FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

What is OB?

(Boundless, 2015; Investopedia, n.d.)

Organizational behavior (OB) is the study of the way people interact within groups. Normally this study is applied in an attempt to create more efficient business organizations. The central idea of the study of organizational behavior is that a scientific approach can be applied to the management of workers. Organizational behavior theories are used for human resource purposes to maximize the output from individual group members. (Investopedia, n.d.; watch a great video introduction here!)

• It is an interdisciplinary field that includes sociology, psychology, communication, and management. Organizational behavior complements organizational theory, which focuses on organizational and intra-organizational topics, and complements human-resource studies, which is more focused on everyday business practices.

  • Concepts such as leadership, decision making, team building, motivation, and job satisfaction are all facets of organizational behavior and responsibilities of management. Organizational behavior also deals heavily in culture. Company or corporate culture is difficult to define but is extremely relevant to how organizations behave.

ORG. BEHAVIOR FRAMEWORK:

Read these to get some context clues. (Businessdictionary.com, n.d.)

• The organizational behavior was studied closely as we intended to examine the nature of the relationships of the parties involved.

• Having a good organizational behavior model will keep everyone in your company acting properly so that people respect your company.

• In our study group, we all went over organizational behavior, which would help us work in a group together better.

Isn't OB just common sense?

This is a common misconception among undergraduate students when they take this type of class. The reality is, while some of the concepts presented in the class may appear to be "common sense" (e.g., reward employees for a good job performance) in terms of understanding them, the key is being able to apply them to achieve better business results in real world organizations. When it comes to implementing OB concepts and principles, effective real world managers and business leaders will tell you that this is extremely difficult to do. So, the key is to focus ultimately on how to ensure that "common sense" translates into "common practice." You will see that the majority of managers in the real world do not do a good job of implementing many OB principles and as a result, they are not effective. This is one reason why so many employees can provide you with many examples of why their bosses are not effective and why they demotivate and demoralize them.

Corporations don't care about anything but profit, so why isn't this course all about $$$?

In terms of the "OB doesn't matter" argument, it is not accurate to say that the profitability of a company is not influenced by OB or management. Profits come from things such as increasing sales of the company's products and services, running the company in a cost-efficient manner, etc. OB and management are critical in terms of how you manage all of the people who research and develop new products, the type of systems you develop to manufacture your products or to provide services, etc. Customer satisfaction in a service context is driven by how well your employees are managed and motivated to meet or exceed the expectations of these customers whether you are in the hotel, retail, financial services, or telecommunications industry. The bottom line is that OB and management in general clearly matter in terms of impacting the bottom line of a corporation.

I don't ever want to be manager; am I in the wrong class?

You will find that if you want to get promoted into higher level positions that give you more responsibility, status, and financial rewards in real world companies, you will need to learn how to develop the kinds of management skills we will focus on. Business schools often receive many e-mails from former students who are now working in the real world saying that "OB is extremely important" to their success in their jobs and they see many examples of how management in their companies does not handle OB issues effectively in many situations.

Keep in mind also that you may not be given a choice as to whether you are going to be a manager. In many cases, your boss or your company will simply tell you that they need you to assume a leadership position by leading a task force, project team, or other work unit. How well you do with these opportunities will be used by your boss and others in management in your company to assess your future potential for promotions in your company.

I have a high GPA and am great with people, why should I take this class?

It would not be a good idea to assume that your high GPA means that you know how to work with people in real world companies, how to get results based on performing your job, or how to lead a work or project team. Your GPA does measure some important attributes like self management, analytical and problem solving skills, ability to learn, ability to apply yourself, etc., but it does not capture other important attributes such as interpersonal and communication skills, influencing and leading skills, ability to motivate others or how to manage change effectively, etc. These other skills are important for your future success in your job and career in the real world. And I try to teach them in this class.

Why do you use OCB's for Extra Credit?

In classes one of the things I see a lot as a professor is that many of you develop a relationship with me, but not so much one with each other. That's such a lost opportunity, especially when you're studying leadership, which by it's very nature requires people to act as a group or team. So that's why this is the method to gain extra credit in this class - I want to encourage you to make your classes more of a learning community, a bit more like they would be in the workplace (when you are all pursuing parallel purposes in a shared space), etc. Anything you can come up with which benefits your classmates (or even just one particular classmate) that helps us to be more effective can be used as an OCB.

References & Attributions

This was taken in large part and adapted from the excellent work of L. Kusuhara for the University of Wisconsin-Madison Business School's Spring 2011 MHR 300 course.

Businessdictionary.com. (n.d.) Organizational behavior. Retrieved from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/organizational-behavior.html

Investopedia. (n.d.) Organizational Behavior - OB. Retrieved from http://www.investopedia.com/terms/o/organizational-behavior.asp

Nagle, A. P. K. (n.d.). Organizational behavior. 1.2 Understanding Organizational Behavior | Organizational Behavior. Retrieved from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-orgbehavior/chapter/1-2-understanding-organizational-behavior/

Natad, J. (2009, September 8). Models of Organizational Behavior. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/jsndaan/models-of-organizational-behavior

Sing, S. (2008, September 13). Organisation Theory. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/suresh.singh/organisation-theory-presentation