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Social Psychology in Organisations > College 1 > Flashcards

College 1 Flashcards

Organisational behaviour

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1
Q

The Hawthorne effect

A

The Hawthorne effect is how your behaviour changes when someone is observing you.

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2
Q

Hawthorne studies

A

Hawthorne studies led to a focus on the role of human behaviour in organisations.

Mayo’s work was the beginning of the human relations movement.

It refers to the Hawthorne factory, in this factory they made things such as telephones. The researchers were interested in how changes in the environment would change the productivity. The most well known changes were the change of brightness of the light in the work environment. They found that changing the light, either making it brighter or dimming it, increased productivity compared to the control group. Then they just pretended to change the light, but actually didn’t, and this group increased in productivity compared to the control group. So, it wasn’t the light, but the fact that someone cared enough to try out the light made them work harder.

This is what is now called the Hawthorne effect. It was about the attention, the same goes for the placebo effect.

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3
Q

Definition of organisational behaviour

A
  • The study of individuals and their behaviour at work.
  • Interdisciplinary
  • Multi-level research
  • Focus on applied social psychology.
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4
Q

OB

A

Organisational Behaviour

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5
Q

Definition of evidence-based management

A

Using scientific (evidence -based) knowledge as a basis for management decisions.

EBM reduces judgement error in decision making.

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6
Q

EBM

A

Evidence Based Management

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7
Q

Organisational legitimacy

A

An organisations assumption that its actions are desirable, proper, or appropriate based on the widespread belief that they are just and valid.

A.k.a.: “we do it because others do it, therefore it is good”.

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8
Q

Agile working

A

Agile working = independent of place (and time). Flexible workspaces. Working from home.

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9
Q

Legitimacy and agile working

A

Researchers found that people don’t like flex offices, where people don’t have an assigned desk. But besides that evidence, organisations continue to introduce it, because other organisations do it.

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10
Q

Evidence-based management (EBM)

A

Selecting the best available evidence => systematic decision-making => re-evaluating and adapting

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11
Q

Selecting the best available evidence in EBM

A

EBM involves using multiple sources of scientific evidence and empirical results as a means of attaining knowledge and finding interventions and strategies. The goal is to make decisions based on the best available evidence.

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12
Q

Systematic decision-making in EBM

A

Mental biases, prejudices or lazy thinking are reduced by taking into consideration published literature, critically appraising evidence, and selecting a strategy supported by science.

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13
Q

Re-evaluating and adapting in EBM

A

Just like in the social science, decisions are critically examined and accurately evaluated using the scientific method. Constant re-evaluation and improvement of the hypothesis determines whether the strategy is worthwhile.

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14
Q

Four kinds of evidence in EBM

A
  1. Scientific literature (empirical studies)
  2. Practitioners (professional expertise)
  3. Stakeholders (values and concerns)
  4. Organisation (internal data)
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15
Q

What is critical thinking?

A

How can a manager sort through all this information and decide what is relevant?

“Critical thinking calls for persistent effort to examine any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of evidence that supports it and the further conclusions to which it tends”

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16
Q

What are the skills that are required for critical thinking?

A
  • Logic (rely on reason, weigh evidence)
  • Reflection (examine assumptions, recognize biases)
  • Dual processing (consider different viewpoints, start over when necessary)
  • Attention to detail (study many sources, be thorough)
  • Decision making (develop contingency plans)
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17
Q

What is personality?

A

“Regularities in feeling, thought and action that are characteristic of an individual”.

Your personality is relatively set, so you have to deal with the personality of people, not try to change it.

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18
Q

Are genetics an important component in predicting leadership?

A

24% genetic component in predicting leadership role, this is a relatively small component.

The researched components are: shared environment, genetic and unshared environment.

The shared environment and genetic component contribute equally to if someone ends up in a leadership role.

The best way to study this is by studying identical twins versus non-identical twins.

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19
Q

Genetics in leadership style

A

Identical twins are more likely than fraternal twins to share a leadership style, regardless of which style.

Genetics is, again, a relatively small component.

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20
Q

Transformational vs. transactional leadership style

A

Transformational leadership style: charismatic leadership style, you inspire people.

Transactional leadership style: reward and punish.

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21
Q

From DNA to personality

A
  • Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
  • The Big Five
  • Psychological capital
  • Type A versus Type B
  • Machiavellianism
  • Self-monitoring
  • Risk taking
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22
Q

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

A

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is the most often administered personality test in organisational settings.

Based on Carl Jung.

Claims to assess your ‘true’ (unconscious) personality type

  • Unconscious, so you can’t cheat on this test

Predicts behaviour.

It is designed by a commercial company, and they make a lot of money from people that use this test.

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23
Q

What are the four general personality preferences of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)?

A
  • Introversion (I) versus extraversion (E)
  • Sensing (S) versus intuition (N)
  • Thinking (T) versus feeling (F)
  • Judging (J) versus perceiving (P)
24
Q

What are some critiques on the MBTI?

A

MBTI assumes 4 dichotomies, instead of continuous traits.

Whether people are actually classifiable into the 16 categories is questionable.

  • But it sells good, better than placing people on a dimension.

Judging vs perceiving is new, not based on Jungian theory.

If you take the test again, you may not receive the same score (test-retest reliability between 61-90%).

MBTI claims to expose your (unconscious) ‘true personality type’ based on (conscious) self-reported answers to questions.

MBTI (in the extended version) asks users to self-verify their result, and users can pick a different type if they disagree.

Since MBTI questions assess self-report behaviour, the claim that personality type causes behaviour is circular.

25
Q

What is the response of MBTI on the criticism?

A

In response to criticism, MBTI claims it should not be used to predict performance or outcomes (but also proudly lists to many companies that it does exactly that!).

  • Past behaviour predicts future behaviour.
26
Q

The Big Five

A

This test has dimensions on which you can score.

This personality test has had more positive reviews from scientists.

27
Q

What are the five dimensions of the Big Five?

A
  • Openness to experience
  • Conscientiousness
  • Extraversion
  • Agreeableness
  • Neuroticism

(OCEAN)

28
Q

Neurotocism

A

Represents a tendency to be anxious or moody

29
Q

What are the results of the research on the Big Five?

A

There is a lot of research that the big five is valid e.g.,

  • Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism predict entrepreneurship.
  • Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion and Agreeableness predict turnover (the likelihood of leaving your company).
  • Conscientiousness is a reliable predictor of job performance.
  • Conscientiousness predicts deviant behaviour.
30
Q

Critical thinking: assessment tests

A

Many companies use assessment tests for recruitment.

Common elements:

  • Intelligence test
  • Personality test
    o Personality can’t be changed, but it can be good to know if that personality fits in the environment of the company.
  • Interview
  • Role-play
31
Q

Person-environment fit

A

Person-Environment (PE): when an individual’s personality is aligned with their environment.

A good PE fit results in job satisfaction, organisational commitment, and better performance on the job.

32
Q

What are the two types of PE fit?

A
  • Person-Organisation (PO) fit
  • Person-Job (PJ) fit
33
Q

Person-Organisation Fit

A

Person-Organisation fit: match between a person’s individual values and those of the organisation they work for.

Selection by the organisation as well as the employee, it evolves organically.

Results in increased job satisfaction, organisational commitment, and better performance.

E.g., if you care about the environment, Shell might not be a good PO fit.

34
Q

Person-Job fit

A

Person-Job (PJ) fit: job characteristics are aligned with employees’ personality, motivations, and abilities.

Poor fit results in burnout. Good fit results in higher salary.

35
Q

What are the two forms of a Person-Job fit?

A

Demands-abilities (DA) fit

  • Do you have what it takes to do the job?

Needs-supplies (NS) fit

  • The extend to which the job supplies the persons need (psychological level)
  • E.g., finding needing in your work.
36
Q

Managing personalities

A

You can try to recruit personnel based on personality types, assuming you use valid personality tests, but:

  • Many personality tests are unreliable.
  • Personality is a weak predictor of behaviour.
  • You reduce the diversity of your staff.
  • You may reject good people.

Better: try to create a good fit between people, job, and environment.

37
Q

What are OB researchers interested in studying?

A

They are often interested in studying and ultimately changing factors that influence human resource outcomes.

So we want people in the workforce to be happy and productive workers. We want the organisation to be happy with the workforce and we want the workforce, the people themselves, to be happy where they are.

They’ve developed a set of outcome variables that we include in many studies to get a general assessment of whether this is a happy situation or not. This is because happiness is ambiguous.

38
Q

Outcome variables in OB

A

Work-related attitudes.

  • Organisational commitment
  • Job satisfaction
  • Engagement

Employee well-being (e.g., burnout or general well-being).

  • Employee withdrawal
  • Turnover (intentions)
  • Absenteeism
    o You call in sick more often than is expected, you show up late, take longer lunch breaks etc.

Motivation.

Performance and productivity.

  • Quality and quantity of work

Overall, this paints a general picture of how people are doing.

39
Q

What is an attitude?

A

A psychological tendency expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favour or disfavor.

  • How positive or negative you feel about, think about, or act towards a topic or entity.
40
Q

Job satisfaction

A

“A pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or job experience.”

Is often measured to get an idea where people stand on the workforce.

It is very general. What are people satisfied with?

Trying to measure job satisfaction completely, is very complicated.

41
Q

What happens when you ask people to say how satisfied they are with their work?

A

It will seem like a lot of people are satisfied, but if you ask further it might not be the work that they are satisfied with, but e.g., the training opportunities, travel time or daily activities.

The better you measure the satisfaction, the better you can adjust this.

42
Q

Satisfaction with daily activities by age

A

You can be satisfied with your job, but people are happier without their job.

This can be seen in a graph as that the satisfaction goes up by a lot around the age most people reitre.

43
Q

Job Description Index

A

5 facets:

  • Coworkers
  • Pay
  • Promotion
  • Supervision
  • Work
44
Q

Job satisfaction and pay

A

There is no relationship that the more you are being paid, the more you are satisfied with your job. There is even a negative incline with pay and satisfaction.

If you feel like you are being paid less than the people around you, you are less satisfied.

Pay and satisfaction have no relation as long as you feel like you are being treated fairly. But there is a bottom line, if people can’t live normally due to their pay.

45
Q

Organisational commitment

A

A psychological state that describes an employee’s relationship with their organisation and a propensity to continue the relationship.

E.g., if someone speaks negatively about an organisation you feel almost personally attacked. If the paper speaks positive about your organisation you feel proud.

It’s an important predictor of satisfaction.

46
Q

What is organisational commitment related to

A
  • Work motivation (+)
  • Performance (+)
  • Absenteism (-)
47
Q

Allen & Meyer’s 3-factor scale of organisational commitment

A

Affective commitment
Normative commitment
Continuance commitment

48
Q

Affective commitment

A

Emotional attachment

49
Q

Normative commitment

A

Moral obligation to stay

In the past you were expected to stay with your company till retirement, nowadays it is normal and almost expected to change companies one or a few times.

E.g., if you have unique skills that the company relies on

50
Q

Continuance commitment

A

Cost of leaving.

There is a sacrifice associated with leaving.

Perceived lack of employment alternatives.

  • E.g., if you work for NS, you have little alternatives, expect if you live in the far north/east/south of the Netherlands.
51
Q

What are some criticisms on Allen & Meyer’s 3-factor scale of organisational commitment?

A
  • Is continuance commitment still an attitude, or is it behaviour (decision to stay with the organisation or leave)?
  • Are normative commitment and affective commitment conceptually distinct constructs? A moral obligation to stay can result in emotional attachment…
52
Q

Perceived Organisational Support

A

POS: Employees’ perception of whether or not the organisation values their contributions and cares about their well-being.

Favorable treatment in terms of:

  • Fairness
  • Supervisor support
  • Rewards & job conditions
53
Q

POS

A

Perceived Organisational Support

54
Q

Study on organisational commitment and POS

A

Survey study among employees and self-employed individuals

Time 1:
- POS
- Affective commitment (AC)
- Normative commitment (NC)
- Continuance commitment: high sacrifice associated with leaving (HS) and lack of alternatives (LA)

Time 2:
- Employee well-being
- Role ambiguity, conflict, overload

55
Q

What are the results of the study on organisational commitment and POS

A
  • POS predicted all commitment variables.
  • Affective commitment and lack of alternatives (LA) predicted employee wellbeing.
  • Effect of POS on well-being was mediated by affective commitment (but not by LA).
56
Q

How to increase POS

A

Start support even before employment

  • Positive expectations of POS result in higher POS after employment.

Train people to be supportive

  • Supervisors who feel supported by their employees treat them better.

Offer individualized benefits.

  • Not everyone values the same rewards.

Promote social networks

  • Employees can also support each other.

Be fair and equitable

  • Use fair and transparent procedures.

Implement supportive workforce services

  • Give recognition for work, promotion opportunities.

Set realistic goals and provide rewards

  • Reward high individual performance, differentiate high achievers.

Support supervisors

  • Supported supervisors can more easily support their subordinates.

Social Psychology in Organisations (8 decks)

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