1. Introduction to the Field of Organizational Behavior
McGraw-Hill/Irwin
McShane/Von Glinow OB 5e
Copyright © 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

2. Pixar Animation Studios
OB practices have helped Pixar Animation Studios to become the world’s most successful animation studio
Employee competencies
People-centered
Teamwork and org learning
Constructive conflict
John Lassiter Chief Creative Officer of Pixar and Disney
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3. Organizational Behavior and Organizations
The study of what people think, feel, and do in and around organizations
Organizations
Groups of people who work interdependently toward some purpose
John Lassiter Chief Creative Officer of Pixar and Disney
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4. OB Foundations Distinct field around the 1940s
OB concepts discussed for more than 2,000 years
Some pivotal scholars before OB formed include:
Max Weber
Frederick Winslow Taylor
Elton Mayo
Chester Barnard (shown)
Mary Parker Follett
Chester Barnard
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5. Why Study OB? Satisfy the need to understand and predict
Helps us to test personal theories
Influence behavior – get things done
OB improves an organization’s financial health
OB is for everyone
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6. Old Perspective of Organizational Effectiveness
Goal oriented -- Effective firms achieve their stated objectives
No longer accepted as indicator of org effectiveness
Could set easy goals
Some goals too abstract to evaluate
Company might achieve wrong goals
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7. Four Perspectives of Organizational Effectiveness
Open Systems Perspective
Organizational Learning Perspective
High-Performance WP Perspective
Stakeholder Perspective
NOTE: Need to consider all four perspectives when assessing a company’s effectiveness
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8. Open Systems Perspective
Organizations are complex systems that “live” within (and depend upon) the external environment
Effective organizations
Maintain a close “fit” with changing conditions
Transform inputs to outputs efficiently and flexibly
Open systems perspective lays the foundation for the other three perspectives or organizational effectiveness
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9. Open Systems Perspective
Feedback
Environment
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10. Organizational Learning Perspective
An organization’s capacity to acquire, share, use, and store valuable knowledge
Need to consider both stock and flow of knowledge
Stock: intellectual capital
Flow: org learning processes of acquisition, sharing, and use
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11. Intellectual Capital Human Capital Structural Capital
Knowledge that people possess and generate
Structural Capital
Knowledge captured in systems and structures
Relationship Capital
Value derived from satisfied customers, reliable suppliers, etc.
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12. Organizational Learning Processes
KNOWLEDGE
ACQUISITION
KNOWLEDGE
SHARING
KNOWLEDGE
USE
Extracting information and ideas from its environment as well as through insight
Distributing knowledge throughout the organization
Applying knowledge to organizational processes in ways that improves the organization’s effectiveness
Examples in practice
Hiring skilled staff
Posting case studies on intranet
Giving staff freedom to try out ideas
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13. Organizational Memory
The storage and preservation of intellectual capital
Retain intellectual capital by:
Keeping knowledgeable employees
Transferring knowledge to others
Transferring human capital to structural capital
Successful companies also unlearn
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14. High Performance Work Practices (HPWPs)
HPWPs are internal systems and structures that are associated with successful companies
Employees are competitive advantage
Value of employees increased through specific practices.
Maximum benefit when org practices are bundled
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15. High Performance Work Practices
No consensus, but HPWPs include:
Employee involvement and job autonomy (and their combination as self-directed teams).
Employee competence (training, selection, etc.).
Performance-based rewards
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16. Stakeholder Perspective
Stakeholders: any entity who affects or is affected by the firm’s objectives and actions
Personalizes the open systems perspective
Challenges with stakeholder perspective:
Stakeholders have conflicting interests
Firms have limited resources
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17. Stakeholder Perspective
Lockheed Martin is rated by engineering students as an “ideal” employer
Pays attention to its many stakeholders
Relies on values and ethics to guide decisions
Strong emphasis on corporate social responsibility (e.g. photo shows clean-up after hurricane Katrina)
Lockheed Martin
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18. Stakeholders: Values and Ethics
Values and ethics prioritize stakeholder interests
Values
Stable, evaluative beliefs, guide preferences for outcomes or courses of action in various situations
Ethics
Moral principles/values, determine whether actions are right/wrong and outcomes are good or bad
Lockheed Martin
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19. Stakeholders and CSR
Stakeholder perspective includes corporate social responsibility (CSR)
Benefit society and environment beyond the firm’s immediate financial interests or legal obligations
Organization’s contract with society
Triple bottom line
Economy, society, environment
Lockheed Martin
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20. Types of Individual Behavior
Task Performance
Goal-directed behaviors under person’s control
Organizational Citizenship
Contextual performance – cooperation and helpfulness beyond required job duties
more
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21. Types of Individual Behavior (con’t)
Counterproductive Work Behaviors
Voluntary behaviors that potentially harm the organization
Joining/staying with the Organization
Agreeing to employment relationship; remaining in that relationship
Maintaining Work Attendance
Attending work at required times
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22. Globalization
Economic, social, and cultural connectivity with people in other parts of the world
Effects of globalization on organizations
New structures
Increasing diversity
Increasing competitive pressures, intensification
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23. Increasing Workforce Diversity
Surface-level diversity
Observable demographic and other overt differences in people (e.g. race, ethnicity, gender, age)
Deep-level diversity
Differences in psychological characteristics (e.g. personalities, beliefs, values, and attitudes)
Example: Differences across age cohorts (e.g. Gen-Y)
Implications
Leveraging the diversity advantage
Also diversity challenges (e.g. teams, conflict)
Ethical imperative of diversity
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24. Employment Relationships
Work/life balance
Minimizing conflict between work and nonwork demands number one indicator of career success
Virtual work
Using information technology to perform one’s job away from the traditional physical workplace
Telework – issues of replacing face time, clarifying employment expectations
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25. Organizational Behavior Anchors
Multidisciplinary anchor
Many OB concepts adopted from other disciplines
OB develops its own theories, but scans other fields
Systematic research anchor
OB researchers rely on scientific method
Should apply evidence-based management, but…
Bombarded with theories and models
Challenge translating general theories to specific situations
Swayed by consultant marketing
Perceptual biases -- ignoring evidence contrary to our beliefs
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26. Organizational Behavior Anchors (con’t)
Contingency anchor
A particular action may have different consequences in different situations
Need to diagnose the situation and select best strategy under those conditions
Multiple levels of analysis anchor
Individual, team, organizational level of analysis
OB topics usually relevant at all three levels of analysis
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27. Introduction to the Field of Organizational Behavior
McGraw-Hill/Irwin
McShane/Von Glinow OB 5e
Copyright © 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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