1. Organizational Psychology
Interactive lecture
Dr Jolanta Babiak
Winter semester 2017/2018

2. Content of lectures
Learning about organizational behavior – psychological perspective
Personality and attitudes
Perception and attribution
Individual problem solving styles
Learning and reinforcement
Work motivation
Goal setting
Work stress

3. Content of lectures Dynamics within and between groups
Influence – Robert Cialdini’s approach
Leadership
Introduction to the theory of conflict
Negotiations
Test
Make-up test

4. Grading 10 quizes – 5 questions 5 Content Points
Final test – 1 question, answered verbally, January 16, 2018
50 points
Make-up test January 23, 2018
Maximum number of points to gain 40
Participation
1 point per class totals 15 points

5. Grading Less than 60 Failing (2) Points’ threshold grade 60-70
Satisfctory (3)
71-75
Satisfactory+ (3+)
76-84
Good (4)
85-92
Good + (4+)
Very good (5)

6. Assigned readings
Robins, S. Judge T.A. (2013). Organizational Behavior, New Jersey, Pearson Education, Inc.
Cialdini, R. B. (2007). Influence. The psychology of persuasion. New Yor, HarperCollins Publishers
Whetten, D. A., Cameron K. S. (2011). Developing Management Skills. New Jersey: Person education, Inc.

7. Assigned Reading for lecture 1
Robins, S. Judge T.A. (2013). Organizational Behavior, New Jersey, Pearson Education, Inc. – chapter 1
Whetten, D. A., Cameron K. S. (2011). Developing Management Skills. New Jersey: Person education, Inc. – Introduction

8. Organizational behavior
Investigates the impact individuals, groups and structure have on behavior within organization Study of what people do in an organization and how their behavior affects the organization’s performance OB is an applied behavioral science built on a contribution from psychology, social psychology, sociology and anthropology

9. Organizational behavior
Understanding human behavior plays a key role in effective managing people in organizations
Until late 1980s emphasis on technical aspects of management e.g. economics, accounting, finance, etc.
Social relationships among co-workers and supervisors:
lower stress at work,
less intentions to quit,
higher work engagement,
more accurate decision making,
collaborative behavior.

10. Importance of people skills = organizational behavior
Human beings are complex and few, if any, simple and universal principles explain organizational behavior
Importance of people skills = organizational behavior

11. OB puts great emphasis on examining managerial behavior
One common thread runs through managerial functions Paramount importance of managing people

12. What do managers do? Managers get things done through other people
Managers oversee activities of others
Managers are responsible for attaining goals in the organization
Functional approach (Henri Fayol) – managers’ functions
Planning
Organizing
Commanding (Leading)
Coordinating
Controlling

13. What do managers do? Cont.
According to Mintzberg (1960) managers perform 10 different roles grouped into:
Interpersonal: figurehead, leader, liaison
Informational: monitor, disseminator, spokesperson
Decisional: being responsible for decisions and their outcomes
Effective vs successful managers: do managers who move up the quickest in an organization do the same activities and with the same emphasis as managers who do the best job?

14. What else managers do?
Technical skills – ability to apply specialized knowledge or expertise
Human skills – ability to understand, communicate with, motivate, and support other people
Conceptual skills – mental ability to analyze and diagnose complex situations

15. Management Skills
Identifiable sets of actions that individuals perform that lead to certain outcomes
Why do we need management skills?
What are managerial skills?
What is their nature?
Why are they critical for succesfull management?
Can they be developed?

16. Why do we need management skills, since
We live in chaotic, rapid-fire changing environment
It’s been predicted that factories will need two employees only: one person and a dog?
…Or “permanent white water” organizational environment
There is something that has remained relatively constant in several thousand years: the basic skills that lie at the heart of effective, satisfying, growth- producing human relationships such as freedom, dignity, trust, honesty, responsibility.

17. (1) We need management skills
Human relationships are becoming more important not less
Information overload ( e.g.6000 business books each month)
No mechanism to organize, prioritize or interpret this information – what is crucial? What can be ignored?
Key sense-making mechanism is the relationship we have with the sources of that information

18. (2) What are management skills?
Ensure employment security
Selectively hire people
Foster decentralization
Institute high levels of pay based on performance
Transcend fear
First look within
Embody a vision for a common good
Disturb the system
Status conscious
Embrace the hypocritical self
Surrender to the emergent process
Question: are these management skills? No, these are organizational strategies, personality orientations, philosophical approaches to management and their implementation is outside of control of individual manager

19. (2) What are management skills?
MS form the vehicle by which management strategy, practices, tools and techniques, personality attributes work to produce effective outcomes in organizations
Building blocks upon which effective management rests
MS are the means by which managers translate their own style, strategy and favorite tools or techniques into practice

20. (2) Management skills Verbal communication (including listening)
Managing time and stress
Managing individual decisions
Recognizing, defining, and solving problems
Motivating and influencing others
Delegating
Setting goals and articulating a vision
Self-awareness
Team building
Managing conflict

21. (3) What are the attributes of management skills?
MS are behavioral, not personality attributes nor stylistic tendencies – they can be observed
MS are controllable – the performance of MS is under the control of the individual – consciously demonstrated, practiced, improved, or restrained
MS are developable – through practice and feedback
MS are interrelated and overlapping – integrated sets of complex responses; are not demonstrated in isolation from each other
MS are contradictory or paradoxical - either teamwork nor individual relations, either soft and humanistic nor hard-driving and directive
That is most effective managers are both participative and hard driving, both nurturing and competitive

22. (4) Power of management skills
Main presumption: management skills – skills needed to manage one’s own life as well as relationships with others
Due to effective people management:
employee turnover drops
Profits increase
Sales grow
Shareholder value grows
Produces firm’s longevity

23. (4) Power of management skills
What factors best account for financial success?
Market share?
Capital intensity?
Size of the firm in assets?
Industry average return on sales?
Good people management?
One factor – the ability to manage people effectively – was three times more powerful than all other factors combined in accounting for firm financial success

24. How do we develop management skills?
Are management skills developable?
Where do we start?
What is the foundation/prerequisite to managerial skills’ development process?
How long does it take to master managerial skills?

25. Get to Know Yourself first
Management skills originate from self-management (self-reverence, self-control, self-knowledge, self-insight, self-understanding)
Self-management starts with self-awareness which lies at the heart of ability to master oneself (but it is not sufficient)
Setting priorities and goals, managing time and managing stress are build upon self-awareness
This is where we start.

26. A hierarchy of personal life – management skills
Managing stress
Managing time
Setting priorities and goals
Self-awareness

27. Knowledge about the self
The knowledge we possess about ourselves (self-concept) is central to develop and improve management skills, however…
Seeking kowledge about the self may motivate improvement or inhibit it!
The sensitive line concept
p. 58

28. Important areas of self-awareness
Managing diversity: Understanding individual differences
The ability to manage oneself and others: Emotional intelligence
Gathering and processing of information: Cognitive style
Core self-evaluation
Orientation towards change
Personal values
Important areas of self-awareness

29. Purpose of understanding individual differences
Workforce is becoming more diverse (gender, age, culture, ethnicity)
Self-awareness helps to understand your own uniqueness – assumptions, trigger points, sensitive line, strengths and weaknesses
Helps diagnose, value and utilize differences in other people

30. Understanding individual differences
Evidence suggests that manager’s effectiveness is related to his ability to recognize, appreciate and utilize key differences among others
Ability to diagnose, appreciate and utilize fundamental differences among others with whom you interact

31. Understanding individual differences
Self knowledge helps to recognize own special gifts in comparisons to others and capitalize on our strengths
Being aware of different perspectives, needs, tendencies of other people is key part of personal maturity and emotional intelligence
Don’t we have a tendency to interact with individuals who are like we are?

32. Understanding individual differences Don’t we have a tendency to interact with individuals who are like we are?
pros
cons
Similarity makes it easier to interact with others – especially in the work place
Reduces creativity
Reduces complex problem solving capacity
Reduces the possibility to challenge authority figure
Makes it more difficult to recognize changes in the environment
Reduces the potential for novel ways to respond to diversity

33. How can we become more comfortable while managing diversity?
Differences
Distinctions
Help us understand potential source of misunderstanding among people
Give us clues how we can work together more effectively
Create social barrier
Reinforce advantages or disadvantages
Destroy trust among people
Damages the process of developing self-awareness

34. Interpersonal competences emotional intelligence
Ability to recognize and control own emotions
Ability to diagnose and recognize others’ feelings
Ability to understand differences among emotions
Ability to respond appropriately to emotional cues
3 validated measures to assess person’s emotional intelligence; hundreds not scientifically validated are available from different sources

35. Emotional intelligence
Emotional competence
Ability to diagnose, understand and manage emotional cues
Noncognitive capabilities and skills that affect human functioning
These noncognitive skills and abilities are among the most important factors in explaining why some people succeed as leaders and others not

36. Why is emotional intelligence so important?
Evidence suggest that emotional competency level has dropped over time (IQ on the other hand increased almost 25 points over last 100 yrs)
Emotional intelligence has strong predictive power regarding success in management
IQ accounts for 10% of variance in job perfomrance and in life success
IQ + EI almost 40%

37. Gathering and processing of information: Cognitive style
We attend to information and act upon it at a time to certain degree
We all develop strategies for suppressing some kind of information and paying attention to other kinds – to our benefit
These strategies become habitual and ingrained and they result in a particular cognitive style

38. Cognitive styles
Particular tendency to perceive, interpret, and respond to information in a certain way
The manner in which we collect information
The way in which we evaluate and act upon it
Cognitive styles are moldable: developable and changeable with conscious effort

39. Knowing style Attributes Potential flaws
emphasis on facts, details and data;
seek clear solutions,
Seek rationality and validity of data
Show preference for a legitimate data
Careful, accurate, and precise in evaluating information
Slow to make decisions
Less creative
resistant to innovation
Preference for one view instead of multiple

40. Planning style Attributes Potential flaws Resistant to change
Emphasis on structure, preparation, and planning
Seek information with clear outlines and well-developed
Systematic methodology for responding to information
Conform to procedures and maintain routine
Prefer organization and logic
Resistant to change
Don’t handle ambiguity well
Intolerant of chaos
Can’t handle illogical issues and unpredictability

41. Creating style Attributes Potential flaws Resistant to structure
Emphasis on experimentation, non-rational thinking, and creativity
Seek novelty and handle ambiguity well
Spontaneous and quick to respond to information
Like action and restructuring of situations
Good brainstormers
Resistant to structure
Inclination to break rules
May make many mistakes
Tend to ignore data and facts
Tend to be disorganized

42. Consequences of our cognitive styles
People use their preferred cognitive style no matter what type of problem the face (brainstorming vs. installing new decision-aiding computer system)
Cognitive style does not indicate intelligence or capability
Knowing the style is advantageous in many ways
CS can be modified as person engages in different activities, interacts with different people or manage in different environments

43. Orientation towards change: prerequisite for successful coping with change
Ability to process information is to some extent constrained by the fundamental attitude towards change
Why is it important…? Change
Stability is interpreted as stagantion
If the organization is not in the stage of transformation/revolution it is considered poorly managed
Managers can no longer afford the luxury of managing in the stable, constant environemnt
Rapid-fire decision making, without the benfit of adequate information and careful analysis is becoming the norm

44. Orientation towards change: two key attitudes associated with success in management roles
Tolerance of ambiguity
Locus of control
Difficulty coping with ambiguous situations, with unpredictable, complex circumstances, inadequate and unclear information (stimulus-rich and information-overloaded environments)
High ambiguity tolerance correlates + with cognitive complexity: more adaptive than opposite characteristics
One can learn to be more tolerant of ambiguity
Refers to the attitude people develop regarding the extent to which they are in control of their own destinies
Internal locus of control: interpreting the reinforcements as being contingent upon one’s own action
External locus of control: interpreting the reinforcements as being the product of outside forces

45. Orientation towards change, cont.
Tolerance of ambiguity
Locus of control
High ambiguity tolerant individuals are better transmitters of information, more sensitive to internal characteristics of others, more adaptive and flexible under overloaded situations
HA mangers are more entrepreneurial, are able to screen less information in a complex environment and cope more effectively with major organizational change
Might have difficulty focusing on single important element of information
ILC managers: less alienated form work environment, more satisfied with work, experience less job strain, position mobility, tend to acquire leadership position in groups
Firms led by internals engage in innovation, more risky projects, longer planning horizons, more leadership in the marketplace
L of C can shift over time as a function of position held and experiences

46. Personality: Core self-evaluation
differences among people are manifest in certain kinds of behaviors, attitudes, emotional reactions, and thought patterns
these unique patterns are persons personality usually referred to as “trait”, to the extent that it is relatively enduring and stable
sizeable portion of our behavioral makeup is learned and can be changed, that is we have some control over it and it may be altered with conscious effort

47. Personality – research
Three attribute of personality have gotten extremely high interest from scientists: self-esteem, locus of control, and neuroticism
Five aspects of personality are referred to as most important individual’s characteristics: Extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, openness

48. Core self-evaluation
Differences in scores on the five personality aspects can be explained by a more foundational personality factor: the fundamental evaluation each person has developed about him/herself - core self-evaluation
Core evaluations influence people’s appraisals about themselves, the world, and others but they operate subconsciously – for the most part people are not aware of their own core self-evaluations

49. Components of core self-evaluation
core self-evaluation sometimes referred to as positive self-regard;
comprised of four components:
self-esteem,
generalized self-efficacy,
neuroticism,
locus of control
In combination these 4 factors create a single, powerful latent attribute that lies at the foundation of personality manifestations

50. Effects of core self-evaluation
Each factor has a slightly different meaning but the shared meaning among them, core self-evaluation, assess the extent to which one possesses positive self-regard, feels valuable, capable, stable and in control
High CSE tend to be more satisfied with their job, perform more successfully on the job, have higher level of task motivation, persistence, productivity in the task, goal setting and commitment, and energized work behavior
Core self-evaluation is a strong predictor of personality differences, job satisfaction, job performance, and life happiness

51. Personal values A person’s principles of standards of behavior
Among the most stable and enduring characteristics of an individual
Foundation for
attitudes
personal preferences
crucial decision
life directions
personal tastes
define our morality
define our conception of good and not-good

52. Personal values, cont.
Often people are unaware of which values they hold are more important and which are less important
People seldom seek to clarify their values
The values we hold are affected by a number of factors, e.g. nationality, religion or lack thereof, organization we work for, personal experiences, stage of values development (values maturity)

53. Cultural values: 7 dimensions
Universalism: societal rules/norms are valued
Individualism: individual contributions
Affective: showing emotions
Specific: segregating life’s role
Achievement: personal accomplishment
Past and present: past is connected to future
Internal: individual control
Particularism: individual relationships are valued
Collectivism: team contributions
Neutral: unemotional responses
Diffuse: integrating life’s role
Ascription: inherent attributes
Future: future is disconnected
External: control comes from outside forces

54. Personal values
Total number of values is small and people posses the same values but in different degrees (Rokeach 1973)
Instrumental – means oriented (prescribe desirable standards and methods for attaining an end)
Terminal – ends oriented (prescribe desirable end or goal for an individual)

55. Personal values – research data.
Most desired values in employees:
Responsible
Honest
Capable
Imaginative
Logical
Obedient, clean, polite

56. Personal values – research data.
Managers gave significantly higher score to values relating to economic (comfortable life) and political values (social recognition)
Sense of accomplishment
Self-respect
Comfortable life and independence

57. Personal values – research data.
Most important values for business school students and professors:
Ambition
Capability
Responsibility
Freedom
Less concerned with helping others, cultural values, and social injustice

58. Values and decision making
Awareness of one’s own values maturity (moral development) has practical implications for ethical decision making
For managers a corporate environment often means the pressure to compromise personal standards to meet company’s goals
Most ethical trade-offs are conflicts between economic end and social performance
In order to manage effectively one has to have clear sense of own values and developed moral maturity

59. Self-awareness: sum-up
Managerial skill development in any area will only occur if individuals have solid foundation of self-awareness
paradox in human behavior: we can know others only by knowing ourselves, but we can know ourselves only by knowing others
Our ability to successfully interact and manage others comes from relating what we see in them to our own experience
Self recognition leads to recognition and understanding of others: the basis for effective managing other human beings

60. Bibliography
Bass, B.M., Bass, R. (2008). The Bass handbook of leadership. Theory, research and managerial applications. New York: The Free Press.
Robbins, S. P., Judge, T. A. (2013). Organizational behavior. New Jersey: Person education, Inc.
Whetten, D. A., Cameron K. S. (2011). Developing Management Skills. New Jersey: Person education, Inc.