This seminar introduces the dominant theories used by health services researchers to study phenomena relating to organizational behaviour in health services organizations and systems. Theories reviewed in this course are applicable to micro-, meso-, or macro-levels of analysis. Seminar topics typically include organization theory; system-level performance; inter-organizational relationships and networks; social capital; organizational learning; knowledge transfer, knowledge translation and knowledge utilization; innovation diffusion; change theory including complexity theory and whole systems change; group decision-making and team effectiveness; leadership and followership; and an array of micro-OB topics including organizational commitment, organizational justice, job satisfaction, motivation theory/expectancy theory and organizational citizenship behaviours. The last two sessions are allocated to student presentations, where students present a research idea and related research question(s) that are motivated using theory reviewed in the course.

Objectives: Conversance with dominant theories of organizational behaviour and their relevance to the study of issues in health services organizations; Ability to critically analyze a research article that uses as its theoretical framework one of the theories discussed in seminar; Ability to develop a viable research question(s) that is motivated and explored using one or more of the theories discussed in seminar.