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?

• True-false quiz on your knowledge about human
  behavior.
• What problems did you have in completing this
  quiz?
• What conclusions might 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)

Based on Pfeffer Veigas work
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
So where do we get our knowledge or truth about
behavior in organizations

• Personal or others experience
• Armchair theorizing
• Authority figures tell us what to think
• Historical analysis of organizations, societies,
  and institutions
• In-depth case analysis of people in situations
• Scientific research and experimentation

8
Theory vs. Empirical Research in Science

• Theory
• A network of associations among concepts
• Example the relationship of job autonomy, job
  stress, and turnover
• Empirical research
• Identify factors to study, gather data, analyze
  data, and draw conclusions from the results of
  analyzing the data
• Examples Experiments, surveys, interviews

9
Theory Development Cycle
Observe Facts
Verification
Induce Theory (specific cases to general case)
Deduce Hypotheses (general case to specific case)
10
Criteria of Good Theory

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

11
What is scientific research?

• Method for seeking out and analyzing information
  in a systematic and unbiased way
• Characteristics of scientific research
• Self-correcting over time
• Public procedures for replication purposes
• Precise definitions of terms
• Controlled and objective procedures used
• Systematic and cumulative

12
Methods used in Behavioral Research

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

13
Research Approach (Hypothetico- Deductive Approach
)
Problem or Question
Develop theory
Generate hypothesis
Design research strategy
Refine theory
Collect data
Implement findings
Analyze data
Interpret results
14
Research Problem (Questions)

• How can we encourage more sustainable business
  practices in the workplace?
• What are employees beliefs about environmental
  sustainability?
• What employee behaviors contribute to sustainable
  business practices?
• What organizational policies encourage employees
  to use sustainable business practices?

15
Theory
Organizational policies that support
sustainability and employee beliefs regarding
environmental sustainability will be related to
employee behaviors regarding sustainability
Potential causes or independent variables
Sustainable Organizational Policies
Employee Behaviors Regarding Sustainability
Employee Beliefs About Environmental Sustainabilit
y
Effect or dependent variable
16
Hypotheses

• The more sustainable policies the organization
  has, the more likely employees will engage in
  environmental sustainable behaviors
• The more that employee beliefs regarding
  environmental sustainability are positive, the
  more likely employees will engage in
  environmental sustainable behaviors

17
Research Design Strategy

• Field experiment
• Study 20 organizations in three industries
  retailing, insurance, manufacturing
• Measure the number of environmental
  sustainability policies each organization has
  (company records)
• Measure employees attitudes toward environmental
  sustainability (survey)
• Measure employee sustainability behaviors (survey)

18
Data Collection

• Collect from company records the number and type
  of organizational policies on environmental
  sustainability
• Survey employee beliefs regarding environmental
  sustainability (10 items measured on a 7-point
  scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree)
• Survey question asking if the employee engaged in
  10 environmentally sustainable behaviors on the
  job on a 5-point scale (never, rarely, sometimes,
  usually, always)

19
Data Analysis

• In our 20 organizations, we found out that
  companies had a range of one to 15 sustainability
  policies, with a mean of 5 and a standard
  deviation of 2.5 (68 had between 2.5 and 7.5
  policies)
• We had 50 employees in each of the 20 companies
  fill out surveys on their beliefs and behaviors
• Beliefs on sustainability Mean of 4.5 on
  7-point scale
• Behaviors regarding sustainability Mean of 2.7
  on 5-point scale

20
Plot data The relationship between
organizational policies and employee behaviors
5
4
Employee Behaviors (DV)
3
2
1
1 5 10 15
r .40 p lt .05
Organizational Policies (IV)
21
Plot data The relationship between employee
beliefs and employee behaviors
5
4
Employee Behaviors (DV)
3
2
1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
r .20 Not significant
Employee Beliefs (IV)
22
Interpret Results and Implementation

• Organizational policies have a more significant
  effect on employee behaviors than their personal
  beliefs
• Possible problems with our study?
• Other ways to analyze the data?
• Implementation
• Implement policies and enforce them
• Find ways to provide incentives for sustainable
  behaviors

23
Other Research Issues

• Rigor of study
• Causation vs. correlation
• Quality of your measuring devices
• Type of measurement categorical, ordinal
  interval, ratio
• Sampling issues
• Ethical issues