Organizational Behavior

A Post graduate Course in Business

Administration

University of Khartoum–2018.

Course Hours: wednesday & Thursday 04:00-07:00pm

Ali Musa Al-Radi

 Organizational Behavior course

Course objectives
• Provide a basic knowledge of the main ideas & key theories relating to
organizational behavior.

• Understand why people & groups in organizations feel, behave and act.

• Identify processes & approaches that improve on the attitudes, behavior

& effectiveness of organizational members.

• Develop skills in diagnosing learned materials using a problem-solving

approach.

• Focus on the continuous improvement of effectiveness of organizations

& their members.
Topics of the course

• The concept of organization behavior?

• Managers & organizations

• Foundations of individual behavior (attitudes, values & job

satisfaction).

• Managing diversity in organizations

• Organizational Communication & perception

• Leadership & decision-making

• individuals & Groups conflicts

• Motivation
Student assessment Criteria

• End of term Exam 60%

• Continuous Assessment:
• Mid - term Exam 30%
• Research Assignments 10%
• Total Mark 100
 Text books & References of the course

Course text book

Robbins, Steven P., Organizational behavior, Prentice – Hall, 11th.edition.

References
• Miner, Organizational behavior Foundations: Theories & Analysis
5th.edition, Oxford Printing Press: 2002.
• Mullins, J. Laure, Management & Organizational Behavior, 2nd edition,
Wheeler Publishing:1999.
• Baron & Green, B., Behavior in Organizations, 5th.edition, Prentice –Hall of
India: 2000.
• Jones & George, Contemporary Management, McGrew Hill:2002
• Robert Kreitner & Angelo Kinicki, Organizational Behavior (fifth edition),
McGraw- Hill Higher Education, 2001.
Managers & organizations

Managers are
“ Individuals in the organization who get results
(objectives) by & through others.”

An organization is
“ A continuously coordinated social unit composed of two
or more people, that functions on a relatively continuous
basis to achieve a common goals or set of goals.”
Managerial roles

• Interpersonal roles

• Information roles

• Decisional roles
 Mintzberg’s conceptualization of managerial roles
Role Description Examples

Interpersonal
Figurehead Is a symbolic head; required Handles ceremonies, status or
to perform a number of social events.
routine duties of a legal or
social nature.
Leader Is responsible for the Performs virtually all managerial
direction & motivation of activities involving subordinates.
subordinates.

Liaison •Maintains a network of

outside contacts. Acknowledges mail & external
board work.
• Provides favors &
information to an
organization.
 Mintzberg’s conceptualization of managerial roles
Role Description Examples
Informational
Monitor Receives wide variety of Handles all mail & contacts
information. categorized as concerned
Serves as nerve center of primarily with receiving
internal & external information.
information of the
organization
Disseminator Transmits information Forwards mail into
received from outsiders or organization for informational
from other subordinates to purposes.
members of the Makes verbal contacts
organization. involving information flow to
subordinates such as review
sessions.
Spokesperso Transmits information to Attends board meetings.
n outsiders on organization's Handles contacts involving
plans, policies, actions & transmission of information to
results: serves as an expert outsiders.
on organization’s industry.
 Mintzberg’s conceptualization of managerial roles
Role Description Examples
Decisional
Entrepreneur Searches organization & its Holds strategy & review sessions
environment for opportunities involving initiation or design of
& initiates projects to bring improvement projects.
about change.

Disturbance Is responsible for corrective Holds strategy & review sessions

action when an organization involving disturbances or crises.
handler
faces important & unexpected
disturbances.

Resource Makes or approves significant Handling scheduling, request for

organizational decisions. authorization, budgeting & the
allocator
programming of subordinates’
work.
Negotiator Is responsible for Handles contract negotiations.
representing the
organization at major
negotiations.
Managerial skills

• Technical skills
The manager ability to apply specialized knowledge &
expertise.

• Human skills
The manager ability to work with, understand & motivate
other people both individually & in groups.

• Conceptual skills
The manager mental ability to analyze & diagnose complex
situation (managerial work requires managers to spot
problems, identify alternatives that can solve them,
evaluate alternatives & select the most appropriate ones
to solve them.
 What is Organizational behavior?

Learning objectives
• Understand the concept & roles of management & organizations.

• Understand the concept of OB.

• Appreciate the importance of interpersonal skills at work place.

• Identify the challenges & opportunities mangers encounter in applying

OB concepts.
 What is OB ?

• A field of study that investigates the impact

that individuals, groups & structures have on
the behavior within organizations for the
purpose of applying such knowledge toward
improving an organization’s effectiveness.
 What does OB focus on?

OB focuses on three related areas:

• Individual

• Group

• Structure
OB is concerned with the study of what individuals do in the
organization & how their behavior affect the organization’s
performance.
 Disciplines that contribute to the
OB field
• Psychology

• Social psychology

• Sociology

• Social anthropology
 Disciplines that contribute to the OB field
Psychology
The science that seeks to measure, explain & sometimes change the
behavior of humans and animals (e.g. learning theorists, personality
theorists counselling psychologists & industrial & organizational
psychologists).

The latest focus has been discussed on problems of:

 fatigue
 boredom
 stress
 perception
 emotions
 needs and motivational forces
 job satisfaction
 employees alienation in decision-making
 work &job design
 Disciplines that contribute to the OB field
Social psychology

It is a blend of psychology and sociology. It is concerned with peoples’

influence on each other.

Main focus:
 Change management (introducing change & reducing resistance to
change).
 Measuring and changing attitudes.
 Communication patterns & building trust.
 Disciplines that contribute to the OB field
Sociology

It is the study of people in relation to their social environment or culture.

Main focus:
 The study of groups behavior in organizations.
 Organizational culture.
 Communication, power & conflict.
 Organizational technology.
 Formal organizational theory & structure.
 Disciplines that contribute to the OB field
Social anthropology

The study of societies to learn about human beings and their

activities.

It helps to understand differences between people in different countries &

within different organizations.

Main focus:
o Beliefs
o values
o Norms
o customs
o Myths
 Ten challenges & opportunities for OB
1. Responding to globalization.

2. Managing workforce diversity.

3. Improving quality & productivity.

4. Improving customer service.

5. Improving people skills.

6. Stimulating innovation & change.

7. Coping with temporariness.

8. Working in networked organizations.

9. Help employees balance work-life conflicts.

10. Creating a positive work environment.

 Ten challenges & opportunities for OB

1 Responding to globalization

Organizations are no longer contained by countries’ borders.

One organization might extend its work in a number of counties.
(e.g. Nokia in Finland is recruiting employees from India, China& other developing
countries, Exxon Mobil, an American company receives almost 75%ofits revenue
from sales outside the U.S).

Accordingly managers’ job changes as follows:

 Increased foreign assignments.
 Working with people from different cultures.
 Coping with movements against monopoly.
 Overseeing movement of jobs to countries of low - cost labor.
Ten challenges & opportunities for
OB
2 Managing workforce diversity
Organizations are becoming a more heterogeneous mix of people in terms
of gender, age, sex, & ethnicity.

Managers have to adopt certain difficult paths in order to succeed:

 Embrace diversity (make oneself accommodating to diverse groups with
different life styles, family needs & work styles).
The principle becomes: recognize, appreciate & value differences

 Provide diversity training & development schemes to meet the needs of

diverse work groups.
 Lack of adequate accommodation of diversity results in high labor
turnover, difficult communication & interpersonal conflicts
 Ten challenges & opportunities for OB
3 Improving quality & productivity
Increased competition is currently forcing managers to reduce costs and
equally increase their productivity and improve the delivery of services they
render to consumers.

The mechanisms managers use to attain that improved quality include:

• Simplification of design
• Manufacturing,
• layout
• Processes
• Procedures.

Recently managers implemented programs such as quality management &

process engineering that require extensive employee involvement to
achieve desired change
 Ten challenges & opportunities for OB

4 Improving customer service

Managers have need to create a customer-responsive culture at all levels of

the organization in which employees are:

 Friendly
 Courteous
 Accessible
 Knowledgeable
 Prompt in responding to customer needs.
 Willing to do what necessary to please customers
 Ten challenges & opportunities for OB

5 Improving people skills

Train staff on all issues pertinent to:

 Designing motivating jobs

 Communication skills

 Effective listening

 Working in teams

 Human relations

 Approaches of customer-driven organizations

 Ten challenges & opportunities for OB

6 Stimulating innovation & change

• Innovation & change improve the chances of organizations to lead, make

profits & sustain itself over time.
(Dell has become the world largest seller of computers by continually
reinventing itself and outsmarting its competitors)
•Managers should encourage their employees to innovate, seek better
options in making deals & have tolerance for change.
 Ten challenges & opportunities for OB

7 Coping with temporariness

Recent changes in work and social environments make it imperative for
organizations to be fast and flexible in responding to the dictates of change.
Evidence of temporariness are observed in many instances exemplifiedin
the following:
 Workers need continually to up-date their skills.
 jobs are frequently redesigned.
 jobs are sub-contracted to other organizations.
 Ten challenges & opportunities for OB

8 Working in networked organizations

Computerization, the internet & the ability to link computers within
organizations and between them have created a different workplace for
many employees – a networked organization.

• Managers need to develop certain skills in dealing with people in a

networked organization.

OB techniques help managers in that direction

 Ten challenges & opportunities for OB

9 Help employees balance work-life conflict

At present employees through their unions & associations have raised a lot
of concern about the line between work and non work time and asked for
less hours of work for their family welfare.

Married people have found it difficult to commit adequate to their spouse,

home, children, parents & friends.

Workers are increasingly recognizing that work

is infringing on their personal life.
 Ten challenges & opportunities for OB

10 Creating a positive work environment

Competition is increased among organizations in recent years. Sometimes

competition take a zero-sum outcome. This is dangerous to organizational
survival & growth.

Organizations (through the adoption & practice of OB techniques) can

realize the competitive advantage by fostering a positive work environment
 A typology of what awaits organization’s future
Adapted from Robert Kreitner & Angelo Kinicki, Organizational Behavior (fifth edition), McGraw- Hill Higher

Education, 2001.
General Environment
Organization (structure, Culture, change)

Understanding &
managing individual
behavior
Organizational
Managers effectiveness
responsible for Understanding &
managing group & through
achieving
organizational
social processes continuous
results with & improvement
through others Understanding &
managing
organizational
processes &
problems
Foundations of individual behavior in organizations

Values

Attitudes

& job satisfaction.

 (values, attitudes & job satisfaction).
Individual values at work are critical aspects in understanding
people attitudes & motivation.

Values
Are the basic convictions that a specific mode of conduct or end- state of
existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite mode of
conduct or end- state of existence.

Personal value system

A hierarchy based on a ranking of an individual's values in terms of their
intensity.

Values tend to be relatively stable& enduring

Importance of values

• Lay the foundations for understanding of attitudes &motivation.

• Influence individuals’ perceptions.

• Cloud objectivity & rationality.

Example
An employee joining an organization with a value that promotion should be
based on performance rather than years of experience would find it very
frustrating if the actual practice of managerial promotion emphasizes
seniority to effective performance.

Employee dissatisfaction most likely happens in this situation

values across social culture
The understanding of variations in values across organizational social
cultures assists managers in effectively managing employees’ behavior.

There are five dimensions along which managers & employees have
value differences:
 Power distance (fair distribution of power in organizations).

 Individualism versus collectivism.

 Quantity of life versus quality of life

concern for assertiveness ,money & material acquisition, &competition
apposed to the value of social relationships & concern for welfare of others.

 Uncertainty avoidance

 Long - term versus short - term orientations.

Types of values : terminal & instrumental
Terminal values
Desired end - state of existence :the goals that person would like to
achieve during his/her life time.

Instrumental values
Preferable modes of behavior of achieving terminal values.

 (People of the same group tend o hold similar values)

 But different people in different groups hold different preferable values.

(trade unions have different preferable values as compared to

managers).
Attitudes

Attitudes are evaluative statements or judgments

concerning objects, people or events.

Answering the question

How do you feel about something?
Components of an attitudes

• Cognitive

• Affective

• behavioral
Example of the components of an attitude
“ Discrimination is wrong “

The formation of the opinion that “discrimination is wrong” is a cognitive

component of an attitude .

The statement that I do not like Hammed because he is discriminating

against women is an affective component of an attitude.

The statement that I avoid interacting with Hammed is a behavioral

component of an attitude.
Types of attitudes
Job satisfaction
( individual’s general attitude toward his/her work)

Job involvement
The degree to which a person identifies with his/her job, actively
participates init &considers his/her performance in that job important to
self-worth.

Organizational commitment
The degree to which an employee identifies with a particular
organization & its goals and wishes to maintain membership in the
organization.
Job satisfaction
( individual’s general attitude toward his/her work)

The assessment of job satisfaction is a complex summation of discrete

elements of the job.

There are two ways to measures job satisfaction:

1- single global ranking
Asking the employee one question ( How satisfied are you with your job?)
using scale from 1-5 indicating low & high respectively

2- Summation of scores
In this approach a number of job elements are identified and the
employee is asked to indicate (How satisfied is he/she with every
element of the job?) using scale from 1-5 indicating low & high
respectively.
Examples of elements in the assessment of job
satisfaction/ disatisfaction

• Nature of work

• Style supervision

• Present pay

• Promotion opportunities

• Relation with co-workers

Ways of expressing dissatisfaction
• Exit
Looking for better job opportunities elsewhere / resigning

• Voice
Attempts to improve conditions through suggestions, discussing work
problems with superiors & union actions.

• Loyalty
Passively but optimistically waiting for things to improve.

• Neglect
• Passively allowing things to get worse in the organization including
absenteeism, lateness, reduced efforts & increased error rate.