Peer Review

Organizational Behavior

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Reviewed:: Sep 21, 2017 by Business

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Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:

Two leading researchers in Management, Talya Bauer and Berrin Erdogan, bring you a new Organizational Behavior textbook that bridges the gap between theory and practice with a distinct ”experiential“ approach.

On average, a worker in the USA will change jobs 10 times in 20 years. In order to succeed in this type of career situation, individuals need to be armed with the tools necessary to be life-long learners. To that end, this book is not be about giving students all the answers to every situation they may encounter when they start their first job or as they continue up the career ladder. Instead, this book gives students the vocabulary, framework, and critical thinking skills necessary to diagnose situations, ask tough questions, evaluate the answers received, and to act in an effective and ethical manner regardless of situational characteristics.

Often, students taking OB either do not understand how important knowledge of OB can be to their professional careers, or they DO understand and they want to put that knowledge into practice. Organizational Behavior by Bauer and Erdogan takes a more experiential angle to the material to meet both of those needs. The experiential approach can be incorporated in the classroom primarily through the ”OB Toolbox.“ This feature brings life to the concepts and allows students to not only see how the OB theories unfold, but to practice them, as well.

Type of Material:

Open (Access) Textbook

Recommended Uses:

• The book has a wealth of real-life scenarios, exercises, quizzes, and chapter takeaways to illustrate content in OB performance. • The e-textbook focuses on the way business practitioners use OB theories although it has wider application to teach other courses in management and MIS. • The e-textbook can be used to lecture in class, instruct teams, or design for self-learning. The topic variety supports undergraduate and graduate courses as well as managerial workshops.

Technical Requirements:

Also available as PDF:

http://www.saylor.org/site/textbooks/Organizational%20Behavior.pdf

The PDF version does not scroll well in Internet Explorer or the Edge browser. Chrome is the browser recommended.

Identify Major Learning Goals:

• Define organizational behavior and its application in business organizations. • Develop a comprehensive understanding of OB performance that managers must consider while working with individuals, groups, or organizational levels. • Become familiar with organizational behavior practices in a variety of industries. • Integrate diversity, ethics, and management models in organizational behavior. • Describe the link among personal attitudes, emotional labor, and organizational behavior. • Learn how to apply strategies that enhance your skills and value as a contributor • Learn how to get the most out of employees

Target Student Population:

• The e-textbook is instructional for college and university students. • The content can also be used to guide specific topics for professional workshops and management development seminars.

Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

• Undergraduate students taking an OB course only need a basic introduction to business courses. • Graduate students should not need a pre-requisite course.

Content Quality

Rating:
Strengths:: • The e-textbook has excellent content, and it could be published as hardcopy for profit. • The topics are well rounded, and they include an integrated view of examples of actual application in organizational settings. • All settings discuss different degrees of OB as they apply to current issues in the workplace. • A great overview of various concepts that apply to organizational behavior • Excellent exercises that cover the concepts and give real world application • Well organized and readable for most levels of learning ability
Concerns:: • Each chapter contains a source section and what appear to be in-text citations, but a reference list is not available. • The reviewer was unable to check if the e-textbook is mobile device friendly. • The reviewer also observed some differences between the html and pdf versions. For example, the html format shows Figure 1-1 as missing in the first page. • Students will need a context for reading • Some of the exercises are worded in a broad context and may need more specific context for assignments • Conclusion can be very general and thus a good facilitator needs to have students draw more specific conclusions

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:
Strengths:: • The topics introduced are excellent and relevant to modern organizations. • The material is easy to read, and the chapters have enough checkpoints for students to review the concepts for understanding. • A lot of information is contained in the book to explore by students • A useful source for assignments that can be adapted to measure learning outcomes • Will be an easy source of information to integrate into the classroom
Concerns:: • Does not have learning objectives identified • Concepts are largely "stand alone" - thus, it is necessary to draw connections through assignments and discussions • Facilitator will need to determine if any pre-requisite knowledge is needed • No chapter transitions in relation to referencing new chapters to previous concepts in the e-textbook. This is not a major issue since some books present chapters in a logical order based on the author(s) preferences or level of difficulty.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:
Strengths:: • The chapters included several figures and tables, all in color, clarifying and showcasing the material. • Learning objectives, exercises, and takeaways also contain background color for identification. • Page numbering was available. • Because of the basic style of the format, an accessibility reader will likely work very well with the document • Material is engaging from a readability standpoint • The PDF and online version are easy to work with for navigating
Concerns:: • The e-textbook goes right into chapter 1; however, it could use a preface page to summarize the chapters, or an introductory section explaining the sequence of materials. • Does not have instructions, those will need to be supplied by a facilitator • Has some interactivity, any more will need to be supplied by a facilitator • For some readers, may be a challenge since there are few pictures

Other Issues and Comments:: • The authors placed significant emphasis on real-life examples and OB applications to illustrate content and to keep the e-textbook interesting as well as contemporary. The reviewer has observed that in certain instances Saylor.org books do not have a book name or even authors’ names. These should be considered because some online schools are using those materials as the class textbook, or they need to create a reference for a given lecture.
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