Part I Individuals in Organizations

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Part IIndividuals in Organizations

• Chapter 2
• Understanding Individual Differences

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Chapter Objectives

• Personality Behavior
• Self-Esteem
• Locus of Control
• Goal Orientation
• Introversion Extroversion
• Work Attitudes
• Job Satisfaction
• Organizational Commitment

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Introduction

• Individual differences refers to the fact that
  people vary in many ways. As an employee future
  manager, you must recognize and appreciate
  individual differences in order to understand
  respond appropriately to the behavior of people
  in organizations. Part I of this course focuses
  on these differences.

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Personality Behavior

• Personality traits refers to the basic components
  of personality. There are thousands of
  personality traits all organized into a small set
  of concepts or descriptions.
• The Big Five personality factors describe the
  individuals adjustment, sociability,
  conscientiousness, agreeableness, intellectual
  openness.

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Personality Behavior

• Personality traits refers to the basic components
  of personality. There are thousands of
  personality traits all organized into a small set
  of concepts or descriptions.
• The Big Five personality factors describe the
  individuals adjustment, sociability,
  conscientiousness, agreeableness, intellectual
  openness.

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Personality Behavior

• Researchers have investigated extensively the
  relationships between the Big Five personality
  factors and job performance
• Their findings indicate that employees who are
  responsible, dependable, persistent, and
  achievement-oriented perform better than those
  who lack these traits.
• We will focus on specific personality traits that
  reflect on organizational behavior

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Personality Behavior Self-Esteem

• Self-esteem results from an individuals
  continuing self-evaluation (from the Big Five
  part of the adjustment factor).
• People develop, hold, may modify opinions of
  their own behaviors, abilities, appearance,
  worth.
• These general assessments reflect responses to
  people situations, successes failures, and
  the opinions of others. Such evaluations are
  sufficiently accurate stable to be widely
  regarded as a basic personality trait.

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Personality Behavior Self-Esteem

• Self-esteem affects behavior in organizations
• (high self-esteem)
• Received more favorable evaluations from
  recruiters
• Were more satisfied with the job search
• Received more job offers
• Were more likely to accept jobs before graduation

• Self-esteem affects behavior in organizations
• (low self-esteem)
• Are more easily influenced by the opinion of
  other workers
• Set lower goals for themselves less value on
  achieving them
• More susceptible to adverse job conditions
  stress, conflict, ambiguity, poor supervision,
  poor working condition.

Self-esteem is positively related to
achievement and a willingness to expand effort to
accomplish tasks.
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Personality Behavior Locus of Control

• Self-esteem refers to the extent to which
  individuals believe that they can control events
  affecting them from the Big Five part of the
  conscientiousness factor).
• Individuals who have high internal locus of
  control (internals) believe that their own
  behavior and actions primarily, but not
  necessarily totally, determine many of the events
  in their lives.
• Individuals who have a high external locus of
  control (externals) believe that chance, fate, or
  other people primarily determine what happens to
  them.

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Personality Behavior Locus of Control

• The Effect of Locus of Control on Performance

• Externals
• Prefer a more structured, directive style of
  supervision

• Internals
• Control their own behavior better
• More active politically socially
• Seek information about their situation more
  actively
• Are likely to influence others than being
  influenced by others
• More achievement-oriented

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Personality Behavior Goal Orientation

• A person with a learning goal orientation
  develops by continually acquiring new
  competencies and mastering new situations.
• A person with a performance goal orientation
  demonstrates and validates competencies by
  seeking favorable judgments from others (eg.
  Managers) and avoids negative judgments.

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Personality Behavior Goal Orientation

• Performance Goal Orientation
• May avoid challenges at work
• Perform poorly when they encounter obstacles
• Tend to be unhappy and withdrawn upon failure

• Learning Goal Orientation
• Exhibit mastery-oriented responses to work
  challenges
• Strive to overcome failure by increasing their
  efforts seeking new solutions
• Treat failure as a form of useful feedback
• Maintain their composure when challenged, sustain
  or increase performance even when faced with
  obstacles.

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Personality Behavior Introversion
Extroversion

• Introversion and extroversion from the Big Five
  part of the sociability factor. It is highly
  genetically determined
• Introversion is a tendency to be directed inward
  have a greater affinity for abstract ideas and
  sensitivity to personal feelings (quiet,
  introspective emotionally unexpressive)
• Extroversion is an orientation toward other
  people, events and objects. They are sociable,
  lively, impulsive and emotionally expressive

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Personality Behavior Introversion
Extroversion

• Most people are only moderately introverted or
  extroverted, or relatively balanced in between.
• Extroverts are well represented in managerial
  occupations as the managers role often involves
  working with others influencing them to attain
  organizational goals.
• Concerning working conditions, introverts perform
  better alone in a quiet environment, while
  extroverts perform better in an environment with
  greater sensory stimulation such as a noisy
  office with many people and a high level of
  activity.

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Personality Behavior Organizational Uses

• The challenge for managers employees is to
  understand the crucial role played by personality
  in explaining some aspects of human behavior in
  the workplace.
• Knowledge of important individual differences
  provides managers, employees students with
  valuable insights and a framework that they can
  use to diagnose events and situations.

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Attitudes Behavior

• Attitudes are another type of individual
  difference that affects behavior. Attitudes are
  relatively lasting feelings, beliefs, and
  behavioral tendencies aimed at specific people,
  groups, ideas, issues or objects.
• Attitudes reflect an individuals background and
  experiences.
• Work attitudes can be best demonstrated by
  examining two key work attitudes Job
  satisfaction organizational commitment

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Attitudes Behavior Job Satisfaction

• Job satisfaction refers to the feelings or
  attitudes employees have towards their jobs. Do
  people generally like their jobs?
• Low job satisfaction can result in costly
  turnover, absenteeism, tardiness, and even poor
  mental health.
• The sources of Job satisfaction may vary from
  person to person . Sources important for many
  employees include the challenge of the job,
  interest that the work holds for the employee,
  physical activity required, working conditions,
  rewards available, nature of coworkers ..etc.

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Attitudes Behavior Job Satisfaction

• Job satisfaction should be considered an outcome
  of an individuals work experiences.
• Thus high levels of dissatisfaction should
  indicate to managers that problems exist with
  working conditions, the reward system, or the
  employees role in the organization.
• Of special interest to managers employees are
  the possible relationships between job
  satisfaction job performance. A common
  assumption is that job satisfaction leads to
  effective performance. Yet numerous studies have
  shown that a simple direct link often does not
  exist.

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Attitudes Behavior Organizational Commitment

• Organizational Commitment refers to the strengths
  of an employees involvement in the organization
  identification with it.
• Strong organizational commitment is characterized
  by
• A support of acceptance of the organizations
  goals values
• A willingness to exert considerable effort on
  behalf of the organization
• A desire to remain with the organization

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Attitudes Behavior Organizational Commitment

• Organizational commitment goes beyond loyalty to
  include an active contribution to accomplishing
  organizational goals.
• Lack of organizational commitment results in
  higher turnover levels. It is also correlated
  with low absenteeism, punctual attendance levels,
  high productivity.
• Organizational commitment represents a broader
  work attitude than just job satisfaction since it
  applies to whole organization not just to the
  job.
• Organizational commitment is more stable than
  satisfaction because of day-to-day events are
  less likely to change it.

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Attitudes Behavior Organizational Commitment

• Sources of organizational commitment may vary
  from person to person.
• Employees initial commitment to an organization
  is determined by
• Their individual characteristics (personality
  attitude)
• Their early job experiences if they match their
  expectations
• Latter, job experiences and most of the factors
  that affect job satisfaction pay, relation with
  supervisors, coworkers, working conditions,
  opportunities for advancement)
• Over time commitment tends to grow stronger as
  deep ties are developed, seniority increases,
  accrued benefits, lack of similar alternative
  opportunities.

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Part IIndividuals in Organizations

• Chapter 3
• Understanding Perceptions Attributions

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Introduction

• People base their behaviors on what they perceive
  not necessarily on what reality is.
• Recognizing the difference between the perceptual
  worlds of employees and the reality of the
  organization is important in understanding
  behavior.

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The Perceptual Process

• Perception is the process by which people select,
  organize, interpret and respond to information
  from the world around them.
• Everyone selectively pays attention to some
  aspect of the environment selectively ignores
  other aspects.
• The ways that individuals select, organize and
  interpret their perceptions to make sense of
  their environments isnt something that managers
  should ignore.

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The Perceptual Process
Perceptual Selection External Factors (Size,
intensity, contrast, motion) Internal Factors
(Personality, learning, motivation)
Observation (Taste, smell, hearing, sight,
touch)
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Perceptual Selection

• Lots of simultaneous stimuli affect us. Which
  attract your attention?
• Selective Screening is the process by which
  people filter out most information so that they
  can deal with the most important matters.
• Perceptual selection depends on several factors
  some in the external environment some of which
  are internal to the perceiver.

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Perceptual Selection

• External Factors
• Size
• Intensity
• Contrast
• Motion
• Repetition
• Novelty Familiarity

• Internal Factors
• Personality
• Learning
• Motivation

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Person Perception

• Person Perception is the process by which
  individuals attribute characteristics or traits
  to other people.
• The process follows the same sequence of the
  Perceptual Process observation, selection,
  organization, interpretation response.
• The object being perceived is another person.
• Perception of situations, events objects are
  important but individual differences in
  perceptions of other people are crucial at work.

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Person Perception Impression Management

• Impression Management is an attempt by an
  individual to manipulate or control the
  impressions that others form about them.
• People in organizations use several impression
  management tactics to affect how others perceive
  them, especially when dealing with people who
  have power over them.
• Provides another example of an individual
  difference. Some people seem preoccupied with
  impressions of management while others are less
  concerned about how they might be perceived.
• Tactics include behavioral matching,
  self-promotion, conforming to norms, and
  flattering others.

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Perceptual Errors

• Accuracy of Judgment
• How accurate are people in their perceptions of
  others?
• Misjudging the characteristics, abilities, or
  behaviors of an employee during performance
  appraisal reviews or in job interviews.
• Perceptual Defense is the tendency for people to
  protect themselves against ideas, objects or
  situations that are threatening.
• Stereotyping is the belief that all members of
  specific groups share similar traits and
  behaviors.

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Perceptual Errors

• Halo Effect is the evaluation of another person
  solely on the basis of one attribute either
  favorable or unfavorable.
• Projection is the tendency for people to see
  their own traits in other people.
• Expectancy Effects refer to the extent to which
  prior expectations bias perceptions of events,
  objects and people. Sometimes people simply
  perceive what they anticipate perceiving.