BA105-1: Organizational Behavior Spring 2005 Professor Jim Lincoln

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BA105-1 Organizational BehaviorSpring
2005Professor Jim Lincoln
Walter A. Haas School of Business University of
California, Berkeley

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Class Agenda for Today

• Introduction to OB
• Course mechanics
• 2. Overview of topics

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When organizations do well or poorly, what is
the first explanation that comes to mind?

• The CEO did it.
• Beware of attribution bias!
• The tendency to attribute causation to the
  actions of individuals
• Organizational behavior teaches that the
  effectiveness of people in organizations depends
  on their situation-specific relationships with
  one another

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What is Organizational Behavior?

• The study of (general/people) management
• More precisely
• The study of the behavior and attitudes of
  individuals and groups in organizations (micro
  OB)
• The study of the structure, culture, and
  leadership of organizations in relation to their
  tasks and their environments (macro OB)

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OB draws on all of social behavioral science

• Psychology
• Sociology
• Economics
• Political Science
• Anthropology
• History
• Even some engineering now and then

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Some OB journals

• Practitioner-oriented
• Academy of Management Executive
• Business Horizons
• California Management Review
• Harvard Business Review
• Sloan Management Review
• Scholar-oriented
• Academy of Management Journal
• Administrative Science Quarterly
• Journal of Applied Psychology
• Organizational Behavior and Human Decision
  Processes
• Organization Science
• Strategic Management Journal

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Some OB Gurus

• Warren Bennis
• Peter Drucker
• Michael Hammer
• Rosabeth Kanter
• Raymond Miles
• Henry Mintzberg
• Tom Peters
• Jeffrey Pfeffer

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Research methods in OB run the social science
gamut

• Experiments (both lab and field)
• Surveys
• Ethnographies
• Archival Research (documents records)

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How does OB differ from other fields of business
education?

• Finance, economics, accounting
• Marketing
• Operations
• Strategy
• Human resource management

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How does OB differ from HR?

• OB is a line, not a specialized staff,
  responsibility
• Much OB management is CEO- or division-head level
  
• Vision and culture
• Re-orgs
• OB is about principles, policies, strategies
• HR is more about tools and implementation

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Why should business students study OB?

• Managers
• How to organize and motivate your employees
• How to initiate and manage change
• Entrepreneurs
• You have the big idea, you have the venture
  capital lined up. How do you organize and
  motivate your team?

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Why should business students study OB? (contd)

• Consultants
• problem-solving tool
• useful for case interviews
• Investors
• will that merger work?
• will that reorganization actually add shareholder
  value?
• is that CEO as competent as s/he thinks s/he is?

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Why should business students study OB? (contd)

• Issues critical to managing your career
• understanding culture and person-job fit
• Getting and using power and influence
• implementing your ideas and goals

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Some criticisms of OB

• Isnt it obvious or common-sensical?
• Many things are obvious after-the-fact.
  Example
• The best form of organization is flat, flexible,
  empowering
• The best form of organization depends on the
  context
• (e.g., tasks, people, competition, technology,
  etc.)
• Beware of hindsight bias!

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Other criticisms

• OB might be important, but its an art, not a
  science
• i.e., cant be systematically analyzed or taught
• Can only be learned by doing
• Maybe its religion
• There is an element of preaching in OB
• Tom Peters as bible-thumping evangelist
• OB may be important for maintaining an
  organization, but it is not strategic

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OB is strategicOB and HR are key to the
development of critical hard-to-imitate
capabilities

• Such capabilities refer to an organizations
  core skills and knowledge that give it
  sustainable competitive advantage allow it to
  better serve customers and clients than the
  competition
• Examples
• Clear vision and strong culture
• Motivated people
• Effective teams and networks

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There is abundant evidence that people
management is key to competitive strategy and
success

• Studies of IPOs among 200 firms showed that
  people-centered practices were associated with
  faster time to IPO and higher survival rates.

• Watson, Wyatt, an HR consulting firm, concluded
• that Companies that link employee development
• to business strategy have 40 higher total
  share-
• holder returns than companies that do not.

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• A Bain study showed that brokerage firms that
• increased broker retention by 10 increased
• broker value by 155. Studies in trucking,
  retail,
• and hospitality have found similar results.

• Studies have shown that a one standard
• deviation improvement in OB and HR management
• practices produces increases of
  20,000-40,000
• in stock market value per employee.

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All organizations now routinely say, People
are our greatest asset. Yet few practice what
they preach, let alone truly believe it
Peter Drucker (1992)
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• You got a problem with the guy in the cubicle
  next to you? I dont care shoot him

Marc Andreessen, Co-founder of Netscape
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In the new economy, competition is global,
capital is abundant, ideas are developed quickly
and cheaply, and people are willing to change
jobs often. In that kind of environmentall
that matters is talentsuperior talent will be
tomorrows prime source of competitive
advantage.
E. Chambers et al. (1998). The War for
Talent. The McKinsey Quarterly, 2-15.
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• The problem, then, is how to get,
• keep, and utilize talented people
• It is not just a question of pay
• Even talented people must be led,
• organized, and motivated

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GE CEO Jack Welch as hands-on manager of talent
The man who spends more than 50 of his time on
people issues considers his greatest achievement
the care and feeding of talent. ''This place
runs by its great people,'' says Welch. ''The
biggest accomplish-ment I've had is to find great
people. An army of them. They are all better than
most CEOs. They are big hitters, and they seem to
thrive here.'' He believes he has to know people
well enough to trust them and their judgments
''I don't know how to build an aircraft
engine,'' he says. ''I don't know what should run
on NBC. We're in the cat-and-dog insurance
business in England. I don't really want to be in
that business, but the guy who brought me that
idea wanted to be in it, and I trust him. He'll
take it and make it work.'' Welch knows by sight
the names and responsibilities of at least the
top 1,000 people at GE.
How Jack Welch runs GE. Business Week, May 29,
1998.
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And some organizations get excellent results
with merely OK people
See C. A. O'Reilly III and J. Pfeffer Hidden
Value How Great Companies Achieve Extraordinary
Results With Ordinary People. Harvard Business
School Press, 2000.
Only 10 of people are in the top 10. Great
companies not only hire talent, they build it and
unleash the energy and talent of all their people.
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Course Website (not on Catalyst)http//courses.ha
as.berkeley.edu/spring2005/ba105/
(loginugba105 pwjlincoln)

• Instructor info
• Syllabus
• Supplementary readings
• Useful links
• Course announcements
• Powerpoints posted after lecture

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Class meetings

• Tuesday
• Introduce a new topic
• Lecture/discussion
• Exams
• Thursday
• Class business
• Review of lecture and readings
• Case analysis
• Videos exercises
• Team project discussions

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Readings

• Electronic course reader on Study.net
  (http//catalyst.haas.berkeley.edu)
• Note if you are currently WAITLISTED for
  BA105-1
• You have temporary access to Study.net through
  Catalyst. The access terminates after the second
  week if you are not then enrolled.  
• 10 hard copies of the first four weeks of
  readings are on reserve in the Long Library
• Other readings posted on course website or handed
  out
• Readings on the syllabus are required. Other
  readings are recommended unless otherwise
  indicated
• Cases and readings must be prepared prior to the
  class for which they are assigned

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Course Requirements

• Class participation (15)
• In-class discussions, particularly of cases
• Oral presentation on team projects
• Team member ratings
• Exams in-class midterm and final (50)
• Essay questions that will involve case analysis
• Team project (30)
• You will be assigned to teams of 3-5 persons each
• You will study OB problems/issues in a real
  organization
• Oral presentation and paper (12-15 pages)
• In general, all members will receive the same
  grade
• Participation in research experiments (5)

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Other course business

• Enrollment issues
• Go to the Undergraduate Program Office (S450)
• Arrival and attendance
• Email
• Face cards and name tents
• see website announcements
• Seating pick a seat you love and stay there!
• Readers
• Keiko Sakarai and Barak Turovsky
• Class reps
• Guest instructors Jennifer Kurkoski others

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Course overview.
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A focus on problem-solving

• You will learn to diagnose organizational
  problems, and design and implement solutions
• The congruence model as a framework
• Getting strategy, tasks, people, formal
  structure, informal structure, etc., to fit
  together

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Critical issues

• The old and new in organizational design
• How to know if that reorg makes sense
• What is leadership and how should you do it?
• So you have a brilliant idea-how do you get
  people to follow you?
• How to analyze and change organizational culture
• How to design jobs and incentive systems that
  motivate employees
• Clue just pay them more is not enough.

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More critical issues

• How to design and lead teams that perform well
  and avoid the pitfalls of teamwork
• How to maximize your own power and efficacy
• Building and managing through networks
• Getting power and using it
• Leveraging diversity at home and abroad for
  competitive advantage

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Schedule of topics

• Part 1 Introduction (1 week)
• an introduction to course themes
• the congruence perspective
• Part 2 The hard stuff formal structure (3
  weeks)
• Traditional designs, modern designs, teams
• Part 3 The soft stuff informal organization I
  (2 weeks)
• Leadership and culture

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Course Topics (continued)

• Part 4 Informal organization II (2 weeks)
• Politics and networks
• Part 5 Soft/hard and micro Decision-making,
  motivation, and incentives (3 weeks)
• Part 6 Managing diversity at home and
  abroad (2 weeks)

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Thursday session

• Introduction to discussion section
• Read and prepare to discuss
• What general managers do
• Read Kotter article
• The congruence model as a framework for
  organizational problem-solving
• Read Nadler and Tushman chapter