The Quest for PeopleCentered

Organizations and
Ethical Conduct
Lecture-1
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What is Organizational Behavior?

An

interdisciplinary field dedicated to better

understanding and managing people at work
Why study OB?
To interact more effectively with others in
organizations

History of Organizational Behavior

Human Relations Movement
The Quality Movement
E-Business Revolution
Human and Social Capital

Human Relations Movement

Inspired by legalization of unionmanagement collective bargaining

in the US (1935)
Hawthorne Studies
Supportive

management

Mayo and Follett

Pull

dont push

McGregors Theory X & Theory Y

Theory X
Most

people
dislike work and
want to avoid it
People require
close direction
People want to
avoid
responsibility and
have little ambition

Theory Y
Work is a natural activity
People can be self-directed
if they are committed to the
objective
Rewards help commitment
Most employees accept and
seek responsibility
Employees have
imagination, ingenuity and
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creativity

The Quality Movement

Total Quality Management (TQM)
An organizational culture dedicated to training,
continuous improvement, and customer
satisfaction
Employee-driven, customer-focused
Basic Principles
Do it right the first time to eliminate costly rework
Listen to and learn from customers and employees
Make continuous improvement an everyday
matter
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Build teamwork, trust, and mutual respect

E-Business Revolution

E-Business running the entire business via

the internet
Implications for organizational behavior and
leaders :

More and faster communication with

others
More

potential for damage by unethical

leaders
Enables the existence of networks that go
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across traditional organizational boundaries

Human and Social Capital

Human

Capital
the productive
potential of an
individuals
knowledge and
actions

Social

Capital
productive potential
resulting from strong
relationships,
goodwill, trust, and
cooperative effort

Evolution of 21st-Century Managers

Primary Role

Past Managers

Future Managers

Cultural Orientation

Monocultural,
monolingual

Multicultural, multilingual

Source of influence

Formal authority

Technical
knowledge and
interpersonal skill

View of people

Potential problem

Primary resource;
human capital

Decision-making
style

Limited input for

individual decisions

Broad-based input
for joint decisions

Ethical
considerations

Afterthought

Forethought

Corporate Social Responsibility

Pyramid

Ethical Lapses in the Workplace

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Ethical Lapse
Occasional observed unethical behavior
Job applicants mis-informed about financial
condition of company
Applicants who lied about their work histories
Applicants who lied about their education
Applicants who lied about their
credentials/licenses

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General Moral Principles

Dignity of human
life
Autonomy
Honesty
Loyalty
Fairness
Humaneness
The common
good

Improving On-the-Job
Ethics
Behave ethically
yourself
Screen potential
employees
Develop a
Meaningful Code
of Ethics

Improving On-the-Job
Provide ethics
Ethics

training
Reinforce ethical
behavior
Create positions,
units, and other
structural
mechanisms to deal
with ethics
Eliminate need for
whistle-blowing

How do we learn about OB?

Three Approaches:
Theory ideas about what happens and
why
Research testing theoretical ideas
Practice learning from what has and has
not worked
Contingency Approach
All three provide valuable information for
understanding and managing
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organizational behavior

Five Sources of OB Research Insights

Laboratory study

Field study

Questionnaire responses from a sample of people

Case Studies

Examination of variables in real-life settings

Sample survey

Manipulation and measurement of variables in contrived

situations

In-depth analysis of single individual, group, or organization

Meta-analysis

Pools the results of many studies through statistical

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procedure