Managing Organizational Behavior Sims

Managing Organizational Behavior

Managing Organizational Behavior

Change is relentless, disruptive, and unavoidable. To manage organizations today, executives need new ways to look at the world, their companies, their jobs and, most importantly, the people who report to them. Sims sees these as the prime requisites for success in management today: an ability to feel comfortable with ambiguity, with constant and increasingly demanding change, with a new, unique commitment to teams and teamwork, and with a willingness to stay customer-oriented. Marshalling his evidence from academic research and practical experience, Sims shows how researchers are continuing to redefine the roles and responsbilities of executives and their reports. One crucial finding: the emphasis is now and must remain on people. The executive today has to be a facilitator, team member, teacher, advocate, sponsor, and coach—and it is all of these tasks, requirements, outlooks, responsibilities, and accountabilities that Sims explores here. Offering a new way to look at work, at organizations, and at oneself, Sims provides not only the reasons why the new organization is what it is, but how to cope with it and to succeed in it. A must-read for supervisors, managers, executives, and recent graduates who are ready to take their own places in the new world of business. Sims sees people as the key to the successful performance of any organization. He provides a balance between theory and practice, nuts-and-bolts prescriptives, and interesting anecdotes. Detailed, wide-ranging, and readable, his book offers up-to-date, relevant, and engaging discussions of the individual foundations of behavior—perception, attitudes, personality—plus various theories of motivation and the most useful tools derived from them to use in managing people. He also covers such issues as communication, groups, and teams, and the decision-making challenges that leaders, managers, and employees must actively address. Sims highlights the increasing importance of conflict and negotiation within and between individuals, groups, and organizations, as well as the special personal demands placed upon people as they strive to acquire flexibility, to become adaptive and more responsive to new organizational designs and structures. With its coverage of traditional topics as well, Sims' book offers a balanced, rounded, forward-looking view of what it means to work in today's changing organizations, and how to help one's own organization not just to survive but to prosper.

Managing Organizational Behavior

This newly and completely revised edition of Managing Organizational Behavior covers the field of organizational behavior in a theoretical and applied way that both students and instructors will find engaging and informative. For use in introductory and advanced undergraduate courses, the book covers a broad range of topics in the field, including: personality, motivation, groups, power, and leadership. It integrates the most current research in a clear and accessible manner and incorporates new thinking in the field with tried and true practices. At its heart, this book is a comprehensive introduction to the present state of knowledge in the field of organizational behavior. The authors treat a relevant and critical theme in organizational studies: the systematic and scientific analysis of individual behavior in different organized contexts. This book identifies and analyzes three distinct and interdependent perspectives on organizational behavior. Firstly, the book analyzes organizational behavior from the perspective of the individual actor, focusing on themes such as the differences in personality and their manifestations in the organization environment; attitudes, perceptions, and the evaluation of performance and problem solving, motivation to work, stress, emotions, and organizational well-being. Secondly, the authors focus on the relationships among actors. They analyze the conditions of effectiveness of workgroups, decisions, communications, and conflict, and conclude with themes tied to power and leadership. Lastly, the authors focus their attention on the wider organization and management structures, people, culture, and change. The book will be welcomed by instructors and students of organizational behavior around the world, as previous editions have been since the first edition appeared in 1977.