Organizational Behavior Week 1 & 2

Week 1

• OB is the scientific study of behaviours and mental processes in organisations
• Hawthorne Studies demonstrated that worker behavior is influenced by more than just physical or monetary incentives
• The Hawthorne Effect is a change in behavior following a new treatment, with a gradual return to the previous behaviour level
• The Hawthorne Studies were the first to predict that work behaviour is influenced by factors beyond physical environment and monetary incentives

Week 2

• Research designs include Case Studies (in-depth study of individuals/organisations), Naturalistic Observation (watching behaviour in natural environments) and Survey methods (questionnaires/interviews) and experimental methods (manipulating variables to observe effects).
• Key considerations for research studies are External Validity (generalizability) and External Validity (control of other variables).
• Validity is related to accuracy of measurement and reliability refers to consistency of measurement.
• Reliability is checked by measuring errors of measurement, which assess random errors, not constant errors. Longer tests can be more reliable as errors cancel out.
• Correlation describes the relationship between two variables, with magnitude (strength) and direction (positive/negative).
• Coefficient of determination is the square of the correlation (explaining the variation). Moderation refers to the role of a variable in influencing the relationship between two other variables.

Week 3

• Cognitive ability is a strong predictor of job performance across various jobs and cultures
• Personality traits, like the Big 5 (Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness to Experience), also predict job performance. Neuroticism has a negative relation with job performance, while conscientiousness is positively related.
• Intelligence can be thought as multi-dimensional, as a person who is smart in one area, can be smart in other areas related to it
• Intelligence in one area can predict performance in other areas related to that intelligence

Week 4

• Cultural values like Individualism, Power Distance, Achievement Orientation, Uncertainty Avoidance, Future Orientation, and Indulgence/Restraint influence work attitudes and behaviours.
• These can strongly influence work values like honesty, fairness, and concern for others
• Individual level cultural values are better at predicting attitudes and behaviours than country level cultural values

Week 5

• Decision making is influenced by factors beyond rationality, including information constraints, time constraints, and political considerations
• Risk-taking varies across cultures and is associated with different cultural norms
• Heuristics (mental shortcuts) and biases can affect decision-making
• Escalation of commitment is continuing to invest in failing decisions due to self-justification, gambler's fallacy and perceptual blindness

Week 6

• Leadership is about influencing others to achieve organizational goals
• Various theories predict leadership effectiveness, including the traits approach (e.g., intelligence, energy, self-confidence) and leadership theories like House's Path-Goal Theory, Transformational Leadership, and Ethical Leadership

Week 7

• Motivation is affected by both biological and sociological factors.
• Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (physiological, safety, belongingness, esteem, self-actualization) and Alderfer's ERG theory (existence, relatedness, growth) are important need theories.
• Self-Determination Theory suggests that people are motivated by autonomy, competence, and relatedness
• Equity theory focuses on social comparison and fairness perceptions.

Week 8

• Key steps in negotiation include: Preparation, Relationship building, Information gathering and using, Bidding, Closing the deal, and Implementing the deal.
• Strategies for distributive negotiation include assessing your BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement), determining resistance points, and using anchoring and making the first offer strategically
• Important to build rapport with the other party to establish relationships
• Patterns and magnitude of concessions can impact negotiation success

Week 9

• Emotion regulation ability can affect well-being and socioeconomic success
• Ability to down-regulate negative emotions is correlated with better well-being, and ability to up-regulate positive emotions is correlated with greater well-being and financial success
• Emotion regulation skills can be enhanced through training

Week 10

• Persuasion is about influencing others’ thoughts, feelings, or behaviours using various strategies like Reciprocity, Authority, Commitment/Consistency, Scarcity, Liking, and Social Proof.
• These persuasion tactics have different degrees of influence
• Normative data and culture can affect people behaviour, to maximize the effect of persuasion

Week 11

• Some common causes of conflict are group identification (and intergroup bias), interdependence, differences in power and status, ambiguity, and scarce resources.
• Strategies for resolving conflict include avoidance, accommodation, competition, compromise, collaboration, and negotiation.
• Negotiations have stages such as preparation, relationship-building, information gathering, bidding, closing the deal, and implementation of the deal

Week 12

• Agreeableness can negatively affect income and career advancement based on stereotypical perceptions.
• Cultural and gender norms affect how traits are valued in certain settings
• There are variations between self-report data and actual observed behavior when measuring the importance of factors like pay
• Understanding the diverse social norms impacting these behaviors could help managers and organisations better design effective and fair employment practises or reward systems