Office: Hoffman Hall 621Office Hours: by Appt

MOR 601

Seminar in Organizational Behavior

Professor Peter H. KimClass Time: Friday, 2:00-4:50pm

Office: Hoffman Hall 621Office Hours: By appt.

Phone: (213) 740-7947E-mail:

Course Objectives

This seminar provides beginning doctoral students an overview of some of the major topics in organizational behavior. The course is designed to provide a broad exposure to its numerous literatures, an understanding of its central concepts, and the opportunity to develop ideas for how you might contribute to this field. We will pursue these goals by examining a mix of theoretical and empirical research, thinking critically about their strengths and limitations, and creating a forum for you to test your own conceptual and empirical ideas.

Assignments and Grading

1)Class Discussions (10%). Students are expected to read all the assigned materials and take an active role in discussing them. Additionally, each student will be responsible for presenting a subset of these papers in each class session. Students should examine the assigned readings for a given session and allocate these assignments so that each student is responsible for presenting, on an informal basis, at least one of these papers (longer assignments may be divided across students). Non-presenters will be in charge of providing additional comments, insights, and reactions to both the paper and presentation.

2)Reading Summaries (20%). A 3-5 page summary of the assigned readings is due at the start of each class session. This summary should highlight each paper’s main ideas, arguments, strengths, and weaknesses as well as provide a broader commentary on their assumptions, similarities/differences, contributions, and unanswered questions.

3)Concept Paper (15%). Prepare a 3-5 page paper outlining a new innovative research question. Conclude with hypotheses that might be worth testing in an actual research project. This concept paper may be extended into the causal modeling and/or term papers.

4)Causal Modeling Paper (15%). Prepare a 3-5 page paper that identifies an interesting theoretical question and proposes a testable causal model that can address it. Draw and explain the causal model that your study will examine. Define your constructs, justify the causal relations, and explain what the data would look like to confirm versus disconfirm your hypothesis.

5)Term paper (40%). Prepare a 15-20 page research proposal of the type suitable for a paper that would appear in a top tier management journal. No data or analysis is necessary. However, your paper should include compelling motivation (i.e., why is this project interesting), relevant theory (including research that may not have been assigned for the class), testable hypotheses, an explicit research design, and a discussion of the expected results. Students should develop this proposal with the expectation that it will become a publishable paper.

Reading List

Week 1 (Aug. 30): Introduction

-Davis, M.S. (1971). That’s interesting! Philosophy of Social Science, 1, 309-344.

-Bacharach, S.B. (1989). Organizational theories: Some criteria for evaluation. Academy of Management Review, 14(4), 496-515.

-Ross, L., & Nisbett, R. (1991). The Person and the Situation. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., Chapter 8.

-Sutton, R.I. & Staw, B.M. (1995). What theory is not. Administrative Science Quarterly, 40(3), 371-384.

-Barley, S.R. (2006). When I write my masterpiece: Thoughts on what makes a paperinteresting. Academy of Management Journal, 49(1): 16-20.

-Bartunek, J.M., S.L. Rynes, and R. D. Ireland (2006). What makes management research interesting and why does it matter? Academy of Management Journal, 49(1): 9-16.

Week 2 (Sept. 6): Person vs. Situation

-Staw, B.M., Bell, N.E., & Clausen, J.A. (1986). The dispositional approach to job attitudes: A lifetime longitudinal test. Administrative Science Quarterly, 31, 56-77.

-Davis-Blake, A., & Pfeffer, J. (1989). Just a mirage: The search for dispositional effects in organizational research. Academy of Management Review, 14, 385-400.

-Barrick, M.R. & Mount, M.K. (1991). The big five personality dimensions and job performance: A meta-analysis. Personnel Psychology, 44: 1-26.

-Ross, L., & Nisbett, R. (1991). The Person and the Situation. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., Chapter 6.

-Mischel, W. and Y. Shoda (1995). A cognitive-affective system theory of personality: Reconceptualizing situations, dispositions, dynamics, and invariance in personalitystructure. Psychological Review, 102: 246-268.

-House, R.J., Shane, S.A., Herold, D.M. (1996). Rumors of the death of dispositional research are vastly exaggerated. Academy of Management Review, 21(1), 203-224.

Week 3 (Sept. 13): Motivation & Job Design

-Podaskoff, P.M. and J. Farh (1989). Effects of feedback sign and credibility on goal setting and task performance. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 44, 45-67.

-Ellemers, N., De Gilder, D., Haslam, S.A. (2004). Motivating individuals and groups at work: A social identity perspective on leadership and group performance. Academy of Management Review, 29(3), 459-478.

-Mulder, L.B., van Dijk, E., De Cremer, D. (2006). Fighting noncooperative behavior in organizations: The dark side of sanctions. Research on Managing Groups and Teams, 8, pp.61-84.

-Heine, S.J. (2007). Culture and motivation. What motivates people to act in the ways that they do? In S. Kitayama and D. Cohen (eds.), Handbook of Cultural Psychology: 714-734. New York: Guilford.

-Bunderson, J.S., & Thompson, J.A. (2009). The call of the wild: Zookeepers, callings, and the double-edged sword of deeply meaningful work. Administrative Science Quarterly, 54, 32-57.

-Malhotra, D. (2010). The desire to win: The effects of competitive arousal on motivation and behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 111, 139-146.

Week 4 (Sept. 20): Cognition

-Nisbett, R.E. & Wilson, T.D. (1977). Telling more than we can know: Verbal reports on mental processes. Psychological Review, 84, 231-259.

-Gioia, D.A. & Poole, P.P. (1984). Scripts in organizational behavior. Academy of Management Review, 9(3), 449-459.

-Ross, L., & Nisbett, R. (1991). The Person and the Situation. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc. Chapter 3.

-Fiske, S.T. & Taylor, S.E. (1991). Attribution theory. New York: McGraw Hill. Chapter 2.

-Levine, J.M., L.B. Resnick, and T.E. Higgins (1993). Social foundations of cognition.Annual Review of Psychology, 44: 585-612.

-Gilbert, D.T. & Malone, P.S. (1995). The correspondence bias. Psychological Bulletin, 117(1), 21-38.

Week 5 (Sept. 27): Emotion

-Zajonc, R.B. (1980). Feeling and thinking: Preferences need no inferences. American Psychologist, 35: 151-175.

-Lazarus, R.S. (1991). Cognition and motivation in emotion. American Psychologist, 46(4), 352-367.

-Sutton, R.I. & Rafaeli, A. (1988). Untangling the relationship between displayed emotions and organizational sales: The case of convenience stores. Academy of Management Journal, 31, 461-487.

-Isen, A.M. & Baron, R.A. (1991). Positive affect as a factor in organizational behavior. In L.L. Cummings & B.M. Staw (eds.), Research in Organizational Behavior, 13, 1-53, JAI Press: Greenwich, CT.

-Forgas, J. P., & George, J. M. (2001). Affective influences on judgments and behavior in organizations: An information processing perspective. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 86, 3-34.

-Barsade, S.G. (2002). The ripple effect: Emotional contagion and its influence on group behavior. Administrative Science Quarterly, 47, 644-676.

Week 6 (Oct. 4): Decision-Making

-Tversky, A. & Kahneman, D. (1974). Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases. Science, 185, 1124-1131.

-Staw, B.M. (1976). Knee deep in the big muddy: A study of escalating commitment to a chosen course of action. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Performance, 16, 27-44.

-Staw, B.M., Sandelands, L.E., & Dutton, J.E. (1981). Threat rigidity effects in organizational behavior: A multilevel analysis. Administrative Science Quarterly, 26(4), 501-524.

-Kahneman, D. (1992). Reference points, anchors, norms, and mixed feelings. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 51, 296-312.

-Iyengar, S.S. & Lepper, M.R. (2000). When choice is demotivating: Can one desire too much of a good thing? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(6), 995-1006.

-Brockner, J., Paruchuri, S., Idson, L.C., & Higgins, E.T. (2002). Regulatory focus and the probability estimates of conjunctive and disjunctive events. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 87(1), 5-24.

Week 7 (Oct.11): Interpersonal Perception

-Baumeister, R.F. & Jones, E.E. (1978). When self-presentation is constrained by the target’s knowledge: Consistency and compensation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36(6), 608-618.

-Staw, B.M., McKechnie, P.I., Puffer, S.M. (1983). The justification of organizational performance. Administrative Science Quarterly, 28(4), 582-600.

-Swann, W. B. (1987). Identity negotiation: Where two roads meet. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 1038-1051.

-Ibarra, H. (1999). Provisional selves: Experimenting with image and identity in professional adaptation. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44, 764-791.

-Snyder, M., & Stukas, A. A., Jr. (1999). Interpersonal processes: The interplay of cognitive, motivational, and behavioral activities in social interaction. Annual Review of Psychology, 50, 273-303.

-Lok, J. (2010). Institutional logics as identity projects. Academy of Management Journal, 53(6), 1305-1335.

Week 8 (Oct. 18): Power & Influence

-Emerson, R.M. (1962). Power-Dependence Relations. American Sociological Review, 27(1), 31-41.

-Kipnis, D. & Schmidt, S. M. (1988). Upward-influence styles: Relationship with performance evaluations. Administrative Science Quarterly, 33(4), 528-542.

-Kim, P.H., Pinkley, R.L., & Fragale, A. (2005). Power dynamics in negotiation. Academy of Management Review, 30(4).

-Schultz, P.W., Nolan, J.M., Cialdini, R.B., Goldstein, N.J., & Griskevicius (2007). The constructive, destructive, and reconstructive power of social norms. Psychological Science, 18, 429-434.

-Galinsky, A.D., Magee, J.C., Gruenfeld, D.H, Whitson, J.A., & Liljenquist, K.A. (2008). Power reduces the press of the situation: Implications for creativity, conformity, and dissonance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95(6), 1450-1466.

-Fast, N.J., Halevy, N., Galinsky, A.D. (2012). The destructive nature of power without status. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48, 391-394.

Week 9 (Oct. 25): Conflict & Negotiation

-Pruitt, D.G. & Lewis, S.A. (1975). Development of integrative solutions in bilateral negotiation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 31(4), 621-633.

-Neale, M.A. & Bazerman, M.H. (1985). The effects of framing and negotiator overconfidence on bargaining behaviors and outcomes. Academy of Management Journal, 28(1), 34-49.

-Carnevale, P.J.D. & Isen, A.M. (1986). The influence of positive affect and visual access on the discovery of integrative solutions in bilateral negotiation. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 37, 1-13.

-Thompson, L. & Hastie, R. (1990). Social perception in negotiation. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 47, 98-123.

-Jehn, K.A. (1995). A multi-method examination of the benefits and detriments of intragroup conflict. Administrative Science Quarterly, 40(2), 256-282.

-Galinsky, A.D. & Mussweiler, T. (2001). First offers as anchors: The role of perspective-taking and negotiator focus. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81(4), 657-669.

Week 10 (Nov. 1): Groups& Teams

-Ancona, D.G. & Caldwell, D.F. (1992). Bridging the boundary: External activity and performance in self-regulating work groups. Administrative Science Quarterly, 37(4), 634-665.

-Barker, J.R. (1993). Tightening the iron cage: Concertive control in self-managing teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 38(3), 408-437.

-Levine, J. M. and R.L. Moreland (1998). Small groups. In Gilbert, D.T., S.T. Fiske, and G. Lindzey (eds.), The Handbook of Social Psychology, Volume 2: 415-469.New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

-Jehn, K.A., Northcraft, G.B., & Neal, M.A. (1999). Why differences make a difference: A field study of diversity, conflict and performance in workgroups. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(4), 741-763.

-Polzer, J.T., Milton, L.P., & Swann, W.B. (2002). Capitalizing on diversity: Interpersonal congruence in small work groups. Administrative Science Quarterly, 47, 296-324.

-Menon, T. & & Pfeffer, J. (2003). Valuing internal vs. external knowledge: Explaining the preference for outsiders. Management Science, 49(4), 497-513.

*** Concept Paper Due ***

Week 11 (Nov. 8): Justice, Fairness, & Ethics

-Kahneman, D., Knetsch, J.L., & Thaler, R. (1986). Fairness as a constraint on profit seeking: Entitlements in the market. American Economic Review, 76, 728-741.

-Brockner, J., Tyler, T.R., Cooper-Schneider, R. (1992). The influence of prior commitment to an institution on reactions to perceived fairness: The higher they are, the harder they fall. Administrative Science Quarterly, 37, 241-261.

-Tyler, T. (1994). Psychological models of the justice motive. Antecedents of distributive and procedural justice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 850-863.

-Colquitt, J.A., Conlon, D.E., Wesson, M.J., Porter, C.O.L.H., & Ng, K.Y. (2001). Justice at the millennium: A meta-analytic review of 25 years of organizational justice research. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(3), 425-445.

-Haidt, J. (2001). The emotional dog and its rational tail: A social intuitionist approach to moral judgment. Psychological Review, 108(4), 814-834.

-Monin, B. & Miller, D.T. (2001). Moral credentials and the expression of prejudice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81(1), 33-43.

Week 12 (Nov. 15): Trust, Violations, & Repair

-Mayer, R. C., J. H. Davis, & Schoorman, F.D. (1995). An integrative model of organizational trust. Academy of Management Review, 20(3), 709-734.

-McKnight, D. H., Cummings, L. L., & Chervany, N. L. (1998). Initial trust formation in new organizational relationships. Academy of Management Review, 23(3), 473-490.

-Bies, R.J. (1987). The predicament of injustice: The management of moral outrage. Research in Organizational Behavior, 9, 289-319. Greenwich , CT: JAI Press.

-Kim, P. H., Ferrin, D. L., Cooper, C. D., & Dirks, K. T. (2004). Removing the shadow of suspicion: The effects of apology vs. denial for repairing ability- vs. integrity-based trust violations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89(1), 104-118.

-Schweitzer, M.E., Hershey, J.C., & Bradlow, E.T. (2006). Promises and lies: Restoring violated trust. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 101(1), 1-19.

-Brett, J.M., Olekalns, M., Friedman, R., Goates, N., Anderson, C., & Lisco, C.C. (2007). Sticks and stones: Language, face, and online dispute resolution. Academy of Management Journal, 50(1), 85-99.

*** Causal Model Paper Due ***

------No Class on Nov.22 (Thanksgiving Break) ------

Week 13 (Nov. 29): Collective Cognition

-Nemeth, C.J. (1986). Differential contributions of majority and minority influence. Psychological Review, 93(1), 23-32.

-Wegner, D.M. (1986). Transactive memory: A contemporary analysis of the group mind. In B. Mullen & G.R. Goethals (Eds.) Theories of group behavior. New York,NY: Springer Verlag.

-Brown, J., and P. Duguid (1991). Organizational learning and communities-of-practice: Towards a unified view of working, learning, and innovation. Organization Science, 2(1), 40-57.

-Weick, K.E., and K.H. Roberts (1993). Collective mind in organizations: Heedfulinterrelating on flight decks.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 38: 357-381.

-Liang, D.W., Moreland, R.L., & Argote, L. (1995). Group versus individual training and group performance: The mediating role of transactive memory. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21(4), 384-393.

-Michel, A.A. (2007). A distributed cognition perspective on newcomers’ change processes: The management of cognitive uncertainty in two investment banks. Administrative Science Quarterly, 52, 507-557.

Week 14 (Dec. 6): Culture

-Markus, H.R., Kitayama, S., & Heiman, R.J. (1996). Culture and basic psychological principles. In Higgins, E.T. & Kruglanski, A.W. (Eds.), Social Psychology: Handbook of Basic Principles, 4: 857-913. New York, NY: Guilford.

-O’Reilly, C. and J.A. Chatman (1996). Culture as social control: Corporations, cults, and commitment. In B. M. Staw and L. L. Cummings (eds), Research in Organizational Behavior, 18: 157-200. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.

-Menon, T., Morris, M. W., Chiu, C., & Hong, Y. (1999). Culture and the construal of agency: Attribution to individual versus group dispositions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76: 701-717.

-Sanchez-Burks, J., Lee, F., Choi, I., Nisbett, R., Zhao, S. & Koo, J. (2003). Conversing across cultures: East-West communications styles in work and nonwork contexts. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(2), 363-372.

-Adair, W.L., & Brett, J.M. (2005). The negotiation dance: Time, culture, and behavioral sequences in negotiation. Organization Science, 16(1), 33-51.

*** Term Paper Due: (Dec. 13) ***