Introduction and Overview
Class 1: July 26, 2010
Organizational Behavior as a Way of Thinking and Acting
1. Definition and Purpose
2. Levels of Analysis or Concern
3. Provides the tools, skills, and strategies for managing behavior in organizations
4. Skills and Knowledge needed by successful managers
5. Values and Assumptions of Organizational Behavior:
** Purposeful and goal oriented
** Non random
** Changed through learning
**People should be valued as human beings
** Public service is about serving others
Roots of Organizational Behavior: Organizational Theory
1. Uses and Purposes of Theory
enables manager to enhance effectiveness
designers of organizations are faced with myriad of
choices
organization’s form has implications for the way its functions will be performed
2. Classical Theories:
Max Weber: the ideal bureaucracy
Frederick Taylor: the scientific management school of organizational theory
Henri Fayol: universal management principles
Classical theories today: strengths and weaknesses
3. Human Relations Approaches
origin in the Hawthorne Studies (1920-1930)
findings that relationships among workers appeared to meet certain social
and
psychological needs for affiliation
4. Human Resources Model
McGregor (1960): Theory X and Theory Y
Likert (1967) : System 1- System 4
Strength is consistency with approach of helping professionals
5. Open System Theory
two-way interaction with the environment
managers tend to see organizations as a process rather than a structure
structural change affects all components
importance of coordination with community groups
major influence on recent organizational theories
6. Contemporary Developments in Organizational theory
Community Based Organizations
Japanese Management Principles
Top Quality Management (TQM)
Contingency Theories
Summary and Discussion
1. Do you find some of these theories more useful than others? Are some more
culturally relevant?
2. Identify an organization you are familiar with. What theories do you see being
used? Are the theories appropriate to agency needs? If not, which ones would be
better?
3. If you were designing a human service organization, which theories would you be
most likely to use?