Chapter Fifteen - CSUN

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Slide content created by Charlie Cook, The University of West Alabama

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Chapter Fifteen

Basic Elements of

Individual Behavior in

Organizations

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 15–2

Learning ObjectivesAfter studying this chapter, you should be able to:

1. Explain the nature of the individual-organization relationship.

2. Define personality and describe personality attributes that affect behavior in organizations.

3. Discuss individual attitudes in organizations and how they affect behavior.

4. Describe basic perceptual processes and the role of attributions in organizations.

5. Discuss the causes and consequences of stress and describe how it can be managed.

6. Describe creativity and its role in organizations.

7. Explain how workplace behaviors can directly or indirectly influence organizational effectiveness.


Understanding Individuals in

Organizations

• The Psychological Contract

– The overall set of expectations held by an

individual with respect to what he or she

will contribute to the organization and what

the organization will provide in return.

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Figure 15.1: The

Psychological Contract


Understanding Individuals in

Organizations (cont’d)• The Person-Job Fit

– Reasons for poor person-job fit:• Organizational selection procedures are imperfect.

• Both people and organizations change over time.

• Adopting new technologies changes the skills needed by employees.

• Each individual is unique and each job is unique.

• Individual Differences

– Personal attributes that vary from one person to another.

• Physical, psychological, or emotional.


Personality and

Individual Behavior• Personality

– The relatively stable set of psychological and behavioral attributes that distinguish one person from another.

• The ―Big Five‖ Personality Traits

– Agreeableness—a person’s ability to get along with others.

– Conscientiousness—the number of goals on which a person focuses.

– Negative emotionality—the extent to which a person is calm, resilient, and secure.

– Extraversion—a person’s comfort level with relationships.

– Openness—a person’s rigidity of beliefs and range of interests.

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Figure 15.2: The “Big Five”

Model of Personality


The Myers-Briggs Framework

• The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

– A popular questionnaire that some organizations use to assess personality types.

• Is a useful method for determining communication styles and interaction preferences.

• Has questionable validity and reliability.

• Personality Types

– Extraversion (E) versus Introversion (I)

– Sensing (S) versus Intuition (N)

– Thinking (T) versus Feeling (F)

– Judging (J) versus Perceiving (P)


Other Personality

Traits at Work • Locus of Control

– The extent to which people believe that their behavior has a real effect on what happens to them.

• Internal locus of control—individuals who believe they are in control of their lives.

• External locus of control—individuals believe that external forces dictate what happen to them.

• Self-Efficacy– A person’s belief about his or her capabilities to

perform a task. High self-efficacy individuals believe they can perform well while low self-efficacy individuals doubt their ability to perform.

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Other Personality

Traits at Work (cont’d)

• Authoritarianism

– The extent to which an individual believes

that power and status differences are

appropriate within hierarchical social

organizations.

• Machiavellianism

– Behavior directed at gaining power and

controlling the behavior of others.


Other Personality

Traits at Work (cont’d)

• Self-Esteem

– The extent to which a person believes

she/he is a worthwhile individual.

• Risk Propensity

– The degree to which an individual is willing

to take chances and make risky decisions.


Emotional Intelligence

• Emotional intelligence, or EQ

– The extent to which people are self-aware, can manage their emotions, can motivate themselves, express empathy for others, and possess social skills.

• Dimensions of EQ

– Self-awareness

– Managing emotion

– Motivating oneself

– Empathy

– Social skill

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Attitudes and

Individual Behavior• Attitudes

– Complexes of beliefs and feelings that people have about specific ideas, situations, or other people.

• Attitudinal Components

– Affective component• Feelings and emotions toward a situation (i.e., how we

feel).

– Cognitive component• Perceived knowledge (i.e., why we feel the way we feel).

– Intentional component• Expected behavior in a given situation (i.e., what we

intend do about the situation).


Attitudes and

Individual Behavior

• Cognitive Dissonance

– The conflict individuals experience

among their own attitudes.

– The affective and cognitive components

of the individual’s attitude are in conflict

with intended behavior.


Work-Related Attitudes• Job Satisfaction or Dissatisfaction

– An attitude that reflects the extent to which an individual is gratified or fulfilled by his or her work.

• Job Satisfaction and Work Behaviors

– Job satisfaction is influenced by personal, group, and organizational factors.

– Satisfied employees are absent less often, make positive contributions, and stay with the organization.

– Dissatisfied employees are absent more often, may experience stress which disrupts coworkers, and may be continually looking for another job.

– High levels of job satisfaction do not necessarily lead to high job performance.

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Work-Related

Attitudes (cont’d)• Organizational Commitment

– An attitude that reflects an individual’s identification with and attachment to an organization.

• Organizational Commitment and Work Behaviors

– Employee commitment strengthens with an individual’s age, years with the organization, sense of job security, and participation in decision making.

– Committed employees have highly reliable habits, plan a longer tenure with the organization, and muster more effort in performance.


Affect and Mood in

Organizations

• Positive Affectivity

– A tendency to be relatively upbeat and optimistic,

have an overall sense of well-being, see things in

a positive light, and seem to be in a good mood.

• Negative Affectivity

– A tendency to be generally downbeat and

pessimistic, tend to see things in a negative way,

and seem to be in a bad mood.


Perception and

Individual Behavior• Perception

– The set of processes by which an individual becomes aware of and interprets information.

• Selective Perception

– The process of screening out information that we are uncomfortable with or that contradicts our beliefs.

– If selective perception causes someone to ignore important information it can become quite detrimental.

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Figure 15.3: Perceptual

Processes


Perception and

Individual Behavior

• Stereotyping

– The process of categorizing or labeling

people on the basis of a single attribute

(e.g., gender and race).

– Stereotyping may cost the organization

valuable talent, violate federal anti-bias

laws, and is likely unethical.


Perception and Attribution

• Attribution

– A mechanism through which we observe

behavior and attribute a cause to it.

• Ways in Which Attributions Are Formed:

– Consensus

– Consistency

– Distinctiveness

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Stress and Individual Behavior

• Stress

– A person’s response to a strong stimulus (i.e., a stressor).

• General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)

– The general cycle of the stress process.

– Stage 1 Alarm

– Stage 2 Resistance

– Stage 3 Exhaustion


Stress and Individual Behavior

(cont’d)• Personality Types

– Type A personality• Extremely competitive (aggressive), devoted to work,

have a strong sense of time urgency (impatient).

• Have a lot of drive and want to accomplish as much as possible as quickly as possible.

– Type B personality• Less competitive, less devoted to work, have a weaker

sense of time urgency.

• Less likely to experience personal stress or to come into conflict with other people.

• More likely to have a balanced, relaxed approach to life.


Figure 15.4: The General

Adaptation Syndrome

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Figure 15.5: Causes

of Work Stress


Causes and Consequences of

Stress (cont’d)• Consequences of Stress

– Negative personal consequences• Behavioral

• Psychological

• Medical

– Negative work-related consequences• Poor quality work output and lower productivity.

• Job dissatisfaction, low morale, and a lack of commitment.

• Withdrawal through indifference and absenteeism.

– Burnout• A feeling of exhaustion that may develop when someone

experiences too much stress for an extended period of time.


Managing Stress

• Stress Management Strategies for Individuals

– Regular exercise• reduces tension and stress, and improves self-

confidence and feelings of optimism.

– Relaxation• allows individuals to adapt and better deal with their

stress.

– Time management• reduces stress by prioritizing activities to accomplish

them in their order of importance.

– Support groups• socializing away from work reduces stress.

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Managing Stress (cont’d)

• Stress Management Strategies for

Organizations

– Organizations are partly responsible for stress.

– Organizations also bear the costs of stress-related

claims.

– Organizational wellness/stress management

programs can be used to promote healthful

employee activities and derive the benefits of

increased organizational productivity.


Creativity in Organizations

• Creativity

– The ability of an individual to generate new ideas or to conceive of new perspectives in existing ideas.

• The Creative Individual

– Background experiences and creativity• Many creative individuals were reared in creative

environments.

– Personal traits and creativity• Creative persons have personal traits of openness, an

attraction to complexity, high levels of energy, independence, autonomy, strong self-confidence, and a strong belief in their own creativity.


Creativity in Organizations

• The Creative Individual

– Cognitive abilities and creativity

• Most creative people are highly intelligent.

• They are both divergent and convergent

thinkers, a skill they use to see differences and

similarities in situations, phenomena, and

events.

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The Creative Process

• Preparation

– Formal education and training is used to ―get up to speed.‖

– Experiences on the job provide additional knowledge and ideas.

• Incubation

– A period of less intense conscious concentration during which knowledge and ideas acquired, during reparation, mature and develop.

– Incubation can be helped by pauses in rational thought.


The Creative Process (cont’d)

• Insight

– A spontaneous breakthrough in which the creative person achieves a new understanding of some problem or situation.

– Patterns of thought coalesce into a new understanding.

• Verification– Determines the validity or truthfulness of the

insight.

– Tests are conducted and prototypes are built to see if the insight leads to the expected results.


The Creative Process (cont’d)

• Enhancing Creativity in Organizations

– Make creativity part of the organization’s

culture.

• Set goals for revenues from creative products

and services.

– Reward creativity; refrain from punishing

creative failures.

• Some ideas work out as expected, others don’t

work out as intended.

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Types of Workplace Behavior

• Workplace Behavior

– A pattern of action by the members of an

organization that directly or indirectly

influences organizational effectiveness.

• Performance Behaviors

– The total set of work-related behaviors an

organization expects an individual to

display.



• Withdrawal Behaviors

– Absenteeism occurs when an individual

does not show up for work when expected

for legitimate or feigned reasons.

– Absenteeism may be a symptom of other

work-related problems.

– Turnover occurs when individuals quit their

jobs for work-related or personal reasons.



(cont’d)• Organizational Citizenship

– The behavior of individuals that makes a positive overall contribution to the organization.

– The determinants of organizational citizenship is a complex mosaic of individual, social, and organizational variables.

• The personality, attitudes, and needs of the individual.

• The social context, or work group, in which the individual works.

• An organization (and its culture) capable of rewarding citizenship behaviors.

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Key Terms

• contributions

• psychological contract

• inducements

• individual differences

• personality

• openness

• conscientiousness

• negative emotionality

• extraversion

• ―Big Five‖ personality traits

• locus of control

• self-efficacy

• authoritarianism

• Machiavellianism

• self-esteem

• risk propensity

• attitudes

• cognitive dissonance

• emotional intelligence (EQ)

• job satisfaction or dissatisfaction


Key Terms

• organizational commitment

• negative affectivity

• perception

• selective perception

• stereotyping

• attribution

• stress

• Type B

• Type A

• General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)

• burnout

• creativity

• workplace behavior

• absenteeism

• turnover

• organizational citizenship

• dysfunctional behaviors

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Chapter Fifteen - CSUN