This document provides an overview of organizational behavior (OB). It defines OB as the systematic study of individual, group, and organizational behaviors to improve organizational effectiveness. The document outlines several major challenges and opportunities for managers to apply OB concepts, such as responding to globalization, managing diversity, and improving innovation. It also describes the contributions of various behavioral science disciplines to OB and identifies three levels of analysis - individual, group, and organizational. Finally, the document presents a basic OB model that relates independent variables like personality and organizational culture to dependent variables like productivity and job satisfaction.

1. ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

2. 1–2
AFTER STUDYING THIS CHAPTER,
YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO:
1. Define organizational behavior (OB).
2. Explain the value of the systematic study of
OB.
3. List the major challenges and opportunities
for managers to use OB concepts.
4. Identify the contributions made by major
behavioral science disciplines to OB.
L
E
A
R
N
I
N
G
O
B
J
E
C
T
I
V
E
S

3. 1–3
AFTER STUDYING THIS CHAPTER,
YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO:
6. Describe why managers require a knowledge
of OB.
7. Explain the need for a contingency approach
to the study of OB.
8. Identify the three levels of analysis in this
book’s model.
L
E
A
R
N
I
N
G
O
B
J
E
C
T
I
V
E
S

4. 1–4
Definition of Organizational Behavior

5. Definition of Organizational Behavior
For better understanding, we can break down the
definition:
OB is a field of study, meaning that it is a distinct area of
knowledge.
It studies three determinants of behavior in
organizations: individuals, groups, and organizational
structure.
OB applies the gained knowledge toward improving the
effectiveness of the organization.
1–5

6. Definition of Organizational Behavior
To sum up our definition, OB is concerned with the study
of what people do in an organization and how their
behaviors affect the organization’s performance.
OB generally includes the core topics of attitude, job
satisfaction, perception, personality, values,
learning, motivation, leadership, power,
interpersonal communication, group structure,
teams, change processes, conflicts, work design,
and work stress, etc.
1–6

7. 1–7
Replacing Intuition with Systematic Study

8. Replacing Intuition with Systematic Study
Intuition refers to an ability to understand or know something
immediately based on your feelings rather than facts.
OB uses systematic approach rather than intuition in predicting
behavior.
Systematic study of behavior is a means of making reasonably
accurate predictions.
Using Intuition (commonsense approach) to study behavior can
often lead to erroneous predictions.
The another limit of intuition is that we tend to overestimate the
accuracy of what we think we know.
1–8

9. 1–9
Contributing Disciplines to the OB Field
E X H I B I T 1-3a

10. 1–10
Contributing Disciplines to the OB Field (cont’d)
E X H I B I T 1-3b
Sociology
Sociology studies people in relation to
their social environment or culture.

11. 1–11
Contributing Disciplines to the OB Field (cont’d)
E X H I B I T 1-3c

12. 1–12
Contributing Disciplines to the OB Field (cont’d)
E X H I B I T 1-3d

13. 1–13
Contributing Disciplines to the OB Field (cont’d)
E X H I B I T 1-3f

14. 1–14
Challenges and Opportunity for OB
1. Responding to Globalization
2. Managing Workforce Diversity
3. Improving Quality and Productivity
4. Responding to the Labor Shortage
5. Improving Customer Service
6. Improving People Skills
7. Empowering People
8. Coping with “Temporariness”
9. Stimulating Innovation and Change
10. Helping Employees Balance Work/Life Conflicts
11. Improving Ethical Behavior

15. 1–15
Challenges and Opportunity for OB (cont’d)
1. Responding to Globalization:
Organizations are no longer constrained by national
borders. The world has become a global village. Due
to globalization, the manager’s job is changing in the
following areas:
a. Increased Foreign Assignments
b. Working with People from Different Cultures
c. Coping with Anticapitalism Backlash
d. Overseeing Movement of Jobs to Countries with Low-
Cost Labor
e. Managing People During War or Terror

16. 1–16
Challenges and Opportunity for OB (cont’d)
2. Managing Workforce Diversity:
Whereas globalization focuses on differences
between people from different countries, workforce
diversity addresses differences among people within
given countries.
Workforce diversity means that organizations are
becoming a more heterogeneous mix of people in terms
of gender, age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation,
religion, mentality, culture, education, etc.
Managing this diversity has become a major concern for
managers.

17. 1–17
Challenges and Opportunity for OB (cont’d)
2. Managing Workforce Diversity:
Implications:
Managers have to shift their philosophy from treating
everyone alike to recognizing and responding to the
differences among people to ensure employee retention
and greater productivity without making discrimination.

18. 1–18
Challenges and Opportunity for OB (cont’d)
3. Improving Quality and Productivity:
In the 1990s, organizations around the world added
capacity in response to increased demand.
Excess capacity translates into increased competition.
And increased competition is forcing managers to
reduce costs and at the same time, improve
organization’s productivity and the quality of products
and services.

19. 1–19
Challenges and Opportunity for OB (cont’d)
4. Improving Customer Service:
Today, the majority of employees in developed
countries work in service jobs.
For instance, 80% of U.S. labor force is employed in
service industries.
But many organizations have failed because their
employees failed to please customers.
OB provides considerable guidance for creating a
customer-responsive culture.

20. 1–20
Challenges and Opportunity for OB (cont’d)
5. Improving People Skills:
In the era of competition, improving people’s skills are
very crucial to managerial effectiveness and success of
an organization.
In addition to explaining and predicting behavior of
people at work, OB shows us ways to design motivating
jobs, techniques for improving employees’ listening and
interpersonal skills, and how to create more effective
teams.

21. 1–21
Challenges and Opportunity for OB (cont’d)
6. Stimulating Innovation and Change:
Today’s successful organizations must foster innovation
and master the art of change, or they will become
candidates for extinction.
The challenge for the managers is to stimulate their
employees’ innovation and creativity and tolerance for
change.
The field of OB provides a wealth of ideas and
techniques to help in realizing these goals.

22. 1–22
Challenges and Opportunity for OB (cont’d)
7. Coping with “Temporariness”:
Evidence of temporariness is everywhere in the
organization: temporary workers, flexible teams,
subcontracting jobs, temporary nature of jobs, etc.
Today’s managers and employees must learn to cope with
temporariness. They have to learn to live with flexibility,
and unpredictability.
The field of OB can help us understand a world of
continual change, how to overcome resistance to change,
and how to survive on resulting temporariness.

23. 1–23
Challenges and Opportunity for OB (cont’d)
8. Working in Networked Organizations:
Computerization, internet and the ability to link computers
within organizations and between organizations have
created a different workplace for many employees – a
networked organization.
The manager’s job is different in a networked organization,
especially when it comes to managing people.
The field of OB can provide valuable insights for managing
people in a networked organization.

24. 1–24
Challenges and Opportunity for OB (cont’d)
8. Working in Networked Organizations:
Computerization, internet and the ability to link computers
within organizations and between organizations have
created a different workplace for many employees – a
networked organization.
The manager’s job is different in a networked organization,
especially when it comes to managing people.
The field of OB can provide valuable insights for managing
people in a networked organization.

25. 1–25
Challenges and Opportunity for OB (cont’d)
9. Helping Employees Balance Work–Life Conflicts :
Employees are increasingly recognizing that work is
infringing on their personal lives, and they are not happy
about it.
For example, recent studies suggest that employees want
jobs that give them flexibility in their work schedules so
they can better manage Work–Life Conflicts .
The field of OB offers a number of suggestions in
designing work schedules and jobs that can help
employees deal with Work–Life Conflicts.

26. 1–26
Challenges and Opportunity for OB (cont’d)
10. Creating a Positive Work Environment:
Now a days, some OB researchers are strongly focusing
on Positive Organizational Scholarship (also called
Positive Organizational Behavior), which concerns how
organizations can develop human strengths, foster vitality,
and unlock potential.
These researchers argue that too much of OB research
have focused on the identifying what’s wrong with the
organizations and employees.
Positive Organizational Scholarship challenges
organizations to think how to explore the employees’
strengths rather than the limitations.

27. 1–27
Challenges and Opportunity for OB (cont’d)
11. Improving Ethical Behavior:
Members of the organizations are increasing facing ethical
dilemmas, situations in which they become confused to
define right and wrong conduct.
OB can suggest kinds of actions the managers can take to
create an ethically healthy work environment.

28. 1–28
E X H I B I T 1-6
Basic OB Model

29. 1–29
Dependent Variables of OB Model (cont’d)
1. Productivity
2. Absenteeism
3. Turnover
4. Deviant Workplace Behavior
5. Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB)
6. Job Satisfaction

30. 1–30
Independent Variables of OB Model (cont’d)
1. Individual-level Variables
2. Group-level Variables
3. Organization-level Variables

31. 1–31
The Dependent Variables (cont’d)

32. 1–32
The Dependent Variables (cont’d)

33. 1–33
The Dependent Variables (cont’d)
Deviant workplace behavior is a voluntary behavior
that violates significant organizational norms and, in doing
so, threatens the well-being of the organization.
For example, an employee may insult a colleague,
steal, gossip excessively, or engage in sabotage.
Managers want to understand the source of workplace
deviant behaviors in order to avoid a chaotic work
environment.
Deviant Workplace Behavior

34. 1–34
The Dependent Variables (cont’d)

35. 1–35
The Dependent Variables (cont’d)

36. 1–36
The Independent Variables
Independent
Variables
Individual-Level
Variables
Organization
System-Level
Variables
Group-Level
Variables

37. 1–37
Independent Variables of OB Model (cont’d)
1. Biographical characteristics: age, gender, race,
marital status, and length of service
2. Personality and emotions
3. Values and attitudes
4. Ability
5. Perception
6. Learning
7. Motivation
Individual-Level Variables

38. 1–38
Independent Variables of OB Model (cont’d)
1. Group structure
2. Work teams
3. Group decision making
4. Conflict
5. Leadership and trust
6. Communication
7. Power and politics
Group-Level Variables

39. 1–39
Independent Variables of OB Model (cont’d)
1. Organization structure
2. Organizational culture
3. Human resource policies and practices
Organization-Level Variables

40. 1–40
THE END
OF
THE CHAPTER
THANK YOU