Organization - Answers Social inventions for accomplishing common goals through group effort.
Organizational behaviour - Answers The attitudes and behaviours of individuals and groups in
organizations.
Human resource management - Answers Programs, practices, and systems to acquire, develop
and retain employees in organizations.
Management - Answers The art of getting things accomplished in organizations through others.
Evidence based management - Answers Translating principles based on the best scientific
evidence into organizational practices.
Independent variable - Answers Causes changes in other variables.
Dependent variable - Answers Varies as a result of the change in independent. (The measured
variable)
Moderating variable - Answers Weakens or strengthens the relationship between predictor and
outcome (depends).
Mediating variable - Answers Something that comes between the predictor and outcome and
provides more detail (explains).
Reliability - Answers An index of the consistency of a research subjects response.
Validity - Answers An index of the extent to which a measure truly reflects what it is supposed
to measure.
Control group - Answers A group of research subjects who have not been exposed to the
experimental treatment.
Convergent validity - Answers When two variables that should be related, are.
Discriminant validity - Answers When two variables that should not be associated, are not.
Internal validity - Answers The research can be confident, has to do with the validity of the
experimental design.
participant observation - Answers The researcher becomes a functional member of the
organizational unit being studied (undercover employee).
Direct observation - Answers The researcher observed OB without participating in the activity
being observed, used when the researcher cannot learn job tasks, etc.
Correlation techniques - Answers Research that attempts to measure variables precisely and
, examine relationships among these variables without introducing change into the research
setting. (Surveys, questionnaires, interviews, and data sets)
External validity - Answers Refers to the extent to which the results of a study generalize to
other samples and settings.
Classical viewpoint - Answers An early prescription on management that advocated high
specialization of labour, intensive coordination, and centralized decision making.
Scientific management - Answers Frederick Taylor's system for using research to determine the
optimum degree of specialization and standardization of work tasks.
Bureaucracy - Answers Max Weber's ideal type of organization that included a strict chain of
command, detailed rules, high specialization, centralized power, and selection and promotion
based on technical competence.
Hawthorne studies - Answers Research conducted at the Hawthorne plant of Western Electric
near Chicago in the 1920's and 1930's that illustrated how psychological and social processes
affect productivity and work adjustment.
Human relations movement - Answers A critique of classical management and bureaucracy that
advocated management styles that were more participative and oriented toward employee
needs.
Contingency approach - Answers An approach to management that recognizes that there is no
one best way to manage, and that an appropriate management style depends on the demands
of the situation.
Workplace spirituality - Answers A workplace that provides employees with meaning, purpose, a
sense of community, and a connection to others.
Psychological capital - Answers An individuals positive psychological state of development that
is characterized by self-efficiency, optimism, hope and resilience.
Talent management - Answers An organizations process for attracting, developing, retaining,
and utilizing people with the required skills to meet current and future business needs.
Work engagement - Answers A positive work-related state of mind that is characterized by
vigour, dedication and absorption.
Corporate social responsibility - Answers An organization taking responsibility for the impact of
its decisions and actions on its stakeholders.
Personality - Answers Relatively stable set of psychological characteristics that influences the
way an individual interacts with his/her environment.
Dispositional approach - Answers Individuals possess stable traits or characteristics that