1. FOUNDATIONS OF BEHAVIOUR
Chapter 14
FOUNDATIONS OF
BEHAVIOUR
© 2003 Pearson Education Canada Inc.
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2. LEARNING OBJECTIVES You should be able to:
Define the focus and goals of organizational behaviour
Describe the three components of an attitude
Identify the role that consistency plays in attitudes
Explain the relationship between satisfaction and productivity
Tell how managers can use the Myers-Briggs personality type framework and the big-five model of personality
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3. LEARNING OBJECTIVES (continued)
You should be able to:
Define emotional intelligence
Describe attribution theory and its use in explaining individual behaviour
Identify the types of shortcuts managers use in judging others
Explain how managers can shape employee behaviour
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4. WHY LOOK AT INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOUR?
Organizational Behaviour (OB)
Concerned specifically with the actions of people at work
Addresses issues that are not obvious
Focus of OB
Individual behaviour - attitudes, personality, perception, learning, and motivation
Group behaviour - norms, roles, team building, leadership, and conflict
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5. THE ORGANIZATION AS AN ICEBERG (Exhibit 14.1)
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6. WHY LOOK AT INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOUR? (continued)
Goals of OB
Explain, predict, and influence behaviour
Manager’s success depends on getting things done through other people
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7. ATTITUDES Evaluative statements concerning objects, people, or events
Three components
cognitive - beliefs, opinions, knowledge, or information held by a person
affective - emotion or feeling
behavioural - intention to behave in a certain way toward someone or something
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8. ATTITUDES (continued)
Job-Related Attitudes
Job satisfaction - employee’s general attitude toward her or his job
Job involvement - degree to which an employee identifies with her or his job
Organizational commitment - employee’s loyalty to, identification with, and involvement in the organization
Organizational citizen behaviour (OCB) - discretionary behaviour that is not part of the formal job requirements
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9. ATTITUDES (continued)
Attitudes and Consistency
People seek consistency:
among their attitudes
between their attitudes and behaviour
Inconsistency gives rise to steps to achieve consistency
alter attitudes or behaviour
develop rationalization for the inconsistency
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10. ATTITUDES (continued)
Cognitive Dissonance Theory
Cognitive dissonance - any incompatibility between attitudes or between attitudes and behaviour
Effort to reduce dissonance related to:
importance of factors causing dissonance
perceived degree of influence over these factors
rewards that may be involved in dissonance
Attitude Surveys
Present employee with questions that elicit how they feel about their jobs, work groups, supervisors, or the organization
Attitude score is the sum of responses to individual items
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11. SAMPLE ATTITUDE SURVEY (Exhibit 14.2)
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12. ATTITUDES (continued)
Satisfaction-Productivity Controversy
Traditional belief was that happy workers were productive workers
Research evidence suggests that if satisfaction has a positive influence on productivity, it is small
Contingency factors have clarified the relationship between satisfaction and productivity
Research designs do not permit conclusions about cause and effect
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13. PERSONALITY
The unique combination of the psychological traits we use to describe a person
Personality Traits
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) - four dimensions
social interaction: Extrovert or Introvert
preference for gathering data: Sensing or Intuitive
preference for decision making: Feeling or Thinking
style of making decisions: Perceptive or Judgmental
lack of evidence to support the MBTI’s validity
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14. EXAMPLES OF MBTI PERSONALITY TYPES (Exhibit 14.3)
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15. PERSONALITY (continued)
Personality Traits (continued)
Big-Five Model of Personality - traits include degree of:
extraversion - sociability, talkativeness, assertiveness
agreeableness - good-natured, cooperative, trusting
conscientiousness - responsibility, dependability, persistence, and achievement orientation
emotional stability - calmness, enthusiasm, security
openness to experience - imaginativeness, artistic sensitivity, and intellectualism
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16. PERSONALITY (continued)
Emotional Intelligence (EI)
Assortment of non-cognitive skills, capabilities, and competencies that influence a person’s ability to succeed in coping with environmental demands and pressures
self-awareness - aware of what you’re feeling
self-management - ability to manage one’s emotions
self-motivation - persistence in the face of setbacks
empathy - ability to sense how others are feeling
social skills - ability to handle the emotions of others
EI related to performance at all organizational levels
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17. PERSONALITY (continued)
Predicting Behaviour from Personality Traits
Locus of Control
internals - believe that they control their own destiny
externals - believe their lives are controlled by outside forces
Machiavellianism
are pragmatic, maintain emotional distance, believe that ends can justify the means
are productive in jobs that require bargaining and have high rewards for success
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18. PERSONALITY (continued)
Predicting Behaviour from Personality Traits (continued)
Self-Esteem - degree of liking for oneself
related to expectations for success
high self-esteem individuals
will take risks in job selection
more satisfied with their jobs
low self-esteem individuals susceptible to social influence
Self-Monitoring - ability to adjust one’s behaviour to situational factors
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19. PERSONALITY (continued)
Predicting Behaviour from Personality Traits (continued)
Risk-Taking - affects time required to make a decision
Personality Types in Different Cultures
A country’s culture can influence dominant personality characteristics of its people
Implications for managers
Must fit personality to the demands of the job
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20. PERCEPTION
Process by which individuals give meaning to their environment by organizing and interpreting their sensory impressions
None of us sees reality--we interpret what we see and call it reality
Factors That Influence Perception
perceiver - individual’s personal characteristics--attitudes, personality, experience, expectations
target - relationship of target to its background
situation - time, location, light, color, and other environmental factors
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21. WHAT DO YOU SEE (Exhibit 14.5)
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22. PERCEPTION (continued)
Attribution Theory
Used to explain how we judge people differently depending on what meaning we attribute to a given behaviour
Cause of behaviour determined by:
distinctiveness - whether person displays a behaviour in many situations or whether it is particular to one situation
consensus - behaviour of others in same situation
consistency - regularity with which person engages in the behaviour
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23. PERCEPTION (continued)
Attribution Theory (continued)
Errors and biases may distort attributions
fundamental attribution error - tendency to explain behaviour of others by:
overestimating the influence of internal factors
underestimating the influence of external factors
self-serving bias - personal success attributed to internal factors
personal failure attributed to external factors
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24. PERCEPTION (continued)
Shortcuts Frequently Used in Judging Others
Make perceptual task easier
Selectivity - portions of stimuli bombarding one’s senses are selected based on interests, background, and attitudes of the perceiver
Assumed similarity - “like me” effect
Stereotyping - base perceptions of an individual on one’s impressions of the group to which s/he belongs
Halo effect - general impression about a person is forged on the basis of a single characteristic
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25. LEARNING
Any relatively permanent change in behaviour that occurs as a result of experience
Operant conditioning
Argues that behaviour is a function of its consequences
Describes voluntary or learned behaviour reinforcement strengthens a behaviour and increases the likelihood that it will be repeated
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26. LEARNING (continued) Social Learning Theory
Learning by observing other people and direct experience
Influence of model determined by:
attentional processes - must recognize and attend to critical features of the model
retention processes - must remember the model’s actions
motor reproduction processes - performing actions observed in the model
reinforcement processes - positive incentives necessary to motivate performance of the model’s actions
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27. LEARNING (continued) Shaping: A Managerial Tool
Shape behaviour by systematically reinforcing each successive step that moves the individual closer to the desired behaviour
Shaping accomplished by:
positive reinforcement - desired response is followed by something pleasant
negative reinforcement - desired response followed by eliminating or withdrawing something unpleasant
punishment - undesirable behavior followed by something unpleasant
extinction - no rewards follow undesired response
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28. LEARNING (continued) Implications for Managers
Manage employee learning by means of rewards
positive and negative reinforcement strengthen a desired behaviour
punishment and extinction weaken an undesired behaviour
Managers should serve as models
set examples of the desired behaviour
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