Organizational Behavior: Emerging Knowledge, Global Reality CHAPTER 1 summary
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Course
Organisatiepsychologie
Institution
Universiteit Utrecht (UU)
Book
Organizational Behavior edition 8
English summary of Chapter 1 of “Organizational Behavior: Emerging Knowledge, Global Reality” by McShane & Von Glinow for Organisational Psychology this year (2020).
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Organisatiepsychologie English summary
Boek: “Organizational Behavior” by McShane & Von Glinow
Chapter 1: Introduction
The purpose of the book is to understand what goes on in organisations. Organizational behavior
(OB) is the study of what people think, feel and do in and around organisations. These topics can be
studied at multiple levels of analysis:
The individual
The team
The organization
Organizations are groups of people who work interdependently toward some purpose. One key
feature is that all organisations are collective entities. A second key feature is that their members
have a collective sense of purpose.
OB emerged as a distinct field throughout the 1940’s. But organisations have been studied for many
centuries. Plato, Adam Smith and Max Weber are several examples of this. OB actually has been
around for a very long time!
Why study organisational behavior? There are several reasons.
Comprehend and predict workplace events: Everyone of us has an inherent drive to make
sense of what is going on around us. Knowledge satisfies our curiosity about why events occur
and this reduces our anxiety about the unknown and unexpected. Furthermore, it helps us
predict and anticipate future events.
Adopt more accurate personal theories: A misunderstanding is that OB is common sense.
Personal theories are mostly not as precise as they need to be. This book will give you more
accurate and complete perspectives of organizational events.
Influence organizational events: OB knowledge helps us get things done in the workplace.
Organizational behavior is for everyone: OB is not only for managers “everyone is a
manager”.
OB and the bottom line: OB is also vital to the organization’s survival and success. Research
shows that there is a positive relationship between the quality of leadership and the
company’s financial performance.
Organizations are experiencing unprecedented change such as technological developments, global
competition, emerging employment relationships and increasing workforce diversity. Organizations
are deeply affected by the external environment. They need to maintain a good organization-
environment fit. Further, we will introduce the four major environmental developments facing
organizations.
1. Technological change
Technological changes such as the Internet and smartphones alter our relationship with
coworkers, clients and suppliers. Information technology is one of the most significant forms
of change in recent times. Social media can have benefits, but also comes with challenges.
Such as tethering people to their jobs for longer hours of reduce their attention spans at
work.
2. Global competition / Globalization
Globalization refers to economic, social, cultural connectivity with people in other parts of
the world. Globalization offers numerous benefits; larger markets, lower costs and greater
access to knowledge and innovation. But it also causes sometimes reduced job security and
poor work-life balance. Globalization has also brought more complexity and new ways of
working to the workplace.
, 3. Emerging employment relationships
These changes cause new employment relationships in most countries.
Before digital age work eight or nine hours a day and could separate personal time from
their employment.
Now workers are connected to work on a 24/7 schedule.
One of the most important employment issues over the been has been work-life balance.
This is the degree to which a person minimizes conflict between work and nonwork demands.
Most employees lack this balance because they spend to much time on their work, even
when they’re at home or on a vacation. Another employment relationship trend is for
employees to work away from the common work site, such as repair technicians or
management consultants. They often work at client sites.
The best-known form of this type of work is telecommuting. This is an arrangement
whereby, supported by technology, employees work from home one or more work days per
month rather than commute to the office. But is this beneficial for employees and
organizations?
Advantages
1. Better work-life balance because they have more time and have more control.
2. Turnover is usually lower.
3. Telecommuters have a higher productivity.
4. It reduces greenhouse gas emissions and office expenses.
Disadvantages
1. More social isolation
2. Weaker relationships with co-workers
3. Lower team cohesion
4. Weaker organizational culture
Telecommuting success depends on several characteristics of the employee, job and organization.
Telecommuting works better when the employee,
Has a higher self-motivation
Has a higher self-organization
Has a higher need for autonomy
Has better information technology skills
4.Increasing workforce diversity
There is a much more diverse workforce in most organizations because of immigration. When
discussing workforce diversity, we usually think about surface-level diversity. These are the
observable demographic and other overt differences among members of a group. An example is
someone’s race or gender. Surface-level diversity has increased substantially in the United States
and many other countries.
Diversity also includes differences in personalities, beliefs, values and attitudes. These are things you
can not actually see and that is why it is called deep-level diversity.
Example the variations in beliefs and values across generations.
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