OB Chapter 12

Power and Politics

· Definition of power – the capacity that A has to influence the behavior of B so that B acts in accordance with A’s wishes.
o Power exists even when it’s not used – it is therefore a capacity or potential.

· Power is a function of DEPENDENCY
o Dependency – the greater B’s dependency on A the greater A’s power in the relationship.

· Leadership and power are closely intertwined.
o Leaders achieve goals and power is a means of facilitating their achievement.
o They differ by:
§ Goal compatibility
§ Direction of influence
§ Research emphasis

· Formal power – based on someone’s position in an organization – can come from formal authority or the ability to coerce or reward.
o Coercive power – this is dependent on fear.
o Reward power – the opposite of coercive power. Accrues when people comply with the wishes or directives of another because doing so produces positive benefits.
o Legitimate power – the formal authority to control and use organizational resources. Includes acceptance by members in an organization of the authority of a position

· Personal power – power that comes from an individual’s unique characteristics.
o Expert power – influence wielded as a result of expertise, special skill, or knowledge
o Referent power – based on identification with a person who has desirable resources or personal traits.

· Research suggests that the personal sources of power are the most effective.

Power Tactics

· 9 distinct influence tactics
o Legitimacy
o Rational persuasion
o Inspirational appeals
o Consultation
o Exchange
o Personal appeals
o Ingratiation
o Pressure
o Coalitions

· Evidence indicates that rational persuasion, inspirational appeals, and consultation tend to be the most effective.

Power in Groups: Coalition

· Coalition – informal group bound together by the active pursuit of a single issue. The logic behind this is that there is strength in numbers.
o Coalitions in organizations seek to maximize their size.
o More coalitions will likely be created when there is a great deal of task and resource interdependence.
o The more routine the task of a group, the greater the likelihood that coalitions will form.

Power in Action: Politics

· Political behavior – activities that are not required as part of one’s formal role in the organization but that influence the distribution of advantages and disadvantages within the organization.

· Factors that encourage political behavior
o Individual factors
§ People who self-monitor have an internal locus of control and have a high need for power and are likely to engage in political behavior.
§ An individual’s investment in the organization, perceived alternatives, and expectations of success will influence the degree to which he or she will pursue political action.
o Organizational Factors – political activity is probably more a function of the organization’s characteristics than of individual difference variables
§ When an organization’s resources are declining, when the existing pattern of resources is changing, and when opportunity for promotions is present.
§ When an organization downsizes to improve efficiency
§ When there is little trust, there is higher political behavior
§ The more pressure that employees feel to perform well, the more likely there is to be political behavior

The Human Response to Organizational Politics

· When both politics and understanding are high, performance is likely to increase because the individual can see political actions as an opportunity. When understanding is low, individuals are more likely to see politics as a threat.

· When people perceive politics as a threat they often respond with defensive behaviors.

· Depending on culture someone might be more willing to use aggressive political tactics in the workplace.

Impression Management – the process by which individuals attempt to control the impression others form of them.

· Popular Impression Management techniques
o Conformity
o Excuses
o Apologies
o Self-promotion
o Flattery
o Favors
o Association

· Most job applicants use IM techniques in interviews and when it is used, it works.

· Applicants who use self-promotion more than ingratiation do better in interviews.

· In terms of performance ratings, ingratiation is positively related to performance ratings.

Summary –
If you want to get things done in a group or organization it helps to have power. As a manger who wants to maximize your power, you will want to increase others’ dependence on you. You can increase your power in relation to your boss by developing knowledge or a skill that she needs and for which she perceives no ready substitute. Power is a two-way street and you will not be alone in attempting to build your power bases. Others will be trying to make you dependent on them. The result is an unending battle. One way to increase your power in an organization is to acquire the bases of power that are most useful (expert, referent) and then to use the power tactics (consultation, inspirational appeal) that are most effective. Avoid tactics like coercion that tend to backfire. The effective manager accepts the political nature of organizations.

360-degree feedback reading

• New research shows that 360-degree feedback programs may hurt more than they help (10.7% decrease in shareholder value)
• These programs generally focus on the manager level and above.
• What are the problems with it?

1) giving appraisals is a difficult task.
2) there may be a gap between an organization's business objectives and what 360-degree feedback programs measure.
3) time and cost associated with 360-degree feedback also are stumbling blocks
4) Reviewers and those being reviewed fail to follow up after feedback.

• One 360-degree feedback assessment that made an employee "look like Mother Theresa." The woman was very talented, he says, "but nobody walks on water like that. I conducted a series of personal interviews with the woman's raters to follow-up. After the interviews, I had a much better view of her strengths and weaknesses."
• Rumely recommends that individuals sit down with their managers and their subordinates and review scores. "They should present their scores and then ask, 'Which ones do you think are the most critical to being as effective as possible, and what tactics are necessary to get there?"'
• Recognize that 360-degree feedback is not a panacea. Just because an individual receives insight into his behavior doesn't mean he can--or will--change it.
• The strength of 360-degrees feedback is that it reflects he varying perspectives of different rate groups. That's also part of the problem. What one group views as effective behavior, another group may see as problematic.
• 
  

Day 10

Eight Behavioral Roles

• Shaper
  
  • Engine of the team
    
  • Driving, energetic, forceful
    
  • PUSHES team in direction
    
  • Wants action, likes pressure
    
  • Extrovert (flashy dress/bright car)
    
  • High need for achievement, winning
    
• Coordinator
  
  • Natural chairperson, PULLER
    
  • Fair; everyone gets a say
    
  • Clarifies goals, promotes decision making
    
  • Tolerant enough to listen; strong enough to reject advice
    
  • Calm in face of controversy
    
  • Need for dominance shown as strong commitment to external goals
    
• Idea Generator
  
  • BRAINSTORMER
    
  • Introverted, quiet, intelligent, creative
    
  • "absent minded professor," drives old car until it breaks down
    
  • Sometimes lacks social skills
    
  • Highly original
    
  • May ignore incidentals; may not communicate effectively
    
• Resource Investigator
  
  • NETWORKER; external liaison
    
  • Relaxed, gregarious, positive
    
  • Never in office unless on phone
    
  • Creative; brings in new ideas
    
  • Extrovert; strong on personal relationships
    
  • Likes new things
    
  • May be overly optimistic; lose interest
    
• Monitor Evaluator
  
  • CRITIC
    
  • Cynical, intelligent, introverted
    
  • Strong analytical skills
    
  • Thinks strategically
    
  • Collects information before acting
    
  • Facts-based
    
  • Can lack warmth, spontaneity
    
• Implementer
  
  • PLANNER, schedules, commits
    
  • Disciplined, reliable, conservative
    
  • Makes sure job gets done
    
  • Will do dirty work if it helps get job done
    
  • Turns ideas to action: who/what/when
    
  • May be slow to respond to new possibilities
    
• Completer Finisher
  
  • DETAIL MANAGER with relentless follow-through as all stages
    
  • Conscious, anxious, introverted
    
  • Worries about what might go wrong
    
  • Guarantees delivery, outcome
    
  • Dots I's and crosses T's
    
  • Unassertive, maintains urgency
    
• Internal Facilitator
  
  • Team DIPLOMAT (brings cookies)
    
  • Perceptive and accommodating
    
  • Solves conflict; averts friction
    
  • Low dominance need
    
  • Threat to no one; high sociability
    
  • May avoid confrontation and be indecisive in crunch situations
    
•  
  

Supply Chain Ch. 4

• Know:
  
• How production processes are organized
  
• The trade-offs that need to be considered when designing a production process
  
• What the product-process matrix is
  
• Understand how break-even analysis is just as important in operations and supply-chain analysis as it is in other areas
  
• Understand how to design an assembly line
  
• Key Terms
  
• Project layout
  
  • The product, because of its sheer bulk or weight, remains fixed in a location. Equipment is moved to the product rather than vice versa
    
• Workcenter
  
  • A process structure suited for low-volume production of a great variety of nonstandard products. Workcenters sometimes are referred to as departments and are focused on a particular type of operation
    
• Manufacturing cell
  
  • An areas where simple items that are similar in processing requirements are produced
    
• Assembly line
  
  • A process structure designed to make discrete parts. Parts are moved through a set of specially designed workstations at a controlled rate
    
• Continuous process
  
  • An often automated process that converts raw materials into a finished product in one continuous process
    
• Product-process matrix
  
  • Shows the relationships between different production units and how they are sued depending on product volume and the degree of product standardization
    
• Workstation cycle time
  
  • The time between successive units coming off the end of an assembly line
    
• Assembly-line balancing
  
  • The problem of assigning all the tasks to a series of workstations so that each workstation has no more that can be done in the workstations cycle time and so that idle time across all workstations is minimized
    
• Precedence relationship
  
  • The order in which task must be performed in the assembly process
    

   
   

   
   

Supply: Chapter 3

• Capacity Management in Operations
  
  • Capacity is the ability to hold, receive, store, or accommodate.
    
    • The amount of output that a system is capable of achieving over a specific period of time.
      
    • Capacity must be stated relative to some period of time
      
  • 3 time durations:
    
    • Long range -- greater than one year
      
    • Intermediate range -- monthly or quarterly plans for the next 6 to 18 months
      
    • Short range -- less than one month
      
  • Capacity must be defined as the amount of resource inputs available relative to output requirements over a particular period of time.
    
  • Strategic capacity planning -- to provide an approach for determining the overall capacity level of capital-intensive resources -- facilities, equipment, and over all labor force size.
    
• Capacity Planning Concepts
  
  • Capacity talks about how much can be attained, but doesn't say how long that rate can be sustained. The concept of best operating level is used to avoid the problem
    
  • Best operating level -- the level of capacity for which the process was designed and thus the volume of output at which average unit cost is minimized
    
  • Capacity utilization rate -- reveals how close a firm is to its best operating level.
    
    • = capacity used / best operating level
      
  • Economies and Diseconomies of Scale
    
    • As a plant gets larger and volume increases, the average cost per unit of output drops.
      
    • At some point the size of a plant becomes too large and diseconomies of scale become a problem.
      
  • Capacity Focus
    
    • A production facility works best when it focuses on a fairly limited set of production objectives. A firm should not expect to excel in every aspect of manufacturing performance.
      
    • This capacity focus concept can also be operationalized through the mechanism of plants within plants (PWPs).
      
  • Capacity Flexibility
    
    • Having the ability to rapidly increase or decrease production levels, or shift production capacity quickly from one product or service to another
      
    • Flexible plants -- the zero-changeover-time plant. Quickly can adapt to change. Ringling Bros.
      
    • Flexible processes -- flexible manufacturing systems on the one hand and simple, easily set up equipment on the other.
      
    • Economies of scope -- exist when multiple products can be produced at a lower cost in combination than they can separately.
      
    • Flexible workers -- have multiple skills and the ability to switch easily from one kind of task to another.
      
• The Learning Curve
  
  • A line displaying the relationship between unit production and the cumulative number of units produced.
    
  • Cost per burger when cumulative production reaches 10 million? -- If a firm has a 90 percent learning curve, costs will fall to 90% of $.55 or $.495, when accumulated production reaches 10 million.
    
  • Learning curve theory
    
    • Amount of time required to complete a given task or unit of a product will be less each time the task is undertaken
      
    • The unit time will decrease at a decreasing rate
      
    • The reduction in time will follow a predictable pattern
      
  • Plotting Learning Curves
    
    • Problem 3.1 and 3.2
      
• Capacity Planning
  
  • Considerations in adding capacity
    
    • Maintaining system balance -- in a perfectly balanced plant, the output of stage 1 provides the exact input requirement for stage 2
      
    • To deal with imbalance -- add capacity to stages that are bottlenecks. Also buffer inventories in front of the bottleneck stage to ensure that it always has something to work on. Also, duplicate the facilities of one department on which another is dependent.
      
  • Frequency of capacity additions
    
    • Two types of costs to consider when adding capacity -- cost of upgrading too frequently, and upgrading too infrequently.
      
  • External sources of operations and supply capacity
    
    • It may be cheaper sometimes to not add capacity at all, but to use some existing internal source of capacity.
      
    • Two common strategies -- outsourcing and sharing capacity
      
  • Determining Capacity Requirements
    
    • Steps:
      
      • Use forecasting techniques to predict sales for individual products within each product line
        
      • Calculate equipment and labor requirements to meet product line forecasts
        
      • Project labor and equipment availablilities over the planning horizon
        
    • Capacity cushion
      
      • A capacity cushion is an amount of capacity in excess of expected demand.
        
    • Problem 3.3
      
  • Use decision trees to evaluate capacity alternatives
    
    • Problem 3.4
      
• Planning Service Capacity
  
  • Capacity planning in service versus manufacturing
    
    • Time: -- in services managers must consider time as one of their supplies.. The capacity must be available to produce a service when it is needed
      
    • Location -- the service capacity must be located near the customer in face-to-face settings
      
    • Volatility of Demand -- ser vice system has higher volatility of demand than a manufacturing production system. This is because:
      
      • Services cannot be stored
        
      • Customers interact directly with the production system and they often have different needs
        
      • It is directly affected by consumer behavior
        
  • Capacity utilization and service quality
    

Marketing: Chap. 5

• Consumer Markets and Consumer Buyer Behavior
  
  • Harley has great customer loyalty.
    
  • Harley's marketers put top priority on understanding customers and what makes them tick. Harley customers are buying a lot more than just a quality bike and a smooth sales pitch: "Things are different on a Harley."
    
  • Consumer-buyer behavior
    
    • The buying behavior of final customers (individuals and households that buy goods and services for personal consumption)
      
    • Consumer market -- made up of all of the final consumers (all the individuals and households who buy or acquire goods and services for personal consumption)
      
• Model of Consumer Behavior
  
  • Understanding the "why" of buying behavior is very difficult.
    
  • Model of buyer behavior
    
    • The environment
      
      • Marketing stimuli -- Product, price, place, promotion
        
    • Buyer's Black box
      
      • Buyer's characteristics
        
      • Buyer's decision process
        
    • Buyer responses
      
      • Buying attitudes and preferences
        
      • Purchase behavior; what the buyer buys, when, where, and how much
        
      • Brand and company relationship behavior
        
• Characteristics Affecting Consumer Behavior
  
  • Cultural factors
    
    • Culture -- the set of basic values, perceptions, wants, and behaviors learned by a member of society from family and other important institutions
      
    • Subculture -- a group of people with shared value systems based on common life experiences and situations (ie: religions, nationalities, racial groups, etc.)
      
      • Hispanic consumers
        
        • Generics don't sell well to this group
          
      • African-American consumers
        
        • Strongly motivated by quality and selection, brands are important
          
      • Asian-American consumers
        
        • Most tech-savvy segment. They shop frequently and are the most brand conscious and are very brand loyal.
          
      • Mature consumers
        
        • They are not "stuck in their ways" but are more willing to shop around and switch brands than younger counterparts.
          
  • Social Factors
    
    • Social class -- relatively permanent and ordered divisions in a society whose members share similar values, interests, and behaviors.
      
      • Major American social classes
        
        • Upper, middle, working, lower.
          
    • Group -- two or more people who interact to accomplish individual or mutual goals
      
    • Word of mouth influence and buzz marketing
      
      • Opinion leader -- person within a reference group who exerts social influence on others because of special skills, knowledge, or personality.
        
      • Buzz marketing -- an opinion leader serves as a brand ambassador to spread the word about products.
        
    • Online social networks -- online social communities, blogs, etc. where people socialize or exchange information or opinions.
      
      • Marketers are working to harness the power of these networks to promote their products.
        
    • Family
      
      • Family can strongly influence buyer behavior
        
    • Roles and Status
      
      • Role is the activities people are expected to perform according to the persons around them. Each role carries a status reflecting the general esteem given to it by society
        
  • Personal Factors
    
    • Age and Life-Cycle Stage
      
      • People change what they buy over time.
        
      • RBC identified 5 life-stage segments
        
        • Youth -- customers younger than 18
          
        • Getting Started -- customers age 18-35 -- going through first experiences
          
        • Builders -- age 35-50 -- tend to borrow more than invest
          
        • Accumulators -- age 50-60 -- worry about saving for retirement.
          
        • Preservers -- age 60 and up -- want to maximize retirement income.
          
    • Occupation -- a person's occupation affects the goods and services he buys.
      
    • Economic Situation -- economic situation affects product choice
      
    • Lifestyle -- a person's pattern of living as expressed in his or her activities, interests, and opinions
      
      • This lifestyle concept can help understand changing consumer values and how they affect buying behavior.
        
    • Personality and Self-Concept
      
      • Personality -- the unique psychological characteristics that lead to relatively consistent and lasting responses to one's own environment
        
      • Brand personality -- the specific mix of human traits that may be attributed to a particular brand
        
        • 5 brand personality traits
          
          • Sincerity
            
          • Excitement
            
          • Competence
            
          • Sophistication
            
          • Ruggedness
            
  • Psychological Factors
    
    • Motivation -- a need that is sufficiently pressing to direct the person to seek satisfaction of the need
      
      • A person has many needs at any given time. A need becomes a motive when it is aroused to a sufficient level of intensity
        
      • Freud thought that a person's buying decisions are affect by subconscious motives that even the buyer may not fully understand
        
      • Abraham Maslow sought to explain why people are driven by particular needs at particular times.
        
        • From most to least pressing here are the human needs according to Maslow
          
          • Physiological needs (hunger, thirst)
            
          • Safety needs (security, protection)
            
          • Social needs (sense of belonging, love)
            
          • Esteem needs (self-esteem, recognition)
            
          • Self-actualization needs (self-development and realization)
            
        • People satisfy the most important first and then move on
          
    • Perception -- the process by which people select, organize, and interpret information to form a meaningful picture of the world
      
      • Selective attention -- the tendency for people to screen out most of the information to which they are exposed
        
    • Learning -- changes in an individual's behavior arising from experience
      
      • Drive -- strong internal stimulus that calls for action
        
    • Beliefs and Attitudes --
      
      • Belief -- descriptive thought that a person holds about something
        
      • Attitude -- a person's consistently favorable or unfavorable evaluations, feelings, and tendencies toward an object or idea.
        
      • Attitudes are difficult to change, thus a company should usually try to fit its products into existing attitudes rather than try to change attitudes
        
• Types of Buying Decision Behavior
  
  • Complex Buying Behavior -- consumer buying behavior in situations characterized by high consumer involvement in a purchase and significant perceived differences among brands
    
  • Dissonance-reducing buying behavior -- consumer buying behavior in situations characterized by high involvement but low perceived differences among brands
    
    • Carpet is an example.. Buyers consider most brands to be the same and may regret it after they buy (called postpurchase dissonance).
      
  • Habitual Buying Behavior -- consumer buying behavior in situations characterized by low-consumer involvement and few significantly perceived brand differences
    
    • Ad repetition creates brand familiarity, rather than brand conviction.
      
  • Variety-seeking buying behavior -- consumer buying behavior in situations characterized by low consumer involvement but significant perceived brand differences
    
• The Buyer Decision Process
  
  • The actual purchase decision is just part of a much larger buying process -- starting with need recognition through how you feel after making the purchase. Marketers want to be involved in the whole process
    
  • The considerations a consumer faces are as follows:
    
    • Need recognition
      
    • Information search
      
    • Evaluation of alternatives
      
    • Purchase decision
      
    • Postpurchase behavior
      
  • Need Recognition -- the first stage of the buyer decision process, in which the consumer recognizes a problem or need
    
  • Information search -- the stage of the buyer decision process in which the consumer is aroused to search for more information; the consumer may simply have heightened attention or may go into an active information search.
    
    • Generally a consumer gets the most information from commercial sources, which are the sources controlled by the marketer
      
  • Evaluation of alternatives -- the stage of the buyer process in which the consumer uses the information to evaluate alternative brands in the choice set.
    
  • Purchase decision -- the buyer's decision about which brand to purchase
    
    • Two factors can come between the purchase intention and the purchase decision:
      
      • Attitudes of others and unexpected situational factors.
        
  • Postpurchase behavior -- the stage of the buyer decision process in which the consumers take further action after purchase, based on their satisfaction or dissatisfaction.
    
    • This depends on the consumer's expectations and the product's perceived performance.
      
  • Cognitive dissonance -- buyer discomfort caused by postpurchase conflict.
    
• The Buyer Decision Process for New Products
  
  • New product -- good or service or idea that is perceived by some potential customers as new.
    
  • Adoption process -- the mental process through which an individual passes from first hearing about an innovation to final adoption.
    
    • Stages in the adoption process
      
      • Awareness -- consumer becomes aware but lacks information
        
      • Interest -- consumer seeks info
        
      • Evaluation -- consumer decides if it makes sense to use it
        
      • Trial -- consumer tries it on a small scale to test it
        
      • Adoption -- consumer decides to make full use of the product
        
  • Individual difference in innovativeness
    
    • Adopter categories are as follows from early to late:
      
      • Innovators -- venturesome
        
      • Early adopters -- guided by respect
        
      • Early majority -- deliberate though rarely leaders - adopt new ideas before the majority
        
      • Late majority -- they adopt an innovation only after a majority of people have tried it
        
      • Laggards -- tradition bound -- suspicious of changes
        
  • Influence of Product characteristics on rate of adoption
    
    • Relative advantage
      
    • Compatibility
      
    • Complexity
      
    • Divisibility
      
    • Communicability
      

ORGB Ch.7

• Differentiate emotions from moods
  
  • Affect
    
    • Covers a broad range of feelings that people experience. Can be experienced in the form of emotions or moods
      
  • Emotions
    
    • Intense feelings that are directed at someone or something. There are dozens of emotions, including anger, contempt, enthusiasm, envy, fear, frustration, pride, surprise, and sadness
      
    • More action oriented
      
  • Moods
    
    • Are feelings that tend to be less intense than emotions and that often lack a contextual stimulus
      
    • More cognitive, cause us to think or brood for a while
      
• Discuss the different aspects of emotions
  
  • Intensity
    
  • Frequency and duration
    
  • Do emotions make us irrational?
    
    • Our emotions provide important information about how we understand the world around us
      
    • The key to good decision making is to employ both thinking and feeling in one's decisions
      
  • What functions do emotions serve?
    
    • We need them to think rationally
      
• Identify the sources of emotions and moods
  
  • Personality
    
  • Day of the Week and Time of the Day
    
  • Weather
    
  • Stress
    
  • Social Activities
    
  • Sleep
    
  • Exercise
    
  • Age
    
  • Gender
    
• Describe external constraints on emotions
  
  • Organizational influences
    
    • For the most part, the climate in well-managed US organizations is one that strives to be emotion free
      
  • Cultural influences
    
    • The degree to which people experience emotions vary across cultures
      
    • In general, people form all over the world interpret negative and positive emotions the same way
      
    • Managers need to know the emotional norms in each culture they do business in so they don't send unintended signals or misread the reactions of locals
      
• Discuss the impact emotional labor has on employees
  
  • Emotional Labor: is an employee's expression of organizationally desired emotions during inter-personal transactions at work
    
  • The true challenge is when employees have to project one emotion while simultaneously feeling another
    
  • Felt Emotions: an individual's actual emotions
    
  • Displayed Emotions: those that the organization requires workers to show and considers appropriate in a given job
    
  • Surface acting: hiding one's inner feelings and forgoing emotional expressions in response to display rules
    
  • Deep Acting: trying to modify one's true inner feelings base on display rules
    
• Discuss the case for and the case against emotional intelligence
  
  • Emotional Intelligence (EI): one's ability to detect and manage emotional cues and information
    
  • EI is composed of five dimensions
    
    • Self-awareness: Being aware of what you're feeling
      
    • Self-management: the ability to manage your own emotions and impulses
      
    • Self-motivation: the ability to persist in the face of setback and failures
      
    • Empathy: the ability to sense how others are feeling
      
    • Social Skills: the ability to handle the emotions of others
      
  • The Case for EI
    
    • Intuitive Appeal
      
    • EI predicts Criteria that matter: a high level of EI means a person will perform well on the job
      
    • Biologically based: EI is neurologically based in a way there's unrelated to standard measures of intelligence, and that people who suffer neurological damage score lower on EI and make poorer decision than people who are healthier in this regard
      
  • The Case against EI
    
    • Too Vague a Concept
      
    • EI can't be measured
      
    • The validity of EI is suspect: not sure if they can rely on data
      
• Apply concepts on emotions and moods to OB issues
  
  • Selection
    
  • Decision Making
    
  • Creativity
    
  • Motivation
    
  • Leadership
    
  • Interpersonal Conflict
    
  • Negotiation
    
  • Customer Service
    
  • Job attitudes
    
  • Deviant Workplace Behaviors