Exam #1 Flashcards
Organizational Behavior:
The systematic study of people, groups, and structures in organizational environments
What is OB:
- Individual differences
- Motivation
- Leadership/management
- Communication
- Work-life balance
- Group dynamics/behavior
- Organizational culture
- Change management
The fields of OB:
Psychology, Economics, Political Science, and Sociology.
Levels of Analysis in organizational behavior:
Organization, group, and individuals and how they work with on another.
Tools for designing a study:
- Surveys
- Field studies
- Lab/experimental studies
- Case studies
- Meta-analysis
Individual Differences (IDs):
– Broad category used to collectively describe the vast number of attributes that describe a person
– Generally not focused on physical differences
Applying Knowledge about IDs:
– Some differences are relatively stable over time and across situations and are difficult to change
– Other differences are relatively flexible
What is Intelligence:
– Often considered in terms of an individual’s capacity for:
* Constructive thinking
* Reasoning
* Problem solving
Intelligence Facts:
- Intelligence is not purely genetic
- Intelligence can be altered or modified
- Intellectual development can be damaged by organic
factors (drugs, alcohol, poor nutrition) - Often the single strongest predictor of job performance
Multiple Intelligences (MI):
- Logical-Mathematical
- Linguistic
- Spatial
- Musical
- Bodily-Kinesthetic
- Interpersonal
- Intrapersonal
- Naturalist
- Practical Intelligence
What is Personality?
– Combination of stable cognitive, behavioral, and emotional characteristics that give individuals their unique identities
– Product of interacting genetic and environmental influences
Myer’s Briggs or Big 5:
Big 5
Big Five Personality Dimensions
- Openness to Experience
- Conscientiousness
- Extraversion
- Agreeableness
- Neuroticism/Emotional Stability
Openness to Experience
– tendency to be original, have broad interests, be open to a wide range of stimuli, be daring and take risks
People with Openness to Experience Usually are:
- Nonconforming
- Creative
- Adapt well to change
- More likely to benefit from training
- More likely to quit
Conscientiousness
– tendency to be careful, diligent, and persevering
Conscientiousness Usually
- has the strongest effect on job performance and job satisfaction
- Achievement oriented
- Desire status
- May be overly detail-oriented
Agreeableness
– tendency to get along well with others
Extraversion
– tendency to experience positive emotions and moods and feel good about oneself and the rest of the world. Social, talkative, energetic.
People that have Extraverison Usually are:
- Good at social interaction
- Excitement-seeking
- Proportion of extraverts in group related to performance in an inverted U shape
- Is a stronger predictor of job performance than agreeableness
Neuroticism
– tendency to experience negative emotions and moods, feel distressed, and be critical of oneself and others
People with Neutroticism usually
- More likely to experience burnout
- Not best performers
- High NA less likely to engage in citizenship behaviors
Situation Strength Strong:
Highly Influence behavior, suppress individual traits, most people responds the same way
Core Self-Evaluations (CSEs)?
– A broad personality trait comprised of four narrow and individual traits:
Situation Strength Weak:
Minimally influence behavior, allows individual traits to be expressed, people vary in the way in which they respond
Four Core Self Evalutations:
- Generalized self-efficacy
- Self esteem
- Locus of control
- Emotional stability
What is Self-Efficacy?
– A person’s belief about his or her chances of successfully accomplishing a specific task
– Self-efficacy can be developed
Mechanisms of Self-Efficacy:
– Stems from several sources
– Predicts intensity of effort
What is Self-Esteem?
– General belief about Self-worth
What effects Self Esteem:
Personal Achievement and Praise Raise Self- Esteem
Prolonged Unemployment and Destructive Feedback Lower Self-Esteem
What is Locus of Control?
– Relatively stable personality characteristic that describes how much personal responsibility someone takes for their behavior and its consequences
Internal Locus of Control:
You make things happen
– I make things happen
– Look what I can do
– I can determine my future
– Luck has nothing to do with it
External Locus of Control:
Things happen to you
– Why does everything happen to me?
– Why bother?
– There is nothing I can do about my
future
– Even good things result from luck
Emotional Stability:
Individuals With High Levels of Emotional Stability
- Tend to be Relaxed, Secure, Unworried, Less Likely to Experience Negative Emotions Under Pressure
- Have Higher Job Performance, More OCB, Fewer CWBs
Practical Considerations Regarding CSEs
– High CSEs is associated with higher job and life satisfaction, in-role and extra-role job performance, and positive perceptions of the work environment (e.g., job characteristics and fairness)
– The whole of CSE is greater than its parts
CSEs can be used for:
- Employee selection
- Training & development
Values:
are abstract ideals that guide one’s thinking and behavior across all situations
What is the importance of values:
– Fundamental part of who we are day-to-day
– Values are relatively stable
* Experiences, upbringing, religion
– Generational differences are a common challenge in workplaces
personal attitudes:
– Evaluations, feelings or opinions about people, places, and
objects
– Tend to be relatively consistent
– Range from positive to negative
Why are personal attitudes important
– Important because they impact behavior
How are personal attitudes different from values
Personal values tend to be global while attitude tend to specific
Personal values are broad and personal attitudes are not
Personal values tend affect behavior randomly and attitudes tend to affect behavior via intentions
Three Components of Attitudes
- Affective “I feel”
- Cognitive “I think”
- Behavioral “I intend”
Cognitive Dissonance:
Psychological discomfort experienced when
simultaneously holding two or more conflicting attitudes, cognitions (ideas, beliefs, values, emotions) or behaviors
Cognitive Dissonance is commonly caused by:
– Forced compliance behavior
– Decision making
Cognitive dissonance is reduced by
– Changing existing attitudes, behavior, or both
– Belittling the importance of the inconsistent behavior
What contributes to engagement?
– Person factors (personality, psychological capital)
– Job characteristics (skills, variety)
– Organization level factors (leadership, positive and inspiring climates
Why do we care about attitudes? (Theory of planned behavior)
– Attitudes affect behavior via intentions.
– Particularly when individuals believe they have control and when behaviors are
consistent with norms.
Employee Engagement
– The harnessing of organizational members’ selves to their work roles
– Where people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally during role performance (focus, intensity, enthusiasm)
Key Workplace Attitudes:
Employee Engagement, Perceived Organizational Support, Organizational Commitment, Job Satisfaction
Increase employee engagement by:
– Career and development opportunities
– Give employees meaningful work
– Empowering employees to be involved in decision making
Perceived Organizational Support
– Reflects the extent to which employees believe that the organization
- Values their contributions
- Genuinely cares about their well-being
When employees perceive organizational support:
– They are willing to work hard and commit to the organization. This results in:
* Increased organizational commitment
* Job satisfaction
* Organizational citizenship behavior
* Task performancer
* Lower turnover
Outcomes of organizational commitment
– Continued employment
– Greater motivation
Job Satisfaction
– The extent to which an individual likes his or her job
– An affective or emotional response toward various facets of one’s job
* Can be measured as a “global” evaluation or a “dimensional” evaluation (e.g., work, pay, coworkers, supervisors)
Causes of positive attitudes:
Need fulfulliment, met expectations, value attainment, equity, and disposition/genetic components
Major Correlates and Consequences of Job Satisfaction Attitudes:
Attitudes
– Motivation (+)
– Job involvement (+)
– Withdrawal cognitions (-)
– Perceived stress (-)
Major Correlates and Consequences of Job Satisfaction Behaviors:
– Job performance (+)
– Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) (+)
– Counterproductive work behavior (CWB) (-)
– Turnover (-)
Major Correlates and Consequences of Job Satisfaction Behaviors:
– Job performance (+)
– Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) (+)
– Counterproductive work behavior (CWB) (-)
– Turnover (-)
The Types of Communication
- Spoken or oral communication
- Written communication
– e-mail, texts, letters, reports, manuals, and notes - Non-verbal communication
– Gestures, body language, facial expressions
Increase organizational commitment by:
– Hiring people whose personal values align with the organization (choose companies that align with your personal values)
– Making sure management does not breach psychological contracts
– Enhancing the level of trust and treating employees fairly
Noise
– Physical noise (background noise, poor microphone quality, etc.)
– Semantic noise (language barriers or unfamiliar jargon)
– Psychological noise (preexisting beliefs, stereotypes, emotional states)
– Cultural noise (variance in cultural norms, values, and customs)
What is involved in Competent Communication?
Knowledge of what to say or do
– With a given person, in a given context
* Motivation to enact this knowledge
– Value of outcomes (looking good, building relationships)
– Impulse control, biting your tongue
* Skills to translate knowledge into behavior
– Not stumbling or putting your foot in your mouth
– Staying calm
Skills involved in effective interpersonal communication:
- Correct usage of words
- Attentiveness, memory
- Congruent body language
- Empathy
- Altercentrism – envisioning/paying attention to the states of others
- Managing the interaction
- Adapting (situations, audiences)
- Active Listening
The keys to active listening:
Paraphrase, Ask Questions, Express Empathy, Body Language, Avoid Judgement.
Motivation
– The force acting on or within a person that causes the person to behave in a specific, goal-directed manner
Types of Motivation: Intrinsic Motivation
- Results from internal feelings
Extrinsic Motivation:
- Results from external rewards/avoiding punishment
What motivates” theories (content theories)
– Maslow’s needs hierarchy
– McClelland’s acquired needs theory
Performance =
𝑓(ability x motivation x opportunity)
– AMO model of performance.
– Ability and opportunity are not sufficient absent motivation
“Process” of motivation theories (process theories)
– Equity theory
– Expectancy theory
– Goal setting
Maslow’s Needs Hierarchy (Needs (high to low)
- Self-actualization (self-fulfillment)
- Esteem (achievement, self-worth, respect)
- Affiliation (friendship, love, belonging)
- Security (safety, stability, absence of pain)
- Physiological (food, water, air)
* Must satisfy lower levels needs before higher levels become important
McClelland’s Acquired Needs Theory-
Achievement, Affiliation, Power
Achievement:
- Prefers working on challenges
- Situations in which performance is due to effort and ability
- Prefers to work with other high achievers
Affiliation
- Likes to work in teams in with cooperation and
collegiality - Tends to avoid conflict
- Likes to be praised in private
Power
- Likes to be in charge
- Likes to be in control of people and events
- Appreciates being recognized
Theories that focus on how the person and the situation interacts to influence motivation
- Equity/Justice theory
- Expectancy theory
- Goal setting
Equity/Justice Theories
- Focus is on an individual’s feelings of how fairly he or she is treated in comparison with others
- Key ratio:
– Individual inputs
– Individual outcomes - Comparison/referent other
Inequity exists:
when a person’s inputs are more/less or outcomes are more/less than the referent other
Inputs (I)
- What a person perceives they are putting into their job
Outputs (O)
- What a person perceives they are getting out of their job
Comparison
- How does a person’s I/O ratio compare with relevant others’ I/O ratio
Interactional justice
– perceived when people treat others respectfully and explain decisions adequately
Distributive justice
– the extent to which individuals believe that the outcomes they receive are just/fair
Procedural justice
– the degree to which processes used to reach a distribution are perceived as fair
Consequences of Inequity
- Can decrease or increase inputs
- Can try to change outcomes
- Change referent other
- Leave the organization
Expectancy Theory
- People are motivated to work/act in a certain way when they believe they can get what they want from their job/situation
- Maximize individual utility function
Three main components of Expectancy Theory
– E – P (Expectancy)
– P – O (Instrumentality)
– Value (Valence )
Using Equity and Justice Theories
– Employee perceptions are what count
– Employees want a voice in decisions that affect them
– Employees should be given an appeals process
– Leader behavior matters
– A climate for justice makes a difference
– If the process is fair and just, make sure this is communicated to
employees
Expectancy :
What are by chances of reaching my performance goal
Expectancy Theory Focuses on:
predicting decisions, behaviors, and the level of effort
Instrumentality:
What are the chance of receiving various outcomes if I achieve my performance goals
Valence:
How much do I value the outcomes I will receive by achieving my performance goal
Key goal characteristics
– Difficulty (hard vs. easy)
– Clarity (specific vs. vague)
Key moderating factor in goals
– Goal commitment
How Does Goal-Setting Theory Work?
- Goals direct attention.
- Goals regulate effort.
- Goals increase persistence.
- Goals foster task strategies and actions plans.
Goal Setting Theory
- The process of developing, negotiating, and establishing targets that challenge the individual
Good goals are SMART:
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Time-Bound
What is Job Design?
– Any set of activities that involves:
* Alteration of specific or interdependent systems of jobs
* Intent of improving the quality of employee job experience and on-the-job productivity
What is the goal of job design:
The goal of job design is to structure jobs and the tasks needed to complete them in away that creates intrinsic motivation.
Core Job Characteristics
Skill Variety, Task identity, Task Significance, Autonomy, and Feedback from Job
Skill Variety
– The degree to which a job requires a variety of different activities in carrying out the work, involving the use of a number of different skills and talents of the person
Task Identity
– The degree to which a job requires completion of a “whole” and identifiable piece of work, that is, doing a job from beginning to end
Task Significance
– The degree to which the job has a substantial impact on the lives of other people, whether those people are in the immediate organization or in the world at large
Autonomy
– The degree to which the job provides substantial freedom, independence, and discretion to the individual in scheduling the work and in determining the procedures to be used in carrying it out
Feedback from the job
– The degree to which carrying out the work activities required by the job provides the individual with the direct and clear information about the effectiveness of his or her performance
What are Emotions?
– Complex, relatively brief, affective responses associated with a particular target:
* Person, Information, Experience, Environment
Emotions change:
psychological and/or physiological states
Emotions can influence:
attitudes and behaviors
– Emotions are contagious
Emotions as Reactions to Goal Achievement
– Positive emotions such as joy, contentment, relief, and gratitude result from the satisfactory achievement of goals
– Negative emotions such as fright, anger, anxiety, guilt, sadness, envy, and disgust are triggered by frustration and/or failure when pursuing goals
– Mixed emotions can result from achieving a goal that also includes negative consequences
Emotional labor refers:
to the regulation of feelings and expressions for organizational purposes.
Organizations have emotion display:
norms, or rules that dictate which types of emotions are expected and appropriate for their members to show.
– Often these emotion displays are in contrast with the emotions actively being felt (e.g., cognitive dissonance
Stress includes:
– the psychological perception of pressure; and
– the body’s response to the pressure.
Stress Triggers:
hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol, which increases heartbeat and bloodflow, focuses attention and energy, prepares body to adapt and respond (evolutionary function)
Sources of chronic stress:
- Emotional labor
- Academic pressure
- Financial stress
- Heavy workload
- Time management
- Peer pressure
- Lack of sleep
- Relationships/social comparison
Primary (short-term) outcomes of stress:
Fear (Physological), Cortisol Level Increase (Physiological), Sleep Distisubance (Psychosomatic)
Secondary (medium-term)
outcomes of chronic stress: Immune system, Cardiovascular, and metabolic system
Tertiary (long-term)
outcomes of chronic stress: Diseases, Phychological Disorder, death
Tips for managing stress:
- Cut out non-essential sources of hindrance stressors
- Plan and organize your time effectively
- Practice relaxation techniques such as deep breathing and mindfulness
- Reframe stressors to focus on the personal growth opportunities they are creating
- Create time to recover
Mindfulness:
Receptive attention to and awareness of present events and experience
Mindfulness positively influences attention:
- Stability, control, efficiency
Mindfulness Enhances:
- Cognition (increases cognitive capacity & flexible cognition)
- Emotion (more positive emotional tone, reduced reactivity to positive and negative stimuli)
- Behavior (superior self-regulation - e.g., changing addictive behaviors)
- Physiology (dampened stress reactions, slows brain deterioration from aging)
Challenge stressors refer to:
Situations or stressors that, while demanding and potentially stressful, are viewed as opportunities for growth and development
Hindrance stressors:
are stressors that are perceived as obstacles or barriers that hinder personal growth and well-being.
Recovery Strategies
- Detach psychologically from dominant
stressors.
* Simply thinking about a stressor (school, work, etc.) detracts from your ability to recover from it.
* Detachment leads to better recovery and even improvements in work- related outcomes, such as performance and engagement (counterintuitive). - Consider your preference for recovery activity
- Prioritize high-effort recovery activities
- Harness the power of micro-breaks during the workday.
- Connect with nature
