Managing People and Organizations

MBA ZG 511
BITS Pilani Dr. Jayashree Mahesh, Department of Management, BITS
Pilani | Dubai | Goa | Hyderabad Pilani.
 BITS Pilani
Pilani | Dubai | Goa | Hyderabad

Text books:
T1:Organizational Behavior by Stephen P. Robbins., Timothy A. Judge &
Neharika Vohra, Pearson Education, 18th Edition, 2019

T2. Aswathappa K., Human Resource Management- Text and Cases, Tata
McGraw Hill, 8th Edition, 2017
About Course Pedagogy

• Flipped Mode – active learning during class time

• Interactive – discussion of real life scenarios

• Case Examples – application of Concepts

• Experiential - learning through Simulation

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 BITS Pilani
Pilani | Dubai | Goa | Hyderabad

L1 – Introduction to OB
 Why You’re Here with Me
• Course title: Managing People and Organizations(MPO)
• What do you think MPO is?
• How does OB &HRM fit into the organization?
– It’s a department (boring)
– It’s a way of solving problems that affect every aspect of the
organization (interesting!)
• Course mission statement:
– Students will learn the fundamentals of how OB & HR are
managed so they can:
(A) learn how to succeed in their careers and
(B) help the organizations where they work succeed.
Competing through People
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What is OB?

• https://www.menti.com/al8hhanm1mt7
• The voting code 5117 0213

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Where does this course fit?

• The relationship of OB to other closely related

disciplines

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 Learning Objectives
• After studying this lecture sequence, you should be able to:
– Demonstrate the importance of interpersonal skills in the
workplace.
– Describe the manager’s functions, roles, and skills.
– Define organizational behavior (OB).
– Identify the major behavioral science disciplines that
contribute to OB.
– Demonstrate why few absolutes apply to OB.
– Identify the challenges and opportunities managers have in
applying OB concepts.

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Recent News
• Wipro fired 300 employees for moonlighting last year end
• Workforce data from organizations including McKinsey &
Company suggests 50% of the global workforce are quiet
quitting
• Burnout and anxiety are running high as employees return to
the office after the Covid pandemic

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Who Are Managers?
• Manager
– Someone who coordinates and oversees the
work of other people so that organizational goals
can be accomplished.

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What Managers Do

They get things done through other people.

• Management Activities:
– Make decisions
– Allocate resources
– Direct activities of others to attain goals
• Work in an organization
– A consciously coordinated social unit composed of two or
more people that functions on a relatively continuous
basis to achieve a common goal or set of goals.

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What Managers Do?
• Three Approaches to define
‘What Managers Do’: Manager
– Functions they perform.
– Roles they play.
– Skills they need.

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Management Functions

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Management Roles(Mintzberg)

Source : Stephen P Robbins, Timothy A Judge, Neharika Vohra – 15th Edition, 2014, Pearson
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Essential Management Skills
• Technical Skills
– The ability to apply specialized knowledge or expertise
• Human Skills
– The ability to work with, understand, and motivate other
people, both individually and in groups
• Conceptual Skills
– The mental ability to analyze and diagnose complex situations

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 Management Activities
Luthans’ Study of Managerial Activities
•Traditional Management
– Decision making, planning and controlling
•Communication
– Exchange of information/paperwork
•Human Resource Management
– Staffing, training, motivating, engaging and developing people
•Networking
– Socializing and interacting with people
Which is the common thread amongst functions, roles, activities of managers?

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Effective vs. Successful Managerial
Activities

Source : Stephen P Robbins, Timothy A Judge, Neharika Vohra – 15th Edition, 2014, Pearson
Managers who got promoted faster (were successful) did different things
than did effective managers (those who did their jobs well)

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What Is An Organization?

Organizations are:
(1) social entities that
(2) are goal- directed,
(3) are designed as deliberately structured and coordinated activity
systems, and
(4) are linked to the external environment.

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Basic Parts of Organizations (Mintzberg)
1. Technical Core: includes people who
do the basic work of the organization
i.e. transform inputs to outputs
(products and services).

2. Technical Support: includes engineers,

researchers and IT professionals who
scan the environment for problems,
opportunities, and technical
developments i.e. they help the
organization adapt to the environment.

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Basic Parts of Organizations (Mintzberg) Contd.
3. Administrative Support: includes
- HR activities such as recruiting
and hiring, establishing compensation and
benefits, and employee training and
development, as well as
- maintenance activities such as
cleaning of buildings and service and
repair of machines
i.e.
smooth operation and upkeep of the
organization including its physical and
human elements.
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Basic Parts of Organizations (Mintzberg) Contd.
4. Management (Top & Middle):
Management is a distinct function
which is responsible for directing and
coordinating other parts of the
organization.
 Top management provides direction,
planning, strategy, goals and policies
for the entire organization or major
divisions.
 Middle management is responsible for
implementation and co- ordination at
the departmental level.
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 What is Organizational Behavior?
• The study of human behavior in
organizational settings, the
interface between human
behaviour and the organization,
and the organization itself.
• OB model has three levels of
analysis
– Each level is constructed on
the prior level

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Organizational Behavior : Intuition &
Systemic Study
Organizational Behavior is a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals,
groups, and structure have on behavior within organizations, for the purpose of
applying such knowledge toward improving an organization’s effectiveness.

The two are complementary means of predicting behavior.

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An Outgrowth of Systematic Study…
Evidence-Based Management (EBM)
Basing managerial decisions on the best available scientific
evidence

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OB: Contributing Disciplines

Many behavioral sciences

have contributed to the
development of
Organizational
Behavior

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Few Absolutes in OB

Situational factors that make the main relationship between two

variables change—e.g., the relationship may hold for one condition
but not another.

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Pause and Ponder

•Which demographic forces will shape India’s labor force in this

decade?
•Why?
•What are their characteristics?

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 The Top Fifteen Challenges Facing
Managers Today
1. Uncertainty about the Future 9. Technology & Digitalization
2. Wellbeing of Employees 10. Mind the Skills Gap
3. Tracking Team Productivity 11. High Staff Turnover
4. Shaping Company Culture 12. Creating Innovative Teams
5. Recruiting and Onboarding 13. Breaking Down Silos
the Right Employees 14. Knowledge Loss & Brain
6. Supporting Diversity & Drain
Inclusion in the Workplace 15. Finding the Holy Grail:
7. Managing Communication Engagement
Between Teams
8. Regulation & Compliance

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Look at the scenario ……
• Even large successful organizations are vulnerable to external
threats and challenges.
• Lessons over the management are not learnt automatically.
• Organizations are only as strong as their decision makers.
• Organizations are not static i.e. they continuously adapt to shifts
or new challenges in the external environments.
• Challenges facing organizations today are different from those
of the past.

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Challenges and Opportunities for OB
The major challenges and opportunities are:
• Responding to Economic Pressures
• Responding to Globalization
• Managing Workforce Diversity
Some other challenges and opportunities include:
• Improving Customer Service
• Improving People Skills
• Stimulating Innovation and Change
• Coping with “Temporariness”
• Working in Networked Organizations
• Helping Employees Balance Work-Life Conflicts
• Creating a Positive Work Environment
• Improving Ethical Behavior
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Summary and Managerial Implications
• Managers need to develop their interpersonal skills to be
effective.
• OB focuses on how to improve factors that make
organizations more effective.
• The best predictions of behavior are made from a
combination of systematic study and intuition.
• Situational variables moderate cause-and-effect relationships,
which is why OB theories are contingent.
• There are many OB challenges and opportunities for
managers today.

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M1_L1 : Assessment Time

Many organizations look for ways to promote diversity through family-friendly

policies. Look for three companies who are incorporating family-friendly
policies into their HRM strategy. On a separate paper answer the following
questions:
– Identify the companies? (Be sure to list their Web address, too.)
– What are their policies?
– How do these policies attract and keep people?
– Do these policies interest you? Why?
– How might they make their policies more attractive to workers?
– If they make the changes you suggest, what results would you expect?
(Is there evidence to back up your opinion? If it is just your opinion,
say so, but later look for studies that back up or refute your opinion
today.)

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