Organizational-Behaviour- Lecture- Notes PDF

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Organizational Behaviour – Notes Chapter 1 – What is Organizational Behaviour?  Organizational Behaviour o Is a field of study that looks at the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behaviour within organizations o Its aim is to apply such knowledge toward improving organizational...

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Organizational Behaviour – Notes Chapter 1 – What is Organizational Behaviour?  Organizational Behaviour o Is a field of study that looks at the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behaviour within organizations o Its aim is to apply such knowledge toward improving organizational effectiveness o It is applied to topics such as jobs, work, absenteeism, employment turnover, productivity, human performance, and management o Examines motivation, leader behavior and power, interpersonal communication, group structure and processes, attitude development and perception, change processes, conflict and negotiation  Organization o A consciously coordinated social unit, composed of a group of people, that functions on a relatively continuous basis to achieve a common goal or set of goals o Examples: manufacturing and service firms, schools, hospitals, churches, military units, retail stores, police departments, volunteer organizations, start-ups, and local, provincial, and federal government agencies  OB is relevant anywhere that people come together and share experiences, work on goals, or meet to solve problems  The importance of interpersonal skills o Communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creative skills are equally important o Organizations that invest in the development of employees’ interpersonal skills are more likely to attract and keep high-performers o Social relationships among co-workers and supervisors were strongly related to overall job satisfaction o Positive social relationships were linked to lower stress at work and lower intentions to quit o Wages and benefits are not the main reasons people like their jobs or stay with their employers o Need for understanding the means and outcomes of corporate social responsibility  OB is built upon contributions of behavioural disciplines such as psychology, social psychology, sociology, and anthropology

 The rigour of OB o Behaviour is not random, it stems from and is directed toward some end that the individual believes, rightly or wrongly, is in his or her best interest o Requires an understanding of the dynamics and underlying causes of human behaviour o OB looks at consistencies in behaviour are important because they allow predictability o Behaviour is generally predictable, and the systematic study of behaviour is a means to making reasonably accurate predictions  Systematic study o Looking at relationships, attempting to attribute causes and effects, and drawing conclusions based on scientific evidence

 Evidence-based management o Basing managerial decisions on the best available scientific evidence  “Big Data” o the extensive use of statistical compilation and analysis o Managers who use data to define objectives, develop theories or causality, and test those theories can determine which employee activities are most relevant to their business objectives  The promise of OB is to use evidence as much as possible to inform your intuition and experience

 Contingency approach o An approach taken by OB that considers behaviour within the context in which it occurs  Responding to Globalization o The ever-changing global competitive environment means that not only individuals but also organizations have to become increasingly flexible by learning new skills, new ways of thinking, and new ways of doing business  Workforce diversity o The mix of people in organizations in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, age, and demographic characteristics such as education and socio-economic status o The challenge for organizations is to accommodate diverse groups of people by addressing their lifestyles, family needs, and work styles  Positive organizational scholarship o An area of OB research that concerns how organizations develop human strength, foster vitality and resilience, and unlock potential o Key independent variables include: engagement, hope, optimism, and resilience o Pushes organizations on how to use their employees’ strengths rather than dwell on their limitations  Ethical dilemmas and ethical choices o Situations in which individuals are required to define right and wrong conduct  Ethics o Is the study of moral values or principles that guide our behaviour and inform us whether actions are right or wrong  Companies that promote a strong ethical mission encourage employees to behave with integrity, and provide strong ethical leadership that can influence employee decisions to behave ethically  Model o An abstraction of reality o A simplified representation of some real-world phenomenon

 Inputs

o Are the variables like personality, group structure, and organizational culture that lead to processes  Processes o Are actions that individuals, groups, and organizations engage in as a result of inputs that lead to certain outcomes  Outcomes o Key factors that are affected by some other variables  Attitudes and stress o Attitudes  Are the evaluations individuals make about objects, people, or events

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o Stress  Is an unpleasant psychological process that occurs in response to environmental pressures o Evidence shows that employees who are more satisfied and treated fairly are more willing to engage in the above-and-beyond citizenship behaviour so vital in the contemporary business environment Task performance o The combination of effectiveness and efficiency at doing your core job tasks Organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) o Discretionary behaviour that is not part of an employee’s formal job requirements, but that nevertheless promotes the effective functioning of the organization Withdrawal behaviour o The set of actions employees take to separate themselves from the organization Group Cohesion o The extent to which members of a group support and validate one another while at work o People tend to work harder in groups that have a common purpose Group functioning o The quantity and quality of a work group’s output Productivity o The combination of the effectiveness and efficiency of an organization  Effectiveness  The degree to which an organization meets the needs of its clientele or customers  Efficiency  The degree to which an organization can achieve its ends at a low cost Organizational survival o The degree to which an organization is able to exist and grow over the long term

Chapter 2 – Perception, Personality, and Emotions  Job performance o Factors affecting job performance (individual behaviour)  Attitudes  Emotions  Leadership  Organizational culture  Perception  Personality  Motivation  Teamwork o High rate of distraction leads to low job performance o Is the most important dependent variable o Individual job performance  Behaviours that contribute to the accomplishment of organizational goals o Task performance (positive)  Example; take orders at a restaurant o Citizenship behaviour (positive)  When employees go beyond the work description  People do this because of their personality  Impression management  Social exchange; do something and expect others to reciprocate  Signalling; showing skills that are not usually visible o Counterproductive or Deviant behaviour (negative)  Example; taking long breaks, being too leisurely  Perception (******)

o The process by which individuals organize and interpret their impressions in order to give meaning to their environment  Perception is interpreting your environment  Seeing is just like what a camera captures, only reality but not thought o Anchoring effect o As human beings, we are convinced that our reality is the reality  Our perception of reality is often biased and affects how we see reality o What we perceive can be substantially different from objective reality o Important to OB because people’s behaviour is based on their perception of what reality is, not on reality itself

o Perceiver  Your interpretation of what you see is heavily influenced by your personal characteristics – attitudes, motives, interests, past experiences, and expectations  People’s perceptions of others reveal a lot about the people themselves o The target  Novelty, motion, sounds, size, and other characteristics of a target shape the way we see it  The relationship of a target to its background influences perception  Example; we perceive women, Aboriginal people, Asians, or members of any other group that has clearly distinguishable characteristics as alike in other, unrelated ways o The situation  The time at which we see an object or event can influence attention, as can location, light, heat, or any number of situational factors o Perceptual errors  Some of the errors that distort the perception process are attribution theory, selective perception, halo effect, contrast effects, projection, and stereotyping  Attribution theory o The theory that when we observe what seems like atypical behaviour by an individual, we attempt to determine whether it is internally or externally caused  Internally caused behaviours are those an observer believes to be under the personal behavioural control of another individual o Externally caused behaviours are what we imagine the situation forced the individual to do

o When individuals observe behaviour, they attempt to determine whether its internally or externally caused  Rely on three rules to determine whether behaviour is internally or externally caused:  Distinctiveness o A behavioural rule that considers whether an individual acts similarly across a variety of situations  Consensus o A behavioural rule that considers whether everyone faced with a similar situation responds in the same way  Consistency o A behavioural rule that considers whether the individual has been acting the same way over time

 Fundamental attribution error (1st error) o The tendency to underestimate the influence of external factors and overestimate the influence of internal factors when making judgements about the behaviour of others  Self-serving bias (2nd error) o The tendency for individuals to attribute their own successes to internal factors while putting the blame for failures on external factors  Selective perception o People’s selective interpretation of what they see based on their interests, background, experience, and attitudes  Halo effect o Drawing a general impression of an individual on the basis of a single characteristic  Primacy effect o We give exaggerated weight to first impressions  Recency effect o How you behave recently is weighed more  Contrast effects o The concept that our reaction to one person is often influenced by other people we have recently encountered  Projection o Attributing one’s own characteristics to other people  Stereotyping o Judging someone on the basis of one’s perception of the group to which that person belongs

 Heuristics o Judgement shortcuts in decision making  Prejudice o The dislike of a person or group based on preconceived and unfounded opinions  Self-fulfilling prophecy o A concept that proposes a person will behave in ways consistent with how he or she is perceived by others o Steps  Supervisor forms expectations  Supervisor’s expectations affect supervisor’s behaviour towards employee  Supervisor’s expectations affect employee’s ability and motivation  Employee’s behaviour becomes more consistent with supervisor’s initial expectations  Do perception and judgement matter? o Employment interviews o Performance expectations  Self-fulfilling prophecies  When someone has high expectations from you then you will do better, vice versa o Performance evaluations  Personality o The stable patterns of behaviour and consistent internal states that determine how an individual reacts to and interacts with others o Where does personality come from? o Dispositional approach  Nature o Situational approach  Nurture o Interactionist approach  Both  Personality traits o Enduring characteristics that describe an individual’s behaviour  Strong situation o Clear norms dictating how people should behave o In these situations, you cannot infer a person’s personality o In weak situations we can infer personality better  Myers-Briggs type indicator (MBTI) o A personality test that taps four characteristics and classifies people into 1 of 16 personality types o 100 question personality test that asks people how they usually feel or act in particular situations  Based on their answers, individuals are classified as extraverted or introverted (E or I), sensing or intuitive (S or N), thinking or feeling (T or F), and judging or perceiving (J or P)

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E/I measures where we direct our energy when dealing with people and things o Extraverted individuals are outgoing, sociable, and assertive o Introverts are quiet and shy  S/I looks at how we process information o Sensing types are practical and prefer routine and order, focus on details o Intuitives rely on unconscious processes and look at the “big picture”  T/F looks at how we handle problems o Thinking types us reason and logic to handle problems o Feeling types rely on their personal values and emotions  J/P o Judging types want control and prefer their world to be ordered and structured o Perceiving types are flexible and spontaneous  The Big Five personality model (******) o A personality assessment model that taps five basic dimensions o Extraversion  A personality factor that describes the degree to which a person is sociable, talkative, and assertive o Agreeableness  A personality factor that describes the degree to which a person is goodnatured, cooperative, and trusting o Conscientiousness  A personality factor that describes the degree to which a person is responsible, dependable, persistent, and achievement-oriented o Emotional stability  A personality dimension that characterizes someone as calm, selfconfident, and secure (positive) vs. nervous, depressed, and insecure (negative) o Openness to experience  A personality factor that describes the degree to which a person is imaginative, artistically sensitive, and curious

 The importance of self-esteem o Is a self-evaluation of your overall worth and how you perceive yourself o Can change the most over your lifetime  Dark Triad o A group of negative personality traits consisting of Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy  Machiavellianism  The degree to which an individual is pragmatic, maintains emotional distance, and believes that ends can justify means  Narcissism  The tendency to be arrogant, have a grandiose sense of selfimportance, require excessive admiration, and have a sense of entitlement  Psychopathy  The tendency for a lack of concern for others and a lack of guilt or remorse when one’s actions cause harm  Core self-evaluation o The degree to which an individual likes or dislikes himself or herself, whether the person sees himself or herself as capable and effective, and whether the person feels in control of his or her environment or powerless over the environment  Self-monitoring o A personality trait that measures an individual’s ability to adjust behaviour to external, situational factors  Proactive personality o A person who identifies opportunities, shows initiative, takes action, and perseveres until meaningful change occurs  Affect o A broad range of feelings that people experience o Emotions  Intense feelings that are directed at someone or something o Moods

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Feelings that tend to be less intense than emotions and that lack a contextual stimulus

 Emotional labour o When an employee expresses organizationally desired emotions during interpersonal interactions o Emotional dissonance  Inconsistency between the emotions an individual feels and the emotions he or she shows o Emotions  Felt emotions  An individual’s actual emotions  Displayed emotions  Emotions that are organizationally required and considered appropriate in a given job  Myths about emotions o Emotions impede rational thinking o It is impossible to make good decisions based on our emotions  Emotions in the workplace o Emotions provide important information about how we understand the world around us o People who know their own emotions and are good at reading others’ emotions may be more effective in their jobs o Emotions guide our behaviour  Emotional agility o How to manage your emotions  Correlation (******) o An association between variables  Surface acting o Hiding one’s inner feelings to display what is expected  Deep acting o Trying to modify one’s true inner feelings to match what is expected  Emotional intelligence (EI) o The ability to detect and to manage emotional cues and information

 Employee deviance o Voluntary actions that violate established norms and threaten the organization, its members, or both  Negative affect o A mood dimension that consists of emotions such as nervousness, stress, and anxiety at the high end and relaxation, tranquility, and poise at the low end Ethnic Background, profession, income, marital status, personality, hobby White guy: Probably American – White, European Descent Management $70,000 Married Smart, happy, talkative Electronic geek What did we learn from this exercise? - How quickly we jump to conclusions about a person just by looking at a picture of them - Stereotypes are big factors in perception Chapter 3 – Values, Attitudes, and Diversity in the Workplace  Values o Represent basic convictions that a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state of existence  Value system o A hierarchy based on a ranking of an individual’s values in terms of their intensity  Rokeach Value Survey (RVS) o Created by Milton Rokeach o Consists of two sets of values, each containing 18 individual value items  Terminal values are goals that individuals would like to achieve during their lifetime  A comfortable life (a prosperous life)  An exciting life (a stimulating, active life)  A sense of accomplishment (lasting contribution)  Equality (brotherhood, equal opportunity for all)  Inner harmony (freedom from inner conflict)  Happiness (contentedness)  Instrumental values are preferable ways of behaving  Ambitious (hard-working, aspiring)  Broad-minded (open-minded)  Capable (competent, effective)  Courageous (standing up for your beliefs)  Imaginative (daring, creative)

 Honest (sincere, truthful)  Ethics o Is the study of moral values or principles that guide our behaviour and inform us whether actions are right or wrong  Hodgson’s general moral principles – “The Magnificent Seven” o Dignity of human life  The lives of people are to be respected o Autonomy  All persons are intrinsically valuable and have the right to selfdetermination o Honesty  The truth should be told to those who have a right to know it o Loyalty  Promises, contracts, and commitments should be honoured o Fairness  People should be treated justly o Humaneness  Our actions ought to accomplish good, and we should avoid doing evil o The common good  Actions should accomplish the greatest good for the greatest number of people  Hofstede’s framework for assessing cultures – six value dimensions o Power distance  A national culture attribute that describes the extent to which a society accepts that power in institutions and organizations is distributed unequally o Individualism vs. Collectivism  Individualism is a national culture attribute that describes the degree to which people prefer to act as individuals rather than as members of groups  Collectivism is a national culture attribute that describes a tight social framework in which people expect others in groups of which they are a part to look after them and protect them o Masculinity vs. Femininity  Masculinity is a national culture attribute that describes the extent to which the culture favours traditional masculine work roles of achievement, power, and control. Societal values are characterized by assertiveness and materialism.  Femininity is a national culture attribute that sees little differentiation between male and female roles; women are treated as the equals of men in all res...