Understanding and managing organizational behavior - George & Jones - 6th edition

Last updated

13-03-2019

How do groups develop and how do they influence individuals? - Chapter 10

This chapter deals with the nature and functioning of working groups and teams. It describes what a group is and how they emerge, the characteristics of a working group and how participation in a group influences individual behavior.

What do we mean by a group?

A group consists of 2 or more people interacting with each other to achieve a certain goal or fulfill certain needs. This does not mean that all goals are identical to each other. A group goal is the agreed common goal of all or most members of the group.

When and why do groups work more effectively than individuals? - Chapter 11

In the previous chapter, the nature and functioning of working groups were described. The previous chapter will be continued on in this chapter. It examines why and under what conditions a working group works more effectively than individuals. Factors that lead to problems are also discussed. Finally, four important working groups are discussed in detail.

What is understood by process loss, process gains, and potential performance?

Potential performance is the highest possible level of performance that a group can achieve at a certain time. Managers and working groups must ensure that the actual performance of a group is as close as possible to the potential performance.

What is a leader and how do you become one? - Chapter 12

Leaders have a big influence on people, groups, and organizations. In this chapter, leadership is defined and different types of leaders are discussed. Furthermore, different approaches to leadership are discussed that attempt to explain why some people become leaders. After that, substitutes and neutralization of leadership are discussed. Finally, the latest research topics are discussed.

What is the definition of leadership?

Leadership is the ability of an individual to influence the other members of the group or organization and to help them achieve their goals. The leaders have a large influence. Leader effectiveness is the degree to which the leader actually manages to achieve the goals of the group or organization.

How do power, politics, conflict and negotiations affect organizations? - Chapter 13

What is the connection between power and politics?

Power is the ability of a person or group to cause another person or group to do things that they would otherwise not have done. Power is a means of managing and controlling organizational goals and activities.

Organizational politics are the activities undertaken by managers to increase their power and to pursue their goals in favor of their personal and group interests. On the one hand, the terms power and politics have a negative sound because people associate them with self-interest; managers who abuse power and politics act in favor of their own interests at the expense of others.

What is the definition and function of communication? - Chapter 14

What is the definition of communication?

Communication is one of the most crucial aspects in the management of organizations. Effective communication has major consequences for the performance of individual employees, the group and the organization as a whole.

The definition of communication consists of two characteristics:

Sharing information with others
The mutual understanding of the information

How do people make decisions? - Chapter 15

This chapter shows how people make decisions. First of all, the different types of decisions and the decision-making process are discussed. Next, 'biases' and problems in decision making are explained. Furthermore, the advantages and disadvantages of involving a group in the decision-making process and the techniques that a group can use in decision-making are explored. Finally, it discusses how a company can encourage learning in an organization to maintain and improve the quality of its decision-making.

What is decision-making?

Decision making is the process whereby members of an organization choose a specific course of action to respond to the possibilities and the problems.

How is an organization structured and structured? - Chapter 16

How do you design the structure of an organization?

With increasing competition, it is important for every organization to find new ways to function effectively. The process of designing the structure of an organization plays an important role in this. The structure of the organization is the formal system of role distributions where employees are coordinated and motivated so that they can work together to achieve the goal of the organization. The design of an organization is the process managers determine using various dimensions and structural components so that an organization can achieve its goals.

What is meant by an organizational culture? - Chapter 17

What does an organizational culture consist of?

How do organizations change and develop? - Chapter 18

What are the forces and resistance to change?

Change in an organization is the movement of an organization from the current state to a desired future state to increase its effectiveness. Organizations are currently in a changing environment where they have to constantly adapt to stay effective. Change occurs as a result of the action of different forces.

Tforcerst froce is competition. An organization will not survive unless it adjusts and surpasses other organizations. To excel, an organization must constantly adopt the latest technologies. In order to excel in innovation, an organization must ensure that its employees share ideas and work together.

What is the definition of organizational behavior and why is knowledge about this important? - Chapter 1

Organizational behavior is defined below and it is clear that this topic is important. Due to the many changes in the world outside of the organization, the way of working within the organization also changes. The behavior and performance of an organization are discussed below.

What are individual differences and why are they important to managers? - Chapter 2

Individual differences are the ways in which people differ from each other. Every member of an organization has its own way of behavior. It is important for managers to understand individual differences because they influence the feelings, thoughts, and behavior of employees. Individual differences can be divided into two categories:

personality differences
capacity differences

What is personality and how is it influenced?

Personality refers to the relatively stable patterns in the thinking, feeling, and behavior of a person. It is an important factor in explaining the behavior of people within an organization and in the favorable or unfavorable attitude towards the job and the organization.

What is the influence of personal thoughts and feelings about work on organizational behavior? - Chapter 3

This chapter discusses the thoughts and feelings (the work values, work attitudes, moods, and emotions) that people have about work, their job, the organization in which they work and how these thoughts and feelings influence the organizational behavior. Study of the thoughts and feelings contribute to a better understanding and better management of organizational behavior.

What are work values?

work values are the personal views of an employee about what one expects to get from work and how one should behave at work. Expected rewards (outcomes) can be self-respect, money or status. These values are relatively static and are guidelines for behavior. work values can be divided into two categories, namely intrinsic and extrinsic work values.

How do perceptions and attributions help organize, understand and perceive? - Chapter 4

This chapter deals with how perceptions and attributions help to organize, understand and interpret what is observed and how managers can increase their skills by paying attention to the way they perceive and interpret. Furthermore, steps are discussed for the effective management of a diverse work floor.

What is perception?

Perception is the process of selecting, organizing and interpreting information that comes through the senses, to understand it and to form an opinion about it.

Perception consists of three components:

receiver: he tries to understand the observations,

What do we mean by learning ability and creativity? - Chapter 5

Learning refers to a relatively permanent change in knowledge or behavior that is brought about by experience or practice. Three important elements of this definition are change, permanence, and experience.

What is the nature of work motivation? - Chapter 6

In this chapter, work motivation is examined in more detail. A distinction is made between motivation and performance and between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Different theories about work motivation try to explain how people are motivated. All these theories come with suggestions about how motivation can be increased.

What is work motivation?

Work motivation is the psychological forces that dictate the direction of one's behavior, the level of effort and the degree of endurance in an organization.

Work motivation, therefore, consists of three important elements that are discussed in more detail below.

How do you create a motivating work environment? - Chapter 7

This chapter discusses how an organization can create a motivating work environment by linking specific tasks to a job ('job design') and fulfilling general goals and personal goals ('goal setting') for the employees.

What are early approaches to job design?

Job design is the process of connecting specific tasks to specific jobs and deciding which techniques, tools, and procedures must be used to fulfill a certain task. Task design influences the motivation of the employees, the amount of effort they will show and how much they want to contribute to the organization. If the motivation is very high, this is beneficial for the organization because the efficiency of the organization increases.

Which aspects of the working relationship can contribute to the motivation of employees? - Chapter 8

This chapter discusses the most important aspects of the working relationship that can contribute to motivating the employee. The nature of the psychological contract between an individual and the organization is described. Furthermore, three factors are discussed that play a central role in the exchange relationship between individual and organization: performance evaluation, payment, and careers.

What is a psychological contract between the employee and the organization?

A psychological contract is the perception of the employee about his or her exchange relationship with an organization, about what he/she will receive from the organization in the field of remuneration and what he/she has to do in return for the organization.

How does stress arise, what are the consequences and how is it remedied? - Chapter 9

This chapter describes the nature of stress and the consequences of stress for people and organizations. In addition, the causes of stress and the steps that can be taken to deal with stress effectively are discussed.