Organizational Behavior CH 1, 3 & 4

*According to research, most working adults are at this stage of cognitive moral development?
Stage 3 or 4 (conventional level)
*What is the name given to the growing number of employees that are part-time or temporary?
Contingent employees
*Job where you can make your hours from home
Flextime or flexible benefits
*Type of personality test that involves responding to abstract stimuli?
Projective Test (Thematic Apperception Test-TAT)
*Someone who prefers working alone scores high on this on the MTBI.
*Type of bias that occurs when supervisor attributes an employees poor performance to their laziness is?
Fundamental attribution error-tendency to make attributions to internal causes when focusing on someone ELSES behavior
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*According to leaders, this is the dynamic process through which the emotions of 1 employee are transferred to another through nonverbal channels.
Emotional contagion
*A person who stays with a company because their coworkers need them is experiencing what type of organizational commitment?
Normative commitment
*A person who stays with a company because they have too much invested in the company to quit is experiencing what type of organizational commitment?
Continued commitment
*Social Perception. Define and explain the factors that affect it.
-The process of interpreting information about another person. Management perceptions are perceiver characteristics. Our perceptions of other people are influenced by the characteristics of the perceiver, target, and the situation.
*This is the portion of the social perception model that includes one’s attitudes and mood
Perceiver characteristics
*”All older workers are slow” is an example of what bias?
*An employee who refills the copy machine with paper even though it is not part of their job is engaging in this type of helping behavior
Organizational citizenship behavior
*What happens when employees are dissatisfied with their jobs?
higher withdrawal behaviors(ex: absence, thinking of quitting, etc.), medical psychological problems or deviance
*The type of workplace stereotyping observed in the video we watched in class from the TV show “The Office” was
Age stereotyping
*Some workplace trends that are affecting the workplace these days are:
Higher medical costs, getting rid of middle managers, and more contingent workers
*What do most managers and sales people score high in?
*Informal elements in an organization are:
below the surface (unofficial) and more difficult to see (ex: perceptions, group norms, its ethical values, group members personalities). The importance of the informal elements of an organization was first suggested by the Hawthorne Studies. Elements are often points of diagnostic and intervention activities in organizational development.
*Who works well in teams?
People scoring high in affiliation
*Define organizational behavior.
study of individual behavior and group dynamics in the workplace. Foundation is human behavior, so it involves understanding workers’ behavior in terms of their history and personal value systems and examining external factors to which a person is subject to. The study of OB is primarily concerned w/ the psychosocial, interpersonal and behavioral dynamics in organizations. Contributions from psychology, sociology, engineering, anthro, management, and medicine.
*The part of the open systems view of an organization that includes material, capital and human resources is/are
*Which of the following is not an internal task of an organization?
Product market
*Formal elements in an organization are:
Official, legitimate and most visible part that enables people to think of organizations ub kigucak ratuibak ways. An organization’s budget is a part of its financial resources, which represents an aspect of its formal organization.
*Blaming ONES poor performance on factors beyond control (external) is an example of
Self-serving bias; works for both internal when it comes to success and external when it comes to failure.
*Attributes and the Attribution Theory
Attribution theory explains how we pinpoint the causes of our own behavior (and performance) and that of others. Individuals tend to make internal attributions for their own successes and external attributions for their own failures.
*5 common barriers to social perception are:
In organizations, expectations of an individual affect managers behavior toward individual AND individuals response.
selective perception(prefer info that supports our viewpoints), stereotyping, first-impression error, projection(overestimating # of ppl who share our beliefs, values, behaviors), and self-fulfilling prophecies(expectations about people affect interaction with them).
*What is personality and how is it measured?
Personality is a relatively stable set of characteristics that influence an individual’s behavior. Origin=heredity. Environment also determines personality through family influences, educational influences, cultural influences, and other environmental factors. Trait theory and integrative approach that state that personality affects attitude, performance, attendance, motivation, satisfaction, commitment and occupational success at work.
*To organizations, change represents both the risk of failure and the opportunity for success. What determines the outcome?
Our behavior. -The changes and challenges that managers face are driven by international competition and customer demands. Managers in this environment must be aware of the risks associated with downsizing and the marginalization of part-time workers. Orgs also face regular challenges in the areas of globalization, workforce diversity, ethics and character, and technological innovation.
*Changing behavior depending who is around (flexible) is an example of what?
High self-monitoring-get promoted because they accomplish tasks through meeting the expectations of others.
*What are the disciplines that have influenced the study of organizational behavior?
Sociology, the science of society, contributes to our knowledge of group and intergroup dynamics., psychology, medicine, engineering, management, anthro.
*The Big 5 personality traits are: and what are they associated with?
Contentiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, emotional stability, openness to experience. The big 5 is a personality classification system. Broad global traits associated with behaviors at work. Ex: introverted, contentious employees are less likely to be absent from work.
*Out of the Big 5 personality traits, which is best used as a predictor for job performance?
Contentiousness-hardworking, organized, and dependable
*Objective knowledge and skill development. What is the value of this?
Objective knowledge results from research and scientific activities. -Although OB is an applied discipline, a student is not “trained” in OB. Rather, one is “educated” in OB & is a coproducer in learning.
*Perceiver/target characteristics that can affect social perception
perceiver-familiarity with target, attitudes, mood, self-concept, cognitive structure.
target-physical appearance, verbal communication, nonverbal cues, intentions.
situation-context of the interaction, strength of situational cues.
*Factors that contribute to the diversity of organizations in the economy.
Composed of manufacturing orgs, service orgs, privately owned companies and non-profit orgs. They all contribute to our national well-being. Understanding a variety of organizations will help you develop a greater appreciation for your own organization and for others in the world of private business enterprises and nonprofit organizations.
*What are individual differences?
skills, abilities, personalities, perceptions, attitudes, emotions, values and ethics differ from one individual to another. To understand human behavior, we must know something about the person and something about the organization, work group, personal life situation, job characteristics, and environmental influences.
challenge for management-work with different types of people and can work well with others if they understand this.
*What is the MTBI & what is it useful for?
An instrument. Based on extraverts and introverts. Matching personalities, identifying who should be on a team or teams; used extensively in organizations as a basis for understanding individual differences.
*Four action steps for responding positively in times of change are:
Change is an opportunity when one has a positive attitude, asks questions, listens and is committed to succeed. People in change situations often become rigid and reactive, rather than open and responsive. -measure, analyze, improve, and control. Six Sigma designed by Motorola and popularizes by General Electric.
*What are the important system components of an organization?
The four major components of an open system are task, people, technology, and structure. As a system also has an external task environment composed of different constituents such as suppliers, customers, and federal regulators. Takes inputs, converts them into throughputs, & delivers outputs to its task environment.
Why study organizational behavior?
1. It gives insights into improving people’s skills; 2. Creating a positive work environment is a competitive advantage
What is the Equity Theory?
That there are equal inputs and outputs
Examples of outcomes
money, relations, experience, status, etc.
Examples of inputs
time, effort, etc.
Example of selective perception
Manager doing a performance evaluation tends to rate someone high in all dimensions
What is impression management?
Trying to literally manage how people see you. Some of this (moderate) leads to increased performance ratings; too much (excessive) perceived as insincere. High self monitors are good at impression management.
Internal perspective of studying organizational behavior
Looks at people’s minds to understand their behavior. They understand human behavior in terms of thoughts, feelings, past experiences, and needs of the individual. Explains peoples actions and behavior in terms of their histories and personal value systems. Ex: Mary is an outstanding employee because she has a high need for achievement.
External perspective of studying organizational behavior
Focuses on factors outside the person; external events, consequences, and environmental forces. Excludes consideration of a persons history, feelings, thoughts and personal value system. Ex: Mary is an outstanding employee because she is extremely well paid for her work.
Quality/Global competition
Global competition is a leading force driving change at work. When an organization undergoes change, employees are usually NOT open and responsive. Success is NEVER guaranteed with change.
Manufacturing vs service/private vs public
The task of an organization is its mission, purpose, or goal for existing. Manufacturing-the manufacturing sector includes the production of both basic materials, like steel, and finished products, like automobiles. Ex: ford, general motors, chrysler
True or false: In evaluating quality improvement ideas, whether the idea improves customer response is a key question to ask.
Which of the following represents the task of an organization involved in the international shipping business?
Providing low cost, efficient shipping all over the globe.
Total quality management is
the total dedication to continuous improvement and to customers so that the customers’ needs are met and their expectations are exceeded.
________ is the science of human behavior.
Impression management. What is associated with it?
Other-enhancing techniques include flattery, favors, or agreeing with someone
An individual’s generalized belief about internal (self) control versus external (situation or others) control is called:
Locus of control-Knowing about locus of control can prove valuable to managers because internals believe they control what happens to them, they will want to exercise control in their work environment.
Individuals who exhibit lots of initiative and perseverance have a(n) ________ personality.
Proactive personalities identify opportunities and act on them; they show initiative, take action, and persevere until they effect change
An introverted individual derives energy from
time spent alone
________ is the extent to which people base their behavior on cues from other people and situations.
A person who is lazy at work and generally unreliable has a low degree of ________.
Which of the following is not a basic proposition of interactional psychology?
A person is changed by situations, rather than changing situations. According to interactional psychology, we must know something about the person and something about the situation in order to understand human behavior.
People with an external locus of control
believe they are controlled by the situation or others
How does first impression error occur?
when we observe a very brief bit of a person’s behavior in our first encounter and infer that this behavior reflects what the person is really like. Ex: Mary sees one of her coworkers tossing an empty soda can into the garbage, and assumes that she has no concern for recycling or the environment.
Self-esteem is a person’s genuine feeling of self-worth. Individuals may shift their social identities to protect themselves when they do not live up to some standard.
overall view on ones self as being able to perform effectively in a wide range of situations. Employees with this generally have more confidence in their job related abilities and other personal resources (energy, influence over others, etc.). People who do not have this often feel ineffective at work and may express doubts about performing new tasks well. The MOST important determinant of self-efficacy is past success or performance.
An individuals tendency to accentuate the positive OR negative aspects of themselves,others and the world in general.
perceiving-how we gather information. ex: sensing(through the 5 senses & what actually exists) and intuition(6th sense type and what could be).
judging-how we make decisions. ex: thinking(logical, objective fashion) and feeling(personal, value oriented).
What is perceiving and what is judging?
Judging loves closure and prefers to lead planned, organized lives and like making decisions. Time oriented, decisive, make lists and uses them. Structured.
Perceivers prefer flexible and spontaneous lives and like to keep options open. Exploring, makes lists/loses them.
Define self-fulfilling.
? Supervisor has a high expectation then that person does well
*Type of personality that displays aggressive behavior. Competitiveness, time urgency, social status insecurity, hostility, and a quest for achievement. Coronary prone behavior.
Type A
Free of type a personality characteristics however if they do have a heart attack they do not recover as well as those with type a personality
Type B
*McClellands 3 Needs Theory: Scoring high in this need; prefers frequent feedback; tends to get promoted quickly.
Need for achievement.
*Explain the ABC model of an attitude
Attitudes are closely linked to behavior and are an integral part of the world of work. Attitudes are a response to an entity(person, object, situation or issue) on an affective, cognitive, or behavioral basis. People prefer consistency between attitudes and behavior. Disruption causes tension, which motivates individuals to change attitude to behavior to maintain consistency. The tension produced by a conflict between attitudes and behavior is cognitive dissonance.
*Describe how attitudes are formed
Attitudes are learned. Influences on attitudes are direct experience and social learning. Culture also plays a definitive role in attitude development. Attitude-behavior correspondence depends on 5 things:attitude specificity, attitude relevance, timing of measurement, personality factors, and social constraints. Attitudes affect work behavior. Demanding jobs over which employees have little control negatively affect their work attitudes. A positive psychological climate can generate positive attitudes and good performance.
*What is cognitive dissonance?
The tension produced by a conflict between attitudes and behavior.
*Sources of job satisfaction and commitment are:
Job satisfaction is a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of ones job or job experiences. It has been treated as a general attitude and as satisfaction with five specific dimensions of the job: pay, the work itself, promotion opportunities, supervision, and coworkers. Rewards are key to influencing both job satisfaction and work performance if valued by employees and tied directly to performance.
*Organizational citizenship and workplace deviance behaviors.
Individuals who identify strongly with the org are more likely to perform org citizenship behavior-behavior above and beyond the call of duty. A misfit between and individuals and the organizations values is called a lack of person-organization fit. Dissatisfied workers are likely to skip work and quit jobs. Workplace deviance behavior is a result of negative attitudes and cossets of counterproductive behavior that violates organizational norms and harms others or the org.
*Importance of emotions at work?
Emotions are mental states including feelings, physiological changes and the inclination to act and are normal parts of human functioning and decision making. Positive emotions that travel through a work group produce cooperation and task performance. The opposite also occurs when negative emotions destroy morale and performance.
*Contrast the effects of individual and organizational influences on ethical behavior.
ethical behavior is behavior consistent with ones personal values and the commonly held values of the organization and society. Firms with better reps attract more applicants, creating larger hiring pool and evidence suggests that respected firms can choose higher-qualified applicants. Unethical behavior by employees can affect individuals, work teams and even the org.
*Factors that affect ethical behavior
values, locus of control, machiavellianism(ones willingness to do whatever it takes to get ones own way), and an individual level of cognitive moral development. Orgs can offer guidance by encouraging ethical behavior through codes of conduct, ethics committees, ethics communication systems, training, norms, modeling and rewards and punishments.
McClellands 3 needs:
-Need for achievement(concern for standard of excellence, unique accomplishment, long-term goal),
-need for power(emotionally concerned about getting/maintaing control of another person, doing something to get or keep control, interpersonal relationships that are culturally defined as one in which a superior has control over a subordinate) and
-need for affiliation(positive emotional relationship with someone else, wants to be liked or likes someone else, affiliative activities such as parties, reunions, visits, talk)
Someone who does best in a job requiring a lot of autonomy?
Someone with a high internal locus of control
Cognitive dissonance
Attitudes not consistent with behavior. In bad mood but try to act like not. Cognitive is how you think