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IntroductionIntroductionto the Field ofto the Field ofOrganizational BehaviourOrganizational Behaviour

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Nortel Networks and OB

Nortel Networks has leveraged the power of organizational behaviour to become one of the world’s leading high technology companies.

D. Chan. Ottawa Citizen

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What are Organizations?

Groups of people who work interdependently toward some purpose

– Structured patterns of interaction

– Coordinated tasks– Work toward some

purpose

D. Chan. Ottawa Citizen

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OrganizationalOrganizationalBehaviourBehaviourResearchResearch

UnderstandUnderstandorganizationalorganizational

eventsevents

PredictPredictorganizationalorganizational

eventsevents

InfluenceInfluenceorganizationalorganizational

eventsevents

Why Study Organizational Behaviour

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Trends: Globalization

• New organizational structures

• Different forms of communication

• Increases competition, change, mergers, downsizing, stress

• Need to be more sensitive to cultural differences

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Trends: Workforce Diversity

• Primary and secondary diversity

• More women in workforce and professions

• Different needs of Generation-X and baby-boomers

• Diversity has advantages, but firms need to adjust

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Trends: Employment Relationship

• Employability

• Contingent work

• Telecommuting

• Virtual teams

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Trends: Information Technology

• Affects how employees interact– Virtual teams– Telecommuting

• Affects how organizations are configured– Network structures

• Affects how firms relate to customers– Communication issues

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Trends: Lots of Teams

• Potentially more effective than employees working alone

• Concern is when to assign tasks to teams rather than to individuals

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Trends: Business Ethics

• The study of moral principles or values that determine whether actions are right or wrong and outcomes are good or bad

• What is unethical is not always obvious

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OrganizationalOrganizationalBehaviourBehaviourAnchorsAnchors

MultidisciplinaryMultidisciplinaryanchoranchor

SystematicSystematicresearchresearchanchoranchor

ContingencyContingencyanchoranchor

Open systemsOpen systemsanchoranchor

Multiple levelsMultiple levelsof analysisof analysis

anchoranchor

Organizational Behaviour Anchors

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FeedbackFeedback FeedbackFeedback

OutputsOutputsInputsInputs

SubsystemSubsystemSubsystemSubsystem

SubsystemSubsystem SubsystemSubsystem

OrganizationOrganization

Open Systems Anchor of OB

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Knowledge Management Defined

Any structured activity that improves an organization’s capacity to acquire, share, and use knowledge for its survival and success

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Intellectual Capital

• Human capital– Knowledge that employees possess

and generate

• Structural capital– Knowledge captured in systems and

structures

• Relationship capital– Value derived from satisfied customers,

reliable suppliers, and others

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Knowledge Management Processes

Vancouver-based PMC-Sierra bought start-up firm Extreme Packet Devices for $600 million because it needed to acquire knowledge faster than through in-house research.

R. MacIvor. Ottawa Citizen

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Knowledge Management Processes

• Knowledge acquisition– Grafting, learning,

experimentation

• Knowledge sharing– Communication– Communities of practice

• Knowledge use– Awareness– Freedom to apply knowledge

R. MacIvor. Ottawa Citizen

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Organizational Memory

• The storage and preservation of intellectual capital

• Retain intellectual capital by:– Keeping knowledgable employees– Transferring knowledge to others– Transferring human capital to structural

capital