Organizational Behaviour: Xerox Case Study

Week 1: Organizational Behaviour

• Xerox failed to market inventions properly, leading to advantages for Apple and Microsoft.
  • Xerox's leadership lacked goals/vision, creative and management were disconnected.
  • Apple's visionary leaders knew what they wanted.
  • Xerox's management was too money-hungry.
  • Their creative teams were too homogenous and only wanted to invent for fun.
  • Xerox teams lacked rapport and didn't like each other.
• Xerox had potential and resources with good researchers.
• Research always has a hypothesis connecting two variables.
  • An independent variable is measured, affecting a dependent variable.
• Variables sometimes cannot be measured.
  • Constructs like attitude, trust, happiness, and sadness.
• An experiment changes the independent variable to see its effect on the dependent variable.
  • Amount of training employees get vs. their productivity.
  • The population in experiments should be large and randomly sampled.
• Random assignment puts people in either a control group or a changed group.
• Surveys give a correlational relationship, but not always causation.
  • If a third variable exists, correlation most likely doesn't equal causation.
• Observational design involves listening and watching during the experiment, sometimes even participating.
• HR management deals with employee selection, training, and disciplining.
• Predicting events helps anticipate the consequences of current and future actions.
• Explaining events helps with understanding why something will or will not happen.
• Managing events helps mediate the results of actions.
• Classical management has a hierarchy, worker specialization, and decision-making from the top.
  • Car factories and plantations are examples.
• HR management showed how workers are treaded as tools, and many workers hated managers.
• Contingency management says different companies need different manager styles.
• There are 3 managerial roles: informational, interpersonal, and decisional.
• Managers network, communicate, traditionally manage, and manage with an HR sense.
• All managers have agendas and implement them.
  • This is commonly done by networking.
• Managers around the world have different managerial styles.

Week 2: Learning and Personality

• Personality is the set of psychological characteristics that shapes behavior.
  • It is determined by learning history and genetic makeup
• Behavior is molded by both the situation and the person.
  • People might act out of desperation if the situation calls for it.
• The dispositional approach says that personality has more influence on behavior.
• The situation approach says the situation matters more.
  • The interactionist approach is widely accepted and says both personality and the situation matter.
• Situations can either be weak or strong.
  • Personality has the most input in weak situations.
  • Situation has the most input during strong situations.
• CANOE are the big 5 personality traits:
  • Conscientiousness is responsibility and organization.
  • Agreeableness is approachability and overall personality.
  • Neuroticism is the ability to stay in check with emotions and regulate them.
  • Openness is willingness to accept new information and constantly learn.
  • Extraversion is the ability to be open and talk with those you don't know
• Locus of control is how much people believe their fate is determined by their actions.
  • External locus of control believes fate is determined by the situation/those higher up.
  • Internal locus of control believes the outcome is determined by actions.
• Self-monitoring is is the way people contain their emotions in a public setting.
  • Low self-monitors show emotions regardless of the situation.
  • High self-monitors keep emotions contained and appear only when needed.
• Trait activation theory says certain parts of your personality only show themselves when needed.
  • Strong problem solvers only use that skill when they encounter a tough problem.
• Self-esteem is the confidence level and comfort in own abilities.
  • Low self-esteem leads to following others' opinions (behavioral plasticity).
• Operant learning indicates subjects learn through rewards, punishments, and reinforcements.
  • Bonuses after hitting sales quota.
• Negative reinforcement applies a negative stimulus until behavior happens.
  • Loud alarm goes off until you wake up and turn it off.
• Punishment stops behavior through consequences after unwanted behavior.
  • Put on paid leave after constantly showing up late.
• Rewards shouldn't replace reinforcement.
  • End-of-year bonus regardless of performance for all employees.
• Managers should use both performance feedback and social recognition to enforce behavior.
• Social cognitive theory indicates behavior depends on the environment they are in/around.
  • Learning happens through observation of role models.
  • The reward gained is satisfaction and social recognition.
• Human behavior has a triadic reciprocal causation, where personal/environmental factors influence behavior:.
  • Behavior changes personal factors, which changes the environment.
• Observational learning, self-efficacy and self-regulation
  • OL: learn from the environment
  • SE: belief to perform well in specific tasks
  • SR includes controlling/maintaining emotions and goals
• Self-regulation involves ability to control own behavior.
  • One is self observation with regulation.
  • Discrepancy reduction: the difference between goals/performance.
    • Once the goal is reached set grader grades for motivation.

Week 3: Perception

• Perception is the process of interpreting what our senses see to give meaning and order.
  • People base decisions on reality interpretation rather than reality.
• Perception is made of the perceiver, the target being perceived, and the context.
  • Each component influences impression of the target
• The perceiver can be influenced by:
  • Past experiences lead to expectations that affect perceptions.
    • White people don't feel race is an issue due to lack of racial bias.
  • Needs influence perceptions by causing us to perceive what we want.
  • Emotions influence perceptions by shaping the world through feeling.
• Perceptual defense blocks unpleasant emotions or negative stimuli.
  • People often see what they want to see.
• The target is what the perceiver looks at/tries to make sense of in their perception.
  • Ambiguous targets are vague with multiple interpretations.
• The situation always provides context for perception.
  • Perception of a target can change with a situation, even when perceiver/target stay they same.
    • Seeing your teacher in public vs seeing your teacher in class.
• Social identity theory involves how people identify themselves based on social groups.
  • Personal identity is based on our characteristics.
    • Extrovert, baseball player, good at math
  • Social identity is based on social groups.
    • Canadian, TMU student, male gender
• Perceived others and ourselves show the most typical categories.
  • A prototype an office consists of strict, tidy, and confident managers.
  • A prototype in school is a smart, busy, hands-on engineer student.
• People perceive members of their own social categories more favorably.
  • Perceptual defense ignores negativity in those similar to us, as we don't want to see our own bad behavior.
• When people see an unfamiliar target, obvious cues are noticed.
  • A new coworker joins your time and, when you learn they are a Harvard graduate, you perceive them to be very smart.
• Cue selectivity ignores clues that go against already established perception.
  • i.e. Your smart coworker has had a bad first 3 months, but you ignore it as they are new and still have potential.
• Stereotyping generalizes people in a social category, ignoring variations.
  • This is based on race, age, religion, and ethnic background.
• Attribution assigns causes or motives to explain behavior.
  • One must determine if a behavior is caused by dispositional or situational factors.
  • Dispositional attributions say behavior is from their character.
  • Situational attributions say behavior is from the environment, not the person.
• 3 attribution questions:
  • Is the behavior consistent?
  • Do most people engage in this behavior?
  • Is the behavior distinctive to the situation?
    • High consistency = dispositional
    • Low consensus = disposition
    • Low distinctiveness = disposition
• The bystander effect shows how people are less likely to help a victim when other bystanders are present.
  • Conflicting behaviors between wanting to help and wanting to do what others are doing.
• Biases in attribution cloud the observer's logic and could lead to wrong attributions.
  • Fundamental attribution error is the tendency to blame certain events on the behavior not the situation.
    • When explaining our behavior, we blame the situation.
    • The student is late because he must be bad, but he lives far away.
  • Actor-observer effect causes a tendency to view the actor's behavior differently.
    • You trip on an icy pavement (actor) and your friend sees you trip on the pavement (observer). Your friend blames you rather than the pavement.
    • The actor has a situational attribution, while the observer has a dispositional attribution.
  • Self-serving bias is taking credit for outcomes and not taking responsibility for failures.
    • You take credit for a successful marketing campaign, but blame the marketing department for an unsuccessful campaign.
• A stereotype threat is a social group that feels they might be judged according to a stereotype.
  • So, they conform to societal norms to fit in with the rest of the group.
• Resume whitening occurs when ethnic applicants change their names to increase chances of being hired.
• Job applicants form perceptions during the recruitment/selection process.
  • Perceptions influence their attraction to the organization and whether or not they accept.
• Signaling theory: job applicants have incomplete information about jobs/organizations.
  • They interpret experiences as signals about how they will be treated if they accept the offer.

Week 4: Values

• Values cause a tendency to prefer states of affairs and compare good vs. bad.
  • They signal how we should and should not behave.
  • Values are held around tradition, social welfare, and achievement.
• Variation of cultures in work depend on the culture.
  • Work is a central aspect of Japanese lives.
  • Work is an obstacle in Canada (work centrality)
• Hofstede's study looked at over 100k employees to discover work values around the world.
  • There are 5 basic dimensions that vary between power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity-femininity, individualism-collectivism, and long term-short term
• Masculinity-femininity varies between gender roles and stress economic performance.
  • Feminine cultures accept equality/fluid roles, while masculine cultures put men in charge.
• Long-term cultures stress perseverance, where short-term cultures emphasize face saving/stability.
  • People with long-term orientations value persistence and perseverance.
  • People with short-term orientations focus on the near future and stability.
  • Japan has a long-term culture, while the USA has a short term one.
• Power distance shows how much power the most successful person has at the top.
  • Most cultures agree the the CEO has all the power.
• Collectivism–individualism is the degree to which cultures celebrate individual goals vs. group goals.
  • The USA is very individualistic, as it pushes for a future for all Americans and encourages them to create things.
• Uncertainty avoidance shows how each country deals with uncertainty/anxiety:.
  • High-uncertainty avoidance countries provide information and plan steps ahead by not quitting jobs abruptly.
• Behavior corresponds with attitudes when there is direct experience with the target.
  • Belief+ Values = Attitudes = Behavior.
  • Seeing less of family because of job (belief) and disliking being away from family (value) then results in disliking the job (attitude) and looking for a new one (behavior).
• Facet satisfaction looks at all job facets and individual satisfactions.
  • This includes compensation, work, and supervision.
• Overall satisfaction takes all facets into consideration when deciding if they are happy with their job or not.
• Discrepancy is the difference between your job expectations and your work.
  • Getting paid above market average and still disliking the job due to expecting more.
• Fairness is what the job gives vs what you put in.
  • This varies based on how each person perceives situations.
• There are 3 types of fairness:
  • Distributive fairness is what one thinks they deserve from the job.
    • Inputs versus outputs compared to others (equity theory)
  • Interactional fairness occurs if people feel the outcomes are properly communicated.
  • Procedural fairness occurs if the process to determine an outcome is deemed fair.
    • Mark distribution is deemed fair with the right weights.
• Emotions are short-term and intense.
  • Moods are less intense and longer lived.
  • Emotional labor can be a forced display of emotions
    • Cashiers forced to smile.
• Shocks can contribute to job turnover, even when currently satisfied.
  • Including divorce, accidents, and new job offers.
• The honeymoon effect ignores negatives when starting a new job until crashing down to normalcy.
• Organizational citizenship behavior is a voluntary commitment outside of job requirements.
  • Helping a colleague with a software issue, as well as filing reports.
• Reduced OCB is the first sign of turnover and includes lateness, absenteeism, and quitting.
• Organizational commitment is the connection between an employee and an organization's goal.
  • Affective commitment stays for a company because they want to.
    • Caring about the organization, because the cause results is emotional cost when leaving.
  • Continuous commitment remains when they have to.
    • Job markets are weak and result in a physical cost when leaving the current job.
  • Normative commitment stays when they should.
    • A sense of obligation means there is a cost when leaving.