DISPENSA Organizational Behavior, Appunti di Comportamento Organizzativo

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UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI BRESCIA

A.Y. 2024- 2025

International Business

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

THREE LEVELS OF ANALYSIS OF AN ORGANIZATION

Basic OB model is based on inputs, processes and outcomes. Inputs = inputs are variables that set the stage for what will occur in an organization later. Many are determined in advance of the employment relationship. Processes = actions that individuals, groups, and organizations engage in as a result of inputs and that lead to certain outcomes. Outcomes = mixing up inputs and see what the result is

• individual level à inputs : are shaped by a combination of an individual’s genetic inheritance and childhood environment: diversity, personality (doesn’t change over time), values (principles that guide our actions and tent to remain stable over time) à processes : emotions and moods (come from the interaction of the individual and the environment and the relationships), motivation (a process, not a state), perception (different for everyone), decision making; we are unique as individuals so out processes will be unique too. à outcomes : attitudes and stress, task performance, citizenship behavior, withdrawal behavior; *When workers are stressed, companies are often blamed because they don’t know employees’ expectations and needsà companies tend to give a wrong answer to their needs and workers’ performance won’t be good as a result. Attitudes are the evaluations that employees have, ranging from positive to negative, about objects, people, or events, whereas stress is the unpleasant psychological process that occurs in response to environmental pressures. Attitudes often have behavioral consequences that directly relate to organizational effectiveness à “Quiet quitting” is the opposite of “citizenship behaviour”: workers still work for the company but do the bare minimum to still be part of it and don’t feel committed.
  • The combination of effectiveness and efficiency at doing your core job tasks is a reflection of your task performance → we have to find a balance between the two, according to the strategic decisions of a company. Effectiveness : founding the best combination of our resources in order to get to the best result we can by employing our resources. Efficiency : reaching a given result by using the lowest amount of resources as possible; you and the given object are efficient if you use the lowest amount of resources They are in a trade-off in our company → while one is increasing, the other is decreasing and vice versa.
  • Discretionary behavior that contributes to the psychological and social environment of the workplace, that is not part of an employee’s formal job requirements. Successful organizations

hour of labor. Service organizations must include customer needs and requirements in assessing their effectiveness. *It is simply evidence that the organization is able to exist and grow over the long term. The survival of an organization depends not just on how productive the organization is, but also on how well it fits with its environment. Outcomes are directly related to inputs, so there is a continuous impact of the outcomes on new inputs à chaos belly (completely confused situation) that can be avoided through good management. Implications for managers Managers have to:

• resist the inclination to rely in generalizations, since they are often erroneous
• use metrics and situational variables rather than “hunches” to explain cause-and-effect relationships: measuring organizational variables.
• work on their interpersonal skills to increase their leadership potential
• improve their technical skills and conceptual skills thorough training and staying current with OB trends à OB can improve your employees’ work quality and productivity by showing you how to empower your employees, design and implement change programs, improve customer service, and help your employees balance worklife conflicts.

WHAT IS ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR?

Until the late 1980s, business school emphasized the technical aspects of management, focusing on economics, accounting, finance, and quantitative techniques. Course work in human behavior and people skills received relatively less attention. Then, business schools have realized the significant role that interpersonal skills play in determining a manager’s effectiveness. The importance of interpersonal skills in the workplace

• good places to work have better financial performance ( or is it the other way around? )à probably both answers are correct; when dealing with human beings the answer doesn’t always come with numbers
• better interpersonal skills result in lower turnover of quality employees and higher quality applications for recruitment; turnover : rate of exits of employees in 1 year (how many people quit) When turnover rates become weird with respect to other companies or to what was expected, the company needs to ask itself questions and change some strategies.
• strong association between the quality of workplace relationships and job satisfaction, stress, turnover and absenteeism (rate of absences). Satisfaction strongly depends on the abilities and interpersonal skills of their supervisor and manager.
• it fosters social responsibility awareness
• Developing managers’ interpersonal skills helps organizations attract and keep high-performing employees, which is important since outstanding employees are always in short supply and are costly to replace Management Main duties of a manager – brainstorming: . to coordinate activities and employees . to decide who does what and when, at least at the beginning à give instructions . to understand employees’ skills and take the best out of it . to take into consideration employees’ needs and schedule a timetable that is okay for them . to create a positive environment . to promptly solve problems . to foster participation THE FOUR MAIN ACTIVITIES OF A MANAGER (TWO TRYPES): à 1. Planning, organizing and controlling = CLASSICAL COMMAND AND CONTROL ACTIVITIES
• defining an organization’s goals, establishing an overall strategy for achieving those goals, and developing a comprehensive set of plans to integrate and coordinate activities.

MANAGEMENT SKILLS

Another way of considering what managers do is to look at the skills or competencies they need to achieve their goals. Researchers have identified a number of skills that differentiate effective from ineffective managers. A. Technical skills : the ability to apply specialized knowledge or expertise; all jobs require some specialized expertise and many people develop their technical skills on the job. ! Great technicians but poor leaders can be very harmful for an organization à managing people is not less important than technical skills B. Human skills : the ability to work with, understand and motivate other people, both individually and in groups. N.B “managers are people who get things done through other people”. C. Conceptual skills : the mental ability to analyze and diagnose complex situations, as well as to integrate new ideas with existing processes and innovate on the job. LATHANS: EFFECTIVE VS SUCCESSFUL managerial activities Luthans and his associates found that all managers engage in 4 managerial activities:

1. Traditional management = average manager, it consists in decision making, planning, and controlling
2. Communication = effective manager, who has a lot of success for the company, someone who creates networks inside the company; it consists in exchanging routine information and processing paperwork.
3. Human resource management = it consists in motivating, disciplining, managing conflict, staffing, and training
4. Networking = successful manager, person who has a lot of personal success, can jump from a company to another really fast, can have lot of power; it consists in networking, socializing, politicking, and interacting with outsiders. Average managers Successful managers: very good managers at selling themselves – the focus is personal success Effective managers: great at managing people – the focus is to reach organizational objs. Blue ocean strategy : strategy that pursuits a clear and uncrowded space in the market, so that the company can stay in a safe place (not red because of blood coming from sharks’ victims = competitors). à ex. Apple CREATED A NEED for consumers and started operating in a blue ocean.

OB = 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 toward improving an organization’s effectiveness. In addition, it applies the knowledge gained about individuals, groups, and the effect of structure on behavior in order to make organizations work more effectively. à the study of what people do in an organization and the way their behavior affects the organization’s performance Complementing intuition with systematic study Systematic study of behavior: behavior generally is predictable if we know how the person perceived the situation and what is important to him or her. We need to be scientific about this: we mean looking at relationships, attempting to attribute causes and effects, and basing our conclusions on scientific evidence. Evidence-based management (EBM):

• It complements systematic study
• It argues for managers to make decision based on evidence (and observation, as Mintzberg did) à data is needed to support our vision and limit our bias. Subjectivity is to be reduced to the minimum. Intuition: systematic study and EBM add to intuition; if we all make decision with intuition or gut instinct we will work with incomplete information. Big Data Background : The use of big data for managerial practices is a relatively new area, but it hold convincing promise. Current usage : The reasons for data analytics include predicting any event, detecting how much risk is incurred at any time and preventing catastrophes. Data should be reliable, collected and stored in the right way. à big data can be used for understanding, helping and managing people; evidence can be used to inform your intuition and experience. N.B: Limitations : Too much info can be confusing, misleading, expensive, and it can threaten people and companies’ privacy (ex. Tracking of workers, vendors,…à employees need to remain the owners of their personal data = issues of privacy; Ex. Sensors that could catch people’s emotional reactions to food, dangerous situationsà often used to improve safety at the workplace) AI and OB
• AI tools can help mitigate cognitive biases and groupthink behaviors altering attitudes towards a more objective and data-drive decision-making organizational culture.
• AI-drive decision-making has positively impacted organizations in various industries.
• Implementing AI systems reflected in cost reductions and resource optimization à new jobs are rising but the point is managing the generational change of jobs and tasks.
• Increased customer satisfaction and loyalty through surveys targeting customer segments

• Adapting to differing cultural and regulatory norms. Managing workforce diversity (ex. gender diversity)
• organizations are becoming more heterogeneous in terms of gender, age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and inclusion of other diverse groups. Improving customer service
• Service employees have substantial interaction with customers
• Employees attitudes and behavior are associated with customer satisfaction
• Need a customer-responsive culture Improving people skills
• People skills are essential to managerial effectiveness
• OB provides the concepts and theories that allow managers to predict employee behavior in given situation Working in networked organizations
• Networked organizations are becoming more pronounced
• A manager’s job is fundamentally different in networked organizations
• Challenges of motivating and leading online require different techniques Companies are requiring employees (ex. Amazon’s employees) to go back to offices, in order to maintain the sense of belonging, motivation, control and quality of performance. à smart working needs different rules and skills and not everybody is okay with that and not all the workers are able to work efficiently from home. Using social media at work
• Policies on accessing social media at work o When, where and for what purpose
• Impact of social media on employee well-being Enhancing employee well-being at work
• The creation of the global workforce means work no longer sleeps
• Communication technology has provided a vehicle for working at any time or any place.
• Employee are working longer hours
• Families’ lifestyles have changed, so balancing work and life demands now surpasses job security as an employee priority. Creating a positive work environment
• positive organizational scholarship is concerned with how organizations develop human strength, foster vitality and resilience, and unlock potential.
• Need of focusing on employees’ strengths VS limitations, as employees share situations in which they performed at their personal best. Improving ethical behavior
• Ethical dilemmas and ethical choices are situations in which and individual is required to define right or wrong conduct.

• Organizations distribute codes of ethics to guide employees through ethical dilemmas
• Managers need to create an ethically healthy environment. My description in 3 lines
• Personal characteristics – age, gender,
• Social categories – nationality, profession, family Three sources and levels of diversity:

1. Personality
2. Social and demographic characteristics:

• Surface-level diversity (thoughts and feelings)
• Deep-level diversity (personality and values)

3. Biological and biographical characteristics: personal characteristics that are objective and easily obtained from personnel records. Variations in these can be the basis for discrimination. à personal + social identity SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORY We can describe ourselves by expressing our personal and social identity à social identity comes from social categorization which facilitates distinct social groups: WE (in-group = satisfied social identity) VS THEY (out-group = dissatisfied social identity). Sometimes geographical belonging (ex. Italians abroad) makes you feel safe and you feel a sense of belonging. Our social group defines our social identity:

• In-group
• Out-group – people not belonging to our social group; if we are not satisfied with our in-group, we tend to revaluate out-groups. Gen Z work groups What are Generations z workplace stereotypes? Early millennial generations are often quick to criticise Gen Zers of being unwilling to work from the office and of being obsessed with flexible and home working. The stereotype holds that they’re ‘obsessed’ with digital platforms and have “no work ethics” à low attention span, lazy, addiction to technology, no social skills, easy going, need more free time, don’t like hierarchy How do you feel with these stereotypes? It is true that Gen Z is more inclined to use online and digital platforms, but I also think that we do have strong work ethics in the sense of what we would like to find at our workplace. We don’t see our job just a

BIOGRAPHICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

AGE : the US and Italian workforce is aging à cognitive processes can slow down, but older people can compensate with their higher level of experience. à older people pay less attention and are often involved in work accidents (they feel they can do things more automatically without paying much attention) In 25 years from now in Europe most people in society will be in the “elderly” group (especially women 85+). In the USA the situation will be similar, but probably less dramatic. In Mexico, instead, the bigger part of the population will still be young people (30-34 years). Digitalization is a process even older people are required to follow and assimilate at the workplace à diversity: a young person needs to be treated differently from an older person; they have a different learning process, different experience, they manage time and change differently. à Organizing tutoring is a way of putting different generations together and the result is a two- ways teaching process. Work-life balance changes as well, since the older one gets the smaller is the part of one’s life dedicated to work. The wage is supposed to be already high enough in order for them not to commit too much to work (less motivation). “Imarinen”: age doesn’t necessarily mean decline in job performance We can see that the surface-level characteristic of an employee’s age is an unfounded basis for discrimination, and that an age- diverse workforce is a benefit to an organization SEX There are no consistent male-female differences in problem- solving ability, analytical skills, competitive drive, motivation, sociability or learning drive. BUT women earn less than men for the same positions and have fewer professional opportunities = glass (GENDER PAY GAP). “ glass ceiling ”: it’s a barrier for women to grow along their work carrier Women tend to be employed more in the business support function rather than in the strategic management functions. RACE AND ETHNICITY Employees tend to favor collogues of their own race in performance evaluations, promotion decisions, and pay raises. Ex. African Americans and Hispanics Ethnicity = additional set of cultural characteristics that often overlaps with race.

An individual of the minority status is less likely to leave the organization if there is a feeling of inclusiveness ( positive diversity climate )à possibly leading to increased sales DISABILITIES A disabled person has physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. Workers with disabilities receive higher performance evaluations but may have lower performance expectations. Everybody needs to be given the right tools to fully employ their potential (the point is looking for EQUITY and not EQUALITY). HIDDEN DISABILITIES : sensory disabilities, chronic illness or pain, cognitive or learning impairments, sleep disorders and psychological challenges (ex. Anxiety). Even though law is creating a more inclusive work world, the problem remains in people’s mind and in their prejudices. TENURE : meaning time spent in a job, organization, or field. It is a good predictor of employee productivity. Tenure and job satisfaction are positively related RELIGION: ex. U.S. law prohibits discrimination based on religion, but it is still an issue, especially for Muslims SEXUAL ORIENTATION and GENDER IDENTITY: federal law does not protect employees against discrimination based on sexual orientation, but this may soon change. Most Fortune 50 0 companies have policies covering sexual orientation and about half now have policies on gender identity. CULTURAL IDENTITY: need to accommodate and respect individual cultural identities INTELLECTUAL AND PHYSICAL ABILITIES and OB Abilities are individual’s current capacities to perform various tasks in a job. Two types of abilities: INTELLECTUAL ABILITIES are needed to perform mental activities – thinking, reasoning and problem solving. Most societies place a high importance on intelligence. General mental ability is an overall factor ofintelligence as suggested by the positive correlations among specific intellectual ability dimensions

• Number aptitude à accountant
• Verbal comprehension à plant manager
• Perceptual speed à fire investigator
• Inductive reasoning à market researcher
• Deductive reasoning à supervisor
• Spatial visualization à interior decorator
• Memory à salesperson PHYSICAL ABILITIES are needed to do tasks demanding stamina, dexterity, strength, and similar characteristics. They are valuable. 9 basic abilities related to strength, flexibility, and other factors are needed to perform physical tasks.

ATTITUDES AND JOB SATISFACTION

Attitudes are evaluative statements, favorable or unfavorable, about objects, people or events. Attitudes reflect how we feel about something. Three components of an attitude:

1. Cognitive = evaluation
2. Affective = feeling
3. Behavioral = action Cognition, affect and behavior are closely related. Understanding people’s attitudes is important to understand behaviors = the attitudes people hold determine what they do. Festinger : cases of attitudes following behavior illustrate the effects of cognitive dissonance. à cognitive dissonance is any incompatibility an individual might perceive between two or more attitudes or between behavior and attitudes. You cannot do what you want to do so you feel frustrated. Cognitive dissonance is something we don’t immediately recognize, and we probably try to explain it to ourselves. Research has generally concluded that people seek consistency among their attitudes and between their attitudes and their behavior. So, the desire to reduce dissonance depends on three factors: 1. the importance of the elements creating dissonance, 2. the degree of influence we believe we have over the elements and 3. the rewards of dissonance (high rewards accompanying high dissonance tend to reduce tension inherent in the dissonance). Attitude predicts behavior, but variables can be mitigated (attitude’s importance, correspondence to behavior, accessibility, accessibility, presence of social pressure, whether a person has direct experience with the attitude) à in that case the attitude-behavior relationship is likely to be much stronger MAJOR JOB ATTITUDES Job attitudes are strongly related among them Job satisfaction: the most considered indicator that represents a company’s success in terms of HR. It is the positive feeling about the job resulting from an evaluation of its characteristics. A person with high job satisfaction holds positive feelings about the work, while a person with low satisfaction holds negative feelings Job involvement: degree of psychological identification with the job where perceived performance is important to self-worth. Employees with high job involvement strongly identify with and really care about the kind of work they do. Psychological empowerment: belief in the degree of influence over one’s job, competence, job meaningfulness and autonomy. Organizational commitment: identifying with a particular organization and its goals/values and wishing to maintain membership in the organization. Employees who are committed will be less likely to engage in work withdrawal even if they are dissatisfied, because they have a sense of organizational loyalty. Emotional attachment to an organization and belief in its values is the “gold standard” for employee commitment.

Perceived organizational support (POS): degree to which employees believe the organization values their contribution and cares about their well-being. POS is higher when reward are fair, employees are involved in decision making and supervisors are seen as supportive. POS is important in countries where power distance is lower à = perception workers have about the distance that exists between them and their bosses (perception of hierarchy). Ex. In Italy power distance is more relevant (medium-high) than in English speaking countries (courtesy form when addressing professors, strangers, experts, …). Employee engagement: sum of different facets. Degree of involvement, satisfaction with, and enthusiasm for the job. Engaged employees = passionate employees. It can also happen that we love our job in spite of the company we work for and employees might give more than what they are expected. 24/ JOB SATISFACTION EXERCISE

1. Stimulating and innovative environment
2. Creative tasks
3. Cooperating and supportive teams (and leaders)
4. Good pay slip There can be a lot of factors influencing one’s satisfaction: social relevance, healthy career progress, autonomy, trust, direct contact with stakeholders, fair recognition, involvement in decision making, diverse environment, good work-life balance, traveling, flexibility, psychological care As a company it is important to be able to recognize the diversity of needs. Job satisfaction is a positive feeling about a job resulting from an evaluation of its characteristics. à Two approaches for measuring job satisfaction are popular: a. Single global rating (BUT you don’t know why) – response to one question b. Summation of job facets – more sophisticated Over the last 30 years employees in the US and most developed countries have generally been satisfied with their jobs. Satisfaction levels differ depending on the facet involved and job satisfaction depends on cultural differences. What composes Job Satisfaction may be: work itself, pay, promotion, supervision, coworkers, overall. Salary is usually not among the top 3 components: the relationship between money and job satisfaction is not linear; while the relationship between satisfaction and productivity is strong* N.B : Job satisfaction is also influenced by the characteristics of the job market. *Job satisfaction and productivity are directly related: for every 15% increase in satisfaction, productivity increases 1-4%. Job satisfaction is due to/generated by:

• Job conditions – intrinsic nature of the work itself, social interactions, and supervision are important predictors of job satisfaction (operating procedures)
• Personality – people who have positive self-evaluations and believe in their inner worth and basic competence are more satisfied with their jobs than those with negative core self-evaluation.

Rate of absenteeism decreases when workers are satisfied. Turnover : a pattern of lowered job satisfaction, it is the best predictor of intent to leave. For some companies it’s normal to have a high turnover rate (ex. Mc Donald’s). ! sometimes managers are not sensitive enough (if they have a lot of pressure on them about results and performances) and can’t understand there’s something wrong. HR’s role is to help managers in this task. Regular surveys can reduce gaps between what managers think employees feel and what they really feel. 06/ EMOTIONS VS MOODS From Affect derive Emotions and Moods. Emotions are intense feelings directed at someone/something. Six universal emotions: anger, fear, sadness, happiness, disgust, surprise. Moods have no direct impact on how we behave, since they are less intense feelings than emotions, often arising without specific stimulus. Moral emotions = emotions that have moral implications because of our instant judgement of the situation that evokes them. They are based on social context which differs for culture and religion. à our responses to moral emotions differ from our responses to other emotions à moral emotions are learned in childhood à morality is a construct that differs between cultures, so moral emotions do as well.

Mood structure has:

• High negative affect
• High positive affect
• Low positive affect
• Low negative affect It is a complex structure. In some cultures it is fine to share and disclose emotions with others, in other cultures it is not common to express them. Positive: excitement, enthusiasm, elation Negative: nervousness, stress, anxiety N.B: emotions are caused by a specific event and are more fleeting; moods are more cognitive and they may cause us to think or brood for a while. Thinking + Feeling = DECISION MAKING à^ how we feel and think has a strong impact on decision making
• Our emotions actually make our thinking more rational, because our emotions provide important information about how we understand the world around us and they help guide our behaviors.
• Our beliefs are shaped by our groups of belonging, resulting in an unconscious feeling that our shared emotions are “right”. “Why It Pays to Be Grumpy and Bad-Tempered” https://getpocket.com/explore/item/why-it-pays-to-be- grumpy-and-bad tempered?utm_source=linkedinsynd&utm_medium=social The article discusses how grumpiness and bad temper can have unexpected benefits, suggesting that negative emotions may enhance negotiation skills, creativity, and attention to detail. Contrary to common beliefs about positivity, a dose of anger or cynicism can make people more resilient and fair-minded, offering advantages in social interactions and personal success. By challenging overly optimistic views, grumpiness can foster better critical thinking and problem-solving. Overreaction is not good though and we all need to learn how to better manage emotions. Negative emotions often lead to a set of actions and reactions that can be useful and effective for us, if we allow ourselves to feel them. Whereas, if we suppress negative emotions the following reactions can be less impactful and that would not help you get things done as if you “exploited” anger to its maximum potential. Anger can be good, it just needs to be understood and translated into useful actions. Do emotions make us ethical?
• Research questions the previous belief that emotional decision making is based on higher-level cognitive processes.
• Our beliefs are shaped by our groups (culture, religion, …), resulting in an unconscious feeling that our shared emotions are right.