Video summary

Saylor.org BUS209: Dr. Naomi Rotter's "Why, What, and How We Study Behavior in Organizations"

Main summary

Key takeaways

Educational

Main ideas & lessons

  • Purpose of the course (organizational behavior/OB)

    • OB studies why employees behave as they do and why organizations implement particular policies and practices.
    • The course frames OB as an “adventurous journey” into what, where, and why behavior occurs in organizations.
    • Students (future or current managers) will develop:
      • Observational skills (noticing forces affecting employees and superiors)
      • Knowledge building (learning concepts/theories from behavioral sciences)
      • Analytical & diagnostic skills (choosing the right theories to explain what they observe)
      • Appreciation for organizational forces in a fast, dynamic environment

  • A core anecdote used to illustrate persistence, culture, and performance

    • Dr. Naomi Roder tells a Labor Day weekend story: their car battery dies quickly.
    • At AAA → Walmart → a Toyota dealer, the mechanic eventually solves the problem:
      • The first battery test fails (a dud).
      • A second battery works—suggesting the key factor was persistence and caring enough to try again, not stopping after the first failure.
    • The instructor draws out possible explanations for the outcome:
      • Individual traits (persistence)
      • Group expectations and norms (performance expectations)
      • Organizational culture (service orientation)
    • Lesson: organizational outcomes often depend on interactions among person, group, and culture—not just one factor.

  • Working definition of organizational behavior

    • OB is a field that uses concepts, theories, and methods from multiple behavioral sciences to:
      • Understand behavior of individuals, groups, and organizations
      • Apply that knowledge to improve organizational effectiveness

  • Where OB knowledge comes from (behavioral sciences roots)

    • OB draws from:
      • Individual & Social Psychology
      • Sociology
      • Anthropology
      • Political Science

Detailed concepts covered from individual psychology (as the course “roadmap”)

Perception

  • Why perception matters:
    • “How do we know anything?” → perception is the starting point of knowledge
  • Topics planned in the course:
    • Object perception (principles: what we select, focus on, and how we organize information)
    • Social perception (perceiving people—more complex because people change)
  • Specific effects to examine:
    • Why first impressions become lasting
    • Why we focus more on negative information than positive
    • How we judge others in contrast to other people

Personality and attitudes

  • The “bad boss” complaint as a motivational frame:
    • Boss quality can dramatically shape work experience (good vs. bad).
  • Planned topics:
    • How personality relates to workplace productivity
    • Job attitudes, especially:
      • Job satisfaction and its relation to productivity and willingness to come to work
      • Commitment to the job (why some show high commitment even under poor conditions—how much is personality vs. organization?)

Learning in organizations

  • Why learning grows in importance:
    • Fast-changing work (example: software upgrades → constant skill upgrading)
  • Topics include:
    • Learning the job
    • Learning “the ropes” for advancement: what to do, what to skip
    • Informal learning of workplace conventions:
      • Dress norms/tolerance levels
      • Promptness requirements (including high-stakes settings like hospitals)
      • Shift patterns and coworker expectations about arriving on time
      • Expectations about staying late and how norms shape behavior over time
    • Learning who to approach vs. avoid in an organization

Motivation

  • Why it matters:
    • Motivated people are presumed to perform better
  • Examples of possible motivators mentioned:
    • Coaches (Bobby Knight, Bill Parcells)
  • Topics:
    • What organizations can do to “ratchet up” motivation
    • Whether motivation depends on:
      • Individuals
      • Organizational structure
    • Performance comparisons:
      • Example discussed: Toyota Camry made with American workers—used to question whether differences come from organizational systems, not only individuals

Concepts covered from group processes (social psychology & sociology)

Group influence on individuals

  • OB examines how groups influence behavior, including:
    • Real groups
    • Reference groups (people identify with standards even without personally knowing members)
    • Cultural subgroup norms
  • Example mechanisms:
    • Conformity pressures (e.g., when peers want a certain movie and individuals yield)
    • Reference group effects:
      • Following professional standards and ethics
      • Adhering to cultural norms
    • Advertising as reference-group signaling:
      • Example: SUV commercials suggest terrain/lifestyle identity that may not match real commute conditions, but influences buyers via identity

Communication

  • Communication is framed as a major organizational problem.
  • Example class exercise:
    • Students wrote about frustrating work experiences
    • Most common theme: communication failures, such as:
      • Not getting information on time
      • Confusing instructions
      • Being left out of the loop
      • Expectation that employees “should have known”
  • Communication improvement questions:
    • Are messages vague?
    • Are people expected to “fill in the blanks”?
    • Do communicators consider the listener’s perspective?

Decision making

  • Organizations depend on people making decisions at multiple levels.
  • Planned topics:
    • How effective decisions are made
    • How people make errors (including exercises exploring why “good processes” can still yield “bad decisions”)
    • “Big bloopers” / organizational mistakes:
      • Example: New Coke failing in the market despite testing
      • Also noted: governments make similar organizational decision errors

Leadership

  • Leadership is examined through:
    • Whether leadership can be learned vs. being trait-based
    • How leaders do well more in some situations than others
  • Situation-crediting and blame:
    • Leaders look good in economic booms, get blamed in downturns (not always due to direct responsibility)
  • Additional leadership concerns:
    • Matching leaders to situations
    • Women in leadership:
      • Mention of the “glass ceiling” as an invisible barrier created by organizational culture/norms

Concepts covered from organizational structure, culture, and change (organizational level)

Organization structure

  • OB looks at the organization as a structure that persists beyond individual workers.
  • Topics include:
    • How units are linked
    • Number of hierarchy layers and effects on individuals
    • Formalization vs. informality

Environment & external complexity

  • Whether environments are:
    • Complex or have many external entities/regulators
    • Fast-changing vs. slower-changing
  • These factors affect individual behavior and organizational outcomes.

Organizational culture

  • Organizations develop “ways of doing things,” taught to newcomers as norms.
  • Culture may originate from major founders/CEOs whose influence becomes entrenched.
  • Examples of “looming personalities” shaping culture:
    • Bill Gates
    • Steve Jobs (Apple)
    • Mention of Donald Trump (as an example of a powerful personality associated with an organization/brand)
  • Culture influences how much employees conform and how new practices spread.

Organizational development and change

  • Organizations can’t stand still because competition doesn’t.
  • OB will examine how organizations change over time and what happens as organizations “go global.”

Historical development of OB (and key early studies)

Scientific Management (early industrial engineering influence)

  • Frederick Taylor
    • “Scientific Management”
    • Focus: increasing efficiency and linking output to pay
    • Methods: time-and-motion studies
    • Example contribution:
      • Measuring work rates for steel shoveling at Bethlehem Steel
      • Choosing shovel size appropriate to maximize output without overstraining workers
    • Critique/legacy issue:
      • Despite intended measurement, the tools were sometimes used to push workers harder without fair compensation, damaging trust.

Gilbreths

  • Studies focused on:
    • Bricklayers
      • Reduced unnecessary movements by redesigning where tools/materials are placed
    • Hospital operating rooms
      • Improved teamwork role allocation so the surgeon doesn’t waste time searching for instruments
      • Example of redesigning task workflow for speed and safety

Hawthorne Studies (psychological factors in work settings)

  • Took place at the Western Electric Plant in Hawthorne, Illinois
  • Industrial engineers (MIT) studied:
    • Lighting
    • Heat
    • Rest breaks
  • Key finding:
    • Even when conditions were decreased, productivity stayed up
  • Introduced concept:
    • Hawthorne Effect: workers respond to being studied/expectations (belief they were selected as “cream of the crop”)
  • Additional Hawthorne-related finding:
    • Social norms from work groups affect productivity:
      • High producers can face sanctions to prevent them from outperforming too much

Current challenges and future directions in OB

  • Global competition & cross-cultural understanding
    • Example: someone traveling from New Jersey to South Korea must understand culture to be effective.
  • Maintaining competitiveness in fast-changing workplaces
    • Using OB concepts to adapt employees and workplace practices.
  • Ethical challenges
    • Whether organizations cut corners for competitiveness
    • Long-range consequences for society and the environment (e.g., waste dumping)
  • Diversity in the workplace
    • Increasing presence of women and different cultural/minority groups
    • Need to:
      • Understand differences
      • Communicate across differences
      • Build on diversity

How OB research is studied (methodology)

Experimental designs

  • Conducted in:
    • Laboratories (controlled setting; isolate variables)
    • Sometimes in workplaces (e.g., participation affecting productivity)
  • Approach:
    • Systematically vary one factor
    • Measure outcomes like satisfaction or productivity
    • Compare groups under different conditions

Survey & correlational designs

  • Measure relationships between two factors at once:
    • Example: whether job satisfaction relates to turnover
  • Often uses questionnaires to assess satisfaction levels

Case studies

  • Intense investigation of one organization
  • Tradeoff:
    • Less ability to generalize broadly

Focus groups

  • Use group discussion to understand people’s perceptions
  • Mentioned uses:
    • Understanding impressions about products and product design
  • Generalization depends on context (implied)

How to evaluate whether research is “good” (skepticism framework)

  • Always question research quality by asking:
    • Internal validity
      • Is the outcome truly caused by the manipulated factor?
      • Or could an unmeasured variable (example: the Hawthorne effect expectations) explain the results?
    • External validity
      • Can the findings generalize to a broader population?
      • Or are results limited to a specific group/context?
  • Key lesson:
    • Be skeptical, ask “how do we know?,” and demand evidence distinguishing:
      • Fact vs. opinion
      • Evidence vs. assertion

Video concludes with the next topic

  • The next session will likely focus on:
    • Object and person perception
    • Principles behind organizing sensory input
    • Why first impressions matter and whether they can be avoided
    • Why people generalize about others and over-weight negative information

Speakers / sources featured (explicit)

  • Dr. Naomi Roder (also referenced as Dr. Naomi Roder / Dr. Naomi Roder from NJIT School of Management)
  • Frederick Taylor (scientific management)
  • Frank and Lillian Gilbreth (time/motion improvements and task redesign)
  • MIT industrial engineers (conducted studies referenced in Hawthorne discussion; not named individually)
  • Western Electric (company associated with Hawthorne studies)
  • AT&T (historical ownership connection to Western Electric in the transcript)
  • Bobby Knight (sports coach example)
  • Bill Parcells (sports coach example)
  • Toyota (dealer mentioned; and Toyota Camry production example discussed)
  • Camry (Toyota model discussed)
  • AAA (roadside assistance mentioned)
  • Walmart (auto section referenced in the anecdote)
  • Seattle / a famous software company (referenced generally)
  • Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Donald Trump, George Steinbrenner (mentioned as personality/culture examples; Steinbrenner named, not fully spelled in transcript)
  • “New Coke” / Coca-Cola (product failure example)

Original video