Organizational Behaviour Notes
Introduction to Organizational Behaviour
Learning Objectives
Define organizational behaviour and organizations (LO1).
Explain why organizational behaviour knowledge is important for individuals and organizations (LO2).
Describe the anchors on which organizational behaviour knowledge is based (LO3).
Summarize the workplace trends of diversity-equity-inclusion, work–life integration, and remote work (LO4).
Diagram the MARS model and describe the four factors that directly influence individual behaviour and performance (LO5).
Summarize the five types of individual behaviour in organizations (LO6).
The Changing Nature of Work
Remote work has become more common, with about 20% of Canadian employees working remotely most days.
Work–life integration and less commuting are primary drivers for the popularity of working from home.
Hybrid work arrangements are being introduced where employees work some days at home and some in the office.
Disagreement exists between employees and employers regarding how often staff should work in the office.
In-person office interactions are argued to offer advantages such as better collaboration, team spirit, innovation, and a culture of belonging.
Welcome to Organizational Behaviour (OB)
OB topics include remote work, work–life integration, teamwork, organizational culture, and creativity.
Organizations need skilled and motivated people who can be creative and work in teams.
Effective companies apply organizational behaviour concepts and practices.
The purpose of studying OB is to understand what goes on in organizations.
Examine factors that make companies effective, improve employee well-being, and drive successful collaboration.
OB looks at organizations from diverse perspectives, including employee thoughts, behaviors, structure, culture, and external environment.
Emphasis is placed on why things happen and how organizational behavior can be used to predict and guide events.
What is Organizational Behaviour?
Organizational behaviour (OB) is the study of what people think, feel, and do in and around organizations.
It examines employee behaviours, decisions, perceptions, and emotions.
It studies how individuals and teams interact with one another.
OB also examines how employees and organizations interact with their external environments.
OB researchers systematically study topics at the individual, team, and organizational levels of analysis.
What are Organizations?
Organizations are groups of people who work interdependently toward some purpose.
Organizations are collective entities of interacting human beings.
Organized relationships require communication, coordination, and collaboration to achieve objectives.
Organizational members have interdependence, sharing materials, information, or expertise.
Members have a collective sense of purpose, even if it is informal or implicit.
Historical Foundations of Organizational Behaviour
Organizational behaviour emerged as a distinct field around the early 1940s.
Harvard University changed its MBA human relations course to "Organizational Behaviour" in the late 1940s.
Experts in other fields have studied organizations for centuries.
Plato discussed leadership, Confucius extolled ethics and leadership, and Adam Smith discussed job specialization.
Max Weber wrote about rational organizations, and Frederick Winslow Taylor proposed systematic ways to organize work processes.
William Lyon Mackenzie King wrote about worker involvement and organizational reward systems.
Mary Parker Follett offered new ways of thinking about conflict, team dynamics, power, and leadership.
Elton Mayo and colleagues established the “human relations” school of management.
Chester Barnard wrote about organizational communication, coordination, and leadership.
OB has been around for a long time but was not organized into a unified discipline until around World War II.
Why Organizational Behaviour is Important
OB is important for personal and organizational success.
Organizational behaviour knowledge and skills are critical to everyone’s career.
OB is valuable for making sound decisions and interacting effectively with others.
Employers value skills and knowledge found in organizational behaviour books.
Important Skills for New Employees
Problem-solving, teamwork, and communication are top-ranked skills.
Adaptability, work ethic, and resiliency are also critical skills.
OB offers a core foundation of knowledge and skill development for success in organizations.
Better Personal Theories
OB helps people adopt better personal theories for comprehending, predicting, and influencing organizational events.
It helps improve the accuracy of personal theories and minimize unexpected behaviour in the workplace.
OB knowledge helps us to get things done by influencing others.
A toolkit of OB knowledge and skills is vital to motivate ourselves and co-workers.
OB concepts play an important role in helping you work more effectively within organizations.
Organizational Behaviour Is for Everyone
OB is valuable for everyone who works in and around organizations, not just managers.
Employees need to be proactive, self-motivated, and able to work effectively with co-workers.
Why OB is Important for Organizations
OB is vital to the organization’s survival and success.
Companies with high levels of employee satisfaction have higher financial performance.
Hospitals with higher employee motivation have lower inpatient mortality rates.
A positive relationship exists between leadership quality and company’s financial performance.
Organizational effectiveness is the “ultimate dependent variable” in organizational behaviour.
Organizations are effective when they have a good fit with their external environment, transform inputs to outputs, and satisfy stakeholders.
Organizations as Open Systems
Organizations depend on the external environment for resources (inputs).
They consist of internal subsystems that transform inputs to outputs.
They affect the environment through their outputs.
The external environment includes the physical and social setting in which the organization operates.
Inputs include raw materials, job applicants, financial resources, information, and equipment.
Outputs include products and services.
Organizations receive feedback from the external environment.
OB knowledge helps maintain a good "fit" with the external environment.
OB theories identify ways for companies to develop and maintain optimal transformation processes.
Human Capital as Competitive Advantage
Human capital is the most important ingredient in transforming inputs to outputs.
Human capital refers to the knowledge, skills, abilities, creativity, and other valued resources that employees bring to the organization.
It is a competitive advantage because employees are essential and difficult to replace with technology.
Effective organizations introduce workplace practices that improve and maintain human capital.
Job performance improves as employees acquire more skills and knowledge.
Companies with superior human capital adapt more efficiently in rapidly changing environments.
Companies that develop human capital are investing in and rewarding their workforce.
Organizations and Their Stakeholders
Organizations are more effective when they understand, manage, and satisfy stakeholder needs and expectations.
Stakeholders include customers, suppliers, the local community, interest groups, shareholders, and governments.
Fulfilling stakeholder needs and expectations can be difficult due to conflicting interests.
OB identifies factors that influence the prioritization of stakeholders.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) consists of organizational activities intended to benefit society and the environment.
Firms that adopt the triple bottom line aim to survive and be profitable, maintain or improve conditions for society, and protect the physical environment.
Companies with a positive CSR reputation tend to have better financial performance and employee relations.
Connecting the Dots: An Integrative Model of Organizational Behaviour
OB is a diverse and interconnected field of knowledge.
Individual inputs and processes influence individual outcomes, which affect the organization’s effectiveness.
Team and interpersonal inputs, processes, and outcomes are important.
Organizational inputs and processes impact teams and individuals at a macro level.
Anchors of Organizational Behaviour Knowledge
OB relies on a set of basic beliefs.
The Systematic Research Anchor
OB knowledge should be based on systematic research involving research questions, data collection, and hypothesis testing.
Systematic research supports evidence-based management.
Practical Orientation Anchor
OB theories need to be useful in practice, whether for executive teams or everyday work activities.
Multidisciplinary Anchor
The field should welcome theories and knowledge from other disciplines.
The Contingency Anchor
The effect of one variable on another variable often depends on the characteristics of the situation or people involved.
The Multiple Levels Of Analysis Anchor
Organizational behaviour recognizes individual, team, and organizational levels of analysis.
The Emerging Workplace Landscape
Organizations are experiencing unprecedented change, and OB guides them through turbulence.
Workplace Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)
Successful organizations continuously strive for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
Diversity refers to the heterogeneity of the organization’s workforce, including surface-level and deep-level diversity.
Equity is about treating everyone fairly and organizational justice.
An inclusive workplace values diversity and allows people of all identities to be fully themselves.
Employee resource groups (ERGs) support workplace inclusion.
DEI offers significant benefits for the organization and its employees.
Teams with high informational diversity tend to be more creative and make better decisions.
Diversity poses challenges such as slower communication and increased risk of dysfunctional conflict.
Work–Life Integration
Work–life integration refers to the extent to which people are effectively engaged in their various work and nonwork roles.
Each person has multiple roles and associated self-concepts.
Work–life integration occurs by satisfying the demands and experiencing the positive emotions of various segments of life.
Work and nonwork roles are inherently integrated because resources generated and consumed by one role enhance or starve other roles.
Practising Work–Life Integration
Strategies include integrating roles, flexible work scheduling, aligning roles with personal attributes, and boundary management.
Remote Work
Remote work is any arrangement whereby an individual performs organizational tasks while located away from the employer’s physical premises.
Remote Work Benefits and Risks
Benefits included better work–life integration, lower turnover, higher productivity, and reduced commuting costs.
Risks included social isolation, less informal communication, lower team cohesion, and more stress.
Contingencies of Remote Work Success
Success depends on the employee, job, and organization characteristics.
MARS Model of Individual Behaviour and Performance
The MARS model includes motivation, ability, role perceptions, and situational factors as direct predictors of individual behaviour and performance.
Employee Motivation
Motivation represents the forces within a person that affect the direction, intensity, and persistence of effort for voluntary behaviour.
Ability
Ability includes the natural aptitudes, learned capabilities, and habits required to successfully complete a task.
Role Perceptions
Role perceptions refer to how clearly people understand what is expected of them in their organizational roles.
Situational Factors
Individual behaviour and performance also depend on the situation, which is any context beyond the employee’s immediate control.
Types of Individual Behaviour
Five categories: task performance, organizational citizenship behaviours, counterproductive work behaviours, joining and staying with the organization, and maintaining work attendance.
Task Performance
Task performance refers to the individual’s voluntary goal-directed behaviours that contribute to organizational objectives.
Organizational Citizenship Behaviours
Organizational citizenship behaviours (OCBs) are various forms of cooperation and helpfulness to others that support the organization’s social and psychological context.
Counterproductive Work Behaviours
Counterproductive work behaviours (CWBs) are voluntary behaviours that have the potential to directly or indirectly harm the organization or its stakeholders.
Joining and Staying With The Organization
Companies suffer if they can’t hire and retain enough people with the right skills and knowledge.
Maintaining Work Attendance
Organizations need everyone to be available to perform their work.
Presenteeism, showing up for work when unwell or injured, is a related issue.