Organisational behavior assignment 2 pages single spaced .
Chapter 2
Personality and Learning
ABOUT THIS SLIDESHOW
Yellow-gradient background – New Section
There are links on some slides that will take you to either articles or videos on the topic at hand.
There are notes for most slides that can be read when the slideshow is in edit mode (the mode it is in when you are creating content). You may need to click the word ‘Notes’ at the bottom and then click and drag the bottom to see the notes section. You can also see the notes if you go to print mode and print slides with notes. (refer to the picture on the next slide)
I’ve included a couple of links to the online textbook for more information about the topic at hand – you will see them in a box with a green background
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NOTES SECTION
Another Note
There are slides within this presentation that discuss what the ‘research’ says. I’ve included these slides to show the importance of the variables we are discussing, but they aren’t as important as understanding what the variables are. Don’t spend time trying to memorize research results.
To make my point, I will give those slides a slightly grey background.
Learning Objectives
Define personality and describe the dispositional, situational, and interactionist approaches to organizational behaviour.
Discuss the Five-Factor Model of personality, locus of control, self-monitoring, and self-esteem.
Discuss positive and negative affectivity, proactive personality, general self-efficacy, and core self-evaluations and their consequences.
Define learning and describe what is learned in organizations.
Learning Objectives (continued)
Explain operant learning theory and differentiate between positive and negative reinforcements, and extinction and punishment, and explain how to use punishment effectively.
Explain when to use immediate versus delayed reinforcement and when to use continuous versus partial reinforcement.
Explain social cognitive theory and discuss observational learning, self-efficacy beliefs, and self-regulation.
Describe the following organizational learning practices: organizational behaviour modification, employee recognition programs, and training and development programs.
What Is Personality?
Personality: The relatively stable set of psychological characteristics that influences the way an individual interacts with his or her environment and how he or she feels, thinks, and behaves.
Determined by genetic predisposition and one’s long-term learning history.
People have a variety of personality characteristics (obviously).
The bottom link takes you to a page with a long list of personality traits (just to give you an idea).
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Personality and Organizational Behaviour
The role of personality in OB has often been debated in what is known as the “person-situation debate”
This has led to three approaches:
The dispositional approach – individuals possess stable traits that predispose them to behave in certain ways
The situational approach – the situation determines how people behave
The interactionist approach – combination of the two (most widely accepted)
Dispositional: The person makes the largest difference.
Situational: The situation makes the largest difference.
Interactionist: The situation will determine how big of an influence the person will have (this will be explained in a few slides).
Now… why would this matter? If dispositional was correct, you would give out personality tests in interviews and hire based off of which characteristics/traits work the best for your job. If situational was correct, then using personality tests would be a waste of time. Leaders would be easy to find as they would possess the same traits under dispositional. Leaders would be harder to find it if was situational.
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Question(s)
Compare situation to disposition / personality when it comes to stealing.
Which do you believe:
Some people will steal and others won’t
Whether people steal depends on how easy it is to steal and not get caught, the consequences of getting caught, and how bad they need whatever they are stealing
In other words, how much influence do you think the situation has on whether someone steals? How about cheats on a test? Are some people composed of traits that would either make them steal/cheat or not steal/cheat or does the situation play a larger role?
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Personality and Organizational Behaviour
The dispositional approach – inconsistent findings failed to support this approach
The situational approach – supported by research
The interactionist approach – found that strength of situation can determine what has the most impact
THIS IS WHAT THE RESEARCH SAYS.
Strength of situation will be explained in the next slide.
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Personality and Organizational Behaviour
Weak Situation: not clear how to behave – personality has most impact
Ex. You begin your new job and there are no clear rules or procedures and nobody has told you what you what will be rewarded and what will be punished
Strong Situation: clear how to behave – situation has most impact
Ex. You begin your new job and it is very clear how you should act, what the rules are, and how you will be rewarded
When you enter a situation in which you have very little idea how to behave, you tend to revert to your disposition. However, when you enter a situation where it is VERY clear how to behave, then the situation is dictating your behaviour.
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Trait Activation Theory
Trait Activation Theory: Personality traits lead to certain behaviours only when the situation makes the need for the trait salient.
Personality influences people’s behaviour when the situation calls for a particular personality characteristic.
IN OTHER WORDS, there is no one best personality and certain traits are better in certain situations.
It’s about FIT and supports the importance of diversity.
The link takes you to Wikipedia for more information on Trait Activation Theory, however the brief definition here should be enough for our discussion. The idea is that you are composed of relatively stable traits, but those traits only lead to a change in performance when the situation is relevant for the expression of that trait.
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Question
Do you think that organizations should base their hiring decisions on applicants’ personalities?
YES
NO
Depends on the job
The Five-Factor Model of Personality
Five basic but general dimensions that describe personality:
Extraversion
Emotional stability/neuroticism
Agreeableness
Conscientiousness
Openness to experience
Big 5 Video
Link to Online Textbook
The Five-Factor Model is quite well known in psychology and OB. The reason that it is so popular is because these dimensions are related to a lot of outcomes of interest. In other words, measuring them can help predict attitudes and behaviours.
THE LINK IN TOP RIGHT TO ONLINE TEXTBOOK: This connects you with further information on many of the upcoming topics.
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The Five-Factor Model of Personality (continued)
Just a clip from the textbook.
When trying to remember the 5, some people think of OCEAN. O (Openness), C (Conscientiousness), E (Extraversion), A (Agreeableness) and N (Neuroticism : which is the opposite of emotional stability).
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Extraversion and OB
Outgoing versus Shy
Important for jobs that require interpersonal interaction and where being sociable, assertive, energetic, and ambitious is important for success.
Do you consider yourself to be an extrovert?
Can you see how this would be important when hiring for a sales job?
Emotional stability/neuroticism and OB
Degree to which a person has appropriate emotional control
Persons high on emotional stability will have more effective interactions with co-workers and customers as they tend to be more calm and secure.
For almost any job, low emotional stability harms performance
Agreeableness and OB
Degree to which a person is friendly and approachable
Contributes to job performance in jobs that require interaction and involve helping, cooperating, and nurturing others as well as in jobs that involve teamwork and cooperation.
Conscientiousness and OB
Degree to which a person is responsible and achievement oriented
Important for job performance on most jobs given the tendency towards hard work and achievement.
Openness to Experience and OB
Extent to which a person thinks flexibly and is receptive to new ideas.
Important for jobs that involve learning and creativity given the tendency to be intellectual, curious, and imaginative and have broad interests.
Probably a high percentage of this class would score high on this dimension because the majority of you had to open yourselves to new experiences in coming to TRU.
The Five-Factor Model of Personality: Research
Each of the “Big Five” dimensions is related to job performance and organizational citizenship behaviours.
Best predictors of job performance depends on the occupation.
Conscientiousness is the strongest predictor of overall job performance across all occupations.
Organizational Citizenship Behaviours: We’ll talk about these more in the future but basically these are voluntary behaviours that help the organization but aren’t part of an employees assigned role. Stuff they do that they don’t have to do that helps the organization. For example: As a TRU student it would be considered an OCB if you picked up garbage while walking around campus. (you don’t have to do it and it helps the school)
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The Five-Factor Model of Personality: Research (continued)
The “Big Five” are also related to:
Retention and attendance.
Counterproductive behaviours, unsafe work behaviour and workplace deviance.
Work motivation, job satisfaction, and life satisfaction.
Team behaviours such as cooperation.
Career success.
This just shows why measuring these 5 dimensions is so common. If they didn’t matter, nobody would bother looking at them.
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Locus of Control
A set of beliefs about whether one’s behaviour is controlled mainly by internal or external factors.
Internals: opportunity to control their own behaviour resides within themselves.
“I’ll get promoted because I work hard and I control my own destiny.”
Externals: external forces determine their behaviour.
“People tend to get promoted on luck or have special connections, so working hard isn’t likely to pay off.”
I personally feel that people are in constant search of control. Those with an internal locus of control feel like it is up to them. Those with an external locus of control feel like what they do doesn’t really matter.
The promotion example is a good example. Who is more likely to work harder? Obviously the person with an internal locus of control.
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The Internal/External Locus of Control Continuum
Question
How much control do you have over your grades?
100% – It is all on me
75% – Most of it is on me, but a little luck and the right teacher helps
50% – Some of it is me, some of it is the teacher, the class, my classmates, etc.
25% – I do have to work, but most of my grade is determined by factors outside of my control
0% – Doesn’t matter how hard I work, I always get about the same grade
Locus of Control: Research
Internals:
more satisfied with their jobs
more committed to their organization
earn more money
achieve higher organizational positions
perceive less stress
cope with stress better
experience less burnout
engage in more careful career planning
less likely to be absent from work
more satisfied with their lives
To summarize, internal locus of control is better. You want people who have it.
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Self-Monitoring
The extent to which people observe and regulate how they appear and behave in social settings and relationships.
High self-monitors
Show concern for socially appropriate emotions and behaviours
Tune into social and interpersonal cues and regulate their behaviour and self-presentation according to these cues.
Imagine if someone entered a funeral and was smiling and laughing? Having an understanding of what is going on and being able to self-monitor is important in a number of jobs.
Some jobs, especially in the service sector, have what are called ‘display rules’. These rules (whether explicit or implicit) govern the emotions an employee should display. If you work in customer service, you should be smiling and happy. If you are a police officer, you should be more serious. Sometimes you might not feel happy, but when you get to work you need to appear happy as part of your job. This is called ‘Emotional Labour’, a topic which we might discuss later.
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Self-Monitoring: Research
HSM good for jobs that require role-playing and the use of their self-presentation skills.
HSM are more involved in their jobs, perform better, and are more likely to emerge as leaders.
HSM experience more role stress and show less commitment to their organization.
HSM are uncomfortable in ambiguous situations (ex. Different cultures)
When you constantly have to control your emotions and monitor your own behaviour, it can be stressful. Imagine always acting like someone you aren’t. Also, it can be stressful for people who are high self-monitors to be in situations where they are unsure what emotions they should display or what they should be doing. People who are low-self monitors don’t really care and are simply themselves.
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Self-Esteem
The degree to which a person has a positive self-evaluation.
High self-esteem = favourable self-image
Behavioural Plasticity Theory
People with low self-esteem tend to be more susceptible to external and social influences than those who have high self-esteem.
Ex. Kids with low self-esteem are more susceptible to peer-pressure (smoking, drinking, etc.)
BP Theory is quite simple and something that makes sense. Those of us who have high self-esteem aren’t as susceptible to external and social influences. You are more ‘plastic’ and malleable if you have low self-esteem.
Ex. If someone says, “you suck!” a person with high self-esteem would just move on and it wouldn’t effect them. A person with low self-esteem would likely believe the other person.
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Self-Esteem: Research
How might someone with low self-esteem react to negative feedback?
People with high self-esteem make more fulfilling career decisions and have higher job satisfaction and job performance.
People with high self-esteem are more resilient to the strains of everyday work-life.
How could someone bolster your self-esteem?
Positive and Negative Affectivity
People who are high on positive affectivity
(PA) experience positive emotions and moods and view the world in a positive light.
People who are high on negative affectivity
(NA) experience negative emotions and moods and view the world in a negative light.
They are emotional dispositions that predict people’s general emotional tendencies.
Recent study shows that optimistic people live 11 to 15% longer
This doesn’t mean that someone with PA is always positive and someone with NA is always negative. It is just a tendency.
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Positive and Negative Affectivity: Research
People with higher PA report:
higher job satisfaction and job performance
engage in more organizational citizenship behaviours
are more creative at work
NA is associated with lower job satisfaction and poorer job performance.
NA has also been found to be related to more counterproductive work behaviours, withdrawal behaviours, and occupational injury.
PA has been found to link happiness to success in life and at work.
Proactive Personality
A stable personal disposition that reflects a tendency to take personal initiative across a range of activities and situations and to effect positive change in one’s environment.
Proactive behaviour involves taking initiative to improve current circumstances or creating new ones.
Proactive individuals search for and identify opportunities, show initiative, take action, and persevere until they bring about meaningful change.
Once you are done doing the work you’ve been assigned, do you go looking for something else to do or do you wait for until someone gives you another task? Maybe you work retail and when there isn’t much to do, you decide to clean or fold clothes or something ‘proactive’. Other people might just goof off and check their phones and wait to be told.
Do you try to create opportunities or do you wait for them to come to you?
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Proactive Personality: Research
Proactive personality is related to a number of work outcomes (such as job satisfaction, job performance, organizational citizenship behaviours).
Persons with a proactive personality are more successful in searching for employment and career success.
A lot of these advantages make sense. People that go out and create opportunities for themselves get better outcomes. If you go looking for a promotion, you are more likely to find it. If your job sucks so you go and find a new job, you’ll be happier than someone who stays in their old job.
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General Self-Efficacy
A general trait that refers to an individual’s belief in his or her ability to perform successfully in a variety of challenging situations.
General self-efficacy (GSE) is a motivational trait rather than an affective trait.
Related to whether they can succeed, not how they feel about themselves
If you’ve had lots of success, more likely to have high GSE (failures = low GSE)
Questions
Are you a better driver than the average person?
Yes
No
I’d rather not say
General Self-Efficacy: Research
Individuals with higher GSE are better able to adapt to novel, uncertain, and adverse situations.
Employees with higher GSE have higher job satisfaction and job performance.
Exercise
Rate the following statements from 1 to 5 (write them down)
I am confident I get the success I deserve in life
Sometimes I feel depressed
When I try, I generally succeed
Sometimes when I fail, I feel worthless
I complete tasks successfully
Sometimes I do not feel in control of my work
Overall, I am satisfied with myself
I am filled with doubts about my competence
1 – strongly disagree
2 – disagree
3 – neither agree or disagree
4 – agree
5 – strongly agree
The following 2 slides are an exercise that you can take part in if you like. Keep track of the scores and then you can calculate your totals based on the directions on the next slide.
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Exercise
I determine what will happen in my life
I do not feel in control of my success in my career
I am capable of coping with most of my problems
There are times when things look pretty bleak and hopeless for me.
To get your score, subtract your responses to questions 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 from 6. In other words, if you got 1 on question 2, you would then have 5 (6-1).
Add your six new scores to those you got for questions 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11, and then divide your overall total by 12 to get your average.
AVERAGE FOR UNDERGRADS IS AROUND 3.8 (based on 2 studies)
1 – strongly disagree
2 – disagree
3 – neither agree or disagree
4 – agree
5 – strongly agree
Core Self-Evaluations
A broad personality concept that consists of specific traits that reflect the evaluations people hold about themselves and their self-worth, competence, and capability.
4 Main Traits:
Self-esteem
General self-efficacy
Locus of control
Neuroticism (emotional stability)
Core Self-Evaluations: Research
People with more positive CSEs have higher job satisfaction, life satisfaction, and career satisfaction.
CSE is related to job satisfaction over time.
CSE is related to higher organizational commitment and job performance.
Individuals with higher CSE perceive fewer stressors and experience less stress and conflict at work.
Core Self-Evaluations: Research (continued)
People with Higher CSE:
Are more likely to perceive and pay attention to the positive aspects of their environments.
Experience their job as more intrinsically satisfying and have higher perceptions of fairness and support.
Next Section
Now we take a look at learning and how people learn. Understanding how people learn will make training and development (an HR function) much easier.
What is Learning?
Learning occurs when practice or experience leads to a relatively permanent change in behaviour potential.
The practice or experience that prompts learning stems from an environment that provides feedback concerning the consequences of behaviour. (learning is related to consequences)
What Do Employees Learn?
Practical skills:
Job-specific skills, knowledge, technical competence.
Intrapersonal skills:
Problem solving, critical thinking, alternative work processes, risk taking.
Interpersonal skills:
Interactive skills such as communicating, teamwork, conflict resolution.
Cultural awareness:
The social norms of organizations, company goals, business operations, expectations, and priorities.
Don’t spend time memorizing this list. It is more important to understand ‘how’ people learn than what employees learn.
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How Do People Learn?
Two theories that describe how people in organizations learn:
Operant learning theory
Also known as Conditioning Theory
Social cognitive theory
Operant Learning Theory
(Conditioning Theory)
Conditioning theory (B.F. Skinner)
Learning is a result of reward and punishment contingencies that follow a response to a stimulus
A stimulus or cue would be followed by a response, which is then reinforced
Strengthens the likelihood that response will occur again and that learning will result
Learn the connection between behaviour and response
Ex. Kids’ behaviour
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Learning is a relatively permanent change in behaviour in response to stimulus
This is the behaviourist school of psychology that states learning is a result of reward and punishment
Negative reinforcement is not the same as punishment (the application of a negative consequence in response to undesirable behaviour)
To put it simply, if the result of a behaviour is something you like, you are more likely to repeat that behaviour. If the result of a behaviour is something you don’t like, you are less likely to repeat that behaviour.
Operant Learning / Conditioning
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Positive Reinforcement: Get something good
Negative Reinforcement: Remove something bad (different than punishment)
Note: Both of these encourage behaviour
Examples
Positive Reinforcement
You want someone to study so you reward them for studying with candy (or whatever they value)
Negative Reinforcement
You want someone to study so you nag them and when they study, you stop nagging
Both types encourage behavior to continue
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PR Clip
Negative reinforcement and punishment get mixed up. Negative reinforcement encourages a behaviour to continue while punishment discourages a behaviour. To be clear, you should understand (define) what the behaviour in question is.
The link is just a funny clip from YouTube (the Big Bang Theory)
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Organizational Errors Involving Reinforcement
Managers sometimes make the following errors when trying to use reinforcement:
Confusing rewards with reinforcers (need to make rewards contingent on behaviours)
Neglecting diversity in preferences for reinforcers (some people value some rewards while other people don’t)
Neglecting important sources of reinforcement
Ex. Performance Feedback and Social Recognition
It is important that you link the reward (the positive) to the behaviour. If that link is unclear, then the behaviour won’t be properly reinforced.
Money might not be the best reinforcer of good behaviour. Recognizing what people find ‘positive’ is important.
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Reinforcement Strategies
Reinforcement can be:
Continuous versus partial
Immediate versus delayed
What is the best way to administer reinforcers?
If you look at the right side of the diagram, you can see that the best reinforcement strategy is contingent upon what effect you are looking for.
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Summary of Reinforcement Strategies and their Effects
Behaviour reinforced with continuous, immediate feedback tends to go away when reinforced less frequently
Managers have to tailor reinforcement strategies to the needs of the situation and often must alter their strategies over time to achieve effective learning and maintenance of behaviour.
Reducing the Probability of Behaviour
We talked about encouraging behaviours (reinforcement), but how do you reduce or eliminate learned behaviours that you no longer want?
Two strategies that can reduce the probability of learned behaviour:
Extinction
Punishment
Extinction
Extinction: The gradual dissipation of behaviour following the termination of reinforcement. (no more rewards)
Ex. Teacher stops giving you bonus marks for completing extra work – you stop doing extra work
If the behaviour is not reinforced, it will gradually dissipate or be extinguished.
Works best when coupled with the reinforcement substitute behaviour.
Punishment
Punishment: The application of an aversive stimulus following unwanted behaviour to decrease the probability of that behaviour.
A nasty stimulus is applied after some undesirable behaviour in order to decrease the probability of that behaviour.
Ex. You use a phone in class and get yelled at. This should mean that you are less likely to use your phone in class in the future.
The key difference here between punishment and negative reinforcement is that punishment is done to DECREASE the probability of a behaviour occurring in the future.
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Question
For those of you who have gotten a speeding ticket (punishment), did that stop you from speeding in the future?
Yes. I never speed anymore.
A little. I speed, but I’m smarter about when and where.
No. I haven’t changed at all and I continue to speed.
Problems:
It does not demonstrate which behaviours should replace the punished response.
Punishment indicates only what is not appropriate.
Punishment only temporarily suppresses the unwanted behaviour. (when not being watched/punished, behaviour will resume)
Punishment can provoke a strong emotional reaction from the punished individual.
Problems Using Punishment
A big issue with punishment is that it doesn’t show you what you SHOULD be doing. It is important to have a replacement behaviour to be effective.
Temporary suppression is probably what happens when people get a speeding ticket. They might not speed much right after, but as time goes on and they don’t see police, they start to speed again and likely get away with it, which leads to more speeding.
Think of the difference in emotional reaction if I punished you in front of the whole class versus talking to you privately about something you did wrong. You might feel embarrassed if I did it in front of the whole class.
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Using Punishment Effectively
How do you use Punishment Effectively?
Provide an acceptable alternative
Limit the emotions involved
Make sure punishment is truly aversive
Punish immediately or reinstate the circumstances surrounding the problem behaviour at a more appropriate time
Do not reward unwanted behaviours before or after punishment.
Do not inadvertently punish desirable behaviour
Truly Aversive: When I was a kid, if I got in trouble I was sent to my room. In my room I had video games, television, music, etc. It wasn’t that AVERSIVE. I actually liked my room.
Punish Immediately: Imagine if your child did something wrong and then 2 weeks later you punished them for what they did wrong. Too much time has passed for them to make any solid connection between the behaviour and the punishment.
Do not reward unwanted behaviours: This happens when a little kid says a swear word and the parent laughs. The kid is looking for you to laugh and the laughter is a positive reinforcer.
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Question
Would posting the name of the student with the lowest test score motivate you to study?
Yes, I don’t want to be embarrassed
Wouldn’t matter to me because I’m never the lowest
No, I don’t care if people know I didn’t do well
Social Cognitive Theory
Learning isn’t just through rewards and punishments
Social Learning: learning through interactions with others (central premise of social cognitive theory)
Social cognitive theory states people learn by:
Observing the behaviour of others
Making choices about different courses of action to pursue
Managing their own behaviour in the process of learning
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Social learning involves learning though the interactions with others
This can be formal or informal
People learn by:
– Observing the behaviour of others
– Making choices about different courses of action to pursue
– Managing their own behaviour in the process of learning
We observe the actions of others and make note of reinforcing or punishing outcomes
We imitate what we have observed and expect certain consequences
Research suggests that people observe and reproduce the actions and attitudes of others
Social Cognitive Theory
Social cognitive theory has 3 key components:
Observation
Self-efficacy
Self-regulation
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Social Cognitive Theory
Observation: learning by observing the actions of others and the consequences with 4 key critical elements:
Attention (be aware of observable skills)
Retention (remember what they observed and be able to draw from that memory)
Reproduction (try out the skill through practice and rehearsal)
Reinforcement (positive outcomes = do it again)
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Four key critical elements:
Attention–learners must attend to the behaviour (be aware of the skills that are observable)
Retention–learners must remember what they have observed and encode it in their own repertoire so they can recall the skills
Reproduction–they must try out the skill through practice and rehearsal
Reinforcement–if the reproduction results in positive outcomes (reinforcement) it is likely to continue
Social Cognitive Theory
2. Self-efficacy: judgments people have about their ability to successfully perform a specific task (task specific)
Better chance of learning something if you believe you can copy what you see someone else do
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Self-efficacy has a strong effect on people’s attitudes, emotions, and behaviour
Influences the activities people choose to perform, the amount of effort and persistence devoted to a task, their affective and stress reactions, and performance outcomes
Self-efficacy is influenced by 4 sources of information (in order of importance):
Task performance outcomes (had previous success in similar situations)
Observation (see others do it)
Verbal persuasion and social influence (support)
Physiological/emotional state (reduced stress)
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Social Cognitive Theory
Physiological/emotional state is the hardest to understand of the four. In stressful situations, people commonly exhibit signs of distress: shakes, aches and pains, fatigue, fear, nausea, etc. Perceptions of these responses in oneself can markedly alter self-efficacy. Getting ‘butterflies in the stomach’ before public speaking will be interpreted by someone with low self-efficacy as a sign of inability, thus decreasing self-efficacy further, where high self-efficacy would lead to interpreting such physiological signs as normal and unrelated to ability. It is one’s belief in the implications of physiological response that alters self-efficacy, rather than the physiological response itself (WIKIPEDIA).
Self-regulation: relates to managing one’s own behaviour through a series of internal processes
Observe personal behaviour (self-monitoring) and the behaviour of others
Setting performance goals (goal-setting)
Assess personal progress (self-evaluation)
Reward oneself for goal achievement (self-reinforcement)
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Social Cognitive Theory
Self-regulated learning involves the use of affective, cognitive, and behavioural processes during a learning experience to reach a desired level of achievement
Self-regulation training leads to improvements in skill acquisition, maintenance, and performance
Discrepancy reduction and discrepancy production lie at the heart of the self-regulatory process.
Discrepancy reduction: A discrepancy between one’s goals and performance which motivates one to modify their behaviour.
Discrepancy production: When individuals attain their goals they are likely to set higher and more challenging goals.
Social Cognitive Theory
It is easy to remember the difference between the two. In discrepancy PRODUCTION, you are PRODUCING a discrepancy between your performance and your goals.
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Question
Do you set study goals and then reward yourself for achieving them? (ex. If I complete this homework assignment I can watch that Netflix movie)
Yes, all the time
Yes, but I rarely achieve my goals
No, but maybe I should
What is studying?
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New Section
Now we move from ‘how people learn’ and look at how some of these concepts are applied within organizations.
Organizational Learning Practices
Organizational learning practices include:
Organizational behaviour modification
Employee recognition programs
Training and development programs
Organizational Behaviour Modification (O.B. Mod.)
The systematic use of learning principles to influence organizational behaviour.
Research supports the effectiveness of O.B. Modification as it has been shown to improve:
Safe working behaviour
Improve work attendance
Task performance
OB Mod is basically using the ideas put forth (mainly by Skinner) on reinforcement to help align employee behaviour with organizational goals.
For more information you can click the link.
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Organizational Behaviour Modification (continued)
The effects on task performance are stronger in manufacturing than in service organizations.
Money, feedback, and social recognition have been used as effective forms of positive reinforcement.
Money has stronger effects, however, the use of all three together has the strongest effect on task performance.
Question
Is it a good idea for an instructor to tell the class who got the highest score on a quiz or assignment?
Yes, I want to know (especially if it is me)
No, it is a privacy issue
Who cares
Employee Recognition Programs
Formal organizational programs that publicly recognize and reward employees for specific behaviours.
Many companies in Canada have some form of employee recognition program.
Have you worked somewhere that had employee recognition programs? (YES or NO)
You might not be aware of what constitutes an employee recognition program (but the next slide will help).
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Types of Recognition Programs
Employee Recognition Programs (continued)
To be effective, formal employee recognition programs must specify:
How a person will be recognized
The type of behaviour being encouraged
The manner of the public acknowledgement
A token or icon of the event for the recipient
A key component of formal recognition programs is public acknowledgement.
Question
Should the School of Business and Economics have a ‘top ten student’ list (based on GPA) posted in the International Building?
YES, but it probably wouldn’t change my behaviour
YES, I might work harder
NO
I don’t care
Peer Recognition Programs
Formal programs in which employees publicly acknowledge, recognize, and reward their co-workers for exceptional work and performance.
Many organizations have begun to use social recognition platforms for peer recognition.
Can you see a problem with this?
One problem might be that co-workers who like each other might take turns nominating each other for prizes and awards. People who aren’t liked but do a good job might never be rewarded.
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Employee Recognition Programs (continued)
Employee recognition programs have been found to result in individual and organizational outcomes:
Job satisfaction
Performance and productivity
Lower absenteeism and turnover
Training and Development Programs
Training refers to planned organizational activities that are designed to facilitate knowledge and skill acquisition to change behaviour and improve performance on one’s current job.
Development focuses on future job responsibilities.
Training and Development Programs (continued)
Effective training and development programs include many principles of learning such as:
Positive reinforcement
Feedback
Observational learning
Self-efficacy beliefs
Self-regulation.
For more information on Training and Development programs, take HRMN 4840.
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Chapter 3
Perception, Attribution, and Diversity
ABOUT THIS SLIDESHOW
Yellow-gradient background – New Section
There are links on some slides that will take you to either articles or videos on the topic at hand.
There are notes for most slides that can be read when the slideshow is in edit mode (the mode it is in when you are creating content). You may need to click the word ‘Notes’ at the bottom and then click and drag the bottom to see the notes section. You can also see the notes if you go to print mode and print slides with notes. (refer to the picture on the next slide)
I’ve included a couple of links to the online textbook for more information about the topic at hand – you will see them in a box with a green background
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NOTES SECTION
Learning Objectives
Define perception and what influences it.
Explain social identity theory and Bruner’s model of the perceptual process.
Describe the main biases in perception.
Describe how people form attributions about the causes of behaviour and various biases in attribution.
Discuss the concepts of workforce diversity and valuing diversity and how racial, ethnic, religious, gender, age, and LGBT stereotypes affect organizational behaviour and what organizations can do to manage diversity.
Define trust perceptions and perceived organizational support, and describe organizational support theory.
Discuss person perception and perceptual biases in human resources.
New Section
We start off by looking at perception, the components of perception, how people tend to define themselves (Social Identity Theory) and finish with the perceptual process
What Is Perception?
Perception: The process of interpreting the messages of our senses to provide order and meaning to the environment.
People base their actions on their interpretation of reality
Ex. If you believe you deserve a better grade, you might complain, even though your grade was the highest in the class
Ex. Whether you stay in a class or drop it might depend on your perception of how difficult it would be
Link to Online textbook – Perception
EXAMPLE (visual perception)
These are all the same… but they are different depending on where you are.
E
E
E
E
The first is the letter “E”, the second is the letter “W”, the third is the letter “M”, and the fourth is the number “3”
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Components of Perception
Perception has three components:
A perceiver
A target that is being perceived
Some situational context in which the perception is occurring
Each component influences the perceiver’s impression or interpretation of the target.
The perceiver would be YOU.
The target is what you are creating a perception of. As an example, maybe you just met your teacher and you use the cues from them (could be looks, could be voice, etc.) and based on those cues you form a perception.
The situation is context (at school in a classroom, or when they come in for dinner at the restaurant you work in, or at the grocery store, etc.)
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1) The Perceiver
Past experiences lead the perceiver to develop expectations that affect current perceptions.
Ex. Easier to tell if someone is joking if you’ve been around them awhile
Needs unconsciously influence perceptions by causing us to perceive what we wish to perceive.
Ex. Hungry people tend to notice food more than satiated people
Emotions, such as anger, happiness, or fear, can influence our perceptions.
Past Experience: Another example is that Caucasian men are much less likely to perceive race and gender as barriers to promotion than Caucasian women and non-Caucasians.
Needs: Lonely people tend to misperceive innocent actions as others having interest in them
Emotions: You might be so happy to get a promotion that you don’t notice that others are upset
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Perceptual Defence
Perceptual Defence: The tendency for the perceptual system to defend the perceiver against unpleasant emotions.
People often “see what they want to see” and “hear what they want to hear.”
Our perceptual system works to ensure we do not see or hear things that are threatening.
Click the link to find out more if you need clarification.
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2) The Target
Ambiguous targets are especially susceptible to interpretation and the addition of meaning.
Perceivers have a need to resolve ambiguities.
More information isn’t always helpful as the perceiver might not be able to use all the information provided by the target.
As a result, a reduction in ambiguity might not be accompanied by greater accuracy.
The definition of the word ‘ambiguous’ is OPEN TO INTERPRETATION.
If you ask someone out on a date and they shrug their shoulders and say “Hmmmm… maybe, maybe not”, that is AMBIGUOUS (unclear)
If you ask someone out on a date and they say, “NO WAY. I HATE YOU!”, and they look upset and disgusted and then they run away, that is NOT AMBIGUOUS.
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3) The Situation
Perception occurs in some situational context, and this context can affect what is perceived.
The most important effect that the situation can have is to add information about the target.
The perception of a target can change with the situation even when the perceiver and target remain the same.
Ex. A person makes a joke about gender (different if just after a gender issue at work)
Another example: Your boss making a comment about a small critique of your performance if you were up for promotion than if you weren’t.
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Question
What is the first thing that comes to mind if someone were to ask you, “Who are you” OR “Describe yourself”?
Your job or that you are a student
Your religion
Your race
Your gender or age
Other
Social Identity Theory
People form perceptions of themselves based on their personal characteristics and memberships in social categories.
Our sense of self is composed of:
Personal identity: based on our unique personal characteristics (e.g., interests).
Social identity: based on our perception that we belong to various social groups (e.g., gender).
Personal and social identities help us answer the question: “Who am I?”
A theory based on the question “Who Am I”? How do you define yourself?
The link takes you to a short article on social identity theory focusing on groups of people and whether you belong to a group and how that might define you.
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Social Identity Theory (continued)
We perceive ourselves and others as embodying the most typical attributes of a category or what are called “prototypes.”
If you are majoring in accounting, what might someone say about you?
We also form perceptions of others based on their membership in social categories.
Social identities are relational and comparative.
Tend to perceive members of your own social categories in more favourable ways.
If you identify as part of a group, you would perceive yourself as embodying typical attributes of that group.
Other people that you perceive as part of the same groups you are part of are perceived in more favorable ways. For example, if you are a huge soccer fan and you met two people, one of whom was a soccer fan and one who isn’t, you would tend to see the soccer fan in a more favorable light.
In simple terms, you like people more if they identify or belong to the same groups that you do.
The link takes you to the Wikipedia site for Social Identity Theory.
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Bruner’s Model of the Perceptual Process
When the perceiver encounters an unfamiliar target, the perceiver is very open to the informational cues in the target and the situation.
The perceiver will actively seek out cues to resolve ambiguity.
As the perceiver encounters some familiar cues, a crude categorization of the target is made.
Bruner’s model describes the perceptual process (the steps we go through to form our perceptions).
When target is unfamiliar, you are open to cues.
You actively seek cues. For example, if you don’t know someone you might look at their gender, age, race, clothes, etc. in order to try and learn more about them.
Once you find some familiar cues, you make a crude categorization. Ex. Someone has tattoos and you think tattoos are cool, therefore this person must be cool.
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Bruner’s Model of the Perceptual Process (continued)
The search for cues then becomes less open and more selective.
The perceiver will search for cues that confirm the categorization of the target.
As the categorization becomes stronger, the perceiver will ignore or even distort cues that violate initial perceptions.
D) Continuing with the tattoo example; now that you’ve made your crude categorization, you don’t look as hard for cues.
E) Now you only search for cues that confirm that this person is cool
F) You might even ignore cues that would suggest the opposite. You are trying to reaffirm your crude categorization by ignoring evidence to the contrary.
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Bruner’s Model of the Perceptual Process: An Example
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Characteristics of the Perceptual Process
Bruner’s model demonstrates three important characteristics of the perceptual process:
Perception is selective: don’t use all cues so accuracy isn’t great (but efficient)
Perceptual constancy: same over time and across situations (hard to change)
Anyone make a bad first impression with their girlfriend or boyfriend’s parents?
Perceptual consistency: select, ignore, and distort cues to provide a homogenous picture
By only using a few cues, you are able to make a crude categorization rather quickly (efficient). Ex. All people with tattoos are cool. (This is often wrong, but it is a fast way to categorize someone).
Once a perception is made, it can be hard to change as people tend to reaffirm they are right and ignore evidence to the contrary.
People look for cues that provide an easy to understand, homogenous picture. They want targets to be easily categorized.
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New Section
Now we take a closer look at some of the biases in perception (mistakes people can make)
Basic Biases in Person Perception
The impressions we form of others are susceptible to a number of perceptual biases:
Primacy and recency effects
Reliance on central traits
Implicit personality theories
Projection
Stereotyping
The next few slides will cover these.
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Primacy and Recency Effect
Primacy Effect: The reliance on early cues or first impressions
Primacy can have a lasting impact.
Recency Effect: The tendency for a perceiver to rely on recent cues or last impressions
Last impressions count most. (what have you done for me lately?)
True or False: The primacy effect is greater than the recency effect.
Primacy: You do something really bad on your first day and no matter how much good stuff you seem to do afterward, your boss still has a negative perception of you based on that first day
Recency: You do something really good on the last day and no matter how much you screwed up before, your boss has a very positive perception of you based on what you did most recently.
Basically, with the primacy effect you tend to remember the first encounter in a series of encounters the best while with the recency effect you tend to remember the last encounter in a series of encounters the best.
Some students will try to make a good first impression by attending and participating early in a course but as time goes by they begin to skip class and don’t participate as much. They are betting on the Primacy effect.
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Reliance on Central Traits
People tend to organize their perceptions around central traits.
Central traits: personal characteristics of a target person that are of particular interest to a perceiver.
Central traits often have a very powerful influence on our perceptions of others.
Ex. Physical appearance is a common central trait in work settings.
When looking for cues in an ambigious target, perceivers tend to organize their perceptions around central traits which are personal characteristics that are important to them. For example, some perceivers might care more about gender or age and therefore focus on those traits when perceiving a target person.
The central traits can differ depending on the perceiver and the situation. You might care more about certain traits if you were going to play a sport with someone than if you were going to work on a project with someone.
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Implicit Personality Theories
Personal theories that people have about which personality characteristics go together.
Ex. You might expect hardworking people to also be honest, or people of average intelligence to be friendly.
If such implicit theories are inaccurate, they provide a basis for misunderstanding.
From the example, a person might assume that a hardworking person is honest. What about a hardworking criminal? These types of biases can lead to misunderstandings.
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Question
If you think a test is hard, do you usually assume everyone else would think the same as you?
Yes
No
Projection
Projection: tendency for perceivers to attribute their own thoughts and feelings to others.
In some cases, projection is an efficient and sensible perceptual strategy.
Projection can lead to perceptual difficulties and can serve as a form of perceptual defence.
It is quite common to think that others think and feel the same as you do about a number of things. Most of the time you are probably right, but you can be wrong.
You might think a test was unfair and assume everyone else would think the same (projection). You could be right, but you may also be wrong.
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Stereotyping
The tendency to generalize about people in a social category and ignore variations among them. (ex. Race, religion, age, gender)
There are three specific aspects to stereotyping:
We distinguish some category of people.
We assume that the individuals in this category have certain traits.
We perceive that everyone in this category possesses these traits.
Example:
For the sake of not offending I will use Asgardians (Thor’s people from the Marvel universe)
We may assume that Asgardians are all jerks and are really old.
Therefore if you are an Asgardian, you are a jerk and are really old.
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Stereotyping (continued)
Why do we use stereotypes?
People can evoke stereotypes with incredibly little information.(EASY)
Stereotypes help us develop impressions of ambiguous targets. (HELPS US MAKE SENSE)
Most stereotypes are inaccurate, especially when we use them to develop perceptions of specific individuals.
It would be very inefficient if you had to judge everyone without the use of stereotypes. Stereotypes allow us to make quick judgements and categorizations which saves us time and brain power. We can easily use stereotypes to perceive targets, but we run the risk of being inaccurate.
Ex. You might think that anyone who wears glasses is a ‘nerd’. This means you can see a bunch of people and quickly categorize those with glasses as nerds. However, the chances of you being correct about everyone are very low.
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Why Do Stereotypes Persist?
Several factors work to reinforce inaccurate stereotypes.
Incorrect stereotypes still help us process information about others quickly and efficiently.
Inaccurate stereotypes are often reinforced by selective perception (see what we want and ignore contrary information).
We keep using them because they are quick and efficient and we look for information that supports them and ignore information that doesn’t.
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New Section
We move from Perception to Attribution
Question
You work at Wal-Mart. The new guy (21-year-old TRU student) comes in late to work on Sunday morning. If you had to guess, which option below is the most likely?
Missed the bus or car trouble
Got drunk Saturday night and is hungover
Attribution: Perceiving Causes and Motives
Attribution is the process by which we assign causes or motives to explain people’s behaviour.
WHY DID THEY DO WHAT THEY DID?
Rewards and punishments in organizations are based on judgments about what really caused a target person to behave in a certain way.
An important goal is to determine whether some behaviour is caused by dispositional or situational factors.
Link to Online textbook – Attribution (under perception)
Dispositional: The person is the reason why they did what they did
Situational: The situation is the reason why they did what they did
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Dispositional or Situational Attributions?
Dispositional attributions suggest that some personality or intellectual characteristic unique to the person is responsible for the behaviour.
Intelligence, greed, friendliness, or laziness.
Situational attributions suggest that the external situation or environment in which the target person exists was responsible for the behaviour.
Bad weather, good luck, proper tools, or poor advice.
Think about the question of why someone might be late to class. You might guess they are just a lazy person that doesn’t care about school (dispositional) or you might guess that the bus was late or they had car trouble or it was the weather (situational).
Those attributions would make a difference in how you are perceived and any punishments or rewards you might get. If I thought you were a lazy student you would get in more trouble than if I thought you had an accident on your way to school.
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Attribution Cues
We rely on external cues and make inferences from these cues when making attributions.
Three implicit questions guide our decisions as to whether we should attribute some behaviour to dispositional or situational causes.
How do we make attributions? We rely on cues. In this case, we ask three questions (not out loud, but in our mind).
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Three Attribution Questions
Does the person engage in the behaviour regularly and consistently? (Consistency cues).
Highly consistent – dispositional
Do most people engage in the behaviour, or is it unique to this person? (Consensus cues).
Low consensus – dispositional
Does the person engage in the behaviour in many situations, or is it distinctive to one situation? (Distinctiveness cues).
Is typical behaviour in this job same as last job? If so, then Low
Low distinctiveness – dispositional
If they always do it, then it is more dispositional. If you are always late to everything, then you are the reason you’re late.
Does everyone do it, or just you. If everyone does it, it is more likely to be situational. If you are the only one who does it, then it is more likely to be dispositional.
Do you do this everywhere, or just in this circumstance? If you do it everywhere, it means it isn’t distinct (unique) and it is likely to be dispositional. If you only do it under this circumstance, then it is more likely to be situational.
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Attribution in Action
Observers use these 3 sets of cues to form attributions.
EXAMPLE: Consider three students who are absent from class.
A teacher must develop an attribution about the cause to decide which action is warranted.
We need to answer, “Why are they absent?”
Attribution in Action (continued)
Kevin is absent a lot, his classmates are seldom absent, and he was absent a lot in his other courses.
Disposition or Situation?
Anna is absent a lot, her classmates are also absent a lot, but she was almost never absent in her other courses.
Disposition or Situation?
Sofie is seldom absent, her classmates are seldom absent, and she was seldom absent in her other courses.
Disposition or Situation?
Kevin – Absent a lot (consistent), classmates are NOT absent a lot (goes against consensus), and he is absent in other courses (not distinctive).
Anna – Absent a lot (consistent), classmates are absent a lot (high consensus), never absent in other courses (distinctive).
Sofie – Not usually absent (not consistent), classmates are NOT absent a lot (usually she is high on consensus, but not in this case), she usually attends class (this is a distinctive case for her).
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Cue Combinations and Resulting Attributions
Consistency Consensus Distinctiveness Likely
attribution
Kevin High Low Low Disposition
Anna High High High Situation
Sofie Low High Low Temporary Situation
High Consistency – Dispositional
Low Consensus – Dispositional
Low Distinctiveness – Dispositional
Kevin and Anna’s answers are quite easy. Sofie’s is a bit more difficult. If you look at her situation, it appears that this is an abnormality. Everyone attends class regularly (including her). She usually attends all her classes, but today she isn’t in class. It is more likely that she got in an accident or was sick today or her bus was late. This is considered TEMPORARY because it likely won’t occur again and is unique to today. Anna’s absence might be because she (and others) just don’t like the class.
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Biases in Attribution
Although observers often operate in a rational, logical manner in forming attributions about behaviour, this does not mean that such attributions are always correct.
Three biases in attribution:
Fundamental attribution error
Actor-observer effect
Self-serving bias
We aren’t always right. We might attribute someone’s absence to one factor when really it is something different. As an example, some teachers might attribute your absence to being lazy more often than not.
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Fundamental Attribution Error
FAE: The tendency to overemphasize dispositional explanations for behaviour at the expense of situational explanations.
Why?
Often discount the strong effects that social cues can have on behaviour.
Often observe people in constrained and constant situations and fail to realize that observed behaviour is distinctive to a particular situation.
When making attributions, most people tend to ignore situational explanations. We aren’t aware of all the situational factors that another person is dealing with.
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Actor-Observer Effect
AOE: The propensity for actors and observers to view the causes of the actor’s behaviour differently.
Actors are prone to attribute much of their own behaviour to situational factors while observers are more likely to invoke dispositional causes.
Why are actors prone to attribute much of their own behaviour to situational causes?
Actor’s are more aware of situation and own thoughts
Research shows this effect is reversed in positive situations
Self-Serving Bias
SSB: The tendency to take credit for successful outcomes and to deny responsibility for failures.
People will explain the very same behaviour differently on the basis of events that happened after the behaviour occurred.
If it goes well… it was my fault.
If it goes badly… it was your fault.
This bias is quite common. If I did well on a test = it was all me (I’m great!). If I did poorly on a test = bad luck, the test was too hard, the teacher is a jerk, etc. (It wasn’t my fault).
The funny thing about this bias is that we only make the attribution after we know the result.
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New Section
Now we move to a discussion of perception and diversity
Person Perception and Workforce Diversity
Workforce diversity refers to differences among recruits and employees in characteristics, such as gender, race, age, religion, cultural background, physical ability, or sexual orientation.
Interest in diversity stems from 2 facts:
The workforce is becoming more diverse.
Many organizations have not successfully managed workforce diversity.
Link to Online Textbook – Diversity Chapter
The link takes you to the online textbook. You may need to navigate further once you get to the site by clicking on the ‘contents’ link on the left and scrolling down.
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The Changing Workplace
The Canadian population and labour force is becoming increasingly multicultural and multiethnic.
By 2031, over 30% of the population will be visible minorities.
In less than a decade, 48% of the working-age population will be between the ages of 45 and 64.
I don’t expect you to memorize this. Just be aware that we’re changing.
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The Changing Workplace (continued)
Many organizations are seeking to recruit more representatively from the labour pool.
Many employees are required to interact with people from substantially different national or corporate cultures.
The increased emphasis on teamwork as a means of job design and quality enhancement also requires people from different cultures to work together.
Because of these issues, you need to understand how diversity can influence the workplace. You might have already had to work with someone who has a different background than yourself. They might perceive the world differently as a result of that background. They might have different values, make different attributions, communicate differently, etc.
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Valuing Diversity
Some have argued that organizations should value diversity, not just tolerate it.
What are the advantages of valuing and embracing diversity?
Diversity and proper management can yield strategic and competitive advantages:
Improved problem solving and creativity.
Improved recruiting and marketing.
Improved competitiveness in global markets.
Valuing Diversity (continued)
Organizations are adopting diversity as part of their corporate strategy to improve their competitiveness in global markets.
A diversity climate is related to business-unit performance.
Retail stores have higher customer satisfaction and productivity when their employees represent the ethnicity of their customers.
Organizations with more gender-diverse management teams have superior financial performance.
To clarify the third point: This basically says that stores do better when the people they have working are a reflection of the customers who are shopping. Would you rather buy clothes from someone of a similar background as you?
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Stereotypes and Workforce Diversity
A major barrier to valuing diversity is the stereotype.
Common workplace stereotypes are based on gender, age, race, religion, ethnicity, and sexual orientation.
Can have negative effects on how individuals are treated at work.
So… I’m Irish, English, and French
Irish are drunks
English have bad teeth and love tea
French are snobs
When you don’t know much about a person, you use stereotypes as a way to categorize them. These stereotypes are typically based around diversity. People from a certain cultural are all seen as very similar. (We’ve discussed stereotypes before).
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Stereotype Threat
Stereotype Threat: Members of a social group feel they might be judged or treated according to a stereotype and that their behaviour and/or performance will confirm the stereotype.
Workers are often pressured to cover up or downplay their membership in a particular group.
Can you think of any examples of when, at work, you might downplay membership in a particular group?
The link will provide more information regarding ‘stereotype threat’.
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Racial, Ethnic, and Religious Stereotypes
Racial, ethnic, and religious stereotypes are pervasive, persistent, frequently negative, and often contradictory.
Discrimination at all stages (hiring, once hired)
Ex. Hiring and name, perception of standards, perception of barriers, attribution of performance
The link takes you to an article where African and Asian people ‘whiten’ their resumes to get jobs.
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Gender Stereotypes
One of the most problematic stereotypes for organizations is the gender stereotype.
Women are severely underrepresented in managerial and administrative jobs.
Women hold only 14.4% of corporate officer positions (2016). Unlikely to reach 25% until 2025.
Stereotypical business, management, and leadership traits don’t align with stereotypical female traits
Less likely to be promoted and supported but more likely to be aloud leave for childcare
Video
The link takes you to a video that shows a quick example of gender stereotyping.
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Question
For international students, does gender play a more significant role in the jobs people perform than it does in Canada?
Yes
No
Gender Stereotypes (continued)
Stereotype effects are reduced or removed with increased experience and training of decision makers and when decision makers:
are held accountable for their decisions
have good job-related information about the qualifications, competence, and performance of particular women
have an accurate picture of the job and its requirements
Women do not suffer from gender stereotypes in performance evaluations that their supervisors provide.
The more you know someone, the less stereotypes persist.
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Gender Stereotypes (continued)
Some Canadian organizations have made efforts to ensure that women are represented in senior positions.
Most progress in Financial Services
Least progress in male-dominated industries
Question
True or false:
Older people are harder to train than younger people
Older people are more dependable
The majority of older people would quit work if they could afford it
A person’s performance declines with age
Older workers resist change and are set in their ways
Age Stereotypes
Make certain assumptions about the person’s physical, psychological, and intellectual capabilities based on age.
Older workers are seen as:
Having less capacity for performance
Being less productive, creative, logical, and capable of performing under pressure, and as having less potential for development.
Being more rigid and dogmatic, and less adaptable to new corporate cultures.
However, they are perceived as more honest, dependable, and trustworthy.
Keep in mind that the points here are PERCEPTION, not fact.
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Age Stereotypes (continued)
These stereotypes are inaccurate.
Age seldom limits the capacity for development until post-employment years.
Research has found that age is not related to task performance or creativity.
However, age is related to other forms of job performance
More OCB and safety-related behaviour and fewer counterproductive work behaviours
Less workplace aggression, on-the-job substance use, tardiness, and absenteeism
Age Stereotypes (continued)
Age stereotypes affect human resource decisions regarding hiring, promotion, and skills development.
Older workers are often passed over for merit pay and promotions and pressured to take early retirement.
Some organizations have implemented programs and practices to promote the hiring of older workers.
But many organizations do not actively recruit and hire older workers.
There are certain service jobs where it would be rare to see someone over 30 working. Now this isn’t part of the job requirements, but you can imagine that people will hire younger people for certain jobs on purpose.
People might not want to hire someone who is older thinking that the older person might be close to retirement and you don’t want to invest in someone that is just going to retire. People might also think that an older person isn’t as good with technology and it might be harder to train them. Some women might even be passed over if they are in the age range of someone who might get pregnant.
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Question / Scenario
The Australian government paid employers $1,000 for every worker over 50 they hired and kept for at least 3 months.
This was done to battle the stereotypes that older workers faced.
Yes
No
Why or why not?
LGBT Stereotypes
LGBT employees face barriers and discrimination in the workplace that can limit their career advancement.
Many LGBT employees do not come out at work for fear of potential repercussions and negative consequences.
Misperceptions and stereotypes lead to discriminatory behaviour towards LGBT employees.
Those who don’t feel safe to come out at work are less productive and more likely to suffer from depression and stress.
The fourth point: It is hard to do your best when you can’t be yourself.
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LGBT Stereotypes (continued)
An increasing number of organizations have begun to make their workplaces more inclusive for LGBT employees.
LGBT-inclusive workplaces help:
increase employee engagement
reduce turnover
Increase perceptions of fairness
Increase organizational commitment
Increase career satisfaction
Places where you (and others) can be themselves can reap the benefits that are listed in the slide.
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Managing Workforce Diversity
What can organizations do to achieve and manage a diverse workforce?
Employ a more diverse workforce (not just token minorities)
Mix teams up
Ensure that those making career decisions about employees have accurate information about them.
Train people to be aware of stereotypes and to value diversity.
A token minority: For those that don’t know, this might mean that an organization that was mainly Caucasian would hire a person of colour just to say that they have a person of colour. It is like filling a quota “We need one minority so we don’t get in trouble.”
The third point: Accurate information reduces stereotypes.
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Questions
Which of the following best describes you when you choose your own groups for a school assignment:
I choose people who look similar to me and are likely from the same place I’m from
I choose people who are different than me
I just choose whomever is closest
Diversity Training Programs
Common approach for managing diversity.
Cover both awareness training and skills training that is relevant to the particular needs of the organization.
However, don’t simply rely on training alone.
They need to integrate diversity into all of the organization’s policies and practices
Perceptions of Trust
Employee trust toward management is on the decline.
Why do we care?
Trust perceptions influence organizational processes and outcomes.
What is Trust?
Trust: A psychological state in which one has a willingness to be vulnerable and to take risks with respect to the actions of another party.
Trust perceptions toward management are based on three distinct perceptions:
Ability (competence and skills)
Benevolence (caring and concerned)
Integrity (values and principles)
Perceptions of fairness are related to trust perceptions.
Perceptions of Trust (continued)
Perceptions of trust in management are positively related to:
job attitudes
job performance
and negatively related to:
turnover intentions.
Trust among co-workers is also important and has been found to be related to fewer physical symptoms (e.g. trouble sleeping) and less withdrawal from work.
Perceived Organizational Support (POS)
POS: Employees’ general belief that their organization values their contribution and cares about their well-being.
When employees have positive POS, they believe their organization will provide assistance when they need it.
Do you think TRU cares about you?
Yes
No
Organizational Support Theory
Employees who have strong POS:
Obligation to care about the organization’s welfare
Obligation to help the organization achieve its objectives
Greater sense of purpose and meaning
Strong sense of belonging to the organization
Obligated to reciprocate the organization’s care and support.
Perceived Organizational Support (continued)
Factors that contribute to POS include:
Favourable treatment, support, and concern for one’s well-being from supervisors or what is known as perceived supervisor support (PSS).
Fair organizational procedures.
Favourable rewards and job conditions.
Supervisors who experience greater POS are more supportive of others.
Your supervisor is a representative of the organization. If you perceive that you are supported by your supervisor, that correlates with perceiving you are supported by your organization (most of the time).
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Predictors and Consequences of POS
Perceived Organizational Support (continued)
How to improve employee POS
Supportive human resource practices that demonstrate an investment in employees and recognition of employee contributions lead to the development of greater POS.
Supportive human resources practices include:
Participation in decision making.
Opportunities for growth and development.
Fair reward and recognition system.
Equality and diversity programs.
Question
Yes or No
Has anyone worked where you thought compensation was unfair?
Who here has ever felt they were perfect for a job but didn’t get it because of the interview?
Person Perception in Human Resources
Perceptions play an important role in HR and can influence
who gets hired
how employees are evaluated once they are hired
Job applicants form perceptions during the recruitment and selection process which influence
their attraction to an organization
whether or not they decide to accept a job offer
Both the interviewer and the job applicant form perceptions which influence whether a job offer will be made and whether it will be accepted.
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Person Perception in Human Resources (continued)
Perceptions play an important role in three areas of human resources:
Recruitment and selection
Employment interview
Performance appraisal
Perceptions of Recruitment and Selection
Job applicants form perceptions based on:
How they are treated during the R&S process
What selection tests are used
According to signalling theory, job applicants have incomplete information so they interpret their recruitment experiences as cues or signals about unknown characteristics of an organization and what it will be like to work in an organization.
Ex. Discriminating questions might signal discrimination within the organization
If you are treated fairly, you are more likely to think positively of an organization and therefore more likely to accept a job. Imagine going into an interview where you were met by someone who was happy and smiling, who offered you a drink, who put you at ease and managed a few jokes, who seemed professional, who was dressed well, who asked you insightful questions, who did NOT say anything offensive or ask you any personal questions. NOW IMAGINE THE OPPOSITE. Where would you want to work? (easy answer)
Some selection tests may appear biased or unrelated or too difficult, etc., which can give you a negative impression of the organization.
Signalling theory is about cues. The information you get during the interview process can serve as a ‘signal’ as to what the organization will be like. Signals given during the process help job applicants form perceptions (categorizations), much like Bruner’s model would suggest.
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Question
Has anyone ever gone to a job interview and, once there, decided they didn’t want to work for that company?
Yes
No
Perceptions of Recruitment and Selection (continued)
Job applicants form more positive perceptions of the selection process when they are perceived to be fair.
More positive perceptions of selection fairness lead to:
More favourable org evaluations
More likely to accept job
More likely to recommend org to others
In my doctoral program we had to select three topics to focus on. One of my three was justice and fairness. This is a huge issue. EVERYBODY cares about fairness and justice. If you think you don’t, just imagine if you handed in the same answers as someone else and they got an “A” and you got a “C”. Or you can think about a group project where you did most of the work yet your other members all got the same grade.
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Perceptions in the Employment Interview
The employment interview is one of the most common organizational selection devices.
The interview is a valid selection device although it is far from perfectly accurate, especially when it is unstructured.
Validity improves when the interview is structured.
What factors threaten the validity of the interview?
Video
The link takes you to a video about the small lies you can probably tell in a job interview and that you would have to assume others are telling you if you are the interviewer.
The question asks about factors that threaten validity. In other words, why isn’t this tool necessarily the best tool for finding effective employees? (Think about the lies you saw in the video or the lies you might have told in an interview. Nobody is saying they suck.)
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Factors that Threaten Interview Validity
Applicants are motivated to present a favourable impression of themselves.
Interviewers compare applicants to a stereotype of the ideal applicant.
Interviewers have a tendency to exhibit primacy reactions.
Interviewers give less importance to positive information about the applicant so negative information has undue impact on the decision.
Point One: Everybody tries to ‘bend’ the truth. Nobody tells an interviewer that they are lazy.
Point Two: The ideal doesn’t always exist. Many job postings ask for a huge list of requirements, but it is hard for applicants to be perfect. Judging everyone against the perfect or ideal candidate can cause problems.
Point Three: Primacy effects (first impressions count the most). In other words, don’t come in late to an interview.
Point Four: Interviewers tend to assume that you will talk about the positives and therefore ignore much of those comments. Anything negative that you bring up will be given extra attention as they assume that any bad thing you say is likely worse that what you’ve said.
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Contrast Effects
Previously interviewed job applicants affect an interviewer’s perception of a current applicant, leading to an exaggeration of differences between applicants.
Just like with student presentations. You want everyone else to suck to make your group look better.
When going for a job interview, if the applicants that go before you are horrible, you will look way better by comparison. Some people and companies have been known to send a few bad job applicants to a job posting so that the good applicant they send looks even better.
This type of effect happens in our everyday lives. Our judgement about what is hard or easy is based on a comparison of things we’ve seen and done before.
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Structured Employment Interviews
Validity improves when the interview is structured.
Interview structure involves four dimensions:
Evaluation standardization (same questions and comparable numeric scoring systems)
Question sophistication (use job-related behavioural and situational questions)
Question consistency (same questions in same order for every applicant)
Rapport building (don’t get personal)
Structuring an interview helps remove some of the subjectivity within the process and creates the perception of fairness.
Same questions for everyone with the same scoring system. Imagine if everyone was asked different questions and some were graded on a 1 to 10 scale, some with thumbs up and thumbs down, others with grades, others with good-average-poor.
Keep the questions appropriate and related to the work.
Same questions in the same order.
You want the best employee, not a new best friend. I understand that you may need to get along with that person and having things in common might help, but you are running the risk of missing out on good employees and getting yourself in trouble.
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Perceptions and the Performance Appraisal
Once a person is hired, further perceptual tasks confront organization members.
A performance appraisal is required for decisions regarding pay raises, promotions, transfers, and training needs.
Example of perceptions and evaluations: Employees with late start times receive lower job performance ratings from their supervisors due to a negative stereotype.
In some jobs you can use objective (easy to measure) performance indicators to evaluate job performance. However, in the majority of office work (managers in particular) those easy to measure variables don’t exist. This is when subjectivity and perception come into play. I might like someone and, as a result, say their performance is good.
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Question
3 TRU instructors are up for promotion. You can only choose 1 of them. How do you measure their performance so that you promote the best one?
Think… what measures could you use?
Objective and Subjective Measures
It may or may not be possible to find objective measures of performance for some jobs.
As we move up the organizational hierarchy, it becomes more difficult to find objective indicators of performance.
Organizations often rely on subjective measures of employees’ performance provided by managers.
Subjective Measures of Performance
Managers are confronted by a number of perceptual roadblocks.
Managers might not be in a position to observe many instances of effective and ineffective performance.
As a result, the target is frequently ambiguous.
Employees often alter their behaviour so that they look good when their manager is around.
Perceptual Biases in Subjective Performance Appraisals
A subjective performance appraisal is susceptible to some of the perceptual biases discussed earlier:
Primacy
Recency
Stereotypes
A number of other perceptual tendencies occur in performance evaluations that are known as rater errors.
Primacy example: The first project you did was great, so no matter what else you do, you get a good performance evaluation.
Recency example: The last project you did was great, so no matter what else you did, you get a good performance evaluation.
Stereotypes: You belong to a certain group of people who are stereotyped so your performance is judged in accordance with that group.
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Rater Errors
Rater errors in performance evaluation include the following:
Leniency: rate to high
Harshness: rate to low
Central tendency: rate most in the middle
Halo effect: use one aspect to stand for all aspects (usually around a trait the rater sees as important)
Similar-to-me effect: rate high if they are like the rater
The first three happen in school all the time. A teacher might mark too easy (leniency) or to hard (harshness) or might simply grade everyone in the middle (central tendency).
The Halo Effect example: A teacher might be good at presenting material so they get a good review even though they aren’t good at marking or returning marked work or designing exams.
Similar-to-me: People tend to like people who are just like them. As a result, they rate them higher.
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Leniency, Harshness, and Central Tendency Rater Errors
This graph just shows how the rater errors skew the true performance.
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Questions
Yes or No
Should all TRU instructors grade on a curve?
Should all Introductory OB courses be structured in the same way?
Do any of you research instructors before signing up for courses? How?
Rater Errors (continued)
These rating tendencies are partially a function of the rater’s personal experiences.
However, not all instances of leniency, harshness, and central tendency necessarily represent perceptual errors.
In some cases, raters intentionally commit these errors.
Personal experiences lead to stereotypes.
Not all errors are accidents. A boss might not want to upset anyone so they are lenient. A boss might not want anyone to feel jealous so they commit the error of central tendency. A boss might not want to give bonuses so they rate harshly.
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Techniques for Reducing Perceptual Errors and Biases
It is difficult to obtain good subjective evaluations of employee performance.
Human resources specialists have developed techniques for reducing perceptual errors and biases. Two examples of this are:
Behaviourally anchored rating scale (BARS)
Frame-of-reference (FOR) training
These are just two methods that have been developed to try and make subjective evaluations more objective. (Similar to what rubrics do for course work.)
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Behaviourally Anchored Rating Scale (BARS)
Rating scales that give very specific behavioural examples of good, average, and poor performance.
E.g. a Rubric with lots of detail
With such an aid, the rater may be less susceptible to perceptual errors.
Example
The link on the word ‘example’ just takes you to a google image search of a number of examples of BARS.
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Frame-of-Reference (FOR) Training
A training method to improve rating accuracy that involves providing raters with a common frame-of-reference to use when rating individuals.
Raters learn what behaviours reflect different levels of performance on each performance dimension and to use the same frame-of-reference when rating all individuals.
You actually practice rating and then receive feedback from the trainer as to how you did
Using this method you are basically training the evaluators. You would show them (provide them with a frame-of-reference) what good, average, and poor performance would look like so when evaluators rate employees, they know what to look for.
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Chapter 1
Organizational Behaviour and Management
Based on: Johns and Saks “Organizational Behaviour – Understanding and Managing Life at Work”
1
ABOUT THIS SLIDESHOW
Yellow-gradient background – New Section
There are links on some slides that will take you to either articles or videos on the topic at hand.
There are notes for most slides that can be read when the slideshow is in edit mode (the mode it is in when you are creating content). You may need to click the word ‘Notes’ at the bottom and then click and drag the bottom to see the notes section. You can also see the notes if you go to print mode and print slides with notes. (Refer to the next slide for clarification)
I’ve included a couple of links to the online textbook for more information about the topic at hand – you will see them in a box with a green background
2
NOTES SECTION
Question
What do you know about this class (OB)?
Nothing, I was required to take it.
A bit, it’s about people at work, right?
I know exactly what you are going to cover, that is why I signed up.
Some of you might not have an idea what this course is about while others might have a fairly good idea. Regardless of what you know about the course, you ALL KNOW ABOUT THE TOPIC ALREADY. If you have ever worked a paying job. If you have ever worked for free. If you have every had a group project or assignment. If you have ever interacted with people in general, you know about OB. A lot of the topics of OB are encountered on a daily basis. OB just applies these topics to the workplace.
What motivates people? What makes a great leader? What role does culture play in the workplace? How do my values impact my decisions? Why do some groups perform better than others? How does my mood impact my work?
4
Learning Objectives
Define organizations and describe their basic characteristics.
Explain the concept of organizational behaviour and describe the goals of the field.
Define management and describe what managers do to accomplish goals.
Contrast the classical viewpoint of management with that advocated by the human relations movement.
5
Describe the contingency approach to management.
Explain what managers do – their roles, activities, agendas for action, and thought processes.
Describe the four contemporary management concerns facing organizations and how they relate to OB.
Learning Objectives (continued)
6
This Section
We start off with some definitions of terms like:
Organizations
Organizational Behaviour
Human Resource Management
Then move into what you know about OB
Why OB is important
The goals of OB
What Are Organizations?
Organizations are social inventions for accomplishing common goals through group effort.
Ex. Kamloops Blazers, Boys and Girls Club, Wal-Mart
3 Key characteristics of organizations:
Social inventions
Goal accomplishment
Group effort
The Kamloops Blazers hockey club is an example of an organization because it is composed of many people (social invention), with many goals such as winning games (goal accomplishment), through group effort (people working together interdependently).
Note: An organization doesn’t have to have the goal of making money.
8
Social Inventions: 1st characteristic of organizations
An essential characteristic of organizations is the coordinated presence of people, not things.
Some organizations have a lot of ‘things’ (buildings, inventory, etc.), while others don’t (outsource)
The field of organizational behaviour is about understanding people and managing them to work effectively.
TRU: Lots of people (staff & faculty)
With the rise in the internet, there are many organizations that exist without the presence of ‘things’. PEOPLE are the key.
TRU is a social invention: Many people work at TRU in a number of different capacities.
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Goal Accomplishment: Second characteristic of organizations
All organizations have goals. (win games, empower and mentor youth, sell items, etc.)
The field of organizational behaviour is concerned with how organizations can survive and adapt to change.
Certain behaviours are necessary for survival and adaptation
Innovation and flexibility (important)
What is TRU’s goal (or goals)?
The goal of the Kamloops Blazers might be to win hockey games. The goal of the Boys and Girls Club might be to empower and mentor youth. The goal of WalMart might be to sell items and make a profit. These goals don’t have to be driven by profit, but they must exist to help guide the organization to achieve what could be considered the only common goal of all organizations, SURVIVAL.
TRU might have a number of goals, depending upon who you ask. Based on the cost of tuition and parking rates, some would argue that making money is the main goal of TRU. Others might argue that its main goal is to enhance human capital (increase learning and knowledge).
10
Group Effort: Third characteristic of organizations
Organizations are based on group effort – the interaction and coordination among people to accomplish goals.
Much of the work done in organizations is performed by groups.
The field of organizational behaviour is concerned with how to get people to practise effective teamwork.
Interaction and coordination are the key here. There exists an interdependence between people at work. The organization doesn’t function if people aren’t interacting to some level.
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Question
How much does who you work with impact how much you like your job?
LOTS
Some
Not at all
Depends
Here are a few more OB questions.
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What Is Organizational Behaviour?
Organizational Behaviour: The attitudes and behaviours of individuals and groups in organizations.
Concerned with: Job satisfaction, commitment, motivation, leadership, culture, teamwork, etc.
An understanding of OB is essential to effective HRM and valuable to the rest of your working life
Does Job Satisfaction lead to better performance?
Online Textbook Link
I would argue that not only is an understanding of OB valuable for the rest of your WORKING life, it is valuable for the rest of your life in GENERAL.
The question “Does job satisfaction lead to better performance?” can be answered in a few different ways. Some would argue YES – the happier I am, the more productive I am. (Research supports this). Others could argue NO – I might be happy/satisfied because I can sit around and do nothing at work.
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What Is Human Resources Management?
HRM: Programs, practices, and systems to acquire, develop, motivate, and retain employees in organizations.
Recruitment, selection, compensation, and training and development are common human resources practices.
Understanding OB helps a lot!
Ex. When is commission an effective form of compensation? What type of person is best suited for a customer service position?
Given that OB helps us with Human Resources, it is important to understand what Human Resources is.
The example of COMPENSATION is a good one for how OB impacts HR. “If I want you to work harder, would money be a good incentive?” Developing and administering compensation plans are a part of HR. However, understanding what motivates people is an OB topic. Some people might need money desperately, so money works. Others might already be paid well, and maybe they want time off or some other form of recognition. Others may want money, but they can’t perform at the level necessary to get the money. All of these are OB issues.
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Why Study Organizational Behaviour?
Organizational behaviour:
Is Interesting. It’s about people and human nature, and explains the success and failure of organizations.
Is Important. It has a huge impact on managers, employees, and consumers.
Makes a difference. It affects individuals’ attitudes and behaviour as well as the competitiveness and effectiveness of organizations.
OB is relatable.
Interesting: This is the main reason I continued to study the topic. We all have stories about work or school that apply to these topics. Maybe you worked somewhere (or at home) for minimum wage (or commission) and you worked with people you liked (or hated) and you had a good (bad) boss and your job was exciting (boring), etc. All of these things are part of OB.
Important / Makes a difference: How important do you think it is for an organization to have motivated people, who like their coworkers, who are satisfied and committed, who are willing to help the organization above what is required, who respect their boss, and who want the best for the organization? Imagine the opposite.
I would argue that OB is the MOST RELATABLE COURSE YOU WILL TAKE. Everyone deals with people so everyone can learn from this course and everyone can contribute.
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How Much Do You Know About Organizational Behaviour?
TRUE OR FALSE
Effective leaders tend to possess identical personality traits.
Nearly all workers prefer stimulating, challenging jobs.
3. Managers have a very accurate idea about how much their peers and superiors are paid.
1 – Some might argue that good leaders possess similar traits. Others will argue that some traits are good in some situations and other traits are good in other situations.
2 – Most do, but if you were a full-time student with a busy social life, wouldn’t it be nice to go to work and have it be relaxing and easy?
3 – Depends. It has been shown that if they don’t know, they will make up an amount and that they are often wrong in interesting ways.
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How Much Do You Know About Organizational Behaviour? (continued)
TRUE OR FALSE
Workers have a very accurate idea about how often they are absent from work.
Pay is the best way to motivate most employees and improve job performance.
Women are just as likely to become leaders in organizations as men.
4 – It has been shown that most of a decent idea of how often they are absent, but when they report they tend to be biased and report less absences than the actual amount.
5 – Depends on the situation. If you were starving, pay would motivate because it can be exchanged for food. If you were rich, maybe some time off would be more motivational.
6 – Probably not, due to many different reasons, but research has shown that they are probably more effective leaders in most instances.
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How Much Do You Know About Organizational Behaviour? (continued)
We can probably come up with justification for either true or false for every statement.
Common sense develops through unsystematic and incomplete experiences with organizational behaviour.
Management practice should be based on informed opinion and systematic study.
A HUGE problem with this course and these topics is that everyone thinks they already know the answers. It seems like common sense. As a result, they make assumptions and jump to conclusions about what should be done. This can cause problems.
The argument here is that management practices should be based on INFORMED OPINION AND SYSTEMATIC STUDY. Look at the research and understand the variables at work and you’ll end up making better decisions.
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Goals of Organizational Behaviour
The field of organizational behaviour has three commonly agreed-upon goals:
Predicting organizational behaviour and events.
Explaining organizational behaviour and events in organizations.
Managing organizational behaviour.
If I can predict when something is likely to happen and I can also explain why it is happening, then I can hopefully manage it.
As an example of the difference between predict and explain, MANY years ago people could predict that the sun would go up and down, but they couldn’t explain why.
Another example: Imagine if your employees always left early on Tuesdays (Predict). You looked into it and found out that every Tuesday evening there was a social gathering that required people to leave early (Explain). You might now be able to take action in order to either correct or accommodate that situation. Had you not known why people were leaving, you might not be able to come up with a solution that managed the issue.
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Management
Management: the art of getting things accomplished in organizations through others.
If behaviour can be predicted and explained, it can often be managed.
Prediction and explanation – analysis
Management – action
Ex. If I can predict that a large percentage of students will skip class and I can explain why, then I should be able to do something to change it.
Effective management involves evidence-based management.
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Evidence-Based Management
EBM: Involves translating principles based on the best scientific evidence into organizational practices.
Rather than personal preference and unsystematic experience.
The use of evidence-based management is more likely to result in the attainment of organizational goals.
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Early Prescriptions Concerning Management
The Original Question was: How do you manage your workforce in order to achieve organizational goals?
The following are/were attempts to prescribe the “correct” way to manage an organization and achieve its goals.
Two basic phases to this prescription:
The classical view and bureaucracy
The human relations view
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The Next Few Slides
I just wanted to summarize the next few slides so you know what is important.
The scientific method and bureaucracy were all about treating people like cogs in a machine. They designed work without thinking about the ‘human’ aspect. As a result, jobs were boring and had little autonomy.
The human relations view is basically the reverse
The 3rd view – Contingency View – simply says that the situation will determine how to manage your workforce
This slide is almost all of what I want you to get from the next few slides. Just come away with a rough understanding of what the each view is about and realize that the third view (Contingency) is where we end up. Hard to agree with a view that says, “It Depends”
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The Classical View
The classical view advocates
high degree of specialization of labour
What is specialization of labour?
intensive coordination
centralized decision making
To maintain control, it suggests that managers have fairly few workers, except for lower-level jobs where machine pacing might substitute for close supervision. (high supervision)
Specialization: concentrating in one particular area or one job and only doing that job in order to become really good at it (but you wouldn’t be good at anything else). By specializing, you wouldn’t have to know a lot about many things and this would cut down on training. You could employ uneducated people and give them one specific job (ex. attach a few bolts, sew on a few buttons)
Centralized Decision Making: People at the top of the organization have the power to make decisions while lower level employees aren’t allowed to make many decisions at all. They need to ask their bosses.
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Scientific Management
Scientific management is Frederick Taylor’s system for using research to determine the optimum degree of specialization and standardization of work tasks.
Mainly concerned with job design and the structure of work on the shop floor.
Used Steel Industry in 1880’s and 1890’s
Use research to determine the optimum degree of specialization and standardization.
Neglects the ‘Human’ element
Scientific Management treats people like cogs in a machine. At this point they didn’t take into account how people feel about their work or the working conditions, etc.
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Bureaucracy
In response to seeing organizations run using favoritism, tradition, family ties, informal structure, etc.
Bureaucracy is Max Weber’s ideal type of organization that includes:
Strict chain of command (Legal-Rational Authority)
Selection and promotion criteria based on technical competence
Detailed rules, regulations, and procedures
High specialization
Centralization of power at the top of the organization
Does this all sound bad?
We’ll talk about chain-of-command later.
The chain of command is the line of authority and responsibility along which orders are passed within a unit and between different units. In more simple terms, the chain of command is the succession of leaders through which command is exercised and executed
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Bureaucracy (continued)
Bureaucracy would:
standardize behaviour in organizations
provide workers with security and a sense of purpose
The classical view of management seemed to take for granted an essential conflict of interest between managers and employees.
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The Human Relations Movement and a Critique of Bureaucracy
The human relations movement began with the famous Hawthorne Studies of the 1920s and 1930s conducted at the Hawthorne plant of Western Electric.
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The Hawthorne Studies
Concerned with the impact of fatigue, rest pauses, and lighting on employee productivity.
Showed how psychological and social processes affect productivity and work adjustment.
Suggested there could be dysfunctional aspects to how work was organized.
One sign was resistance to management through strong informal group mechanisms such as norms that limited productivity.
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Critique of Bureaucracy
The human relations movement called attention to certain dysfunctional aspects of classical management and bureaucracy and noted several problems:
Employee alienation
Limits innovation and adaptation
Resistance to change
Minimum acceptable level of performance
Employees lose sight of the overall goals of the organization
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The Human Relations Movement
Advocated more people-oriented and participative styles of management that catered more to the social and psychological needs of employees.
The movement called for:
More flexible systems of management
The design of more interesting jobs
Open communication
Employee participation in decision making
Less rigid, more decentralized forms of control
This movement takes the needs of people into account when designing jobs. They want to make jobs more interesting and give employees more flexibility and authority. We will discuss this later, but by doing this you are making the jobs more ‘intrinsically’ motivating.
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Contemporary Management – The Contingency Approach
Contingency Approach helps reconcile the CLASSICAL and the HUMAN RELATIONS
Management approaches need to be tailored to fit the situation.
The complexity of human behaviour means that an organizational behaviour text cannot be a “cookbook.”
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QUESTIONS
Somebody asks you to help them move. Do you help them?
You need to go to the store. Do you drive or walk?
You hate your job. Do you quit?
Much like the simple questions above, you need to know a number of different variables before making a decision as to how to manage. If you ran a manufacturing plant in a poor country with high unemployment, you might assume that education levels are low, wages are low, understanding of technology could be low, so using wage incentives to motivate and keeping jobs fairly standardized might be a good option. Move that plant to the US or Canada and you may need to pay a better wage, make jobs more flexible, provide benefits, etc. It really depends.
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Contemporary Management – The Contingency Approach (continued)
The general answer to many of the problems in organizations is: “It depends.”
The contingency approach to management recognizes that there is no one best way to manage.
All depends on the demands of the situation.
Example: Change and Participation
The example: If you had to make a decision that impacted your department, it might make sense to have employees participate in the decision making OR it might not. If you aren’t in a hurry, the employees are smart and have something to add, they want to be heard, and you feel comfortable discussing the situation with them, then this might be a good scenario to involve them. However, if you need to make a decision in a hurry, the employees either don’t care about it or they aren’t knowledgeable enough to add value, and the decision might be trivial (2 ply or 3 ply toilet paper), then involving everyone might not be a good idea.
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What Do Managers Do?
The field of organizational behaviour is concerned with what happens in organizations and what managers actually do in organizations.
Research has focused on:
Managerial roles
Managerial activities
Managerial minds
International managers
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Managerial Roles
Henry Mintzberg discovered a rather complex set of roles played by managers and grouped them into 3 categories:
Interpersonal roles: have to do with establishing and maintaining interpersonal relations.
Informational roles: concerned with receiving and transmitting information.
Decisional roles: deal with decision making
Interpersonal roles – may include ‘figurehead role’ where managers serve as symbols of the organization rather than active decision makers; ‘leadership role’ where managers select, mentor, reward and discipline employees; ‘liaison role’ where managers maintain a wide array of contacts within and outside of the organization
Informational roles – may include ‘monitor role’ where managers scan the internal and external environment to gather performance information and look for trends and ideas; ‘disseminator role’ where managers send information to others; ‘spokesperson role’ where managers send messages to the organization’s external environment.
Decisional roles – may include ‘entrepreneur role’ where managers turn problems and opportunities into plans for changes; ‘disturbance hander role’ where managers deal with conflict and threats to resources and turf; ‘resource allocator role’ where managers decide on how to distribute resources; ‘negotiator role’ where managers conduct major negotiations.
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Managerial Activities
Fred Luthans, Richard Hodgetts, and Stuart Rosenkrantz found that managers engage in four basic types of activities:
Routine communication (formal sending and receiving information)
Traditional management (planning, decision making, controlling)
Networking (interaction with people outside of the organization)
Human resource management (motivating, reinforcing, disciplining, punishing, managing conflict, staffing, training and developing employees)
This doesn’t mean that all managers engage in all activities in equal measure. It would depend on the circumstances.
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Summary of Managerial Activities
This is an average based on a study. Again, this isn’t for every manager.
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Managerial Activities and Success
Emphasis on these various activities is related to managerial success.
For Example:
Networking is related to moving up the ranks of the organization quickly.
Human resource management is related to employee satisfaction and commitment and unit effectiveness.
If you look at the list of activities, you can see that management does a wide variety of things. If managers focus on some activities more than others, they are more likely to reap the rewards associated with that activity. As an example, those who focus more on Networking tend to move up the organizational ladder faster. In other words, there are trade-offs.
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Managerial Minds
Herbert Simon and Daniel Isenberg explored how manager’s think.
Experienced managers use intuition to guide many of their actions:
To sense that a problem exists
To perform well-learned mental tasks rapidly
To synthesize isolated pieces of information and data
To double-check more formal or mechanical analyses
Their work boils down to managerial intuition which is based on experience. Just like when you drive a car. Those of us who have driven for many years get a sense about the flow of traffic and when things are likely to happen. This doesn’t mean we are guessing. Our ‘intuition’ is based off of years of experience (statistical data).
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Managerial Minds (continued)
Is intuition evidence-based?
Good intuition is problem identification and problem solving based on a long history of systematic education and experience.
Enables the manager to locate problems within a network of previously acquired information.
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International Managers
The style in which managers do what they do and the emphasis they give to various activities will vary greatly across cultures.
Cultural variations in values affect both managers’ and employees’ expectations about interpersonal interaction.
Most of our chapters take a look at the cultural aspect of organizational behaviour. Do differences exist between cultures? Are some things universal (work everywhere)?
Managerial activities vary greatly across cultures.
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International Managers (continued)
Geert Hofstede showed how cross-cultural differences in values leads to contrasts in the general role that managers play across cultures.
National culture – important contingency variables
The appropriateness of various leadership styles, motivation techniques, and communication methods depends on where one is in the world.
We’ll talk more about Hofstede in a later chapter, but basically he did research on values across cultures and found four major dimensions on which cultures tend to differ.
In the end, the last bullet point is the most important. What is appropriate and effective is dependent upon where you are.
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Some Contemporary Management Concerns
Four issues with which organizations and managers are currently concerned:
Diversity – Local and Global
Employee Health and Well-Being
Talent Management and Employee Engagement
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Online Textbook Link
This chapter, like most opening chapters in OB textbooks, finishes with a list of CURRENT or CONTEMPORARY CONCERNS. (What is of interest in OB right now.)
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1) Diversity – Local and Global
Increasing cultural diversity in Canada
TRU 2005-2006: 674 International Students (Over half from China)
TRU 2017-2018: 4,579 on-campus IS (33% India, 29% China)
What changes might an organization have to make to deal with such diversity?
Age diversity (generations)
What changes might an organization have to make to deal with older employees?
Cultural diversity (in Canada) is increasing. Think about how that would impact the workplace? (Different languages, communication styles, body language, religions, cultural celebrations, etc.) How would an organization have to change to adapt to this diversity?
Age diversity (the number of generations having to coexist in the workplace) is also increasing. Older people whose values and attitudes were shaped by the social environment in which they grew up are having to interact with younger people. Also, the age of employees would make a difference in what they value and what might motivate them. A young couple with children might need benefits to help with childcare while an older person whose kids are already grown would need different support. Some older people might not want to work 40 hours a week. Some generations are better with technology than others.
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Diversity – Local and Global
Many organizations have not treated certain segments of the population fairly in many aspects of employment (ex. Women, LGBT, disabled)
What do you think is the number one reason women tend to earn less than men?
Globalization now requires an understanding of foreign culture
Who here shops online?
OB is concerned with how to manage this diversity
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2) Employee Health and Well-Being
Increased concerns over job security, increasing job demands, and work-related stress.
Absenteeism and turnover are on the rise.
Increasing stress levels and poorly designed jobs are major causes.
Negative effect on employee physical and psychological health and well-being.
Recognizing that an employee’s health and well-being, both physical and mental, has an impact on work and that some organizations are taking steps to help employees manage. This was never a concern years ago. Nobody went on ‘stress leave’ or cared if their employees were able to exercise.
A lot of these concerns came about with the human relations movement.
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Employee Health and Well-Being (continued)
Work-life conflict is a major stressor and cause of absenteeism.
Increasing awareness of mental health problems in the workplace.
Organizations have begun to focus on mental health and to create more positive work environments.
Work-life conflict: Have you ever had a job (or even school) where you left work but because of the internet you were still able to check emails and do work outside of the office? With the rise in technology, those lines of work and home have become blurred.
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Employee Health and Well-Being (continued)
What does employee health and well-being have to do with OB?
OB is concerned with creating positive work environments that contribute to employee health and wellness.
Two examples of this are
Workplace Spirituality
Positive Organizational Behaviour (POB)
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2A) Workplace Spirituality
Workplace spirituality refers to workplaces that provide employees with meaning, purpose, a sense of community, and a connection to others.
It is about providing employees with a meaningful work-life that is aligned with their values.
Employees have opportunities for personal growth and development, and they feel valued and supported.
OB studies have shown the value in creating a workplace that employees ENJOY and want to be a part of. Having well-designed jobs along with creating a sense of community and belonging. You might have worked somewhere where you were part of a team or community and you enjoyed the people you worked with and the organization you worked for. You may, on the other hand, have worked where the job was boring and you felt like the organization didn’t care much about you or your coworkers.
This is a environment that moves beyond extrinsic motivation and tries to fulfil higher order needs (something we will discuss later).
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2B) Positive Organizational Behaviour (POB)
POB: The study and application of positively oriented human resource strengths and psychological capacities that can be measured, developed, and effectively managed for performance improvement.
The psychological capacities that can be developed in employees are known as psychological capital or PsyCap.
POB looks for the best in people and tries to develop and build upon that.
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Psychological Capital (PsyCap)
An individual’s positive psychological state of development that is characterized by:
Self-efficacy
What is self-efficacy?
Optimism
Hope
Resilience
Self Efficacy: The belief you have in your ability to complete a certain task (it is task specific). Like confidence or specific.
Optimism: Being positive
Resilience: Being able to bounce back after a setback or failure.
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Psychological Capital (PsyCap) (continued)
Each of the components of PsyCap are states not traits; they can be changed, modified, and developed.
PsyCap is positively related to:
employee well-being
job attitudes
job performance
And negatively related to:
employee anxiety
stress
turnover intentions
POB sees that having people with high PsyCap has positive outcomes for both the individuals and the organization, so it looks at how to increase these things.
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3) Talent Management and Employee Engagement
Talent management refers to an organization’s processes for attracting, developing, retaining, and utilizing people with the required skills to meet current and future business needs.
The management of talent has become a major organizational concern that requires the involvement of all levels of management.
Globalization has lead to more fierce competition and the only real sustainable competitive advantage is people. (In other words, the only sustainable advantage an organization can have over its competition are its employees so finding the best people, developing them, keeping them, and making proper use of them is crucial). Take basketball for example. A lot of organizations have money, but it is hard to duplicate certain players. Someone like Lebron James is impossible to copy.
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Talent Management and Employee Engagement (continued)
Work engagement refers to a positive work-related state of mind that is characterized by vigour, dedication, and absorption.
Reported that only 1/3rd of workers are engaged.
Engaged workers have more positive job attitudes and higher job performance.
Employee engagement is considered to be key to an organization’s success and competitiveness.
Imagine your learning experience in an environment where everyone is excited and happy to be in class and share their opinions and views on topics. Now imagine the opposite. Engagement leads to organizational success. You want people at work who want to be there, pay attention, work hard, and help others.
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Question
How often do you go to class and pay good attention to what is going on?
All the time. I take great notes and never miss a thing.
Sometimes. If I’m not tired and it isn’t boring.
Never. I show up just in case the teacher says something about a test or quiz.
Is it the teacher’s job to make sure you are engaged?
Think about that first question. How many of you are engaged in school?
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4) Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) refers to an organization taking responsibility for the impact of its decisions and actions on its stakeholders.
It extends beyond the interests of shareholders to the interests and needs of employees and the community in which it operates.
TRU – Cool School
Now, more than ever before, people care about working for organizations who care about their stakeholders. They give back to the community. They think about sustainability and the environment. They care about their employees health (financial, physical, and psychological).
The LINK leads you to a article that shows you how TRU ranked in a study about sustainability.
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Corporate Social Responsibility (continued)
What does a focus on social responsibility have to do with organizational behaviour?
Many CSR issues have to do with organizational behaviour (e.g., treatment of employees, work-family balance, employee well-being).
CSR also involves environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues, and a concern for the environment and green initiatives.
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Corporate Social Responsibility (continued)
An organization’s CSR activities and policies are associated with financial performance as well as employee attitudes, engagement, and performance.
CSR also has implications for the recruitment and retention of employees.
Organizational behaviour can help organizations become more socially responsible.
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What is Important in Chapter One
Know the definitions (Organizations, Organizational Behaviour, etc.)
What are the goals of OB?
Understand how management arrived at where we are (basic knowledge of the classic view and the human relations movement, finishing with the contingency view)
Rough idea of what managers do (roles, activities), but I’m not overly concerned that you memorize lists or anything
An understanding of the contemporary concerns
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ORGB 2810 – Assignment One – Summer 2020
Required:
· Read the following scenarios and answer the five total questions that follow.
· Your submission should be NO LONGER THAN 2 PAGES. Font size should be no smaller than 11pt. Please use a reasonable font type (e.g. Calibri, Times New Roman).
· I would prefer if you submitted a Word document (not a PDF)
· The FILENAME SHOULD BE YOUR STUDENT NUMBER(S) and assignment number
Example:
T00123456 – Assignment One
· On the first line of your submission, please type your STUDENT NUMBER (NO NAMES PLEASE)
Example:
T00123456
· I don’t require a title page, so please don’t use one.
· You can incorporate bullet points into your answers if that helps.
· Number your answers or make it clear what question you are answering.
· A small percentage of your mark will be designated to your writing. Your writing will not be scrutinized too hard (this isn’t an English course), but marks will be deducted if your writing is unclear and/or contains noteworthy issues in grammar and spelling. (These errors would be forgiven on a test, but you have enough time to edit).
· Your assignment should be submitted to the designated drop box in Moodle by the due date. If you are having problems submitting to the drop box, simply email me your assignment.
· Marks will be deducted if you violate these requirements.
· NOTE: Each chapter will be worth roughly the same. In other words, not all questions will be equally weighted.
Chapter One
At the end of the first chapter the textbook/slides discussed four contemporary management concerns.
Question
1. What impact, if any, has COVID 19 (Corona Virus) had on those four concerns?
Chapter Two
A supervisor in a textile factory observes that one of her employees is violating a safety rule that could result in severe injury.
Questions
1. What combination of reinforcement, punishment, and extinction could she use to correct this behaviour?
2. What does social cognitive theory suggest that she do to correct the behaviour?
Chapter Three
Case – Heavenly Sweets Ltd.
Dave Hendricks looked at the latest sales figures with a great deal of delight. The vice-president of marketing at Heavenly Sweets Ltd., a large American candy manufacturer, was pleased to see that the marketing campaign to improve sagging sales of Heavenly’s organic chocolate brand was working. Sales volume and market share of the product had increased significantly over the past two quarters compared with the previous year.
The improved sales of Heavenly’s organic chocolate could be credited to Juanita Diaz, who was assigned to the organic chocolate brand last year. Diaz had joined Heavenly less than two years ago as an assistant brand manager after leaving a similar job at a dairy products firm. She was one of the few nonwhite women in marketing management at Heavenly Sweets and had a promising career with the company. Hendricks was pleased with Diaz’s work and tried to let her know this in the annual performance reviews. He now had an excellent opportunity to reward her by offering her the recently vacated position of marketing research coordinator. Although technically only a lateral transfer with a modest salary increase, the marketing research coordinator job would give Diaz broader experience in some high-profile work, which would enhance her career with Heavenly Sweets. Few people were aware that Hendricks’ own career had been boosted by working as marketing research coordinator at Heavenly Sweets several years earlier.
Juanita Diaz had also seen the latest sales figures on Heavenly’s organic chocolate and was expecting Hendricks’ call to set up a meeting that morning. Hendricks began the conversation by briefly mentioning the positive sales figures, and then explained that he wanted Diaz to take the marketing research coordinator job. Diaz was shocked by the news. She enjoyed brand management and particularly the challenge involved with controlling a product that directly affected the company’s profitability. Marketing research coordinator was a technical support position—a “backroom” job—far removed from the company’s bottom-line activities. Marketing research was not the route to top management in most organizations, thought Diaz. She had been sidelined.
After a long silence, Diaz managed a weak “Thank you, Mr. Hendricks.” She was too bewildered to protest. She wanted to collect her thoughts and reflect on what she had done wrong. Also, she did not know her boss well enough to be openly critical.
Hendricks recognized Diaz’s surprise, which he naturally assumed was her positive response to hearing of this wonderful career opportunity. He, too, had been delighted several years earlier about his temporary transfer to marketing research to round out his marketing experience. “This move will be good for both you and Heavenly Sweets,” said Hendricks, as he escorted Diaz from his office.
Diaz was preoccupied with several tasks that afternoon, but was able to consider the day’s events that evening. She was one of the top women and few minorities in brand management at Heavenly Sweets and feared that she was being sidelined because the company didn’t want women or nonwhite people in top management. Her previous employer had made it quite clear that women “couldn’t take the heat” in marketing management and tended to place them in technical support positions after a brief term in lower brand management jobs. Obviously, Dave Hendricks and Heavenly Sweets were following the same game plan. Hendricks’ comments that the coordinator job would be good for her was just a nice way of saying that Diaz couldn’t go any further in brand management at Heavenly Sweets.
Diaz now faced the difficult decision of whether to confront Hendricks and try to change Heavenly Sweets’ sexist and possibly racist practices or to leave the company.
Questions
1. Apply your knowledge of stereotyping and self-concept to explain what went wrong here.
2. What other perceptual error(s) is(are) apparent in this case study?