Organizational Behavior and Development

EMBA • Alexandria University

Dr. Ghada Adel Atteya
10 Chapters
October 2025

Course Textbooks

Essential reading materials for the course

Organizational Behavior and Management
Konopaske, Ivancevich, and Matteson (2023)
10th Ed
Organizational Behavior, Global Edition
Robbins and Judge (2024)
Latest

Part 1: The Field of Organizational Behavior

1 chapters • Explore the content below

Chapter 12 pages
Course Introduction & Overview
This course provides an introduction and broad overview of the Organizational Behavior (OB) field. Organizations are much more than only a means for providing goods and services - they create the settings in which most people spend their lives. This course focuses on introducing the three levels of OB: Individual, Group, and Organizational Levels. It integrates conceptual and applied material through discussions, presentations, case studies and role playing.

Key Takeaways (8)

  • ✦To provide conceptual knowledge and present main concepts needed to understand OB
  • ✦To introduce the three main levels of OB: Individual, Group, and Organizational Levels
  • ✦To introduce main skills and competencies needed to effectively manage performance

+5 more inside →

Part 2: Understanding and Managing Individual Behavior

3 chapters • Explore the content below

Chapter 328 pages
Individual Differences and Work Behavior
This chapter introduces the variables that influence individual behavior/performance by focusing on five major variables: demographic factors, abilities and skills, perception, attitudes, and personality. The discussion begins by explaining the importance of individual differences and how demographic factors, in combination with genetic factors, attitudes, personality, and locus of control influence work behavior and job satisfaction. The chapter concludes with a discussion of creativity and its value in the workplace.

Key Takeaways (12)

  • ✦Individual differences (demographic factors, abilities and skills, perception, attitudes, and personality) have a direct effect on work behavior and performance
  • ✦Diversity includes both primary (stable) dimensions like age, gender, and race, and secondary (changeable) dimensions like education and work experience
  • ✦Key abilities include mental ability, emotional intelligence, and tacit knowledge, which differ from learned skills

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Chapter 431 pages
Perceptions, Attributions, and Emotions
Perception, attribution, and emotion are not concepts a manager can directly access or fix in others. Managers need an understanding of how these factors impact a person's view of the work environment.

Key Takeaways (10)

  • ✦Perception is the cognitive process by which individuals select, organize, and give meaning to environmental stimuli through observation, selection, and translation
  • ✦Perceptual grouping follows laws of nearness, similarity, closure, and figure-ground relationships
  • ✦Common perceptual errors include stereotyping, selective attention, halo effect, similar-to-me errors, and biases from situational factors and personal needs

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Chapter 535 pages
Motivation
This chapter explores motivation as the processes that account for an individual's intensity, direction, and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal. It examines both content theories (what motivates) and process theories (how motivation works), providing frameworks for understanding and enhancing employee motivation in organizational settings.

Key Takeaways (15)

  • ✦Motivation consists of three key elements: intensity (how hard), direction (toward organizational goals), and persistence (how long)
  • ✦Job performance is determined by capacity to perform, willingness to perform, and opportunity to perform
  • ✦Managers must recognize individual diversity in motivation, as different people have different needs and goals

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Part 3: Group Behavior and Interpersonal Influence

3 chapters • Explore the content below

Chapter 1031 pages
Groups and Teams
This chapter examines the differences between groups and teams, their formation, development, and effectiveness in organizational settings. While groups and teams share many common characteristics, teams are mature groups with member interdependence and motivation to achieve common goals. The chapter explores various types of groups and teams, their development stages, and factors that contribute to team effectiveness.

Key Takeaways (18)

  • ✦Groups and teams are not the same - teams are mature groups with member interdependence and total commitment to common goals
  • ✦Teams start as groups, but not all groups mature into teams
  • ✦Both teams and groups share common characteristics including structure, roles, and shared goals

+15 more inside →

Chapter 737 pages
Evaluation, Feedback, and Rewards
This chapter examines how organizations evaluate employee performance, provide feedback, and administer rewards to influence behavior, motivation, and organizational outcomes. The chapter emphasizes the critical link between performance evaluation systems and reward systems for maximum effectiveness.

Key Takeaways (15)

  • ✦Performance evaluation systems must be linked with reward systems to achieve maximum effectiveness
  • ✦Performance evaluation serves both judgmental purposes (reward allocation, identifying high-potential employees) and developmental purposes (performance improvement, training identification)
  • ✦360-degree feedback provides more comprehensive evaluation by gathering input from multiple sources including peers, supervisors, subordinates, and self-assessment

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Chapter 954 pages
Managing Individual Stress
This chapter examines stress in organizational settings, exploring its definition, sources, consequences, and management strategies. It covers the organizational stress model, individual differences that moderate stress responses, and both organizational and individual approaches to stress prevention and management.

Key Takeaways (12)

  • ✦Stress is an adaptive response to situations that place special demands on individuals, moderated by individual differences
  • ✦Stressors originate from individual, group, organizational, and non-work sources
  • ✦The organizational stress model includes stressors, cognitive appraisal, coping strategies, moderators, and outcomes

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Part 4: Organizational Processes

3 chapters • Explore the content below

Chapter 1136 pages
Managing Conflict and Negotiations
This chapter explores the nature of conflict in organizations, distinguishing between functional and dysfunctional conflict, and examines how managers can effectively manage conflict through various resolution approaches and negotiation strategies. The chapter emphasizes that conflict is neither inherently good nor bad but inevitable, and the critical issue is how it is managed.

Key Takeaways (12)

  • ✦Conflict is neither inherently good nor bad, but inevitable in organizations
  • ✦The critical issue is not whether conflict exists, but how it is managed
  • ✦Functional conflict enhances organizational performance while dysfunctional conflict hinders it

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Chapter 1239 pages
Power, Politics, and Empowerment
Power is a pervasive part of the fabric of organizational life, used by both managers and non-managers. A person's success or failure in using or reacting to power is determined by understanding power, knowing how and when to use it, and being able to anticipate its probable effects. This chapter explores the concepts of power, influence, politics, and empowerment in organizational settings.

Key Takeaways (13)

  • ✦Power is the capability to influence, while influence is power in action; both are essential in organizational settings
  • ✦Power is relational and exists only between people or groups, not in isolation
  • ✦Five interpersonal power bases exist: legitimate, reward, coercive (organizational); expert and referent (personal)

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Chapter 1326 pages
Communication
Communication is the transmission of information and understanding through the use of common symbols from one person or group to another. This chapter explores the communication process, various communication flows within organizations, the impact of technology on communication, barriers to effective communication, and techniques for improving organizational communication.

Key Takeaways (11)

  • ✦Communication is the transmission of information and understanding through common symbols from one person or group to another
  • ✦The communication model includes seven key elements: communicator, encoding, message, medium, decoding, receiver, feedback, and noise
  • ✦Nonverbal communication through body language, facial expressions, and gestures is as important as verbal communication

+8 more inside →