Organizational%20Behavior

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Organizational Behavior

• Lecture 6 Administrative Processes in Government

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Example Groupthink

• The mode of thinking that persons engage in when
  concurrence seeking becomes so dominant in a
  cohesive in-group that it tends to override
  realistic appraisal of alternative courses of
  action.

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Example Groupthink

• Symptoms of groupthink
• An illusion of invulnerability
• Collective construction of rationalizations that
  permit group members to ignore warnings or other
  other forms of negative feedback
• Unquestioning belief in the morality of the
  in-group
• Strong, negative stereotyped views about the
  leaders of enemy groups
• Rapid application of pressure against group
  members who express even momentary doubts about
  virtually any illusions the group shares

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Example Groupthink

• Symptoms of groupthink (contd.)
• Careful, conscious, personal avoidance of
  deviation from what appears to be a group
  consensus
• Shared illusions of unanimity of opinion And.
• Establishment of mind guards people who
  protect the leader and fellow members from
  adverse information that might break the
  complacency they shared about the effectiveness
  and morality of past decisions.

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Example Groupthink

• Incidents of groupthink at the federal level
• The 1941 failure to prepare for the Japanese
  attack on Pearl Harbor.
• The 1950 decision during the Korean War to send
  General Douglas McArthur to the Yalu River.
• The 1961 decisions to allow an American-sponsored
  invasion of Cuba by expatriate Cubans trained by
  the CIA to overthrow the government of Fidel
  Castro.
• The 1965 decision to introduce American ground
  troops into Vietnam.
• The 2001 failure to anticipate the terrorist
  attacks on the World Trade Center and the
  Pentagon.
• The 2003 decision to invade Iraq.

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Organizational Behavior

• The study of organizational behavior comprises
  those aspects of behavioral sciences that focus
  on the understanding of human behavior in
  organizations.
• Classic model authoritarian and militaristic.

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Organizational Behavior Major Themes

• McGregors humanistic model.
• Group dynamics.
• Organization development.
• The impact of personality on organizational
  behavior.
• The impact of bureaucratic structure on
  organizational behavior.
• Motivation.
• The future of organizations.

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Organizational Behavior

• Douglas McGregors (1960) humanistic model
• Organizations are created to serve human ends
• Organizations and people need each other
  (organizations need ideas, energy, and talent
  people need careers, salaries, and work
  opportunities)
• When the fit between the needs of the individual
  and the organization is poor, one or both will
  suffer (exploitation by one or the other or
  both).
• A good fit between individuals and organizations
  benefits both because people gain meaningful
  satisfying work.

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Organizational Behavior

• When confronted with change, classical model
  assumes no concern for workers.
• By contrast, modern behaviorists assume that
  organization will
• Minimize fear of change by inclusion of many in
  decision-making process
• Minimize negative impacts of change on vulnerable
  workers
• Coopt formal and informal leaders and
• Find alternatives for those workers for whom
  change is negative.

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Organizational Behavior

• Group dynamics
• Organizations involve the development of formal
  and informal work groups built around
  specializations.
• Groups develop norms (shared beliefs, values, and
  assumptions) and expect conformity through reward
  and punishment.
• Norms generate organizational stability, but can
  lead to overconformity.
• When a group becomes institutionalized, the norms
  become the basis for a cohesive group and an
  organizational subculture.

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Organizational Behavior

• Group dynamics (contd.).
• Group dynamics is the subfield of organizational
  behavior concerned with the nature of groups, how
  they develop, and how they interrelate with
  individuals and other groups.
• Primary groups (face-to-face interaction)
• Formal (task-oriented).
• Informal (socially-defined). Critical to the
  functioning of the organization.

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Organizational Behavior
13
Organizational Behavior
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Organizational Behavior

• Organization development.
• All organizations need constant change and
  renovation.
• O.D. is planned organizational change.
• O.D. is not a philosophy, but a strategy for
  increasing organizational effectiveness.
• Art, not science.
• Large scale, not incremental.

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Organizational Behavior
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Organizational Behavior

• The impact of personality.
• Personality can impact performance (Hippocrates
  four humors, 500 BC).
• Sanguine (optimistic and energetic).
• Melancholic (moody and withdrawn).
• Choleric (irritable and impulsive).
• Phlegmatic (calm and slow).
• Mismatches are commonplace in organizations.

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The Impact of Bureaucratic Structure on Behavior

• Each organization has structures that define the
  unique ways that labor is divided, how
  specialized roles and functions are coordinated,
  how information flows among people and groups,
  and how the system of controls (task measurement,
  evaluation, and change) is to work.
• Structure is only one of the forces that affect
  behavior. Others include peer group pressure,
  group norms, social and technical aspects of work
  tasks, and internal and external cultures.

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The Impact of Bureaucratic Structure on Behavior

• The structures of a bureaucracy are inherently
  conservative. Common complaint is slowness of
  response.
• But slowness reflects legal mandates.
• As government increased in size, bureaucratic
  organizations provided an ideal structural model.
  Allowed control from the top.
• But, also stifled initiative.

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The Impact of Bureaucratic Structure on Behavior

• Bureaucratic dysfunctions.
• Inherently dysfunctional and and pathological
  over the long run.
• Blind conformance and double binds.
• Catch-22.
• There was only one catch and that was Catch-22,
  which specified that a concern for one's safety
  in the face of dangers that were real and
  immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr
  was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do
  was ask and as soon as he did, he would no
  longer be crazy and would have to fly more
  missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions
  and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had
  to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and
  didn't have to but if he didn't want to he was
  sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply
  by the absolute simplicity of this clause of
  Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle.
  "That's some catch, that Catch-22," he
  Yossarian observed. "It's the best there is,"
  Doc Daneeka agreed (Joseph Heller, Catch-22).

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The Impact of Bureaucratic Structure on Behavior

• Bureaucratic dysfunctions.
• Depersonalized relations.
• Power derived from position.
• Advantages of bureaucracy.
• Order, predictability, stability,
  professionalism, consistency.
• Disadvantages of bureaucracy.
• Rule-bound, over-procedural, protection of
  authority and influence.

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The Impact of Bureaucratic Structure on Behavior

• Bureaucratic impersonality.
• Three virtues.
• Increases organizational effectiveness by
  ensuring distance from critical decisions.
• Reduces personal and emotional considerations in
  decisions.
• Even-handed rule application.
• Vices.
• May sacrifice substantive justice for procedural
  justice.

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The Impact of Bureaucratic Structure on Behavior

• Bureaucrat bashing.
• Focus alleged incompetence and secular humanism.
• Reality Satisfactory treatment the norm rather
  than the exception.
• Reality Public performance not inferior to
  private performance.
• Reality American bureaucratic performance vastly
  superior to performance in other countries.

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Motivation

• Hawthorne experiments Workplaces are
  predominantly social institutions. Direct
  challenge to economic models of motivation.
• Maslows needs hierarchy.

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Motivation

• Motivation hygiene theory.
• Herzberg, Mauser, Snyderman.
• Determinants of job satisfaction.
• Achievement, recognition, work itself,
  responsibility, and advancement (Job content -
  motivations). Internal
• Determinants of job dissatisfaction.
• Company policy and administration, supervision,
  salary, interpersonal relations, and working
  conditions (job environment hygiene). External.

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Motivation

• Toward a democratic environment.
• A more participatory management style.
• Three stratagems for a more democratic working
  environment.
• Symbolic.
• Management-initiated.
• Management-union initiated.

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Motivation

• Douglas McGregor.
• Theory X.
• The average human being has an inherent dislike
  for work.
• Most people must be coerced or threatened with
  punishment to get them to put forth adequate
  effort.
• People prefer to be directed and wish to avoid
  responsibility.
• RESULT Hierarchy and military organization.

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Motivation

• Douglas McGregor.
• Theory Y.
• The expenditure of physical and mental effort in
  work is as natural as play or rest.
• A person will exercise self-direction and
  self-control in the service of objectives to
  which he is committed.
• Avoidance of responsibility, lack of ambition,
  and emphasis on security are generally
  consequences of experience, not inherent human
  characteristics.
• The capacity to exercise a relatively high degree
  of imagination, ingenuity, and creativity in the
  solution of organizational problems is widely,
  not narrowly, distributed in the population.

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Motivation

• Assumptions about behavior can be self-fulfilling
  prophecies.
• However, public organizations have difficulty
  developing coherent philosophies because of
  conflicting goals and objectives.

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The Future of Organizations

• Postbureaucratic organizations.
• Bennis Temporary society (adaptive
  organizations).
• Toffler Adhocracy.
• However, hierarch still dominates, still serves a
  purpose in bringing order out of chaos.

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The Future of Organizations

• Postmodernism.
• What is really changing organizations is
  postmodernism increasing complexity and
  unpredictability.
• Primary source information technology.
• Instant access to information eliminates the need
  for multiple levels of hierarchy.
• Power arising from technology Technocracy.

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The Future of Organizations

• Themes of postmodernism.