MGC Week 1-5 Notes PDF

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MGC2230 NOTES WK 1 Self and Authenticity Unique traits: - Individual differences: o Traits or characteristics that distinguish individuals from each other - Stable across a relative long period of time Demographics - Gender - Age - Ethnicity - Height - Weight - Language Personality - A person’s general style of interacting with the world, especially with other people - OCEAN o Extraversion: sociable, talkative vs withdrawn, shy o Neuroticism: stable, confident vs depressed, anxious o Agreeableness: tolerant, cooperative vs cold, rude o Conscientiousness: dependable, responsible vs carless, impulsive o Openness to experience: curious, original vs dull, unimaginative Self-monitoring - High: fit behaviour to social situation - Low: behaviour mostly disregard social situations Locus of control - Internal: what happens I my life is decided by internal factors (e.g., motivation, effort and talents) - External: behaviour are decided by external factors (e.g., fate, luck, and other people such as family) Narcissism - The tendency to be arrogant, have a grandiose sense of importance, require excessive admiration, and have a sense of entitlement

o Narcissists tend to think that they are great leaders, however, their colleagues and supervisors tend to rate them as poor leaders Machiavellianism - The tendency to engage in social conduct that involves manipulating others for personal gain, often against the others’ self interest Type A personality - Moves, walks and eats rapidly - Impatient - Multitasks - Dislikes leisure time - Obsessed with numbers - Measures success in terms of how many or how much of everything is acquired Type B personality - Never suffers from a sense of time urgency - Does not need to display or discuss achievements or accomplishments - Plays for fun and relaxation, not to win - Can relax without guilt Individual differences - How much do stable individual differences account for job performance and career success? o For most criteria, more than 50% depends on skills and ability that you can learn - Can stable personality differences change? o With effort, you may be able to change personality traits Personal crucible (Bennis & Thomas) - A transformative experience through which an individual clarifies her crucial personal values and comes to a new sense of self-identity - Crucible are usually intensive, traumatic, and unexpected - Strong individuals find meaning in the most severe crucibles Values - Concepts or beliefs that guide how we make decisions about and evaluations of behaviours and events Australian managerial values Managerial values and success index (England & Lee, 1974)

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Surveyed managerial values and measured manager success Investigated the correlations across four countries: US, Aus, India and Japan Values positively associated with success: o High productivity, profit maximization, organisational growth, customers, craftsmanship, stockholders, ability, aggressiveness, autonomy Values negatively correlated with success, organizational stability, social welfare, obedience, trust, loyalty, conformity, honour, leisure, security, religion

Managerial values across countries (Westwood & Posner, 1997) - Surveyed managers in the US, Aus, and HK about personal values - Compared to managers from the US and HK, Aus managers consider o These values to be more important: Job satisfaction, job skill, achievement, creativity and competitiveness o These values to be less important: cooperation and flexibility Australian Study (Sarros & Santora, 2001) - Top 500 companies in Australia were surveyed - A total of 191 executives responded to the Leadership and Values Survey, representing a 36% response rate - The top values of Australian managers are o Achievement o Benevolence o Self-direction o Security Your authenticity - An authentic self can lead to the development of authentic leadership, which leads to a series of positive workplace - The five pillars of authentic self o Humility o o o o

Accountability Vulnerability Security Integrity

Humility - An interpersonal characteristic that emerges in social contexts that connotes a manifested willingness to view oneself accurately, a displayed appreciation of others strengths and contributions - A humble manager can o Increase employee engagement

o Increase employment commitment o Reduce employee turnover o Increase team performance Accountability - Definition: liable to be called to account, answerable - Of all the things you want to achieve in your life, how many of them are you taking responsibility for Vulnerability - Willingness to be vulnerable – to be open to self-doubts, fear, and questions – can help managers and leaders stay on course (Akerman & Maslin-Ostrowski, 2004) - The capacity to access and accept one’s own emotional and personal vulnerability serves as a powerful leadership tool especially when the organization is going through uncertainty and change (Bunker, 1997) Practice authenticity - Help someone without expecting acknowledgement or compensation - Be committed and accountable for one goal - In a situation when you are criticized or confronted, try to see the message objectively - Say ‘I was wrong’ at least once WK 2 Emotional intelligence Definition and example Ability to: 1. Understand emotions 2. Perceive emotions 3. Manage and use emotions What are emotions? Emotions: intense feelings that are directed at someone or something Moods: feelings that tend to be less intense than emotions and lack a contextual stimulus Affective events theory - Employees react emotionally to things that happen to them at work;; these emotional reactions influence their subsequent job performance and satisfaction Basic emotions across cultures (Ekman, 1992) emotions we experience at work - Happiness

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Anger Surprise Fear o An unpleasant emotion caused by the threat of danger, pain or harm Sadness o A self-focused emotion associated with a sad event Disgust o Elicited by appraisals of contamination, impurity, or potential degradation (Rozin et al., 1999) Regret o Counterfactual thinking: we tend to mentally create alternatives to life events that already occurred o We compare what actually happened to what would have happened and respond emotionally to the comparison (Medvec et al., 1995)

Gender and emotions - Compared to men, women o Experience emotions more intensely o Show greater emotional expression -

o Display more frequent expressions of all emotions, except anger Men and women are socialised differently, i.e. men: tough and brave; women: nurturing Women may have more innate ability to read emotions Women may have stronger need for approval

Emotional labour - An employee expresses organizationally desired emotions during interpersonal interactions How to act? Face acting: - Manipulating facial muscles directly without really experiencing the emotion - Negative interpersonal consequences - Emotional dissonance Deep acting: - Mentally visualizing a situation that will activate the emotion and express it naturally - Positive interpersonal consequences Burnout/emotional exhaustion

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A process by which individuals experience a gradual increase of distress that is characterised by reduced productivity, alienation from others, and emotional exhaustion (Maslach & Leiter, 1997)

WK 3 Positive psychology and work satisfaction Positive psychology: the research on how individuals can optimize and sustain positive life experiences in multiple areas (e.g., work, family, relationships, fitness, etc.) - Answers Qs such as “how to live a good and fulfilling life” Optimism Optimism: A global expectation that more good things than bad will happen in the future (faith, hope, positive expectations, etc.) - Optimists tend to explain negative events or experiences by attributing them to external, transient, factors such as the prevailing circumstances - Pessimists tend to explain negative events by attributing them to internal, stable, global factors - E.g. after losing a valuable client, optimists: “the client had issues” or “I couldn’t do my best in that specific environment”. Pessimists: “I am not good at managing clients” Compared to pessimists, optimists experience: - Better academic and sport performance - Superior career success and marital satisfaction - More resilience and less depression when facing stressful events - Better health Optimism is influenced by: - Past experience - Role models (e.g., parents) - Psychological training programs Positive emotions - Excitement, cheerfulness, ecstasy, joy, awe, gratitude, serenity, relief, interest, love, pride, contentment inspiration, etc. - We experience these positive emotions when we savour and appreciate pleasures such as o Bodily needs (massages, good food) o Desired materials (money, new car)

o Natural environment (beach, forest) The optimal experience of flow - Definition: a state of absorption that comes from engagement in activities which involve using one’s signature strengths (e.g. reading, running, playing music, chores, dance, etc.) - Conditions of flow o Deep concentration on the task o Using personal signature strengths o Challenging task that requires skill o Clear goals and immediate feedback Mindfulness - Definition: the state of being attentive to and aware of what is taking place in the present - Employees who are more mindful tend to o Show more self-regulation or autonomy in daily tasks o Experience less psychological disturbance when facing adversities (e.g., disease) o Experience less negative emotion

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o Experience less anxiety o Experience higher self-esteem Mindfulness at work is influenced by various psychological, relational, and organizational factors Factors that increase mindfulness: practice (e.g. meditation), job autonomy, supervisor support, etc. Factors that reduce mindfulness: task routineness, poor environment support (noise, poor IT equipment)

Individual character strength: - Wisdom and knowledge: o Originality, curiosity, critical thinking, love of learning, wisdom - Courage o Courage, diligence, authenticity, passion - Humanity o Compassion, generosity, emotional intelligence - Justice o Teamwork, fairness, leadership - Temperance o Self-control, mercy, humility, prudence - Transcendence

o Appreciation of beauty, gratitude, optimism, humour, spirituality -

Character strengths are observed and measurable across various cultures, although each culture emphasizes a subset of strengths It is positively associated with o The experience of flow o Positive youth development and academic success o General life satisfaction among adults and adolescents o Recovery from traumatic experience

Creativity - Generally conceived as the generation of ideas, insights, or solutions that are both novel and potentially useful Creativity in the workplace - People are more creative when they o Are in positive moods o Are under moderate stress

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o Are rewarded for being creative o Have creative colleagues and supervisors o Have supportive organizational resources Organizational innovation: production or adoption, assimilation and exploitation of a value-added novelty in economic and social spheres o Renewal and enlargement of products, services and markets o Development of new methods of production o Establishment of new management systems

Need to belong - A fundamental human motivation to form and maintain frequent and non-aversive interaction within and ongoing relational bond o Consistent with need theories (e.g Maslow’s hierarchy of needs) o The grant study: 75-year longitudinal study by Harvard – revealed that warmth of relationships throughout life is the key to happiness o Deprivation of stable and good relationships lead to pathological outcomes -

A strong need to belong leads individuals to o Interpret situations and events regarding their implications for relationships o Experience happiness, contentment and calm when accepted o Experience anxiety, depression and jealousy when rejected

Meaning and achievement

Meaning: the extent to which we experience life in ways that are useful, significant and purposeful - Existentialism: we are free to define our own meaning in life - Individuals who experience more meaning and purposefulness are generally happier than those who find life meaningless Achievement: the pursuit of growth, potential realization, success, and mastery - People pursue achievement even though it does not result in other forms of happiness such as positive emotions, flow, social relationships, or meaning Calling to work Definition: a transcendent summons to a particular career/profession in a manner with a strong sense of purpose or meaningfulness - E.g., I was drawn by something beyond myself to my current line of work - E.g., my career is an important part of my life meaning Employees with a stronger calling tend to be - More committed to their career choice - More committed to their current organization - More satisfied with their jo - Less likely to search for an alternative occupation Job satisfaction - Definition: general attitude toward your job - Key sources of job satisfaction o Work itself, pay and advancement, supervision, co workers - Enjoying the work itself is almost always most strongly correlated with high levels of job satisfaction - Once a person reaches the level of comfortable living, the relationship between pay and job satisfaction virtually disappears When job satisfaction is low, their reaction depends on whether they adopt a constructive or destructive approach, and whether they seek to resolve the dissatisfaction in an active or passive way - High satisfaction increases individual productivity, organizational productivity, organizational citizenship behaviour, and customer satisfaction Organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) - Voluntary, informal behaviours that contribute to organisational effectiveness, but are not rewarded or detected by formal performance evaluation systems o Altruism (helping co-worker with tasks) o Courtesy (being friendly and considerate toward co-workers)

o Sportsmanship (exhibit no negative behaviour when something doesn’t go as planned) o Conscientiousness (show more self-discipline that what’s required at work) o Civic virtue (support a good image of the organization even outside work) Organizational commitment - A state in which an employee identifies with a particular organization and its goals, and wishes to maintain membership in the organization o Affective commitment: an employee’s genuine emotional connection with the organization o Normative commitment: the obligation an employee feels to staying with an organisation o Continuance commitment: an employee’s calculation that it is in his or her best interest to stay with the organization based on the perceived benefits and costs of leaving it WK 4 Judgement and decision-making Judgement and decision making Purpose: introduce the most common tendencies and biases in our cognitive processes: - Perception: o Receiving and making sense of information from the environment - Attribution: o Discovering the causes or motives behind an event or a behaviour - Judgement and decision-making: o Reaching a conclusion or opinion about something or someone, and developing a commitment to a course of action accordingly -

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Perception process o Goal o Expertise o Emotions Attribution process o Three dimensions Fundamental attribution error Unconscious decision making Specific biases o Overconfidence bias o Availability heuristic o Representativeness heuristic

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Framing heuristic Self-serving bias Escalation of commitment Hindsight bias Curse of knowledge

Perception - Receiving and interpreting information through our sense to give meaning to the environment - Reality -> perception -> reaction - Sometimes perception is not reality Bias from the perceiver - Perception is influenced by some perceiver characteristics - Goals and needs o E.g. your immediate needs might automatically filter the information that you receive - Existing knowledge o When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail - Emotions o Your emotional experience will shape how you see the world Bias from the target - A target’s characteristics also shape our perception - Social identity theory: we tend to make references about a person’s characteristics based on our simplified understanding of the social group that this person belongs to o E.g social prototype: we automatically fill in information about someone based on our simplified understanding of the social group this person belongs to o E.g halo effect: drawing a general impression about an individual based on a single characteristic i.e. physical attractiveness Attribution - When we observe an event or behaviour, we want to determine whether it is caused by internal factors e.g. personality, ability, etc. or by external factors e.g. situation, social pressure, etc. - We attribute using three characteristics of the event/behaviour o Distinctiveness: does the individual act the same way across different situations? o Consensus: does the individual act the same way toward other people? o Consistency: does the individual act the same way over time?

Fundamental attribution error (correspondence bias) - When explaining other people’s behaviours, we tend to attribute more to internal factors than to external factors - E.g road rage o When observing dangerous driving behaviour of another driver, we attribute the behaviour more to internal factors (e.g. incompetence) rather than to external factors (e.g road conditions) Judgement and decision-making bias - Overconfidence bias - Availability heuristic - Representativeness heuristic - Framing heuristic - Anchoring bias - Self-serving bias - Escalation of commitment - Hindsight bias - Curse of knowledge - Winner’s curse Overconfidence - Mother of all biases (Griffin & Varey, 1996) - Associated with o High rates of entrepreneurial entry and corporate mergers and acquisitions despite low success rate o Scientific disasters o Invasion and war 4 specific forms of overconfidence - Over-precision o We are too sure that our judgements and decisions are accurate o Both lay people and experts are subjected to this bias - Illusion of control o Sometimes we think we have more control over circumstances than we actually do o E.g. when buying lottery tickets, would you choose randomly generated number or numbers that mean something special to you? - Planning fallacy o We tend to over-estimate the speed at which we will complete projects and tasks

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o Applies to both complex as well as simple tasks Over-placement o We tend to believe that we are better than others in specific ways when we are not o Negative consequences (e.g. Lawsuits)

Availability heuristic - We assess the frequency, probability or likely causes of an event by the degree to which instances or occurrences of that event are readily available in memory o Vivid information is more easily accessible and thus has more influence on our judgement and decisions o Information that is more easily retrievable from memory has more influence on judgement and decisions - Vividness of information o Life decisions often affected by this o Most would agree AIDS is a devastating disease, yet clear data on how to avoid contracting the disease is often ignored Representativeness heuristic - When making a judgement about an individual or event, people look for characteristics the individual may have in common with e.g. stereotypes Framing heuristic - Whether a question is framed as gain versus loss would influence individual’s risk preferences when collecting information and making decisions o When a question is framed as gain versus no gain, people are reluctant to take risks o When a question is framed as loss versus no loss, people are willing to take more risks, presumably because they want to avoid loss Anchoring bias - Developing estimates by starting with whatever information is provided i.e. the anchor - We adjust from t...