I’ve been teaching so long, I have to remind myself, not to lecture and drone on (it’s an occupational hazard for many profs). Therefore, I’ll make this short and quick.

Here are a few tips: read the chapter, make you own notes, attend every class, and do all the quizzes and diagnostic questions in Connect. But, you already know that right? And, you already do all those things, or at least intend to, right? Ok, that’s the standard advice/lecture I give students.

Here’s some non-standard stuff. Your opinions matter, especially during class discussions. However, on tests it’s a different story. The study of OB is not the study of your opinions (however important you think those are). If that were the case, every student would pass the course with 100%. What about essay-type questions? Well, your opinions kind of matter, but only when they are supported by material found in the text. Organizational behaviour requires you to study what’s been learned and revealed to you by experts in the text (brutal isn’t it?).

The last piece of wisdom (I said it would be short) concerns your approach to the subject matter. Oftentimes students encounter difficulties when studying OB, which has a lot to do with their basic approach and attitude. Understanding the contingency anchor, and adopting it, is particularly useful. In essence, the contingency anchor holds that a particular action may have different consequences in different situations. In other words, there are no absolute answers that fit every circumstance in OB. So, don’t look for “one size fits all” solutions to difficult issues, especially on exam questions. In some ways, this makes learning about OB more challenging compared to say mathematics where there is always a correct answer.