BBC3163 – ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

CHAPTER 1:
An Overview of Organizational Behavior

Prepared by:
Dr. Siti Noorjannah Binti Abd Halim
Learning Outcomes:

End of this chapter, the students should be able to:

• Define organizational behaviour.
• Understanding the important of organizational behaviour.
• Discuss the organizational behaviour and the management
process.
• Explain the organizational behaviour and the manager’s job.
• Discuss on the challenges and opportunities in OB area.
• Identify the basic model for OB.
See the Pictures
 What is Organization?

• An organization is a collection of people work together to achieve individual and

organizational goals.
• Organization is the integration of people to achieve the specific objective and meet
at regular time.
• In other words, organization is simply people working together for a common goal.
• Organization may be studied from 2 perspectives:

Micro Perspective Macro Perspective

Focuses on Human being as a

Focuses on Organization as a unit:
individual:
Study of human behaviour as a
Individual psychological makeup, his
collectively of people & deals with how
interaction with other individuals &
organization is structured, how
groups, variables determining his
technology affects people in the
behaviour in organization & the
organization interacts with its
strategy that may be adopted to govern
environment.
this behaviour.
Organization

Group

Individual
What do you mean by “Behaviour”?
 What do you mean by Behaviour?
• The way in which one acts or conducts oneself, especially towards others.
• What they do?
• How they do?

Human behaviour
flows from 3 main
sources:
• Desire
• Emotion
• knowledge

Personal
E
Cn
uv
li
tr
uo
rn
am
le
n
t
 Elements of Behavior:

Elements of Behaviour

Attitude Values

Morales
Actions

Decisions
Reactions Knowledge
 Meaning of Organizational Behavior

• Organizational Behavior
• is a field of study devoted to understanding, explaining, and ultimately
improving the attitudes and behaviours of individuals and groups in
organizations.

• Is the study of factors that affect how individuals and groups act in
organizations and how organizations manage their environment.

• Field of study also investigates the impact that individualsm groups and
structure have on behaviour within organizations. It is for the purpose of
applying such knowledge toward improving an organization’s effectiveness.
OB explain:
• What people do in the organization?

• How their behaviour affect the organizational performance?

• Hence, OB is a study on human behaviour at:

• Individual level.
• Group level
• Organizational level.
 OB
Organization behaviour

Integration of
various Study of human
What they do?
individuals, behaviour in the
How they do?
groups & organization
structure
 The Important of Organizational Behavior:

• It builds better relationship by achieving people, organization and social

objectives.

• OB provides a road map to our lives in organizations.

• It covers a wide area of human resource like behaviour, training and

development, change management, leadership, team and etc.

• It improves goodwill of the organization.

• It improves relations in the organization.

• It leads to higher efficiency.

 What is Management?
Management is the process of:
• Planning
• Organizing
• Leading
• Controlling an organization’s:
• human
• Financial
• Material
• Other resources to increase its effectiveness.

Planning
Organizing
Controlling
Leading
 Planning: Organizing:
Decide on organizational goals & Establish the rules & reporting
allocate and use resources to relationships that allow people
achieve those goals. to achieve organizational goals.

Controlling:
Leading:
Evaluate how well the
Encourage & coordinate
organization is achieving its
individuals and groups so that
goals & take action to maintain
they work toward organizational
and improve performance or
goals.
take corrective action.
 Managerial Roles:

• Manager: any person who supervises one or more subordinates.

• Role: a set of behavior or tasks a person is expected to perform because of the

position he or she holds in a group or organization.

Managerial Skills:

Conceptual Skills: Human Skills: Technical Skills:

• The ability to analyse • The ability to • Job-specific
& diagnose a situation understand, work knowledge and
and distinguish with, lead, and control techniques.
between cause and the behaviour of other
effect. people and groups.
 Implications for Managers:
Organizational Behaviour helps with:
• Insights to improve people skills.

• Valuing of workforce diversity.

• Empowering people and creating a positive work environment.

• Dealing with change in the workplace.

• Coping in a world of temporariness.

• Creating an ethically healthy work environment.

Challenges and Opportunities for OB

Responding Responding Managing

to Economic to Workforce
Pressure Globalisation Diversity

Improving Working in
Improving
Customer Networked
People Skills
Service Organizations

Enhancing
Creating a Improving
Employee
Positive Work Ethical
Well-Being
Environment Behaviour
at Work
 Challenges & Opportunities for OB

1) Responding to Economic Pressure:

• Effective management is especially important during tough economic times.

• Managing employees well when times are tough is just as hard as when times are
good.

• For instance, currently Malaysia Airlines is making plans to shut down if lessors do not
accept its restructuring bid. The airline’s sole owner has also said it will no longer fund
the struggling airline if the plan does not pass. So will Malaysia Airlines survive?

• Hence, the OB approaches sometimes differ based on situation:

1. In good time:
• Understanding how to reward, satisfy, and retain employees is at a premium.
2. In bad time:
• Issues like stress, decision making, and coping come to the fore.
 Challenges & Opportunities for OB

2) Responding to Globalization:
• Increased foreign assignments:
• Different needs and aspirations in workforce.

• Working with people from different cultures.

• Domestic motivational techniques and managerial styles may not work.
• Even in your country, you will find yourself working with bosses, peers, and other
employees born and raised in different cultures.
• To work effectively with people from different cultures, you need to understand
how their:
• Culture
• Geography
• Religion

• For instance, managers at global companies such as Disney and Coca-Cola have come to
realize that economic values are not universally transferable.

• Hence, management practices need to be modified to reflect the values of the different
countries in which an organization operates.
 Challenges & Opportunities for OB
3) Managing Workforce Diversity:
• Organizations are becoming a more heterogeneous mix of people in terms of
gender, age, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation.

• How do you manage diversity in the workplace?

1. Create inclusive policies and practices:
• Policymakers will, therefore need to consider the differential impact
policies and practices especially for the large groups.
2. Provide diversity training:
• Especially to those in leadership positions.
3. Facilitate effective communication:
• To ensure everyone is on the same page, make sure that all the
employees understand all the procedures, policies, safety rules and
any other important information.
4. Encourage interaction:
• Creating work groups that reflect the diversity that exists in the
workplace.
 Challenges & Opportunities for OB

4) Improving Customer Service:

• The majority of employees in developed nations work in service jobs
and they must know how to please their customers.

• People skills are essential to succeed in today’s organizations.

• The service employees include technical support representatives, fast-

food counter workers, sales clerks, nurses, automobile repair
technicians, consultants, financial planners, and flight attendants.

• Many organization has failed because its employees failed to please

customers.

• Hence, OB can provide considerable guidance in helping managers

create such as cultures- in which employees are friendly and courteous,
accessible, knowledgeable, prompt in responding to customer needs,
and willing to do what’s necessary to please the customer.
 Challenges & Opportunities for OB

5) Improving People Skills

• Employees will gain insights into specific people skills that they can use
on the job.

• For instance, they will learn ways to design motivating jobs, techniques
for improving their listening skills, an how to create more effective
teams.

• Examples:
• A Whole Foods Market customer learn how to grind flour with the
help of the store’s cooking coach, whose job is to provide
information about cooking ingredients, methods, and techniques.
The coaches embody the best of the retailer’s customer-responsive
culture of serving people with competency, efficiency, knowledge,
and flair.
 Challenges & Opportunities for OB

6) Working in Networked Organizations:

• Managers must adapt their skills and communication styles to succeed
in an online environment.

• Networked organizations allow people to communicate and work

together even though they may be thousands of miles apart.

• Motivating and leading people and making collaborative decision online

requires different techniques than when individuals are physically
present in a single location.

• As more employees do their jobs by linking to others through networks,

managers must develop new skills.

• Hence, OB can provide valuable insights to help with those skills.

 Challenges & Opportunities for OB

7) Enhancing Employee Well-Being at Work:

• The typical employee in the 1960s or 1970s showed up at a specific workplace Monday
through Friday and worked for clearly defined 8 or 9 hours chunk of time.

• That’s no longer true for a large segment of today’s workforce.

• Today workplace presents opportunities for workers to create and structure their own
roles and even if employees work at home or from half a continent away, managers
need to consider their well-being at work.

• Thus, one of the biggest challenges to maintaining employee well-being is the new
reality that many workers never get away from the virtual workplace.

• For instance, work from home also need to be consider as employee well-being.

• Hence, the OB field offers a number of suggestions to guide managers in designing

workplace and jobs that can help employees deal with work-life conflicts.
 Challenges & Opportunities for OB

8) Creating a Positive Work Environment:

• Creating a positive work environment can be a competitive advantage.

• Although competitive pressures on most organizations are stronger

than ever, some organizations are trying to realize a competitive
advantage by fostering a positive work environment.

• For instance, the organization create pleasing physical environments

with attractive modern workstations, workplace such as Google’s free
lunches, or a shared commitment to environmental sustainability
initiatives such as recycling.

• Hence, an area of OB research that concerns how organizations

develop human strength, foster vitality and resilience, and unlock
potential.
 Challenges & Opportunities for OB

9) Improving Ethical Behaviour:

• Ethical dilemmas and ethical choices is a situations in which individuals
are required to define right and wrong conduct.

• They’re offering seminars, workshops, and other training programs to

try to improve ethical behaviour.

• For instance, they’re providing in-house advisors who can be contacted,

in many cases anonymously, for assistance in dealing with issues, and
they’re creating protection mechanisms for employees who reveal
internal unethical practices.

• Hence, companies that promote a strong ethical mission, encourage

employees to behave with integrity, and provide strong leadership can
influence employee decisions to behave ethically.
 A Basic OB Model
Inputs Processes Outcomes

Individual Level: Individual Level: Individual Level:

• Diversity • Emotions • Attitudes
• Personality • Motivation • Task
• Values • D. Making Performance

Group Level: Group Level:

• Comm. Group Level:
• G. structure
• Leadership • G. cohesion
• G. roles
• Conflict • G. functioning
• G. r/bilities

Organizational Organizational Organizational

Level: Level: Level:
• Structure • HRM • Productivity
• culture • Change • Survival
practices
Summary:
Managers need to develop their
interpersonal, or people, skills to be
effective in their jobs. Organizational
behaviour (OB) investigates the impact
that individuals, groups, and structure
have on behaviour within an
organization, and it applies that
knowledge to make organizations work
more effectively. Specifically, OB focuses
on how to improve productivity; reduce
absenteeism, turnover, and deviant
workplace behaviour; and increase
organizational citizenship behaviour and
job satisfaction.