MGMT 391 Chapter 3
When do we make internal or external attributions? Research shows that three factors are the key to understanding what kind of attributions we make.
Consensus: Do other people behave the same way? Distinctiveness: Does this person behave the same way across different situations? Consistency: Does this person behave this way in different occasions in the same situation?
external attribution
Explaining someone's behavior by referring to the situation.
internal attribution
Explaining someone's behavior using the internal characteristics of the actor..
those with high external locus of control
Feel that things happen to them because of other people, luck, or a powerful being.
Self-montioring While they are effective in influencing other people and get things done by managing their impressions, this personality trait has some challenges that need to be addressed.
First, when evaluating the performance of other employees, they tend to be less accurate Second, high self-monitors tend to experience higher levels of stress, probably caused by behaving in ways that conflict with their true feelings. Finally, high self-monitors tend to be less committed to their companies.
Is there a way of increasing employees' self-efficacy?
Giving people opportunities to test their skills so that they can see what they are capable of doing (or empowering them) is also a good way of increasing self-efficacy.[Footnote ] Hiring people who are capable of performing their tasks and training people to increase their self-efficacy may be effective
false consensus error
How we as human beings overestimate how similar we are to other people..
Which of the following statements about attribution is correct? Attributions depend only on consensus, distinctiveness and consistency. When faced with poor performance, one punishes the person more if we make an external attribution. If someone's failure is due to internal causes, we feel empathy and offer help. If we make an external attribution to someone's goal achievement, we are less likely to reward the individual.
If we make an external attribution to someone's goal achievement, we are less likely to reward the individual.
first impressions once formed, are surprisingly
Initial thoughts and perceptions we form about people, which tend to be stable and resilient to contrary information. resilient to contrary information
Big Five Personality Traits
Openness Conscientiousness Extraversion Agreeableness and Neuroticism can be remembered using the acronym OCEAN.
When hiring employees, companies are interested in assessing at least two types of fit.
Person-organization fit Person-Job fit
Where do values come from?
Research indicates that they are shaped early in life and show stability over the course of a lifetime
self-fulfilling prophecy
Stereotypes often create this This happens when an established stereotype causes one to behave in a certain way, which leads the other party to behave in a way that makes the stereotype come true
Selective perception
Stereotypes persist because of this When we pay selective attention to parts of the environment while ignoring other parts.
Which of the following statements about the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is INCORRECT? The original objective of the MBTI was to aid World War II veterans in identifying the occupation that would suit their personalities. The MBTI relies on types, not traits. The MBTI is a very effective tool to use in making selection decisions. The MBTI classifies people into one of sixteen types.
The MBTI is a very effective tool to use in making selection decisions.
faking Even with faking
The practice of answering questions in a way one thinks the company is looking for. the tests remain valid because the scores are still related to job performance
self-enhancement bias
The tendency to overestimate our performance and capabilities, and to see ourselves in a more positive light than others see us.
self-effacement bias
The tendency to underestimate our performance and capabilities, and to see events in a way that puts ourselves in a more negative light.
two dimensions on which people differ
Values and personality traits
Instrumental values
Views on acceptable modes of conduct, such as being honest and ethical, and being ambitious.
People take jobs for which they are overqualified for a number of reasons, including
a lack of alternatives, to gain entry into a new field, or not realizing that the job is actually below his or her skill level
Marissa always seems to know who to talk to in her organization to get things done. When her immediate supervisor seemed less than enthusiastic about her proposal, she made sure to mention it to the manager in another department who shared it with his boss. Marissa was just approached about implementing her proposal. Marissa seems to have low self-efficacy. a proactive personality. low self-esteem. an internal locus of control.
a proactive personality.
The values a person holds may
affect their employment
Which instrumental value might surveys find to be prevalent in Wall Street brokers? forgiveness ambition obedience imagination
ambition
stereotypes
are generalizations based on group characteristics. may be positive, negative, or neutral.
Perception
as the process with which individuals detect and interpret environmental stimuli.
Individuals with high internal locus of control
believe that they control their own destiny and what happens to them is their own doing, Successful entrepreneurs tend to have high levels of internal locus of control.[Footnote ]
Individuals with an internal locus of control have an inclination to change the status quo. believe that what happens to them is their own doing. understand what the situation demands and act accordingly. feel that things happen to them because of luck.
believe that what happens to them is their own doing.believe that what happens to them is their own doing.
How we perceive other people in our environment is also shaped
by our values, emotions, feelings, and personality.
While personality traits and other individual differences are important, we need to keep in mind that behavior is jointly determined
by the person and the situation
Values of a generation also
change and evolve in response to the historical context that the generation grows up in
our personality
changes over long periods of time.
The first thing many recruiters look for is the
degree of person-job fit
Personality
encompasses the relatively stable feelings, thoughts, and behavioral patterns a person has.
We are also likely to overestimate how
ethical we are, which can be a barrier against behaving ethically.
Our values and personality influence how
ethically we behave
negative affective people
experience negative moods with greater frequency. Negative affective people focus on the "glass half empty" and experience more anxiety and nervousness
Positive affective people
experience positive moods more frequently, Positive affective people tend to be happier at work,[Footnote ] and their happiness spreads to the rest of the work environment.
Bill is the quarterback of his college football team. The team was 10-0, but lost this week after what Bill says was a very bad call by the referee. Bill seldom says anything about how the referees called any game, but he is very vocal about this one. You know that Bill works hard both on the field and off. You talk to other players on the team and they complain about the referee's call also. In this scenario, given what you know about the referee's call, you could explain Bill's behavior as internal attribution. external attribution. self-serving bias self-fulfilling prophecy.
external attribution.
Employees with ---------- were found to make more unethical choices
external locus of control
You may have noticed that behavior is also a
function of moods.
Visual Perception
goes beyond the physical information available to us we extrapolate from the information available to us is often biased because we do not perceive objects in isolation.
Jennifer complains to her friends every Friday night about her job. Each week she tells them she is going to leave her company even though she has been working there for five years. Jennifer is likely to be high in conscientiousness. high in neuroticism. low in agreeableness. high in extraversion.
high in neuroticism.
Self-Efficacy Self-efficacy is different from other personality traits in that Research shows that self-efficacy at work is
is a belief that one can perform a specific task successfully it is job specific. related to job performance
Overqualification.
is a situation in which the employee has more skills, education, and experience than the job requires.
attribution
is the causal explanation we give for an observed behavior.
Self-Esteem People with high self-esteem view themselves On the other hand, people with low self-esteem experience
is the degree to which a person has overall positive feelings about themselves. in a positive light, are confident, and respect themselves. high levels of self-doubt and question their self-worth.
Agreeableness people who are high in agreeableness are
is the degree to which a person is affable, tolerant, sensitive, trusting, kind, and warm. likable and get along with others.
Openness People high in openness thrive in Open people are highly adaptable to Compared to people low in openness, they One downside of openness is that
is the degree to which a person is curious, original, intellectual, creative, and open to new ideas. situations that require being flexible and learning new things. change, and teams that experience unforeseen changes in their tasks do well if they are populated with people high in openness.[Footnote ] are also more likely to start their own business.[Footnote ] their absorption in creative pursuits has been shown to result in less time spent with spouses at home, which could lead to higher work-life conflict. [Footnote ]
Extraversion Extraverts tend to be effective jobs depriving them of they tend to have higher levels of
is the degree to which a person is outgoing, talkative, sociable, and enjoys socializing. in job interviews and even have higher starting salaries. social interaction may be a poor fit. absenteeism at work, potentially because they may miss work to hang out with or attend to the needs of their friends.[Footnote ]
Person-Job fit
is the degree to which a person's skill, knowledge, abilities, and other characteristics match the job demands
All of the following statements regarding personality testing in employee selection are correct EXCEPT job interviewers are very adept at assessing conscientiousness in candidates, so the personality test is not really needed in employee selection. there are mixed feelings as to whether candidates' faking responses on personality tests is a serious problem. self-reporting measures of personality may not be the best way to measure personality. personality is a better predictor of job satisfaction than job performance.
job interviewers are very adept at assessing conscientiousness in candidates, so the personality test is not really needed in employee selection.
Teams dominated by positive affective people experience
lower levels of absenteeism
Lauren takes a personality survey and finds she strongly exhibits the trait of agreeableness. She might be described as being organized, punctual, systematic and dependable. nice, tolerant, sensitive and kind. outgoing, talkative, and sociable. curious, creative and original.
nice, tolerant, sensitive and kind.
Our behavior is not only a function of our personality, values, and preferences, but also .
of the situation
Maurice is described as "very curious. He has very original thoughts. He is a bright young man with a very creative flair." Maurice exhibits the personality trait of extraversion. agreeableness. conscientiousness. openness.
openness.
When seeking jobs, employees are more likely to accept a job that provides
opportunities for value attainment,
Value attainment is one reason why
people stay in a company, and when an organization does not help them attain their values, they are more likely to decide to leave if they are dissatisfied with the job itself.[
When people have a lot of freedom at work, their
personality will become a stronger influence over their behavior
Terminal values
refer to end states people desire in life, such as leading a prosperous life and a world at peace.
Values Values are established throughout one's life as a result of The values that are important to people tend to affect the types of
refer to stable life goals that people have, reflecting what is most important to them. the accumulating life experiences and tend to be relatively stable.[Footnote ] decisions they make, how they perceive their environment, and their actual behaviors.
Proactive personality
refers to a person's inclination to fix what is perceived as wrong, change the status quo, and use initiative to solve problems
Neuroticism It is the only Big Five dimension in which Most of their problems are due to
refers to the degree to which a person is anxious, irritable, temperamental, and moody. scoring high is undesirable. difficulties in handling stress.
Conscientiousness Conscientiousness is the one personality trait that conscientiousness is the trait most When they experience failure, such as in the form of unemployment, the
refers to the degree to which a person is organized, systematic, punctual, achievement oriented, and dependable. uniformly predicts how high a person's performance will be across a variety of occupations and jobs. desired by recruiters, and highly conscientious applicants tend to succeed in interviews. well-being of conscientious people is much more negatively affected.[Footnote ]
Person-organization fit
refers to the degree to which a person's values, personality, goals, and other characteristics match those of the organization
Self-montioring
refers to the extent to which a person is capable of altering his or her actions and appearance in social situations.
Early experiences are important influences over dominant values. If Sharon was raised by an aunt because her parents had both died when she was ten, she most likely would see what value as central to her life? an exciting life security self-respect forgiveness
security
In other words, people who are self-monitors are
social chameleons who understand what the situation demands and act accordingly, while low self-monitors tend to act the way they feel
High social monitors tend to be more successful in their careers. tend to experience lower levels of stress. are very accurate at conducting performance evaluations. are more committed to their companies.
tend to be more successful in their careers.
How we respond to unethical behavior of others will, to a large extent, depend on
the attributions we make.
Locus of control deals with
the degree to which people feel accountable for their own behaviors.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) Unlike the Big Five, which assesses traits, MBTI In MBTI, people are .
the most well-known and most often used personality assessment measures types. grouped using four dimensions
Self-enhancement bias is the tendency for people to underestimate their performance, undervalue capabilities, and see events in a way that puts them in a more negative light. the tendency to overestimate our performance and capabilities and see ourselves in a more positive light than others see us. the overestimation of how similar we are to other people. the process with which individuals detect and interpret environmental stimuli.
the tendency to overestimate our performance and capabilities and see ourselves in a more positive light than others see us.
having a proactive personality has a number of advantages
they tend to be more successful in their job searches.[Footnote ] Proactive employees are also more successful over the course of their careers, because they use initiative and acquire greater understanding of the politics within the organization. are valuable assets to their companies because they may have higher levels of performance
While personality is a strong influence on job attitudes, its relation
to job performance is weaker.
Research shows that the success of proactive people depends on their
understanding of a company's core values, their ability and skills to perform their jobs, and their ability to assess situational demands correctly.[Footnote ]
Some companies use personality testing to screen out candidates. This method has certain limitations, and companies using personality tests are advised to
validate their tests and use them as a supplement to other techniques that have greater validity.
Culture seems to be an influence over our
values, personality traits, perceptions, attitudes, and work behaviors.
Study findings on personality indicate we are more emotionally stable and more organized between the ages of 20 and 40. personality is the primary predictor of work behavior. although personality impacts us during our youth it has no lasting consequences for us. although it is interesting information, employee personality has relatively little impact on placing individuals in jobs.
we are more emotionally stable and more organized between the ages of 20 and 40.
self-serving bias
when interpreting our own behavior, we suffer from this The tendency to attribute our failures to the situation while attributing our successes to internal causes.
