Ch.1 Organizational Behavior at Work

Organizational Behavior

The systematic study and application of knowledge about how individuals and groups act within the organizations they work.

What research methods are used to study organizational behavior?

Case studies, field studies, lab study, meta-analysis

top four most in demand soft skills

leadership, communication, collaboration, time management

Three Levels of Analysis

Individual, Group, Organization

Laboratory studies

study conducted in artificial situations outside of actual organizations

Surveys

One of the primary methods for collecting information for OB research. Basic question and answer.

Field studies

Conducted in actual organizations; usually involves surveying employees, but could involve an experimental design

Case studies

In-depth description of a single company or industry.

Correlation

Measures the strength of the relationship between two variables.

Three aspects of causality

Precedence (x comes before y)

Association (x and y are related)

Eliminating alternative explanations

Hypotheses

Tentative guesses or hunches for an expected observation, phenomenon, or scientific problem that can be tested.

Variables

Entities that can take on different values.

experimental design

A study having a group that receives a treatment and a comparison group that receives no treatment.

control group

A group that does not receive any experimental manipulation so it can be compared to a treatment group.

Treatment group

A group that receives experimental manipulation.

Meta-analysis

The process of summarizing research findings from studies on related topics.

causation

the act of making something happen

descriptive analytics

Approaches focused on understanding what has already happened.

predictive analytics

What is likely to happen based on what we already know.

prescriptive analytics

a focus on what should be done in the future based on what we know