MGMT 301 Test 2

Written vs. Verbal Communication

Advantages Tangible/verifiable Permanent record Stored for later reference Well-thought out Drawbacks Time consuming Doesn't lend itself to feedback like oral communication

Legal and Security Issues

Electronic information is potentially admissible in court Sensitive, proprietary information is at risk

Strong Service Culture

Finding out what customer needs are, meeting these needs, and following up to make sure those needs were met satisfactorily.

Correcting Performance

Immediate corrective action Basic corrective action

Leaders and Leadership

Leader: someone who can influence others and who has managerial authority. Leadership: the process of leading a group and influencing that group

A Final Thought on Leadership

Leadership may not always be important!

Communication in an Internet World

Legal and security issues Lack of personal interaction

Service Firms vs. Manufacturing Firms

Manufacturing firms produce physical goods, such as cars or food products. Service firms produce nonphysical outputs in the form of services, such as medical and transportation services.

Matching Personalities and Jobs

Obviously, individual personalities differ. So do jobs. How do we match the two? The best-documented personality-job fit theory was developed by psychologist John Holland, and states that an employee's satisfaction with his or her job, as well as his or her likelihood of leaving that job, depends on the degree to which the individual's personality matches the job environment. Holland identified six basic personality types, as seen here in Exhibit 9-2: Realistic Investigative Social Conventional Enterprising Artistic

Designing Appropriate Rewards Programs

Open-book management Employee recognition programs

Ethical Communication

Presented material that contains all the relevant information, is true in every sense, and is not deceptive in any way.

Factors Affecting Encoding

Skill Attitudes Knowledge Social cultural system

Personal Interaction

Social media can minimize personal interaction.

Guidelines for Job Redesign

The JCM provides significant guidance to managers for job design for both individuals and teams. The suggestions shown in Exhibit 11-6, which are based on the JCM, specify the types of changes in jobs that are most likely to improve each of the five core job dimensions.

The Value Chain Management Process

The dynamic, competitive environment facing contemporary global organizations demands new solutions

Project Management

The task of getting project activities done on time, within budget, and according to specifications.

Deming: Improving Mangers' Productivity

The truly effective organization will increase productivity by successfully integrating people into the overall operations system.

Customer Service

Three components in any service delivery process: Customer Service organization Individual service provider

When Teams are Not the Answer

Three tests: Can the work be done better by more than one person? Does the work create a common purpose that's more than the sum of individual goals? Is there interdependence between tasks

Transactional vs. Transformational Leaders

Transactional Leaders: lead primarily by using social exchanges (or transactions). Transformational Leaders: stimulate and inspire (transform) followers to achieve extraordinary outcomes.

Two Different Approaches

Two metaphors representing distinctly different approaches to understanding and responding to change are used. The "calm waters" metaphor envisions the organization as a large ship crossing a calm sea. Change appears as the occasional storm, a brief distraction in an otherwise calm and predictable trip. In the "white-water rapids" metaphor, the organization is seen as a small raft navigating a raging river with uninterrupted white-water rapids. Aboard the raft are half a dozen people who have never worked together before, who are totally unfamiliar with the river, and who are unsure of their eventual destination. In this metaphor, change is the status quo and managing change is a continual process.

Criteria for Measurement

What managers measure is probably more important to the control process than how they measure.

Goals of Value Chain Management

A good value chain is one in which a sequence of participants works together as a team, each adding some component of value—such as faster assembly, more accurate information, or better customer response and service—to the overall process. The better the collaboration among the various chain participants, the better the customer solutions. When value is created for customers and their needs and desires are satisfied, everyone along the chain benefits

Leader-Member Exchange Theory

A leadership theory that says leaders create in-groups and out-groups and those in the in-group will have higher performance ratings, less turnover, and greater job satisfaction.

Leaders and Teams

Because leadership is increasingly taking place within a team context, the role of the leader in guiding team members has become increasingly important. The role of team leader is different from the traditional leadership role and many leaders are not equipped to handle the shift to employee teams. Managers have to learn skills such as patiently sharing information, being able to trust others and to give up authority, and understanding when to intervene and when not to. One study looking at organizations that had reorganized themselves around employee teams found certain common responsibilities of all leaders, including: Coaching Facilitating Handling disciplinary problems Reviewing team and individual performance Training Communication A good way to describe the team leader's job is to focus on two priorities: Managing the team's external boundary. Facilitating the team process. These priorities entail the four specific leadership roles we see in Exhibit 12-5

Organizational Processes and Leadership

Better demand forecasting Select functions done collaboratively with other partners in the chain New measures needed for evaluating the performance of various activities along the chain

Keeping Track of an Organization's Finances: Budget Analysis

Budgets are used for both planning and controlling.

Feedback Control

Control that takes place after a work activity is done.

Contemporary Issues in the workplace

Cross-cultural differences Workplace concerns

Influences on Job Performance

Feedback Goal commitment Adequate self-efficacy National culture

Keeping Track with a Balanced Scorecard Approach

Financial Customer Internal Processes People/innovation/growth assets

Employees and Human Resources

Flexible job design Effective hiring process Ongoing training

Networked Communication

In a networked computer system, organizational computers are linked through compatible hardware and software, creating an integrated organizational network. Employees communicate with each other and get information wherever they are.

Measuring Performance

Sources of information: Personal observation Statistical reports Oral reports Written reports

Operations Management and Company Strategy

Successful organizations recognize the crucial role that operations management plays as part of the overall organizational strategy to achieve and maintain global leadership.

McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y

Theory X Little ambition Dislike work Avoid responsibility Must be closely controlled Theory Y Enjoy work Seek and accept responsibility Exercise self-direction

McClelland's Three-Needs Theory

Three acquired needs are work motives: Need for achievement Need for power Need for affiliation

Contemporary Issues in Comm

Communication management in an Internet world Managing the organization's knowledge resources Communicating with customers Getting employee input Communicating ethically

Knowledge Management

Cultivating a learning culture in which organizational members systematically gather knowledge and share it with others.

Revising Standards

If performance consistently exceeds the goal, then the goal may need to be raised

Technology and Communication

Networked computer systems Wireless capabilities

Norms

Norms are acceptable standards shared by the group's members. Although each group has its own unique set of norms, common classes of norms appear in most organizations. These norms focus on: Effort and performance. This is probably the most widespread norm and it can be extremely powerful in affecting an individual employee's performance. Dress codes dictate what's acceptable to wear to work.

Implementing Change

Organization development (OD): efforts that assist organizational members with a planned change by focusing on their attitudes and values Often managers make a concerted effort to alter some aspect of the organization—such as its structure or technology—which ultimately affects organizational members. In facilitating long-term, organization-wide changes, OD focuses on constructively changing the attitudes and values of organization members so that they can more readily adapt to, and be more effective in, achieving the new directions of the organization. Essentially, organizational leaders attempt to change the organization's culture. However, OD relies on employee participation to foster an environment of open communication and trust because change can create stress for employees.

Wireless Communication

People don't need to be physically at the office to communicate, collaborate, and share information with managers and colleagues.

University of Michigan Study and Managerial Grid

The University of Michigan study identified two styles, employee oriented, which emphasizes interpersonal relationships and taking care of employees' needs; and production oriented, which emphasizes technical or task aspects of a job. The study concluded that employee-oriented leaders were associated with high group productivity and higher job satisfaction. The Managerial Grid uses two behavioral dimensions, concern for people, which measures a leader's concern for subordinates on a scale of 1 to 9 (low to high); and concern for production, which measures a leader's concern for getting a job done on a scale 1 to 9 (low to high). The conclusion is that leaders performed best with a 9,9 style (high concern for production and high concern for people).

The Control Process

The control process has three steps: measuring actual performance, comparing actual performance against a standard, and taking managerial action to correct deviations or to address inadequate standards.

Feedward Control

A few important performance indicators that executives in the intensely competitive call-center service industry measure are: cost efficiency, the length of time customers are kept on hold, and customer satisfaction with the service provided. To make good decisions, managers want and need the type of information that will help them control work performance. Management can implement controls before an activity begins (called feedforward control), while the activity is going on (called concurrent control), or after the activity has been completed (called feedback control

What is a Group?

A group is of two or more interacting and interdependent individuals who come together to achieve specific goals. Formal groups are work groups that are defined by the organization's structure and have designated work assignments and specific tasks directed at accomplishing organizational goals. Exhibit 10-1 shows examples of formal work groups. Command groups are determined by the organization chart and composed of individuals who report directly to a given manager. Task groups are often temporary and are composed of individuals brought together to complete a specific job task. Cross-functional teams bring together the knowledge and skills of individuals from various work areas, or are groups whose members have been trained to do each other's jobs. Self-managed teams are essentially independent. In addition to their own tasks, they take on traditional managerial responsibilities such as hiring, planning and scheduling, and evaluating performance. Informal groups are social groups that occur naturally in the workplace and tend to form around friendships and common interests.

Load Charts

A modified version of the Gantt chart is a load chart. Instead of listing activities on the vertical axis, load charts list either whole departments or specific resources. This information allows managers to plan and control for capacity utilization. In other words, load charts schedule capacity by workstations. In Exhibit 15-6, shown here, we see a load chart for six production editors at the same publishing firm. Each editor supervises the design and production of several books. By reviewing the load chart, the executive editor who supervises the six production editors can see who is free to take on a new book. If everyone is fully scheduled, the executive editor might decide not to accept any new projects, to accept some new projects and to delay others, to ask the editors to work overtime, or to employ more production editors.

Charismatic vs. Visionary Leaders

Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is a charismatic leader. Shown here introducing Amazon's new Kindle Fire tablets, he is described as energetic, enthusiastic, optimistic, and self-confident. Bezos has the drive to set and pursue goals for risky new ventures and uses his charisma to inspire his employees to work hard to achieve them. A charismatic leader is an enthusiastic, self-confident leader whose personality and actions influence people to behave in certain ways. The most comprehensive analysis of charismatic leaders identified the following five personal characteristics they share: They have a vision. They have the ability to articulate that vision. They are willing to take risks to achieve that vision. They are sensitive to both environmental constraints and follower needs. They demonstrate behaviors that are out of the ordinary. An increasing body of evidence shows impressive correlations between charismatic leadership and high performance and satisfaction among followers. Although a small number of experts still think that charisma can't be learned, most believe that individuals can be trained to exhibit charismatic behaviors. Although the term "vision" is often linked with charismatic leadership, visionary leadership is the ability to create and articulate a realistic, credible, and attractive vision of the future that improves upon the present situation. This vision effectively "jump-starts" the future by calling forth the skills, talents, and resources to make it happen. An organization's vision should offer clear and compelling imagery that taps into members' emotions and inspires enthusiasm to pursue the organization's goals. It should generate possibilities that are inspirational and unique and offer new ways of doing things that are clearly better for the organization and its members.

Symptoms of Stress

As Exhibit 8-3 shows, stress symptoms can be grouped under three general categories: physical, psychological, and behavioral. All of these can significantly affect an employee's work.

Obstacles to Value Chain Management

As desirable as value chain management may be, managers must tackle several obstacles in managing the value chain, as seen here in Exhibit 15-3. These obstacles include organizational barriers, cultural attitudes, required capabilities, and people. Organizational barriers are among the most difficult to handle. These barriers include refusal or reluctance to share information, reluctance to shake up the status quo, and security issues. Without shared information, close coordination and collaboration is impossible. And the reluctance or refusal of employees to shake up the status quo impedes efforts toward value chain management and prevents its successful implementation. Finally, because value chain management relies heavily on a substantial information technology infrastructure, system security and Internet security issues need to be addressed.

Overcoming Communication Barriers

Because many communication problems are directly attributed to misunderstandings and inaccuracies, a manager can ask questions to determine if the message was understood, can ask the receiver to restate the message in his or her own words, and can be alert to nonverbal cues. A manager should also simplify communication so it's clear, easily understood, and in language customized to the specific employee or group being addressed. Managers must also practice active listening, which is listening for full meaning without making premature judgments or interpretations. Active listening demands total concentration, and is enhanced by developing empathy with the sender. Active listeners use eye contact, affirmative nods, and appropriate facial expressions; appear attentive and ask questions; avoid interrupting the speaker; and make smooth transitions between being a speaker and a listener. When they are upset, managers should control their emotions. Strong emotions make it easier to misconstrue incoming messages and more difficult to communicate outgoing messages clearly and accurately.

Nonverbal Cues

Body language refers to gestures, facial configurations, and other movements of the body. Hand motions, facial expressions, and other gestures can communicate emotions or temperaments such as aggression, fear, shyness, arrogance, joy, and anger. Verbal intonation refers to the emphasis someone gives to words or phrases, and can make a statement sound defensive or friendly. The adage "it's not what you say but how you say it" is something managers should remember as they communicate. In oral communication, the nonverbal component carries the greatest impact. Research indicates that from 65 to 90 percent of the message of every face-to-face conversation is communicated through body

The Importance of Trust

Building trust: Practice openness Be fair Speak your feelings Tell the truth Be consistent Fulfill your promises Maintain confidences Demonstrate confidence

Capabilities and People

Capabilities: Coordination and collaboration Configuration that satisfies customers and suppliers Education of internal and external partners People: Commitment Time Energy

Benefits of Value Chain Management

Collaborating with external and internal partners to create and manage a successful value chain strategy requires significant investments of time, energy, and other resources and a serious commitment by all chain partners. So why do it? Because it benefits everyone involved. Improved procurement (acquiring needed resources) Improved logistics (managing materials, service, and information) Improved product development (close relationships with customers leads to developing products they value) Enhanced customer order management (managing every step to make sure customers are satisfied)

Global Teams: Team Processes

Communication issues Managing conflict Virtual teams The processes that global teams use to do their work can be particularly challenging for managers. Communication issues often arise because not all team members may be fluent in the team's working language. However, research shows that a multicultural global team is better able to capitalize on the diversity of ideas represented if a wide range of information is used. Additionally, managing conflict in global teams isn't easy, especially when those teams are virtual teams. However, research shows that in collectivistic cultures, a collaborative conflict management style can be most effective.

Effective Communication

Communication: a transfer of understanding and meaning from one person to another.

The Importance of Control

Control is important because it's the only way that managers know whether organizational goals are being met and, if they are not being met, the reasons why. The value of the control function can be seen in three specific areas: planning, empowering employees, and protecting the workplace.

Concurrent Control

Control that takes place while a work activity is in progress.

Decoding and Feedback

Decoding: translating a received message. Feedback: checking to see how successfully a message has been transferred.

Networked Communication Applications

E-mail Instant messaging (IM) Voice mail Fax machines Electronic Data interchange (EDI) Teleconference and videoconference meetings Organizational intranet Organizational extranet Internet-based voice/video communication

Work Design

Effective teams need to work together and take collective responsibility for completing tasks. Important work design elements that enhance team member motivation and increase team effectiveness include: Autonomy Using a variety of skills Being able to complete a whole and identifiable task or product Working on a task or project that has a significant impact on others Research indicates that these characteristics enhance team member motivation and increase team effectiveness.

Value Chain Management

Every organization needs customers to survive and prosper. Customers want some value from the goods and services they purchase or use, and the customers decide what has value. Organizations must provide that value to attract and keep customers. Value is defined as the performance characteristics, features and attributes, and any other aspects of goods and services for which customers are willing to give up resources (usually money). Value is provided to customers through transforming raw materials and other resources into some product or service that end users need or desire when, where, and how they want it. Value chain management is the process of managing the sequence of activities and information along the entire value chain. It is externally oriented and focuses on both incoming materials and outgoing products and services. Value chain management is effectiveness oriented and aims to create the highest value for customers.

Big Five Model of Personality

Extraversion Agreeableness Conscientious Emotional stability Openness to experience Another way of viewing personality is through a five-factor model of personality—more typically called the Big Five model. Extraversion describes the degree to which someone is sociable, talkative, and assertive. Agreeableness describes the degree to which someone is good-natured, cooperative, and trusting. Conscientiousness describes the degree to which someone is responsible, dependable, persistent, and achievement oriented. Emotional stability describes the degree to which someone is calm, enthusiastic, and secure (positive) or tense, nervous, depressed, and insecure (negative). Openness to experience describes the degree to which someone is imaginative, artistically sensitive, and intellectual. The Big Five model provides more than just a personality framework. Research has shown that important relationships exist between these personality dimensions and job performance. For example, one study reviewed five categories of occupations—professionals (for example, engineers, architects, and attorneys), police, managers, employees in sales, and semiskilled and skilled employees—with respect to job performance. The results showed that conscientiousness predicted job performance for all five occupational groups. Predictions for the other personality dimensions depended on the situation and the occupational group. For example, extraversion predicted performance in managerial and sales positions, and openness to experience predicted training competency.

Communication Barriers

Filtering refers to the way that a sender manipulates information so that it will be seen more favorably by the receiver. For example, when a manager tells his boss what he feels the boss wants to hear, he is filtering information. In selective perception, receivers in the communication process selectively see and hear based on their needs, motivations, experience, background, and other personal characteristics. Receivers also project their interests and expectations onto communications as they decode them. With information overload, individuals' finite capacity for processing data is overwhelmed by the onslaught of modern communication. The result is lost information and less effective communication. Words mean different things to different people, age, education, and cultural background are three obvious variables that influence the language a person uses and the definitions he or she applies to words. Additionally, specialists in specific fields of work or departments develop their own jargon (or technical language) as do employees spread across different geographic locations. Both genders have distinct communication styles, so individuals must acknowledge these differences and strive for acceptance, understanding, and a commitment to communicate adaptively with each other.

Employee Reactions to Change

For many employees, change creates stress. A dynamic and uncertain environment characterized by restructurings, downsizings, empowerment, and personal-life matters has caused large numbers of employees to feel overworked and "stressed out." Sometimes the stress gets to be so intense that individuals respond in a drastic (and tragic) way. In the following slides, we'll review the meaning of the term "stress," the symptoms of stress, the causes of stress, and what managers can do to reduce anxiety.

Communication Channels

Formal channels are established by the organization, transmit job-related messages, and traditionally follow the authority network within the organization. Personal or social messages follow the informal channels in the organization.

PERT Network Analysis

Gantt charts and load charts are helpful when the activities or projects being scheduled are few and independent of each other. But projects requiring the coordination of hundreds or thousands of activities—some of which must be done simultaneously and some of which cannot begin until earlier activities have been completed—requires another solution. The program evaluation and review technique—usually called PERT, or the PERT network analysis—was originally developed in the late 1950s for coordinating the more than 3,000 contractors and agencies working on the Polaris submarine weapon system. This project was incredibly complicated, involving hundreds of thousands of activities that had to be coordinated. PERT is reported to have cut two years off the completion date for the Polaris project. A PERT network is a diagram like a flow chart that depicts the sequence of activities needed to complete a project and the time or costs associated with each activity. With a PERT network, a project manager must think through what has to be done, determine which events depend on one another, and identify potential trouble spots, as seen in Exhibit 15-7. PERT makes it easy to compare the effects alternative actions will have on scheduling and costs, and allows managers to monitor a project's progress, identify possible bottlenecks, and shift resources as necessary to keep the project on schedule. To understand how to construct a PERT network, you need to know three terms: events, activities, and critical path. Events are end points that represent the completion of major activities. Sometimes called milestones, events indicate that something significant has happened or an important component is finished. In PERT, events represent points in time. Activities, on the other hand, are the actions that take place. The time an activity consumes is determined by the time or resources required to progress from one event to another. The critical path is the longest or most time-consuming sequence of events and activities required to complete the project in the shortest amount of time.

What is Organizational Change

If it weren't for change, a manager's job would be easy. Organizational design would be stable because the environment would be free from uncertainty so there would be no need to adapt. Decision making would be simplified because the outcome of each alternative could be accurately predicted. The three kinds of organizational change are shown in Exhibit 8-1. Changes in structure includes any alteration in authority relationships, coordination mechanisms, degree of centralization, job design, or similar variables. For example, restructuring can result in decentralization, wider spans of control, reduced work specialization, and work teams. Changing technology includes modifications to the way work is done or to the methods and equipment used. Examples include computerizing work processes, adding robotics to work areas, and equipping employees with mobile communication tools. Changes in people refer to changes in employee attitudes, expectations, perceptions, or behaviors. Examples include using team building efforts to make a team more innovative.

Gantt Charts

If you were to observe a group of supervisors or department managers for a few days, you would see them regularly detailing what activities have to be done, the order in which they are to be done, who is to do each, and when they are to be completed. The managers are doing what we call scheduling. Managers use several devices to help them with scheduling. The Gantt chart is a planning tool developed around the turn of the century by Henry Gantt. It's essentially a bar graph, with time on the horizontal axis and the activities to be scheduled on the vertical axis. The bars show output, both planned and actual, over a period of time. The Gantt chart visually shows when tasks are supposed to be done and compares the assigned date with the actual progress on each. Here in Exhibit 15-5 we see a Gantt chart that was developed for book production by a manager in a publishing firm. Time is expressed in months across the top of the chart. Major activities are listed down the left side. Planning the project involves deciding what activities need to be done to get the book finished, the order in which those activities need to be done, and the time that should be allocated to each activity. The green shading represents actual progress made in completing each activity. Note that most activities were completed on time except for the "review first pages" activity, which is almost two and a half weeks behind schedule. Given this information, the manager might take corrective action to make up the lost time and stem further delays. At this point, the manager can expect that the book will be published at least two weeks late if no corrective action is taken.

Leader-Participation Model

In 1973, Victor Vroom and Phillip Yetton developed a leader-participation model that related leadership behavior and participation to decision making. Recognizing that task structures have varying demands for routine and nonroutine activities, these researchers argued that leader behavior must adjust to reflect the task structure. Vroom and Yetton's model was normative; that is, it provided a sequential set of rules to be followed in determining the form and amount of participation in decision making in different types of situations. The model was a decision tree incorporating seven contingencies (the relevance of which could be identified by making yes or no choices) and five alternative leadership styles. More recent work by Vroom and Arthur Jago has expanded the contingency variables to twelve, as listed in Exhibit 12-3. The original leader-participation model provided some solid, empirically supported insights into key contingency variables related to leadership effectiveness. It confirmed that leadership research should be directed at the situation rather than at the person—that is, it should talk about autocratic and participative situations rather than autocratic and participative leaders.

Personality Traits

In a word, "YES!" The following five specific personality traits have proven most powerful in explaining individual behavior in organizations: Locus of control Machiavellianism Self-esteem Self-monitoring Risk propensity The locus of control is the degree to which people believe they control their own fate and, in some work situations, whether they tend to blame others or examine their own actions when there's a negative situation. Machiavellianism is named after Niccolo Machiavelli, known for his instruction on gaining and manipulating power in the 16th century. A high "Mach" is pragmatic, maintains emotional distance, believes that ends can justify the means, and may have beliefs that are less ethical. The degree to which individuals like or dislike themselves is a trait called self-esteem (SE). High SEs believe that they can succeed, take more risks in job selection, and are more likely to choose unconventional jobs. Low SEs are dependent on positive evaluations from others, more prone to conform to the beliefs and behaviors of those they respect, and less satisfied with their jobs. Self-monitoring is a trait that measures an individual's ability to adjust behavior to external, situational factors. High self-monitors can present striking contradictions between their public persona and their private selves and are more capable of conforming than low self-monitors are. We might hypothesize that high self-monitors will be more successful in managerial positions that require individuals to play multiple, and even contradicting, roles. The final personality trait influencing worker behavior is risk taking. A preference for assuming or avoiding risk impacts how long it takes an individual to make a decision and how much information they require before choosing. In one classic study, high risk-taking managers made more rapid decisions and used less information than low risk-taking managers, but the decision accuracy was the same for both groups. Although it's generally correct to conclude that managers in organizations are risk averse, especially in large companies and government bureaus, individual differences exist. Therefore, it makes sense to consider aligning risk-taking propensity with specific job demands.

Contemporary Issues: National Culture

Leadership research shows that effective leaders do not use a single style—rather, they adjust their style to the situation—and national culture is an important situational variable in determining which leadership style will be most effective. National culture affects leadership style because it influences how followers will respond. Managers are therefore constrained by the cultural conditions their followers have come to expect. Exhibit 12-6 shows findings from selected examples of cross-cultural leadership studies. Because most leadership theories were developed in the United States, they have an American bias. However, the GLOBE research program, which is the most extensive and comprehensive cross-cultural study of leadership ever undertaken, has found that there are some universal aspects to leadership. Specifically, a number of elements of transformational leadership appear to be associated with effective leadership, regardless of what country the leader is in. These elements include vision, foresight, providing encouragement, trustworthiness, dynamism, positiveness, and proactiveness. Some people suggest that the universal appeal of these characteristics is due to the pressures toward common technologies and management practices that are a result of global competitiveness and multinational influences. What do you think?

Contemporary Issues: Employee Empowerment

Leading effectively in today's environment involves several important leadership issues, such as empowering employees, cross-cultural leadership, and emotional intelligence. Today's managers are increasingly leading by "not leading"; that is, by empowering their employees. Empowerment involves increasing the decision-making discretion of workers. One reason more companies are empowering employees is that if organizations want to successfully compete in a dynamic global economy, employees have to be able to make decisions and implement changes quickly. Another reason is that organizational downsizings have left many managers with larger spans of control, so these managers have had to empower their people to cope with increased work demands. Technology also has contributed to the increases in employee empowerment because managing employees who aren't physically present in the workplace requires the ability to communicate support and leadership through digital communication and the ability to read emotions in others' messages.

Keeping Track of an Organization's Information

Management information system (MIS): a system used to provide management with needed information on a regular basis

Country Culture and Motivation

Managers can't assume that motivational programs that work in one geographic location are going to work in others.

Understanding Perception

Managers need to recognize that their employees react to perceptions, not to reality. So whether the organization's wage levels are among the highest in the community is less relevant than what employees perceive them to be. If individuals perceive wage levels as low, they'll behave as if those conditions actually exist. Employees organize and interpret what they see, so there is always the potential for perceptual distortion. The message is clear: Pay close attention to how employees perceive both their jobs and management actions.

Quality Control

Many experts believe that organizations that are unable to produce high-quality products won't be able to compete successfully in the global marketplace. Here in Exhibit 15-4 we see a description of several dimensions of quality. We're going to define quality as the ability of a product or service to reliably do what it's supposed to do and to satisfy customer expectations. Managers must address the issue of how quality is achieved. A good way to look at quality initiatives is in relation to the management functions—planning, organizing and leading, and controlling—that need to take place. When planning for quality, managers must have quality improvement goals, strategies, and plans to achieve those goals. Organizations with extensive and successful quality improvement programs tend to rely on two important approaches to their employees: cross-functional work teams and self-directed or empowered work teams. It's not surprising that quality-driven organizations rely on well-trained, flexible, and empowered employees. Finally, when controlling for quality, managers must recognize that quality improvement initiatives aren't possible without having some way to monitor and evaluate their progress. Whether it involves standards for inventory control, defect rate, raw materials procurement, or other operations management areas, controlling for quality is important.

Shaping Team Behavior

Member selection is key Teamwork training A manager can shape a team's behavior through proper selection, employee training, and rewarding the appropriate team behaviors. Member selection is key. When hiring team members, managers should check whether applicants have the technical skills required to successfully perform the job and whether they have the interpersonal skills to fulfill team roles. Some applicants may have been socialized around individual contributions and lack team skills. This could also be true of some current employees being moved into teams due to organizational restructuring. In this situation, a manager can choose not to hire the person or to hire him or her on a probationary basis and provide training. Performing well in a team involves a set of behaviors that can be learned from training specialists who conduct workshops that can cover such topics as team problem solving, communications, negotiations, conflict resolution, and coaching skills. They also remind employees that it takes teams longer to do some things—such as making decisions—than employees acting alone would.

Range of Variation

Next comes the step in which we compare the actual performance to the standard. Although some variation in performance can be expected in all activities, it's critical to determine an acceptable range of variation,

The Operations System

Operations management refers to the design, operation, and control of the transformation process that converts resources such as labor and raw materials into goods and services that are sold to customers. Here in Exhibit 15-1 we see a simplified overview of the process of creating value by converting inputs into outputs. The system takes inputs—such as people, technology, capital, equipment, materials, and information—and transforms them through various processes, procedures, and work activities into finished goods and services. These processes, procedures, and activities take place throughout the organization so that department members in marketing, finance, research and development, human resources, and accounting produce outputs such as sales, increased market share, high rates of return on investments, innovative products, motivated employees, and accounting reports. As a manager, you'll need to be familiar with operations management concepts to achieve your goals more effectively and efficiently. Operations management is important because: (1) it encompasses processes in both service and manufacturing organizations, (2) it's key to effectively and efficiently managing productivity, and (3) it plays a strategic role in an organization's competitive success.

Barriers and Cultural Attitudes

Organizational Barriers: Refusal or reluctance to share information Reluctance to break up the status quo Security issues Cultural Attitudes: Trust Control

Pay-for-Performance

Pay-for-performance programs are variable compensation plans that pay employees on the basis of some performance measure. Piece-rate pay plans, wage incentive plans, profit-sharing, and lump sum bonuses are examples. These performance measures might include such things as individual productivity, team or work group productivity, departmental productivity, or the overall organization's financial performance. From a motivation perspective, making some or all an employee's pay conditional on some performance measure focuses his or her attention and effort toward that measure and then reinforces the continuation of the effort with a reward. If the employee, team, or organization's performance declines, so does the reward. Some 80 percent of large U.S. companies have some form of variable pay plan; 30 percent of Canadian companies and 22 percent of Japanese companies have company-wide pay-for-performance plans. Managers need to ensure that they're specific about the relationship between an individual's pay and his or her expected level of performance and understand exactly how performance—theirs and the organization's—translates into dollars on their paychecks. The photo shows employees of British retailer John Lewis Partnership celebrate receiving an annual bonus of 18 percent of their salary based on the company's 20 percent increase in profits. A bonus is one example of a pay-for-performance program—a compensation plan that pays employees on the basis of some performance measure.

Controlling Workplace Violence

Recent data show that 17 percent of work-related deaths in the United States were workplace homicides and some 2 million American workers are victims of some form of workplace violence, such as verbal abuse, purposeful damage of machines or furniture, or assaults by coworkers. And office rage isn't a uniquely American problem. A survey of aggressive behaviors in Europe's workplaces found that between 5 percent and 20 percent of European workers are affected by workplace violence. The key factors contributing to workplace violence are: employee stress caused by job uncertainties, declining value of retirement accounts, long hours, information overload, daily interruptions, unrealistic deadlines, and uncaring managers. Other experts have described dangerously dysfunctional work environments characterized by: Employee work driven by time, numbers, and crises A destructive communication style (for example, where managers communicate in an excessively aggressive, condescending, explosive, or passive-aggressive style) Excessive workplace teasing or scapegoating Authoritarian leadership with a rigid mindset of managers versus employees Unresolved grievances Repetitive, boring work A hazardous work environment Managers can deter or reduce possible workplace violence by using feedforward, concurrent, and feedback control to help identify actions that they can take, such as those summarized here in Exhibit 14-8.

Successful Value Chain Management

So what does successful value chain management require? Exhibit 15-2 summarizes the six main requirements: coordination and collaboration, technology investment, organizational processes, leadership, employees/human resources, and organizational culture and attitudes. Let's look at each of these elements more closely. Coordination and collaboration among all members of the chain is absolutely necessary to achieve its goal of meeting and exceeding customers' needs and desires. To successfully collaborate, all partners must identify things that their customers value, share information, and be flexible as far as who does what. Significant investment in information technology is necessary to restructure the value chain to better serve end users. According to experts, the key tools include a supporting enterprise resource planning software (ERP) system that links all of an organization's activities, sophisticated work planning and scheduling software, customer relationship management systems, business intelligence capabilities, and e-business connections with trading network partners.

Keeping Track of an Organization's Finances: Ratio Analysis

Some key areas that require control are finances, company information, and organizational performance. A balanced scorecard approach may be used. For a company to earn a profit, managers need financial controls. Traditional financial controls include ratio analysis. Ratios, like those seen in Exhibit 14-6, are calculated using selected information from the organization's balance sheet and income statement.

Contemporary Issues: Emotional Intelligence (EI)

Some recent studies indicate that emotional intelligence (EI)—more than IQ, expertise, or any other single factor—is the best predictor of who will emerge as a leader. While technical skills are necessary, they are not sufficient for leadership. Possession of the five components of emotional intelligence—self-awareness, self-management, self-motivation, empathy, and social skills—allows an individual to become a star performer. EI has been shown to be positively related to job performance at all levels, but it appears to be especially relevant in jobs that demand a high degree of social interaction—which is what leadership is all about. Most research concludes that EI is an essential element in leadership effectiveness and that it could be added to the list of traits associated with leadership that were described at the beginning of this chapter.

Contemporary Issues with people

Technology Quality initiatives Project management

Improving Productivity

Technology is helping businesses to improve their productivity in order to survive, especially in a market filled with low-cost competitors. Two major global manufacturers of jetliners have copied manufacturing techniques from Toyota. Other manufacturers are replacing manpower with machines that are so reliable that they make flawless parts without human operators. High productivity leads to economic growth and development of countries, and to higher wages and company profits without causing inflation. Individual organizations also benefit from a more competitive cost structure and the ability to offer more competitive prices. Companies outside of manufacturing are also pursuing productivity gains. For example, Pella Corporation's purchasing office improved productivity by reducing purchase order entry times by more than 50 percent, decreasing voucher processing by 27 percent, and eliminating 14 financial systems. Its information technology department also slashed e-mail traffic in half and the human resources department cut benefit enrollment processing by 156.5 days. Organizations that hope to succeed globally are looking for ways to improve productivity. For example, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, which automated its purchasing, is saving several million dollars annually.

Value Chain

That seemingly simple act of turning varied resources into something that customers value and are willing to pay for involves a vast array of interrelated work activities performed by different participants (suppliers, manufacturers, and even customers)—that is, it involves the value chain. Value chain management (VCM) is externally oriented and focuses on both incoming materials and outgoing products and services. VCM is effectiveness oriented and aims to create the highest value for customers. This is a contrast to supply chain management, which is efficiency oriented (its goal is to reduce costs and make the organization more productive) and internally oriented by focusing on efficient flow of incoming materials (resources) to the organization. Who has the power in the value chain? ■ Is it the supplier providing needed resources and materials? After all, suppliers have the ability to dictate prices and quality. ■ Is it the manufacturer that assembles those resources into a valuable product or service? A manufacturer's contribution in creating a product or service is critical. ■ Is it the distributor that makes sure the product or service is available where and when the customer needs it? Actually, it's none of these. In value chain management, customers are the ones with the power. They define what value is and how it's created and provided. Using VCM, managers seek to find that unique combination in which customers are offered solutions that truly meet their needs and at a price that can't be matched by competitors.

Situational Leadership Theory

The Situational Leadership Theory (SLT) is a contingency theory that focuses on followers' readiness. It was developed by Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard and enjoys a strong following among management development specialists. Let's stop here to clarify two points: (1) why a leadership theory focuses on the followers, and (2) what is meant by the term readiness. The emphasis on the followers reflects the reality that it is the followers who accept or reject the leader, regardless of what the leader does, so the group's effectiveness depends on the actions of the followers. Readiness, as defined by Hersey and Blanchard, refers to the extent to which people have the ability and willingness to accomplish a specific task. SLT uses the same two leadership dimensions that Fiedler identified—task and relationship behaviors—but takes it a step further by considering each as either high or low and then combining them into four specific leadership styles.

Behavioral Theories of Leadership University of Iowa and Ohio State Studies

The University of Iowa study identified three leadership styles: democratic, which means involving subordinates, delegating authority, and encouraging participation; autocratic, which means dictating work methods, centralizing decision making, and limiting participation; and laissez-faire, which means giving a group freedom to make decisions and to complete work. This study concluded that the democratic style of leadership was most effective, although later studies showed mixed results. The Ohio State study identified two factors, consideration, which involves being considerate of followers' ideas and feelings; and initiating structure, which involves structuring work and work relationships to meet job goals. The study concluded that a high-high leader (high in consideration and high in initiating structure) achieved high subordinate performance and satisfaction, but not in all situations.

Group Behavior

The basic foundation for understanding group behavior includes: Roles Norms and conformity Status systems Group size Group cohesiveness A role refers to behavior patterns expected of someone who occupies a given position in a social unit. Individuals play multiple roles and adjust their roles to the group to which they belong at the time. In an organization, employees attempt to determine what behaviors are expected of them. They read their job descriptions, get suggestions from their bosses, and watch what their coworkers do. Role conflict occurs when an employee has conflicting role expectations.

The Grapevine

The grapevine is the unofficial way that communications take place in an organization and it's neither authorized nor supported by the organization. In the grapevine, information is spread by word of mouth—and even through electronic means. Good information travels quickly, but bad information travels even more quickly.

Expectancy Theory

The most comprehensive explanation of how employees are motivated is Victor Vroom's expectancy theory, which states that an individual tends to act in a certain way based on the expectation that the act will be followed by a given outcome and on the attractiveness of that outcome to the individual. Its three variables or relationships are seen in Exhibit 11-8: Expectancy or effort-performance linkage is the probability perceived by the individual that exerting a given amount of effort will lead to a certain level of performance. Instrumentality or performance-reward linkage is the degree to which the individual believes that performing at a particular level is instrumental to attaining the desired outcome. Valence or attractiveness of reward is the importance that the individual places on the potential outcome or reward that can be achieved on the job. Valence considers both the goals and needs of the individual. This explanation of motivation can be summed up in the following questions: How hard do I have to work to achieve a certain level of performance, and can I actually achieve that level? What reward will performing at that level get me? How attractive is the reward to me, and does it help me achieve my own personal goals? Whether you are motivated to work hard at any given time depends on your goals and your perception of whether a certain level of performance is necessary to attain those goals. The key to expectancy theory is understanding an individual's goals and the links between effort and performance, between performance and rewards, and between rewards and individual goal satisfaction.

The Communication Process

The sender is the source of the communication. Encoding means converting a message into symbolic form. The message is the purpose to be conveyed in the communication. The channel is the medium by which a message travels. Decoding means translating a received message. The receiver is the recipient of the communication. Feedback is checking to see how successfully a message has been transferred.

Group Size and Group Behavior

The size of a group affects that group's behavior, depending on what criteria you're looking at. Research indicates, for instance, that small groups complete tasks more quickly than larger ones do. However, if a group is engaged in problem solving, large groups consistently score better than their smaller counterparts. In general, large groups—those with a dozen or more members—are good for gaining diverse input for such tasks as fact finding. On the other hand, smaller groups are better at doing something productive with those facts. Groups of approximately five to seven members tend to act more effectively. Individual productivity of each group member declines as the group expands, which is known as social loafing—reducing effort because dispersion of responsibility encourages individuals to slack off. When a group's results can't be attributed to any single person, individuals may be tempted to become "free riders" and coast on the group's efforts because they think their contributions can't be measured. So managers who use work groups should provide a means by which individual efforts can be identified.

Encouraging Innovation

The systems model helps us understand how organizations become more innovative. If an organization wants innovative products and work methods (outputs), it has to take its inputs (creative people and groups) and transform them into those outputs. The transformation process requires the right environment to turn those inputs into innovative products or work methods. This "right" environment—that is, an environment that stimulates innovation—includes three variables: the organization's structure, culture, and human resource practices, as seen in Exhibit 8-5.

Quality Goals

To publicly demonstrate their commitment to quality, many organizations worldwide have pursued challenging quality goals. The two best known are ISO 9000 and Six Sigma. ISO 9000 is a series of international quality management standards established by the International Organization for Standardization, which set uniform guidelines for processes to ensure that products conform to customer requirements. These standards cover everything from contract review to product design and delivery, and have become the internationally recognized standard for evaluating and comparing companies in the global marketplace. In fact, this type of certification can be a prerequisite for doing business globally. Six Sigma is a quality standard that establishes a goal of no more than 3.4 defects per million units or procedures. Although it's an extremely high standard to achieve, many quality-driven businesses are using it and benefiting from it. Although manufacturers seem to make up the bulk of Six Sigma users, service companies—such as financial institutions, retailers, and health care organizations—are also beginning to apply it. Although it's important for managers to recognize the benefits from obtaining ISO 9000 certification or Six Sigma, the key benefit comes from having work processes and an operations system in place that enable organizations to meet customers' needs and employees to perform their jobs in a consistently high-quality

Contemporary Issues

Two contemporary OB issues managers face today are generational differences and negative behaviors in the workplace. Gen Y refers to individuals born from about 1982 to 1997 who bring new attitudes with them to the workplace. What Gen Ys want their work life to provide is shown here in Exhibit 9-6: They have high expectations of themselves. They have high expectations of employers. They expect ongoing learning. They expect immediate responsibility. They are goal oriented. As Gen Ys say of themselves, "We are willing and not afraid to challenge the status quo. An environment where creativity and independent thinking are looked upon as a positive is appealing to people my age. We're very independent and

Controlling Employee Theft

Up to 85 percent of all organizational theft and fraud is committed by employees, not outsiders, and is estimated to cost about $4,500 per worker per year. Employee theft is defined as any unauthorized taking of company property by employees for their personal use. It ranges from embezzlement or fraudulent filing of expense reports to removing equipment or office supplies from company premises. So, why do employees steal? Experts in various fields have different perspectives. Industrial security specialists propose that people steal because the opportunity presents itself through lax controls and favorable circumstances. Criminologists say that it's because people have financial-based pressures (such as personal financial problems) or vice-based pressures (such as gambling debts). Clinical psychologists suggest that people steal because they can rationalize whatever they're doing as being correct and appropriate behavior by telling themselves that "everyone does it" or "this company makes enough money and they'll never miss it." The concept of feedforward, concurrent, and feedback control is useful for identifying measures to deter or reduce employee theft. Here in Exhibit 14-7 we see several possible managerial actions, from careful prescreening of job candidates to openly communicating the costs of stealing.

The Communication Process

they're being accomplished as planned and correcting any significant deviations. Managers know that their business units are performing properly only after they've evaluated which activities have been accomplished and how the actual performance compares with the desired standard. An effective control system ensures that the ways in which activities are completed attains the organization's goals. The effectiveness of a control system is determined by how well it facilitates goal achievement. The more a control system helps managers achieve their organization's goals, the better it is.

Conformity

Does the desire to be accepted as a part of a group leave one susceptible to conforming to the group's norms or exert pressure that's strong enough to change a member's attitude and behavior? According to the research of Solomon Asch, the answer appears to be yes. Asch's study involved groups of seven or eight people who sat in a classroom and were asked to compare two cards held by an investigator. One card had one line; the other had three lines of varying lengths. As shown here in Exhibit 10-4, one of the lines on the three-line card was identical to the line on the one-line card. The difference in line length was obvious so that under ordinary conditions subjects made errors of less than 1 percent. The object of the task was to announce aloud which of the three lines matched the single line. Interestingly, when all the members of the group deliberately gave incorrect answers, about 35 percent of the subjects altered their answers to align with the group.

Job Design and Motivation

Internal rewards are obtained when an employee learns that he or she personally has performed well on a task he or she cares about.

Status Systems

Status is a prestige grading, position, or rank within a group. As far back as scientists have been able to trace human groupings, they've found status hierarchies between tribal chiefs and their followers, nobles and peasants, and the haves and the have-nots. Status systems are important factors in understanding behavior. Status is a significant motivator that has behavioral consequences when individuals see a disparity between what they perceive their status to be and what others perceive it to be. Anything can have status value if others in the group admire it. Members of groups often place people into status categories, and they usually agree about who's high, low, and in the middle. It's important for employees to believe that there is equity or congruence between the perceived ranking of an individual and the status symbols he or she is given by the organization.

The Fiedler Mod

After an individual's leadership style had been assessed through the LPC, the leader was matched with the situation. Fiedler's research uncovered three contingency dimensions that defined the key situational factors in leader effectiveness as: Leader-member relations: The degree of confidence, trust, and respect employees had for their leader; rated as either good or poor. Task structure: The degree to which job assignments were formalized and structured; rated as either high or low. Position power: The degree of influence a leader had over activities such as hiring, firing, discipline, promotions, and salary increases; rated as either strong or weak. Each leadership situation was evaluated in terms of these three contingency variables, which, when combined, produced eight possible situations that were either favorable or unfavorable for the leader. (See the bottom of the chart in Exhibit 12-2.) Situations I, II, and III were classified as highly favorable for the leader. Situations IV, V, and VI were moderately favorable for the leader. Situations VII and VIII were described as highly unfavorable for the leader. Once Fiedler had described the leader variables and the situational variables, he could define the specific contingencies for leadership effectiveness. To do so, he studied 1,200 groups to compare relationship-oriented versus task-oriented leadership styles in each of the eight situational categories. He concluded that task-oriented leaders performed better in very favorable and in very unfavorable situations. (See the top of Exhibit 12-2 where performance is shown on the vertical axis and situation favorableness is shown on the horizontal axis.) On the other hand, relationship-oriented leaders performed better in moderately favorable situations. Research testing the overall validity of Fiedler's model has shown considerable evidence to support it. However, its major criticisms include: It's unrealistic to assume that a person can't change his or her leadership style to fit the situation. The LPC wasn't very practical. The situation variables were difficult to assess. Despite its shortcomings, the Fiedler model showed that effective leadership style needed to reflect situational factors.

Change Often Creates Stress for Employees

As the table shows, the global average for employee stress levels is 29% of employees. Stress is the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressure placed on them from extraordinary demands, constraints, or opportunities. Stress isn't always bad. Stress can be positive—especially functional stress, which allows an athlete, stage performer, or employee to perform at his or her highest level at crucial times. However, stress is more often associated with constraints and demands and opportunities. A constraint prevents you from doing what you desire; demands refer to the loss of something desired; opportunities refer to the possibility of something new, something never done. Another thing to understand about stress is that just because the conditions are right for stress to surface doesn't always mean it will. Two conditions are necessary for potential stress to become actual stress. First, there must be uncertainty over the outcome, and second, the outcome must be important.

Satisfaction vs. Dissatisfaction

Herzberg also concluded that the traditional view—that the opposite of satisfaction was dissatisfaction-was wrong. He stated that removing dissatisfying characteristics from a job would not necessarily make that job more satisfying (or motivating). As shown here in Exhibit 11-3, Herzberg proposed that a dual continuum existed: The opposite of "satisfaction" is "no satisfaction" and the opposite of "dissatisfaction" is "no dissatisfaction." Herzberg believed that the factors that led to job satisfaction were separate and distinct from those that led to job dissatisfaction. Therefore, managers who sought to eliminate factors that created job dissatisfaction could keep people from being dissatisfied, but this would not necessarily lead to satisfaction and motivation. To motivate people, Herzberg suggested emphasizing motivators, the intrinsic factors having to do with the job itself.

HR and Innovation

Innovative organizations (1) actively promote the training and development of their members so the members' knowledge remains current, (2) they offer their employees high job security to reduce the fear of getting fired for making mistakes, and (3) they encourage individuals to become idea champions by actively and enthusiastically supporting new ideas, building support, overcoming resistance, and ensuring that innovations are implemented. Research finds that idea champions have certain personality characteristics in common: extremely high self-confidence, persistence, energy, and a tendency toward risk taking. They also display characteristics associated with dynamic leadership: They inspire and energize others with their vision of the potential of an innovation and through their strong personal conviction in their mission. They're also good at gaining the commitment of others to support their mission. Idea champions also have jobs that provide considerable decision-making discretion. This autonomy helps them introduce and implement innovations in organizations.

Team Composition

Several team composition factors are important to a team's effectiveness. They include: Team member abilities Personality Role allocation Diversity Size of teams Member flexibility Member preferences Part of a team's performance depends on its members' knowledge, skills, and abilities. Research shows a team needs three different types of skills. Technical expertise. Problem-solving and decision-making skills. Interpersonal skills. A team can't achieve its performance potential if it doesn't have or can't develop the right mix of all these skills. However, a team doesn't necessarily need all these skills immediately. Team members commonly take responsibility for learning the skills in which the group is deficient so the team can achieve its full potential. The Microsoft Surface design team shown in the picture had the necessary technical and interpersonal skills to perform effectively in creating the company's new tablet computer.

What Traits Do Leaders Have?

Attempts to identify traits consistently associated with the process of leadership (the process, not the person) have been more successful. The seven traits associated with leadership are described in Exhibit 12-1. The seven traits associated with effective leadership are: drive, desire to lead, honesty and integrity, self-confidence, intelligence, job-relevant knowledge, and extraversion. Next, researchers recognized that the identification of effective leaders needed to include interactions of leaders with their group members, as well as situational factors. Possessing the appropriate traits only made it more likely that an individual would be an effective leader. Therefore, leadership research from the late 1940s to the mid-1960s turned to finding the preferred behavioral styles that leaders demonstrated. Researchers wondered whether there was something unique in the behavior of effective leaders.

White-Water Rapids Change

The "white-water rapids" metaphor is consistent with a world that's increasingly dominated by information, ideas, and knowledge. To get a feeling of what managing change might be like in a white-water rapids environment, consider attending a college that had the following rules: Courses vary in length. When you sign up, you don't know how long a course will run. The instructor can end a course at any time with no prior warning and the length of the class changes each time it meets. Additionally, the time of the next class meeting is set by the instructor during this class. Also, all exams are unannounced, so you have to be ready for a test at any time. Not every manager faces such a world but it is becoming more the norm. Disruptions in the status quo are no longer occasional and temporary, and they are not followed by a return to calm waters. Many managers never get out of the rapids and face constant forces in the external and internal environment that bring about the need for organizational change.

Team Member Roles

As we saw in the last chapter, personality significantly influences individual and team behavior. Research shows that three of the Big Five dimensions are relevant to team effectiveness: agreeableness and high levels of both conscientiousness and openness to experience. These qualities tend to lead to better team effectiveness. Nine potential team roles have been identified, as seen here in Exhibit 10-7. On many teams, individuals may play multiple roles. It's important for managers to understand the individual strengths a person brings to a team and to select team members with those strengths to ensure that these roles are filled. Although many view diversity as desirable, research seems to show the opposite. One review found that studies on diversity in teams from the last 50 years have shown that surface-level differences such as race/ethnicity, gender, and age tend to have negative effects on team performance. However, some evidence does show that the disruptive effects of diversity decline over time, but it doesn't confirm that diverse teams always perform better in the long-run. When it comes to the size, the most effective teams have five to nine members, but experts suggest using the smallest number of people who can do the task. Team member preferences need to be considered, too, because some people just prefer not to work on teams, which can create a direct threat to the team's morale and to individual member satisfaction.

Team Processes

Common plan/purpose Specific goals Team efficacy Task conflict Minimal social loafing Five team process variables have been shown to be related to team effectiveness. An effective team has a common plan and purpose that provides direction, momentum, and commitment for team members. Members of successful teams put a lot of time and effort into discussing, shaping, and agreeing on a purpose that belongs to them both individually and as a team. Teams also need specific goals that facilitate clear communication and help teams maintain their focus on getting results. Team efficacy emerges when teams believe in themselves and in their members, and believe that they can succeed. Effective teams also need some of the right kind of conflict, which actually improves team effectiveness. Task conflicts—those based on disagreements about task content—can be beneficial because they may stimulate discussion, promote critical assessment of problems and options, and lead to better team decisions. Note that relationship conflicts are almost always dysfunctional. Finally, effective teams work to minimize the tendency for social loafing, which can be avoided by making members individually and jointly accountable for the team's purpose, goals, and approach.

Global Teams: Team Structure

Conformity Status Social loafing Cohesiveness Some areas of team structure—such as conformity, status, social loafing, and cohesiveness—require different strategies for managing global teams. Research suggests that Asch's findings on conformity are culture-bound. As might be expected, conformity to social norms tends to be higher in collectivistic cultures than in individualistic cultures. However, groupthink tends to be less of a problem in global teams because members are less likely to feel pressured to conform to the ideas, conclusions, and decisions of the group. The importance of status varies between cultures. Countries differ on the criteria that confer status. For instance, in Latin America and Asia, status tends to come from family position and formal roles held in organizations. In contrast, while status is important in countries like the United States and Australia, it tends to be given based on accomplishments. Managers must understand who and what holds status when interacting with people from a culture different from their own. Social loafing has a Western bias and is consistent with individualistic cultures like the United States and Canada, which are dominated by self-interest. It's not consistent with collectivistic societies such as China and Israel, in which individuals are motivated by group goals and actually performed better in a group than when working alone. Cohesiveness is another group structural element that may create special challenges for managers because global teams exhibit higher levels of mistrust, miscommunication, and stress.

Creativity and Innovation

Creativity: the ability to produce novel and useful ideas. Innovation: the process of taking a creative idea and turning it into a useful product, service, or method of operation. Success in business today demands innovation. In the dynamic, chaotic world of global competition, organizations must create new products and services and adopt state-of-the-art technology if they're going to compete successfully. Creativity refers to the ability to combine ideas in a unique way or to make unusual associations between ideas. A creative organization develops unique ways of working or novel solutions to problems. For instance, at Mattel, company officials introduced "Project Platypus," a special group that includes people from a variety of disciplines such as engineering, marketing, design, and sales, and tries to get them to "think outside the box" to understand the sociology and psychology behind children's play patterns. To fuel this kind of thinking, team members embarked on imagination exercises, group crying, and juggling with a stuffed-bunny to learn to "let go." The outcomes of the creative process need to be turned into useful products or work methods, which is defined as innovation. The innovative organization is characterized by its ability to channel creativity into useful outcomes. When managers talk about changing an organization to make it more creative, they usually mean they want to stimulate and nurture innovation.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

During the 1950s and 1960s, four theories of motivation were formulated. They include the hierarchy of needs theory, theories X and Y, the two-factor theory, and the three-needs theory. It's important to know these early theories because: (1) They represent the foundation from which contemporary theories grew, and (2) they are still used by practicing managers to explain employee motivation. Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs theory, seen here in Exhibit 11-1, is one of the most widely known theories of motivation. Maslow was a psychologist who proposed that within every person is a hierarchy of five needs: Physiological needs such as food, drink, shelter, sex, sleep, and other physical requirements. Safety needs such as security and protection from harm as well as assurance that physical needs will continue to be met. Social needs including affection, belongingness, acceptance, and friendship. Esteem needs, which include internal esteem factors such as self-respect, autonomy, and achievement, and external esteem factors such as status, recognition, and attention. Self-actualization needs that include growth and achieving one's potential. Maslow argued that each level must be substantially satisfied before the next need becomes dominant; an individual moves up the hierarchy from one level to the next. Lower-order need are satisfied predominantly externally, while higher-order needs are satisfied internally. Managers will do things to satisfy employees' needs. But remember: Once a need is substantially satisfied, it no longer motivates. This theory is widely popular among practicing managers probably because it's easy to understand and intuitive. However, there is no empirical support provided for this theory; other studies could not validate it.

What is Motivation?

Employees want to love what they do. All managers need to be able to motivate their employees, which requires understanding what motivation is. Let's begin by saying that motivation is not a personal trait that some people have and others don't. Motivation refers to the process by which a person's efforts are energized, directed, and sustained toward attaining a goal. Individuals differ in motivational drive and their overall motivation varies from situation to situation. Motivation has three key elements: The energy element is a measure of intensity or drive where the quality of the effort is considered along with its intensity. High levels of effort lead to favorable job performance when the effort is directed toward, and consistent with, organizational goals. Finally, motivation includes a persistence dimension where employees keep putting forth effort to achieve those goals. Motivating high levels of employee performance is an important organizational concern, as demonstrated by a Gallup poll that found that 73 percent of U.S. employees aren't excited about their work.

Integrating Motivation Theories

Exhibit 11-9 presents a model that integrates much of what we know about motivation. Its basic foundation is the expectancy model. The individual effort box has an arrow leading into it. This arrow flows from the individual's goals. Consistent with goal-setting theory, this goals-effort link illustrates that goals direct behavior. Expectancy theory predicts that an employee will exert a high level of effort if he or she perceives a strong relationship between effort and performance, performance and rewards, and rewards and satisfaction of personal goals. Each of these relationships is, in turn, influenced by certain factors. You can see from the model that the level of individual performance is determined not only by the level of individual effort but also by the individual's ability to perform and by whether the organization has a fair and objective performance evaluation system. The performance-reward relationship will be strong if the individual perceives that it is performance (rather than seniority, personal favorites, or some other criterion) that is rewarded. The final link in expectancy theory is the rewards-goal relationship. The traditional need theories come into play at this point. Motivation would be high to the degree that the rewards an individual receives for his or her high performance satisfy the dominant needs consistent with his or her individual goals. A closer look at the model also shows that it considers the achievement-need, reinforcement, equity, and JCM theories. The high achiever isn't motivated by the organization's assessment of his or her performance or organizational rewards; hence the jump from effort to individual goals for those with a high nAch. Reinforcement theory is seen in the model where the organization's rewards reinforce the individual's performance. Rewards also play a key part in equity theory. Individuals compare the rewards (outcomes) they have received from the inputs or efforts they have made with the inputs-outcomes ratio of relevant others. If inequities exist, the effort expended may be influenced. Finally, the JCM is seen in this integrative model. Task characteristics (job design) influence job motivation in two areas. First, jobs that are designed around the five job dimensions are likely to lead to higher actual job performance because the individual's motivation will be stimulated by the job itself and because there will be a clear link between effort and performance. Second, jobs that are designed around the five job dimensions also increase an employee's control over key elements in his or her work. Thus, jobs that offer autonomy, feedback, and similar task characteristics help to satisfy the individual goals of employees who desire greater control

Contemporary Issues

Few trends have influenced how work gets done as much as the use of work teams in organizations. The shift from working alone to working in teams requires employees to cooperate with others, share information, confront differences, and sublimate personal interests for the greater good of the team. Managers build effective teams by understanding what influences performance and satisfaction. However, managers today also face challenges such as managing global teams and understanding when teams aren't the answer. Using global teams has both drawbacks and benefits, as seen here in Exhibit 10-8. In global organizations, understanding the relationship between team effectiveness and team composition is more challenging because of the unique cultural characteristics represented by members of a global team. Not only must managers recognize team members' abilities, skills, knowledge, and personalities, but managers must also be familiar with, and clearly understand, the cultural characteristics of the groups and the group members they manage, such as high certainty avoidance, where members are uncomfortable dealing with unpredictable and ambiguous tasks. Also, managers need to be aware of the potential for stereotyping, which can lead to problems.

Emotional Intelligence

Five dimensions: Self-awareness Self-management Self-motivation Empathy Social skills People who understand their own emotions and are good at reading others' emotions may be more effective in their jobs. Therefore, emotional intelligence (EI) can be described as an assortment of non-cognitive skills, capabilities, and competencies that influences a person's ability to cope with environmental demands and pressures. Emotional intelligence is composed of five dimensions: Self-awareness, or being aware of what you're feeling. Self-management of your own emotions and impulses. Self-motivation, or persistence in the face of setbacks and failures. Empathy, or the ability to sense how others are feeling. Social skills, which means adapting to and handling the emotions of others. Several studies suggest that EI plays an important role in job performance and the implication is that employers should consider emotional intelligence as a criterion in their selection process—especially for those jobs that demand a high degree of social interaction.

Distorted 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. Self-serving bias: the tendency for individuals to attribute their successes to internal factors while putting the blame for failures on external factors. One of the more interesting findings drawn from attribution theory is that errors or biases distort attributions. For instance, substantial evidence supports the hypothesis that when we make judgments about the behavior of other people, we tend to underestimate the influence of external factors and overestimate the influence of internal or personal factors. This fundamental attribution error can explain why a sales manager may be prone to attribute the poor performance of her sales agents to laziness rather than to a competitor's innovative product line. Individuals generally attribute their own successes to internal factors, such as ability or effort, while blaming failure on external factors. This self-serving bias suggests that employees will distort feedback from performance reviews, whether the feedback is positive or negative.

Group Cohesiveness

Group cohesiveness is the degree to which members are attracted to one another and share the group's goals. However, the relationship between cohesiveness and effectiveness is complex. A key moderating variable is the degree to which the group's attitude aligns with its formal goals or the goals of the larger organization. The more cohesive a group, the more its members will follow its goals. Exhibit 10-3, seen here, summarizes the relationship between cohesiveness and productivity: If the goals are favorable, a cohesive group is more productive than a less cohesive group. However, if cohesiveness is high and attitudes are unfavorable, productivity decreases. If cohesiveness is low and goals are supported, productivity increases, but not as much as when both cohesiveness and support are high. When cohesiveness is low and goals are not supported, cohesiveness has no significant effect on productivity.

Path-Goal Model

In contrast to Fiedler's view that a leader couldn't change his or her behavior, House assumed that leaders are flexible and can display any or all of these leadership styles depending on the situation. As Exhibit 12-4 illustrates, path-goal theory proposes two situational (or contingency) variables that moderate the leadership behavior-outcome relationship: Those in the environment that are outside the control of the follower (such as task structure, formal authority system, and the work group). Those that are part of the personal characteristics of the follower (which include locus of control, experience, and perceived ability). Environmental factors determine the type of leadership behavior required to maximize subordinate outcomes. Personal characteristics of the follower determine how to interpret the environment and leadership behavior. For example, some predictions from path-goal theory are: Directive leadership leads to greater satisfaction when tasks are ambiguous or stressful and followers aren't sure what to do. Supportive leadership results in high employee performance and satisfaction when subordinates are performing structured tasks. Subordinates with an internal locus of control will be more satisfied with a participative style of leadership. Research findings on the path-goal model have been mixed due to the number of variables to examine. However, evidence does show that an employee's performance and satisfaction are likely to be positively influenced when the leader chooses a leadership style that compensates for shortcomings in either the employee or the work setting.

Internal Factors

Internal forces can also create the need for organizational change. Redefining or modifying an organization's strategy causes change. For example, bringing in new equipment is an internal force for change that can result in employees facing job redesign, undergoing training to operate the new equipment, or establishing new interaction patterns within their work groups. Another internal force for change is a shift in the composition of an organization's workforce in terms of age, education, gender, nationality, and so forth. A stable organization in which managers have been in their positions for years might need to restructure jobs to retain more ambitious employees and to rework the compensation and benefits systems to reflect the needs of a diverse workforce and to respond to market forces in which certain skills are in short supply. Employee attitudes, such as increased job dissatisfaction, may lead to increased absenteeism, resignations, and even strikes. Such events will likely lead to changes in organizational policies and practices.

Job Characteristics Model

Job design refers to the way tasks are combined to form complete jobs. Managers should design jobs deliberately and thoughtfully to reflect the demands of the changing environment, the organization's technology, and employees' skills, abilities, and preferences. When jobs are designed this way, employees are motivated to work hard. The job characteristics model (JCM) seen here was developed by J. Richard Hackman and Greg R. Oldham. This model can help managers design jobs that motivate. According to Hackman and Oldham, any job can be described in terms of the following five core job dimensions: Skill variety is the degree to which the job requires a variety of activities, allowing the worker to use a number of different skills and talents. Task identity is the degree to which the job requires completion of a whole and identifiable piece of work. Task significance is the degree to which the job affects the lives or work of other people. Autonomy refers to the freedom, independence, and discretion given to the individual for scheduling the work and for determining the procedures to be used in carrying it out. Feedback is the degree to which carrying out the work activities required by the job results in the individual's obtaining direct and clear information about the effectiveness of his or her performance. Notice in Exhibit 11-5 how the first three dimensions—skill variety, task identity, and task significance—combine to create meaningful work, which means if these three characteristics exist in a job, we can predict that the person will view his/her job as being important, valuable, and worthwhile. Note, too, that jobs that possess autonomy give the employee a feeling of personal responsibility for the results and that if a job provides feedback, the employee will know how effectively he or she is performing.

Attitudes and Job Performance

Job satisfaction Job involvement Organizational commitment Employee engagement Attitudes are evaluative statements, either favorable or unfavorable, concerning objects, people, or events. They reflect how an individual feels about something, such as, "I like my job." Looking at attitudes as being made up of three components—cognition, affect, and behavior—helps to illustrate their complexity. But keep in mind that the term "attitude" usually refers only to the affective component. Managers are specifically interested in job-related attitudes, and the most important and most studied are job satisfaction, job involvement, and organizational commitment. Job satisfaction is an employee's general attitude toward his or her job. When people speak of employee attitudes, more often than not they mean job satisfaction. Job involvement is the degree to which an employee identifies with his or her job, actively participates in it, and considers his or her job performance important for self-worth. Organizational commitment is an employee's orientation toward the organization in terms of his or her loyalty to, identification with, and involvement in the organization. Employee engagement, a new concept generating widespread interest, happens when employees are connected to, satisfied with, and enthusiastic about their jobs. Highly engaged employees are passionate about and deeply connected to their work; disengaged employees have essentially "checked out" and don't care. A global study of more than 12,000 employees found that the top five engagement factors are: - Respect - Type of work - Work/life balance - Providing good service to customers - Base pay Highly engaged employees increase benefits and reduce costs. They're two and a half times more likely to be top performers and remain with the organization, which reduces recruiting and training costs. This winning combination of higher performance and lower costs contributes to superior financial performance.

Understanding Personality

Job-person compatibility Understanding different approaches to work Being a better manager About 62 percent of companies use personality tests when recruiting and hiring because managers are likely to have higher-performing and more-satisfied employees if consideration is given to matching personalities with jobs. In addition, compatibility leads to other benefits. By recognizing that people approach problem solving, decision making, and job interactions differently, a manager can better understand why, for instance, an employee is uncomfortable with making quick decisions or why an employee insists on gathering as much information as possible before addressing a problem. In the same vein, managers can expect that individuals with an external locus of control may be less satisfied with their jobs than those with an internal locus, and also that they may be less willing to accept responsibility for their actions. One of the skills you have to develop as a manager is learning to fine-tune your emotional reactions according to the situation. In other words, you have to learn to recognize when "you have to smile and when you have to bark."

Managerial Challenges

Managing Gen Y workers presents some unique challenges. Conflicts and resentment can arise over issues such as appearance, technology, and management style. One possible solution is being more flexible in what's acceptable. For example, the guideline might be that when the person is not interacting with someone outside the organization, more casual wear (with some restrictions) can be worn. This generation has lived much of their lives with cell phones, email, texting, laptops, and the Internet. When they don't have information they need, they're content to meet virtually, while baby boomers expect an in-person meeting. Baby boomers complain about Gen Y's inability to focus on one task, while Gen Ys see nothing wrong with multitasking. Again, flexibility from both is the key. When it comes to managing, Gen Y employees want bosses who are open minded; experts in their field; organized; teachers and mentors; respectful of their generation; understanding of their need for work-life balance; who provide constant feedback; who communicate in compelling ways; and who provide stimulating and novel learning experiences. Gen Y employees have a lot to offer organizations in terms of their knowledge, passion, and abilities. Managers, however, have to recognize and understand the behaviors of this group in order to create an environment in which work can be accomplished efficiently, effectively, and without disruptive conflict.

Effective Teams

Much research has been done on team effectiveness, which includes objective measures of a team's productivity, managers' ratings of the team's performance, and aggregate measures of member satisfaction. What research has shown so far is summarized here in Exhibit 10-6. As we look at this model, keep in mind that: (1) Teams differ in form and structure and (2) this model assumes that managers have already determined that teamwork is preferable to individual work. As seen from the model, the four key components of effective teams include: Context Team's composition Work design Process variables Four contextual factors that appear to be most significantly related to team performance are adequate resources, leadership and structure, a climate of trust, and performance evaluation and reward systems. As part of the larger organization system, a team relies on resources outside the group to sustain it. If it doesn't have adequate resources, the team's ability to perform its job effectively is reduced. Resources can include timely information, proper equipment, encouragement, adequate staffing, and administrative assistance. To function properly, a team needs to agree on the specifics of work and how all the team members' individual skills fit together. This requires team leadership and structure, which can come from the organization or from the team itself. Even in self-managed teams, a manager's job is to be a coach supporting the team's efforts and managing outside (rather than inside) the team. Members of effective teams trust each other and their leaders, which facilitates cooperation, reduces the need to monitor each other's behavior, and bonds members around the belief that others on the team won't take advantage of them. The final contextual factor of an effective team is a performance evaluation and reward system. Team members have to be accountable both individually and jointly. Therefore, in addition to evaluating and rewarding employees for their individual contributions, managers should consider group-based appraisals, profit-sharing, and other approaches that reinforce team effort and commitm

Personality Traits Across Cultures

National cultures differ in terms of the degree to which people believe they control their environment. Do personality frameworks like the Big Five model translate across cultures? Actually, the five personality factors studied in the Big Five model appear in almost all cross-cultural studies, with differences found only in the emphasis on dimensions. The Chinese, for example, use the category of conscientiousness more often and use the category of agreeableness less often than Americans do. But a surprisingly high amount of correspondence is found, especially among individuals from developed countries. There are certainly no common personality types for a given country, yet a country's culture influences the dominant personality characteristics of its people as reflected by locus of control. National cultures differ in terms of the degree to which people believe they control their environment. For instance, North Americans believe that they can dominate their environment, while other societies in Middle Eastern countries believe that life is essentially predetermined. On the basis of this particular cultural characteristic, we should expect a larger proportion of "internals" in the U.S. and Canadian workforces than in the workforces of Saudi Arabia or Iran. For global managers, understanding how personality traits differ takes on added significance when looking at them from the perspective of national culture. For example, knowing that the trait of conscientiousness is a valid predictor of performance in European Community nations helps U.S.-based Burger King manage employees such as this BK employee in France.

Group Effectiveness

Of course, some groups don't get much beyond the forming or storming stages. These groups may have serious interpersonal conflicts, turn in disappointing work, and get poor performance reviews. The assumption that a group becomes more effective as it progresses through the first four stages may be generally true, but what makes a group effective is complex. Under some conditions, high levels of conflict are conducive to high levels of group performance. There might be situations in which groups in the storming stage outperform those in the norming or performing stages. Also, groups don't always proceed sequentially from one stage to the next. Sometimes groups are storming and performing at the same time. Groups even occasionally regress to previous stages. Therefore, don't assume that all groups precisely follow this process or that performing is always the most preferable stage. Think of the group development model as a general framework that underscores the fact that groups are dynamic entities. Managers need to know the stage a group is in so they can understand the problems and issues that are most likely to surface.

Structural Variables and Innovation

Organic structures Abundant resources High interunit communication Minimal time pressure Work and nonwork support Research into the effect of structural variables on innovation shows five things: An organic-type structure positively influences innovation. Because this structure is low in formalization, centralization, and work specialization, it facilitates the flexibility and sharing of ideas that are critical to innovation. The availability of plentiful resources is a key building block for innovation. With an abundance of resources, managers can afford to purchase innovations, can afford the cost of instituting innovations, and can absorb failures. Frequent communication between organizational units helps break down barriers to innovation. Cross-functional teams, task forces, and other such organizational designs facilitate interaction across departmental lines and are widely used in innovative organizations. Innovative organizations try to minimize extreme time pressures on creative activities despite the demands of white-water rapids-type environments. Although time pressures may spur people to work harder and may make them feel more creative, studies show that it actually causes them to be less creative. Studies have shown that when an organization's structure explicitly supports creativity, employees' creative performance can be enhanced. Beneficial kinds of support include encouragement, open communication, readiness to listen, and useful feedback.

Organizational Behavior

Organizational behavior (OB) is the study of the actions of people at work. One challenge in understanding organizational behavior is that it addresses issues that aren't obvious. Like an iceberg, OB has a small visible dimension and a much larger hidden portion—as seen in Exhibit 9-1. When we look at an organization, we see its visible aspects—such as strategies, objectives, policies and procedures, structure, technology, formal authority relationships, and chain of command. But under the surface are other elements that also influence how employees behave at work. Organizational behavior focuses on three major areas: Individual behavior, which includes attitudes, personality, perception, learning, and motivation. Group behavior, which includes norms, roles, team building, leadership, and conflict. Organizational aspects, which include structure, culture, and human resource policies and practices.

Initiating Change

Organizational changes need a catalyst. People who act as catalysts and assume the responsibility for managing the change process are called change agents. A change agent can be a manager, internal staff specialist, or outside consultant. Consultants offer an objective perspective, but may not understand the organization's history, culture, operating procedures, and personnel. They're also prone to initiating more drastic changes than insiders—which can be either a benefit or a disadvantage—because they don't have to live with the repercussions after the change is implemented. In contrast, internal managers who act as change agents may be more thoughtful—and possibly more cautious—because they must live with the consequences of their actions.

Judging Employees

Our perception and judgment of a person's actions will be significantly influenced by the assumptions we make about the person's internal state, which has led researchers to develop attribution theory. Attribution theory attempts to explain how we judge people differently depending on what meaning we attribute to a given behavior. This depends on three factors: distinctiveness, consensus, and consistency. Distinctiveness refers to whether an individual displays a behavior in many situations or whether it is particular to one situation. If an employee who arrived late to work today is also the person coworkers see as a goof-off, then we want to know whether this behavior is unusual. If it is, the observer is likely to give the behavior an external attribution. If this action is not unique, it will probably be judged as internal. A behavior shows consensus if everyone faced with a similar situation responds in the same way. If consensus is high, you would be expected to give an external attribution to the behavior. But if only one person responds that way, you would conclude the reason to be internal. Finally, a manager looks for consistency in an employee's actions. The more consistent the behavior, the more the observer is inclined to attribute it to internal causes. Exhibit 9-4 summarizes the key elements in attribution theory. It would tell us, for instance, that if an employee, Mr. Flynn, generally performs at about the same level on other related tasks as he does on his current task (low distinctiveness), if other employees frequently perform differently—better or worse—than Mr. Flynn does on that current task (low consensus), and if Mr. Flynn's performance on this current task is consistent over time (high consistency), any manager judging Mr. Flynn's work is likely to hold him primarily responsible for his task performance (internal attribution).

Innovation Process

Perception Incubation Inspiration Innovation Some people believe that creativity is inborn; others believe that with training, anyone can be creative. The latter group views creativity as a fourfold process consisting of perception, incubation, inspiration, and innovation. Perception involves the way you see things; being creative means seeing things from a unique perspective. While employees sit on their ideas to incubate, they should collect massive amounts of data that can be stored, retrieved, studied, reshaped, and finally molded into something new. Inspiration, that is the moment when all your efforts successfully come together in the creative process, is similar. Innovation takes inspiration and turns it into a useful product, service, or way of doing things. The systems model helps us understand how organizations become more innovative. If an organization wants innovative products and work methods (outputs), it has to take its inputs (creative people and groups) and transform them into those outputs. The transformation process requires the right environment to turn those inputs into innovative products or work methods. This "right" environment—that is, an environment that stimulates innovation—includes three variables: the organization's structure, culture, and human resource practices, as seen in Exhibit 8-5

Perception

Perception is a process by which we give meaning to our environment by organizing and interpreting sensory impressions. Research consistently demonstrates that individuals may look at the same thing yet perceive it differently. For example, one manager can interpret the fact that her assistant takes several days to make important decisions as evidence that the assistant is slow, disorganized, and afraid to make decisions. Another manager with the same assistant might perceive the assistant as thoughtful, thorough, and deliberate. The point is, none of us sees an objective reality; we just interpret what we see and call it reality. Perception can be shaped or distorted by a number of factors that reside in the perceiver, in the object or target being perceived, or in the context of the situation in which the perception is made. Because we do not look at targets in isolation, the relationship of a target to its background also influences perception—as seen here in Exhibit 9-3—as does our tendency to group close things and similar things together. The context, time, and other situational factors in which we see objects or events is also important.

Personality Theories

Personality: a unique combination of emotional, thought, and behavioral patterns that affect how a person reacts to situations and interacts with others. An individual's personality is a unique combination of emotional, thought, and behavioral patterns that affect how a person reacts to situations and interacts with others. Often described in terms of measurable traits that a person exhibits, personality—just like attitudes—affects how and why people behave the way they do. Through the years, researchers have attempted to focus on which personality types and personality traits would best identify information about an individual. Two of the most widely recognized efforts are the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® and the Big Five model of personality. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI®) assessment uses four dimensions of personality to identify 16 different personality types based on the responses to an approximately 100-item questionnaire. The 16 personality types are based on four dimensions: Extraversion versus Introversion (EI), Sensing versus Intuition (SN), Thinking versus Feeling (TF), and Judging versus Perceiving (JP). The EI dimension describes an individual's orientation toward the external world of the environment (E) or the inner world of ideas and experiences (I). The Sensing-Intuition dimension indicates an individual's preference for gathering data while focusing on a standard routine based on factual data (S) versus focusing on the big picture and making connections among the facts (N). Thinking-Feeling reflects an individual's preference for making decisions in a logical and analytical manner (T) or on the basis of values and beliefs and the effects the decision will have on others (F). The Judging-Perceiving index reflects an individual's attitude toward dealing with the external world, either in a planned and orderly way (J) or a flexible and spontaneous way (P). So, an ISTJ (Introversion - Sensing - Thinking - Judging) person is quiet, serious, dependable, practical, and matter-of-fact, whereas an ESFP (Extraversion - Sensing - Feeling - Perceiving) is outgoing, friendly, spontaneous, enjoys working with others, and learns best by trying a new skill with other people.

Shaping Behavior

Positive reinforcement Negative reinforcement Punishment Extinction Managers can teach employees to behave in ways that most benefit the organization. They do this by guiding learning in graduated steps that is, shaping behavior. There are four ways to shape behavior. Positive reinforcement is when a desired behavior is followed with something pleasant, such as praise for a job well done. Negative reinforcement is when a desired behavior is followed by the termination or withdrawal of something unpleasant. For example, a manager telling an employee he won't dock her pay if she starts coming to work on time. The only way for the employee not to have her pay docked is to come to work on time, which is the behavior the manager wants. Punishment penalizes undesirable behavior. Suspending an employee for two days without pay for showing up drunk is an example of punishment. Extinction is the not reinforcing (ignoring) a behavior, making it gradually disappear. Both positive and negative reinforcement result in learning because they strengthen a desired response and increase the probability of repetition. Both punishment and extinction also result in learning; however, they weaken behavior and tend to decrease its subsequent frequency.

Reducing Stress

Remember, not all stress is dysfunctional. Even though stress can never be totally eliminated, managers want to reduce the stress that leads to dysfunctional work behavior by controlling certain organizational factors that can reduce job-related stress and offering help for personal stress. To reduce job-related stress, managers begin with employee selection—making sure that an employee's abilities match the job requirements. A realistic job preview during the selection process can help minimize stress by clarifying job expectations. Ongoing organizational communications keep ambiguity-induced stress to a minimum. Similarly, a performance planning program (such as MBO) states job responsibilities clearly, provides clear performance goals, and reduces ambiguity through feedback. Job redesign can also reduce stress by increasing challenge, including employees in decision making, or reducing the workload. Allowing employees to participate in decisions to gain social support also lessen stress. Stress from an employee's personal life is not easy for a manager to control directly and there is the question of whether a manager has the right to intrude, even subtly, in an employee's personal life. If the manager believes it's ethical and the employee is receptive, consider employee assistance or wellness programs. The rationale for employee assistance programs is to get a productive employee back on the job as quickly as possible. Wellness programs are designed to keep employees healthy.

Stages of Group Development

Research shows that groups develop through the five stages shown here in Exhibit 10-2. The forming stage has two phases. The first phase is when people first join the group and the second phase is when they define the group's purpose, structure, and leadership. The latter phase involves a great deal of uncertainty as members "test the waters" to determine acceptable behaviors and is complete when members begin to think of themselves as part of a group. The storming stage is named because it is the period of intragroup conflict about who will control the group and what the group needs to be doing. This stage is complete when a relatively clear hierarchy of leadership and agreement on the group's direction is evident. The norming stage is one in which close relationships develop and the group becomes cohesive and demonstrates a strong sense of group identity and camaraderie. This stage is complete when the group structure solidifies and the group has assimilated a common set of expectations regarding member behavior. The fourth stage is the performing stage. The group structure is in place and accepted by group members. Their energies have moved from getting to know and understand each other to working on the group's task. This is the last stage of development for permanent work groups. However, for temporary groups—such as project teams, task forces, or similar groups that have a limited task to do—the final stage is the adjourning stage in which the group prepares to disband. Attention is focused on wrapping up activities instead of task performance.

Attitudes and Consistency

Research shows that individuals generally try to reconcile differing attitudes and to align their attitudes and behavior so that they appear rational and consistent. They do this by altering either the attitudes or the behavior, or by developing a rationalization for the discrepancy. Does this mean that we can predict an individual's behavior if we know his or her attitude on a subject? Not necessarily, according to the theory of cognitive dissonance, proposed by Leon Festinger in the 1950s. Cognitive dissonance is any incompatibility or inconsistency between attitudes or between behavior and attitudes. The theory argues that inconsistency is uncomfortable and that individuals try to reduce the discomfort and thus, the dissonance. The theory proposed that how hard we try to reduce dissonance is determined by three things: The importance of the factors creating the dissonance. The degree of influence the individual believes he or she has over those factors. The rewards that may be involved in dissonance. These moderating factors suggest that if the issues underlying the dissonance are of minimal importance, if an individual perceives that the dissonance is externally imposed and is substantially uncontrollable, or if rewards are significant enough to offset the dissonance, the individual will not be under great tension to reduce the dissonance.

Trait Theories of Leadership

Researchers began studying leadership in the early part of the twentieth century and focused on the: The person (leader trait theories). The behaviors-how the leader interacted with his or her group members (behavior theories). When asked the question, "What do you know about leadership?" most people cite a list of qualities they admire in leaders—intelligence, charisma, decisiveness, enthusiasm, strength, bravery, integrity, and self-confidence, and so forth. That's the trait theories of leadership in a nutshell—the search for traits or characteristics that differentiate leaders from nonleaders. If this concept was valid . . . all leaders would have to possess those unique and consistent characteristics, making it easy to find leaders in organizations. But despite the best efforts of researchers, finding a set of traits that would always differentiate a leader (the person) from a nonleader hasn't happened

Negative Behavior in the Workplace

Rudeness, hostility, aggression, and other forms of workplace negativity have become all too common in today's organizations. It's been estimated that negativity costs the U.S. economy some $300 billion a year. The best way to manage negative behavior in the workplace is to recognize that it's there, confront such misbehaviors, and send a clear message as to what is expected and acceptable behavior. Research seems to indicate that both preventive and responsive actions to negative behaviors are needed. Preventing negative behaviors by carefully screening potential employees for certain personality traits and responding immediately and decisively to unacceptable negative behaviors goes a long way toward managing negative workplace behaviors. However, it's also important to pay attention to employee attitudes because dissatisfied employees will express their dissatisfaction.

Understanding Attitudes

Satisfied employees have lower rates of turnover and absenteeism Satisfied employees perform better on the job Survey employees about their attitudes Employees will try to reduce dissonance. Employees' attitudes influence behavior. For example, satisfied and committed employees have lower rates of turnover and absenteeism. If managers want to keep resignations and absences down—especially among their more productive employees—they'll want to do things that generate positive job attitudes. To do this, managers should focus on factors that are conducive to high levels of employee job satisfaction, which are likely to help employees be more productive, such as: Making work challenging and interesting. Providing equitable rewards. Creating supportive working conditions and supportive colleagues. Managers should also survey employees about their attitudes multiple times to more effectively pinpoint employee dissatisfaction. Also, managers should know that employees will try to reduce dissonance, so managers might point to external forces such as competitors, customers, or other factors—or provide rewards that the employee desires—when explaining the need to perform work about which that employee may feel some dissonance.

Reducing Resistance to Change

Strategies for dealing with resistance to change are described in Exhibit 8-4. Managers should use the most appropriate technique depending on the type and source of the resistance. Education and communication can reduce resistance to change by helping employees see the logic of the change effort. But this assumes that much of the resistance lies in misinformation or poor communication. Participation involves bringing those individuals directly affected by the proposed change into the decision-making process. It allows these individuals to express their feelings, increase the quality of the process, and increase employee commitment to the final decision. Facilitation and support involve helping employees deal with the fear and anxiety associated with the change effort. Such help may include employee counseling, therapy, new skills training, or a short paid leave of absence. Negotiation involves exchanging something of value for an agreement in order to lessen the resistance to the change effort. This resistance technique may be particularly useful when the resistance comes from a powerful source. Manipulation and co-optation refer to covert attempts to influence others about the change. These tactics may involve twisting or distorting facts to make the change appear more attractive. Finally, coercion, which involves the use of direct threats or force against the resisters, can also be used to deal with resistance to change.

Organization Development Efforts

Survey feedback Process consultation Team-building Intergroup development OD tries to involve organizational members in changes that will affect their jobs and seeks their input about how the change is affecting them. The more popular OD efforts in organizations rely heavily on group interactions and cooperation, and include the following: Survey feedback efforts are designed to assess employee attitudes about, and perceptions of, the change they are encountering. Employees generally respond to a set of specific questions regarding how they view such organizational aspects as decision making, leadership, communication effectiveness, and satisfaction with their jobs, coworkers, and management. This data is used to clarify problems that employees may be facing and to initiate action to remedy the problems. In process consultation, outside consultants help managers to perceive, understand, and act on organizational processes they face, such as workflow, informal relationships among unit members, and formal communication channels. Consultants give managers insight into what is going on and help managers diagnose the interpersonal processes that need improvement. A primary function of OD is to help organizational members become a team. Team-building is generally an activity that helps work groups set goals, develop positive interpersonal relationships, and clarify the roles and responsibilities of each team member. The primary focus of team-building is to increase members' trust of, and openness toward, one another. Intergroup development focuses on helping different work groups to become more cohesive. It attempts to change attitudes, stereotypes, and perceptions that one group may have toward another in order to improve coordination of efforts among the various groups.

Least-Preferred Coworker Questionnaire

The first comprehensive contingency model for leadership was developed by Fred Fiedler and was based on the premise that a certain leadership style would be most effective across all different types of situations. Fiedler proposed that a key factor in leadership success was an individual's basic leadership style, which could be categorized as either task oriented or relationship oriented. To measure a leader's style, Fiedler developed the least-preferred coworker (LPC) questionnaire. This questionnaire contained 18 pairs of contrasting adjectives—such as pleasant-unpleasant and boring-interesting. Respondents were asked to think of all the coworkers they had ever had and to describe that one person with whom they least enjoyed working by rating him or her on a scale of 1 to 8 for each of the sets of adjectives. If the leader described the least preferred coworker in relatively positive terms, then the leader was primarily interested in good personal relations with coworkers and the style would be described as relationship oriented. In contrast, if the leader saw the least preferred coworker in relatively unfavorable terms, then that leader was primarily interested in productivity and his or her style would be labeled as task oriented. Fiedler did acknowledge that a small number of people might fall between these two extremes, but he also assumed a person's leadership style was fixed regardless of the situation. Richard Branson, founder and CEO of Virgin Group, is a relationship oriented leader. Pictured here with an in-flight teammate while showing the interior of a new Virgin airplane, Branson is fun loving, takes a personal interest in the needs of employees, emphasizes interpersonal relations, and accepts individual differences among workers.

Goals of Organizational Behavior

The goals of OB are to explain, predict, and influence behavior. Managers need to be able to: Explain why employees engage in some behaviors rather than others. Predict how employees will respond to various actions and decisions. Influence how employees behave. The employee behaviors that we are specifically concerned with explaining, predicting, and influencing are: 1. Employee productivity, a performance measure of both work efficiency and effectiveness. Managers want to know what factors will influence the efficiency and effectiveness of employees. 2. Absenteeism is the failure to show up for work, which costs organizations an average of 35 percent of payroll. 3. Turnover is the voluntary and involuntary permanent withdrawal of employees from an organization. This can be a particularly costly problem due to increased recruiting, selection, and training costs and work disruptions. 4. Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is discretionary behavior that's not part of an employee's formal job requirements, but which promotes effective functioning of the organization. Examples of good OCB include helping others on one's work team, volunteering for extended job activities, avoiding unnecessary conflicts, and making constructive statements about one's work group and the organization. Organizations need individuals who will do more than their usual job duties and research shows that organizations that have such employees outperform those that don't. 5. Job satisfaction refers to an employee's general attitude toward his or her job. Satisfied employees are more likely to show up for work, have higher levels of performance, and stay with an organization. 6. Workplace misbehavior is any intentional employee behavior that is potentially harmful to the organization or to individuals within the organization. Workplace misbehavior shows up in organizations in four ways: deviance, aggression, antisocial behavior, and violence.

Equity Theory

The term equity is the concept of fairness and comparable treatment when compared with others who behave in similar ways. There's considerable evidence that employees compare themselves to others and that inequities influence how much effort they exert. Equity theory, developed by J. Stacey Adams, proposes that employees compare what they get from a job (outcomes) to what they put into it (inputs) and then compare their inputs-outcomes ratio with the inputs-outcomes ratios of relevant others, as illustrated in Exhibit 11-7. If an employee perceives her ratio to be equitable in comparison to those of relevant others, there's no problem. However, if the ratio is perceived to be inequitable, she views herself as underrewarded or overrewarded. When inequities occur, employees attempt to do something about it. The result might be lower or higher productivity, improved or reduced quality of output, increased absenteeism, or voluntary resignation. The referent —the other persons, systems, or selves individuals compare themselves against in order to assess equity—is an important variable in equity theory. Each of the three referent categories is important. 1. "Persons" category includes others with similar jobs, friends, neighbors, etc. 2. "System" category includes organizational pay policies, procedures, and allocation. 3. "Self" category refers to past personal experiences and contacts. Originally, equity theory focused on distributive justice, which is the perceived fairness of the amount and allocation of rewards among individuals and which has a greater influence on employee satisfaction. More recent research has focused on issues of procedural justice, which is the perceived fairness of the process used to determine the distribution of rewards, and tends to affect an employee's organizational commitment, trust in his or her boss, and intention to quit. Based on the evidence, managers should consider openly sharing information on how allocation decisions are made, follow consistent and unbiased procedures, and engage in similar practices to increase the perception of procedural justice.

Goal-Setting Theory

The theories we'll look at now represent current employee motivation approaches that are supported by research. They include goal-setting theory, job design theory, equity theory, and expectancy theory. Substantial research support has been established for goal-setting theory, which says that specific goals increase performance and that difficult goals result in higher performance than easy goals. That means that: (1) Working toward a goal is a major source of job motivation, and (2) specific and challenging goals are superior motivating forces. The specificity of the goal itself acts as an internal stimulus. For instance, when a sales rep commits to making eight sales calls daily, he has a specific goal to try to attain. Interestingly, setting one's own goals sometimes elicited superior performance; in other cases, individuals performed better when their manager assigned goals. However, when employees might resist accepting difficult challenges, participation in goal setting is probably more effective than assigning goals. Lastly, people do better if they get feedback on how well they're progressing toward their goals because it helps identify discrepancies between what they've done and what they want to do. Exhibit 11-4 shown here summarizes the relationships among goals, motivation, and performance.

Groups Versus Teams

Turning groups into effective teams may be critical for an organization's survival. It's estimated that some 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies have at least half of their employees on teams, and more than 70 percent of U.S. manufacturers use work teams. Research suggests teams outperform individuals when the tasks require multiple skills, judgment, and experience. Teams are more flexible and responsive to changing events than traditional departments or other permanent work groups are. They can quickly assemble, deploy, refocus, and disband. The difference between a work group and work team can be seen here in Exhibit 10-5. Work groups share information and make decisions to help each member do his or her job more efficiently and effectively. They do not engage in collective work that requires joint effort. Work teams work intensely on a specific, common goal using their positive synergy, individual and mutual accountability, and complementary skills. Many organizations have restructured work processes around teams because managers are looking for that positive synergy that will help the organization improve performance with no or few additional inputs. Such increases are simply "potential." Nothing inherent in the creation of work teams guarantees that positive synergy and its accompanying productivity will occur. Successful work teams have certain characteristics that managers will need to ensure their teams possess.

Resistance to Change

Uncertainty Habit Concern over personal loss Belief change is not in organization's best interests It's often said that most people hate any change that doesn't jingle in their pockets. Here are the main reasons people resist organizational change: Change replaces the known with uncertainty and we don't like uncertainty. For example, when quality control methods are introduced into manufacturing plants, many inspectors have to learn the new methods. Some may fear that they won't be able to do so and may develop a negative attitude toward the change or behave poorly if required to use the new methods. Another cause of resistance is that we do things out of habit—we don't want to have to consider the full range of options for the hundreds of decisions we make every day. A third cause of resistance is the fear of losing something already possessed. The more that people have invested in the current system, the more they resist change because they fear losing status, money, authority, friendships, personal convenience, or other benefits that they value. A final cause of resistance is a belief that the change is incompatible with the goals and interests of the organization. For instance, an employee who believes that a proposed new job procedure will reduce product quality can be expected to resist the change. This type of resistance can actually be beneficial to the organization if expressed in a positive way.

Calm Waters Change

Until recently, the "calm waters" metaphor dominated the thinking of practicing managers and academics. It is best illustrated in Kurt Lewin's three-step description of the change process shown in Exhibit 8-2. Successful change requires unfreezing the status quo, changing to a new state, and freezing the new change to make it permanent. The status quo can be considered a state of equilibrium. Unfreezing is necessary to move from this equilibrium and can be achieved in one of three ways: The driving forces, which direct behavior away from the status quo, can be increased. The restraining forces, which hinder movement from the existing equilibrium, can be decreased. The two approaches can be combined. Once the situation has been unfrozen, the change can be implemented. However, for the change to take hold it needs to be frozen so it can be sustained over time. Otherwise the change will be short-lived and employees will revert to the previous state of equilibrium. Therefore, the objective of freezing the new state of equilibrium is to stabilize the new situation by balancing the driving and restraining forces. Lewin's process treats change as a break in the equilibrium state. This view is an increasingly inaccurate description of the kinds of "seas" that current managers have to navigate.

Types of Work Teams

Problem solving teams Self-managed work teams Cross-functional teams Virtual teams Teams can do a variety of things, from designing products and providing services to negotiating deals and making decisions. The four most common types of work teams are: Problem-solving teams are teams from the same department or functional area involved in efforts to improve work activities or to solve specific problems. Members share ideas or offer suggestions on how work processes and methods can be improved, but they're rarely given the authority to implement any of their suggested actions. The need to get employees involved in work-related decisions and processes led to the development of the self-managed work team, which is a formal group of employees who operate without a manager and are responsible for a complete work process or segment. A self-managed team is responsible for getting the work done and for managing itself, which usually includes planning and scheduling work, assigning tasks to members, collective control over the pace of work, making operating decisions, and taking action on problems. The third type of team is the cross-functional team, defined as a work team composed of individuals from various specialties. For example, ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steel company, uses cross-functional teams of scientists, plant managers, and salespeople to review and monitor product innovations. The final type of team is the virtual team. In a virtual team, members collaborate online with tools such as wide-area networks, videoconferencing, fax, email, or Web sites where the team can hold online conferences. Virtual teams can do all the things that other teams can—share information, make decisions, and complete tasks. However, they lack the normal give-and-take of face-to-face discussions. That's why virtual teams tend to be more task-oriented, especially if the team members have never personally met.

Social Learning Theory

Social learning theory holds that people learn through both observation and direct experience. The influence of others (parents, teachers, peers, celebrities, managers, etc.) is central to the social learning viewpoint and the amount of influence that these models have on an individual is determined by four processes: Attentional processes. People learn from a model when they recognize and pay attention to its critical features. Retention processes. A model's influence will depend on how well the individual remembers the model's action, even after the model is no longer readily available. Motor reproduction processes. After a person has seen a new behavior by observing the model, the watching must become doing. Reinforcement processes. Individuals will be motivated to exhibit the modeled behavior if positive incentives or rewards are provided. Behaviors that are reinforced will be given more attention, learned better, and performed more often.

External Factors

External forces that create the need for organizational change include: Marketplace reflects intense competition in recent years. Government laws and regulations are another impetus for change. The Affordable Care Act is causing many companies to review their health insurance programs. Technology creates the need for organizational change. The Internet has changed how we get information, how products are sold, and how we get our work done. Technological advancements have created economies of scale for many organizations. Fluctuations in labor markets can force managers to initiate changes. For example, the shortage of registered nurses in the United States has led hospital administrators to redesign nursing jobs, alter their rewards and benefits packages for nurses, and join forces with local universities to address the shortage of nurses. Economic changes affect almost all organizations. Prior to the mortgage market meltdown, significant growth in the housing market meant more jobs, more new hires, and increased sales in other businesses that supported the building industry. But as the economy soured, the housing industry and other related industries shrunk as credit markets dried up and businesses couldn't get the capital needed to operate.

Culture and Innovation

Acceptance of ambiguity Tolerance of the impractical Low external controls Tolerance of risks Tolerance of conflict Focus on ends Open-system focus Positive feedback Innovative organizations tend to have similar cultures that encourage experimentation; reward both successes and failures; and celebrate mistakes. An innovative organization is likely to have the following characteristics: Too much emphasis on objectivity and specificity constrains creativity. Individuals who offer impractical, even foolish, answers to "what-if" questions are not stifled. What at first seems impractical might lead to innovative solutions. Rules, regulations, policies, and similar organizational controls are kept to a minimum. Employees are encouraged to experiment without fear of consequences should they fail. Mistakes are treated as learning opportunities. Diversity of opinions is encouraged. Harmony and agreement among individuals or units are not assumed to be evidence of high performance. Goals are made clear, and individuals are encouraged to consider alternative routes to reach these goals. Focusing on ends suggests that there might be several right answers to any given problem. Managers closely monitor the environment and respond to changes as they occur. Managers provide positive feedback, encouragement, and support so employees feel that their creative ideas receive attention.

Perceptual Shortcuts

All of us, managers included, use shortcuts to make the task of perceiving and interpreting others' behaviors more manageable. Here in Exhibit 9-5 we see a summary of these perceptual shortcuts. Because individuals can't assimilate all they observe, they're selective in their perception, depending on their interests, background, experience, and attitudes. Selective perception allows us to "speed read" others but not without the risk of drawing an inaccurate picture. It's easy to judge others if we assume that they're similar to us. In assumed similarity, the observer's perception of others is influenced more by his or her own characteristics than by those of the person observed. For example, if you want challenges and responsibility in your job, you'll assume that others want the same thing. When we judge someone on the basis of our perception of a group he or she is part of, we're using the shortcut called stereotyping. For instance, the statement "Married people are more stable employees than single people" is an example of stereotyping. To the degree that the stereotype is based on fact, it may produce accurate judgments—but many stereotypes aren't factual and distort our judgment. Another shortcut is the halo effect, where we form a general impression about a person on the basis of a single characteristic, such as intelligence, sociability, or appearance.

Operant Conditioning

Almost all behavior is learned, so if we want to explain, predict, and influence behavior, we need to understand how people learn. Learning occurs all the time and can be defined as any relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs as a result of experience. Two learning theories that help us understand how and why individual behavior occurs are operant conditioning and social learning. First we will discuss operant conditioning. Operant conditioning argues that behavior is a function of its consequences. Operant behavior is voluntary: People learn to behave to get something they want or to avoid something they don't want. Reinforcement strengthens a behavior and increases the likelihood that it will be repeated. Lack of reinforcement has the opposite effect.

Situational Leadership

Which leadership styles might be suitable in different situations, and what are those different situations?

Low-Cost Rewards Program

Clarify role in organization Keep communication open Show individual company cares

Managing Employees' Learning

Employees are going to learn on the job. If managers want behavior A, but reward behavior B, they shouldn't be surprised to find employees learning to engage in behavior B. Similarly, managers should expect that employees will look to them as models.

Current Issues

Current studies of employee motivation are influenced by some significant workplace issues—motivating in tough economic circumstances, managing cross-cultural challenges, motivating unique groups of workers, and designing appropriate rewards programs. Managers have come to realize that in an uncertain economy they have to be creative in keeping their employees' efforts energized, directed, and sustained toward achieving goals. Relatively inexpensive ways to motivate employees include holding meetings with employees to keep the lines of communication open; getting employee input on issues; establishing a common goal, such as maintaining excellent customer service to keep everyone focused; creating a community feel so employees can see that managers care about them and their work; and giving employees continuing opportunities to learn and grow.

Unique Groups of Workers

Diverse employees Professionals Contingent workers

Rewards

External rewards Promotions Pay raises Other forms of recognition Inherent rewards Camaraderie Personal development Helping teammates

Path-Goal Theory

Four leadership behaviors: Directive leader Supportive leader Participative leader Achievement-oriented leader

Cross-Cultural Differences

the desire for interesting work seems to be global