Organizational Behavior Classes Research Articles

Problem-Based Learning in Organizational Behavior Class: Solving Students’ Real Problems

This article describes a problem-based learning (PBL) project that incorporates active learning into an organizational behavior (OB) course. It describes a six-step process for designing a course around problems that students identify in their work, school, or personal lives. In addition to researching an OB concept to address their problem, students develop a solution plan, carry out objective measurement of results, and engage in structured reflection on project completion. The article suggests some ways to adapt PBL for classes of different sizes or duration and offers some advice to faculty regarding how to structure the project for best results.

Bridging the Gap: Challenges and Prescriptions for Interactive Distance Education

As interactive distance education gains prominence in management education, fanfare about the technology has overshadowed how the distance mode affects the learning context. This article addresses the gap between the technology focus and the learning environment. The authors categorize three specific challenges posed by interactive distance education: (a) the challenge of the technology delivery, (b) the challenge of the work-site context, and (c) the challenge to the student/professor relationship. Because others have written about the technology delivery, the authors focus on the work-site dynamic and the context of learning and offer prescriptions for managing these critical dynamics more effectively. The work is based on one of the author’s MBA organizational behavior classes offered via interactive video technology to seven off-campus sites simultaneously and is supplemented with field observation, student surveys, and interviews.

Like Water for Chocolate: Action Theory for the OB Class

Believing in the axiom that nothing is more practical than a good theory, the author incorporated Argyris’s action theory in the content of the organizational behavior (OB) course and the management of the class for more than 6 years. The implementation began with qualms pertaining to the actionability of action theory and whether it was Argyris-specific. The article provides a brief description and a model of Argyris’s theory, describes the process of incorporating it in the design and management of the class as an organization, and suggests implications for OB courses and teachers. The article also provides reflections from students on the nature and challenges of the implementation process and discusses similarities between implementing action theory in the class and in other manifestations of real life. Overwhelming evidence from a multiple method–multiple attribute assessment of the longitudinal experience documents that action theory is indeed actionable when it is given the opportunity to create the learning environment it purports to facilitate.

Opposites May Not Attract,But They Can Complement: Integrating Finance and Organizational Behavior in the MBA Curriculum

Traditional MBA curricula have been criticized for lacking integration across functional courses. Some schools have responded with expensive wholesale curriculum overhauls. Lower cost approaches may also be effective. The article describes an integrated case assignment between core Finance and Organizational Behavior (OB) classes, involving a merger and acquisition. The OB class assigned student teams to role-play the negotiations of the acquisition deal, whereas the Finance class assigned them to prepare the necessary financial analyses. The assignments were jointly evaluated by professors from both courses. The schedule of the exercise is described, and student reactions and faculty insights are presented.

A Semester-Long Experiential Exercise to Develop Workplace Understanding: The Role Assignment Exercise

To understand diversity issues, students must have an experience with diversity that transcends the factual knowledge that is most often the focus of college classes. This article summarizes the use of a journal-writing project as a pedagogical tool for developing this understanding through the process of self-discovery. Multidimensional evidence, both qualitative and quantitative, is presented to support the efficacy of using this tool in the development of student learning about diversity issues. The article concludes with reflections based on the use of the journal in four introductory undergraduate organizational behavior classes and caveats for using the journal as a pedagogical tool.

Strategy and Theory for Intrapersonal Development in Public Administration Education

In an earlier writing, Denhardt and Aristigueta (1996) discussed the need for the development of intrapersonal skills based on the demands being placed on employees in today's ever-changing environment. The purpose of this article is to provide a framework for teaching intrapersonal skills within the public administration curriculum. The format described has been used in graduate-level organizational behavior classes in which one-third of the course is devoted to intrapersonal development. This article contains a brief theoretical discussion of the need for intrapersonal development, the inclusion of these skills in public administration education, and sample exercises and inventories for use in the classroom. A final suggestion advocating the use of reflective journals is made in the summary.

The Performance Appraisal Interview: A Multi-Purpose Communication Assignment

The performance appraisal has become a standard topic in business or management curriculum, most frequently covered in personnel, management, human resources, or organizational behavior classes. Students learn such things as types of employee appraisal systems, how to create appraisal instruments, and how performance appraisals fit into larger employment cycle. What these students seldom have an opportunity to acquire or to practice, however, are specific communication skills necessary to effectively implement systems they study. However knowledgeable our graduates may be in principles and theory of performance appraisal, their ability to effectively execute these systems, particularly under difficult circumstances, is often limited unless they have acquired accompanying competence in oral and written communication. Importantly, communication skills and attitudes most critical to effective performance appraisal are same skills and attitudes that are needed in a wide range of other on-the-job management communication situations. Students who develop communication competencies necessary for conducting challenging performance appraisals will be well-served as they train, coach, counsel, direct, and motivate employees in other daily work contexts. A brief examination of goals and methods of performance appraisal may be helpful in providing a context for following assignment, which is designed to help students choose and practice some of most essential management communication skills and strategies. Further information may be found in Dessler (1983), Napier and Latham (1986), Smith (1986), DeGreforio and Fisher (1988), add Mohrmann, Resnick-West, & Lawler (1989). PERFORMANCE APPRAISALS Performance appraisals have become a primary management tool for improving employee performance, setting total quality standards, and communicating organizational values. Although performance appraisal serves several functions, its primary purpose is to improve individual performance, most often through a. Clarifying job requirements and standards b. Providing feedback to employee regarding his or her progress toward meeting these standards c. Guiding future performance by formulating an action-plan and allocating rewards and opportunities. An effective appraisal, therefore, accomplishes a variety of specific tasks while maintaining a positive relationship between supervisor and employee. The difficulty of this task, from manager's viewpoint, is largely dependent upon type of appraisal interview required. In some cases, employee performance is satisfactory and manager's goal is to either help employee maintain his or her current level of performance (when no promotion is possible) or to assist in development of a realistic career path. The interview assignment as described below, however, pertains only to those situations where performance is unsatisfactory. The management task is to communicate performance problems to an employee who, for any number of reasons, may not be completely receptive to manager's efforts. In preparation for appraisal interview, managers assemble and review all relevant data, make decisions regarding various aspects of appraisal itself and prepare employee for up-coming meeting. Of wide range of appraisal methods, three most frequently used instruments are rating scales, critical incidents, or a combination of two called behaviorally anchored rating scales (BARS). BARS anchor points of rating scale with fictional sample critical incidents - examples of what employee's performance looks like for each value of rating scale and for each dimension being evaluated. On a five-point scale covering typing accuracy, for instance, critical incident for 1 may be the employee submits work with approximately an error per page at least half of time. …

The Culture Connection: Uncovering OB Concepts in Organizations

The organizational culture audit is presented as an organizational behavior class assignment designed to challenge executive MBA students to use their firsthand knowledge of the work environment to improve their sensitivity to behavior. The assignment, based on Schein's model, is described in terms of the instructional methods used to operationalize it. The authors conclude by sharing their observations of the benefits and problems associated with its use.

Organizational Dramas and Dramatic Stagings about them

Introducing theater into a class on organizational behavior sheds new light on the joys, dilemmas, conflicts, and aspirations that humans experience at work. That is, experiencing a live dramatic performance about others' lives has the potential to personally move and to motivate students (and faculty) to consider work-related issues in different and novel ways. This article provides an understanding of how to incorporate theater into an organizational behavior class by exploring the theoretical underpinnings of such efforts, depicting one specific case, and identifying ways in which faculty can adopt this approach in their classes.

Reflections on Teaching a Large Class

An analysis of large and small class differences is used as a framework for planning for and teaching a large class. Using this conceptualization, the process of developing and offering an organizational behavior class to 141 students is discussed and analyzed. Specific suggestions are provided to improve teaching effectiveness by minimizing the psychological and physical distances inherent in such an environment, redistributing resources, and increasing the personalization of the course. Various tactics and strategies are presented and discussed. The results seem to indicate that the framework developed and suggestions provided are applicable to other pedagogies and courses.

"Experience Base" Learning: A Classroom-as-Organization Using Delegated, Rank-Order Grading

A management and organizational behavior class designed as a new paradigm (sociotechnical) organization expands the classroom-as-organization (CAO) model. Groups of students take different administrative roles and teaching responsibilities. Helped by a detailed manual, students manage, teach, and evaluate their peers. An elaborate control (grading) system makes this learning organization effective. Rank-order peer grading eliminates tests. Conflict occurs, but eventually students, like members of an autonomous work group, learn to manage responsibly. The professor delegates most tasks and becomes a coach but must contend with the college grading system and teaching colleagues unaccustomed to rank-order peer evaluation.

The Jigsaw Technique: A Way to Establish Individual Accountability in Group Work

The use of student groups has long been a prevalent feature of business education. Therefore, it is critical that instructors design and implement these groups in a way that will facilitate learning for all students. One of the essential factors in ensuring the effective use of groups is establishing individual accountability during group work. The jigsaw procedure is one such technique that ensures that equal participation will occur among all members. This article describes the jigsaw technique—both the outcomes and pitfalls—and provides one illustration of how this technique may be incorporated into an organizational behavior class.

Adopting a Contingency Approach to One's Leadership Style: From Cognitive Awareness to Actual Practice—As Easy as it Appears?

Implied in the contingency approach to leadership is the need for leaders to be flexible in their choice of leadership style based on the situation. Thus, if the leader's initial attempt to influence a group is unsuccessful, one suggested course of action available to the leader is to adopt an alternative style of leadership more compatible with elements of the situation. This article examines the likelihood that awareness by the leader that the present leadership style "is not working" is sufficient to result in the leader's changing his or her style. It is contended that once a leader encounters resistance to his or her attempts to influence a group, a more likely response of many leaders is to rely even further on the approach to leadership that he or she is most comfortable with. Leadership style(s) used by an organizational behavior (OB) instructor in relating to several OB classes that varied greatly in terms of performance and classroom participation are examined.

Beyond Role-Play: Character Immersion in the Organizational Behavior Class

Beyond Role-Play: Character Immersion in the Organizational Behavior Class

Beyond the Story: How To Use a Literary Critic in the Organizational Behavior Class

Beyond the Story: How To Use a Literary Critic in the Organizational Behavior Class

Teaching Biopolitics in a Professional Curriculum

This article considers the ways in which teachers of public administration can address biopolitical issues within an established professional curriculum. The author distinguishes between the teleological and instrumental aspects of a belief system, holding that biobehavioral explanation can be pedagogically useful and can provide public administrators with a model for assessing and responding to workplace phenomena. The article proposes that undergraduate and graduate teaching impose different standards on an instructor seeking to introduce biobehavioral and biostructural concepts. The different standards arise out of the explicit and focused career instrumentality of graduate study in public administration, as well as age graded differences in receptivity to particular propositions about human nature. Finally, this article details some ways in which biobehavioral explanation can be introduced in organizational behavior classes and in classes that consider the structure of public organizations and their decision-making processes.

Learning Productivity-- Practicing What We Teach

Conclusions about the positive effect of worker participation and own ership on productivity are used to develop a parallel consideration of the productivity of management and organizational behavior classes. The cen tral theme is the proposition that learning productivity depends on learner involvement. Personal observations and teaching experiences are supported with productivity literature, achievement and self concept research data, and learning theory. The overall conclusions are that when students take re sponsibility for their learning results, productivity increases and they develop skill with managing high involvement work processes.

Supervisors' Power: An Exchange Model of Leadership

validity. From organizational behavior and speech classes at a large, midwestern university 48 student volunreers completed the scales using their supervisors is the focal ,persons. Criterion measures included the Leadership Behavior Description Questionnaire's Structure scale, subordinates' evaluations of their supervisors' effectiveness, subordinates' estimates of others' evaluations of their supervisors' effectiveness, subordinates' frequency of compliance with supervisors' requess, and subordinates' perceptions of supervisors' tolerance. Scores on the power scale did not correlate with the subordinates' frequency of compliance with supervisors' requests (T = $05). This may be a function of the subjects' particular jobs. The mean frequency of compliance was 77%, suggesting that this group may have had little control over their job behavior. Also, scale scores weie related to the remaining criterion measures, including subordinates' perception of effectiveness of leadership (r = .36, p = ' .006), the production emphasis scale of the Leadership Behavior Description Questionnaire (r = .29, p = .02), and others' perceptions of the effectiveness of the supervisors (T = .48. fi = ,001). Findings support the postulated exchange theory of leadership and provide small evidence for the scale's construct validity.