Know these definitions and youre good for

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Know these definitions and you’re good for the exam!

Chapter 1: What is Organizational Behavior –

Glossary Definitions Planning A process that includes defining goals, establishing strategy, and developing plans to coordinate activities.Organizing Determining what tasks are to be done, who is to do them, how the tasks are to be grouped, who reports to whom, and where decisions are to be made.Leading A function that includes motivating employees, directing others, selecting the most effective communication channels, and resolving conflicts.Controlling Monitoring activities to ensure they are being accomplished as planned and correcting any significant deviations.Manager An individual who achieves goals through other people.Organization A consciously coordinated social unit, composed of two or more people that functions on a relatively continuous basis to achieve a common goal or set of goals.Technical SkillsThe ability to apply specialized knowledge or expertise.Human Skills The ability to work with, understand, and motivate other people, both individually and in groups.Conceptual Skills The mental ability to analyze and diagnose complex situations.Organizational Behavior (OB) 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.Systematic Study Looking at relationships, attempting to attribute causes and effects, and drawing conclusions based on scientific evidence.Evidence-Based Management (EBM) The basing of managerial decisions on the best available scientific evidence.Intuition A gut feeling not necessarily supported by research.Psychology The science that seeks to measure, explain, and sometimes change the behavior of humans and other animals.Social Psychology An area of psychology that blends concepts from psychology and sociology and that focuses on the influence of people on one another.Sociology The study of people in relation to their social environment or 2 / 3

culture.Anthropology The study of societies to learn about human beings and their activities.Contingency Variables

Situational factors: variables that moderate the relationship

between two or more variables.Workforc e Diversity The concept that organizations are becoming more heterogeneous in terms of gender, age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and inclusion of other diverse groups.Positive Organizational Scholarship An area of OB research that concerns how organizations develop human strength, foster vitality and resilience, and unlock potential.Ethical Dilemmas And Ethical Choices Situations in which individuals are required to define right and wrong conduct.Model An abstraction of reality. A simplified representation of some real-world phenomenon.Input Variables that lead to processes.

Chapter 2: Diversity in Organizations –

Glossary Processes Actions that individuals, groups, and organizations engage in as a result of inputs and that lead to certain outcomes.Outcomes Key factors that are affected by some other variables.Task Performance The combination of effectiveness and efficiency at doing your core job tasks.Citizensh ip Behavior Discretionary behavior that contributes to the psychological and social environment of the workplace.Withdrawal Behavior The set of actions employee take to separate themselves from the organization.Group Cohesion The extent to which members of a group support and validate one another while at work.Group Functioning The quantity and quality of a work group’s output.Productivity The combination of the effectiveness and efficiency of an organization.Effectiveness The degree to which an organization meets the needs of its clientele or customers.Efficiency The degree to which an organization can achieve its ends at a low cost.

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