Shanghai Jiao Tong University

ORGNIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Chapter 2: Natural and social science

Tang Weijun (Shanghai Jiao Tong University)

2006-4-10 © 2006 Tang Weijun http://www.drtang.org

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Contact

Tang Weijun
Shanghai Jiao Tong University

E-mail:

URL:
http://www.drtang.org/

2 2006-4-10 © 2006 Tang Weijun http://www.drtang.org

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Concepts and learning objectives

Key concepts:
Operational definition
Behaviourism
Positivism
Behaviour
Action
Cognitive psychology

3 2006-4-10 © 2006 Tang Weijun http://www.drtang.org

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Concepts and learning objectives

Key concepts:
Phenomenology
Research method
Research design
Internal validity
External validity
Social construction of reality

4 2006-4-10 © 2006 Tang Weijun http://www.drtang.org

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Concepts and learning objectives

Learning objectives
Identify the features that differentiate the natural and
social science.
Understand the research implications of the fact that
people attach meanings and purposes to what they do.
Describe the various research methods and designs
used in organizational research.
Explain the criteria on which the findings of
organizational research can be evaluated.

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Are the social science different?

Organizational behaviour is based on social science research.

Social science is a kind of science, but quite different from
the natural science.
Social science have no practical, material, tangible, economic
benefit.
Natural science rely on:
• Direct obesrvation.
• Consistent causal relationships between variables through
time and space.
• Experimental methods to test hypotheses.
• Mathematical reasoning.

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The problems of social science

D form in page 19
These problems become serious only if we really expect
social science to conform to natural science practice.
Social science can be viewed as a different kind of science
from the natural science.
Common grounds:
Unity of method in the study of natural and social science.
Producing a social technology that can be used to predict and
control human social behaviour as effectively as we use
technology to manipulate the natural order.

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How to make a discription?

Observation
Asking questions
Studying documents

These methods can be applied in various different

ways.

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Definition of operational definition

An operational definition of a term or variables is

the method that we are going to use to measure
the incidence of that variable in practice.
How to define aggression?
Voice, gesture, etc.
How to define job satisfaction?
Maybe you can execute a survey.
Even if we can not directly observe something, we
can still use these concepts.

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Limitations of observation

Our targets may lie.

We should check the accuracy.
Our targets may not know.
Our targets may tell us what they think we want to
hear.
The socially acceptable answer is preferable to no
answer at all.
This point is more significant the the other two.

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Explanation

It is often possible to infer that one event has

caused or has led to another event when the
variable or phenomena are not observable.
The rules or laws that govern human behaviour
seem to be different from those that govern the
behaviour of natural phenomena.
The way in which we understand causality in
human affairs has to be different.
Cloud rain
Red light stop

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Explanation

People learn the rules of their society from the

actions of others. But we can choose to disobey
those rules.
We are self-interpreting, attaching purpose and
meaning to what we do.
Physicists and chemists and engineers an
biologists and geneticists have to stop at
discovering how thing happen, while the social
scientist has to go much further to understand why.

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Explanation

Social scientists concerned with explaining social

or organizational behaviour thus have to start with
the self-interpreting.
We live in a social and organizational world in
which “reality” means different things to different
people. What a complication!
Social science uses common words in unusual and
special ways.

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Some definitions

Behaviour is the term given to the things that

people do that can be directly observed by others.
Behaviourism is a school of psychology which
focuses on the study of observable behaviour,
arguing that it is pointless to explain behaviour in
term of unobservable factors, such as needs,
drivers, thought processes, attitudes or motives.

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Some definitions

Positivism is a broad social scientific perspective

which assumes that the social world and its
properties can be studied using objective method,
and not through the use of subjective inference; the
organization in this perspective possess an
objective reality or truth, which exists
independently of any ones attitudes towards or
interpretations of it.

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Some definitions

Action is the term given to the things that people do

and the reasons that they have for doing them;
action is thus defined as meaningful behaviour,
prompting us to ask the question “why?” as well as
“what?” and “how?”

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Some definitions

Cognitive psychology is a school which accepts as

legitimate the study of internal mental states and
processes, and which seeks to develop
explanations of human behaviour based on the
study of these factors, even though they are not
directly observable.

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Some definitions

Phenomenology is a broad social scientific

perspective which claims that the social world has
no external, objective, observable truth, but instead
that our reality is socially constructed; the social
science task is not to gather facts and
measurements, but to study patterns of meanings
and interpretations, to discover how experience is
understood.

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Some definitions

The social construction of reality is a perspective

which, like phenomenology, argues that our social
and organizational surroundings possess no
ultimate truth or reality, but are determined instead
by the way in which we experience and understand
those worlds which we construct and reconstruct
for ourselves in interaction with others.

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Prediction

Social science predictions are often probabilistic rather than

determinate. So we are often interested in the behaviour of
groups of people than in individuals.
Some social science predictions can be self-fulfilling, while
some social science predictions are self-defeating.
We can change the social arrangements that we construct.
We can discover regularities and patterns in human
behaviour and action, and these patterns enable us to make
predictions about what people are likely to do in given
circumstances.

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Control

Social scientists are generally motivated by a

desire to change society, or aspects of it, and its
organizations. And an understanding of how things
work, and the strengths and weaknesses of current
arrangements, is essential for that purpose.
We have many kinds of social and organizational
orders.
An agenda directed at inducing social and
organizational change is not the same as
controlling or manipulating human behaviour.

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Social science and ideology

It is important to recognize that our judgements

and our recommendations are based on our
evidence, as well as on our values.
Social science has indeed been criticized as
ideology in disguise.
What one says about a social or organizational
arrangement depends at least in part on one’s
values.

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Two important perspectives

D form in page 30

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Organizational research methods

A research method is a technique for collecting

information or data.
Research methods:
Observation
Analyzing documents
Asking questions

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Organizational research methods

Observation
Unobtrusive measures
Non-participant observation
Participant observation

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Organizational research methods

Analyzing documents
Committee minutes
Letters
Diaries
Productivity analyses
Management consulting reports
Mission and vision statements

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Organizational research methods

Analyzing documents
Company accounts and reports
Memoranda
Equipment operating manuals
Project reports
Customer or client records
Personnel records

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Organizational research methods

Asking questions
Respondents can be interviewed in person.
• Interviews produce rich information about people’s
experience, values and feelings, but are extremely
time consuming to conduct and analyze.
Respondents can be asked to complete a self-report
questionnaire.
• Questionnaire can generate systematic information
from a large number of people quickly, but the data
are usually superficial and shallow.

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Research design

A research design is a strategy, or overall

approach, for tackling a research question or
problem.
Experiments
Case studies
Surveys

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Research design

Experiments
Laboratory experiments
Field experiments
Naturally occurring experiments

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Research design

Case studies
Detailed in investigations of individuals, groups, or
departments in an organization, or a whole organization.
It has traditionally been used to study new fields and to
generate insights for further systematic investigation.

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Research design

Surveys
The most popular social science research method, and
tend to be equated in the public mind with social
research.
Surveys are cross-sectional as they study a range, or
variety, or cross-section of people, occupations or
organizations.

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Internal and external validity

Internal validity is the degree of confidence with

which it can be claimed that the independent
variable really did cause the observed changes in
the dependent variable, and not some other factor
or factors.
External validity is the degree of confidence with
which the findings from one particular research
setting can be said to apply in another setting. This
is also known as the generalizability in the findings.

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The End
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THANK YOU!

© 2006 TANG Weijun

Shanghai Jiao Tong University

34 2006-4-10 © 2006 Tang Weijun http://www.drtang.org