Organisational Studies

Stakeholders
Groups that are directly affected by and affect an org’s decisions and actions

Can be internal and external

Internal – employers, management, board of directors
External – customers, social/political groups, competitors, trade & industry assoc, gov’t, media,
suppliers, communities, shareholders, unions.

Why are they important?

Bus. Can predict environment changes, leads to successful innovations, greater trust b/w org. and
int & ext stakeholders, and flexibility.
Higher performing org’s are those that take all stakeholders into consid.

Mgmt of stakeholder rel’s:

1. Identify s/holders
2. Determine the concerns/issues of each
3. Decide how critical eacg s/holder is – on the decision making/actions of org
4. Determine the org’s approach to mgmt of the s/holders

Social Responsibility
Classical & Social-Eco
Classical – purely economical
Belief – only soc resp is to maximise profits
Milton Friedman – big supporter of view
Sharehol most imp. s/holder & the only one cons when making decisions
1 single concern of bus. – financial return
MF: considering ‘social good’ of org is an extra cost to the bus & should be passed to custs rather
absorbed by sharehols & therefore dec dividends
Socio-Eco – looks beyond pure economics
Bus should protect and improve social welfare
Bus are not ind. – have resp to society & not just s/holders
Financial gain – long term obj not short term (classical) – short term: accept social resp & costs
assoc. long term – social credibility inc, growth due to cust moving towards triple bottom line
bus’s – eco, social & env bottom lines.

Social Resp Line

Less More
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4
Shareholders Employees Spec. community/ Broader society
stakeholders in bus.
environment

Social Oblig & Social Responsiveness

Social Obligligation – oblig of a bus to meet its eco and legal resp’s.
Org does only what it is oblig to do & feels only social duty is it shareholders (i.e. classical view)
Social responsiveness – firm adapting to changing societal conditions, guided by changes in social
norms
Social responsible – goes beyond requirements by law or economics to pursue long terms goals
beneficial to society, add an ethical dimension to decision making
Social screening – applying social criteria to investment decisions
Little evidence that a comp’s social actions affect long term eco perf, mgmt should incorportate
social/ethical dimensions into planning, organisation, leading & controlling. By acting socially
irresp it creates signif bus risks

Ecological sustainable mgmt – recog of link b/w orgs dec/activities on natural env, mgmt need to
be aware of env issues in order to make informed bus dec’s
Serious env probs – pollution, indust toxic waste, resource depletion, global warming
 Green Approaches

Low High
Legal App Market App S/holder App Activist App
Light Green Dark Green

Legal – doing what is req by law, little env sensibility, obey laws, rules & regs but no legal chall
(social oblig approach)
Market – respond to env pref of custs, whatever env demands customers make the org will
provide (social responsiveness)
Stakeholder – works to meet env demands of stakeholders, e.g. employees, supps or community
by greener approaches to supply chain, design & packaging (as above)
Acitivist – respect & works to preserve env resources, highest deg of env sensitivity, overhauling
ops & functions in order to be as sustainably as poss (social responsibility)

Values based mgmt – mgmt approach mngrs est & uphold org’s shared values
Four purps –
- serve as a guide to mngr decisions & actions
- shaping employee behaviour & comm org’s expectations to members
- Influence marketing efforts (boasting rights thru adv)
- Building team spirit in org’s

Ethics – rules & principles that define right & wrong conduct
Facs affecting emp ethics: (3 levs, 6 stages)
- stage of moral devel
Levels:
1. Preconventional – choice dep on personal conseq e.g. phys punish, reward or
exchange.
a. Obedience and punishment avoidence
b. Selt interest – whats in it for me to obey
2. Conventional – moral vals dep on expected standards & living to expectations
a. Interpersonal & conformity – social norms, good boy/girl attitude
b. Authority & social order – law/order morality (most adults here)
3. Principled – clear eff to define mor prins, regardless of auth of the groups they
belong to or soc in gen.
a. Social contract
b. Universal ethical princs – principled conscience
Stages: People move up ladder sequentially but can stop at any stage.
- individual charact
values – basic convictions of what is right and wrong
two personality varbs:
1. Ego strength – measure strength of a persons convictions, malleable, can be
swayed, persuaded to change
2. Locus of Control – reflects degree person believes they control own fate. Internal
locus of control: control their own destinies (more person resp for actions).
External: what happens is due to luck or chance (less personal resp)
- structural variabs
Org struc design infl either a guidance, or ambiguity/uncertainty. Job descs, codes of
cond/ethics, use of goals, perf apprais & reward proceds – promote consist behav.
- org culture
culture likely to infl high eth stands – risk tolerance, control & conflic tolerance, emps
encour to be aggress & innovative, aware of conseq.
- issue intensity
6 factors determine how imp an ethical issue is:
1. the amt of people who will be harmed by dec
2. level of agreement that the action is wrong
3. the liklihood dec will cause harm
4. how immediate the conseq’s will be felt, imposed
 5. proximity to the victim/s
6. concetration of affect on victim/s

Improv eth behav:

- employee selection
thru interviews, tests, b/ground checks – opp to learn about lvl of moral dev, personal
vals, ego stregth & locus of control
- codes of eths & dec rules
COE – formal stmt of orgs primary vals & eth rules expected to be followed – dec
ambiguity, specific enuf to explain expectations but still allow for freedom of judgement.
- top mgmt leadership/conduct
eth bus. req commitment from top mgmt – lead my example, set cultural tone of comp.
- goals & appraisal – imp to set realist goals & targets otherwise may lead to uneth behav
in order to meet unrealist goals & avoid a neg appraisal
- training – seminars, workshops, programs to encourage ethic behav. Inc int’l ethics for
global trading.
- social audits – indep social audits of co’s eval dec making & mgmt practices, codes of eths
etc.
- protective mechanism – provide mech that protect emp who face ethic dilemmas & can
do the right thing without fear of reprimand

External Environment – factors and forces outside the org that affect the org’s perf
Two components: specific env & general env

Specific Environment – external forces that have a direct impact on the mngrs dec & actions,
directly relevant to achev of org’s goal. E.g. customers, suppliers, competitors & pressure groups

General Env – broad external conditions that affect the org.

e.g. economic, legal/political, sociocultural, demographic, technological & global conditions.
- Eco – interest rates, inflatio, disposable incomes, share market fluct, business cycles.
- Legal/political – federal, state & local governments through regulations & policies e.g.
TPA, env protection laws, anti-disc laws, industrial relation reforms & global politics –
trade agreements, relations.
- Sociocultural – mngrs & orgs adapt practices to changing expectations of the society they
operate in – values, customs & tastes always changing. Esp important when trading in
foreign countries
- Demographic – trends: gender, age, edu lvls, geo, imcome, family trends (ABS),
generational patterns & changes
- Technological – radically changes the funda ways orgs structured & operate.
- Global conditions – globalisation, borders meaningless, inc foreign trade, TNC’s, inc
competition.

Env uncertainty – degree of change & complexity in org’s env

Degree of change – freq change – dynamic env, minimal change – stable env
Deg of complex – # components in an env & the extent of knowledge of them (simple/complex)

Globalisation - process regional eco, societies, and cultures become integrated through a global
network of commun, transp, and trade, integration of national econ into the int’l economy thru
trade, foreign direct investment, capital flows, migration, and the spread of techn. Usually driven
by eco, techn, sociocultural, political, and biological factors.

Parochialism – viewing the world thru only your persp, unable to recog diff’s b/w ppl
3 global attitudes:
- ethnocentric: best work approaches are those of the home country
- polycentric: mngrs in the host country know the best work prac for the org
- geocentric: world oriented view, use the best approaches & best ppl from all over world

Leaders & Leadership

Leaders – person who influences others & has mngr auth.
Leadership – process of influ others in order to achieve goals

Theories of l/ship:
- trait theories: theories that tried to isolate characteristics that isolated leaders from
nonleaders
research 1920/30 focused on traits of leaders, 7 traits associated with the process: drive,
desire to lead, honesty & integ, self-conf, intell, relevant knowledge, extraversion
- behavioural theories - 1940’s-60 research into behav of effective leaders. 4 main studies:
o Uni Iowa
 Autocratic – centralises auth, dictates work meths, unilateral dec, limits
emp partic
 Democratic – involves emps in dec making, enc partic, utilised feedback
 Laissez-fare – generally gives team complete freedom to do tasks at will
o Ohio State
 Initiating Struc – extent leader likely to define & struc their role & roles
of team membs
 Consideration – extent leader has job relations w/ mutual trust, respect
for ideas & feelings in team
 High-high leader – high struc & high consid
o Uni of Michigan
 Employee orient – emph on interpers rel’s, interest in needs & indiv
diffs among team membs
 Production orient – emph on the task or its tech aspects, main focus was
accomp task rather than forming rel’s.
- Contingency theories – define leader style & situation to answer if/then contingencies
o Fiedler Model: effective group perf deps on match b/w leader’s style of
interaction with the situation if it allowed leader to control/influ. Devel LPC
(least pref co-work) high score = responder pref relat orient l/ship style, low
score = resp pref task orient l/ship3 conting dimen:
 Leader/memb relat – deg of conf, trust & respect for leader
 Task struc – degree deleg was formalised
 Position power – degree influ leader over power activities e.g. hiring,
firing, discipline.

Contemp views on l/ship:

- Transactional leaders: guide by using social exchanges/transaction – motivate to work to
goals by exchanging rewards for productivity.
- Transformational leaders: stimulate & inspire followers to achieve extraordinary
outcomes by challenging and exciting.
- Charismatic leaders: enthus, self conf leader, personality & actions influ ppl to behave in
spec ways. They have: vision, articulation of vision, risk taking, sensitive to their env,
extraord behav
- Visionary leaders: ability to artic realistic, cred, attractive vision that improves upon the
present

Team leaders are:

- liasiors with external constituency e.g. upper mgmt, cust, supps, other teams. They rep
the team to other ppl/teams.
- Trouble shooters: team leader often asked for assist, resolve probs in the team, rarely
tech.
- Conflict mngrs – help process the arg, identify the source & offer resol options
- Coaches – clarify expects, roles, teach, offer supp, keep perf up.