MGHB02H3 Lecture Notes - Participant Observation
19 Jul 2010
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Thursday, September-17-09 Organizational Behaviour Appendix
Research in Organizational Behaviour
ā¢ Research is a way of finding out about the world through objective and systematic
information gathering
THE BASICS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR RESEACH
ā¢ Equity is concerned with peoplesā reactions to fairness or lack of it
ā¢ Hypothesis is a formal statement of the expected relationship between two variables
ā¢ Variables are simply measures that can take on two or more values
o Temperature
o Pay
o Fairness
o Absenteeism
Types of Variables
ā¢ Independent Variable is a predictor or cause of variation in a dependent variable
ā¢ Dependent Variable is a variable that will vary as a result of changes in the independent
variable
ā¢ Example: Attendance bonus as independent variable, and absenteeism as dependent
variable
ā¢ Moderating Variable is a variable that affects the nature of the relationship between an
independent and dependent variable such that the relationship depends on the level of the
moderating variable
o Example: independent variable is attendance bonus, dependent variable is
absenteeism and moderating variable is pay satisfaction
ā¢ Mediating Variable is a variable that intervenes or explains the relationship between an
independent and dependent variable
o Example: : independent variable is attendance bonus, dependent variable is
absenteeism, and mediating variable is motivation
Measurement of Variables
ā¢ Reliability is an index of consistency of a research subjectās responses
o Example: someone should answer the same way to each question if asked it
several times
ā¢ Validity is an index of the extent to which a measure truly reflects what it is supposed to
measure
o Example: researcher should expect people who are objectively underpaid to report
high pay unfairness
ā¢ Good measures should be strongly related to other measures of the same variable and
should not be related to measures of different variables
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Document Summary
Research in organizational behaviour: research is a way of finding out about the world through objective and systematic information gathering. Organizational behaviour appendix: convergent validity is when there is a strong relationship between different measures of the same variable, discriminant validity is when there is a weak relationship between measures of different variables. Participant observation: participant observation is observational research in which the researcher becomes a functioning member of the organizational unit being studied, advantages. potential for secrecy the subject doesn"t need to know they are being observed: raises ethical issues. Direct observation: direct observation is observational research in which the researcher observes organizational behaviour without taking part in the studied activity, many reasons to choose direct over participant observation. there are many situations in which the introduction of a new person in an existing work setting would severely disrupt and change the nature of the activities in that setting.
