Organisational​
Behaviour

Learn about the importance of teamwork and what makes it so important for organisations and their employees.

Being able to work with people as part of a team is a core management skill involving new behaviours and attitudes which this micro-lesson explores in detail.

Here you will see a case study from Footprint Digital, which discusses the importance of Psychological Safety.

In this micro-lesson, we will discuss the numerous benefits to group and teamwork in the workplace and why teamwork is important.

There are a whole host of different phenomena that influence individual behaviour, perceptions and performance when within a team, and one of these is Social Identity Theory.

The studies discussed in this micro-lesson identifies the importance of group values and norms in the workplace.

Social representation theory identifies representations of values, beliefs and practices that are created and transformed through social knowledge and communication.

Group norms are the expected or assumed standards of behaviour required within a group, and in this micro-lesson, we look at the positives and negatives of Group Norms.

Here we explore the darker side of organisational behaviour, including the Stanford Prison and Milgram experiments.

Social conformity refers to the change in an individual’s attitude, belief or behaviour in response to real or imagined group pressure.

Groupthink is when the norm for consensus overrides the realistic appraisal of alternative courses of action.

Social loafing, also known as ‘free-riding’, refers to when individuals do less in a group than they would normally do on their own.

Individuals stop seeing themselves as individuals and therefore stop taking responsibility for themselves. This is known as De-individuation and will be explored in this micro-lesson.

This track will explore the main principles of workplace communication.

Considering examples of what happens when communication is poor helps us to see why communication is so important.

Communication is as much about listening as it is about speaking or sending information.

If you have a good understanding of the communication process, you will be able to communicate more effectively.

What makes a particular medium rich, and are rich media always better for communicating?

Why does communication fail? Learn about the different kinds of barriers that stop messages getting through effectively.

There are many communication aspects that can differ between cultures. Find out what they are in this micro-lesson.

Find out the difference between downward and upward communication flow, the way organisational communication is planned, and the way informal communication is used in organisations.

In this micro-lesson we discuss the ways in which organisational structure has a significant impact on communication.

Communication is essential to understanding organisational behaviour; methods and processes of communication have noticeable effects on the functions and performance of an organisation.

Conflict can occur between individuals, groups and departments within an organisation regarding issues such as work goals, tasks and how to perform them, wages and bonuses, conduct and interpersonal issues.

When we hear of ‘workplace conflict’ there is a tendency to assume it is involving an individual; it can be much wider than that.

Manifest conflict within organisations is less common than we’d expect, with employee resistance to management attempts to control and influence them representing the majority of conflict scenarios within organisations.

Conflict can be managed through a range of resolution approaches that aim to end the disagreement between the conflicting parties.

Communication strategies can keep staff informed of changes and strategies, staff engagement and providing updates on policies and procedures.

Motivation is a fundamental building block in understanding employees at work, and how to manage them.

Motivation: A Brief History.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: Why do we keep aiming for more and more?

Alderfer’s (ERG) model

Why do some people love their job, but dislike their employer?

Why do we sometimes start out not wanting to do something, but end up really enjoying it?

Why do people put different efforts into the same task?

Equity and fairness as important motivators because employees place value upon experiencing both in the workplace.

Goal-setting theory is widely used in businesses today as a technique for motivating employees.

The Job Characteristic Model (JCM) links the work context with employees’ psychological states.

Who do you think is responsible for motivation at work: the organisation, managers, or employees themselves?

Changing models for work and work structure.

Summary of this track.

Discover what makes us psychologically unique and uniting.

Discover what makes us psychologically unique and uniting.

Discover what makes us psychologically unique and uniting.

Discover what makes us psychologically unique and uniting.

Discover what makes us psychologically unique and uniting.

Discover what makes us psychologically unique and uniting.

Discover what makes us psychologically unique and uniting.

Discover what makes us psychologically unique and uniting.

Discover what makes us psychologically unique and uniting.

Discover what makes us psychologically unique and uniting.

Discover what makes us psychologically unique and uniting.

Discover what makes us psychologically unique and uniting.

Discover what makes us psychologically unique and uniting.

Discover what makes us psychologically unique and uniting.

Discover what makes us psychologically unique and uniting.

Discover what makes us psychologically unique and uniting.

Discover what makes us psychologically unique and uniting.

Learn what is part of the decision-making process, how different people deal with it in different ways and what is the impact at the workplace.

Within organisations, decisions are made at all levels and have varying degrees of complexity. This micro-lesson covers the different types of decisions and who makes them.

This micro-lesson covers Prescriptive models which include Rational Model of Decision-making and classical decision theory.

The Explanatory Models, explores how individuals, groups and organisations make decisions.

This micro-lesson covers when you have to deliberate over a range of choices that can lead to difficult trade-offs and alternatives.

Personal circumstances and desires within the workplace may influence organisational decision-making. Individual decision-making considers how this can affects decision at work.

Decision-making is synonymous with management. Management follows a process of stating and analysing a problem, identifying a course of action, evaluating and deciding the path to travel.

In this micro-lesson, we cover Group decision-making, including the benefits and the possible issues when making decisions in a group.

Decisions in organisations involve power and conflict between individuals and groups in an organisation. It also has a lot to do with the Organisations Culture.

Here we discuss the challenges of decision-making and how these challenges can affect an organisation.

This micro-lesson covers the skills required for good decision-making in the workplace.

Summary of Decision-making

References for Decision-making

Discover how Facebook’s structure changed as it went from a start-up to one of the world’s leading companies.

What is organisational structure and why is it so important?

Understand what the core components of organisational structure are in this micro-lesson.

Learn why organisational structures have a huge impact on business and people.

Grouping a series of aligned job roles together is called departmentalisation. Discover more in this micro-lesson.

What’s the difference between ‘tall’ and ‘flat’ hierarchies, and which is more commonly used today?

Learn about the advantages and disadvantages of centralised and decentralised decision-making in organisations.

Understand the different types of organisational design, and their advantages and disadvantages.

As the name suggests, the simple structure is the simplest type of organisational structure. Discover its features in this micro-lesson.

Bureaucracy means ‘the power of office’. Find out more about bureaucratic structures in this micro-lesson.

Understand the distinctive features of the matrix structure, which emerged as an alternative to the problems associated with bureaucracy.

Discover the network structure, which involves teams managing themselves.

Outsourcing is when an organisation externalises part of its activities to another organisation. What are the pros and cons?

What factors should organisations consider when deciding which structure to use?

A summary of the key concepts we have looked at in this track.

The list of references used in this track.

What is workplace culture and what makes it important?

Different organisations have different cultures. Find out more in this micro-lesson.

What are the main definitions of culture? Find out in this micro-lesson.

Understand the importance of culture in organisations and its influence in important decisions that teams make.

Learn more about what influences culture and the legacy founders leave to organisations.

Learn more about the different models and how they view culture at varying levels.

Level 1: Surface manifestations-artefacts and behaviours.

Level 2: Espoused Values.

Level 3: Basic assumptions.

When Schein’s levels are aligned then culture is successful, but what happens when they don’t align?

Understand how culture can be useful for managers to deal with their teams.

Socialisation plays a big part in signing up for the culture. Is this process always easy?

Culture is not always positive. Learn more about inappropriate cultures in organisations.

In this micro-lesson, we’ll explore how a companies culture can become dysfunctional.

Final thoughts about workplace culture and how managers can embed positive and ethical cultures.

The list of references used in this track.

How changes happen in organisations.

This micro-lesson reflects on how the external environment is a key driver for organisational change.

Internal factors can also drive organisations to change.

Learn the main kinds of change there are.

Learn more about the units of change analysis: micro, meso and macro.

Find out the differences between implementing a planned change and an emergent change.

The benefits and criticisms of different approaches to change.

What are the skills you must have to be able to promote change in your workplace.

Understand how people’s reactions to a change can impact the outcomes of it.

The context of change and how these different aspects can be managed.

When engaging in change, leaders first need to understand their organisation’s internal situation and the external environment.

Find out which sources have helped to create this track

Set up the importance of power and politics in the organisational structure.

Types of networks

How influence, power, and authority play an important role in relationships and decision making at the workplace.

Find out why certain people or roles hold power in organisations.

Learn more about key aspects that influences relates to the centre of power.

Different relationships have different levels of power. Find out how that works in the workplace.

Understand the politics behind many organisation’s decisions.

How organisations keep control of behavioural aspects within the company.

Hoe organisations set ethical controls and punish those who do not follow their rules

Not everyone knows how to deal with power and it is common to misuse. Learn the most common types of misuses at work.

Bullying and harassament are practices that organisations are seeking to abolish but still possible to find in many places.

Learn more about how spheres of influence work in the workplace.

Conflicts are common in human interactions and it would not be different in the workplace. Learn more about their nature and how to deal with them.

Learn about what toxicity means in the workplace.

What is more important: knowledge or influence?

Understanding how power and politics work will prepare you for unexpected situations.

The list of references used in this track.

The socio – technological foundations of business, management, leadership and entrepreneurship.

It is essential that all students of business, management, leadership and entrepreneurship know and understand how the environment of business works in practice.

Organisations are made of more than the physical structure. There are many intangible assets that are part of the composition of a company.

Industrial revolutions have shaped the world to what it is nowadays. Learn about how they have affected the way we work and their differences.

Having goals and setting up strategies to achieve them are important in the workplace. Find out more about them in this micro-lesson.

There are social and psychological issues to be considered while working.

A behavioural approach to product and service development, marketing and selling: defining and applying the ‘Packard’ Needs and Wants.

Organisational and workplace relationships are delivered as the result of technology; and they are changed as the result of technology.

How technology has changed the way we work and interact with our colleagues at the workplace.

Product and service design technology delivers service levels and production processes that are as repeatable and assurable as has ever been possible.

What are the challenges ethics face with the use of technology in organisations?

Learn how conformity and dissonance conundrum are important in protecting the organisation’s reputation.

Technology has pushed workers and teams into relevant changes.

One most the most popular terms in the business has more meanings than many know. Find out more in this micro-lesson.

It is important to understand the value of technologies for organisations.

How technology can support company’s development of procedures and workflow.

By the end of this track, we should understand the importance of technology in the workplace and everything around it.

List of references for this track.