Chapter 1:

What is Organizational Behaviour?

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Chapter Outline
Defining Organizational Behaviour
– OB Is for Everyone
– The Importance of Interpersonal Skills
– What Do We Mean by Organization?

OB: Making Sense of Behaviour in Organizations
– The Building Blocks of OB
– The Rigour of OB

How Will Knowing OB Make a Difference?
– In the Workplace
– For You as an Individual

Today’s Challenges in the Canadian Workplace
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Challenges at the Individual Level
Challenges at the Group Level
Challenges at the Organizational Level
OB in Summary

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Learning Outcomes
1. What is organizational behaviour?
2. Isn’t organizational behaviour common sense? Or just like psychology?
3. How does knowing about organizational behaviour make work and life more understandable? 4. What challenges do managers and employees face in the workplace of the twenty-first century?
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Organizational Behaviour (OB)
• A field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behaviour within organizations • The aim is to apply such knowledge toward improving organizational effectiveness. Copyright  2014 Pearson Canada Inc.

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OB Is for Everyone
• Organizational Behaviour (OB) is relevant anywhere: – people come together and share experiences,
– work on goals,
– or meet to solve problems.

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The Importance of
Interpersonal Skills
• Recognition of the importance of developing interpersonal skills is closely tied to the need for organizations to get and keep high-performing employees. • Creating a pleasant workplace makes good economic sense.
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What Do We Mean By An
Organization?
• A consciously coordinated social unit:
– composed of a group of people
– functioning on a relatively continuous basis
– to achieve a common goal or set of goals

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The Building Blocks of OB
• Psychology
• Sociology
• Social Psychology
• Anthropology
• Political Science
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The Rigour of OB
• OB Looks at Consistencies
– What is common about behaviour, and helps predictability?

• OB Looks Beyond Common Sense
– Systematic study, based on scientific evidence
• Evidence-based management (EBM)

• OB Has Few Absolutes
– Few, if any, simple and universal principles that explain OB

• OB Takes a Contingency Approach
– Considers behaviour in context

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OB Looks at Consistencies
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What is common about behaviour, and helps predictability?
– Certainly there are differences among individuals. – Placed in similar situations, all people don’t act exactly alike.

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However, there are certain fundamental consistencies underlying the behaviour of all individuals.
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OB Looks Beyond Common
Sense
• Systematic study
– Looking at relationships, attempting to attribute causes and effects and drawing conclusions based on scientific evidence
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Copyright  2014 Pearson Canada Inc.

Behaviour is generally predictable.
There are differences between individuals.
There are fundamental consistencies.
There are rules (written and unwritten) in almost every setting.
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OB Has Few Absolutes
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There are few simple and universal principles that explain organizational behaviour. •

Human beings are very complex.

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Humans are not alike, which limits the ability to make simple, accurate, and sweeping generalizations.

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OB Takes a Contingency
Approach
• Contingency approach: Considers behaviour within the context in which it occurs. – Depends upon the situation

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How Will Knowing OB Make a
Difference – In the Workplace
• Managing people well may lead to