Book Summary: Organization Behavior by
Robbins and Judge (17th ed.) Chapter
1,2,3,4,5,7,8 and 9
,1. What Is Organizational Behavior?
1.1 The importance of Interpersonal Skills
Business school: technical aspects of management: economics, accounting, finance,
quantitative techniques (1980s)
After 1980: business school realized that interpersonal skills play a role in a managers
effectiveness Lack of interpersonal skills is the top reason why some employees fail to
advance
Incorporating OB principles into the workplace can yield many important org. outcomes
1) Good places to work generate superior financial performance)
2) Interp. Skills of managers can attract high-performing employees (are short in supplyand
costly to replace)
3) Quality of workplace relationships and employee job satisfaction, stress and turnover
Employees who relate to their managers with supportive dialogue and proactivity find that
their ideas are endorsed more often (improves workplace satisfaction)
Increasing the OB element in org. can foster social entrepreneurship
This is thought in education: future leaders need to address social issues within their org.
This is important because there is a growing need for understanding the means and
outcomes of corporate social responsibility known as GSR
1.2 Management and Organizational Behavior
Manager: An individual who achieves goals through other people
Make decisions, allocate resources and direct the activities of others to attain
goals
= Administrators (in not-for-profit org.)
58% didn’t had training, 25% were not ready when they were given the role
82% the wrong manager is chosen for the role
Organization: A consciously coordinated social unit, composed of two or more people, that
functions on a relatively continuous basis to achieve a common goal or set of
goals
The 4 activities of a manager:
1) Planning: Process that includes defining goals, establishing strategy and
developing plans to coordinate activities
2) Organizing: Determining what task are to be done, who is to do them, how it the
task should be grouped, who reports to whom and where decisions are
to be made
3) Leading: Motivation, directing, selecting most effective communication channels
and resolving conflicts
4) Controlling: Monitoring activities to assure that they are being accomplished as
planned and correcting any significant deviations
,1.2.1 Management roles
Ten roles primarily (1)
interpersonal, (2)
informational or (3)
decisional
1.2.2 Management skills
1) Technical skills: Ability to apply specialized knowledge or expertise
2) Human skills: Ability to work with, understand and motivate others, both individually
and in group
3) Conceptual skills: Mental ability to analyze and diagnose complex situations
1.2.3 Effective vs Successful Managerial Activities
1) Traditional management: Decision making, planning and controlling
2) Communication: Exchanging routine information and processing
paperwork
3) Human resource management: Motivating, disciplining, managing conflict, staffing and
training
4) Networking: Socializing, politicking and interacting with outsiders
, Successful: Defined in terms
of speed of promotion
within their org.
Networking largest
contribution, HRM the
least
Effective: Defined in teams
of quantity and quality of
their performance and the
satisfaction and the
commitment of employees)
Communication largest
contribution, networking the
least
Managers who explain their decisions and seek information form colleagues and
employees are the most effective (even when the information is negative)
Organizational behavior (OB): A field of study that investigates the impact that
individuals, groups, and structure have on
behavior within organizations, for the purpose of
applying such knowledge toward improving an
organization’s effectiveness.
Breakdown: It studies 3 determinants (indiv., groups and
structure) OB applies the knowledge gained about
individuals, groups, and the effect of structure on
behavior in order to make organizations work
more effectively
OB is the study of what people do in an organization and how their behavior affects
the organization’s performance
Core topics of OB: Motivation, leader behavior, interpersonal com.,
group structure and processes, attitude, chance
processes, conflict and negotiating, work design
1.3 Complementing Intuition with Systematic Study
Behavior is not random, we can identify fundamental consistencies underlying the
behavior of all individuals and modify them to reflect individual differences
These consistencies allow us to make
predictions Thus, behavior is predictable
Systematic study of behavior is a means to making reasonably accurate predictions
Robbins and Judge (17th ed.) Chapter
1,2,3,4,5,7,8 and 9
,1. What Is Organizational Behavior?
1.1 The importance of Interpersonal Skills
Business school: technical aspects of management: economics, accounting, finance,
quantitative techniques (1980s)
After 1980: business school realized that interpersonal skills play a role in a managers
effectiveness Lack of interpersonal skills is the top reason why some employees fail to
advance
Incorporating OB principles into the workplace can yield many important org. outcomes
1) Good places to work generate superior financial performance)
2) Interp. Skills of managers can attract high-performing employees (are short in supplyand
costly to replace)
3) Quality of workplace relationships and employee job satisfaction, stress and turnover
Employees who relate to their managers with supportive dialogue and proactivity find that
their ideas are endorsed more often (improves workplace satisfaction)
Increasing the OB element in org. can foster social entrepreneurship
This is thought in education: future leaders need to address social issues within their org.
This is important because there is a growing need for understanding the means and
outcomes of corporate social responsibility known as GSR
1.2 Management and Organizational Behavior
Manager: An individual who achieves goals through other people
Make decisions, allocate resources and direct the activities of others to attain
goals
= Administrators (in not-for-profit org.)
58% didn’t had training, 25% were not ready when they were given the role
82% the wrong manager is chosen for the role
Organization: A consciously coordinated social unit, composed of two or more people, that
functions on a relatively continuous basis to achieve a common goal or set of
goals
The 4 activities of a manager:
1) Planning: Process that includes defining goals, establishing strategy and
developing plans to coordinate activities
2) Organizing: Determining what task are to be done, who is to do them, how it the
task should be grouped, who reports to whom and where decisions are
to be made
3) Leading: Motivation, directing, selecting most effective communication channels
and resolving conflicts
4) Controlling: Monitoring activities to assure that they are being accomplished as
planned and correcting any significant deviations
,1.2.1 Management roles
Ten roles primarily (1)
interpersonal, (2)
informational or (3)
decisional
1.2.2 Management skills
1) Technical skills: Ability to apply specialized knowledge or expertise
2) Human skills: Ability to work with, understand and motivate others, both individually
and in group
3) Conceptual skills: Mental ability to analyze and diagnose complex situations
1.2.3 Effective vs Successful Managerial Activities
1) Traditional management: Decision making, planning and controlling
2) Communication: Exchanging routine information and processing
paperwork
3) Human resource management: Motivating, disciplining, managing conflict, staffing and
training
4) Networking: Socializing, politicking and interacting with outsiders
, Successful: Defined in terms
of speed of promotion
within their org.
Networking largest
contribution, HRM the
least
Effective: Defined in teams
of quantity and quality of
their performance and the
satisfaction and the
commitment of employees)
Communication largest
contribution, networking the
least
Managers who explain their decisions and seek information form colleagues and
employees are the most effective (even when the information is negative)
Organizational behavior (OB): A field of study that investigates the impact that
individuals, groups, and structure have on
behavior within organizations, for the purpose of
applying such knowledge toward improving an
organization’s effectiveness.
Breakdown: It studies 3 determinants (indiv., groups and
structure) OB applies the knowledge gained about
individuals, groups, and the effect of structure on
behavior in order to make organizations work
more effectively
OB is the study of what people do in an organization and how their behavior affects
the organization’s performance
Core topics of OB: Motivation, leader behavior, interpersonal com.,
group structure and processes, attitude, chance
processes, conflict and negotiating, work design
1.3 Complementing Intuition with Systematic Study
Behavior is not random, we can identify fundamental consistencies underlying the
behavior of all individuals and modify them to reflect individual differences
These consistencies allow us to make
predictions Thus, behavior is predictable
Systematic study of behavior is a means to making reasonably accurate predictions
