MAN 3240 Exam 1 Words that are bolded and in dark blue are topics she told us to focus on Chapter 1 Organizational Behavior Organizational Behavior OB The study of groups individuals organizations improving attitudes behaviors OB is a subject that covers a variety of concepts from a number of disciplines including 1 Psychology 2 Sociology Anthropology 3 4 Economics Integrative Model of Organizational Behavior OB is dedicated to improving two outcomes in particular Job Performance How well does an individual perform his her on the job behaviors Organizational Commitment How likely is it that the individual will stick around and stay loyal to the company These outcomes are critical to managers and employees alike Job performance and organizational commitment are the two most common dependent variables in OB research Does OB Matter Do firms who do a good job managing OB concepts become more profitable as a result Arguments for Yes it does impact profitability Costs associated with turnover the important role of people in innovation and the link between employee satisfaction and customer service The Resource based view of the firm Imitable Impossible to replicate One key with both companies is the Numerous Small Decisions piece of the resource based view Facebook s major features can be copied and Apple s products are constantly being copied But both companies do little under the hood things that their competitors do not unobservable things that keep them one step ahead Another key with both companies is the Socially Complex Resources resources like coolness addictiveness it factor and so forth The survey below allowed researchers to predict turnover rate sales per employee the market value of the firm and its profitability This shows that OB can predict how profitable a business may be Arguments for No it does not impact profitability The importance of product marketing or corporate strategy issues For example Wal Mart is profitability because of its cost leadership strategy but has a reputation for sometimes treating employees poorly So why do some companies still seem to do a bad job managing their people if OB is important The Rule of 1 8 Companies who don t believe in Organizational behavior will only try to make a single change to solve problems when we actually often need more than one change to solve problems wont believe connection make a single change only persist to practice How do we know things about Organizational Behavior Methods of Knowing Experience Intuition Authority Science The benefit of science relative to the other three is that it is quantitative and can be proven and tested Is objective has data and can be replicated Scientific Method Theory A collection of assertions both verbal and symbolic that specify how and why variables are related as well as the conditions in which they should and should not be related o EX Theory on what causes job satisfaction Great Pay Purpose for working Job Satisfaction Like minded individuals OB is more than just common sense To test our theory we gather data on the variables included in our hypotheses We then use variants of the correlation coefficient to test hypotheses to see if they verify our theory The correlation o Perfect positive relationship 1 o Perfect negative relationship 1 Strength of the correlation inferred from judging the compactness of a scatterplot of the X Y values More compact stronger correlation Less compact weaker correlation Important Disclaimer o Correlation does not prove causation o Spurious relationship A mathematical relationship in which two events or variables have no direct causal connection yet it may be wrongly inferred that they do due to either coincidence or the presence of a certain third unseen factor referred to as a common response variable confounding factor or lurking variable An example of a spurious relationship can be illuminated by examining a city s ice cream sales These sales are highest when the rate of drownings in city swimming pools is highest To allege that ice cream sales cause drowning or vice versa would be to imply a spurious relationship between the two In reality a heat wave may have caused both The heat wave is an example of a hidden or unseen variable also known as a confounding variable o Proving causation requires Correlation Temporal precedence Elimination of alternative explanations The correlations from multiple studies get averaged together using a technique called meta analysis Meta analyses can then form the foundation for evidence based management the use of scientific findings to inform management education and practice Well supported theories become helpful tools for answering why questions including o Why your best and worst coworkers act so differently o Why you sometimes think feel and act a certain way Chapter 2 Job Performance Job Performance The value of the set of behaviors that contribute either positively or negatively to organizational goal accomplishment o Not the results of the behavior but the BEHAVIOR ITSELF What s good about this distinction Performance is within the control of the employee allowing managers to give clear advice for improvement What s bad about this distinction Results do actually matter and the stance is not perfect EX An advertisting agency employee who s pitching a client on a campaign idea If the individual does great market research creates a great presentation and delivers it flawlessly job performance is good even if the client winds up going with another firm Job performance is the action or behavior you take to attempt to achieve a goal You may do everything right and still not achieve the goal Two other performance dimensions o Citizenship Behavior Your attitude on how you feel about your job and what you say about it in the outside world Someone who practices good citizenship behavior has the company s best interest at all times Goes above and beyond their assigned duties They assist coworkers They work for the future Focus on long term rewards EX Dennis Organ s Organizational citizenship behavior The good soldier syndrome Lexington Books 1988 Organ was filling in as a substitute employee in a paper mill and did not know how to perform his job tasks As the work flow was beginning to be disrupted a full time employee left his station to come and help Citizenship behaviors are voluntary activities that may or may not be rewarded but that contribute to the organization by improving the quality of the setting where
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