CH. 14 Understanding individual behavior
stress
A physiological and emotional response to stimuli that place physical or psychological demands on an individual and create uncertainty and lack of personal control when important outcomes are at stake.
fundamental attribution error
A tendency to underestimate the influence of external factors on another person's accomplishments and to overestimate the influence of internal factors.
blind spots
An attribute about a person that he or she is not aware of or doesn't recognize as a problem; this limits effectiveness and hinders career success.
self-serving bias
Another bias that distorts attributions involves attributions that we make about our own behavior. People tend to overestimate the contribution of internal factors to their successes and overestimate the contribution of external factors to their failures. means that people give themselves too much credit when they do well and give external forces too much blame when they fail.
Self-awareness
Being conscious of the internal aspects of one's nature, such as personality traits, beliefs, emotions, attitudes, and perceptions, and appreciating how your patterns affect other people.
Three basic principles define how to manage your many big and small commitments effectively so that you can get them accomplished:
Clarity of mind. The first principle is that, if you're carrying too much around in your head, your mind can't be clear. If your mind isn't clear, you can't focus. If you can't focus, you can't get anything done. Thus, anything you consider unfinished needs to be placed in some kind of trusted system outside your head. Clarity of objectives. Next, you have to be clear about exactly what you need to do and decide the steps to take toward accomplishing it. An organized system. Finally, once you've decided the actions that you need to take, you need to keep reminders in a well-organized system.
Locus of control
Defines whether an individual places the primary responsibility for his successes and failures within himself or on outside forces Some people believe that their own actions strongly influence what happens to them. They feel in control of their own fate. These individuals have a high internal locus of control. Other people believe that events in their lives occur because of chance, luck, or outside people and events. They feel more like pawns of their fate. These individuals have a high external locus of control.
Big Five personality factors
Dimensions that describe an individual's extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness to experience. Extroversion. The degree to which a person is outgoing, sociable, assertive, and comfortable with interpersonal relationships Agreeableness. The degree to which a person is able to get along with others by being good-natured, likable, cooperative, forgiving, understanding, and trusting Conscientiousness. The degree to which a person is focused on a few goals, thus behaving in ways that are responsible, dependable, persistent, and achievement oriented. Emotional stability. The degree to which a person is calm, enthusiastic, and self-confident, rather than tense, depressed, moody, or insecure. Openness to experience. The degree to which a person has a broad range of interests and is imaginative, creative, artistically sensitive, and willing to consider new ideas.
Role conflict
Incompatible demands of different roles, such as the demands of a manager's superiors conflicting with those of the manager's subordinates.
People gather information either by sensation or intuition, but not by both simultaneously
People evaluate information by thinking or feeling.
Emotional intelligence includes four basic components:
Self-awareness. Being aware of what you are feeling; the basis for all the other components. People who are in touch with their feelings are better able to guide their own lives and actions. A high degree of self-awareness means you can accurately assess your own strengths and limitations and have a healthy sense of self-confidence. Self-management. The ability to control disruptive or harmful emotions and balance one's moods so that worry, anxiety, fear, and anger do not cloud thinking and get in the way of what needs to be done. People who are skilled at self-management remain optimistic and hopeful despite setbacks and obstacles. This ability is crucial for pursuing long-term goals. MetLife found that applicants who failed the regular sales aptitude test but scored high on optimism made 21 percent more sales in their first year and 57 percent more in their second year than those who passed the sales test but scored high on pessimism. Social awareness. The ability to understand others and practice empathy, which means being able to put yourself in someone else's shoes, to recognize what others are feeling without them needing to tell you. People with social awareness are capable of understanding divergent points of view and interacting effectively with many different types of people. Relationship management. The ability to connect to others, build positive relationships, respond to the emotions of others, and influence others. People with relationship management skills know how to listen and communicate clearly, and they treat others with compassion and respect.
Two important approaches to enhancing self-awareness,
Soliciting Feedback self assessment
Challenge Stress
Stress that challenges and helps increase focus, alertness, efficiency, and productivity
threat stress
Stress that is counterproductive
causes of work stress
Task demands are stressors arising from the tasks required of a person holding a particular job. Some kinds of decisions are inherently stressful: those made under time pressure, those that have serious consequences, and those that must be made with incomplete information. For example, emergency room doctors are under tremendous stress as a result of the task demands of their jobs. They regularly have to make quick decisions based on limited information that may determine whether a patient lives or dies. Jobs in which people have to deal with irate customers can also be highly stressful. Turnover among customer service employees can be as high as 300 percent a year in some industries.Almost all jobs, especially those of managers, have some level of stress associated with task demands. Task demands also sometimes cause stress because of role ambiguity, which means that people are unclear about what task behaviors are expected of them. In a survey by the American Psychological Association (APA), 35 percent of respondents cited unclear job expectations as a cause of their workplace stress. Interpersonal demands are stressors associated with relationships in the organization. Although interpersonal relationships can alleviate stress in some cases, they also can be a source of stress when the group puts pressure on an individual or when conflicts arise between individuals. Managers can resolve many conflicts using techniques that will be discussed in Chapter 18. Role conflict occurs when an individual perceives incompatible demands from others. Managers often feel role conflict because the demands of their superiors conflict with those of the employees in their department. They may be expected to support employees and provide them with opportunities to experiment and be creative, while at the same time top executives are demanding a consistent level of output that leaves little time for creativity and experimentation.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI™)
The MBTI™ assessment measures a person's preferences for introversion versus extroversion, sensation versus intuition, thinking versus feeling, and judging versus perceiving. The various combinations of these four preferences result in 16 unique personality types. Each of these types can have positive and negative consequences for behavior. Based on the limited research that has been done, the two preferences that seem to be most strongly associated with effective management in a variety of organizations and industries are thinking and judging. However, people with other preferences can also be good managers. One advantage of understanding your natural preferences is to maximize your innate strengths and abilities and minimize your weaknesses.
Type B behavior
They consequently experience less conflict with other people and a more balanced, relaxed lifestyle. Type B individuals typically live with less stress unless they are in high-stress situations. A number of factors can cause stress in the workplace, even for people who are not naturally prone to high stress.
role ambiguity
Uncertainty about what behaviors are expected of a person in a particular role.
seld efficacy
an individuals strong belief that he or she can accomplish a specific task or outcome successfully one dimension on self confidence
emotion
can be thought of as a mental state that arises spontaneously within a person based on interaction with the environment rather than through conscious effort and is often accompanied by physiological changes or sensations. People can experience a wide range of emotions at work, such as happiness, anger, fear, or relief, and these affect their workplace attitudes and behaviors.
Machiavellianism
characterized by the acquisition of power and the manipulation of other people for purely personal gain.
Perception
cognitive process that people use to make sense out of the environment by selecting, organizing, and interpreting information from the environment. Because of individual differences in personality, values, interests, and so forth, people often "see" the same thing in different ways.
perceptual distortions
errors in perceptual judgment that arise from inaccuracies in any part of the perception process
Attributions
judgments about what caused a person's behavior—something about the person or something about the situation. People make attributions as an attempt to understand why others behave as they do. An internal attribution says that characteristics of the person led to the behavior.
halo effect
occurs when the perceiver develops an overall impression of a person or situation based on one characteristic, either favorable or unfavorable. In other words, a halo blinds the perceiver to other characteristics that should be used in generating a more complete assessment. The halo effect can play a significant role in performance appraisal
Type A behavior
pattern includes extreme competitiveness, impatience, aggressiveness, and devotion to work Most Type A individuals, like David Sacks, are high-energy people and may seek positions of power and responsibility. By pacing themselves and learning the control and intelligent use of their natural high-energy tendencies, Type A individuals can be powerful forces for innovation and leadership within their organizations. However, many Type A personalities cause stress-related problems for themselves, and sometimes for those around them as well
Organizational commitment
refers to an employee's loyalty to and engagement with the organization. An employee with a high degree of organizational commitment is likely to say we when talking about the company.
presenteeism
refers to people who go to work but are too stressed and distracted to be productive
Job satisfaction
reflects the degree to which a person finds fulfillment in his or her job. In general, people experience job satisfaction when their work matches their needs and interests, when working conditions and rewards (such as pay) are satisfactory, when they like their coworkers, and when they have positive relationships with supervisors
stressors
stimuli produce some combination of frustration (the inability to achieve a goal, such as the inability to meet a deadline because of inadequate resources) and anxiety (such as the fear of being disciplined for not meeting deadlines).
Self-management
the ability to engage in self-regulating thoughts and behavior to accomplish all your tasks and handle difficult or challenging situations. Yet all of us have patterns of habit and behavior that may make it hard to manage ourselves toward more efficient behavior.
Authoritarianism
the belief that power and status differences should exist within the organization.Individuals high in authoritarianism tend to be concerned with power and toughness, obey recognized authority above them, stick to conventional values, critically judge others, and oppose the use of subjective feelings. The degree to which managers possess authoritarianism will influence how they wield and share power. The degree to which employees possess authoritarianism will influence how they react to their managers.
personality
the set of characteristics that underlie a relatively stable pattern of behavior in response to ideas, objects, or people in the environment.
Emotional contagion
the tendency of people to absorb and express the emotions, moods, and attitudes of those around them
stereotyping
the tendency to assign an individual to a group or broad category (e.g., female, black, elderly; or male, white, disabled) and then to attribute widely held generalizations about the group to the individual. As an example, someone meets a new colleague, sees that he is in a wheelchair, assigns him to the category "physically disabled," and attributes to this colleague generalizations that she believes about people with disabilities, which may include a belief that he is less able than other coworkers.
Self-Assessment
uses self-inquiry and reflection to gain insights into oneself from the results of scores on self-assessment instruments such as those discussed throughout this text.
