1. What is Organizational Behaviour?
Chapter 1
What is Organizational Behaviour?

2. What is Organizational Behaviour?
Questions for Consideration
What is organizational behaviour?
What challenges do managers and employees face in the workplace of the 21st century?
How does knowing about organizational behaviour make work and life more understandable?
Isn’t organizational behaviour common sense? Or just psychology?
What are the building blocks to understanding organizational behaviour?

3. Organizational Behaviour
a field of study that investigates how individuals, groups and structure affect and are affected by behaviour within organizations, for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organization’s effectiveness.
This material is found in more detail on page 3.

4. Why Do We Study OB?
To learn about yourself and how to deal with others
You are part of an organization now, and will continue to be a part of various organizations
Organizations are increasingly expecting individuals to be able to work in teams, at least some of the time
Some of you may want to be managers or entrepreneurs
This is one of the slides I use on the first day of class to help motivate the course.

5. Exhibit 1-1 Challenges Facing the Workplace
Organizational Level •
Productivity
Developing effective employees
Global competition
Managing in the global village
Group Level
Working with others
Workforce diversity
Individual Level
Job satisfaction
Empowerment
Behaving ethically
The material for this illustration is found on page 5.

6. Today’s Challenges in the Canadian Workplace
Challenges at the Individual Level
Job Satisfaction
Empowerment
Behaving Ethically
Challenges at the Group Level
Working With Others
Workforce Diversity
This material is found in more detail on pages 5-9.
1. In a 2002 survey of 1100 Canadian and American employees, more than half reported negative feelings about their jobs.
2. Overall job satisfaction in the Canadian workplace has been declining.
• In 1991, 62% of employees reported they were highly satisfied with their jobs.
In 2001, only 45% of employees reported they were highly satisfied with their jobs.
3. Managers are empowering employees. They are putting employees in charge of what they do. And, in the process, managers are learning how to give up control, and employees are learning how to take responsibility for their work and make appropriate decisions.
4. In addition to the more obvious groups—women, First Nations peoples, Asian Canadians, African Canadians, Indo-Canadians—the workplace also includes people with disabilities, gays and lesbians, and the elderly.

7. Today’s Challenges in the Canadian Workplace
Challenges at the Organizational Level
Productivity
Developing Effective Employees
Absenteeism
Turnover
Organizational Citizenship
Competition From the Global Environment
Managing and Working in a Global Village
This material is found in more detail on pages 9-12.
1. Absences in 2001 resulted in the loss of 3.4% of weekly work time. Absenteeism’s annual cost has been estimated at over $18 billion for Canadian firms and $60 billion for U.S. organizations. 2. In recent years, Canadian businesses have faced tough competition from the United States, Europe, Japan, and even China. To survive, they have had to cut fat, increase productivity, and improve quality.
3. As multinational corporations develop operations worldwide, as companies develop joint ventures with foreign partners, and as workers increasingly pursue job opportunities across national borders, managers and employees must become capable of working with people from different cultures.

8. Productivity Productivity Effectiveness Efficiency
A performance measure including effectiveness and efficiency
Effectiveness
Achievement of goals
Efficiency
The ratio of effective work output to the input required to produce the work
This material is found in more detail on pages 9.

9. Effective Employees Absenteeism Turnover
Failure to report to work
Turnover
Voluntary and involuntary permanent withdrawal from the organization
Organizational citizenship behaviour
Discretionary behaviour that is not part of an employee’s formal job requirements, but is helpful to the organization
This material is found in more detail on pages

10. Exhibit 1-2 Companies Respected for their HR Management1.
RBC Financial Group 2.
Dofasco Inc. 3.
Magna Inter
national Inc. 4.
IBM Canada Ltd. 5.
BMO Financial Group 6. W
estJet Airlines Ltd. 7.
BCE Inc. 8
. Scotiabank Group 9.
Bombar
dier Inc.
10.
General Electric Canada Inc.
Location To r
onto
Hamilton, ON
Aur
ora, ON
Markham, ON
Montr
eal
Calgary
Montreal
Mississauga, ON
Industry
Financial services
Steelmaker
Automotive
Computers
Air transportation T
elecommunications
ransportation
Electr
onic
contr
ols/instruments
Rank on Financial
Performance 1 10 3
n/a 9 7 4
Rank on
Investment Value 5 2
Sour
ce: Adapted from R. Bloom, “
RBC Reclaims Top Spot in Survey,”
The Globe and Mail
, January 20, 2003, pp. B1, B5.
The material for this illustration is found on page 13.
Many of the firms that made the KPMG-Ipsos-Reid top 10 list of Most Respected Corporations for Human Resource Management also scored high on financial performance, and investment value.
Five of the companies placed in the top 10 on both financial measures
Eight scored in the top 10 of at least one of the financial measures.

11. How Will Knowing OB Make a Difference?
For Managers
Knowing organizational behaviour can help you manage well and makes for better corporations.
Managing people well leads to greater organizational commitment.
Finally, managing well may improve organizational citizenship.
The material for this illustration is found on pages
Organizational commitment refers to an employee’s emotional attachment to the organization, resulting in identification and involvement with the organization.
This type of commitment is often called affective commitment and represents the attitude of managers and employees who go beyond expected behaviours to provide extra service, extra insight, or whatever else is needed to get the job done.

12. How Will Knowing OB Make a Difference?
For Individuals
What if I’m not going to work in a large organization?
The theories generally apply to organizations of any size.
What if I don’t want to be a manager?
To some extent, the roles of managers and employees are becoming blurred in many organizations.
While self-employed individuals often do not act as managers, they certainly interact with other individuals and organizations as part of their work.
The material for this illustration is found on pages
Organization: A consciously coordinated social unit, composed of a group of people, that functions on a relatively continuous basis to achieve a common goal or set of goals.

13. Bottom Line: OB Is For Everyone
Organizational behaviour is not just for managers.
The roles of managers and employees are becoming blurred in many organizations.
Managers are increasingly asking employees to share in their decision-making processes rather than simply follow orders.
OB applies equally well to all situations in which you interact with others: on the basketball court, at the grocery store, in school, or in church.
The material for this illustration is found on pages

14. Contributing Disciplines to the OB Field
Psychology
Sociology
Social Psychology
Anthropology
Political Science
This material is found in more detail on pages 15-16
Psychology is the science that seeks to measure, explain, and sometimes change the behaviour of humans and other animals.
Sociology: Whereas psychologists focus on the individual, sociologists study the social system in which individuals fill their roles; that is, sociology studies people in relation to other human beings.
Social psychology is an area within psychology, but it blends concepts from psychology and sociology. It focuses on the influence of people on one another. One of the major areas receiving considerable investigation from social psychologists has been change--how to implement it and how to reduce barriers to its acceptance. processes.
Anthropology is the study of societies to learn about human beings and their activities. Anthropologists’ work on cultures and environments, for instance, has helped us understand differences in fundamental values, attitudes, and behaviour between people in different countries and within different organizations.
Political science studies the behaviour of individuals and groups within a political environment. Specific topics of concern include structuring of conflict, allocation of power, and the manipulation of power for individual self-interest.

15. Exhibit 1-3 Toward an OB Discipline
Social psychology
Psychology
Behavioural
science
Contribution
Unit of
analysis
Output
Anthropology
Sociology
Political science
Study of
Organizational
Behaviour
Organization
system
Learning
Motivation
Perception
Training
Leadership effectiveness
Job satisfaction
Individual decision making
Performance appraisal
Attitude measurement
Employee selection
Work design
Work stress
Group dynamics
Work teams
Communication
Power
Conflict
Intergroup behaviour
Formal organization theory
Organizational technology
Organizational change
Organizational culture
Intraorganizational politics
Organizational environment
Behavioural change
Attitude change
Group processes
Group decision making
Group
Comparative values
Comparative attitudes
Cross-cultural analysis
Individual
The material for this illustration is found on pages

16. The Rigour of OB OB looks at consistencies
What is common about behaviour, and helps predictability?
OB is more than common sense
Systematic study, based on scientific evidence
OB has few absolutes
OB takes a contingency approach
Considers behaviour in context
This material is found in more detail on pages
This would be a good place to get students’ views on questions such as: (1) Are happy workers always productive workers? (2) Are individuals always more productive when their boss is a real “people person?” (3) Does everyone want a challenging job?

17. Beyond Common Sense Systematic Study
Looking at relationships, attempting to attribute causes and effects and drawing conclusions based on scientific evidence
This means data are gathered under controlled conditions, and measured and interpreted in a reasonably rigorous manner—rather than relying on common sense.
This material is found in more detail on page 17.

18. Exhibit 1-4 The Layers of OB
The Organization
Change
Organizational culture
Decision making
The Group
Leadership
Power and politics
Negotiation
Conflict
Communication
The material for this illustration is found on page 18.
The Individual
Groups and teams
Motivating self and others
Emotions
Values and attitudes
Perception
Personality

19. Summary and Implications
OB is a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behaviour within an organization.
OB focuses on improving productivity, reducing absenteeism and turnover, and increasing employee job satisfaction and organizational commitment.
OB uses systematic study to improve predictions of behaviour.
This material is found in more detail on page 20.

20. OB at Work

21. For Review 1. Define organizational behaviour.
2. What is an organization? Is the family unit an organization? Explain.
3. “Behaviour is generally predictable, so there is no need to formally study OB.” Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Why?
4. What are some of the challenges and opportunities that managers face as we move into the 21st century?
5. What are the three levels of analysis in our OB model? Are they related? If so, how?
6. Why is job satisfaction an important consideration for OB?
7. What are effectiveness and efficiency, and how are they related to organizational behaviour?
8. What does it mean to say OB takes a contingency approach in its analysis of behaviour?
This material is found in more detail on page 21.

22. For Critical Thinking
1. “The best way to view OB is through a contingency approach.” Build an argument to support this statement.
2. “OB is for everyone.” Build an argument to support this statement.
3. Why do you think the subject of OB might be criticized as being “only common sense,” when one would rarely hear such a criticism of a course in physics or statistics? Do you think this criticism of OB is fair?
4. On a scale of 1 to 10 measuring the sophistication of a scientific discipline in predicting phenomena, mathematical physics would probably be a 10. Where do you think OB would fall on the scale? Why?
This material is found in more detail on page 21.

23. Learning About Yourself
Scoring Key
Director: 1, 2, Mentor: 13, 14, 15
Producer: 4, 5, 6 Facilitator: 16, 17, 18
Coordinator: 7, 8, 9 Innovator: 19, 20, 21
Monitor: 10, 11, 12 Broker: 22, 23, 24
The material for this exercise is found on page 23.
Use this to remind students of the scoring key as they fill out the survey.

24. Learning About Yourself Exercise
1. Taking initiative
2. Goal setting
3. Delegating effectively
4. Personal productivity and motivation
5. Motivating others
6. Time and stress management
7. Planning
8. Organizing
9. Controlling
10. Receiving and organizing information
11. Evaluating routine information
12. Responding to routine information
13. Understanding yourself and others
14. Interpersonal communication
15. Developing subordinates
16. Team building
17. Participative decision making
18. Conflict management
19. Living with change
20. Creative thinking
21. Managing change
22. Building and maintaining a power base
23. Negotiating agreement and commitment
24. Negotiating and selling ideas
The material for this exercise is found on page 23.
Ask students for a show of hands to determine which skills they deem most important. You can then related this to the competing values framework to indicate which areas of OB/mgt. behaviour would be weakened because of omitted skills.

25. Breakout Group Exercises
Form small groups to discuss the following topics:
1. Consider a group situation in which you have worked. To what extent did the group rely on the technical skills of the group members vs. their interpersonal skills? Which skills seemed most important in helping the group function well?
2. Identify some examples of “worst jobs.” What conditions of these jobs made them unpleasant? To what extent were these conditions related to behaviours of individuals?
3. Develop a list of “organizational puzzles,” i.e., behaviour you’ve observed in organizations that seemed to make little sense. As the term progresses, see if you can begin to explain these puzzles, using your knowledge of organizational behaviour.
This material is found in more detail on page 24.

26. Working With Others Exercise
This exercise asks you to consider the skills outlined in the Competing Values Framework to develop an understanding of managerial expertise. Steps 1–4 can be completed in 15–20 minutes.
1. Using the skills listed in “Learning About Yourself,” identify the 4 skills that you think all managers should have.
2. Identify the 4 skills that you think are least important for managers to have.
3. In groups of 5–7, reach a consensus on the most-needed and least-needed skills identified in Steps 1 and 2.
4. Using Exhibit 1-4, determine whether your “ideal” managers would have trouble managing in some dimensions of organizational demands.
The material for this exercise is found on page 24.

27. From Concepts to Skills

28. Exhibit 1-5 Competing Values Framework
Flexibility
Control
Internal Focus
External Focus
The material for this illustration is found on page 27.
In teaching this, you may want to start by having students do the Learning about Yourself and Working with Others exercises on pages 23 and 24. Debriefing the exercise will provide information about what skills students think are important, and what skills they believe they already have.
You can then point to the skill gaps, and the problems that organizations and managers would face as a result.

29. Competing Values Framework
Internal-External Dimension
Inwardly toward employee needs and concerns and/or production processes and internal systems or
Outwardly, toward such factors as the marketplace, government regulations, and the changing social, environmental, and technological conditions of the future
Flexibility-Control Dimension
Flexible and dynamic, allowing more teamwork and participation; seeking new opportunities for products and services
Controlling or stable, maintaining the status quo and exhibiting less change
This material is found in more detail on pages

30. Exhibit 1-6 Skills for Mastery in the New Workplace
Flexibility
Internal
External
Control
Mentor
Innovator
1. Understanding
yourself and others
2. Interpersonal
communication
3. Developing
subordinates
1. Team building
2. Participative
decision making
3. Conflict
management
1. Receiving and
organizing information
2. Evaluating
routine information
3. Responding to
1. Planning
2. Organizing
3. Controlling
1. Taking initiative
2. Goal setting
3. Delegating effectively
1. Personal productivity
and motivation
2. Motivating others
3. Time and stress
1. Building and maintaining
a power base
2. Negotiating agreement
and commitment
3. Negotiating and
selling ideas
1. Living with change
2. Creative thinking
3. Managing change
Facilitator
Monitor
Director
Producer
Broker
Coordinator
The material for this illustration is found on page 28.
Source: R.E. Quinn. Beyond Rational Management. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc., 1988, p. 48.

31. Supplemental Material
Slides for activities I do in my own classroom

32. Exercise In groups of 6 The interview Introduce yourselves
Pick an interviewer
Decide on questions or topics you want interviewer to ask me
The interview
Introduce interviewer to me and the class
Ask one question from your list (we will go around the groups with one question at a time)
On the first day of class I permit students to do a round-robin interview of me—each group asks one question, and we go around the room, several times until all questions have been answered. I let them ask anything they want: about the course, about me, about anything the want to know. I have found this has worked well to set the tone that all questions will be treated with respect (even if in some cases I do not give them the answer they request—for instance, my salary). I have done this for years, and have been quite happy with the results.