JAN 12

Organizational behavior (OB) is defined as the systematic study and application of

knowledge about how individuals and groups act with in the organizations where they work.

This course is specific to the North American context

 Labour laws
 Cultural norms
 Material and historical conditions

What is organizational behaviour?

 Systematic study of how people and teams act within organizations

 Organization= a group of people who work together to achieve a purpose
Why do companies care about organizational behaviour?
 Organizations that value their employees are more profitable
 Common attributes of 'healthy' and effective organizations
o Role clarity
o Information sharing
o Performance feedback
 ** 54% of respondents described their workplace as unhealthy**

Does everyone agree on whether their organization is healthy?

 Stark differences between senior management and the rest of the organization.
o Senior: 54%
 o Middle/line/business unit/corporate staff: 29-33%

We can target these issues using three levels of analysis

1. Organization
2. Group
3. individual
 Organizations differ in their effectiveness, so we need organizational behaviour to help
understand issues and solve them.
 A lot of this info is difficult to contextualize if you have not worked a full time job.
 Goal is for you to apply this knowledge and make connections to the material when you do
enter the workforce

How can we answer organizational behaviour questions?

Examples:
 What is the best predictor of employee turnover at an organization?
 What types of leaders are perceived most favourably by teams?
 What are the most common characteristics of poor performers?

To collect this information in a fast and cost-effective way, what type of

research tool should you use? Also, because this information is being
collected from real employees, what type of study is being used as the
research design? (1 mark)

Common research tools and designs include:

 Surveys
 Field studies
 Lab studies
 Case studies
 Meta-analysis

Surveys (research tool)

 Asking people to respond to open-ended and or closed ended questions
 Pros: cost effective and fast
 Cons: social desirability and insufficient effort

Field studies (research design)

 Doing research with real organizations and employees
 Pros: higher ecological and external validity
 Cons: lower internal validity

Lab studies (research design)

 Typically for when you don't have access to real emplyees (e.g. SONA pool).
 Pros: higher internal validity, lower financial cost
 Cons: lower ecological and external validity
 Case studies (research design)
 Focus on a single organization
 Pros: rich detail
 Cons: lower external validity
 Employ a systematic approach to gathering data
 Hard to generalize to greater population of organizations.

Meta analysis (stats technique)

 Summary of all other research findings in an area
o Takes observed correlations from multiple studies, weighting them by the number of
observations in each study.
 Larger sample, hence more precise than a single study
 Con: only possible if sufficient research has been done on the topic in question.

Summary and takeaways:

 Researchers have multiple tools and designs they can use to answer organizational behaviour
questions
 Research tools and designs vary in their pros and cons
 In your team projects, consider these points when finding research articles

Jan 19 Lecture

What is the difference between a group and a team?

Group = collection of individuals
Team = group with mutual goals

Five stage model of group development

Forming stage:
 Group comes together for first time
 Anxiety, uncertainty, polite, avoid conflict
 Getting to know each other, exploring group boundaries
 Decide responsibilities
 Storming stage:
 More authentic and argumentative
 Conflict
 Common to get stuck here
 Question leadership

Norming stage:
 Got through conflict
 More cohesive and cooperative
 High energy
 Establish norms

Performing stage:
 Shared vision and unity
 More interdependence
 Differences respected
 Mature, competent
 Getting work donem and paying attention to how they are getting it done

Adjourning stage:
 Group ends
 Bittersweet feelings
 Debrief and celebrate

Punctured equilibrium model

 the five-stage model we have just reviewed is a linear process. According to the model, a group
progresses to the performing stage, at which point it finds itself in an ongoing, smooth-sailing
situation until the group dissolves.
 For example, a group may operate in the performing stage for several months. Then, because of
a disruption, such as a competing emerging technology that changes the rules of the game or
 the introduction of a new CEO, the group may move back into the storming phase before
returning to performing. Ideally, any regression in the linear group progression will ultimately
result in a higher level of functioning.

Summary and takeaways

 Groups move through various stages characterized by a range of feelings and behaviours
 Moving from the storming to norming stage can be most difficult
 When working in your seminar teams, try mapping your progress onto these stages

Team tasks can be classified into three types:

Production tasks: making something
Idea-generation tasks: creativity, new processes, brainstorming
Problem-solving tasks: planning for action, decisions

Role typology
 Task roles
 Social roles
 Boundary spanning roles
 Traditional manager-led teams vs self-managed teams
Traditional manager led teams: manager outside team acts as leader and assigns work, can hire
or fire team members, less autonomy. Employees must report directly to their manager.
Self-managed teams: manage themselves, don’t report to a supervisor, select their own leader,
may rotate leadership, more autonomy, higher satisfaction and productivity, sense of ownership

Cohesion is the degree of camaraderie within a group…

Cohesive groups:
 Have a collective identity
 Feel bond and desire to remain together
 Share a sense of purpose
 Work together with shared cause
 Establish structured pattern of communication

Can a group have too much cohesion?

 Value fitting in over all else (pressure to conform to group norms)
 Avoid conflict to please others
 superficial harmony, less diverse thought
 Closed off from external input
 Groupthink

Team tasks
 Production tasks
 Generation tasks
 Problem-solving tasks

Types of interdependence:
Tasked interdependence: the degree that team members are dependent on one another to get
information, support or materials from other team members to be effective.
Pooled: when team members may work interdependently and simply combine their efforts to
create the team's output
 E.g. dividing a research paper and each taking one section
Sequential: if one person's output becomes another person's input
Reciprocal interdependence: team works together for each stage of assignment

Social loafing
 Putting less effort in when working with a group
 Diffusion of responsibility
 Biggest problem in university group projects

How can we prevent social loafing?

 Clearly define each members tasks in front of the entire group to increase accountability
 Build cohesion and commitment to group's success
 Make each member feel that they are included and needed

Summary and takeaways:

 Team tasks and roles vary --> how can you divide these up within your seminar teams?
 What makes an effective teams? --> cohesion and collective efficacy and potential threats
 When working in your seminar teams, check in regularly with each other
 Jan 26 Lecture (Chapter 12)

Leadership is the act of influencing others to work towards a goal

 Formal leaders hold position of authority
 Informal leaders hold no position of authority but still use personal forms of power

Who is a leader?
 One way to determine this is to identify traits associated with good leadership.
 E.g. intelligence, personality, integrity.

Intelligence and leadership

 General mental ability (IQ)
o Perceived intelligence has stronger relation with measure intelligence
o Relationship between measured intelligence and good leadership is smaller than the
perceived intelligence employees would have to the intelligence/leadership of the
authority figure
 Emotional intelligence (EQ)
o Good leaders have self awareness, empathy, social skills

Big 5 personality and leadership - THINK OCEAN!!!

 Openness to experience
 Conscientiousness - how responsible, dutiful
 Extraversion - how outgoing/sociable
 Agreeableness - extent to which someone generally tries to avoid conflict
 Neuroticism - having lower level of emotional stability, high anxiety and fear

What about dark personality and leadership?

 Narcissism - grandiose feelings of self worth and don't care about others
 Machiavelliianism - likely to exploit others for own personal gains or agendas, think they will get
away with it
 Psychopathy - lack of
 Are psychopaths more likely to be leaders?
o Depends on gender, apparently
o For woman, no matter how high or low score for psychopathy, not affecting likelihood of
being leader. Women who do have psychopathic tendencies, goes out of gender norms
o For men, there was association between higher scores and leadership - for men who
demonstrate psychopathy, it is viewed to be rewarded in that aspect, viewed as more

Integrity and leadership

 Moral compass
 Trustworthy

Overall, how. Useful is the trait approach to leadership?

 Can help with leader selection, but not always equally effective across situations
 Traits are often fixed but situations less so

Behavioural approach to leadership

 Stemmed from limitations of the trait approach
 Task oriented behaviours (initiating structure)

 People oriented behaviours (consideration)

 Leader decision making styles

Authoritarian
 Making decisions without employee input

Democratic
 Employees participate in decisions

Laissez- faire
 Leave employees alone to make decision with minimal guidance


Limitations of behavioural approach

 Just like the trait approach, neglected impact of context and situations
 Led to inconsistent findings with respect to which leader behaviours or decision-making styles
were most effective

Summary and takeaways:

 Two ways of identifying good leaders are by looking at associated traits and behaviours
 The situation also affects leadership, as we will discuss in the next lecture.

Contingency approach to leadership

 Recall limitations of the trait an behavioural approaches to leadership
 No traits, behaviours, or decision-making styles that are consistently effective across scenarios
 No leadership style that is one size fits all
 Path-goal
fiedler's Contingency Theory
 Leadership style measured by the Least Preferred Co-worker (LPC) scale
 Think of person you'd least prefer to work with
 Rate how friendly, nice, cooperative they are
 After filling out survey, add up all scores
 High LPC score (people oriented personality - rated then positively)
o You describe your LPC as a nice person still
 Low LPC score (task-oriented personality)
o You describe your LPC as someone you ls dislike on a personal level
 States can be thought of as personality trait

**because LPC score is fixed, leader effectiveness depends on putting people in the right
situation**
 Favourableness of situation depends on:
o Leader-subordinate relations
o Position power of leader
o Task structure
 o

Blanchard and Hershey's situational leadership theory

 Leaders must adapt style to followers' development level

 Development is called employee readiness and depends on their competence and commitment
 E.g. new employee, fresh from uni, very motivated but their skills no necessarily developed.
 Path-goal theory of leadership - Robert Hausse
3 conditions for leaders to motivate and influence their employees

1. Employees believe their effort leads to success (expectancy)

2. Employees believe their good performance is needed for rewards (instrumentality)
3. Employees desire those rewards (valence).
a. If really want reward (like bonus cheque) = high valence, if not motivated by the reward
= low valence.
** if you can’t get past step 1, will be hard to get to step 2. e.g. if you don't believe your effort will
be successful, then you wouldn’t think of the rewards you'd get for successful work**

Summary and Takeaways:

 Contingency approaches highlight the importance of situations for leader effectiveness
 Models have received mixed support, but proposed interesting new ways of thinking

Contemporary approaches to leadership

Path path leadership theory
Leader-member exchange theory
Servant leadership
Authentic leadership

Transformational leadership theory differentiates between:

 Transformational leaders
 Align employees' goals with their own
 Try to align the company goals with the employees
o Charisma - personality draws you in. behaviours that create confidence and
commitment to, and admiration for the leader
 o Inspirational motivation - providing a vision that inspires people
o Intellectual stimulation - providing appropriate challenges to employees or
challenging the status quo, encouraging creativity and innovation
o Individualized consideration - showing personal care and concern for the well
being of their employees.

 Transactional leaders:
 provide resources in exchange for good performance
 Prioritize the company's goals over employees' well-being
o Contingent rewards
o Active management By exception
o Passive management by exception
 Which leadership style is more effective?

 Both transformational and transactional leadership have shown benefits (except for passive
management. By exception)
 Leaders should use both styles
 E.g. lets say employees very motivated by pay - don't care about developing relationship
with co-workers - transactional better

Leader-member exchange (LMX) theory

 The type of relationship leaders have with their followers

 Higher LMX means more trust, liking, and respect for one another
 Higher LMX associated with better satisfaction and performance
 Pro: Employees who have better relationship with their manager, may get better feedback and
opportunities
 Con: could show favouritism, unethical leader. The others might feel like unfair.

Servant leadership prioritizes the needs of others

 Focus on helping employees develop
 May sacrifice own well-being to help employees succeed
 Moral compass

Authentic leadership means "being yourself"

 Self- awareness of values
 Say things and behave in line with how one thinks
 More trust from followers

Summary and takeaways

 Numerous contemporary types of leadership
 All have benefits despite being distinct

Feb 2
 Quillian et al. (2019): do some countries discriminate more than others? Evidence from 97 field
experiments of racial discrimination in hiring:

 Meta analysis examining hiring bias among 9 countries in Europe and north America with anti-
discrimination laws
 K= 97 field experiments
 N= 200,000 job applicants

 We can measure hiring bias by calculating the discrimination ratio

 Resume and in-person audit studies (changing someone's name or adding photo to
measure discrimination bias)
 In person: you actually have people or actors go into company themselves, you interact
with them face to face.
 Discrimination ratio: The percentage of call-backs to job applications by white
(majority) versus non-white (minority) applicants
 The number of applicants that must be submitted by a minority applicant to expect an
equal chance of a callback as a white applicant
 If discrimination ratio was 2.5, it would mean that the non-white would need 2.5
resumes for every 1 resume from the whites to get an equal amount of call-backs.
Results?
 Ubiquitous discrimination against racial minorities in every country (unaffected by year)
 European immigrants experienced less discrimination than all non-white immigrants
 Black, middle eastern, Asian applicants all experienced similar levels of discrimination. Not
directed to one particular group but all minorities.


 Fitsommons et al. (2020)
Intersectional arithmetic: how gender, race and mother tongue combine to impact immigrants'
work outcomes:

 Similar to Quillisn et al. (2019), but took an intersectional approach and examined not only race
and immigrant status, but also gender and mother tongue

What is intersectionality?
 Many people have multiple social identities

 Rather than identifying people from one thing alone like race or gender, we should look at
cumulative disadvantages

 Failing to consider intersectionality ignores cumulative disadvantages faced by certain groups

 Where does intersectional thinking stem from?

 Degraffenreid v. general motors

 Racial and gender discrimination disproportionately impacting black women

 Defense argued that there was….

 No gender discrimination because the company hired (white) women
 No racial discrimination because they hired black (men)

Fitzsimmons et al. (2020) examined…

 What is the extent of discrimination faced by groups of workers across all combinations of
immigrant status, race, gender, and mother tongue?

How did fitzsimmons et al. (2020) examine this research question?

 What did Fitzsimmons et al (2020) find?

 Immigrant women of colour with non-English mother tongue earned a pay deficit of $8,311 per
year and were least likely to have supervisory positions
 Followed by men of colour and then white women

 All groups of white men received higher pay (especially immigrants)

Summary and takeaways

 Hiring discrimination s rampant against minorities

 Diversity initiatives should consider intersectional approaches
 Reducing discrimination in hiring does not address what occurs in the actual workplace

Diversity and inclusion///companies favourite's buzzwords

"this company is committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace. It I an equal opportunity

employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, gender, gender identity,
sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, age, or other legally protected status."

Much of the OB and I-O research focuses on 'problems' vs. 'benefits' of demographic diversity
 E.g. how diversity is associated with conflict, turnover, performance, financial cost

 Critique of the diversity management approach

 If diversity is related to 'problems' does this mean organizations should reduce
diversity?
 Diversity is meaningless without inclusion

'plural' organizations
- focus on increasing diverse representation, but expect minorities to assimilate to dominant
norms

Inclusive organizations
 People of all backgrounds are fairly treated and included in decision making
 How to tell if they are actually being inclusive? Check their website, if they are saying they are
including all groups - what does their senior management team look like? All the same??

Why do we need inclusion, and not just diversity?

 Diversity management may reduce bias in hiring, but not in the day-to-day interactions between
people and experiences of discrimination

Nishii (2013): the benefits of climate for inclusion for gender-diverse groups

Main contribution: introducing climate for inclusion

 Eliminating relational sources of bias by ensuring that identity group status is unrelated to
access to resource and opportunities
 Summary and takeaways

 Plural organizations do not necessarily have a climate for inclusion

 Refer back to this when you graduate and go looking for jobs (also check glass door reviews
from previous employees)