Preface

Managing today means embracing change. In fact, technology and the work force are always evolving. So in a sense, having to embrace change is nothing "new." And building a motivated and inspired workforce is still management's responsibility. That's always been the case. But there's little doubt that the pace of social and technological changes has surged dramatically, leaving managers to grapple with a level of organizational complexity that arguably surpasses anything we've seen before. And therein lies the challenge. Why? Because it makes the common denominators for successful companies--excellent management, strong cultures, and inspired employees-more difficult to achieve, much less hold on to.

Want an example of just such a company? Think about Harley-Davidson. The Harley-Davidson culture and work force you see today are the result of long, difficult work-nothing was automatic nor did it come easy. But what other place can you think of where a sizeable contingent of employees is willing to have their company's logo tattooed somewhere on their bodies? That's the kind of employee dedication that many companies can only dream about. And in a nutshell, the field of Organizational Behavior views people as the real source of competitive advantage for corporations. OB can help us understand why people behave the way they do in organizations and how that ultimately relates to corporate success or failure. The field also offers plenty of guidance about the skills, tools, and processes needed to develop high-quality employees and how to manage them effectively. In short, OB can help managers build more companies like Harley-Davidson-one employee at a time.

But this doesn't explain why the world needs another OB text! Frankly, we wrote this book out of frustration. Collectively, we have some 30 years of experience teaching OB at the MBA level. And we've always had a tough time finding a text that would play well with MBA or EMBA students, many of whom are working adults. The vast majority of the OB books are targeted toward "traditional" undergraduates. And while we think that our book would certainly "work" with undergraduates, our motivation for writing it was to serve our MBA students. So this book is aimed squarely at them!

MBA students are typically very applications and problem-solving oriented. The overwhelming majority will either be working full-time or have years of work experience under their belts. Many have had management experience. Even full-time MBA programs often demand that students have significant "real-world experience" before being admitted. Plus, the ranks of MBA students continue to swell as companies increasingly place a premium on advanced business degrees.

So any book aimed at MBA students must embrace an applications-oriented perspective. That's exactly what we do. In the first chapter we present a framework for effective behavior management. It outlines both the "building block" skills needed by managers as well as the basic steps involved in behavior management. This applications-oriented framework serves as a reference point for students and helps tie together topics covered throughout the book. It also underscores our core perspective-that effective behavioral management requires a contingency approach. In short, when it comes to people, nothing works all the time and in every situation. So in addition to outstanding "people" skills (i.e., good self-insight, an ability to motivate others, etc.), managers must have good diagnostic skills (e.g., "What kind of leadership does this situation require?") and possess considerable flexibility (e.g., "If need be, can I lead in a way that's outside my comfort zone?").

In support of this focus on application, our book is chock full of examples and anecdotes from managers and companies in a wide variety of service, manufacturing, and e-commerce contexts. But this doesn't mean that we ignore theory and research. In fact, we show how theory and research provide the foundation for successful applications in OB. Moreover, being good consumers of OB knowledge can serve managers well in the long run-it can help them design their own applications if not "separate the wheat from the chaff" when consultants show up on their doorsteps. Toward that end, we offer a book that is up-to-date in terms of theory and research, with each chapter containing dozens of references. But we frame that conceptual rigor to support-not get in the way of-our emphasis on application.

Of course, making OB knowledge accessible and interesting for students is also critical. And that's where writing style comes in. Few OB texts offer a digestible, personal style without coming across as hand-holding students. Our book offers an informal, but no-nonsense approach that's designed to challenge and engage MBA students. In fact, our writing has a bit of an edge to it. Our experience is that MBAs want answers. And they tend to be impatient and intolerant of "fluff." So we offer not only an accessible, straightforward style, but a book that strives to strip away hype, shatter pretense, and challenge "sacred cows." In short, our message to MBA students is: "this is what really works to effectively manage behavior in organizations."

Our 14-chapter book is shorter than the typical 600-700 page, hardcover text. This is in keeping with our applications-oriented, "let's get on with it" focus. Plus, our feeling is that some of the "glitzy" features often found in undergraduate OB texts (e.g., lots of colors, photos, little "sidebar comments" or "mini-quizzes" in the margins) are distracting or even annoying to a MBA audience. Since most MBAs are already in business (or have been there), our book has a clean, professional look that matches our no-nonsense writing style. We wanted to avoid an overly showy book that would remind MBAs of the "style over substance" training seminars they've often been forced to attend as employees!

Our book is divided into three parts. Part 1, Managing Individual Employees, includes Chapters 2-5 and focuses on the most "micro" topics we cover. In other words, this section covers the essential foundations for understanding behavior. Chapters 2 and 3 consider how we perceive the work world-including the filters of our own experiences, attitudes, biases, and personalities. These perception and related processes can have enormous impact on how we view others around us (e.g., shaping performance appraisals) and how we behave as a result, especially in management roles (e.g., hiring/firing decisions). Chapters 4 and 5 build on this knowledge to show how managers can best approach the process of motivating employees and making decisions.

Part II, Managing Groups and Relationships Effectively, includes Chapters 6-10 and explicitly introduces the social context of work into our understanding of employee behavior. In a sense, organizations consist of networks of relationships, including a variety of formal and informal groups. Chapter 6 focuses on how jobs can be designed around team-related concepts-something that is both popular and pervasive in companies today. We also consider the role of technology and the emergence of virtual teams and the challenges that come with them.

Chapter 7 tackles leadership from a contingency perspective and essentially makes the point that leader effectiveness is a mix between the leaders' skills, the context, and subordinates' needs. We also cover transformational and charismatic leadership in detail, especially since they represent forms of leadership that are both popular-and dangerous-in these fast-paced times. Chapter 8 explores the power sources and influence tactics that often accompany leadership, especially when its effective. We also explore political behavior in organizations and the role of "political seasoning" in career development. Chapter 9 focuses on conflict management-something thing that managers often feel they spend far too much time on with little to show for it. Of course, left to fester, conflict can produce plenty of stress-along with a variety of other factors. Finally, Chapter 10 explores how managers can communicate effectively-something that should help prevent conflict and stress in the first place!

Finally, Part III, Managing Behavior Across the Organization, consists of Chapters 11-14. These chapters take the broadest or most "macro" view of behavior in organizations. Chapter 11 examines how the structure of a company can impact both individual behavior, and eventually, how well it competes in the marketplace. Corporate culture has been described by some as the "glue" that holds outstanding companies together. Chapter 12 focuses on how management can shape, build, and maintain the company's value system-essentially the blueprint for its "way of life." And while we examine cross-cultural issues throughout the book, Chapter 13 explicitly outlines some of the most important behavioral challenges that pop up when companies move into the international arena (e.g., how to recruit overseas staff, train expatriates, and react to cultural differences in values and business practices). Finally, Chapter 14 covers the "nuts and bolts" of organizational change-how to diagnosis the need for change, start the change process, and then sustain it.

We think that our "micro to macro" coverage of OB topics makes a great deal of sense, especially for MBAs. Yet very few OB texts offer a reasonably complete, stand-alone package for an MBA audience. That's because there's more to a "good package" than just covering topics. Many MBA faculty use an undergraduate text (or short paperback "primer"), but feel that they have to supplement it with a customized set of readings, cases, and exercises. There are two drawbacks, however, with this approach. First, it's inconvenient for the professor and involves a lot of extra work. Second, publishers have dramatically raised prices on their copyrighted material, making the "text plus packet" approach prohibitively expensive in many cases.

So we've designed our book's "tool package" to be comprehensive. It includes:

• Skills Assessment. A self-administered questionnaire or self-assessment exercise is included at the end of each chapter that ties into the topics covered. These are designed to raise self-awareness, promote self-insight, and develop behavior management skills, especially for an MBA audience.
• Experiencing Management. The end of each chapter also contains an exercise, applied project, or other experiential activity that's directly connected to the topics covered. These are designed to give students more "hands on" exposure to application issues and allow them to experiment with various behavior management techniques.
• Opening and Closing Cases. Each chapter begins with a case section (Searching For Management Solutions) that describes a behavioral problem facing managers in a particular company. And the companies profiled run the gamut from big, household names (e.g., Wal-Mart) to smaller firms you've probably never heard of (e.g., Vita Needle). Students are challenged to use chapter material to help them develop a solution and action plan. At the end of each chapter, students encounter a closing section on the case (Will it Work?) that summarizes what management actually did to attack the problem described in the opening section. The closing section also raises new questions. Specifically, students are asked predict whether the chosen solution will work long-term, what implementation difficulties might be encountered, or whether alternative solutions would be superior. For example, in Chapter 1 we present some of the challenges associated with the aging workforce and how one company, Vita Needle, is responding. We challenge students to explore whether the company's approach will last or whether it would be applicable to other firms. Our Instructor's Manual contains information related to such issues (e.g., criticisms, operational problems, implementation setbacks, and web sites for the latest updates). This three-part approach (opening, closing, and instructor supplements) helps sustain student interest and allows instructors to offer "up-to-date" follow ups.
• Harvard Cases. We also include several Harvard case studies to accompany the three major sections of the book. These substantial cases can help faculty "wrap up" a set of chapters by challenging students to analyze real-world situations in detail and to develop appropriate solutions. Longer cases force students to really think through the application of the concepts and strategies outlined in the chapters. Cases also help MBAs connect their own work experiences to the class. Much of the real learning occurs when students hear what their colleagues came up with in terms of assumptions, analysis, and action recommendations for a case. The specific cases we've chosen are among our favorites and are of uniformly high quality. All come with teaching support materials that are referenced in the Instructor's Resource Manual.

Finally, we want to point out that our book does not include supplementary readings.

We think that the odds of triangulating on faculty's "favorite" readings is close to zero given the thousands of choices available. Instead, our experience is that good cases, exercises, and assessments that help develop their students' behavioral skills are what faculty value most. So hopefully, faculty will feel little or no need to supplement our book with additional materials. Of course, for those who supplement anyway our Instructor's Resource Manual provides numerous suggestions (including ideas for cases and readings).

We're also excited about several pedagogical features built into each chapter. These are designed to capture some key themes that MBA students will find highly attractive:

• Executive Summary. Each chapter opens with a synopsis of that chapter's main points. This stage-setting device pushes students to start thinking about the issues to be raised in the chapter and helps frame the opening case that follows next.
• Culture Clash. It never ceases to amaze us how often cross-cultural misunderstandings get companies into trouble. This boxed-out section highlights a cross-cultural issue that is germane to each chapter's content. In our global economy, managers are facing an increasingly diverse workforce-both at home and abroad (e.g., most of the growth in U.S. work force in the next 25 years is expected to come from women, ethnic/racial minorities, and foreign immigrants). Consequently, every chapter has a section examining the implications of these issues for behavior management. These boxed-out sections are designed to illustrate: a) the types of international and cross-cultural problems that can arise; b) the limited applicability of American theories and management techniques; and c) how culturally synergistic solutions to these problems can be developed and implemented. For example, in Chapter 7 we highlight some of the leadership challenges facing American managers in Mexico.
• Fads ;amp; Fixes. This boxed-out section profiles companies that ran into trouble because they took questionable short-cuts, blindly adopted management "fads," or went for the "quick fix" in response to a behavioral issue. The specific issues profiled fit the material presented in that chapter. Clearly, part of our goal here is to puncture "sacred cows" and challenge the lip service that companies sometimes pay to managing people. For example, in Chapters 4 and 7 we explore a variety of "gimmicky" strategies for motivating people and developing leaders. Overall, we want to disabuse students of the idea that many popular management strategies are either: a) radical new ideas; b) simple to implement; or c) without significant risks.
• Succeeding Outside The Lines. Also appearing in each chapter, this boxed-out section is designed to elicit "I don't believe it!" or "That would never work here!" reactions. How? By profiling companies and managers who have done extraordinary and often highly unusual things to successfully manage behavior. For instance, in Chapter 8, we describe a manager who, by openly sharing his grief over the death of his wife, helped move his company to embrace change. We want to help students "think outside the box" no matter what the issue is.
• Behavior and the Bottom Line. We conclude each chapter by focusing on what managers would want to know most--the key application "nuggets" that flow from that chapter's material. In this section, we pull together the implications of the chapter for corporate success (or failure) as well as the specific techniques and strategies that managers can use to manage behavior effectively. We want to convey application-oriented advice that managers can use now, even if the existing "state of the art" is incomplete.

We've worked closely with Irwin/McGraw-Hill to develop a set of instructional supplements that will be a real asset, especially in an MBA environment. These include:

• Online Learning Center. The Online Learning Center is a content-rich, text-specific website containing material for both Instructor and Student. Not only containing an overview of features of the text, but resources such as downloadable supplements (for professors only), chapter self-quizzes and additional cases for students, links to professional resources, and much more. Check out this link for more information: www.mhhe.com/sweeney.
• A Comprehensive Instructor's Resource Manual & Testbank (007-365909-6). The instructor's manual is a critical part of the text "package." Consequently, we worked closely from the beginning with Dr. Eileen Sherman, Professor of Organizational Behavior and Director of the Master's Degree Program in Health Care Administration at the Medical College of Wisconsin, to develop the manual. In addition to typical material, such as chapter outlines and transperancy masters, the manual includes: a) case notes (for all cases in the text--including web sites for the latest updates and a list of suggested cases); b) supplementary assessments and exercises (for instructors who want to take a more experiential approach or who want to stress certain issues); c) recommended videos (to supplement those in the video package); d) suggested lecture/discussion topics (including source materials, recommended references, and web sites); and e) teaching tools (such as debate topics, research papers, application projects, etc.).
• Test Bank (see above for ISBN). The Instructor's Resource Manual includes a test bank of some 1,400 multiple choice questions, along with essay questions for each chapter. A computerized version of the test bank (Windows and Mac versions) is also available for instructors who want to control the design and editing of their own examinations.
• PowerPoint Presentations (007-365911-8). An outline and some of the exhibits from the text are included in a PowerPoint presentation and are referenced in the Instructor's Resource Manual.
• High-Quality Video Case Package (007-365910-X). Videos are really "visual" cases. The same discussion and learning process that happens with a written case can also happen with a video case. In fact, video cases can often carry more emotional impact than their written counterparts. After all, "seeing (and hearing) is believing." Our video package provides NBC archival footage of issues that are directly tied in to chapter content.

Any book project is a team effort. And a successful book depends on the talents, support, guidance, and advice of many outstanding professionals. We've been blessed with just such a team and want to take this opportunity to recognize all their efforts. They have really made a difference! First, we'd like to thank all the MBA students we've had over the years who have kept us grounded in the real world and who have been the source of numerous stories and ideas. We also want to thank Eileen Sherman for all the dedication, inspiration, and perspiration she poured into the Instructor's Resource Manual and Test Bank.

And then there are our manuscript reviewers. This group has consistently provided excellent advice and counsel throughout our drafts. They have been constructive, rigorous, creative, and reflective from the beginning-no small task given the work involved! Specifically, we owe a debt of immeasurable gratitude to the reviewers of this edition:

Talya N. Bauer - Portland State University

Rebecca J. Bennett - University of Toledo

Robert A. Figler - University of Akron

Cynthia V. Fukami - University of Denver

Nell Tabor Hartley - Robert Morris College

Mitchell J. Hartson - Florida Institute of Technology

W. Roy Johnson - Iowa State University

Jennifer D. Kaufman - Tulane University

Howard J. Klein - The Ohio State University

James C. McElroy - Iowa State University

Linda L. Neider - University of Miami

Cynthia Pavett - University of San Diego

Jean M. Phillips - Rutgers University

Kenneth H. Price - University of Texas - Arlington

Gary Renz - Webster University

Stuart D. Sidle - DePaul University

Steven Sommers - University of California - Riverside

Finally, we come to our Irwin/McGraw-Hill editorial team. And while they are last, they are by no means least! In fact, it's hard for us to put into words all they've done for us. First, we owe John Biernat an enormous debt of gratitude for his faith in us. We also want to thank John Weimeister for his support and his ability to keep us focused on the "big picture." Likewise, our developmental editor, Christine Scheid, has done an incredible job of keeping this project on track (with a deft mix of encouragement and prodding!). We have a lot to thank her for! Then there's our production shepherds, led by Pat Frederickson, and our marketing team, led by Ellen Cleary. This book wouldn't exist as a product or have any presence in the marketplace without them! Here's wishing that you find reading the fruits of our collective endeavors interesting and enjoyable!

Paul Sweeney

Dean McFarlin