Introduction to Organizational Behavior

1
Introduction to Organizational Behavior

• What do we know of human behavior at work and how
  do we know it?
  

2
Organizational Behavior Just Common Sense?

• Sound, practical knowledge independent of
  training normal native intelligence.
  
• Common sense is the collection of prejudices
  acquired by age 18 (Albert Einstein)
  
• Its not what we dont know that hurts, its
  what we know that aint so. (Will Rogers)

3
What do YOU know about human behavior?

• Take this true-false quiz on your knowledge about
  human behavior.
  
• Answer by yourself first and then compare your
  responses to those of your group members (agree
  or disagree)
  
• What conclusions can we draw from this exercise?

4
Why is knowledge of human behavior important to
managers?

• Era of the knowledge organization knowledge
  resides in people
  
• Important career skills include adaptability,
  proficiency in managing people, critical
  thinking, creativity, and interpersonal
  effectiveness (Donald Hall)
• How companies manage people (organizational
  culture and human resource practices) are
  significant sources of competitive advantage
  (Pfeffer and Veiga)

5
Practices that Develop the Competitive Advantage
of People

• Employment security
• Selective hiring
• Self managed teams and decentralization
• Comparatively high compensation contingent on
  performance
  
• Extensive training
• Reduction of status differences among employees
• Sharing information (open book management)

6
Why dont many companies use these practices?

• Managers are enslaved by short term perspectives
• Organizations tend to destroy competence through
  measurement systems
  
• Managers dont delegate enough
• Perverse norms regarding what constitutes good
  management

7
Sources of Knowledge or Truth about Behavior in
Organizations

• Personal or others experience
• Authority
• History
• Logic and reasoning
• In-depth case analysis
• Scientific research and experimentation

8
What is scientific research?

• Method for seeking out and analyzing information
  in a systematic and unbiased way
  
• Other characteristics
• Self-correcting
• Public procedures for replication purposes
• Precise definitions
• Controlled procedures used

9
Methods used in Behavioral Research

• Case study
• Field study
• Surveys and interviews
• Experiment lab and field
• Observational research
• Archival analysis
• Unobtrusive methods

10
Research Question What is the relationship
between group cohesiveness and group performance?

• Form hypothesis If a group is cohesive, then it
  will perform better than a non-cohesive group
  
• Design a study to investigate the hypothesis
• Define your variables (i.e., cohesiveness and
  performance) and operationalize them

11
What is the relationship between group
cohesiveness and group performance?

• Collect your data (e.g., surveys, performance
  appraisal ratings, observations?)
  
• Possible variables to control?
• Observe relationship between variables
  statistical analysis through correlation
  techniques chart values on variables

12
The relationship between group cohesiveness and
performance
5
4
3
Performance (DV)
2
1
r .10 NS
Low Medium High
Cohesiveness (IV)
13
What is the relationship between group
cohesiveness and group performance?

• Was hypothesis confirmed?
• Can we draw any conclusions about group
  cohesiveness and performance based on our study?
  
• Are other variables important?
• Moderators such as gender, personality, etc.
• Mediating variables such as communication style
• Develop a new research question

14
Theories in Behavioral Science

• Definition set of statements about how concepts
  are related
  
• Formal theories
• are explicit about assumptions
• have logical deductions
• are usually abstract
• organize and summarize data into patterns
• Examples

15
Theory Development Cycle
Observe Facts
Induce Theory (specific cases to general case)
Verification
Deduce Hypotheses (general case to specific case)
16
Criteria of Good Theory

• Internal consistency (coherence) is it
  logical?
  
• External consistency (correspondence) is it
  consistent with the real world?
  
• Parsimony is it as simple as possible?
• Generalizability does it hold across time,
  space, settings, etc.?
  
• Verification (pragmatism) can we test the
  theorys tenets?

17
How we will approach theory

• Does is make sense based on observations from
  real life?
  
• Are there high quality data from the real world
  to support it?
  
• Does it hold across different employees,
  organizational settings, organizational levels,
  cultures, times, etc.?
  
• Can we actually put it to the test in real
  settings?

18
Metaphors of Organizations

• Machines
• Systems/organisms
• Brains
• Families
• Political arenas
• Cultures
• Chaos

Metaphors affect our assumptions
and thus our theories
about human behavior