MADM701 - M4

Negative Primary Emotions

Fear: Anxiety, alarm, apprehension, concern, qualm, dread, fright, terror Sadness: Grief, disappointment, sorrow, gloom, despair, suffering, dejection Anger: Outrage, exasperation, wrath, indignation, hostility, irritability Disgust: Contempt, disdain, abhorrence, revulsion, distaste Shame: Guilt, remorse, regret, embarrassment, humiliation

Intelligence : Eastern vs. Western Conceptions

For example, it has been found that people in Western cultures view intelligence as a means for individuals to devise categories and to engage in rational debate, while those in Eastern cultures see it as a way for members of a community to recognize contradiction and complexity.

Multiple Intelligences (Gardner)

Gardner recognized these two plus initially five others. In developing these seven multiple intelligences or MIs, he found that intelligence was not entirely genetic and fixed at birth, but instead it could be nurtured and grown. Importantly, the MIs are equal in importance and most people are strong in three or four but, because they are not fixed, there is always room for improvement in the others.

HRW Model

Health-Relationships-Work; The Interaction of Health, Relationship, and Work. The H-R-W model indicates that there is an interactive, reciprocal determination between one's health, relationships, and work. Work Performance (PsyCap) Effective Positive Intentions Open to One's Control and Development: Well-Being Relationships Health -Social Networks -Physical -Friends/Life Partners -Mental

PsyCap (HERO)

Hope: having the will and the way Efficacy: having confidence Resiliency: bouncing back and going beyond Optimism: positive attributions and future expectations

The majority-wins scheme

In this commonly used scheme, the group arrives at the decision that was initially supported by the majority. This scheme appears to guide decision making most often when there is no objectively correct decision. An example would be a decision about what car model to build when the popularity of various models has not been tested in the "court" of public opinion

The truth-wins scheme

In this scheme, as more information is provided and opinions are discussed, the group comes to recognize that one approach is objectively correct. For example, a group deciding whether to use test scores in selecting employees would profit from information about whether these scores actually predict job performance.

Tacit Knowledge & Creatives

Unwritten, unspoken, and hidden vast storehouse of knowledge held by practically every normal human being, based on his or her emotions, experiences, insights, intuition, observations and internalized information. Very simply, creativity results in people looking at things differently. Research shows that, in contrast to the average person, creative people seem better able to do things such as abstracting, imaging, synthesizing, recognizing patterns, and empathizing. They also seem to be good intuitive decision makers, know how to take advantage of good ideas, and are able to break old paradigms or ways of thinking and make decisions that sometimes seem to fly in the face of rationality.

A simple 2 x 2 behavioral decision-making style matrix can be categorized into two dimensions:

Value orientation and tolerance for ambiguity. The value orientation focuses on the decision maker's concern for task and technical matters as opposed to people and social concerns. 1. Directive. 2. Analytical. 3. Conceptual. 4. Behavioral. The tolerance for ambiguity orientation measures how much the decision maker needs structure and control (a desire for low ambiguity) as opposed to being able to thrive in uncertain situations (a desire for high ambiguity)

What 3 factors influence and develop resiliency?

1. Assets. 2. Risks. 3. Adaptational Processes.

GMA

General Mental Ability

State-Like : Resiliency

Important in meeting the criteria of positive organizational behavior, resiliency has been shown to be state-like, that is, it is trainable and developable. This state-like conceptualization opens the door for proactive efforts to create and develop resilient individuals, teams and organizations. In fact, resiliency may be more adversely impacted by the process that links risk conditions with specific dysfunctional outcomes than by the presence, number or frequency of risk factors, or lack of necessary assets.

Readiness

In order for feedback to be effective, employees must be ready to receive it. When feedback is imposed or forced on employees, it is much less effective.

Validity

In order for feedback to be effective, it must be reliable and valid. Of course, when the information is incorrect, the employee will feel that the supervisor is unnecessarily biased or the employee may take corrective action that is inappropriate and only compounds the problem.

Physiological and Psychological Arousal - Source of Self Efficacy

People often rely on how they feel, physically and emotionally, in order to assess their capabilities. More than the other sources of information, if these are negative (e.g., the person is very tired and/or not physically well or is particularly anxious/depressed and/or feels under a lot of pressure) this will generally greatly detract from efficacy. On the other hand, if these physical and mental states are well off, they don't necessarily process as contributing much to the individual's efficacy.

POB

Positive Organizational Behavior

Decision-Making Style Implications

Research reveals that decision makers tend to have more than one dominant style.61 Typically managers rely on two or three decision styles, and these will vary by occupation, job level, and culture. Variance, E.G.: Analytical decision makers make fast decisions, but they also tend to be autocratic in their approach to doing things. Similarly, conceptual decision makers are innovative and willing to take risks, but they are often indecisive. These styles also help explain why different managers will arrive at different decisions after evaluating the same information

Assets - Resiliency

Resiliency can be developed through enhancing the assets that a person possesses, through education, training, and nurturing social relationships, and in general by improving the quality of resources available for the person to draw upon.

Risk Factors - Resiliency

Risk factors can be managed through appropriate physical and psychological health care.

The Historian - Communication Styles

This manager likes to know the whole picture and thrives on details. This individual wants to be given a thorough analysis and background information, especially if it is presented in linear fashion. This type of manager does not jump from subject to subject, but instead remains focused on the topic under consideration until it has been exhaustively reviewed and a decision is made.

The Director - Communication Styles

This person has a short attention span, processes information very quickly, and is interested only in the bottom line. So it is best to present this type of manager with a bulleted list of conclusions and forget all of the background information.

The two-thirds majority scheme

This scheme is frequently adopted by juries, who tend to convict defendants when two-thirds of the jury initially favors conviction.

Empathic Design

User-centered design approach that observes customers in their normal environment in order to see how they use products and better identify their needs.

Status Quo Tendency

When individuals or groups are faced with decisions, they resist change and will tend to stick with existing goals or plans.

Feedback Loops

"Feedback loops can be caused by problems of timing, politics, disagreement among managers, inability to identify an appropriate alternative or to implement the solution, turnover of managers, or the sudden appearance of a new alternative." The essential point is that decision making is a dynamic, personal process. This process has both strategic and behavioral implications for organizations.

New Intelligences : Gardner's Multiple Intelligences

"New" Intelligences 8. Naturalist: Needs to be with/survive in nature, strength in categorization in nature or urban world Singer John Denver. 9. Existential: Not religion per se, knows why he or she is here, personal mission Civil Rights Leader Martin Luther King. 10. Emotional: Emotionally mature, recognizes own anger, reacts to emotions of self and others Pacifist Leader Mohandas Gandhi.

Nonverbal Communication

"Nonword human responses (such as gestures, facial expressions) and the perceived characteristics of the environment through which the human verbal and nonverbal messages are transmitted." Thus, whether a person says something or, equally important, does not say anything, communication still can take place.

Schmidt and Hunter summarized 85 years of research and based on metaanalytic findings concluded that the highest validities for predicting job performance were:

(1) GMA plus a work sample test; (2) GMA plus an integrity test; and (3) GMA plus a structured interview. An additional advantage of (2) and (3) is that they can be highly predicative for both entry-level selection and selection of experienced employees. One further refinement is that GMA predictive validity is higher for more-complex jobs and lower for less-complex jobs.

Besides being based on positive psychology, specific criteria must be met to be included in POB:

(1) based on theory and research, (2) valid measures, (3) statelike and open to development, and (4) managed for performance improvement.

Evidence has now grown to the point where research positive psychologists such as Sonja Lyubomirsky confidently conclude that one's happiness (or level of positivity or H-R-W well-being) is determined as follows:

1. About half can be contributed to genetic, dispositional "hard-wiring" set point (but not immutable). 2. Only about 10 percent is life's circumstances. 3. The remaining 40 percent are controlled by intentional activity. It is from this relatively large 40 percent intentional component that positive organizational behavior in general and psychological capital in particular can have input and make an impact.

Besides being positive and a psychological resource capacity, to be included as a POB construct, the following operational criteria must be met:

1. Based on theory and research; This criterion separates POB from the a theoretical, no research back-up popular, positive, self-help literature. POB is based on constantly building theoretical grounding and continuing basic and applied research findings. 2. Valid measures; The construct must have reliable and valid measures. 3. "State-like" and thus open to development; Although on a continuum rather than dichotomous, the state-like criterion says that the psychological capacity can bedeveloped and trained, whereas most of the positive psychology variables like virtue and character are more trait-like and thus relatively fixed. 4. Managed for performance improvement; This criterion again separates POB from positive psychology. POB is concerned with the workplace and how the positive psychological resource capacity can be applied to improve human performance,.

What things can self-efficacy directly effect?

1. Choice behaviors (e.g., decisions will be made based on how efficacious the person feels toward the options in, say, work assignments or even a career field). 2. Motivational effort (e.g., people will try harder and give more effort on tasks where they have high self-efficacy than those where the efficacy judgment is low). 3. Perseverance (e.g., those with high self-efficacy will bounce back, be resilient when meeting problems or even failure, whereas those with low self-efficacy tend to give up when obstacles appear). 4. Facilitative thought patterns (e.g., efficacy judgments influence self-talks such as those with high self-efficacy might say to themselves, "I know I can figure out how to solve this problem," whereas those with low self-efficacy might say to themselves, "I knew I couldn't do this, I don't have this kind of ability"). 5. Vulnerability to stress (e.g., those with low self-efficacy tend to experience stress and burnout because they expect failure, whereas those with high self-efficacy enter into potential stressful situations with confidence and assurance and thus are able to resist stressful reactions)

Two widely recognized dimensions have been identified that can help explain the creative process:

1. Divergent thinking. This refers to a person's ability to generate novel, but still appropriate, responses to questions and problems. This is in contrast to convergent thinking, which leads to responses that are based mainly on knowledge and rational logic. In the preceding newspaper problem, convergent thinking would answer, "you read it," but divergent thinking would say, "make a kite out of it." The latter—divergent thinking—is considered more creative. 2. Cognitive complexity. This refers to a person's use of and preference for elaborate, intricate, and complex stimuli and thinking patterns. Creative people tend to have such cognitive complexity and display a wide range of interests, are independent, and are interested in philosophical or abstract problems. It is important to note, however, that creative people are not necessarily more intelligent (if intelligence is defined by standard tests of intelligence or grades in school, which tend to focus more on convergent thinking skills).

Training and Development - Self-Efficacy

1. Guided Mastery: Instructive modeling to acquire a skill or competency, guided skill perfection, and then transferring the training back to the job to ensure self-directed success. 2. Cognitive Mastery: Ways to enhance efficacy for decision making and problem solving. 3. Development of Self-Regulatory Competencies: Involves a variety of interlinked self-referent processes such as self-monitoring, self-efficacy appraisal, personal goal setting, and use of self-motivating incentives.

Evidence-based Conclusions for SWB/Happiness

1. Happiness is a process, not a place. "Happiness is an ongoing process that requires a way of experienced life and the world that includes positive attitudes, meaning, and spirituality. Being truly rich is as much about the attitudes within us as the circumstances surrounding us." 2. There is actually an optimal level of happiness. Those "too happy" may perform less well at school and work, and even be less healthy (e.g., may ignore symptoms or required regiments). 3. Though not linear, happiness is clearly related to health and longevity, relationships, and effectiveness at work. Besides the relationship with health/longevity and relationships (e.g., Diener and Biswas-Diener note that "many studies show that happy people are more blessed with good families, friends, and supportive relationships") of interest here is the impact that SWB has on work outcomes.

Here are some guidelines to communicate better with Generation X (those born between 1965 and 1980) and Generation Y (those born between 1981 and 2000):

1. In terms of technology, for Gen X keep it up-to-date and motivating (music at work, BlackBerrys, and fast computers) and Gen Y (learn from them). 2. In terms of collaboration, for Gen X limit face-to-face meetings and offer alternatives such as conference calls, video, and Web conferencing and for Gen Y try to leverage social networks to encourage team collaboration and knowledge sharing. 3. In terms of the work ethic, for Gen X trust them and offer flexibility to telecommute and for Gen Y accept their expectations of new rules (e.g., productivity not hours at their desk). 4. In terms of socializing, for Gen X invite but do not push them to participate and for Gen Y appeal to their career goals to attend a networking event.

3 Major Phases in Decision Making Process (Herbert A. Simon):

1. Intelligence activity. Borrowing from the military meaning of "intelligence," Simon described this initial phase as consisting of searching the environment for conditions calling for decision making. 2. Design activity. During the second phase, inventing, developing, and analyzing possible courses of action take place. 3. Choice activity. The third and final phase is the actual choice—selecting a particular course of action from among those available.4

Ineffective Feedback

1. Intended to belittle the employee. 2. General. 3. Evaluative. 4. Inappropriate. 5. Untimely. 6. Makes the employee defensive. 7. Not understandable. 8. Inaccurate.

Effective Feedback

1. Intended to help the employee. 2. Specific. 3. Descriptive. 4. Useful. 5. Timely. 6. Considers employee readiness for feedback. 7. Clear. 8. Valid.

3 Important Optimism Issues

1. Little vs. Big Optimism; Little optimism involves specific expectations about positive outcomes (e.g., I will finish my assignment by 5 o'clock so I can watch the ball game tonight), whereas big optimism refers to more generic, larger expectations of positive outcomes (e.g., our firm can become the leader in the industry). Although there may be some relationship between little and big, there is also the distinct possibility of someone being a little optimist, but a big pessimist, or vice versa. 2. Optimism vs. Pessimism; Although the assumption is often made that optimism and pessimism are mutually exclusive, they may not be. Explanatory style derived from attributions about bad events are usually independent of explanatory style based on attributions about good events. 3. Learning and Sustaining Optimism; learned optimism Anyone, including pessimists, can learn the skills to be an optimist. The social process of modeling can contribute to the learning of optimism.

Here are some specific suggestions to improve nonverbal communication:

1. Look at what is happening in the situation. When nonverbal behavior is an emotional response, it reflects what is going on at the moment and can be used to better understand the person's nonverbal behavior. 2. Consider the discrepancies between the nonverbal behavior and the verbal statements. If there is a mismatch, then this should be a signal for closer examination of what is going on. Sometimes the nonverbal signals are more accurate than the verbal ones. 3. Watch for subtleties in the nonverbal behavior. For example, the difference between a real smile and a fake one can usually be detected.

The Four major sources of information for self-efficacy:

1. Mastery experiences or performance attainments. 2. Vicarious Experiences or Modeling. 3. Social Persuasion. 4. Physiological and Psychological Arousal;

The Dimensions of Optimism

1. Optimism as Human Nature. 2. Optimism as an Individual Difference.

Here are the causal attributions or explanatory style pessimists and optimists tend to habitually use in interpreting personal bad events:

1. Pessimists make internal (their own fault), stable (will last a long time), and global (will undermine everything they do) attributions. 2. Optimists make external (not their fault), unstable (temporary setback), and specific (problem only in this situation) attributions. Research continues on explanatory style, and it has been found that the internality attribution does not hold up as well as the stability or globality.

As Lyubomirsky points out, "intentional, effortful activities have a powerful effect on how happy we are, over and above the effects of our set points and the circumstances in which we find ourselves." She then prescribes the following guidelines and specific activities for developing and sustaining happiness:

1. Practicing gratitude and positive thinking (expressing gratitude, cultivating optimism, and avoiding overthinking and social comparison); 2. Investing in social connections (practicing acts of kindness and nurturing social relationships); 3. Managing stress, hardship, and trauma (developing strategies for coping, learning to forgive); 4. Living in the present (increasing flow experiences, savoring life's joys); 5. Committing to your goals; 6. Taking care of your body and soul (practicing religion and spirituality, meditation, physical exercise, and acting like a happy person). For example, on the last point of "acting like a happy person," citing published research she notes, "Remarkably, pretending that you're happy—smiling, engaged, mimicking energy and enthusiasm—not only can earn you some of the benefits of happiness (returned smiles, strengthened friendships, successes at work and school) but can actually make you happier."

Staw and Ross have identified four major reasons why escalation of commitment might happen:

1. Project Characteristics; This is probably the primary reason for escalation decisions. Task or project characteristics such as delayed return on investment or obvious temporary problems may lead the decision maker to stick with or increase the commitment to a wrong course of action. 2. Psychological Determinants; Once the decision goes bad, the manager may have information-processing errors (use biased factors or take more risks than are justified). Also, because the decision maker is now ego-involved, negative information is ignored and defensive shields are set up 3. Social Forces; There may be considerable peer pressure put on decision makers and/ or they may need to save face, so they continue or escalate their commitment to a wrong course of action. 4. Organizational Determinants; Not only may the project or task characteristics lend themselves to the escalation of bad decisions—so may a breakdown in communication, dysfunctional politics, and resistance to change.

What 4 components make up PsyCap?

1. Self-Efficacy. 2. Optimism. 3. Hope. 4. Resiliency. In using the term PsyCap, we suggested that there was a common conceptual thread running through the four components characterized as "a positive appraisal of circumstances and probability for success based on motivated effort and perseverance.

A communications scholar has summarized four of the most important purposes of interactive communication:

1. Task Coordination. 2. Problem Solving. 3. Information Sharing. 4. Conflict Resolution.

Closely related to these phases, but with a more empirical basis (that is, tracing actual decisions in organizations), are the stages of decision making of Mintzberg and his colleagues:

1. The identification phase, during which recognition of a problem or opportunity arises and a diagnosis is made. It was found that severe, immediate problems did not receive a very systematic, extensive diagnosis but that mild problems did. 2. The development phase, during which there may be a search for existing standard procedures or solutions already in place or the design of a new, tailor-made solution. It was found that the design process was a groping, trial-and-error process in which the decision maker had only a vague idea of the ideal solution. 3. The selection phase, during which the choice of a solution is made. There are three ways of making this selection: by the judgment of the decision maker, on the basis of experience or intuition rather than logical analysis; by analysis of the alternatives on a logical, systematic basis; and by bargaining when the selection involves a group of decision makers and all the political maneuvering that this entails. Once the decision is formally accepted, an authorization is made.

A meta-analysis evaluating the effects of behavioral modeling training (BMT) found:

1. The largest effects of BMT were on learning outcomes, but BMT also had an impact on job behavior and results outcomes. 2. Although the BMT effects on knowledge decayed over time, the effects on skills and job behavior remained stable or even increased. 3. The greatest impact of BMT was when: a. both negative and positive models were presented; b. practice included trainee-generated scenarios; c. trainers were instructed to set goals; d. trainees' supervisors were also trained; and e. rewards and sanctions were instituted in the trainees' work environment.

In identifying the domain, Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi summarize the three levels of positive psychology as follows:

1. Valued subjective experiences. Well-being, contentment, and satisfaction (in the past); hope and optimism (for the future); and flow and happiness (in the present). 2. Positive individual traits. The capacity for love and vocation, courage, interpersonal skill, aesthetic sensibility, perseverance, forgiveness, originality, future mindedness, spirituality, high talent, and wisdom. 3. Civic virtues and the institutions that move individuals toward better citizenship. Responsibility, nurturance, altruism, civility, moderation, tolerance, and work ethic.

Deliberate Rationality

A decision is deliberately rational to the degree that the adjustment of means to ends has been deliberately sought by the individual or the organization.

Organizationally Rational

A decision is organizationally rational to the extent that it is aimed at the organization's goals.

Personally Rational

A decision is personally rational if it is directed toward the individual's goals.

Hope

A positive motivational state that is based on an interactively derived sense of successful (a) agency (goaldirected energy), and (b) pathways (planning to meet goals). this meaning of hope consists of both the "willpower" (agency) and the "waypower" (pathways). Whether or not we have hope depends on two dimensions of our explanatory style: pervasiveness and performance. Finding temporary and specific causes for misfortune is the art of hope. In human resource management, hope may play an important role in selection, especially for certain types of jobs and because it is learned and state-like (can change) rather than a stable trait, it can be enhanced by training and development to improve on-the-job performance and retention of valuable employees.

Optimistic Explanatory Style

Accounting for negative events or situations with external, unstable, and specific explanations; An older study did examine competent managers and found that they attribute their failures to a correctable mistake, and then they persevere (i.e., an optimistic explanatory style).

Adaptational Processes - Resiliency

Adaptational processes can be enhanced through developing other positive psychological capacities such as self-efficacy, hope, and optimism, as well as through teaching people how to use effective coping, stress management, problem solving, and goal-setting strategies and practical techniques. Counter to conventional wisdom, organizational rules and regulations that seemingly introduce rigidity and hinder creativity may actually help as effective structuring tools that foster an organization's resilience in times of turbulence.

Interpersonal vs. Interactive Communication

Although closely related, interpersonal communication discussed above is more at the micro, individual level, whereas interactive communication is more at the macro, organizational level. The classical hierarchical organizational structure discussed in Chapter 3 gave formal recognition only to vertical communication. Horizontal communication is required to make a coordinated, cross-functional effort in achieving organizational goals.

Emotional Labor

An employee's expression of organizationally desired emotions during interpersonal transactions at work. Organizational communication research indicates that positive emotions, not just negative emotions, need to be displayed in prevailing socially acceptable ways, and the appropriate display of negative emotions typically means masking those emotions, that is, experience emotional labor.

Psychological Capital (PsyCap)

An individual's positive psychological state of development that is characterized by: (1) having confidence (self-efficacy) to take on and put in the necessary effort to succeed at challenging tasks; (2) making a positive attribution (optimism) about succeeding now and in the future; (3) persevering toward goals and, when necessary, redirecting paths to goals (hope) in order to succeed; and (4) when beset by problems and adversity, sustaining and bouncing back and even beyond (resiliency) to attain success. In using the term PsyCap, we suggested that there was a common conceptual thread running through the four components characterized as "a positive appraisal of circumstances and probability for success based on motivated effort and perseverance.

Analytical Style (Decision-Making Style)

Analytical decision makers have a high tolerance for ambiguity and a strong task and technical orientation. These types like to analyze situations; in fact, they often tend to overanalyze things. They evaluate more information and alternatives than do directive decision makers. They also take a long time to make decisions, but they do respond well to new or uncertain situations. They also tend to have an autocratic leadership style.

Freud's Social Model

At the opposite extreme from the classical economic rationality model, in which the decision maker is completely rational, is the social model drawn from psychology. Sigmund Freud viewed humans as bundles of feelings, emotions, and instincts, with their behavior being guided largely by their unconscious desires. Obviously, if this were the complete description, people would not be capable of making effective decisions.

Self-Efficacy vs. Attribution/Locus of Control

Bandura has argued that locus of control attributions are causal beliefs about action-outcome contingencies, whereas self-efficacy is an individual's belief about his or her abilities and cognitive resources that can be marshaled together to successfully execute a specific task.

PsyCap Intervention Model (PCI)

As indicated, this training intervention has been conducted in one- to three-hour highly interactive, large and small face-to-face sessions and even online (downloading exercises, use of movie clips, etc.). Using widely recognized human resource management utility analysis techniques.

Vicarious Experiences or Modeling - Source of Self Efficacy

As stated by Bandura, "If people see others like themselves succeed by sustained effort, they come to believe that they, too, have the capacity to succeed. Conversely, observing the failure of others instills doubts about one's own ability to master similar activities." It is important to emphasize that the more similar the model (e.g., demographics such as age, sex, physical characteristics, and education, as well as status and experience) and the more relevant the task being performed, the more effect there will be on the observer's efficacy processing. This vicarious source of information is particularly important for those with little direct experience (e.g., a new assignment) and as a practical strategy to enhance people's efficacy through training and development.

Behavioral Decision Making

Behavioral decision-making theorists argue that individuals have cognitive limitations and, because of the complexity of organizations and the world in general, they must act in situations where uncertainty prevails and in which information is often ambiguous and incomplete. Sometimes this risk and uncertainty leads organizational decision makers to make questionable, if not unethical, decisions.

Conceptual Style (Decision-Making Style)

Decision makers with a conceptual style have a high tolerance for ambiguity and strong people and social concerns. They take a broad perspective in solving problems and like to consider many options and future possibilities. These decision makers discuss things with as many people as possible in order to gather a great deal of information and then rely on intuition in making their decisions. Conceptual decision makers are also willing to take risks and tend to be good at discovering creative solutions to problems. At the same time, however, they can foster an idealistic and indecisive approach to decision making.

Directive Style (Decision-Making Style)

Decision makers with a directive style have a low tolerance for ambiguity and are oriented toward task and the technical concerns. These decision makers tend to be efficient, logical, pragmatic, and systematic in their approach to problem solving. Directive decision makers also like to focus on facts and get things done quickly. They also are action oriented, tend to have a very short-run focus, like to exercise power, want to be in control, and, in general, display an autocratic leadership style

Self-efficacy vs. self-esteem

ESTEEM: how we fell about ourselves. EFFICACY: belief in our ability to succeed. 1. Self-esteem is a global construct of one's evaluation and belief of overall worthiness; self-efficacy is one's belief about a task-and context-specific capability. 2. Second, self-esteem is stable and trait-like; self-efficacy is changing over time as new information and task experiences are gained and developed and is state-like. 3. Finally, self-esteem is aimed at any aspect of one's current self; self-efficacy is a current assessment of one's future success at a task.

Effective vs. Ineffective Feedback

Effective Feedback 1. Intended to help the employee. 2. Specific. 3. Descriptive. 4. Useful. 5. Timely. 6. Considers employee readiness for feedback. 7. Clear. 8. Valid. Ineffective Feeback 1. Intended to belittle the employee. 2. General. 3. Evaluative. 4. Inappropriate. 5. Untimely. 6. Makes the employee defensive. 7. Not understandable. 8. Inaccurate.

Description

Effective feedback can also be characterized as descriptive rather than evaluative. It tells the employee what he or she has done in objective terms, rather than presenting a value judgment.

Specificity

Effective feedback is designed to provide recipients with specific information so that they know what must be done to correct the situation. Ineffective feedback is general and leaves questions in the recipients' minds. For example, telling an employee that he or she is doing a poor job is too general and will leave the recipient frustrated in seeking ways to correct the problem.

Intention

Effective feedback is directed toward improving job performance and making the employee a more valuable asset. It is not a personal attack and should not compromise the individual's feeling of self-worth or image. Rather, effective feedback is directed toward aspects of the job.

Usefulness

Effective feedback is information that an employee can use to improve performance. It serves no purpose to berate employees for their lack of skill if they do not have the ability or training to perform properly. Thus, the guideline is that if it is not something the employee can correct, it is not worth mentioning.

Clarity

Effective feedback must be clearly understood by the recipient. A good way of checking this is to ask the recipient to restate the major points of the discussion. Also, supervisors can observe facial expressions as indicators of understanding and acceptance.

Felt vs. Displayed Emotions

Emotionally intelligent people not only can read the expressed emotions of other people, but also have the maturity to hold their felt emotions in check and not display undesirable, immature negative emotions such as anger or disgust.

Emotions

Emotions are reactions to an object, not a trait. They're object specific. You show your emotions when you're "happy about something, angry at someone, afraid of something." Moods, on the other hand, aren't directed at an object. Emotions can turn into moods when you lose focus on the contextual object.

Escalation of Commitment

Escalation of commitment is a human behavior pattern in which an individual or group facing increasingly negative outcomes from a decision, action, or investment nevertheless continues the behavior instead of altering course. The tendency of many decision makers to stick with a bad decision alternative, even when it is unlikely that things can be turned around.

The first-shift rule

In this scheme, the group tends to adopt the decision that reflects the first shift in opinion expressed by any group member. If a car-manufacturing group is equally divided on whether or not to produce a convertible, it may opt to do so after one group member initially opposed to the idea changes her mind. If a jury is deadlocked, the members may eventually follow the lead of the first juror to change position.

360-degree feedback approach

Involves collecting performance information not just from the supervisor but from anyone else who might have firsthand knowledge about the employee's performance behaviors. It is now recognized that managers can improve their performance through increased multisource information. These surveys measure items such as satisfaction with management, supervisors, pay, work procedures, or formal policies of the organization. The survey information is then fed back to those that generated it, with the goal of developing an action plan to improve the organization.

SWB in Work

It was found that SWB was a significant predictor of job satisfaction five years later, but not vice versa. In particular, SWB has demonstrated a direct correlation to job satisfaction. There is accumulating research evidence that happiness or SWB leads to desired outcomes beyond just job satisfaction in the workplace. Not only have happy employees been found to be more effective and productive, but after a search of the research literature it was also concluded that "on average, happy workers make more money, receive more promotions and better supervisor ratings, and are better citizens at work."

Positive Primary Emotions

Love/affection: Acceptance, adoration, longing, devotion, infatuation. Happiness/joy: Cheerfulness, contentment, bliss, delight, amusement, enjoyment, enthrallment, thrill, euphoria, zest. Surprise: Amazement, wonder, astonishment, shock.

Subjective Rationality

Might be used if the decision maximizes attainment relative to knowledge of the given subject.

Optimism as an Individual Difference

More in tune with mainstream modern psychology is to treat optimism (as with other psychological constructs) as an individual difference; people have varying degrees of optimism. Treating optimism as an individual difference focuses on cognitively determined expectations and causal attributions. Expectancy Theory View: Optimists expect good things to happen to them. Pessimists are people who expect bad things. Attributional Approach: Explanatory Style, depicts how an individual habitually attributes the causes of failure, misfortune, or bad events. This explanatory style is an outgrowth of Seligman's earlier work on learned helplessness; He had found that dogs and then humans, when continually experiencing uncontrollable, punishing, aversive events, eventually learn to be helpless. This helplessness generalized to the point that even when the animals or humans could subsequently control and escape the aversive conditions, they still acted in a helpless manner.

Social Persuasion - Source of Self Efficacy

Not as powerful a source of information as the previous two; sometimes oversimplified as a "can-do" approach, people's belief in their efficacy can be strengthened by respected, competent others persuading them that they "have what it takes" and providing positive feedback on progress being made on this particular task.

Creativity

Noted creativity researcher Teresa Amabile proposes that creativity is a function of three major components: expertise, creative-thinking skills, and motivation. Expertise consists of knowledge: technical, procedural, and intellectual. Creative-thinking skills determine how flexibly and imaginatively people can deal with problems and make effective decisions. Motivation is the inner passion to solve the problem at hand, and this often results in decisions that are far more creative than expected. Her most recent research also indicates that this creative process is generally better off when given plenty of time.

Objective Rationality

Objective rationality can be applied to decisions that maximize given values in a given situation.

Original Intelligences : Gardner's Multiple Intelligences

Original Intelligences: 1. Logical/mathematical: Processes analytically, calculates, quantifies Scientist Albert Einstein. 2. Verbal/linguistic: Thoughts through words, uses words to nurture Consultant Tom Peters. 3. Interpersonal: Understands others, processes through interaction, empathizes, humor Entertainer Oprah Winfrey. 4. Intrapersonal: Thinks in quiet, likes to be alone, goal oriented, independent, perseveres Business Tycoon Howard Hughes. 5. Visual/spatial: Uses mental models, thinks three dimensionally, pictures how to get places or solve problems Architect Frank Lloyd Wright. 6. Musical: Sensitivity to pitch, melody, rhythm, found in both performers and listeners Composer Wolfgang Mozart . 7. Bodily/kinesthetic: Physical movement, involves whole body, processes by jumping or dancing.

List of Gardner's Multiple Intelligences

Original Intelligences: 1. Logical/mathematical: Processes analytically, calculates, quantifies Scientist Albert Einstein. 2. Verbal/linguistic: Thoughts through words, uses words to nurture Consultant Tom Peters. 3. Interpersonal: Understands others, processes through interaction, empathizes, humor Entertainer Oprah Winfrey. 4. Intrapersonal: Thinks in quiet, likes to be alone, goal oriented, independent, perseveres Business Tycoon Howard Hughes. 5. Visual/spatial: Uses mental models, thinks three dimensionally, pictures how to get places or solve problems Architect Frank Lloyd Wright. 6. Musical: Sensitivity to pitch, melody, rhythm, found in both performers and listeners Composer Wolfgang Mozart . 7. Bodily/kinesthetic: Physical movement, involves whole body, processes by jumping or dancing. "New" Intelligences 8. Naturalist: Needs to be with/survive in nature, strength in categorization in nature or urban world Singer John Denver. 9. Existential: Not religion per se, knows why he or she is here, personal mission Civil Rights Leader Martin Luther King. 10. Emotional: Emotionally mature, recognizes own anger, reacts to emotions of self and others Pacifist Leader Mohandas Gandhi.

Profile of a High Performer

Perhaps the best profile of a high performer on a given task would be the highly efficacious individual who really gets into the task (welcomes it and looks at it as a challenge); gives whatever effort it takes to successfully accomplish the task; perseveres when meeting obstacles, frustrations, or setbacks; has positive self thoughts and talks; and is resistant to stress and burnout. As if this high-performance profile is not enough, Bandura emphasizes that efficacy also plays a vital role in other important human performance determinants such as goal aspirations, the incentives in outcome expectations, and the perceived opportunities of a given project.

The Downside of Optimism

Peterson notes that optimistically driven behavior may be aimed at pointless pursuits (e.g., finish in the top five of the company golf league) or unrealistic goals (e.g., striving to attain an unattainable sales goal that results in stress, exhaustion, and high blood pressure). There are also certain jobs in which at least mild pessimism would be beneficial (e.g., some technical jobs such as safety engineering or jobs in financial control and accounting).

Body Language

Probably the most widely recognized is body language. Body movements convey meanings and messages. This form of communication includes facial expressions and what people do with their eyes, feet, hands, and posture.

Optimism

Psychology treats optimism as a cognitive characteristic in terms of a generalized positive outcome expectancy (see Chapter 6) and/or a positive causal attribution. Optimism is also often used in relation to other positive constructs such as hope (covered next) and emotional intelligence. The problem of unbridled optimism, especially in retrospect when things go wrong, does seem to be a bigger problem than the downside of the other positive constructs (e.g., overconfidence or false hope).

Conscious Rationality

Rationality might be applied to decisions in which adjustment of means to ends is a conscious process.

Is resiliency more reactive or proactive?

Reactive.

General self-efficacy (GSE)

Refers to our overall belief in our ability to succeed. A general trait that refers to an individual's belief in his or her ability to perform successfully in a variety of challenging situations.

Ability

Refers to the aptitudes and learned capabilities needed to successfully accomplish a task. Both physical (e.g., manual dexterity, hand-eye coordination and body strength, stamina, and flexibility) and mental, intellectual, or cognitive abilities are recognized for jobs.

Sunk Cost Fallacy

Reluctance to change a course of action because of the amount of time and money previously spent. Decision makers become psychologically "stuck" to continue.

Resiliency

Resiliency is reactive rather then proactive in nature. In positive psychology, resiliency is defined as "a class of phenomena characterized by patterns of positive adaptation in the context of significant adversity or risk." As a component of positive organizational behavior, resiliency is viewed "as the capacity to rebound or bounce back from adversity, conflict, failure or even positive events, progress and increased responsibility." This "bouncing back" capacity involves flexibility, adjustment, adaptability, and continuous responsiveness to change and uncertainty that can otherwise represent a source of psychological strain and challenge one's well-being over the long term. It is a lifelong journey, an elaborate process in which competence is developed over time as people interact with their environment most often characterized by continuous change and uncertainty.

When converted to the effect size estimate commonly used in metaanalysis, the transformed value represents...

Self-Efficacy: 28%. Goal Setting: 10.39%. Feedback: 13.6%. Org. Beh. Modification: 17%. Self-efficacy also seems to be a better predictor of work-related performance over personality traits (e.g. the Big Five), or relevant attitudes (e.g. job satisfaction/org. commitment).

Risky Shift

The risky shift is a concept in social psychology. The risky shift occurs when a group collectively agrees on a course of action that is more extreme than they would have made if asked individually.

Positive Organizational Behavior (POB)

The study and application of positive oriented human resource strengths and psychological capacities that can be measured, developed, and effectively managed for performance improvement in today's workplace.

Timeliness

There are also considerations in timing feedback properly. As a rule, the more immediate the feedback, the better. This way the employee has a better chance of knowing what the supervisor is talking about and can take corrective action.

Goleman's Dimensions of Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace

Self-awareness: Self-understanding; knowledge of true feelings at the moment; John recognizes that he is angry so he will wait to cool down and gather more information before making an important personnel decision. Self-management Handle one's emotions to facilitate rather than hinder the task at hand; shake off negative emotions and get back on constructive track for problem solution; Amber holds back her impulse to become visibly upset and raise her voice at the customer's unfair complaint and tries to get more facts of what happened. Self-motivation: Stay the course toward desired goal; overcome negative emotional impulses and delay gratification to attain the desired outcome; Pat persisted to successful project completion in spite of the many frustrations from the lack of resources and top management support. Empathy: Understand and be sensitive to the feelings of others; being able to sense what others feel and want; Because the head of the team knew her members were mentally if not physically exhausted, she took everyone bowling during an afternoon break and bought refreshments. Social skills: The ability to read social situations; smooth in interacting with others and forming networks; able to guide others' emotions and the way they act; Jeremy could tell from the nonverbal cues from his staff members that they were not buying into the new policy being presented, so after the meeting he visited

Self-Efficacy

Self-efficacy refers to an individual's conviction (or confidence) about his or her abilities to mobilize the motivation, cognitive resources, and courses of action needed to successfully execute a specific task within a given context. Unless people believe that they can produce desired effects and forestall undesired ones by their actions, they have little incentive to act. Whatever other factors may operate as motivators, they are rooted in the core belief that one has the power to produce desired results. People of high efficacy focus on the opportunities worth pursuing, and view obstacles as surmountable. Through ingenuity and perseverance they figure out ways of exercising some control even in environments of limited opportunities and many constraints. Those beset with self-doubts dwell on impediments which they view as obstacles over which they can exert little control, and easily convince themselves of the futility of effort. They achieve limited success even in environments that provide many opportunities.

Happiness or SWB

Similar to PsyCap, happiness (SWB) is open to change and development. Although there is definitely a set point (i.e., approximately the 50 percent "hard-wiring" noted at the beginning of the chapter), the role of intentional control and effective developmental guidelines are becoming recognized. Sometimes the terms are used interchangeably, but SWB is usually considered broader and is defined as people's affective (moods and emotions) and cognitive evaluations of their lives. Under this psychological meaning, it is not necessarily what in reality happens to people that determines their happiness or subjective well-being; but instead how they emotionally interpret and cognitively process what happens to them is the key.

Optimism as Human Nature

Starting in the 1960s and 1970s, cognitive psychologists began to demonstrate that many people tend to have a more positive bias of themselves than cold reality, and that psychologically healthy people in particular have this positive bias. Portrayed by some anthropologists, evolutionary psychologists, and neuropsychologists as inherent in the makeup of people—part of their basic human nature.

Broaden and Build Theory

Supportted by considerable research evidence, this theory says that experiencing positive emotions broadens (i.e., opens people's hearts and minds) and builds (i.e., allows people to develop new skills, relationships, knowledge and to become more effective overall).

Positive Psychology

The aim of positive psychology is to use scientific methodology to discover and promote the factors that allow individuals, groups, organizations, and communities to thrive. It is concerned with optimal human functioning instead of pathological human functioning.

Behavioral Style (Decision-Making Style)

The behavioral style decision maker is characterized by a low tolerance for ambiguity and strong people and social concerns. These decision makers tend to work well with others and like situations in which opinions are openly exchanged. They tend to be receptive to suggestions, are supportive and warm, and prefer verbal to written information. They also tend to avoid conflict and be overly concerned with keeping everyone happy. As a result, these decision makers often have a difficult time saying no to people, and they do not like making tough decisions, especially when it will result in someone being upset with the outcome.

Creative Self-Efficacy

The belief that one has the knowledge and skills to produce creative outcomes; Creative self-efficacy (employees' beliefs that they can be creative in their work roles) predicted creative performance beyond the predictive effects of job self-efficacy.

Task Coordination - Purposes of Interactive Communication:

The department heads may meet monthly to discuss how each department is contributing to the system's goals.

The Importance of Feedback

The importance of feedback cannot be overemphasized because effective interpersonal communication is highly dependent on it. Proper follow-up and feedback require establishing an informal and formal mechanism by which the sender can check on how the message was actually interpreted.

Problem Solving - Purposes of Interactive Communication:

The members of a department may assemble to discuss how they will handle a threatened budget cut; they may employ brainstorming techniques.

Conflict Resolution - Purposes of Interactive Communication:

The members of one department may meet to discuss a conflict inherent in the department or between departments.

Information Sharing - Purposes of Interactive Communication:

The members of one department may meet with the members of another department to give them some new data.

Self-Efficacy vs. Expectancy Outcomes

The process is different—efficacy is a judgment of one's ability to successfully execute a certain behavior pattern (i.e., "I believe I can successfully execute this task"), whereas the outcome expectancy is a judgment of the probable consequence such behavior will produce (i.e., "I believe that what I do will (or will not) lead to desired outcomes")

Decision-Making Styles

These and other styles reflect a number of psychological dimensions including how decision makers perceive what is happening around them and how they process information. (1) Charismatics (enthusiastic, captivating, talkative, dominant): Virgin Atlantic's Richard Branson or Southwest Airlines' founder Herb Kelleher; (2) Thinkers (cerebral, intelligent, logical, academic): Amazon's Jeff Bezos or Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg; (3) Skeptics (demanding, disruptive, disagreeable, rebellious): Tom Siebel of the software developer Siebel Systems; (4) Followers (responsible, cautious, brand-driven, bargain-conscious): Peter Coors of Molson Coors Brewing Company or former Hewlett-Packard head Carly Fiorina; and (5) Controllers (logical, unemotional, sensible, detail oriented, accurate, analytical): Facebooks's Mark Zuckerberg.

Through this theory building and extensive research of Bandura, four major sources of information to cognitively determine self-efficacy have been identified:

These are, in order of importance, mastery experiences or performance attainments, vicarious experience or modeling, social persuasion, and physiological or psychological (emotional) arousal. Each of these can be used in training and development to enhance self-efficacy.

Paralanguage

These include things such as voice quality, tone, volume, speech rate, pitch, nonfluencies (saying "ah," "um," or "uh"), laughing, and yawning. For example, tone of voice (genuine or fake) is important in customer service. Also, who says a word (for example, whether the boss or a coworker asks for "volunteers") and in what environmental context it is said (for example, in the boss's office or out on the golf course) make a difference.

The Process and Impact of Self-Efficacy

This initial stage of the process has little to do with individuals' abilities or resources per se, but rather how they perceive or believe they can use these abilities and resources to accomplish the given task in this context. This evaluation/perception then leads to the expectations of personal efficacy which, in turn, determines: 1. The decision to perform the specific task in this context. 2. The amount of effort that will be expended to accomplish the task. 3. The level of persistence that will be forthcoming despite problems, disconfirming evidence, and adversity.

Mastery experiences or performance attainments - Source of Self Efficacy

This is potentially the most powerful for forming efficacy beliefs because it is direct information about success; it should be emphasized that performance accomplishments do not directly equate with self-efficacy. Both situational and cognitive processes will affect the efficacy judgment and belief.

The Free Spirit - Communication Styles

This manager is a creative, big-picture type of person who likes to consider alternative approaches to doing things, but is not very good on followthrough. In communicating with this type of manager it is important to be patient and to be prepared for changes in direction. The manager often likes to assimilate what he or she is being told and to consider several alternatives before making a decision.

The Humanist - Communication Styles

This manager likes everyone to be happy and is very concerned with the feelings of others. So any suggestions or recommendations that are given to him or her will be passed around the entire department for full consensus before any action is taken. In dealing with this type of manager, patience and tact are very important.

Self Efficacy Scale

This scale would include, in ascending order, items that represent the increasing levels of difficulty. The respondent would check for each item yes or no (magnitude) and then next to it 0-100 percent probability of attainment (i.e., strength). This so-called Composite I method of scoring has been shown to be a valid measure of self-efficacy and more reliable than other measures.

Cognitive Abilities Related to Job Performance

Verbal comprehension: Comprehend what is read or heard, understand what words mean and the relationships to one another; Supervisors following organization policy on sexual harassment. Numerical: Make fast and accurate arithmetic computations; Auto salespeople calculating the sales tax and their commission Spatial visualization Perceive spatial patterns, imagine how an object would look if position in space were changed A builder describing a change to a customer. Perceptual speed: Quickly identify visual similarities and differences, carry out tasks needing visual perception; A quality control engineer noting a product defect. Memory: Rote memory, retain and recall past incidents/experiences; A knowledge manager drawing from past experiences in the firm to advise a newly formed project team. Inductive reasoning: Identify logical sequence from specific to general; A scientist in the research department drawing from several independent studies to design an innovative product.

Happiness : Goal Congruence

Whether a person feels a positive or negative emotion in the workplace has a lot to do with goal congruence (positive) or goal incongruence (negative). For example, if salespeople meet or exceed their quota, they feel happy, are relieved, and like their customers, but if they fall short they may feel sad, disgusted, guilty, anxious and may blame or be angry with their boss and/or customers.

Is PsyCap state-like?

Yes; Being state-like, research has demonstrated that PsyCap can be developed in relatively short training interventions with causal impact on performance and yields a very high return on the investment in PsyCap development.