Organizational Behavior Exam 1 Information Chapters 1 8 What is Organizational Behavior Organizational behavior OB is a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals groups and structure have on behavior within organizations for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organization s effectiveness More specifically OB explores motivation leader behavior and power interpersonal communication group structure and processes attitude development and perception change processes conflict and negotiation and work design how they affect the behavior of the organization and if its effective or not so effective wants to make it more effective growing the business and getting more customers less absences etc OB includes attitudes emotions diversity values personality perception motivation decision making leadership communication negotiations teams power politics structure change human resources Interpersonal Skills are Important in the Workplace because Manager effectiveness need skills to create productive workplace including technical and quantitative skills Leadership and communication skills for career growth organization success Lower turnover people leaving the company expensive in money and uses a lot of time and energy resources from company always training and getting people into system NOT good for customers you want good people and you want them to stay of quality strong employees and higher quality applications for recruitment when managers have solid interpersonal skills leads to positive work outcomes for the organization Good places to work have better financial performance in organizations achieve the The manager s functions roles and skills Manager Someone who gets things done through other people goals of a company through other people can t do your job without other people Responsible for the organization defined as a consciously coordinated social unit composed of two or more people that functions on a relatively continuous basis to achieve a common goal Manager in charge of planning organizing leading and controlling Managers perform ten different highly interrelated roles or sets of behaviors attributable to their jobs Mintzberg Managerial Roles Exhibit 1 1 in Book or set of goals figurehead leader liaison monitor disseminator spokesperson entrepreneur disturbance handler resource allocator negotiator Technical Skills the ability to apply specialized knowledge or expertise All jobs require some specialized expertise and many people develop their technical skills on the job Human Skills the ability to work with understand and motivate other people both individually and in groups relate to others have others trust you communicate with others at higher levels and below you and on your level Conceptual Skills the mental ability to analyze and diagnose complex situations MBWA Team Exercise Management By Walking Around was a big concept in the 80s Hewlett Packard Idea was to get managers out on the floor to observe converse and hear from employees Benefits employee engagement and deeper understanding of company issues Limitations not enough available hours lost focus ineffective application knowing employees socially at the expense of good objective data In your teams What do you think Is MBWA good or bad What do you think managers should do with their valuable time Effective Managers good performance and committed employees spent the most time communicating Successful speed of promotion Managers spent most time networking and communication was 2nd highest managers engage in 4 managerial activities 1 traditional management decision making planning controlling 2 Communication exchanging routine information and processing paperwork effective managers do the most of this 3 human resource management motivating disciplining managing conflict staffing training 4 Networking socializing politicking and interacting with outsides Intuition or Evidence Evidence Based Management EBM collecting as much good reliable data when making decisions Basing managerial decisions on the best available data and evidence Not enough interpersonal skills are so important in the workplace Intuition EBM adds to intuition or those gut feelings about why I do what I do and what makes others tick If we make all decisions with intuition or gut instinct we re likely working with incomplete information Need both to be effective need good reliable data and we need to trust our instincts example emergency situations Challenges and Opportunities of OB Concepts Responding to economic pressure In tough economic times o Effective management is particularly important o Dealing with issues like stress decision making and coping In good times o Can focus more on rewarding satisfying and retaining employees During economic difficulties the need for effective management is heightened Anyone can manage during good times it is much tougher to manage effectively through economic struggles In bad economic times resource constraints may force managers to make tough decisions such as whether to lay off employees It can also be difficult to motivate employees when resources are limited Moreover managers must be able to deal with employees who are stressed about their futures Responding to globalization organizations now exist in an environment with no national borders a lot of diversity different backgrounds Increased foreign assignments Working with people from different cultures and where your getting supplies from are from all different countries Overseeing movement of jobs to countries with low cost labor Adapting to differing cultural and regulatory norms Managing workforce diversity Improving customer service Workforce diversity organizations are becoming more heterogeneous in terms of gender age race ethnicity sexual orientation and inclusion of other diverse groups Service employees have substantial interaction with customers Employee attitudes and behavior are associated with customer satisfaction Need a customer responsive culture Companies need to develop customer responsive cultures wherein employees are friendly and courteous accessible knowledgeable prompt with their responses and willing to do what is necessary to ensure that customers are satisfied Improving people skills very people oriented People skills are essential to managerial effectiveness OB provides the concepts and theories that allow managers to predict employee behavior in given situations Must be able to work