Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Introduction
Organizational Behavior (OB) is the study and
application of knowledge about how people,
individuals, and groups act in organizations. It
does this by taking a s y s t e m a p p r o a c h .
That is, it interprets peopleorganization
relationships in terms of the whole person,
whole group, whole organization, and whole
social system. Its purpose is to build better
relationships by achieving human objectives,
organizational objectives, and social objectives.
As you can see from the definition above,
organizational behavior encompasses a wide
range of topics, such as human behavior,
change, leadership, teams, etc. Since many of
these topics are covered elsewhere in the
leadership guide, this paper will focus on a few
parts of OB: elements, models, social systems,
OD, work life, action learning, and change.
Elements of
Organizational
Behavior
The organization's base rests on management's
philosophy, values, vision and goals. This in turn
drives the organizational culture which is
composed of the formal organization, informal
organization, and the social environment. The
culture determines the type of leadership,
communication, and group dynamics within the
organization. The workers perceive this as the
quality of work life which directs their degree of
motivation. The final outcome are performance,
individual satisfaction, and personal growth and
development. All these elements combine to
build the model or framework that the
organization operates from.
Models of
Organizational
Behavior
There are four major models or frameworks that
organizations operate out of:
o Autocratic The basis of this model is power
with a managerial orientation of authority. The
employees in turn are oriented towards
obedience and dependence on the boss. The
employee need that is met is subsistence. The
performance result is minimal.
o Custodial The basis of this model is
economic resources with a managerial
orientation of money. The employees in turn
are oriented towards security and benefits and
dependence on the organization. The
employee need that is met is security. The
performance result is passive cooperation.
o Supportive The basis of this model is
leadership with a managerial orientation of
support. The employees in turn are oriented
towards job performance and participation.
The employee need that is met is status and
recognition. The performance result is
awakened drives.
o Collegial The basis of this model is
partnership with a managerial orientation of
teamwork. The employees in turn are oriented
towards responsible behavior and self
discipline. The employee need that is met is
selfactualization. The performance result is
moderate enthusiasm.
Although there are four separate models, almost
no organization operates exclusively in one.
There will usually be a predominate one, with
one or more areas overlapping in the other
models.
The first model, autocratic, has its roots in the
industrial revolution. The managers of this type
of organization operate out of McGregor's
Theory X. The next three models begin to build
on McGregor's Theory Y. They have each
evolved over a period of time and there is no
one "best" model. The collegial model should
not be thought as the last or best model, but the
beginning of a new model or paradigm.
Social Systems,
Culture, and
Individualization
A social system is a complex set of human
relationships interacting in many ways. Within
an organization, the social system includes all
the people in it and their relationships to each
other and to the outside world. The behavior of
one member can have an impact, either directly
or indirectly, on the behavior of others. Also, the
social system does not have boundaries...it
exchanges goods, ideas, culture, etc. with the
environment around it.
Culture is the conventional behavior of a society
that encompasses beliefs, customs, knowledge,
and practices. It influences human behavior,
even though it seldom enters into their
conscious thought. People depend on culture as
it gives them stability, security, understanding,
and the ability to respond to a given situation.
This is why people fear change. They fear the
system will become unstable, their security will
be lost, they will not understand the new
process, and they will not know how to respond
to the new situations.
Individualization is when employees
successfully exert influence on the social
system by challenging the culture.
Impact Of
Individualization
On A Organization
___________________________
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High | |
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| |
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| Conformity | Creative
|
| |
Individualism |
| |
|
Socialization |_______________|
_______________|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
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| Isolation | Rebellion
|
| |
|
| |
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Low |_______________|
_______________|
Low Individualization
High
The chart above (Schein, 1968) shows how
individualization affects different organizations:
o Too little socialization and too little
individualization creates isolation.
o Too high socialization and too little
individualization creates conformity.
o Too little socialization and too high
individualization creates rebellion.
o While the match that organizations want to
create is high socialization and high
individualization for a creative environment.
This is what it takes to survive in a very
competitive environment...having people grow
with the organization, but doing the right thing
when others want to follow the easy path.
This can become quite a balancing act.
Individualism favors individual rights, loosely
knit social networks, self respect, and personal
rewards and careers. It becomes look out for
number 1! Socialization or collectivism favors
the group, harmony, and asks "What is best for
the organization?" Organizations need people to
challenge, question, and experiment while still
maintaining the culture that binds them into a
social system.
Organization
Development
Organization Development (OD) is the
systematic application of behavioral science
knowledge at various levels, such as group,
intergroup, organization, etc., to bring about
planned change. Its objectives is a higher
quality of worklife, productivity, adaptability, and
effectiveness. It accomplishes this by changing
attitudes, behaviors, values, strategies,
procedures, and structures so that the
organization can adapt to competitive actions,
technological advances, and the fast pace of
c h a n g e within the environment.
There are seven characteristics of OD:
1. Humanistic Values: Positive beliefs about the
potential of employees (McGregor's Theory
Y).
2. Systems Orientation: All parts of the
organization, to include structure, technology,
and people, must work together.
3. Experiential Learning: The learners'
experiences in the training environment
should be the kind of human problems they
encounter at work. The training should NOT
be all theory and lecture.
4. Problem Solving: Problems are identified, data
is gathered, corrective action is taken,
progress is assessed, and adjustments in the
problem solving process are made as needed.
This process is known as Action Research.
5. Contingency Orientation: Actions are selected
and adapted to fit the need.
6. Change Agent: Stimulate, facilitate, and
coordinate change.
7. Levels of Interventions: Problems can occur at
one or more level in the organization so the
strategy will require one or more interventions.
Quality of Work Life (QWL) is the favorableness
or unfavorableness of the job environment. Its
purpose is to develop jobs and working
conditions that are excellent for both the
employees and the organization. One of the
ways of accomplishing QWL is through job
design. Some of the options available for
improving job design are:
o Leave the job as is but employ only people
who like the rigid environment or routine work.
Some people do enjoy the security and task
support of these kinds of jobs.
o Leave the job as is, but pay the employees
more.
o Mechanize and automate the routine jobs.
o And the area that OD loves redesign the job.
When redesigning jobs there are two spectrums
to follow job enlargement and job enrichment.
Job enlargement adds a more variety of tasks
and duties to the job so that it is not as
monotonous. This takes in the b r e a d t h of the
job. That is, the number of different tasks that
an employee performs. This can also be
accomplished by job rotation.
Job enrichment, on the other hand, adds
additional motivators. It adds d e p t h to the job
more control, responsibility, and discretion to
how the job is performed. This gives higher
order needs to the employee, as opposed to job
enlargement which simply gives more variety.
The chart below (Cunningham & Eberle, 1990)
illustrates the differences:
The benefits of enriching jobs include:
o Growth of the individual
o Individuals have better job satisfaction
o Selfactualization of the individual
o Better employee performance for the
organization
o Organization gets intrinsically motivated
employees
o Less absenteeism, turnover, and grievances
for the organization
o Full use of human resources for society
o Society gains more effective organizations
There are a variety of methods for improving job
enrichment:
o Skill Variety: Perform different tasks that
require different skill. This differs from job
enlargement which might require the
employee to perform more tasks, but require
the same set of skills.
o Task Identity: Create or perform a complete
piece of work. This gives a sense of
completion and responsibility for the product.
o Task Significant: This is the amount of
impact that the work has on other people as
the employee perceives.
o Autonomy: This gives employees discretion
and control over job related decisions.
o Feedback: Information that tells workers how
well they are performing. It can come directly
from the job (task feedback) or verbally form
someone else.
Action Learning
An unheralded British academic was invited to
try out his theories in Belgium it led to an
upturn in the Belgian economy. "Unless your
ideas are ridiculed by experts they are worth
nothing," says the British academic Reg
Revans, creator of action learning [L = P + Q]
learning occurs through a combination of
programmed knowledge (P) and the ability to
ask insightful questions (Q).
Action learning has been widely used in Europe
for combining formal management training with
learning from experience. A typical program is
conducted over a period of 6 to 9 months.
Teams of learners with diverse backgrounds
conduct field projects on complex organizational
problems requiring use of skills learned in
formal training sessions. The learning teams
then meet periodically with a skilled instructor to
discuss, analyze, and learn from their
experiences.
Revans basis his learning method on a theory
called "System Beta," in that the learning
process should closely approximate the
"scientific method." The model is cyclical you
proceed through the steps and when you reach
the last step you relate the analysis to the
original hypothesis and if need be, start the
process again. The six steps are:
o Formulate Hypothesis (an idea or concept)
o Design Experiment (consider ways of testing
truth or validity of idea or concept)
o Apply in Practice (put into effect, test of
validity or truth)
o Observe Results (collect and process data on
outcomes of test)
o Analyze Results (make sense of data)
o Compare Analysis (relate analysis to original
hypothesis)
Note that you do not always have to enter this
process at step 1, but you do have to complete
the process.
Revans suggest that all human learning at the
individual level occurs through this process.
Note that it covers what Jim Stewart
(M a n a g i n g C h a n g e T h r o u g h Tr a i n i n g
a n d D e v e l o p m e n t , 1991) calls the levels of
existence:
o We think cognitive domain
o We feel affective domain
o We do action domain
All three levels are interconnected e.g. what
we think influences and is influenced by what
we do and feel.
Change
In its simplest form, discontinuity in the work
place is "change."
Our prefrontal cortex is similar to the RAM
memory in a PC it is fast and agile
computational device that is able to hold
multiple threads of logic at once so that we can
perform fast calculations. However it has its
limits in that it can only hold a handful of
concepts at once. In addition, it burns lots of
high energy glucose (blood sugar), which is
expensive for the body to produce. Thus when
given lots of information, such as when a
change is required, it has a tendency to
overload and being directly linked to the
amygdala (the emotional center of the brain)
that controls our fightorflight response, it can
cause severe physical and psychological
discomfort.
Our prefrontal cortex is marvelous for insight
when not overloaded. But for normal everyday
use, our brain prefers to run off its "harddrive"
the basal ganglia, which has a much larger
storage area and stores memories and our
habits. In addition, it sips rather than gulps food
(glucose).
When we do something familiar and predictable,
our brain is mainly using the basal ganglia,
which is quite comforting to us. When we use
our prefrontal cortex, then we are looking for
fight, flight, or insight. Too much change
produces fight or flight syndromes. As change
agents we want to produce "insight" into our
learners so that they are able to apply their
knowledge and skills not just in the classroom,
but also on the job.
And the way to help people come to "insight" is
to allow them to come to their own resolution.
These moments of insight or resolutions are
called "epiphanies" sudden intuitive leap of
understanding that are quite pleasurable to us
and act as rewards. Thus you have to resist the
urge to fill in the entire picture of change, rather
you have to leave enough gaps so that the
learners are allowed to make connections of
their own. Doing too much for the learners can
be just as bad, if not worse, than not doing
enough.
Doing all the thinking for learners takes their
brains out of action which means they will not
invest the energy to make new connections.
Reference
Cunningham, J. B. & Eberle, T. (1990). "A Guide
to Job Enrichment and Redesign,"
P e r s o n n e l , Feb 1990, p.57 in Newstrom, J. &
Davis, K. (1993). O r g a n i z a t i o n B e h a v i o r :
H u m a n B e h a v i o r a t W o r k . New York:
McGrawHill.
Knoster, T., Villa, R., & Thousand, J. (2000). A
framework for thinking about
s y s t e m s c h a n g e . In R. Villa & J. Thousand
(Eds.), R e s t r u c t u r i n g f o r c a r i n g a n d
effective education: Piecing the
p u z z l e t o g e t h e r (pp. 93128). Baltimore:
Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.
Koch, C. (2006). The New Science of Change.
CIO Magazine, Sep 15, 2006 (pp 5456). Also
available on the web:
http://www.cio.com/archive/091506/change.html
Revans, R. W. (1982). T h e O r i g i n a n d
G r o w t h o f A c t i o n L e a r n i n g . Hunt,
England: ChatwellBratt, Bickley.
Schein, E. (1968). "Organizational Socialization
and the Profession of Management,"
I n d u s t r i a l M a n a g e m e n t R e v i e w , 1968
vol. 9 pp. 115 in Newstrom, J. & Davis, K.
(1993). Organization Behavior: Human Behavior
at Work. New York: McGrawHill.