Evaluating organizational behavior teaching innovations: More rigorous designs, more relevant criteria, and an example

Evaluations of new methods of teaching Organizational Behavior (OB) usually rely on course ratings collected at the end of the semester. This article discusses the need for more rigorous designs for assessing teaching innovations, and proposes evaluating OB courses on the basis of change in self-ratings of managerial competencies. Selfratings of managerial competencies and a more sophisticated evaluation design are used to compare the Practical Organizational Behavior Education (PROBE) method to the lecture/tutorial method of delivering of OB material. PROBE produces greater perceived managerial skill learning than lecture/tutorial delivery for females, younger students, students with little work experience, and students from Western cultures. The discussion points out how incorrect conclusions might have been reached about the relative effectiveness of the two methods had a less sophisticated evaluation design been used.