Organizational Behavior

MAN 5246 Course Information: Professor:! ! Time:! ! ! Room:! ! Phone:! ! Fax:! ! ! E-mail:! ! Ofce:! ! Ofce Hours: ! Jason A. Colquitt Tues/Thur 9:35am-11:30am GER 121 846-0507 392-6020 colquitt@u.edu 233 Stuzin Hall Tuesday, 1:00pm-2:00pm (or by appointment)

Course Objectives: Organizational behavior is a eld of study that seeks to understand, explain, and improve human behavior in organizations. Most organizations focus their efforts on improving two aspects of human behavior: (1) job performancethe degree to which individuals perform the behaviors needed for the organization to achieve its goals; and (2) organizational commitmentthe degree to which employees remain loyal to the organization rather than withdrawing from their work. This course will guide you through a model that seeks to explain these two areas of organizational behavior. Course Readings: Colquitt, J. A., LePine, J. A., & Wesson, M. J. (2010). Organizational behavior: Essentials for improving performance and commitment. Burr Ridge, IL: McGraw-Hill Irwin. ISBN 978-0-07-811255-3.

Jason A. Colquitt Je!ery A. LePine Michael J. Wesson

The book is typically available at the UF Bookstore in the Reitz Union (392-0194). I have also placed four copies of the book on reserve at Library West. You may need to create an account through the Ares automated reserves system in order to pick up one of the books at the circulation desk. Visit https://ares-uib-u-edu.lp.hscl.u.edu/ for information on the Ares system. Note that the book is a shorter, more inexpensive paperback version of a hardcover book with a similar title and a similar ISBN number. If you order on Amazon, make sure the word Essentials is in the title and that the cover image is of the passing of a baton. That will ensure that youre getting the right version.

Course Schedule: The topics for each class are shown below. Lecture slides will be available on the e-Learning system. Date! ! ! TU, 1/5! ! ! TH, 1/7! ! TU, 1/12! TH, 1/14! TU, 1/19! TH, 1/21! TU, 1/26! TH, 1/28! TU, 2/2! TH, 2/4! TU, 2/9! TH, 2/11! TU, 2/16! TH, 2/18! TU, 2/23! Topic! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Readings

Course Introduction ! ! ! Organizational Behavior: An Overview! ! Job Performance! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

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Ch. 1 Ch. 2! ! Ch. 2! Ch. 3! Ch. 5

Organizational Commitment! Job Satisfaction! Motivation ! ! EXAM I Group Project Help Session! Trust, Justice, & Ethics! ! ! ! ! !

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Ch. 6! ! Ch. 6! ! Ch. 8 Ch. 9 Ch. 10 ! !

Personality, Cultural Values, & Ability! Teams!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Leadership ! !

Project Presentations! Project Presentations EXAM II!

Grading: Source Points Description Exams I & II 200 Exams will be a combination of multiple choice, ll-in-the-blank, and essay questions. Exam II will not be cumulative. If missed, exams can only be made up with written, veriable documentation. Group Project 100 The Group Project will consist of a research project that attempts to understand, predict, and explain some key aspect of organizational behavior. This project will be performed in sixperson groups. Project details are given on the last two pages of this syllabus. I will evaluate your class participation based on how often you come to class and how much you participate while in class. All students will begin the semester with a 50 out of 60 (a B). If you regularly attend class and voluntarily participate in discussions, your score will increase. If you regularly attend class and only participate when prompted, your score will remain at 50. If you miss several classes and/or never participate, your score will decrease. I may also collect peer ratings of your group project performance at the conclusion of the term. These ratings will also affect your participation score. An excessive number of absences could result in your removal from your project group.

Participation

60

360 TOTAL POINTS Grading Scale: Your nal score will be calculated based on your total points earned in the class, using the following straight scale. This scale will be applied exactly as shown below. 360 - 331 pts!(100 - 92%)! ! 330 - 317 pts!(91.9 - 88%)! ! 316 - 306 pts!(87.9 - 85%)! ! 305 - 295 pts (84.9 - 82%)! ! 294 - 281 pts (81.9 - 78%)! ! 280 - 270 pts!(77.9 - 75%)! ! 269 - 259 pts (74.9 - 72%)! ! 258 - 245 pts (71.9 - 68%)! ! 244 - 234 pts!(67.9 - 65%)! ! 233 - 223 pts!(64.9 - 62%)! ! A! A-! B+! B! B-! C+! C! C-! D+! D! 4.0 3.67 3.33 3.0 2.67 2.33 2.0 1.67 1.33 1.0

Group Project Overview: The group project consists of a research project designed to answer one of two key questions: What causes someone to perform their job well? What causes someone to remain committed to their organization? You will be put into six-person groups and will choose one of the two key questions to devote your project to (or you may be assigned a topic if the choices are not balanced). At the conclusion of the term, you will give a 15-minute PowerPoint presentation detailing the development and results of your research project. The research project has two phases, one of which should occur before Exam I and one of which should occur after Exam I. You will not turn in anything until the end of the term. BEFORE EXAM I: THE THEORYHYPOTHESIS PHASE In this rst phase of the project, your group builds a theory about what causes someone to have high or low levels of performance or commitment (depending on which question your group is assigned). Your theory will be built from in-depth interviews of four people who are as different from one another as possible. The specic questions will be left up to you, but should explore the interview subjects beliefs about what fosters performance or commitment. Let them tell you what concepts are important! Do not provide a set of concepts for them! For example, one interview question might be When you think about times that you have performed well, what factors contributed to that good performance? or When you think about employers that you were really committed to, why did you feel such high commitment levels? Your projects can focus on the concepts discussed in the course, but should go beyond those concepts as well. Once your interviews are completed, your group will distill the most interesting themes from your interviews into specic predictions that can be tested with data. Each project should include exactly three hypotheses, phrased something like this: The amount of stress on the job will be negatively related to organizational commitment. Hypotheses can focus on the concepts discussed in the class, but should go beyond those concepts as well. In the interest of diversity in presentations, your study should avoid devoting hypotheses to two concepts: coworkers and advancement opportunities. These concepts come up often in interviews, but multiple presentations with the same hypotheses become redundant. Outside of this limitation, feel free to focus on the concepts that interest you (and that might interest your classmates). This section of your presentation should give the following details: Detailed descriptions of your four interview participants Verbatim highlights of the questions asked in the interview Verbatim highlights of the participants responses to the questions Some themes that emerged from the interviews (supported using those verbatim highlights) The theory that your project will test, expressed in diagram form (i.e., your three predictors in boxes, with arrows owing into your dependent variable) Your three hypotheses, stated like the example above

AFTER EXAM I: THE DATAVERIFICATION PHASE Now that youve come up with your theory and hypotheses, it is time to test them to see if they are supported with data. First your group must come up with ways of measuring the concepts contained in your hypotheses. Organizational research typically involves several kinds of measures, including self-report scales (where a scale is a collection of multiple survey items), behavioral observation, and organizational records (e.g., performance appraisal forms, time card data, absenteeism rates, productivity indices). For the sake of simplicity, your project will use only self-report scales. You should create a scale for each of the concepts in your hypotheses (hints for creating them will be given in class). Your group will then administer your survey to 30 people (6 people per group member) who are as different from one another as possible. You will devote a total of 4 items to each scale, in order to minimize the burden on the participants. I will give you an Excel spreadsheet to enter your data into, which will include formulas that will calculate the reliability of your scales. This spreadsheet will also include formulas that will correlate scores on your predictor measures with scores on your dependent variable measure. Your theory receives some verication if the correlations in your data conrm your hypotheses. If they do not, then your theory needs to be amended. Note that the support (or lack of support) of your predictions has no bearing on your grade. Research projects rarely turn out exactly the way we want them to. This section of your presentation should give the following details: The survey items used to measure each concept (including your dependent variables) Detailed descriptions of your survey respondents The reliability of all six of your scales The correlations between your predictors and your dependent variables The condence intervals around those correlations The statistical signicance of those correlations Whether the correlations support or refute your hypotheses Whether the correlations seemed to vary across the three outcome dimensions (i.e., affective/continuance/normative or task/citizenship/counterproductive) Some conceptual explanations for such variationdoes the pattern make sense? A list of very specic prescriptions for managers, based on your results

Group Project Grading: All groups will turn in a color handout printout of their presentation, with the handout set to print 3 slides per page with spaces for notes. These handouts will be due on the rst day of project presentations (even for those groups who do not actually present that day). Please staple this printout and please do not include any sort of cover or binder. Project grading will be broken down into two parts: content and style. Some specic dimensions include: Content (70 points): Did you provide all the requested detail for the phases of the project? Did you develop non-cueing interview questions that tapped important and interesting concepts? Did you interview a diverse set of 4 people? Did you develop meaningful themes and a testable theory from your interviews? Did you write good survey measures to tap the concepts in your theory? Did you survey a diverse set of 30 people? Did you report all the necessary statistics needed to interpret your results? Did you provide a complete overview and discussion of your results? Did you suggest valuable and specic prescriptions for managers? Did you go beyond the call of duty in any way with respect to your content? Style (30 points): Did you have good eye contact with your audience? Did you present with a genuine enthusiasm that gets your audience interested in the content? Did you design a presentation and slide look that demonstrated some individual selfexpression (as opposed to using common sorts of templates and looks)? Was your timing good (right at 15 minutes, not too long or too short)? Did you go beyond the call of duty in any way with respect to your style by doing something creative or different that sets your presentation apart in your audiences memory?