Organizational Behavior Chapter 6

Chapter Six: Applied Performance Practices

• Organizational behavior explores emerging knowledge and global realities.
• Learning objectives include:
  • Discussing money's meaning and identifying performance-based rewards at individual, team, and organizational levels.
  • Detailing five strategies to optimize reward effectiveness.
  • Identifying advantages and disadvantages of job specialization.
  • Examining the job characteristics model to improve employee motivation via job design.
  • Defining psychological empowerment and outlining support strategies.
  • Describing self-leadership's five elements, and influences from personal and work environments.

Applied Performance Practices at Softcom

• Softcom Ltd. in Lagos, Nigeria, demonstrates a highly motivated workforce.
• Factors driving this include meaningful jobs, rewards aligned with corporate purpose and values, and emphasis on self-leadership.

Meaning of Money at Work

• Money is a form of exchange, linked to needs and self-concept.
• It evokes emotions and is perceived as a tool or a drug.
• Money ethics consider it as a symbol of achievement and a valuable asset to be managed.
• Meaning of money varies based on gender and culture.
• Money motivates more than previously thought.

Membership/Seniority Based Rewards

• Fixed wages and seniority-based rewards are common.
• Advantages include job appeal, financial stability, and reduced turnover.
• Disadvantages include lack of performance motivation, and potential for stalling employee growth.

Job Status-Based Rewards

• Job evaluation and status perks are standard.
• Advantages include fair pay, promotion motivation, increased productivity.
• Disadvantages include bureaucratic hierarchies, status competition, and potential for resource hoarding.

Competency-Based Rewards

• Competency-based pay, and skill-based pay are evaluated.
• Advantages include motivation for skill development, multi-skilled workforces, and higher quality products/services.
• Disadvantages include potential for complexity, subjectivity, and increased training expenses.

Performance-Based Rewards

• Rewards can be individual (bonuses, piece rates), team (bonuses, gain-sharing), or organizational (bonuses, ESOPs, stock options, profit-sharing).
• Evaluating organizational rewards suggests importance of ownership culture, aligning pay with company prosperity, and recognizing weak links between organizational rewards and performance.

Improving Reward Effectiveness

• Link rewards to performance and relevance.
• Implement team rewards for interdependent work.
• Verify reward values to support motivation.
• Be mindful of potential unintended consequences.

Job Design

• Effective job design balances efficiency and motivation.
• Some jobs have few tasks (high efficiency, low motivation), others have many tasks (low efficiency, high motivation)
• Work efficiency can be bolstered by job specialization.
• Job specialization involves dividing labor, creating separate job roles, and promoting shorter cycles.

Job Specialization and Scientific Management

• Job specialization aims to increase work efficiency, through streamlining and mastering tasks, making better job-person matches.
• Scientific management emphasizes standardization, task specialization, and promoting employee training and rewards.
• Drawbacks include low motivation, increased turnover, and potentially lower work quality if not complemented with other motivating factors.

Job Design and Work Motivation

• Core job characteristics, critical psychological states, and outcomes are intertwined in the job design model.
• Individual differences are critical variables, including knowledge, skill, context satisfaction, and growth-need strength.

Social and Information Processing Job Characteristics

• Social factors like task interdependence and feedback from colleagues impact job design.
• Information processing factors like high task variability and analyzability are significant for job design.

Frequent Job Rotation

• Frequent job rotation provides benefits like heightened motivation, broader knowledge of processes, reduced health risks, and improved workforce flexibility.

Job Enlargement

• Job enlargement involves adding tasks to an existing job, extending employee responsibilities.

Job Enrichment

• Job enrichment involves giving employees more responsibility for scheduling, coordinating, and planning work.
• Two methods for enrichment are natural grouping and establishing client relationships.

Dimensions of Psychological Empowerment

• Psychological empowerment is a concept with four main elements: Self-determination, Meaning, Competence, and Impact.
• Self-determination involves employee autonomy over work.
• Meaning is about employees valuing their work and their contributions to the organization.
• Competence includes employees gaining confidence and capability when addressing work challenges effectively.
• Impact denotes the employees' perceived influence on organizational results.

Supporting Empowerment

• Individual factors (skills), Job design factors (autonomy, feedback, etc.), and Org factors (support) are important for employee empowerment.

Practice Self-Leadership in Surgery: Focusing on the Positive

• Positive self-talk, constructive mental imagery, and focusing on strengths are crucial elements of self-leadership.
• Orthopaedic surgeon, Sarah Coll, demonstrates this positive approach

Practice Self-Leadership in Surgery: Cognitive and Behavioral Strategies

• Cognitive and behavioral strategies are used to achieve personal goals, standards, self-direction, and self-motivation.
• Goal setting, social cognitive theory, and sports psychology concepts are applied to enhance these strategies.

Practice Self-Leadership in Surgery: Goal Setting and Thought Patterns

• Personal goal setting is essential for self-improvement and involves setting work goals and practicing effective goal-setting techniques.
• Thought patterns shape self-efficacy and include self-talk (positive affirmation) and mental imagery.

Practice Self-Leadership in Surgery

• Designing natural rewards improves job motivation and includes finding ways to make the job more enticing.
• Self-monitoring is critical to tracking one's progress toward goals.
• Utilizing naturally occurring feedback and designing feedback systems are crucial.
• Self-reinforcement encourages achieving self-set goals.

Predictors of Self-Leadership

• Individual traits like conscientiousness and extroversion, as well as positive self-evaluation, influence self-leadership.
• Organizational factors impacting self-leadership include job autonomy, participative/trustworthy leadership, and a measurement-oriented culture.