Abstract

Classic organizational behavior principles, including psychology, sociology, social psychology, anthropology, capacity, volatility, complexity, power, leadership, politics, motivation, and management are applied to structure and activities of a cyberspace classroom to discover optimum success factors for environment, learning experience, knowledge application, and organizational benefit. Accepted techniques and theory supporting the application include Bloom’s theory of learning, organizational behavior theory by Dervitsiotis, human capital theory by Becker and Schultz, and training evaluation by Kirkpatrick. Theory by Kruger supports an online focus group for qualitative research. Seventeen system analyst students and their supervisors participated in qualitative research for review of success factors in the cyberspace classroom. The perception of the students and supervisors indicated the application of organizational behavior principles to the cyberspace classroom was positive. The e-learning experience yielded significant knowledge and skills for the students. In addition, knowledge and skills increased student human capital. However, some students did not transfer knowledge and skills from the classroom to their organizations due to the lack of organizational support. The approach used in this example may be useful in determining general pivotal success factors for a cyberspace classroom or for specialized instances of e-learning such as corporate education, professional recertification, or public policy dissemination.