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Week One: What is OBE? Key definitions: • Organisations are ‘groups of people who work interdependently toward some purpose’ (McShane et al., 2013: 4) • Organisational behaviour (OB) refers to – The study of individuals and groups in organisations (Wood et al., 2016: 5) – Study of what people think, feel, and do in and around organisations (McShane et al., 2013: 4) – A field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups and structure have on behaviour within organisations, for the purpose of applying such knowledge towards improving an organisation’s effectiveness (Robbins, Judge, Millett, & Boyle, 2014: 8) • Organisational effectiveness is the ultimate dependent variable (outcome to be explained) in OB • The traditional view is that organisations are effective when they achieve their stated objectives. • Four contemporary perspectives to assess organisation’s effectiveness – Open systems, organisational learning, high performance work systems and stakeholder
Organizational effectiveness: open systems • View that effective organisations maintain a close fit with changing conditions in the external environment and are able to efficiently and effectively transform inputs into outputs External Environment
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Organizational learning: • View that effective organisations use knowledge as a primary source of competitive advantage. • Knowledge, especially human capital, can provide unique advantages to the organisation. • Knowledge management refers to the processes to capture, store, diffuse and use knowledge in a manner that will improve business performance. • Effective organisations preserve intellectual capital.
High-‐performance work systems • View that organisations should use practices that leverage human capital • Four practices that consistently add value – Employee involvement – Job autonomy – Competency development – Rewards for performance and competency development Stakeholders: • View that effective organisations consider needs and expectations of various stakeholders • Takes into account the organisation’s – Values – Ethics – Corporate social responsibility Individual level outcomes: • Organisation effectiveness often measured with individual employee behaviours – Task performance – Organisational citizenship behaviours (OCBs) or discretionary behaviours – Deviant or counterproductive work behaviours – Employee turnover (joining and staying) – Absenteeism (work attendance) Five key anchors of OBE knowledge: Applied focus – Organisational effectiveness is the ultimate dependent variable (outcome to be explained) – Performance is a function of ability, motivation and opportunity to act (Wood et al., 2016) Scientific inquiry – Characteristics of scientific inquiry – Controlled and systematic data collection – Careful testing of proposed explanation – Only accept explanations that can be verified scientifically – Goal of OB research is to – Describe behaviour – Explain behaviour – Predict behaviour – Change behaviour Multiple levels of analysis – OB emphasises 3 main levels of analysis: individual, team, & organisation
Contingency orientation – No single theory or concept works the same in every situation or for every person. – The situation and organisational context matter. – OB knowledge helps answer ‘when’ and ‘why’ behaviour happens. – Need to diagnose situation and select best strategy or action under those conditions. Multidisciplinary approach • OB develops its own theories and concepts but scans other fields for relevant theories and concepts – Psychology – Social psychology – Sociology – Anthropology – Communications – Information systems – Management – Neuroscience Managers in organisations: • Managers are responsible for work that is accomplished through performance contributions of others, often via work teams or units. • Work teams or units are task-‐oriented groups that include a manager and his/her direct reports. • Effective managers engage in both task and human resource maintenance. • Managing task performance • Productivity plus value-‐add • Managing human resources • Quality of work life • Psychological contract • Emotional intelligence Benefits of OB knowledge: • Organisational behaviour affects organisational outcomes and effectiveness (e.g., financial performance). • OB knowledge can help you be more effective in your organisations. • Contemporary organisations and managers face new and emerging challenges, many of which are already core OB concerns • Emerging challenges for managers and organisations
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Globalisation Changing nature of work Changing nature of workforce Changing nature of employer-‐employee relationship Managing change itself
Organizational effectiveness: open systems • View that effective organisations maintain a close fit with changing conditions in the external environment and are able to efficiently and effectively transform inputs into outputs External Environment
Inp ut
Internal Subsyste ms
Outp ut
Feedback
Organizational learning: • View that effective organisations use knowledge as a primary source of competitive advantage. • Knowledge, especially human capital, can provide unique advantages to the organisation. • Knowledge management refers to the processes to capture, store, diffuse and use knowledge in a manner that will improve business performance. • Effective organisations preserve intellectual capital.
High-‐performance work systems • View that organisations should use practices that leverage human capital • Four practices that consistently add value – Employee involvement – Job autonomy – Competency development – Rewards for performance and competency development Stakeholders: • View that effective organisations consider needs and expectations of various stakeholders • Takes into account the organisation’s – Values – Ethics – Corporate social responsibility Individual level outcomes: • Organisation effectiveness often measured with individual employee behaviours – Task performance – Organisational citizenship behaviours (OCBs) or discretionary behaviours – Deviant or counterproductive work behaviours – Employee turnover (joining and staying) – Absenteeism (work attendance) Five key anchors of OBE knowledge: Applied focus – Organisational effectiveness is the ultimate dependent variable (outcome to be explained) – Performance is a function of ability, motivation and opportunity to act (Wood et al., 2016) Scientific inquiry – Characteristics of scientific inquiry – Controlled and systematic data collection – Careful testing of proposed explanation – Only accept explanations that can be verified scientifically – Goal of OB research is to – Describe behaviour – Explain behaviour – Predict behaviour – Change behaviour Multiple levels of analysis – OB emphasises 3 main levels of analysis: individual, team, & organisation
Contingency orientation – No single theory or concept works the same in every situation or for every person. – The situation and organisational context matter. – OB knowledge helps answer ‘when’ and ‘why’ behaviour happens. – Need to diagnose situation and select best strategy or action under those conditions. Multidisciplinary approach • OB develops its own theories and concepts but scans other fields for relevant theories and concepts – Psychology – Social psychology – Sociology – Anthropology – Communications – Information systems – Management – Neuroscience Managers in organisations: • Managers are responsible for work that is accomplished through performance contributions of others, often via work teams or units. • Work teams or units are task-‐oriented groups that include a manager and his/her direct reports. • Effective managers engage in both task and human resource maintenance. • Managing task performance • Productivity plus value-‐add • Managing human resources • Quality of work life • Psychological contract • Emotional intelligence Benefits of OB knowledge: • Organisational behaviour affects organisational outcomes and effectiveness (e.g., financial performance). • OB knowledge can help you be more effective in your organisations. • Contemporary organisations and managers face new and emerging challenges, many of which are already core OB concerns • Emerging challenges for managers and organisations
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Globalisation Changing nature of work Changing nature of workforce Changing nature of employer-‐employee relationship Managing change itself
