Summary of Understanding and managing organizational behavior by George & Jones

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. 

How can you define organizational behavior?

An organization is a group of people who work together to achieve individual goals or group goals. Individual goals are goals that members within the group aim to achieve, for example earning money, getting respect and so on. Examples of goals for an organization are profit, development of a particular drug or ensuring that a particular product is promoted. Organizations exist to offer resources and services. The quality of these goods and services are the result of the behavior and performance of the employees within an organization.

Organizational behavior (OB), is the study of factors that influence the behavior of individuals and groups within

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.

Intrinsic work values are the values that are related to the nature of the work itself, for example, learning new things, being challenged or being creative.

Extrinsic values are values that are related to the impact of work,

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 operant conditioning?

One of the fundamental learning processes is B.F. Skinner's operant conditioning. According to this approach, operant conditioning is learned by experiencing the relationship between behavior and its consequences. In addition to consequences, antecedents also play a role in this learning process: instructions, rules, goals, advice and anything else that will help the employee realize what is right and what is wrong. Antecedents contribute in this way to the learning process through an educational role. The consequences of behavior can lead to two outcomes: an increase in desired behavior and a decrease in undesirable behavior.

An increase in desired behavior can be achieved through reinforcement, the process through which the chance of desired behavior increases by

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.

Motivating employees to be interested in the organization may be increased by one of the three following methods. One of those ways is scientific management, devised by Taylor. With scientific management, attempts are made in various ways to

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.

What is the nature of stress?

Stress is experiencing possibilities (something that has the potential to be useful to a person) or threats (something that has the potential to damage the person) that are important to a person. Stress arises when the person feels that he/she can not deal effectively with the possibilities or threats. Stress has three aspects: possibilities/threats, importance and uncertainty. Stress is about the perception of these three aspects.

Stress is something very personal. Individual differences such as personality, talents and perceptions play a major role in determining the way employees respond to stress, to what extent they experience stress and how they think about possible sources of stress within

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.

Process losses are production problems that a group experiences through coordination and motivation problems. Process losses are an important factor if the actual performance is lower than the potential performance. Coordination problems arise when group activities are divided among the group members and

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.

On the other hand, power and politics can help the organization. First because of the discussions that can arise as a result of different opinions about solutions. These discussions ensure better quality decision-making. This is called political decision-making.

Secondly, different perspectives can

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.

Decisions in response to opportunities occur when members of an organization make choices that benefit them. An individual, group or organization can only achieve their full potential if they use every possibility to increase their effectiveness and efficiency.

Decision-making in response to problems occurs when an

Organizational culture consists of the norms and values that influence how employees think, feel and behave towards each other and towards people outside the organization. Values are general criteria and standards that people use to determine which types of behavior and situations are desirable and undesirable. Values can be divided into terminal and instrumental values. Terminal values determine the desired outcome of behavior. Instrumental values specify the desired form of behavior that must be followed up. Standards are specified to ensure that people follow the values. Norms are largely informal, which means that the most crucial standards are not documented. Instead, employees internalize the norms and values automatically during the socialization process.

How does the socialization process work?

The socialization process consists of both formal training programs of the organization and informal observations and cooperation that leads to the introduction and internalization of the organizational culture.

Every organization has