Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Historical Overview
Classical Approaches on How to Manage work and individuals within the organization
1)
Taylor introduced the scientific study of work, as a response for the perception that
managers did not know how to manage work. He agreed that in order to maximize efficiency
within an organization, true scientific studies of the best scientifically methods had to be
conducted. He defended that the most effective way to manage work, individuals and the
organizations required the following steps:
Taylor defined 4 principles of management, which would reduce waste and increase efficiency in
work.
Fords ideas on how to manage work came along with his Black T model and standardized
assembly lines. (+ Tools, - Employees)
Ford 3 principles of Management
Standardized Assembly
Lines
3)
Increase Usage of
specialized tools
Weber argued that both management and organizational functioning should have its basis on a
Bureaucratic System. Bureaucracy would, according to Weber, help to manage work more
effectively as, since every rule was written, every role clearly defined and the authority clearly
established, it would allow both coordination and understanding of everything done.
-
Extensive Use of written papers, Extensive use of rules, well established system of
supervision and subordination, etc.
Mayo argued that the classical approach ignored the beyond the monetary motivation sources of
employees, and that ignoring the human relation part would bring negative consequences to the
organization as a whole, by creating monotony, fatigue, reduced work environment, etc.
In order to understand the role of Human Relations in an organization, Mayo conducted several
experiments, called the Hawthorne Experiment.
Illumination studies Reduced Intensity of illumination level to see the effect on performance
o Outcome Increase in Performance! Mayo concluded that increase in performance
had as cause the positive emotional effects experimented by employees, as a result of
having a sympathetic or interested in observer!
How complex is
the n of
External
Elements?
Fast
Placid Clustered
Turbulent
Highly
Random Placid
Disturbed Reactive
Low
Need
to
recognize
and
appreciate
individual
dispositions
in order
to
understand
and
respond
appropriately to the behavior of
individuals in organization
It is also important to understand that when analyzing the individual dispositions, such as
personality, emotions, etc., a further analysis on the situation where the behavior occurred is
required!
Personality
Behavior is a result of a complex interaction between person and situation. However, there seems
to be some specific characteristics of an individual that tend to remain in each behavior,
independently of the context or the interaction. This specific features are what is called
personality!
In general terms, personality represents personal characteristics, either physical or psychological,
that lead to consistent patterns of behavior!
Where does personality come from? Nature or Nurture?
1) Nature some studies point out that personality is something youre born with, its
genetical and it will remain stable and will have little change across ones life course.
2) Nurture some studies (twins case) point out that personality is completely dependent
on the influence of the external environment Family, Context, Group Membership, all
will shape ones personality!
Q: Why does it matter for organizations to assess or understand the personality of one individual
when, say, decide to hire him or to locate him within the organization?
One employer will not see his employee personality, however, the behaviors of one individual will
reflect these specific and consistent personal traits! Therefore, if one employer is able to assess
the employees personality traits, he will be able to track the profile features of that individual and
therefore know what to expect from that employee. Assessing ones personality traits will also
allow the manager to best allocate each individual according to individual characteristics.
Is there any link between personality and Individual competences?
The need of understanding personality traits and how they might affect performance that several
models were created.
The MBTI emphasizes that people can be typed into Introverted and Extroverted, but that
individuals also have basic mental processes: Sensing, Intuiting, Perceiving and Judging.
Each Individual yields 4 individual traits, and each individual will combine and differ in
combination of their preferences, resulting in 16 main personality types.
Where do you get
your energy from?
What do you pay
attention to and
collect info on?
How
do
you
evaluate and make
decisions?
How do you orient
yourself to the
outside world?
Introversion
Extroversion
Intuiting
Sensing
Feeling
Subjective, Heart
Thinking
Perceiving
Judging
Besides these two major models on assessing personality, there are other models based on other
individual dispositions that will help managers on what behaviors to expect from one individual:
Locus of Control - degree at which individuals believe they can control events affecting
them.
Internals own behavior as primary cause for events
Externals - events determined by external sources (lucky,
chance, etc.)
II.
III.
IV.
Self- Esteem extent at which individuals believe they are worthwhile and desired
individuals; self-evaluation
High Self- Esteem employees are likely to take risks, put
more value on attaining foals and display major willingness
to put extra effort to accomplish goals
Low Self- Esteem employees are likely to procrastinate,
experience stress , conflict, to set lower goals and to be
influenced easily
Self Efficacy - refers to ones belief in ones capability to perform a specific task. It is
important because studies point out for a positive influence of the role of self-beliefs in
task performance, key for motivation, key for productivity, etc. People who believe they
can perform well on a task (high self-efficacy) do better than those who think they will fail.
A and B Types - Individuals personality is divided into 2 types, Type A ( where the
individual is featured by being competitive, impatient and ambitious) and Type B ( where
the individual is featured by being more relaxed, patient, easy going).
Individual
Perceptions
Physical Abilities
Strenght, Coordination.
Situational Factors
STIMULUS
Context
BEHAVIOR
PERFORMANCE
Situational factors will provide an external stimulus for the individual. The individual will react and
behave in a certain way that will depend on the stimulus. Therefore, and since the behavior is
linked with performance, context and situational factors will indeed affect performance.
Thats why it is asserted that the best way to get a full picture of organizational functioning is to
look at the interaction between individual and situational factors (work environment, group
adherence, etc).
It starts when one individual sets one goal, whether for a task or a goal related to personal
relations, something one individual is trying to accomplish. After the goal is set, the individual will
experience expectations on how he/she will feel if the goal is reached or failed. This anticipatory
emotions will drive the behavior of the individual: if the anticipatory emotions are sufficiently strong
to motivate, than individual will engage in those behavior to attain the goal. If the goal is attained,
then the individual will experiment positive emotions, which will affect the subsequent behaviors
(set even higher goals, feel more competent, increase engagement, etc). If the goal attainment is
not accomplished, then negative emotions will emerge, negatively influencing future behaviors
(frustration, disinterested feelings, etc.). This is why emotion management (customer service
example) and emotion regulation (call centers) are required.
Stress
Stress is the excitement, feeling of anxiety, and physical tension that occurs when the demands
or stressors placed on an individual are thought to exceed the persons ability to cope. This is the
most common sense of Distress or negative stress! But, is it stress always a negative thing?
Distress negative stress, resulting from demanding situations that persist through time.
Eustress Good Stress that creates challenges to motivate people to work harder and
achieve goals.
Primary Appraisal
Secondary Appraisal
Subjective Evaluation of
stressor: Good or bad?
Stress Management
There are majorly 3 ways to manage stress, or to mitigate the influence of work-related
stressors on employees behavior.
Primary Prevention
Mostly preventive; the goal is to
reduce the number of stressors
Secondary Prevention
If the removal of stressors is
hard or unattainable, managers
will try to teach and train
people how to deal with stress
Tertiary Intervention
If the influence of work-related
stressors continues, than
managers will focus on treating
the consequences instead of
avoiding them.
Stress
Management
Wellness Programs
Programs including disease prevention,
medical care, self-care and health
promotion! (Ex: providing discounts on
health clubs, healthy food chains, etc)
Job satisfaction reflects the extent to which individuals find fulfillment in their work! It might be
perceived, in general terms, as a positive attitude towards the job.
The first book about the topic was published in 1935, Job Satisfaction, by Robert Hoppocks.
Why is it important for organizations to try to assess the level of job satisfaction of their
employees?
Employees who are highly satisfied with their jobs come to work regularly and are less likely to
take sick days (low job turnover and low absenteeism).
Question: what are the dimensions of job satisfaction? Is the level of payment a higher
heavyweight in job satisfaction than, say, the work itself?
According to some studies, the several dimensions of job satisfaction are ranked according to the
following way:
1
Work itself
2
Co-workers
3
Supervision
4
Promotion
5
Pay
According to the value-percept theory of satisfaction, each individual will evaluate his own level
of job satisfaction:
( )
For instance, say that you want to calculate the level of satisfaction you have relative to your
payment level: (pay WANT pay HAVE) X Payment importance (e.g. your job satisfaction level
is driven by 50% from the payment level.
By looking at this expression, one can also add that the perception of satisfaction will vary from
person to person, since each person will give his/her own relative importance to one specific job
satisfaction dimension.
Moreover, the sources of job satisfaction and dissatisfaction will vary from person to person. For
instance, one person might find that being a mortician (agncia funerria) might not be a source
of personal satisfaction, while on the other hand, there will be individuals which will derive a great
sense of job satisfaction from performing such a challenging job!
Question: Do you remember your first kiss date? How long did your
first date last?
No. But Im quite sure that you were really satisfied.
TRANSITORY
Skill Variety
Task Significance
Autonomy
Strains (-)
O. Commitment,
Carrer Satsfaction
Life Satisfaction
(+)
Stressors (-)
Role Conflict
Role ambiguity
Workload
Interpersonal
conflict
JS
Winter 2014
Counterproductive Work
behavior (-)
Turnover intentions (-)
Even though Job Satisfaction is not a directly cause of job performance, as weve seen, it is widely
acknowledge that satisfaction will, at least, influence the effectiveness of the organization itself.
Therefore, it is up to managers to enhance satisfaction within the organization.
Practical ways to enhance Job Satisfaction:
True or False?
1. Job Satisfaction has a strong impact on job performance ------------------- FALSE
2. Satisfied employees tend to have better physical health ------------------------- TRUE
3. Job satisfaction (itself) results in turnover ---------------------------------------------- FALSE
4. There exists a strong relationship between JS and stress -------------------------- TRUE (STRONG NEGATIVE RELATION)
MOTIVATION
Motivation represents the forces acting on or within a person that cause the person to behave
in a specific, goal-directed manner.
Attracting and retaining individuals is a major concern for managers, therefore, the question
of what it takes to motivate individuals to work has received great attention. Motivation is not
the same as performance, since even the most motivated employee might not be successful
in their jobs, however, even if job performance involves more than motivation, motivation is
an important factor driving high performance!
The purpose of motivational theories is to predict the behavior of individuals, and derive
expected performance levels.
Performance = ( ) ; ability alone isnt enough to ensure performance at
high level, the person must also want to achieve that high level of performance (Motivation).
Primary Motives those you are endowed with, and you try to satisfy them unconsciously,
such as thirst, hunger, sleep, etc.
Secondary Motives passed to individuals on culture, family, group membership, etc.
For instance, in China affiliation to the Communist party is a motive, in Portugal
communism is not appreciated, but social status is a high motive.
2. DRIVES (MOTIVES) By feeling uncomfortable with a specific need, the individual will be
willing to make an extra effort to accomplish a specific goal (driving force) that will either reduce
or eliminate a specific need.
3. INCENTIVES (BALANCE) After acknowledging a specific need, the individual will have an
incentive to achieve a specific goal that will eliminate that need. For instance, if you have a need
for promotion, youll work longer hours (perform) on your project to be promoted!
After an individual performance, he will either receive a reward or a punishment, and will
reassess/evaluate if the need has been eliminated or not.
Once a need is satisfied, its motivational role declines and another need will emerge.
Lower level needs must be fulfilled before higher level needs are activated sufficiently to drive
behavior
Maslow stated that a person has 5 types of needs: physiological, security, affiliation, esteem
and self-actualization.
Note: Even though the needs that Maslow identified may be universal, their importance and the ways in
which they are expressed vary across cultures. For instance, in China, the value of collectivist and
community are more relevant than the needs of individual achievement, therefore, affiliation fulfillment would
be at a higher level than the esteem level of needs.
Motivator Factors are intrinsic to individuals, they are related to an individuals positive
feelings about the job and the content of job itself.
Motivator Factors
Feeling of achievement
Meaningful Work
Promotion Opportunities
Recognition
Hygiene Factors are extrinsic to individuals, they are related with an individuals
negative feeling about the job and the environment in which the job is performed.
Hygiene Factors
Payment
Status
Job Secutiry
Working Conditions
Interpersonal Relations
It is important to acknowledge that those factors which lead to job satisfaction, might not be
the same which lead to job dissatisfaction.
Managers tend to focus on Hygiene factors, and are sometimes perplexed because they are
paying high wages and salaries, provide working conditions and still employees are not
motivated. The problem is that they concentrate only on the hygiene factors, hygiene factors
prevent dissatisfaction BUT do not lead to satisfaction. According to Herzberg, hygiene
factors are crucial to prevent dissatisfaction, but only a challenging job with opportunities for
achievement, recognition, advancement, and growth will motivate personnel!
Inputs: individual contribution to the exchange process, examples of inputs are attendance,
technical skills, personal appearance, job effort (long hours), performance, past experience,
educational level, etc.
Outputs: what the individual receives from the exchange process, examples of outputs are
job security, pay increase, status symbols, working conditions, recognition, promotion,
responsibility, etc.
After providing their own individual contribution and receiving the outcomes of that contribution,
individuals will compute the ratio of inputs and outcomes for themselves and compare it with their
perceived ratios of inputs and outcomes of others who are in similar situations. The others will
become objects of comparison for individuals to determine whether the results were fair or not,
whether they were equitably treated or not!
The comparison between the previous rations might or not trigger individual reaction to
restore the balance.
Equity will emerge whenever the perceived ratio of a persons outcomes to inputs
equals the perceived same ratio of the others! We can expect no reaction by the
individual as to restore the balance.
=
For instance, your pay increase was higher than all the other members of your team, but you
also perceive that the amount of input (say extra hours) you put into the job is way higher when
compared to the other peers of your team, so you will feel properly paid.
Inequity will exist whenever the perceived ratios of outcomes to inputs are unequal.
1) UNDERREWARD INEQUITY
<
>
Distributive Justice individuals cognitive evaluation of whether or not the amounts and
allocation of rewards in the social setting (say, company) are fair. Is everyone getting what
they deserve?
Research shows that employees perception of distributive justice are related to desired
outcomes such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment, low turnover and
performance
Procedural Justice is concerned with the fairness of the procedure used to make
decisions, it is shown that employees will be more motivated to perform at high level when
they perceive as far the procedures used to make decisions about distribution of outcomes;
for instance when employees perceive pay raises were made fairly, they will feel more
satisfied than if they had judged the procedures used to make the pay raise to be unfair.
Procedural justice has been shown to relate with desirable outcomes, such as satisfaction,
performance, etc.
Interactional Justice perception of fairness related with the relation between individuals,
supervisor and employee
Informational Justice
Why would a manager care about if the employee is perceiving to be fairly treated or not?
Research shows that:
Distributive justice is related with desirable outcomes, such as job satisfaction, performance,
commitment, etc.
Employees will be more motivated to perform at a high level when they perceive as fair the
procedures used to make decisions on how to distribute the outcomes
When employees perceive their company to have procedural justice, reactions to frozen
salaries during recession times will be low, as the used fair procedures will make him feel that
his interests are being protected
When a downsize happens and is handled fairly, those who stay feel more committed to the
organization
WORKING IN TEAMSM
Groups do have an impact in what and how we think and do things, however, we do not always
follow or agree with the group decisions. Under certain situations and for certain tasks, groups
tend to perform better than individuals.
But, what is a group? What is the relevance of a group within an organization?
There are several definitions of group:
According to John Turner, a psychological group is defined as one that is
psychologically
significant for their members, to which they relate themselves for social comparison and
acquisition of norms and values (...) And accept membership in, and which influences their
attitudes and behaviors.
Brown adds that a a group will exist when two or more people define themselves as members of
it and when its existence is recognized
Kurt Lewis includes that conceiving a group as a dynamic whole should include a definition of
group that is based on interdependence of the members
Group
Social Comparison: Why does a group needs to be socially comparable? Individuals rely on groups to
compare his/her group with other groups, as a meaning to enhance him/herself. Think about your sports
team. You support Benfica and not Olhanense because in the end of the year you want to be part of a
champion team, so I (benfiquista) will be a champion and you (Olhanense) will be not! A group will enhance
the individual status.
Existence Recognized: Why does the existence of a group needs to be recognized? In order for a group
to be considered as a group, its existence must be recognized. Say that you belong to a very private group in
your college, and that no one else besides your group peers know about its existence. Will you enhance your
social status by claiming to belong to a group which no one else has knowledge about?
Interdependence of their members: In order to be considered a group, there must be interdependence regarding the tasks of the group.
One member must rely on the other member, because they share a common goal. Consider the following example, you go out for a coffee with
Pereira
Winter
2014
your friends. Vtor
Is this reunion
to be
considered
a group? No, simply because you do not rely on the others to accomplish your task, which is drinking
a coffee, so technically you are not a group.
Now, why do organizations implement teams, and not only rely that individuals by themselves
will accomplish the tasks to be performed?
Teams allow managers to put the organizational strategy in practice (duas cabeas
pensam melhor do que uma)
Team work increases efficacy and efficiency in more complex tasks (if the organizational
tasks are simple, team work could be ineffective as members would be wasting time
discussing a simple thing!)
Teams increase the quality of management (this will be related with the concept of
informal organization, say that in your team you have a peer which is married with the
chief executive of the human resources department, this will create an informal link which
will facilitate communication and management)
Creating teams will allow synergies to be enjoyed, different perspectives will tend to
create more creative and innovative ideas
Creating teams will increase and foster both autonomy and participation, releasing the
burden of top manager of organizational daily problems and allowing focus on overall
strategy
Conflicts ( which might not be bad by themselves, divergence in opinions usually brings
more information, so conflict leads to more informed decisions)
Norm violation ( you tend to criticize more the failure of one of yours, black sheet effect)
Free Riding
Risky Behaviors ( individuals tend to behave more properly and accordingly when they
know their performance relies only in themselves)
Conformity ( linked with cohesion see the example bellow)
Bay of Pigs: In the US, Kennedy decided to invade Cuba, in what was called the Bay of
Pigs Invasion. Some people attempted to present objections to Kennedys plan of
invasion, but they were afraid this would affect the morality and cohesion of the team as
a whole. The event turned out to be a fail because of the conformity of their members to
rely in the concept of team instead of presenting individual objections.
The first thing the model tries to explain is both individual and contextual characteristics that will
influence the group/team behavior:
Aspect of the group itself that will influence the process and effectiveness are: skills needed to
perform, group heterogeneity that assures positive interaction, and the experience with the job
that will assure a groups knowledge.
Contextual variables that are predicted to affect the process and effectiveness of the group are:
supervisory behavior, rewards for group performance, training availability and market growth.
Achievement,
high
orientation,
emphasis
performance
Goal
task
on
5. Adjourning completion of
tasks, reduction of dependency
Managing Teams
How to make teams work better? How to manage conflict within the team?
Team conflict ( imbalance between perceptions, goals, values) might bring some disfunctional
effects on the team outcomes! Why? Team conflict interfeers in team performance, productivity,
enhances reduction on job satisfaction, creates mistrust among members and brings hostility to
the work sphere!
But.. is it team conflict always undesirable? It is necessary to separate the healthy conflict from
the harming conflict
LEADERSHIP
Question: What is the difference between a leader and a manager? What makes a manager a
leader?
Leadership is accomplishing something through other people that wouldnt have
happened if you werent there. And in todays world, thats less and less through command
and control, and more and more through changing peoples mindsets and hence altering
the way they behave. Today, leadership is being able to mobilize ideas and values that energize
other people.
LEADER
SOCIAL INFLUENCE
POWER
Without power to influence, a leader is not a leader! But where does this social power or influence
comes from?
Knowledge (individuals are influenced because they rely that the leader is in
possession of wide knowledge I will do what he is saying because that guy
knows!)
Referent (individuals are influenced because they admire, they are loyal to
their leader Hitler!)
Legitimacy - ( individuals rely on their leader because he has legitimate power,
for instance, you rely on what your teacher says because he is legitimate, there
is power attached to his role)
Reward (individuals will rely on their leader because they know they will be
rewarded by doing so, example: Graaades!)
Coercive ( leader is able to influence individuals because he will have the ability
to punish them)
The major questions regarding the early studies on leadership intended to answer the following
questions: What is the best or more effective leadership style? Is there any difference between
leaders? Where leaders do came from?
Iowa State leadership studies by Kurt Lewin: which one is the best leadership style: authoritarian,
democratic or a laissez faire? Answer will be provided later! HINT: think about a democratic leader
in an institution such as the army, would it work?
WHERE LEADERS DO CAME FROM?
TRAITS THEORY
The traits theory argues that a leader is born a leader, leaders will be naturally endowed
with some traits that will turn them into leaders (something you are born with, not
something you can attain); the main problem is that it ignores the situational specificity
(think about the army again)
BEHAVIOR THEORIES
Behavioral theories defend that leadership can indeed be learned, an individual might
become a leader without the need of naturally possessing specific traits to lead!
The Fiedlers contingency model states than an effective leader might use a high degree of task
behavior (use one-way communications, spell out duties, telling what to do) and only a moderate
amount on others, such other situations will require an effective leader might use a high degree
of relationship behavior (using two-way communications, listening, encouraging, involving in
decision making) in some situations.
If the situation is favorable, employees already assign the leader as a leader, and the
most appropriate leader behavior would be task oriented.
If the situation is moderate favorable, then the most appropriate leader behavior
would be relationship oriented, since there is not quite the perception of leadership.
If the situation is unfavorable, task is unstructured, the relationship between leader and
member is poor and the leader position is weak, than task oriented would be more
effective.
The LMX model enacts leadership as an interaction between the supervisor and the
subordinate! It suggests that if leaders are able to create high valuable relationships, then
high performance should result, however, Leaders will establish high LMX relationships with
a limited number of subordinates (called the in-group), and these, contrary to those outside
of the in-group, will receive more rewards, have more info, etc. LMX assumes that in this
leadership style the leader will essentially divide subordinates as an in or an out member.
The Leader-Member Exchange relationship will contribute to several organizational outcomes,
such as organizational commitment, as the following graph suggests:
Practical Example: Usually, when members of the organization are asked about what their organization stands for, the answer is
restricted to a description of either the service or the production process! This is a clue that they dont have any idea of both the VISION
and MISSION of the company! (Their commitment is probably low); recommendation is for the supervisor first to make sure that
employees are aware of the purpose of existence of the organization! Commitment should result, and if high valuable relationships = >
ENHANCED COMMITMENT
Transformational leadership goes beyond the trade relationship as it is based more on leaders
shifting the values, beliefs and needs of their followers! The key to transformational leaders is that
they seek to empower and elevate followers!
The transformational leader will lead by an idealized, inspiring, intellectually stimulating and
individually concerned leadership manner!
TRUST
SOCIAL EXCHANGES
JUSTICE
SUPPORT
TRUST
One can provide several definitions of trust, such as actions that increase ones vulnerability to
another whose behavior is not under ones control, but they will all share the same two main
features beyond the idea of trust: VULNERABILITY and INTERDEPENDENCE!
You can only trust someone if 1) you are vulnerable to the other, since 2) you are not in
control on the others behavior!
Now, what is the importance of trust within the sphere of organizations? Why is trust in leader
such an important thing?
Trust in leadership has a significant relationship with both job satisfaction and
organizational commitment;
Trust in leadership is related with job performance and extra role performance
between
supervisor
and
trust
in
commitment
the
was
employees
readiness
for
an
organizational change!
Practical Example: Think about the case of the sinking ship Costa Concordia. By observing the behavior of the cruise members define
the impact of trust in leadership and followers behaviors.
FAIRNESS
Another social exchange relation is the concept of fairness/justice.
Recall the definition of social exchange:
Social exchange deals with individual willingness to reciprocate care and consideration
expressed within a relationship!
Fairness is a social exchange because it deals with one individual willingness to reciprocate
fairness if he perceives fairness and justice within a specific relationship! (If you are fair with me,
Ill be willing to be fair with you!)
What are the types of justice that exist? Why is it important within the context of organizations?
There are 3 main types of justice:
Now, what other outcomes can we derive from organizational justice or fairness?
Being regarded highly by the organization helps to meet employees' needs for
approval, esteem, and affiliation. they care about me, I belong here
POS
are
commitment
to
usually
related
with
the
organization
P.O.S IMPORTANT
FOR
ORGANIZATIONAL
CHANGES!!!!
By looking at the above figure, we see that both POS and FAIRNESS will have a positive impact
on the level of trust. Trust in the leader and in the organization, by opening and mitigating the
followers fillings of fears and vulnerability, will mediate and result in desirable outcomes for the
organization: enhanced job satisfaction and higher levels of commitment.
The relevance of trust is therefore highlighted as the bridge between perceptions and outcomes.
Now, how to create a trusting environment within the organization?
LEAD BY EXAMPLE (if you do not act in accordance with what you are standing for, how
can one trust you?)
SHOW THAT YOU CARE (valuable relationships , employees will trust you, follow you
and accept your decisions)
In what concerns the organizational level, there are several ways on how managers can enhance
trust:
CREATE A VISION
Organizational culture is the shared and learned values, beliefs and attitudes of organization
members. The culture of an organization plays a large role in determining the quality of
organizational life, it is a collection of unspoken rules and traditions that will operate 24
hours a day.
The culture of an organization is hard to define, as one will only perceive what the organization
stands for by observing the behaviors of the employees. This enhances the assumption that an
organizational culture is often hidden, and resistant to change.
Characteristics of Culture
National Similarity
Historic Influence
Collective Creation
Dynamic Character
Learned
Shared
Now, how does an organizational culture emerge? And how is it transferred along the
organization?
Influence of Context in Organizational culture
First, it is important to acknowledge that the cultural context of the organization will strongly
influence the way an organizational culture will be set, by molding several cultural dimensions,
such as power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism/collectivism, gender role orientation
and long term orientation
For instance, in countries such as Korea and Taiwan, power distance is regarded as a high
valuable cultural dimension, and thus it is valid to assume firms within this country to be
represented by a better defined hierarchical culture than say, firms in Australia or the US, where
power distance is not such a relevant cultural dimension.
Now, after setting what the organization stands for, its values, norms, assumptions, expected
behaviors, practices, etc. and after these norms are accepted and adopted by the employees,
what can we expect to be the outcomes of having a sense of belonging to, of being part of the
culture?
Reduced uncertainty and anxiety surrounding the job, as practices and what is expected
employees behavior is clearly defined and acknowledged (Role Clarity)
Understanding of what the organization stands for, which will enhance the perception of
control
performance?
The answer is yes. Besides the potential to enhance individual satisfaction, the sense of certainty
on how problems are handled, and so on, organizational culture has potential to enhance
organizational performance. Knowing the culture of an organization allows employees to
understand both the firms history and methods of operation (what is expected to be my
behavior). Then, organizational culture will help to foster collective commitment to
corporate philosophy and values. Commitment will, by itself, generate shared feelings of
working toward common goals. Organizational culture also serves as a control mechanism
to channel behaviors towards desired behaviors, which might relate directly to greater
effectiveness of the company itself (increased organizational performance) and constitute
a major competitive advantage
Primary
Mechanisms
PAYING ATTENTION ; dealing with events systematically (consistency) will provide the guidance to
employees about what is important and what is expected of them
REACTIONS TO CRITICAL INCIDENTS AND CRISIS; the way a leader deals with incidents will
reinforce its culture; say that one employee disrespected one of the core values defended by the
company, reprehension might reinforce
ROLE MODELING ; the leader will communicate the organization values by practicing them
DISTRIBUTION OF REWARDS ; employees can learn about an organization culture through its
reward system, which will set priorities and values of the organization
CRITERIA FOR HIRING, PROMOTION AND FIRING ; a leader might also influence the
organizational culture by, for instance, hiring people whose personality fits the culture (ex: google,
southwest airlines)
Secondary
Mechanisms
RITES AND RITUALS; example office party, basic training, company ceremonies, etc
PHYSICAL SPACE DESIGN ; example of google, where the culture value of stimulating participation
is enhanced by no lock doors, rare walls, open space, etc.
FORMAL APPEARENCES; example of Banks, where wearing a suit is part of the organizational
value (seriousness, formality, conservadorismo, etc.)
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE
Quality Improvement
Managing Change
One might divide management of change in two types (1 st and 2nd order), however, one thing in
common will be presented in both types, which is why managing change is important: reaction to
change by employees!
First order changes, or small changes, are related with specific changes (quality management
change, reorganization of department, new work processes, etc.). Second order changes are
related with BIG changes that will affect the OVERALL organization (cultural change, structure
change, downsizing, etc.)
BES CASE!
Loss of Status
Need to learn new skills ( remember, if you are working and performing one task for 30
years and after an M&A you are re-allocated to perform another task Maybe I was not
good!
AFFECTIVE
COGNITIVE
BEHAVIORAL
(anxiety, fear)
Is it necessary? Wll
it be fine?
KEEP COMMUNICATING!
Not systematically
planning and
creating short term
wins
OF CULTURES
The organizational culture profile will therefore be an important antecedent of the success of an
M&A!
Culture of Acquirer
Culture of Acquired
Likely Outcome
POWER
POWER
PROBLEMATIC
POWER
ROLE/TASK/PERSON/SUPPORT
ROLE
POWER
POTENTIALLY GOOD
ROLE
ROLE
POTENTIALLY GOOD
ROLE
PERSON/SUPPORT
TASK
POWER/ROLE/TASK
TASK
PERSON/SUPPORT
Dominant
POTENTIALLY
DISASTROUS
POTENTIALLY
DISASTROUS
POTENTIALLY GOOD
POTENTIALLY
PROBLEMATIC
Now, what is the real meaning of the concept of Positive Organizational Behavior? According to
Luthans, it is the study and application of positively oriented human resources strengths and
psychological capacities that can be measured, developed and effectively managed for
performance improvement.
Basically, you try to assess what are the positive things/feelings/capabilities that humans tend to
have, you measure it, develop it and manage in such a way that you improve their performance!
But, what are the positive influencing variables that can be measured, developed and
channelized to improve performance?
You can try to assess the level of the following variables in order to evaluate and try to improve
them: self-efficacy, hope, optimism, resilience, self-esteem, locus of control, emotional
stability. At a group level, team cohesion is also a potential variable to assess POB.
Hope, goal direct energy ( motivation and energy to go for it) and planning to meet
goals=> hope has a positive impact on academic performance, is related with goal
expectancies, perceived control and positive affect
Optimism! => Impact on perception of challenges and the way on how to deal with
adversity; optimism is good when it is both realistic and flexible!
Resilience : capacity to rebound or bounce back from failure and turn them into
challenges for a higher purpose
ENGAGEMENT (+)
Transformational
Leadership (+)
Autentic
Leadership (+)
Positive
Psychological Capital
(hope, optimist, selfconfidence, selfefficacy)
CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIOR
(+)
POSITIVE
EMOTIONS
LOWER LEVELS OF
STRESS
CREATIVE TASK
PERFORMANCE (+)
LOWER LEVELS OF
DEVIANCE BEHAVIORS
PsyCap is positively related with several types of performance and positive emotions
For employees who are high in PsyCap perceived breaches of psycap do not lead to
organizational deviance or reduced performance because they feel empowered with a
set of internal resources that allow them to contour the situation and respond in a different
manner.