Organizational Behaviour

Question	Answer
12.1 Define power and review the bases of individual	Power is the capacity to influence others who are in a state of dependence. People have power by virtue of their position in the organization. (legitimate power) or by virtue of the recourses that they command (reward, coercion, friendship, or expertise)
12.2 Explain how people obtain power in the organization.	People can obtain power by power by doing the right things and cultivating the right people. Activities that lead to power acquisition need to be extraordinary, visible, and relevant to the needs of the organization. People to cultivate include outsiders, subordinates, peers, and superiors.
12.3 Discuss the concept of empowerment.	Empowerment means giving people the authority, opportunity, and motivation to solve organizational problems. Power is thus located where it needs ed to give employees the feeling that they are capable of doing their jobs well.
12.4 Provice a profile of power seekers.	Effective managers often have a high need for power. While individuals with a high need for power can in some circumstances, behave in an abusive or domination fashion, they can also use their power responsibly. Managers with a high need for power are effective when they use this power to achieve organizational goals.
12.5 Explain strategic contingencies and discuss how subunits obtain power	Organizational subunits obtain power by controlling strategic contingencies. This means that they are able to affect the event that new critical to other subunits. Thus, departments that can obtain resources for the organization will acquire power. Similarly, subunits gain power when they are able to reduce uncertainty, when they are able to reduce uncertainty, when their functions are central to the organizational mission or workflow.
12.6 Define organizational politics.	Organizational politics occur when non-sanctioned ends are pursued or when influence in the form of non-sanctioned means used. The pursuit of non-sanctioned ends is always dysfunctional, but the organization may benefit when non-sanctioned means are used to achieve approved goals. Several political tactics were discussed: Networking is establishing good relations with key people to accomplish goals. It contributes to political skill along with political astuteness interpersonal influence, and apparent sincerity. Machiavellianism is a set of cynical beliefs about human nature, morality, and the permissibility of using various means to achieve ones ends political agenda and avoiding blame for negative events.
12.7 Define ethics and review the ethical dilemmas that managers and employees face.	Ethics is systematic thinking about the moral consequences of decisions. Of particular interest is the impact on stakeholders, people who have the potential to be affected by a decision. Ethical dilemmas that managers face involve communication, fair treatment, special consideration, fair competition, responsibility to the organization, Social responsibility, and respect for the law. Causes of unethical behavior include the potential for gain, extreme performance pressure, role conflict, strong organizational identification, the extremes of business competition ( great or one), organizational and industry culture, and certain personality characteristics.
12.8 Define sexual harassment and discuss what organizations can do to prevent it and how they should respond to allegations.	Sexual harassment is a form of unethical behaviour that stems from the abuse of power and perpetuation of a gender imbalance in the workplace. Steps that can be taken to prevent and deal with harassment include training and education, clear and formal policies, vigilance, detection of the " deaf ear" syndrome, and rapid response.
Chapter 12. Bases of individual powers.	Legitimate power- within the scope of the job description, formal authority based on job title. Reward power, Coercive power using punishment to influence others. Referent power, power by someone liking you. Expert power, power from having the knowledge or special skills
Chapter 12 Five Types of power	1. Legitimate power. 2. Coercive power. 3. Referent Power. 4. Expert Power. 5. Reward Power.
Chapter 12 How to gain power 4 things.	Do the right activity. 1. The extraordinary. 2. The relevant. 3. The visible. 4. Cultivate the right people
Chapter 12 Influence tactics 6 things.	Assertiveness. Ingratiation - referent power Rationality - Expect power Exchange - Reward power Upward appeal - Seeking superiors Coalition formation - Support from others.
Chapter 12 Strategic Contingencies	Departments, committees can obtain power in an organization by controlling strategic contingencies. When subunits have power, they can get a bigger share of the budget, obtain better facilities and influence decisions.
Chapter 12 What is scarcity?	The ability to secure resources that are important to the organization, resulting in power.
Chapter 12 Centrality	Centrality, units that are central to the functioning of the organization will have more power (Walmart)
Chapter 12 Non-substitutability	Non-substitutability- performing a task that cannot be outsourced substituted or easily replaced.
Chapter 12 What is organization politics?	Power used for self-interest. Frequently involves using means not sanctioned by the organization.
Chapter 12 What is political behavior?	Caused by, 1. Ambiguous organizational goals 2. Sacred resources 3. Significant organizational change 4. Personal interests
Chapter 12 Difference between reactive and proactive politics?	A proactive approach focuses on eliminating problems before they have a chance to appear and a reactive approach is based on responding to events after they have happened. The difference between these two approaches is the perspective each one provides in assessing actions and events
Chapter 12 3 things that help understand morality	1. Utilitarian 2. rights 3. justice Utilitarian behavior is ethic fits deliver the greatest good to the great number of people. Justice - protects the interests of under-represented people. Moral disengagement looks at the process of thinking.
Notes from slides Chapter 12 Define power	Power is the capacity to influence the behaviors of others.
Chapter 12 Bases of individual power	Legitimate power - Formal authority based on job title Reward power - Using rewards to influence others Coercive power - Using punishment and threats to influence others Referent power - Having influence over others because they like you Expert power- having influence over others because of your valued expertise or specialized knowledge
Chapter 12 How do people obtain power?	Legitimate power - Get selected or promoted into a job with formal authority, perhaps by doing extraordinary and/or visible activities. Reward power- Get yourself in control of valued rewards (through seeking legitimate power( Coercive power- Get yourself in a position where you can punish ( through seeking legitimate power) Referent power - Be likable, possibly by doing extraordinary activities and cultivating the right people. Expert power- Develop expertise or specialized knowledge, engage in visible activities. People have to recognize that you have these powers.
Chapter 12 How do people obtain power? 5 things.	1. Do the right activity 2. The extraordinary 3. The relevant 4. The visible 5. Cultivate the right people
Chapter 12 What is Empowerment?	Giving people the authority, opportunity, and motivation to solve organizational problems.
Chapter 12 What is influence tactics	1. Assertiveness - Giving orders, nagging ( Do what I say) 2. Ingratiation -Flattery, being friendly, polite & humble 3. Rationality - Using logic, reasoning ( Cooler heads prevail) 4. Exchange - Doing favours 5. Upward appeal - Seeking organizational superiors to itervene ( I'm going over your head) 6. Coalition formation - Seeking support from others (United we stand, everyone else is doing it)
Chapter 12 Define Strategic Contingencies	Strategic contingencies - Subunits ( Departments, teams, committees, branchs, occupations, etc) Can obtain power in an organization by controlling strategic contingencies. When subunits have power; they can get a bigger share of budget, obtain betters facilities and influence decsions.
How do departments obtain power?	Scarcity - The ability to secure scare resources that are important to the organization gives power. Uncertainty - Possessing knowledge or information that helps to reduce important areas of uncertianty gives power. Centrality - Units that are central to the functioning of the organization will have more power. Non-substitutability - Performing a task that cannot be outsorrced, substituted or easily replaced gives power.
Chapter 12 Situations likely to encourage politicking?	Ambiguous organizational goals - If goals are ambigous, then people can try to convinece others to approved somthing that they want by arguing that it is line with organizations. Scare resource - When there is not enough to go around, people might get woried that they might lose out to others in the organization. Significant organzizational change - WHen the organization is undergoing significant change, people may worry that they may lose resources/ status that they currently enjoy.
Chapter 12 Machiavellianism	Set of cynical beliefs about human nature, morality, and permissibility of using various tactics to achieve one's ends.
Chapter 12 Reactive politics	Stalling Overconforming Buck passing Buffing Scapegoating Controlling information Controlling lines of communication Using outside experts who support one's postion Controlling the agenda PLaying games Building ones image Building coalitions
Chapter 12 Reducing organziational politics	Engage in open communication reduce uncertainty Follow principles of procedural justice
Chapter 12 Ethics, Systematically thinking about moral consequences of decisions,	Intvestors Govenment Customers Community Employees Employee families Partners
Chapter 12 What is ethics?	Ethics is a code of moral principles and values that governs the behaviours of a person or group with respect to what is right or wrong. Ethical values set standards as to what is good or bad in conduct and decision making
Chapter 12 Utilitarian Rights Justice	Utilitarian - Behaviour is ethical if it delivers the greastest good to the greastest number of poeple. Focus on outcomes; ends justify the means. Rights - Behaviour is ethical if it respects the fundamental rights shared by all humans beings. e.g Charter of Rights and Freedoms ( free speech, due, process, etc.) Justice - Behaviour is ethical if it is fair and imparical its treatment of people. Impose and enforce rules fairly.
Chapter 12 Moral disengagement mechanism	1. Moral justification - unethical conduct made acceptable by viewing it in terms of soical values or morals 2. Euphemistic language - unethical conduct is made acceptable by using language that has more positive connotations. 3. Advantageous comparion - unethical conduct is made acceptable by making it seem like it has little consequence 4. Displacement of responsibility - Viewing actions as resulting from soical pressure or from orders of other people. 5. Diffusion of reponsibility - Denying individal reponsibility for gropu actions. 6. Downplaying consequences - Disregarding or dissorting the consequences of unethical actions 7. Blaming the victim - Blaming victims for bring sur=ffering upon themselves 8. Dehumanization - Seeing the victim as a worthless person.
Chapter 12 What can organizations do to promote ethical behavior?	Create a strong culte that is focused on ethics Train groups to avoid groupthink Increase self-efficacy for ethical behaviour Avoid committing the fundamental attribution error when someone has a done something unethical Dont blame it all on the person; the situation created by the organization may have also had a role. Reduce opportunities for office politics

Next up

Organizational Behaviour

Description

Resource summary

Similar

	Created by Samuel Fennell about 5 years ago