Practical session 1
1. Organizational behaviour
- Multidisciplinary field that seeks knowledge of behaviour in organizational settings
by systematically studying individual, group and organizational processes. –
Greenberg
- Study of factors that affect how individual and groups act in organizations and how
organizations respond to their environment – George & Jones
What is an organization?
- Meaning of an entity
Company, organization, system, institute, association, partnership, factory
“system of coordinated activities of two or more people” – Kreitner, Kinicki & Buelens
“structured social system consisting of groups and individuals working together to meet some
agreed- upon objectives” – Greenberg
- Meaning of an organization
Management, structure, control, planning, coaching, coordination, procedures
Which relationships to investigate?
Predictors of behaviour
Themes on multiple levels:
- Individual
- Group
- Organization
- Societal
Goals of OB
- Which practices/ interventions have positive/
negative consequences in workplace based on scientific evidence
Instrumental knowledge
- Able to describe and explain behavior and processes in organizations based on
validated concepts/ theories
Conceptual knowledge
- Gather own evidence in proper way, to have a better understanding of your own
organization
Methodological knowledge
Examples
Instrumental knowledge
- Autonomy increases job satisfaction – Hackman & Oldham, 1980
- Employees that share organization’s values have lower turnover intentions – O’Reilly,
Chatman & Caldwell, 1991)
,Conceptual knowledge
- Models and theoretical frameworks
o Job-demand-resources model for stress
o Self-determination model for motivation
- Concepts
o Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation (P&O, p 159-164)
o Definitions of quality (P&0, p 113)
Methodological knowledge
- Measuring instruments, questionnaires, tests
- Research methods
- Problem solving techniques
Value of OB of systematic study
Systematic study of behaviour is a means to making reasonable accurate predictions
- Looking at relationships, attempting to attribute causes/ effects, and basing our
conclusions on scientific evidence
- Evidence- based management (EBM)
“Management is and will likely always be a craft than can be learned only through
practice and experience. Yet, we believe that managers can practice their craft more
effectively if they are routinely guided by the best logic and evidence – and if they
relentlessly seek new knowledge and insight, from both inside and outside their
companies, to keep updating their assumptions, knowledge, and skills.” (Pfeffer,
2006)
Evidence- based management
Innovative working method to make more effective and well-founded decisions when
managing employees, teams and organizations
Making use of scientific evidence when making decisions + sources of information
4 activities to help managers improve quality of decisions
- Systematically gathering best available scientific evidence with regard to issue on
table
- Collecting data/ figures from organization in methodological way to increase
reliability/ usability of internal knowledge
- Make continuous use of decision guidelines to avoid assessment errors & increase
liability of decision process
- Considering ethical aspects, whereby preferences and interests of various stakeholders
that can be influenced by decision play important role
Science based management, evidence based practice
Sources of EMB – Barends, Rousseau & Briner, 2014
- Scientific evidence; findings form published scientific research
- Organizational evidence; data, facts, figures gathered from organization
- Experiential evidence; professional experience and judgement of practitioners
- Stakeholder evidence; values and concerns of people who may be affected by decision
Examples
1. Plans for merging the back offices of a big company with a small firm. Problem:
Cultural differences could cause culture challenges between professionals.
2. Plans for changing the regionally structure to a product-based structure. Problem:
harm customer relationships when ditching the region structure.
,Practical session 2
1. Introduction to research in HRM and OB
Goal; understanding contextual influences of behavior in organizational context
Which relationship do you want to investigate?
Key concepts
Research question
- Focus for investigation
- Defines significant area of interest (for individual/ group), requires investigation
- Fundamental core of research project, study
Focuses the study, determines methodology, guides all stages of inquiry,
analysis and reporting
What causes people to like/ dislike their jobs?
Does level of pay affect how much people like their job?
Hypothesis = statement of results that researcher expects to find
Possible answer to research question
People who are well paid -> like their job better
People who are fairly paid -> like their job better
Examples
A: Person
- Is there a relationship between extroversion and punctuality?
More outgoing person, more he will be late
B: Relation
- Do employees have higher job satisfaction as team has more autonomy?
Employees (self-managing teams) have higher job satisfaction than employees
(authoritarian teams)
C: Organizational culture
- Do companies that monitor their staff perform better?
Companies with lot of control/ with very little control, performance is the
lowest
D: Societal level
- In times of crisis, do people complain less about working overtime?
In times of crisis people are more likely to volunteer working overtime
Predictors of behavior
Lewin’s model: B=f(P,O)
Behavior: arriving late, achievement, chatting during work, well-being at work
A: personal characteristics: gender, extroversion, IQ, eduction level …
, B: group characteristics: size, diversity, degree of autonomy, age …
C: organization characteristics: organizational culture, structure, HR practices …
D: context characteristics: physical, socio-economic, culture-religious …
Variable
= measurable property/ characteristic of entity (behavior, person, group, organization,
context). Entity has specific value on variable and can thus distinguish itself from other
entities.
In Lewin model:
Y: variable to be declared, criteria variable/ dependent variable
- Explained by one/ more other variables
A, B, C, D: explanatory variables, predictors/ independent variables
- Thought to influence, or be correlated to another – X
Variables with (a value)
Lewin’s model: B=f(P,O)
Y: behavior: punctuality (high/ medium/ low)
A: personal characteristics: gender (male/ female)
B: group characteristics: gender ratio in team (% women)
C: organizational characteristics: type of company (profit/ non-profit)
D: context characteristics: unemployment rate (proportion of unemployed compared to
number of inhabitants between 16- 60y)
Different forms of relationships
Independence model: variables do not affect each other
Example: attribution as potential mediator of impact of social support on well-being
Single effect: X->Y: social support affects well-being, but effect
is not mediated via persons’ attribution style
Single effect: X -> Z: social support affects attribution style, not
well-being
Mediation (X -> Z -> Y): social support affects persons’
attribution style, which in turn affects persons’ well-being
Moderation vs mediation
Moderator= variable that affects the relationship between two other variables
- Changes relationship between two other variables. Relationship is different at one
level of moderator than another
- Gender, age
Mediator= variable that is part of intervening process between two other variables. Explains
why two variables relate to one another
- Concerned with causal chain of events in which one
variable causes mediator, which in turn causes another
variable
1. Organizational behaviour
- Multidisciplinary field that seeks knowledge of behaviour in organizational settings
by systematically studying individual, group and organizational processes. –
Greenberg
- Study of factors that affect how individual and groups act in organizations and how
organizations respond to their environment – George & Jones
What is an organization?
- Meaning of an entity
Company, organization, system, institute, association, partnership, factory
“system of coordinated activities of two or more people” – Kreitner, Kinicki & Buelens
“structured social system consisting of groups and individuals working together to meet some
agreed- upon objectives” – Greenberg
- Meaning of an organization
Management, structure, control, planning, coaching, coordination, procedures
Which relationships to investigate?
Predictors of behaviour
Themes on multiple levels:
- Individual
- Group
- Organization
- Societal
Goals of OB
- Which practices/ interventions have positive/
negative consequences in workplace based on scientific evidence
Instrumental knowledge
- Able to describe and explain behavior and processes in organizations based on
validated concepts/ theories
Conceptual knowledge
- Gather own evidence in proper way, to have a better understanding of your own
organization
Methodological knowledge
Examples
Instrumental knowledge
- Autonomy increases job satisfaction – Hackman & Oldham, 1980
- Employees that share organization’s values have lower turnover intentions – O’Reilly,
Chatman & Caldwell, 1991)
,Conceptual knowledge
- Models and theoretical frameworks
o Job-demand-resources model for stress
o Self-determination model for motivation
- Concepts
o Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation (P&O, p 159-164)
o Definitions of quality (P&0, p 113)
Methodological knowledge
- Measuring instruments, questionnaires, tests
- Research methods
- Problem solving techniques
Value of OB of systematic study
Systematic study of behaviour is a means to making reasonable accurate predictions
- Looking at relationships, attempting to attribute causes/ effects, and basing our
conclusions on scientific evidence
- Evidence- based management (EBM)
“Management is and will likely always be a craft than can be learned only through
practice and experience. Yet, we believe that managers can practice their craft more
effectively if they are routinely guided by the best logic and evidence – and if they
relentlessly seek new knowledge and insight, from both inside and outside their
companies, to keep updating their assumptions, knowledge, and skills.” (Pfeffer,
2006)
Evidence- based management
Innovative working method to make more effective and well-founded decisions when
managing employees, teams and organizations
Making use of scientific evidence when making decisions + sources of information
4 activities to help managers improve quality of decisions
- Systematically gathering best available scientific evidence with regard to issue on
table
- Collecting data/ figures from organization in methodological way to increase
reliability/ usability of internal knowledge
- Make continuous use of decision guidelines to avoid assessment errors & increase
liability of decision process
- Considering ethical aspects, whereby preferences and interests of various stakeholders
that can be influenced by decision play important role
Science based management, evidence based practice
Sources of EMB – Barends, Rousseau & Briner, 2014
- Scientific evidence; findings form published scientific research
- Organizational evidence; data, facts, figures gathered from organization
- Experiential evidence; professional experience and judgement of practitioners
- Stakeholder evidence; values and concerns of people who may be affected by decision
Examples
1. Plans for merging the back offices of a big company with a small firm. Problem:
Cultural differences could cause culture challenges between professionals.
2. Plans for changing the regionally structure to a product-based structure. Problem:
harm customer relationships when ditching the region structure.
,Practical session 2
1. Introduction to research in HRM and OB
Goal; understanding contextual influences of behavior in organizational context
Which relationship do you want to investigate?
Key concepts
Research question
- Focus for investigation
- Defines significant area of interest (for individual/ group), requires investigation
- Fundamental core of research project, study
Focuses the study, determines methodology, guides all stages of inquiry,
analysis and reporting
What causes people to like/ dislike their jobs?
Does level of pay affect how much people like their job?
Hypothesis = statement of results that researcher expects to find
Possible answer to research question
People who are well paid -> like their job better
People who are fairly paid -> like their job better
Examples
A: Person
- Is there a relationship between extroversion and punctuality?
More outgoing person, more he will be late
B: Relation
- Do employees have higher job satisfaction as team has more autonomy?
Employees (self-managing teams) have higher job satisfaction than employees
(authoritarian teams)
C: Organizational culture
- Do companies that monitor their staff perform better?
Companies with lot of control/ with very little control, performance is the
lowest
D: Societal level
- In times of crisis, do people complain less about working overtime?
In times of crisis people are more likely to volunteer working overtime
Predictors of behavior
Lewin’s model: B=f(P,O)
Behavior: arriving late, achievement, chatting during work, well-being at work
A: personal characteristics: gender, extroversion, IQ, eduction level …
, B: group characteristics: size, diversity, degree of autonomy, age …
C: organization characteristics: organizational culture, structure, HR practices …
D: context characteristics: physical, socio-economic, culture-religious …
Variable
= measurable property/ characteristic of entity (behavior, person, group, organization,
context). Entity has specific value on variable and can thus distinguish itself from other
entities.
In Lewin model:
Y: variable to be declared, criteria variable/ dependent variable
- Explained by one/ more other variables
A, B, C, D: explanatory variables, predictors/ independent variables
- Thought to influence, or be correlated to another – X
Variables with (a value)
Lewin’s model: B=f(P,O)
Y: behavior: punctuality (high/ medium/ low)
A: personal characteristics: gender (male/ female)
B: group characteristics: gender ratio in team (% women)
C: organizational characteristics: type of company (profit/ non-profit)
D: context characteristics: unemployment rate (proportion of unemployed compared to
number of inhabitants between 16- 60y)
Different forms of relationships
Independence model: variables do not affect each other
Example: attribution as potential mediator of impact of social support on well-being
Single effect: X->Y: social support affects well-being, but effect
is not mediated via persons’ attribution style
Single effect: X -> Z: social support affects attribution style, not
well-being
Mediation (X -> Z -> Y): social support affects persons’
attribution style, which in turn affects persons’ well-being
Moderation vs mediation
Moderator= variable that affects the relationship between two other variables
- Changes relationship between two other variables. Relationship is different at one
level of moderator than another
- Gender, age
Mediator= variable that is part of intervening process between two other variables. Explains
why two variables relate to one another
- Concerned with causal chain of events in which one
variable causes mediator, which in turn causes another
variable
