Fundamentals of Organizational Behavior. An Applied Perspective

528 Pages·1978·7.856 MB·English

by  Andrew J. DuBrin (Auth.)

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Fundamentals of
An
Organizational
Applied
Behavior
Perspective
Second Edition
Andrew J. DuBrin
College of Business,
Rochester Institute of Technology
PERGAMON PRESS INC.
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OF GERMANY Pergamon Press GmbH, 6242 Kronberg/Taunus, Pferdstrasse 1,
Frankfurt-am-Main, West Germany
Copyright ° 1978 Pergamon Press Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
DuBrin, Andrew J
Fundamentals of organizational behavior.
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Organizational behavior. I. Title.
HD58.7.D8 1978 301.18'32 77-12720
ISBN 0-08-022251-X(pbk.)
0-08-022252-8
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in
any form or by any means: electronic, electrostatic,
magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without permission in wnting from the
publishers
Pnnted in the United States of Amenca
To my children
Douglas, Drew, and Melanie
List of Figures
1.1 Relationship of Organizational Behavior to other Inter-
disciplinary Fields. 5
1.2 Proportion of Three Different Occupational Groups in
the United States Labor Force, 1950-1980 10
1.3 Continuum of Knowledge Work 11
1.4 Selected Journals that Contain Technical and Scholarly
Articles Relevant to Organizational Behavior 15
1.5 Selected Magazines and Journals that often Contain
Articles Relevant to Organizational Behavior. 16
1.6 Organizational Behavior Follows the Principles of Human
Behavior 18
1.7 Determinants of Organizational Behavior 21
1.8 Organizational Behavior Is Systemic 25
1.9 Technical Changes at Biotronics Precipitate other
Changes in the Organizational System 26
2.1 A Comparison of Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory and
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs 46
2.2 Basic Version of Expectancy Theory of Job Motivation 51
2.3 Principles of Vertical Job Loading and Motivators In-
volved 55
2.4 A Checklist of Rewards and Punishments of Potential Use
in a Job Setting 59
2.5 Work Motivation Schema 64
3.1 Three Conceptions of the Decision-making Process 76
3.2 The Decision-making Schema 78
3.3 Partial Correlations Between PDS Scores and Age, with
Decision-making Experience and Management Level Re-
moved 86
3.4 Rational Analysis of Decision-making Alternatives 99
4.1 A Paradigm for Analysis of the Stress Cycle. 114
4.2 A Model of Organizational and Individual Adaptation to
Stress 117
5.1 Schematic Diagram for Political Maneuvering in Organi-
zations 155
5.2 Political Orientation Questionnaire 185
xiii
LIST OF FIGURES
6.1 A Framework for Understanding Small Groups 198
7.1 Intellectual and Personality Test Score Differences Be-
tween Two Matched Groups of Top and Middle Mana-
gers 236
7.2 Illustrative Relationships Between Leadership Situations
and Leader Traits 237
7.3 Fiedler's Classification of Situational Favorableness Reor-
ganized by Gibson, Ivancevich, and Donnelly 239
7.4 The Situational Leadership Theory 244
8.1 Factors Potentially Influencing the Individual in the Or-
ganization Toward Improved Performance 270
8.2 The Control Model for Counseling and Coaching Subor-
dinates 273
8.3 Data About Informal Helping Relationships in Work Or-
ganizations 290
9.1 One Experimental Task Used in a Comparative Study of
Unilateral and Bilateral Communication 312
9.2 An Elementary Model of the Interpersonal Communica-
tion Process 313
9.3 Two Communications Networks: Wheel and All-channel 315
9.4 Barriers to the Communications Process 320
10.1 A Systems Model of Intergroup Conflict 347
10.2 A Typology of Intergroup Conflict 360
11.1 Organizations Are Part of a Larger System 386
12.1 A Taxonomy of Some Changes Taking Place Within an
Organizational Unit 407
12.2 A Systems Model of Change at the Individual, Group,
and Organizational Level 410
12.3 A System for Making a Successful Change 435
13.1 The Organization Development Matrix: A Method for
Classifying Change Efforts 448
13.2 A Model for the Management of Change 449
13.3 The Managerial Grid ® Scientific Methods, Inc. 468
13.4 Sample Questionnaire Items from an OD Survey 478
14.1 Estimated Cost of Behaviors at One Manufacturing Plant 499
xiv
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
Why would anyone attempt to write another book about the behavior
of people at work? Behavioral scientists, management theorists, novelists,
and a host of nonfiction writers have written about this topic in the past.
Many new books covering the same topic continue to proliferate. Our
answer is the same as it was four years ago. Immodestly, it is stated that
this book has been written because the author feels he has a perspective
that can contribute new insights into the behavior of people in organiza-
tions. As in the first edition, a four-part rationale underlies the writing
of this book.
First, colleagues in my field and students have complained that many
books about organizational behavior are of relatively low reader interest.
An effort has been made in preparing this book to include topics and
case illustrations of intrinsic interest to students, managers, and staff
specialists. For example, the text contains separate chapters about politi-
cal maneuvering in organizations (office politics) and the stresses facing
people in managerial and professional positions. Both the professional
and trade (popular, nontechnical) literature have been consulted in pre-
paring many of the chapters. Case histories collected by the author and
his researchers are also used as a source of information for this book.
Second, an introductory text in organizational behavior needs to be
based more on recent research with professionals and managers than on
older research with first-line supervisors, production workers, and cleri-
cal workers. Readers of this book in vast majority are knowlege workers
(managerial, technical, and professional personnel). Case illustrations
and research findings presented in this text reflect this emphasis on the
knowledge worker. Some mention is made of production and clerical
personnel because knowledge workers interact with people at all levels in
the organization.
Third, many books about people in organizations are overinclusive in
their attempt to cover the entire spectrum of personnel administration,
organizational psychology, human relations, and the practice of man-
agement. An unfortunate negative side effect of this mélange has been
an overlapping of material among several courses in most business
school programs. The present book is an attempt to focus attention on
human behavior in organizations. Information about the practice of
xv
Preface to the Second Edition
management, except for those processes directly involving superior-sub-
ordinate interaction, is omitted from consideration. Excluded are stan-
dard management topics such as planning, controlling, and organizing.
Also excluded are discussions of personnel techniques such as selection
testing, employment interviewing, and wage and salary administration.
Only passing mention is made of older research such as the Hawthorne
studies, which have already been the subject of length discussion in al-
most every book written about human behavior in organizations.
Fourth, organizational behavior is a difficult problem to study and
teach, in part because many of the concepts appear as abstractions to the
student. Convenient frames of reference are missing for such abstract
concepts as organizational climate or functional analysis (often due to
lack of experience in organizations). This book attempts to present con-
cepts about organizational behavior at an appropriate level of abstrac-
tion. This approach is implemented by presenting a conceptual
framework for organizational behavior combined with numerous case
illustrations and examples from live organizational settings. In short, the
intent of this book has been to present material that is useful from the
viewpoints of the intellectually rigorous academician and the pragmati-
cally minded practitioner.
A number of improvements have been made in the second edition
stemming from the suggestions of students and reviewers of the first
edition. Each chapter in the second edition begins with a set of learning
objectives. Considerably more research findings and critical analyses
(both set off in special sections throughout the book) have been in-
cluded. A chapter on organizational effectiveness has been added. A list
of suggested readings has been added to each chapter along with a case
incident illustrating one of the major themes presented in the corres-
ponding chapter. For the convenience of the student, a glossary is found
at the end of the book. Items included in the glossary are those not de-
fined at length in the text and not ordinarily found in a general dictio-
nary.
xvi
Acknowledgments
An author of a book of this nature acts as a synthesizer, collector, and
integrator of the published and unpublished ideas of many people.
Notes included in the text, however scrupulously inserted, indicate the
source of only some of the ideas. Many students in the MBA program at
the Rochester Institute of Technology uncovered case illustrations that
have worked their way into my writings. My peers have furnished me
with valuable insights about organizational behavior and so have people
I have worked with in a consultant-client relationship. The scope of or-
ganizational behavior is such that even people and situations I have ob-
served in the process of my being a customer, visitor, student, client,
traveler, writer, or vacationer have been useful to me in the preparation
of this book.
My primary thanks go to the marketing, editorial, and production
staffs at Pergamon Press for their help in making the first edition of this
book successful enough to warrant a second edition. Mrs. Sylvia M. Hal-
pern, my editor, has provided me editorial support on this and three
previous books for Pergamon. Jerome B. Frank, Albert Henderson, and
Robert N. Miranda, all key people at Pergamon, also receive my ap-
preciation. K. Lois Smith, my manuscript typist, has served me well for
five years.
Marcia, my wife, continues to be a source of encouragement for my
writing. Drew and Douglas, my sons, receive my gratitude for their con-
tinued interest in my work. Melanie, my daughter, though frequently
underfoot, has contributed immensely to my enjoyment of life during
the preparation of this book.
Rochester, New York Andrew J. DuBrin
xvii
1
Introduction to
Organizational Behavior
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Understand the meaning of the concept "organizational behavior."
2. Define and describe the three main subareas or schools of manage-
ment thought.
3. Understand the difference between knowledge work and nonknow-
ledge work.
4. Recognize how research and theory contribute to an understanding
of organizational behavior.
5. Understand how principles of human behavior influence organiza-
tional behavior.
6. Understand how the behavior of people in organizations is contin-
gent upon the situation.
7. Understand how organizational behavior follows the properties of a
system.
8. Understand the difference between structure and process.
* * *
"This is the most screwed up place I've ever worked. Nobody seems to
know what the hell they are doing," lament countless people in both
profit and not-for-profit organizations. Complete answers to why organi-
zations and people do not always function smoothly have yet to be
found, but a field of inquiry has emerged to help unravel the com-
plexities of organizations and the people in them. The study of organiza-
tional behavior is a systematic attempt to understand the behavior of
people in organizations of which these people are an integral part. Indi-
viduals, small groups, total organizations, and the interaction of the or-
ganization with the external environment comprise the units of observa-
tion for organizational behavior.
3