chapter - Pearson

management? How did this management style
affect your attitudes and behaviors?
6. Think of your co-workers or fellow members.
How did their attitudes and behavior affect yours,
particularly your level of performance?
7. Given your answers to these questions, how
would you improve this organization’s approach
to managing its members?
■ RESEARCH ON THE INTERNET: A MANAGER’S TOOL
Specific Task
General Task
Enter Wal-Mart’s Web site, click on “About Wal-
Mart” and then click on “Culture Stories”(www.
walmart.com).
1. What do the stories about Wal-Mart’s culture
suggest about the company’s approach to management
and organizational behavior?
2. What do the stories say about Wal-Mart’s
approach to managing its human resources to gain
a competitive advantage?
Search for the Web site of a company that describes its
managers’ approach to utilizing human resources or
the way they address one of the four management challenges
identified in the chapter. What is their
approach, or what is the main challenge they are facing?
■ TOPICS FOR DEBATE
Now that you understand the nature of organizational
behavior and management and the kinds of issues they
address, debate the following topics:
Debate One
Team A. Organizations should do all they can to promote
the well-being of people and groups inside and
outside the organization.
Team B. The best way to increase organizational performance
is to give workers the flexibility to define and
negotiate their own positions.
Debate Two
Team A. The best way to increase organizational performance
is to clearly specify each worker’s position
and the relationships among positions.
Team B. Organizations exist to make a profit. As they
earn money for their shareholders, all they should do
to promote social well-being is to follow government
laws and regulations.
■ EXPERIENTIAL EXERCISE
A Question of Ethics
Objective
Your objective is to uncover and understand the factors
that allow you to determine whether behavior in organizations
is ethical.
Procedure
1. The class divides into groups of three to five people,
and each group appoints one member as
spokesperson to present the group’s findings to
the whole class.
2. Each member of the group is to think of some
unethical behaviors or incidents that he or she has
observed in organizations. The incidents could be
something you experienced as an employee, a customer,
or a client, or something you observed
informally.
3. The group identifies three important criteria to
use to determine whether a particular action or
behavior is ethical. These criteria need to differentiate
between ethical and unethical organizational
behavior. The spokesperson writes them
down.
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