Lesson-9: Research in Organizational Behaviour

1. Learning Outcome
2. Introduction
3. Purpose of Research
4. Research Terminology
5. Research Design
6. Data Collection
7. Ethics in Research
8. Evaluating Research
9. Summary

1. Learning Outcome
After completing this lesson, the students will be able to:

 Describe purpose of research of OB.

 Discuss terminology of research in OB.
 Describe the research designs and mode of data collection.
 Understand the ethics in research in OB.
2. Introduction:
Behaviour is a difficult subject because it is an extremely complex phenomenon. But behaviour
is not totally unpredictable as there is a cause and effect relation that can be generalised to
understand behaviour. A systematic study of behaviour leads to development of models that can
help in describing certain behaviour patterns. Although each person is unique in his or her way
yet some behavioural patterns can be generalized. While certain aspects of behaviour may be
genetic in nature, much of the work-related behaviour can be because of some identifiable
causes. It is assumed that human action is typically the result of a set of forces which can be
identified and possibly measured. If these forces can be accurately studied and their impact on
human behaviour correlated, then it would be possible to predict certain aspects of such
behaviour. For example, a employee who is not satisfied is more likely to find a new job and
leave their current job. If the employer is able to understand the reason of dissatisfaction then by
finding the solution to it, he or she can ascertain the loyalty of that employee.

Research is a process of collecting information in a systematic manner. Research helps in

understanding the behaviour of a person or group in an organization. The ongoing research on
OB enhance to the existing knowledge of OB with the help of some supporting and
contradicting theories, and replacing theories with the new theories.

Purpose of Research:
The four major purpose of research are:

 Description: In a homogeneous population, there are many similar aspects of behaviour.

These characteristics are classified into different groups so that each aspect of behaviour can
be studied more thoroughly.
 Explanation: When behaviour is clearly described then the reasons for occurrence of certain
types of behaviour can be determined. For example, financial constraints to meet the
demands lead to depression and tension.
 Prediction: When the cause and effect relationship with regards to certain behavioural
pattern id drawn then it is possible to prediction of behaviour is possible. Some behavioural
patterns are predictable on the basis of similar past situations. For example, morale of a
individual will be high by knowing that somebody praised his or her contribution and
achievement.
 Control: The ultimate conclusion of any research is the ability to control and manipulate the
outcome of events.

3. Research Terminology:
In the field of research various terms are frequently used by the researchers. Some of the
common terms used in research are as follows:
 Variable: Variable are the characteristics that can be measured and in OB it includes
personality, job satisfaction, job stress, productivity of employee, turnover rate etc. These
variables can change according to the environmental conditions and time.
 Dependent Variable: A dependent variable is affected by change in one or more
independent variables. The researchers are interested in the study of dependent variable with
change in the independent variables. Dependent variables in OB are productivity,
absenteeism, turnover, job satisfaction etc.
 Independent variable: An independent variable is free from the effect of any other variable.
Independent variables are studied to identify their impact on the dependent variable.
Independent variables in OB are intelligence, motivation, experience, personality, leadership
styles, selection methods, bonus and incentives etc.
 Moderating Variable: A moderating variable helps in controlling the effect of the
independent variable on the dependent variable. For example, productivity is the dependent
variable and work supervision is taken as an independent variable. When the level of work
supervision is increased then productivity also get enhanced but it can be controlled by
complexity of the job under consideration.
 Hypothesis: These are the assumptions related to the relationship between two or more
variables. Two types of hypothesis are there; null and alternative. Hypothesis is proven on a
collected data with the help of applying some statistical tests.
 Causality: It as an assumption which tries to exhibit the cause and effect relationship. It
assumes that variation in the independent variable lead to variation in the dependent variable.
For example, high productivity leads to satisfaction in the employees.
 Correlation Coefficient: The correlation coefficient is helps in determining the magnitude
and direction of co-variance between two or more variables. The variables have a perfect
positive correlation when the value of correlation coefficient is +1.00 and variables are have
a perfect negative correlation when the value of correlation coefficient is -1.00. The purpose
of correlation coefficient is to find out the strength of association between the variables. It
has nothing to do with causality.
 Theory: Theory depicts a set of systematically interrelated concepts that helps in explaining
and predicting the phenomena. The reference of models and theories are often taken by the
researchers in OB. There are a lot of theories in OB. For example, theories for motivation,
theories for leadership style etc. In OB, a common phenomenon is explained by number of
theories because OB is an active discipline and is still growing and evolving.

4. Research Design:
When the result of research is less generalizable then it becomes more specific. The result is less
realistic when researcher tries to control the extraneous variables. The research become more
expensive as the level of accuracy, generalizability and control over the variables increases. The
research is affected by time and money constraints. So, good research design is not a perfect
design but is most focused toward the objective of research. Following are the research designs
along with their weaknesses and strength:

Source: Slideshare

a) CASE STUDY: Case studies are based on real-life situations. A case study is a description
about an individual, a group, or an organisation. Observations, interviews, records,
documents are the main source of information for a case study.

Advantages:

 It is helpful in initiating an exploratory research.

 It is helpful in evaluating real-life situations.

Disadvantages:

 It is affected by perceptual biasness of the reader of the case study. So, the interpretation
of a case study varies from person to person.
 The beliefs of the writer also affect the content of a case study.
 It is difficult to generalize the result of a case study to another research.
 It is not possible to test a hypothesis from the data available from a case study.
b) FIELD SURVEY: In field survey, responses are collected from the respondents with the
help of questionnaire or interviewed to collect specific information by the researchers related
to research problem. The response given by the respondents are recorded, analyzed and
interpreted by the researchers. Most common method used in for collecting data in field
survey is questionnaire method. It can easily record attitude and perception of the
respondents.
 Advantages:

 Field survey is an economical method of research.

 It is easy to prepare data for analysis.
 Only a sample is studied by the researcher instead of whole population.
 It is an efficient method to know the opinion related to an issue of interest.

Disadvantages:

 Mailed questionnaires have a low rate response of around 10% and result drawn from
such questionnaires is not reliable.
 Questionnaire is not efficient in measuring the behaviour of the respondents.
 It is hard to collect in depth information from field survey.
 Field survey is having less generalizability.

c) LABORATORY EXPERIMENT:
Laboratory experiment is conducted in an artificial environment. In this, researcher can
control the extraneous variables and manage the effect of independent variables of interest.
The researcher is able to show the cause and effect relationship between dependent and
independent variables because all the other factors are controlled in laboratory experiment.

Advantages:

 The level of control over the extraneous variables is high.

 Variables are measured with high degree of precision.

Disadvantages:

 It is difficult to generalize the findings of laboratory experiment in the real-life situation.

 The result of research is not valid in all circumstances.
d) FIELD EXPERIMENT:

Field experiment is very much similar to the laboratory experiment except the fact that field
experiment is performed in the real organisation. The situations and circumstances are real so the
result becomes valid. The level of control over the extraneous variables gets reduced.

Advantages:

 Results and findings of field experiments are more valid.

 The result of field experiment is having more generalized than laboratory experiment.

Disadvantages:
  The accuracy of data gets reduced because variables are affected by the extraneous
variables.
 It is hard to perform field experiment because most of organisations are not ready to
allow researchers to conduct experiment in their organisations.

e) AGGREGATE QUANTITATIVE REVIEWS:

A number of experiments are conducted to study the overall effect of organizational behavior
modification on the performance of employees. But it is difficult to generalize the effects of
these studies. Researchers try to summarize the results of all the empirical studies to find the
impact of OB modification on performance of task. This is known as meta-analysis, the
researchers were able to conclude that the average performance of a person will rise from the
50th percentile to the 67th percentile with application of OB modification.

The meta-analysis is a quantitative form of literature review that helps researchers to look at
validity findings from a comprehensive set of individual studies, and then apply a formula to
them to determine if they consistently produced similar results. If results prove to be consistent
then it allows researchers to conclude more confidently that validity is generalizable. Meta-
analysis is a means for overcoming the potentially imprecise interpretations of qualitative
reviews and to synthesize variations in quantitative studies. In addition, the technique enables
researchers to identify potential moderating variables between an independent and a dependent
variable.

Meta analysis seems as a more objective measure of doing traditional literature reviews. The
usage of meta-analysis leads to a significant amount of subjectivity into the process. Meta
analysis reviews have now become most popular in OB literature.

Data Collection:
Data can be of two type; Primary data and secondary data. Primary data is first hand data while
secondary date is already collected data for the problem other than the problem in hand. Primary
data can be collected from the respondents through questionnaires, interviews, computers,
observation and unobtrusive methods. But the data is mostly collected in OB research is through
questionnaires.
QUESTIONNAIRES: A questionnaire is a set of structured questions to record the response of
respondents. Questionnaires can be administered personally or through mail.
a) Mail questionnaires are used to collect responses from a large number of respondents
residing in different geographically areas. This method is the most economical and
convenient method of data collection from widely spread respondents. Mail
questionnaires are having poor response rate. Respondents are reluctant in giving the
responses even when stamped, self-addressed envelopes are given to them. A response
rate of 30 percent is considered good but generally mail questionnaires have even lesser
response than 30 percent. It leads to non representative data for research.
b) Personally administered questionnaires are questionnaires given by the researchers to
the respondents and immediately collected from them after completion. The response rate
 is 100 percent in this method. But it is expensive and time consuming in comparison to
mail questionnaires. This method is used for data collection only when the purpose of
study is of importance to organisation.
 INTERVIEWS: Interviews are a good source of information. In structured interviews,
specific questions are asked of all respondents, and the responses are noted by the
interviewer. In unstructured interviews, there is no predetermined format; questions are
framed according to responses given to the previous question. Structured interviews are
conducted when the interviewer knows precisely what sort of information is needed. They
are efficient in terms of the amount of time involved in both obtaining the required
information and categorizing the data obtained. Unstructured interviews are used to explore a
problem or collect more qualitative information related to a particular situations.
a) Face-to-face interviews help the researcher to observe the respondents as how they
respond to questions. Researcher can be able to explore further from the nonverbal
messages transmitted by the respondents.
b) Telephone interviews help the researcher to collect the responses from the
respondents residing in different geographical areas. Both the methods of interviews
are affected by biasness. The sources of biasness are the way a question is asked,
variation in voice, state of mind of the respondents during interview etc.
 COMPUTERS: As people are becoming more comfortable with technology and specifically
in using their computers at home so they easily responds to questions displayed on websites.
In current scenario, Computer-assisted interviewing and computer-aided surveys are very
much popular. The methods of data collection like Interview and questionnaire are greatly
supported by computers. However, there is a requirement of computer literacy of respondents
for effectively using computer- assisted data collection techniques.
 OBSERVATIONAL SURVEYS: In observational surveys, data are collected without
asking questions to the respondents. Researcher observes how respondents are behaving in a
specific setting. The data are collected by either nonparticipant observers or participant
observers. Observational survey can be of two types; structured and unstructured. If the
researcher specifies the factors that are to be observed then the observational survey is
structured. For example, if the researcher wants to know the number of times instructions are
given by the manager. While in an unstructured observational survey, the researcher wants to
know the various activities performed by the manager during the day at the workplace.
Observational studies help in reducing respondent biasness as data is not collected from the
respondents directly.
 UNOBTRUSIVE METHODS: Unobtrusive methods of leads to collection of a valid and
reliable data and minimizes biasness because the source of the information is tangible things
instead of people. For instance, if the wear and tear on the library books can be used to
determine usage of books then the source of information more reliable than surveys of users
of the library. A good idea of the beverage consumption can be drawn from the number of
empty cans or bottles of pop in the recycling bins outside houses on garbage collection days.
The absenteeism patterns of employees can be shown by the personnel records of a company.
Unobtrusive methods help in collecting the most reliable and unbiased data but these
methods are difficult to conduct and time-consuming. It is difficult for a researcher to make
access the internal records of an organisation.
5. Evaluating Research:
Evaluation of research involves validity, reliability and generalizability of research.

 Validity: Validity means the scale used for measurement is appropriate for measurement of
that particular characteristic.
 Reliability: Reliability refers to consistency of measurement. When the experiment is
performed again in a given set of conditions then the result should remain same.
 Generalizability: Generalizability means the findings of research from one group of
individuals is applicable to other group as well who is not the part of current study.

6. Ethics in Research
Researchers should use the questions in such a way that the respondents feel comfortable in
answering them. But all the researchers are not so tactful during their fieldwork. Researchers also
hide the real purpose of studies to record honest response by the respondents. For example, in
2001, a professor of organizational behavior at Columbia University sent out a common letter
written on university letterhead to 240 New York City restaurants in which he described how he
had eaten at this restaurant with his wife in celebration of their wedding anniversary, how he had
gotten food poisoning, and that he had spent the night in his bathroom throwing up. The letter
closed with: “Although it is not my intention to file any reports with the Better Business Bureau
or the Department of Health, I want you to understand what I went through in anticipation that
you will respond accordingly. I await your response.” The fictitious letter was part of the
professor’s study to determine the response of restaurants toward the complaints. But it led to
unnecessary chaos among many of the restaurant owners, managers, and chefs as they reviewed
menus and produce deliveries for possibly spoiled food, and questioned kitchen workers about
possible lapses. A follow-up letter of apology from the University for “an Egregious Error in
judgment by a junior faculty member” did little to offset the distress it created for those affected.

American Psychological Association, the American Sociological Association, and the Academy
of Management are the professional associations who have published formal guidelines for the
conduct of research. Ethical issues are still there. If the research is conducted in strict ethical
controls then it can affect the validity of an experiment. There are two types of debates.
Researchers give the argument against strict ethical controls that many a time deception is often
required to avoid original response. While other argument is in favor of ethical controls, that tries
to protect the rights of participants. Those favoring strict ethical controls argue that a researcher
should be completely honest with their respondents and try protect the privacy of respondents at
all costs.
7. Summary
Behaviour is a difficult subject because it is an extremely complex phenomenon. But behaviour
is not totally unpredictable as there is a cause and effect relation that can be generalised to
understand behaviour. A systematic study of behaviour leads to development of models that can
help in describing certain behaviour patterns. Organizational behaviour is a subject based on
large number of theories and research. The concepts of OB are the result of systematic
information gathering. But many of the issues in OB needs more research. Research has four
major purpose i.e., description, explanation, prediction and control. Evaluation of research
involves validity, reliability and generalizability of research. The research become more
expensive as the level of accuracy, generalizability and control over the variables increases. The
research is affected by time and money constraints. So, good research design is not a perfect
design but is most focused toward the objective of research. The methods used for research in
OB reduce the generalizability of results. It is difficult to keep up with the latest findings in OB
because OB is a growing and evolving discipline. The development a regular review the latest
research in organizational behavior is required.