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Summary Social Psychology in Organisations Lecture Notes
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Social Psychology in Organisations - Lecture ChaptersChapter 1: What is Organisational Behaviour?
Organisational Behaviour (OB): the study of individuals and their behaviours at work
● Interdisciplinary and multilevel research
- Draws insides from applied psychology, cultural anthropology,
communication, and sociology
● Focus on applied social psychology
- Study of how people interact in groups
Hawthorne
Hawthorne studies led to a focus on the role of human behaviour in organisations
- The more attention paid to a worker, the happier and more productive the workers
became
Hawthorne Effect: positive responses in attitudes and performance when researchers pay
attention to a particular group of workers
Evidence Based Management (EBM)
Evidence based management: the ability to translate research to practice
- Manage workers and organisations on the basis of sound knowledge based on
scientific research
● EBM improves a leader’s decisions by disciplined application of the most relevant
and current specific evidence
Four sources of information:
- The best available scientific evidence
- The best available organisational evidence
- The best available experiential evidence
- Organisational values and stakeholder’s concerns
What is critical thinking?
“Critical thinking calls for persistent effort to examine any belief or supposed form of
knowledge in the light of evidence that supports it and the further conclusions to which it
tends” (Glaser, 1941)
Critical thinking has three interrelated parts:
- The elements of thought (reasoning)
- The intellectual standards that applied to the elements of reasoning
- The intellectual traits associated with a cultivated critical thinker
,Critical thinking is self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrected thinking
Outcome variables on organisational behaviour
● Performance and productivity (quality vs quantity)
● Work-related attitudes (commitment, job satisfaction)
● Employee well-being
● Motivation (intrinsic vs extrinsic)
● Employee withdrawal (turnover, turnover intentions, absenteeism)
Chapter 2: Personality and Person-Environment Fit
What is Personality?
Personality has been defined as “regularities in feeling, thought and action that are
characteristic of an individual” (Snyder, 1998)
- May affect our work habits and how we interact with coworkers
- Individual differences are aspects of individual differences that must be understood
- Leaders must work with them, rather than try to change people
Minnesota Twin Studies
● In born vs learnt
● These twins tell us a great deal about the contribution of heredity
● 50% of the variation in occupational choice is due to heredity
● 40% of the variance in values related to work motivation attributed to heredity
● 60% of the variance was due to the environment
Implications for a leader
● Most psychologists believe that personality is a relatively stable individual difference
● Instead of trying to change a coworker's personality, learn about personality
differences
● Understand how different personalities operate at work, and work effectively with
different types
Leaders: Are They Born or Made?
● One question that arises is whether leaders are born to greatness or if leadership can
be acquired by anyone
● Leadership is most likely a combination of inborn traits and learned behaviour
organisations should carefully select leaders and then provide training to enhance
leader effectiveness
,Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is the most often administered personality test in
organisational settings
The MBTI is used by Hallmark, GE, and many other large organisations in their leadership
training and development programs
The MBTI is based upon four general personality preferences:
● Introversion (I) versus extraversion (E): extraverts tend to be outgoing; introverts
tend to be shy
● Sensing (S) versus intuition (N): Sensing types tend to be practical; intuitive people
tend to be “idea people”
● Thinking (T) versus feeling (F): thinking types tend to use logic; feeling types tend
to use emotion
● Judging (J) versus perceiving (P): judging types tend to make quick decisions;
perceiving types tend to be more flexible
Grouped into 16 personality types
, Limitations of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
● If you take the test again, you may not receive the same score
● Whether people are actually classifiable into the 16 categories is questionable
The Big Five
● Openness
● Conscientiousness
● Extraversion
● Agreeableness
● Neuroticism
- Reliable component in making decisions, successfully predicts performance
Other relevant personality traits
● Type A versus Type B
- Restless / anxious vs relaxed / calm
● Machiavellianism
- The ends justify the means
- Do whatever it takes to win
- Believe that others can be manipulated and it is permissible to do so to reach
own goals
- Often engage in counterproductive work behaviours
● Self monitoring
- Self observation and self control guided by situational cues to social
appropriateness
- High SM: Very adaptable to situations / higher performance ratings, but lower
organisational commitment / better working relationships with bosses /
achieve more rapid career mobility since they are able to attain central
positions in the powerful networks in the organisation
- Low SM: Not able to pretend they are someone they are not / consistent in
displays of attitudes regardless of situation
● Risk taking
- Social versus physical
- Entrepreneurs have high risk taking propensity than general managers
- Risk taking declines during lifespan, however there are differences across
countries: when resources are scarce, people must keep taking risks
Psychological Capital
Value of individual differences, part of positive organisational behaviour
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