Science of OB (MGMT 300)

organizational behavior (OB)

replacing intuition with evidence from systematic and scientific study

systematic study

accumulating evidence behind your opinions using rigorous scientific studies, allowing us to attribute causes and effects

postulation

spell out explicit and falsifiable claims

justification

offer theoretical reasons for a claim

falsification

collect data to try to disprove a claim

research project elements

research question, prior work, research design, contribution to literature

nascent theory

open ended inquiry about a phenomenon of interest

intermediate theory

proposed relationships between new and established constructs

mature theory

focused questions or hypothesis relating existing constructs

field survey

quantitative correlation

lab/field experiement

quantitative causation

interviews/observation

qualitative correlation

quantitative method

numerical data, interested in what the relationship between A and B is

spurious correlation

two things appeal to be related but do not have a causal relationship

conditions for a causal relationship

correlation, temporal precedence, no alternative explainations

causal method (needed to establish causal relationships)

manipulation and random assignment

convergent validity

moderate-strong correlations with similar constructs

discriminant validity

uniqueness to similar constructs; no/weak correlation with unrelated constructs

monological net validity

construct empirically fits in theoretical models

qualitative method

non-numerical data, interested in how something happened