Chapter 13: Understand Individual Behaviour Flashcards
What is the Focus of Organisational Behaviour?
• Individual behaviour - the actions of people.
–contributions from psychologists
–Attitudes, personality, perception, learning and motivation
• Organisational behaviour (group behaviour)- the study of the actions of people at work.
–contributions from sociologists and social psychologists
– Norms, roles, team building, leadership and conflict
individuals in a group setting behave differently from individuals acting alone.
What are the Goals of Organisational Behaviour?
To explain, predict and influence behaviour
• Employee productivity - a performance measure of both efficiency and effectiveness.
• Absenteeism - the failure to show up for work.
• Turnover - the voluntary and involuntary permanent withdrawal from an organisation.
• Organisational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB) - discretionary behaviour that is not part of an employee’s formal job requirements, but which promotes the effective functioning of the organisation
• Job satisfaction - an employee’s general attitude toward his or her job.
• Workplace misbehaviour - any intentional employee behaviour that is potentially damaging to the organisation or to individuals within the organisation.
–deviance, aggression, antisocial behaviour and violence
What are the Psychological Factors affecting Employee Behavior?
APPL •Attitudes •Personality •Perception •Learning
Define the Attitudes psychological factor.
•Attitudes - evaluative statements, either favorable or unfavorable, concerning objects, people, or events.
– Cognitive component - that part of an attitude that’s made up of the beliefs, opinions, knowledge, or information held by a person.
– Affective component - that part of an attitude that’s the emotional or feeling part.
– Behavioural component - that part of an attitude that refers to an intention to behave in a certain way toward someone or something.
Explain the Personality psychological factor.
Personality - the unique combination of emotional, thought, and behavioural patterns that affect how a person reacts to situations and interacts with others.
• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator - popular personality assessment model that uses four dimensions: social interaction, preference for gathering data, preference for decision making, and style of making decisions.
• Big Five Model - personality trait model that includes extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness to experience.
Explain the Perception psychological factor,
• Perception - a process by which we give meaning to our environment by organising and interpreting sensory impressions.
– None of us actually see reality, we interpret what we see and call it reality and we behave according to our perception
Explain the Learning psychological factor
•Learning - any relatively permanent change in behaviour that occurs as a result of experience.
•Almost all complex behaviour is learned.
•Learning is a continuous, life-long process.
•The principles of learning can be used to shape behaviour.
•Theories of learning:
–Operant conditioning
–Social learning
What is operant conditioning?
• Operant conditioning - a theory of learning that says behaviour is a function of its consequences
– Operant behaviour: voluntary or learned behaviours
• Behaviours are learned by making rewards contingent to behaviours.
• Behaviour that is rewarded (positively reinforced) is likely to be repeated.
• Behaviour that is punished or ignored is less likely to be repeated.
What is social learning?
- Social learning theory - a theory of learning that says people can learn through observation and direct experience.
- Attentional: the attractiveness or similarity of the model
- Retention: how well the model can be recalled
- Motor reproduction: the reproducibility of the model’s actions
- Reinforcement: the rewards associated with learning the model behaviour
