Arkansas State University
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR: MGMT 3153.001
August 19 – December 2, 2013
Professor:
Class Time:
Room:
E-mail:
Office Location:
Office Hours:
Telephone:
Faye K. Cocchiara (Dr. C)
Tues/Thur 9:30 – 10:45 a.m.
Delta Center, Room 106
fcocchiara@astate.edu
Room 410, Business Bldg
Monday, 4:00 – 5:00 p.m.; Tuesday and Thursday, 11:00 – 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 –
3:30 p.m.; other times by appointment
870-680-8170 (Leave message if no answer)
COURSE DESCRIPTION AND LEARNING OBJECTIVES
The study of Organizational Behavior (OB) aims to help students predict, explain and manage individual
and team behavior in the workplace to achieve organizational objectives. The field of OB was built from
decades of research in a variety of disciplines, namely psychology, sociology, anthropology, engineering,
medicine, and management. As a result, you will be introduced to a broad range of topics at the
individual, team, and organizational level of analysis. Some of the topics we’ll discuss include
understanding individual differences and diversity, motivating and leading individuals and teams,
rewarding and improving work performance, and coping with the new realities of work life. Our aim in
this class is to bring together all of these ideas to determine how they affect two major organizational
outcomes: Job satisfaction – the degree to which employees are satisfied with certain aspects of their
work, and organizational commitment – the degree to which employees intend to remain in the
organization.
After completing this course, you should, at a minimum, be able to:
 Demonstrate an understanding of key terminology and theories in Organizational Behavior
 Apply Organizational Behavior concepts to managerial and workplace situations
 Evaluate ethical dilemmas and justify decisions using ethical decision-making models
 Demonstrate the ability to formulate and present ideas effectively in written form using
multimedia or other forms of technology
 Determine how OB concepts affect job satisfaction and organizational commitment
To accomplish these objectives, we will use the textbook below, a team project, experiential exercises,
additional readings, and film. The general class format will consist of lecture and discussion. Your
questions, comments, and ideas are important to the learning process, so please don’t hesitate to speak up!
I encourage you to bring in relevant articles from the popular press and share them with the class.
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REQUIRED TEXT:
Nelson, D.L., & Quick, J.C. (2013). ORGB3. Mason, OH: South-Western
Cengage Learning. ISBN 9781133287551
Additional readings will be provided in class or will be posted on BlackBoard. I will announce new
postings during class periods. However, please access BlackBoard before each class period for any
additional information that will help you prepare for class. I expect you to read the assigned portions of
the text and/or additional readings before class meets so that we can use class time to expand upon and
apply the concepts.
GETTING TO KNOW YOU
No one remains anonymous in my class. I want to know who you are. On the first day of class, I will ask
you a few questions about your academic background, your current career goals, and how you believe
taking this course will help you achieve those goals. An important part of understanding human behavior
is learning to operate successfully within a group setting. The first step towards that goal is getting to
know one another. Therefore, I will use name cards to not only help me get to know you but to help you
get to know your classmates.
TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
I view teaching as an opportunity and a responsibility to influence the personal and professional lives of
others. Teaching affords me the opportunity to educate and inspire students to broaden their perspectives
and enhance their lives. I believe very strongly in interacting with students in the classroom to encourage
and nurture their own ideas about current business practices and global issues. It is important that
students be provided with the theoretical foundations of our knowledge base as well as the applicability of
that knowledge to their own lives. Therefore, I strive to remain current on and continually update my own
knowledge of the latest research relevant to the subject matter.
I believe that students should be mentally engaged in the learning process and have a responsibility to
participate in their own learning experience. To that end, I will ask questions of you that will challenge
your current ways of thinking and to consider alternative views. The idea is to get you to think for
yourself and to consistently question the status quo for its relevance in a changing world. I will attempt to
encourage such behaviors throughout the course.
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COURSE EVALUATION AND GRADING
Source
Semester Exams
% of Grade
50
Description
There will be four (4) exams. I will drop your lowest-scoring exam
before calculating your exam average at the end of the semester.
Exams will contain a mixture of multiple choice and short essay
questions and will cover material from the subsequent subject
periods. Any material covered in the readings, videos, discussions,
and activities is fair game for inclusion on exams. There will be no
make-up exams. If you miss an exam, that will count as your
“dropped” exam. The only exception to this policy is if you are
away on school-related business (i.e., sports, student org meeting,
etc.) Please let me know ahead of time if this is the case.
If, prior to the final exam, you have taken all three exams and you
are satisfied with your exam average, you may choose to omit the
final.
Team Project
25
The Team Project will be a two-part research project that seeks to
predict and explain some aspect of organizational behavior. See
the “Team Project” section at the end of this document for a
description. Teams will consist of up to five members. I will assign
teams the second week of classes.
I will schedule class time for teams to work together on the
project, indicated on the course calendar by “Team Project Help
Day.” This is your opportunity to work with your team and ask me
any questions that you have on the project. Please take advantage
of these designated times. Though this is a team project, individual
grades will be determined using information from peer
evaluations.
Individual
Assignments
20
There will be an unspecified number of assignments during the
semester, each worth 100 pts. Assignments will be related to class
discussions, films, or material covered during the lectures. They
may be individual, small group, in-class, or homework.
Assignment details will be provided in class and posted on
Blackboard. If you happen to miss class when an assignment is
made, it is your responsibility to check Blackboard for the details
and due date.
Attendance
5
Attendance and participation will be evaluated at random during
the semester. The method of evaluation will be scores from 10question quizzes that cover either the assigned reading or the topic
of the day.
Total
100%
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Letter Grades
Letter grades will be earned using the following percentage system.
Percentage
Letter
Grade
89.45 – 100
A
79.45 – < 89.45
B
69.45 – < 79.45
C
59.45 – < 69.45
D
< 59.45
F
If you are concerned about your grade during the semester, please let me know early. Please do not wait
until the end of the semester to see me regarding any problems with the course materials or if you are
concerned with your performance. It will be too late to address any deficiencies at the end of the
semester. If you contact me early about such issues, I will try and guide you. This will not guarantee that
you will get the grade that you want, however. Your grade depends on your performance.
I will not consider grade appeals after submitting final grades. Neither will I create extra assignments
to help boost your grade. Please do not ask me. I will, however, consider grade changes based on
computational errors that I have made at any time during the semester.
ATTENDANCE
Your success in this class requires that you attend class regularly and actively participate while you are
there. I will use random quizzes to aid in this process (See “Attendance” under Course Evaluation and
Grading above). Excessive absences will not only negatively affect your final grade; it will lead to
reduced learning. If you have to miss class, please get one of your classmates to give you notes and/or
update you on what you missed. Please do not ask me what we covered or if you missed “anything
important” while you were out. There is no need to bring documentation (e.g., a doctor’s note).
CLASS CONDUCT
Our class time will be focused on the exploration of themes in the readings, lectures, and exercises. It is
important that students come to class prepared, having read the assigned chapter(s) and/or readings.
Though it may sound cliché, there is really no “dumb” question. It is very likely that one or more of your
classmates will have the same (or similar) question that you have. It is equally important that students
enter the classroom with the intent of creating and maintaining a climate of mutual respect. This involves
exploring one’s own potential biases and assumptions as well as learning to constructively listen to other
perspectives shared by other students in the course. Everyone benefits when as many students as possible
feel comfortable participating. Therefore, you are expected to refrain from any behaviors (e.g., talking on
or playing with cell phones, consistently arriving late to class, listening to iPods, engaging in side
conversations) which might detract from your classmates’ ability to learn or from my ability to focus on
the lecture and help you have the best possible classroom experience.
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ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
Arkansas State University enthusiastically promotes academic integrity and professional ethics among all
members of the ASU academic community. Violations of this policy, such as plagiarism and cheating,
are taken very seriously. Any breaches of this policy will result, in the least, an automatic “F” for the
specific assignment or the semester.
Plagiarism is the act of taking and/or using the ideas, work, and/or writings of another person as one's
own work. Here are some guidelines to help keep you honest:
1. Give written credit and acknowledgment to the source of thoughts, ideas, and/or words, whether
you have used direct quotation, paraphrasing, or just a reference to a general idea. We will follow
the APA format for citing resources in this course. See
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/ for instructions.
2. If you directly quote works written by someone else, enclose the quotation with quotation marks
and provide an appropriate citation (e.g., footnote, endnote, bibliographical reference).
3. Research, as well as the complete written paper, must be the work of the person seeking academic
credit for the course (e.g., papers, book reports, projects, exams, and/or other class assignments).
If you are unfamiliar with the ASU Academic Integrity Policy (or if you need a refresher), you can
familiarize yourself with the code and what constitutes a violation of the policy by visiting
http://studentconduct.astate.edu/AcademicIntegrity.html.
SPECIAL NEEDS
The American with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) provides protection from illegal discrimination for
qualified individuals with disabilities. As a faculty member, I am required by law to provide a
“reasonable accommodation” for students with disabilities. Students requiring such accommodations are
responsible for registering with the ASU Office of Disability Services and providing me with
documentation at the beginning of the semester detailing the specific accommodation that is required. The
Office of Disability Services is located on the second floor of the Reng Student Center, Room 2181 and
can reached via phone at (870) 972-3964; TDD (870) 972-3458. The ASU Handbook for Student
Disabilities can be found at http://disability.astate.edu/studenthandbook.pdf.
In my view, Organizational Behavior is one of the most relevant courses you will experience on the way
to earning your business degree. I hope you enjoy this class as much as I enjoy teaching it!
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(Tentative) Course Calendar
Date
Topic/Activity
TU, 8/20
Course Introduction and Orientation
TH, 8/22
Organizational Behavior and Opportunity
Readings
Chapter 1
Project Timeline: Project Teams Assigned/Group Pages created in
Bb
TU, 8/27
Challenges for Managers
Chapter 2
TH, 8/29
Personality and Perception
Chapter 3
TU, 9/3
Attitudes, Emotions, and Ethics
Chapter 4
Exam Review
TH, 9/5
Exam #1 (Chapters 1 – 4)
TU, 9/10
Team Project Help Day
Project Timeline: Work in teams to develop hypotheses; Due 9/17
TH, 9/12
Motivation at Work
Chapter 5
TU, 9/17
Motivation at Work – Part II
Chapter 5
Project Timeline: Submit Part 1 Deliverable to Bb Group Page
TH, 9/19
Learning and Reinforcement Theory
Chapter 6
TU, 9/24
Performance Management
Chapter 6
TH, 9/26
Stress and Well-Being at Work
Chapter 7
Exam Review
TU, 10/1
Exam #2 (Chapters 5 – 7)
TH, 10/3
Team Project Help Day: Scale Development
Project Timeline: Work in teams to finalize scales/surveys. Note:
Receive approval on final survey before administering
TU, 10/8
Communication
Chapter 8
TH 10/10
Groups and Teams
Chapter 9
Project Timeline: Begin administering surveys
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Date
Topic/Activity
Readings
TU, 10/15
Decision-Making by Individuals and Groups
Chapter 10
TH, 10/17
TBD
TBD
Project Timeline: All surveys collected and data entered in
spreadsheet. Upload completed spreadsheet to Bb Group Page. Title
entry: Final Data Collection Spreadsheet
TU, 10/22
Power and Influence
Chapter 11
TH, 10/23
Managing Political Behavior
Chapter 11
Exam Review
TU, 10/29
Exam #3 (Chapters 8-11)
TU, 10/31
Team Project Help Day: Interpreting Findings
Project Timeline: Work in teams to finalize projects
TH, 11/5
Leadership Theories
Chapter 12
TH, 11/7
Jobs and Work Design
Chapter 14
TU, 11/12
Career Management
Chapter 17
Project Timeline: Teams sign up for presentation date
Last day to drop a course or withdraw from University – 11/13
TH, 11/14
Team Project Help Day: Finalize Projects
TU, 11/19
Project Presentations
TH, 11/21
Project Presentations – Last Class Day
Project Timeline: Submit Part II Deliverable to Bb Group Page
TU, 11/26
Fall Break and Thanksgiving Holiday
TH, 11/28
Fall Break and Thanksgiving Holiday
TU, 12/3
Study Day – No Class
TH, 12/5
Final Exam (Chapters 12, 14, and 17), 8:00 – 10:00 am.
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TEAM PROJECT
The team project is a research project designed to answer one of two questions:
 What causes employees to be satisfied with their jobs?
 What causes employees to remain committed to their organizations?
I will assign you to a five-person team. As a team, you will choose one of the above questions to devote
your project. (I may assign the question to achieve balance if necessary.) At the end of the semester, your
team will give a 15-minute PowerPoint presentation detailing the development and results of your
research project. The research project will consist of two parts, the Hypotheses Development phase and
the Data Collection and Verification phase. The Hypotheses Development phase will occur before the
second exam (See the course calendar for Project Timeline activities). Though you will turn in two
deliverables, I will only grade the second deliverable.
Part I – Hypotheses Development
In this first phase of the project, your team will develop hypotheses about what causes employees to have
high or low levels of satisfaction or organizational commitment (depending on which question your team
is assigned). Each team should conduct in-depth interviews with at least three (3) people who are as
different from one another as possible in terms of age, gender, race, work background, and national
origin. The specific questions you use will be left up to you. The only criterion for question development
is that the questions must be open-ended and should explore the interview subjects’ beliefs about what
fosters job satisfaction or commitment. For example, one of your questions might be “When you think
about a time when you were really committed (or not committed) to your organization, what factors do
you feel contributed to such commitment levels?” or “When you think about times when you were most
satisfied (or dissatisfied) at your job, what factors contributed to that level of satisfaction?” NOTE: This
is an exploration. As such, you should use open-ended questions that will allow your interviewees to
elaborate on their answers. Let them tell you what’s important. Do not “lead” them or provide these
concepts for them.
Once your interviews are completed, your team will condense the most interesting themes into specific
predictions (hypotheses) that can be tested with data. Each project should include exactly two (2)
hypotheses, phrased something like this: “The amount of decision-making on the job will be positively
related to organizational commitment” or this: “Job stress will be negatively related to job satisfaction.”
Your hypothesis should use concepts that we discuss in class but may go beyond those as well. Although
more than one concept may come up in your interviews, each hypothesis should contain only one concept
as the independent (predictor) variable. Other than that, feel free to focus on concepts that interest you
and might interest your classmates.
The following are examples of two hypotheses that predict job satisfaction. In the example below, “job
stress” and “worker control” are the independent variables and job satisfaction is the dependent variable.
H1: Job stress will be negatively related to job satisfaction.
Job Stress
-
Job
Satisfaction
H2: Worker control will be positively related to job satisfaction.
Worker
Control
+
Job
Satisfaction
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Part I Deliverable: Teams will turn in a Word document containing the following:
1. A general description of your three interview participants (e.g., where they work, how long
they’ve worked, age, race, gender, national origin).
2. The question(s) asked in the interview
3. Verbatim highlights of the interviewees’ responses – use quotation marks please
4. Each hypothesis stated and expressed in diagram form (i.e., your predictor in a box with an arrow
flowing into your dependent variable). Follow the examples presented above.
Due: Upload file to Group Page in Blackboard by 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, September 17, 2013.
Title Entry: Project Part I – Group [nbr]
Part II – Data Collection and Verification
Now that you’ve developed your hypotheses, it is time to test them to see if they are supported by data.
First your team must come up with ways to measure 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 survey items), behavioral observation, and organizational records (e.g.,
performance appraisal forms, time card data, absenteeism rates, productivity indices). For this project,
you will use only self-report scales.
You should create a scale for each independent variable in your hypotheses (We will talk about creating
scales in class.) Each scale should include only 2 items. I will provide validated scales to measure your
dependent variable. You will combine the items you create with the items I will provide to develop your
survey. Your team will then administer your survey to 30 people (6 people per team member) who are as
different from one another as possible in terms of age, gender, race, and national origin. NOTE: The
people you survey should be different from the people you interviewed in Part I.
I will provide each team with a spreadsheet to enter their survey data. Once I have received the completed
spreadsheets, I will run the required analyses and return the raw statistics to the teams for evaluation.
Your theory receives some support if the correlations in your data confirm your hypotheses. However, the
support (or lack thereof) of your predictions will not affect your grade on the project. Research projects
rarely turn out the way we want them.
Part II Deliverable: Teams will turn in a PowerPoint presentation containing the following:
1. The survey items used to measure each concept (independent and dependent variables)
5. Detailed description of your survey respondents (e.g., where they work, how long they’ve
worked, age, race, gender, national origin)
2. The reliability of both scales using the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient
3. The correlations between your independent and dependent variable
4. Whether the correlations support or refute your hypotheses
5. A possible explanation for the outcome
6. A list of very specific prescriptions for managers based on your results and using concepts from
the OB textbook
I will provide a project presentation template for your use. Note: You will also be asked to include
information collected during the Hypotheses Development phase.
Due: Verbal presentation in class on Nov 19 or Nov 21. Each team will upload final PowerPoint
presentation to specified assignment page on Blackboard by 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, November 21.
Title Entry: OB Final Presentation – Team [nbr]
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