Organizational Behavior

Instructor: Courtney Marchant

The University of Manitoba campuses are located on original
lands of Anishinaabeg, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, and Dene
peoples, and on the homeland of the Métis Nation.

We respect the Treaties that were made on these territories,

we acknowledge the harms and mistakes of the past, and we
dedicate ourselves to move forward in partnership with
Indigenous communities in a spirit of reconciliation and
collaboration.
Course Overview – Course Outline and
Learning Outcomes
• Accurately assess the root causes of employee behaviour (internal vs
external) and identify ways of appropriately addressing the behaviour;

• Manage messaging by choosing the best medium for communicating a

message and partnering with the appropriate leadership for a specific
situation

• Use Motivational Theory to create processes that improve employee

productivity, engagement and commitment
Course Overview – Course Outline and
Learning Outcomes Cont.
• Use feedback, reward systems to shape employee behaviour

• Make ethical decisions that are consistent with standards of practice,

due diligence, and integrity to balance the best interests in all
stakeholders

• Identify ways of managing and reducing conflict to promote a

collaborative work environment and achieve the goals of the system

• Identify different styles of leadership and describe how situational

leadership determines which leadership style is best
Course Overview – Course Outline and
Learning Outcomes Cont.
• Propose ways of managing organizational teams that best meet the
needs of the situation;

• Assess organizational structures and systems to identify ways of

optimizing organizational performance

• Evaluate your own personal biases to understand the factors that

influence your own behaviour
Assignments and Discussion Forums
Individual/Self – January 17 – February 25

Unit 1 – What is Organizational Behavior

Unit 2 – Root Causes of Employee Behavior
Assignment - Introductory Paper
• Identify emerging needs of employees that make new challenges for Leaders
• How does a manager need to change/adapt existing rules/policies/leadership style to meet those needs?
Consider Hawthorne Studies

Unit 3 – Values and Attitudes

Discussion Forum 1:
Diversity and Inclusion Video: How would you introduce this to students?
• Consider emerging trends you identified, perception, values. Perhaps necessary new policies, WIFFM
• Use key ideas from Units 1 - 3
Unit 4 – Motivation
Discussion Forum 2 (Focus on these Units)
Unit 5 – Leadership
Assignment – Group Case Study Part 1: Individual Assessment
• Reflection of key Ideas in Units 1 – 5
– Key issues: (unit 1), Conflict (unit 2), Behavior/Motivation (unit 3, 4) Leadership (Unit 5)
• Based on the research – describe in detail the problem facing the organization (include something from each
unit)
• Write possible solutions for each issue that contributes to the problem
Assignments and Discussion Forums
Groups and Teams – February 28 – March 25

Unit 6 – Communication – How we provide, receive and understand information

• Note different types, benefits and challenges
Unit 7 – Managing Conflict – Where/When does it happen, Why can it happen, With who? Is it always negative?
Discussion Forum 3
• As a leader you can choose how to communicate difficult messages – what are the options, what do you choose
and why?
Unit 8 – Diversity and Inclusion – How does it impact organizations at a levels (creates conflict or opportunity).
Discussion forum 4
• Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples of Canada

Assignment - Group Case Study Part 2

• Building on the key concepts identified in Units 1 – 5 add on to your recommendations by considering the
impacts of communication, conflict, diversity and inclusion.
• Acting as a Management Consulting Team, describe your new view of the issues considering the above topics
from Units 6 – 8 and propose new and innovative solutions to the problems your group has identified.
Assignments and Discussion Forums
Focus on the Organization – March 20 – April 18

Unit 9 – Organizational Structures & Culture – How have they changed over time to meet the ”new” world
• Note the different types of Organizational Culture and their descriptions

Unit 10 – Decision Making & Ethics – The decision-making process

• Engaging the right people in the right way
• How to avoid conflict and encourage ethical decision making

Assignment – Individual Case Study

• Note how the organization culture and structure can be applied and help determine what communication method/style is ethical or
not
• Key factors that influence people when making decisions and the process they follow (Personality/Perception/Culture type)
• Three Techniques to consider when making a decision that impacts a group – benefits and challenges

Unit 11 – Organizational Change

• Types of change we face, and change process, how can leaders make change easier
Discussion Forum 5 - TBD

Unit 12 – Theory to Practice

Assignment - Group Case Study Part 3
• Consider your Assignment Group Experience – describe how one topic per unit was observed. Choose 3 to focus on and tell me
what you learned and how you can apply that learning going forward.
Unit 1: Introduction to Organizational Behavior
Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this unit, we will have:

• Defined Organizational Behavior

• list current organizational behavior issues and identify where they may
be present within a work place or other organization with which you
are familiar
Challenges – Environmental Context

• Recovery from the Great Recession

• Dangerous geopolitics
• Diversity
• Ethics
• Technology
Challenges facing Managers today

• Globalization
• Workforce Diversity (Multi
Generational/Cultural Diversity
• Managing Human Capital

What is missing?
Paradigm Shift

• Paradigm
– A way of thinking
– A scheme for understanding reality
– Establishes the rules (written and unwritten)
– Define Boundaries (how we need to behave)
Old Theories of Management

• Theory X:
– Employees are
• lazy
• only care about money
• will do good work if forced or properly incentivized
Organizational Behavior Approach

• High-performance work practices (HPWPs):

– pay for performance
– self-managed teams
– 360-degree feedback
– behaviour management
– investing in psychological capital
The “Knowing Doing Gap”

• “Hollow talk”
• Fear
• Internal competition
• Poor measuring systems
• “This is how we have always done it”
Evidence Based Management

• Using the evidence that shows that

implementing HPWPs works is called
evidence-based management (EBM)
Historical Background: The Hawthorne Studies

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRMO43
s5NGY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7RHj
wmVGhs
The Hawthorn Effect

What Workers Want?

1.Small group
2.Type of supervision
3.Earnings
4. Novelty of the situation
5. Interest in the experiment
6. Attention received in the test room
The Scientific Perspective

• The overall purposes are

understanding/explanation, prediction, and
control.
• The definitions are precise and operational.
• The measures are reliable and valid.
• The methods are systematic.
• The results are cumulative.
Behavioral Science Approach

• Theory Development
• Experimental Research Design
• Validity
Organizational Behavior - Defined

• The understanding, prediction, and

management of human behavior in
organizations.
Organizational Behavior and Related Fields

• Organizational Behavior (OB)

– Organizational Theory (OT)
– Organizational Development (OD)
– Human Resource Management (HRM)
The Integrative Social Cognitive Approach
In Conclusion
• Studying organizational behaviour helps
managers to learn how to better manage
one of their most critical assets - people.
• There are a number of approaches to
studying Organizational Behavior
• Many of these approaches have scientific
validity.
• We will use the social cognitive framework.
Questions

1. What are some of the major challenges

facing today’s and tomorrow’s
organizations and management?
2. What is a paradigm? How will the
paradigm shift affect management? What
are the implications of this paradigm shift
for organizational behavior?
Questions Continued

3. Why do you think there is a “knowing-

doing” gap and how can evidence-based
management help close it?

4. Why do you feel the Hawthorne studies

made such an important historical
contribution to the study of organizational
behavior?