Basic Elements of

Individual Behavior in
Organizations
Basic Elements of Individual Behavior in Organizations
 Understanding Individuals in Organizations
 Personality and Individuals in Organizations.
 Attitudes and Individual Behavior.
 Perception and Individual Behavior
 Stress and Individual Behavior.
 Creativity in Organizations
 Types of Workplace Behavior.
Understanding Individuals in Organizations
The Psychological Contract
-The overall set of expectations held by an individual
with respect to what he or she will contribute to the
organization and what the organization will provide in
return.
Understanding Individuals in Organizations

Figure 9.1
The Psychological Contract
Psychological contracts are the basic
assumptions that individuals have
about their relationships with their
organization. Such contracts are
defined in terms of contributions by
the individual relative to
inducements from the organization.
Understanding Individuals in Organizations
The Person-Job Fit
-The extent to which the contributions made by the individual match the
inducements offered by the organization

 Reason for poor person-job fit:

- Organizational selection procedures are imperfect.
- Both people and organizations change over time.
- Adopting new technologies changes the skills needed by employees.
- Each individuals is unique and each job is unique.
Understanding Individuals in Organizations
The Nature of Individual Differences
-Personal attributed that vary from one person to another.
-Physical, psychological or emotional. Taken together, all the individual
differences that characterize any specific person serve to make that
individual unique from everyone else.
Personality and Individual Behavior
Personality
-The relatively stable set of psychological and behavioral
attributes that distinguish one person from another.

The Big Five Personality Traits

 Agreeableness - a person's ability to get along with others.
 Conscientiousness - the number of goals on which a person focuses.
 Negative Emotionality - the extent to which a person is calm, resilient
and secure.
 Extraversion - a person's comfort level with relationships.
 Openness - a person’s rigidity of beliefs and range of interest.
Personality and Individual Behavior

Figure 9.2
The "Big Five" Model of Personality
The "Big Five" personality model represent an
increasingly accepted framework for understanding
personality traits in organizational settings. In
general, experts tend to agree that personality traits
towards the left end of each direction as illustrated in
this figure are more positive in organizational
settings, whereas traits closer to the right are less
positive.
Personality and Individual Behavior
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
 A popular questionnaire that some organizations use to access
personality types.
 Is a useful method for determining communication styles and
interaction preferences.
 Has questionable validity and reliability.

 Four General Dimensions

• Extraversion (E) vs Introversion (I)
• Sensing (S) vs Intuition (N)
• Thinking (T) vs Feeling (F)
• Judging (J) vs Perceiving (P)
Personality and Individual Behavior
Other Personality Traits at Work
 Locus of Control
-The extent to which people believe that their behavior has a real effect
on what happens to them.
-Internal locus of control - individuals who believe they are in control
of their lives.
-External locus of control - individuals believe that external forces
dictate what happens to then.

 Self-Efficacy
-A person's belief about his or her capabilities to perform a task. High
self-efficacy individuals believe they can perform well while low self-
efficacy individuals doubt their ability to perform.
Personality and Individual Behavior

 Authoritarianism
-The extent to which an individual believes that power and status
differences are appropriate within hierarchical social organizations.
 Machiavellianism
-Behavior directed at gaining and controlling the behavior of others.

 Self-Esteem
-The extent to which a person believes she/he is a worthwhile
individual.

 Risk Propensity
-The degree to which an individual is willing to take chances and make
risky decisions.
Personality and Individual Behavior
Emotional intelligence or EQ
-The extent to which people are self-aware, can manage their emotions, can
motivate themselves, express empathy for others and possess social skills.

 Dimensions of EQ
• Self-awareness
• Managing emotions
• Motivating Oneself
• Empathy
• Social Skills
Attitudes and Individual Behavior
Attitudes
-Complexes of beliefs and feelings that people have about specific ideas,
situations or other people.

 Three Components of Attitudes

• Affective components - Feeling and emotions towards a situation (i.e.
how we feel).
• Cognitive components - Perceived knowledge (i.e. why we feel the
way we feel).
• Intentional components - Expected behavior in a given situation (i.e.
what we intend do about the situation).
Attitudes and Individual Behavior
Cognitive dissonance
 The conflict individuals experience among their own attitudes.

 The affective and cognitive components of the individual's attitude are in

conflict with intended behavior.
Attitudes and Individual Behavior
Work Related Attitudes
 Job Satisfaction or Dissatisfaction
• An attitude that reflects the extent to which an individual is gratified or
fulfilled by his or her work.
• Job satisfaction is influenced by personal, group, and organizational
factors.
• Satisfied employees are absent less often make positive contributions,
and stay with the organization.
• Dissatisfied employees are absent more often, may experience stress
which disrupts coworkers, and may be continually looking for another
job.
• High levels of job satisfaction do not necessarily lead to high job
performance.
Attitudes and Individual Behavior
Work Related Attitudes
 Organizational Commitment
• An attitude that reflects an individuals identification with and
attachment to an organization
• Employee commitment strengthens with an individuals age, years with
the organization, sense of job security and participation in decision
making.
• Committed employees have highly reliable habits, plan a longer tenure
with the organization, and muster more effort in performance.
Attitudes and Individual Behavior
Affect and Mood in Organizations
 Positive Affectivity
-A tendency to be relatively upbeat and optimistic, have an overall sense of
well-being, see things in a positive light, and seem to be in a good mood.

 Negative Affectivity
-A tendency to be generally downbeat and pessimistic, tend to see in a
negative way, and seem to be in a bad mood.
Perception and Individual Behavior
Perception
-The set of processes by which an individual becomes aware of and interprets
information about the environment.

 Selective Perception
• The process of screening out information that we are uncomfortable with or that
contradicts our beliefs.
• If selective perception causes someone to ignore important information it can become
quite detrimental.
Perception and Individual Behavior

Figure 15.3
PERCEPTUAL PROCESSES
Two of the most basic perceptual
processes are selective perception
and stereotyping. As shown here,
selective perception occurs when we
screen out information (represented
by the - symbols) that causes us
discomfort or that contradicts our
beliefs. Stereotyping occurs when we
categorize or label people on the
basis of a single attribute, illustrated
here by colors.
Perception and Individual Behavior
 Stereotyping
• The process of categorizing or labeling people on the basis of a single attribute (e.g.
gender and race).
• Stereotyping may cost the organization valuable talent, violate federal anti-bias laws,
and is likely unethical.
Perception and Individual Behavior
 Perception and Attribution
• A mechanism through which we observe behavior and attribute a casue to it.

 Ways in which attributions are formed

• Consensus
• Consistency
• Distinctiveness
Stress and Individual Behavior
 Stress
• A person's response to a stimulus (i.e. a stressor)

 General Adaptation syndrome (GAS)

• The general cycle of the stress process.
-Stage 1 Alarm
-Stage 2 Resistance
-Stage 3 Exhaustion
Stress and Individual Behavior
 Personality Types
• Type A personality
- Have a lot of drive and want to accomplish as much as possible as quickly as possible.
- Extremely competitive (aggressive), devoted to work, have a strong sense of time
urgency (impatient).

• Type B personality

- Less competitive, less devoted to work, have a weaker sense of time urgency.
- Less likely to experience personal stress or to come into conflict with other people.
- More likely to have a balanced, relaxed approach to life.
The General Adaptation Syndrome

Figure 15.4
THE GENERAL ADAPTATION
SYNDROME
Represents the normal process by
which we react to stressful events. At
stage 1-alarm- we feel panic and
alarm and our level of resistance to
stress drops. Stage 2 –resistance-
represents our efforts to confronts
and control the circumstance. If we
fall, we may eventually reach Stage
3 –exhaustion- and just give up or
quit.
Causes of Work Stress
Figure 15.5
CAUSES OF WORK STRESS
There are several causes of work stress in organizations. Four general sets of
organizational stressors are task demands, physical demands, role demands, and
interpersonal demands.
Causes and Consequences of Stress
 Consequences of Stress
• Negative personal consequences
- Behavioral, Psychological, Medical.

• Negative work related consequences

- Poor quality work output and lower productivity.

- Job dissatisfaction, low morale, and lack of commitment.
- Withdrawal through indifferences and absenteeism.

• Burnout

- A feeling of exhaustion that may develop when someone experiences too much stress
for an extended period of time.
Managing Stress
 Stress Management Strategies for individuals
• Regular exercise
- Reduces tension and stress, improves self-confidence and feeling optimism.

• Relaxation
- Allows individuals to adapt and better deal with their stress

• Time management
- Reduces stress by prioritizing activities to accomplish them in order of their
importance.

• Support Groups
- away from work reduces stress
Managing Stress
 Stress Management Strategies for Organizations
• Regular exercise
- Organizations are partly responsible for stress
- Organizations also bear the costs of stress related claims.
- Organizational wellness/stress management programs can be used to promote healthful
employee activities and derive benefits of increased organizational productivity.
Creativity in Organizations.
 Creativity
• The ability of an individual to generate new ideas or to conceive of new perspective in
existing ideas.

 The Creative Individual

• Background experiences and creativity

- Many creative individuals were reared in creative environments.

• Personal traits and creativity

- Creative persons have personal traits of openness, an attraction to complexity, high levels
of energy, independence, autonomy, strong self-confidence, and a strong belief in their own
creativity.
Creativity in Organizations.
• Cognitive abilities and creativity

- Most creative people are highly intelligent

-They are both divergent and convergent thinkers, a skills they use to see differences and
similarities in situations, phenomena and events.
The Creative Process
Preparation
• Formal education and training is used to get up to speed
• Experiences on the job provide additional knowledge and ideas.

Incubation
• A period of less intense conscious concentration during which knowledge and ideas
acquired, during reparation, mature and develop.
• Incubation can be helped by pauses in rational thought.
The Creative Process
Insight
• A spontaneous breakthrough in which the creative person achieves a new understanding
of some problem or situation.
• Patterns of thought coalesce into a new understanding.

Verification
• Determines the validity or truthfulness of the insight
• Tests are conducted and prototypes are built to see if the insight leads to the expected
results.
The Creative Process
Enhancing Creativity in Organizations
• Make creativity part of the organization's culture.
- Set goals for revenues from creative products and services.

• Reward creativity; refrain from punishing creative failures.

- Some ideas work ou as expected, others don't work out as intended.
Types of Workplace Behavior
Workplace Behavior
-A pattern of action by the members of an organization that directly of indirectly influences
organizational effectiveness.

 Performance Behaviors
• The total set of work related behaviors an organization expects an individual to display

 Withdrawal Behavior
• Absenteeism occurs when an individual does not show up for work when expected for
legitimate or feigned reasons.
• Absenteeism may be a symptoms of other work related problems.
• Turnover occurs when individuals quit their jobs for work related or personal reasons.
Types of workplace Behavior
 Organizational Citizenship
• The behavior of individuals that makes a positive overall contribution to the organization
• The determinants of organizational citizenship is a complex mosaic of individual, social, and
organizational variables.
- The personality, attitudes and needs of the individual.
- The social context, or work group in which the individual works.
- An organization (and it's culture) capable of rewarding citizenship behaviors.
Types of workplace Behavior
 Dysfunctional Behaviors
• Behaviors that detract from, rather that contribute to organizational performance.
- Absenteeism and turnover
- Theft and sabotage
- Sexual and racial harassment
- Political behavior
- Intentionally misleading others
- Spreading malicious rumors
- Workplace violence