ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

Session 3 – ATTITUDES AND JOB SATISFACTION

Attitudes & Behaviour

Attitudes = Evaluative statements (favourable or unfavourable) about objects, people, or events –

Reflect how we feel about something

Components

1. Cognitive = (evaluation) Description of or belief in the way things are

2. Affective = (feeling) Emotional or feeling segment of an attitude reflected in the statement
3. Behavioural = (action) Describes an intention to behave a certain way toward someone or
something

Example: The employee thought he deserved the promotion (cognition), he strongly dislikes his
supervisor (affect), and he has complained and taken action (behaviour).

Behaviour

- Leon Festinger (researcher) says attitudes follow behaviour  Other researchers agree
attitudes predict future behaviour

Example: People might change their attitudes towards something in order to not
contradict their behaviour

- When Attitude goes after Behaviour  Illustrate cognitive dissonance 

Cognitive Dissonance = Any incompatibility an individual might perceive between two or more
attitudes or between behaviour and attitudes

People generally seek a stable consistency among their attitudes and between their attitudes
and their behaviour

Most powerful motivators of the relationship between attitudes and behaviour:

1. Importance of the attitude

2. Correspondence of the attitude to the behaviour
3. Accessibility
4. Presence of social pressures
5. Is there a direct experience with the attitude?

Attitude-Behaviour relationship is likely to be much stronger if an attitude refers to something with

which we have direct personal experience

Dissonance

- Dissonance = Lack of agreement or harmony between people or things

Desire to reduce dissonance depends on 3 factors:

1. Importance of the elements creating dissonance

2. Degree of influence we have over the elements
3. Rewards of dissonance  High rewards accompanying high dissonance tend to reduce
tension inherent in the dissonance
People are more motivated to reduce dissonance when the attitudes are important or when they
believe the dissonance is due to something they can control

Job Attitudes

Important Attitudes: Job Satisfaction, Job Involvement, Organizational Commitment

Others: Perceived Organizational support, Employee Engagement

1. Job Satisfaction = A positive feeling about a job resulting from an evaluation of its
characteristics

Measuring job satisfaction:

a. Single global rating

b. Summation of job facets

Causes of Job Satisfaction:

o Job Conditions
o Personality
 Core-Self Evaluation = Believe in their inner worth and basic competence
(More CSE = More job satisfaction)
o Pay
o Corporate Social Responsibility

Job Satisfaction Outcomes:

o Job Performance
o Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB)
o Customer Satisfaction
o Life Satisfaction
o If you don’t like your job:
 Exit = Directs behaviour towards leaving the organization, including looking
for a new position or resigning – studied by researching individual
terminations and collective turnover
 Voice = Actively and constructively attempting to improve conditions,
including suggesting improvements, discussing problems, undertaking union
activity
 Loyalty = Passively but optimistically waiting for conditions to improve
 Neglect = Passively allows conditions to worsen and includes chronic
absenteeism or lateness, reduced effort, and an increased error rate

Counterproductive work behaviour = Actions that actively damage the organization, including
stealing, behaving aggressively toward co-workers, or being late or absent
 2. Job Involvement = Degree to which people identify psychologically with their jobs, actively
participates in it, and consider their perceived performance levels important to their self-
worth

High job involvement = Strongly identify with and acre about the work

3. Psychological Empowerment = Employees’ beliefs in the degree to which they influence

their work environment, their competencies, the meaningfulness of their job, and their
autonomy

Impact, Competence, Meaningfulness, Self-determination

Psychological Empowerment strongly predicts job attitudes and strain while moderately
predicting performance behaviours

4. Organizational Commitment = Identifies with his or her organization and its goals and wishes
to remain a member
Committed employees are less likely to engage in work withdrawal even if
dissatisfied
5. Perceived Organizational Support (POS) = Degree to which employees believe that the
organization values their contributions and cares about their well-being

Supportive  Rewards are deemed fair, employees have voice in decisions, supervisors are
supportive

Is a predictor but there are some cultural differences  it’s important in countries where
the power distance is lower

Power Distance = The degree to which people in a country accept that power in
institutions and organizations is distributed unequally

6. Employee Engagement = Employee’s involvement with, satisfaction with, and enthusiasm for
the work her or she does

Do they have access to resources and opp. to learn new skills? Do you feel work is important
and meaningful? Interactions with co-workers are rewarding.
 Session 2 – PERSONALITY AND VALUES

Personality

Personality = Dynamic concept describing the growth and development of a person’s whole
psychological system

Sum of ways in which an individual reacts to and interacts with others

Measuring Personality:

Personality tests are useful and help managers forecast who is best  self-report surveys

Personality Determinants:

- Heredity: Argues that personality is determined in the molecular structure of the genes
located in the chromosomes

Personality Traits: Shy, Aggressive, Submissive, Lazy, Ambitious, Loyal, Timid

Personality Framework – Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

1. Extroverted or Introverted (EI)

2. Sensing or Intuitive (SN)
3. Thinking or Feeling (TF)
4. Perceiving or Judging (PJ)

INTJ  Visionaries

ESTJ  Organizers

ENTP  Conceptualisers

Big Five Model

- Emotional Stability
- Extraversion
- Openness to experience
- Agreeableness
- Conscientiousness

Dark Triad

- Machiavellianism = Degree to which an individual is pragmatic, maintains emotional

distance, and believes that ends can justify means
- Narcissism = Tendency to be arrogant, have a grandiose sense of self-importance, require
excessive admiration, and have a sense of entitlement
- Psychopathy = Tendency for a lack of concern for others and a lack of guilt or remorse when
their actions cause harm
Side traits:

- Antisocial = Indifferent and callous towards others

- Borderline = Low self-esteem and high uncertainty
- Schizotypal = Eccentric and disorganized
- Obsessive Compulsive = Perfectionists and stubborn, they attend to details, carry a strong
work ethic, and may be motivated by achievement
- Avoidant = Feel inadequate and hate criticism

Other Personality Traits

- Core Self-Evaluation = Bottom line conclusions individuals have about their capabilities,
competence, and worth as a person
- Self-Monitoring = Measures an individual’s ability to adjust hir or her behaviour to external,
situational factors
- Proactive Personality = People who identify opportunities, show initiative, take action, and
persevere until meaningful change occurs

Situations

Situation Strength Theory = Indicates that the way personality translates into behaviour depends on
the strength of the situation

The degree to which norms, cues, or standards dictate appropriate behaviour

- Clarity
- Consistency
- Constraints
- Consequences

Values

Values = Basic convictions about what is right, good, or desirable

Value Systems = Ranks values in terms of intensity

- Lay the foundation for understanding of attitudes and motivation

- Influence attitudes and behaviours
1. Terminal = Desirable end-states of existence
2. Instrumental = Preferred modes of behaviour or means of achieving terminal values
Personality and Congruent Occupations

Person-Job & Person-Organization Fit

Person-Organization

- Extraversion goes well with aggressive and team-oriented cultures

- Agreeableness goes well with supportive organizational climate
- Openness to experiences goes well with emphasize on innovation

(Person-group and person-supervisor fit are also important)

Hofstede’s Five Value Dimensions

1. Power Distance
2. Individualism vs collective
3. Masculinity vs femininity
4. Uncertainty avoidance
5. Long-term versus short-term orientation

Session 4 – EMOTIONS AND MOODS

Affect = Broad range of feelings that people experience. (Emotions or mood)

1. Emotions = Caused by specific event and brief in duration. Usually accompanies by distinct
facial expression and action-oriented in nature
2. Moods = Cause is general and unclear, lasts longer, not indicated by distinct expressions,
cognitive in nature

Emotions: Anger, Fear, Sadness, Happiness, Disgust, Surprise

Moral Emotions = Have moral implications because of our instant judgement of the situation that
evokes them  our response to these is different than usual, these are developed during childhood
Sources of Emotions:

- Personality
- Time of Day
- Day of Week
- Weather
- Stress
- Social Activities
- Sleep
- Exercise
- Age
- Sex

Emotional Labour = An employee’s expression of organizationally desired emotions during

interpersonal transactions at work

Types of Emotions:

- Felt = Individuals actual emotions

- Displayed = Required or appropriate emotions
o Surface Acting = Hiding feelings and foregoing emotional expressions in response to
display rules
o Deep Acting = Trying to modify true inner feelings based on display rules
- Emotional Dissonance = Inconsistencies between the emotions people feel and the emotions
they project

Affective Events Theory (AET) = Employees react emotionally to things that happen to them at work
and this influences job performance and satisfaction

Emotional Intelligence = Person’s ability to perceive emotions (in self and others), understand their
meaning, and regulate one’s emotions accordingly in a cascading model

Emotion Regulation = Identifying and modifying the emotions you feel

Techniques:

o Surface acting
o Deep acting
o Emotional Suppression
o Cognitive reappraisal
o Social Sharing
 o Mindfulness

Session 5 – MOTIVATION CONCEPTS

Motivation = The processes that account for an individual’s intensity, direction, and persistence of
effort towards attaining a goal

Key Elements:

1. Intensity = How hard a person tries

2. Direction = The orientation that benefits the organization
3. Persistence = Measure of how long a person can maintain his/her effort

McClelland’s Theory of Needs:

- Achievement = Drive to excel, to achieve in relation to a set of standards, to strive to

succeed
- Power = Need to make others behave in a way that they would not have behaved otherwise
- Affiliation = Desire for friendly and close interpersonal relationships

Self-Determination Theory = People prefer to feel they have control over their actions (focus on the
beneficial effects of intrinsic motivation and harmful effects of extrinsic motivation)

Extrinsic rewards can improve even intrinsic motivation under specific circumstances

Cognitive Evaluation Theory = When people are paid to work, it feels like something they have to do
not something they want to do

Rewards  Employees feel they are doing good  Eliminating these rewards can shift an
individual’s perception of why he or she works on a task from an external to an internal explanation

Self-concordance = Considers how strongly people’s reasons for pursuing goals are consistent with
their interests and core values

Self-Determination vs Goal-Theory

Goal-Setting Theory = Specific goals increase performance, difficult goals (when accepted) result in
higher performance , feedback leads to higher performance

Other factors influencing: Goal commitment, task characteristics, national culture

Self-Determination:

- Promotion Focus  strive for advancement and accomplishment and approach conditions
that move them closer towards their goals
- Prevention Focus  strive to fulfill duties and obligations and avoid conditions that pull
them away from desired goals
Self-efficacy Theory = Individual’s belief that he or she is capable of performing a task (Social
Cognitive Theory, Social Learning Theory)

Pygmalion Effect = A form of self-fulfilling prophecy (believing in something can make it true)
 Training programs often use enactive mastery by having people practice and build their skills

Reinforcement Theory = Behavior is a function of its consequences (Reinforcement conditions

behavior, and behavior is environmentally caused)

Operant Conditioning Theory = People learn to behave to get something they want or to avoid
something they don’t want

Social-Learning Theory = We can learn through both observation and direct experience

Processes that determine models’ influence on an individual: Attention, Retention, Motor

reproduction, Reinforcement

Expectancy Theory = Tendency to act in a certain way depends on an expectation that the act will be
followed by a given outcome and on the attractiveness of that outcome to the individual

Relationships: Effort-performance, performance-reward, rewards-personal goals

Inequity

Options when an inequity is present:

1. Change inputs
2. Change outputs
3. Distort perceptions of self
4. Distort perceptions of others
5. Choose a different referent
6. Leave the field

Justice

Promoting Justice = Adopting strong justice guidelines in an attempt to mandate certain managerial
behavior

Culture and Justice  Inputs and outcomes are valued differently in various cultures

Job Engagement = The investment of an employee’s physical, cognitive, and emotional energies into
job performance

Session 6 – APPLYING MOTIVATIONAL THEORIES

Job Characteristics Model

Core Dimensions

1. Skill variety
2. Task identity
3. Task significance
4. Autonomy
5. Feedback

- Set job characteristics  more satisfying job performance

- Supportive leadership behaviors  improve job characteristics of R&D Professionals
- Repetitive jobs provide little variety, autonomy, or motivation
- Job Rotation (Reduces boredom, increases motivation, creates disruptions, requires extra
time for supervisors addressing questions and training time)
- Job Enrichment  More responsibilities to increase intrinsic motivation (effective at
removing turnover)
- Relational Job Design (connect employees with the beneficiaries of the work)

Work Alternatives

Job Sharing = Two or more people split a 40-hour-a-week-job

Telecommuting = Employees who do their work at home at least two days a week through virtual
devices linked to the employer’s office

Employee Involvement and Motivation

Employee Involvement = Participative process that uses employees’ input to increase their
commitment to the organization’s success

1. Participative Management = Joint decision making – acts as a panacea for poor morale and
low productivity
 2. Representative Participation = Workers are represented by a small group of employees who
actually participate in decision making

Variable Pay Programs

- Piece-Rate Pay = Provides no base salary and pays the employee only for what he or she
produces
- Merit-Based Pay = Differentiate pay based on performance
- Bonuses = Annual bonus is a significant component of total compensation
- Profit-Sharing Plans = Organization-wide programs that distribute compensation based on
some established formula centered around a company’s profitability
- Employee Stock Ownership Plan = Company-established benefit plan in which employees
acquire stock, often at below-market prices, as part of their benefits

Rewards are intrinsic in the form of employee recognition programs and extrinsic in the form of
compensation systems

Session 7 – GROUP BEHAVIOR TEAM ROLES

Group = Two or more individuals, interacting and interdependent, who have come together to
achieve particular objectives

- Formal = Defined by the organization’s structure

- Informal = Alliances that are neither formally structured nor organizationally determined

Social Identity Theory = Considers when and why individuals consider themselves members of
groups

- Ingroup Favouritism = When we see members of our group as better than other people, and
people not in our group as all the same
- Outgroup = An identified group known by the ingroup’s members (sometimes it’s just
‘everyone else’)

Social Identity Threat = Basically stereotype threat, individuals believe that they will be personally
negatively evaluated due to their association with a devalued group, and they may lose confidence
and perform effectiveness

Role = A set of expected behaviour patterns attributed to someone occupying a given position in a
social unit

Role Perception = One’s perception of how to act in a given situation

Role Expectations = How others believe one should act in a given situation

Role Conflict = Situation in which an individual faces divergent role expectations – Interrole conflict
(when the expectations of our different, separate groups are in opposition)
Norms = Acceptable standards of behaviour within a group that
are shared by the group’s members

In a task group, individuals’ emotions influenced the

group’s emotions

Status = A socially defined position or rank given to groups or

group members by others

Status Characteristics Theory = Status derived from one of 3 sources:

o Power a person wields over others

o Person’s ability to contribute to the group’s goals
o Individual’s personal characteristics

Social Loafing = The tendency for individuals to expend less effort when working collectively than
alone

Diversity = Degree to which members of the group are similar to, or different from, one another

Groupthink = Situations in which group pressures for conformity deter the group from critically
appraising unusual, minority, or unpopular views

Groupshift = Change between a group’s decision and an individual decision that a member within
the group would make

- Interacting Groups = Members meet face-to-face and rely on both verbal and nonverbal
interaction to communicate with each other

Nominal Group Technique = restricts discussion or interpersonal communication during the decision
making process

Group members are together, but work individually

Session 8 – WORK TEAMS

Types of Teams

- Problem-Solving
- Self-managed
- Cross-functional
- Virtual

What makes a team successful?

- Adequate Resources
- Leadership and Structure
- Climate of Trust
- Performance Evaluations and Rewards

How should you pick a team?

- Abilities of members
- Personality
- Allocating Roles
- Diversity
- Cultural differences
- Size of teams
- Member preferences

Effects of Group Processes

Team Processes

1. Common Plan and Purpose (Reflexivity)

2. Specific Goals
3. Team Efficacy
4. Team Identity
5. Team Cohesion
6. Mental Models
7. Conflict Levels
8. Social Loafing

Creating Team players:

- Selecting  Hire team players

- Training  Create team players
- Rewarding  Incentives to be a good team player
 Session 9 – Leadership, Power, and Politics

Power = Refers to a capacity that A has to influence the behaviour of B, so that B acts in accordance
with A’s wishes

Power has a function of dependence, a person has power over you only if he or she controls
something you desire

Formal Power

- Coercive Power
- Reward Power
- Legitimate Power

Personal Power

- Expert Power
- Referent Power

Personal sources of power are more effective  they are positively related with employees’
satisfaction with supervision, their organizational commitment, and their performance

Coercive power can be damaging

General Dependency Postulate = When you possess anything others require but that you alone
control, you make them dependent upon you and therefore you gain power on them

Dependence is inversely proportional to the alternative sources of supply

Generating Dependence: Importance, Scarcity, Non-substitutability

Influence Tactics:

- Legitimacy
- Rational persuasion
- Inspirational appeals
- Consultation
- Exchange
- Personal appeals
- Ingratiating
- Pressure
- Coalitions

Rational, Inspirational, and Consultation  more effective with audience highly interested in
outcomes

Pressure tends to backfire

Ingratiation and legitimacy lessen negative reactions from appearing to dictate outcomes
Sexual harassment = Any unwanted activity of a sexual nature tat affects an individual’s employment
and creates a hostile work environment

Political Behavior = Activities that are not required as part of one’s formal role in the organization,
but that influence the distribution of advantages within the organization

Impression Management = Process by which individuals attempt to control the impression others
form of them

Session 10 – Cont.

Leadership = Ability to influence a group toward the achievement of a vision or set of goals

Trait theories of leadership focus on personal qualities and characteristics

Big 5  Extraversion is the most predictive trait of effective leaders

Good leaders:

- Assert themselves
- Disciplined and able to keep commitments they make
- Apparent advantage when it comes to leadership

Emotional Intelligence is also important

Therefore:

1. Traits can predict leadership

2. Traits do a better job predicting emergence of leaders than they do at distinguishing
between effective and ineffective leaders

Behaviour theories of leadership imply we can train people to be leaders  2 main behaviours
account for leadership; initiating structure, consideration

Fiedler Contingency Model = Effective group performance depends upon the proper match between
the leader’s style of interacting with subordinates and the degree to which the situation gives
control to the leader

Dimensions:

- Leader-member relations
- Task Structure
- Position power

Situational Leadership Theory = Successful leadership is achieved by selecting the right leadership
style, which is contingent on the level of followers’ readiness

Path-Goal Theory = effective leaders clarify the path to help followers achieve work goals

Leader-participation model = Leader must adjust to reflect the task structure

How Charismatic Leaders Influence Followers:

- Articulate a vision
- Develop a vision statement
- Establish a new set of values
- Conveying courage and conviction about the vision

Transformational Leadership  Focuses more on what they are communicating  compelling vision

Charismatic Leadership  more emphasis on the way they communicate  passionate and dynamic

Authentic Leaders:

- Know who they are

- Know what they believe in and value
- Act on those values and beliefs openly and candidly

Socialized Charismatic Leadership = Leadership that conveys other-centred values by leaders who
model ethical conduct

Abusive Supervision = The perception that a supervisor is hostile in their verbal and nonverbal
behaviour

Servant Leadership = Go beyond their self-interest and instead focus on opportunities to help
followers grow and develop

Listening, empathizing, persuading, accepting stewardship, actively developing followers’

potential

Trust = A psychological state that exists when you agree to make yourself vulnerable to another
because you have positive expectations about how things are going to turn out

Trust Propensity

- Trust and Culture

- Role of Time
- Regaining Trust

Attribution Theory of Leadership = Leadership is merely an attribution people make about other
individuals

Identifying Effective Leaders:

- Review specific requirements for the position

- Consider personality tests to identify leadership traits
- Situation-specific experience is relevant
Training Leadership

- Training is more likely to be successful with self-monitors

- Teach implementation skills
- Teach trust building, mentoring, and situational analysis
- Behavioural training through modelling exercises that will increase an individual’s
charismatic leadership qualities
- Review leadership after key organizational events
- Train in transformational leadership skills

Session 11 – ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

Organizational Culture = A system of shared meaning held by members that distinguishes the
organization from other organizations

Concerned with employees’ perceptions of the characteristics of the culture, not whether
they like them

Job satisfaction is evaluative, organizational culture is descriptive

Captures the essence of culture:

- Adaptability
- Detail Orientation
- Results/outcome orientation
- People/customer orientation
- Collaboration/Team orientation
- Integrity

Organization Types:

1. Clan
2. Adhocracy
3. Market
4. Hierarchy

Dominant Culture = Expresses the core values a majority of the members share and that give the
organization distinct personality

Subculture = Tend to develop in large organizations to reflect common problems, situations, or

experiences that members face

Strong Culture = Core values are intensely held and widely shared

Functions of culture:

- Boundary-defining role
- Conveys a sense of identity for members
- Facilitates the generation of commitment
 - Enhances the stability of the social system
- Serves as a sense-making and control mechanism

Organizational Climate = Shared perceptions about the organization and work environment

Climates can interact with one another to produce behaviour; they also influence the habits
people adopt

Ethical Culture = The shared concept of right and wrong behaviour in that workplace, develops as
part of the organizational climate

Reflects the true values of the organization and shapes the ethical decision making of its
members

Categorize and measure the ethical dimensions of organizational cultures  Ethical climate theory
and Ethical climate index

5 Climate categories: Instrumental, caring, independence, lay and code, rules

Ethical climate powerfully influences the way its individual members feel they should behave

Sustainability = Practices that can be maintained over very long periods of time because the tools or
structures that support the practices are not damaged by the process

Culture created (3 alternatives)

1. Founders hire employees who think and feel the way they do
2. Employees are indoctrinated and socialized into the founders’ way of thinking
3. Founders’ own behaviour encourages employees to identify with them and internalize their
beliefs, values, and assumptions

Socialization  putting the organizational culture into a new employee

Culture is transmitted to employees through: Stories, Rituals, Symbols, Language

Positive Organizational Culture:

- Emphasizes building on employee strengths

- Rewards more than it punishes
- Emphasizes individual vitality growth
Workplace Spirituality = Recognizes that people have an inner life that nourishes and is nourished by
meaningful work that takes place in the context of community

Characteristics of Spiritual Organizations:

- Benevolence
- Strong sense of purpose
- Trust and respect
- Open-mindedness

Session 12 – ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE

Change = Making something different

Planned Change = When change is an intentional, goal-oriented activity

Goals:

1. Improve he ability of the organization to adapt to changes in its environment

2. Change employee behaviour

Change Agents = Those responsible for managing change activities

Resistance to Change

Individual Sources:

- Habit
- Security
- Economic Factors
- Selective Information Processing

Organizational Sources

- Structural Inertia
- Limited focus of change
- Group inertia
- Threat to expertise
- Threat to established power relationships

Overcoming Resistance to Change: Communication, Participation, Building support and

commitment, Develop positive relationships, Implementing changes fairly, Manipulation and co-
optation, Selecting people who accept change, Coercion

Approaches to Managing Change

- Lewin’s 3 Step Model: Unfreezing, Movement, Refreezing

- Kotter’s 8 Step Plan for Implementing Change
 - Action Research = Based on the systemic collection of data and selection of a change action
based on what the analysed data indicate
o Diagnosis, Analysis, Feedback, Action, Evaluation
o Benefits: Problem-focused, reduces resistance to changes
- Organizational development = Collection of change methods that try to improve
organizational effectiveness and employee well-being

Interventions for Change Agents

- Sensitivity training
- Survey feedback
- Process consultation
- Team building
- Intergroup development
- Appreciative inquiry

Managing a Paradox: Learning, Organizing, Performing, Belonging

Paradox Theory = Key paradox in management is that there is no final optimal status for an
organization

Innovation = A more specialized kind of change, is a new idea applied to initiating or improving a
product, process, or services

Idea Champions = Actively and enthusiastically promote an idea, build support, overcome resistance,
and ensure its implemented

Making Firms a learning organisations:

- Establish a strategy
- Redesign the organizations structure
- Reshape the organizations culture

Consequences of Stress:
- Physiological Symptoms
- Psychological Symptoms
- Behavioural Symptoms