Foundations of Individual
Behavior
Why we concern
⚫ By knowing how people different in
abilities, we may use the
knowledge to increase /enhance
people’s performance.
Ability
An individual’s capacity to perform the
various tasks in a job.
⚫Made up of two sets of factors:
⚫ Intellectual Abilities
⚫ The abilities needed to perform mental activities.
⚫ General Mental Ability (GMA) is a measure of overall
intelligence.
⚫ No correlation between intelligence and job satisfaction.
⚫ Physical Abilities
⚫ The capacity to do tasks demanding stamina, dexterity,
strength, and similar characteristics.
Nine Basic Physical Abilities
⚫ Strength Factors
⚫ Dynamic strength
⚫ Trunk strength
⚫ Static strength
⚫ Explosive strength
⚫ Flexibility Factors
⚫ Extent flexibility
⚫ Dynamic flexibility
⚫ Other Factors
⚫ Body coordination
⚫ Balance
⚫ Stamina
Dimensions of Intellectual Ability
Number
Aptitude
Verbal
Memory
Comprehension
Intellectual
Spatial
Visualization
Ability Perceptual
Speed
Deductive Inductive
Reasoning Reasoning
Dimensions of Intellectual
Ability Ability
Intellectual physical
1. Number Aptitude: Ability to do speedy and accurate arithmetic
2. Verbal Comprehension: Ability to understand what is read or heard and the
relationship of words to each other.
3. Perceptual Speed: Ability to identify visual similarities and differences
quickly and accurately.
4. Inductive Reasoning: Ability to identify a logical sequence in a problem and
then solve the problem.
5. Deductive Reasoning: Ability to use logic and assess the implications of an
argument.
6. Spatial Visualization: Ability to imagine how an object would look if its
position in space were changed.
7. Memory: Ability to retain and recall past experiences.
Number Aptitude An accountant can compute sales tax on
a set of items.
Verbal Comprehension The plant manager has been able to
understand the corporate policies after
hearing.
Perceptual Speed An engineer can identify the similarities
and differences among the various
designs of cars.
Inductive Reasoning My eldest brother is good at math. Eldest
brother of John is also good at math.
Same goes to Eldest brother of Kelly.
Therefore, all eldest brothers are good at
math.
Deductive Reasoning Every time I take a test in math, I fail it. I
am taking a math test today. I will fail my
test today.
Spatial Visualization An interior decorator can redecorate an
office nicely.
Memory An salesperson can remember the names
of customers.
Biographical Characteristics
Personal characteristics—such as age,
gender, and marital status—that are
objective and easily obtained from
personnel records.
Differences – There can be a lot!
Ability
Gender
Age
Religious
Biographical Characteristics--Age
Age—performance 1. Performance declines with increasing age
relationship is 2. The workforce is aging
important 3. Outlaw mandatory retirement of US
Age—turnover 1. The older one get, the less likely to quit one’s
job
2. Fewer job opportunities
3. Long tenure :higher wage rate, longer paid
vacation, better pension benefits.
Age—absenteeism 1. Lower avoidable absence
2. Higher unavoidable absence
Age-- productivity 1. Employee over 50 were more productivity
2. Unrelated
Age--satisfaction 1. The finding is mixed.
2. Professional—increase.
3. Non-professional—U shape
Biographical Characteristics--
Gender
⚫ Will the differences between man and women
affect their job performance?
Difference No difference
Productivity ◎
Work ◎ when employee
schedule has pre-school
children
Turnover ◎
Absence ◎ woman--higher
Biographical Characteristics--Tenure
⚫ Seniority negatively related to absence.
⚫ Seniority negatively related to turnover.
⚫ Tenure on one’s previous job is a
powerful predictor of the one’s future
turnover.
⚫ Tenure positively related to satisfaction.
Learning
Any relatively permanent change in
behavior that occurs as a result of
experience
⚫Learning components:
Is Is Acquired
Involves
Relatively Through
Change
Permanent Experience
Theories of Learning
⚫ Classical Conditioning
⚫ A type of conditioning in which an
individual responds to some stimulus that
would not ordinarily produce such a
response.
⚫ Operant Conditioning
⚫ A type of conditioning in which desired
voluntary behavior leads to a reward or
prevents a punishment.
⚫ Social-Learning Theory
⚫ People can learn through observation and
direct experience.
Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)
Pavlov, a Russian
physiologist, first
described classical
conditioning in 1899 while
conducting research into
the digestive system of
dogs.
He was particularly
interested in the role of
salivary secretions in the
digestion of food and was
awarded the Nobel Prize
for Medicine or Physiology
in 1904.
Theories of Learning
Classical Conditioning
A type of conditioning in which an individual
responds to some stimulus that would not
ordinarily produce such a response.
Key Concepts
• Unconditioned stimulus
• Unconditioned response
• Conditioned stimulus
• Conditioned response
⚫ Classical Conditioning: 1990s by Ivan Pavlov
A type of conditioning in which an individual responds to some
stimulus that would not ordinarily produce such a response.
Key Concepts
saliva conditioned stimulus
Unconditioned stimulus
Happy
(US) Unconditioned Stimulus
food
(UR) Unconditioned Response
saliva
(CS) Conditioned Stimulus
bell
(CR) Conditioned Response
saliva to bell
Classical Conditioning
⚫ Pavlov’s Dog Drool
⚫ Key Concepts:
⚫ Unconditioned stimulus
⚫ A naturally occurring phenomenon.
⚫ Unconditioned response
⚫ The naturally occurring response to a natural stimulus.
⚫ Conditioned stimulus
⚫ An artificial stimulus introduced into the situation.
⚫ Conditioned response
⚫ The response to the artificial stimulus.
This is a passive form of learning. It is
reflexive and not voluntary – not the best
theory for OB learning.
EXAMPLES OF CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
Using electric wires to highland-cows
keep cows in a field
UCS- Electric shock
UCR- Jump back
CS- wire
CR- Stay away
Conditioned Emotional Response
⚫ An emotional reaction such
as fear of a specific stimulus
is learned through CC.
⚫ A conditioned emotional
response is an emotional
reaction that usually occurs
when the autonomic
nervous system produces a
response to a stimulus that
did not previously trigger
that response.
⚫ E.g. fearing the sound of the
dentist’s drill.
Theories of Learning (cont’d)
Operant Conditioning
A type of conditioning in which desired
voluntary behavior leads to a reward or prevents
a punishment.
Key Concepts
• Reflexive (unlearned) behavior
• Conditioned (learned) behavior
• Reinforcement
Operant Conditioning
⚫ B. F. Skinner’s concept of Behaviorism:
behavior follows stimuli in a relatively
unthinking manner.
⚫ Key Concepts:
⚫ Conditioned behavior: voluntary behavior that is learned,
not reflexive.
⚫ Reinforcement: the consequences of behavior which can
increase or decrease the likelihood of behavior repetition.
⚫ Pleasing consequences increase likelihood of repetition.
⚫ Rewards are most effective immediately after performance.
⚫ Unrewarded/punished behavior is unlikely to be repeated.
Positive and Negative Reinforcement,
Positive and Negative Punishment
Social-Learning Theory
⚫ Based on the idea that people can also learn
indirectly: by observation, reading, or just
hearing about someone else’s – a model’s
– experiences.
⚫ Key Concepts:
⚫ Attention processes
⚫ Must recognize and pay attention to critical features to learn.
⚫ Retention processes
⚫ Model’s actions must be remembered to be learned.
⚫ Motor reproduction processes
⚫ Watching the model’s behavior must be converted to doing.
⚫ Reinforcement processes
⚫ Positive incentives motivate learners.
Theories of Learning (cont’d)
Shaping Behavior
Systematically reinforcing each successive step
that moves an individual closer to the desired
response.
Key Concepts
• Reinforcement is required to change behavior.
• Some rewards are more effective than others.
• The timing of reinforcement affects learning
speed and permanence.
Shaping: A Managerial Tool
Systematically reinforcing each successive
step that moves an individual closer to the
desired response.
⚫Four Methods of Shaping Behavior:
⚫ Positive reinforcement
⚫ Providing a reward for a desired behavior (learning)
⚫ Negative reinforcement
⚫ Removing an unpleasant consequence when the desired behavior
occurs (learning)
⚫ Punishment
⚫ Applying an undesirable condition to eliminate an undesirable
behavior (“unlearning”)
⚫ Extinction
⚫ Withholding reinforcement of a behavior to cause its cessation
(“unlearning”)
Time for Application
Dilemma: Assume you are the HR Manager of a
garment factory and one of your workers comes late
regularly.
What to do: Shape his behaviour.
Schedules of Reinforcement: A Critical Issue
⚫ Two Major Types:
⚫ Continuous Reinforcement
⚫ A desired behavior is reinforced each time it is
demonstrated
⚫ Intermittent Reinforcement
⚫ A desired behavior is reinforced often enough to
make the behavior worth repeating but not every
time it is demonstrated
⚫ Multiple frequencies
Types of Intermittent
Reinforcement
⚫ Ratio
⚫ Depends on the number of
responses made.
⚫ Interval
⚫ Depends on the time between
reinforcements.
⚫ Fixed
⚫ Rewards are spaced at uniform
time intervals or after a set number
of responses.
⚫ Variable
⚫ Rewards that are unpredictable or
that vary relative to the behavior.
Schedules of Reinforcement
Fixed-ratio
Behavior Modification (OB
Mod)
The application of reinforcement concepts to
individuals in the work setting
⚫Follows the Five-Step Problem-Solving
Model
1 • Identify critical behaviors
2 • Develop baseline data
3 • Identify behavioral consequences
4 • Develop and apply intervention
5 • Evaluate performance improvement
Problems with OB Mod and
Reinforcement
⚫ OB Mod ignores thoughts and feelings.
⚫ OB Mod may not explain complex
behaviors that involve thinking and
feeling.
⚫ Stimuli may not be consciously given as a
means of shaping behavior.
Modern managers and
OB theorists are using
cognitive approaches to
shaping behavior.
Areas Need to be focused
I. Intellectual ability
II. Biographical characteristics and its
impact on job performance
III. Learning theories
IV. Shaping behaviour