Introduction
The chapter ‘Introduction to the Field of Organizational Behavior and Negotiation’ illustrates several topics; interpersonal skills importance, the work of the managers, organizational behavior observation, complementation of intuition with systematic study, disciplines contributing to the organizational behavior, challenges and prospects in the given field and an organizational behavior model development.
Moreover, the authors provide various experiential exercises, examples of ethical dilemmas and case incidents. “Organizational behavior (often abbreviated OB) is a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behavior within organizations, for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organization’s effectiveness” (Robbins and Judge 10).
Emotions and Moods
‘Emotions and Moods’ contains two probable commentaries regarding the question of why the subject matter of emotions received less attention than needed in the field of organizational behavior. The first explanation is based on the myth of rationality.
Until recently, a good company did not approve of displaying certain feelings by their employees, such as annoyance, angst, animosity, affection, hatred, elation, despair, or other, as they are considered to be the exact opposite of rationality. Despite the fact that research workers and employers were aware of the importance of emotions in the everyday life, they never ceased to attempt constituting an organization that would be free of displays of emotions.
Needless to say, that these attempts have failed. The second commentary given by the authors is the confusion caused by any kind of emotions, positive or negative. The research workers have observed various powerful negative emotions, especially anger, and their impact on the work performance and efficiency of the employees. As a result, emotions were considered to be not contributing to effective work.
Without doubts, some emotions, especially displayed at the wrong time, could be an obstacle on the path towards enhanced performance. However, the employees deal with their emotions every day and even at work; so, in order to examine organizational behavior, emotions should be inspected as well.
Emotional intelligence
“’Emotional intelligence’ is “a person’s ability to (1) perceive emotions in the self and others, (2) understand the meaning of these emotions, and (3) regulate one’s emotions accordingly in a cascading model” (Robbins and Judge 112). The employees tend to be more efficient if they are able to acknowledge their emotions and express them without disregarding social and organizational policies.
Various researchers imply that emotional intelligence has a great impact on the work production. One research “that used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology found executive MBA students who performed best on a strategic decision-making task were more likely to incorporate emotion centers of the brain into their choice process” (Robbins and Judge 112).
Another research took the behavior of 11 Presidents of the United States and appraised them by several identical qualities: communication, organization, political skill, vision, cognitive style, and emotional intelligence. The last one – the emotional intelligence – had been evaluated as the key quality towards efficient performance. Moreover, the chapter offers the points pro and against the vitality of emotional intelligence within an organizational behavior.
Motivation Concepts
‘Motivation Concepts’ reveal the debates around the role of motivation in organizational behavior; moreover, the issue of motivation stands among the most important controversies that are faced by the employers. Contrary to popular belief, motivation is not only about accomplishing the goals and working hard; it also displays the evaluation of the competence by the worker. There are various reasons why motivation should be discussed within the framework of organizational behavior; “a recent Gallup poll revealed one reason — a majority of U.S. employees (54 percent) are not actively engaged in their work, and another portion (17 percent) is actively disengaged.
In another study, workers reported wasting roughly 2 hours per day, not counting lunch and scheduled breaks (usually Internet surfing and talking with co-workers)” (Robbins and Judge 202). The chapter ‘Motivation Concepts’ discusses the foundation of motivation, determines the approaches towards motivation and contributes to a unifying concept that unite the theories mentioned above.
Motivation: From Concepts to Applications
The chapter ‘Motivation: From Concepts to Applications’ aims its attention entirely on the theories of motivation. Moreover, the authors begin to implement these theories to practice, such as worker preoccupation and wage based on their experience and accomplishments. Salary is considered to be one of the primary instruments for motivation; however, it is not the only one.
Attitudes and Job Satisfaction
‘Attitudes and Job Satisfaction’ is a chapter that evaluates the components of attitudes, outlines the connection between attitudes and behavior, examine in contrast the primary attitudes towards the career, gives a definition to the term ‘job satisfaction’ and reveals the measurement to it, and, finally, compiles the primary reasons for it. According to the authors, attitudes are statements that can be measured. Moreover, they divide into three components: cognitive, affective and behavioral element. Job satisfaction is a positive sensation of an assignment as a result of an assessment of its features.
Understanding Work Teams
‘Understanding Work Teams’ provides the analysis the increasing recognition of teamwork among employees, contrasts the terms ‘group’ and ‘team’, compares in contrast four categories of teams, identify the typical features of an efficient team and depict the creation of the effective team players within an organization.
According to the authors, groups and teams are different: “A work group is a group that interacts primarily to share information and make decisions to help each member perform within his or her area of responsibility. There is no positive synergy that would create an overall level of performance greater than the sum of the inputs” (Robbins and Judge 309). On the other hand, a good teamwork produces positive synergy by the means of organized attempts.
Creativity
‘Creativity’ is a subchapter in ‘OB Applications of Emotions and Moods’. The subchapter shows that workers with bad mood tend to be less creative that employees with good moods. Moreover, the last ones generate more designs, ideas, and concepts. As a result, the employers are making efforts towards keeping the good mood among their workers, which in turn helps the employees to get more creative. According to the researches, every stimulating emotion, regardless positive or negative, is followed by an increased creativity in the field of work; on the contrary, deactivating emotions decrease creativity among workers.
Negotiation
The subchapter ‘Negotiation’ allows the reader to understand the concept of negotiating as an emotional process. Moreover, the studies have shown that a negotiator that actively displays exasperation has an advantage over his competitor. However, showing anger could be effective, but being dissatisfied with the behavior could lead to hindering future negotiations. People who tend to overuse negative emotions during negotiations are more likely to expand the negative attitude towards their correspondent and, as a result, are not eager to distribute materials or collaborate and are less willing to share information or be responsive in impending cooperation.
The book is well-written and easy to comprehend, so by providing the summary of the chapters listed above, I have summarized my understanding of the material. The information conducted in the book is critical towards the understanding the basics and concepts of organizational behavior, interpersonal skills and management strategies.
Works Cited
Robbins, Stephen, and Timothy Judge. Organizational Behavior, London: Pearson Publishing, 2014. Print.