Organizational Behavior: Thinking and Acting

Organizational Behavior: Thinking and Acting

• An organization constitutes individuals collaborating with a coordinated system to achieve a common goal.
• Organizations entail individual networks forming relationships to meet shared objectives.
• Organizational Behavior (OB) involves studying how people act within various organizations such as public, nonprofit, schools, and healthcare entities.
• OB aims to enhance understanding of behavior and influence capabilities.
• OB examines how public servants interact internally and with the public, their job perspectives, community significance, and service motivations.
• OB focuses on individual/group workplace behavior and its organizational impact.
• Understanding behavior improves organizational effectiveness and enhances positive employee effects, with the fundamental goal to explain/predict organizational behavior.
• Organizational behavior concerns human behavior and social systems, starting with individuals and focusing on their behavior, needs, and perceptions.

Levels of Analysis in Organizational Behavior

• Organizational behavior analysis involves analyzing events/issues at multiple levels.
• The Individual Level focuses on behavior, motivations, and actions of public service individuals, considering needs, perceptions, and the fit between them and the organization, which significantly impacts public program outcomes.
• The Group Level examines group processes like team interaction, communication, decision-making, and conflict management, significantly influencing individual behavior and organizational effectiveness.
• The Organizational Level considers organizational influences such as structure, culture, and systems, assessing if organizational structure suits task accomplishment.
• Governance in the Public Interest focuses on whether public sector actions align with democratic values and public interest.
• Public servants manage organizational behavior to meet public objectives and community needs, often taking precedence over personal/organizational values, making public management distinctive due to the political environment and nature of public service.

Roots of Organizational Behavior and Important Figures

• The field evolved from early management's control focus, towards recognizing human factors.
• Early management approaches focus on controlling workers and manipulating their environment for maximized predictability and productivity, viewing workers as tools motivated by fear of economic or physical consequences.
• Frederick Taylor (early 20th century) and scientific management theory are important in early management thinking for improving efficiency and productivity via scientific study of work methods, standardization, and worker selection/training.
• Emphasis on task optimization as opposed to individual/group behavior, laid groundwork for later integrating organizational human factors.
• The Human Relations Movement later highlighted social and psychological workplace factors.
• The Hawthorne studies (Roethlisberger & Dickson, 1939) drew attention to social interaction and employee attitudes impacting productivity.
• Mary Parker Follett (early 20th century) emphasized group dynamics and participation importance.
• Chester Barnard (1938) viewed organizations as cooperative systems, which highlighted communication role and the acceptance of authority.
• Kurt Lewin (mid-20th century) demonstrated that participation in problem-solving increases commitment to decisions, making group dynamics and change foundational to organizational behavior.
• Douglas McGregor (mid-20th century) researched group norms and personal needs, underscoring morale and cooperative effort importance He is famous for Theory X (traditional command-and-control) and Theory Y (optimistic) to prevent possible self-fulfilling prophecies.
• Max Weber (early 20th century) layed out bureaucratic organizations and power dynamics.
• Amatai Etzioni (1988) contributed in group decision-making.
• Margaret Mead contributed to the understanding of cultures.
• Anthropology provides insights into organizational culture.
• Herbert Simon contributed in understanding decision-making and administrative behavior.
• James Macgregor Burns (1978) enhanced the notion of transformational leadership.
• Abraham Maslow (1962) brought the hierarchy of needs theory, and Victor Vroom (1964) with Edward Lawler (1973) contributed to work motivation.
• Positive psychology, with figures like Fred Luthans, Kim Cameron, Jane Dutton, and Robert Quinn, emphasized positive aspects of organizational life.

Management Functions and Effectiveness

• Management Functions are identified by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) as core managerial activities: planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling.
• Effectiveness Characteristics were identified by the OPM study: broad perspective, strategic view, environmental sensitivity, leadership, communication, interpersonal sensitivity, and flexibility.
• The Management Excellence Framework indicates that working with and through people is crucial for public managers.
• First-line managers need technical competence, communication, personal sensitivity, action orientation, leadership, and flexibility
• Middle-level managers need all first-line skills plus broad perspective, strategic view, and environmental sensitivity
• Executives need the full range of effectiveness characteristics.

Assumptions and Values Underlying Organizational Behavior

• OB is based on assumptions regarding human nature and behavior.
• Recognizing these assumptions helps interpret actions and guide responses.
• Human behavior is purposeful and directed towards goal accomplishment with intent, even when reasons are not obvious.
• Voluntary goal-directed behavior is crucial for organizational effectiveness.
• Studying behavior and interaction patterns provides insights into influencing others.
• Behavior that has favorable consequences is likely to be repeated due to learning.
• Human dignity, growth, fairness, and participation are key "People Perspective" values.
• Managing organizational behavior must align with democratic values and public interest ("Values in Public Service").
• Efficiency and productivity must not overshadow democracy, community, and public interest.
• Behavior individuals display depends on their value maturity.
• OB is not just a study field but a critical "way of thinking and acting" for people in public organizations, emphasizing the human element in achieving organizational goals in order to serve the public responsibly.

Knowing and Managing Yourself

• Chapter 2 focuses on self-discovery and personal responsibility.
• An enlightened organization encourages its employees to pursue self-discovery.
• Employees with a purpose and connection to their organization's mission become passionate about their work.
• This intrinsic motivation can lead to unlimited potential for accomplishment.
• When employees have a sense of purpose and a connection to their work then there is unlimited potential in achieving organizational goals.
• Knowing oneself is the foundation for effective management and leadership.
• Knowing oneself includes understanding motivations, values, strengths, and weaknesses.
• Employees should better navigate interpersonal relationships.
• Employees should improve interactions with others.
• Self-awareness is a continuous process and lifelong journey of requiring effort and reflection.
• Good management requires a competent response to emotional challenges.
• Threats to security, self-image, or self-worth trigger self-protective tendencies.
• In relationships, we control our behavior.
• Enhancing self-understanding and recognizing how values influence/affect us help in handling emotional challenges and maintaining positive relationships.
• This success can be achieved regardless of the fact that people may sometimes avoid learning about themselves.
• People may evade self-knowledge due to the fear of greatness (Maslow, 1962).
• Self-knowledge involves understanding and appreciating others' emotions.
• Emotional intelligence is key to understanding others' perspectives and needs, resolving conflicts, and wielding influence (Lubit, 2006).
• Good management depends on how we handle emotional challenges (Holmer, 1994).
• Emotional challenges can be any perceived threat to security (Holmer and Adams, 1995).

Improving Self-Management

• Goleman's four components of emotional intelligence are self-management, self-awareness, social awareness, and relationship management (adapted from Armstrong, 2004).
• Self-management is the ability to control/redirect disruptive impulses and moods/behaviors, as well as pursue goals (includes self-control, trustworthiness, and comfort with ambiguity).
• Self-awareness is the ability to understand how emotions/moods, drives, and effects impact others (includes emotional awareness, self-confidence and accurate self-assessment).
• Recognizing how values influence behavior helps gain insight into how attitudes and behaviors affect others
• Being able to accept different worldviews builds capacity to handle emotional challenges and maintain positive relationships.
• The five self-imposed barriers that can sabotage our rise to leadership positions include defensiveness, a lack of emotional intelligence, poor communication, a lack of self-awareness, and resistance to feedback (Morriss, Ely, and Frei, identified that, 2011).
• consciously creating a personal vision is important (Kouzes & Posner, 1995), provides direction, and helps clarify values.
• Creating/clarifying a personal vision can help clarify core moral and ethical values.
• Having clear values helps make important life decisions and recognize inconsistencies between actions/values.
• Clarifying values helps recognize that many cherished ideas are values, not facts, which opens the door to accepting others’ views.
• It is possible to become a well-rounded individual, by using the assessing-yourself method which utilizes personalized assessments like personal values, personality style, interpersonal orientation, locus of control, career orientation, and self-disclosure.
• Reddin's Personal Values Inventory helps identify values and make career decisions aligned with personal preferences through answering statements and scoring them (no right or wrong preference) for the highest scored factor.
• Six are the different Value Orientations identified by Reddin
• Theoretical oriented individuals value rationality and the world of ideas.
• Economic oriented individuals are interested in the power of money and rewards for effort and personal gain.
• Aesthetic oriented individuals value form and harmony.
• Social oriented individuals place a high value on people and relationships.
• Political oriented individuals are interested in power and influence.
• Religious oriented individuals are concerned with unity and understanding the cosmos.
• The four basic personality types are artisan, guardian, rational, and idealistic . (Keirsey inventory or Myers-Briggs Type Inventory)
• The Keirsey Inventory identifies one of four basic temperaments (artisan, guardian, rational, and idealistic) that is the same, in assessing Jungian personalities, as the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory (Keirsey, 1998).
• Different personality types have complementary needs (Keirsey, 1998); for example, intuitive types need sensing types, thinkers need feeling types, and feeling types need thinkers.
• Schutz's theory states three interpersonal needs must be satisfied for effective functioning and satisfactory relationships; the need for inclusion, the need for control, and the need for affection (Schutz, 1958).
• These needs have two aspects: a desire to express behavior, and a desire to receive behavior. consistency between expressed and wanted behavior is healthy.
• Career anchors are self-perceived talents, motives, and values concerning one's career.
• Self-reflection and self-critique can translate past experiences into a personal development action agenda.
• Seeking feedback from others annually about your work performance, attitudes results in a well-rounded individual.
• Engaging in self-reflection and self-critique means an aspire of self-learning is achieved.
• Through an administrative journal, one can achieve sustained self-reflection.
• trusted friends insights significantly boost confidence and self-esteem.
• successfully navigated change provides valuable lessons and a role model.
• Avoid pressure, relax with non-work activities, and renew energy with improve productivity and creativity (balance & insight).
• Be inspiring to others by setting an example to develop both the individual and the organization.
• Account for individual differences when recognizing people’s different preferences and avoid overgeneralizing

Ways of Acting and Cognitive Improvement

• Cognitive Knowledge involves

  • understanding emotional challenges.
  • gaining insight into value influence
  • recognizing the impact of attitudes and behaviors
  • being able to Accept diverse perspectives
  • developing ethical competence
  • Learning about the different levels of self and how emotions and behaviors can be improved.

• Behavioral Skills involves

  • being able to Practice self-control regulation
  • being attentive to Enhance interpersonal skills like communication, motivation and group work. Utilizing and seeking the results
  • being Attentive to formal and informal feedback from others for self-improvement and improvement.
  • to reveal yourself to others through appropriate self-engagement. Knowing when to self-disclose information you can improve.
  • Developing the ability to improve self-awareness
  • Be able to strike for self-acceptance. Recognize the importance of self-acceptance for psychological health and positive relationships.
  • Have People ensure of their values

• Values clarification as the first step in recognizing cherished ideas opens the door to accepting other views.

• Valuing diversity involves having individuals and organizations think in action and reflect on accepting differences (adapted from Deep & Sussman, 2000). The exercise prompts reflection and comfort levels with diverse individuals (the self is the main focus).