303 organizational behavior class

Ch. 1 (introduction)
What is organization?
Organization is a place where two or more people work
together in a. structured way to achieve a specific goal
or set of goals. Goals are fundamental elements of
organizations.
Types of goals:
1. Individual
2. Organizational
What is behavior?
The way in which an animal or person behaves in
response to a particular situation or stimulus.
2 types of behavior:
1. Individual
2. Organizational
What is organizational behavior?
Organizational behavior (OB) is the study of how people
interact within groups and its principles are used to
make businesses operate more effectively and
efficiently.

3 types of skill
1. Interpersonal skill
 2. Communicational skill
3. People skill
Who are the managers?
A manager is a professional who takes a leadership role
in an organization and manages a team of employees.
Functions of managerial activities:
1. Traditional
2. Communication
3. HR
4. Networking
Intuition: It is a positive or negative feeling about a
person or object or event without any logical judgment.
Systemic study: systematic study is concerned with the
process of thinking by considering the facts and
information available.
Contributing discipline to the OB field:
1. psychology,
2. sociology,
3. socio-psychology,
4. anthropology, and
5. Political science.
Why few absolutes apply to OB?
The reason OB has some absolutes is due to situational
factors. It is important for effective management to
contemplate the situational factors that may lead to
distinct responses and affect the relationship among the
variables. It is important to understand the complexity
that lies with human beings and their nature to behave
differently in similar situations.
Despite this, an organization must consider the
situational conditions and different unseen variables that
guide human behavior. Considering such factors will help
the management to make better decisions and
predictions.
Z variable: A contingency variable refers to the specific
factor that could impact the outcome of a particular
situation positively or negatively. For example, in a
business setting, the type of leadership a team has may
be the contingency variable that creates greater
productivity or a hostile work environment.
Ch. 3 attitudes and job satisfaction
What is attitude?
Positive or negative feeling of an individual about a
person, event or object after evaluation.
Components of attitude:
1. Cognitive(evaluation):
2. Affective (feeling):
 3. Behavioral (action):
[Note: cognition causes affect which causes behaviour.]
What is cognitive dissonance?
Cognitive dissonance happens when people hold
conflicting beliefs.
Theory of cognitive dissonance:
Cognitive = thought
Dissonance = conflict
“The distressing mental state caused by inconsistency
between a person’s two beliefs or a belief and an action
– Leon Fishtinger”

attitude
Behavior
Behaviour
Attitude inconsistent
dissonance
with attitude

Does behaviour always follow attitude?

Desire to reduce dissonance depending on following

factors:
 Importance of elements
 Degree of individual influence
  Rewards involved in dissonance

Moderating variables:
1. The importance of the attitude
2. Its correspondence to behaviour
3. Its accessibility
4. The presence of social pressure
5. Processing direct experience with the attitude
What are the major job attitudes?
1. Job satisfaction
2. Job involvement
3. Organizational commitment
4. Perceived organizational support(POS)
5. Employee engagement
Psychological empowerment:

Job satisfaction: it is a positive feeling about a job

resulting from an evaluation.
Measuring job satisfaction:
Here are two most widely used approaches for
measuring job satisfaction:
1. Single Global Rating: (1 question)
 Response to one question, such as "All things
considered, how satisfied are you with your job?".
Respondents circle a number between 1 and 5 on a
scale from "highly satisfied" to "highly dissatisfied."
2. Summation of Job Facets: (2< question)
It identifies key elements in a job, such as, nature of
work, supervision, present pay, promotion
opportunities, relation with co-workers
Factors influencing job satisfaction:
1. Work itself
2. Pay
3. Advancement opportunities
4. Supervision
5. Relation with co-workers
6. Training
7. Independence
8. Control
9. Challenging task
10. Routing work
11. Work-life balance
Outcomes of job satisfaction:
1. Job performance
2. Organizational citizenship behaviour
3. Customer satisfaction
4. Absenteeism
 5. Turnover
6. Workplace deviance
1. Job Performance: Happy workers are more likely to
be productive workers. Organizations with more
satisfied employees tend to be more effective
2. Organizational Citizenship Behaviors: Satisfied
employees would seem more likely to talk positively
about the organization, help others, and go beyond
the normal expectations in their job
3. Customer Satisfaction: satisfaction and loyalty.
Satisfied employees increase customer
4. Absenteeism: Dissatisfied employees are more
likely to miss work
5. Turnover: The turnover rate is high for the
dissatisfied employees with high "human capital" (high
education, high ability).
6. Workplace Deviance: Job dissatisfaction encourages
undesirable organizational behaviors, such as
unionization attempts, substance abuse, undue
socializing and tardiness. Researchers argue these
behaviors are indicators of a broader syndrome called
deviant behaviour in the workplace.

Types of employees respond to dissatisfaction:

 1. Exit
2. Voice
3. Loyalty
4. Neglect
Roles Constructive Destructive
Active Voice Exit
Passive Loyalty Neglect
Employee Responses to Dissatisfaction
The exit-voice-loyalty-neglect framework is helpful
understanding the consequences of dissatisfaction:
1. Exit: The exit response directs behavior toward leaving
the organization, including looking for a new position as
well as resigning.
2. Voice: The voice response includes actively and
constructively attempting to improve conditions,
including suggesting improvements, discussing problems
with superiors, and undertaking some forms of union
activity.
3. Loyalty: The loyalty response means passively but
optimistically waiting for conditions to improve,
including speaking up for the organization in the face of
external criticism and trusting the organization and its
management to "do the right thing"
4. Neglect: The neglect response passively allows
condition to worsen and includes chronic absenteeism or
lateness reduced effort, and increased error rate.
 Ch. 4 Emotion and moods:

Affect
Defined as a broad range of feelings that
people experience. Affect can be experienced
in the form of emotions or moods

Moods
Emotions
 Couse is then general and
 Caused by specific event unclear
 Very brief in duration  Last longer than emotions
(seconds or minutes) (hours or days)
 Specific and numerous in  More general (two main
nature (many specific dimensions- positive affect
emotions such as anger, and cognitive affect- that are
fear, sadness, happiness composed of multiple specific
disgust, surprise emotions)
 Usually accompanied by  Generally not indicated by
distinct facial expressions distinct expressions
 Action oriented in nature  Cognitive in nature
 Affect
A broad range of feelings that
people

Emotions Moods

Feelings that are tend to be

Intense feeling are
less intense than emotions
directed at someone or
and often lack a contextual
something stimulus

Affect, Emotions and Moods

Affect
Defined as a broad range of feelings that people
experience. Affect can be experienced in the form of
emotions or moods
Emotions
 Caused by specific event
 Very brief in duration (seconds or minutes)
  Specific and numerous in nature (many specific
emotions such as anger, fear, sadness, happiness,
disgust, surprise)
 Usually accompanied by distinct facial expressions
 Action oriented in nature
Moods
 Cause is often general and unclear
 Last longer than emotions (hours or days)
 More general (two main dimensions-- positive affect
and negative affect that are composed of multiple
specific emotions
 Generally not indicated by distinct expressions
 Cognitive in nature

Emotions v. Moods
Emotions and moods are closely connected and can
influence each other.
For example, getting your dream job may generate
the emotion of joy, which can put you in a good mood
for several days. Similarly, if you're in a good or bad
mood, it might make you experience a more intense
positive or negative emotion than otherwise. In a bad
mood, you might blow up in response to a co-worker's
comment that would normally have generated only a
mild reaction.
 The Basic Moods:
Positive and Negative Affect
Positive moods: Positive affect is a mood dimension
consisting of positive emotions such as excitement, self-
assurance and cheerfulness at the high end and
boredom, sluggishness and tiredness at the low end.
Negative moods: Negative affect is a mood
dimension consisting of nervousness, stress and anxiety
at the high end and relaxation, tranquility and poise at
the low end.

...The Basic Emotions:

1. Happiness
2. Surprise
3. Fear
4. Sadness
5. Anger
6. Disgust
7. Contempt
8. Enthusiasm
9. Envy
10.
11. Hate
 12. Hope
13. Jealousy
14. Joy
15. Love
16. Pride
17. Frustration
18. Disappointment
19. Embarrassment

Culture and Emotions

Emotional expressions are governed by the cultures,
so the way we experience an emotion isn't always the
same as the way we show it.
People in the United States recognize a smile as
indicating happiness, but in the Middle East a smile is
also more likely to be seen as a sign of sexual attraction,
so women have learned not to smile at men.
In collectivist countries people are more likely to
believe another's emotional displays have something to
do with the relationship between them, while people in
individualistic cultures don't think others' emotional
expressions are directed at them.

Emotional Labor
 In addition to physical and mental labor, Jobs also
require emotional labor
Emotional Labor is a situation in which an employee
expresses organizationally desired emotions during
interpersonal transactions at work.
It means delivering smiles, high fives, making eye
contact, showing sincere interest and engaging in
friendly conversation with people who are essentially
strangers and who may or may not ever be seen again.

Emotional Dissonance: Emotional Dissonance is

inconsistencies between the emotions people feel and
the emotions they project.
Emotional Dissonance is a feeling of discomfort that
Occurs when someone evaluates an emotional
experience as a threat to his or her identity.
Example: Harry's personal life was in disaster last
year when his wife left him one weekend morning. He
had to go to work on Monday morning and act
accordingly to be happy and polite to airline customers.
Inside, Harry was devastated and depressed. Head a
feeling of uneasiness as his real emotion and his fake
emotion were drastically at odds with each other.
 Types of Emotions
Felt emotions are an individual's actual emotions. In
contrast, displayed emotions are those that the
organization requires workers to show and considers
appropriate in a given job. They're not innate, they're
learned.
"The ritual look of delight on the face of the first runner-
up as the new Miss America is announced is a product of
the display rule that losers should mask their sadness
with an expression of joy for the winner."
Similarly, most of us know that we're expected to act sad
funerals regardless of whether we consider the person's
death to be a loss and to pretend to be happy at
weddings even if we don't feel like celebrating.

Emotional Intelligence (El)

Emotional intelligence (El) is a person's ability to
(1) Perceive emotions in the self and others,
(2) Understand the meaning of these emotions, and
(3) Regulate one's emotions accordingly in a cascading
model.

Strategies to change your emotions include-

1. Surface acting
2. Suppressing negative thoughts
3. Social sharing
 4. Cognitive reappraisal
5. Deep acting
6. Engaging in (relaxation techniques)

1. Surface acting: Literally "putting on a face" of

appropriate response to a given situation. Surface acting
doesn't change the emotions, though, so the regulation
effect is minimal, and the result of daily surface acting
leads to exhaustion and fewer OCBs.
2. Deep acting: Another technique we have covered, is
less psychologically costly than surface acting because
the employee is actually trying to experience the
emotion.
3. Suppressing negative thoughts: it appears to be
helpful only when a strongly negative event would elicit
a distressed emotional reaction in a crisis situation.
4. Cognitive reappraisal: Acknowledging rather than
suppressing our emotional responses to situations, and
re-evaluating events after they occur, yield the best
outcomes.
5. Engaging in (relaxation techniques): When people
become non-judgmentally aware of the emotions they
are experiencing, they are better able to look at
situations separately from their emotions.
6. Social sharing: Research shows that the open
expression of emotions can help individuals to regulate
their emotions, as opposed to keeping emotions "bottled
up." Social sharing can reduce anger reactions when
people can talk about the facts of a bad situation, their
feelings about the situation, or any positive aspects of
the situation.

Affective Events Theory

Affective Events Theory a model developed by
organizational psychologists Howard M. Weiss and
Russell Cropanzano to explain how emotions and moods
influence job performance and job satisfaction.
1. The theory begins by recognizing that emotions are a
response to an event in the work environment.
2. The work environment creates work events that can
be hassles (excessive time pressures), uplifting events
(getting support from a colleague), or both.
3. These work events trigger positive or negative
emotional reactions, to which employees'
personalities and moods predispose them to respond
with greater or lesser intensity.
4. Finally, emotions influence a number of performance
and satisfaction variables, such as organizational
 citizenship behavior, organizational commitment, level
of effort, intention to quit, and workplace deviance.

An Example of AET
Suppose you work as a software engineer of a company.
Because of the downturn demand for software, you've
just learned the company is considering laying off 2000
employees, possibly including you.
This event is likely to make you feel negative emotions,
especially fear that you might lose your primary source
of income and because you're prone to worry a lot and
aware about problems, this event increases your feelings
of insecurity.
The layoff also sets in motion a series of smaller events
that create an episode:
 you talk with your boss and he assures you your job
is safe,
 you hear rumors your department is high on the list
to be eliminated; and
 You run into a former colleague who was laid off 6
months ago and still hasn't found work.
These events, in turn, create emotional ups and downs.
One day, you're feeling upbeat that you'll survive the
cuts. The next, you might be depressed and anxious.
These emotional swings take your attention away from
your work and lower your job performance and
satisfaction.

Ch. 5 personality and values

SOME PEOPLE ARE QUIET AND PASSIVE; OTHERS ARE
LOUD AND AGGRESSIVE. When we describe people using
terms such as Quiet, Passive, Loud, Aggressive,
Ambitious, Extroverted, Loyal or Tense, (What I do most
often), we're categorizing them in terms of Personality
Traits (Enduring characteristics that describe an
individual's behavior).
So, an individual's personality is the unique combination
of the psychological traits we use to describe that
person.
In other words, Personality is "The sum total of ways in
which an individual reacts to and interacts with others
(total reactions and interactions)"
In psychology, personality is a collection of emotional,
thought, and behavioral patterns unique to a person that
is consistent over time.
The word originates from the Latin persona, which
means "mask," indicating that early theorists regarded
the personality as the outward expression of the
individual nature of human beings.

Personality Tests assist in hiring the right person for the

job at the organization.
 Self-Report Surveys: where individuals answer
questions that determine what type of personality
you have.
 Observer rating surveys: where others observe the
individual and provide an independent assessment
of their personality.
Research suggests that observer-ratings surveys are a
better predictor of success on the job because-
One concerns with self-report surveys is that the
individual might lie or practice impression management;
Another concern is accuracy A perfey good candidate
could have just been in a b hood when the survey was
taken.

Personality Determinants
Was the personality predetermined at birth, or was it the
result of the individual's interaction with his or her
surroundings (environment)?
Personality appears to be a result of both heredity and
environment.
The determinants of personality can perhaps best be
grouped in 5 broad categories:
1. biological,
2. cultural,
3. family,
4. social and
5. Situational.

Determinants of Personality:
Biological Factors:
The study of the biological contributions to personality
may be studied under three heads:
1. Heredity
2. Brain:
3. Physical features

1. Heredity: Heredity refers to those factors that were

determined at conception Physical stature, facial
attractiveness, sex, temperament, muscle composition
and reflexes, energy level, and biological rhythms are
characteristics that are considered to be inherent from
one's parents. The heredity approach argues that the
ultimate explanation of an individual's personality is the
molecular structure of the genes, located in the
chromosomes. Researchers in many different countries
have studied thousands of sets of identical twins who
were separated at birth and raised separately but found
very similar personalities.
2. Brain: Brain is one of the most important factors of
personality determinant. It is generally believed that the
father and the child adopt almost the same type of brain
stimulation and the later differences are the result of the
environment in which the child has been grown up.
3. Physical features: A vital ingredient of the personality,
an individual's external appearance, is biologically
determined. The fact that a person is tall or short, fat or
skinny, black or white will influence the person's effect
on others and this in turn, will affect the self-concept.

Cultural and Religious Factors:

The culture in which one lives in, may involve traditional
practices, norms, customs, procedures, rules and
regulations, precedents and values, all are important
determinants of personality.
The culture largely determines attributes toward
independence, aggression, competition, and cooperation
Moreover, the creed, religion and believes are also
important factors of personality determinants.

Family Factors:
Family has the most significant impact on early
personality development.
Research indicates that the overall home environment
created by the parents, in addition to their direct
influence, is critical to personality development.
The parents play an especially important part in the
identification process, which is important to the person's
early development.
Social Factors:-
There is increasing recognition given to the role of other
relevant persons, groups and especially organizations,
which greatly influence an individual's personality. This is
commonly called the socialization process.
Socialization involves the process by which a person
acquires, from the enormously wide range of behavioral
potentialities that are open to him or her.
Socialization starts with the initial contact between a
mother and her new Infant. After infancy, other
members of the Immediate family-father brothers,
sisters and close relatives or friends, then the social
group-pers school friends and members of the work
group, play influential roles
Socialization may be one of the best explanations for
why employees behave the way they do in today's
organizations.

myers briggs type indicator 4 dimensions:

The MBTI may lack strong supporting evidence, but an
impressive body of research supports the thesis of the
Big Five Model—that five basic dimensions underlie all
others and encompass most of the significant variation in
human personality. Moreover, test scores of these traits
do a very good job of predicting how people behave in a
variety of real-life situations.13 The following are the
Big five factors:
● Emotional stability. The emotional stability dimension
—often labeled by its converse, neuroticism—taps a
person’s ability to withstand stress.
People with positive emotional stability tend to be calm,
self-confident, and secure. Those with high negative
scores tend to be nervous, anxious, depressed, and
insecure.
● Extraversion. The extraversion dimension captures our
comfort level with relationships. Extraverts tend to be
gregarious, assertive, and sociable.
Introverts tend to be reserved, timid, and quiet.
● Agreeableness. The agreeableness dimension refers to
an individual’s propensity to defer to others. Highly
agreeable people are cooperative, warm, and trusting.
People who score low on agreeableness are cold,
disagreeable, and unfriendly.
● Conscientiousness. The conscientiousness dimension is
a measure of reliability. A highly conscientious person is
responsible, organized, dependable, and persistent.
Those who score low on this dimension are easily
distracted, disorganized, and unreliable.
● Openness to experience. The openness to experience
dimension addresses range of interests and fascination
with novelty. Extremely open people are creative,
curious, and artistically sensitive. Those at the other end
of the category are conventional and find comfort in the
familiar.
We'll look at other attributes that are powerful
predictors of behavior in organizations:
 Core self-evaluations,
 Self-monitoring,
 Type A & Type B personality and
 Proactive personality.

Core Self-Evaluation (CSE):

Bottom- line conclusions individuals have about
their capabilities, competence, and worth as a
person.
Self-Monitoring
A personality trait that measures an individual's
ability to adjust his or her behavior to external,
situational factors.
High Self-Monitors:
 Considerable adaptability in adjusting their behavior
to external situational factors.
 Receive better performance ratings
 Likely to emerge as leaders
 Show less commitment to their organizations but
pay closer attention to the behavior of others.
 More mobile in their careers.
 Receive more promotions and are more likely to
occupy central positions in an organization.
 Low Self-Monitors:
 They can't disguise themselves.
 They tend to display their true dispositions and
attitudes in every situations.

Type 'A'
Type A personalities are defined as those who need
to achieve more and more. They are always moving,
striving to multitask and don't do well with leisure
time.
 Always moving, walking & eating fast
 Poor decision makers
 Quantity over quality
 Behavior is easier to predict
 Suffer high level of stress
 Time pressure/deadlines
 Rarely creative
 Feel impatient
 Obsessed with number; how many, how much they
have achieved
 Strive to do two or more things at once and Cannot
cope with leisure time.

Type 'B'
 Type B personalities operate at a slower pace, find
time for leisure and are the opposite of all type A
characteristics.
 Never suffer from a sense of time urgency
 Good decision makers
 Quality of work
 Difficult to predict behavior
 Can relax without guilt
 Wiser than hasty
 Creative solution to same problem
 Feel no need to display/discuss their achievements
unless required
 No compromise on health
 Play for fun/relaxation rather than to exhibit their
superiority at any COST

Proactive Personality:
Proactive people actively take the initiative to
improve their current circumstances or create new
ones while others si by passively reacting to
situations.
They are more likely to be seen as
 Leaders
 Change agents
 Voice their displeasure when station
 Engage in career planning and Achieve com
 Create positive, change in the constraints or obst
 Develop contract is high places
 Select, Create and influence work

Values
Personality and values are related.

Values are specific, describe belief systems rather

than behavioral.
Values represent basic convictions (about what is
right, good, or desirable) that make judgments
about what is the best mode of conduct or end-state
of existence.
They contain JUDGEMENTAL element in that they
carry individuals' ideas what is right-good-desirable.

Value Systems
Represent a prioritizing of individual values by:
Content-The content attribute says that a mode of
conduct or end-state of existence is important.
Intensity-The intensity attribute specifies how
important it is When we rank an individual's values
in terms of their intensity we obtain that person's
value system. This system is identifiable by the
relative importance we assign to values such as
freedom, pleasure, self-respect, honesty and
equality
The hierarchy tends to be relatively stable

Classifying Values - Rokeach Value Survey:

The Rokeach Value Survey was created by Milton
Rokeach. It consists of two sets of values, terminal
values and instrumental values.
Terminal Values
Desirable end-states of existence; the goals that a
person would like to achieve during his or her
lifetime
Instrumental Values
Preferable modes of behavior or means of achieving
one's terminal values
People in similar occupations or categories tend to
hold similar values
But values vary between groups
Value differences make it difficult for groups to
negotiate and may create conflict

Achieving Person-Job Fit

Personality-Job Fit Theory (Holland)
Identifies six personality types and proposes that the
fit between personality type and occupational
environment determines satisfaction and turnover
 Personality Types Realistic(RAISEC)
 Realistic (R) people (Doers)
 Artistic
 Investigative
 Social
 Enterprising
 Conventional

Holland's personality job matching mode

1. Realistic (R) people (Doers)
like realistic career such as auto-mechanics, aircraft
controllers, electricians & farmers generally like to work
with things, work outdoors, athletic ability (learn by
doing)
Avoid social activities such as teaching or informing
others
2. Investigative (1) people (Thinkers)
like investigative career such as biologist, chemists, lab
assistants & technicians generally like to explore and
enjoy research, work independently, like challenging
ideas.
Avoid selling or persuading people, do not seek
leadership role
 3. Artistic: These people are the “free spirits.” They are
creative, emotional, intuitive, and idealistic; have a
flair for communicating ideas; dislike structure and
prefer working independently; and like to sing,
write, act, paint, and think creatively. They are
similar to the investigative type but are interested in
the artistic and aesthetic aspects of things more
than the scientific.13 Artistic occupations frequently
involve working with forms, designs and patterns.
They often require self-expression and the work can
be done without following a clear set of rules.
4. Social: These are “people” people. They are friendly
and outgoing; love to help others, make a
difference, or both; have strong verbal and personal
skills and teaching abilities; and are less likely to
engage in intellectual or physical activity. 14 Social
occupations frequently involve working with,
communicating with, and teaching people. These
occupations often involve helping or providing
service to others.

5. Enterprising (E) people (Persuaders)

like enterprising career such as buyers, sports
promoters. television producers, business executives &
supervisors
generally like to influence others and attain power, self-
confident Avoid activities that require careful
observation and scientific analytical thinking
6. Conventional (C) people (Organizers)
like conventional career such as bankers, tax experts,
secretaries, bookkeepers generally likes to follow,
methodical, organized, numerically inclined
Avoid ambiguous unstructured activities
Hofstede's Framework:
Hofstede's Framework examines five value dimensions
of national culture. While there are many criticisms of
this framework, it is one of the most widely for analyzing
variations among cultures read and accepted in OB.
1. power distance
2. Individualism VS. collectivism
3. Masculinity vs. femininity
4. uncertainty avoidance
5. long-term orientation vs. short-term orientation
power distance a national culture attribute that
describes the extent to which a society accepts that
power in institutions and organizations is distributed
unequally.
Individualism VS. collectivism a national culture
attribute that describes the degree to which people
prefer to act as individuals rather than as members of
groups.
a national culture attribute that describes a tight social
framework in which people expect others in groups of
which they are a part to look after them and protect
them.
Masculinity vs. femininity: a national culture attribute
that describes the extent to which the culture favors
traditional masculine work roles of achievement, power,
and control. Societal values are characterized by
assertiveness and materialism.
a national culture attribute that indicates little
differentiation between male and female roles; a high
rating indicates that women are treated as the equals of
men in all aspects of the society.
uncertainty avoidance a national culture attribute that
describes the extent to which a society feels threatened
by uncertain and ambiguous situations and tries to avoid
them.
long-term orientation vs. short-term orientation a
national culture attribute that emphasizes the future,
thrift, and persistence.
a national culture attribute that emphasizes the present
and accepts change.
Ch. 6 (perception and individual decision making)
What is perception?
(Sense making of a person about any person, object or
event)
A process by which individuals organize and interpret
their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to
their environment.
People's behavior is based on their perception of what
reality is, not on reality itself.
Perception is a "sense-making" process by which
individuals connect to their environment:
Perception is strongly influenced by the perceiver's
current state of mind role, and comprehension
communications.

Factors that influence perception:

1. Factors of perceiver:
a. Attitude
b.Interest
c. Motive
d.Experience
e. Expectation
2. Factors in the situation
b)Time
c) Work setting
d)Work selling
3. Factors in the target
a. novelty,
b. motion,
c. sounds,
d. size,
e. background,
f. proximity,
g. similarity
Attribution Theory And The 3 Determinants of Attribution

What is attribution theory?

The attribution theory concerned with how individuals
perceive the information they receive, interpret events,
and how these form causal judgments. No individual
would take an action or decision without attributing it to
a cause factor.
Attribution theory tries to explain the ways in which we
judge people differently, depending on the meaning we
attribute to a given behavior.
It suggests that when we observe an individual's
behavior, we attempt to determine whether it was
internally or externally caused.
That determination, however, depends largely on three
factors:
(1) Distinctiveness
(2) Consensus
(3) Consistency
1. Distinctiveness
Distinctiveness refers to whether an individual displays
different behaviors in different situations.
• Does the individual act the same way in other
situations?
The individual attributes an action to a particular product
or person if the action occurs when the particular
product or person is present and does not occur in its
absence.
If Suman observes that the photographs seems to be
more colorful when using his new Canon printer, he is
likely to credit the new printer with the improved
appearance of his photos. (Distinctiveness)
• What we want to know is whether this behavior is
unusual (High). If it is, we are likely to give it an external
attribution. If it's not, we will probably judge the
behavior to be internal.
2. Consensus
If everyone who faces a similar situation responds in the
same way, we can say the behavior shows consensus.
➡ Does the individual act the same as others in same
situation?(s.
The action is perceived in the same way by others.
Suman will have still more confidence in his inferences to
the extent that his friends who own canon printers also
have similar experiences. (Consensus)
The behavior of our tardy student meets this criterion if
all students who took the same route were also late.
From an attribution perspective, if consensus is high
(frequently), you would probably give an external
attribution to the student's tardiness, whereas if other
students who took the same route made it to class on
time, you would attribute his lateness to an internal
cause (Seldom/low).
3. Consistency
An observer looks for consistency in a person's actions.
Does the individual act the same way over time?
Whenever the person or product is present, other
individual's inference or reaction must be the same or
nearly so.
If Suman finds that his new Canon printer produces the
same high quality results each time he uses it, he will
tend to be more confident about his initial observation
(CONSISTENCY).
Coming in 10 minutes late for work is not perceived in
the same way for an employee who hasn't been late for
several months.
The more consistent (high/frequently) the behavior, the
more we are inclined to attribute it to internal causes.
(Seldom/lov external)

Types of Attribution
Internal/ personal Attribution: Internally caused
behaviors are those that are believed to be under the
personal control of the individual. That is, internal causes
are under that person's control.
External/ Situational Attribution: Externally caused
behavior is seen as resulting from outside causes; that is,
the person is seen as having been forced into the
behavior by the situation. That is, External causes are not
under the person's control.
According to this theory, when behaviour is un-usual
then distinctiveness is high then we can say the
attribution is external. On the other hand, when
behaviour is usual then distinctiveness is low then we
can say the attribution is internal.
Consensus high- external
Consensus low- internal

The Exhibit summarizes the key elements in attribution

theory. It tells us, for instance, that if an employee,
Rebeka,- generally performs at about the same level on
related tasks as she does on her current task (low
distinctiveness),
• Other employees frequently perform differently-
better or worse than Rebeka on that task (low
consensus), Loyalty and Rebeka's performance on this
current task is consistent over time (high consistency).

Errors and Biases in Attributions

Fundamental Attribution Error
The tendency to underestimate the influence of external
factors and overestimate the influence of internal factors
when making judgments about the behavior of others.
We blame people first, not the situation
For example, A Sales manager is prone to attribute the
poor performance of her sales agents to laziness rather
than to innovative product line introduced by a
competitor
Self-Serving Bias
The tendency to take credit for our success (internal
attributions) but to blame the situation (external
attribution) for our failures
It is "our" success but "their" failure.
For example, "I did well on the test because I am smart"
or "I did poor on the task because I didn't get enough
sleep.”

Frequently Used Shortcuts in Judging Others

 Halo Effect
 Projection
 Contrast Effects
 Selective Perception
 Stereotyping

Selective Perception
We can't observe everything going on around us, we use
selective perception. But we don't choose randomly:
People selectively interpret what they see on the basis of
their interests, background, experience, and attitudes.
Selective perception is a process by which one only
perceives what he feels is right, completely ignoring the
opposing viewpoints. Example: You are told smoking is a
bad habit, and before you even know a person, you label
him as bad, because he smokes.
Halo Effect
When we draw a general impression about an individual
on the basis of a single characteristic, such as
intelligence, sociability, or appearance, a halo effect is
operating.
If you're a critic of President Obama, try listing 10 things
you admire about him. If you're an admirer, try listing 10
things you dislike about him. No matter which group
describes you, odds are you won't find this an easy
exercise! That's the halo effect: our general views
contaminate our specific ones.
Subjects were given a list of traits such as intelligent,
skillful, practical, industrious, determined, and warm,
and were asked to evaluate the person to whom those
traits applied. When the word "warm" was substituted
with "cold" the subjects changed their evaluation of the
person. The experiment showed that subjects were
allowing a single trait to influence their impression of the
person being judged.
Contrast Effects
Evaluation of a person's characteristics that are affected
by comparisons with other people recently encountered
who rank higher or lower on the same characteristics.
Projection
This tendency to attribute one's own characteristics to
other people-which is called projection. When managers
engage in projection, they compromise their ability to
respond to individual differences. They tend to see
people as more homogeneous than they really are.
"Men aren't interested in child care,"
"Older workers can't learn new skills,"
"Asian immigrants are hardworking and careful."
Stereotyping
It is a very common distortion.
It occurs when an individual assigns attributes to another
solely on the basis of the other's membership in a
particular social or demographic category.
Specific Applications of Shortcuts in Organizations
1. Employment Interview: Interviewers generally
draw early impressions that are often inaccurate. In
addition, different interviewers see different things
in the same candidate and thus arrive at different
conclusions about the applicant. Research shows
most interviewer's decisions change very little after
first 4 or 5 minutes of the interview. We form
impressions of others within a tenth of a second,
based on our first glance.
2. Performance Expectations: The desired
expectations of a person from others (self-fulfilling
prophecy).
  Pygmalion effect: Higher expectations leads to
increase in performance.
 Golem effect: Lower expectations leads to
decrease in performance.
3. Performance Evaluations: During the performance
appraisal, the managers are subjected to have
influenced by various perceptual errors particularly,
halo effect, stereotyping, contrast effect etc.
Though subjective evaluation is necessary but is
problematic as well.
Perception and decision making:
Often decision making occurs as to a reaction to a
problem or a perceived discrepancy/ difference between
the way things are and the way we would like them to
be.
Decision making is done by individuals but occurs in
organizations. There are some models that can help us
think through decision making in organizations.
1. Rational decision making model:
2. Bounded Rationality model
Rational decision making model:
It is a decision making model that describes how
individuals should behave in order to maximize
some outcome.
 The model assumes a perfect world in order to make
decisions. It assumes that there is complete
information that every option has been identified
and there is a maximum profit.
 Rational is characterized by making consistent,
value maximizing choices within specified
constraints.

Steps in Rational decision making model:

1. Define the problem
2. Identify the decision criteria
3. Allocate weights to the criteria
4. Develop the alternatives
5. Evaluate the alternatives
6. Select the best alternatives
Assumptions:
 The decision maker Have complete information
regarding the decision situation.
 The decision maker Can identify all relevant criteria
and viable alternatives.
 The decision maker is Aware of all possible
consequences of each alternative.
 Rationally assumes that the criteria and
alternatives can be ranked and weighted.
 Specific decision criteria are constant and the
weights assigned to them are stable over time.
  Full information is available because there is no
time or cost constraints.
 The choice alternative will yield the highest
perceived value.

Bounded rationality:
A process of making decisions by constructing simplified
models that extract the essential features from
problems without capturing all their complexity.

Intuitive Decision Making

Perhaps the least rational way of making decisions is
intuitive decision making, an unconscious process
created from experience.
It occurs outside conscious thought relies on holist
associations. Making decisions on the basis of
experience, feelings and accumulated judgment.
It's fast; and it's affectively charged, meaning it usually
engages the emotions.
Therefore, Intuition is a highly complex and highly
developed form of reasoning that is based on years of
experience and learning."

Common Biases and Errors in Decision Manking

Overconfidence Bias:
Believing too much in our own ability to make good
decisions- especially when outside of own expertise.
When people say they're 90 percent confident about the
range a certain number might take, their estimated
ranges contain the correct answer only about 50 percent
of the time- and experts are no more accurate in setting
up confidence intervals than are novices. When people
say they're 100 percent sure of on outcome, they tend to
be 70 to 85 percent correct.
Individuals whose intellectual and interpersonal abilities
are weakest are most likely to overestimate their
performance and ability
There's also a negative relationship between
entrepreneurs optimism and the performance of their
new ventures. The more optimistic, the less successful.

Anchoring bias: The anchoring bias is a tendency to

fixate on initial information and fail to adequately adjust
for subsequent information. 47 It occurs because our
mind appears to give a disproportionate amount of
emphasis to the first information it receives. Anchors are
widely used by people in professions in which persuasion
skills are important—advertising, management, politics,
real estate, and law. Assume two pilots—Jason and
Glenda—have been laid Exhibit 6-4 Reducing Biases and
Errors Focus on Goals. Without goals, you can’t be
rational, you don’t know what information you need, you
don’t know which information is relevant and which is
irrelevant, you’ll find it difficult to choose between
alternatives, and you’re far more likely to experience
regret over the choices you make. Clear goals make
decision making easier and help you eliminate options
that are inconsistent with your interests. Look for
Information That Disconfirms Your Beliefs. One of the
most effective means for counteracting overconfidence
and the confirmation and hindsight biases is to actively
look for information that contradicts your beliefs and
assumptions. When we overtly consider various ways we
could be wrong, we challenge our tendencies to think
we’re smarter than we actually are. Don’t Try to Create
Meaning out of Random Events. The educated mind has
been trained to look for cause-and-effect relationships.
When something happens, we ask why. And when we
can’t find reasons, we often invent them. You have to
accept that there are events in life that are outside your
control. Ask yourself if patterns can be meaningfully
explained or whether they are merely coincidence. Don’t
attempt to create meaning out of coincidence. Increase
Your Options. No matter how many options you’ve
identified, your final choice can be no better than the
best of the option set you’ve selected. This argues for
increasing your decision alternatives and for using
creativity in developing a wide range of diverse choices.
The more alternatives you can generate, and the more
diverse those alternatives, the greater your chance of
finding an outstanding one. Source: S. P. Robbins, Decide
& Conquer: Making Winning Decisions and Taking
Control of Your Life (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Financial
Times/Prentice Hall, 2004), pp. 164–168. Decision
Making in Organizations 179 off their current jobs, and
after an extensive search their best offers are from Delta
Airlines. Each would earn the average annual pay of
Delta’s narrow-body jet pilots: $126,000. Jason was a
pilot for Pinnacle, a regional airline where the average
annual salary is $82,000. Glenda was a pilot for FedEx,
where the average annual salary is $200,000. Which pilot
is most likely to accept, or be happiest with, Delta’s
offer? Obviously Jason, because he is anchored by the
lower salary.
Risk Aversion
The tendency to prefer a sure gain of a moderate
amount over a riskier outcome, even if the riskier
outcome might have a higher expected payoff.
Winner's Curse
Highest bidder pays too much due to value
overestimation Likelihood increases with the number of
people in auction
Hindsight Bias
The tendency to believe falsely, after an outcome of an
event is actually known, that one would have accurately
predicted that outcome.

Escalation of commitment
Increasing commitment to a decision in spite of evidence
that it is wrong - especially if responsible for the
decision!
The tendency to repeat an apparently bad decision or
allocate more resources to a failing course of action
Consider a friend who has been dating someone for
several years. Although he admits things aren't going too
well, he says he is still going to marry her. His
justification: "I have a lot invested in the relationship!"
Randomness Error
Creating meaning out of random events - superstitions
I never make important decisions on Friday the 13th
Tiger Woods often wears a red shirt during a golf
tournament's final round because he won many junior
tournaments wearing red shirts
Most of us like to think we have some control over our
world and our destiny. Our tendency to believe we can
predict the outcome of random events is the
randomness error.
Confirmation Bias
Selecting and using only facts that support our decision
the tendency to search for or internet information way
that confirms one's preconceptions
The rational decision making process w objectively
gather information, but we don’t. we selectively gather
it. The confirmation bias represents a specific case of
selective perception we seek out information that
reaffirms out past choices and we discount information
that
Therefore the information we gather is typically blasted
toward the supporting views we already hold. We even
tend to seek sources most likely to what we want to
hear, and we give too much weight to supporting
information and too life to contradictory.
Availability Bias
Emphasizing information that is most readily at hand
-Recent
-Vivid
More people fear flying than tear driving in a car. But
flying on a commercial airline really were as dangerous
as driving, the equivalent of two 747s filled to copacity
would crash every week, killing all aboard. Because the
media give much more attention to air accidents, we
tend to overstate the risk of flying and understate the
risk of driving.
The availability bias can also explain why managers doing
performance appraisals give those weight employee
behaviors than to behaviours of 6 or 9 months earlier.

Reducing Brases and Enors

1. Focus on Goals: Clear goals make decision making
easier and help you eliminate options that are
inconsistent with your interests.
2. Look for Information That Disconfirms Your Beliefs:
One of the most effective means for counteracting
overconfidence and the confirmation and hindsight
biases is to actively look for information that contradicts
your beliefs and assumptions.
3. Don't Try to Create Messing out of Random Event:
Ask yourself if patterns can be meaningfully explained or
whether they are merely coincidence. Don't attempt to
create meaning out of coincidence.
4. Increase Your Options:
The more alternatives you can generate, and the more
diverse those alternatives, the greater your chance of
finding an outstanding one.

Ethics in Decision Making

Ethical Decision Criteria
-Utilitarianism

 Decisions made based solely on the outcome

 Seeking the greatest good for the greatest number
 Dominant method for businesspeople
 Rights
 Decisions consistent with fundamental liberties and
privileges
 Respecting and protecting basic rights of individuals
such as less (Individual who report unethical
practices by their employees and outsiders.
 This criterion protects whistle-blowers when they
reveal an organizations unethical practices to the
press or government agencies, using their right to
free speech.
Justice
 Imposing and enforcing rules fairly and impartially
 Equitable distribution of benefits and costs
Is the decision ethical or unethical?

Unethical
Question 1 Question 3
Is the Yes Yes Is the
Question 2
decision decision fair
motivated Does the
and
decision
by self- equitable?
respect the
serving
No rights of the No
Interests? individuals
affected
Unethical
Improving Creativity in Decision
Creativity:
The ability to produce novel and useful ideas.
Creativity allows the decision maker to more fully
appraise and understand the problem, including seeing
problems others can't see.
L'Oréal puts its managers through creative exercises such
as cooking or making music, and the University of
Chicago requires MBA students to make short movies
about their experiences
Who has the greatest creative potential?
 Those who score high in Openness to Experiences
 People who are intelligent, Independent, sell
confident, king an internal locus of control, tolerant
of ambiguity, low need for structure and who
persevere in the face of frustration.

(Collect from book)

Ch. 7: Foundations of Group Behavior
and Understanding Work Teams:
Group: Two or more individuals, interacting and
interdependent, who have come together to achieve
particular objectives
Classification of Groups
There are two types of group: formal groups and
informal groups.
Formal Group: Formal groups are created as per
official authority, so as to fulfill the desired objective.
 Command Group: The groups that consist of
managers and their subordinates.
  Task or Functional Group: The group form to
carry out a particular task.
Informal Group: informal groups are formed by the
employees as per their likes, interests, and attitudes.
 Interest Group: Individuals who may not be
members of the same organization, but they are
united by their interest in a common issue.
Example: A group of university professors
organize a seminar on "Law and Order Problems
in Bangladesh'
 Friendship Group: Associations of people who like
each other and who like to be together.
 Reference Group: a reference group is a group to
which an individual or another group is compared.
People use reference groups to evaluate and
determine their attitudes, beliefs, values, and
behaviors. These groups serve as a standard or
reference point for assessing one's own position
and performance in society.
An example of a reference group being used
would be the determination of affluence. An
individual in the Bangladesh with an monthly
income of Tk.1,00,000, may consider themself
affluent if they compare themself to those in the
middle of the income strata, who earn roughly Tk.
30,000 a year.
 Why Do People Form Groups? PSCAGIG
1. Companionship
2. Survival and security
3. Affiliation and status
4. Power and control
5. Goal achievement
6. Interpersonal needs
7. Group interaction/ synergy

Social Identity Theory

Social identity theory proposed by British social
psychologists Henri Tajfel and John Turner in 1979.
. Social identity theory proposes that a person's sense
of who they are depends on the groups to which they
belong.
One might define himself in terms of the organization
he/she works for, the city he/she lives in, his/her
profession, religious background, ethnicity, or gender.
When a person perceives themselves as part of a
group that is an in-group for them. Other comparable
groups that person does not identify with are called
out- groups. We have an "us" vs. "them" mentality
when it comes to our in-groups and their respective
out-groups.

When Do People Develop a social identic several

characteristics make a social identity important to a
person:/ Several characteristics make a social identity
important to a person:
1. Similarity: People who have the same values or
characteristics as other members of their
organization have higher levels of group
identification.
2. Distinctiveness: People are more likely to notice
identities that show how they are different from
other groups.
3. Status: People are most interested in linking
themselves to high-status groups because they use
identities to define themselves and increase self-
esteem.
4. Uncertainty reduction: Membership in a group also
helps me people understand who they are and how
they fit into

The Five Stages of Group Development

In 1965, Bruce Wayne Tuckman proposed four phases
(Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing) of group
 development. In 1977, Tuckman, jointly with Mary Ann
Jensen, added a fifth phase- Adjourning,

Punctuated-Equilibrium Model
Connie J.G. Gersick (1983), in her Punctuated-
Equilibrium Model noted that temporary groups with
deadlines don't seem to follow the usual five-stage
model [Temporary groups are usually formed with the
expectation of completing a task within a limited time
period and then disbanding (Adjourning). Often these
groups are formed from representatives or experts from
various parts of the organization that bring particular
skills to the project.) They have their own unique
sequencing of sections
1. Setting group's direction
2. First phase of inertia
3. Half-way point transition
4. Major changes
5. Second phase of inertia
6 Accelerated activities

Group Properties
Work group have properties that shape the behavior of
members and make it possible to explain and predict a
large portion of individual behavior within the group as
well as the performance of the group itself. Some of
these properties are-
1. Roles
2. Norms
3. Status
4. Size
5. Cohesiveness
6. Diversity

Group Property-1: Roles

All group members are actors, each playing a role.
Role: A set of expected behavior patterns attributed to
someone occupying a given position in a social unit.
Role Perception: An individual's view of how he or she is
supposed to act in a given situation. We get role
perceptions from stimuli all around us like friends,
books, films, television.
• Role Expectations: How others believe a person should
act in a given situation. In the workplace, we look at role
expectations through the perspective of the
Psychological Contract An unwritten agreement that sets
out mutual expectations of management and employees.
Role Conflict: A situation in which an individual is
confronted by conflicting role expectations. It include
situations in which two or more role expectations are
mutually contradictory.
An experiment: Zimbardo's Simulated Prison
1. Conducted by Stanford University psychologist Philip
Zimbardo and associates. They created a "prison" in the
basement of the Stanford psychology building
2. They hired two-dozen emotionally stable, physically
healthy, law abiding students who scored "normal
average" on extensive personality tests. Each student
was randomly assigned the role of "guard" or "prisoner."
3. To get the experiment off to a "real start. Zimbardo
got the cooperation of the City of Palo Alto Police
Department:
✓ Police went, unannounced, to the future primers
homes, arrested and handcuffed them, put them in a
squad car in front of friends and neighbors, and took
them to police headquarters where they were booked
and fingerprinted
From there, they were taken to the Stanford prison.

Group Property-2: Norms

Acceptable standards of behavior within a group that
are shared by the group’s members.
Norms is acceptable dads of beer when a prope by the
group's members. For example, employees d'icionar
bosses in public
The common classes of norms appearing in work groups.
1. Performance norms. How hard a person should work
in a given group (eg, how hard they should work, how to
get the job done their level of output, appropriate levels
of tardiness, and the
2. Appearance norms: How we should look or what our
physical appearance should be (eg, appropriate dress,
loyalty to the work group or organization when to love
bay)
3. Social arrangement seras How (eg, with show pop bab
friendship on and off the job ewer to
4. Resource allocation norms: How equipment (eg.
assignes of difficult jobs, distribution of par equipment’s.
Norms & Conformity
Conformity refers to an individual's tendency to follow
the unspoken rules or behaviors of the social group to
which he or she belongs. There is considerable evidence
that groups can place strong pressures on individual
members to change their attitudes and behaviors to
conform to the group's standard.
Examples of Cards Used in Asch's Study

One card had one line, the other had three Times of
varying length
One of the lines on the three-line card was identical to
the line on the one Line card.
- Asch told them he was studying visual perception and
that their task was to decide which of the bars on the
right was the same length as the one on the left.

Types of Group
Based on Decision Making Techniques
1. Interacting: Typical ups in which members meet face
to face and rely on both verbal and nonverbal interaction
to communicate.
2. Brainstorming: An idea-generation process that
specifically encourages any and all alternatives while
withholding any criticism of those alternatives.
3. Nominal Group Technique (NGT): A group decision-
making method in which individual members meet face
to face to pool their judgments in a systematic but
independent fashion. The nominal group technique
restricts discussion or interpersonal communication
during the decision-making process.
4. Electronic Meeting: The most recent approach to
group decision making blends the nominal group
technique with sophisticated computer technology. A
meeting in which members interact on computers,
allowing for anonymity of comments and aggregation of
votes.

Brainstorming
It is meant to overcome pressures for conformity in the
interacting group that delay/ retard the development of
creative alternatives.
In a typical brainstorming session, a half dozen to a
dozen people sit around a table.
The process:
a. The group leader states the problem clearly.
b. Members then "free-wheel" as many alternatives as
they can in a given length of time.
c. No criticism is allowed, and all the alternatives are
recorded for later discussion and analysis.
d. One idea stimulates others, and group members are
encouraged to "think the unusual."

The nominal group technique

Restricts discussion or interpersonal communication
during the decision- making process. Group members are
all physically present, but members operate
independently
Specifically, a problem is presented, and then the
following ups take place:
a. Members meet as a group but, before any discussion
takes place, each member independently writes down
his or her ideas on the problem.
b. After this silent period, each member presents one
idea to the group. Each member takes his or her turn.
c. The group now discusses the ideas for clarity and
evaluates them
d. Each group member silently and independently rank
orders the ideas.
e. The idea with the highest aggregate ranking
determines the final decision.

The chief advantage of the nominal group technique is

that it permits the group to meet formally but does not
restrict independent thinking, as does the interacting
group.

Electronic meeting
The computer-assisted group or electronic meeting
blends the nominal group technique with sophisticated
computer technology.
Up to 50 people sit around a horseshoe-shaped table,
empty except for a series of computer terminals.
• Issues are presented to participants, and they type
their responses onto their computer screen.
•Individual comments, as well as aggregate votes, are
displayed on a projection screen.
The major advantages of electronic meetings are
anonymity honesty, and speed.
Typology of Deviant Workplace Behavior
Category Examples
Production Leaving early
Intentionally working slowly Wasting
resources
Property Sabotage
Lying about hours worked Stealing
from the organization
Political Showing favoritism
Gossiping and spreading
rumors
Blaming co-workers
Personal Sexual harassment Verbal abuse
aggression Stealing from co-workers

Group Property-3: Status

Status is a socially defined position or rank given to
groups or group members by others.
• Status characteristics theory states that differences in
status characteristics create status hierarchies within
groups.

Group member
status

group
group norms status equity
interection

Effects of Status
On Norms and Conformity: Status has interesting effects
on the power of norms and pressures to conform.
 High-status members are able to resist norms and
conformity pressures than low status peers.
On Group Interaction: Group interaction is influenced by
status.
 High-status members are more assertive. They
speak out more often, criticize more, state more
commands, and interrupt others more often.
 Low status members are less active participants in
group discussions
  . If low status members possess ideas, creativity,
expertise and insights, are not likely to be fully
utilized and hence reducing the group's overall
performance.
On Equity: It is important for group members to believe
that the status hierarchy is equitable.
 Perceive inequity creates disequilibrium

Status Characteristics Theory

What determines status!
According to status characteristics theory. Status
derived from one of three sources.
1. People who control the outcomes of a group
through their power tend to be perceived as high
status. (Power a person has over others)
2. People whose contributions are critical to the
group's success tend to be high status. (Ability to
contribute to group goals)
3. Someone whose personal characteristics (good
looks, intelligence, money or a friendly personality) are
positively valued by the group has higher status.
(Personal characteristics)
Group Property-4: Size
Twelve or more members is a "large” group
Seven or few is a “small” group
Attribute Small Large
Speed X
Individual performance x
Problem solving X
Diverse input X
Fact finding goals X
Overall performance x

Group Property 4: Size

Social loafing is the tendency for individuals to expend
less effort when working collectively than when
working individually
 A common stereotype about groups is that team spirit
spurs individual effort and enhances overall
productivity. But that stereotype may be wrong.

Performance
Expected
Actual (due to loafing)

Group size

Causes of social loafing

A belief that others in the group are not carrying their
fair share
The dispersion of responsibility and the relationship
between an individual's input and the group's output is
clouded
There will be a reduction in efficiency where individuals
think that their contribution cannot be measured.
Prevention of social loafing
1. Set group goals
2. Increase intergroup competition
3. Use peer evaluation
4. Distribute group rewards based on individual effort

Group Property-5: Cohesiveness

Cohesiveness is the degree to which group members are
attracted to each other and are motivated to stay in the
group.
• Cohesiveness affects group productivity and
productivity depends on the group's performance-
related norms.
• How to increase cohesiveness?
1. Make the group smaller.
2. Encourage agreement with group goals.
3. Increasing the time that members spend together.
4. Increase group status.
5. Stimulate competition with other groups.
6. Give rewards to the group, not individuals.
7. Physically isolate the group.
Group Property-6: Diversity
Diversity in the group's membership is the degree to
which members of the group are similar to, or different
from, one another.
Benefits of group diversity:
-Enhance better decision making
-Ensure greater creativity and innovation
-Improve the way of problem solving.
Costs of group diversity:
-Increase group conflict which often lowers group morale
and raises dropout rates.

Groupthink and Group-shift

Groupthink
Phenomenon in which the norm for consensus overrides
the realistic appraisal of alternative courses of action.
Group-shift
A change in decision risk between the group's decision
and the individual decision that members within the
group would make; can be either toward conservatism
or greater risk.
Ch. 8: Power and Politics
Definition of Power
Power refers to the possession of authority and
influence over others.
Power the capacity to affect the behavior of the
subordinate with the control of resources. Power is the
potential ability to influence behavior, to change the
course of events, to overcome resistance, and to get
people to do things that they would not otherwise do.
A Definition of Power
Power
A capacity that A has to influence the behavior of B so
that B acts in accordance with A's wishes.
Dependency
B's relationship to A when A possesses something that B
requires.
Power refers to the capacity one person has over the
other person to get them to do what they want. Inherent
in this definition is the idea of dependency. The stronger
the relationship or the dependency that one person has
when the other possesses something they want or
requires, the greater the dependency on that person.
The greater B's dependence, the more power A has.

Leadership and Power Leadership and Power concepts

are closely intertwined. Leaders use power as means of
attaining group goal.
Leadership Power
Leadership is the action of a Power is the ability and
guiding group of people capacity to act.
It is an attribute that does It comes from positions of
not require power. authority.
It focuses on goal It used as a means for
achievement achieving goals.
It requires goal It requires follower
compatibility with dependency.
followers
It focuses on downward It used to gain lateral and
influence upward influence
Research focus on Research focus on tactics
leadership styles for gaining compliance.
Leadership Inspires and Power terrorizes and makes
makes followers people follow commands
out of fear

Types of individual power:

Individual power
Factors That Influence Political behavior
Individual Factors
1. High self-monitors: The high self-monitor, who are
able to regulate their own behavior to accommodate
social situations, are more likely to be skilled in political
behavior.
2. Internal locus of control: Individuals, who base their
success on their own work and believe they control their
life, are more prone to take a proactive stance and
attempt to manipulate situations in their favor.
3. High Mach personality: The Machiavellian personality,
characterized by the will to manipulate and the desire
for power, is comfortable using politics as a means to
further his or her self- interest.
4. Investment in the organization: A person expecting
increased future benefits from the organization ke
himself away from political behavior.
5. Perceived job alternatives: Alternative job
opportunities can positively influence a person to get
involved in political actions.
6. Expectations of success: An individual with low
expectations of success from illegitimate means is
unlikely to use them.

Organizational Factors
1. Low trust: Less trust within the organization increase
political behaviour.
2. Role ambiguity: If the prescribed employee behaviors
are not clear then employees can engage in unnoticed
political activity
3. Promotion opportunities: it encourages competition
which can increase politicking.
4. Reallocation of resources. Reallocation of resources
within the organization stimulate conflict and increase
politicking
5. High performance pressure: it increases risk and
uncertainty among the employees which encourages
politicking.
6. Zero-sum reward practices. In zero-sum reward
system, any gain one person or group achieves has to
come at the expense of another person or group, which
encourage politicking
7. Democratic decision making it decreases politicking.
8. Self-serving senior managers: Pong Top Manage
encourage lower level employees to play politics
9. Unclear performance evaluation system: it
encourages Politicking.
Factors That Influence Political Behaviors
Individual factors
 High self-monitor
 Internal locus of control
 High Match
 Organizational investment
 Perceived job alternatives Expectations of success
  Expectation of success

Organizational factors Reallocation of resources

 Promotion opportunities
 Low trust
 Role ambiguity
 Unclear performance evaluation system
 Zero-sum reward practices
 Democratic decision making
 High performance pressures Self-serving senior
managers
Individual factors Favorable customer
Organizational Political behaviour
 Rewards
factors Low high  Averted punishment

Should I Become Political?

My office is so political! Everyone is just looking for ways
to get ahead by plotting and scheming rather than doing
the job. Should I just go along with it and develop my
own political strategy? – Julia
 Employee Responses to Organizational Politics
Organizational politics
threaten may
employees

Decreased job Increased anxiety Increased Reduced

satisfaction and stress turnover performance

Defensive Behaviors:
Avoiding Action
 Over-conforming
 Buck passing
 Playing dumb
 Stretching
 Stalling
Avoiding Blame?
 Buffing
 Playing safe
 Justifying
 Scapegoating
 Misrepresenting
Avoiding Change
•Prevention
• Self-protection

When people perceive politics as a threat rather than as

an opportunity, they often respond with defensive
behaviors-reactive and protective behaviors to avoid
action, blame or change.

Impression Management
Impression Management is the process by which
individual’s attempt to control the impression others
form of them. People have an ongoing interest in how
others perceive and evaluate them. It might help them -
1. To get the jobs they want in an organization
2. To get favorable evaluations
3. Superior salary increases
4. More rapid promotion

Impression Management Techniques

1. Conformity: Agreeing with someone else's opinion to
gain his or her approval is a form of ingratiation.
Example: A manager tells his boss, "You're absolutely
right on your reorganization plan for the western
regional office. I couldn't agree with you more."
2. Favors: Doing something nice for someone to gain
that person's approval is a form of ingratiation. Example:
A salesperson says to a prospective client, "I've got two
tickets to the theater tonight that I can't use. Take them.
Consider it a thank-you for taking the time to talk with
me."
3. Excuses: Explanations of a predicament-creating event
aimed at minimizing the apparent severity of the
predicament is a defensive IM technique. Example: A
sales manager says to her boss, "We failed to get the ad
in the paper on time, but no one responds to those ads
anyway."
4. Apologies: Admitting responsibility for an undesirable
event and simultaneously seeking to get a pardon for the
action is a defensive IM technique.
Example: An employee says to his boss, "I'm sorry I made
a mistake on the report. Please forgive me."
5. Self-Promotion: Highlighting one's best qualities,
downplaying one's deficits, and calling attention to one's
achievements is a self- focused IM technique. Example: A
salesperson tells his boss, "Matt worked unsuccessfully
for three years to try to get that account. I sewed it up in
six weeks. I'm the best closer this company has."
6. Enhancement: Claiming that something you did is
more valuable than most other members of the
organizations would think is a self-focused IM technique.
Example: A journalist tells his editor, "My work on this
celebrity divorce story was really a major boost to our
sales" (even though the story only made it to page 3 in
the entertainment section).
7. Flattery: Complimenting others about their virtues in
an effort to make oneself appear perceptive and likeable
is an assertive IM technique.
Example: A new sales trainee says to her peer, "You
handled that client's complaint so tactfully! I could never
have handled that as well as you did."
8. Exemplification: Doing more than you need to in
effort to show how dedicated and hardworking you are
is an assertive IM technique.
Example: An employee sends e-mails from his work
computer when he works late so that his supervisor will
know how long he's been working.
Ch. 9: Conflict and Negotiations:
Definition of Conflict
• Conflict is a difference of ideas or opinions.
• Conflict is a process that begins when one party
perceives that another party has negatively affected, or
is about to negatively affect, something that the first
party cares about.
Encompasses a wide range of conflicts that people
experience in organizations:
- Incompatibility of goals
- Differences over interpretations of facts

Locus of Conflict
1. Conflict within the individual: Where expected role
playing of the individual does not conform with the
values and beliefs held by the individual.
2. Interpersonal Conflict: Conflict between two or more
individuals.
3. Conflict between the individual and the group: An
individual member may want to remain within the group
for social needs but may disagree with the group goals
and the methods to achieve such goals.
4. Intergroup conflict: Different functional groups within
the organization may come into conflict with each other
because of their different specific objectives.
5. Inter-organizational conflict: Conflict between
organizations which are dependent upon each other in
some way.

Transitions in Conflict Thought

1. The Traditional View of Conflict: The belief that all
conflict is harmful and must be avoided.
2. The Inter-actionist View of Conflict: The belief that a
minimal level of conflict can help keep a group viable,
self-critical, and creative.
3. Resolution-Focused View of Conflict (or The Managed
Conflict View): The belief that instead of encouraging
"good" or discouraging "bad" conflict, it's more
important to resolve naturally occurring conflicts
productively so that their disruptive influence can be
minimized.
Types of Conflict
1. Task Conflict: This relates to the contents and goals of
the work. Low to moderate levels of this type of conflict
can be functional.
2. Relationship Conflict: This focuses on interpersonal
relationships and is always dysfunctional.
3. Process Conflict: This relates to how the work gets
done. Low to moderate levels of this type of conflict can
be functional.

Functional vs. Dysfunctional Conflict

1. Functional or Constructive Conflict: Functional conflict
is healthy, constructive disagreement between groups or
individuals. It supports the goals of the group and
improves group performance.
2. Dysfunctional or Destructive Conflict: Dysfunctional
conflict is unhealthy disagreement that occurs between
groups or individuals. It hamper group performance.

The Conflict Process

Conflict Process consists five stages that show how
conflict begins, grows, and unfolds among individuals or
groups with different goals, interests or values of the
organization.
1. Potential opposition or incompatibility
2. Cognition and personalization
3. Intentions
4. Behavior
5. Outcomes

...The Conflict Process

2. Cognition and Personalization: This is the stage where

conflict issues tend to be defined, where the parties
decide what the conflict is about. A conflict must be
perceived (cognition) and it must be felt
(personalization).
i. Perceived Conflict: Awareness by one or more parties
of the existence of conditions that create opportunities
for conflict to arise.
ii. Felt Conflict: Emotional involvement in a conflict that
creates anxiety, tenseness, frustration, or hostility.
3. Intentions: Intentions are decisions to act in a given
way. Intensions intervene between people's perceptions
and emotions and their overt behavior. There are two
different types of intentions:
i. Assertiveness: Attempting to satisfy one's own
concerns.
ii. Cooperativeness: Attempting to satisfy the other
party's concerns.
...Dimensions of Conflict-Handling Intentions:

i. Competing (High Assertiveness; Low Cooperation): A

desire to satisfy one's interests, regardless of the impact
on the other party to the conflict. (I Win, You Lose)
ii. Collaborating (High Assertiveness; High Cooperation):
A situation in which the parties to a conflict each desire
to satisfy fully the concerns of all parties. (I Win, You
Win)
iii. Avoiding (Low Assertiveness; Low Cooperation): The
desire to withdraw from or suppress a conflict. (No
Winners, No Losers)
iv. Accommodating (Low Assertiveness; High
Cooperation): The willingness of one party in a conflict
to place the opponent's interests above his or her own. (I
Lose, You Win)
v. Compromising (In between Assertiveness and
Cooperation): A situation in which each party to a
conflict is willing to give up something. (You Bend, I
Bend)

4. Behavior: This is the stage where conflicts actually

become visible through yelling, fighting, or crying. This is
usually the most difficult stage because major issues
have to be resolved through conflict management.
Conflict Management: The use of resolution and
stimulation techniques to achieve the desired level of
conflict.

5. Outcomes: The action-reaction interplay between the

conflicting parties results in consequences. Based on the
way that conflict is handled, there are two possible
outcomes:
i. Functional Outcomes: Improve group's performance.
ii. Dysfunctional Outcomes: Decrease group's
performance.

Conflict Management Techniques

Conflict-Resolution Techniques
 Problem solving:
 Superordinate goals
 Expansion of resources
 Avoidance:
 Smoothing
 Compromise
 Authoritative command
 Altering the human variable
 Altering the structural variables

Problem solving:
Face-to-face meeting of the conflicting parties for the
purpose of identifying the problem and resolving it
through open discussion.
Superordinate goals
Creating a shared goal that cannot be attained without
the cooperation of each of the conflicting parties
Expansion of resources
When a conflict is caused by the scarcity of a resource
(for example, money, promotion. opportunities, office
space), expansion of the resource can create a win-win
solution
Avoidance:
Withdrawal from or suppression of the conflict.
Smoothing
Playing down differences while emphasizing common
interests between the conflicting parties.
Compromise
Each party to the conflict gives up something of value
Authoritative command
Management uses its formal authority to resolve the
conflict and then communicates its desires to the parties
involved.
Altering the human variable
Using behavioral change techniques such as human
relations training to alter attitudes and behaviors that
cause conflict
Altering the structural variables
Changing the formal organization structure and the
interaction patterns of conflicting parties through job
redesign, transfers, creation of coordinating positions
and the like.
Conflict-Stimulation Techniques
 Communication
 Bringing in outsiders
 Restructuring the organization
 Appointing a devil's advocate

Communication
Using ambiguous or threatening messages to increase
conflict levels
Bringing in outsiders
Adding employees to a group whose backgrounds,
values, attitudes, or managerial styles differ from those
of present members
Restructuring the organization
Realigning work groups, altering rules and regulations,
increasing interdependence; and making similar
structural changes to disrupt the status quo.
Appointing a devil's advocate
Designating a critic to purposely argue against the
majority positions held by the group.