Chapter 1
Welcome to the World of OB
1
Learning Objectives
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1 Define organizational behavior (referred to as OB throughout the text).
2 Show the value of systematic study to OB.
3 Identify the major behavioral science disciplines that contribute to OB.
4 Demonstrate why few absolutes apply to OB.
5 Identify managers’ challenges and opportunities in applying OB concepts.
6 Compare the three levels of analysis in this text’s OB model.
Why OB Matters?
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♣ Till 1980s business school curricula emphasized the technical aspects of management
Technical skills are very important but it is not enough … why?
Interpersonal skills are needed and equally important.
What is interpersonal skills? Why it is needed?
♣ OB helps transforming a workplace from good to great (high quality of the workplace).
♣There are strong associations between the quality of workplace relationships and employee job
satisfaction, stress, and turnover … etc.
♣ Increasing the OB element in organizations can foster social responsibility awareness.
Management and Organizational
Behavior
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Organizational Behavior (OB)
A field of study that investigates the impact individuals, groups, and structure have on behavior within
organizations, for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organization’s
effectiveness.
OB is the study of Human “employees” behavior
in the organizational context.
OB examines behavior in the context of job
satisfaction, absenteeism, employment
turnover, productivity, human performance,
and management. In addition to other core
topics
Management and Organizational
Behavior
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Effective versus Successful Managerial Activities
Complementing Intuition with
Systematic Study
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Systematic StudyLooking at relationships, attempting to attribute causes and effects, and
drawing conclusions based on scientific evidence
Evidence Based
ManagementBasing managerial decisions on the best available scientific evidence
Intuition A gut feeling not necessarily supported by research
What is the importance of big data?
What is the importance of using systematic study
and EBM?
What is the problem with over depending on
intuition?
Disciplines that Contribute to the OB
Field
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PsychologyThe science that seeks to measure, explain, and sometimes change thebehavior of humans and other animals
Social PsychologyAn area within psychology that blends concepts from psychology andsociology and that focuses on the influence of people on one another
Sociology The study of people in relation to their social environment or culture
Anthropology The study of societies to learn about human beings and their activities
Disciplines that Contribute to the OB
Field
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There are Few Absolutes in OB
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Why there are few absolutes in OB?
Because of situational factors that make the main relationship between two variables change … e.g., the
relationship may hold for one condition but not another
Contingency
Variables (Situational
Factors)
Variable that moderate the relationship between two or more other variables
Dependent Variable (Y) - “Effect”Independent Variable (X) - “Cause”
Contingency Variables (z) - Situational Factors
Challenges and Opportunities for OB
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1 Continuing Globalization
Adapting to differing cultural and regulatory
norms
2 Workforce Demographic
Working with people from different cultures
3 Workforce Diversity
The concept that organizations are becoming more heterogeneous in terms of gender, age, race,
ethnicity, sexual orientation, and other characteristics.
4 Social Media
Challenges and Opportunities for OB
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5 Employee Well-Being at Work
6 Positive Work Environment
7 Ethical Behavior
Ethical dilemmas and ethical choices are situations in which individuals are required to define
right and wrong conduct.
positive organizational scholarship / positive organizational behavior
An area of OB research that concerns how organizations develop human strengths, foster vitality
and resilience, and unlock potential.
Coming Attractions: Developing an OB
Model
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A model
Abstraction of reality, or a simplified representation of some real-world phenomenon
Input Process Outcomes
Coming Attractions: Developing an OB
Model
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The Independent Variables (X) The Dependent Variables (Y)
The presumed cause of the change in the
dependent variable (Y)
This is the variable that OB researchers
manipulate to observe the changes in Y
This is the response to X (the independent
variable)
It is what the OB researchers want to predict or
explain
The interesting variable!
Productivity – Absenteeism – Turnover - Deviant
Workplace Behavior - Organizational Citizenship
Behavior - Job Satisfaction … etc.
Individual – Group – Organization System
Level Variable
Contingency Variables (z) - Situational Factors
Coming Attractions: Developing an OB
Model
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Independent
Variables (X)
Dependent
Variables (Y)
Th
ree L
evels
Organizational Behavior
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Management Process
Input Process Output
Organizational Resources Managerial FunctionsOrganizational goals and
objectives
Capital
Equipment & machinery
Raw material
Human resource
Planning
Organizing
Leading
Controlling
Effectiveness
Efficiency
The process of best utilizing organizational resources through applying managerial functions to achieve
organizational goals and objectives
Organizational Behavior
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Organizational Behavior (OB)
The process of predicting human behavior in the organizational context in order to enhance, motivate,
maintain, change, eliminate … etc. that behavior to achieve organizational goals and objectives
What Understand, study, and analyze human behavior
Why Enhance, motivate, maintain, change, eliminate … etc. human behavior
Purpose Achieve organizational goals and objectives (effectiveness – efficiency)