All You Need to Know - Organisational Behaviour

Good questions to have answers for

BU 2510 - SF Management 1 (Part 1: Organisational Behaviour)

Dr Martin Fellenz

1. What is management?

• Is an activity that performs certain functions to obtain the effective acquisition, allocation, and utilization of human efforts and physical resources to accomplish some goal (Wren, 1994)
• Is the process of achieving organizational goals by engaging in the four major functions of planning, organizing, leading and controlling.
• Not only a question o f having access to the tools, or possessing them, but a question of how they are used to ensure maximum potential benefit.

1. What is organisational behaviour?

• Is the study of people, groups, and their interaction in organizational contexts/work settings
• Is a field of study concerned with predicting, understanding, and influencing the attitudes and behaviours of individuals and groups in organisations.
• Encompasses employee attitudes, motivation and performance
• Human resources management applies the principles of the behavioural sciences in the workplace (selecting, placing and training personnel); micro/application oriented field.

1. Why is knowledge about OB useful? (3 goals)

• Practical applications – development of leadership styles; attracting and developing talented individuals (important for survival and prosperity of an organisation – all else being equal, organisations with more talented and dedicated human capital will be more effective. i.e. universities and faculty); strong human element = strong reputation (effective management of people)
• Personal growth – fulfilment in understanding fellow humans; promotions are from understanding peers, subordinates, (not just from uni degree); understanding OB will allow you to distinguish yourself; opens new frontiers of knowledge
• Increased knowledge – gather info about people in work settings; critical thinking ability which is useful in analyzing employee and personal problems.

1. What levels of analysis exist in OB?

• Individual - Perception, attraction and other intro-individual processes; Individual differences and characteristics; Motivation; Judgment and decision-making
• Interpersonal/groups – Conflict; Group decision-making (group think); Socialization; Leadership; Group dynamics; Communication
• Organizational – Culture; Structure; Design; Technology; Environment; Strategy

1. Why is “it depends” a good (first) answer to almost any question about organisational behaviour? What is the next question we would ask?

• Contingency approach (post WWII). Acknowledged the difficulty in offering general principles to explain or predict behaviour in organizational settings.
• Did not abandon search for principles but just wanted specific conditions under which it was possible to find certain relationships. Find factors jointly necessary for a principle to hold (i.e. factors for predicting/explaining behaviour).

• Method about how we should study people in org i.e. factors (vs. other 3 explaining behaviour).

• Employee behaviour too complex – IT DEPENDS (subordinates’ expectations and preferences for different styles of leadership; cultural differences).
• NEXT QUESTION: ‘on what?’ Identify what the important dependencies are  to search for a valid representation of employee behaviour.
• CQM other current OB view

• Grew out of rise of Japan’s corporate power to managerial ability to inspire commitment while simultaneously maintaining flexibility.
• Focus on how to build a strong set of shared positive values and norms within a corporation (strong corporate culture) while emphasizing quality, service, high performance, and flexibility.
• Did not integrate with other older views scientific management and human relations.

1. What is perception?

• Process of recognition and understanding (success of salesperson depends on ability to read others)
• Do not have direct and immediate experience with the object but rely on neural transmissions and electrochemical translations of stimuli (only dealing with mental activities)
• Not passive but rather active focus on the part of the receiver (bombardments of stimuli that you filter out). Actively select and process specific information from your environment (perceiver involved in the construction of their experiences)

• ‘More to the issue than meets the eye’...

1. What are the key elements of perception?

Good judges of others have:

• High intelligence, aesthetic/dramatic interests, good emotional adjustment, specialization in physical rather than social sciences (too sensitive – over differentiation in judgment).
• When people predict others’ behaviour from subjective assessments of personality, they are not successful.

1. What influences perception?

• Facial expressions – identify emotional states from facial expressions (smile, frown – transpose cultural barriers); timing between event and reaction crucial (otherwise just faking it); micro expressions display genuine emotion before person regains facial control.
• Nonverbal cues – posture shifts, scratching, licking lips (nervous/deceit), blinking (stress)

• Attempt to control at interviews – sit up straight, smile, lean in vs. slouching etc...

• Success rate for interviewers in predicting performance is poor (NV cues are confusing)

• Eye contact – among most important (more eye contact = more favourable relationship); otherwise guilty/depressed (staring – extreme, hatred and aggression)
• Appearance and physical attractiveness – more sociable, mentally healthy, intelligent, socially skilled than less attractive people (more lonely, sexually inexperienced). I.e. should be groomed/dressed well.

• Physical beauty beneficial for higher salary offers (especially for men)  

1. Is perception always accurate? Why or why not?

Difficult in determining a specific, unquestionable criterion to compare individuals’ judging/perception abilities (points, peer-assessments all have flaws). Many barriers to precise perception of others’ behaviour (could be misleading)

• Stereotyping – judgements based on group membership (sex, race, ethnic group, age); some based on an element of truth

• Older workers cannot be trained; younger workers cannot have responsibility

• Halo effect – perceiver uses a general impression of favourableness or unfavourableness as the basis for judgments about more specific traits (influenced by overall impression)

• Subordinate that is liked can do nothing wrong for superior; teacher’s pet
• Implicit personality theory – tendency to perceive something in someone given something else exists (churchgoer = neat); clustering of traits not substantial so likely to have error.

• Projection – ascribing our own feelings and attributes to others (defence mechanism to protect us from unpleasant truths); our emotional state influences our perception of others

• Perceive undesirable traits onto others; manager that is fearful of change would project these attributes onto co-workers and believe they are fearful too.

• Perceptual distortion – modify or distort what we report to avoid unpleasant reality; pay attention to only what we want to see

• Particular impression may be due to the context in which person is being judged

• Selective perception – tendency to be influenced by our own interests; occurs in organizations when managers interpret problem situations due to own background interests

1. What is attribution?

• Process by which people assign causes to occurrences and motives to others’ behaviour (internal vs. external).
• Heider (attribution theory) – examines the inference process used to deduce others’ dispositions or traits from observation of their behaviour.

• People perceive behaviour as being caused either by the individual in question or by the environment.

1. What are some common problems in attribution?

• FUNDAMENTAL ATTRIBUTION ERROR: attribute the behaviour of others to internal factor (employee doing badly in sales quota because not ambitious when could just not have the right opportunity; women victims of sexual harassment = seductive; blaming the victims of misfortune).
• Self-serving bias – tendency to take credit for success (attributing to personal traits or personal effort, blame failure on external, environmental causes); blame failure on external factors

• Students: good test results = intelligence, bad test results = unfair test
• Managers see themselves as more ethical than average manager and superior on performance

1. What leads people to make internal or external attributions?

• KELLEY’S THEORY OF CAUSAL ATTRIBUTION: difference sources of information influence our judgments (how we decide between internal and external).

• Agreement/consensus (similarity with others) – degree that others’ behaviours are similar to the observed person’s behaviour
• Consistency (similarity over time) – degree to which observed person behaves in the same manner on other similar occasions
• Distinctiveness (similarity across situations) – degree the observed person behaves similarly in comparatively different settings.

• Internal attribution – Behaviour is caused by individual in question (internal causality – initiate actions)
• External attribution - Behaviour is caused by environment (external causality – react to outside events)
• Outcome of action the result of personal power (ability) and effort (trying); personal and environmental factors can also cancel out.

1. What is personality?

• Relatively enduring individual traits and disposition that form a pattern distinguishing one person from all others (personality vs. habits, conditioned reflexes, attitudes etc...)
• Traits (close to 5000) are relatively enduring and consistent across situations and time (change in people only gradual). Very difficult to change an individual’s personality (manager’s chances of altering employee’s personality is not great).

1. What determines personality?

• NATURE: personality determined at conception by unique assortment of genes (temperament and sociability pre-determined).

• Twins separated at birth and raised apart still shared same traits (food, clothing, smoking, moustache)
• Patterns of behaviour?

• NUTURE (environment): results of experience alters personality (punished/rewarded)

• Westerners have different traits than Asians (culture)
• First-borns: dependent, influenced by social pressure, ambitious, cooperative (have more attention when young then have responsibility of looking after younger children). Specific patterns of action?

1. What are some particularly relevant personality traits in organisations? Why are these particularly relevant?

• LOCUS OF CONTROL: extent to which individuals believe that control over their lives lies within their own control (vs. environmental forces). Function of person’s expectation of rewards and personal value of those rewards. Psychologist Julian Rotter. People becoming more external... Managers that better understand loci of control can tailor their reward systems to reflect individual needs.

• High internal LOC – believes that controls events; entrepreneur ‘by being active people can control world events’; less likely to respond to group pressure/persuasion; whites; prefer intrinsic rewards (achievement)
• High external LOC – at the mercy of fate; ‘individual’s worth is unrecognized no matter how hard they try’; blacks; prefer extrinsic rewards (pay/job security).

• WORK ETHIC: set of beliefs, including dignity of all work, contempt for idleness and self-indulgence, belief that hard work will be rewarded. Waning in the states (older workers more prone to work ethic than younger ones; increased early retirement) and being replaced by ‘leisure ethic’ ... could be cultural maturation.

• More accepting of authoritarian leadership with work ethic; interest in ‘concrete jobs’

• COGNITIVE STYLE: (Jung psychoanalyst) cognitive styles = modes of problem solving.

• Introverted (ideas/feelings) vs. extroverted (people/objects); thinking (logic) vs. feeling (subjective); sensing (details) vs. intuiting (broad issues); judging (resolve) vs. perceiving (flexible and seek extra info)
• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. ENTP = conceptualizer

• Could fit into multiple categories?

• MORAL MATURITY: (psychologist Kohlberg) cognitive processes used to characterize individuals when making ethical decisions; more pressure today to compromise personal values to achieve company goals. Highly moral will help others in need; won’t pad out expense account; less likely to follow authority if injures someone else.

• Pre-conventional level (1 & 2) – focused on concrete consequences rewards and punishments/personal interest
• Conventional level (3 & 4) – correct behaviour/judgment are defined by expectations of good behaviour from family and society
• Principled level (5 & 6) – correct behaviour/judgment defined by universal values and principles.

1. What are the Big Five?

• Dimensions that have relevance to the workplace (OCEAN): help employee effectiveness

• Openness to experience (inquisitiveness) – imaginative with artistic sense and intellectual curiosity
• Conscientiousness – dependable/achievement oriented, accepts responsibility
• Extroversion – outgoing/friendly
• Agreeableness – defers to others, seeks harmony/cooperative
• Neuroticism (emotional adjustment/stability) – relaxed and positive in orientation

1. What is cognitive dissonance?

• Cognitive dissonance (logical inconsistency between ideas) is an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding two contradictory ideas simultaneously. The "ideas" or "cognitions" in question may include attitudes and beliefs, and also the awareness of one's behavior. The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance by changing their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors, or by justifying or rationalizing their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.

• E.g. smoking = lung cancer; people want to live long. Smokers either quit, rationalize their smoking, or deny lung cancer evidence.

1. What are values, beliefs, attitudes, and intentions?

• Values – long lasting
• Beliefs – can change.

1. What is behaviour? What categories of behaviour can we distinguish?

1. What is classical behavioural theory? How does it explain behaviour?

• Classical conditioning – 20th C Pavlov (Russian physiologist) – reaction controlled by learning processes and direct physiological stimulation. Stimuli used to produce a desired response.

• Unconditioned stimulus (UCS) – stimulus (sight of food) that has the capacity to evoke a naturally occurring reflexive/ unconditioned response (UR) (saliva) is paired with the occurrence of a neutral stimulus which does not have the initial capacity to evoke response of interest (bell)
• Conditioned stimulus (CS) – stimulus once the conditioned response (CR) has attained reflex-like response (bell was neutral stimulus that became conditioned stimulus).
• Useful for managers to train personnel so that they do not require continual monitoring/feedback.
• Driver applies breaks when seeing traffic lights (conditioned response for left foot on clutch when driving an automatic...?)

• Observational learning – person witnesses the behaviour of another and experiences the consequences of the other person’s actions.  Much learning in organizational settings is observational.

• New employee able to model their behaviour based on copying skilled employees (training videos/manuals/role play techniques).
• Rewards in psychological? (self-reward satisfaction for individual IF has desire to feel in control of surroundings ... see self-efficacy)
• Largely self-regulated (how, when and where to respond) vs. classical conditioning where dependent on someone.
• Most successful when external rewards are provided (combine observational learning and conditioning principles – individual cognition helped by external rewards).

• Operant (instrumental) conditioning – people act on their surroundings and deliberately move into/out of situations. Behaviour of employees is instrumental in having a desired outcome.

• Law of effect: behaviour is a function of consequences.... (but how can a cause be in the future?) Responses that are followed by a desirable experience will be more likely to occur in the future (undesirable experiences = less likely to occur).
• Reinforcement used in conjunction with a response

• Positive – event to increase the frequency of a response – perform to seek good outcomes?
• Negative - event that increases the frequency of a response when removed (buzzer that shuts off when appropriate response) – respond out of anxiety?

1. What are the ways in which behaviour in organisations can be modified? How can the likelihood of a target behaviour be increased or decreased?

Outcomes from OB mod:

• Shaping: technique to modify behaviour involving reinforcement of small approximations of the final desired behaviour. Sometimes desired behaviour involves complex responses so shaping reinforces small, successive approximations of the desired behaviour (praise after each gradual improvement).
• Extinction – elimination of a response due to the discontinuation of reinforcement (manager cannot always give rewards)

• For desired behaviours – extinction avoided
• For inappropriate behaviours (tardiness, insubordination) – extinction sought.
• Resistance to extinction – to ensure persistence in performance even if reinforcement is absent.
• Partial reinforcement – response rewarded in non-continuous (variable) manner
• Continuous reinforcement – praise for every continuous response.

• Punishment – undesirable event that follows a behaviour it intends to eliminate (only temporary suppression of the behaviour?)

• Works under specific conditions; same attributes to all, i.e. consistency across instances and people (not character attack); administered asap; clear what the punishment is for (connection evident to employee).

• Depends on leadership style, employees backgrounds.

• Alternatives:

• Rearrange work setting – i.e. lock on copy machine/websites
• Extinction (above)
• Ignoring undesirable behaviour – hope that eventually subsides

• Progressive discipline – pre-determined penalties are increased according to frequency and severity of infractions (individuals can alter their behaviour) e.g. steps for late individual

• Discipline can begin at various steps depending on severity of offense.

1. What is the impact of different reinforcement schedules?

• Interval schedules – reinforce behaviour on amount of time elapsed
• Ratio schedules – based on number of times behaviour is performed
• Fixed schedule – amount of time/number of behaviours specified in advance
• Variable schedule – amount of time/number of behaviours varies.

• FIXED INTERVAL SCHEDULE – reinforces individuals for their response after a predetermined period of time has elapsed. Poor  performance (only minimal amount of effort necessary to meet the standard; very little incentive). Most organizations compensate individuals on weekly/hourly basis (ignore performance as long as meets minimum standard). Responses diminish when rewards are withheld (calculable).

• LEAST EFFECTIVE in performance enhancement and resistance to extinction.
• Most commonly used in organizations

• VARIABLE INTERVAL SCHEDULE – reinforcement after varying periods of time (although average time may be calculated, individual cannot predict time between reinforcements). E.g. managers fairly regular bi-annual checks (also possible that performance will drop after reinforcement is administered – relaxed).
• FIXED RATIO SCHEDULE – reinforcement given in exchange for predetermined number of responses (e.g. piece-rate pay scheme; fruit pickers have x amount for every kg). Higher performance than interval schedules but will probably drop temporarily just after reinforcement (performance is high but variable – effort exerted in spurts).
• VARIABLE RATIO SCHEDULE – reinforcement is provided after an individual has produced a number of desired (unstated) responses (i.e. varies around average number). Not many companies use as primary wage-payment method but more for praise (employees don’t know beforehand that their actions will be rewarded). E.g. cash bonuses, public recognition

• MOST EFFECTIVE IN PRODUCING CONSISTENTLY HIGH LEVEL OF PERFORMANCE (most resistant to extinction).

1. What is OBMod?

• Skinner psychologist: Application of principles of operant conditioning where systematic approach to the modification of human behaviour has been developed to organizational settings.
• Operant conditioning principles:

• Use differential rewarding
• Identify valued rewards for individuals (health, vacation)
• Instruct that good performance = rewards
• Informative feedback on performance

• 90% organizations say OB Mod has positive effect
• Attempts to improve performance or attendance by providing immediate feedback about behaviour and using praise/recognition from superiors as reinforcers (don’t usually use money).
• Controversies:

• Manipulative – deliberate/calculated effort to control the behaviour of others (BB management – overseer to control by unilaterally defining rules of game). Ethical?

• However, ultimately manager’s responsibility to ensuire that employees’ behaviour contributes to mission of firm.

• Just scientific management/human relations (unoriginal) – closer supervision of employees, more specific definitions of job activities, frequent evaluation and feedback, rewards based on output.
• Ignores importance of internally mediated rewards (motivation that results from the inherent enjoyment of doing extra tasks).

• OB Mod focus on externally administered, contingent rewards (undercuts motivation?)

• Lack of concern for mental processes – OB Mod downplayed importance of thought processes (not recognizing the value of human mind and advocating manipulation).

1. What is social learning theory? What are the key elements of social learning theory?

SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY:

• Idea to imitate models (superior performers or supervisors) – vicarious learning
• People develop expectancies about their capacity to behave in certain ways and the probability that such behaviour will result in rewards.

• Training programmes that use videos/lectures/role-play

• Administers self-reinforcement in the form of increased personal satisfaction/enhanced self-image (goal-setting for self-reinforcement). Intrinsic rewards gained....
• Introduces self-efficacy.

• Level of effort/degree of persistence
• From past performance/verbal persuasion.

• USE OF SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY IN CONJUNCTION WITH EXTRINSIC REWARDS FOR PEROFRMANCE MAY PROVIDE THE MOST EFFECTIVE COMBINATION OF MOTIVATIONAL APPROACHES.

1. What is the role of self-control in social learning theory?

1. What is self-efficacy? Where does it come from?

• Feeling of competency arising from sense of being able to master a task... not as general as self-confidence. Comes from observational learning (see above).

1. What is motivation?

• Motives cannot be directly observed, that can only be inferred from the behaviour of others (people with same motives can have different behaviours and people with different motives can have similar behaviours...).
• Motives are constantly chanting (dynamic) – some don’t decrease in importance even when goal is attained.

1. Why do people do what they do? How can we change what others do?

• For acceptance and endorsements from others and themselves?
• Internal: reaction from a cause (?)

• Self-interest (not necessarily mean or personal greed)

• EVERYTHING IS FOR SELF-INTEREST (ALTRUISM IS DEAD)
• Simple and challenging (still want altruism – need a new definition? Or simply encompass self-interest in altruism).

• Environmental reasons vs. Intrinsic internal determination

• Certain behaviours that are predetermined that we have very little control over:

• Reflexes (gag, blink, knee-jerking, yawning,)
• Automatic behaviour (babies born in ‘birthing pools’ don’t breathe even though they ‘don’t know anything’)
• Shaking someone’s hand (socially automatic? Babies won’t shake your hand...)
• We do many of the things we do everyday automatically (over learned)

• Brush teeth, shower etc...
• Behaviour schemas/scripts

• Developed/programmed responses are the hardest to explain?

• We don’t even think about it

• Maslow Hierarchy (needs leading to initiatives)

1. What is your personal (informal) theory of motivation? Why do you accept this theory? How would you evaluate this theory in light of the formal theories of motivation?

1. What question do content theories of motivation try to answer? What are these theories useful for?

Content theories focus on what motivates people to perform. They are concerned with identifying the different rewards that people seek in their work.