1. People and Organizations
Chapter 6
People and Organizations

2. Chapter Overview Human resource frame Human needs
Maslow’s Needs Hierarchy
Theory X and Theory Y
Personality and organization
Human capacity and the changing employment contract
Lean and mean: More benefits than costs?
Investing in people

3. Human Resource Frame Human Resource Frame:
This perspective regards people’s skills, attitudes, energy, and commitment as vital resources capable of either making or breaking an enterprise.

4. Human Resource Frame HR Frame Assumptions:
Organizations exist to serve human needs
People and organizations need each other: ideas, energy, & talent
When the “fit” between individuals and systems is poor, both suffer
A good “fit” benefits both the individual & systems

5. Human Needs
Needs
Energize and guide behavior and vary in strength at different times
Needs are a product of both nature and nurture.
People are capable of enormous amounts of learning and adaptation
Individual differences are present at birth
Human behavior results from interplay between heredity (nature) and environment (nurture)

6. Maslow’s Need Hierarchy
Needs arrayed in a hierarchy
Lower needs are “prepotent”- to be satisfied first
Higher needs become more important after lower needs are satisfied.
Maslow’s hierarchy:
Self-actualization
Esteem
Belongingness, love
Safety
Physiological

7. Maslow’s Need Hierarchy cont…
Self-actualization
Need to develop to one’s fullest potential
Esteem
Need to feel valued and to value oneself
Belongingness, love
Need for positive and loving relationship with others
Safety
Need to be safe from danger
Physiological
Need for oxygen, water, food, physical health

8. McGregor’s Theory X & Y Theory X Theory Y
Workers are passive and lazy
Prefer to be led
Resist change
Theory Y
Management’s basis task is to ensure that workers meet their important needs while they work.
Either theory can be a self-fulfilling prophecy for managers.

9. Argyris: Personality and Organization
Argyris felt that:
Organizations often treat workers like children
Traditional management principles produce conflict between people and organizations.
Task specialization produces narrow, boring jobs that require few skills.
Directive leadership makes workers dependent and treats them like children.

10. Argyris: Personality and Organization
Argyris felt that:
Workers adapt to frustration in several ways:
Withdraw—absenteeism or quitting
Become passive, apathetic
Resist top-down control through deception, featherbedding, or sabotage
Climb the hierarchy
Form groups (such as labor unions) to redress power
Train children to believe work is unrewarding

11. Human Capacity and the Changing Employment Contract
Handy’s “shamrock” form:
Core group of managers & professionals with critical skills
Basic workforce – increasingly part-time improve organization’s flexibility
Contractual fringe – use of independent contractors
Lean and mean (win through low costs): downsize, outsource, hire temps and contractors
Invest in people (win with talent): build competent, well-trained workforce
Shift from production economy to information economy produces skill gap

12. Conclusion
Organizations need people, and people need organizations, but the trick is to align their needs.
Dilemma: lean and mean vs. investing in people