Organizational Behaviour (OB) Consultancy Project

The project will be completed in self-selected groups of 3 that will work as self-managed teams. You and your team will put yourselves in the shoes of Organizational Behaviour (OB) consultants. Imagine that your team has been approached by the CEO of a “client” organization and they need your help in addressing some OB problem that they are experiencing. For example, this OB problem could be one of decreased motivation, low job satisfaction, increased turnover, etc. Your job as OB consultants will be to diagnose the issues underlying (or contributing to) this OB problem. In other words, why is this OB problem occurring? To support your analysis of the problem, you will use theories and concepts learned throughout this class (lectures and textbook), as well as other sources such as academic journal articles. Given your analysis and diagnosis of the OB problem, you will then provide evidence-based recommendations (key steps) that the organization can take to address these underlying issues.

Outline of Project

1)Select an organization to study
Choose a “client” organization for whom this project is to be completed. Your “client” organization may be real or fictional. It may be a business or not-for-profit, and can consist of entrepreneurs, employees, volunteers, students, artists, etc. Examples include a branch of a bank, a hotel, a bookstore, a student volunteer group, a sports team, etc.

2)Select a particular OB problem/topic to investigate
The OB problem you wish to analyze is open as long as it involves analyzing an aspect of organizational behaviour that we’ve discussed in class. It could be an organizational “problem” (negative), or something that the organization could potentially improve upon (things are going okay, but could always be better). General problems could include (but are not limited to) motivation, turnover, counterproductive behaviors (e.g., theft, loafing), low performance, low job satisfaction, team dynamics, organizational culture, leadership, or power. For example, students in the past have studied (a) motivation in a small dentist office, (b) turnover in a hotel, and (c) group dynamics on a soccer team. This could be something drawn from a company you’ve heard about through the media, or one you or someone in your group has worked with (you can use a fictional company name). It is very important that you focus your analysis on one core OB problem. Papers that attempt to do too much typically lose their focus. Pick something creative and that is interesting to you!

Outline of Project

3)Analyze and diagnose the OB problem
Based on the theories/concepts discussed in class, draw conclusions about why this OB problem is occurring. That is, diagnose the underlying issues that are contributing to this OB problem. (For example, if the OB problem is low motivation, one underlying issue may be a lack of specific, challenging goals as per goal-setting theory). Your analysis should be clear, logical, and based on what you have learned from class. To support your analysis/diagnosis, use research findings and theories (e.g. goal-setting theory) from class, the textbook, and other academic sources (i.e. journal articles). On the last page of this document, you will find some resources for additional research sources. 

Helpful tip: The textbook lists all of the citations for the research that it references – this is a great place to start and find relevant journal articles. 
    
4)Generate recommendations
Given your analysis of the problem, generate key steps your client organization could take to address the underlying issues. You should offer at least one recommendation for each of the three underlying issues in your diagnosis. Your suggestions should include practical things the organization could realistically do given its constraints. They should be based on general and guiding principles of organizational behaviour learned in the course. In addition, it will be key that you find support for your suggestions. We are promoting an evidence-based approach. As such, you should have research articles to back up your suggestions. For example, if you say that more specific, challenging goals will increase motivation, find a good paper that shows this actually works. 

For your diagnosis and recommendations, you must use theory and research, with information from both the textbook AND at least 3-5 journal research articles (see below for recommended journals). In practice, you would have gone into the company and done interviews, questionnaires, observed people at work, and used other methods (discussed in week 1) to gather your information. However, in this project, our focus is on applying course concepts and theory, rather than research methods. As such, you will not need to collect any data from the organization. 

You will want to do some background research of the company regarding its history, structure, etc. to be able to describe the company and create a “story” around the issue. (Or, if you are using a fictional company, you can make up this information). Start off by giving a short background on the company, building up to a discussion the OB problem (e.g., low motivation). Then, use theories/research to diagnose underlying issues of this problem. For example, expectancy theory would predict that low motivation stems from low expectancy, instrumentality, or valence of rewards. An appropriate solution could include implementing training (to improve expectancy), creating a more accurate performance appraisal (increase instrumentality), or asking people about the types of rewards they want (improving valence). You could say, “after interviewing employees in the company, they indicated they did not value the rewards they were being given. According to expectancy theory, this could impact productivity because….”. Then, in your recommendation section, “past research has indicated that training interventions of this type help to improve expectancy (citation)”. This is just one example of how a theory could be used to diagnose the causes (underlying issues) of a problem and recommend solutions. You should use at 3 major theories (one per issue) and 3 to 5 academic journal sources relevant to OB (please see recommended list included in this document). Different theories typically focus on different variables/causes.