Preface

Customization

Organizational Behavior is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY) license, which means that you can distribute, remix, and build upon the content, as long as you provide attribution to OpenStax and its content contributors.

Because our books are openly licensed, you are free to use the entire book or pick and choose the sections that are most relevant to the needs of your course. Feel free to remix the content by assigning your students certain chapters and sections in your syllabus, in the order that you prefer. You can even provide a direct link in your syllabus to the sections in the web view of your book.

Instructors also have the option of creating a customized version of their OpenStax book. The custom version can be made available to students in low-cost print or digital form through their campus bookstore. Visit the Instructor Resources section of your book page on openstax.org for more information.

Art Attribution

In Organizational Behavior, most art contains attribution to its title, creator, or rights holder, host platform, and license within the caption. Because the art is openly licensed, anyone may reuse the art as long as they provide the same attribution to its original source.

Errata

All OpenStax textbooks undergo a rigorous review process. However, like any professional-grade textbook, errors sometimes occur. Since our books are web based, we can make updates periodically when deemed pedagogically necessary. If you have a correction to suggest, submit it through the link on your book page on openstax.org. Subject matter experts review all errata suggestions. OpenStax is committed to remaining transparent about all updates, so you will also find a list of past errata changes on your book page on openstax.org.

Format

You can access this textbook for free in web view or PDF through openstax.org, and for a low cost in print.

Pedagogical Foundation

We have taken a structured approach in the writing of the chapters that reduces inconsistencies throughout and makes selecting topics to match the course syllabus easier for faculty.

Exploring Managerial Careers. Each chapter starts with a profile that describes a manager and illustrates how the content of the chapter is vital for a successful managerial career.

Consistent, integrated learning. Targeted learning outcomes are listed at the beginning of each chapter and then repeated throughout the chapter. The learning outcomes connect to the text and the additional resources that accompany Organizational Behavior. After reading each section, students can test their retention by answering the questions in the Concept Checks. Every learning goal is further reinforced by a summary at the end of the chapter.

Hundreds of business examples to bring concepts to life. This book is designed to speak to the typical student. We have done a lot of research about student needs, abilities, experiences, and interests, and then we have shaped the text around them. We have used experiences both inside and outside the classroom to create a book that is both readable and enjoyable. We believe that the real applications found throughout every chapter set the standard for readability and understanding of key concepts.

Learning business terminology, made easy. As students begin to study management, they will explore new words and concepts. To help them learn this language, we define each new term in the chapter, display the terms in bold, and offer a complete glossary at the end of the book.

Applied Features

Rather than provide a dry recitation of facts, we illustrate concepts with contemporary examples. In addition to the in-text examples, we have several boxed features that provide more extensive examples in areas of importance in today’s business environment. Each of the boxed features described below includes a series of critical thinking questions to prompt the student to consider the implications of each business strategy.

Ethics in Practice. Ethics in Practice features demonstrate how businesses are responsible not only to the bottom line, but to providing goods and services in a responsible manner.

Managing Change. The turbulent business climate requires companies to adapt their business strategies in response to a variety of economic, social, competitive, and technological forces. The Managing Change feature highlights how businesses have altered their business strategies in response to these forces.

Catching the Entrepreneurial Spirit. This feature highlights the challenges and opportunities available in small businesses and other entrepreneurial ventures.

Managerial Leadership. It is generally agreed that in a turbulent business climate leadership is an important function of management that helps to maximize efficiency and to achieve organizational goals. Leaders initiate action, motivate organizations, provide guidance, build morale, and create a sense of confidence within the organization and to outside stakeholders.

Sustainability and Responsible Management. This feature highlights the knowledge, skills, tools, and self-awareness that are needed to become responsible managers. While the area of corporate social responsibility and sustainability has gained wide general support and commentary, these featured boxed items should provide the reader with insights of how managers can embed responsible practices in their careers.

Activities and Cases That Put Knowledge to Work

Organizational Behavior helps students develop a solid grounding in the skills that they can apply throughout their managerial careers. These skill-building activities and resources help build and polish competencies that future employers will value.

Chapter Review Questions. These questions provide a broad set of challenging questions that students can use to assure themselves that they have mastered the chapter concepts.

Management Skills Application Exercises. These activities at the end of each chapter present real-world challenges and provide assignment material for students to hone their business skills.

Managerial Decision Exercises. These activities provide assignment material that challenge students’ decision-making processes. There are a variety of exercises for individual or team assignments.

Critical Thinking Case. The Critical Thinking case in each chapter invites students to explore business strategies of various companies, analyze business decisions, and prepare comments.

Answers to Questions in the Book

Answers to Summary of Learning Outcomes are provided directly below the questions. Answers are not provided for Concept Check Questions, Chapter Review Questions, or Managerial Decision Exercises. Answers to Management Skills Application Questions can be found in Appendix B of the text. Instructors can find additional details for Summary of Learning Outcomes as well as answers to Critical Thinking Case questions in the Instructor Answer Guide via the Instructor Resources page.

Student and Instructor Resources

We’ve compiled additional resources for both students and instructors, including Getting Started Guides. Instructor resources require a verified instructor account, which you can apply for when you log in or create your account on openstax.org.

Instructor and student resources are typically available within a few months after the book’s initial publication. Take advantage of these resources to supplement your OpenStax book.

Comprehensive instructor’s manual. Each component of the instructor’s manual is designed to provide maximum guidance for delivering the content in an interesting and dynamic manner. The instructor’s manual includes an in-depth lecture outline, which is interspersed with lecture “tidbits” that allow instructors to add timely and interesting enhancements to their lectures.

Test bank. With nearly 1,000 true/false, multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, and short-answer questions in our test bank, instructors can customize tests to support a variety of course objectives. The test bank is available in Word format.

PowerPoint lecture slides. The PowerPoint slides provide images and descriptions as a starting place for instructors to build their lectures.

Community Hubs

OpenStax partners with the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME) to offer Community Hubs on OER Commons—a platform for instructors to share community-created resources that support OpenStax books, free of charge. Through our Community Hubs, instructors can upload their own materials or download resources to use in their own courses, including additional ancillaries, teaching material, multimedia, and relevant course content. We encourage instructors to join the hubs for the subjects most relevant to your teaching and research as an opportunity both to enrich your courses and to engage with other faculty.

To reach the Community Hubs, visit www.oercommons.org/hubs/OpenStax.

Technology Partners

As allies in making high-quality learning materials accessible, our technology partners offer optional low-cost tools that are integrated with OpenStax books. To access the technology options for your text, visit your book page on openstax.org.