Week 4 Lecture - Organisational Psychological 3

Question 1

Organisational behaviour (OB) is a:

Answer 1

Complex phenomenon

Question 2

List the antecedents and consequences of organisational behaviour:

Answer 2

• organisational mechanisms
• group mechanisms
• individual characteristics
• individual mechanisms
• individual outcome

Question 3

What are the organisational mechanisms of OB?

Answer 3

Organisational culture

Organisational structure

Question 4

What’re the group mechanisms of OB?

Answer 4

Leadership: styles and behaviour

Leaderships: power and negotiation

Teams: processes and communication

Teams: characteristics and diversity

Question 5

What’re the individual characteristics of OB?

Answer 5

Ability

Personality and cultural values

Question 6

What’re the individual mechanisms of OB?

Answer 6

Job satisfaction 
Stress
Motivation 
Trust, justice and ethics 
Learning and decision making

Question 7

What’re the individual outcomes of OB?

Answer 7

Job performance

Organisational commitment

Question 8

Define organisational behaviour (OB)

Answer 8

A multidisciplinary field of study devoted to understanding, explaining, and ultimately improving the attitudes and behaviours of individuals and groups

Question 9

What does organisational behaviour (OB) draw from?

Answer 9

• industrial and organisational psychology: helps by conducting research
• social psychology: research about satisfaction etc
• sociology: research on characteristics and structure
• anthropology: study of organisational culture

Question 10

Human performance key questions, “what is human performance”?

Answer 10

D

Question 11

Issues in human performance

Answer 11

• is performance a set of behaviours that a person does (or does not) engage in?
• is performance the end result of those behaviours? (“The bottom line”)

Using results as a measure to define performance has implications

Question 12

Human performance definition

Answer 12

“The sum of behaviours that contribute, either positively or negatively, to accomplishing a goal”

Context specific performance:

• job performance: achieving an organisational goal (ie increased sales)
• academic performance: achieving an educational goal (eg better grades)
• sports performance: achieving a sports related goal (eg winning a game)

Question 13

Types of human performance behaviours

Answer 13

• task performance behaviour
• citizenship behaviours
• counterproductive behaviours

Question 14

Human performance: task performance

Answer 14

Behaviours that are directly involved in the transform of organisational resources into the goods of services that the organisation produces

The set of explicit obligations that an employee must fufill to receive compensation and continued employment.

Three categories:
Routine task performance
Adaptive task performance (adaptability)
Creative task performance (ideas, more relevant to writer)

Question 15

Human performance: citizenship behaviours

Answer 15

Voluntary activities that may or may not be rewarded but that contribute to the organisation by improving the overall quality of the setting or context in which the work takes place

Two categories:

• interpersonal citizenship behaviour (helping, courtesy, sportsmanship)
• organisational citizenship behaviour (voice, civic virtue, boosterism)

Question 16

Human performance: counterproductive behaviours

Answer 16

Behaviour that intentionally hinder organisational goal accomplishment

Types of counterproductive behaviours:

(Organisational, minor): Production deviance (wasting resources, substance abuse)

(Organisational, major): property deviance (sabotage, theft)

(Interpersonal, minor): political deviance (gossiping, incivility)

(Interpersonal, major): personal aggression (harassment, abuse)

Question 17

Final considerations and conclusions

Answer 17

Organisational behaviour is a complex phenomena that is best examined multidisciplinary (several layers, stakeholders, and variables at the macro and micro levels)

Human performance can mean many thing depending on the operationalisation and context which it is being applied
(Organisational, clinical, academic etc)
(Better seen as a set of behaviours rather than results per se)
(Comprised by several types of behaviours)

Question 18

Management by objective (MBO)

Answer 18

Focuses on evaluating if the employee achieves specific performance goals

Suitable for quantifiable objective measures of performance

The employee meets with the manager to develop objectives (specific, measurable)

Both parties agree on a period for achieving the objectives

Question 19

Behaviourally anchored rating scales (BARS) measure performance by

Answer 19

assessing job performance behaviours

Rely on “critical incidents” to evaluate performance (short descriptions of behaviours)

Question 20

Behaviourally anchored rating scales (BARS)

Answer 20

BARS include several performance dimensions

Feedback received can guide future performance (advantage over MBO)

Question 21

360 degree feedback

Answer 21

Involves gathering information on performance from others and not just the supervisor

Employee can also rate him/herself and the ratings are combined to keep rated anonymous

Advantage: provides a comprehensive performance examination
Problems: 1. Source of rating and 2. Rating bias

Question 22

Forced rankings

Answer 22

Also known as ‘rank and yank’ or ‘dead mans curve’

Managers rank all their subordinated and place them in categories
-the top 20% (A players) the vital middle 70% (B players) or the bottom 10% (C players - were let go)
All players have the four E’s (energy, energise, edge and execute)

Question 23

What’re some problems with forced rankings?

Answer 23

Unfair ratings, competition among employees

Question 24

Final considerations and conclusions on maximising human performance

Answer 24

Human performance in the organisation context is important and can be used for several reasons

Performance assessment practices can vary in terms of their applicability and scope