ORGANIZATIONAL THEORY &

BEHAVIOUR
MNG3102

INTRODUCTION
Edmodo.com
CLASS: MNG3102 Organizational Theory and
Behaviour.
CLASS CODE: wjvhat
 ORGANIZATION
• An organization is formally defined as a
collection of people working together in a
division of labour to achieve a common
purpose.

• Organizations are not buildings or government-

registered entities. In fact, many organizations
exist without either physical walls or
government documentation to confer their legal
status. 2
 CORE PURPOSE
• The core purpose of an organization may be
stated as the creation of goods or services for
customers.

3
 MISSION STATEMENT
• Missions and Mission statements focus the
attention of organizational members and
external constituents on the core purpose.

• Republic Bank (Guyana) Limited

• Our mission is to provide Personalised, Efficient
and Competitively priced Financial Services
and to Implement Sound Policies which will
redound to benefit of our Customers, Staff and
Shareholders. 4
 ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
• Organizational Behaviour (OB) is the study of
individuals and groups in organizations. It is
the understanding, prediction and management
of human behaviour in organization.

• OB represents the behavioural approach to

management, not the whole of management.

5
 ORGANIZATIONAL THEORY
• Organizational Theory tends to be more macro
oriented than organizational behaviour and is
concerned primarily with organization structure
and design.

6
 ORGANIZATIONAL
DEVELOPMENT
• Organizational Development tends to be both
more macro and more applied than
organizational behaviour.

• It is a planned process of change in an

organization’s culture through the utilization of
behavioural science technology, research, and
theory.

7
 TRENDS IN THE NEW WORK
PLACE
• Demise of “command-control”.
• Emergence of new workforce expectations.
• Increasing impact of information technologies.
• Belief in empowerment.
• Emphasis on team work.
• Concern for work-life balance.

8
 DEMISE OF “COMMAND-
CONTROL”
• With increasing competitiveness in
organizational environments, traditional
hierarchical structures are proving too unwieldy,
slow, and costly to do well.

9
 EMERGENCE OF NEW
WORKFORCE EXPECTATIONS
• A new generation of workers is bringing with it
less tolerance for hierarchy, more informality,
concerns for performance merit rather than
status.

10
 INCREASING IMPACT OF
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES
• Organizations are now flourishing with
computers, and the consequent implications for
information utilization are far-reaching and
substantial.

11
 BELIEF IN EMPOWERMENT
• A dynamic and complex environment places a
premium, on knowledge, experience and
commitment, all of which thrive in high-
involvement and participatory work settings.

12
 EMPHASIS ON TEAM WORK
• Organizations today are less vertical and more
horizontal in focus; driven by complex
environments and customer demands, work is
increasingly team based with a focus on peer
contributions.

13
 CONCERN FOR WORK-LIFE
BALANCE
• As society increases in complexity,
organizations are paying more attention to how
members balance the sometimes-conflicting
demands and priorities of work and personal
affairs.

14
 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
• Although organizational behaviour is extremely
complex and includes many inputs, the
cognitive, behaviouristic and social learning
theoretical frameworks can be used to develop
an overall model.

15
 COGNITIVE FRAMEWORK
• The cognitive approach to human behaviour
has many sources of input. This approach
gives people much more “credit” than the other
approaches.

• The cognitive approach emphasizes the

positive and free-will aspects of human
behaviour and uses concepts such as
expectancy, demand, and incentive.

16
 COGNITIVE FRAMEWORK
(Cont’d)
• It should be noted that using this frame work
information proceeds behaviour.

• Cognition, which is the basic unit of the

cognitive framework, is the act of knowing an
item of information.

17
 COGNITIVE MAP
• Concepts such as cognitive maps can be used
as pictures or visual aids in comprehending a
person’s understanding of particular, and
selective, elements of the thoughts (rather than
thinking) of an individual, groups or
organization.

• The classic work of Edward Tolman can be

used to represent the cognitive theoretical
approach. 18
 COGNITIVE FRAMEWORK
• Contemporary psychologists carefully point out
that a cognitive concept such as expectancy
does not reflect a guess about what is going on
in the mind; it is a term that describes
behaviour.

• Things are done with the expectation that

certain likely reactions or results will occur.
Satisfactory performance will be rewarding.
19
 COGNITIVE FRAMEWORK

• Applied to the field of organizational behaviour,

a cognitive approach has traditionally
dominated through units of analysis such as
perception, personality and attitudes,
motivation, and goal setting.

• These are all important factors that help us to

anticipate what will follow.

20
 BEHAVIORISTIC FRAMEWORK
• The behavioristic theory in psychology can be
traced to the work of Ivan Pavlov and John B.
Watson.

• These pioneering behaviorists stressed the

importance of dealing with observable
behaviours instead of the elusive mind that had
preoccupied earlier psychologist.

21
 BEHAVIORISTIC FRAMEWORK
• These theorist are of the opinion that the mind
is very complex, and it is impossible to
understand or know what is going on in an
individual’s mind.

• They used classical conditioning experiments to

formulate the stimulus-response (S-R)
explanation of human behaviour. A stimulus
elicits a response.
•
22
 BEHAVIORISTIC FRAMEWORK
• B. F. Skinner a modern behaviorist is widely
recognized for his contribution to psychology.

• He was of the opinion that early behaviorists

helped explain respondent behaviours (those
behaviour elicited by stimuli) but not the more
complex operant behaviours.

• He was of the opinion that operant conditioning

better explained most behaviour 23
 BEHAVIORISTIC FRAMEWORK
• The S-R approach helped explain physical
reflexes. On the other hand he found through
his operant conditioning experiments that the
consequences of a response could better
explain most behaviours than eliciting stimuli
could.

• Knowing the consequences will stimulate the

behaviour.

24
 BEHAVIORISTIC FRAMEWORK
• Things that will result in a pleasing outcome are
likely to be repeated, while things that will result
in an unpleasant outcome are not likely to be
repeated.

• He emphasized the importance of the

response-stimulus (R-S) relationship.

• The organism has to operate on the

environment in order to receive the desirable
25
consequence.
 BEHAVIORISTIC FRAMEWORK
• The preceding stimulus does not cause the
behaviour in operant conditioning; it serves as a
cue to emit the behaviour.

• The behavioristic approach is environmentally

based. It posits that cognitive processes such
as thinking, expectancies, and perception may
exist, but are not needed to predict and control
or manage behaviour.
26
SOCIAL LEARNING FRAMEWORK
• The cognitive approach has been accused of
being mentalistic and the behavioristic
approach has been accused of being
deterministic.

• Cognitive theorists argue that the S-R model,

and to a lesser degree the R-S model, is much
too mechanistic on explanation of human
behaviour.

27
SOCIAL LEARNING FRAMEWORK
• A strict S-R interpretation of behaviour seems
justifiably open to the criticism of being too
mechanistic, but because of the scientific
approach that has been meticulously employed
by behaviorists, the operant model particularly
has made a tremendous contribution to the
study of human behaviour.

28
SOCIAL LEARNING FRAMEWORK
• The social learning approach tries to integrate
the contributions of both approaches. The
social learning approach is a behavioural
approach.

• It recognizes that behaviour is the appropriate

unit of analysis. However, unlike a strict or
radical behaviorist approach, the social learning
approach suggests that people are self-aware
and engage in purposeful behaviour.
29
SOCIAL LEARNING FRAMEWORK
• Under a social learning approach, people are
thought to learn about their environment, alter
and construct their environment to make
reinforcers available, and note the importance
of rules and symbolic processes in learning.

• We must recognize that under this approach

people will make adjustments to the
environment to facilitate their existence or make
their lives more meaningful and comfortable.
30
SOCIAL LEARNING FRAMEWORK
• Rules and procedures are changed to facilitate
a certain type of behaviour. Therefore the
experience gained will impact behaviour due to
changes that are made.

• The work of Albert Bandura is probably the

most representative of this approach.
• Bandura explains that, it is largely through their
actions that people produce the environmental
conditions that affect their behaviour in a
31
reciprocal fashion.
SOCIAL LEARNING FRAMEWORK
• The experiences generated by behaviour also
partly determine what a person becomes and
can do, which, in turn, affects subsequent
behaviour.

• Social learning, with its very comprehensive,

interactive nature, serves as an appropriate
theoretical framework for developing a model of
organizational behaviour.
32
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR &
DIVERSITY
• Workforce diversity involves differences based
on gender, race and ethnicity, age and
ablebodiedness. These are referred to as
surface-level diversity — the observable
demographic and other overt differences in
people.
• Valuing diversity is an OB theme. It refers to
managing and working with others in full respect
for their individual differences. Interpersonal
sensitivity and cultural respect are indispensable
to valuing diversity. 33
 DIVERSITY
• Diversity also includes differences in the
psychological characteristics of employees,
including personalities, beliefs, values, and
attitudes. We can’t directly see this deep-level
diversity , but it is evident in a person’s
decisions, statements, and actions.
• The different attitudes and expectations held by
employees across generational cohorts.
• Baby boomers – 1946 -1964, Generation-X –
1965 – 1979, Generation-Y 1980 – 1994, and
Generation-Z- 1995 and after. 34
 GLASS CEILING EFFECT
• The glass ceiling effect is a hidden barrier
limiting advancement of women and minorities
in organizations.

35
HOW TO MAKE DIVERSITY STICK
• Focus on getting the best talent.

• Develop career plans for all employees.

• Provide career mentoring by diversity cohorts.

• Promote minorities to responsible positions.

36
HOW TO MAKE DIVERSITY STICK
• Maintain accountability for diversity goals.

• Make diversity part of organizational strategy.

• Build diversity into senior management.

37
 ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING
• Organizational learning is a perspective which
holds that organizational effectiveness depends
on the organization’s capacity to acquire, share,
use, and store valuable knowledge.

• It is the process of acquiring knowledge and

using information to adapt successfully to
changing circumstances.

38
 ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING
• Organizations must be able to change
continuously and positively while searching
continuously for new ideas and opportunities.

• Knowledge acquisition occurs when information

is brought into the organization from the
external environment. This can include hiring
people, acquiring companies, and scanning the
environment for the latest trends.

39
 ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING
• Knowledge sharing refers to the distribution of
knowledge throughout the organization.

• Knowledge use is the application of knowledge

to organizational processes in ways that
improve the organization’s effectiveness.

• Storage refers to ways that companies retain

valuable knowledge. They retain employees,
document best practices, record experiments,40
and keep samples of past products.
 FOCUS ON APPLICATION
• The field of organizational behaviour focuses on
applications that can make a real difference in
how organizations and people in them perform.

• Outcome or dependent variable studies by

researchers, for example, include task
performance, job satisfaction, job involvement,
absenteeism, and turnover.

41
 FOCUS ON APPLICATION
• Factors that influence end results are critical so
that informed decisions can be made.

• Why is job satisfaction low, what is responsible

for the high level of absenteeism?

• It is in this sense that organizational behaviour

is an applied social science that can ultimately
help to improve the functioning of organizations
and the work experiences of their members. 42
 CONTINGENCY THINKING
• Rather than assume that there is one “best” or
universal way to manage people and
organizations, OB recognizes that management
practices must be tailored to fit the exact nature
of each situation.

• Using a contingency approach researchers try

to identify how different situations can best be
understood and handled.
43
 CONTINGENCY THINKING
• There is no one best way in dealing with a
situation even if the same individuals are
involved, since what would have worked before,
may no longer be applicable to the current
situation.

• Even if the situation is identical to an earlier

experience, the individuals may differ, requiring
a different approach.

• The contingency approach seeks ways to meet44

the needs of different management situations.
 PEOPLE AND WORK SYSTEMS
• One of the important directions in organizational
behaviour today is the emphasis on Intellectual
capital as represented by the sum total of
knowledge, expertise and dedication of an
organization’s workforce.

• It recognizes that even in the age of high

technology, people are the indispensable
human resources whose knowledge and
performance advance the organization’s
purpose, mission and strategies. 45
 HUMAN RESOURCE
• Only through human efforts can the great
advantages be realized from other material
resources of organizations such as
technology, information, raw materials and
money.

• We must recognize that though the work

place may become more computerized, we
cannot deemphasize the role of humans in
organizations. Nothing can be accomplished
without human intervention in organizations. 46
 HUMAN RESOURCE
• Human resources are the people who do the
work that help organizations fulfill their
missions.

• This resource is critical to all organizations,

though it may vary in terms or quantity and
quality from organization to organization.

47
 HUMAN CAPITAL
• Human capital — the knowledge, skills, and
abilities that employees possess — is an
important source of competitive advantage for
organizations.

• Human capital helps the organization realize

opportunities or minimize threats in the external
environment. Furthermore, human capital is
neither widely available nor easily duplicated.
48
 OPEN SYSTEMS
• Organizations can be viewed as open systems
that obtain resources inputs from the
environment and transform them into outputs
that are returned to the environment in the form
of goods and services.

• If every thing works right, the environment

values these outputs and creates a continuing
demand for them. This sustains operations and
allows the organization to survive and prosper
over the long run. 49
 OPEN SYSTEMS
• Things can sometimes go wrong in the
organization/environment relationship. If the
value chain breaks down and an organization’s
goods or services become unpopular, it will
sooner or later have difficulty obtaining the
resources it needs to operate.

• The goods and services must not only be

desired by the market, but the quality must also
be to the market’s expectation.
• In the extreme case, it will be forced out of
50
existence.
 OPEN SYSTEMS
RESOURCE TRANSFORMATION PRODUCT
INPUTS PROCESS OUTPUTS
Information Organization
Material
Technology
Facilities Work Activity Finished
Money Goods and
People Service
Consumer
Feedback
51
 OPEN SYSTEM
• As open systems, organizations depend on the
external environment for resources, including
raw materials, employees, financial resources,
information, and equipment.

• According to the open-systems perspective,

successful organizations monitor their
environments and are able to maintain a close
fit with changing conditions. One way they do
this is by finding new opportunities to secure
essential inputs. 52
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR &
MANAGEMENT
• Managers are formally responsible for
supporting the work efforts of other people.

• In all organizations, managers perform jobs that

involve directly supporting the work effort of
others. Being a manager is a unique challenge
that carries distinct performance
responsibilities.

53
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR &
MANAGEMENT
• Managers help other people get important
things done in timely, high-quality and
personally satisfying ways.

• In the new workplace, this is accomplished

more through helping and supporting than
through traditional notions of directing and
controlling.

54
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR &
MANAGEMENT
• The shift from command and control, which is
more applicable to military organizations, has
resulted in a changing role for managers.

• They have become more employee oriented,

and less task oriented. Rather than just giving
instructions, they are more likely to assist and
council workers in their day to day activities.

55
 The Nature of Managerial Work
• Managers work long hours.

• Managers are busy people

• Managers are often interrupted.

• Managers work mostly with other people.

• Managers are communicators. 56

 EFFECTIVE MANAGER
• An effective manager is one whose
organizational unit, group or team consistently
achieves its goals while members remain
capable, committed and enthusiastic.

• Organizational behaviour directs a manager’s

attention to such matters as job satisfaction, job
involvement and organizational commitment, as
well as measures of actual task performance
57
 FUNCTIONS OF MANAGEMENT
• Planning sets objective and identifies the
actions needed to achieve them.
• Organizing divides up tasks and arranges
resources to accomplish them.
• Leading creates enthusiasm to work hard to
accomplish tasks successfully.
• Controlling monitors performance and takes
any needed corrective action.

58
 ROLES OF EFFECTIVE
MANAGERS
• Interpersonal Roles – How a manager
interacts with other people.

• Informational Roles – How a manager

exchanges and processes information

• Decisional Roles - How a manager uses

information in decision making
59
 INTERPERSONAL ROLES
• Figurehead (hosting and attending official
ceremonies)

• The role might include networking outside the

organization, hosting guest and clients,
inducting clients into the local social and
business environment.

60
 INTERPERSONAL ROLES
• Leader (creating enthusiasms and serving
people’s needs)
• This role might include goal setting,
performance appraisal and reward.

• Liaison (maintaining contacts with important

people and groups)

61
 INFORMATIONAL ROLES
• Monitor (seeking out relevant information)
• Scanning the environment for information,
including formal and informal networks.

• Disseminator (sharing and distributing relevant

information with insiders)

• Spokesperson (sharing relevant information

with outsiders)
62
 DECISIONAL ROLES
• Entrepreneur (seeking out problems to solve
and opportunities to explore)
• The manager takes initiative to improve the
effectiveness and competitiveness of his or her
own unit.

• Resource allocator (allocating resources to

various users)
• Including time, finance and people.
63
 DECISIONAL ROLES
• Disturbance handler (helping to solve conflicts)
• It involves dealing with disturbances and
conflicts which impact the performance of the
manager’s work or that of his/her unit.

• Negotiator (negotiating with other parties)

• The most time-consuming of all activities; it
reflects the manager’s role as a peace-keeper
or problem solver.
64
 MANAGERIAL SKILLS AND
COMPETENCIES
• A skill is an ability to translate knowledge into
action that results in a desired performance.

• Some have divided the essential managerial

skills into three categories: technical, human
and conceptual. These skills vary across the
different levels of management

65
 TECHNICAL SKILL
• Technical skill is an ability to perform
specialized tasks. Some technical skills require
preparatory education, whereas others are
acquired through specific training and on-the –
job experience.

• This type of skill is very important at the lower

levels of the organization, where more routine
activities that are of a repetitive nature take
place.
66
 HUMAN SKILL
• Human skill is the ability to work well with other
people. People with this skill are able to
interact well with others, engage in persuasive
communications, deal successfully with
disagreements and conflicts, and more.

• This skill is very important at all levels, since

persons have to interact with other people
continuously within the workplace.

67
 CONCEPTUAL SKILL
• Conceptual skill is the ability to analyze and
solve complex problems. This skill is used to
identify problems and opportunities, gather and
interpret relevant information, and make good
problem solving decisions and serve the
organization’s purpose.

• Individuals at the higher levels of the

organization will need this skill if they are going
to be successful. 68
 ETHICS
• Ethics refers to the study of moral principles or
values that determine whether actions are right
or wrong and outcomes are good or bad. We
rely on our ethical values to determine “the right
thing to do.”

• Values are relatively stable, evaluative beliefs

that guide our preferences for outcomes or
courses of action in a variety of situations.
Values help us to know what is right or wrong,
or good or bad, in the world. 69
 ETHICS AND ORGANIZATIONAL
BEHAVIOUR
• Ethical behaviour is that accepted as morally
“good” and “right” as opposed to “bad” or
“wrong” in a particular setting.

• It is not what an individual accepts as good or

bad, but what his peers and other stakeholders
consider good or bad. It can also be a generally
accepted behaviour of a specific group by all
stakeholders. 70
 ETHICAL BEHAVIOUR
• Ethical behaviour conforms not only to the
dictates of law but also to a broader moral code
that is common to society as a whole.

• Four ways of thinking about ethical behaviour in

and by organizations can be identified: -

71
VIEWS ABOUT ETHICAL BEHAVIOUR

• The utilitarian view

• The individualism view

• The moral-rights view

• The justice view

72
 THE UTILITARIAN VIEW
• The utilitarian view considers ethical behaviour
to be that which delivers the greatest good to
the greatest number of people.

• Those who subscribe to the results-oriented

utilitarian logic assess the moral aspects of their
decisions in terms of the consequences they
create.

73
 ETHICAL BEHAVIOUR
• Utilitarianism believes that the needs of the
many outweigh the needs of the few. From such
a perspective, it may be ethical to close a factory
in one town in other to keep the parent
corporation profitable and operating in several
other towns.

• In essence, sacrifice a few for many. Do things

that will affect a few, if from a broader
perspective many will benefit from the action or
actions. This view has resulted in persons
74
agreeing to a code of silence.
 THE INDIVIDUALISM VIEW
• The individualism view considers ethical
behaviour to be that which is best for an
individual’s long-term self-interests.

• In principle, at least, someone who acts

unethically in the short run-such as by denying
a qualified minority employee a promotion,
should not succeed in the long run because the
short-run action will not be tolerate.
75
 THE INDIVIDUALISM VIEW
• Thus, if everyone operated with long-term self-
interest in mind, their short-run action would be
ethical.

• The long term interest should influence the

short term actions of the individual. If it does
not, the short term actions will be
counterproductive to the long term goal or
objective.

76
 THE MORAL-RIGHTS VIEW
• The moral-rights view considers ethical behaviour to
be that which respects fundamental rights shared by
all human beings.

• This view is tied very closely to the principle of basic

human rights, such as those of life, liberty and fair
treatment by law.

• In an organization, this principle is reflected in such

issues as rights to privacy, due process, and freedom
of speech. Ethical behaviour does not violate any of
these fundamental human rights. 77
 THE MORAL-RIGHTS VIEW
• Based on this view such actions as searching
an individual’s locker in their absence without
their permission, reading their mails if you were
not asked to do so, and not giving an individual
the opportunity to defend herself/himself or a
hearing are unethical.

• There is however a thin line between security

and unethical behaviour, as it pertains to the
reading of emails for members of staff, so as to
safeguard the organization’s trade secrets 78
 THE JUSTICE VIEW
• The justice view considers ethical behaviour
to be, that which is fair and impartial in its
treatment of people.

• It is based on the concept of equitable

treatment for all concerned. In organizational
behaviour, two issues address this view of
ethical behaviour:-

• Procedural Justice
• Distributive Justice 79
 THE JUSTICE VIEW
• Procedural Justice is the degree to which the
rules and procedures specified by policies are
properly followed in all cases under which they
are applied.

• In a sexual harassment case, for example, this

may mean that required hearings are held for
every case submitted for administrative review.
80
 PROCEDURAL JUSTICE
• Whether it is an ordinary employee or a top
executive, the rules and procedures must be
applied. There should be no variation because
it is a particular individual.

• Also the application of the rules and procedures

are not subjective depending on who has to
make the decision or investigate.

81
 THE JUSTICE VIEW
• Distributive Justice is the degree to which all
people are treated the same under a policy,
regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, age or any
other demographic characteristic.

• In a sexual harassment case, this might mean

that a complaint filed by a man against a woman
would receive the same hearing as one filed by a
woman against a man.
82
 DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE
• The application of rewards or punishment
should be consistent from one individual to
another regardless of their race, ethnicity,
gender or age. Such considerations should not
be a determining factor.

83
 ETHICAL DILEMMAS IN THE
WORKPLACE
• An ethical dilemma requires a person to choose
among actions that offer possible benefits while
also violating ethical standards.

• It is a situation in which a person must decide

whether or not to do something that although
benefiting them or the organization, or both,
may be consider unethical.

84
 ETHICAL DILEMMAS
• Common rationalizations that are sometimes
used to help justify actual or potential
misconduct.

• Pretending the behaviour is not really unethical

or illegal.

• Excusing the behaviour by saying it’s really in

the organization’s or your best interest.
85
 ETHICAL DILEMMAS

• Assuming the behaviour is okay because no

one else is expected to find out about it.

• Presuming your superiors will support and

protect you if anything should go wrong.

86
 HOW TO DEAL WITH ETHICAL
DILEMMAS
• -Recognize and clarify the dilemma.
• -Get all the possible facts.
• -List all of your options.
• -Test each option by asking – Is it Legal? Is it
right? Is it beneficial?
• -Make decision
• -Double check your decision by asking – How
will I feel if my family finds out? How will I feel if
this is printed in the newspaper?
• -Then, and only then, take action.
87
 APPLICATION ESSAY
• Juanita Perez faces a dilemma in her role as the
accounts manager for a local social service
agency. One of the employees has reported to
her that another employee is charging meals to
his travel expense account even when he is
attending a conference where meals are
provided. What should Juanita do in this
situation that sets the stage so that (a) similar
problems will not arise in the future, and that (b)
the criteria of both procedural and distributive
justice are satisfied? 88
 APPLICATION ESSAY
• To be presented within two weeks after the
completion of the topic.

• The case must be done in groups of five (5)

persons.

• After the presentation a written submission

must be made.

• Submission must be no more than one page,

double spacing, font size 12”.
89