Week 8: Individual Attributes and their Effects on Job Performance

Question 1

Individual Performance Equation

Answer 1

Job performance = individual attributes x work effort x organisational support

• individual attributes relate to the capacity to perform
• work effort relates to a willingness to perform
• organisational support relates to the opportunity to perform

Question 2

Individual attributes that create individual differences

Answer 2

Individual attributes that relate to individual performance:

• Demography (the composition of a particular human population)
• Competency
• Personality

Question 3

Motivation to work

Situational constraints

Answer 3

Motivation to work: refers to the forces within an individual that account for the level, direction and persistence of effort expended at work

Situational constraints: organisational inadequacies, which do not allow workers to perform adequately

Question 4

Demographic Differences Among Individuals

Answer 4

• Competence differences:
  
  • Aptitude and ability
  • Cognitive abilities
  • Physical abilities
  • Emotional competence
• Aptitude: is the capacity to learn something
• Ability: is the capacity to perform the various tasks needed for a given job
• Cognitive abilities: refer to our mental capacity to process information and solve problems
• Physical abilities: refer to our natural and developed motor capacities for speed, strength, flexibility and so on, as well as our use of the five senses

Question 5

Emotional competence

• Emotional intelligence
• Emotion management

Answer 5

Emotional intelligence: is a form of social intelligence that allows us to monitor and shape our emotions and those of others

Emotion management: is exercising emotional self-control and self-regulation influenced by the context in which individuals find themselves

Question 6

Four essential emotional intelligence competencies to be developed for leadership success:

Answer 6

• Self-awareness
• Social awareness
• Self-management
• Relationship management

Type A orientation are characterised by impatience, desire for achievement and perfectionism. Type B orientation are characterised as more easygoing and less competitive in relation to daily events.

Question 7

Personality Differences among Individuals

Personality

Answer 7

Personality: is the overall profile or combination of traits that characterise the unique nature of a person

• Heredity and environment (cultural, social and situational factors) combine to influence an individual’s personality

Question 8

The big five model (Canoe)

Other important personality traits

Answer 8

• Personality traits – The big five model (CANOE)
  
  • Conscientiousness
  • Agreeableness
  • Neuroticism
  • Openness to experience
  • Extraversion

Emotional stability is one area that does not necessarily predict job performance

• Other important personality traits:
  
  • Locus of control (internal vs. external)
  • Authoritarianism/Dogmatism
  • Machiavellianism

Question 9

Locus of Control

Answer 9

• Locus of control: is the internal-external orientation- that is, the extent to which people feel able to affect their lives
  
  • Internals: are persons with an internal locus of control, who believe they control their own fate or destiny
  • Externals: persons with an external locus of control, who believe what happens to them is beyond their control

Question 10

Authoritarianism:

Dogmatism:

Machiavellians:

Answer 10

Authoritarianism: is a personality trait that focuses on the rigidity of a person’s beliefs

Dogmatism: is a personality trait that regards legitimate authority as absolute

Machiavellians: are people who view and manipulate others purely for personal gain

Question 11

Individuals and Workplace Diversity

Answer 11

Question 12

Extending the Performance Equation

Answer 12

Add values, attitudes and perception to individual attributes

Question 13

Values

Value congruence

Answer 13

• Values
  
  • ‘What is right, what is wrong, what ought to be’
  • Understanding workplace values:
    
    • Achievement
    • Helping and concern for others
    • Honesty
    • Fairness
• Value Congruence
  
  • Value congruence occurs when individuals express positive feelings on encountering others who express values similar to their own.
  • Greater follower satisfaction with leader when congruence in terms of achievement, helping, honesty, and fairness values
• Meglino framework four especially important values:
  
  1. Achievement
  2. Helping and concern for others
  3. Honesty
  4. Fairness
• Generational Differences in Values (see pic)

Question 14

Attitudes

Three basic components

Answer 14

Attitudes: a predisposition to respond in a positive or negative way to some person, thing or event in your environment.

• Three basic components:

1. Cognitive component
2. Affective component
3. Behavioural component

• Cognitive components: of an attitude are the beliefs, opinions, knowledge or information a person possesses
• Beliefs: represent ideas about someone or something and the conclusions people draw about them
• Affective components: of an attitude are the specific feelings regarding the personal impact of the antecedents
• Behavioural components: of an attitude are the intentions to behave in a certain way based on a person’s specific feelings or attitudes
• Beliefs and values create -> attitudes that predispose -> behaviour*
• Attitudes do not always predict behaviour*

Question 15

Cognitive Dissonance:

Answer 15

Cognitive Dissonance: Perceived inconsistency between a person’s expressed attitudes and actual behaviour

• Can result in a state of anxiety
• Individuals will seek to remedy inconsistencies by either:
  
  • Changing the underlying attitude
  • Changing the future behaviour
  • Rationalising the inconsistency

Question 16

Important Work-related Attitudes

Answer 16

• Job satisfaction: The degree to which an individual feels positively or negatively about his/her job
  
  • An evaluation/appraisal
• Organisational commitment: The degree to which an individual identifies with and feels part of the organisation
  
  • Affective vs. continuance commitment
• Job involvement: Willingness to work hard and apply effort beyond normal job expectations

Question 17

Job Satisfaction and Job Performance

Answer 17

• Job satisfaction:
  
  • Influences absence and turnover behaviours
  • Link to organisational commitment less clear
• Job satisfaction and performance hypotheses
  
  • Satisfaction causes performance?
  • Performance causes satisfaction?
  • Rewards cause both performance and satisfaction? (most compelling argument)

Question 18

Performance

Answer 18

Performance: is a summary measure of the quantity and quality of task contributions made by an individual or group to the work unit and organisation

Question 19

Perception and the Perceptual Process

Answer 19

• Perception: is the process through which people receive, organise and interpret information from their environment
• Factors in the Perceptual Process:
  
  • Perceiver
    
    • Needs, motives, past experiences, values, attitudes and personality may all influence the perceptual process
  • Setting
    
    • Physical, social or organisational context can influence the perceptual process
  • Perceived Target
    
    • Perceived characteristics such as contrast, intensity, size, motion, repetition or novelty can influence the perceptual process

Question 20

Stereotyping:

Answer 20

• Stereotyping Occurs when information is organised and sorted into different categories or ‘stereotypes’
  
  • Influenced by ‘schemas’, cognitive frameworks developed through experience
  • Obscure individual differences and can prevent accurate assessment of people’s needs, preferences and abilities
• Demographic variables are a common basis for stereotyping
  
  • Age and performance
  • Gender and performance
  • Ethnicity and performance