What is Organizational Behavior (OB)?
The field of organizational behavior (also known as human behavior or industrial/organizational psychology) brings together ideas and practices developed in a diverse group of disciplines to better understand the behaviors of people in the organizational context. Organizations usually have goals to effectively and efficiently deliver operational and strategic outcomes. Optimizing the factors that contribute to organizational effectiveness creates an organization with the highest level of productivity and success.
The human factor in this productivity equation has been of interest to management studies since the early days of Frederick Taylor, Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, Henry Gantt, and others and their applications and derivatives of Scientific Management. Henri Fayol included concepts of directing and controlling in his functions of management, which have been the basis for management theories and research for almost a century.
People create organizations. Without people, organizations do not exist, cannot survive, and cannot be productive. Your success in your career depends on your ability to generate energy and commitment among people within your organization and to channel that energy and commitment toward organizational goals. Doing so requires a thorough understanding of the root causes of human attitudes and behavior, as well as how attitudes and behaviors are influenced by leadership and the surrounding organizational and global context.
When you study organizational behavior, you will explore concepts and develop skills essential to understanding the people component of organizations. By understanding how and why people work in organizations and identifying ways to maximize organizational effectiveness through people, you will develop knowledge and skills to make you a more successful manager in any organization of any type and size.
The following links are to open educational resources that I use in the Organizational Behavior course I teach at UNG. Most materials are freely available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license unless otherwise noted.
Articles may be accessed through the University Library (https://ung.edu/libraries/index.php).
Learning Materials
| Topic | Relevant Links |
|---|---|
| Organizational Behavior Textbooks | Organizational Behavior Luthans, Organizational Behavior: An Evidence-Based Approach, 13th Ed. (Available at UNG Library, eBook Academic Collection EBSCOHost database) Organizational Behavior (Black, Bright, et. al., 2019). Available at https://openstax.org/details/books/organizational-behavior. |
| What is Organizational Behavior? | Scientific Method in Organizational Research |
| Individual and Cultural Differences, Organizational Diversity | Video: Nature or nurture: What makes you who you are? || Debate Clip |
| Perception and Job Attitudes | |
| Learning and Reinforcement | |
| Perception and Managerial Decision-Making | Video: Ethical Decision-Making: Dietrich Bonhoeffer |
| Work Motivation, Performance, and Rewards | |
| Group, Teams, and Teamwork | Video: Social Loafing Article: Berry, G. R. (2011). A cross-disciplinary literature review: Examining trust on virtual teams. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 24(3), 9-28. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/piq.20116 |
| Communication | |
| Leadership in Organizations | |
| Power, Politics, and Influence | |
| Conflict and Negotiation | |
| Organizational Culture and Knowledge Management | |
| Organizational Change and Innovation |