organizational behavior w7

Okay, first things first. Let’s take a look at how you can develop your Findings of Facts and Recommendations. What I recommend you do is review the major OB concepts we discussed in the first eight chapters.

Findings of Fact and their accompanying Recommendations are critical to a proper case study analysis. You will be required to submit three in each of your upcoming case studies. I don’t want to leave you hanging with just that information, though. Therefore, the following is a rather detailed explanation of what Findings of Fact and Recommendations are.

For the purposes of this course a Finding of Fact is an Organizational Behavior (OB) concept or theme that is outlined in the readings. If you are doing the required reading in the text, OB issues should be clear to you. For example: During Chapter 2 we discussed ethics, business ethics and diversity. In the remaining chapters we studied individual differences, perception performance, motivation, rewards, stress and aggression.

As you may recall, I had you looking for OB issues during your first assignment and the second discussion thread. Hint: List the OB issues as you come upon them in your reading and as you participate in the discussion threads and case studies. It will make it all clearer and easier for you as you progress through the course. I have also listed several of them for you on the overview for each week on the syllabus. List them by chapter for easier reference.

Each of your Findings of Fact should relate to OB topics or themes. I don’t care about the price of tea in China, etc. Look for the OB issues. Taking the ideas directly from the text makes it easy to identify that, for example, there is stress within the organization. Question 2 of the Case Study of “Coleen Colombo and Colleagues Resist Mortgage Fraud” (pg. 250), asks, What influences on the stress experience appear to be present? This question gives you direction: stress plays a part in this Case Study. Use these clues from the chapters to help you identify OB issues in future cases.

Your first Finding of Fact would look something like this:

Finding of Fact # 1:

Coleen and Sylvia are experiencing a great deal of stress as a result of turmoil at BNC.

You will want to back that fact up with a couple of lines to support the fact. Explain what makes you believe that there is stress in the organization. Where in your Synopsis does this relate to the problem?

Your first Recommendation should include mechanisms and processes to alleviate the stress within the organization as a whole. Using the information you’ve learned already, you know that perception, past experiences and a hostile work environment can influence stress (among many others). Your goal is to alleviate the problems that you identify by using those OB concepts and techniques that you already studied.

Your second Finding of Fact might be:

Finding of Fact # 2

Columbo is being harassed and bullied by the wholesaler because she reported him for bribery. (Yes, I know she was being sexually harassed by the same wholesaler. But don’t confuse the issues. Stick with one idea or concept.)

Recommendation # 2

According to our text, and discussed in Chapter 2, harassment refers to verbal or physical conduct that denigrates or shows hostility toward an individual. That includes a person’s race, skin color, religion, gender, national origin, age or disability (Hellriegel, pg. 52). The wholesaler tried to bribe Colombo “to allow a loan with fraudulent information to go through.” Using the text’s information, as well as personal experience, it is your job to make recommendations to rectify the problem.

As you can see from this example, the question at the end of the case (in the text) served as a springboard for the response. As you examine the case, look for other OB issues. Your responses should be detailed much more than mentioned above, and also to reflect other OB issues that relate to the case beyond those that I identified.