组织行为学：OB模型

组织行为学：OB模型

Developing an OB Model

A model is an abstraction of reality; a simplified representation of some real-world phenomenon.

DEPENDENT VARIABLES

Dependent variables are the key factors you want to explain or predict. What are the primary dependent variables in OB? Scholars tend to emphasize productivity, absenteeism, turnover, and job satisfaction.

1.Productivity

An organization is productive if it achieves its goals, and does so by transferring inputs into outputs at the lowest cost. As such, productivity implies a concern for both effectiveness and efficiency.

A business firm is effective when it attains its sales or market share goals, but its

productivity also depends on achieving these goals efficiently. Measures of such efficiency may include return on investment, profit per dollar of sales, and output per hour of labor.

In summary, one of OB's major concerns is productivity. We want to know what factors will influence the effectiveness and efficiency of individuals, of groups, and of the overall organization.

2.Absenteeism

Keeping absenteeism low is very important to an organization. Levels of absenteeism beyond the normal range in any organization have a direct impact on that organization’s effectiveness and efficiency.

Not all absences are bad. While most absences impact negatively on the organization, we can conceive of situations where the organization may benefit by an employee voluntarily choosing not come to work.

For instance, fatigue or excess stress can significantly decrease an employee’s productivity. In jobs where an employee needs to be alert—surgeons and airline pilots are obvious examples—it may well be better for the organization if the employee does not report to work rather than show up and perform poorly. The cost of an accident in such jobs could be prohibitive.

3.Turnover

Voluntary and involuntary permanent withdrawal from the organization

A high rate of turnover in an organization means increased recruiting, selection, and

training costs. It can also mean a disruption in the efficient running of an organization when knowledgeable and experienced personnel leave and replacements must be found and prepared to assume positions of responsibility.

Turnover often means the loss of people the organization does not want to lose. When turnover is excessive, or when it involves valuable performers, it can be disruptive factor, hindering the organization’s effectiveness.

4.Job satisfaction

Job satisfaction refers to a general attitude toward one’s job. The difference between the amount of rewards workers receive and the amount they believe they should receive.

Job satisfaction represents an attitude rather than a behavior. The belief that satisfied employees are more productive than employees dissatisfied has been a basic tenet among managers for years.

INDEPENDENT VARIABLES

What are the major determinants of productivity, absenteeism, turnover, and job satisfaction? Our answer to that question brings us to the independent variables. Consistent with our belief that organizational behavior can best be understood when viewed essentially as a set of increasingly complex building blocks, the base or first level of our model lies in understanding individual behavior.

1.Individual-level variables

Personal or biographical characteristics such as age, gender, and marital status;

personality characteristics; value and attitudes; basic ability level; Perception, individual decision making, learning, motivation

These characteristics are essentially intact when an individual enters the work force, and, for the most part, management can do little to alter them.