Organizational Behavior

Zeki Pagda
Fall2022

Source: Baldwin, T. T., Bommer, W., & Rubin, R. S. (2013). Managing organizational
behavior: What great managers know and do McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Source: Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. (2012). Essentials of organizational behavior. 18th Ed.
Teams
Opening Question: Group sport or Team Sport?

Basketball

Soccer

Baseball

4X100m Relay
Groups
 A group is defined as two or more individuals,
interacting, who have come together to achieve
particular objectives.

 Groups can be either formal or informal.

 Formal groups: those defined by the organization’s structure.
 Informal groups: alliances that are neither formally structured nor
organizationally determined.

Source: Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. (2012). Essentials of organizational behavior. 18 th Ed.
Comparing Workgroups and Work Teams

Source: Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. (2012). Essentials of organizational behavior. 18 th Ed.
A Team
 When and Why do we need teams?
Why?
 Teams can outperform groups and individuals.

 Teams can solve complex problems.

 Teams are an effective means to democratize

organizations and increase employee involvement.

 Teams can introduce a collaborative mindset.

Source: Baldwin, T., Bommer, B., & Rubin, R. (2012). Managing organizational behavior: What great managers know and do. McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
When?
 Teams are better when no individual “expert” exists

 Teams tend to be superior in stimulating innovation and

creativity(If diverse)

 Teams are better when resources are unlimited.

 Members have complementary skills
 Members work to achieve a shared goal
 Members’ behaviors and outcomes are interdependent
 Membership stable over time
 When?
Small Size

Mutual Complementary
Accountability Skills
High-
Performance
Teams

Productive Shared
Team Norms Purpose

Source: Baldwin, T., Bommer, B., & Rubin, R. (2012). Managing organizational behavior: What great managers know and do. McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
A Team-Effectiveness Model
The Punctuated-Equilibrium Model

Source: Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. (2012). Essentials of organizational behavior. 18 th Ed.
Decide When to Use Individuals
Instead of Teams
When not to use teams…

 Ask:

1. Can the work be done better by one person?

2. Does the work create a common goal or purpose?
3. Are the members of the group interdependent?
4. Do we have unlimited resources and time?
 Group Problem Solving
• The essence of management is problem defining and
problem solving.
• Problem solving has been delegated in many
organizations to employees and project teams
resulting in the following benefits:
• Generate more alternatives/ideas
• Final decision is better understood by the group
• Empowers employees and gains their commitment
• Develops employee skills

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The Realities of Managerial Problem
Solving

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Structured Vs. Unstructured Problems

 Structured problems are repetitive and routine, and definite

procedures are developed for dealing with them. (replacing an
employee)

 Unstructured problems are novel and not covered by ready-

made procedures because they occur infrequently (changing
leadership style)

Organizational Behavior: An Experiential Approach 8/E

Joyce S. Osland, David A. Kolb, Irwin M. Rubin and Marlene E. Turner
11 -9
 Programmed vs Non-Programmed
Decisions
• Programmed decisions - Decisions encountered and
made before, having objectively correct answers,
and solvable by using simple rules, policies, or
numerical computations.

• Non programmed decisions - New, novel, complex

decisions having no proven answers.

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 Quick Trivia Contest
You have 5 minutes to answer the following questions on your
own first, with no team discussion. Then you have 5 minutes to
answer them as a team:

• Name 5 countries in Africa

• Name 5 Wimbledon Champions
• Name the capitol of Kuwait
• Name the last 3 Superbowl winners
• Name the currency of India

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Group Dynamics

1. Conformity
2. Group Polarization
3. Groupthink
4. Social Loafing
 Group Dynamics

Conformity
A change in belief or behavior in order to fit in with
the group
e.g., Asch Studies

https://vimeo.com/165178
Group Dynamics
Group Polarization
The tendency for decisions and opinions of
people in a group setting to become more
extreme than their actual, privately
Groupthink
The tendency for members of a group to value
group consensus and cohesion over the critical
evaluation of the quality of the decision
held beliefs
(Abilene Paradox)
Group Dynamics

 Social Loafing
– “Free riding”

 Ringelmann Effect
– Situation in which some people do not work as hard in groups as they do
individually

 “Sucker aversion”
– To avoid being taken advantage of, some team members hedge their
efforts and wait to see what other members will do
 The Kolb Model of Group Problem
Solving
Problem solving does not proceed in a logical, linear
fashion from beginning to end. It is more wave like,
characterized by expansions and contractions – moving
outwardly to gather information and then focus inwardly
for analysis/decisions.
• Green Light/Red Light
• Believing/Doubting
• Divergence/Convergence

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 The Stages of Decision Making
Stage 1: Situational Analysis
What’s the Most Important Problem?
Stage 2: Problem Analysis
What are the Causes of the Problem?
Stage 3: Solution Analysis
What’s the Best Solution?
Stage 4: Implementation Analysis
How Do We Implement the Solution?

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The Kolb Model of Group Problem
Solving
Green mode = Expansive Phases
• Creative imagination
• Sensitivity to the immediate situation
• Empathy with other people

Red mode = Contraction Phases

• Analysis
• Criticism
• Logical Thinking
• Coping with the External Environment
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 The Kolb Model of Group Problem
Solving
• Role: LEADER • Role: DETECTIVE
• Visioning/Exploration • Information Gathering
• Priority Setting • Problem Definition

Situation Problem
Analysis Analysis

Implemen
Solution
-tation
Analysis
• Role: COORDINATOR Analysis
• Role: INVENTOR
• Participation • Idea Getting
• Planning • Decision Making

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 Situation Analysis
Task: Determine the right problem to tackle
Role: Leadership – Identify the values and goals involved and which are
the most important priorities for action
Visioning/Exploration: Envision what is possible; what is the desired goal
Priority Setting: Trial and error exploration of what’s going on in the
situation

Challenges of this stage:

• Avoid accepting a problem as a given
• Pressure to be realistic
• Conflicting viewpoints
• Threat of isolation (which can lead to groupthink and conformity)

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 Problem Analysis
Task: Understand and define the problem thoroughly
Role: Detective – Gather information, creating scenarios, using the
scenarios to gather more info to prove or disprove initial conclusions
Information Gathering: Gather all the necessary information (e.g., talking
with people, reviewing data and procedures, brainstorming, etc.)
Problem Definition: Build a model portraying how the problem works

Challenges of this stage:

• Avoid defining the problem in terms of its solution
• Avoid biases and preconceptions
• Mistrust and threat can cause workers to withhold information
• Saying what management wants to hear

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 Solution Analysis
Task: Generating ideas about how the problem can be solved and
assessing their feasibility
Role: Inventor – Creatively searching for ideas and then evaluating them
against feasibility creative
Idea Getting: Identify as many ideas as possible (brainstorming)
Decision Making: Evaluate ideas against criteria that an effective solution
must meet

Challenges of this stage:

• Assuming only one right answer
• Getting stuck on first solution/failing to consider other solutions (primacy
effect)
• Anxious to finish
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 Implementation Analysis
Task: Ensuring the solution is successfully implemented
Role: Coordinator – Work to accomplish the tasks with other people
Participation: Enlist the appropriate involvement of others who are essential
to carrying out the problem solution
Planning: Define the tasks, identify individuals, set deadlines, plan for
monitoring and evaluation

Challenges of this stage:

• Failure to gain commitment of the right people
• Failure to assign clear responsibility for each task
• Failure to follow up/monitor implementation process

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Group Decision Making in Organizations

• Consultative: leader consults with members

• Consensus: leader shares problem and together they

generate/evaluate problem/solutions

• Democratic: problem given to group and members

empowered to make the decision

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 Group Decision Making Techniques
Brainstorming – Generating alternative solutions to a
problem
1. Do not evaluate or discuss alternatives – avoid criticism
2. Encourage “freewheeling” – all ideas are considered,
even crazy ones
3. Encourage and welcome quantities of ideas – the
greater the number of ideas, the more to consider
4. Encourage “piggybacking” – combine, embellish, or
improve on others’ ideas

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 Group Decision Making Techniques
Nominal Group Technique – Generating and evaluating
alternative solutions to a problem
1. Introduction/posting of problem
2. Silent generation of ideas (5-10 min)
3. Round-robin recording of ideas.
4. Discussion of ideas (in the order they appear)
- Questions, clarification, avoid judgment/criticism
5. Voting and ranking
- Each member privately prioritizes & ranks each idea in
relation to the original problem.

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 Group Decision Making Techniques
Delphi Technique – Participants don’t engage face-to-face
discussions. Their input is solicited by mail/email

1. Each member receives the same questions

2. Anonymous writes comments, suggestions, solutions
3. Information is compiled and redistributed
4. Feedback is provided on the collective comments
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until consensus is reached

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 Takeaways
• Group problem-solving (versus individual
problem-solving) has both benefits and potential
downfalls
• There are barriers that exist in each phase of
problem-solving; however, there are tools that
you can use to avoid some of these barriers
• Make sure to spend time figuring out the
problem so as to treat the problem versus
symptoms of the problem

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