MGMT 3318

Understand the relationship between attitudes and behavior

Attitude: Behavior correspondence depends on five things: attitude specificity, attitude relevance, timing of measurement, personality factors, and social constraints. The more specific the attitude, the stronger its link to behavior

What are the three key components of social learning theory? What does each of them refer to?

1) Vicarious Learning: People can learn behaviors and consequences by observing others. 2) Self-Control: People can administer consequences to reinforce their own behaviors. 3) Self-Efficacy: a person's belief about his or her ability to perform a particular behavior successfully.

What are some relatively stable individual differences?

Some Dispositions (personality, needs), some Demographics (gender, ethnic group)

How stable is personality?

It is relatively stable because it takes around 10-15 years to show personality change in someone (50% is shaped by genetics and 50% is shaped by environment)

What are internal and external attributions?

Internal: The person (Personality, Ability, Attitude, Motivation, etc.) External: The situation (Task Difficulty, Luck, Resource Availability, etc.)

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Our expectations affect the way we interact with others such that we provoke the very response we expect.

In particular, understand why job satisfaction does not predict job performance.

You can perform well at your job even though you are dissatisfied with it.

What are strong situations?

A situation that overwhelms the effects of individual personalities by providing strong cues for appropriate behavior.

What is cognitive dissonance?

The tension produced when an individual experiences conflict between attitudes and behavior.

Why are accurate attributions important?

● Help understand people's attitudes and behaviors ● Help managers manage employees more effectively ● Help coworkers avoid misunderstandings and conflicts ● Help behavioral scientists come to the right solution to improve people's behaviors

How is personality determined?

By different things, such as heredity, genes (nature), and environment (nurture).

How do we improve job satisfaction?

By rewards being related to performance and valued by employees. Also, the employee believes he/she is able to complete a task, even if it is something beyond his/her ability. Thus, allowing him/her to exhibit greater potential.

In what ways could people be different from each other?

By their 1) Dispositions-- personality, attitudes, values, needs, motives, etc. 2) Abilities--Cognitive abilities, emotional intelligence, IQ, motor levels, etc. 3)Demographics--Gender, age, ethnic groups, occupation, educational level, socioeconomic status, life experiences, etc. 4) Physical--height, weight. 50% of personality is determined by genetics.

What are the three major steps? Of job satisfaction

1) Measure it 2) Identify the Causes 3) Work on the Causing Factors

What are the sources of self-efficacy?

•Past performance: If could do that, I can do this. •Vicarious experience: If he or she can do this, I can do this. •Verbal persuasion: If he or she believes in me, I think I can do this. •Individuals' readings of their internal physiological states: I feel great and relaxed, I think I can handle this.

Why is it particularly importantly to have accurate person perceptions?

● Motivating subordinates ● Treating subordinates fairly and equitably ● Making ethical decisions

What are the two major camps of argument for why managers should care about employee job satisfaction?

1) We should care about employee satisfaction because it brings positive outcomes. 2)We should try to make sure employees are satisfied because they contribute to the company and we care about them

Why is Organizational Behavior Important?

1. Provides a set of tools that allow people to understand, analyze, and describe behavior in organizations. 2. Managers to improve, enhance, or change work behaviors so that individuals, groups and the whole organization can achieve their goal.

How to use operant conditioning to discourage undesired behaviors (punishment and extinction)? Can you give examples for each of those two strategies? And when should we use each of those two strategies?

2 Types of discouraging undesired behaviors: Punishment and Extinction. Example of Punishment: Follow an undesirable behavior with a negative consequence. A professional athlete who is excessively offensive to an official (undesirable behavior) may be ejected from the game (negative consequence). Example of Extinction: Most effective when used in conjunction with the positive reinforcement of desirable behaviors. A sarcastic colleague for constructive comments (reinforcing desirable behavior) while ignoring sarcastic comments (extinguishable undesirable behavior) may prove doubly effective. Punishment is more direct and is a faster solution than extinction. Extinction is used for people who are more subtle. Indirect and takes a while to work out.

What is job satisfaction?

A pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one's job or job experiences.

What is personality?

A relatively stable set of characteristics that influence an individual's behavior.

What are weak situations?

A situation where people have more free choices in situations--are open to many interpretations

Understand the three components of attitude (the ABC model)

Affect: How they feel about the policy. Behavioral Intent: Whether they would participate in it. Cognition: What they think about it.

How can characteristics of the perceiver affect perceptual processes? Understand the factors discussed in the required chapter readings as well as the factors discussed in class.

Characteristics-- ● Trust: (are you friend or foe?) Project warmth and competence through appropriate eye contact, smiling, and good posture. ● Power: (are you useful to me?) Make yourself instrumental through assurances that you can help the perceiver reach mutual goals. ● Ego: (which of us is superior?) Be modest and inclusive, and create a sense of "us." ● Attitude: Negative or positive attitudes affect your perception of people before speaking with them. ● Mood: We think differently when happy or depressed. When in a positive mood we form more positive impressions of other and when depressed we tend to evaluate other unfavorably. ● Self-Concept: A positive self-concept tends to notice positive attributes in another person and a negative self-concept can lead to a perceiver to pick out negative traits in another person. ● Cognitive Structure: Allows a person to perceive multiple characteristics of another person rather than attending to just a few traits.

. The power of personality: When is personality a powerful predictor of individual behaviors?

During a weak situation.

Understand big five personality traits

Extraversion: the person is gregarious, assertive, and sociable (as opposed to reserved, timid, and quiet) Agreeableness: the person is cooperative, warm, and agreeable (rather than cold, disagreeable, and antagonistic) Conscientiousness: The person is hardworking, organized, and dependable (as opposed to lazy, disorganized, and unreliable) Emotional Stability: the person is calm, self-confident, and cool (as opposed to insecure, anxious, and depressed) Openness to Experience: the person is creative, curious, and cultured (rather than practical with narrow interests)

What are some situations where worker's personalities will have a strong influence on their behaviors?

Feeling stressed over an exam, hungry during a meeting and can't think straight, tired because he or she stayed up all night studying, loss of a loved one, unplanned/planned life event

Stereotyping: Generalization about a group of people.

Generalization about a group of people.

What are some less stable individual differences?

Less stable individual differences: Abilities, education level, emotions, physical, attitudes

Understand the following individual differences: locus of control, self-monitoring, self-esteem, type A and type B personalities.

Locus of Control: An individual's generalized belief about internal control (self-control) versus external control (control by the situation of by others)--External locus of control: describes people who believe that fate, luck, or outside forces are responsible for what happens to them--Internal locus of control: describes people who believe that ability, effort, or their own actions determines what happens to them Self-Monitoring: The extent to which people base their behavior on cues from other people and situations--High self-monitors pay attention to what is appropriate in particular situations and behave accordingly--Low self-monitors pay less attention to situational cues and act more consistently with their internal beliefs and feelings Self-Esteem: An individual's general feeling of self-worth--people with high self-esteem feel capable, confident, worthy, perform better and are more satisfied with their jobs--low self-esteem view themselves negatively and are more strongly affected by what other people think of them Type A Personality: Have intense desire to achieve, are extremely competitive, have a sense of urgency, are impatient, and can be hostile Type B Personality: These individuals are more relaxed and easygoing

What are the major attribution biases and the related managerial implications?

Major Attribution Biases-- ● Fundamental Attribution Error: Despite the fact that external factors do affect behavior, people have a strong tendency to attribute other people's behavior to internal factors. For instance, if an employee is late to work, the supervisor will tend to blame the employee (internal) rather than traffic problems occurring that day (external). This is an example of the fundamental attribution error. ● Self-Serving Bias: We also have the tendency to attribute our own successes to internal causes and our failures to external causes ● Motivation of the Perceiver: For those people we like, we tend to attribute their successes to internal factors (e.g., effort and ability) and attribute their failures to external factors (e.g., bad luck, difficult task). For those people we dislike, we tend to attribute their failures to internal factors and their success to external factors. ● Individual Differences: People with internal locus of control are more likely to make internal attributions. People with external locus of control are more likely to make external attributions. Managerial Implications: ● Consider external factors that may be responsible for an employee's behavior, such as inadequate resources or supplies, an exceptionally difficult task, or chance occurrences. Examine these external factors before making an internal attribution to the employee's motivation and ability. ● Consider internal factors that may be responsible for your own behavior, such as your personality, your strengths and weaknesses, and your level of motivation. ● Be aware of the tendency in yourself and in others to take credit for successes and avoid blame for errors

What are the determinants of job satisfaction (slide #10)?

Personality: The enduring ways a person has of feeling, thinking and behaving. Values: Intrinsic- work values; Extrinsic- work values Social Influence: Co-workers, Groups, Culture Work Situation: The work itself, Co-workers, supervisors, and subordinates, Physical working conditions, Working hours, pay, and job security.

Understand the stockholder and the stakeholder views of corporate responsibility.

Shareholder View: The sole responsibility of the company is to bring financial returns to its shareholders. Stockholder View: The responsibility of a company includes bringing returns to and taking care of all its stakeholders.

Why should we care about job satisfaction?

Side A (Shareholder View): We care about employee job satisfaction because it can lead to positive outcomes for the organization. Side B (Stockholder View) : We care about employee job satisfaction for its own sake.

What factors determine individual behaviors?

The person and the Situation Person- personality, ability, attitude Situation- The work group, the organization

What is organizational commitment? What are the three major types of organizational commitment? (text, pp. 58-59)

The strength of an individual's identification with an organization. 1) Affective: An employee's intention to remain in an organization because of a strong desire to do so. Encompasses loyalty and a deep concern for the organization's welfare based on factors: a belief in the goals and values of the organization, a willingness to put forth effort on behalf of the organization, and a desire to remain a member of the organization. 2) Continuance: An employee's tendency to remain in an organization because he cannot afford to leave. Sometimes the employees believe that they will lose a great deal of their investments in time, effort, and benefits if they leave. 3) Normative: A perceived obligation to remain with the organization. Stay with the organization because they feel they should.

What is organizational Behavior?

The study of individual behavior and group dynamics in organizations. Concerned with psychological, interpersonal, and behavioral dynamics in organizations.

Are some people more likely to engage in impression management than others?

Yes, there are individual differences related to self-monitoring (personality trait). People who have high self-monitoring are more likely to have impression management than people who have low self-monitoring.

What can we do to effectively manage employees with different personalities? Please consult the two cases we discussed in class when thinking about this question.

● Acknowledge and appreciate ● Adjust your own feelings and actions to work effectively with others ● When feasible, structure an individual's work situation to fit his or her personality ● Remember that attitudes and behaviors are determined by the interaction of an individual's personality and the situation in which the individual works Encourage an acceptance and appreciation of the diverse personalities in your organization

What are some ways to prevent personal biases in perception? (slide 19)

● Be careful not to let your first impressions have too strong an effect on your perceptions of others. ● Avoid categorizing workers-fitting them into groups (good performer, troublemaker, lazy employees)-based on insufficient information. ● Employees who have similar personalities with you and share same viewpoints with you might not necessarily be smarter or more capable than other employees. ● Be aware of the self-fulfilling prophecy; utilize it in a constructive way to boost confidence and performance of your employees. ● A careful evaluation by yourself, multiple-source evaluation, collecting factual/objective information on performance, etc

What managerial implications have you learned from operant conditioning theory?

● Don't ignore desirable behaviors: Always give positive consequences for desirable behaviors in a timely fashion. A verbal praise, a nod, or a smile could reinforce their positive behaviors. ● Don't reinforce negative behaviors: Don't give cake to a person who has hit you. When you see undesirable behaviors, especially when your other employees are also present, don't just let it go. ● Remember, whether a consequence is negative or positive depends on the receiver

What are the consequences of job satisfaction?

● Low Absenteeism, ● Low Turnover, ● More Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB), ● Better Worker Well-Being. Employee job satisfaction does not predict employee performance.

Understand the Federal regulations regarding discrimination. What are major types of discriminations that are prohibited by law? (see the legal document handout posted on blackboard)

● Race ● Color ● Religion ● Sex ● National Origin ● Age ● Disability