OB attempts teach methods to deal with human challenges in the workplace. OB trains managers and leaders to avoid tactical errors by taking into consideration people, groups and organizational context involved.
- Problem-solving model
- OB offers a three-set technique to solve organizational problems
- Problem Definition
- Know the source of the difficulty
- Don't be mislead by trying to solve the symptoms rather than the cause
- Want Got Gaps
- There is a problem when a deviation exists between what a manager thinks ought to be occurring and what is actually occurring.
- View the situation from the perspectives of all the participants and outline their want got gaps, or the difference between what they have and what they want.
- Level of Problems
- When you know what gaps exist, it is important to understand how they affect the organization
- Problems can affect a company in three ways:
- Within or between certain people (individual/personal)
- Within or between groups (intergroup)
- Within the whole organization (organization)
- Solve Problems and Causal Chains
- Find the most important problems and solve those first - source problems.
- Eliminate the source, eliminate the symptoms.
- A graphical method to get at source problems is to draw a causal chain
- Chart: contributing problems -> Source Problem -> Business Problem
- Analysis
- After defining the gaps and using causal chains, link the problems to their causes.
- Action Planning
- Be decisive and proactive.
- Action plan has six important steps:
- Set specific goals
- Define activities, resources needed, responsibilities
- Set a timetable for action
- Forecast outcomes, develop contingencies
- Formulate a detailed plan of action in time sequence
- Implement, supervise execution and evaluate based on the goals in step one.
- A menu of action levers exist: rewards, controls, and planning systems.
- Psychology lesson
- The Assumptions Perceptions Conclusions Feelings Behaviors (APCFB) Model
- Explains the cognitive process by linking external events to employee behavior.
- Assumptions affect the perceptions that people have
- Those perceptions affect the conclusions
- The conclusions prompt feelings.
- The feelings drive behaviors that managers observe.
- By understanding the process, there is an opportunity to influence positive behaviors in oneself and one's coworkers.
- We all see through filters that prevent us from perceiving events accurately and prevent us from acting out our true desires.
- Defense mechanisms act as additional filters to prevent psychological damage
- They also prevent an accurate reading of other people.
- We can influence assumptions, which make up our value system. In order of ease of accessibility they include:
- Expectations
- Can be changed through clear management intent and action
- Beliefs
- Can be influenced through management intent and action
- Values
- Deeply held assumptions that may be alterable given significant time.
- Goal congruence between the individual and the organization makes the group more productive.
- Motivation
- Expectancy theory of motivation
- Outlines the factors that produce motivation with individuals.
- Motivation = Expectation of Work will lead to Performance * Expectation Performance will lead to Reward * Value of Reward
- Behavior is motivated by the urge to satisfy needs.
- Motivation will be enhanced by maximizing motivators (or satisfiers) on the job and minimizing dissatisfiers or maintenance factors (maintenance factors don't necessarily bring happiness, but are expected).
- Maslow (actually proven wrong via research data)
- Hierarchy of needs
- Physical needs
- Need for safety
- Need to belong
- Need for status
- Self-actualization
- David McClelland
- Three basic needs
- Need for achievement
- Need for power
- Need for affiliation
- Job Design is another way to influence employee motivation.
- Core dimensions of a job lead to critical psychological states within employees that lead to a variety of outcomes.
- Can be used to enhance quality of work life and empower employees.
- Leadership
- Leaders shape goals, develop new ideas, and reach people at an emotional level.
- Leaders take on challenges while managers solve problems.
- VCM Model
- Vision
- Commitment
- Management skills
- Leadership patterns
- Spectrum of boss-centered to subordinate-centered
- Choice of leadership style is regulated by three forces:
- Within the manager
- Within the subordinates
- Forces of the situation
- Self-awareness is critical to avoiding inappropriate management styles.
- Creativity
- Should have the tools to capture creative ideas at any moment
- Mind mapping is a useful technique
- Type A and Type B Behaviors
- Type A
- Competitive need for achievement
- Sense of time urgency
- Aggressiveness
- Hostility to others and the world
- Evaluate their self-worth on external achievements
- In competition with others in noncompetitive situations
- Type B
- Enjoys life and feels more relaxed
- On-the-job office procedure
- Active Listening
- Helps you gain a clear perception of situations so you can deal effectively with them.
- Defined by:
- Respond to information and don't lead
- Respond to personal information and don't give advice
- Identify interviewee's feelings as well as content
- Performance Appraisals
- Effective appraisals have three types of goals:
- Organizational
- Aim to assure proper conduct and performance, placement, promotion and pay
- Feedback and evaluation
- Provides employer and employee with a formal process to document performance
- Coaching and development
- Should be the primary goals of the appraisal
- Define specific targets and timetables
- Appraisals must be timely and both participants must be prepared
- Appraisals provide documentation to legally fire an employee
- Reprimands
- Check out the facts first
- Give warning that you need to talk about the problem
- Pause and express your displeasure
- Display a caring attitude
- A good manager can balance reprimand with praise.
- Managing your boss
- Understand your bosses and their context including
- Their stated goals and objectives
- The pressures on them
- Their strengths, weaknesses and blind spots
- Their preferred working styles
- As your boss how s/he prefers to communicate
- Be introspective and understand yourself and your needs
- Your own strengths and weaknesses
- Your personal style
- Your predisposition toward dependence or on resistance to authority figures
- Incorporate the first two steps and develop and maintain a relationship that:
- Fits both your needs and styles
- Is characterized by mutual expectations
- Keeps your boss informed -- bosses hate surprises
- Is based on dependability and honesty
- Selectively uses your boss's time and resources
- Power
- Five types of power
- Coercive
- Based on fear
- Reward
- Expectation of receiving praise, recognition or income (the opposite of coercive power)
- Referent
- Derived from being a person whom other people admire regardless of formal job status
- Legitimate
- Formal status held in the organizational hierarchy
- Expert
- Comes from skills, knowledge and experience
- Expert power allow people to influence others.
- Managers must cross-train employees to keep expert power from creating little generals
- Management by Objective (MBO)
- Peter Drucker
- Managers delegate tasks by negotiating a contract of goals without dictating a detailed roadmap for implementation. Focus is on the result.
- Management by walking around (MBWA(
- Expounded at HP
- Bosses encouraged to be out of their offices and walking around to:
- Build relationships
- Motivate the team
- Keep direct touch with the activities of the company
- The organizational model and structures
- Organizations are networks of related parts -- organizational architecture
- Six elements define organizations:
- Strategy
- An implicit or explicit plan for success in the marketplace
- Policies and procedures
- Formal rules are written down, procedures are observable ways the company conducts business.
- Organizational structures
- Formal relationships in organizational charts
- Line employees
- People who are directly involved in producing or marketin the firm's products or services
- Staff employees
- Others who advise, serve and support the line
- Line and staff employees can be organized according to:
- Functional
- Divides work by tasks
- Product
- Groups all functions necessary to deliver a specific product
- Customer
- Grouped to satisfy customer needs, common in service industry
- Geographic location
- Regional offices manage business, particularly true of international business.
- Divisional
- Independent businesses operating under the umbrella of a parent company
- Matrix
- Departs from unity of command and gives each employee two or more bosses.
- Requires flexible, professional staff members
- Amorphous
- No formal structure at all
- Highly motivated managers create and dissolve reporting relationships as the task at hand requires.
- Hybrid
- Composed of a mix of operational structures
- Span of control - the number of people who report to a manager
- Using span of control is a common way to have:
- Reduction in force (RIF) = demassing = restructuring
- Systems
- Systems fall into one of six categories
- Money allocation, control and monitoring (accounting, investment, and budgeting systems)
- Object allocation, control and monitoring (inventory and production systems
- People allocation, control and monitoring (human resource planning, employee data and appraisals)
- Future anticipation (strategic planning, marketing-sales planning, business development functions)
- People reward and incentives (compensation schemes, bonus plans, profit-sharing plans)
- Integrative (mixes of the first five. In well-managed companies integrated systems forecast sales, which dictates production schedules required to meet the need)
- Climate
- The emotional state of an organization's members
- Culture
- Mix of behaviors, thoughts, beliefs, symbols and artifacts that are conveyed to people throughout an organization over time.
- Systems theory
- Likens organizations to living organisms with subsystems
- Management subsystem
- Sets goals, plans, controls
- Adaptive subsystem
- Acts as a firm's eyes to monitor the environment
- Boundary-spanning subsystem
- Controls the intake of the organization (hiring, buying, raising money)
- Production subsystem
- Converts inputs to goods and services
- Boundary spanning out subsystem
- Marketing, personnel, public relations
- Maintenance subsystem
- Employee incentives and newsletters
- Provides a means to analyze an organization to gauge its health or to make a change.
- Organizational evolution and revolution
- Companies that can change are called learning organizations
- Organizations exhibit five predictable stages of growth called evolutions and five periods of crisis called revolutions
- Growth pattern consists of tightening and loosening of management reins in response to changes within the organization and environment.
- Creativity / Leadership crisis
- Direction / Autonomy crisis
- Delegation / Control crisis
- Coordination / Red tape crisis
- Collaboration / ? Crisis
- Resistance to change
- Change management strategies
- Company lacks information -> Education and communication tactics
- You need information and you have little leverage -> Participation and involvement tactics
- Adjustment problems -> Support and facilitation tactics
- Your desired changes will cause losses and opponents have power to block you -> Negotiation and agreement tactics
- You have no alternatives and no money for facilitation -> Manipulation (give no choices)
- Speed is needed and you have the power -> Explicit orders and coercion tactics
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