MGT 315
Managing Human Resources and
Organizational Behavior
Introduction and Overview: Part 2
Course Overview
• Think about the following questions:
– Where would you like to work, and why?
– Have you ever had a bad coworker or boss?
• What did that person do?
• What should the organization have done differently?
Course Overview
• Bad employees are “human resource
management” mistakes
– Should they have been hired? (Recruitment; Selection)
– Do they know they are bad? (Performance Management)
– Are they motivated? (Motivation; Leadership; Emotions &
Stress)
– Do they like who they work with? (Groups & Teams)
Course Overview
• Human Resource Management
– Policies, practices, and systems that influence
employee attitudes and performance
• Organizational Behavior
– The study of individuals and groups in
organizations and how their attitudes and
behaviors affect organizational performance.
• Put simply: if you have the best HRM and OB practices
in your industry, you will have the best people in your
industry
Schedule of Topics
First Part (to Exam 1)
Second Part (to Exam 2)
Third Part (to Exam 3)
Introduction & Overview
Motivation
Decision-Making
Creating Quality Selection
Measures
Groups & Teams
Negotiation
Types of Selection
Measures
Diversity & Discrimination
Emotions & Stress
Managing Performance
Legal Issues
Leadership
The Science of HR/OB
• How do we improve management?
– Through scientific research and study (“EvidenceBased Management”)
– Through proper management training (like this
class)
– By emphasizing the links between HR/OB and
overall organizational performance
• But how strong are those links…?
Evidence-Based Management
• The importance of evidence to decisionmaking…
– Let’s look at some medical discoveries
• What is the correlation between taking ibuprofen and
reductions in pain, on average?
– correlations can range from -1 to 1…
– r = .14 (2% of variance)
» Why?
Evidence-Based Management
• What is the correlation between drinking alcohol
and engaging in aggressive behavior?
– r = .23 (5% of variance)
• Smoking and developing lung cancer over a 25year period?
– r = .08 (< 1% of variance)
– Yet smoking is still the leading cause of lung cancer,
shortening lives by 13-14 years ON AVERAGE.
• Beware of extrapolating from anecdotal experience…
Evidence-Based Management
• How does HR/OB stack up to medical
research?
– Correlation between CEO narcissism and returns
on assets
• An exemplary study (Chatterjee & Hambrick)
– 100 firms in the computer industry
– measured CEO narcissism, tracked changes in returns on
assets over several years
– narcissistic CEOs “swung for the fences,” taking greater risks,
winning big and losing big
» average r = .17 (3% of variance)
Other Impressive Results
• Structured selection practices (cognitive ability
test and work sample or structured interview)
and performance: .63 (39% of variance)
• Incentive pay and productivity: .32 (10% of
variance)
– though lower for tasks that are highly creative or
complex
• We needn’t be more trusting of evidence-based medicine
than evidence-based management
Key Takeaways
• As with other aspects of business, OB and HR
matter
– Don’t presume to know everything about the topics in
this class
• Common sense?
– “Common sense tells us that the world is flat, that the
sun goes around the earth, that heavy bodies always
fall faster than light bodies, that boats made of iron
will sink.” - STUART CHASE
• Be open; think critically!
Reminder
• Be sure to read the introductory chapters
from both the HR and OB books
• Then, complete the 10-item quiz to check your
understanding of the material