Summary

Interpersonal dynamics in organizational behavior

Work-relationships

Early in career need tech

Challenges in Organizational behavior:-

1. Cross cultural dynamics

2. Workforce diversity
3. Increasing workforce aspirations
4. Increasing quality consciousness
5. Newer organizational designs
6. Mergers and acquisitions

The understanding of Organizational Behavior starting with Individual, interpersonal,

Group level and intergroup level:-

1. Interpersonal dynamics
a. How to build your network
b. Who to network with
c. Building effective work relationships
i. Dependence
1. Over dependence
2. Independence
3. Inter-dependence
ii. Working with feedback
1. Giving feedback
2. Receiving feedback
2. Managing relationships
a. Individual frame of reference
b. Biases and how to work with biases (our own)
c. How biases interfere in our relationships
3. Leadership
a. Use of power and sanction
i. Leadership styles(also relate to the quadrants)
1. Command and control
2. Participative leadership
3. Lead by challenging and thinking of ideas by others
 4. Competence at the top
b. Effective v/s Ineffective leaders
i. Leadership is the process of influencing (thoughts and actions)
(affecting the potential)(Power dynamics). It should make sense to
you so that the change is for a longer time/permanent
ii. Leading and managing are two different processes
iii. Management is a subset of leadership
iv. Solves their own problem. Leadership is to help you solve your
problems.
4. Organizational structure and design
a. Organizational adaptation
b. Organizational structure is a conscious effort by the founder / top
management to organize the roles, relationships, flow of information and
procedures such that they are aligned to the organizational goal in order to
achieve the desired outcome.
i.
5. Team Effectiveness
6. Culture and Change

What are the qualities of a good leader?

Good leaders possess

self-awareness,
credibility,
focus on relationship-building, have a bias for action,
exhibit humility, empower others,
stay authentic,
present themselves as constant and consistent,
become role models and are fully present.

COACH KNIGHT

● Winning was important but Coach Knight wanted a perfect game

● Wanted the team to prepare for “the perfect game”
● Cared deeply about his team
● The coach was not open to others' thoughts/feedback. I know what is the
right way to do things and I know what I'm doing.
● High on critiquing and low on reward/recognition or patting on the back
● His team gave important to the intent communicated and were able to put
aside his method of putting it across to the
INTERPERSONAL DYNAMICS AND MANAGING WORK RELATIONSHIPS

THE INDIVIDUAL FRAME OF REFERENCE

How we project ourselves

Johari window-
● The Johari window model is used to enhance the individual’s perception of others.
This model is based on two ideas- trust can be acquired by revealing information
about you to others and learning yourselves from their feedback. Each person is
represented through four quadrants or window panes. Each four window panes
signifies personal information known or unknown to oneself or others in four
viewpoints.

● 3 Dimensions:
○ Self-disclosure (to improve Public quadrant),
○ Receiving feedback (to reduce Blind)-how to give feedback and how to
receive
○ High Perceptiveness (together with sensitivity)
● How to give feedback- be aware of the following
○ Persons behaviour v/s the person himself
○ Controllable vs uncontrollables
○ Specific vs general
○ Data based vs impressionistic
○ Timely vs late
○ Negative with positive vs only negative
○ Suggestive vs prescriptive
○ Help vs criticism
● How to receive feedback
○ Elicit vs wait
○ Listen and self analysis vs denial and rationalization
○ Clarifying vs assuming

● While we take any assumption, data is necessary to support it. One should be
open to new ideas and keep correcting data as we evolve the assumption.

● Perception is the way we see the world around us, the way we interpret what we
see. Perception is selective. Perceptiveness should be high and should be able to
pick up both verbal and nonverbal cues.
● Perception of a person is only a part of the truth, only the side you are exposed to-
and this is what leads to different people to have different perception

● Selection Factors related to Stimuli –

○ Size
 ○ Intensity
○ Repetition
○ Novelty
○ Familiarity
○ Contrast

● Selection factors related to Perceiver

○ Needs and wants
○ Interests
○ tendencies (self-concept) e.g. optimistic people would see positives,
negative people will see problems/loop-holes
● Work relationship needs
○ Reliance
○ Collaboration
○ Openness
○ Trust

● Factors / Biases:

○ Stereotypes : Religion, community, physical characteristics, Role,

Demographics (Gender, age etc.). e.g. artists, lawyers, south / north Indians
○ Projection : Attributing your motive on others. E.g. waiter or driver in the
video (smooth operator / gangster)
○ Preoccupation: Mental preoccupation is a state characterized by thoughts
that are hard to keep your mind off of. E.g. Mother focused on serving food.
○ Mental Set : You see what you expect/want to see. Our mental sets are
shaped by our past experiences and habits. E.g. people see blood (where
there isn’t any) at an accident sites
○ Halo Effect : The halo effect is a type of cognitive bias in which our overall
impression of a person influences how we feel and think about their
character. e.g. if someone is very punctual at work, he/she must be a good
performer
○ Beliefs: It causes people to over-rely on pre-existing beliefs when
evaluating the conclusions of an argument, instead of properly considering
the argument’s content and structure. E.g. it can cause someone to accept
the argument “all flowers have petals, and roses have petals, therefore
roses are flowers”.
○ Needs, wants, concerns : e.g. when same blurred pictures were shown to
different people (poor, hungry) with different needs, they saw different
things (money, food)
○ Perceptual defense : It is the tendency to avoid or screen out certain stimuli
that are perceptually disturbing or threatening. People may tend to select
information which is supportive of their point of view and choose not to
acknowledge contrary information. E.g. some key words were given to some
students to write essay including factory workers, intelligent, cracked jokes,
they chose information selectively and twisted it (e.g. cracked jokes = witty)
 ○ Primacy effect : does not evolve over time (first impression bias). The
tendency to recall information presented at the start of a list better than
information at the middle or end.
○ Recency effect : latest (yesterday’s) impression is supreme. Those items,
ideas, or arguments that came last are remembered more clearly than
those that came first.

Part 1: The individual frame of reference : Actions a manager can take to improve
interpersonal effectiveness

Individual frames of references help in quicker decision making. A frame of reference at

a group level can also be called culture.

Two difficulties to overcome in trying to understand another person:

1. Very difficult to separate one's own subjective view of another person from the
way he would see himself.
2. To understand another person be aware of your own biases and assumptions

Behavior can be analyzed in two frames of reference/POV:

1. From the point of view of the outsider
2. From the point of view of the behaver himself
a. Individual frames of reference: suspend your own view of the person
i. Develop empathy
ii.
b. Idea of self concept:

● The individual frame of reference:

○ It Introduces a way of thinking about individuals that can make it easier to
understand them from their own point of view
○ Point of view of the behaver is also called phenomenological, personal or
perceptual view of behavior
○ It enables us to become more effective in understanding and anticipating
individual needs, wants and problems
○ It is very difficult to separate one’s own subjective view of another person
○ When Peter tells you about Paul, you learn more about Peter than about
Paul
 ○ We can never completely remove our own biases. The more we understand
our own biases & assumptions, better we are in understanding others
● The idea of self-concept
○ Internalized set of relatively stable perceptions that a person has of herself
of who she is
○ These ideas are stable, resistant to change and of central importance.
○ This affects how the person experiences future situations
● Inferring self-concept in a situational context
○ Self-concept must be inferred
○ It can be made based on what we observe about what matters to another
person as expressed in recurrent interactions, words and actions
● Understanding another person’s frame of reference
○ Each of us engage and see the world in ways that are similar and different
to others
○ Our behavior is based on ‘models’ (assumptive frameworks) of reality that
we carry (consciously or not)
○ These models develop from day 1 as a result of our past experiences
● Assumptions, perceptions and feelings
○ Each person's world is experienced in terms of important assumptions,
perceptions and feelings
○ Assumptions include all the beliefs, values and attitudes that a person holds
about how things are and how they ought to be
■ Most important assumptions are that are charged with an
imperative. It becomes the basis of action.
○ Beliefs are the most basic of assumptions (underlying understanding of self
and environment).
○ Values are beliefs that are evaluative in nature
○ Attitudes are more complex beliefs or values, with far reaching implications.
○ We need to sense assumptions that are salient and important for a person
in a given situation
○ Perceptions are what a person actually sees, hears, or otherwise perceives
as taking place in a given situation
○ All assumptions are based on past perceptions
○ Feelings are the emotive and affective reactions of a person in a given
situation
■ Strong feelings of negative nature indicate that important
assumptions are being threatened / violated
MANAGING WORK RELATIONSHIPS

Work relationships need

 1. Reliance
2. Collaboration
3. Openness
4. Trust
Perceptiveness
Perception of a person is only a part of the truth of the side that one may be exposed to.
This is what leads two different people to have different perceptions.
Perception is selective. Selection factors are related to stimuli:-
1. Size
2. Intensity
3. Repetition
4. Novelty
5. Familiarity
6. Contrast
Factors related to perceiver
1. Needs and wants
2. Interest
3. Tendencies (Self-Concept)

Factors / Biases:

○ Stereotypes : Religion, community, physical characteristics, Role,

Demographics (Gender, age etc.). e.g. artists, lawyers, south / north Indians
○ Projection : Attributing your motive on others. E.g. waiter or driver in the
video (smooth operator / gangster)
○ Preoccupation: Mental preoccupation is a state characterized by thoughts
that are hard to keep your mind off of. E.g. Mother focused on serving food.
○ Mental Set : You see what you expect/want to see. Our mental sets are
shaped by our past experiences and habits. E.g. people see blood (where
there isn’t any) at an accident sites
○ Halo Effect : The halo effect is a type of cognitive bias in which our overall
impression of a person influences how we feel and think about their
character. e.g. if someone is very punctual at work, he/she must be a good
performer
○ Beliefs: It causes people to over-rely on pre-existing beliefs when
evaluating the conclusions of an argument, instead of properly considering
the argument’s content and structure. E.g. it can cause someone to accept
the argument “all flowers have petals, and roses have petals, therefore
roses are flowers”.
○ Needs, wants, concerns : e.g. when same blurred pictures were shown to
different people (poor, hungry) with different needs, they saw different
things (money, food)
○ Perceptual defense : It is the tendency to avoid or screen out certain stimuli
 that are perceptually disturbing or threatening. People may tend to select
information which is supportive of their point of view and choose not to
acknowledge contrary information. E.g. some key words were given to some
students to write essay including factory workers, intelligent, cracked jokes,
they chose information selectively and twisted it (e.g. cracked jokes = witty)
○ Primacy effect : does not evolve over time (first impression bias). The
tendency to recall information presented at the start of a list better than
information at the middle or end.
○ Recency effect : latest (yesterday’s) impression is supreme. Those items,
ideas, or arguments that came last are remembered more clearly than
those that came first.

Development of effective relationships

1. Work out mutual expectations
2. The degree of mutual trust
3. Mutual influence on each other
Identify potential barriers to establishing a mutually beneficial relationship with
individuals
Managing conflicts
1. Balancing inquiry and advocacy-lay out your view and invite others to challenge
it. Advocacy without inquiry may backfire. Inquiry without advocacy can be
counterproductive.
2. The discipline of reflection- Mental models-leads to generalization quickly

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
Organizational structure
a. Organizational adaptation
b. Structure is a result of the process through which an organization’s
activities are grouped together and assigned to employees. Organizational
structure is a vehicle that enables achieving organizational goals.
c. Organizational structure is a conscious effort by the founder / top
management to organize the roles, relationships, flow of information and
procedures such that they are aligned to the organizational goal in order to
achieve the desired outcome.
d. It outlines how job tasks are formally divided, grouped and coordinated
i. Describes allocation of tasks and responsibilities of individuals
ii. Designates formal reporting relationships
iii. Includes design of systems and mechanisms for coordination
iv. Functions of an org structure to meet both organizational and
individual needs
1. Coordinated capabilities
2. Coordinated activities
3. Coordinated goals
4. Coordinated boundaries
v. Tools of organizational structure
1. Division of labor (coordinate capabilities)-extent of vertical
and horizontal specialization
2. Integration Mechanism (coordinate activities)-integration of
independent activities and outputs- can be done through
tech, liasoning roles, meetings, task forces etc. frequency to
be determined
3. Distribution of decision making authority (coordinate
goals)Rights have to be distributed horizontally as well
a. Centralization-with key decisions with little or no input
from the lower-level personnel. Top management takes
most decisions
b. Decentralization-personnel at the lower rung provide
input or maybe given the discretion to make decisions.
Decision making authority is delegated down the line.
4. Setting , sustaining organizational boundaries
vi. Formal(explicit) are deliberately determined and informal(emergent)
components emerge from a pattern of social interactions.
e. Criteria embedded into Org Structure
i. Efficiency
ii. Responsiveness
iii. Adaptability
iv. Integrity
f. Basic Forms
 i. Types of grouping
1. Functional
2. Product
3. Customer
4. Geographic
ii. Management Centric/Traditional organizational structures
1. Functional structure
2. Divisional Structure
3. Matrix structure
iii. Structures could differ due to the following
1. Strategy
a. Eg. Innovative /organic-specialization, formalization,
decentralization
b. Cost minimization-specialization, formalization,
centralization
2. Organization size
3. Technology
4. Environment
5. Global implications
iv. Employee Centric / Emerging Organizational structures
a. Holacracy
v. Crowd Centric/self organizing
vi.