Chapter Definitions Flashcards
Organizational Behaviour (OB)
The study of what people think, feel, and do in and around organizations
Organizations
Groups of people who work independently toward some purpose
Organizational Effectiveness
Broad concept represented by several perspectives, including the organizations fit with the external environment, internal subsystems configuration for high performance, emphasis on organizational learning, and ability to satisfy the needs of key stakeholders
Open systems
A perspective which holds that organizations depend on the external environment for resources, affect that environment through their output, and consists of internal subsystems that transform inputs into outputs
Organizational efficiency
The amount of outputs relative to inputs in the organization’s transformation process
Organizational learning
a perspective which holds that organizational effectiveness depends on the organization’s capacity to acquire, share, use, and store valuable knowledge
Intellectual capital
A company’s stock of knowledge including human capital, structural capital, and relationship capital
Human capital
The stock of knowledge, skills, and abilities amongst employees that provide economic value to the organization
Structural capital
Knowledge embedded in an organization systems and structures
Relationship capital
The value derived from an organization’s relationship with customers, suppliers, and others
High performance work practices hpwp
a perspective which holds that effective organizations incorporate several workplace practices that leverage the potential of human capital
Stakeholders
Individuals, groups, and other entities that affect, or are affected by the organization’s objectives and actions
Values
Relatively stable, evaluative beliefs that guide a person’s preferences for outcomes or courses of action in a variety of situations
Ethics
The study of moral principles or values that determine whether actions are right or wrong and outcomes are good or bad
Corporate social responsibility CSR
organizational activities intended to benefit society and the environment beyond the firm’s immediate financial interest or legal obligations
Globalization
Economic, social, and cultural connectivity with people in other parts of the world
Surface-level diversity
the observable demographic or physiological differences in people, such as their race, ethnicity, gender, age, and physical disabilities.
Deep-level diversity
Differences in the psychological characteristics of employees, including personalities, beliefs, values, and attributes.
Work-life balance
The degree to which a person minimizes conflict between work and non-work demands
Virtual work
Work performed away from the traditional physical workplace by using information technology
Evidence-based management
The practice of making decisions and taking actions based on research evidence
Role perceptions
The degree to which a person understands the job duties assigned to or expected of him or her
Organizational citizenship behaviours OCBs
various forms of cooperation and helpfulness to others that support the organization’s social and psychological context
Counterproductive work behavior CWBs
Voluntary behaviours that have the potential to directly or indirectly harm the organization
Presenteeism
Attending scheduled work when one’s capacity to perform is significantly diminished by illness or other factors
Showing up to work and doing fuck all!
Personality
the relatively enduring pattern of thoughts, emotions, and behaviours that characterize a person, along with the psychological processes behind those characteristics
Five factor model FFM
The five broad dimensions representing most personality traits:
- Conscientiousness
- Agreeableness
- Neuroticism
- Openness
- Extraversion
Conscientiousness
Personality dimension describing people who are organized, dependable, goal focused, thorough, disciplined, methodical and industrious
Neuroticism
Personality dimension describing people who tend to be anxious, insecure, self-conscious, depressed, and temperamental
Extraversion
Personality dimension describing people who are outgoing, talkative, sociable, and assertive.
Myers-Briggs type indicator mbti
An instrument designed to measure the elements of Jungian personality theory, particularly preferences regarding perceiving and judging information
Moral intensity
The degree to which an issue demands the application of ethical principles
Moral sensitivity
A person’s ability to recognize the presence of an ethical issue and determine its relative importance
Mindfulness
persons receptive and impartial attention to and awareness of the present situation as well as to one’s own thoughts and emotions in that moment
Individualism
Across cultural value describing the degree to which people in a culture emphasize Independence and personal uniqueness
Collectivism
across cultural value describing the degree to which people in a culture emphasized duty to groups to which they belong, and to group Harmony
Power distance
Cross-cultural value describing the degree to which people in a culture accept unequal distribution of power in a society
Uncertainty avoidance
Cross-cultural value describing the degree to which people in a culture tolerate ambiguity (low uncertainty avoidance) or feel threatened by ambiguity and uncertainty (high uncertainty avoidance)
Achievement nurturing orientation
cross-cultural value describing the degree to which people in a culture emphasize competitive versus cooperative relations with other people
Self concept
An individual self beliefs and self-evaluations
Self enhancement
a person’s inherent motivation to have a positive self concept and to have others perceive him or her favorably, such as being competent, attractive, lucky, ethical, and important
Self verification
A person’s inherent motivation to confirm and maintain his or her existing self-concept
Self-efficacy
a person’s belief that he or she has the ability, motivation, correct role perceptions, and favorable situation to complete a task successfully
Locus of control
A person’s general belief about the amount of control he or she has over personal life events
Social identity theory
A theory stating that people define themselves by the groups to which they belong to or have an emotional attachment
Perception
The process of receiving information about and making sense of the world around us
Selective attention
The process of attending to some information received by our senses and ignoring other information
Confirmation bias
the process of screening out information that is contrary to our values and assumptions and two more readily accept confirming information
Categorical thinking
Organizing people and objects into perceived categories that are stored in our long-term memory
Mental models
Knowledge structures that we develop to describe, explain, and predict the world around us
Stereotyping
The process of assigning traits to People based on their membership in a social category
Attribution process
The perceptual process of deciding whether an observed behavior event is caused largely by internal or external factors
Self-serving bias
Tendency to attribute our favorable outcomes to internal factors and our failures to external factors
Fundamental attribution error
Tendency to see the person rather than the situation as the main cause of that person’s behavior
Self-fulfilling prophecy
The perceptual process in which our expectations about other person cause that person to act more consistently with those expectations
Positive organizational behaviour
a perspective of organizational behaviour that focuses on building positive qualities and traits within individuals are institutions as opposed to focussing on what is wrong with them
Halo effect
a perceptual error whereby our general impression of a person, usually based on one prominent characteristic, colours are perception of other characteristics of that person
False consensus effect
a perceptual error in which we over-estimate the extent to which others have beliefs and characteristics similar to our own
Primary effect
A perceptual error in which we quickly form an opinion of people based on the first information we receive about them
Recency effect
A perceptual error in which the most recent information dominates our perception of others
Johari window
the model of mutual understanding that encourages disclosure and feedback to increase our own open area and reduce the blind, hidden, and unknown areas
Contact hypothesis
Theory stating that the more we interact with someone, the less prejudiced or perceptually biased we will be against that person
Empathy
A person’s understanding of and sensitivity to the feelings, thoughts, and situations of others
Global mindset
An individuals ability to perceive, appreciate, and empathize with people from other cultures, and to process complex cross-cultural information
Emotions
Physiological, behavioral, and psychological episodes experienced towards an
object, person, or event that create a state of readiness.
Attitudes
The cluster of beliefs,
assessed feelings, and behavioural intentions towards a person, object, or event (called an attitude object ).
Cognitive Dissonance
An emotional experience caused by a perception that our beliefs, feelings,and behaviour are incongruent with each other.
Example: people that smoke know it’s bad for them however they justify it in their mind. This is an example of conflict between the knowledge and perception of smoking and their feelings and behaviours towards it.
Emotional Labour
The effort, planning, and control needed to express organizationally desired
emotions during interpersonal
transactions.
Emotional Dissonance
The psychological tension experienced when the emotions people are
required to display are quite different from the emotions they actually experience at that moment.
Emotional Intelligence (EI)
A set of abilities to perceive and express emotion, assimilate emotion in thought, understand and
reason with emotion, and regulate emotion in oneself and others.
Job Satisfaction
A person’s evaluation
of his or her job and work
context.
exit-voice-loyalty-neglect
(EVLN) model
The four ways, as indicated in the name, that employees respond to job dissatisfaction.
Service Profit Chain Model
A theory explaining how employees’ job satisfaction influences company profitability indirectly
through service quality, customer loyalty, and related factors.
Affective Organizational
Commitment
An individual’s emotional attachment to, involvement
in, and identification with an
organization.
Continuance Commitment
An individual’s calculative attachment to an organization.
Trust
Positive expectations one
person has towards another person in situations involving risk.
Stress
An adaptive response to
a situation that is perceived as
challenging or threatening to the person’s well-being.
General Adaptation Syndrome
A model of the stress experience, consisting of three stages: alarm reaction, resistance, and exhaustion.
Stressors
Environmental conditions
that place a physical or
emotional demand on the person.
Psychological Harassment
Repeated and hostile or
unwanted conduct, verbal comments, actions, or gestures that affect an employee’s dignity or
psychological or physical integrity and that result in a harmful work environment for the employee.
Workaholic
A person who is highly involved in work, feels compelled to work, and has a low enjoyment of work.
Employee Engagement
Individual’s emotional and cognitive motivation, particularly a focused, intense, persistent, and
purposive effort towards work related goals.
Drives
Hardwired characteristics
of the brain that correct deficiencies or maintain an internal equilibrium by producing emotions
to energize individuals.
Needs
Goal-directed forces that people experience.
Need for Achievement (nAch)
A learned need in which people want to accomplish reasonably challenging goals and desire unambiguous feedback and recognition for their success.
Need for affiliation (nAff)
A learned need in which people seek approval from others, conform to their wishes and expectations, and avoid conflict and confrontation.
Need for power (nPow)
A learned need in which people want to control their environment, including people and material resources, to benefit either themselves
(personalized power) or
others (socialized power).
Four-drive theory
A motivation theory based on the innate drives to (BALD):
-Bond
-Acquire
-Learn
-Defend
that incorporates both emotions and rationality.
Expectancy theory
A motivation theory based on the idea that work effort is directed towards behaviours that people believe will lead to desired outcomes.
Organizational behaviour
modification (OB Mod)
A theory that explains employee behaviour in terms of the antecedent conditions and consequences of that behaviour.
Social cognitive theory
A theory that explains how learning and motivation occur by observing and modelling others as well as by anticipating the consequences of our behaviour.
Self-reinforcement
Reinforcement that occurs when an employee has control over a reinforcer but doesn’t ‘take’ it until completing a self-set goal.
