What Is Organizational Behavior free essay sample

The leadership role includes hiring, training, motivating, and disciplining employees. The liaison role involves contacting outsiders who provide the manager with information. The information roles include monitor, disseminator, and spokesperson. Collecting information from organizations and institutions outside their own is the monitor role. The disseminator role involves acting as a conduit to transmit information to organizational members. The spokesperson role occurs when managers represent their organization to outsiders. Decisional roles include entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, and negotiator. In the entrepreneur role, managers initiate and oversee new projects that will improve their organization’s performance. As disturbance handlers, managers take corrective action in response to unforeseen problems. As resource allocators, managers are responsible for allocating human, physical, and monetary resources. Managers perform a negotiator role, in which they discuss issues and bargain with other units to gain advantages for their own unit. 153. Organizational behavior is an applied behavioral science built upon contributions from a number of different disciplines. We will write a custom essay sample on What Is Organizational Behavior? or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page What are these disciplines and what are the contributions of each discipline? Be complete in your response and include five different behavioral science disciplines. Organizational behavior has been built upon the contributions of psychology, sociology, social psychology, anthropology, and political science. Psychology has contributed to learning, perception, personality, emotions, training, leadership effectiveness, needs and motivational forces, job satisfaction, decision-making processes, performance appraisals, attitude measurement, employee selection techniques, work design, and job stress. Sociology has contributed through the study of formal and complex organizations – including group dynamics, design of work teams, organizational culture, formal organization theory and structure, organizational technology, communications, power, and conflict. Social psychology has contributed in the areas of measuring, understanding, and changing attitudes; communication patterns; building trust; the ways in which group activities can satisfy needs; and group decision-making processes. Anthropology has contributed to an understanding of organizational culture, organizational environments, and differences between national cultures. Political science has contributed to an understanding of structuring of conflict, allocation of power, and how people manipulate power for individual self-interest. 154. How have the roles of managers and workers been blurred? (Pages 20-21) The roles of managers and workers have been blurred as the relationship between the two has been reshaped. Managers are being called coaches, advisers, sponsors, or facilitators in some organizations. Employees are now called associates. Decision making is being pushed down to the operating level, where workers are being given the freedom to make choices about schedules and procedures and to solve work-related problems. Managers are going considerably further by allowing employees full control of their work. More self-managed teams are being used where workers operate largely without bosses and managers are empowering employees. 155. What is an ethical dilemma? How are organizations responding to these dilemmas? (Pages 21-22) An ethical dilemma is a situation in which employees are required to define right and wrong conduct. Dilemmas include whether to blow the whistle, whether they should follow orders with which they don’t personally agree, whether they should give an inflated performance evaluation to an employee whom they like, knowing that such an evaluation could save that employee’s job, or whether they should allow themselves to play politics in the organization if it will help their career advancement. These ethical dilemmas result from the blurring of the line differentiating right from wrong. Managers and their organizations are responding to this problem from a number of directions. They are writing and distributing codes of ethics to guide employees through ethical dilemmas. They are offering seminars, workshops, and training programs to try to improve ethical behaviors. They are also using in-house advisors to provide assistance and they are creating protection mechanisms for employees who reveal internal unethical practices. 156. Define turnover. Why is it of concern to organizations? (Page 24) Turnover is the voluntary and involuntary permanent withdrawal from an organization. A high turnover rate results in increased recruiting, selection, and training costs – which are quite significant. A high rate of turnover can also disrupt the efficient running of an organization when knowledgeable and experienced personnel leave and replacements must be found and prepared to assume positions of responsibility. However, reasonable levels of employee-initiated turnover facilitate organization flexibility and employee independence, and they can lessen the need for management-initiated layoffs. Unfortunately, turnover often involves the loss of people the organization doesn’t want to lose.