Organizational Behavior
BSC Personeelwetenschappen 2020/2021
Lectures
1. Human actors and their qualities: personalities, learning, motivation
2. Humans as perceivers: perception, culture, communication
3. Humans working together: interdependence and teams
4. Humans working as teams: teamwork
5. Humans influencing their organizations: decision-making and leadership
6. Humans interacting within organizations: power and conflict
7. Humans in an organizational context: environment and technology
,Lecture 1 – 12/04/2021 – Personalities, Learning &
Motivation
Classical era – Max Weber’s bureaucracy
Rigid control
Technical specialization
Human relations era movement – Hawthorne studies
Flexible organizations
Group dynamics
Employee motivations
Organization
Social inventions – a system of people, not of things
Has a goal – survive and adapt
Group effort – interaction and coordination of people
Organizational behavior – deals with attitudes and behaviors of individuals and groups in
organizational context.
Why is OB interesting?
“The human side of management”
Contemporary management issues
- Diversity
- Employee health and well-being
- Talent management & Employee engagement
- Corporate Social Responsibility
How to look at a band - OB
You don’t only look at the band as an organization, but how they work within it together.
Individuals do not perform in isolation,
but they’re constantly interacting with
others. Their behaviors are influenced
by their surroundings.
Organizations are complex systems
that “live” withing and depend on the
external environment.
To survive and adapt, they need to
transform inputs to outputs efficiently
and flexibly.
,Personality
Refers to the distinctive way by which individuals react to people, situations, and problems and how
they tend to feel, think and behave – relatively stable from around 30 th birthday.
Some personality taxonomies:
Until what extend are these tests valid?
MBTI had limited scientific foundation, but it’s used a lot in organizations
Psychologists aimed at developing psychology tests with scientific validity
- E.g. Five-Factor Model of Personality (Big 5)
Some (combinations of) personal dimensions are better for employees.
Used in an appropriate way all dimensions can be benefitable for the organization.
Locus of control
Degree to which a person takes responsibility for his/her behavior and its consequences.
Self-monitoring
Do you observe your behavior to look appropriate, or you do not care?
High self-monitoring )chameleons:
Highly responsive to social and interpersonal ques and adjust their behaviors accordingly.
Good networkers
, Low self-monitoring (true-to-themselves):
Expressive of their inner states (attitudes, feelings, traits) in an functional way.
Adaptive to ambiguous situations
Self-efficacy
Whether you think you can, or that you can’t, you are usually right – Henry Ford
The belief that one possesses adequate strength and overcome adversities
Specific to a goal/task/ability
Can increase or decrease through experience or situational factors
Why care about personality?
Most important for OB:
When hiring, check if the person fits whit the company/project/team – many organizations
routinely administer tests and surveys for this.
Create groups with the “right mix” of members
Understand whom you are managing – esp. multicultural teams, globalization
Understand who is managing you
Less important for OB:
Personality has been found to correlate with (individual and group) performance, well-being,
commitment, etc.
Although consultant often claim the proof is solid, note that scientific proof for this is realty
quite weak
Learning
Personality describers how you typically behave or respond, this is quite stable over time
Learning describes how people change and adapt their behavioral repertoire.
Acquiring a relatively permanent change in behavior potential
Skills (practical, intrapersonal, interpersonal) and cultural awareness (social norms, company
priorities…)
How do people learn?
Conditioning theories
Classical conditioning
Operant conditioning
Social cognitive theory:
Observational learning
Self-efficacy beliefs
Self-regulation
Operant learning
Forming an if-then association through repetition of
a behavior and response pattern.
Reinforcement: increase the probability of a
behavior
Punishment: decrease the probability of a behavior
Social learning
BSC Personeelwetenschappen 2020/2021
Lectures
1. Human actors and their qualities: personalities, learning, motivation
2. Humans as perceivers: perception, culture, communication
3. Humans working together: interdependence and teams
4. Humans working as teams: teamwork
5. Humans influencing their organizations: decision-making and leadership
6. Humans interacting within organizations: power and conflict
7. Humans in an organizational context: environment and technology
,Lecture 1 – 12/04/2021 – Personalities, Learning &
Motivation
Classical era – Max Weber’s bureaucracy
Rigid control
Technical specialization
Human relations era movement – Hawthorne studies
Flexible organizations
Group dynamics
Employee motivations
Organization
Social inventions – a system of people, not of things
Has a goal – survive and adapt
Group effort – interaction and coordination of people
Organizational behavior – deals with attitudes and behaviors of individuals and groups in
organizational context.
Why is OB interesting?
“The human side of management”
Contemporary management issues
- Diversity
- Employee health and well-being
- Talent management & Employee engagement
- Corporate Social Responsibility
How to look at a band - OB
You don’t only look at the band as an organization, but how they work within it together.
Individuals do not perform in isolation,
but they’re constantly interacting with
others. Their behaviors are influenced
by their surroundings.
Organizations are complex systems
that “live” withing and depend on the
external environment.
To survive and adapt, they need to
transform inputs to outputs efficiently
and flexibly.
,Personality
Refers to the distinctive way by which individuals react to people, situations, and problems and how
they tend to feel, think and behave – relatively stable from around 30 th birthday.
Some personality taxonomies:
Until what extend are these tests valid?
MBTI had limited scientific foundation, but it’s used a lot in organizations
Psychologists aimed at developing psychology tests with scientific validity
- E.g. Five-Factor Model of Personality (Big 5)
Some (combinations of) personal dimensions are better for employees.
Used in an appropriate way all dimensions can be benefitable for the organization.
Locus of control
Degree to which a person takes responsibility for his/her behavior and its consequences.
Self-monitoring
Do you observe your behavior to look appropriate, or you do not care?
High self-monitoring )chameleons:
Highly responsive to social and interpersonal ques and adjust their behaviors accordingly.
Good networkers
, Low self-monitoring (true-to-themselves):
Expressive of their inner states (attitudes, feelings, traits) in an functional way.
Adaptive to ambiguous situations
Self-efficacy
Whether you think you can, or that you can’t, you are usually right – Henry Ford
The belief that one possesses adequate strength and overcome adversities
Specific to a goal/task/ability
Can increase or decrease through experience or situational factors
Why care about personality?
Most important for OB:
When hiring, check if the person fits whit the company/project/team – many organizations
routinely administer tests and surveys for this.
Create groups with the “right mix” of members
Understand whom you are managing – esp. multicultural teams, globalization
Understand who is managing you
Less important for OB:
Personality has been found to correlate with (individual and group) performance, well-being,
commitment, etc.
Although consultant often claim the proof is solid, note that scientific proof for this is realty
quite weak
Learning
Personality describers how you typically behave or respond, this is quite stable over time
Learning describes how people change and adapt their behavioral repertoire.
Acquiring a relatively permanent change in behavior potential
Skills (practical, intrapersonal, interpersonal) and cultural awareness (social norms, company
priorities…)
How do people learn?
Conditioning theories
Classical conditioning
Operant conditioning
Social cognitive theory:
Observational learning
Self-efficacy beliefs
Self-regulation
Operant learning
Forming an if-then association through repetition of
a behavior and response pattern.
Reinforcement: increase the probability of a
behavior
Punishment: decrease the probability of a behavior
Social learning
