Lecture 1
Chapter 1
Hawthorne effect- positive responses in attitudes and performance when researchers pay
attention to a particular group of workers Elton Mayo (beginning of human relations
movement, led to focus on human behavior in organizations)
Organizational behavior: the study of individuals and their behavior at work; multidisciplinary
and multilevel research area that draws from applied psychology
Evidence-based management: the ability to translate research into practice; it reduces the
judgment error in making decisions.
Evidence-based management consists of:
1. Selecting the best available evidence
2. systematic decision making
3. re-evaluating and adapting
Decisions are made based on four sources of evidence:
1. The best available scientific evidence- empirical studies
2. The best available organizational evidence- internal data (interviews and surveys
completed by people in the organization)
3. The best available experiential evidence- professional expertise
4. Organizational values and stakeholders’ concerns- stakeholders (a stock price or groups
that focus on whether the organizational employs environmentally friendly practices)
Critical thinking: a 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)
It has three interrelated parts:
1. The elements of thought (reasoning)
2. The intellectual standards that applied to the elements of reasoning
3. The intellectual traits associated with cultivated critical thinker that results from the
consistent and disciplined application of the intellectual standards to the elements of
thought
Skills:
1. Logic (rely on reason, weight evidence)
2. Reflection (examine assumptions, recognize biases)
3. Dual processing (consider different viewpoints, start over when necessary)
4. Attention to detail (use many sources, be thorough)
5. Decision making (develop contingency plans)
Agile working: independent of place and time (flexible workspaces, working from home)-
unsupported by empirical evidence. Ignored by the organizations, because other organizations
use it they do not use critical thinking.
Outcome variables in organizational behavior:
1. Performance and productivity (quality and quantity of work)
2. Motivation
, 3. Work-related attitudes (organizational commitment, job satisfaction, engagement)
4. Employee well-being
5. Employee withdrawal (turnover (intensions), absenteeism)
Theory X and Theory Y:
- Theory X is a pessimistic assumption, in which leaders believe that people are lazy, do
not like to work, and avoid responsibility. It is related to the manager’s behaviors of
being directive and engaging in surveillance and coercion.
- Theory X is an optimistic assumption, and leaders assume that people are internally
motivated, like to work, and accept responsibility. It is related to managerial behaviors of
allowing discretion, participation, and encouragement of creativity on the job.
Chapter 2
Personality: regularities in feeling, thought and ,action that is characteristic of an individual
(Snyder, 1998) stable over time
The role of heredity: De Neve et al. (2013).They are comparingg identical to fraternal twins.
The contributors to whether someone will occupy a leadership position later in life are unshared
environment and genetics. Genetics contributes 24%.
Also, leadership style: Johnson et al. (1998): compared transformational (charismatic leaders)
and transactional leadership styles (reward or punishment). Identical twins are more likely to
share leadership styles than fraternal twins.
From DNA to personality, questionnaires:
1. Myers- Briggs type indicator
2. Big five
3. Psychological capital
4. type A versus type B
5. Machiavellianism
6. Self-monitoring
7. Risk-taking
Myers-Briggs type indicator: most often administered personality test in organizational settings
- Based on Carl Jung
- Claims to assess your “true” (unconscious) personality type
- Predicts behavior
Four general personality preferences:
1. Introversion (I) versus extraversion (E)
2. Sensing (S) versus intuition (I): practical versus idea type of people
3. Thinking (T) versus feeling (F)
4. Judging (J) versus perceiving (P): making quick decisions versus being more flexible
Combining makes 16 personality types
Limitations:
1. MBTI uses four dichotomies, instead of continuous traits
, 2. Judging. vs .perceiving is new, not based on Jungian theory
3. If you retake the test , you might not receive the same score (test-retest reliability
between 61-90%)
4. Whether people are actssifiable into the 16 categories is questionable
5. It claims to expose your “unconscious” personality type based on the self-report measures
6. It asks users to self-verify their results, and they can pick different type if theystyleagree
7. Since it assesses self-report behavior, the claim that personality type causes behavior is
circular
8. In response to criticism, MBTI claims that it should not be used to predict performance or
outcomes
The big five:
1. Openness to experience
2. Conscientiousness
3. Extraversion
4. Agreeableness
5. Neuroticism
- Conscientiousness is the reliable (and the best) predictor of job performan.ce
- Conscientiousness, openness to experience, neuroticism, agreeableness predict
entrepreneurship
- Conscientious people are less likely to engage in deviant behavior
- Conscientiousness, extraversion, openness, and agreeableness predict turnover
intentions?
Personality traits and health research: Type A (competitive, aggressive), Type B (relaxed,
easygoing) and Type C (hardworking, nice) In the study observing patients in the doctors
waiting room, 70% of Type A men had coronary heart disease
Type D (distressed personality): recently discussed, combination of negative affect and social
inhibition.
Machiavellianism: Refers to the person who believes that the “end justifies the means”. High
Mach people believe that other people can be manipulated and that it is permissible to do so to
realize their goals. Set of characteristics: distrust in others, a willingness to engage in amoral
manipulation, a desire to accumulate status for oneself, a desire to maintain interpersonal control.
High Mach employees engage in counterproductive work behavior, report lower job satisfaction
and experience more stress at the job. High Mach’s task performance improves over time,
suggesting that they need time to learn the organization’s political system and work themselves
into power networks. Has been related to negative outcomes for others bullying, abusive
supervision.
Dark Triad: comprised of Machiavellianism, narcissism, ad psychopathy.
Self-monitoring: self-observation and self-control guided by situational cues to social
appropriateness. High self-monitors are adaptable to situations, and low are not able to pretend
, that they are someone they are not. High self-monitors receive better performance ratings and
become leaders but have lower organizational commitment, they develop better working
relationships with their bosses, might engage in counterproductive work behavior because they
would do anything to win.
Risk-taking: declines over the lifespan, but not when resources are scarce.
Psychological capital:
1. efficacy
2. optimism
3. hope
4. resiliency
Positively related to employee empowerment and engagement, predicts job performance
and satisfaction, might be increased with training.
Core self-evaluations: a fundamental premise that individuals hold about themselves and their
functioning in the world. People who have high core self-evaluation see themselves as competent
and in control. Core self-evaluations relate to job satisfaction, and this is, in part, due to high
CSE employees taking on challenging tasks and seeing their work as personally fulfilling.
Having a positive core self-evaluation predicts an employee’s voice, and is related to job
performance.
Person-environment fit: when an individual’s personality is aligned with their environment, it
results in job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and better performance on the job
Two types:
1. person-organization fit
2. person-job fit
Person-organization fit: match between person’s individual values and those of the organization
they work for; often considered when recruiting employees; results in increased job satisfaction,
organizational commitment, and better performance.
Person-job fit: job characteristics are aligned with the employee’s personality, motivations and
abilities.
Two forms:
1. demands-abilities fit: compatibility between the employee’s knowledge, skills, and
abilities and the demands of the job
2. needs-supplies fit: whether the job fulfills the employee’s needs for interesting work and
a sense of meaning in their work.
Poor fit results in burnout, good fit in a higher salary.
Managing personalities:
You can try to recruit personnel based on the personality types but:
