The Situational Perspective
Another useful viewpoint for understanding behavior in organizations comes from the situational perspective. In the earlier days of management studies, managers searched for universal answers to organizational questions. They sought prescriptions, the "one best way" that could be used in any organization under any conditions, searching, for example, for forms of leadership behavior that would always lead employees to be more satisfied and to work harder. Eventually, however, researchers realized that the complexities of human behavior and organizational settings and outcomes are contingent; that is, the precise relationship between any two variables is likely to be situational-dependent on other variables.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Organizational Behavior and the Manger's Job
As they engage in the basic management functions, manager often find themselves playing a variety of different roles. Moreover, in order to perform the functions most effectively and to be successful in their various roles, managers must also draw upon a set of critical skills. This section first introduces the basic managerial roles and then describes the core skills necessary for success in an organization.
Basic Managerial Roles
In an organization, as in a play or a movie, a role is a part a persons plays in a given situation. Managers often play a number of different roles. There are ten basic managerial roles that cluster into three general categories.
Important Managerial Roles
Interpersonal
As they engage in the basic management functions, manager often find themselves playing a variety of different roles. Moreover, in order to perform the functions most effectively and to be successful in their various roles, managers must also draw upon a set of critical skills. This section first introduces the basic managerial roles and then describes the core skills necessary for success in an organization.
Basic Managerial Roles
In an organization, as in a play or a movie, a role is a part a persons plays in a given situation. Managers often play a number of different roles. There are ten basic managerial roles that cluster into three general categories.
Important Managerial Roles
Interpersonal
- figurehead
- leader
- liaison
- monitor
- disseminator
- spokesperson
- entrepreneur
- disturbance handler
- resource allocator
- negotiator
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Organizational Behavior and the Management Process
Managerial work is fraught with complexity and unpredictability and enriched with opportunity and excitement. However, in characterizing managerial work most educators and other experts find it useful to conceptualize the activities performed by managers as reflecting one or more of four basic functions. These functions are generally referred to as PLANNING, ORGANIZING, LEADING AND CONTROLLING. While these functions are often described in as sequential manner, in reality, of course, most managerial work involves all four functions simultaneously.
Similarly, organizations use many different resources in the pursuit of their goals and objectives. As with management functions, though, these resources can also generally be classified into four groups: HUMAN, FINANCIAL, PHYSICAL, and/or INFORMATION resources.
Planning, the first managerial function, is the process of determining the organization's desired future position and deciding how best to get there. The planning process at Sears, for example, includes studying and analyzing the environment, deciding on appropriate goals, outlining strategies for achieving those goals, and developing tactics to help execute the strategies. Behavioral processes and characteristics pervade each of these activities. Perception, for instance, plays a major role in environmental scanning, and creativity and motivation influence how managers set goals, strategies, and tactics for their organization. Larger corporations such as General Motors and Starbucks usually rely on their top management teams to handle most planning activities. In smaller firms, the owner usually takes care of planning.the second managerial function is
Organizing, the process of designing jobs, grouping jobs into manageable units, and establishing patterns of authority among jobs and groups of jobs. This process produces basic structure, or framework, of the organization. For large organizations such as Sears and Toyota, that structure can be extensive and complicated. The structure includes several hierarchical layers and spans myriad activities and areas of responsibility. Smaller firms can often function with a relatively simple and straight forward form of organization. As noted earlier, the processes and characteristics of the organization itself are a major theme of organizational behavior.
Leading, the third managerial function, is the process of motivating members of the organization to work together toward the organization's goals. A Sears manager, for example, must hire people, train them, and motivate them. Major components of leading include motivating employees, managing group dynamics, and the actual process of leadership itself. These are all closely related to major areas of organizational behavior. All managers, whether they work in a huge multinational corporation spanning dozens of countries or a small neighborhood business serving a few square city blocks, must understand the importance of leading.
The forth managerial function, Controlling, is the process of monitoring and correcting the actions of the organization and its people to keep them headed toward their goals. A Sears manager has to control costs, inventory, and so on. Again, behavioral processes and characteristics are a key part of this function. Performance evaluation, reward systems, and motivation, for example, all apply to control. Control is a vital importance to all businesses, but it may be especially critical to smaller ones. General Motors, for example, can withstand with relative ease a loss of several thousand dollars due to poor control, but an equivalent loss may be devastating to small firm.
Similarly, organizations use many different resources in the pursuit of their goals and objectives. As with management functions, though, these resources can also generally be classified into four groups: HUMAN, FINANCIAL, PHYSICAL, and/or INFORMATION resources.
Planning, the first managerial function, is the process of determining the organization's desired future position and deciding how best to get there. The planning process at Sears, for example, includes studying and analyzing the environment, deciding on appropriate goals, outlining strategies for achieving those goals, and developing tactics to help execute the strategies. Behavioral processes and characteristics pervade each of these activities. Perception, for instance, plays a major role in environmental scanning, and creativity and motivation influence how managers set goals, strategies, and tactics for their organization. Larger corporations such as General Motors and Starbucks usually rely on their top management teams to handle most planning activities. In smaller firms, the owner usually takes care of planning.the second managerial function is
Organizing, the process of designing jobs, grouping jobs into manageable units, and establishing patterns of authority among jobs and groups of jobs. This process produces basic structure, or framework, of the organization. For large organizations such as Sears and Toyota, that structure can be extensive and complicated. The structure includes several hierarchical layers and spans myriad activities and areas of responsibility. Smaller firms can often function with a relatively simple and straight forward form of organization. As noted earlier, the processes and characteristics of the organization itself are a major theme of organizational behavior.
Leading, the third managerial function, is the process of motivating members of the organization to work together toward the organization's goals. A Sears manager, for example, must hire people, train them, and motivate them. Major components of leading include motivating employees, managing group dynamics, and the actual process of leadership itself. These are all closely related to major areas of organizational behavior. All managers, whether they work in a huge multinational corporation spanning dozens of countries or a small neighborhood business serving a few square city blocks, must understand the importance of leading.
The forth managerial function, Controlling, is the process of monitoring and correcting the actions of the organization and its people to keep them headed toward their goals. A Sears manager has to control costs, inventory, and so on. Again, behavioral processes and characteristics are a key part of this function. Performance evaluation, reward systems, and motivation, for example, all apply to control. Control is a vital importance to all businesses, but it may be especially critical to smaller ones. General Motors, for example, can withstand with relative ease a loss of several thousand dollars due to poor control, but an equivalent loss may be devastating to small firm.
Organizational Behavior and Management
Virtually all organizations have manager's with title such as chief financial officer, marketing manager, director of public relations, vice president for human resources, and plant manager. But probably no organization has a position called " organizational behavior manager." the reason for this is simple: Organizational behavior is not a defined business function or area of responsibility in the same way as finance or marketing. Rather, an understanding of organizational behavior is a perspective that provides a set of insights and tools that all managers can use to carry out their jobs more effectively.
An appreciation and understanding of organizational behavior helps managers better understand why others in the organization behave as they do. For example, most managers in an organization are directly responsible for the work-related behaviors of a set of other people-their immediate subordinates. Typical managerial activities in this realm include motivating employees to work harder, ensuring that employees' jobs are properly designed, resolving conflicts, evaluating performance, and helping workers set goals to achieve rewards. the field of the organizational behavior abounds with models and research relevant to each of these activities.
Unless they happen to be chief executive officers (CEOs), managers also report to others in the organization (and even CEO reports to the board of directors). In dealing with these individuals, an understanding of basic issues associated with leadership, power and political behavior, decision making, organization structure and design, and organization culture can be extremely beneficial. Again, the field of organizational behavior provides numerous valuable insights into these processes.
Managers can also use their knowledge of organizational behavior to better understand their own needs, motives, behaviors, and feelings, which will help them improve decision-making capabilities, control stress, communicate better, and comprehend how career dynamics unfold. The study of organizational behavior provide insights into all of these concepts and processes.
Mangers interact with a variety of colleagues, peers and coworkers inside the organization. An understanding of attitudinal processes, individual differences, group dynamics, inter group dynamics, organization culture, and power and political behavior can help managers handle such interactions more effectively. Organizational behavior provides a variety of practical insights into these processes. Virtually all of the behavioral provides processes already mentioned are also valuable in interactions with people outside the organization-suppliers, customers, competitors, government officials, representatives of citizens' groups, union officials, and potential joint venture partners. In addition, a special understanding of the environment, technology, and global issues is valuable. Again, organizational behavior offers managers many different insights into how and why things happen as they do.
Finally, these patterns of interactions hold true regardless of the type of the organization. Whether a business is large or small, domestic or international, growing or stagnating, its managers perform their work within a social context. The same can be said of managers in healthcare, education, government, and student organizations such as fraternities, sororities, and professional clubs. We see, then, that it is essentially impossible to understand and practice management without considering the numerous areas of organizational behavior. Further, as more and more organizations hire managers form other countries, the processes of understanding human behavior in organizations will almost certainly grow increasingly complicated, We now address the nature of the manager's job in more detail before returning to our primary focus on organizational behavior.
An appreciation and understanding of organizational behavior helps managers better understand why others in the organization behave as they do. For example, most managers in an organization are directly responsible for the work-related behaviors of a set of other people-their immediate subordinates. Typical managerial activities in this realm include motivating employees to work harder, ensuring that employees' jobs are properly designed, resolving conflicts, evaluating performance, and helping workers set goals to achieve rewards. the field of the organizational behavior abounds with models and research relevant to each of these activities.
Unless they happen to be chief executive officers (CEOs), managers also report to others in the organization (and even CEO reports to the board of directors). In dealing with these individuals, an understanding of basic issues associated with leadership, power and political behavior, decision making, organization structure and design, and organization culture can be extremely beneficial. Again, the field of organizational behavior provides numerous valuable insights into these processes.
Managers can also use their knowledge of organizational behavior to better understand their own needs, motives, behaviors, and feelings, which will help them improve decision-making capabilities, control stress, communicate better, and comprehend how career dynamics unfold. The study of organizational behavior provide insights into all of these concepts and processes.
Mangers interact with a variety of colleagues, peers and coworkers inside the organization. An understanding of attitudinal processes, individual differences, group dynamics, inter group dynamics, organization culture, and power and political behavior can help managers handle such interactions more effectively. Organizational behavior provides a variety of practical insights into these processes. Virtually all of the behavioral provides processes already mentioned are also valuable in interactions with people outside the organization-suppliers, customers, competitors, government officials, representatives of citizens' groups, union officials, and potential joint venture partners. In addition, a special understanding of the environment, technology, and global issues is valuable. Again, organizational behavior offers managers many different insights into how and why things happen as they do.
Finally, these patterns of interactions hold true regardless of the type of the organization. Whether a business is large or small, domestic or international, growing or stagnating, its managers perform their work within a social context. The same can be said of managers in healthcare, education, government, and student organizations such as fraternities, sororities, and professional clubs. We see, then, that it is essentially impossible to understand and practice management without considering the numerous areas of organizational behavior. Further, as more and more organizations hire managers form other countries, the processes of understanding human behavior in organizations will almost certainly grow increasingly complicated, We now address the nature of the manager's job in more detail before returning to our primary focus on organizational behavior.
Monday, June 27, 2011
WHAT IS ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR?
What exactly is meant by the term "organizational behavior"? And why should it be studied?
THE MEANING OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Organizational behavior (OB) is the study of human behavior in organizational settings, of the interface between human behavior and the organization, and of the organization itself. Although we can focus on any one of these three areas, we must also remember that all three are ultimately necessary for a comprehensive understanding of organizational behavior. For example, we can study individual behavior without explicitly considering the organization. But because the organization influences and is influenced by the individual, we cannot fully understand the individual's behavior without learning something about the organization. Similarly, we can study organizations without focusing explicitly on the people within them.
THE IMPORTANCE OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
The importance of organizational behavior may now be clear, but we should nonetheless take a few moments to make it even more explicit. Most people are born and educated in organizations, acquire most of their material possessions from organizations, and die as members of organizations. Many of our activities are regulated by the various organizations that make up our governments. Most adults spend the better part of their lives working in organizations. Because organizations influence our lives so powerfully, we have every reason to be concerned about how and why those organizations function.
In our relationships with organizations, we may adopt any one of several roles or identities. For example, we can be consumers, employees, suppliers, competitors, owners or investors. the study of organizational behavior can greatly clarify the factors that affect how managers manage. Hence, the field attempts to describe the complex human context of organizations and to define the opportunities, problems, challenges, and issues associated with that realm. The value of organizational behavior is that it isolates important aspects of the manager's job and offers specific perspectives on the human side of the management: people as the organizations, people as resources, and people as people. Clearly, then, an understanding of organizational behavior can play a vital role in managerial work. To most effectively use the knowledge provided by this field, managers must thoroughly understand its various concepts, assumptions, and premises, To provide this foundation, we next tie organizational behavior even more explicitly to management then turn to a more detailed examination of the manager's job itself.
What exactly is meant by the term "organizational behavior"? And why should it be studied?
THE MEANING OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Organizational behavior (OB) is the study of human behavior in organizational settings, of the interface between human behavior and the organization, and of the organization itself. Although we can focus on any one of these three areas, we must also remember that all three are ultimately necessary for a comprehensive understanding of organizational behavior. For example, we can study individual behavior without explicitly considering the organization. But because the organization influences and is influenced by the individual, we cannot fully understand the individual's behavior without learning something about the organization. Similarly, we can study organizations without focusing explicitly on the people within them.
THE IMPORTANCE OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
The importance of organizational behavior may now be clear, but we should nonetheless take a few moments to make it even more explicit. Most people are born and educated in organizations, acquire most of their material possessions from organizations, and die as members of organizations. Many of our activities are regulated by the various organizations that make up our governments. Most adults spend the better part of their lives working in organizations. Because organizations influence our lives so powerfully, we have every reason to be concerned about how and why those organizations function.
In our relationships with organizations, we may adopt any one of several roles or identities. For example, we can be consumers, employees, suppliers, competitors, owners or investors. the study of organizational behavior can greatly clarify the factors that affect how managers manage. Hence, the field attempts to describe the complex human context of organizations and to define the opportunities, problems, challenges, and issues associated with that realm. The value of organizational behavior is that it isolates important aspects of the manager's job and offers specific perspectives on the human side of the management: people as the organizations, people as resources, and people as people. Clearly, then, an understanding of organizational behavior can play a vital role in managerial work. To most effectively use the knowledge provided by this field, managers must thoroughly understand its various concepts, assumptions, and premises, To provide this foundation, we next tie organizational behavior even more explicitly to management then turn to a more detailed examination of the manager's job itself.
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