Doctoral Seminar in Advanced Organizational Behavior
McCombs School of Business
Fall 2013
Professor Caroline Bartel
Phone: 471-8314
Email: Caroline.Bartel@mccombs.utexas.edu
SEMINAR OVERVIEW
The field of Organizational Behavior stretches far and wide. An important challenge that you face as a
doctoral student is developing your own “mental map” of this field. My role in this course is to provide a
(partial) guided tour through the field of Organizational Behavior so that you can begin to develop this
map. Get ready for an exciting intellectual adventure!
This course will provide you with foundation knowledge in Organizational Behavior, including classic and
contemporary theories, ongoing controversies, and ground breaking empirical studies. In a single
semester it is impossible to complete an exhaustive tour of the field, thus we will explore select research
domains that will give you a sufficient lay of the land. My goals are to help you to gain broad familiarity
with theory and research concerned with micro-organizational processes, and to help you develop the
analytical skills necessary to critically evaluate and integrate work in this area. I will also encourage you
to use the course to hone your own research agenda. In the end, my intent is to prepare you to
contribute to the current dialogue in the field. To summarize:
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
1. To offer you an introduction to the core theories, concepts and research in the field of organizational
behavior.
2. To provide an opportunity for you to engage in reflective dialogue that deepens your analytical skills
and enriches your understanding of the theoretical frameworks, challenges and dilemmas facing the
field.
3. To sharpen your writing skills and prepare you for a future of writing countless manuscripts.
4. To identify exciting new areas of scholarship and to give you a head start on publishing in the field.
To accomplish these objectives will require a great deal of reading on your part. It is critical that you read
the material before class, as well as spend some time thinking about the implications of the readings. In
the course schedule that follows, there will be a set of assigned readings for each class. I suggest that
you read them in the order listed. In addition to the required reading list, I’ve also included an extensive
list of recommended readings that can be a useful resource for your research papers and future research
projects. I will not expect that you will have read these for class.
It normally will be your responsibility to locate the material on-line or in the library; if the material is difficult
to obtain, I will post a PDF on Blackboard.
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SEMINAR REQUIREMENTS
CLASSROOM NORMS
This is a discussion-based seminar that requires your active involvement. Accordingly, attendance is
required for every class session. Also, please be on time. Because enrollment in this seminar is
intentionally restricted to create an intimate forum for discussion, coming late to class is highly disruptive
to everyone.
Each week you will be asked to read 4-6 journal articles or book chapters. Our goal each week is to
generate a high quality discussion that promotes understanding of some of the central issues, concepts
and debates in the field of organizational behavior. In class we will aim to cover as many readings as
time permits. However, on some occasions we will not be able to discuss each reading in depth. You
should not view a failure to cover every reading as a shortcoming of the class discussion.
EVALUATION CRITERIA
Seminar requirements and evaluation criteria include the following:
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Discussion leadership and class participation (25%)
Weekly reaction papers (20%)
Innovation papers (20%)
Research proposal (30%)
Symposium presentation (5%)
Discussion leadership and class participation (25%)
There are two components of this course requirement, which comprise 25% of your final grade:
1. First, I expect you to be an active and constructive participant during each session. This requires
reading and often re-reading the assigned articles and chapters. In general, you should seek a firm
understating of the purpose and logic for a given paper. More importantly, you should strive to reach
beyond basic reactions to the readings and instead consider:
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What are the theoretical foundations of the research?
What assumptions do different perspectives make about people? About organizations?
What is the paper’s main contribution? What makes this paper different from existing research?
Do you believe the arguments (about the theory and the conclusions drawn from the data)?
What are the boundary conditions of the argument? In other words, for whom and under what
circumstances does the argument apply and not apply?
 What are the critical differences between this author’s argument and others you have read? Can
these differences be resolved through an empirical test? What would that study look like?
 Overall, what is good about this paper?
 Overall, what the limitations of the research?
Expect to spend long hours dissecting the assigned readings. Go over a reading until you are certain you
understand its basic premises and arguments (see “Tips for Reading Academic Journal Articles”) and are
comfortable discussing them. This is the level of preparation I expect you to do each week before
coming to class.
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With this level of preparation, effective class participation therefore may include offering new and unique
insights, clarifying issues and complexities, reframing and extending ideas in meaningful ways, and
offering a perspective that helps the group integrate and synthesize readings, ideas, and topics. Debate
and dialogue are part of the process, but always within the realm of respect for your colleagues’ ideas.
2. Second, all seminar participants are responsible for helping to co-lead our discussions on multiple
occasions. In our second class meeting we will assign the dates for which you will help lead our
discussion.
The discussion leaders are responsible for developing a creative class structure that engages seminar
participants while facilitating learning and the creation of new insights into the literature. Your role is not
merely to summarize readings but, rather, to prepare discussion questions and observations that get the
group to engage in a critically constructive dialogue of the issues, challenges and dilemmas raised in the
readings. This role, obviously, requires an integrated and thorough understanding of the readings.
You may begin by providing your own brief synopsis of the topic, and key points and issues raised in the
assigned readings. You should assume that your class colleagues have read the material carefully, so
not much time should be spent on review (10 minutes or less); the goal is to set the foundation for the
discussion. From there, you can be creative in designing a session that will stimulate dialogue,
interactions and perhaps the creation of knowledge. For example, you may want to have the group craft
integrative models that tie the readings together, or identify key gaps or debates in the literature. It is
critical that you not only have an absolutely firm grasp of the readings that week, but also that you have
given significant thought to the type of questions that engender integration, debate and dialogue. Some
ideas include an assessment of the similarities and differences in the approaches, assumptions, methods
and conclusions of the articles. How do the articles build upon one another? What puzzles or
complexities do they raise? What should be the next steps in research in this area? It is often effective to
ask questions that you don’t know the answer to; this encourages mutual discovery rather than a “guess
what I’m thinking” approach. This can be a very creative and exciting portion of the class.
As discussion leader, you are also required to give other seminar participants a concrete
deliverable. You need to provide them with a one-page (single-spaced, typed) annotated bibliography
for each assigned reading for your session. These bibliographies will be helpful for writing your research
papers and, for Management students, studying for the comprehensive exam. You will distribute copies
of the bibliographies to your colleagues (and me) at the start of your session.
An annotated bibliography is an elaborated summary of key aspects of the paper. Bibliographies
generally should contain the following pieces of information (note that the use of headings in the
document is helpful):
 Complete title and citation of the article
 Overarching research question and specific goals of the research
 Primary theoretical lens
 Central constructs and hypotheses (or propositions)
 Underlying theoretical argument for each hypothesis (proposition) – (state it in 1-2 sentences)
 Methodological approach
 Key findings
 Main contributions of the research
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Weekly reaction papers (20%) and innovation papers (20%)
Weekly reaction papers provide opportunities for you to thoughtfully reflect upon key concepts or theories
raised by the readings of the week. Reaction papers require a careful integration, synthesis and analysis
of the readings. These papers should NOT be article summaries. Here are some questions that you
might choose to answer as you develop your reaction papers:
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What are the issues, puzzles, and dilemmas posed in this set of readings?
What ideas did you find to be the most exciting or generative? Why?
How might you use these ideas in your work?
In what ways do the readings in this session support, build on or contradict one another?
What is the connection between the readings in this topic session and earlier readings in the course?
What are the points of agreement or disagreement? What gaps have you discovered in the
literature?
What are the burning research questions that need to be answered? What types of methodological
issues will be faced in conducting this research?
Your reaction paper (1-3 double-spaced pages) is due at the beginning of the session; no late papers will
be accepted. There is no reaction paper due for our first class session.
Innovation papers provide opportunities for you to practice constructing testable hypotheses. You will
prepare two innovation papers (3-5 double-spaced pages). These papers will be brief presentations of
novel hypotheses. These hypotheses should hang together as a coherent set – that is, they should be
part of the particular perspective you are taking on the focal phenomenon. . Your goal is to construct a
clear and compelling argument for each hypothesis that is firmly grounded in prior research. I do not
expect a lengthy literature review; the focus here is on theoretically developing and, then, writing a
rationale for your ideas. These are the MOST important skills a researcher needs to cultivate. I will
provide the details for each paper no less than one week in advance of its due date.
Research Proposal (30%)
The final research paper will be theoretical. Aligned with Academy of Management Review standards,
theory papers should aim to contribute to the field by developing new theory or models, challenging
current theoretical perspectives, or by offering a synthesis of new theoretical advances or ideas in the
field. Theory papers should be firmly grounded in a review of the literature, but literature reviews are
insufficient for extending and developing theory. Theory papers should include diagrams that model the
relationships, as well as testable propositions.
This paper will be an analysis of a research question of your choosing and should add new knowledge or
bring a new perspective to old findings within the field. It is expected that you will do additional reading
outside of the formal required reading list for this course. The paper should also have a brief “Method”
section that outlines your overall research approach (how you would go about testing your propositions)
and an “Implications” section that outlines the theoretical and practical contributions.
Overall, the proposal or paper should be 15-20 double-spaced typed pages and please use 12-point font.
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A one-page description of your research proposal is due on November 6th.
I can review an outline of the paper up to one week before the paper is due.
Your completed paper is due via email on Tuesday December 9th by 5pm.
Late papers will be penalized.
Papers must be written explicitly for this course. Papers that are revised or modified from other
courses will not be accepted.
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Organizational Behavior Symposium (5%)
Using the Academy of Management meeting model, we will offer a symposium on organizational behavior
in our last class meeting (December 4). Just like the Academy, you will need to present a 15-minute
power-point presentation of your paper to the group. Faculty and other students will be invited to attend
this symposium. Please make sure that you bring copies of your Power-point presentation and distribute
them to the audience.
The goal of this presentation is to give you practice presenting your ideas. In fact, for some, this may be
the first time presenting your work to an audience. We will be gentle. A few tips that may be helpful
include:
 Limit the number of slides (8-10 slides are more than enough for a 15-min. talk)
 Make sure your slides are readable (large font, 25-point or greater)
 Limit the amount of information on the slides
 Tailor the talk to your audience (not everyone is a content expert in your area of focus)
 Make sure to have an introduction and conclusion – with “take aways” that are user-friendly
It’s better to take your time and make sure that you don’t lose the audience than try to cover too much
information in too short a period of time; you don’t want to speed through your talk while leaving your
audience in the dust. Practice is key. Last, make sure that you time your talk so you don’t run over. I will
promptly cut you off if I have to (but please don’t make me do that!)
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Tips on Reading Academic Journal Articles
It’s typical that seminar participants differ in their experience with reading journal articles. Reading journal
articles often can seem like a daunting task. They are usually full of domain-specific jargon, complicated
statistics and what seems like irrelevant and complex information. Journal articles are written so that
researchers can replicate the authors' work, but often a reader’s aim is just to find out what the authors
did and what they found.
Thus, a lot of the information given may seem irrelevant—but it is not. This information will help you to
determine how much stock to put into the research. The methodological and statistical details, in
particular, provide vital information for determining an article’s strengths and weaknesses, and generally
for determining whether it is an example of “good scholarship.” Therefore it is important that you learn
how to read journal articles so that you gain the relevant information, yet be aware of their limitations.
Though you will develop your own strategy over time, here are some questions you should be able to
answer for a given paper:
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What is the aim of the research? Specifically, what “big picture” practical question is highlighted
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What more focused research question is addressed?
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Why is this research question important? Meaning, why should anyone care?
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What do we already know about this research question? That is, what does past research on this
issue say?
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What is the author’s approach to the research question? (i.e., what is the theoretical foundation)?
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How is this approach different from what we already know? And, why should anyone care about
taking this approach to the question?
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For empirical articles, who were the participants? What method was used? Are the sample and
method appropriate given the study’s hypotheses?
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What were the major findings that are relevant to the aims of the study?
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How generalizeable are the findings? What are the boundary conditions? (i.e., for whom and under
what conditions do the findings apply?)
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What conclusions did the authors draw?
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What theoretical and practical contributions does the research offer?
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What do you think of the research? What do you see as its strengths and weaknesses?
Please note that most people refer to the key journals in the field simply by acronyms; here’s a list:
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AMJ: Academy of Management Journal
AMR: Academy of Management Review
ASQ: Administrative Science Quarterly
JAP: Journal of Applied Psychology
JOB: Journal of Organizational Behavior
JOM: Journal of Management
JPSP: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
OBHDP: Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes
OS: Organization Science
Psych Bull: Psychological Bulletin
PSPB: Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
ROB: Research in Organizational Behavior
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Seminar Outline
Session 1: August 28
Setting the Stage – What is OB?
Session 2: September 4
Motivation—Classic & Contemporary Perspectives
Session 3: September 11
First Encounters with Organizations -- Entry & Socialization
Session 4: September 18
Above & Beyond What is Required – Voice & Organizational Citizenship Behavior
Session 5: September 25
Self-Presentation and Impression Management in Organizations
Session 6: October 2
Self and Identity in the Workplace
Session 7: October 9
Identity Construction and Affirmation
Session 8: October 16
Individual Power in Organizations
Session 9: October 23
Equity and Justice in the Workplace
Session 10: October 30
Being Different – Diversity and Organizational Experiences
Session 11: November 6
Mood & Emotion in Organizational Life
Session 12: November 13
Groups in Organizations: Part 1, foundations
Session 13: November 20
Groups in Organizations: Part 2, interpersonal status dynamics
Session 14: December 4
Student Presentations