Key Terms

Alienation

The experience of being isolated from a group or an activity to which one should belong, or in which one should be involved.

Ethics

Moral principles that govern a person's behavior or the conducting of an activity.

Executive managers

Generally, a team of individuals at the highest level of management of an organization.

First-line management

The level of management directly managing nonmanagerial employees.

Industrial competitiveness

The ability to provide products and services more effectively and efficiently than competitors.

Long-range planning

A process of setting goals that outlines the path for the company's future.

Macro-organizational behavior

Macro-organizational behavioral research steps back and looks at an organization as a whole.

Management

The process of planning, organizing, directing, and controlling the activities of employees in combination with other resources to accomplish organizational objectives.

Micro-organizational behavior

Micro-organizational behavioral studies focus on individual and group dynamics within an organization.

Middle management

The managers in an organization at a level just below that of senior executives.

Organization theory

The study of organization designs and organization structures, relationship of organizations with their external environment, and the behavior of managers and workers within organizations.

Organizational behavior

The study of the actions and attitudes of individuals and groups toward one another and toward the organization as a whole.

Organizational design

A formal methodology that identifies dysfunctional aspects of workflow, procedures, structures and systems, and then realigns them to fit current business goals and develops plans to implement change.

Organizational processes

The activities that establish the business goals of the organization and develop processes, product and resource assets that when used will help to achieve business goals.

Technology

The application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes.

Theory

A set of principles on which the practice of an activity is based.

Work

All activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result.