Mission & Values

Mission & Values

Advancing scholars and scholarship in organizational behavior

The mission of the OB Division of the Academy of Management is to advance the development of scholars and scholarship within the content domain of organizational behavior, and to positively influence management thought and practice.

Our priorities: the three Rs

Programming sponsored and developed by the OB Division focuses on three priorities. They shape how we convene, what we recognize, and the kind of community we build.

R

Rigor

We promote and encourage rigorous scholarship, teaching, and consulting that relies on valid evidence and the highest quality scientific research.
R

Relevance

We encourage scholarship that is relevant, practical, and in pursuit of answers to the most challenging questions about the workplace.
R

Relationships

We strive to develop relationships among our members in a collaborative, supportive, and inclusive community of scholars, teachers, consultants, and practitioners.

Our domain

Organizational behavior is devoted to understanding individuals and groups within an organizational context. The field focuses on attributes, processes, behaviors, and outcomes within and between individual, interpersonal, group, and organizational levels of analysis. Major topics include:

Individual characteristics and processes+
Individual characteristics such as beliefs, values, personality, and demographic attributes, and individual processes such as learning, perception, motivation, emotions, and decision making.
Interpersonal processes+
Interpersonal processes such as trust, justice, power and politics, social exchange, and networks.
Group and team characteristics and processes+
Group and team characteristics such as size, diversity, and cohesion, and group and team processes such as development, leadership, decision making, and cooperation and conflict.
Organizational processes and practices+
Organizational processes and practices such as leadership, goal setting, work design, feedback, rewards, communication, and socialization.
Contextual influences+
Contextual influences on individuals and groups such as organizational and national culture, and organizational identity and climate.
Outcomes across levels of analysis+
The influence of all of the above on individual, interpersonal, group, and organizational outcomes such as performance, creativity, attachment, citizenship behaviors, stress, absenteeism, turnover, deviance, and ethical behavior.

See how our mission becomes programming

Rigor, relevance, and relationships guide our year-round programs, awards, and the connections we build across the OB community.

About the Division Year-round programs