Organizational Behavior (Hardcover)

~ (Author), (Author), Richard N. Osborn (Author) "Of all the available advice on high performing organizations, one message stands out to guide them all: "People are an organization's most important assets!..." (more)
Key Phrases: various work outcomes, divisional pattern, deficit cycle, New York, Perot Systems, First Community (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

OB Workbook Supplement, Computerized Test Bank for IBM 3.5, Demonstration Video and Instructor's Resource Guide available. -- The publisher, John Wiley & Sons --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

The theme of this edition is The High Performance Organization. Ethics and social responsibility, workforce diversity, technology, entrepreneurship, and skill-building are some of the important topics emphasized. Schermerhorn's new edition is intended for the Organizational Behavior course taught at most 2-year and 4-year colleges.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 648 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 8 edition (June 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 047120367X
• ISBN-13: 978-0471203674
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 8.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #852,274 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars There are much better books out there, June 16, 2004

By A Customer

· Very little focus on individual behavior in organizations - I know this is not a psychology text, but, Jex (2002), or one of the other psych authors (Osland, 2000) could have used for this course with much better coverage and not alter the course objectives to a great extent.
· For a 2003 edition of text, the citations were very much out of date. The chapter on leadership for example (Chapter 14, which had a total of 53 citations) had only seven references within the last five years; 1998 or greater.
· I am not of the opinion that this was a graduate text. The stories, pictures, essay and "effective manager" were not intellectual in their added information. In many cases the added material didn't correspond to the text (see chart on page 48 and subsequent text explanation). Another example would be on page 157 they ask the reader to refer to Figure 8.2 and then explain the chart with text that isn't even related to the major sections of this chart.
o Not one of the Effective Manager boxes has references; where did all this good advice come from?
· Typo's abounded in the text, they always do - but check out page 233 Chapter summary - it's not the right chapter; this appears agan with chapter 19. I really had the feeling that this was written by three people who did not do a line-by-line update of the 7th edition.
· Of very serious concern would be the author's inclusion of sources in their writing. This infuriated me to no end. Page 63 under Gender "However, women are reported to be more conforming and to have lower expectations of success than men do." That is a very serious statement and it contains no citation - what reports, who, where, when? Another example is on page 85 when discussion perceptual differences in managers and employees - not citations given, even when stating that the differences are significant.
o Just to show that I did not cull these examples only from the front of the book, Pg 274 "Recent work on the linkages among corporate culture and financial performance reaffirms the importance of an emphasis on helping employees adjust to environment." What recent work, by who, saying what? This is just poor scholarship in my humble student estimation.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I hope you don't have to read this book., February 29, 2000

By	David Sheridan (Beltsville, Maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Organizational Behavior (Wiley Series in Management) (Hardcover)

The only reason you should buy and read this book is if it isrequired reading for a class. You are buying an advertisement for Fast Company Magazine. The writing is sketchy at best, and the examples are vague. You get access to their Web site for online tests, but the site is poorly done with typographical errors. There are other better texts on organizational behavior.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Boring to death, May 13, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Organizational Behavior (Wiley Series in Management) (Hardcover)

This textbook is so boring that although I made an A in the class, I couldn't wait to finish it. It uses too many technical words, it makes reference to subjects that students with a few courses in Human Resources know already. It would be better if it offered some real life examples. If you are a teacher looking for a textbook, please keep looking! If you are a student whose teacher assigned you this book..... I am sorry for you!