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Organizational Studies Exam Review

Challenges of Working in the 21st Century Workplace

Intellectual Capital

o Collective brainpower of a workforce

o Challenge because change jobs often

Globalization

o Worldwide interdependence of resource flows, product markets and business

competition that characterize the new economy

o No national business boundaries

o Challenge because have to be wordly and know everything

Technology

o Transformation of workplace through internet, computers, information

technology

o Challenge because increasing demand for skills and always changing

Diversity

o Reflects differences with respect to gender, age, race etc.

o Challenge because hard to keep everyone happy

Ethics

o Moral principles society requires

o Emphasis on strength of corporate governance

o Challenge because everything is online and gets out

Careers

o Not uniformly full0time or limited to one employer

o Challenge because skills must be portable and of current value

Critical Skills in the New Workplace

Mastery

Contacts

Entrepreneurship

Love of technology

Marketing

Passion for renewal

Organization: collection of people working together for a common purpose

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Organizations as Open Systems

Composed of interrelated parts that function together to achieve a common purpose

Interact with their environment

Transform resource inputs into product outputs

Organizational Performance

Productivity: overall measure of the quantity and quality of work performance

Performance Effectiveness: output measure of task or goal accomplishment (reaching goal)

Performance Efficiency: input measure of resource costs associated with goal accomplishment

(reaching goal with minimal effort)

Levels of Managers:

Top managers: responsible for whole organization

Middle managers: in charge of large departments

Project manager: coordinate complex spontaneous projects

Team leader/ supervisor: in charge of small working group of non-managerial workers

Accountability: the requirement of one person to anser to a higher authority for relevant

performance results

Types of Managers

Line managers: responsible for work activities that directly affect organization’s outputs

Staff managers: use technical expertise to advise and support the efforts of line workers

Functional managers: responsible for a single area of activity

General manager: responsible for more complex units that include many functional

areas

Administrators: work in public and non-profit organizations

The Organization as an upside-down pyramid

Every individual adds value

Manager must support the workers

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Qualities of High Performing Managers

Build working relationships

Help others develop skills and performance competencies

Create work environment that is performance driven and provides satisfaction with

workers

Functions of Managers- POLC

Planning

o Set objectives and operational plans

Organizing

o Assigning tasks, allocating resources, arranging and coordinating activities of

individuals

Leading

o Arousing people’s enthusiasm to work hard

Controlling

o Measuring work performance and taking corrective action

Scientific Management

Fredrick Taylor

“father of management”

Studied time

Support working by planning and removing obstacles

The Gilbreths

Studied motion

Eliminate wasted motions to improve performance

Administrative Principles

Henri Fayol

Management can be taught though POLC

Mary Parker Follett

Started Human resource approach

Made every employee an owner-creates responsibility

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Bureacratic Organization

Max Weber

Ideal, intentionally rational efficient organization

Characteristics

Clear division of labour

Clear hierarchy of authority

Formal rules and procedures

Impersonality

Disadvantages

Excessive paperwork or “red tape”

Slow

Rigidity

Resists change

Employee apathy

Hawthorne Studies

Elton Mayo

Tested if lighting affects productivity

Failed, but discovered social and human concerns are keys to productivity

Hawthorne Effect- people who are singled out for special attention perform as expected

Scalar Chain: there should be a clear unbroken line of communication from the top to the

bottom of the organization

Unity of Command: everyone should have one boss

Unity of Direction: one person should be in charge of each department

Maslow’s Theory of Human Needs

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Deficit principle: a satisfied need is not a motivator of behaviour

Progression Principle: a need becomes a motivator once the preceding lower-level need is

satisfied

McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y

Theory X assumes workers dislike work, lack ambition nd prefer to be led

Theory Y assumes workers are willing to work, capable of self control and self-direction

Creates self-fulfilling prophecies

Argysis’ Theory of Adult Personality

Classical management are inconsistent with mature adult

Mature adult needs increasing task responsibility, increasing task variety and uses

participating decision making

Ethical dilemma: a situation that requires a choice regarding a possible course of action where

there is no clean consensus on “right” and “wrong”

Reasons and Rationalizations for Ethical Dilemmas

1. The behaviour is not really illegal

2. The behaviour is in everyone’s best interests

3. Nobody will ever find out what you’ve done

4. The organization will “protect” you

Ethics Training: seeks to help people understand the ethical aspects of decision making and

incorporate high ethical standards into their daily lives

Whistle-blower: exposes the misdeeds of others

Corporate Social Responsibility: Obligates organizations to act in ways that serve both its own

interests and the interests of society at large.

Views of Ethics

Utilitarianism View- greatest good to the greatest number of people

Individualism View- primary commitment is to one’s long term self-interests

Moral Rights View: respects and protects the fundamental rights of all people

Justice View: fair and impartial treatment of people according to legal rules and

standards

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Cultural Relativism: ethical behaviour is always determined by cultural context

Cultural Universalism: behaviour that is unacceptable in one’s home environment should not be

acceptable anywhere else.

Strategies for Pursuing Social Responsibility

Obstructionist: meets economic responsibilities

Defensive: meets economic and legal responsibilities

Accommodative: meets economic, legal and ethical responsibilities

Proactive: meets economic, legal, ethical and discretionary responsibilities

Corporate governance: the oversight of the top management of an organizatioan by a board of

directors.

Perspectives on Corporate Social Responsibility

Classical View

o Management’s only responsibility is to maximize profits

Socioeconomic View

o Management must be concerned for the broader social welfare, not just profits

Competitive Advantage: a competency that sets an organization apart from competitors and

gives it an advantage over them in the marketplace

Crosby’s Four Absolutes of Management for Total Quality Control

Conformance to standards

Defect prevention, not defect correction

Quality as a performance standard must mean defect-free work

Quality saves money

Organizational Culture: the system of shared beliefs and values that develops within an

organization and guides the behaviour of its members

How to Read an Organization’s Culture

Structure Change-oriented? Outcomes are valued? Risk-taking? Empowerment? Style

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Observable Culture: what one sees and hears when waling around an organization (ex. Stories,

heroes, symbols, rites and rituals)

Core Culture: the underlying assumptions and beliefs that influence behaviour and contribute

to observable culture.

Characteristics of Multicultural Organizations

Pluralism

Structural integration

Informal network integration

Absence of prejudice and discrimination

Minimum intergroup conflict

Organizational Subcultures: cultures based on shared work responsibilities and/or personal

characteristics

Diversity Leadership Approaches

Affirmative/ Advancing Action

o Commits the organization to hiring and advancing minorities and women

Valuing Diversity

o Omits the organization to education and training programs

Managing Diversity

o Commits to changing the organizational culture

Leadership: the process of inspiring others to work hard to accomplish important tasks

Contemporary Leadership Challenges

Shorter time frames

Expectations for success on the first attempt

Complex, ambiguous, and multidimensional problems

Taking a long-term view while meeting short-term demands

Visionary Leadership

Vision: a future that are hopes to create or achieve in order to improve upon the

present state of affairs

Visionary Leadership: a leader who brings to the situation a clear and compelling sense

of the future as well as an understanding of the actions needed to get there successfully

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Power: The ability to get someone else to do something you want done or make things happen

the way you want

Sources of Power

Position Power

o Based on manager’s official status in the organization’s hierarchy of authority

o Reward Power (temporary)

Capability to offer something of value

o Coercive Power

Capability to punish or withhold positive outcomes

o Legitimate Power (temporary)

Organizational position or status confers the right to control those in

subordinate positions

Personal Power

o Expert Power (enduring)

Capacity to influence others because of one’s knowledge and skills

o Referent Power (enduring)

Capacity to influence others because they admire you and want to

identify positively with you

Power and Influence are affected by:

Centrality

Criticality

Visibility

Empowerment: the process through which maagers enable and help others to gain power and

achieve influence

Effect Leaders Empower with:

Information

Responsibility

Authority

Trust

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Leadership Behaviour

Blake and Mouton Leadership Grid

Classic leadership styles:

o Autocratic Style (authority-obience)

Emphasizes task over people

o Lassiez-faire style (country club)

Emphasized people over task

o Democratic Style (team)

Committed to task and people

Fiedler

o Fiedler fits

o Leadership style is a part of personality

o Leadership style must fit to situation

o Task oriented: high or low control

o Relationship-oriented: moderate control

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Hershey-Blanchard

o Leaders adjust their styles depending on situation

House’s Path-Goal Leadership Theory

Make a path and remove obstacles for subordinates

o Directive Leadership

~ Set expectations, directions, schedule, standards

~ Use when job assignments are ambiguous

o Supportive Leadership

~ Work is pleasant, treat equally, friendly, concerned with others

~ Use when worker self-confidence is low

o Achievement-oriented Leadership

~ Set challenging goals, expect a lot, emphasize improvement

~ Use when task challenge is insufficient

o Participative Leadership

~ Involves subordinates, consults, asks and uses suggestions

~ Use when performance incentives are poor

Participating

• low task

• high relationship

Delegating

• low task

• low relationship

Telling

• high task

• low relationship

Selling

• high task

• high relationship

Ab

ility

Willingness

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Vroom-Jago Leadership Participation Theory

Helps leaders choose the method of decision making

Choices:

o Authority decision

o Consultative decision

o Group decision

Superleaders: person whose vision and strength of personality has an extraordinary impact on

others

Charismatic Leaders: develop special leader-follower relationships and inspire others in

extraordinary ways

Transactional Leadership: someone who directs the efforts of others through tasks, rewards,

and structures

Transformational Leadership: someone who is truly inspirational as a leader and who arouses

others to seek extraordinary performance accomplishments

Drucker’s Old Fashioned Leadership

Leadership is more than charisma; it is good old fashioned hard work

Common Problems with Teams

Personality conflicts

Ambiguous agendas

Individual difference in work styles

Ill-defined problems

Poor readiness to work

Team Effectiveness=quality for inputs + (process gains-process loss)

Stages of Team Development

1. Forming

2. Storming

3. Norming

4. Performing

5. Adjourning

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Motivation: The forces within the individual that account for the level, direction, and

persistence of effort expended at work

Reward: A work outcome of positive value to the individual

Intrinsic Reward: valued outcomes that occur naturally as a person works on a task

Extrinsic Reward: valued outcomes given to someone by another person

When linking reward and performance:

respect diversity and individual differences, understanding what everyone wants

allocate rewards to satisfy interests of both organization and individual

Content Theories of Motivation

Maslow: Hierarchy of Needs

Deficit Principle: a satisfied need is not a motivator of behaviour

Progression Principle: a need at one level does not become activates until the previous

is satisfied

Alderfer: ERG Theory

Frustration Regression Principle: an already satisfied lower-level need becomes

reactivated when a higher level need becomes reactivated when a higher-level need is

frustrated

Herzberg: Two-Factor Theory

Hygiene Factor: Source of job dissatisfaction; external

Satisfier Factor: Source of job satisfaction and motivation; internal

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McClelland: Acquired Needs Theory

Need for Achievement (nAch)- desire to do something better

Need For Power (nPower)- desire to control others

Need for Affiliation- (nAff)- desire to establish relationships

Equity Theory of Motivation

When people think there is unfairness, they try to eliminate discomfort and restore

perceived equity

Employees change work inputs, rewards received, comparison points and situation

Do not underestimate pay as a source of equity controversy (overpaid=guilt, underpaid=

anger)

Expectancy Theory- Victor Vroom

Expectancy- belief that working hard will result in desired level of performance

Instrumentality- belief that successful performance will be followed by reward

Valence- value a person assigns to rewards

M= ExIxV (if one is low, motivation will be low)

Goal Setting Theory

Developed by Edwin Locke

Properly set and well managed task goals are very motivating

Motivational effects and key principles:

o Provide direction with specific goals

o Set challenging goals with clear expectations

o Establish a frame of reference for and provide goal feedback

o Reward goal accomplishments

Management by Objective(MBO) promotes participation

Incentive Compensations

Skill-Based Pay: pay links to job relevant skills

Bonus Pay Plan: lump-sum pay based on specific performance

Profit-Sharing Plans: employees receive portion of profits

Gain-Sharing Plans: group share in savings realized through their specific efforts

Employee Stock Ownership Plans: employee s own stock in their employer

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Operant Conditioning Strategies

Controls behaviour by manipulating its consequence

Law of Effect- impact of type of consequence on future behaviour

Communication: The process of sending and receiving symbols with meanings attached

Elements of Communication Process: Sender, Message, Communication Channel, Receiver,

Meaning, and Feedback

Communication Barriers

Anything that interferes with the communication process

Includes noise, poor choice of channels, poor written or oral expression, failure to

recognize non-verbal signals, physical distractions and status effects.

Active Listening: the process of taking action to help someone say exactly what he or she really

means

Feedback: The process of telling others how you feel about something they did, said, or the

situation in general

Punishement Positive

Negative Extinction

Rem

ova

l- P

rese

nta

tio

n

Unpleasant Pleasant

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Constructive Feedback Guidelines: direct, specific, when willing to accept, valid, in small doses

Proxemics

the use of interpersonal space, an important non-verbal cue

workspace layout has an impact on communication and behaviour

Ethnocentrism: the tendency to consider one’s culture superior to any or all others and act in a

negative way towards them

Barriers to Effective Communication

Stereotypes: when attributes commonly associated with a group are assigned to an

individual

Halo Effect: when one attribute is used to develop an overall impression of a person or

situation

Selective Perception: the tendency to define problems from one’s own point of view

Projection: the assignment of personal attributes to an individual

Major Causes of Conflict

Role ambiguity

resource scarcities

task interdependencies

competing objectives

structural differentiation

unresolved prior conflict

Types of Conflict

Substantive: disagreements about specific goals, resources etc

Emotional: disagreement from feelings

Functional: constructive conflict

Dysfunctional: destructive conflict

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Co-operativeness: desire to satisfy someone else’s needs

Assertiveness: desire to satisfy own needs

Distributive Negotiation: focuses on claims made by each party, leading to a win-lose outcome

Principled Negotiation: based the outcome of merit of individual claims, leading to win-win

outcome

Mediation: a neutral third party aims to improve communication, coming up with solution ideas

Arbitration: a neutral third party acts as a judge and creates a binding decision

Corporate Strategy: sets long term direction for the total enterprise

Electronic Commerce: the process of buying and selling goods thought the use of the internet

B2B: Business to Business

B2C: Business to Consumer

Programmed Decisions: applies solutions that are readily available

Non-Programmed Decisions: develop novel solutions to meet demands of unique situations

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Crisis: an unexpected problem that could lead to a disaster

Decision Support System: interactive system that allows users to organize and analyze data for

complex problem solving

Problem Avoiders: inactive in gathering information

Problem Seekers: Proactive in anticipating difficulties

Problem Solvers: reactive in gathering information

Systematic Thinkers: approaches problems rationally, step by step

Intuitive Thinker: flexible approach, spontaneous and uses gut feelings

Short Range Plan: covers one year or less

Long Range Plan: Covers three or more years into the future

Management by Objective (MBO)- structured process of regular communication where

supervisors and workers jointly set objectives

Strategic Plans: Identifies long term directions for the organization

Operational Plans: Identifies activities to implement strategic plan

Retrenchment: corrects weaknesses by making changes to current ways of operating

Diversification: Acquiring of new investment in new and different business areas

Strategic Alliance: Organizations join together in partnership to pursue an area of mutual

interest

Portfolio Planning: Seeks the best mix of investments amount alternative business

opportunities

Planning Process

1. Define Objective

2. Where you stand

3. Develop Premise of future condition

4. Analyze/choose among alternatives

5. Implement plan/evaluate results

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BCG Matrix

Analyzes business opportunities according to market growth rate and market share

Control Process

1. Establish objectives

2. Measure actual performance

3. Compare results with objectives

4. Take corrective action

Concurrent Controls: Focuses on what happens during action

Feedback Controls: focuses on past action

Standing plan: used more than once i.e. policies

Zero-based budget: allocate resources as if it were the first time

Progressive discipline: tying reprimands to the severity of the infraction

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Expert Systems: software systems use AI to mimic the thinking of human experts using codes

“if...then...”

Availability Heuristic: people use information that is readily available from memory as a basis

for assessing a current event/situation

Representative Heuristic: people assess the likelihood of something happening based upon its

similarities to a stereotypes set of occurrences

Anchoring and Adjustment Heuristic: people make decisions based on adjustments to a

previously existing value or starting point

Escalating Commitment: tendency to increase effort and apply more resources to a course of

action that is not working

Mechanistic Designs- stability

Predictable goals

Centralized authority

Many rules and procedures

Narrow spans of control

Specialized tasks

Few teams and task forces

Formal and impersonal means of coordination

Organic Designs- growth

Adaptable goals

Decentralized authority

Few rules and procedures

Wide spans of control

Shared tasks

Many teams and task forces

Informal and personal means of coordination

Stress: Is a state of tension experienced by individuals facing extraordinary demands,

constraints, or opportunities.

Stressor: Is anything that causes stress

Type A personality: Is a person oriented toward extreme achievement, impatience, and

perfectionism

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Constructive stress: Acts in a positive way to increase effort, stimulate creativity, and encourage

diligence in one’s work.

Destructive stress: Impairs the performance of an individual.

Job burnout: Is a physical and mental exhaustion

Small-batch production: A variety of custom products are tailor-made to order.

Mass production: A large number of uniform products are made in an assembly-line system.

Continuous-process production: A few products are made by continuously feeding raw

materials through a highly automated production system with largely computerized controls

Top-down change

Strategic and comprehensive change that is initiated with the goals of comprehensive

impact on the organization and its performance capabilities.

Success depends on support of middle-level and lower-level workers

Bottom-up change

The initiatives for change come from any and all parts of the organization, not just top

management.

Made possible by:

– Employee empowerment, involvement and participation

Integrated change leadership.

Successful and enduring change combines advantages of top-down and bottom-up

approaches.

Transformational and incremental change

Unplanned change

Organizational Design: the process of creating structures that accomplish the organization’s

objectives

Organizational Structure: a system of reporting relationships and communication linkages

Divisional Structure: Divisional structures are derived from groups working on a similar product,

in the same geographical location, serve the same customers or participate in the same work

process and are grouped together under common management

Functional Structure: groups together people with similar skills who work on similar tasks

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Matrix Structure: combines functional and divisional approaches to create a permanent cross

functional project

Functional Chimney’s Problem: a lack of communication across functions

Boundaryless Organization: eliminates internal boundaries among subsystems and external

boundaries with the external environment

The Phases of Planned Change

1. Unfreezing

~ The situation is prepared for change

2. Changing

~ The change takes place

3. Refreezing

~ He change is stabilized

Departmentalization: the process of grouping people together in formal work units or teams

Organizing: arranging people an resources to work toward a goal

Process re-engineering: systematically analyzes work processes to design new and better ones