Organizational Behavior: History and Variables

• Organizational Behavior (OB) studies human behavior in organizational settings and the interaction between people and the organization itself
• Understanding OB requires analyzing individual behavior, interactions between individuals and organizations, and the organization as an entity

Brief History of OB

• Classical management focused on systematic measurement but ignored individual differences
• The Hawthorne studies revealed altered behavior due to attention received
• The human relations movement linked managerial practices, morals, and productivity
• The contingency approach suggests management depends on situational factors
• Positive organizational behavior focuses on developing human strengths
• The Internet and social media era have been incorporated into OB

Independent Variables in OB

• Individual-level variables include biographical characteristics, personality, emotions, values, attitudes, ability, perception, motivation, learning, and decision making
• Group-level variables include communication, decision making, leadership, trust, group structure, conflict, power, politics, and work teams
• Organization-level variables include organizational culture, human resource policies, and organizational structure

Dependent Variables in OB

• Productivity is the achievement of goals with efficiency and effectiveness
• Absenteeism is the failure to report to work, causing disruption
• Employee turnover is the rate at which employees leave and are replaced
• Deviant work behavior is voluntary behavior violating norms and threatening the organization
• Organizational citizenship behavior is discretionary behavior promoting organizational effectiveness
• Job satisfaction is the extent to which employees believe their efforts are rewarded

Scientific Foundations of OB

• OB integrates psychology, sociology, anthropology, economics, and political science
• It applies insights to real-world organizational challenges to improve performance and work-life quality through empirical research
• Scholars develop models linking independent variables to dependent variables, using contingency thinking and evidence-based management
• Cross-cultural OB recognizes that theories vary globally

External Environment of Organizations

• Organizations are dynamic open systems obtaining resources from the environment and returning finished goods/services
• They are also complex adaptive systems needing to adapt to survive
• Stakeholders are those affected by and having an interest in an organization’s performance

Internal Environment of Organizations

• Organizational culture includes shared beliefs and values influencing behavior
• Organizational climate includes shared perceptions regarding management policies and practices

Diversity and Multiculturalism in Organizations

• Workforce diversity is the presence of individual differences like gender and ethnicity
• Multiculturalism emphasizes respect for diversity
• Inclusion is the degree to which the culture embraces diversity

Contemporary Development

• Globalization advantages include connectivity, participation, lower costs, and access to knowledge
• Globalization disadvantages include reduced job security and work-life balance
• Technological advancements advantages include productivity and communication
• Technological advancements disadvantages include longer hours, reduced attention, and techno-stress
• Emerging employment advantages include work-life balance and remote work
• Emerging employment disadvantages include overworking and job insecurity

Workforce Diversity

• Workforce diversity includes differences based on gender, race, age, and sexual orientation
• Surface-level diversity is readily visible
• Deep-level diversity includes internal characteristics

Promoting Workforce Diversity

• Acknowledge the lack of diversity and adjust recruitment
• Diversity and cross-training programs can help
• Adjust language used in the workplace

Factors Influencing Individual Performance

• Performance is affected by the person and the situation (Performance = Person × Situation)
• Performance is affected by ability and motivation (Performance = Ability × Motivation)
• Performance is affected by ability, motivation, and opportunity
• Key predictors of performance are motivation, ability, role perception, and situational factors

Employee Motivation

• Motivation includes the direction, intensity, and persistence of voluntary behavior toward goals

Employee Ability

• Ability includes natural aptitudes and learned capabilities
• Aptitudes are natural talents that help employees learn more quickly
• Learned capabilities are skills and knowledge acquired over time

Situational Factors

• Situational factors are external factors beyond the employee’s control that influence behavior and performance

Role Perception

• Role perception is the clarity of understanding job duties
• Role clarity makes work more efficient
• Role ambiguity leads to wasted time

Types of Individual Behavior

• Task performance is goal-directed behavior contributing to organizational objectives
• Organizational citizenship includes cooperation and helpfulness
• Counterproductive work behaviors harm the organization
• Joining and staying with the organization is vital for retaining human capital
• Maintaining work attendance is essential for organizational effectiveness

Personality in Organizations

• Personality traits allow labeling and understanding individual differences
• Personality is an enduring pattern of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors

Five-Factor Model of Personality and Work Performance

• Conscientiousness is the best predictor of proficient task performance
• Extraversion predicts adaptive and proactive performance
• Agreeableness relates to cooperation
• Openness to experience predicts adaptive and proactive performance
• Emotional stability relates to handling change

Jungian Personality and MBTI

• Perceiving functions are open and curious (Sensing, Intuition)
• Judging functions are orderly and structured (Thinking, Feeling)

Types of Values

• Sensing relies on factual, quantitative details and focuses on the present
• Intuition relies on insight and sees relationships among variables, focusing on future possibilities
• Thinking relies on logic and data to make decisions
• Feeling relies on emotional response

Values in the Workplace

• Values are evaluative beliefs guiding preferences
• A value system is a hierarchy of values

Types of Values

• Openness to change includes self-direction, stimulation, and hedonism
• Conservation includes conformity, security, and tradition
• Self-enhancement includes achievement, power, and hedonism
• Self-transcendence includes benevolence and universalism

Personal Values Influence on Decisions and Behavior

• Values directly motivate by shaping the attractiveness of choices
• Values indirectly motivate by influencing perception
• People align their behavior with their self-concept

Disconnect Between Values and Behavior

• Situational factors and lack of awareness contribute to disconnect

Values Congruence

• Values determine what is right or wrong
• Congruence increases cohesion, performance, job satisfaction, loyalty, and ethical decision-making

Values Across Cultures

• Individualism values independence and uniqueness
• Collectivism emphasizes duty to groups and harmony
• Power distance is the acceptance of unequal power distribution
• Uncertainty avoidance is the tolerance for ambiguity
• Achievement orientation emphasizes competitiveness

Self-Concept

• Self-concept is an individual’s self-belief and self-evaluation

Complexity

• Complexity is the number of distinct roles or identities
• High complexity helps adaptation

Consistency

• Consistency is the harmony between multiple selves

Clarity

• Clarity is the degree to which self-concept is clear and stable

Processes that Shape Self-Concept

• Self-enhancement is the motivation to have a positive self-concept
• Self-verification is the motivation to confirm the existing self-concept

Self-Evaluation

• Self-esteem is liking and respect for oneself
• Self-efficacy is belief in successfully completing tasks
• Locus of control is belief about control over life events
• Internal believes events are due to personal characteristics
• External believes events are due to external conditions

Social Self

• Social identity is shaped by group memberships
• Some prioritize uniqueness
• Some prioritize belonging

Perceptual Processes

• Stereotyping is assigning traits based on social category membership
• It simplifies understanding but can be inaccurate
• It categorizes groups
• Homogenization perceives people within groups as similar
• Differentiation assigns favorable characteristics to in-groups

Problems with Stereotyping

• It is often inaccurate
• Stereotype threat impairs performance
• It leads to discrimination
• Systemic discrimination defines the "ideal" person
• Intentional discrimination unfairly disadvantages groups

Attribution Process

• Attribution is deciding the causes of behavior
• It helps understand cause-effect
• Consistency is whether behavior occurs over time
• Distinctiveness is whether behavior occurs across situations
• Consensus is whether others behave similarly

Internal Attribution

• Internal attribution is when poor performance is consistent and not distinct

External Attribution

• External attribution is when poor performance happens in only one situation and others struggle

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

• Self-fulfilling prophecy is when expectations influence behavior
• Perception influences reality
• Increased self-confidence results
• High-expectancy employees perform better
• Low-expectancy employees receive fewer opportunities

Halo Effect

• The halo effect is when a general impression distorts perceptions

False-Consensus Effect

• The false-consensus effect is overestimating the extent to which others share beliefs

Primacy Effect

• The primacy effect is relying on the first information received

Recency Effect

• The recency effect is when the most recent information dominates