Chapter 11

Chapter 11 - Helping, Cooperation and conflict in Organizations

There are three processes that relate to the extent to which individuals, groups or organizations work with or against each other.

1. Prosocial behavior:

Ð'* actions that benefit others within an organization

Ð'* usually without requiring anything obvious or immediate in return

Ð'* plays an important role in organization effectiveness

Ð'* altruism = actions by one person that benefit one or more other under conditions in which the donor expects nothing in return

Ð'* pure altruism is very rare

Ð'* But people do engage in prosocial behavior and its common

Organizational Citizenship Behavior:

Ð'* actions by organization members that exceed the formal requirements of their job and are therefore above and beyond the call of duty

Ð'* Three components:

Ð'* 1. exceed the role of requirements

Ð'* 2. discretionary in nature (performed voluntarily)

Ð'* 3. not recognized by the formal reward structure

 Many don't agree with the last component

 Some believe certain forms of prosocial behavior are recognized

 These behaviors are called organizational spontaneity: prosocial behavior that may or may not be recognized by the formal reward structure

Ð'* Five categories of OCB behavior:

Ð'* 1. Altruism

Ð'* 2. Conscientiousness: go beyond requirements (e.g. attendance, breaks, rules)

Ð'* 3. Civic virtue: participation in and concern about life of org.

Ð'* 4. Being a good sport: tolerate less than ideal circumstances

Ð'* 5. Courtesy: prevent interpersonal problems with others

Ð'* Factors affecting the occurrence of OBC behavior

Ð'* Trust: the belief among employees that they will be treated fairly by their organization and by their immediate supervisor

Ð'* the more employees believe that their supervisor's decisions follow principles of distributive and procedural fairness, the greater their trust in the persons

Ð'* the greater the trust, the greater their willingness to engage in prosocial behavior

Ð'* employees perceptions about the breadth of their jobs: what is Ð''in role' and what is Ð''extra role'

Ð'* the more broadly employees define their jobs, the more likely they are to engage the actions often viewed as involving OCB

Ð'* employee perceptions of punishment:

Ð'* the more employees perceive punishment as fair, and under their control, the greater their tendency to engage in OCB.

Ð'* Effects if OCB

Ð'* 3 ingredients in org. effectiveness: recruit and retain excellent employees, employees must carry out the required jobs, they must engage in innovative spontaneous activity beyond formal job requirements

Ð'* Difficult to measure how effective OCB is

Ð'* Willingness to engage in OCB contributes to org. commitment and job satisfaction

Ð'* Leads people to make positive comments about their organizations  better reputation  hiring better employees

Ð'* Therefore, OCB does contribute to organization overall effectiveness

Ð'* Whistle Blowing

Ð'* Telling about illegal/immoral activity by other employees to people who can do something about it

Ð'* Can call it prosocial action (depending on the motivation behind it) because in many instances it can protect health, safety, or economic welfare of others

Ð'* Whistle blowers are often punished for their actions - battle to prove their point

Ð'* Ontario - only province with legislation to protect them

Ð'* Most whistle blowers are motivated to correct the wrong doings of others

Ð'*

2. Cooperation

Ð'* involves mutual, two-way assistance in which individuals/groups/org. provide benefits to each other

Ð'* work together to attain shared goals

Ð'* very common because allows to accomplish more than if they were working alone

Ð'* cooperation cannot develop in certain situations because the goals sought by the individuals or groups involved cannot be shared

Ð'* competition: a process in which individuals or groups seek to attain desired goals at the expense of others seeking the same goals

Individual factors and cooperation

Ð'* factors that affect the tendency to cooperate function through impact on individuals

Ð'* influence the perceptions and reactions of specific persons and shape decisions about whether to cooperate or compete

Ð'* 1. Reciprocity:

Ð'* The tendency to treat others as they have treated us

Ð'* When others act in a competitive/cooperative manner, we usually respond the same way

Ð'* Therefore, to ensure cooperation, it needs to be started: once ppl cooperate, the process should continue

Ð'* 2.