Organizational Behavior Notes

Chapter 1

Organizational Behavior: studies the influence that individuals, groups, and organizational structure have on behavior within organizations. The chief goal of OB is to apply that knowledge toward improving an organization’s effectiveness

Systematic Study: Examining relationships, Attempting to attribute causes and effects, Basing our conclusions on scientific evidence – that is, on data gathered under controlled conditions and measured an interpreted in a reasonably rigorous manner.

Evidence Based management (EBM): basing managerial decisions on the best available scientific evidence

Intuition: those “gut feelings” about “what makes others tick”.

Psychology: the science that seeks to measure, explain, and sometimes change the behavior of humans and other animals.

Social Psychology: blends concepts from psychology and sociology (considered a branch of psychology). Focuses on people’s influences on one another.

Sociology: study of people in relation to their social environment or culture.

Anthropology: the study of societies for the purpose of learning about human beings and their activities

Contingency variables: we can say x leads to y, but only under conditions specified by z.

Workforce diversity: organizations are becoming a more heterogeneous mix of people in terms of gender, age, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation.

Positive organizational scholarship (behavior): how organizations develop human strengths, foster vitality and resilience, and unlock potential.

Chapter 14

Organizational Structure: defines how job tasks are formally divided, grouped, and coordinated.

Work specialization: division of labor, to describe the degree to which activities in the organization are subdivided into separate jobs.

Departmentalization: basis by which jobs are grouped together

Chain of Command: unbroken line of authority that extends from the top of the organization to the lowest echelon and clarifies who reports...