MAN3240 Exam 1 Study Guide - Organizational Behavior

Here is the text from the images in a structured markdown format: # MAN3240: Exam 1 Study Guide ## Week 1 **What is OB?** * Definitions: 1. Manager: Someone who gets things done through other people in organizations. 2. Organization: A consciously coordinated social unit composed of two or...

Here is the text from the images in a structured markdown format: # MAN3240: Exam 1 Study Guide ## Week 1 **What is OB?** * Definitions: 1. Manager: Someone who gets things done through other people in organizations. 2. Organization: A consciously coordinated social unit composed of two or more people that functions on a relatively continuous basis to achieve a common goal or set of goals. 3. Organizational Behavior: a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behavior within organizations for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organization's effectiveness. 4. Model: A simplified representation of some real-world phenomenon. 5. Stress: an unpleasant psychological process that occurs in response to environmental pressures. 6. Task performance: the combination of effectiveness and efficiency at doing your core job tasks. 7. Organizational citizenship behavior: The discretionary behavior that is not part of an employee's formal job requirements, and that contributes to the psychological and social environment of the workplace. 8. Withdrawal behavior: set of actions that employees take to separate themselves from the organization. * Examples: * Absenteeism * Turnover * Searching for new job * Moonlighting (doing non-work activities during work) 9. Group cohesion: extent to which members of a group support and validate one another at work. 10. Group functioning: the quantity and quality of a group's work output. 11. Productivity: An organization is productive if it achieves its goals by transforming inputs into outputs at the lowest cost. This requires both effectiveness and efficiency. 12. Organizational survival: evidence that the organization is able to exist and grow over the long term. ## Week 2 **Job Satisfaction** 1. Attitudes: evaluative statements—either favorable or unfavorable—about objects, people, or events. * They reflect how we feel about something. * Reflected in three components * Cognitive (Thoughts) * Affective (Feelings) * Behavioral (Actions) *** The image shows a diagram illustrating the relationship between affect, behavior, and cognition. * **Affective = feeling**: "I dislike my supervisor!" * **Behavioral = action**: "I'm looking for other work; I've complained about my supervisor to anyone who would listen." * **Cognitive = evaluation**: "My supervisor gave a promotion to a coworker who deserved it less than I did. My supervisor is unfair." These three components contribute to a **negative attitude toward supervisor**. 2. Cognitive dissonance: any incompatibility an individual might perceive between two or more attitudes or between behavior and attitudes. * Research has generally concluded that people seek consistency among their attitudes and between their attitudes and their behavior. 3. Job Satisfaction: A positive feeling about the job resulting from an evaluation of its characteristics. 4. Job Involvement: degree to which a person identifies with a job, actively participates in it, and considers performance important to self-worth. 5. Organizational Commitment: identifying with a particular organization and its goals and wishing to maintain membership in the organization. * Three components * Affective commitment: liking the organization * Continuance commitment: cost of leaving is too high * Normative commitment: leaving makes you feel guilty 6. Perceived Organizational Support (POS) * Degree to which employees believe the organization values their contribution and cares about their well-being. * Higher when rewards are fair, employees are involved in decision making, and supervisors are seen as supportive. * POS is important in countries where power distance is lower. 7. Job Satisfaction: a positive feeling about a job resulting from an evaluation of its characteristics. * Two approaches for measuring job satisfaction are popular * The single global rating. * The summation of job facets. * a. Work itself * b. Pay * c. Promotion (facet U.S. employees are least satisfied with) * d. Supervisor * e. Coworkers *** The image shows a bar graph titled "Job Satisfaction". The x-axis lists job facets: "Work Itself", "Pay", "Promotion", "Supervision", "Coworkers", and "Overall". The y-axis is labeled "Percentage" and ranges from 0 to 100. The bars represent the percentage of satisfaction for each facet. "Work Itself" is has the highest score, at 80%, followed by overall which is just under 80%, the other scores are similar. 8. Outcomes of job satisfaction * Job Performance: happy workers are more likely to be productive workers. * Positively related * OCB (Organizational Citizenship Behavior): people who are more satisfied with their jobs are more likely to engage in OCB. * Positively related * Counterproductive work behavior: actions that actively damage the organization, including stealing, behaving aggressively toward coworkers, or being late or absent. * Negatively related * Absenteeism: the more satisfied you are, the less likely you are to miss work. * Negatively related * Turnover: a pattern of lowered job satisfaction is the best predictor of intent to leave. * Negatively related 9. Know which is the strongest predictor of job satisfaction (largest correlation; core-self evaluations): | Variable | Correlation | # of Studies | Total N | | :-------------------------- | :---------- | :----------- | :------ | | Core Self Evaluation | 0.41 | | | | Pay level | 0.15 | 61 | 18,460 | | Physical Illness | 0.29 | 119 | 58,762 | | Autonomy | 0.34 | | 15,542 | | Perceived Feedback Quality | 0.29 | | 15,542 | * Judge & Bono, (2001); Judge, Piccolo, Podskoff, Shaw, & Rich (2010); Faragher, Cass, & Cooper (2003); Loher, Noe, Moeller, & Fitzgerald (1985); Riggle, Edmondson, & Hansen (2009) 10. Responses to Dissatisfaction: * Exit. The exit response directs behavior toward leaving the organization, including looking for a new position or resigning. * Voice. The voice response includes actively and constructively attempting to improve conditions, including suggesting improvements, discussing problems with superiors, and undertaking union activity. * Loyalty. The loyalty response means passively but optimistically waiting for conditions to improve, including speaking up for the organization in the face of external criticism and trusting the organization and its management to “do the right thing." * Neglect. The neglect response passively allows conditions to worsen and includes chronic absenteeism or lateness, reduced effort, and increased error rate. *** The diagram shows a 2x2 matrix illustrating responses to dissatisfaction. The rows are labeled "Active" and "Passive", and the columns are labeled "Constructive" and "Destructive". The four responses are: * **Active & Constructive**: VOICE * **Active & Destructive**: EXIT * **Passive & Constructive**: LOYALTY * **Passive & Destructive**: NEGLECT *** **Emotions & Moods** 1. Affect: generic term that covers a broad range of feelings people experience. 2. Emotions: intense feelings that are directed at someone or something. 3. Moods: feelings that tend to be less intense than emotions and that lack a contextual stimulus. * Know the characteristics that distinguish emotions and moods. * Know the structure of mood, in that negative affect and positive affect lie on different spectrums: *** The image shows a circular diagram depicting the structure of mood. The circle is divided into four quadrants representing high and low levels of positive and negative affect. * **High Negative Affect**: Tense, Nervous, Stressed, Upset, Sad, Depressed, Bored * **High Positive Affect**: Alert, Excited, Elated, Happy, Content, Serene, Relaxed * **Low Positive Affect**: Fatigued, Calm * **Low Negative Affect** *** 3. Sources of Mood: * Time of Day * There is a common pattern for all of us. * Happier in the midpoint of the daily awake period. * Day of the Week * Happier toward the end of the week. 4. Positivity offset: At zero input, most people experience a mildly positive mood. 5. Emotional labor: an employee's expression of organizationally desired emotions during interpersonal transactions at work. * Felt: the individual's actual emotions. * Displayed: required or appropriate emotions. * Surface acting: hiding feelings and foregoing emotional expressions in response to display rules. * Deep acting: trying to modify true inner feelings based on display rules. 6. Emotional dissonance: Inconsistencies between the emotions people feel and the emotions they project. 7. Affective events theory (AET): employees react emotionally to things that happen to them at work and this influences job performance and satisfaction. 8. Emotional Intelligence: A person's ability to: * Perceive emotions in the self and others. * Understand the meaning of these emotions. 9. Emotion regulation: identifying and modifying the emotions you feel. * Emotion Regulation Techniques * Surface acting * Deep acting * Emotional suppression: suppressing initial emotional responses to situations * Cognitive reappraisal: reframing our outlook on an emotional situation * Social sharing: venting to another person * Mindfulness: receptively paying attention to and being aware of the present moment, events, and experiences * Perspective taking: changing your perspective by adopting to view point of another, or looking at your perspective from an observer's point of view. * Involves active consideration of an event, but from a different viewpoint. * Best strategy to regulation negative emotion (strongest effect based on association below) | Strategy | Correlation | # of Studies | | :---------------- | :---------- | :----------- | | Distraction | 0.27 | 102 | | Concentration | -0.26 | 113 | | Perspective Taking | 0.45 | 36 | | Suppression | -0.12 | 20 | 10. Affect as Information (Schwartz & Clore, 1983) * People use their current emotion or mood to help make current decisions * If in a positive mood, evaluations of specific options are likely to be positive (vice versa for negative) ## Week 3 **Personality and Values** 1. Personality: the sum of ways in which an individual reacts to and interacts with others. * 50% heredity (factors that were determined at conception.) * 50% influenced by environment around person (throughout their lives) 2. The Big Five model of personality * Extraversion * High: gregarious, assertive, sociable * Low: reserved, timid, and quiet * Agreeableness: propensity to defer to others * High: cooperative, warm, and trusting * Low: cold, antagonistic * Conscientiousness * High: responsible, organized, dependable, and persistent * Low: easily distracted, disorganized, and unreliable. * Neuroticism: propensity to experience negative emotions * High: nervous, anxious, depressed, and insecure * Low: calm, secure, emotionally stable * Openness to experience * High: creative, curious, and artistic * Low: conventional, preference for routine | Trait | Professionals | Police | Managers | Sales | Skilled (Trade) | Mean | | :------------------- | :------------ | :----- | :------- | :----- | :-------------- | :--- | | Extraversion | -0.09 | 0.09 | 0.18 | 0.15 | 0.01 | 0.13 | | Emotional Stability | -0.13 | 0.10 | 0.08 | 0.07 | 0.12 | 0.08 | | Agreeableness | 0.02 | 0.10 | 0.10 | 0.00 | 0.06 | 0.07 | | Conscientiousness | 0.20 | 0.22 | 0.22 | 0.23 | 0.21 | 0.22 | | Openness to experience | -0.08 | 0.00 | 0.08 | -0.02 | 0.01 | 0.04 | 3. Other Important Traits * Core Self-Evaluation: bottom line conclusions individuals have about their capabilities, competence, and worth as a person (how positive they feel about themselves, their abilities, and their control over events in the world). * Self-Monitoring: measures an individual's ability to adjust his or her behavior to external, situational factors. * Proactive Personality: people who identify opportunities, show initiative, take action, and persevere until meaningful change occurs. 4. Situation Strength Theory: indicates that the way personality translates into behavior depends on the strength of the situation. * The degree to which norms, cues, or standards dictate appropriate behavior. * Clarity, or the degree to which cues about work duties and responsibilities are available and clear. * Consistency, or the extent to which cues regarding work duties and responsibilities are compatible with one another. * Constraints, or the extent to which individuals' freedom to decide or act is limited by forces outside their control. * Consequences, or the degree to which decisions or actions have important implications for the organization or its members, clients, suppliers, and so on. 5. Trait Activation Theory: Personality traits are engaged when called on by the right type of situation. * In other words, personality traits are expressed as responses to trait-relevant situational cues. * Trait-relevant situations: a situation relevant to a trait to a degree to which it offers opportunity for that trait to be expressed. * Know which traits would be most relevant for each of these following job contexts: | Detail Orientation Required | Social Skills Required | Competitive Work | Innovation Required | Dealing with Angry People | Time Pressure (Deadlines) | | :---------------------------- | :--------------------- | :--------------- | :------------------ | :------------------------ | :-------------------------- | | Conscientiousness (+) | Extraversion (+) | Extraversion (+) | Openness (+) | Extraversion (+) | Conscientiousness (+) | | | Agreeableness (+) | Agreeableness (-) | | Agreeableness (+) | Neuroticism (-) | | | | | | Neuroticism (-) | | 6. Person-Organization Fit: Know the direction of Person-Job fit and outcomes | Fit Type | Job Satisfaction | Organizational Commitment | Turnover Intentions | Overall Performance | | :-------------- | :--------------- | :------------------------ | :------------------ | :------------------ | | Person-Job Fit | 0.56 | 0.47 | -0.46 | 0.20 | 7. Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions * Power distance: is the degree to which people in a country accept that power in institutions and organizations is distributed unequally. * Individualism versus collectivism: individualism is the degree to which people in a country prefer to act as individuals rather than as members of groups. Collectivism emphasizes a tight social framework in which people expect others in groups in which they are a part to look after them and protect them. **Perception and Decision Making** 1. Perception is a process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions to give meaning to their environment. 2. Attribution theory suggests that when we observe an individual's behavior, we attempt to determine whether it was internally or externally caused. * Determination depends on three factors: * Distinctiveness refers to whether an individual displays different behaviors in different situations. * Consensus occurs if everyone who is faced with a similar situation responds in the same way. * Consistency occurs if someone behaves the same way in similar situations *** The image visually represents the Attribution Theory. * **Observation**: (Individual behavior) * **Interpretation**: Considers Distinctiveness, Consensus, and Consistency. * **Attribution of Cause**: Determines whether the cause is Internal or External based on high or low levels of Distinctiveness, Consensus, and Consistency. *** 3. Fundamental attribution error: we have a tendency to underestimate the influence of external factors and overestimate the influence of internal or personal factors when observing/perceiving other's behaviors. 4. Self-serving bias: individuals attribute their own successes to internal factors, and attribute their failures to external factors. 5. Selective perception: any characteristic that makes a person, object, or event stand out will increase the probability that it will be perceived. 6. Halo effect: the halo effect occurs when we draw a general positive impression based on a single characteristic. 7. Horns effect: the horns effect occurs when we draw a general negative impression based on a single characteristic. 8. Stereotyping: judging someone based on one's perception of the group to which that person belongs. * We have to monitor ourselves to make sure we're not unfairly applying a stereotype in our evaluations and decisions. 9. Applications of Attribution Theory * Performance Evaluation * An employee's performance appraisal is very much dependent upon the perceptual process. * Many jobs are evaluated in subjective terms. * Performance Expectations * Evidence demonstrates that people will attempt to validate their perceptions of reality, even when those perceptions are faulty. * Self-fulfilling prophecy, or the Pygmalion effect, characterizes the fact that people's expectations determine their behavior. * Most decisions in the real world don't follow the rational model. 10. Bounded Rationality: construct simplified models that extract the essential features needed to make a decision. * People satisfice – they seek solutions that are satisfactory and sufficient. ("good enough") 11. Common Biases and Errors in Decision Making * Overconfidence Bias: individuals whose intellectual and interpersonal abilities are weakest are most likely to overestimate their performance and ability. * Anchoring Bias: fixating on initial information as a starting point and failing to adequately adjust for subsequent information. * Confirmation Bias: type of selective perception. * Seek out information that reaffirms past choices, and discount information that contradicts past judgments. * Availability Bias: tendency for people to base judgments on information that is readily available. * Escalation of Commitment: staying with a decision even when there is clear evidence that it's wrong. * Randomness Error: our tendency to believe we can predict the outcome of random events. * Risk Aversion: the tendency to prefer a sure thing instead of a risky outcome. * Hindsight Bias: the tendency to believe falsely that one has accurately predicted the outcome of an event, after that outcome is actually known. ## Week 4 **Theories of Motivation** 1. Motivation is the processes that account for an individual's intensity, direction, and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal. * Intensity: concerned with how hard a person tries. * Direction: the orientation that benefits the organization. * Persistence: a measure of how long a person can maintain his/her effort. * relationships. 2. Self-Determination Theory * People prefer to feel they have control over their actions. * Focus on the beneficial effects of intrinsic motivation and harmful effects of extrinsic motivation. * Proposes that in addition to being driven by a need for autonomy, people seek ways to achieve competence and positive connections to others. * For individuals: * Choose your job for reasons other than extrinsic rewards. * For organizations: * Provide intrinsic as well as extrinsic incentives. * Make sure extrinsic incentives are not perceived as coercive/contractual 3. Cognitive evaluation theory - When people are paid for work, it feels less like something they *want* to do and more like something they *have* to do. 4. Goal-Setting Theory: Goals tell an employee what needs to be done and how much effort is needed. * When setting goals, set goals that are *specific* and *difficult*, but not *impossible*. * Specific goals increase performance. * Difficult goals, when accepted, result in higher performance than do easy goals. * Feedback leads to higher performance than does non-feedback. 5. Self-efficacy theory is an individual's belief that he or she is capable of performing a task. * Enactive mastery: gaining relevant experience with the task. * Most *effective* way to build self-efficacy * Vicarious modeling: more confident because you see someone else doing the task. * Verbal persuasion: convincing yourself you have the skills. * Arousal: energized state 6. Operant conditioning theory: people learn to behave to get something they want or to avoid something they don't want. 7. Social-learning theory: we can learn through both observation and direct experience. 8. Expectancy theory: a tendency to act in a certain way depends on an expectation that the act will be followed by a given outcome and on the attractiveness of that outcome to the individual. * Expectancy: the *effort-performance relationship*, which is the probability perceived by the individual that exerting a given amount of effort will lead to performance * If I give maximum effort, will it be recognized in my performance appraisal? * Instrumentality: the *performance-reward relationship*, which is the degree to which the individual believes that performing at a particular level will lead to the attainment of a desired outcome * If I get a good performance appraisal, will it lead to organizational rewards? * Valence: the *rewards-personal goals relationship*, which is the degree to which organizational rewards satisfy an individual's personal goals or needs and the attractiveness of those potential rewards for the individual. * If I'm rewarded, are the rewards attractive to me personally? *** The image shows a diagram of the Expectancy Theory consisting of three stages: Individual effort, Individual performance, Organizational rewards, and Personal goals. The stages are linked with arrows: 1. Effort-Performance Relationship: Expectancy 2. Performance-Reward Relationship: Instrumentality 3. Rewards-Personal Goals Relationship: Valence *** 9. Equity theory argues that individuals make comparisons of their job inputs and outcomes relative to those of others and then respond to any inequities. * If we perceive our ratio to be equal to that of the relevant others with whom we compare ourselves, a state of equity is said to exist. We perceive our situation as fair. * When we see the ratio as unequal, we experience equity tension. | Ratio Comparisons* | Perception | | :----------------- | :------------------------------------ | | $\frac{O_A}{I_A} < \frac{O_B}{I_B}$ | Inequity due to being underrewarded | | $\frac{O_A}{I_A} = \frac{O_B}{I_B}$ | Equity | | $\frac{O_A}{I_A} > \frac{O_B}{I_B}$ | Inequity due to being overrewarded | 10. Model of Organizational Justice *** The image shows the following in a graphic: Distributive Justice: * Definition: perceived fairness of outcome * Example: I got the pay raise I deserved. Procedural Justice: * Definition: perceived fairness of process used to determine outcome * Example: I had input into the process used to give raises and was given a good explanation of why I received the raise I did. Interactional Justice: * Definition: sensitivity to the quality of interpersonal treatment * Example: When telling me about my raise, my supervisor was very nice and complimentary. All three contribute to: Organizational Justice * Definition: overall perception of what is fair in the workplace * Example: I think this is a fair place to work. *** Interaction between distributive and procedural justice The image shows a graph. The x-axis reads "Low Procedural Justice" and "High Procedural Justice." The y-axis shows "Quality of Life" on a scale of 1 to 5. There are two data series, "Low Distributive Justice" and "High Distributive Justice" as indicated in the legend. The main point conveyed is that quality of life steadily increases with High Distributive Justice procedural justice, while Low procedural justice has little effect. 11. Positive Mood and Expectancy theory * Positive mood increases motivation, increasing expectancy, instrumentality, and valence *** Three graphs are shown: * Effects of positive affect on expectancy in Study 1: The x-axis reads "Effort (min)", and the y-axis reads "Expected Performance." * Effects of positive affect on instrumentality in Study 2: The x-axis reads "Performance (questions)", and the y-axis reads "Expected Rewards." * Effects of positive affect on valence in Study 1: The x-axis reads "Rewards ($)", and the y-axis reads "Valence." All the charts indicate a positive correlation between positive affect and the corresponding metric on the y-axis. *** **Applications of Motivation** 1. Job Characteristics Model * Skill variety is the degree to which the job requires a variety of different activities, so the worker can use a number of different skills and talent. * Task identity is the degree to which the job requires completion of a whole and identifiable piece of work. * Task significance is the degree to which the job has a substantial impact on the lives or work of other people. * The first three dimensions—skill variety, task identity, and task significance—combine to create *meaningful work* * Autonomy is the degree to which the job provides substantial freedom, independence, and discretion to the individual in scheduling the work and determining the procedures to be used in carrying it out. * Increases *experienced responsibility* for work outcomes * Feedback is the degree to which carrying out the work activities required by the job results in the individual obtaining direct and clear information about the effectiveness of his or her performance. * Increases *knowledge* on how well one is performing * The core dimensions of the job characteristics model (JCM) can be combined into a single predictive index called the motivating potential score (MPS). * Evidence supports the JCM concept that the presence of a set of job characteristics does generate higher and more satisfying job performance. *** *The image shows Core job dimensions such as:* * *Skill variety,* * *Task identity,* * *Task significance* * *Autonomy* * *Feedback* *and critical psychological states:* * *Experienced meaningfulness of the Work* * *Experienced Responsibility for outcomes of the work* * *Knowledge of the actual results of the work activities* *** 1. Job Rotation * Referred to as cross-training. * Periodic shifting from one task to another. 2. Job Enrichment * Increasing a job's high-level responsibilities to increase intrinsic motivation. * Involves adding another layer of responsibility and meaning. * Can be effective at reducing turnover. 3. Relational Job Design * To make jobs more prosocially motivating: * Connect employees with the beneficiaries of their work. * Meet beneficiaries firsthand. 4. Telecommuting: employees who do their work at home at least two days a week through virtual devices linked to the employer's office. * Positively related to objective performance and job satisfaction. * Reduced work-family conflict. * Reduced carbon emissions. * Telecommuting Disadvantages * Employer * a. Difficult to coordinate teamwork. * Employee * a. Increased feelings of isolation and reduced coworker relationship quality. ## Week 5 **Foundations of Group Behavior** 1. Social identity theory proposes that people have emotional reactions to the failure or success of their group because their self-esteem gets tied into the performance of the group. Social identities help us understand who we are and where we fit in with other people, but they can have a negative side as well. * Ingroup favoritism occurs when we see members of our group as better than other people, and people not in our group as all the same. 2. Punctuated Equilibrium Model * Their first meeting sets the group's direction. * This first phase of group activity is one of inertia. * A transition takes place at the end of this phase, which occurs around when the group has used up half its allotted time. * A transition initiates major changes: “an alarm clock rings", and groups ramp up activity. * A second phase of inertia follows the transition, where the team works at a high rate * the group's last meeting is characterized by markedly accelerated activity, higher than the rate of the second phase of inertia *** The image depicts a graphic model that indicates punctuated equilibrium model. The y axis is "Performance" which is measured against the x axis indicating "Time", and the graph has 3 sections, "Phase 1", "Transition" and "Phase 2", till "Completion" of the work. *** 3. Role: a set of expected behavior patterns attributed to someone occupying a given position in a social unit. * Role perception: one's perception of how to act in a given situation. * Role expectations: how others believe one should act in a given situation. * Role conflict: situation in which an individual faces divergent role expectations. * We can experience interrole conflict when the expectations of our different, separate groups are in opposition. * Zimbardo's Prison Experiment: behavior is heavily influenced by the roles they take * An experiment where participants were put into roles of prisoners and guards. Within days, participants began to believe they were what their roles were, and the power difference between guards and prisoners led to prisoners behaving submissively and guards acting with disregard of the prisoners well-being. 4. Norms: acceptable standards of behavior within a group that are shared by the group's members. * Researchers have also found that norms dictated the experience of emotions for the individuals and for the groups – in other words, people grew to interpret their shared emotions in the same way. 5. Asch's conformity study: * Groups of seven or eight people were asked to compare two cards held by the experimenter. One card had one line; the other had three lines of varying length. Under ordinary conditions, subjects made less than one percent error. The experiment began with several sets of matching exercises. All the subjects gave the right answers. On the third set, however, the first subject gave an obviously wrong answer, the next subject gave the same wrong answer, and so did the others until it got to the unknowing subject. * The results obtained by Asch demonstrated that over many experiments and many trials, subjects conformed in about 37% of the trials; the subjects gave answers that they knew were wrong but that were consistent with the replies of other group members. * Informational conformity: conforming because one believes they must be incorrect and the group is correct. * Normative conformity: conforming with group because it is not worth disagreeing. *** The image shows a graphic representation of Asch's conformity study. * Card X has a single line * Card A, B, and C display three lines of length matching to the single line depicted in card X * Line B matches the length of Card X *** 6. Status: a socially defined position or rank given to groups or group members by others. * Status characteristics theory: status is derived from one of three sources: * The power a person wields over others. * A person's ability to contribute to a group's goals. * An individual's personal characteristics. 7. Group size affects the group's overall behavior. * Large groups are good for gaining diverse input. * Smaller groups are better doing something with input. 8. Diversity: degree to which members of the group are similar to, or different from, one another. * Increases group conflict in the short term. * Culturally and demographically diverse groups may perform better over time. 9. Strengths and Weaknesses of group decision making * Strengths of group decision making: * More complete information and knowledge * Increased diversity of views * Increased acceptance of solutions * Weaknesses of group decision making: * Time consuming * Conformity pressures 10. Groupthink: situations in which group pressures for conformity deter the group from critically appraising unusual, minority, or unpopular views. 11. Brainstorming can overcome pressures for conformity. * In a brainstorming session: * The group leader states the problem. * Members then “free-wheel” as many alternatives as they can. * No criticism is allowed. * One idea stimulates others, and group members are encouraged to “think the unusual." 12. Nominal group technique: restricts discussion or interpersonal communication during the decision making process. * Group members are all physically present, but members operate independently. * Permits the group to meet formally but does not restrict independent thinking, as does the interacting group * Nominal groups outperform brainstorming groups. **Understanding Work Teams** 1. Team interdependence * Task Interdependence: degree to which team members must interact and rely on one another to accomplish team goals * Linked together by tasks * Pooled Interdependence (least interdependent): tasks completed independently and work is "piled up" to represent output. * Sequential Interdependence: different tasks are done in a prescribed order where the group is structured such that members specialize in these tasks. * Reciprocal Interdependence: similar to sequential interdependence, but subsets of members interact with each other to complete the team's work. * Comprehensive Interdependence (most interdependent): all team members must interact with one another to accomplish the work given to them. * Goal interdependence: degree to which team members align individual goals with team goals * Linked together by goal * Outcome interdependence: degree to which members are linked to one another in terms of feedback and outcomes they receive as consequence of working with the team * Linked together by outcomes * (Think instrumentality from Expectancy Theory) 2. Team Processes * Team efficacy: teams having confidence in themselves and believe they can succeed * Team cohesion: members are emotionally attached to one another and motivated toward the team because of their attachment. * Mental models: organized mental representations of the key elements within a team's environment that team members share. * If team members have different ideas about how to do things, the team will fight over how to do things rather than focus on what needs to be done. * Team Conflict * Relationship conflict: disagreements among team members in terms of interpersonal relationships or incompatibilities with respect to personal values. * Task conflict: disagreements among members about the team's task. * When task conflict is beneficial: * i. Shared trust between team members * ii. Members feel they can openly express their opinion without reprise * iii. Team members must engage in cooperative and beneficial conflict management practices * iv