OB Exam 2

What are the key takeaways for managers from this theory? What helps with distributive and procedural justice?

When making decisions regarding resources in your organization, make sure to consider how the resources are being distributed (and who is affected), the fairness of the decision, and whether your actions demonstrate that you respect those involved. Distributive and procedural justice are more strongly associated with task performance. Therefore, in order to obtain employee's high performance, ensure fairness of the outcomes, such as pay and recognition, that employees receive, and involve them to the decision-making process.

11. Understand the relationship between goal difficulty and performance.

if factors such as acceptance of goals are held constant, the more difficult the goal, the higher the level of performance.

INteractional Justice

informational justice, which reflects whether managers provide employees with explanations for key decisions and keep them informed of important organizational matters. interpersonal justice, which reflects whether employees are treated with dignity and respect.

What are employee recognition programs? How can they be used to motivate employees? What are the advantages and disadvantages?

An employee recognitionprogram is a plan to encourage specific behaviors by formally appreciating specific employee contributions.123 Employee recognition programs range from a spontaneous and private thank-you to widely publicized formal programs in which the procedures for attaining recognition are clearly identified.

Expectancy Theory: Implications for Managers/Organizations.

Determine the outcomes employees value Identify good performance so appropriate behavior can be rewarded Make sure employees can achieve targeted levels of performance Link desired outcomes to targeted performance levels Make sure changes in outcomes are large enough to motivate high effort Monitor the reward system for inequalities Organizational Implications of Expectancy Theory Reward people for desired performance and do not keep pay decisions secret Design challenging jobs Tie some rewards to group accomplishments to build teamwork and encourage cooperation Reward managers for creating, monitoring, and maintaining expectancies, instrumentalities, and outcomes that lead to high effort and goal attainment Monitor employee motivation through interviews or anonymous questionnaires Accommodate individual differences by building flexibility into the motivation program

Know the following concepts: Inequity, Equity, Fair, under-rewarded, over-rewarded.

Inequity: when you are under/over-rewarded when compared to relevant others Equity: when you are equally rewarded when compared to relevant others Fair: State of equity exists with what we perceive as fair

30. Know the Job Characteristics Model. What are the core job characteristics and the psychological states? What are the desired outcomes? What other factors influence (moderate) the relationship between the core job characteristics and the outcomes?

JCM is a theory that proposes that any job can be described in terms of five core job dimensions: (a)Skill variety- degree to which the job requires different activities using specialised skills and talents. (b)Task identity- degree to which a job requires completion of a whole and identifiable piece of work. (c) Task significance- degree to which a job affects the lives or work of other people. When combined, the first three dimensions create meaningful work that the employee will view as important valuable, and worthwhile. (d)Autonomy- degree to which a job provides the worker with freedom, independence, and discretion. Jobs with high autonomy give employees a feeling of personal responsibility for results. (e)Feedback- degree to which carrying out work activities generates direct and concise information about the employee's individual performance.

organzational justice

Organizational justice is concerned more broadly with how employees feel authorities and decision makers at work treat them.

What is Expectancy Theory? Expectancy, Instrumentality, Valence?

A theory stating that the strength of a tendency to act in a certain way depends on the strength of an expectation that the act will be followed by a given outcome and on the attractiveness of that outcome to the individual. Expectancy: the effort-performance relationship. The probability perceived by the individual that exerting a given amount of effort will lead to performance. Instrumentality: the performance-reward relationship. The degree to which the individual believes performing at a particular level will lead to the attainment of a desired outcome. Valence: the rewards-personal goals relationship. The degree to which organizational rewards satisfy an individual's personal goals or needs and the attractiveness of those potential rewards for the individual.

36. What are employee recognition programs? How can they be used to motivate employees? What are the advantages and disadvantages?

An employee recognition program is a plan to encourage specific behaviors by formally appreciating specific employee contributions.123 Employee recognition programs range from a spontaneous and private thank-you to widely publicized formal programs in which the procedures for attaining recognition are clearly identified.

Know each of the variable pay systems and the strengths and weaknesses of each

Assume that people are rational and the decision making process is rational. VALUE is maximized Assumptions: That the decision maker has complete information, can identify all relevant options in an unbiased manner, and chooses the option with the highest utility. Problems: People are usually content to find an acceptable or reasonable solution, not the optimal one. People tend to limit choices and are usually unaware of optimal decisions.

Know the four stages of the social information-processing model.

Attention/Comprehension: Attention is the process of becoming aware of something or someone Encoding and Simplification:Encoding is the process of interpreting environmental stimuli by using information contained in cognitive categories and schemata Storage and Retention: Encoded information or stimuli is sent to long-term memory Retrieval and Response: Information is retrieved from memory when people make judgments and decisions

Know Attribution Theory

Attribution theory posits that behavior can be attributed to either internal factors or external factors.

22. What are the problems with equity theory (and Organizational Justice)?

Equity theory has support from some researchers but not from all.80 There are some concerns with the propositions. First, inequities created by overpayment do not seem to significantly affect behavior in most work situations. So don't expect an employee who feels overpaid to give back part of his salary or put in more hours to make up for the inequity. Although individuals may sometimes perceive that they are over-rewarded, they restore equity by rationalizing their situation ("I'm worth it because I work harder than everyone else"). Second, not everyone is equally equity-sensitive, for various reasons, including feelings of entitlement. Others prefer the outcome-input ratios to be lower than the referent comparisons. Predictions from equity theory are not likely to be very accurate about these "benevolent types."

How can rewards motivate employees? What types of rewards and/or benefits? What theories align with the various rewards/benefits? Does may make us happy or motivate us?

Equity theory, especially as it pertains to balancing internal (worth of the job to the organization, usually established through job evaluation) and external (competitiveness of the organisation's pay relative to pay in the industry, usually established through pay surveys) equity, is one theory that is most aligned with establishing a pay structure. Pay, or money, is not the only factor driving satisfaction. Initially, money does motivate, but once an individual attains a satisfactory level of financial wellbeing, money ceases to be as big a motivator as other factors e.g enjoyment of one's work and perfect job-life fit. However, pay does motivate people, a fact which companies often underestimate. Expectancy theory and organizational justice also align with the various rewards/benefits.

10. What do we know about goal setting from research? Advantages and disadvantages?

Evidence strongly suggests that specific goals increase performance; that difficult goals, when accepted, result in higher performance than do easy goals; and that feedback leads to higher performance than does non-feedback. the more difficult the goal, the higher the level of performance.people do better when they get feedback on how well they are progressing toward their goals because it helps identify discrepancies between what they have done and what they want to do next. If employees can participate in the setting of their own goals, will they try harder? The evidence is mixed, although across studies it appears that they will not perform any better.33 In some studies, participatively set goals yielded superior performance; in others, individuals performed best when assigned goals by their boss. One study in China found, for instance, that participative team goal setting improved team outcomes.34 Another study found that participation results in more achievable goals for individuals.35 Without participation, the individual pursuing the goal needs to clearly understand the goal's purpose and importance.

With Expectancy Theory, what is really important for a manager to know?

Expectancy theory helps explain why a lot of workers aren't motivated on their jobs and do only the minimum necessary to get by.

9. What is goal commitment? Goal difficulty?

Goal commitment is most likely to occur when employees expect that their efforts will pay off in goal attainment, when accomplishing the goal is attractive to them, and when they actively participate in goal setting.

12. What is the relationship between self-efficacy and goals?

Goal-setting theory and self-efficacy theory don't compete with each other; they complement each other. As Exhibit 7-5 shows, employees whose managers set difficult goals for them have a higher level of self-efficacy and set higher goals for their own performance. Why? Setting difficult goals for people communicates your confidence in them.

What are some managerial implications of perceptions? (Applications of Shortcuts in Organizations)

Hiring and selection process Interviews: interviewers make perceptual judgments that are often inaccurate and draw early impressions that quickly become entrenched. Research shows that we form impressions of others within a tenth of a second, based on our first glance.26 Most interviewers' decisions change very little after the first 4 or 5 minutes... Our individual intuition about a job candidate is not reliable in predicting job performance, so collecting input from multiple independent evaluators can be predictive > Amy Cuddy research shows first impressions "anchor" the interviewer > 80-90% of first impression is evaluating competence and trustworthiness Performance expectations and evaluations: the terms self-fulfilling prophecy and pygmalion effect describe how one's behaviors are influenced by others' expectations. Evals are often subject to confirmation bias, among other biases (see below for other biases)

What is "perception" and why do we engage in the process?

Perception is a cognitive process that enables us to interpret and understand our surroundings. The process helps individuals organize and interpret sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment.

What is selective perception?

Selective Perception - the tendency to selectively interpret what one sees on the basis of one's interests, background, experience, and attitudes.

Know the shortcuts we use in judging others (perceptual errors).

Selective Perception - the tendency to selectively interpret what one sees on the basis of one's interests, background, experience, and attitudes. Stereotyping judging someone on the basis of one's perception of the group to which that person belongs. Halo: A rater forms an overall impression about an object and then uses the impression to bias ratings about the object. Leniency: A personal characteristic that leads an individual to consistently evaluate other people or objects in an extremely positive fashion. Central Tendency: The tendency to avoid all extreme judgments and rate people and objects as average or neutral. Recency Effects: The tendency to remember recent information. If the recent information is negative, the person or object is evaluated negatively. Contrast Effects: The tendency to evaluate people or objects by comparing them with characteristics of recently observed people or objects.

20. How do people resolve/reduce the inequity?

Six options based on the equity theory: Change inputs: Exert less effort if over/under paid Change outcomes: based on piece rate basis, produce more but sacrifice quality Distort perceptions of self: Change from working at everyone else pace to working much harder than everyone else Distort perceptions of others: Mikes job isn't as desirable as I thought Choose a different referent: Compare to Shannon instead of Mike Leave the field: Quit

The job characteristics model (JCM) describes jobs in terms of five core job dimensions:2

Skill variety is the degree to which a job requires different activities using specialized skills and talents. The work of a garage owner-operator who does electrical repairs, rebuilds engines, does bodywork, and interacts with customers scores high on skill variety. The job of a body shop worker who sprays paint 8 hours a day scores low on this dimension. Task identity is the degree to which a job requires completion of a whole and identifiable piece of work. A cabinetmaker who designs furniture, selects the wood, builds the furniture, and finishes the pieces has a job that scores high on task identity. A job scoring low on this dimension is operating a lathe solely to make table legs. Task significance is the degree to which a job affects the lives or work of other people. The job of a nurse helping patients in a hospital intensive care unit scores high on task significance; sweeping floors in a hospital scores low. Autonomy is the degree to which a job provides the worker freedom, independence, and discretion in scheduling work and determining the procedures for carrying it out. A sales manager who schedules his own work and tailors his sales approach for each customer without supervision has a highly autonomous job. An account representative who is required to follow a standardized sales script with potential customers has a job low on autonomy. Feedback is the degree to which carrying out work activities generates direct and clear information about your own performance. A job with high feedback is testing and inspecting iPads. Installing components of iPads as they move down an assembly line provides low feedback.

13. How does personality impact goals and goal setting? What is goal orientation? Learning goal orientation? Performance (prove and avoid) goal orientation?

The employees' personality also matters: Goal setting and goal-focused leadership tend to be more successful in reducing stress for the conscientious but not for those who are low on emotional stability. Goal orientation is the degree to which a person or organization focuses on tasks and the end results of those tasks. Learning goal orientation is to have a desire to develop yourself by gaining new skills, and improving your overall situation. Performance goal orientation is to have the desire to reach your goals to prove your worth or to have people think highly of you because of what you have accomplished.

16. Identify the sources of self-efficacy beliefs. What behavioral pattern can be expected if the self-efficacy beliefs are high?

The higher your self-efficacy, the more confidence you have in your ability to succeed. So, in difficult situations, people with low self-efficacy are more likely to lessen their effort or give up altogether, while those with high self-efficacy will try harder to master the challenge.enactive mastery—that is, gaining relevant experience with the task or job vicarious modeling—becoming more confident because you see someone else doing the task. verbal persuasion: We become more confident when someone convinces us we have the skills necessary to be successful arousal. Arousal leads to an energized state, so we get "psyched up," feel up to the task, and perform better.

Relational Job Design

This view, relational job design, shifts the spotlight from the employee to those whose lives are affected by the job that employee performs.

Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP)

a company-established benefits plan in which employees acquire stock, often at below-market prices, as part of their benefits

merit-based pay plan

a pay plan based on performance appraisal ratings

piece-rate pay plan

a pay plan in which workers are paid a fixed sum for each unit of production completed

bonus

a pay plan that rewards employees for recent performance rather than historical performance

21. What is equity sensitivity: benevolent, sensitives, entitleds?

a. Equity Sensitivity - an individual's tolerance for positive and negative equity. b. Benevolent - A High tolerance for Negative Inequity, you don't care that someone is getting paid more even though they are doing the same amount of work. c. Sensitives - You are Highly sensitive to Positive or Negative Inequities; you are not ok with either situation and look to right any wrongs. d. Entitleds - No tolerance for Negative Inequity, you do not stand for someone getting paid more than you for the same work.

32. What are various alternative work-arrangements? What are the pros and cons of each. Which theories apply?

alternative work arrangements such as flextime, job sharing, and telecommuting.

What are various alternative work-arrangements? What are the pros and cons of each. Which theories apply?

alternative work arrangements such as flextime, job sharing, and telecommuting.

profit-sharing plan

distributes compensation based on some established formula designed around a company's profitability

18. What is equity theory of motivation? What are process theories?

employees compare what they get from their job (their "outcomes," such as pay, promotions, recognition, or a bigger office) to what they put into it (their "inputs," such as effort, experience, and education). They take the ratio of their outcomes to their inputs and compare it to the ratio of others, usually someone similar like a coworker or someone doing the same job.

Identify the sources of self-efficacy beliefs

enactive mastery—that is, gaining relevant experience with the task or job vicarious modeling—becoming more confident because you see someone else doing the task. verbal persuasion: We become more confident when someone convinces us we have the skills necessary to be successful arousal. Arousal leads to an energized state, so we get "psyched up," feel up to the task, and perform better.

8. What is Goal Setting Model of Motivation? How does goal setting work?

goal-setting theory: A theory stating that specific and difficult goals, with feedback, lead to higher performance. Model of motivation that explains how people strive for fairness and justice in social exchanges or give-and-take relationships. How does Goal Setting work? 1. Goals direct attention. 2. Goals regulate effort. 3. Goals increase persistence. 4. Goals foster the development and application of task strategies and action plans.

31. What is relational job design?

how can managers design work so employees are motivated to promote the well-being of the organization's beneficiaries (customers, clients, patients, and employees)? This view, relational job design, shifts the spotlight from the employee to those whose lives are affected by the job that employee performs.

Distributive justice

is concerned with the fairness of the outcomes, such as pay and recognition, that employees receive.

29. Job enlargement, job rotation, job enrichment?

job rotation, or the periodic shifting of an employee from one task to another with similar skill requirements at the same organizational level (also called cross-training) job enrichment, high-level responsibilities are added to the job to increase a sense of purpose, direction, meaning, and intrinsic motivation.

Job enlargement, job rotation, job enrichment?

job rotation, or the periodic shifting of an employee from one task to another with similar skill requirements at the same organizational level (also called cross-training) job enrichment, high-level responsibilities are added to the job to increase a sense of purpose, direction, meaning, and intrinsic motivation.

14. What are managerial actions for enhancing goal commitment?

management by objectives (MBO), an initiative most popular in the 1970s but still used today. MBO emphasizes participatively set goals that are tangible, verifiable, and measurable..

What is Organizational Justice? Distributive Justice, Procedural Justice, Interactional Justice?

organizational justice or, more simply, fairness in the workplace.83 Organizational justice is concerned more broadly with how employees feel authorities and decision makers at work treat them. zsx Distributive justice is concerned with the fairness of the outcomes, such as pay and recognition, that employees receive. While distributive justice looks at what outcomes are allocated, procedural justice examines how. Interactional justice: policies enforced equally on each employee informational justice, which reflects whether managers provide employees with explanations for key decisions and keep them informed of important organizational matters. interpersonal justice, which reflects whether employees are treated with dignity and respect.

33. What is employee involvement and what are the two types reviewed in the text. Do they work? Would you recommend them? Which theories apply?

participative management programs is joint decision making, in which subordinates share a significant degree of decision-making power with their immediate superiors.58 This sharing can occur either formally through, say, briefings or surveys, or informally through daily consultations as a way to enhance motivation through trust and commitment. Representative participation redistributes power within an organization, putting labor's interests on a more equal footing with the interests of management and stockholders by including a small group of employees as participants in decision making.

What is employee involvement and what are the two types reviewed in the text. Do they work? Would you recommend them? Which theories apply?

participative management programs is joint decision making, in which subordinates share a significant degree of decision-making power with their immediate superiors.58 This sharing can occur either formally through, say, briefings or surveys, or informally through daily consultations as a way to enhance motivation through trust and commitment. Representative participation redistributes power within an organization, putting labor's interests on a more equal footing with the interests of management and stockholders by including a small group of employees as participants in decision making.

What factors influence perception?

perceiver, target, situation

35. Know each of the variable pay systems and the strengths and weaknesses of each.

piece-rate pay plan has long been popular as a means of compensating production workers with a fixed sum for each unit of production completed merit-based pay plan pays for individual performance based on performance appraisal ratings. profit-sharing plan distributes compensation based on some established formula designed around a company's profitability. employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) is a company-established benefit plan in which employees acquire stock, often at below-market prices, as part of their benefits. Bonus - A pay plan that rewards employees for recent performance rather than historical performance.

Procedural Justice

procedural justice examines how. Interactional justice: policies enforced equally on each employee

``15. Know Self-Efficacy Theory (of motivation)

refers to an individual's belief that he or she is capable of performing a task.58 The higher your self-efficacy, the more confidence you have in your ability to succeed.

17. Should managers attempt to build self-efficacy in others? If so, how? In what areas of work?

yes they should, managers need to provide both intrinsic and extrinsic incentives. They also need to make work interesting, provide recognition, link organizational and employee goals as well as support employee growth and development.