PART FIVE

C H A P T E R

T H I R T E E N

Foundations of Behavior

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Have you ever wondered why the people In their study of Chapter 13, your students will around you are behaving the way they are? have an opportunity to learn fundamental People differ in their behaviors, and even the information about individual and group behavior same person can behave one way one day and in the workplace. This chapter explores key topics related to the behavior of individuals at work a completely different way another day. including attitudes, personality, perception, Managers need to understand individual learning, and motivation. Students will look at behavior. Focus on the following learning dynamics of group behavior that encompass outcomes as you read and study this chapter. norms, roles, team building, leadership, and conflict resolution. In exploring these dimensions of organizational behavior, the text lays the Learning Outcomes foundation for understanding how and why people 13.1 Identify the focus and goals of behave the way they do within the organizations organizational behavior. environment. 13.2 Explain the role that attitudes play in job In A Managers Dilemma, students read about performance. the challenges facing Lisa Brummel, the new head of Human Resources at software giant Microsoft. 13.3 Describe different personality theories. With no previous experience as an HR manager, Ms. Brummel is facing serious morale problems at 13.4 Describe perception and factors that a company once known for its groundbreaking influence it. benefits package. What started as a seemingly small incident, taking away free towels from 13.5 Discuss learning theories and their employees in the locker room, has erupted into an relevance in shaping behavior. employee outcry of mistreatment. 13.6 Discuss contemporary issues in Combined with decreasing stock prices and organizational behavior. increasing competition from Google, morale at Microsoft is at an all time low. Ms. Brummel must now deal with high expectations while at the same time providing the most efficient and effective benefits to employees. As students put themselves in new HR managers position, they are asked how they can improve the mood at Microsoft.

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ANNOTATED OUTLINE

INTRODUCTION This chapter examines numerous factors that influence employee behavior and their implications for managers. 1. FOCUS AND GOALS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR Organizational behavior is the study of how people act at work. The visible organization can be described as the tip of an iceberg; many of the important issues involved in understanding OB are not easily observed. (See Exhibit 13-1) A. Focus of Organizational Behavior Organizational behavior focuses on two major areas: 1. 2. B. Individual behavior Group behavior

The goals of OB are to explain, predict, and influence behavior. Six important behaviors have been identified from for the study of OB: employee productivity, absenteeism, turnover, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), job satisfaction, and workplace misbehavior.

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ATTITUDES AND JOB PERFORMANCE Attitudes are defined as evaluative statementsfavorable or unfavorable concerning objects, people, or events. Attitudes have three components: cognitive, affective, and behavioral. 1. The cognitive component of an attitude is the part of an attitude that is made up of the beliefs, opinions, knowledge, or information held by a person. The affective component of an attitude is that part of an attitude that is the emotional, or feeling, part. The behavioral component of an attitude is that part of an attitude that refers to an intention to behave in a certain way.

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Managers are particularly interested in the job-related attitudes of employees. Job-related attitudes include job satisfaction, job involvement, organizational commitment, and organizational citizenship behavior. A. Job Satisfaction. Job Satisfaction is defined as an employees general attitude toward his or her job.

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In general, US workers report that they are satisfied with their job; however, this number has been declining since the 1995. The degree of job satisfaction has been linked to income, but is probably influenced more by the type of job an employee performs. Following the Hawthorne Studies, many managers believed that if they kept their employees happy, the employees would be productive. Current studies show a fairly strong relationship between satisfaction and performance. Research on job attitudes shows a strong negative relationship between job satisfaction and absenteeism. The strongest variable related to job satisfaction is turnover. Job satisfaction has been linked to customer satisfaction, but a converse relationship has also been found to be true, customer dissatisfaction has been related to an employees job satisfaction. Organizational citizenship behavior is the discretionary behavior that is not part of an employees formal job requirements, but promotes the effective functioning of the organization. While it is obvious that job satisfaction is related to organizational citizenship behavior, other variables such as fairness and the type of citizenship behavior play a role in the relationship. While it is difficult to predict how employees will respond, managers need to be aware that dissatisfied employees may engage in misbehavior or violence at work.

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Job Involvement and Organizational Commitment. Job involvement is the degree to which an employee identifies with his or her job, actively participates in it, and considers his or her job performance important to his or her self-worth. Organizational commitment is an employees orientation toward the organization in terms of his or her loyalty to, identification with, and involvement in the organization. Employee Engagement. Highly engaged employees are passionate about and deeply connected to their work. Disengaged employees have essentially checked out and dont care. Exhibit 132 lists the key engagement factors Attitudes and Consistency. Research has generally shown that people seek consistency among their attitudes and between their attitudes and their behavior. 203

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Cognitive Dissonance Theory. Cognitive dissonance refers to any inconsistency that an individual might perceive between attitudes or between behavior and attitudes. 1. Dissonance or inconsistency leads to an uncomfortable state for the individual, who will try to reduce the inconsistency. The desire to reduce dissonance is determined by (a) the importance of the factors creating the dissonance, (b) the degree of influence the individual believes he/she has over those factors, and (c) the rewards that may be involved in dissonance. Individuals reduce dissonance either by changing the behavior, concluding that the dissonant behavior is not so important after all, by changing the attitude or by identifying compatible factors that outweigh the dissonant ones.

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Attitude surveys. Companies often use surveys to ask employees how they feel about their jobs, work groups, supervisors, or the organization. Exhibit 13-3 provides a sample of an attitude survey. Implications for Managers. A controversy exists concerning the relationship between satisfaction and productivity. Are happy workers productive workers? 1. Following the Hawthorne Studies, many managers believed that if they kept their employees happy, the employees would be productive. A review of the research on worker productivity indicates that if satisfaction does have a positive effect on productivity, that effect is fairly small. Rather, managers should focus on factors that are conducive to a high degree of employee satisfaction. Such factors include mentally challenging work, equitable rewards, supportive working conditions, and supportive colleagues. The implication for managers from understanding attitudes is that there is relatively strong evidence that committed and satisfied employees have lower rates of turnover and absenteeism. Also, the belief that making employees happy will make them productive needs to be reexamined.

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PERSONALITY Personality is defined is the unique combination of emotional, thought, and behavioral patterns that affect how a person reacts and interacts with others.

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MBTI. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a general personality assessment. The MBTI measures four dimensions: 1. 2. 3. 4. Social interaction: extrovert (E) or introvert (I) Preference for gathering data: sensing (S) or intuitive (N) Preference for decision making: feeling (F) or thinking (T) Style of making decisions: perceptive (P) or judgmental (J)

Combining these preferences provides descriptions about 16 different personality types. Examples of MBTI personality types are shown in Exhibit 13-4. B. The Big Five Model. The Big-Five Model is a five-factor model of personality. 1. Research has shown that important relationships exist between these personality dimensions and job performance. 2. The personality traits in the Big-Five Model are listed below: a. Extraversion b. Agreeableness c. Conscientiousness d. Emotional Stability e. Openness to Experience C. Additional Personality Insights. Personality researchers have identified five additional personality traits that have proved to be the most powerful in explaining individual behavior in organizations: locus of control, Machiavellianism, self-esteem, self-monitoring, and risk-taking. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. D. Locus of control is the degree to which people believe they control their own fate. Locus of control can be either external or internal. Machiavellianism is the degree to which people are pragmatic, maintain emotional distance, and believe that ends justify means. Self-esteem is an individuals degree of like or dislike for himself or herself. Self-monitoring is an individuals ability to adjust his or her behavior to external situational factors. Risk-taking refers to an individuals willingness to take risks.

Personality Types in Different Cultures. Do these personality types transfer across cultures? Although no common personality types are 205

found in a given national culture a countrys culture can influence dominant personality characteristics of its people. This is particularly true for the personality trait, locus of control. E. Emotions and Emotional Intelligence. Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to notice and to manage emotional cues and information. 1. Emotional intelligence is composed of five dimensions: a. b. c. d. e. 2. F. Self-awareness Self-management Self-motivation Empathy Social skills

Research has shown that emotional intelligence is positively related to job performance at all organizational levels.

Implications for Managers. The benefit of a managers understanding personality differences is clearly seen in the area of employee selection. Just as individual personalities differ, so too do jobs. Efforts have been made to match the proper personalities with the proper jobs. 1. 2. John Holland has developed the best-documented personality-job fit theory (see Exhibit 13-5). The key points of his model: Intrinsic differences in personality probably do exist among individuals; there are different types of jobs; and people who work in job environments congruent with their personality types should be more satisfied.

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PERCEPTION Perception is the process of organizing and interpreting sensory impressions in order to give meaning to the environment. A. Factors that influence perception. A number of factors operate to shape and sometimes distort perception: 1. The perceiver 2. 3. B. The target (See Exhibit 13-6) The situation

Attribution theory is a theory that explains how we judge people differently depending on the meaning we attribute to a given behavior. The determination of the cause of the behavior depends on three factors: distinctiveness, consensus, and consistency. 1. Distinctiveness refers to whether an individual displays different behavior in different situations.

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Consensus refers to whether an individual who is faced with a similar situation responds in the same way with the same behavior. Consistency refers to the congruency in a persons actions, that is, whether the person engages in the behaviors regularly and consistently. Exhibit 13-7 summarize the key elements of attribution theory. One of the most interesting findings of attribution theory is that there are errors or biases that distort attributions. a. The fundamental attribution error refers to the tendency to underestimate the influence of external factors and overestimate the influence of internal factors when making judgments about the behavior of others. Self-serving bias is the tendency for individuals to attribute their own successes to internal factors while putting the blame for failures on external factors.

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Shortcuts We Use In Judging Others. 1. 2. 3. Assumed similarity is the belief that others are like oneself. Stereotyping refers to judging a person on the basis of ones perception of a group to which he or she belongs. Halo effect refers to a general impression of an individual based on a single characteristic.

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The Implication For Managers. Managers need to recognize that their employees react to perceptions, not reality. Management is also not immune to biases and can negatively impact employees perception of fairness with inaccurate appraisals or setting discriminatory wage levels.

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LEARNING Learning is any relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs as a result of experience. A. Operant conditioning is a type of learning in which desired voluntary behavior leads to a reward or prevents a punishment. 1. 2. B. F. Skinner is the psychologist most often associated with operant conditioning theory. Operant conditioning theory proposes that behavior is determined from without (that is, learned) rather than from within (reflexive, or unlearned).

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Skinner argued that creating pleasing and desirable consequences to follow some specific behavior would increase the frequency of that behavior. People will most likely engage in desired behaviors if they receive positive reinforcement for doing so.

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Social learning is a learning theory that says people learn through observation and direct experience. Four processes determine the amount of influence that these models will have on an individual: attentional processes, retention processes, motor reproduction processes, and reinforcement processes. 1. 2. 3. Attentional processes. People learn from a model only when they recognize and pay attention to its critical features. Retention processes. A models influence depends upon how well an individual remembers the models action. Motor reproduction processes. After a person has observed a new behavior by watching a model, he/she must demonstrate an ability to do the modeled activities. Reinforcement processes. Individuals will be motivated to exhibit modeled behavior if positive rewards are provided.

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Shaping: A Managerial Tool. In shaping, a manager systematically reinforces each successive step that moves an individual closer to a desired response. Behavior can be shaped in four ways: 1. 2. 3. 4. Positive reinforcement is reinforcing a desired behavior by providing something pleasant after that behavior. Negative reinforcement is reinforcing a desired behavior with the termination or withdrawal of something unpleasant. Punishment penalizes undesirable behavior. Extinction involves eliminating any reinforcement that is maintaining a behavior.

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Implications for Managers. From learning theory, managers should recognize that employees will learn while doing a job. A key question: Will managers manage employees learning through the rewards the managers allocate and the examples they set, or will managers allow learning to occur haphazardly?

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CONTEMPORARY OB ISSUES A. Managing Generational Differences. Generations are defined by the

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attitudes and goals that distinguish them from those born in other times. For managers, adapting to a new generation of employees can be a challenge. 1. In comparison to previous groups, Generation Y employees have proven to be unique in their casual and laid back attitude toward work. Exhibit 13-8 lists some of the characteristics consistent with Gen Y workers. 2. In dealing with Gen Y workers, managers find three issues that can create conflict with traditional organizational methods: appearance, technology, and management style. B. Managing Negative Behavior in the Workplace. Managers need to recognize that negative behaviors exist and ignoring such misbehavior will only confuse employees. In dealing with negative behaviors, managers need to practice preventive and responsive actions.

Thinking Critically About Ethics

Genetics or Personal Responsibility

This critical thinking exercise asks students to think about the growing scientific evidence that links genetics to individual behavior. As researchers link an individuals genes to behaviors like depression, obesity and addictions, the question to consider is where does genetics end and personal responsibility for behavior begin. This exercise can be used as the basis for a classroom debate, with half of the class taking each side of the issue, i.e., People are 100% responsible for their behavior or We are a victim of our genetic predestination. Included in this discussion can be the argument for and against organizations providing treatment for behaviors like addictions. Students should question if the employee can be blamed if this behavior runs in the family? On the other hand, if the organization has a zero tolerance policy against drug use then does it have the right to fire an employee with an addiction? Be sure to point out to students how behaviors are attributed have an important impact on how the workplace deals with negative behaviors.

Answer s to Thi n k i n g About Manage me n t Iss ue s

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Does the importance of knowledge of OB differ based on a managers level in the organization? If so, how? If not, why not? Be specific. Knowledge of OB is important for all managers since executives at all levels of the organization deal with people. Low-level managers are likely to supervise employees directly, so they need knowledge of attitudes, perception, and learning. If they have responsibilities pertaining to the hiring of employees, they need to have knowledge about personality. Middle-level managers are likely to need knowledge of attitudes and personality, as they supervise lower-level managers. Upper-level managers need knowledge of attitudes as they deal with organizational design decisions and human resource management issues. Instead of worrying about job satisfaction, companies should be trying to create environments where performance is enabled. What do you think this statement means? Explain. Whats your reaction to this statement? Do you agree? Disagree? Why? This issue can be traced back to an argument that performance is the only variable a manager should measure and improve. This argument makes the assumption that employees will find satisfaction in completing meaning work. While performance is extremely important, there are other factors that go hand in hand with performance that should be considered. Have students consider what would happen if a manager is only concerned with the performance of an employee? How would the employee react over time? What other job attitudes would be affected if satisfaction is ignored? A growing number of companies are now convinced that peoples ability to understand and to manage their emotions improves their performance, their collaboration with peers, and their interaction with customers. What are the implications of this statement for managers? If the managers company agrees with this statement, the manager must consider emotional intelligence (EI) as a necessary factor in employee selection, as well as in employee training and development issues.

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What behavioral predictions might you make if you knew that an employee had (a) an external locus of control? (b) a low Mach score? (c) low self-esteem? or (d) high self-monitoring tendencies? Employees with an external locus of control might be less satisfied with their jobs, more alienated from the work setting, and less involved in their work. Employees with a low Mach score would be overly idealistic, emotional, and concerned about fair and equitable treatment. Employees with low self-esteem would be more susceptible to external influence. Employees with high selfmonitoring tendencies would tend to be more adaptable in adjusting their behavior to the demands of different situations.

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Managers should never use discipline with a problem employee. Do you agree or disagree? Discuss. Discipline that is rooted in behavior theories can be quite positive and can be used as a means to promote acceptable and desired behavior. When disciplining an employee, however, managers should be governed by their knowledge of the implications of attitudes, perceptions, learning, and personality.

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A Gallup Organization survey shows that most workers rate having a caring boss even higher than they value money or fringe benefits. How should managers interpret this information? What are the implications? First, ask your students if they agree or disagree with this survey finding. Their answers should be interesting and enlightening to their classmates. If they do agree with the statementwhich they most likely willthe implications for managers would include training managers to be kind and respectful, while communicating to their employees that they expect the best performance from each employee. The discussion could include a review and consideration of the findings of the Hawthorne Studies.

Surveys indicate that during an employees first year of employment, his or her level of satisfaction with the employer is about 69 percent. However, for employees with two to five years experience, that employer satisfaction level falls to about 53 percent.85 Why do you think this number drops? What, if anything, could managers do to keep the level of satisfaction high? In answering this question, students should consider the importance of experience and expectations on an individuals attitude. Over time, how does an employees experience shape how they feel about the organization? Ask students if these statistics are a sign that employees may begin with a slightly distorted perception of work (i.e. seeing the job through rose colored glasses). As managers seek to maintain an employees satisfaction over time, what can be done to keep employee expectations meet?

Your Turn to be a Manager For one week, pay close attention to how people around you behave, especially people who are close to you (roommates, siblings, significant others, coworkers, etc.). Use what youve learned about attitudes, personality, perception, and learning to understand and explain how and why theyre behaving the ways they do. Write your observations and your explanations in a journal. Write down three attitudes you have. Identify the cognitive, affective, and behavioral components of those attitudes.

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Survey 15 employees (at your place of work or at some campus office). Be sure to obtain permission before doing this survey. Ask the employees what rude or negative behaviors theyve seen at work. Compile your findings in a report and be prepared to discuss this in class. If you were the manager in this workplace, how would you handle this behavior? If youve never taken a personality or career compatibility test, contact your schools testing center to see if you can take one. When you get your results, evaluate what they mean for your career choice. Have you chosen a career that fits your personality? What are the implications? Complete the skill-building module Mentoring found in mymanagementlab. Your professor will tell you what to do with it. Have you ever heard of the waiter rule? A lot of businesspeople think that how you treat service workers says a lot about your character and attitudes. What do you think this means? Do you agree with this idea? Why or why not? How would you be evaluated on the waiter rule? Like it or not, each of us is continually shaping the behavior of those around us. For one week, keep track of how many times you use positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment, or extinction to shape behaviors. At the end of the week, look at your results. Which one did you tend to use most? What were you trying to do; that is, what behaviors were you trying to shape? Were your attempts successful? Evaluate. What could you have done differently if you were trying to change someones behavior? Create a job satisfaction survey for a business youre familiar with. Now do a Web search for sample job satisfaction surveys. Find one or two samples. Write a report describing, comparing, and evaluating the examples you found and the survey you created. Steves and Marys recommended readings: Yoav Vardi and Ely Weitz, Misbehavior in Organizations (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004); Murray R. Barrick and A. M. Ryan (eds.), Personality and Work (Jossey-Bass, 2003); Daniel Goleman, Destructive Emotions: How Can We Overcome Them? (Bantam, 2003); L. Thomson, Personality Type: An Owners Manual Shambhala, 1998); and Daniel Goleman, Working with Emotional Intelligence (Bantam, 1998). Survey 10 Gen Yers. Ask them three questions: (1) What do you think appropriate office attire is? (2) How comfortable are you with using technology, and what types of technology do you rely on most? (3) What do you think the ideal boss would be like? Compile your results into a paper that reports your data and summarizes your findings in a bulleted list format. In your own words, write down three things you learned in this chapter about being a good manager. Self-knowledge can be a powerful learning tool. Go to mymanagementlab and complete these self-assessment exercises: Whats My Basic Personality? Whats My Jungian 16- Type Personality? (Note that this is a miniature version of the 212

MBTI.) Am I a Type A? How Involved Am I in My Job? How Satisfied Am I with My Job? Whats My Emotional Intelligence Score? How Committed Am I to My Organization? Using the results of your assessments, identify personal strengths and weaknesses. What will you do to reinforce your strengths and improve your weaknesses? WORKING TOGETHERTeam-Based Exercise

Student groups of three to four are asked to debate the statement: When we use shortcuts to judge others, are the consequences always negative?

The debate between student groups could be enhanced by first assigning different groups to support or negate the statement concerning specific shortcuts such as: stereotyping, halo effect, selectivity, assumed similarity (like me). These four shortcuts would require eight student groups for debate. Students may want to describe some of the incidents or examples their groups generate.

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Answers to Case Application Questions

Odd Couples 1. What do you think about Randstads pairing-up idea? Would you be comfortable with such an arrangement? Why or why not? Encourage students to share how they feel about working so closely with others. While some students enjoy the camaraderie of working with a partner, its common to find that todays students do not enjoy working closely with others. Get students to share their past experiences with groups that may have left them with a positive or negative attitude toward the type of plan promoted by Ranstad. What personality traits would be most needed for this type of work arrangement? Why? The following personality characteristics would be consistent with Ranstads cooperative culture. Have students consider other characteristics as well, and have them defend their selections. 3. Extrovert Perceptive Conscientious Open to new experiences Agreeable Self-motivated High self-esteem

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What types of issues might a Gen Y employee and an older, more-experienced employee face when working closely together? How could two people in such a close-knit work arrangement deal with those issues? The particular pairings encouraged at Randstad are sure to bring to light some of the major differences between the two generation groups. Have students think about some of the issues they would face working with an older employee. Also, have students try to put themselves in the shoes of someone who is older and go through some of the difficulties they may face working with a Gen Y. Are there accommodations that could be made by both groups that would facilitate the working relationships? How could they work to develop a common ground to build a strong working relationship? Design an employee attitude survey for Randstads employees. Students will have a variety of items for this question. You should be sure to emphasize the legal requirements concerning types of questions that employers 214

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ask their employees. Students should also be able to explain what their questions are designed to measure. You may want to ask students how they would determine both the validity and the reliability of their survey items.

ADDITIONAL CHAPTER INFORMATION

You may want to have your students research the age-old question of the role of nature versus environment (nurture) in determining personality. Some of this research is currently exploring which aspects of personality may have a genetic component by asking the question: Does DNA shape behavior? Some aspects of personality that may have a genetic component include risk-taking, impulsiveness, openness, conservatism, and hostility. Another area your students may wish to address is the subject of loyalty to ones organization. You might ask students to consider how relevant organizational commitment is today, considering that individuals change jobs and careers more often than in the past.

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