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Organizational Behaviour Chapter 1

Organizational Psychology

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Agenda for today

y Introduction to Organizational Psychology + chapter 1

y General info:

y Fronter: navigation, changing passwords, e-mail-

adresses etc.y Attendance

y Expectations: What makes FIMA 11X an effective

organization? Code of conduct etc.

y InterCultureClub (on Facebook)

y Anything else?

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Organizational Psychology

y Organizational Psychology's place in the curriculum

1st semester ending in an exam

Organizational Development 7th semester

y Robbins et al. This semester: chapters 1, 6, 7, 9, 10, 15-17(later on: more chapters from the book don't sell the book )

y Oral exam after 1st semester based on a case

y Confer Activity Plan

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Some definitions

y Organizational Behaviour: A field of study that investigates

the impact that individuals, groups and structure have on

behaviour within organizations, for the purpose of applying

such knowledge toward improving an organization's

effectiveness (OB p. 7)

y Organization: A consciously coordinated social unit,

composed of two or more people, that functions on a

relatively continuous basis to achieve a common goal or sets

of goals (OB p. 4)

y Manager: Individuals who achieve goals through other

people (OB p. 4)

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What managers do Functions1. Planning:

Define goals (organizational, departmental, worker levels)Establish an overall strategy for achieving those goals

Develop a comprehensive hierarchy of plans to integrate and coordinate

activities

2. Organizing:

Determine what tasks are to be done

Who is to be assigned the tasks

How the tasks are to be grouped

Who reports to whom

Where decisions are to be made

(centralized/decentralized)

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3. Leading:

Motivate employees

Direct the activities of others

Select the most effective communication channelsResolve conflicts among members

4. Controlling:

Monitor the organizations performance

Compare actual performance with the previously set goals

Correct significant deviations.

What do managers do? functions

- continued

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Interpersonal (Figurehead, leadership and liason)

Informational (Monitor, disseminator and spokesperson)

Decisional (entrepreneur, disturbance handler,

resource allocator and negotiator)

What managers do Roles

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Technical skills (ability to apply specialized

knowledge or expertise)

Human skills (ability to work with, understand, and motivate

other people, both individually and in groups)

Conceptual skills (The mental ability to analyze and

diagnose complex situations)

H

opefully you will acquire all these skills through the FIM

AProgramme in general including Organizational

Psychology

What managers do Skills

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The importance of interpersonal

skills

y Interpersonal skills, people skills, human skills...

y Human skills = The ability to work with, understand and

motivate other people, both individually and in groups

yManagers achieve goals through other people - this meansthat human skills are hugely important

y Human skills may be even more important in the financial

sector because the sector sells services the product more or

less is the person

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The Contingency Approach

y God gave all the easy problems to the physicists (p. 12)

y Human behaviour in general (e.g. organizational behaviour) is

very complex. This means that there are no easy solutions, that

there is no single way of organizing that is superior, no singleway of managing that is always the best etc.

y What is the right solution? That depends on the situation

contingency variables.

What is the best way of managing people? What motivates people?

What kind of organization structure should we choose?

Answer: it all depends

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The Contingency Approach

Examples of contingency variables

y The national culture e.g. one leadership style may be more

appropriate in one culture than in another

y The size of the organization

yThe competitive situation

y The age of the organization

y The type of the organizations environment (stable?

dynamic?)

y The technology of the organization

y The type of product/service

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The Contingency Approach cont.

One size fits

all

(The best

solution is the

best in any

situation)

Relativism

(All solutions

are equally

good)

The

contingency

approach

(Some

solutions arebetter than

others but it

depends on

the situation)

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In relation to the subject of

Organizational Psychology

y Organizational Psychology does not offer easy solutions and

not always clear answers

y Organizational Psychology is one of the more soft subjects

in the programmey However: this does NOT mean that all suggestions are

equally good!

y It is very important that you are able to reflect on the

situation and that you refer to theory instead of just usingcommon sense.

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The different analytical levels

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General challenges for OB Responding to globalization

Managing workforce diversity

Improving quality & productivity

Responding to labor shortage

Improving customer service Empowering people

Improving people skills

Coping with temporariness

Stimulating innovation & change

Helping employees balance work-life conflicts

Creating a positive work environment

Improving ethical behaviour