HRM notes - Coverage of exam tips from lectures PDF

Title HRM notes - Coverage of exam tips from lectures
Author Sherry Ang
Course Human Behavior in Organizations
Institution Singapore University of Social Sciences
Pages 11
File Size 642.5 KB
File Type PDF
Total Downloads 738
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Summary

Su2 – Big 5 BIG FIVE PERSONALITY DIMENSIONS No compelling evidence that culture affects personality structure Opposite of emotional stability: neuroticism Conscientiousness had the strongest positive correlation with job performance and training performance. - Employees high on conscientiousness are...


Description

Su2 – Big 5 BIG FIVE PERSONALITY DIMENSIONS

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No compelling evidence that culture affects personality structure Opposite of emotional stability: neuroticism Conscientiousness had the strongest positive correlation with job performance and training performance. - Employees high on conscientiousness are found to do well in their jobs - Prefer goal-focused leadership, like high-complexity jobs, and need valid feedback that will help them learn and not frustrate their pursuit of goals.  Extraversion (an outgoing personality) correlated positively with promotions, salary level, and career satisfaction. VALUE CONFLICT  Intrapersonal: inner conflict and stress when personal values conflict with each other - For instance, a person who values both work achievement and conformity may experience intrapersonal value conflict as the need for work achievement may require the person to work longer hours than his or her colleagues, preventing him or her from conforming to norms of working regular hours  Interpersonal: occurs when values of one individual are in conflict with the values of another individual  Individual-organisation: occurs when an employee’s values are in conflict with the espoused and enacted values of the org (type of conflict defined as PE fit) SU3 – MOTIVATION (goal-setting + motivational mechanisms, Job rotation, job enlargement, job enrichment)  Motivation represents the psychological processes that cause the arousal, direction, and persistence of voluntary goal-directed behaviour MCCLELLAND’S NEED THEORY  Power: individual’s desire to influence, coach, teach, or encourage others to achieve - Like to work and concerned with discipline and self-respect - Negative side  “if I win, you lose” mentality  more prone to “cheat and cut corners and to leave people out of the loop”, so fixated on finding a shortcut to the goal that they may not be too particular about the means they use to reach it - Positive side: focus on accomplishing group goals and helping employees obtain the feeling of competence - Top managers should have high need for power and low need for affiliation bcs effective managers must positively influence others



Affiliation: Desire to maintain social r/s - People with a high need for affiliation prefer to spend more time maintaining social relationships, joining groups, and wanting to be loved. - Not the most effective managers or leaders bcs they tend to avoid conflict, have a hard time making difficult decisions without worrying about being disliked, and avoid giving others negative feedback  Achievement: drive to excel and accomplish something difficult - Common characteristics (1) Prefer working on tasks of moderate difficulty (2) Prefer situations in which performance is due to their efforts rather than to other factors, such as luck (3) Desire more feedback on their successes and failures than do low achievers  Managerial implications - Given that adults can be trained to increase their achievement motivation, organizations should consider the benefits of providing achievement training for employees. - 3 needs can be considered during the selection process for better placement EQUITY THEORY OF MOTIVATION  Model of motivation that explains how people strive for fairness and justice in social exchanges or give-and-take relationships  Motivation is a function of fairness, equity and justice in social exchanges  Equity is based on comparing ratios of inputs to outcomes  People care a lot about the need for fairness and their motivation is affected by feelings of equity or inequity - Individuals compare their job inputs (e.g., skills, education, effort expended) to their outcomes (e.g., pay, benefits, promotions) and evaluate whether what they are receiving for their contribution is fair or unfair - Compare their effort and outcomes to those of colleagues doing similar jobs  Organisational Justice: extent to which people perceive they are treated fairly at work VROOM’S EXPECTANCY THEORY  People are motivated to behave in ways that produce valued outcomes  Motivation boils down to the decision of how much effort to exert in a specific task or situation



Expectancy: represents an individual’s belief that a particular degree of effort will be followed by a particular level of performance - Expectancy perceptions influenced by:  Self-esteem  Self-efficacy  Previous success at the task  Help received from others  Info necessary to complete the task







 Good materials and equipment to work with Instrumentality: represents a person’s belief that a particular outcome is contingent on accomplishing a specific level of performance - Performance is instrumental when it leads to something else Valence: refers to the positive/ negative value people place on outcomes - Mirrors our personal preferences. - Outcomes refer to different consequences that are contingent on performance (eg. pay, promotions, or recognition) - An outcome’s valence depends on an individual’s needs and can be measured for research purposes with scales ranging from a negative value to a positive value. Managerial implications

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Managers are advised to enhance expectancies by helping employees accomplish their performance goals. Managers can do this by providing support and coaching and by increasing employees’ self-efficacy GOAL-SETTING  Goal: what an individual is trying to accomplish  Goals help motivate people by: (mechanisms) (1) Directing attention: direct one’s attention and effort toward goal-relevant activities and away from goal-irrelevant activities (2) Regulating effort: motivate us to act (level of effort expended is proportionate to the difficulty of the goal) (3) Increasing persistence: represents the effort expended on a task over an extended period of time  Persistent people tend to see obstacles as challenges to be overcome rather than as reasons to fail  A difficult goal that is important to an individual is a constant reminder to keep exerting effort in the appropriate direction. (4) Encouraging people to develop strategies and action plans to achieve the goals  Practical insights - Specific high goals lead to greater performance

 Goal specificity pertains to the quantifiability of a goal - Feedback enhances the effect of specific, difficult goals as it provides the info needed to adjust direction, effort, and strategies for goal accomplishment - Participative goals, assigned goals, and self-set goals are equally effective - Action planning facilitates goal accomplishment  Outlines the activities/ tasks that need to be accomplished to obtain a goal  Managers can use action plans as a vehicle to have performance discussions with employees, and employees can use them to monitor progress toward goal achievement  Managers should allow employees to develop their own action plans bcs this autonomy fuels higher goal commitment and a sense of doing meaningful work - Goal commitment and monetary incentives affect goal-setting outcomes  Goal commitment is the extent to which an individual is personally committed to achieving a goal  Difficult goals lead to higher performance only when employees are committed to their goals MOTIVATING EMPLOYEES THROUGH JOB DESIGN (TOP-DOWN APPROACHES)  Job enlargement: involves putting more variety into a job by combining specialized tasks of comparable difficulty (horizontally loading the job) - Recommend using as part of a broader approach that uses multiple motivational methods because it does not have a significant and lasting positive effect on job performance by itself  Job rotation: moving employees from one specialized job to another - Purpose: give employees greater variety in their work rather than performing only one job, workers are trained and given the opportunity to perform two/ more separate jobs on rotating basis - Stimulate interest and motivation while providing employees with a broader perspective of the organization - increase worker flexibility and easier scheduling because employees are crosstrained to perform different jobs - Use as a vehicle to place new employees into the jobs of their choice  Reduce turnover and increase performance bcs people self-select their jobs  Job enrichment: modifying a job such that an employee has the opportunity to experience achievement, recognition, stimulating work, responsibility, and advancement - Practical application of Frederick Herzberg’s motivator–hygiene theory of job satisfaction: distinct clusters of factors associated with job satisfaction and dissatisfaction  Motivators: achievement, recognition, characteristics of the work, responsibility, and advancement  Related to outcomes associated with content of the task being performed  Incorporated into job to motivate workers  Hygiene factors: company policy and administration, technical supervision, salary, interpersonal relations with one’s supervisor, and working conditions  Related to work context or environment - Characteristics are incorporated into a job through vertical loading  Giving workers more autonomy and responsibility SU4 – GROUP DYNAMICS AND TEAMS

THREATS TO GROUP EFFECTIVENESS  Social loafing: individual effort decreases as group size increases - Equity of effort - Loss of personal accountability - Motivational loss due to the sharing of rewards - Coordination loss as more people perform the task  Groupthink: in-group unwillingness to realistically view alternatives - Symptoms leading to defective decision making

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Mindguards: someone withheld info so people won’t know that what they’re doing is wrong - Self-censorship: you know it’s not right, but you don’t speak up bcs no one else has said anything  Could be due to peer pressure, lack of authority - Preventive measures (1) Each group member should be assigned the role of critical evaluator, involves actively voicing objections and doubts (2) Top-level executives should not use policy committees to rubber-stamp decisions that have already been made. (3) Different groups with different leaders should explore the same policy questions (4) Subgroup debates and outside experts should be used to introduce fresh perspectives (5) Someone should be given the role of devil’s advocate when discussing major alternatives and tries to uncover every conceivable negative factor. (6) Once a consensus has been reached, everyone should be encouraged to rethink their position to check for flaws SU5 – MANAGING CONFLICT AND NEGOTIATING (Conflict handling styles, functional vs dysfunctional styles, Personality conflict, Devil’s advocacy method)  Conflict happens when one party perceives that his/ her interests are being opposed/ set back by another party  Major trends - Constant change - Greater employee diversity - More teams (virtual and self-managed) - Less face-to-face communication









- Global economy with increased cross-cultural dealings – create a lot of confusion Functional conflict: conflict that serves org’s interests (constructive conflict) - When you process your conflicts with integrity, they lead to growth, increased awareness and self-improvement. Uncontrolled anger, defensiveness, and shame defeat these possibilities. - Those engaging in functional conflict apply a win–win attitude to solve problems and find common ground - Conflict seen as opportunity Dysfunctional conflict: conflict that threatens org’s interests - Conflict seen as war - Anyone viewing a conflict as war will try to win at all costs and wipe out the enemy Antecedents of conflict - Incompatible personalities or value systems - Overlapping or unclear job boundaries - Interdepartment/ intergroup competition - Competition for limited resources - Inadequate communication - Interdependent tasks (one person cannot complete his or her assignment until others have completed their work). - Organizational complexity (conflict tends to increase as the number of hierarchical layers and specialized tasks increase). - Unreasonable or unclear policies, standards, or rules - Unreasonable deadlines or extreme time pressure (most common, eg unpaid OT) - Collective decision making (there’s no leader) - Unmet expectations - Unresolved/ suppressed conflicts Personality conflict: interpersonal opposition driven by personal dislike, disagreement, or different styles - Rudeness - Workplace incivility: employees’ lack of regard for one another  Often begin with seemingly insignificant irritations  Causes its targets, witnesses, and stake-holders to act in ways that erode organizational values and deplete organizational resources  Bcs of their experiences of workplace incivility, employees decrease work effort, time on the job, productivity, and performance  Where incivility is not curtailed, job satisfaction and organizational loyalty diminish as well - Deal with personality conflicts

CONFLICT HANDLING STYLES









Integrating: parties confront the issue and cooperatively identify the problem, generate and weigh alternative solutions, and select a solution - Appropriate for complex issues plagued by misunderstanding, inappropriate for resolving conflicts rooted in opposing value systems - Strength: longer lasting impact because it deals with the underlying problem rather than merely with symptoms - Weakness: very time consuming Obliging (smoothing): involves playing down differences while emphasizing commonalities - Appropriate when it is possible to eventually get something in return, inappropriate for complex or worsening problems - Strength: it encourages cooperation - Weakness: it’s a temporary fix that fails to confront the underlying problem Dominating (forcing): relies on formal authority to force compliance - Appropriate when an unpopular solution must be implemented, the issue is minor, a deadline is near, or a crisis looms - Can be awkward in an open and participative climate - Strength: Speed - Weakness: often breeds resentment Avoiding: involve passive withdrawal from the problem/ active suppression of the issue - Appropriate for trivial issues/ when the costs of confrontation outweigh the benefits of resolving the conflict, inappropriate for difficult and worsening problems - Strength: buys time in unfolding/ ambiguous situations - Weakness: provides a temporary fix that sidesteps the underlying problem



Compromising: give-and-take approach involving moderate concern for both self and others - Appropriate when parties have opposite goals/ equal power, inappropriate when overuse would lead to inconclusive action (e.g. failure to meet important deadlines) - Strength: no disgruntled losers - Weakness: temporary fix that can stifle creative problem solving MANAGING CONFLICT – STIMULATING FUNCTIONAL CONFLICT  Devil’s advocacy: involves assigning someone the role of critic (1) Propose course of action (2) Assign devil’s advocate to criticise the proposal (3) Present critique to key decision makers (4) Gather additional info relevant to issues (5) Adopt/ modify/ discontinue proposed course of action (6) Monitor decision - Alters the usual decision-making process in steps 2 and 3 intended to generate critical thinking and reality testing - Rotate the job of devil’s advocate so no one person/ group develops a strictly negative reputation - Periodic devil’s advocacy role-playing is good training for developing analytical and communication skills, and emotional intelligence. SU6 – POWER, LEADERSHIP, STRESS AND CHANGE (Behavioural styles theory + ohio state studies, Kotter’s 8 steps for leading org change) BEHAVIOURAL STYLES THEORY + OHIO STATE STUDIES  Outgrowth of: - Seeming inability of trait theory to explain leadership effectiveness - The human relations movement, an outgrowth of the Hawthorne studies  Focus on leader behavior instead of personality traits  It was believed that leader behavior directly affected work group effectiveness  Two independent dimensions of leader behavior - Consideration: involves leader behavior associated with creating mutual respect/ trust and focuses on a concern for group members’ needs and desires - Initiating structure: leader behavior that organizes and defines what group members should be doing to maximize output



Findings demonstrated that consideration and initiating structure had a moderately strong, significant relationship with leadership outcomes  Results revealed that followers performed more effectively for structuring leaders even though they preferred considerate leaders  Follower satisfaction, motivation, and performance are significantly associated with these two leader behaviors  The effectiveness of a particular leadership style depends on the situation at hand - Employees prefer structure over consideration when faced with role ambiguity. 9 BEHAVIOURS TO IMPROVE LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVENESS Provide knowledge leaders need 1. Determine what needs to be done. 2. Determine the right thing to do for the welfare of the entire enterprise or organization. Help convert knowledge into effective action 3. Develop action plans that specify desired results, probable restraints, future revisions, check-in points, and implications for how one should spend his or her time. 4. Take responsibility for decisions. 5. Take responsibility for communicating action plans and give people the information they need to get the job done. 6. Focus on opportunities rather than problems. Do not sweep problems under the rug, and treat change as an opportunity rather than a threat. Ensure org feels responsible and accountable 7. Run productive meetings. Different types of meetings require different forms of preparation and different results. Prepare accordingly. 8. Think and say “we” rather than “I.” Consider the needs and opportunities of the organization before thinking of your own opportunities and needs. Managerial Rule 9. Listen first, speak last. FRENCH AND RAVEN BASES OF POWER  Reward power: obtaining compliance with promised/ actual rewards  Coercive power: obtaining compliance through threatened/ actual punishment  Legitimate power: obtaining compliance through formal authority  Expert power: obtaining compliance through one’s knowledge/ information  Referent power: obtaining compliance through charisma/ personal attraction CAUSES OF RESISTANCE TO CHANGE  Resistance to change is an emotional/behavioral response to real/ imagined threats to an established work routine 1. Recipient characteristics: include a variety of individual differences possessed by recipients, the actions/ inactions displayed by recipients, and perceptions of change - An individual’s predisposition toward change (highly personal and deeply ingrained)  An outgrowth of how one learns to handle change and ambiguity as a child  Resilience to change: represents a composite characteristic reflecting high selfesteem, optimism, and an internal locus of control o Positively associated with recipients’ willingness to accommodate/ accept a specific organizational change - Surprise and fear of the unknown  When innovative or radically different changes are introduced without warning, affected employees become fearful of the implications.

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Fear of failure  Intimidating changes on the job can cause employees to doubt their capabilities - Loss of status and/or job security  Administrative and technological changes that threaten to alter power bases/ eliminate jobs generally trigger strong resistance - Peer pressure  someone not directly affected by change may actively resist to protect the interest of his/her friends and co-workers - Past success  Success can breed complacency and foster a stubbornness to change bcs people come to believe that what worked in the past will work in the future **2. Change agent characteristics: includes variety of individual differences possessed by change agents, actions/ inactions displayed by change agents, change agent’s perceptions of why employees are behaving the way they are in the face of organizational change - Decisions that disrupt cultural traditions/ group relationships  When individuals are trans...


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