Organizational Behaviour
Welcome to RSM 260!
September 10, 2012
Professor Sanford DeVoe

Introduction
 About me
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New Yorker
PhD from Stanford GSB
Live in downtown Toronto
Currently Assistant Professor at Rotman
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Since 2007 – teach in MBA, PhD, and BComm

Study the psychology of incentives, motivation, and culture
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Class Norms

 Class will always start 10 minutes after the hour.
 Arrive on time – if you’re late, please be discreet. 3

Agenda
 What is Organizational Behaviour?
 Organizational Behaviour Exercise
 Syllabus

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What is Organizational Behaviour?
Scientific Management (Taylor)
 The use of research to determine the optimal degree of specialization and standardization for a job.
 “What can we do to get workers to do more in less time?”
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engineering production process standardization of procedures
Classical View use of incentive pay
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What is Organizational Behaviour?
 Elton Mayo & the Hawthorne studies
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Hawthorne Plants of Western Electric
Company (Chicago, 1927)

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History of Organizational Behaviour
 Elton Mayo & the
Hawthorne studies
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Hawthorne Plants of
Western Electric
Company (Chicago, 1927)

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Hawthorne Studies
Illumination Experiments (1924-27)
Two work groups of female employees
 Light intensity & worker efficiency
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Relay Assembly Room Study (1927-29)
Five female employees
 Effects of length of workday & week, & use of rest periods on productivity & fatigue
 Initial conditions: 48 hours/ week (MondaySaturday, 9-5), no breaks
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Percentage of Standard Output

What is Organizational Behaviour?
124
116
108
100

Standard work conditions (48 hrs/week
[Mon-Sat, 9-5], no breaks)

added two breaks

made breaks longer

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added four breaks

back to two breaks, with hot meal ended all the day improvements at 4:30 taken away instead of 5:00

What is Organizational Behaviour?
 Question: Why did performance increase even when all improvements were taken away?
 Answer: Workers responded favourably to the special attention that they received.
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The study demonstrates importance of psychological factors at work.

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What is Organizational Behaviour?
Human Relations Movement
 The adoption of management styles that are participative and oriented toward the needs of employees.  “What social and psychological factors influence the behaviour of workers?”
 Based on studies on the effects of interventions on performance conducted at the Hawthorne Plants of the
Western Electric Company (Chicago, 1927)
Human Relations View
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What is Organizational Behaviour?
 Organizational behaviour (OB) is the field of behavioural science that seeks knowledge of how individuals act, think, and feel in organizations by studying individual and group processes.
 Emphasis is on studying attitudes and behaviours.
 Asks how can organizations be structure most effectively.  Includes the study of how events in the external environment affect organizations.
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Goals of OB
 Predicting organizational behaviour and events.  Explaining organizational behaviour and events in organizations.
 Managing organizational behaviour.

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OB is…
Multidisciplinary

Techniques are Multi-Method

Anthropology

Economics

Observational

Political Science
Correlational

Psychology
Sociology

Experimental

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OB is…
Multidisciplinary

Techniques are Multi-Method

Anthropology

Economics
Political Science

Psychology
Sociology

Observational
 Observe the natural setting by listening to what people say and watching what they do
 Observe by participating as an organizational member
 Ethnographic study is rich in description and detail (less emphasis on generalizing)

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OB is…
Multidisciplinary

Techniques are Multi-Method

Anthropology

Economics

Observational