1. .
Introduction
to the Field of
Organizational Behaviour
1

2. Nortel Networks and OB
Nortel Networks has
leveraged the power of
organizational behaviour to
become one of the world’s
leading high technology
companies.
D. Chan. Ottawa Citizen
2

3. What are Organizations?
Groups of people who
work interdependently
toward some purpose
– Structured patterns of
interaction
– Coordinated tasks
– Work toward some
purpose
D. Chan. Ottawa Citizen
3

4. Why Study Organizational Behaviour
Understand
organizational
events
Organizational
Behaviour
Research
Influence Predict
organizational organizational
events events
4

5. Trends: Globalization
• New organizational structures
• Different forms of communication
• Increases competition, change,
mergers, downsizing, stress
• Need to be more sensitive to cultural
differences
5

6. Trends: Workforce Diversity
• Primary and secondary diversity
• More women in workforce and
professions
• Different needs of Generation-X and
baby-boomers
• Diversity has advantages, but firms
need to adjust
6

7. Trends: Employment Relationship
• Employability
• Contingent work
• Telecommuting
• Virtual teams
7

8. Trends: Information Technology
• Affects how employees interact
– Virtual teams
– Telecommuting
• Affects how organizations are configured
– Network structures
• Affects how firms relate to customers
– Communication issues
8

9. Trends: Lots of Teams
• Potentially more effective than
employees working alone
• Concern is when to assign tasks to
teams rather than to individuals
9

10. Trends: Business Ethics
• The study of moral principles or values
that determine whether actions are right
or wrong and outcomes are good or bad
• What is unethical is not always obvious
10

11. Organizational Behaviour Anchors
Multidisciplinary
anchor
Systematic
Open systems Organizational research
anchor
Behaviour anchor
Anchors
Multiple levels
Contingency
of analysis
anchor
anchor
11

12. Open Systems Anchor of OB
Feedback Feedback
Subsystem Subsystem
Inputs Organization Outputs
Subsystem Subsystem
12

13. Knowledge Management Defined
Any structured activity that
improves an organization’s
capacity to acquire, share,
and use knowledge for its
survival and success
13

14. Intellectual Capital
• Human capital
– Knowledge that employees possess
and generate
• Structural capital
– Knowledge captured in systems and
structures
• Relationship capital
– Value derived from satisfied customers,
reliable suppliers, and others
14

15. Knowledge Management Processes
Vancouver-based PMC-
Sierra bought start-up firm
Extreme Packet Devices for
$600 million because it
needed to acquire knowledge
faster than through in-house
research. R. MacIvor. Ottawa Citizen
15

16. Knowledge Management Processes
• Knowledge acquisition
– Grafting, learning,
experimentation
• Knowledge sharing
– Communication
– Communities of practice
• Knowledge use R. MacIvor. Ottawa Citizen
– Awareness
– Freedom to apply
knowledge
16

17. Organizational Memory
• The storage and preservation of
intellectual capital
• Retain intellectual capital by:
– Keeping knowledgable employees
– Transferring knowledge to others
– Transferring human capital to structural
capital
17