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Organizational Behavior: Solutions for Management
Paul D. Sweeney, University of Central Florida
Dean B. McFarlin, University of Dayton
Organizational Behavior and Effective Management

Chapter Outline

  1. Managing Behavior in the 21st Century
    2. The management of people in the 21st century is focused on embracing the concept of change.
    1. The manager's job of motivating, inspiring, and influencing, as well as other things, continues to remain the same as before.
    2. The differences experienced today are impacted by:
      • The complexity of the work environment.
      • The rapid pace of change.
    3. Managing people has become more challenging than ever due to the complex variety of:
      • Social changes.
      • Demographic changes.
      • Technological changes.
    4. Some of the aspects important to corporate success are:
      • Valuing people highly.
      • Managing people well.
    5. The increasing pace of change, especially in information technology (IT):
      • Underscores the value of people like never before.
      • Today is rarely a source of competitive advantage.
      • Provides a fleeting technological edge.
    6. Effects of managers:
      • Manager as a competitive advantage.
      • Manager as a medium.
  2. Organizational Behavior: The Key to Effective Management
    3. Organizational behavior is a key to meeting the challenges of effective people management.
    1. The History and Evolution of Organizational Behavior:
      • Organizational behavior: Examines how and why people act, think, and feel in corporate and other organized settings.
      1. The roots of organizational behavior:
        • Discussion of Chinese Emperors and the Roman Empire.
      2. United States in the late 1800s:
        • Robert Owens.
          • Experimented with innovations such as providing hot meals and breaks for employees.
      3. In the 1900s:
    2. Scientific management: First systematic effort to scientifically study human behavior.
      • Frederick Taylor championed this perspective and felt that application of scientific principles was a practical and efficient way to maximize firm performance.
      • He reasoned that people could be taught the ideal way to perform their specific tasks.
        • Tested this reasoning by conducting coal shoveling experiments to substantiate his belief of there being one best way to perform job tasks.
    3. Human relations approach: Alternative approach to the study of human behavior.
      • Led by Elton Mayo and others.
      • Opposite perspective of Frederick Taylor.
      • Popular in 1920s throughout 1950s.
      • Best way to improve production was to respect workers and show concern for their needs.
      • This approach was responsible for launching research into leadership effectiveness and group dynamics.
      • Most famous experiments of this approach were conducted at Western Electric Hawthorne plant in mid-1920s.
        • Hawthorne effect: Evidenced that people's needs, feelings, and attitudes could impact productivity.
    4. Contingency approach: Argues there is no single best way to manage behavior.
      • Interplay between a variety of personal and situational factors.
    5. Organizational behavior has an empirical bias that makes everything seem complex.
      • Knowledge of organizational behavior increases through scientific study.
  3. A Framework for Effective Management
    4. The framework for understanding organizational behavior utilizes the contingency approach as a means to help keep the overall "big picture" in view.
    1. The Building Block Skills for Managing Behavior
      • Four sets of skills that provide the building blocks for effective behavior management:
        • Outstanding self-insight and perceptual skills.
        • The ability to analyze situations correctly.
        • The ability to inspire, motivate, and lead people.
        • Personal flexibility and adaptability.
      1. The Knowledge Foundation: An Understanding of Organizational Behavior:
        • To start, managers must have a firm understanding of the principles and practices that work in organizational behavior.
      2. Self-insight: The Cornerstone Skill:
      • Everything starts with self-insight.
      • Examination of the endeavors of entrepreneur, Jim Clark.
    2. The Behavior Management Process:
      3. Effective behavior management involves a series of four basic steps that incorporate building block skills to help managers effectively navigate the process of managing behavior.
      1. The four basic steps or issues:
        • Identify the behavioral challenge: Maintain, improve, or redirect behavior?
        • Identify the causes of current behavior.
        • Choose a solution or strategy for achieving behavioral goals.
        • Implement the strategy, then monitor and adjust as needed.
  4. Key Trends That Will Impact Behavior Management
    5. Change, in any of its many forms, impacts organizations and the way in which the employees are managed today. Changes can also affect the behavior of the organization itself.
    1. Increasing Work Force Diversity:
      • Aging work force.
      • Women.
      • Racial or ethnic minorities.
      • Demographic shifts in the population.
      1. The internationalization of business brings together people from a variety of cultural backgrounds.
      2. Immigrants are being recruited by companies more now than ever before.
      3. Economic pressures are forcing companies to look at those people who have traditionally been ignored, shut out, or discriminated against in the work force.
        • Ethnic and racial minorities.
        • Gays.
      4. A diverse work force can help organizations better relate to an increasingly diverse customer base.
      5. Diversity in the work force offers challenges to managers in terms of effectively leading and motivating diverse groups.
    2. Increasing Internationalization and Technological Sophistication:
      3. Many of the diversity issues experienced today are a byproduct of the fact that organizations have increasingly moved into the international arena.
      1. Technological advances can bring challenges:
        • Technology can "follow" employees everywhere, which results in employee stress.
        • Technology can produce waste and inefficiencies.
        • Technology can accelerate the speed at which crises hit countries.
      2. Technology has helped to bring national economies together but has also helped make international business a volatile proposition.
      3. Business practices and cultural values can vary dramatically from country to country.
    3. Work and Family: Managing the Juggling Act:
      1. Workplace demands are increasing:
        • The proportion of employees working 50 or more hours per week has risen significantly over the past 20 years.
      2. Work-family conflicts are increasing:
        • Dual career couples.
        • Single parents.
        • Elderly parents.
      3. Helping people juggle it all:
        • Adaptable managers may be the best solution for work-family challenges.




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