INTRODUCTION

Organizational Behavior
 Management Functions

• Planning: Define goals, establish strategy, develop plans to coordinate

activities
• Organizing: Determine what is to be done, how is it to be done and who
will do the task
• Leading: Motivate, lead and encourage employees
• Controlling: Monitor activities to make sure they are completed as
planned
 Management Roles (Henry Mintzberg)

• Interpersonal Role: Involves people and other duties that are ceremonial
and symbolic in nature. (Figurehead, Leader)

• Informational Role: Involves collecting, receiving, disseminating

information (monitor, disseminator, spokesperson)

• Decisional Role: Involves and revolves around making choices

(Entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, negotiator)
 Managerial Skills at Different Levels

Technical: Job specific knowledge and techniques needed to perform tasks.

Human skills: Ability to work well with people and get the best out of them.
Conceptual skills: Ability to think and conceptualize about complex situations; and see
 Classical Perspective: Theory of Scientific Management
– Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915)
• Focus is primarily on the individual worker and his/her productivity
• Scientific method of measurement to create guidelines for the training and
management of employees
• Standardization
• Specialization
• Simplification
• Focus on labor productivity
• Elimination of waste
• Fair day’s pay
Time and Motion studies
• Understand the ways one can reduce process time.
• It involves breaking down each job into component parts, timing each
element, rearranging the parts into most efficient method of working.
• Experimented with different combinations of work, time, and rest
intervals in an attempt to improve the worker recovery rate.
• Ranges of physical motion of workers were examined so as to ensure
less fatigue and more output.
• Time and motion studies identify and measure a worker’s physical
movements while the worker performs a task, analyzes results to
determine the best possible way to do the task. Thus have standards of
work and; select, train, support workers.
 Classical Perspective: Theory of Administrative Management
- Henry Fayol (1841-1925)
• First one to understand the relevance of basic managerial functions for
managers to be successful.
• Functions of management: Planning, Organizing, Leading, Controlling.
• Looked at improving efficiency of workers from a managerial perspective.
• Thus, focus was on improving management’s efficiency rather than an
individual’s efficiency.
• Fayol believed that by focusing on managerial practices organizations could
minimize miscommunication.
• 14 principles: Subordination of individual interest to general interest, Division of
work, Authority & Responsibility, Remuneration, Esprit De Corps, Unity of
Direction, Unity of Command, Stability of Tenure, Equity, Discipline, Initiative,
Scalar Chain, Centralization, and Order
 Classical Perspective: Bureaucratic Theory
- Max Weber (1864-1920)

Focuses on the entire organizational system and is based on:

• Strict rules
• Written detailed documents of policies & procedures
• Hierarchy
• Division of labor
• Formal relations
• Fair method of selection and assessment of performance
 Behavioral Perspective: Hawthorne Studies (1924-33)
- Elton Mayo (1880-1949)
• These were a series of research studies conducted with the workers at the Hawthorne plant
of the Western Electric Company.
• Hawthorne Effect: Hawthorne effect is a phenomenon where individual or group
performance is influenced by human behavior factor.
• The productivity of workers increases when they are made to feel important and special.
They respond positively, to change in work environment like better illumination, cleanliness
etc. The special attention caused them to develop sense of group pride, which in turn
motivated them to improve their performance.
• Realization: Factors not specified by management can directly influence the productivity
and satisfaction of a worker.
• These studies brought to the forefront the concept of the organization as a social system,
consisting of individuals, informal groups, intergroup relationships as well as a formal
structure. Thus, they added human element to management thinking that was missing in
the classical perspective.
 Organizational Behavior
• Organizational behavior, is 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 towards improving an organization’s
effectiveness.
• OB is specifically concerned with employment related situations, thus emphasizes
behavior related to jobs, work, engagement, satisfaction, commitment, abseetism,
turnover, productivity, performance, and management.
• Core topics for discussion include understanding attitudes, values, perception,
emotions, personality, motivation, leadership, power & politics, managing
conflicts, negotiation and change, interpersonal communication, group dynamics,
teams, culture and organization structure.
• Disciplines that contribute to OB: Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology
 Challenges & Opportunities for OB

• Managing Workforce Diversity

• Responding to Economic Pressures
• Responding to Globalization
• Improving Customer Service
• Improving People Skills
• Stimulating Innovation and Change
• Coping with Temporariness
• Working in Networked Organizations
• Balance Work-Life Conflicts
• Create a Positive Environment
• Improve Ethical Behavior
 Workforce Diversity
• Diversity is a broad term, and the phrase workplace diversity can refer to
any characteristic that makes people different from one another.
• Surface-level diversity: Differences in easily perceived characteristics, such as
gender, race, ethnicity, age, or disability, that do not necessarily reflect the
ways people think or feel but that may activate certain stereotypes. Others
like tenure, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity are surface level too.
• Deep-level diversity: Differences in intellectual abilities, values, personality,
and work preferences that become progressively more important for
determining similarity as people get to know one another better.
• Implications for managers: Cautious of differences, Not practice favouritism,
robust selection process, training, promotion based strictly on capabilities, be
sensitive to the specially abled.
 Unity in Diversity? Latest Trends!
• Amazon sets the bar for female employment with 37 percent of its US workforce. Microsoft lags
the pack with just 24 percent (sampled average is 29 percent female) — far below the 47 percent of
the US workforce that’s female.
• Apple employs a higher percentage of people claiming Hispanic / Latino origin than its peers in the
US. At 12 percent of its US workforce, it’s well ahead of Twitter’s 2 percent (sampled average is 8
percent Hispanic or Latino).
• Amazon employs far more people that identify as Black or African American than the other
companies sampled. At 15 percent, it is well ahead of Facebook’s 1 percent and the 2 percent
employed by Google and Twitter (sampled average is 7 percent).
• Amazon (13 percent) and Apple (16 percent) lag the others in the percentage of employees who
identify as Asian (sampled average is 23 percent).
• The sampled average for people that identify as Asian is 23 percent of the workforce even though
they compromise just 4.7 percent of the US population.

• Source: Equal Employment Opportunity Report, in How do tech’s biggest companies compare on
diversity? – Thomas Ricker, Aug 20, 2015 THE VERGE.
 Inclusion of the Specially Abled
• 15% of global population, have some form of disability.
• In developing countries, rate of disability in children is expected to increase due to
malnutrition, child labor and diseases.
• 80% of people with disability in Asia are unemployed.
• The unemployment rate for people with disabilities in Canada is over 20%, in China 80%,
in India 74%.
• Over 60% people with disabilities in America said they would like to work, but could not
find jobs.
• ADJUSTMENTS: Facilitating training/ mentoring, Modifying or acquiring equipment,
Changes in working pattern, Accessible told or modes of working, alterations to premises.
• BENEFITS: Social opportunities and an income for people with disability, Bigger market
for employers and develop flexibility, Create better solutions, Serve customers better who
also have disabilities, Studies in US show that people with disabilities had better
retention rates and lower absenteeism, Good Branding
 Inclusion of LGBT in the Workforce
• When Alan Joyce, the chief executive of Australian airline Qantas, was asked by a young indigenous woman
whether she could ever head up the firm his answer was unequivocal. "I said, 'Well if a gay Irishman can become
the CEO of Qantas then an indigenous lady can.” The fact that Mr Joyce makes no secret of his sexuality, makes
him a relative rarity among top ranking bosses.
• Among the chief executives of the 500 biggest US companies only one, Tim Cook of Apple, is openly gay. Similarly,
in the UK's 100 largest firms listed on the stock exchange, Burberry boss Christopher Bailey is the only well-known
gay chief executive.
• Joyce led the firm through a massive cost-cutting programme that involved some 5,000 job losses, in the midst of
which the national carrier announced the biggest annual loss in its near 100-year history, leading to calls for Mr
Joyce to be sacked. Critics accused him of ruining a national icon, yet earlier this year, helped by the drop in fuel
costs, the firm reported its best ever first-half profit.
• Mr Joyce credits the airline's diverse senior leadership team for its successful turnaround, saying it meant they
came up with more varied ideas for addressing the firm's problems. "We've got three Brits, an American, an
Irishman, a Kiwi. So all different type of backgrounds. We've got three women, three gay men, people that were
mathematicians, people that were business consultants, people that were flight attendants.
• Recent research suggests Mr Joyce's conclusion is spot on. Firms in the top quartile for gender or racial and
ethnic diversity are more likely to have financial returns above their national industry medians, according
to management consultancy McKinsey, which looked at 366 public companies across a range of industries.
• A separate study by accountancy firm Grant Thornton estimated that publicly traded companies in India, the UK
and US with male-only executive directors missed out on £430bn of investment returns last year.
Google fires employee behind anti-diversity memo for 'perpetuating gender
stereotypes‘ – The Telegraph
• James Damore ignited a sexism row last in August, 2017 when he distributed a 10-page
manifesto that accused the company of “political bias” against conservatives and said
initiatives to encourage female programmers were “unfair”.
• It said the yawning gap in jobs and pay for male and female computer experts was partly due
to biological causes such as “men’s higher drive for status” and women being “more prone
to anxiety” rather than any biases and called for an end to the company’s initiatives to
promote minorities.
• Google employees publicly criticised the memo but Damore said he had received many
private messages of support from staff who felt the same way.
• Sundar Pichai, the company’s chief executive, said that while parts of the memo were fair to
debate, much of it violated the company’s code of conduct. “To suggest a group of our
colleagues have traits that make them less biologically suited to that work is offensive and
not OK. At the same time, there are co-workers who are questioning whether they can safely
express their views in the workplace (especially those with a minority viewpoint). They too
feel under threat, and that is also not OK.“
• Damore characterized the response by Google executives as having
"shamed" him for his views.
• NBC described the fallout as "perhaps the biggest setback to what has
been a foundational premise for [Google] employees: the freedom to
speak up about anything and everything he said in an email to staff.
•  Julian Assange offered him a job with WikiLeaks.
• The controversy has come at a sensitive time for Google, which is
under investigation by the US government after accusations of
gender pay inequality, and has been forced to hand over pay records.
 Sexual Harassment
• Sexual harassment is defined as bullying or coercion of a sexual nature, or the unwelcome
or inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. Harassment is illegal
and it can include "sexual harassment" or unwelcome sexual advances, requests for
sexual favors, and other verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature. As per the
Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act,
2013 "sexual harassment" includes any one or more of the following unwelcome acts or
behaviour (whether directly or by implication) namely:-
• (i) physical contact and advances; or
• (ii) a demand or request for sexual favours; or
• (iii) making sexually coloured remarks; or
• (iv) showing pornography; or
• (v) any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of sexual nature
• Most studies confirm that the concept of power is central to understanding sexual harassment.
• This seems true whether the harassment comes from a supervisor, a co-worker, or an employee.
• And sexual harassment is more likely to occur when there are large power differentials. The supervisor–
employee dyad best characterizes an unequal power relationship, where formal power gives the supervisor
the capacity to reward and coerce.
• Because employees want favorable performance reviews, salary increases, and the like, supervisors control
resources most employees consider important and scarce.
• Thus, sexual harassment by the boss typically creates the greatest difficulty for those being harassed. If there
are no witnesses, it is the victim’s word against the harasser’s.
• Has this boss harassed others, and, if so, will they come forward or fear retaliation?
• Victims report lower job satisfaction and diminished organizational commitment as a result. Sexual
harassment undermines their mental and physical health, as well as lowering productivity in the group in
which they work.
• According to EY report, ET, March 2017 fear of retaliation keeps women away from reporting harassment at
work. Also other factors like social stigma, self-judgment, lack of faith in the system and lack of understanding
of the law.
• However on the up side, According to the report about 539 such cases were reported in 2016 as against 522
in 2015 and 371 in 2014 .
 Role of Manager

• 1. Make sure an active policy defines what constitutes sexual harassment,

informs employees they can be fired for sexually harassing another
employee, and establishes procedures for making complaints.
• 2. Reassure employees they will not encounter retaliation if they file a
complaint.
• 3. Investigate every complaint, and inform the legal and human resource
departments.
• 4. Make sure offenders are disciplined or terminated.
• 5.Set up in-house seminars to raise employee awareness of sexual
harassment issues.