# Study Guide: COM 220 - Organizational Behavior

# Study Guide: COM 220 - Organizational Behavior

## Class 6: Team Dynamics

### Working as a Team vs. Working Individually

- **Team Definition:**

- Small number of people with complementary skills

- Committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach

- Mutually accountable

- **Key Characteristics of a Team:**

- Groups of two or more people

- Exist to fulfill a purpose

- Interdependence and need for collaboration

- Mutual accountability

- Perceive themselves as a team

- **Advantages of Teams:**

- Adaptive and responsive to change

- Broad knowledge base

- Effective means for management to democratize organizations

- Emotional support and sense of belonging

- **Disadvantages/Challenges of Teams:**

- Not always effective for all tasks

- Process losses (collaboration overload)

- Social loafing (less effort in teams)

- Groupthink (biased decisions)

- Diffusion of responsibility

### Task Interdependence

- **Definition:**

- Extent to which team members must share materials, information, or expertise to perform their jobs

- **Levels:**

- Pooled Interdependence (standardized tasks)

- Sequential Interdependence (assembly line)

- Reciprocal Interdependence (exchange of work output)

## Class 7: Perceiving Ourselves and Others

### Self-Concept

- **Definition:**

- People's beliefs and evaluations about themselves

- **Four Processes Shaping Self-Concept:**

- Self-Enhancement

- Self-Verification

- Self-Evaluation

- Social Self

- **Advantages of Understanding Perception Processes:**

- Perception influences attitudes and behavior

- Biases, preferences, and past experiences shape perceptions

## Class 8: Organizational Conflict

### Organizational Conflict

- **Definition:**

- Process that occurs when one person, group, or organizational subunit frustrates the goal attainment of another

- **Group Identification and Intergroup Bias:**

- Positive view of in-group, less positive view of out-group

- Attribution of positive behavior to in-group for self-esteem

- **Differences, Ambiguity, Scarce Resources:**

- Faultlines based on demographics

- Culture clashes

- Ambiguous goals, jurisdictions, or criteria

- Scarce resources contributing to conflict

### Types of Conflict: Relationship, Task, Process

- **Relationship Conflict:**

- Interpersonal tensions unrelated to the task

- Involves personal issues, dislikes, and tensions

- **Task Conflict:**

- Disagreements about the nature of work

- Differences in viewpoints and opinions

- **Process Conflict:**

- Disagreements about how work should be organized

- Controversies about responsibilities, authority, resource allocation

- **Conflict Outcomes:**

- Negative outcomes (wastes time, weakens cohesion)

- Positive outcomes (debate, creativity, responsiveness)

- **Conflict Handling Styles (Avoiding, Accommodating, Competing, Compromising, Collaborating):**

- Situational analysis for choosing the right style

## Class 9: Leadership

### Contemporary Leadership Theory: Charismatic and Transformational Leadership

- **Charismatic Leadership:**

- Vision and Articulation

- Personal Risk

- Sensitivity to Follower Needs

- Unconventional Behavior

- **Advantages of Charismatic Leadership:**

- Correlated with high org. performance and employee satisfaction

- Effective in tasks with ideological components or high stress

## Class 10: Organizational Culture

### Schein’s Model:

Artifacts, Espoused Values, Basic Assumptions

- **Artifacts:**

- Observable aspects of culture (symbols, structures, language, stories, ceremonies)

- **Espoused Values:**

- Values an organization talks about or believes it has

- **Basic Assumptions:**

- Fundamental premises about the world held by employees

- **Identifying in Other Organizations:**

- Examples of artifacts, espoused values, and basic assumptions

### Role of Organizational Culture

- **Guides Employee Attitudes and Behaviors:**

- Shapes shared social knowledge about rules, norms, and values

- **Strong vs. Weak Culture:**

- Strong culture: Clear and widely shared values

- Weak culture: Lack of consensus on values

### Advantages and Drawbacks of Organizational Culture

- **Advantages:**

- Differentiation, employee identification, desired behaviors, stability

- **Drawbacks:**

- Difficulty in merging, limited diversity

This study guide provides an overview of key concepts from COM 220: Organizational Behavior, covering team dynamics, self-concept, organizational conflict, leadership theories, and organizational culture. Use this guide to review and consolidate your understanding of the material.