Managing Behaviour in Organisations paper 1000 words

Week 1: Introduction

Managing Behaviour in Organisations

Seminar Leader: Assoc Prof Adam Barsky

abarsky@unimelb.edu.au

Agenda

• What is this class about? • What is managerial psychology? • What is organisational behaviour?

What is “psychology”?

According to the Australian Psychological Society (APS)...

“As a science, psychology is the study of the human mind and its wide-ranging functions and influences. Psychological research advances our understanding of human emotion, personality, intelligence, memory, perception, cognition, attention, and motivation, as well as the biological processes that drive these human functions and behaviours.”

Source: https://www.psychology.org.au/for-the-public/about- psychology/What-is-psychology

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What is “managerial psychology”?

Maybe the “psychology of managers”?

Maybe the “psychology that managers use to understand stuff”?

We will draw on industrial-organisational psychology and organisational behaviour...

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Organisational Psychology

Organisational psychologists deal with...

• Recruitment and selection • Learning and development • Leadership and talent management • Coaching, mentoring and career development • Change management • Measuring employee opinions and other workplace

research

• Occupational health and safety • Performance management • Wellbeing, stress and work-life balance

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Organisational Behaviour

• A field of study that seeks to understand, explain, and improve human behavior and attitudes in organizations

• Firms with effective OB policies and practices maximize employee job performance and commitment.

• “Organizational behaviour (OB) is defined as the systematic study and application of knowledge about how individuals and groups act within the organizations where they work.” from the UMN textbook, chapter 1 (see also figure at right):

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Organisational Mechanisms

Org. Culture & Change (Week 12)

Org. Structure & Networks (Week 11)

Group Mechanisms

Power, Influence, & Leadership (Week 10)

Conflict & Negotiation (Week 9)

Teams & Diversity (Week 8)

Individual Characteristics

Ethics (Week 1)

Personality & Values (Week 3)

Individual Mechanisms

Attitudes, Beliefs, & Perceptions (Week 4)

Motivation & Goal Setting (Week 5)

Well-being & Stress (Week 6)

Decision Making (Week 7)

Individual Outcomes

Work Behaviours (Week 2)

Overview of the Subject

 Job performance  Organizational Commitment

A Note on What This Is and Isn’t

This isn’t strictly a human resources management (HRM) subject... • This subject, MGMT90018 (Managerial Psychology), talks about the underlying behavioural science, the

theories, and the everyday manifestations and applications. We allude to some practices that we can use in organisations, too.

• MGMT90015 (Managing People) is more about HRM. It mentions some of the underlying behavioural science, but frames it in terms of HRM activities (what the systems, policies, practices should look like).

• Taking BOTH subjects (MGMT90015 and MGMT90018, in either order) will be good for you!

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This Week...

Ethics

with Assoc Prof Adam Barsky

Next Week...

Job performance and organizational commitment

with Dr Jesse Olsen