Brittany Lerner BMGT364 Study Guide PART 1 Introduction to Organizational Behavior Organization o A consciously organized social unit composed of two or more people that functions on a relatively continuous basis to achieve a common goal or a set of goals Examples Church student club university NOT organizations family group of friends o What is Organization The process of organization creates organizations Systems perspective o Useful for studying organizational dynamics entrepreneurship and change unify around common goals Tied closely to creation and application of new technologies We study organizations at different levels Highest level organization is society itself The smallest organization is the group o Groups vs Aggregates o A group is a collection of people who know each other and consider themselves to be related in some way as to constitute a group which they can define done CONSCIOUSLY Most commonly by having a name then boundary conditions who is to be considered part of the group o Next step in the evolution of a group is developing roles and duties how organizations come into being o An aggregate collection of people is NOT a group b c not consciously Ex survey of all households in PG County or a generalization of African American consumers o Why Do We Need Organizations Need for efficiency In the face of challenges rising prices using employees to do more things AND opportunities Organization is fundamental to human adaptation Specialization is key to modern economic enterprise Complex organizations require management to operate o Open Systems Organizations are open systems of interacting components including people tasks technology and structure People Human resources of organization Tasks Organizational mission purpose or goal for existence ex finance supply chain HR Technology Wide range of tools knowledge and or techniques used to transform inputs into outputs Structure Systems of communication authority and roles and workflow formal and informal elements The system also has an external task environment composed of different constitutes such as suppliers customers and federal regulators environmental and economic factors can impact the system Official legitimate and most visible part of organization o General Types of Organizations Formal mission plans Informal Unofficial less visible Power and culture o Hawthorne studies conducted in 1920s and 1930s concerned with importance of informal organizations Formal and informal elements of an organization can sometimes conflict role conflict Ex Greek Life o Formal National s goals community service o Informal Nighttime activities o Why OB Successful management Good management and leadership is a major strategic Poor management can destroy an organization s ability to advantage compete Successful leadership Successful organizations Ongoing and accelerating change driven by advancing info technologies increasing globalization diversity and rising consumer expectations is having an impact on work roles and relationships and on capabilities needed by managers and employees o CHANGING the structures and processes of modern organizations Major challenges facing modern management How to motivate employees How to effectively manage and lead large scale organizations operating under conditions of complexity dynamic change and uncertainty How to meet this challenge Understanding human behavior is central to meeting that challenge in planning problem solving and motivating employees Challenges and Opportunities of OB Increasing competition globalization customer focus on high quality workforce diversity need for flexibility and adaptability Today s strategic differentiator enlightened management o People skills are crucial for Managing Planning and budgeting Organizing and staffing Controlling directing and problem solving Leading Setting direction for the organization Communicating to align people with that direction Motivating people to action o OB Model o Evidence Based Management A way of thinking The attitude of wisdom knowing what you know and knowing what you don t know Being committed to fact based and evidence based action Running experiments and learning from the data Knowing what the theory and evidence is and using it in formulating decisions and policies Scientific management Data driven Rigorous analytic methods replicable ideally quantifiable Application of technology Scientific grounding Scientific method basis for prediction and management o Rigorous methodology for describing and analyzing observations as a basis for prediction and control management 1 Set of concepts and definitions language of the discipline or profession 2 Set of methods and instruments for gathering compiling and analyzing data to produce information 3 Body of knowledge accepted theories historical events facts explained by concepts and theories knowledge paradigms Scientific process iterative the act of repeating a process with the aim of approaching a desired goal target or result between the context of discovery and verification empirical and theoretical relevance grounding for prediction control Research vs Application Research Questions Under what conditions does the phenomenon of interest occur What is the difference between situations in which it does occur and those in which it does not What is the probability that it will occur Or if one situation occurs another situation will also occur Application Questions What conditions must be provided or controlled in order to produce the desired outcomes What are the costs benefits of producing these outcomes What were the problems and unanticipated consequences of producing these outcomes in the past PART 2 Perception Perception and Social Perception o Perception is a process by which individuals organize their sensory inputs in order to give meaning to their environments Every second we are exposed to too much information that is extremely complex in our living environment We cannot pay attention to each of all pieces of information that is available to us at a given moment o Human perception is a fundamental information reduction device that enables us to effectively handle our complex environment o Social perception is the process of interpreting information about another person Depends on Characteristics of perceiver Characteristics of target Characteristics of situation Perceptual Devices o Selective Perception Tendency to infer information which supports our viewpoints For
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