Introducing Organizational Behaviour

1. Introducing Organizational Behaviour Chapter 1: pp.13-28 Organizational Behavior 261 Gabrielle Durepos

2. Reminders • Attendance • Make sure you are registered for this class • Check the Globe and Mail for articles for your assignment • You want to avoid being limited to articles that appear in the week that the assignment is due • Assignment is due October 1st, 2012 • Group formation is due on September 19th 2012

3. Outline • What is OB • Why Study OB • Different approaches to OB • The Roots of OB • Quick overview of One of Many Different approaches to OB: • Managerialist • Conclusions

4. What is Organizational Behaviour?1/2 • The study of relationships between the behavior of people in organizations and: • Individual (self-esteem) • Organizational (effectiveness) • Societal (gender, racial discrimination) • Organizations include: • For profit business • Not for profit organizations • Any institution (church, school) • Any collective with a common goal with individuals who work together

5. What is Organizational Behaviour?2/2 • Multidisciplinary as a field of study • Psychology • Sociology • Anthropology • What is the difference between • Macro OB • Focus on collectives and teams • Focus on what happens between individuals • Micro OB • Focus on individuals – individual level of analysis • Focus on what happens within individuals

6. Why Study Organizational Behavior? • We live in an organizational world • Organizations SHAPE our expectations of how people should behave • Shape our expectations of how we should behave • Normalize… • Many key decisions that affect our lives occur in organizations • The success of an organization depends on individuals involved • Organizations affect: • Individuals, clients, customers • Local communities • Nation states • World events

7. Different Approaches to OB • What is an ‘approach’? • A paradigm • A lens • Managerialist approach (mainstream) • This is the dominant approach • Alternative approaches: • Actionalist (interpretive) approach • Radical approach • Feminist • Racioethnicity • Postmodern • There is NO correct approach, some are more comfortable… • QUESTION: why are these different approaches important? • “But Gabie… no one else cares except academics…”I want you tochallenge this... Give me an instance where we see groups who have adopted each a particular approach – and are in conversation…

8. The Roots of Organizational Behavior 1/5 • OB developed from an interest in: • Improving efficiency • Improving profitability • And everything else leading to this such as: • Human relations at work • Culture at work • Diversity at work • Gender at work

9. The Roots of Organizational Behavior 2/5 • Frederick Taylor • Midvale steel company • Concerned with efficiency • Develops Scientific Approach to Management • Taylor believed that inefficiency is due to: • Attitudes of workers • Deliberately restricting output “Systematic Soldering” • Methods of work • Left to workers who were inefficient • System of management control • Managers exert arbitrary control

10. The Roots of Organizational Behavior 3/5 • Taylor corrects the perceived problems at Midvale through: • Work design and standardization • Chose routine tasks • Finding the “one best way” • Producing a standardized way of completing a task • Employee selection • The correct employee for a particular job • Employee Motivation • How to improve attitudes? • Piece work payment incentives • Hierarchal control • Managers use rules and regulations associated with their job to exercise control • Taylor writes “Principles of Scientific Management” • Refines his theories at Bethlehem Iron Company • Begins consulting • His ideas spread throughout the 1920’s and beyond in the: • United States • Soviet Union • Italy

11. The Roots of Organizational Behavior 4/5 • Taylor is very influential to the study of OB: • Job redesign • Structure of organizations • Selection • Training • Motivation • Managerial control and style • His ideas commonly known as: • Scientific Management • Taylorism

12. The Roots of Organizational Behavior 5/5 • Frank and Lillian Gilbreth: Time and Motion Studies • Eliminate workplace fatigue • Roethlisberger and Dickson: The Hawthorn Studies at Western Electric • Focus on factors of “human relations” • Focused on communication, participation, leadership • People are motivated by social as well as economic rewards • Look at group membership and how this affects behavior • These theorists were all in: • Industry as they developed theories • Time of mass change and industrialization

13. Quick overview of different approaches to OB:The Managerialist Approach • Steams from the work of Taylor, Gilbreth, Roethlisberger and Dickson and others • The most dominant; usually taken for granted as being the only approach • From the managers point of view • Concern with: • Understanding how behavior leads to: Improved efficiency, productivity, profitability, growth • Definition is: • Investigates the impact that individuals, groups and structures have on behavior within organizations to improve effectiveness • Also known as (sort of): • Mainstream • Functionalist • Clinical

14. Conclusions • Different approaches to OB yield different definitions • Today we have focused on a Managerial approach, next class we will explore: • Actionalist • Radical • Feminist • Racioethnicity • And do the ‘Norma Rae Exercise’ • No approach is “superior” or “correct”