McGraw-Hill/Irwin 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

1
Introduction to the Field of
Organizational Behavior
McShane/Von Glinow OB4e 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 1-2
Google and OB
Google has leveraged the power of organizational behavior
to attract talented employees who want to make a
difference in the Internet world.
AP/Wide World Photos
McShane/Von Glinow OB4e 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 1-3
What are Organizations?
Groups of people who work interdependently toward
some purpose
Structured patterns of interaction
Coordinated tasks
Have common objectives (even if not fully agreed)
AP/Wide World Photos
McShane/Von Glinow OB4e 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 1-4
Why study
organizational
behavior
Understand
organizational
events
Predict
organizational
events
Influence
organizational
events
Why Study Organizational Behavior
McShane/Von Glinow OB4e 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 1-5
Organizational Behavior
The study of what people think, feel, and do in
and around organizations with an
interdisciplinary viewpoint.
Based on
Psychology, Social-Psychology, Management,
Communication, Anthropology, Economics
Levels of study
Individual, Group, Organizational
McShane/Von Glinow OB4e 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 1-6
Trends: Globalization
Economic, social, and cultural connectivity (and
interdependence) with people in other parts of
the world
Effects of globalization on organizations:
New organizational structures
Different forms of communication
More diverse workforce.
More competition, mergers, work intensification and
demands for work flexibility
McShane/Von Glinow OB4e 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 1-7
Trends: Changing Workforce
Workforce has increasing
diversity along several
dimensions
Primary categories
gender, age, ethnicity,
etc.
Secondary categories
some control over (e.g.
education, marital
status)
McShane/Von Glinow OB4e 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 1-8
Trends: Changing Workforce
Current trends
Increased racial and ethnic diversity
More women in workforce
Generational diversity
New age cohorts (e.g. Gen-X, Gen-Y)
Implications
Leverage diversity advantage
Adjust to the new workforce
McShane/Von Glinow OB4e 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 1-9
Trends: Employment Relationships
Work-life balance
Number one indicator of career success
Priority for many young people looking for new jobs
Employability
New deal employment relationship
Continuously learn new skills
Contingent work
No explicit or implicit contract for long-term
employment, or minimum hours of work can vary in
a nonsystematic way
McShane/Von Glinow OB4e 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 1-10
Trends: Virtual Work
Using information technology to perform ones job
away from the traditional physical workplace.
Telecommuting (telework)
working from home, usually internet connection to office
Virtual teams
operate across space, time, and organizational
boundaries with members who communicate mainly
through electronic technologies
McShane/Von Glinow OB4e 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 1-11
Department of Economic Development, Government of Dubai
Values-based Leadership in Dubai
The Department of Economic
Development (DED) in the Emirate
of Dubai recently devoted several
months to identifying the agencys
core values: accountability,
teamwork, and continuous
improvement. DED also organized a
series of workshops (shown in
photo) to help employees recognize
values-consistent behaviors.
McShane/Von Glinow OB4e 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 1-12
Trends: Values/Ethics Defined
Long-lasting beliefs about
what is important in a variety
of situations
Define right versus wrong --guide
our decisions
Ethics
Study of moral principles or
values that determine whether
actions are right or wrong and
outcomes are good or bad
Department of Economic Development, Government of Dubai
McShane/Von Glinow OB4e 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 1-13
Trends: Why Values are Important
1. Need to guide employee decisions
and actions
2. Globalization increases awareness
of different values
3. Increasing emphasis on applying
ethical values
McShane/Von Glinow OB4e 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 1-14
Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate Social Responsibility
Organization's moral obligation toward its
stakeholders
Stakeholders
Shareholders, customers, suppliers, governments etc.
Triple bottom line philosophy
Economic, social & environmental
McShane/Von Glinow OB4e 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 1-15
Organizational
Behavior
Anchors
Multidisciplinary
Anchor
Systematic
Research
Anchor
Contingency
Anchor
Open Systems
Anchor
Multiple Levels
of Analysis
Anchor
Organizational Behavior Anchors
McShane/Von Glinow OB4e 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 1-16
Organizational Behavior Anchors
Multidisciplinary anchor
Many OB concepts adopted from other disciplines
OB develops its own models and theories, but also needs
to scan other fields for ideas
Systematic research anchor
OB researchers rely on scientific method
OB also adopting grounded theory and similar qualitative
approaches to knowledge
McShane/Von Glinow OB4e 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 1-17
Organizational Behavior Anchors (cont)
Contingency anchor
A particular action may have different consequences in
different situations
Need to diagnose the situation and select best strategy
under those conditions
Multiple levels of analysis anchor
OB issues can be studied from individual, team, and/or
organizational level
Topics usually relate to all three levels
McShane/Von Glinow OB4e 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 1-18
Open Systems Anchor
Need to monitor and adapt to environment
External environment -- natural and social
conditions outside the organization
Receive inputs from environment; transform
them into outputs back to the environment
Stakeholders anyone with a vested interest in
the organization
Organizations consist of interdependent parts
(subsystems) that need to coordinate
McShane/Von Glinow OB4e 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 1-19
Open Systems Anchor
Feedback Feedback
Feedback
Feedback
Environment
McShane/Von Glinow OB4e 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 1-20
Knowledge Management Defined
Any structured activity that
improves an organizations
capacity to acquire, share, and
use knowledge for its survival
and success
McShane/Von Glinow OB4e 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 1-21
Structural
Capital
Relationship
Capital
Knowledge captured in systems
and structures
Value derived from satisfied
customers, reliable suppliers, etc.
Human Capital
Knowledge that people possess
and generate
Intellectual Capital
McShane/Von Glinow OB4e 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 1-22
Awareness
Freedom to
apply
Communication
Communities of
practice
Hiring talent
Acquiring firms
Individual
learning
Experimentation
Knowledge
acquisition
Knowledge
sharing
Knowledge
use
Knowledge Management Processes
McShane/Von Glinow OB4e 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 1-23
Organizational Memory
The storage and preservation of intellectual
capital
Retain intellectual capital by:
Keeping knowledgeable employees
Transferring knowledge to others
Transferring human capital to structural capital
Successful companies also unlearn
McGraw-Hill/Irwin 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
1
Introduction to the Field of
Organizational Behavior
McShane/Von Glinow OB4e 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 1-25
Job Security vs. Employability
Job Security
Lifetime job security
Jobs are permanent
Company manages
career
Low emphasis on skill
development
Employability
Limited job security
Jobs are temporary
Career self-
management
High emphasis on skill
development
McShane/Von Glinow OB4e 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 1-26
Accountability:Nng lc chu trch nhim
McShane/Von Glinow OB4e 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 1-27
Critical Questions
1. (Q.1) A friend suggests that organizational behavior courses are useful only to people who will enter
management careers. Discuss the accuracy of your friends statement.
McShane/Von Glinow OB4e 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 1-28
True-False Questions
1. Scholars have been studying organizational behavior since the days of Greek philosophers.
True False
2. In order for something to be called an organization it must have buildings and equipment.
True False
3. All organizations have a collective sense of purpose, even though this purpose might not be fully
understood or agreed upon.
True False
4. Social entities are called organizations only when their members have complete agreement on the goals
they want to achieve.
True False
5. An important principle in organizational behavior is that OB theories should never be used to predict or
influence organizational events.
True False


McShane/Von Glinow OB4e 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 1-29
Multiple Choice Questions
49. Which of these statements about the field of organizational behavior is FALSE?
A. Organizational behavior scholars study individual, team and structural characteristics that influence behavior within
organizations.
B. Leadership, communication and other organizational behavior topics were not discussed by scholars until the 1940s
C. Organizational behavior emerged as a distinct field around the 1940s.
D. The field of OB has adopted concepts and theories from other fields of inquiry.
E. OB scholars study what people think, feel and do in and around organizations.
50. Which of these statements about the field of organizational behavior is TRUE?
A. Organizational behavior emerged as a distinct field during the 1980s.
B. The origins of some organizational behavior concepts date back to Plato and other Greek philosophers.
C. Information technology has almost no effect on organizational behavior.
D. The field of organizational behavior relies exclusively on ideas generated within the field by organizational behavior
scholars.
E. The origins of organizational behavior are traced mainly to the field of economics.