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organizational behavior
Questions and Answers of
Organizational Behavior
In the film Billy Elliot (2000, dir. S. Daldry), a miner’s son wants to be a ballet dancer, but his dream is met with scepticism and disapproval—especially from his own family.Why do you think it
Hakim (1991) argues that women—particularly homeworkers—who willingly marry and accept the authority of husbands who have traditional views of women should take the blame for their poor situation
It might be argued that all work activity in an organizational context tends to have a basically instrumental component. To what extent is this true?
How would you explain how working-class kids continue to get working-class jobs (see Willis, 1977; Bates, 1991; Mirza, 1992)? Why is it so inevitable? Can you find any research that demonstrates that
Imagine that you have won a lottery or inherited a large sum of money and could live comfortably for the rest of your life without working: what would you do about work? Would you continue working or
Reeves (2001) argues that work gets a bad press because it is constantly portrayed as an endurance task rather than one of enjoyment—but work has changed. Read Reeves (2001) and Toynbee (2003): is
Anna Pollert (1981) asks: ‘Does it make any difference being a woman worker? Is work seen or felt differently from a man?’ How would you answer these questions?
Might the way in which people personalize objects at work— ‘my machine’, ‘my chair’—be to do with ownership and power— ‘my secretary’, ‘my office’—or the need for personal
As a manager, you will potentially have choices to make about what people earn. Will this research influence what you pay people?
This case study looks at some of the difficulties that managers face. Managers are always faced with dilemmas, such as those posed here by the need to standardize and customize, control and
Fayol believed that all managers plan, organize, motivate, control, and coordinate. Does this fit with your experience and view of reality? For example, are managers always motivating?
What are the differences between the findings of Stewart, Kotter, and Mintzberg on what managers do? How far do they help us to understand why managers do what they do?
In recent studies of managers (e.g. Holmberg and Tyrstrup, 2010; Alvesson and Sveningsson, 2003) there is a good deal of discussion about the mundane activities of managers—listening, chatting,
Representing management as a predominantly technical activity creates an illusion of neutrality’ (Alvesson and Wilmott, 1996: 12). Discuss.
A report in the New York Times (8 January 1928) described Henry Ford as the ‘Mussolini of Detroit’.From what you have read, is this a fair description of the man in your opinion? (For further
This case study looks at rationality and the response from the point of view of a university student working in a fast-food restaurant near the university campus and concerned about how the workers,
What are the advantages of scientific management according to Taylor? What disadvantages in employing scientific principles have been shown to exist?
When marking essays, lecturers often notice that students talk about ‘Taylor’ and ‘Taylorism’ as if it is history—that is, a management idea that existed in the past, but which is now
You have seen here the ‘logic’ of job design. Clegg (1984) shows how the processes of work simplification can be reversed. If you were a manager, would you try to humanize work? Why or why not?
People should be able to choose the sex of their baby, argues Professor Lord Robert Winston (Ross, 2006). The story of the Masterton family was brought to the fore by the media as a result of their
What key performance indicators are used to measure the work of teachers, police, and other groups? What evidence can you find to describe the rationale of the approach and the inherent irrationality?
Another method that managers use to increase efficiency and productivity is performance indicators, which must appear rational. If managers want to improve performance, it must be monitored, and key
The senior vice-president of global strategic marketing at Playboy Enterprises argues that her company’s business culture is ‘very progressive’ (Hunt, 2011). Images in Playboy are romantic,
In what ways can performing emotional labour be a stressful experience? (See Hochschild, 1983; Handy, 1995; Taylor and Tyler, 2000.)
It is not possible to be ‘genderless’ or ‘unmarked’ by your gender and sexuality at work. We are also perceived in terms of our ethnicity, age, and class.What experiences have you had that
What are the personal consequences of work? (See Sennett, 1998.)
Can you think of other jobs in which behaviour and appearance is tightly prescribed and enforced? Does this only happen in jobs that women do?
The qualities of emotionality and rationality are dependent upon each other’ (Ashforth and Humphrey, 1995). Discuss.
All jobs have unwritten rules attached to them. For example, when working as a temporary hospital cleaner, the author found that temporary cleaners were given all of the worst jobs to do, including
University teachers are advised not to develop intimate relationships with students. If they do develop a consensual relationship, the university teacher is asked to declare that a relationship has
Clegg et al. (2011) argue that there has been a clear shift away from motivation theory’s original objective which was first and foremost about the psychological well-being and esteem of
The following case study focuses on a company that tried to improve motivation.A loan company called Purple Loans (part of the GE Capital group of finance brokers) invested in Special Air Service
It can be argued that people have greater needs than self-actualization and greater management problems, including providing for those without food or clean water. What would be on your hierarchy of
Watson (2002) argues that students only ‘surface learn’, so that motivation is linked with Maslow. This approach is typified in the phrase: ‘Motivation, that’s Maslow, isn’t it?’Is he
Martina Horner (1972) concluded that there was a high, and perhaps increasing, incidence of the motive to avoid success found in women. The predominant message was that highly competent women, when
Read the list of principles that comprises McGregor’s Theory X. Are these your assumptions about work?
‘The pathway to company profit is also the pathway to self-actualization’ (Rose, 1996). Discuss.
Overvold (1987) argues that harmony disvalues autonomy for the individual, discourages any critical stance towards organizational goals, and invites the kind of exploitation that excessive obedience
‘Motivation theory leads us into addiction because it constructs work as a compulsion, and this renders us vulnerable to work addiction’ (Boje and Rosile, 2006: 79). Do you agree?
Keith Grint (2005b) argues that we need to learn how to lead without authority. He also says that seeing leaders as ‘gifted’, ‘charismatic’, or ‘inspirational’ promotes the assumption
Tourish and Pinnington (2002) draw on the similarities between the components of transformational leadership and the characteristics of leadership found in cults. How do they do this? To what effect?
Mary Parker Follett has been hailed as the ‘prophet of management’ and has recently received much attention (Graham, 1996). She is considered to be ahead of her time in her thinking about the
A frightening irony is that those who actively seek leadership are perceived as narcissistic and grandiose, wanting it too badly, and those who are emotionally healthy and could be exceptional
Sir Alex Ferguson has been teaching at Harvard Business School. His leadership technique has been described as ‘largely based on the application of fear’ (White, 2012). He is well known for his
Women are advised in books about women and leadership to maintain their sense of humour. This can be demonstrated in one-liners such as ‘Better to be big in the backside than have bullshit for
Alice Eagly (2008) argues that some women who have risen to high places (Margaret Thatcher was a good example) may have had to emulate men and in fact ‘overachieve’—that is, be more
Teams, companies, and universities buy in ‘star’ players in an attempt to boost performance. Yet research on highly paid ‘stars’ typically brings about a sense of inequity and unfairness
Is it time to stop talking about gender differences between men and women in leadership? (See Epstein, 1991; Eagly and Carli, 2007.)
Why do you think that men continue to have far more access to elite leadership positions than do women?
The ‘new psychology’ of leadership (Haslam et al., 2011) argues that leadership emerges from a relationship between leaders and followers who are bound together by their understanding that they
Lord Kitchener is best known for the famous First World War recruitment posters bearing his heavily mustachioed face and pointing hand over the legend ‘Your country needs YOU’. Kitchener
A size zero body (a UK size 4) is perceived by many as desirable and ideal (Grabe et al., 2008). Yet the ubiquitous portrayals of size zero models by the fashion industry and media organizations have
Companies test for competencies (that is, attributes that they perceive are valuable in employees) in both the recruitment and appraisal processes. What are these competencies?Do organizations differ
Brian May was lead guitarist and vocalist with the rock group Queen. He has a PhD in astrophysics, and does not drink or smoke.Teri Hatcher, who plays Susan Mayer in Desperate Housewives and played
Does how you see yourself impact on how you subsequently perform? For example, if you see yourself as a capable, knowledgeable student, does this impact on exam or essay performance?
What is your stereotype of a person who falls victim to drink spiking in pubs? Is it an 18-year-old ‘Essex girl’, wearing high heels and a short skirt, and out with her friends? The statistics
Sir Patrick Moore, ex-presenter of the TV programme The Sky at Night, perceived that the BBC is worse than it used to be because it is ‘run by women’ (Sky News, 18 May 2007). What evidence can
Social desirability, or presenting yourself in the best possible light, is thought to be best measured by statements such as ‘I am always happy to help someone, however inconvenient’, or ‘As a
In the following case, we see how a personality can be seen and described quite differently: as both a model leader and as a narcissist.In the 1980s, Jan Carlzon, CEO of the Scandinavian airline SAS,
Given what you now know about personality testing, what best advice would you offer to someone recruiting a new manager?
It has been argued that behaviour and personality will change over time. You might imagine that personality will change with personal growth if you believe in self-actualization (at which we looked
What personality traits are being tested for by organizations? Are they screening for authoritarianism, narcissism, or petty tyranny?
Robert Hare has developed a test to detect psychopaths in organizations. Anyone who has more than about a quarter of the following traits could have a problem, while a total of more than three
Research involving a survey of 2,000 British people by the Learning and Skills Council in 2008 showed that the person whom most would like as their boss is Richard Branson: 51 per cent would like to
Paul Willis (1977) documented, in his research on schoolboys in the UK’s Midlands, how the official and unofficial learning at school fitted them for the limited kinds of work—mainly manual
Bente Elkjaer (2004) writes about the case of a company called Administrative Case Consideration (ACC) a Danish public enterprise employing just under 300 people involved in processing claims for
Sambrook and Stewart (2000) have looked at 28 European case studies and a further 20 organizations to understand the factors that affect the level of organizational learning and strategies to support
The following story encourages us to think twice about what behaviour modification can achieve.Don Bannister, a psychologist who worked at a psychiatric hospital near Leeds, told me how staff at the
Learning organization initiatives are essentially technologies of regulation aimed at facilitating change processes’ (Thompson and McHugh, 2002: 240). Discuss.
The ‘learning organization’ is one that facilitates the learning of all of its members and continuously transforms itself (Pedlar et al., 1991). But how can we test whether a particular
How do managers learn about management?
Our culture and socialization dictates that ‘boys don’t cry’, but that it is acceptable for girls to weep. Research has found that, before the age of 12, boys and girls cry as frequently as
Some management theorists have argued that corporations have souls (Frank, 2001), using the term to signify corporations that promote belief through culture, values, and the actions of leaders. They
Ogbonna and Harris (2014) take the case of an English premier league football club to illustrate how, despite an attempt by executives to transform the culture, the planned actions were impeded by
Goffman (1961) gives us a detailed account of life in asylums. What insight can we gain from this work to help us to understand the working and culture of organizations such as universities?
In an interview with a manager in a declining industry, the manager talked of his fear that so many individuals would be made redundant that the organization would become ‘anorexic’—that is,
Hopfl (1995) draws an analogy between acting and customer service. Read her paper and critically assess the similarities.
Timpsons is a UK family owned and run company offering a retail service, including shoe repairs and key cutting. Here is how they describe themselves: ‘Our colleagues are the heart and soul of our
What evidence is there to suggest that the culture within police forces is discriminatory? (See Fielding, 1994; Brown, 1998; Sharpe, 1998; you may also want to look at newspaper and BBC sources.)
There is an abundance of contradictions to be found in the culture of organizations. How does Aktouf (1996) describe the contradictions that he found, and what examples have you seen in your own
To establish how autonomous a team is, we might consider the following questions.1. Who selects the team leader?2. Who decides on new members of the team?3. Who decides on the distribution of work
Anawati and Craig (2006) researched an organization that had offices around the world, referred to as Global IT Solutions. Telephone conferencing and emails were the main forms of communication used
Katzenbach and Smith (1993) talk about the wisdom of teams. How wise are they? What needs and whose needs do they serve?
Professional football players perform their work in teams. Even though they work together in matches, they are rivals in the internal competition for limited places in the team of 11 players that a
Teamworking helps to obscure domination’ (Sennett, 1998). Discuss.
Why would there be resistance to the introduction of teamworking? Whose interests does teamworking serve?
How much research evidence is there to support a very positive view? Should we be wary of the ‘tyranny’ of teams (Sinclair, 1992; Barker, 1993)? How much support is there for this rather negative
When you read about Weber’s terms ‘the slave’, ‘the vassal’, and ‘the official’, what gender did you envisage them being? Bologh (1990: xiv) argues that Weber is describing a world of
Churches, like other organizations, make choices about how they organize and structure themselves.The Church of Scotland has a relatively flat organizational structure and no hierarchy. It is one of
Why should management, thinking about rationalization, be seen as a kaleidoscope and not in a linear fashion?
Zygmunt Bauman (1989) showed the importance of bureaucratic organization to the death camps in Nazi Germany. According to Bauman, the genocide was an extreme application of bureaucratic logic, with a
George Ritzer argues that McDonaldization constrains or eliminates people’s creativity. Discuss.
Can organizations—and, in particular, bureaucracy—be free of all unwanted emotion? Can you, for example, imagine a political party free of all public embarrassment?
Filby (1992) described the everyday life in a betting shop. The management tried to use, and partly succeeded in using, women’s bodies and personalities to promote the product—but the female
Do you agree with the view that men better meet the requirements of the bureaucratic organization?How might you argue against this view?
The following is an example of the original McDonald’s procedure for cooking hamburgers:‘Those grilling the burgers were instructed to put hamburgers down on the grill moving from left to right,
The research findings that show how workers behave in these routinized jobs leave us with a question: does increasing routinization really lead to greater efficiency, or are workers undermining the
Burger King has had a slogan, ‘Have it your way’, that implies that the customer’s wish is its command.But what do you think would happen if you were to ask for your burger to be medium rare?
Graduation day can resemble an experience similar to that of a drive-through McDonald’s: the individual has only a moment of personal attention at the ceremony, and finds that he or she is only one
It might be argued that this chapter and Chapter 4 are misleading. Currently, this book leads you to understand that there has been a linear development of management thinking from early theorists,
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