OB MGMT20001 Week 1-6

w1 OB Definition

impact of individuals, groups, social structures on behavior within an organisation

• micro, meso, macro impact on organisation

• organisation = group of ppl towards comman purpose

• formalised in 20th century

Segue to MGMT APPROACHES: approaches profoundly inform how managers practice

w1 SM

• 4 principles, mechanistic framework that people should be managed with scientific impartiality and standardisation through optimisation of maximising efficiency

  1. Job Design - allocate subordinates

  2. HR Management - select, train, teach, develop

  3. Performance Management - manager ensures work completed

  4. Development of Management Process - divide labour into expertise

• Fredrick Windslow Taylor formalised MGMT as a discipline

w1 SM Evaluation

Strengths:

• Separates conception (manager) and execution (worker)

• Standardisation and Scientific Impartiality (no bias just evidence)

• Financial reward by Output (primarily extrinsic)

Limitations:

• Downplays psychological + social impact (this disregard of wellbeing acts as an ideological dimension = alienation, disatisfaction, segregation)

• Mechanistic (not human-centric), dehumanising, not valued

• Overeliance on extrinsic motivation

• Kills creativity, innovation, ignores social group dynamics

• Waldrop (1942) reduces human behaviour in “self-organising systems”

• Freedman (1922) counterproductive because of complexity of human behaviour

w1 HRM + Evaluation

Harnessing motivation and satisfaction as drivers for productive output

• Mayo Quote: “worker problem” is a result of psychological disturbance at work

• Evolved from SM as indirect response of its inadequacies

Strengths

• Employee satisfaction and efficiency at forefront

• Recognises social nature of work

Weaknesses

• lacks consideration of power/structure/hirearchy

• overemphasis on conditions above productivity

w1 Hawthorne Studies

• Initial study on productivity based off environment, but found that all workers productive because being observed

Findings:

1. Work is always a group activity despite isolation from standardisation

2. Workers gravitate and form informal groups (for recognition, security, belonging)

3. Informal groups exercise a strong form of social control

4. Managers should recognise the impact of inform

5. Organisations should foster synergy between informal groups and work structures

w2 Perception

Def: organising and interpreting sensory data to make sense of our position in an environment. Informs decisions and actions in an environment and impacts cognition and emotional response

TYPES

1. Reification - ideas and social constructs treated as concrete (CEO says can’t change but they can)

2. Multi-stability single stimuli interpreted in multiple ways

3. Emergence - behaviour arises from LEARNED ABILITY

PERCEPTION LIMITED BY

1. Selective Attention (missing out can’t see everything)

2. Theory of Mind (attributing mental states to others, eating means hungry)

w2 Self-perception

1. DOUBLE CURSE: lacking ability to perform, but unaware and can’t recognise this

• LEADS TO

2. DUNNING-KRUGER: attribution error from cognitive bias in misattributing skills (e.g. overestimating our skills)

w2 Attribution Theory

How individuals perceive interpreted info to explain the cause of behaviour and events

• In organisations we tend to attribute motives in WHY people do things

This can lead to:

1. SELF ATTRIBUTION ERRORS - success attributed to external factors, failure attributed to internal factors

2. SUBGROUP BIASES - forming own subgroups (in vs out)

3. ANCHORING BIAS - relying on anchor (first piece of info)

APPLICATION: effects recruitment, selection, performance management, strategy

w2 Decision-Making

BEHAVIOUR: assumes decisions made systemtically by weighing costs and benefits

BOUNDED RATIONALITY THEORY: Herbert Simon (1957)

• Humans can never make a decision on a truely rational basis because of LIMITIED PROCESSING CAPABILITIES

• Instead we SATISFICE (choose good enough options)

  • This can manifest HEURISTICS (mental short cuts)

w2 PAD Connection

Interpreted perceptions (introduce bias) which leads to attribution (which causes) less rational behaviour in decision-making

w3 Groups and Team (creation and limitations)

We must develop an understanding of group dynamics to understand teams

From memberships we acquire BAC from interactions which links to positive distinctiveness (view your own ingroups as better)

Team Creation: conduct + values + identity + influence = discipline

Limitations of Teamwork

1. Group think

2. Social Loafing

3. Free riding

4. Culture Differences

5. Ringlemann Effect

w3 Teams and Organisational Structures

Bureaucratic (traditional)

• bureaucracy bec authority and hierarchy

• responsibility carved up horizontally (but can lead to diffusion)

• works well in situations that don’t change

Flattened (team-based)

• hierarchy distributed

• team cuts across hirearchy (e.g. jun working with seniors, but still hierarchy)

• strong in turbulent environments

• but difficult to operationalise

w3 Team Effectiveness Model

As Time and Team development increase, this can be attributed to:

1. Team Design (composition)

2. Team States (norms, cohesion, efficacy, trust) & Team Processes (task, teamwork, boundary spanning)

3. Team Effectiveness (team survival, accomplish tasks, satisfy needs)

w3 Tuckman’s Model of Team Development + Group Dynamics

1. Forming - establish ground rules

2. Storming - members resist control by showing hostility to authority

3. Norming - working together and building relationships

4. Performing - working towards achieving job

5. Adjourning - group disbands after goal met

Transition from independence to interdependence and back to independence, (interdependence link to attribution)

GROUP DYNAMICS

Maintenance: process where team works on its own internal processes and focuses efforts establishing common purpose and effectiveness

Task: activities where team focuses efforts on the job at hand

• Tuckman and other models = maintenance

w3 Distributed Leadership

Need 4 Types of Leadership to be successful

1. Organising - providing structure (deadlines, details etc)

2. Envisioning - creating string vision for team (translates to values)

3. Spanning - networking and gathering information (coordinating team activities to an organisation)

4. Social - negotiation, conflict resolution, confronts anti-social behaviour

• All maintenance

• S + O also involve task

w4 Antecedents and Outcomes

VAB: overal causal -influence model (one antecedent causes another, causes outcomes)

e.g.

High Job Satisfaction (work values) → Attitudes → More Prosocial Behaviour

• Ultimately to work effectively must understand what shapes behaviour = V+A, social pressures, impact of culture
  

w4 Values

enduring personal beliefs that provide a normative base for attitudes

1. Terminal Values = what we want to achieve

2. Instrumental Values = how we achieve these

w4 Attitudes

Evaluative statements characterised by persistence, valency, and direction.

Attitudes can help predict behaviours at work BUT calculated behaviour can become distorted. Either influenced by bias/prejiduce or formal/informal knowledge

Attitudes: (can be difficult to separate these)

1. Emotional

2. Cognitive

3. Behavioural

BARRIERS IN CHANGING ATTITUDES

• Provide more information

• Involve dissatisfied people in change (negotiations)

• Persuasion and manipulation :(

w4 Behaviour

• immediate and tangible to observe (more apparent than A or V)

• Values elicited by systematically asking questions that can be reflected by behaviour

w4 Job Satisfaction

JS: positive response from appraisal of one’s job experience

• represents A + V

• outcomes link to HRM’s approach

• Clear demonstration that A influences B, thus MGMT can influence B

Direct: modelling and roleplays to reinforce B which changes attitudes

Indirect: Changing A changes B by self-reinforcing for employees

w5 Motivation

Basis for practical interventions in organisations designed to encourage desirable behaviours

• directed to purposes in the ourside world

• measured by the degree and effort + persistance towards the goal

• Extrinsic: monetary/quantitative but also socially embedded (social status/hirearchy etc)

• Intrinsic: ultimately satisfy this in job design more likely to lead to satisfaction, contribution to culture, innovation etc

All motivation theories connect to HRM because it focuses on understanding motivations in human behaviour and human relationship to work itself

w5 Content Theories of Motivation

Content = humanistic content theories

MASLOW’S NEEDS THEORY

• Motivation process: Needs (instrumental value) → Behaviour (drive) → Incentives (terminal value)

• Hierarchy of needs: self-actualisation, esteem, love/belonging, safety, physiological

  • Needs arranged by importance, more immediate bottom and longer term up top

  • Assumes escalating degree of conscious intent, we pursue the deficit need until satisfied and then it is no longer a motivator

MCCLELLAND’S LEARNED OR AQUIRED NEEDS THEORY

• emphasises there is not a shared baseline of needs, but needs vary based on circumstance

• needs vary for: achievement, affiliation, power (acquired through BAV)

w5 Content Theories of Motivation Evaluation

Limitations:

• Little evidence of Progression Principle, empirical evidence that people often forgo lower order needs or skip through hierarchy

• western and highly individualistic (especially self-actualisation)

• Overall lacks explanatory power in complexities of work motivation

• highly normative: to only norms of a particular place and time

Strengths:

• Part of Positive Psychology Movement and desire to follow self-actualisation

• Strong application to extrinsic rewards in organisations (useful in job design)

w5 Process Theories of Motivation

Process - cognitive process theories

VROOM’S EXPECTANCY THOERY

• Motivation determined by expected outcomes

• More attractive outcome = higher motivation to perform

• Process: Effort (expectancy) → Performance (instrumentality) → Reward (valency)

Behavior defined as an act of trust (challenge = assymetry, a HUFE damaging demotivator, more then motivation)

ADAM’S EQUITY THEORY

• We compare effort invested with the reward received

• Employees motivated to maintain an equitable exchange relationship

• We come up with a ratio for equity to effort and reward

• Inequity distorts efforts

w5 Process Theories of Motivation Evaluation

Evaluation

• Rewards to performance have a determined valency

• Challenge is legitimising rewards as “fair” to EVERYONE

• Incentives = prospective (future oriented)

• Rewards = retrospective (reflective)

• Helpful: creating more transparent rewards system

w6 Conflict and Causes

Involves 2 or more parties usually over distribution of resources, underpinned by normative values

Types:

• Overt (obvious to parties) or Cover (not)

• Task (what, the legitimacy of), Process (how, differences), Relationship (who)

Causes:

• Interpersonal (between parties)

  • Can lead to negative/anti-prosocial behaviours

  • Solution: common ground, perspective taking

• Intragorginasational (structural)

  • IMP: THIS IS STRUCTURAL ANTAGONISM (means bet emp and man) which means there is systemic tension (even if everyone gets along)

  • Often creates ambiguity in procedures and responsibilities

  • Solution: common ground, emphasise superordinates and shared goals

w6 Conflict Strengths and Damages

STRENGTHS

• Mayo’s Unitariast View: conflict can signal what’s wrong

  • Goal is to make organisation unitariast (e.g. though recruitment or promoting desired cuture)

• Interactionist View: functional conflict should be encouraged

DAMAGES: roots are perennial, conflict can always be managed but not eliminated

• goal is not to eliminate, but to resolve

w6 Conflict Process

A gradual escalation:

1. Potential Opposition - trigger and threshold, provides potential for conflict to emerge

2. Cognition and Personalisation - triggers from (1) materialise only when (2) occurs

3. Conflict Handing Styles (see pic) - when intentions to respond form

4. Behaviour - will either intensify or resolve

5. Outcomes - functional or dysfunctional

(PICTURE ANNOTATION)

• forcing = win-loose, least ideal but usually prevails

• PS most idea = win-win

w6 Negotiation

A form of managing conflict and conflict resolution (negotiation better than nothing)

• Precondition: both parties recognise legitimacy and other party acts in good faith

• BATNA best alternative to negotiative agreement (best thing to take if negotiation fails)

• Target Points: best possible outcome, Resistance Point: least you would accept

Bargaining (type of negotiation)

• Distributive: win-lose, zero sum gain, more asymmetry

• Integrative: win-win, both parties satisfied

yay done good job! list all week topics:

1. MGMT Approaches

2. P,A,DM

3. Teams and Teamwork

4. V,A,B

5. Motivation

6. Conflict