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Principles of Organisational Behaviour Notes:

Lecture 1:
Principles of Organisational Behaviour - 1
Form of assessment:
30% - Coursework (10-12 min Group presentation - analysis of details of OB)
Presentation in Workshop 6 - 12th of March
70% - Unseen Examination ( 2hrs - MCQ and Short answer Qs)

Learning outcomes:
Describe some of the psychological dynamics underpinning individuals behaviour in
organisations
Evaluate the role of the individual in group and organisational processes
Measuring the behaviour of:
People
Resources
Materiality

Organisations are complex systems and human activities happen on different levels of
analysis:
3 levels of discipline:
Individual level —> Group Level —> Organisation systems level
Individual = HRM
Group = Management
Org
...
e reducing absenteeism etc
...
, 1999
- Researchers should spend more time at the organisation
- Organisations should contract the research
- Researchers should understand and incorporate management fads
o E
...
,2005; Schmidt & Hunter,1998)
- Strong positive relation between general intelligence and job performance (Drasgow,
2003)

Intelligence Testing:
- Origins of Intelligence Testing (Binet & Simon,1905)
- Intelligence could be measured via a collection of questions
- Tests designed for different age groups
- (3-10 yr olds)
- Questions arranged in increasing difficulty
- Developed battery of tests focusing on higher mental processes
o Attention
o Memory
o Thinking
o Other Cognitive Processes
Intelligence Tests:
Features of Modern Intelligence Tests
- Numerous tasks
- Standardized (consistent)
o Conditions
o Content
o Instructions
o Time

o Scoring
o Interpretation
- Norm-referenced
o Administered to large group of people with similar demographics to make
comparisons
o Average score is 100
Models of Intelligence:
Two-Factor Theory of Intelligence (Spearman,1927)
- Scores on intelligence tests are positively related to each other
- Intelligence consists of two factors:
- First Factor: Specific Abilities
- Second Factor: General Intelligence: ‘g’ factor
- ‘g’ is required for to perform well in all areas of cognitive ability
Sternberg’s (1985) Triarchic Theory of Intelligence
- Builds on Spearman’s model
- Three facets of intelligence:
o Analytical (componential)
§ Problem solving skills
o Creative (experiential)
§ Creative thinking
o Practical (contextual)
§ Common sense
All facets are needed to explain intelligence
Emotional Intelligence (EI; Goleman, 1995)
- Refers to competencies and skills in the workplace
- A self-perceived ability to identify, assess, and control the emotions of one’s self,
others and groups
- Dimensions of Emotional Intelligence:
o Self Awareness
o Self Management
o Motivation
o Empathy
o Relationship Management
- EI is linked to workplace performance (Durmast et al
...
g ISFJ, ESTP
- MBTI in the workplace
o Personnel selection
o Individual development
o Management and leadership development
o Teambuilding
o Career Guidance
o Relationship Counselling
Limitations of MBTI:
- Problems with the use of ‘types’
o Personality traits are continuous
o Often people are forced into types
o Changes in raw scores can affect reliability of the scale
- Validity Issues
o No studies on the predictive validity
o No studies on incremental validity


Trait Theories of Personality:
- Resembles our everyday definition of personality
o Trait: Any persisting characteristic (emotional, behavioral, cognitive) which
influences the way personality is manifested in a relatively permanent and
consistent way
- Individual differences in behavior, thoughts and emotions can be measured and
explained by personality traits

Comment [OC1]: Means classification


-

Assumes that personality traits are internal, stable (unchanged over time),
consistent (applies across different situations) and different from each other
o Best described as characteristic ways of responding to particular situations
Personality measures used in the workplace are often trait based psychometrics



Trait Theories: Big Five
Five Factor Model (Big Five): Costa and McCrae (1992)
- Openness to experience
o Curiosity
o Aesthetic
o Innovation
- Conscientiousness
o Order
o Dutifulness
o Competence
- Extroversion
o Warmth
o Gregarious
o Activity
- Agreeableness
o Cooperative
o Compliance
o Straightforwardness
- Neuroticism
o Anxiety
o Moody
o Self Depreciation

- Evidence for the Five Factor Model in the workplace
o Job satisfaction
§ Positive relation with extroversion, but negative relation with
neuroticism (Barrick et al, 2002)
o Performance
§ Positive relation with conscientiousness (Barrick & Mount, 1991)
o Unionisation
§ Negative relation with extroversion and neuroticism (Parkes and
Ravazi, 2004)

Limitations of the Five Factor Model:
- How to define the first factor:
o Disagreement on content and replicability
- How to define the final factor Neuroticism
o Disagreement on content
- Too Simplistic
o Positive and negative relations
o Reliogisty and spirituality

o Evidence for an ‘honesty humility factor”


Personality - Job/ Organisation fit:
- A fit between personality type and occupational environment determines
satisfaction and turnover
- There are several personality traits that may describe an individual
- 3 key points to consider:
o People have different personalities
o Different types of occupation and work environment are better suited to
certain personality types
o Personality-job fit should result in more satisfaction and organisational
commitment
- People are attracted to and selected by organisations that match their values
- Employees personality fit with the overall organisations culture is more important
than with the characteristics of any specific job
- Recruiting employees who fit better with the organisational culture result in higher
employee satisfaction and reduced turnover

• Extrovert à Team oriented organisational culture (this column is congruent
organisation)
• Agreeableness à Supportive organisational climate
• Openness to change à Innovative organisation
• Conventional à Bureaucratic organisation


LECTURE 5


Lecture 5 - Leadership
- Trait theories of leadership focus on personality, traits associated with good leaders
- Good leaders are born, not made
- There are many competing lists of traits associated with good leadership and traits are
often vague
- Style theories of leadership focus on behaviours associated with good leaders
- Good leaders behave in specific ways, such as focusing on people or the task
- Behaviours are easier to observe than traits, but the approach ignores the situation in
which the behaviours occur
- Contingency theories of leadership focus on the person and situation
- Fiedler’s (1967) Contingency Theory focuses on how a leader’s style interacts with the
situation
- Vroom and Yetton’s (1973) Contingency Theory focuses on how a leader can adapt
his/her style to the situation
- Transactional and transformational theories of leadership focus on how leaders shape
their followers
- Leader-Member Exchange Theory focuses on the quality of the relationships between
leaders and followers based on social exchanges

Trait Style - leader is composed of two behaviours, task and style theories
...
g bicycle riders have faster times when race against each
other
§ Zajones (1965) Drive Theory: Others increase arousal which affects
performance
• Perform better on easy tasks
• Perform worse on difficult tasks
§ Evaluation Apprehension (Cottrell, 1968): Worry of being judged
affects performance
• Perform well on tasks in which one is confident
• Perform worse on tasks in which one lacks confidence
o Social Loafing:
§ The mere presence of other decreasing individual performance
(RIngelmann, 1913)
• Measured individual effort in a game of tug of war
• Individual peole put forth less effort in groups: individual
effort ranged from 49-93%
§ Causes:

• Equitable contribution
• Submaximal goal setting
• Lessened contingency between input and outcome
• Lack of evaluation
• Unequal distribution of compensation
• Non-cohesive group
§ Prevention:
• Establish individual accountability
• Establish task importance
• Highlight that individual effort is necessary
• Emphasise that the group will be punished for poor
performance
• Minimize group size
• Encourage group cohesiveness
o Groups develop perceptions of non group members
§ Social Identity Theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1985)
• Maintain a positive evaluation of the self by perceiving our
in-group as superior
§ Stereotypes:
• Generalised beliefs about the characteristics of a social group
o Conformity
§ Asch’s (1951-56) Conformity Studies


Teams:

- All teams are groups
o Number of people who interact with one another
o Psychologically aware of each other
o Perceive themselves to be a group
- Not every group is a team
- Factors that distinguish teams and groups
o Interdependence
o Mutually Shared goals
o Synergy


















Essential Characteristics of Teams (Hackman, 2012):
1
...
Membership Boundaries
3
...
Stability


Team Roles:
Belbin (1981)
- Action
o Sharpers: Question assumptions, but can offend others
o Implementers: get things done, but resistant to change
o Completer-Finishers: Pay attention to small detail, but may worry too much
- People
o Coordinators: Guide, listen, delegate and bring order to the group, but might
be manipulative
o Teams-Workers: support co-workers and negotiate diplomatically, but can be
indecisive
o Resource Investigators: Use optimism to develop outside contacts, but can
lose enthusiasm quickly
- Thought:
o Plant: Come up with own solutions that breaks the rules, but appear
detached
o Monitor-Evaluators’: Critically assess the team’s options, but appears
detached

o Specialists: knows their subject, but might miss the bigger picture

Team Effectiveness:
- Measured with two criteria (Sundstorm et al, 1990)
o Team Performance
o Team Viability
- Factors that influence team effectiveness
o Context
o Team Composition
o Work Design
o Team Processes



- Context:
o Adequate Resources
o Leadership and Structure
o Climate of Trust
o Performance evaluation and reward systems
- Team Composition
o Abilities of Members
o Personality
o Allocating roles
o Diversity
o Size of Teams
o Member preferences
- Work Design
o Autonomy
o Skill variety
o Task identity
o Task Significance
- Team Processes
o Common purposes
o Specific goals
o Team efficiency
o Conflict Levels
o Social Loafing



EXAM QUESTIONS:
1
...
DEFEND THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT AND PROVIDE SPECIFIC EXAMPLES:
GROUPS INLFUENCE INDIVIDUALS
3
...
Some of the
more popular and relevant to OB:
- As a function of an environment (Deal and Kennedy, 1982)
- As a function of external needs (Handy, 2009)
- As a function of competing values (Cameron and Quinn, 2006)
- As a function of control (Willmott, 1993; Kunda, 2006)






Culture as a function of external needs:

Culture as a function of competing values






Culture as a function of control

- Managerial tool for shaping identities of employees to manufacture positive
sentiments (beyond consent) and reconcile workers to antagonistic employment
relationship (Fleming and Spicer, 2003)
- Assumption that individual identities can be completely controlled by the
organisation (Kunda,1992)’
- Seeks to mould attitudes, beliefs and values among employees – normative control

Some contingencies:
• Culture is one of the outcomes of power relations
• Culture impacts structure (vice versa)
• Culture is one of the outcomes of external environment


Power


Culture is an outcome of power because powerful groups will seek to impose/ foster
desirable cultures/cultural traits
- Power as possession
- Power as instrument of domination
- Normative power

Power as an instrument of domination:
- Overt and observable: Focus on OBSERVABLE behaviours that influence the content
of a decision
- Cover and unobservable: NON-OBSERVABLE behaviours involved in keeping issue on
or off an agenda (Lukes, 2005); building myths and stories
- Internalised by employees: Acceptance and Perpetuation
Effective Influence Tactics:
- Rational Persuasion
o Present factual evident and logical argument to support your request, making
a change difficult
- Consultation
o Allow the target to decide how to implement your request
- Inspirational appeal
o Appeal to the targets values, ideals, or aspirations to elicit an emotional or
attitudinal reaction
- Collaboration
o Make it easy for the target to agree to your request by providing resources or
removing barriers

Ineffective Tactics:
- Pressure
- Coalitions
o Mobilize other to support you and thereby strengthen your request
- Upwards appeals
o Seek assistance from someone senior to your target, either through the use
of their authority or as a mediator
- Legitimating
o Base a request on your own authority, organisatioin rules, or the express/
implied support of supperiors


Normative Power:
- Disciplinary power (Foucault, 1979)
- Management defines reality and normality in ways to reduce likelihood of resistance
- Biopower: Establishing what is normal and abnormal in thought or behaviour
- Establishing social and organisations routines through disciplinary practices
- Cults, remembrance and commemoration, organisational memory

Corporate Culturalism:
- Corporate culturalism is where organisational culture meets normative power
(Wilmott,1993)

-

-

Focused on embracing individual character traits and idiosyncrasies, but only in so
far as those overlap with organisational goals
Based on category of thinking would find familiar with FW Taylor
o The view is that values could be systemized
o The more that individual members aligned themselves with the corporate
culture, the more effective they would be and the more committed they
would become the organization
Concepts such as ‘doublethink’ where paradox is a tool
The corporation grants the appearance of autonomy to its members while also
enforcing uniformity
Because of the affirmation the employee merrily goes along, possibly unaware that
there is no real autonomy


Real World examples:
- Culture and power are tied together primarily through hierarchy
o Hierarchy is a mechanism for allocating responsibility and accountability, with
lower levels having the least degree of either and higher levels having the
most
- However as fewer people take on more responsibility, their capacity to cope and
make decision diminishes (bounded rationality)
...
g
...

• Reward power: the use of rewards to influence people’s compliance
...
g
...

• Legitimate power: generally known as ‘authority’, and implies the power to act as
well as the power over resources and is invariably limited in some way
...
Should this falter or wane then this form of
power vanishes, but is often employed in conjunction with other sources
...
Structure and Design:
- Scientific management was concerned with individual tasks and how workers could
do those tasks most efficiently – one best way
- Frederick Taylor developed the theory of scientific management
- Other theorists were considering entire systems e
...

o Authority and responsibilities are clearly defined for each position
• Division of Labour
o Tasks are clearly defined and employees become skilled by spectating in
doing one thing
o There is a clear definition of authority and responsibility
• Formal Selection Process:
o Employee selection and promotion are based on experience, competence
and technical qualification demonstrated by examinations, education, or
training
• Career orientation
o Management is separate from ownership and managers are career
employees
o Protection from arbitrary dismissal is guaranteed
• Formal rules and regulations
o Rules and regulations are documented to ensure reliable and predictable
behaviour
o Managers must depend on formal organisational rules in employee relations
• Impersonality
o Rules are applied uniformly to everyone

Key Characteristic of BUREAUCRACY:
1
...
Specialisation (bottom to top)
3
...
Division of work
2
...
Discipline
4
...
Unity of Direction
6
...
Remuneration
8
...
Scalar chain -
10
...
Equity
12
...
Initative
14
...
W Taylor) actually impacts what people do ad thus structures and
organisation from ‘bottom-up’, rather than ‘top-down’


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Work process is concerned with identifying the technology, the resources and the
method for accomplishing a series of tasks
This concept comes from operations management, which developed from Taylors
work and is concerned with optimising production


Work Process and Culture:
- Work process is one of the goals and method of Scientific management

-

Work process design prescribes steps that employees have to take in order to
complete tasks
These steps will determine patterns of communication, resources-allocation and
even the extent of hierarchy


Informal Organisation:
- Work process is a good idea however it doesn’t necessarily work in practice
- In fact, individuals will often bypass the prescribed work process and the formal
hierarchy in order to get their work done à Informal organisation
- Informal organisation includes informal groups, the grapevine and communities of
practice
- Informal groups:
o Workers may create an informal group to go bowling, discuss work
challenges or have lunch together everyday
- The Grapevine
o This is the informal communications network within an organisation
o It is completely separate from-and sometimes much faster than-the
organisation formal channels of communication
- Community of Practice
o A group of specialists or professionals who share in passion for their craft or
occupational area
- Informal organisation may or may not be in conflict with the formal organisation
...
the balance shifted and in a number
of sectors empoyees again became more knowledgeable than their employers
o Coupled with reduction in bureaucratisation, a type of employees – called
knowledge workers – became powerful enough to withdraw from
organisational design altogether, hence the rise of the freelance consultant

LECTURE 9:

Several programmes designed to retain employees:
Performance management/ appraisal:
- Specify what the organisation wants, appraisal employees and set goals
- Four keys types (management by objectives, 360 feedback, rank and yank and critical
incident)
Rewards:
- links to organisational strategy
- total rewards include intrinsic and extrinsic rewards
Training/ Development:
- Planned attempt to facilitate employee learning of job related skills
- focus on enhancing specific and generic employee skills
- A systematic approach to training consists of five stages and is based on cost-effective
provision (Needs Analysis, Instructional Design, Validation, Implementation and
Evaluation)
- Employee engagement focuses on helping employees give their best each day
Dimensions of employee relations (designed to increase employee engagement)
- Communication
Sharing information with employees Involvement
Practices that allow employee participation, communication, decision making
Rights
Industrial relations vs

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