2.

Based on the discussion of independent and dependent variables in the textbook, is

there anything else you’d like to measure as an outcome?

The outcomes in an organization are the key variables that one wants to explain or
predict, and that are affected by some other variables. The dependent variables define the
employee behaviors that managers try to influence. On the other hand, the independent
variables are those factors that shape the employee’s behaviors and attitudes such as
personality, intelligence, job satisfaction, experience, motivation, or leadership style. In the case
of Morgan Moe’s drug store, there are still some variables that can be measured as an outcome
such as its employees’ task performance, productivity, and their attitude and stress towards
work.
Task performance has a crucial role in an organization since it’s the most important
human output contributing to organizational effectiveness (Robbins & Judge, 2013). Through
the different options or programs that the HR team had brought about, one could distinguish
how these management systems could affect the task performance of the employees. However,
the management should select the most effective management system if they want their
employees to see that their work serves a broader purpose and in order for the organization to
acquire a high task performance from the workforce. Same goes with productivity. An
organization is productive if it attains its goals by converting inputs into outputs at the lowest
cost. Claussen, the vice president for human relations, has been struggling to respond to the
employee’s sense of hopelessness. Managing motivation for employees is a requirement for
productivity. The individual managers in Morgan Moe’s stores should provide insights into why
people perform at work as they do, and as a result, they would know the various techniques to
improve worker productivity.
Employee attitudes are the evaluations employees make, ranging from positive to
negative. Stress is an unpleasant psychological process that occurs in response to
environmental pressures. (Robbins & Judge, 2013) If the management styles do not provide
motivation to the employees, then they would just experience extra strains in their job that would
eventually lead to organizational ineffectiveness. In other words, we want to measure the stress
and attitude of an employee in relation to the different management styles in order to view on
how they feel towards it and how satisfied they are about it.

Some people might think that influencing employee attitudes and stress is purely soft stuff,
and not the business of serious managers, but as we will show, attitudes often have behavioral
consequences that directly relate to organizational effectiveness. The belief that satisfied employees
are more productive than dissatisfied employees has been a basic tenet among managers for years,
though only now has research begun to support it. Ample evidence shows that employees who are
more satisfied and treated fairly are more willing to engage
in the above-and-beyond citizenship behavior so vital in the contemporary business environment.

Individual management styles , demographics of the store's region, employee satisfaction, employee tenure,
employee age are some of those independent variables On the other hand, there are dependent variables average
turnover, weekly profit per month and monthly staff time cost

Productivity: The efficiency and effectiveness with which individuals, work groups, and
organizations achieve their goals. Efficiency refers to the effort or resources required to achieve a goal,
effectiveness to the completeness with which goals are achieved. Both are necessary when evaluating
the productivity of individuals, groups, or organizations. For example, intense effort may be effective in
achieving a goal in the short run, but the level of effort may also be unsustainable and thus ineffective
over time. Managers must understand what factors influence the shifting balance between effectiveness
and efficiency with the goal of generating sustainable productivity. 2. Absenteeism: Failure of individuals
to report for work, primarily unscheduled or unanticipated absences. Not all such absences are “bad,” of
course. Life happens: employees or members of their family become ill or unexpected events occur.
Management must maintain its flexibility in responding to these. When factors in the organization or the
workplace tend to increase unanticipated or unscheduled absences, however, absenteeism reduces
productivity and becomes a management problem. 3. Turnover: The departure of workers from the
organization, voluntarily or involuntarily. When employees leave, organizations must spend scarce
resources to recruit, select, train, and develop replacements. Higher turnover rates therefore mean
higher costs.. If replacements are not recruited, remaining employees will have face increased
workloads, which can generate further problems (e.g., low morale, stress, reduced work quality).
Knowing why employees leave is the first step in managing turnover. Employees may leave an
organization either voluntarily or involuntarily. Voluntary departures occur when people quit to take
other jobs, to retire, to relocate, to return to school, and so on. Some voluntary turnover always exists –
indeed, should exist for an organization to stay fresh – and high voluntary turnover is common in some
settings (e.g., those employing high numbers of younger, unskilled, seasonal, or part time employees).
Still, frequent voluntary turnover should never be ignored because it usually indicates that problems
exist within the organization or workplace. Involuntary departures occur when employees are
discharged for inadequate performance, for disciplinary reasons, or for organizational reasons like
restructurings or workforce reductions. High rates of involuntary departures for disciplinary reasons or
poor performance may signal problems in (a) recruitment, selection, and training and (b) supervisory
and managerial practices within the organization. 4. Organizational citizenship: Robbins defines this as
“discretionary behavior . . . not part of the employee’s job requirements, but that nevertheless
promotes the effective functioning of the organization” (p. 21), which may be translated as employees’
willingness to do more than meet basic expectations. Good organizational citizenship includes
supportive, positive attitudes; stepping forward to accept additional responsibilities, taking leadership
roles in organization activities, avoiding conflict, and so on. Some elements of organizational citizenship
are difficult to measure objectively, others are not. 5. Job satisfaction: The extent to which employees
believe their efforts are being fairly rewarded. This will reflect the level at which employees believe they
should be rewarded or expect to be rewarded for their work. Rewards take many forms, varying across
settings and workforces, and are not limited just to economic rewards like salary and benefits. Non-
economic rewards are where employees have strong mission orientations, have received specialized
professional training, and identify themselves with communities of like-minded professionals. Managers
must be sensitive to the variability of the rewards sought by different members of their organizations.
Dependent Variable
A dependent variable is a response that is affected by an independent
variable. In terms of the hypothesis, it is the
variable that the researcher is interested in explaining.
Referring back to our opening example, the dependent
variable in my friend’s hypothesis was executive succession.
In organizational behavior research, the most popular
dependent variables are productivity, absenteeism, turnover,
job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. 3
Independent Variable
An independent variable is the presumed cause of some
change in the dependent variable. Participating in varsity
athletics was the independent variable in my friend’s
hypothesis. Popular independent variables studied by
OB researchers include intelligence, personality, job
satisfaction, experience, motivation, reinforcement
patterns, leadership style, reward allocations, selection
methods, and organization design.
You may have noticed we said that job satisfaction
is frequently used by OB researchers as both a dependent
and an independent variable. This is not an error.
It merely reflects that the label given to a variable depends
on its place in the hypothesis. In the statement
“Increases in job satisfaction lead to reduced turnover,”
job satisfaction is an independent variable. However,
in the statement “Increases in money lead to higher
job satisfaction,” job satisfaction becomes a dependent
variable.