Chapter-1
What is Organizational
Behavior?
Prepared by:
Mona Moshbab
March 2023
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Topics
1.1 The Importance of Interpersonal Skills.
1.2 Management and Organizational Behavior.
1.3 Disciplines That Contribute to OB
1.4 Challenges and Opportunities
1.5 Coming Attractions: Developing an OB Model
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Learning Objectives
• After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
1-1 Demonstrate the importance of interpersonal skills in the
workplace.
1-2 Define organizational behavior (OB).
1-3 Identify the major behavioral science disciplines that contribute to
OB.
1-4 Identify managers’ challenges and opportunities in applying OB
concepts.
1-5 Compare the three levels of analysis in this text’s OB model.
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1.1 The Importance of Interpersonal Skills
• In today’s competitive and demanding workplace, managers need
good technical skills and people skills.
• Incorporating organizational behavior (OB) principles into the
workplace can yield many important organizational outcomes:
1. The main goal of well-known companies is to generate superior
financial performance.
2. Developing managers’ interpersonal skills helps organizations
attract and keep high-performing employees, which is important
because outstanding employees are always in short supply and
costly to replace.
3. Strong associations exist between the quality of workplace
relationships and employee job satisfaction, stress, and turnover.
4. Increasing the OB element in organizations can foster social
responsibility awareness.
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1.2 Management and Organizational Behavior
• Manager: An individual who achieves goals through other people.
• Organization: A consciously coordinated social unit, composed of two
or more people, that functions on a relatively continuous basis to
achieve a common goal or set of goals.
• Management Main Activities:
1.
2.
3.
4.
planning,
organizing,
leading,
and controlling.
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1.2 Management and Organizational Behavior
• Planning: A process that includes defining goals, establishing strategy,
and developing plans to coordinate activities.
• Organizing: Determining what tasks are to be done, who is to do
them, how the tasks are to be grouped, who reports to whom, and
where decisions are to be made.
• Leading: A function that includes motivating employees, directing
others, selecting the most effective communication channels, and
resolving conflicts.
• Controlling: Monitoring activities to ensure that they are being
accomplished as planned and correcting any significant deviations.
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Management Roles
1.2 Management and Organizational Behavior
• Interpersonal Roles All managers are required to perform duties that
are ceremonial and symbolic in nature
• Informational Roles All managers collect information from outside
organizations and institutions, typically by scanning the news media
and talking with other people to learn of changes in the public’s
tastes and what competitors may be planning.
• Decisional Roles Mintzberg identified four roles that require making
choices.
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Management Skills
1.2 Management and Organizational Behavior
• technical skills The ability to apply specialized knowledge or
expertise.
• human skills The ability to work with, understand, and motivate other
people, both individually and in groups.
• conceptual skills The mental ability to analyze and diagnose complex
situations.
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Organizational Behavior (OB)
1.2 Management and Organizational Behavior
• Definition: A field of study that investigates the impact that individuals,
groups, and structure have on behavior within organizations for the
purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organization’s
effectiveness.
• OB includes these core topics:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Motivation
Leader behavior and power
Interpersonal communication
Group structure and processes
Attitude development and perception
Change processes
Conflict and negotiation
Work design
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1.3 Disciplines Contributed to OB
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1.4 Challenges and Opportunities
• The workplace is contains a wide mix of cultures, races, ethnic groups,
genders and ages
• Employees have to learn to cope with rapid change due to global
competition
• Corporate loyalty has decreased due to corporate downsizing and use
of temp workers
• Managers can benefit from OB theory and concepts
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1.5 Developing an OB Model
3 Levels of OB Analysis
Individual Level
Group Level
Organizational Level
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1.5 Developing an OB Model
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Summary
• Managers need to develop their interpersonal, or people, skills to be
effective in their jobs.
• Organizational behavior (OB) investigates the impact that individuals,
groups, and structure have on behavior within an organization, and it
applies that knowledge to make organizations work more effectively
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Review Questions
• What is the importance of interpersonal skills in the workplace?
• What is the definition of organizational behavior (OB)?
• What are the major behavioral science disciplines that contribute to
OB?
• What are the challenges and opportunities for managers in using OB
concepts?
• What are the three levels of analysis in our OB model?
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