Organizational Behavior

CHAPTER ONE

  • Define OB-study of individuals, groups, and structure and how that impacts behavior

  • Top down processing: affects to the structure affect groups which effects individuals 

  • Pyramid structure

  • A change in one individual can affect the group-ie. Group leader (teacher being swapped vs. a pupil being swapped

  • Organizational behavior is a mix of studies of behavioral science (psychology vs social psychology vs political science)

  • Mission statement is the purpose of a company

  • Contains values (summarized in 3-5 terms) that forces drive and change in an organization, values drive vision for change

    • Examples in class: disney and coca cola

  • Effectiveness vs satisfaction

    • Negative relationship, as one increases, the other decreases

    • Effectiveness does not usually account for satisfaction ie. management usually values effectiveness over employee satisfaction-there is no set formula

      • Depends on the leadership to determine what is best for the group




First classwork/homework:

Walk for 15 minutes and go into the store

Ask for mission, vision, value of the company


Happy Tourist Center Valencia-

Bike/scooter/rental place


Mission:

provide fun and safe guided tours of Valencia and help people become more comfortable with the city


Vision:

Allow everyone even foreigners to discover the freedom and beauty of Valencia


Values:

Customer satisfaction

Local expertise 

Safety



Chapter 2:

Organizational behavior notes-chpt 2 (leadership)

Leadership is the ability to influence a group to achieve a common goal/vision

Common traits of leader:

  • Extroversion

  • Flexibility

  • Creativity

  • Emotional intelligence

  • Honor their promises

Main problem in business is leadership problems (you don't vote for a manager, they are just hired)

-Chosen by the structure not the individuals


Common Characteristics of a Leader (MIDTERM QUESTION)

-situation

-ambition

-Charisma

-motivation


Midterm question:

Give an example of a situational leader (explanation matters more than the actual person you pick)


In most people, one or two of these characteristics will be more prominent than others



Situation:

A tense geopolitical situation is the necessary breeding group for a good leader

Jesus Christ, Napoleon, Gandhi (person who started the non-violent protest during the Indian Apartheid), Mandela (first black president in South Africa because of the apartheid there), Martin Luther King (rose to prominence because of the black civil rights movement of the 1950’s)

Cannot separate the leader from the situation

IE-martin luther king jr would not have the same impact today because the situation does not call for it (black civil rights are not as divisive as they were in the 20th century)



-motivation (doesnt just make people stand up and clap, tries to make people make a change)


Ambition:

Seeks to gain power to achieve their/their followers goal-

George Washington, Chales de Gaulle


if that ambition is exacerbated, becomes a cult of personality (wait reference) and wishes to be remembered as a "great man" in such cases become dictators

Examples: Julius Cesar, Lenin, Hugo Chavez, etc


Ambition itself isnt a bad thing, but too much of it is bad



Charisma-

Charisma is the quality of a person who differs from the others and makes him to be treated as endowed with supernatural powers or qualities, divine or exceptional.

JFK’s looks playing into him winning whatever debate he had to win for the presidential election


The followers attributed to the leader heroic or extraordinary skills when they observe certain behaviors


People are influenced through:

– Vision: A strategy for achieving long-

term goals

– Values: Role model

– Behavior: Offbeat

– Emotional contagion: The followers are passed with the emotions of the leader and share their feelings


Characteristics of a charismatic leader

-Optimism

-Passion

-Kinesthesic communication

-Creating links (networking)


example-Trump (make america great again-links followers and makes them feel like they are apart of the process)


Hitler-worst person in the world, still a charismatic leader

Vision-make an empire that will last 1000 years (optimism and passion)

Moves his hands a lot when he talks

Creating links-he just ordered the building of concentration camps, didn't actually kill anyone

Convinced people do to horrible things


They are born or made?

Sometimes they are remembered only by his charisma 

Examples: Benjamin Frankiln, T.E. Lawrence, Hitler, J.F.K. (moon speech), Obama, etc



THIS IS IMPORTANT AND WILL DEF BE ON THE MIDTERM/FINAL


Motivator-

All leaders must motivate their followers. To do this, must follow one of the following types of motivation:

Extrinsic motivation: Exclusively external (salaries, promotions, awards, etc)

Intrinsic motivation: personal satisfaction, sense of self-importance, personal growth, etc

Transcendental motivation: Satisfaction with the importance of working for others, peers, teams, companies and/or society in general


Types of motivational leadership:

Transactional leadership- if you do abc for me, i will do abc for you (positive/negative reinforcement)

Transformational leadership-i will change you into a better verison of yourslef

Transcendental leadership-im leading because i will help you be better



Management brings about order and consistency by drawing up formal plans, designing rigid organizations structures, and monitoring results 

Leadership, leaders establish direction by developing a vision and inspiring them to overcome hurdles


Two types of orientation: 

Product oriented-

Assigned specific tasks

Expect them to meet established standards

Attach importance to meeting deadlines


Employee oriented

Mutual Trust 

Respect for the opinions of employees

Consideration for the feelings of employees (respect their ethics)



Chapter 3-

Group presentation due next week on monday

15-20 minutes (can play some videos)

Compare a valencia company to an american one


-Mcdonalds, tacobell, five guys, starbucks, 


The culture of a company is the personality of a company (what makes it different)

(FSU vs UF)

Culture of UVLC vs the MBA


Just as tribal cultures have totems and taboos that dictate how members should relate to each other and with strangers, organizations have cultures that govern the behavior of its members.


Like humans, organizations have their own personality. They can therefore be described as rigid, kind, warm, innovative, conservative, etc.


These features of organizations can be used to predict the attitudes and behavior of its members


Thus organizational culture is a system of shared meaning that distinguishes a particular organization from others


This system is a set of key characteristics valued by the organization


The organization has a culture or another, and promote changes according to the guidelines set by top management


Individualism exists when people define themselves primarily as separate individuals and make their main commitments to themselves. 


Collectivism is characterized by tight social networks in which people strongly distinguish between their own groups (such as relatives, clans, and organizations) and other groups.


Determinism characterizes such collectivist cultures as the Japanese, where people believe that the will of the group should determine members’ beliefs and behaviour. 


By contrast, free will and self-determination characterize individualistic cultures such as that of the United States, where individuals believe that each person should determine his or her own beliefs and behaviour. 


Power distance, reflects the extent to which less powerful members of organizations accept an unequal distribution of power. Is the boss right because he is the boss (high power distance) or only when he knows the correct answer (low power distance). 

High vs low power distance (the gap between the top and the bottom is very wide)

Low power distance is when there's not as many higher ups ie the chain of command is shorter

The benefit of high power distance is that there is a clear chain of command, where as if there was a lower power distance, heres not as clear of a chain and its harder to track issues

Weakness of one is the strength of the other




Do the employees do their work in a particular way because the boss wants it that way (high power distance) or because they personally believe that it is the best way to do it (low power distance)? 


Reflects the extent to which people in a society feel threatened by ambiguity and therefore try to avoid ambiguous situations by providing greater certainty and predictability. 


Organizations reduce uncertainty by establishing more formal rules, rejecting defiant ideas and behaviour, accepting the possibility of identifying absolute truths and attaining unquestionable expertise, and providing their employees with greater career stability.


Career-success societies emphasize assertiveness and the acquisition of money and things (materialism), while not showing particular concern for people. 


By contrast, quality-of-life societies emphasize relationships among people, concerns for others, and the overall quality of life.


Conversely, societies emphasizing career success often develop into lower-tax environments in which extra income and other visible signs of career success effectively reward achievement (Mexico and United States, for example).