Organizational Behavior: systematic study

• Organizational Behavior (OB) is a field of study

Focus of OB

• Investigates the impact of individuals, groups, and structure on behavior within organizations
• Applies this knowledge to improve an organization's effectiveness

Intuition vs. Systematic Study

• Intuition is a feeling not necessarily supported by research
• Systematic study looks at relationships
• Attempts to attribute cause and effect
• Draws conclusions based on scientific evidence to predict behaviors

Contributing Disciplines to OB

• Psychology is the science that seeks to measure, explain, and change the behavior of humans and other animals
• Sociology is the study of people in relation to other human beings
• Social psychology blends concepts from psychology and sociology and focuses on the influence of people on one another
• Anthropology studies societies to learn about human beings and their activities
• Political science studies the behavior of individuals and groups within a political environment

Contingency Variables

• Situational factors that moderate the relationship between two or more other variables
• Improve correlation

Model

• An abstraction of reality and a simplified representation of a real-world phenomenon

Dependent Variables

• A response that is affected by an independent variable

Productivity Components

• Effectiveness is the achievement of goals
• Efficiency is the ratio of effective output to the input required to achieve it

Absenteeism

• The failure to report to work

Turnover

• The voluntary and involuntary permanent withdrawal from an organization

Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB)

• Discretionary behavior that is not part of an employee's formal job requirements
• Promotes the effective functioning of the organization

Job Satisfaction

• A general attitude toward one's job
• The difference between the amount of reward workers receive and the amount they believe they should receive