Chapter 3

FOUNDATIONS OF INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOR

3.1 Diversity
in Organizations

We aren’t all the same. This is obvious enough, but managers sometimes forget that they need to
recognize and capitalize on these differences to get the most from their employees.

Effective diversity management increases an organization’s access to the widest possible pool of skills,
abilities, and ideas. Managers also need to recognize that differences among people can lead to
miscommunication, misunderstanding, and conflict.

Levels of Diversity

Demographics mostly reflect surface level diversity , not thoughts and feelings, and can lead employees
to perceive one another through stereotypes and assumptions.

However, evidence has shown that as people get to know one another, they become less concerned
about demographic differences if they see themselves as sharing more important characteristics, such as
personality and values, that represent deep-level diversity

Discrimination

Although diversity does present many opportunities for organizations, effective diversity management
also means working to eliminate unfair discrimination .

To discriminate is to note a difference between things, which in itself isn’t necessarily bad.

Usually when we talk about discrimination, though, we mean allowing our behavior to be influenced by
stereotypes about groups of people.

Rather than looking at individual characteristics, unfair discrimination assumes everyone in a group is
the same. This discrimination is often very harmful to organizations and employees

Forms of Discrimination

Type of Discrimination

Discriminatory policies or practices

Sexual harassment

Intimidation
Mockery and insults

Exclusion

Incivility

Definition & examples

Actions taken by representatives of the organization that deny equal opportunity or unequal rewards
for performance

Unwanted sexual advances and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature that create a hostile
or offensive work environment

Overt threats or bullying directed at members of specific groups of employees

Jokes or negative stereotypes; sometimes the result of jokes taken too far

Exclusion of certain people from job opportunities, social events, discussions, or informal mentoring; can
occur unintentionally

Disrespectful treatment, including behaving in an aggressive manner interrupting the person, or ignoring
his or her opinions

Biographical Characteristics

Biographical characteristics such as age, gender, race, disability, and length of service are some of the
most obvious ways employees differ.

Age

The relationship between age and job performance is likely to be an issueof increasing importance
during the next decade for at least three reasons.

First, belief is widespread that job performance declines with increasing age.

Regardless of whether this is true, a lot of people believe it and act on it.

Second, the workforce is aging. Many employers recognize that older workers represent a huge
potential pool of high-quality applicants.

older workers have a strong work ethic, many skills, and job knowledge that they can share with
youngers-workers

Sex

There are no consistent male–female differences in problem-solving ability, analytical skills, competitive
drive, motivation, sociability, or learning ability.
Psychological studies have found women are more agreeable and willing to conform to authority,
whereas men are more aggressive and more likely to have expectations of success, but those differences
are minor

What about absence and turnover rates? Are women less stable employees than men? First, evidence
from a study of nearly 500,000 professional employees

indicates significant differences, with women more likely to turn over than men. Women also have
higher rates of absenteeism than men do.

Race and Ethnicity

Race is a controversial issue. In many cases, even bringing up the topic of race and ethnicity is enough to
create an uncomfortable silence.

Indeed, evidence suggests that some people find interacting with other racial groups uncomfortable

unless there are clear behavioral scripts to guide their behavior

Race and ethnicity have been studied as they relate to employment outcomes such as hiring decisions,
performance evaluations, pay, and workplace

discrimination

Disability

Making inferences about the relationship between disability and employment outcomes is difficult
because the term disability is so broad.

The [Link] Employment Opportunity Commission classifies a person as disabled who has any physical
or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. Examples include
missing limbs, seizure disorder,Down Syndrome, deafness, schizophrenia, alcoholism, diabetes, and
chronic back pain.

Other Biographical Characteristics: Tenure, Religion, Sexual Orientation, and Gender Identity

Tenure

seniority as time on a particular job, the most recent evidence demonstrates a positive relationship
between seniority and job productivity. So tenure, expressed as work experience, appears to be a good
predictor of employee productivity

Religion Not only do religious and nonreligious people question each other’s belief systems; often
people of different religious faiths conflict.

Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Employers differ widely in their treatment of sexual orientation.
As for gender identity, companies are increasingly putting in place policies to govern how their
organization treats employees who change genders (often called transgender employees ).

Ability

ability is an individual’s current capacity to perform the various tasks in a job.

Overall abilities are essentially made up of two sets of factors: intellectual and physical.

Intellectual abilities are abilities needed to perform mental activities—thinking, reasoning, and problem
solving

Dimensions of Intellectual Ability

Number aptitude; Ability to do speedy and accurate arithmetic

Verbal comprehension; Ability to understand what is read or heard and the relationship of words to
each other

Perceptual speed Ability to identify visual similarities and differences quickly and accurately

Inductive reasoning Ability to identify a logical sequence in a problem and then solve the problem

Deductive reasoning Ability to use logic and assess the implications of an argument

Spatial visualization Ability to imagine how an object would look if its position in space were changed

Memory Ability to retain and recall past experiences

Implementing Diversity Management Strategies

Attracting, Selecting, Developing, and Retaining Diverse Employees

One method of enhancing workforce diversity is to target recruiting messages to specific demographic
groups underrepresented in the workforce.

This means placing advertisements in publications geared toward specific demographic groups;
recruiting at colleges, universities, and other institutions with significant numbers of underrepresented
minorities;

Some data suggest individuals who are demographically different from their co-workers are more likely
to feel low commitment and to turn over: women are more likely to turn over from predominantly male
work groups and men from predominantly female work groups; non-Whites are more likely to turn
overfrom predominantly White work groups and Whites from predominantly non-White work groups

Diversity in Groups
Most contemporary workplaces require extensive work in group settings. When people work in groups,
they need to establish a common way of looking at and accomplishing the major tasks, and they need to
communicate with one another often. If they feel little sense of membership and cohesion in their
groups, all these group attributes are likely to suffer.

Regardless of the composition of the group, differences can be leveraged to achieve superior
performance

Physical Abilities

The capacity to do tasks demanding stamina, dexterity, strength, and similar characteristics

Nine Physical Abilities

[Link] strength; Ability to exert muscular force repeatedly or continuously over time

2. Trunk strength; Ability to exert muscular strength using the trunk (particularly abdominal) muscles

3. Static strength ;Ability to exert force against external objects

4. Explosive strength ;Ability to expend a maximum of energy in one or a series of explosive acts

5. Extent flexibility ;Ability to move the trunk and back muscles as far as possible

6. Dynamic flexibility ;Ability to make rapid, repeated flexing movements

7. Body coordination ;Ability to coordinate the simultaneous actions of different parts of the body

8. Balance ;Ability to maintain equilibrium despite forces pulling off

balance

9. Stamina ;Ability to continue maximum effort requiring prolonged

effort over time

Chapter 3.2
Attitudes & Job Satisfaction
After studying this chapter, you should be able to:

1. Contrast the three components of an attitude.

2. Summarize the relationship between attitudes and behavior.

3. Compare and contrast the major job attitudes.

4. Define job satisfaction and show how it can be measured.

5. Summarize the main causes of job satisfaction and identify four employee responses to
dissatisfaction.

6. Show whether job satisfaction is a relevant concept in countries other than the United States.

Attitudes

Evaluative statements – either favorable or unfavorable – concerning objects, people or events

Attitudes reflect how one feels about something

Three Main
Components of Attitudes

Cognition – an opinion or belief

“I just found out I am paid 20% less than my coworkers.”

Affect – the emotional or feeling segment associated with that belief

“I feel angry that I am not being treated fairly.”

Behavior – the intention to behave in a certain way

“I am going to quit this job soon as I can, and I am taking the red stapler with me!”

Attitudes Follow Behavior:

Cognitive Dissonance

Any inconsistency between two or more attitudes, or between behavior and attitudes

Individuals seek to minimize dissonance

The desire to reduce dissonance is determined by:

The importance of the elements creating the dissonance

The degree of influence the individual believes he or she has over the elements

The rewards that may be involved in dissonance

Behavior Follows Attitudes:

Moderating Variables

The most powerful moderators of the attitude-behavior relationships are:

Importance

Correspondence to behavior

Accessibility

Social pressures

Direct personal experience

Knowing attitudes helps predict behavior

Major Job Attitudes

Job Satisfaction

Job Involvement

Psychological Empowerment

Organizational Commitment

Affective commitment

Continuance commitment

Normative commitment

Perceived Organizational Support (POS)

Employee Engagement

Measuring Job Satisfaction

Single Global Rating Method

Only a few general questions

Remarkably accurate
Summation Score Method

Identifies key elements in the job and asks for specific feeling about them

What Causes Job Satisfaction?

The Work Itself – the strongest correlation with overall satisfaction

Pay – not correlated after individual reaches a level of comfortable living

Advancement

Supervision

Coworkers

The Consequences of Dissatisfaction

The Benefits of Satisfaction

Better job and organizational performance

Better organizational citizenship behaviors

(OCB – Discretionary behaviors that contribute to organizational effectiveness, but are not part of
employees’ formal job description)

Greater levels of customer satisfaction

Generally lower absenteeism and turnover

Decreased instances of workplace deviance

Global Implications

Is job satisfaction a U.S. concept?

Cross-cultural differences do exist but job satisfaction seems to be a global concern

Are employees in Western cultures more satisfied with their jobs?

Yes, but that may be due to the greater value Westerners put on positive emotions and happiness.

Implications for Managers

Employee attitudes give warnings of potential problems and influence behavior

Satisfied and committed employees exhibit behaviors that increase organizational outcomes

Managers must measure job attitudes in order to improve them

Most important elements a manager can focus on are the intrinsic parts of the job: making the work
challenging and interesting

High pay is not enough to create satisfaction

Keep in Mind…

Individuals have many kinds of attitudes about their job.

Job satisfaction is related to organizational effectiveness.

Most employees are satisfied with their jobs, but when they are not, a host of actions in response to
the satisfaction might be expected.

Summary

1. Contrasted the three components of an attitude.

2. Summarized the relationship between attitudes and behavior.

3. Compared and contrasted the major job attitudes.

4. Defined job satisfaction and showed how it can be measured.

5. Summarized the main causes of job satisfaction and identified four employee responses to
dissatisfaction.

6. Showed that job satisfaction is a relevant concept in countries other than the United States.

• Chapter 3.3:

• Emotions and Moods

• Chapter Objectives

• Upon completion of this chapter you will be able to:

– Differentiate emotions from moods, and list the basic emotions and moods.

– Discuss whether emotions are rational and what functions they serve.
 – Identify the sources of emotions and moods.

– Show the impact emotional labor has on employees.

– Describe Affective Events Theory and identify its applications.

– Contrast the evidence for and against the existence of emotional intelligence.

– Apply concepts about emotions and moods to specific OB issues.

– Contrast the experience, interpretation, and expression of emotions across cultures.

• Why Were Emotions Ignored in OB?

• The “Myth of Rationality”

– Emotions were seen as irrational

– Managers worked to make emotion-free environments

• View of Emotionality

– Emotions were believed to be disruptive

– Emotions interfered with productivity

– Only negative emotions were observed

• Now we know emotions can’t be separated from the workplace

• What are Emotions and Moods?

• Affect

– A broad range of emotions that people experience

– Made up of:

• Emotions

– Intense feelings that are directed at someone or something

• Moods

– Feelings that tend to be less intense than emotions and that lack a
contextual stimulus

Exhibit 8-1

• The Basic Emotions

• While not universally accepted, there appear to be six basic emotions:

1. Anger

2. Fear

3. Sadness

4. Happiness

5. Disgust

6. Surprise

• All other emotions are subsumed under these six

• May even be placed in a spectrum of emotion

1. Happiness – surprise – fear – sadness – anger - disgust

• Basic Moods: Positive and Negative Affect

• Emotions cannot be neutral.

• Emotions (“markers”) are grouped into general mood states.

• Mood states affect perception and therefore perceived reality.

Exhibit 8-2

• What is the Function of Emotion?

• Do Emotions Make Us Irrational?

– Expressing emotions publicly may be damaging to social status

– Emotions are critical to rational decision-making

– Emotions help us understand the world around us

• What Functions Do Emotions Serve?

– Darwin argued they help in survival problem-solving

– Evolutionary psychology: people must experience emotions as there is a purpose behind

them

– Not all researchers agree with this assessment

– Sources of Emotion and Mood

 • Personality

– There is a trait component – affect intensity

• Day and Time of the Week

– There is a common pattern for all of us:

• Happier in the midpoint of the daily awake period

• Happier toward the end of the week Exhibits 8-3 & 8-4

• Weather

– Illusory correlation – no effect

• Stress

– Even low levels of constant stress can worsen moods

• Social Activities

– Physical, informal, and dining activities increase positive moods

• More Sources of Emotion and Mood

• Sleep

– Poor sleep quality increases negative affect

• Exercise

– Does somewhat improve mood, especially for depressed people

• Age

– Older folks experience fewer negative emotions

• Gender

– Women tend to be more emotionally expressive, feel emotions more intensely, have
longer lasting moods, and express emotions more frequently than do men

– Due more to socialization than to biology

• Emotional Labor

An employee’s expression of organizationally desired emotions during interpersonal transactions at work

• Emotional Dissonance:
 – Employees have to project one emotion while simultaneously feeling another

– Can be very damaging and lead to burnout

• Types of Emotions:

– Felt: the individual’s actual emotions

– Displayed: required or appropriate emotions

• Surface Acting: displaying appropriately but not feeling those emotions

internally

• Deep Acting: changing internal feelings to match display rules - very stressful

Pay and Emotional Labor Exhibit 8-5

• Affective Events Theory (AET)

• An event in the work environment triggers positive or negative emotional reactions

– Personality and mood determine response intensity

– Emotions can influence a broad range of work variables

• Implications:

– An emotional episode is actually the result of a series of emotional experiences

triggered by a single event

– Current and past emotions affect job satisfaction

– Emotional fluctuations over time create variations in job performance

– Emotion-driven behaviors are typically brief and variable

– Both negative and positive emotions can distract workers and reduce job performance

• Emotions provide valuable insights about behavior

• Emotions, and the minor events that cause them, should not be ignored at work: they
accumulate

Exhibit 8-6

• Emotional Intelligence (EI)

• A person’s ability to:

 – Be self-aware

• Recognizing own emotions when experienced

– Detect emotions in others

– Manage emotional cues and information

• EI plays an important role in job performance

• EI is controversial and not wholly accepted

– Case for EI:

• Intuitive appeal; predicts criteria that matter; is biologically-based

– Case against EI:

• Too vague a concept; can’t be measured; its validity is suspect

• OB Applications of Emotions and Moods

• Selection

– EI should be a hiring factor, especially for social jobs.

• Decision Making

– Positive emotions can lead to better decisions.

• Creativity

– Positive mood increases flexibility, openness, and creativity.

• Motivation

– Positive mood affects expectations of success; feedback amplifies this effect.

• Leadership

– Emotions are important to acceptance of messages from organizational leaders.

• More OB Applications of Emotions and Moods

• Negotiation

– Emotions , skillfully displayed, can affect negotiations.

• Customer Services
 – Emotions affect service quality delivered to customers which, in turn, affects customer
relationships.

– Emotional Contagion: “catching” emotions from others.

• Job Attitudes

– Can carry over to home but dissipate overnight.

• Deviant Workplace Behaviors

– Negative emotions lead to employee deviance (actions that violate norms and threaten
the organization).

• Manager’s Influence

– Leaders who are in a good mood, use humor, and praise employees increase positive
moods in the workplace.

• Global Implications

• Do people experience emotions equally?

– No. Culture can determine type, frequency, and depth of experienced emotions

• Do people interpret emotions the same way?

– Yes. Negative emotions are seen as undesirable and positive emotions are desirable

– However, value of each emotion varies across cultures

• Do norms of emotional expression vary?

– Yes. Some cultures have a bias against emotional expression; others demand some
display of emotion

– How the emotions are expressed may make interpretation outside of one’s culture
difficult

• Summary and Managerial Implications

• Moods are more general than emotions and less contextual

• Emotions and moods impact all areas of OB

• Managers cannot and should not attempt to completely control the emotions of their
employees

• Managers must not ignore the emotions of their co-workers and employees
 • Behavior predictions will be less accurate if emotions are not taken into account

Chapter 3.4

Personality and Value

Personality

The sum total of ways in which an individual reacts to and interacts with others

Most often described in terms of measurable traits that a person exhibits, such as shy, aggressive,
submissive, lazy, ambitious, loyal and timid

Personality Determinants

Heredity is the most dominant factor

Twin studies: genetics more influential than parents

Environmental factors do have some influence

Aging influences levels of ability

Basic personality is constant

Measuring Personality Traits:

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

Most widely used personality-assessment instrument in the world

Individuals are classified as:

Extroverted or Introverted (E/I)

Sensing or Intuitive (S/N)

Thinking or Feeling (T/F)

Judging or Perceiving (J/P)

Classifications combined into 16 personality types (i.e. INTJ or ESTJ)

Unrelated to job performance

Measuring Personality Traits:

The Big-Five Model
Five Traits:

Extraversion

Agreeableness

Conscientiousness

Emotional Stability

Openness to Experience

Strongly supported relationship to job performance (especially Conscientiousness)

Major Personality Attributes Influencing OB

Core self-evaluation

Self like/dislike

Type A personality

Competitive, urgent, and driven

Values

Represent basic, enduring convictions that "a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is
personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state of
existence."

Value Systems

Represent a prioritizing of individual values by:

Content – importance to the individual

Intensity – relative importance with other values

The hierarchy tends to be relatively stable

Values are the foundation for attitudes, motivation, and behavior

Influence perception and cloud objectivity

Rokeach Value Survey

Terminal values refers to desirable end-states of existence

 Goals that a person would like to achieve during his or her lifetime

Instrumental values

refers to preferable modes of behavior, or means of achieving the terminal values

Examples of Terminal Values

Examples of Instrumental Values

Contemporary Work Cohorts

Personality-Job Fit:
Holland’s Hexagon

Job satisfaction and turnover depend on congruency between personality and task

Fields adjacent are similar

Field opposite are dissimilar

Person-Organization Fit

It is more important that employees’ personalities fit with the organizational culture than with the
characteristics of any specific job.

The fit predicts job satisfaction, organizational commitment and turnover.

Global Implications

The Big Five Model appears across a wide variety of cultures

Primary differences based on factor emphasis and type of country

Values differ across cultures

Two frameworks for assessing culture:

Hofstede

GLOBE

Hofstede’s Framework for Assessing Cultures

Five factors:

Power Distance

Individualism vs. Collectivism

Masculinity vs. Femininity

Uncertainty Avoidance

Long-term vs. Short-term Orientation

GLOBE* Framework for Assessing Cultures

Assertiveness

Future orientation

Gender differentiation

Uncertainty avoidance

Power distance

Individualism/ collectivism

In-group collectivism

Performance orientation

Humane orientation

Implications for Managers

Personality:

Evaluate the job, group, and organization to determine the best fit

Big Five is best to use for selection

MBTI for development and training

Values:

Strongly influence attitudes, behaviors, and perceptions

Match the individual values to organizational culture

Keep in Mind…

Personality

The sum total of ways in which individual reacts to, and interacts with, others

Easily measured
Big Five Personality Traits

Related to many OB criteria

May be very useful in predicting behavior

Values

Vary between and within cultures

Summary

1. Defined personality, described how it is measured, and explained the factors that determine
an individual’s personality.

2. Described the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality framework and assessed its strengths
and weaknesses.

3. Identified the key traits in the Big Five personality model and demonstrated how the traits are
relevant to OB.

4. Defined values, demonstrated the importance of values, and contrasted terminal and
instrumental values.

5. Compared the generational differences in values and identified the dominant values in today’s
workforce.

6. Identified Hofstede’s five value dimensions of national culture.

Chapter 3 .5

Perception and Individual Decision Making

Perception

A process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give
meaning to their environment.

The world as it is perceived is the world that is behaviorally important.

Factors Influencing Perception

Person Perception: Attribution Theory

Suggests that perceivers try to “attribute” the observed behavior to a type of cause:
Internal – behavior is believed to be under the personal control of the individual

External –the person is forced into the behavior by outside events/causes

Determinants of Attribution

Distinctiveness – whether an individual displays different behaviors in different situations (the

uniqueness of the act)

Consensus – does everyone who faces a similar situation respond in the same way as the individual
did

Consistency – does the person respond the same way over time

Determination of Attribution

Attribution Errors

Fundamental Attribution Error

The tendency to underestimate the influence of external factors and overestimate that of internal
factors.

Self-Serving Bias

Occurs when individuals overestimate their own (internal) influence on successes and overestimate
the external influences on their failures.

Shortcuts Used in Judging Others

Selective Perception – a perceptual filtering process based on interests, background, and attitude.
May allow observers to draw unwarranted conclusions from an ambiguous situation.

Halo Effect – drawing a general impression based on a single characteristic.

Contrast Effects – our reaction is influenced by others we have recently encountered (the context of
the observation).

Stereotyping – judging someone on the basis of the perception of the group to which they belong.

The Link Between Perception and Decision Making

Decision making occurs as a reaction to a perceived problem

Perception influences:

Awareness that a problem exists

The interpretation and evaluation of information

Bias of analysis and conclusions

Rational Decision-Making Model

1. Define the problem.

2. Identify the decision criteria.

3. Allocate weights to the criteria.

4. Develop the alternatives.

5. Evaluate the alternatives.

6. Select the best alternative.

Assumptions of the Model

Complete knowledge of the situation

All relevant options are known in an unbiased manner

The decision-maker seeks the highest utility

Bounded Rationality

The limited information-processing capability of human beings makes it impossible to assimilate and
understand all the information necessary to optimize

So people seek solutions that are satisfactory and sufficient, rather than optimal (they “satisfice”)

Bounded rationality is constructing simplified models that extract the essential features from
problems without capturing all their complexity

Decision Making in Bounded Rationality

Simpler than rational decision making, composed of three steps:

1. Limited search for criteria and alternatives – familiar criteria and easily found
alternatives

2. Limited review of alternatives – focus alternatives, similar to those already in effect

3. Satisficing – selecting the first alternative that is “good enough”

Intuitive Decision Making

An non-conscious process created out of distilled experience

Increases with experience

Can be a powerful complement to rational analysis in decision making

Common Biases and Errors

Overconfidence Bias

As managers and employees become more knowledgeable about an issue, the less likely they are to
display overconfidence

Anchoring Bias

A tendency to fixate on initial information and fail to adequately adjust for subsequent information

Confirmation Bias

Seeking out information that reaffirms our past choices and discounting information that contradicts
past judgments

Common Biases and Errors

Availability Bias

The tendency to base judgments on information that is readily available

Escalation of Commitment

Staying with a decision even when there is clear evidence that it is wrong

Hindsight Bias

The tendency to believe falsely that we could have accurately predicted the outcome of an event after
that outcome is already known

Organizational Constraints on Decision Making

Performance evaluations

Reward systems

Formal regulations

Self-imposed time constraints

Historical precedents

Ethical Frameworks for Decision Making

Utilitarian

Provide the greatest good for the greatest number

Rights

make decisions consistent with fundamental liberties and privileges

Justice

impose and enforce rules fairly and impartially so that there is equal distribution of benefits and costs

Creativity in Decision Making

The ability to produce novel and useful ideas

Helps people to:

Better understand the problem

See problems others can’t see

Identify all viable alternatives

Identify alternatives that aren’t readily apparent

Three-Component Model of Creativity

Global Implications

Attributions:

Cross-cultural differences exist – especially in collectivist traditions

Decision Making:

Cultural background of the decision maker can have significant influence on decisions made

Ethics:

No global ethical standards exist

Need organizational-level guidance

Implications for Managers

Perception:

To increase productivity, influence workers’ perceptions of their jobs

To improve decision making:

1. Analyze the situation

 2. Adjust your decision approach

3. Be aware of biases and minimize their impact

4. Combine rational analysis with intuition

5. Try to enhance your creativity

Keep in Mind…

1. People have inherent biases in perception and decision making

Understanding those biases allows for better prediction of behavior

1. Biases can be helpful

Managers must determine when the bias may be counterproductive

1. Creativity aids in decision making

Helps to appraise, understand, and identify problems

Summary