Organizational Behavior (OB)

MBA 606
Week 1: Introduction
Instructor: Dr. Bing

Using Blackboard for Online Learning

Did everyone access their Blackboard account?

Any problems? We will be using Blackboard
for posting readings, announcements, lectures,
etc.
We will be using Blackboard for discussion
forums.
This type of discussion forum use gets you
engaged in at least some of the readings, and
thinking about them to help you encode and
understand the material.

OB Discussion Forum Environment

There should be disagreement in forum discussions, but

respectful disagreement.
The rules for discussion forum initiation and continuation are
in the Syllabus, but will be explained here briefly.

Initiators (there are 2 initiators each week) post their own question, or
respond to one of the Weeks Discussion Questions in the Syllabus.
Initiators must post on the 1st or 2nd day of the Week.
Responders (the rest of the class) have to wait until both initiators
have posted before responding. Once one thread is responded to, the
other thread must then be responded to before the first can be
responded to again. Responders only have to generate 1 response per
week.
Initiators must then address at least one response to their initial
respective thread posting. Thats it, and heres an example.

OB Discussion Forum Environment

Arrange last names of class members in alphabetical order (e.g., Adams,

Buchanan, Davidson, Foley, Waters, Zayas).
On Week 2, the first two class members in the list (i.e., Adams and Buchanan)
would be obligated to initiate Discussion Forums in Blackboard on either the 1 st or
2nd day of Week 2 by either

Answering one of the questions posed by the instructor in the "Discussion Questions"
block of the "Course Reading Materials" section of the Syllabus for Week 2 or by
Posting their own original question.

For Week 2, after an initiator (e.g., Adams) posts a thread in the discussion forum,
responders must wait until the second initiator (i.e., Buchanan) generates his/her
initial post.
At that point, any responder (e.g., Davidson) could respond to either initial post.

If, for example, Davidson responds to Adams' initial post, then the remaining
responders would be obligated to respond to the other initiator's posting (i.e., to
Buchanan's posting) until it too has at least one response. At this point, let's assume
that Foley has responded to Buchanan's initial post. Therefore, both initial posts from
Adams and Buchanan have been responded to by Davidson and Foley, respectively, and
Waters and Zayas can now respond to any initial posting of their choosing. This rule is
in place to make sure that each initial posting receives at least one response.

OB Discussion Forum Environment

Recall that we arranged last names of class members in alphabetical order

(e.g., Adams, Buchanan, Davidson, Foley, Waters, Zayas).
For Week 3, Davidson and Foley now become the initiators, and Waters,
Zayas, Adams, and Buchanan now become the responders.
For Week 4, Waters and Zayas become the initiators, and Adams,
Buchanan, Davidson, and Foley become the responders, etc., etc.
Thus, initiators of a forum must make at least two postings during a
week

An initial post and a response to one of the responding posts that addressed
their initial post

Responders must make at least one post each week.

This would be the minimum amount of postings, and if of a high quality
then perhaps one initiator post (per initiator), one responding post (per
responder), and one response to a responding post per initiator would
suffice to generate a quality discussion forum within one week.

Tour of Blackboard Website and Syllabus

View and study the website, its organization,

the Syllabus, etc.

Team Projects

There will be a team project in which you

Identify a workplace or industry problem that is

behaviorally (or attitudinally) based, and
Generate a proposal to solve that problem with a
prototype of your solution (e.g., a new selection
test, a manual for the administration of a meritbased pay system with measurement details, etc.)

Team Presentations
Team Reports
Team Peer Evaluations

Team Member Assignments

I will assign students to

teams.

Team #1
Members???

Team #2
Members???

Team #3
Members???

OB (MBA606) Syllabus

Read it very thoroughly ASAP to familiarize

yourself with the

Course structure
Amount of reading required
Team assignment
Definition of quality forum discussion
contributions, etc.

Free Association with the Word Work

Fun?
Money?
Necessity?
Productivity?
Politics?
Competition?
Fulfillment? [Work vs. Family Conflict; Work
Centrality]
# of Positive, Neutral, and Negative Words. . .

Any Dark Side to Work or

Organizations?

Competition?
Aggression?
Hypercompetitiveness?
Exploitation?
Why should people cooperate at work to
reach organizational goals, rather than
compete with each other for the limited
promotions and raises available?

What is the study of Organizational

Behavior (OB)?

The study of OB is the study of why people

do what they do at work.
OB emphasizes a scientific perspective,
meaning there is an emphasis on
understanding the underlying causes of
workplace behavior.
Event X
(Goal Setting)

Outcome Y
(Task
Accomplishment)

Scientific Perspective in OB

Why emphasize a scientific perspective in the

study of OB?

Because if we understand the antecedents or

causes of workplace behaviors, then we can alter
human resource programs and motivational
interventions and other workplace factors to
increase productive workplace behaviors, and to
decrease counterproductive workplace behaviors.
Therefore, this scientific perspective has
applicable and pragmatic value.

The Applied Value of OB Science for

Workplace Productivity

Managers and business leaders have to understand why

people behave the way they do at work, and under what
conditions productive (and unproductive) workplace
behaviors are obtained.
They need to know this information in order to motivate
employees to behave in productive ways that help to meet
organizational goals.
Organizations all have certain elements. . .

Common goal
Division of labor
Hierarchy of authority
Coordinated effort How do managers get employees to cooperate
to reach common organizational goals?

Goals of OB Science

Describe workplace behavior

Categorize workplace behaviors
Explain the causes of workplace behaviors

Need to use theoretical causal models,

Measures of causal factors and workplace outcomes (e.g.,
turnover and performance)
Statistical analyses of the data to confirm (or disconfirm)
the theory

Predict workplace behaviors

Ultimately control and influence workplace behaviors

Promote productive behaviors

Decrease and eliminate counterproductive behaviors

Why are so many jokes about the

workplace really funny?

Why are so many jokes about the

workplace really funny?

Why are so many jokes about the

workplace really funny?

Why are so many jokes about the

workplace really funny?

Because they ring true Too many

workplaces have policies, structures, and work
designs that are really laughable because they
are so counter to productive and enjoyable
work.

Possible Break Time

Take a 20 to 25 minute break to read (or

reread) the Whetten (1989) article

Whetten (1989) Article: Describes the

Building Blocks of OB Theories

What concepts, constructs or variables are involved in

explaining the organizational outcome of interest?
Theoretical Constructs

Variables provide measures of constructs

Goal Setting
Job Performance

HR Training Program of Do Your Best vs. Challenging and

Specific Goals
Supervisory Ratings of Job Performance

How are the constructs or concepts related?

As we go from do your best to setting challenging and
specific goals, there is a corresponding increase in
employee job performance, as rated by supervisors (i.e.,
there is a significant mean shift upward in performance from
do your best to challenging and specific goal setting
programs).

Whetten (1989) Article: Describes the

Building Blocks of OB Theories

Why are the constructs or variables related?

Because setting challenging and specific goals activates selfregulatory mechanisms and creates cognitive dissonance in which
employees mentally measure and compare their current state of
performance to the desired future goal state, and they selfregulate their work to shrink that discrepancy (or dissonance).

Who? Where? When?

These factors constrain and potentially change the relationship

between goal setting and job performance under certain changing
conditions: different jobs and individuals, different organizational
settings, and different points in time.
In a highly dynamic and changing market, might setting specific
and challenging goals decrease performance? Why might this
happen?

Goal Setting and Job Performance

The What and the How

Goal Setting

Job Performance

Pattern of data suggested by theory

Avg. Level of
Employee
Performance
Goals

No Goals

Goal Setting and Job Performance

The What and the How and the When

Goal Setting

Job Performance
Type of Goal

Avg. Level of
Employee
Performance
Challenging & Specific
Type of Goal

Do Your Best

vs.

No Goals

Job Enrichment and Motivation

The What and the How and the Who (Where or When)
Job Enrichment

Motivation
Growth Need Strength
GNS High

Avg. Level of
Employee
Motivation

GNS Low

Job Enrichment

No Job Enrichment

Job Enrichment and Motivation

Job Enrichment
Growth Need Strength

Motivation

Goal Setting and Job Performance

The What, How, Why, and the Who, Where, and When

Goal Setting
Type of Goal:
Challenging &
Specific
Relatively Stable
Market Environment

Cognitive Dissonance
&
Self-Regulatory Processes

Job
Performance

Affective Response:
Emotional Caring about the
Dissonance, or Discrepancy
between Current State of
Performance and Goal State

Frames for Organizing OB Information

and Knowledge in this MBA606 Course

Think of OB Science as a Triumvirate

Research Design Dictates the question a

manager is asking.
Measurement Gives us empirical data to
quantify the concepts that are specified in the
question.
Statistics Used to analyze the empirical data
that were gathered to answer the question that
was asked in the research design.

Frames for Organizing OB Information

and Knowledge in this MBA606 Course

Think of OB Science as a Triumvirate

Research Design Dictates the question a

manager is asking.

Two groups of employees

One given do your best goals in a HR training program,

Other given challenging and specific goals
Job performance is measured 6-months later for both groups

The Organizationally Relevant Question: Will goals

that are both challenging and specific lead to higher
levels of job performance than do your best goals?

Frames for Organizing OB Information

and Knowledge in this MBA606 Course

Think of OB Science as a Triumvirate

Measurement Gives us empirical data to

quantify the concepts that are specified in the
question.

In a personnel database we indicate which training

program the employee went through, Do Your Best
vs. Challenging and Specific goal-setting.
In that same personnel database we input the in-house
performance appraisal ratings of those employees,
provided by their supervisors, which provide a
measurement (or quantification) of the concept of job
performance.

Frames for Organizing OB Information

and Knowledge in this MBA606 Course

Think of OB Science as a Triumvirate

Statistics Used to analyze the empirical data that

were gathered to answer the question that was
asked.

We use an independent-samples t-test to determine if the

average level of job performance in the challenging and
specific group is (statistically significantly) higher than
the average level in the do your best group.
In the current design we would not want supervisors
providing the ratings of job performance to know which
training program the employee had been in, do your
best vs. challenging and specific goals. Why?

Theoretical Propositions vs. Empirical Data

Theoretical Realm
Intelligence

Job Performance

operational definitions

IQ Test

Supervisory Ratings
internal validity or criterion-related
validity

Empirical Realm

external validity

Real World or Other Organizations or Other Jobs

Quick Guidance for Virtual Teamwork

Begin your teamwork early

Ive summarized the key points and practical guidance for
virtual teamwork found in the Furst et al. (2004) article,
Managing the life cycle of virtual teams on several
subsequent slides in this lecture.
Virtual teamwork guidance

Dont procrastinate
Stay in close phone and email contact with each other
Email is easily misinterpreted Use polite writing styles, or call
each other on the phone to make sure unnecessary email conflicts are
avoided.
Figure out who your senior sponsor is at your particular organization.
The person fostering your continuing education at your workplace.

That sponsor could help you with conflicting educational and work
demands in the very near future.

Prior to Discussing Team Project with

Other Team Members--Perform This Task

Write down on a sheet of paper at least 5 OBrelevant problems or OB-relevant issues that you are
interested in (e.g., turnover, employee commitment)
pursuing and studying.
Try to write down a few industry-wide problems that
might be OB-related.
Try to write down an organization to which you may
have access as well.
Do this independently of your team and teammates,
which helps to prevent groupthink and increases idea
diversity.

Question Business Trends, Fads, and

Assumptions

Example The article in Organizational Dynamics by

Morris, Cascio, and Young (1999), Downsizing after all
these years: Questions and answers about who did it, how
many did it, and who benefited from it.
This is important work because it questions assumptions
of employee downsizing on subsequent firm performance
and profitability.
This investigation looked at this issue empirically by
analyzing the effects of asset and workforce stability,
upsizing, and downsizing on subsequent firm financial
performance (e.g., ROA, Stock Performance).

Morris, Cascio, & Young (1999)

All companies from 1981 to 1992 included in S&P

500
Return-on-Assets and Stock Performance as Criteria
5,479 observations
Data from S&Ps Compustat PC Plus database
Categorized firms by

Employment Downsizer (>5% workforce reduction)

Asset Downsizer (>5% reduction in plants and equipment)
Stable Employer ( < 5%)
Employment Upsizer (>5% workforce increase)
Asset Upsizer (>5% increase in plants and equipment)

Morris, Cascio, & Young (1999)

Morris, Cascio, & Young (1999)

Major Conclusion: Asset downsizers did increase

performance.
Perhaps asset downsizing is indicative of a focus on a
companys core competencies, and focus in mission, and thus
an increase in strategic thinking and subsequent performance
and profitability?
The success of asset downsizers should remind us of Welchs
work at GE, and how he redefined the company. If you are
not #1 or #2 in the industry in an area, either become #1 or #2
or get rid of that division in your company.
Another Major Conclusion: Reduction in workforce does not
increase performance (loss of required slack and flexibility
from reduction).

Causal Model

Generate a causal model help to clarify proposed relations.

This is the simple

Organizational
Performance

Percent of
Workforce
Change (Up or
Down)

Human Capital Category

Core Human Capital

Unique and strategic
Non-core Human Capital
Unique and not strategic
Strategic and not unique
Neither

Return-on-Assets
Stock Performance

model for the

Morris et al.
(1999) paper

We could ask additional and

more refined questions, such
as the impact of the type
of employee downsized
on firm profitability

Question Business Trends, Fads, and

Assumptions

Downsizing after all these years: Questions and

answers about who did it, how many did it, and who
benefited from it.
We can use this study to ask other questions about
business and government work. For example

Can we quantify the CIAs reduction (or increase) in performance since

the loss of various senior members with very unique institutional
knowledge (i.e., the Brain Drain) back in 2004? This was a unique
type of downsizing, and what were the repercussions of this
downsizing on the organizations performance? What were the
repercussions for the performance of the Executive Branch (i.e., White
House) in terms of Foreign Affairs/Relations/Conflicts/Etc.?

One End Goal of This Class

According to Plato, knowledge is a
subset of that which is both true and
believed.

"The power of accurate

observation is often called
cynicism by those who have not
got it."

"It ain't so much the things you

don't know that get you in trouble.
It's the things you know that just
ain't so."

Artimus Ward

"Pain is inevitable; suffering is

optional."

George Bernard Shaw

Samurai proverb

"You knew the job was dangerous

when you took it."

Super-Chicken

Additional Slides

Furst et al. (2004): Managing the life

cycle of virtual teams

Clearly this article has a lot of relevant

information for managing virtual teams in the
business world.
Some of the information in this article is
very applicable to the virtual teamwork you
will do in this particular class, but some of it
clearly is not applicable as these virtual
teams are for your schoolwork, not for your
employment necessarily.

Furst et al. (2004): Managing the life

cycle of virtual teams

Virtual Teams are becoming more popular for a variety of

reasons

Globalization of economy
Company mergers and acquisitions across diverse geographic locations
Technological advances

What are some of the advantages of Virtual Teams?

Assemble teams very quickly w/ little cost considering
existing technology
Number of possible members increases dramatically
Pool diverse talents w/ wide range of expertise (given # of
possible members) into the team in spite of

Time and Space Barriers

Furst et al. (2004): Managing the life

cycle of virtual teams

So in theory, Virtual Teams can overcome time and

distance barriers to accomplish critical tasks quickly
and effectively.
However, there are unique obstacles to productivity
for Virtual Teams What are they?
Conflict, Miscommunications,
Confusion, Misattributions,
Lack of work norms and rules
Lack of team identity
Inability to interpret others actions in the team
Stereotypic misinterpretation takes overetc., etc.

Furst et al. (2004): Managingvirtual teams and

Weiners (1979) work on Attribution Theory

Lets start w/ Attribution Theory

A central assumption of attribution theory, which
sets it apart from pleasure-pain theories of
motivation, is that the search for understanding is the
(or a) basic spring of action.
Seeking to understand why something happened is

Normative
Manifest in spite of conflicting pleasure principles, and
Stands w/ hedonism among the primary sources of
motivation

Furst et al. (2004): Managingvirtual teams and

Weiners (1979) work on Attribution Theory

Causes of Success and Failure of Team Members to Respond

to Virtual Emails: Classified According to Locus, Stability, and
Controllability
Internal

External

Controllability

Stable

Unstable

Uncontrollable

Intelligence

Mood
Task Difficulty
Project--Free Time

Controllable Typical
Immediate
Computer
Effort
Effort
Maintenance

Stable

Unstable
Luck w/ Other

IT or Email
Crash

So a virtual teammate does not respond to one of your emails Whats the
reason? W/out the benefit of the co-located context, misattribution takes
over, along w/ misinterpretation, stereotype bias etc., etc.

Furst et al. (2004): Managing the life

cycle of virtual teams

There are unique problems w/ virtual teams

Miscommunications and amount thereof

Ignoring virtual emails due to local duties or bad luck (e.g., sudden fire
to put out on local project, computer crash, etc.)
Misattribution occurs quickly (e.g., that team member is lazy,
unconscientious, etc.) b/c we do not have the benefit of what?

Co-location and context to know the real cause of why

something happened

The Point All of this causes excessive team conflict in

virtual teams and subsequent avoidance of virtual duties.

Clearly, virtual teams have a unique set of problems to

overcome that co-located teams do not have to overcome.

Furst et al. (2004): Managing the life

cycle of virtual teams

Practical Guidance

Teams need to start work earlydont procrastinate

Realistic work previewthere will be conflict to overcome in forming
rules/norms/etc. counteracts unrealistic optimism at start
Start clarifying mission and goals immediately
Start clarifying roles and responsibilities quickly ( Role Ambiguity)
Set a proximal goal for a quick team success ( Potency)
Norms and rules of working need to be established

Sharing of information
Timeline for responding to emails (24 hrs.; two days max?)
Frequency of email contact

What else do successful Virtual Teams initiate very early on in

their development?
Boundary management; contacting senior sponsor for
his/her involvement and organizational support

Furst et al. (2004): Managing the life

cycle of virtual teams

Leadership support is critical

Without leadership support, team members assume what w/
respect to local duties vs. virtual duties?
That virtual duties come second, if at all.
Leadership (senior sponsor of virtual team) helps w/

Mission Clarity
Clarity on roles and responsibilities
Acquisition of org. resources and support
and if neededthe senior sponsor negotiates. ?

With local supervisors to local duties, which frees up time

for teammates to work on virtual duties.
Some reward for virtual work is also needed (e.g.,
recognition), and some shared fate of this reward (i.e.,
Outcome Interdependence).

Furst et al. (2004): Managing the life

cycle of virtual teams

Leadership support is critical

Leadership helps w/ the virtual teams
boundary management, in which there are
boundaries btw team duties and energy and
local duties to increase.

Team identity
Accountability to the team, and the
Resources, time, and energy needed to fulfill
virtual team obligations

Furst et al. (2004): Managing the life

cycle of virtual teams

How is this advice from Furst et al. (2004)

related to Sethi et al. (2002; How to kill a
teams creativity)?
Managerial Oversight (but not too much!) is
needed for organizational support, and

So the team knows that what it is doing is valued

by the organization
Increases Potency of the Team: Collective belief
that they can succeed b/c their work is valued and
they have support