How to use this guide
Organizational behaviour is a concept course. Almost every question, multiple choice or written, hands you a short workplace situation and asks two things: which idea explains it, and what should a manager do about it. Memorizing definitions gets you the first half. The marks are in recognizing the idea inside a story you have never seen, and in telling apart the look-alike terms (negative reinforcement vs punishment, halo vs stereotyping, affective vs continuance commitment).
Topic order. Work the tabs left to right; the course builds that way. 01 What OB is sets up the vocabulary: the forces changing work, the four anchors, and how to judge whether an organization is effective. 02 Personality & values explains individual behaviour with the MARS model, the Big Five and ethics. 03 Perception covers how we see ourselves and others, and the errors we make doing it. 04 Emotions & stress covers emotions, attitudes, satisfaction, commitment and stress. 05 Motivation brings it together with the needs theories, expectancy, reinforcement, goals and equity, the topic with the only number-crunching.
Inside each topic: read the idea, try each worked scenario yourself before opening the analysis (they run simplest first), then do the lab: it gives you fresh situations to label and checks your answers. Finish with the Drill until you get several in a row right.
| Level | What it asks | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Beginner | One definition, or one part of one model | Which Big Five trait does a careful, organized planner score high on? |
| Intermediate | Apply one model to a short scenario | A manager stops replying to joke emails: which reinforcement contingency is that? |
| Exam level | A full scenario with several parts: name, explain, recommend | Use expectancy theory to explain why a bonus plan isn't working and fix it |
| Hard | Twists: two models at once, near-miss distractors, working backwards | What pay would restore equity? Which attribution error is the manager making? |
The drill starts at Beginner and steps up a level after three correct answers in a row; you can also pick a level yourself. The written questions, multiple choice and flashcards are ordered easy → hard, so working through them in order builds each idea from the ground up.
The core models
- MARS: performance needs Motivation, Ability, Role perceptions and Situational factors, all four
- Big Five (CANOE): Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Neuroticism, Openness, Extraversion
- Attribution cues: consistency, distinctiveness, consensus → internal or external cause
- Attitudes: beliefs + feelings + behavioural intentions · EVLN: exit, voice, loyalty, neglect
- GAS: alarm → resistance → exhaustion
- Expectancy: effort = E→P × Σ (P→O × valence) · Equity: my outcomes ÷ my inputs vs theirs
- A-B-C: antecedent → behaviour → consequence; four contingencies of reinforcement
Rules people forget: memorize
- Negative reinforcement increases a behaviour (something unpleasant is taken away); it is not punishment
- The fundamental attribution error is about judging other people; the self-serving bias is about judging yourself
- High consensus and high distinctiveness point to an external cause
- Halo spreads one trait of a person; stereotyping starts from a group
- Continuance commitment means staying because leaving costs too much, not because you care
- EVLN loyalty means waiting patiently for things to improve; voice means trying to fix them
- Equity compares ratios, not pay: earning less than someone can still be fair
- Expectancy needs all three links: any one near zero kills motivation
Exam format, weight and allowed aids differ between sections and terms. Check your own course outline.
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This is the first section. The full guide has every topic, the labs and the practice questions.
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