Impact of rationality and irrationality in organizational life

world of rationality

world of irrationality

emotions, feelings, needs, impulsiveness, stress reactions, conformity forces, energy, creativity, loyalties, groupthink

in relation to rationality and irrationality Managers must develop viewpoints that:

• maximize human assets of employees for purposes of economic gain
• humanistically focus on quality
• sustain the development of human potential and economic cussess without compromising future development

Evolution of the field of OB:

Prescientific- pre 1880's

• little systematic theorizeing about management and organization
• recognize the need for hierarchal organization, inter organization communication and staff planning
• focus on the principles of unity of command and how to succees as a leader (must obey ruling elite)
• focus on economic rationale for division of labor and factory system

Evolution of the field of OB

Classical

1880's-1930's

• beginning of systematic study of management and organization
• search for alternative ways to organize; ways to organize, delegate and coordinate work; ways to motivate

Evolution of the field of OB

Classical

The Scientific Management School (Fredrich Taylor is the "father")

focus on measurement of work, four basic principles

• find the one best way to do each job
• scientific selection of individuals for the position
• development of financial incentives to ensure that work is carried out
• establishment of functional foremanship

Evolution of the field of OB

Classical

The administrative school:

focus on functions of management, five functions

1. planning
2. organizing
3. commanding
4. corrdinating
5. controlling

Classical

The structuralist school: focuses on the basic tenets of the ideal type of organization, the bureaucratic model characterized by:

1. system of rules and procedures/rational-legal authority
2. well defined hierarchy
3. differentiation and division of labor based on specialization
4. uniformity and administrative consistency

Evolution of OB

Neoclassical

1930's-1960s.

direct challenge to classical schools. focus on dimension of human interation (which was neglected by classical schools)

Neoclassical

Human Relations School

organizations are cooperative systems

• workers' attitudes and feelings are important
• informal roles and norms influence individual performance
• Hawthorne study-women in factories

Neoclassical

The Behavioral Sciece School

outgrowth of HR school and focus on individual behavior within groups

• group dynamics: effect of group dynamics on performance
• leadership- need both task and social leaders (theory x vs. theory Y management)
• decision making- degree of individual involvement in decision making and its influence on individual performance

Evolution of OB

Modern

1960s- present

• "contemporary management and organization era"
• increased emphasis on key elements of classical/neoclassical eras
• assume organizations are systems of interrelated interdependent components that function withing an environment context

Modern

Systems School

• general theory- organizations are systems composed of subsystems that are mutally dependent and continuously interect

holism, equifinality, equilibriums, input, transformation, output, feedback

Modern

Sociotechnical Systems school

• organizations are social subsystems (the people) using the technical subsystem (tools, techniques, and knowledge) to produce a product or service valued by the environmental subsystem

Modern

Management science School

• applies quantitative techniques, methods, and technologies to organization and management issues
• centers on merging strategic concern for planning and forecasting with administratice concern for organizational objectives and goal accomplishment

Modern

Contingency school

seeks to...

• understand the relationship withing and among the subsystems as well as between the organizationa nd its environment
• define patterns of relationships or configurations or variables
• "no best way"
• emphasis is on degree of fit between the organizational processes and characteristics of the situation
• suggests that organizational desing and managerial actions are most appropriate for specific situations

Erik Peterson

Key lessons

BIGGEST TAKEAWAY***

first time managers often don't recognize their interdependences with others and so they fail to build internal and external relationships (relating to the organization) with people who could help them attain their goals- Don't try to go alone..use relationships to help you!

Erik Petersself assesment and career choice:

important to asses whether you have the needed skills and qualities to be effective (was EP in over his head? was the gap between what he knew and needed to know too big?)

Erik Peterson

leadership and leadership challenge:

what kinds of actions and attitudes are vital for leadership?

need to establish a vision/agenda/plan, to face conflict, to build trust with seniors and subordinates, secure help from others, need to be bold, be in control of the situation, set priorities

erik peterson

managing company performance

while peterson did not neccessarily create many of the problems facing him, it was his job to fix them

• inportant to fit management style to situation (in this case, entrepreneurial, fast paced setting that requires hands on directive approach)
• conflict avoidance can be a "career killer" especially in a fast paced ofganization (example andrews/jones, kurt/trevor)
• managers need to create and shape the situation for their success
• as crucial as it is, mastery of process/technical skills is not enough (example: curt andres- switch technician- chief engineer but didn't have the administrative ability or prior knowledge needed to start new operation)

Erik Peterson

Explain difference between management and leadership

MANAGEMENT

• carry out traditional management functions: planning, budgeting, organizing, staffing, problem solving, and control
• assume roles as required:
• interpersonal roles: symbolic figurehead, liaison with key people, supervision of employees
• informational roles: information monitor, information disseminator, and spokesperson
• decision-making roles: innovator withing the unit, disturbance handler, resource allocator, and negotiator

Erik Peterson

Explain difference between management and leadership

LEADERSHIP

• challenging the stsus quo
• developing visiona dn setting direction
• developing strategies for producing changes toward new vision
• communicating the new direction and getting people involved
• motivating and inspiring others

Expectations

Describe types of self fulfilling prophecies and their impact on you and others' behaviors (school children example)

Pygmalion effect

Golem effect

Pygmalion Effect

High managerial expectations result in high performance (increased self efficacy meaning the capacity or power to produce desired effect)

Golem Effect

low managerial expectations lead to low performance

*many organizational problems can be traced to expectations and expectation discrepancies. expectations are the driving force behind the subordinate response to mangement

why do we do the mountain survival activity?

• to allow us to gain early experience working together so that we are effective where "it counts"
• to offer an early interaction that represents the first chance to analyze your teams effectiveness and evolution during the quarter
• to demonstrate synergy inw hich the team outperforms the individual dests of the team (more effective together than alone)
• to introduce the idea of "process losses" inw hich the way in which a team interacts hurts its performance

why do we do the mountain survival activity part 2?

to highlight that how well or poorly a team interacts (its process) influences its performance

• to improve problem solving in the group

1. ensure that you offer a rationale for your ideas
2. give everyone a chance to participate. ask silent members for their participation
3. make sure people listen to each other
4. search for more than one perspective or solutions (dont just jump on the first idea a person offers)
5. look at both strengths and weaknesses of ideas

The Purpose of INSITE! exercise

• to illustrate the brainstorming process in practice
• to springboard into a discussiona bout the nominal decision making technique in practice
• as a precursor to IDEA brainstorming process

describe brainstorming technique

• a method for developing creative ideas and decision alternatives
• the GOAL is to gain as many quality ideas as possible (quality and guantity matter!)

describe the Nominal group technique:

highly structured problem solving process

• ganerate ideas: individually, silently, generate ideas and write down
• record ideas: round robin feedback as a group to concisely record each idea
• discuss ideas: discuss each recorded idea to obtain clarification and evaluation
• vote on ideas: vote privately on the priority of ideas and make group decision based on ratings
• best to use when a team is experiences tension/duress and a benefit can be that it ensures full team participation

difference between brainstorming and nominal group technique

brainstorming is about DIVERGING

nominal group technique is about being CONVERGENT

Key Rules of Brainstorming

• expressiveness: express any idea that comes to mind
• non-evaluation: no is to evaluate any idea in any way during the generation phase. all ideas are valuable
• quantity: strive for quantity (the more ideas, the better)
• building: try to build on others ideas
• also be sure to fister psychological safety (minimize evaluation apprehension) and use diversifying catagories to help generate more ideas

Indentify three ways of defining creativity

1. fluency: quantity of ideas
2. flexibility: the diversity of ideas
3. originality: the novelty of ideas

when not to use consensus

in situations that require a quick decision (liek a crisis)

How team processes influence team performance (henry tam case)

Key Takeaways/big picture lessons from case

• diverse teams have several advantages (and disadvantages) to homogenous teams.
• team members who look good on paper and in interviews often fail to get along with others when real work begins
• launching a team successfully requires setting aside time for thorough introductions and discussion of desired norms for working together
• members need to conduct ongoing diagnoses of team processes

Henry Tam Key Take aways

• use miltiple criteria to evaluate team effectiveness
• a teams diversity, launch activities and ongoing processes are interrelated and work together to influence team effectiveness
• early impression formation and norms have a critical influence on a team's evolution. early "wins" can lead to "virtuous spirals" and "losses" lead to "vicious sprials"

how do the Key Take aways from the Henry Tam case help us understand how to launch and manage a team?

• shows us the importance of having all members of the team together at the launch to be fully introduced, help define roles (early on) and delegate leadership
• need to continuously evaluate team's effectiveness and procedures
• need to establish a clear vision/goal that everyone agrees on
• need to address and establish group expectation
• be aware that first impressions are important and it is critical not to have preconceived judgments (wait until you meet the person)

several concepts from the henry tam case that explains how to effectively launch and manage a team

Congruent Appraisals:

When people see us as we see ourselves (thus holding "congruent appraisals")

• we are more likely to achieve collective goals
• having defined roles will help there be a consistent identity and perception for each team member
• have intro time to help achieve this

several concepts from the henry tam case that explains how to effectively launch and manage a team

Incongruent appraisals

incongruent appraisals lead to self fulfilling prophecies.

can become a threat to team identity

several concepts from the henry tam case that explains how to effectively launch and manage a team

task conflict

Task conflict is disagreement about issues such as priorities goals and alternatives, and task strategies

-a moderate degree is good because it prevents groupthink 9pressure toward conformity overrides a search for alternatives) and can involve healthy debate and generation of alternatives

-too much can lead to affective conflict

-can be encouraged by having brainstorming sessions and collaboration on different ideas but set ground rules so that it does not evolve into affective conflict

(henry tam) What is affective conflict?

A type of conflict that centers on an emotional conflict between parties. Affective conflicts can be very destructive to a company if unresolved.

personal incompatabilities associated with frustration, tension, and annoyance

(henry tam concepts to help manage a good team)

Optimal Decision Making Process

• define the problem
• indentify criteria relevant to determining whether a problem is solved
• generate solution alternatives
• rate each alternative based on criteria (or criterion) deemed relevant to solving the problem
• can use agenda for meeting to make a group decision

(henry tam concepts to help manage a good team)

Criteria for evaluating team performance

• task performance
• satisfaction in working together
• learning from each other and adapting to each other's styles
• an increased ability to work together in the future

(henry tam)

when is diversity a liability and when is it an asset?

• asset: when diversity allows people with specialized skills to join together to tackle a complex task
• Liability: when diversity disrupts the integration needed for task interdependence

(henry tam)

how can we ensure that diversity is an asset?

we can do this by creating certain conditions

• high interpersonal congruence
• group culture that emphasizes the shared goals of the group
• group culture that values differences and learning

Henry tam takeways and why they're relevant to the team contract

• they did not have a clear end goal-we established goals
• they did not have clear roles-we assigned roles
• they did not establish the correct norms-we made a list of the rules and consequences that would be enacted if any of the rules were broken so that appropriate norms would develop and innapropriate norms would not
• they suffered incongruent appraisal- we established our strengths and weaknesses as a group
• they hae ineffective meetings which lead to frustration-we established our first meeting time and agreed to come prepared to meetings with the needed
• they didnt communicate expectations of students-we listed expecations for each group member

you are tasked with being a team leader at a manufacturing company. using at least three concepts/ideas and two key take aways from the henry tam case, explain ways that you can best manage this diverse team

• first meeting-intro for each member and define strengths and weakness (congruent appraisals)
• utilize the optimal decision making process at meetings to decide how to move forward as a group
• continuously use criteria for evuating team performance(make sure we are being effective, successful, and growing together as a group)
• have everyone at the first meeting to establish roles, norms, delegate leadership etc.
• have clear, agreed upon vision that everyone can get behind and back

Various features of the team contract

• expecations
• goals
• strengths/areas for skill development, peer coach
• policies and consequences
• team meetings
• team roles
• leadership-define and delegate
• define ideal team play and leadership

Explain how an understanding of the sections of the team contract and the exercise overall can help someone effectively launch a team

• clearly establishes expectations for how each team member should act and how the team will act collectively
• eliminates confusion, miscommunication, varying priorities, etc
• outlines what success can look like

recognize that consensus does not mean that a group decision is unanimous but rather that people can "live with" a decision and will not "block" it or feel that need to talk more

Level one consensus?

Review

Forming stage

independently motivated

• goals:unclear
• roles:inclear exploring individual and team accountabilities, seeking leadership
• norms: working procedures unclear and unstated, exploring common ground
• collaboration: social introduction, griping about task, nervous excitement, hesitancy/holding back

Storming

feel more comfortable with each other, subgroups form, ways to make decision established

• goals: disagreement about goald, prusuing different priorities
• roles: competition for roles, disagreement regarding accountability, struggles (leadership)
• norms: conflicting approaches to team procedures, different and or unspoken assumptions
• collaboration: confrontation, frustration/blame, unbalanced participation, factions/taking sides

Norming:

gaining understanding of each other, work together effectively, create norms of behavior, roles created.

• goals: shared goals, shared priorities
• roles: clear and agreed upon team roles, agreed participation, agreed decision norms
• collaboration: cooperatiom, balanced participation, support for others ideas, constructive conflict

performing

interdependency, motivated for greater good of the group

• goals: progredd measured, goals/priorities reevaluated
• roles:roles realigned to meet changing circumstances, accountabilities realigned as needed
• norms: following norms/procedures, efficiently run meetings, well organized work
• collaboration: team pride/loyalty, collaboration (within team), collaboration (with others outside the team), celebration or recognition

different types of teams

• work teams
• parallel teams
• project teams
• management teams

work teams

continuing  work units responsible for producing goods or providing services

parallel teams:

people who are pulled together from different work units or jobs to perform functions that the regular organization is not equipped to perform well

project teams

time limited teams that have to produce one time output such as a new product or service to be marketed by the company

management teams

supervisory teams that are created toprovide coordination and direction to the subunits under their jurisdiction, laterally integrating interdependent subunits across key business processes

features of the consensus process

• listen to all views
• be willing to change your view if someone else's makes more sense
• assume conflict can be creative in generating ideas
• not always the best to strive for consensus. dont try to obtain consensus in situations where a quick decision must be made (time sensitive)

Key issues a manager must address before the team can function

• assignment boundary: manager must define the groups task, it is responsibility and authority, and the requirement and performance criteria that team is expected to meet.
• assesment of assignment resources: manager needs to divide assignment into manageable tasks and examines the resources available
• team formation: identifies individuals who have the needed knowledge and skills and who are likely to be affected by the decision, good idea to appoint a leader

Self managed teams:

employees that work on relatively whole tasks and are responsible for managing the task that will result in a product or service being delivered

• higher rated than conventional teams in quality of work life and better in quantity and quality of work
• employees: perform interrelated tasks, are resaponsible for making a product/service, and work closely together (face to face). they also have discretion over decisions such as work assignments, work scheduling, work methods, and sometimes even team member selection and training

cross-functional teams:

people with knowledge and skills from various functional areas working on specific task (example boeing 777 development team and most new product teams)

• cuts out departmental, functional boundaries

new product development teams

small groups of employees who collectively have the knowledge and skills needed to solve the problem of developing a new product from conception through manufacturing and distribution "from design to delivery"

*good for highly competative, technology based industries

quality control circles

small groups of workers fromt he same work area who are given training in problem solving, statistical quality control, and group processes. meet regularly to discuss ways to improve the quality of their work and to solve job-related problems

Big picture lessons from IDEO case

• ideo delivers breakthrough products consistently because it has a system for innovation that has evolved through a process of continuous experimentation
• organize for rapid design iterations-experimenting quickly with prototypes provides the rapid feedback you need to shape and improve the new ideas and concepts
• fail early and often but avoid mistakes. fail often so you can succeed sooner. embrace failurs that occur early in the development process. avoid mistakes because they produce little new or useful information and are therefore without value
• leverage the value of early information-solving problems early is inexpensive and fast, therefore the value of information is highest when it can be generated early in a development process

four key elements of ideo system

management

organization

culture

developmental process

IDEO management

few titles, motivates by giving freedom to express themselves, best ideas get credit (not based on seniority), hands off management style, fosters creativity, soft/facilitative approach when brainstrming, hire independent thinkers, interfere only when needed

IDEO Organization

flat organization, no formal titles, small organizational units, low turnover, short distance between teams and prototype shop, diverse teams

IDEO Culture

encourage failure, ask for forgiveness not permission, status from ideas, self motivated, simple rules, build on sharing of ideas and learning

IDEO developmental process

brainstorming and rapid prototyping, structured process with distinct phases, active client education, build on unusual ideas, funnel (start with many, end with one best), continuous experimentation

Role of Brainstorming in IDEO

helps them maximize idea output so that they have a huge quantity of options to choose from (optimal solution coming out of the funnel), is a critical part of ideao's philosophy to build off one another's ideas, encourages wide variety of ideas, no matter how farfetched, positice start to product development process

Role of prototyping IDEO

"rough, rapid, right" helps determine viability of an idea, contributes to the idea of failing early in the design process, leverage the value of early information

IDEO's rationale for accepting handsprings project on a dramatically reduced schedule

• good working relationship with hawkind through handspring and palm experience.
• the project was viewed as an experiment that would challenge IDEO's innovative system and provide new insights as to wether its process can be adopted to short time-to-market projects

organizational culture

Schein's three layers of culture

• artifacts: physical layout, dress code, the way people relate to each other, company records, statement of philosophy, and reports
• values: norms, philosophy, ideology
• assumptions: basic underlying assumptions about the way the organizations relationship to its anvironment, the nature of reality, the nature of human nature, the nature of human activity, and the nature of human relationships

examples of Three layers of culture of OCOB student body

• artifacts:business casual atture at professional events
• values:"learn by doing"
• assumptions: students assume networking and getting involved within the college will provide various job opportunites