the lecture transcript.

Organizational Behavior (OB)

The field of study that attempts to understand human behavior in an organizational setting, the organization itself, and the individual-organization interface.

Planning

Determining an organization’s desired future position and the best means of getting there.

Organizing

Designing jobs, grouping jobs into units, and establishing patterns of authority between jobs and units.

Leading

Getting the organization's members to work together toward the organization's goals.

Controlling

Monitoring and correcting the actions of the organization and its members to keep them directed toward their goals.

Technical skills

The skills necessary to accomplish specific tasks within the organization.

Interpersonal skills

The ability to effectively communicate with, understand, and motivate individuals and groups.

Conceptual skills

The ability to think in the abstract and to consider the ”big picture”.

Diagnostic skills

The ability to understand cause-and-effect relationships and to recognize the optimal solutions to problems.

Human Resource Management (HRM)

The set of organizational activities directed at attracting, developing, and maintaining an effective workforce.

Competitive advantage

An organization's edge over rivals in attracting customers and defending itself against competition.

Cost Leadership

A strategy to become the lowest-cost producer by focusing on operational excellence.

Differentiation

A strategy to be unique or high quality by emphasizing product innovation.

Specialization

A strategy that focuses on specific customer groups and emphasizes customer loyalty.

Scientific Management

A formal study of OB focusing on productivity through time-and-motion studies, dividing work between workers and managers.

Hawthorne effect

Occurs when a participant’s behavior changes as a result of being observed, rather than as a result of an intervention.

Human Relations Movement

A movement inspired by the Hawthorne effect viewing organizations as cooperative systems where happy workers result in better performance.

System

An interrelated set of elements that function as a whole, where inputs are combined and transformed into outputs.

Situational Perspective

Recognizes that most organizational situations and outcomes are influenced by other variables, suggesting approaches are contingent on elements of the situation.

Universal model

Presumes a direct cause-and-effect linkage between variables, reflecting the belief in "one best way" of solving problems.

Interactionalist Perspective

Focuses on how individuals and situations interact continuously to determine individuals’ behavior.

Productivity

A narrow measure of efficiency representing the number of products or services created per unit of input.

Performance

A broad concept made up of all work-related behaviors.

Commitment

The degree to which an employee feels a true member of the organization, overlooks minor dissatisfaction, and intends to stay.

Employee engagement

The extent to which employees understand and embrace their role in the organization.

Organizational citizenship

Behaviors that make a positive overall contribution to the organization, encompassing factors outside strict job requirements.

Dysfunctional behaviors

Behaviors that detract from organizational performance, such as absenteeism, turnover, theft, and harassment.

Strategic execution

The degree to which managers and employees understand and carry out the actions needed to achieve strategic goals.

Scientific method

A method of knowledge generation relying on systematic studies to identify and replicate results using theory, hypotheses, and data.

Theory

A collection of verbal and symbolic assertions specifying how, why, and under what conditions variables are related.

Hypothesis

A written prediction specifying expected relationships between certain variables.

Independent Variable

The variable that researchers set in an experiment.

Dependent Variable

The variable that researchers measure in an experiment.

Correlation

The strength of the relationship between two variables ranging between $-1$ and $+1$.

Meta-analysis

A technique used to combine the results of many different research studies done for a variety of organizations and jobs.

Surface-level diversity

Observable differences in people, including race, age, ethnicity, physical abilities, and gender.

Deep-level diversity

Individual differences that cannot be seen directly, such as goals, values, personalities, and attitudes.

Intersectionality

Simultaneous membership in more than one demographic category.

Separation diversity

Differences in position or opinion among group members reflecting disagreement or opposition.

Variety diversity

Differences in a certain type or category, including group members’ expertise, knowledge, or functional background.

Disparity diversity

Differences in the concentration of valuable social assets or resources like rank, pay, or status.

Reverse mentoring

Pairing a junior employee with a senior employee to transfer technical or computer skills.

Individualism

Defining oneself primarily as an individual rather than as part of a group.

Collectivism

Tight social frameworks where people base their identities on the group or organization they belong to.

Power Distance

The extent to which people accept as normal an unequal distribution of power.

Uncertainty Avoidance

The extent to which people feel threatened by unknown situations and prefer clear and unambiguous ones.

Masculinity

Dominant values emphasizing aggressiveness and acquisition of money/possessions over concern for people.

Cycle times

The time it takes a firm to accomplish some recurring activity or function.

Ethics

A person’s beliefs regarding what is right or wrong in a given situation.

Corporate governance

The oversight of a public corporation by its board of directors in the best interests of stakeholders.

Corporate social responsibility

Businesses living and working together for the common good and valuing human dignity.

Knowledge Workers

Employees who add value simply because of what they know, such as scientists or engineers.

Outsourcing

The practice of hiring other firms to do work previously performed by the organization itself.

Offshoring

Outsourcing work to workers in another country.

Contingency worker

A person who works for an organization on a non-permanent or non-full-time basis.

Psychological contract

A person’s set of expectations regarding what they will contribute to an organization and what the organization will provide in return.

Cognition

The knowledge a person presumes to have about something.

Affect

A person’s feelings toward something.

Intention

The component of an attitude that guides a person’s behavior.

Cognitive dissonance

An incompatibility or conflict between behavior and an attitude or between two different attitudes.

Affective commitment

Positive emotional attachment to the organization and strong identification with its values and goals.

Normative commitment

A feeling of moral or ethical obligation to the organization.

Continuance commitment

Staying with the organization because of perceived high economic or social costs to leaving.

Terminal values

Reflect long-term life goals such as prosperity, happiness, and a sense of accomplishment.

Instrumental values

Preferred means of achieving terminal values or preferred ways of behaving.

Intrinsic work values

Values that relate to the work itself.

Extrinsic work values

Values that relate to the outcomes of doing work.

Emotion

An intense, short-term physiological, behavioral, and psychological reaction to a specific object, person, or event.

Mood

A short-term emotional state that is not directed toward anything in particular.

Affectivity

The tendency to experience a particular mood or react to things with certain emotions.

Perception

The set of processes by which an individual becomes aware of and interprets information about the environment.

Selective perception

The process of screening out information that we are uncomfortable with or that contradicts our beliefs.

Stereotyping

The process of categorizing or labeling people on the basis of a single attribute.

Halo effect

Forming a general impression of something or someone based on a single, usually good, characteristic.

Contrast effect

Evaluating someone by comparing them with recently encountered people.

Projection

Seeing one’s own characteristics in others.

Self-fulfilling prophecies

Treating people the way we categorize them and having them react accordingly.

Attribution

The way we explain the causes of our own and others' behaviors and achievements.

Self-handicapping

When people create obstacles for themselves that make success less likely.

Distributive fairness

Perceived fairness of the outcome received, such as resources, promotions, or raises.

Procedural fairness

Addresses the fairness of the procedures used to generate an outcome.

Interactional fairness

Perceived fairness of interpersonal treatment and explanations received during decision-making.

Trust

The expectation that another person will not act to take advantage of us.

Stress

A person’s adaptive response to a stimulus that places excessive psychological or physical demands on them.

General adaptation syndrome (GAS)

Identifies three stages of response to a stressor: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion.

Eustress

Pleasurable stress that accompanies positive events.

Distress

Unpleasant stress that accompanies negative events.

Burnout

A general feeling of exhaustion that develops from too much pressure and too few sources of satisfaction.