Organizational Behavior and Management Principles

Study Notes

Organizational Behavior (OB) helps improve organizational effectiveness by considering the impact of individuals, groups, and structure on behavior.
Effective managers can achieve desired results through others.
Managers should possess leadership and communication skills.
Organization: A group of two or more individuals working together on a continuous basis to achieve a common goal.
Effective OB can lead to lower employee turnover, higher-quality applicants, and better overall performance resulting in financial gains.

Planning: Defining goals, establishing strategies, and developing plans.
Organizing: Determining tasks, allocating resources, and coordinating activities.
Leading: Inspiring, motivating, and influencing employees to achieve goals.
Controlling: Monitoring progress, evaluating performance, and taking corrective actions.

Interpersonal Roles: Focus on interactions with individuals and groups, including figurehead, leader, and liaison.
Informational Roles: Involve collecting, processing, and disseminating information, including monitor, disseminator, and spokesperson.
Decisional Roles: Involve making choices and resolving problems, including entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, and negotiator.

Technical Skills: Knowledge and skills in a specific work area.
Human Skills: Ability to work with others, communicate effectively, and build relationships.
Conceptual Skills: Ability to think critically, analyze situations, and solve problems.

Traditional Management: Focus on planning, organizing, leading, and controlling (POAC).
Communication: The exchange of information, ideas, and opinions.
Human Resource Management: Managing the workforce, including hiring, training, and compensation.
Networking: Building and maintaining relationships with individuals and organizations.

OB is a field that studies the impact of individuals, groups, and structures on behavior within organizations.
It applies this knowledge to improve organizational effectiveness.
It uses a combination of systematic study, evidence-based management (EBM), and intuition.
It draws on concepts from psychology, social psychology, sociology, and anthropology.
OB principles are not always universally applicable, and contingent variables play a role.
There is no single, simple answer to complex organizational problems.

Diversity Management: Practices and programs that promote inclusivity and awareness of individual differences.
Surface-Level Diversity: Differences in easily identifiable characteristics such as age, sex, race, and ethnicity.
Deep-Level Diversity: Differences in values, beliefs, attitudes, and personality traits.

Biographical Characteristics: Age, sex, race, ethnicity, disabilities, and tenure.
Other Differentiating Characteristics: Religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, cultural identity, and hidden disabilities.

Diversity Management: Initiatives designed to ensure that all individuals feel valued and respected.
Attracting, Selecting, Developing, and Retaining Diverse Employees: Strategies to attract and retain a diverse workforce.
Effective diversity programs: Initiatives that focus on creating a culture of inclusion and promoting diversity awareness.

Attitudes: Evaluative statements about objects, people, or events that reflect our feelings.
Cognitive Dissonance: Inconsistency between attitudes and behavior, which people often try to resolve.
Major Job Attitudes: Job satisfaction, job involvement, and organizational commitment.
Job Satisfaction: A positive feeling about the job resulting from an evaluation of its characteristics.
Job Involvement: Psychological identification with the job, where perceived performance is important to self-worth.