UNIT TWO
INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOR AND PROCESSES
2.1 Diversity in Organizations
Learning Objectives
After studying this part, you should be able to:
o Describe the two major forms of workforce diversity.Some cultures have a bias against emotional expression;
others demand some display of emotion
o How the emotions are expressed may make interpretation
outside of one's culture difficult
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(2.4) Personality and Values
Learning Objectives
After studying this part, you should be able to:
o Define personality, describe how it is measured, and explain the factors
that determine an individual's personality.Managers start by attracting, selecting, developing, and retaining
employees who can operate and excel in a workplace with diverse
individuals, viewpoints, and ideas.Gaining a diverse workforce through
the selection process and developing that workforce through
organizational training and development programs will help to provide for
an environment that fosters creativity and effectiveness by tapping into the
potential of all employees.o Define the key biographical characteristics and describe how they are
relevant to OB.
o Define intellectual ability and demonstrate its relevance to OB.
o Contrast the two types of ability.They include
number aptitude, verbal comprehension, perceptual speed, inductive
reasoning, deductive reasoning, spatial visualization, and memory.Economic environment and tenure
< Organizational actions taken to retain high performers
and to weed out lower performers
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(2.3) Emotions and Moods
Learning Objectives
After studying this part, you should be able to:
o Differentiate emotions from moods, and list the basic emotions and
moods.o Identify other personality traits relevant to OB.
Define values, demonstrate their importance, and contrast terminal and
instrumental values.However, the inverse is true as well, if
employees are dissatisfied in their work, these same job outcomes will be
negatively impacted
Job Performance
Satisfied workers are more productive and more productive
workers are more satisfied!Organizational Citizenship Behaviors
o Satisfaction influences OCB through perceptions of fairness.Physical Ability is the second factor of ability and represents the capacity
to do tasks that demand stamina, dexterity, strength, and other
characteristics related to performance of physical tasks.Role of Disabilities
When an organization discusses abilities, it can cause difficulty when
developing policies that recognize diversity in terms of disabilities.While it is important for the organization to strive for diversity in the hiring
process, it is important to be careful to avoid discriminatory practices
during hiring by making generalizations about people with disabilities.Managers must work to develop
strategies to develop ways to utilize differences to achieve work outcomes.People are willing to live with some discomfort but the degree to which
this is true depends upon the importance of the elements, how much
influences the individual has in the situation, and the rewards available.Negative emotions are seen as undesirable and positive
emotions are desirable
o However, value of each emotion varies across cultures
o Do norms of emotional expression vary?o Describe the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality framework and
assess its strengths and weaknesses.Surface-level diversity represents the characteristics that are easily
observed such as race, gender, age etc.Schedules may also conflict with the way
work is typically done, such as a Muslim worker adhering to the prayer
schedule outlined in Islam.Ability :
Ability is defined as an individual's capacity to perform the various
tasks associated with the job.12
Number aptitude is the ability to do speedy and accurate arithmetic and
will be effective in jobs requiring mathematical ability, such as an
a c c o u n t a n t .Implementing Diversity Management Strategies
Knowing that people are different is not enough for organizations to
operate effectively with differences.Attitudes
Attitudes are evaluative statements or judgments concerning objects,
people, or events.Emotions were typically seen as irrational so
managers tended to work to make the workplace emotion-free.Often managers viewed emotions as disruptive to the workplace and
therefore a hindrance to productivity.22
Personality Traits
Even though personalities do change overtime, there are enduring
characteristics that describe an individual's behavior.Some methods used to describe personality are the Myers-Briggs Type
Indicator (MBTI) and the Big Five Model (BFM).The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
The MBTI is the most widely used personality instrument worldwide.The Big Five Model of Personality Dimensions
The Big Five model of personality sets forth that there are five basic
dimensions that underlie all others and encompass most of the significant
variations in human personalities.The Big Five factors are: Extroversion,
Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability and Openness to
Experience.o Show how culture affects our understanding of biographical
characteristics and intellectual abilities.Deep-level diversity represents the
aspects that are more difficult to see at first glance such as values,
personality, and work preferences.Age is an increasingly relevant characteristic as the workforce is aging.Older workers bring with them a wealth of knowledge and experience, but
the perception is that productivity often declines with age.R a c e and Ethnicity offers little explanation for differentials in
workplace outcomes.Perceptual speed is the ability to identify visual similarities and
differences quickly and accurately.Deductive reasoning is the ability to use logic and assess the
implications of the argument.Flexibility factors include both
components of extent flexibility and dynamic flexibility.14
2.2 Attitudes and Job Satisfaction
Learning Objectives
After studying this part, you should be able to:
o Contrast the three components of an attitude.When attitudes and behaviors don't line
up, individuals will experience cognitive dissonance.This incongruity is
uncomfortable and individuals will seek to reduce the dissonance to find
consistency.These factors include the importance of the attitude, the
correspondence of the attitude to the behavior, the accessibility of the
attitude, the existence of social pressures on behavior, and the personal and
direct experience of the attitude.An additional job attitude is psychological
empowerment, the belief in the degree of influence over the job,
competence in the job, and job meaningfulness.Perception of fairness is a key factor in determining employees'
willingness to work hard for the organization.Job Satisfaction
Job satisfaction is defined as a positive feeling about a job resulting from
an evaluation of its characteristics.Typically, workers are more satisfied
with the work itself and coworkers, while remaining less satisfied with
promotion and pay.19
The Basic Emotions and Moods
Not all psychologists agree; however, there do seem to be six basic
emotions that emerge in studies: Anger, fear, sadness, happiness, disgust,
surprise.These include
selection of employees, decision making, creativity, motivation, and
leadership:
o Selection
o Decision Making
o Creativity
o Motivation
o Emotions should be a hiring factor, especially for social jobs.We study personality in Organizational Behavior because it impacts a
number of important work outcomes.We can attempt to measure
personality through a variety of methods.The most common method is self-reporting surveys where
individuals answer questions that determine what type of personality they
have.Another, more accurate, method is when others observe the
individual and provide an independent assessment of their personality.The first is extroverts who tend to be sociable and assertive verses
introverts who tend to be quiet and shy.Sensors are practical and orderly where intuits utilize
unconscious processes.Judgers
want order and structure whereas perceivers are more flexible and
spontaneous.o Certain traits have been shown to strongly relate to higher job
performance:
o Highly conscientious people develop more job knowledge,
exert greater effort, and have better performance.Biographical Characteristics
Biographical characteristics represent many of the surface-level aspects
of diversity.Biographical characteristics typically include age, gender, and
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race.However, women, especially those with pre-school age
children, do prefer flexible work schedules and will seek an employer who
offers options in their schedules.Tenure refers to the length of time people have been on the job and is
tied to seniority.Often, tenure is seen as a positive as it signifies that people
are happy with their employment because they have remained in their job
for a long period of time.Therefore, employees with long tenure tend to be
more productive, call in sick less frequently, and don't leave the
organization as readily.The GMA takes a look at overall intelligence and is generally
recognized by researchers.Depending on the requirements of the job,
intelligence tests can be used to predict success on certain job tasks.Inductive reasoning is present when an individual can identify a logical
sequence in a problem in order to help find a solution.Strength factors include dynamic strength, trunk strength, static
strength, and explosive strength.15
Predicting Behavior from Attitudes
Some variables do moderate the relationship between attitude and
behavior.The field of Organizational Behavior focuses on how attitudes will
influence the workplace.The first is
job satisfaction, which is the positive feeling about the job resulting from
an evaluation of its characteristics.Employee engagement also
goes beyond just job satisfaction and includes involvement and enthusiasm
for the job.People are generally satisfied in their jobs in many countries, but over
the last several years, job satisfaction has been decreasing.Employee Responses to Dissatisfaction
When employees are dissatisfied with their jobs, they have four basic
responses they can utilize.In voice, the employees will work toward active and
constructive attempts to improve conditions.Even
though there are some negative emotions that could hinder productivity,
there is no doubt that workers bring their emotions to the workplace.There are some who think that emotions are linked to irrationality and
that expressing emotions in public may be damaging to your career or
status.20
OB Applications of Emotions and Moods
There are numerous applications of emotions and moods.o Positive mood increases flexibility, openness, and creativity.o Positive mood affects expectations of success; feedback
amplifies this effect.o Leadership
Emotions are important to acceptance of messages from
organizational leaders.o No. Culture can determine type, frequency, and depth of
experienced emotions
o Do people interpret emotions the same way?o Compare generational differences in values, and identify the dominant
values in today's workforce.Often these methods are utilized
in the hiring process to assist in hiring the right person for the job and the
organization.If we see a trait
consistently surface in different situations, this trait is important in
describing the individual.Participants are classified within four scales to determine 1 of 16 possible
personality types.o Describe how organizations manage diversity effectively.When we look at the workplace, we can recognize two levels of diversity.It can also include tenure, religion, sexual orientation, and gender
identity.Whether this is
true or not, it is a perception people act upon and will impact the
workplace.In studying gender in the workplace, it has been found that there are
very few differences between men and women that impact job
performance.It has been shown, however, that people in the
workplace do identify more with people like themselves so in some cases
there may be opportunities given to people based on the fact that they are
like their supervisor.Religion may also impact work outcomes due to religious restrictions,
such as dress and grooming.11
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity are not protected by federal
law and as a result they are handled differently by most employers.Often,
these characteristics are dealt with just as if they were protected
characteristics in order to discourage discriminatory behavior, whether it is
covered by the law or not.There are a number of measures of intellectual
ability available for use by organizations.Two representative measures are
the GMA (General Mental Ability) measure and the Wonderlic Personnel
Test.The Wonderlic is generally used as a quick
measure of intelligence in the hiring process.An employee who
needs to make decisions about the future based on historical information
will need the ability of inductive reasoning.When making choices between two different
possible solutions to a problem, a manager would need to call upon their
deductive reasoning skills.An employee who needs
to make decisions about office setup or interior design would need to have
a high level of spatial visualization ability.Individuals
who need to act quickly in a situation, such as a paramedic or nurse, would
need a significant degree of memory ability.Nine Basic Physical Abilities
Physical abilities are needed when performance requires physical
activity to complete a task.Other strength
factors include body coordination, balance, and stamina.Define job satisfaction and show how it can be measured.The behavioral component describes the
intention to behave in a certain way toward someone or something.Sometimes we observe people who will change what they say so it
doesn't contradict their behavior.Job involvement, Job involvement looks at the degree of psychological
identification with the job.Perceived organizational support is the degree to which employees
believe the organization values their contribution and cares about their
well-being.There are multiple
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ways to measure job satisfaction, but the most accurate way is to ask the
question if people are satisfied in their jobs and provide them with a scale
to report their degree of satisfaction.When work is
divided up into facets, results vary.These options are divided into active and
passive choices.Outcomes of Job Satisfaction
When employees are satisfied with their work, there are many positive
outcomes in the workplace.o Apply concepts about emotions and moods to specific OB issues.o Contrast the experience, interpretation, and expression of emotions
across cultures.Emotions and Moods
Historically the study of organizational behavior has not given much
attention to emotions.However, when thinking about
emotions, typically managers were focusing on negative emotions.Therefore, any study in organizational behavior would not be complete
without considering the roles of emotions in the workplace.Some psychologists even
place these basic six on a spectrum of emotion.Also, our basic moods carry positive and negative affects, they cannot
be neutral.These states
impact how employees perceive reality and thereby the moods can impact
the work of employees.Global Implications
o Do people experience emotions equally?o Demonstrate how the Big Five traits predict behavior at work.Personality is often defined by characteristics such as outgoing or
charming.However, psychologists define personality as the growth and
development of a person's whole psychological system.The second dichotomy is sensing
and intuitive.Thinking focuses on using reason and logic where feeling utilizes values
and emotions.Linking Personality to the Workplace
This idea can be further linked to the workplace by looking at
person-organization fit.When employees find organizations that match
their values, they are more likely to be selected and correspondingly be
more satisfied with their work.The big five personality types are often
helpful in matching the individuals with organizational culture.Diversity:
Everybody brings differences to an organization where they work.These differences can create energy and excitement in the workplace, but
they can also cause conflict.So, it is important that we have an
understanding of how diversity works in organizations.Then, companies try to create cultures that provide a safe environment
for all employees and cultures free of discriminatory behavior.When ability is dissected, two key factors are
found.The first factor set apart is intellectual ability.However, there has been no correlation found between intelligence and job
satisfaction.Dimensions of Intellectual Ability
Intellectual ability is made up of many dimensions.Verbal comprehension is the ability to understand what is read or heard
and the relationship of words to each other.This ability will be helpful in
jobs where the manager needs to understand policies in order to carry out
their job tasks.Spatial Visualization is when someone can imagine how an object
would look if its position in space was changed.Memory is the ability to retain and recall past experiences.There are three main categories of physical
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ability - strength, flexibility and other.Summarize the relationship between attitudes and behavior.Compare and contrast the major job attitudes.Summarize the main causes of job satisfaction.o Identify four employee responses to dissatisfaction.Attitudes are made up of three components.The
cognitive component is made up of the belief in the way things are.The
affective component is the more critical part of the attitude as it is calls
upon the emotions or feelings.These three components work together to aid in our understanding of the
complexity of an attitude.These variables will impact the ability to
predict how a certain attitude will predict behavior.This is an important job attitude
because it incorporates so many of the other measures.The passive options are
neglect and loyalty.Employees may choose to neglect their work and just
allow conditions to worsen or they may choose to remain loyal to the
organization and just wait for change.o Customer Satisfaction
o Satisfied frontline employees increase customer satisfaction
and loyalty.o Absenteeism
o Satisfied employees are moderately less likely to miss work.o Many moderating variables in this relationship.o Discuss whether emotions are rational and what functions they serve.o Identify the sources of emotions and moods.o Describe Affective Events Theory and identify its applications.Sources of Emotion and Mood
There are many things that impact our mood and emotions.Personality
is a key component and will definitely impact the intensity of the emotions
we feel.Stress is an important factor and even at low levels it can cause our
mood to change.Social activities
have been shown to have a positive impact on our moods.o Identify Hofstede's five value dimensions of national culture.The final dichotomy is judging and perceiving.There is a lot of research that supports the Big Five model and
it has been shown to predict behavior at work.How Do the Big Five Traits Predict Behavior?o Other Big Five Traits also have implications for work.o Emotional stability is related to job satisfaction.< Agreeable people are good in social settings.These a r e characteristics that are very easy to
identify.This is the ability to
perform mental activities.This particular ability is helpful when
an employee needs to take in a lot of information and make decisions about
the patterns, such as a detective or inspector.Does Behavior Always Follow from Attitudes?What are the Major Job Attitudes?There are several major job attitudes.The active options are exit and voice.If employees select
to exit, they choose to leave or move in a direction of leaving the
organization.The causality may run both ways.o Turnover
o Satisfied employees are less likely to quit.o Contrast the evidence for and against the existence of emotional
intelligence.Emotions are grouped into general mood states.What Is the Function of Emotion?However, research has shown that emotions are necessary for
rational thinking.They help us make better decisions and help us
understand the world around us. If we are going to make decisions, we
need to incorporate both thinking and feeling.It is important to maintain a low level of stress to help us
control our psychological as well as our physical health.This could be
physical outlets such as playing in a basketball league or it can be going out
to dinner with friends.These types of activities are found to have a positive
impact on our mood.o Identify the key traits in the Big Five personality model.These types are broken down into four dichotomies.The third dichotomy is thinking and feeling.o Research has shown this to be a better framework.Extroverts tend to be happier in their jobs and have good
social skills.o Open people are more creative and can be good leaders.The employee's personality needs to fit with the
organizational culture.Often, it takes less than ten
minutes to complete.The more engaged the worker is, the more passionate they will
be about their work.o Show the impact emotional labor has on employees.All other emotions fall under these six.The day and time of the week is a common pattern for all of us.
Many are happier toward the end of the week.Weather is thought to have
an impact on our emotions, but there is no proven effect.o Positive emotions can lead to better decisions.o Yes.o Yes.What is Personality?