Chapter 2: Characteristics of Managers

Emotions

Intense, relatively short-lived feelings.

External Locus of Control

The tendency to locate responsibility for one's fate in outside forces and to believe one's own behavior has little impact on outcomes.

Internal Locus of Control

The tendency to locate responsibility for one's fate within oneself.

B. Attitudes

1. An attitude is a collection of feelings and beliefs. 2. Two important types of attitudes that relate to managers include job satisfaction and organizational commitment. i. Job Satisfaction a. Job Satisfaction is the collection of feelings and beliefs that managers have about their current jobs. b. Factors that are important in determining job satisfaction include: • Opportunities to use skills and abilities • Job security • Compensation/pay • Communication and feedback • Organizational relationship c. To improve job satisfaction for employees, managers should recognize all employees individually for the talents and contributions they bring to the job, and reward them accordingly. d. It is desirable for managers to be satisfied with their jobs for two reasons: • Satisfied managers are more likely to go above and beyond what is expected of them. • Satisfied managers are less likely to look for another position, or quit. ii. Organizational Commitment a. Organizational commitment is the collection of feelings and beliefs that managers have about their organization as a whole. b. Managers who are committed to their organization believe in what their organizations are doing, and are proud of what the organization stands for. c. Managers who are committed to their organization often go above and beyond what is expected of them. d. Organizational commitment is shaped by the following factors: • Autonomy • Empowerment • Employment opportunities • Workplace relationships • Organizational structure and culture e. Organizational commitment of managers and employees help to determine: • Absenteeism • Turnover • Motivation • Job Performance f. Management style plays a large role in determining the level of organizational commitment for both managers and employees.

C. The Five Big Personality Traits

1. An individual's personality can be thought as being composed of five general traits of characteristics: extraversion, negative affectivity, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience. 2. Extraversion 3. Negative Affectivity 4. Agreeableness 5. Conscientiousness 6. Openness to Experience 7. Members of an organization must understand the different personality traits that managers can possess, as these traits have an effect on a managers approach to planning, leading, organizing, and controlling. 8. Managers themselves must be aware of their own personality traits and the traits of the employees which they manage.

B. Managers and Organizational Culture

1. Culture creation begins with the founder(s) of an organization and reflects many of their personal characteristics. 2. Top management is responsible for communicating and shaping an organization's culture, which then flows down to all levels of the organization. 3. Attraction-Selection-Attrition (ASA) Framework 4. Managers who are satisfied with their jobs are committed to their organizations, and as a result experience moods and emotions that have a positive effect on an organizations culture.

D. Culture and Managerial Action

1. Culture influences how managers perform their four main functions: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. 2. Innovative and conservative cultures have varying effects on the functions of management i.e. Planning, Organizing, Leading 3. The values and norms of an organization's culture strongly affect the way managers perform their management functions. 4. Organizational culture, managerial action, and organizational performance are all linked together and are based on the extent to which a manager buys into the values and norms of the organization.

C. Improving Your Emotional Intelligence

1. Emotional intelligence can be learned and developed, several things that can be done to improve emotional intelligence include: i. Observe how you react to people. Put yourself in the place of others and attempt to see their perspective and needs. ii. Evaluate your humility quotient. Give others a chance to shine, rather than focusing on recognition for yourself. iii. Do a self-evaluation of your weaknesses. Have the courage to look at yourself honestly. iv. Examine how you react to stressful situations. The ability to stay calm and keep your emotions in check is essential to navigating the workplace smoothly. v. Take responsibility for your actions. People are more willing to forgive and forget if you make an honest attempt to make things right. vi. Examine how your actions will affect others before you take action. If a decision will impact others, put yourself in their place.

C. Moods and Emotions

1. Mood 2. Emotions 3. Moods and emotions affect the behavior of managers and all members of an organization. 4. Moods can play an important role in ethical decision making. 5. Emotions and moods give managers and employees important information and signals about what is going on in the workplace. 6. Managers need to realize that their mood affects how they treat others and how others respond to them, particularly employees.

B. Personality Traits

1. Personality traits are enduring tendencies to feel, think, and act in certain ways. 2. Personality traits influence managers behavior and their approach to managing people and resources.

C. The Role of Values and Norms in Organizational Culture

1. Terminal and Instrumental values play an important role in organizational culture. 2. Shared norms are also a key aspect of organizational culture. 3. Managers determine the shape of organizational culture through the kinds of values and norms they promote in an organization. 4. Managers of different kinds of organizations develop organizational values and norms that are best suited to their task and general environment, strategy, or technology. 5. Organizational culture is maintained and transmitted to organizational members through the values of the founder(s).

B. Characteristics of Emotional Intelligence

1. There are five elements of emotional intelligence which includes: i. Self-Awareness: Individuals with high emotional intelligence understand their emotions and don't let their feelings rule them. ii. Empathy: Individuals who are empathetic possess the ability to recognize and understand the wants, needs, and feelings of others. iii. Self-Regulation: Individuals who self-regulate maintain control of their emotions and refrain from expressions of anger and jealousy. iv. Motivation: Individuals with high emotional intelligence are self-motivated, highly productive, enjoy a challenge, and tend to be effective at what they do. v. Social Skills: Individuals with high emotional intelligence have well-developed social skills and are easy to communicate with.

D. Other Personality Traits that Affect Managerial Behavior

1. There are several traits that are important for understanding managerial effectiveness: locus of control; self-esteem; and the need for achievement, affiliation, and power. 2. Locus of Control 3. Self-Esteem 4. Needs for Achievement, Affiliation, and Power

A. Values: Terminal and Instrumental

1. There are two kinds of personal values, terminal and instrumental. i. Terminal values are lifelong goals or objectives that an individual seeks to achieve. a. Important terminal values for managers include: • A sense of accomplishment (a lasting contribution) • Equality (brotherhood, equal opportunity for all) • Self-respect (self-esteem) • A comfortable life (a prosperous life) • An exciting life (a stimulating, active life) • Freedom (independence, free choice) • Social recognition (respect, admiration) ii. Instrumental value is a mode of conduct that an individual seeks to follow. a. Important instrumental values for managers include: • Ambitious (hardworking, aspiring) • Broad-minded (open-minded) • Capable (competent, effective) • Responsible (dependable, reliable) • Self-controlled (restrained, self-disciplined) • Imaginative (daring, creative) • Honest (sincere, truthful) 2. Terminal values often lead to the formation of norms. i. Norms are the unwritten, informal codes of conduct that prescribe how people should act in particular situations and are considered important by most members of a group or organization. 3. Value systems signify what managers as individuals are trying to accomplish and become in their personal lives and at work.

Attitude

A collection of feelings and beliefs.

Mood

A feeling or state of mind.

Terminal Value

A lifelong goal or objective that an individual seeks to achieve.

Instrumental Value

A mode of conduct that an individual seeks to follow.

Attraction-Selection-Attrition (ASA) Framework

A model that explains how personality may influence organizational culture.

III. Emotional Intelligence

A. Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand and manage one's own moods and emotions and the moods and emotions of other people. B. Characteristics of Emotional Intelligence C. Improving Your Emotional Intelligence

I. Enduring Characteristics: Personality Traits

A. Managers have certain characteristics, called personality traits that influence how they think, feel, and behave both on and off the job. B. Personality Traits C. The Five Big Personality Traits D. Other Personality Traits that Affect Managerial Behavior

IV. Organizational Culture

A. Organizational culture is the shared set of beliefs, expectations, values, norms, and work routines that influence how individuals, groups, and teams interact with one another and cooperate to achieve organizational goals. B. Managers and Organizational Culture C. The Role of Values and Norms in Organizational Culture D. Culture and Managerial Action

II. Values, Attitudes, Moods and Emotions

A. Values: Terminal and Instrumental B. Attitudes C. Moods and Emotions

Personality Traits

Enduring tendencies to feel, think, and act in certain ways.

Emotional Intelligence

The ability to understand and manage one's own moods and emotions and the moods and emotions of other people.

Organizational Commitment

The collection of feelings and beliefs that managers have about their organization as a whole.

Self-Esteem

The degree to which individuals feel good about themselves and their capabilities.

Need for Power

The extent to which an individual desires to control or influence desires to control or influence others.

Need for Achievement

The extent to which an individual has a strong desire to perform challenging tasks well and to meet personal standards for excellence.

Need for Affiliation

The extent to which an individual is concerned about establishing and maintaining good interpersonal relations, being liked, and having other people get along.

Organizational Culture

The shared set of beliefs, expectations, values, norms, and work routines that influence how individuals, groups, and teams interact with one another and cooperate to achieve organizational goals.

Conscientiousness

The tendency to be careful, scrupulous, and persevering.

Openness to Experience

The tendency to be original, have broad interests, be open to a wide range of stimuli, be daring, and take risks.

Negative Affectivity

The tendency to experience negative emotions and moods, to feel distressed, and to be critical of oneself and others.

Extraversion

The tendency to experience positive emotions and moods and to feel good about oneself and the rest of the world.

Agreeableness

The tendency to get along well with other people.

Norms

Unwritten, informal codes of conduct that prescribe how people should act in particular situations and are considered important by most members of a group or organization.

ii. Organizing

a. Innovative Culture: Managers are likely to create an organic structure, one that is flat, with few levels in the hierarchy. b. Conservative Culture: Managers are likely to create a welldefined hierarchy of authority and establish a clear reporting relationship with employees.

iii. Leading

a. Innovative Culture: Managers are likely to lead by example, and encourage employees to take risks and experiment. b. Conservative Culture: Managers are likely to use management by objectives and constantly monitor employees.

iv. Controlling

a. Innovative Culture: Managers are likely to offer employees the flexibility to take risks and even fail in order to encourage creativity and an open exchange of ideas. b. Conservative Culture: Managers are likely to set specific goals and closely monitor progress to ensure the status quo is maintained.

i. Planning

a. Innovative Culture: Top managers are likely to encourage lower-level managers to participate in the planning process and develop a flexible approach to planning. b. Conservative Culture: Top managers are likely to emphasize formal top-down planning, where suggestions from lower-level managers is subjected to a review process

Mood

i. A mood is a feeling or state of mind. ii. Individuals with positive moods feel excited, enthusiastic, active, or elated. iii. Individuals with negative moods feel distressed, fearful, scornful, hostile, jittery, or nervous. iv. Individuals high on extraversion are likely to experience positive moods, while individuals high on negative affectivity are likely to experience negative moods.

4. Agreeableness

i. Agreeableness is the tendency to get along well with others. ii. Managers high on agreeableness tend to be likable, affectionate, and care about other people. iii. Managers low on agreeableness may be distrustful of others, unsympathetic, uncooperative, and at times antagonistic.

5. Conscientiousness

i. Conscientiousness is the tendency to be careful, scrupulous, and persevering. ii. Managers high on conscientiousness tend to be organized and self-disciplined. iii. Managers low on conscientiousness tend to have a lack of direction and self-discipline.

3. Attraction-Selection-Attrition (ASA) Framework

i. Developed by well-known management researcher Benjamin Schneider. ii. The ASA framework is a model that explains how personality may influence organizational culture. iii. The framework suggests that the typical or dominant personality profile of organizational members is what determines and shapes organizational culture.

2. Emotions

i. Emotions are intense, relatively short-lived feelings. ii. Emotions tend to have either a positive or negative effect on an individual's mood.

2. Extraversion

i. Extraversion is the tendency to experience positive emotions and moods and feel good about oneself and the rest of the world. ii. Managers high on extraversion are often called extraverts and those low on extraversion are often called introverts. a. Extraverts tend to be sociable, affectionate, outgoing, and friendly. b. Introverts tend to be less inclined to social interactions and have a less positive outlook.

2. Locus of Control

i. Locus of control refers to the extent to which individuals believe they can control events affecting them. ii. There are two types of locus of control, internal and external. a. Individuals with an internal locus of control believe they themselves are responsible for their own fate; and see their own actions and behaviors as being major determinants of important outcomes. b. Individuals with an external locus of control believe that outside forces are responsible for what happens to and around them; they do not think their actions make a difference. c. Managers need to have an internal locus of control, because they are responsible for what happens in an organization.

3. Negative Affectivity

i. Negative affectivity is the tendency to experience negative emotions and moods, feel distressed, and be critical of oneself and others. ii. Managers high on negative affectivity may often feel angry and dissatisfied, and complain about their own and other's lack of progress. iii. Managers low on negative affectivity do not tend to experience many negative emotions and moods and are less pessimistic and critical of themselves and others.

6. Openness to Experience

i. Openness to experience is the tendency to be original, have broad interests, be open to a wide range of stimuli, be daring, and take risks. ii. Managers high on this trait tend to be innovative in their planning and decision making and agreeable to taking risks. iii. Managers low on this trait tend to be less prone to taking risks and more conservative in their planning and decision making.

5. Emotions and moods give managers and employees important information and signals about what is going on in the workplace.

i. Positive emotions signal that things are going well, while negative emotions suggest that there are things that need to be corrected or addressed.

3. Self-Esteem

i. Self-esteem is the degree to which individuals feel good about themselves and their capabilities. ii. Individuals can have high or low self-esteem. a. Individuals with low self-esteem have poor opinions of themselves, are unsure about their capabilities, and question their ability to succeed. b. Individuals with high self-esteem believe they are competent, deserving, and capable of handling most situations. c. High self-esteem is desirable for managers, because it facilitates their setting and keeping high standards for themselves, pushes them ahead on difficult projects, and gives them confidence to make important decisions.

1. Terminal and Instrumental values play an important role in organizational culture.

i. Terminal values signify what an organization and its employees are trying to accomplish. ii. Instrumental values guide how the organization and its members achieve organizational goals.

4. Needs for Achievement, Affiliation, and Power

i. The need for achievement is the extent to which an individual has a strong desire to perform challenging tasks well and to meet personal standards for excellence. a. Managers with a high need for achievement often set clear goals and like to receive performance feedback. ii. The need for affiliation is the extent to which an individual is concerned about establishing and maintaining good interpersonal relations, being liked, and having other people get along. iii. The need for power is the extent to which an individual desires to control or influence others.