1. Organizational Behavior Foundations of Individual Behavior
Robbins & Judge
Chapter 2
Foundations of Individual Behavior

2. Summary of Lecture 25 - What is organization
- Different types of organizations
- Defining OB
- Why study OB
- History of OB
- Level of Analysis
- Challenges in OB
Robbins and Judge (2008): Organizational Behavior, Pearson, Prentice Hall

3. Challenges and Opportunities for OB
Globalization
- Increased foreign assignments
- Coping with anti-capitalism backlash
- overseeing movement of jobs to low cost labour countries
Managing people in crises places
Managing work force diversity
Total Quality Management
- Improving Customer Service
Improving People Skills
Robbins and Judge (2008): Organizational Behavior, Pearson, Prentice Hall

4. Challenges and Opportunities for OB
- Stimulating Innovation and Change
- Coping with “Temporariness”
- Working in Networked Organizations
- Helping Employees Balance Work-Life Conflicts
- Creating a Positive Work Environment
- Improving Ethical Behavior
- Responding to coming labour shortages (In Western world)
- Empowering employees
Robbins and Judge (2008): Organizational Behavior, Pearson, Prentice Hall

5. Learning Objectives Ability and Dimensions of Ability
Biographical Characteristics
What is learning
Learning Theories
- Classical or respondent conditioning theory
- Operant or instrumental conditioning theory
- Social learning Theory
Robbins and Judge (2008): Organizational Behavior, Pearson, Prentice Hall

6. Ability
“An individual’s capacity to perform the various tasks in a job.”
Individuals are not equal in terms of their ability
Everyone has strengths and weaknesses that make them to perform well in certain tasks and activities
Managers has to identify abilities of employees to use of this knowledge to increase performance
Robbins and Judge (2008): Organizational Behavior, Pearson, Prentice Hall

7. Ability Ability made up of two sets of factors: Intellectual Abilities
Physical Abilities
Intellectual Abilities:
- Needed to perform mental activities for thinking reasoning, thinking and problem solving
- IQ test is used to measure intellectual abilities
- GMAT, SAT and GRE
Robbins and Judge (2008): Organizational Behavior, Pearson, Prentice Hall

8. Dimensions of Intellectual Ability
Description
Job Example
Number aptitude
Ability to process arithmetic
Accountant
Verbal Comprehension
Ability to understand read and heard, relationship of words
Every Manager: Policy and Rules
Perceptual Speed
Ability to identify visual similarities and differences quickly and accuracy
Fire Investigator
Inductive Reasoning
Ability to identify logical sequence
Market research: Sales forecast
Deductive Reasoning
Ability to use logic to assess implication of argument
Supervisor: Choosing between two different suggestions
Spatial Reasoning
Ability to imagine object look when positions is changed
Interior decorator
Memory
Ability to recall and retain information
Sales person: Remembering the names of customers
Robbins and Judge (2008): Organizational Behavior, Pearson, Prentice Hall

9. Dimensions of Intellectual Ability
1 Cognitive
2 Social
3 Emotional
4 Cultural
Robbins and Judge (2008): Organizational Behavior, Pearson, Prentice Hall

10. Nine Basic Physical Abilities
Strength Factors
Description
Dynamic strength
Exert muscular force continuously
Trunk strength
Exert muscular strength using trunk
Static strength
Exert force against external objects
Explosive strength
Expend a maximum energy in series of explosive acts
Flexibility Factors
Extent flexibility
Moving trunk and back muscles
Dynamic flexibility
Rapid and repeated flexing movement
Other Factors
Body coordination
Coordinate simultaneous actions of different parts
Balance
Maintain equilibrium
Stamina
Prolonged effort
2-10
Robbins and Judge (2008): Organizational Behavior, Pearson, Prentice Hall

11. Ability
OB concerns explaining and predicting behavior of people at work
High Ability and Job fit = High Performance
Abilities job fit also reduces job dissatisfaction
Employees feel dissatisfied when abilities are under utilized or lack of ability to perform job (stress and pressure)
Robbins and Judge (2008): Organizational Behavior, Pearson, Prentice Hall

12. Biographical Characteristics
Objective and easily obtained personal characteristics.
Age
Older workers bring experience, judgment, a strong work ethic, and commitment to quality.
Older workers less adaptive to change
Older workers less likely to quit job (turnover) and low absence rate (avoidable)
General perception that productivity declines with age
Age-Job satisfaction: In Professional jobs increase with age
Robbins and Judge (2008): Organizational Behavior, Pearson, Prentice Hall

13. Biographical Characteristics
Objective and easily obtained personal characteristics.
Gender
Few differences between men and women that affect job performance (like physical ability)
Should operate on assumption that there is no significant difference in performance based on gender (consider profession as well)
Women have higher absenteeism rate
Race (the biological heritage people use to identify themselves)
Issue of favoritism and perception bias based on race
Differences exist, but mostly related to culture-based than race-based.
Robbins and Judge (2008): Organizational Behavior, Pearson, Prentice Hall

14. Biographical Characteristics
Tenure
People having long job tenure are more productive, less absenteeism, lower turnover, and generally more satisfied.
Religion
No general effect on performance
Do have affect on attitude towards different works
National Culture:
- Cultural differences do have affect on individual behavior and work related attitudes and behaviors
2-14
Robbins and Judge (2008): Organizational Behavior, Pearson, Prentice Hall

15. Learning
“Any relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs as a result of experience
According to the behaviorists, learning can be defined as “the relatively permanent change in behavior brought about as a result of experience or practice.”
Learning is the acquisition of knowledge, skill, or values through study, practice, or experience.
Learning components:
It Involves Change
Is Relatively Permanent
Experience is required
Robbins and Judge (2008): Organizational Behavior, Pearson, Prentice Hall

16. Learning Theories - Classical or respondent conditioning theory
- Operant or instrumental conditioning theory
- Social learning Theory
Robbins and Judge (2008): Organizational Behavior, Pearson, Prentice Hall

17. Classical Theories
Classical conditioning was the first type of learning to be discovered and studied within the behaviorist tradition (hence the name classical) in early 1990s.
The major theorist in the development of classical conditioning is Ivan Pavlov
Theory proposes that learning that takes place when the learner recognizes the connection between an unconditioned stimulus and a conditioned stimulus.
Robbins and Judge (2008): Organizational Behavior, Pearson, Prentice Hall

18. Classical Conditioning Theory
Pavlov was studying the digestive system of dogs and became intrigued with his observation that dogs deprived of food began to salivate when one of his assistants walked into the room.
He began to investigate this phenomena and established the laws of classical conditioning.
Skinner renamed this type of learning "respondent conditioning” since in this type of learning, one is responding to an environmental antecedent.
Robbins and Judge (2008): Organizational Behavior, Pearson, Prentice Hall

19. Classical Conditioning
A type of conditioning in which an individual responds to some stimulus that would not ordinarily produce such a response.
Unconditioned Stimulus: Food
Unconditioned Response: Saliva
Conditioned Stimulus: Bell
Robbins and Judge (2008): Organizational Behavior, Pearson, Prentice Hall

20. Classical Conditioning Theory
General model
Stimulus (S) elicits =>Response (R)
Stimulus
Response
Classical conditioning starts with a reflex (R): an
innate, involuntary behavior.

21. Classical Conditioning
- This involuntary behavior is elicited or caused
by an environmental event.
For example, if air is blown into your eye, you blink. You have no voluntary or conscious control over whether the blink occurs or not.

22. Classical Conditioning Theory
- The specific model for classical conditioning is:
A stimulus will naturally (without learning) elicit or
bring about a reflexive response
Unconditioned Stimulus (US) elicits >
Unconditioned Response (UR)
Food > Salivation
UNS
UCR

23. Stimulus
Unconditioned Stimulus: Anything that produces an unconditioned response.
Unconditioned response: The Reaction occurred due to the occurrence of UC stimulus.
Conditioned Stimulus: A neutral stimulus that, as a result of being paired with an unconditioned stimulus, elicits a response.

24. Classical Conditioning Theory
The specific model for classical conditioning is:
Neutral Stimulus (NS) -- does not elicit the response of interest NS
No Response
This stimulus (sometimes called an orienting stimulus as it elicits an orienting response) is a neutral stimulus since it does not elicit the unconditioned (or reflexive) Response.

26. Classical Conditioning Theory
The Neutral/Orienting Stimulus (NS) is repeatedly paired with the Unconditioned/Natural Stimulus (US).
 Bell Was Conditioned with the presentation of food. Whenever the food was presented before that Pavlov rang bell.

28. Classical Conditioning Theory
The Neutral Stimulus (NS) is transformed into a
Conditioned Stimulus (CS). (Bell is transformed
into a conditioned stimulus)
That is, when the CS is presented by itself, it elicits or
causes the CR (which is the same involuntary
response as the UR. (only at the bell dog salivated
even without presenting food)
- The name changes because it is elicited by a
different stimulus.
This is written CS elicits > CR.

30. Classical Conditioning Theory
In the area of classroom learning, classical
conditioning is seen primarily in the conditioning of
emotional behavior.
For example: Things that make us happy, sad, angry, etc. become associated with neutral stimuli that gain our attention.

31. Classical Conditioning Theory
For example, the school, classroom, teacher, or subject matter are initially neutral stimuli that gain attention.
Activities at school or in the classroom automatically elicit emotional responses and these activities are associated with the neutral or orienting stimulus
After repeated presentations, the previously neutral stimulus will elicit the emotional response

32. Classical Conditioning Theory
Example:
1 Child is beaten at school
2 Child feels bad when beaten
3 Child associates being beaten and school
4 Child begins to feel bad when she thinks of school

33. Classical Conditioning Theory
Note: In order to extinguish the associated feeling, bad and thinking of school, the connection between school and being beaten must be broken.
Eidy on Eid bring memories of childhood

34. Operant Conditioning Theory
Operant conditioning is the study of the impact of consequences on behavior.

35. Social Learning Theory
Individuals learn by observing others what
happens to other or by telling something or through
direct experience

36. Managerial Implications
Three Individual Variables:
Ability
Influences level of performance
Managers need to focus on achieving job-ability fit means to consider ability in selection, promotion, and transfer decision.
Fine-tune job to better fit to incumbent’s abilities. Job redesign, change of equipment, reorganize task with group of people etc.
Biographical Characteristics
Manager should not use in management decisions: can possible be source of bias.
Learning
Observable change in behavior = learning.
Remember positive reinforcement is powerful tool
Robbins and Judge (2008): Organizational Behavior, Pearson, Prentice Hall

37. Summary Ability and Dimensions of Ability Biographical Characteristics
What is learning
Learning Theories
- Classical or respondent conditioning theory
- Operant or instrumental conditioning theory
- Social learning Theory
Process of Influence