Begrippenlijst OB
Hoofdstuk 1 Introduction to OB (hoorcollege 1)
Organizational behaviour: the study of the structure and management of organizations, their
environments, and the actions and interactions of their individual members and groups.
Organization: a social arrangement for achieving controlled performance in pursuit of collective
goals.
Controlled performance: setting standards, measuring performance, comparing actual with
standard, and taking corrective action if necessary.
Organizational dilemma: how to reconcile inconsistency between individual needs and
aspirations, and the collective purpose of the organization.
Fundamental attribution error: the tendency to explain the behaviour of others based on their
personality or disposition, and to overlook the influence of wider contextual influences.
Organizational effectiveness: a multi- dimensional concept that can be defined differently by
different stakeholders.
Balanced scorecard: an approach to defining organizational effectiveness using
a combination of quantitative and qualitative measures.
Quality of working life: an individual’s overall satisfaction with their job, working conditions,
pay, colleagues, management style, organization culture, work–life balance, and training,
development and career opportunities.
Positivism: a perspective which assumes that the world can be understood
in terms of causal relationships between observable and measurable variables, and that these
relationships can be studied objectively using controlled experiments.
Operational definition: the method used to measure the incidence of a variable in practice.
Variance theory: an approach to explaining organizational behaviour based on universal
relationships between independent and dependent variables which can be defined and measured
precisely.
Constructivism: a perspective which argues that our social and organizational worlds have no
ultimate objective truth or reality, but are instead determined by our shared experiences,
meanings and interpretations.
Process theory: an approach to explaining organizational behaviour based on narratives which
show how several factors, combining and interacting over time in a particular context, are likely
to produce the outcomes of interest.
Evidence-based management: systematically using the best available research evidence to
inform decisions about how to manage people and organizations
Human resource management: the function responsible for establishing integrated personnel
policies to support organization strategy.
Employment cycle: the sequence of stages through which all employees pass in each working
position they hold, from recruitment and selection, to termination.
,Discretionary behaviour: freedom to decide how work is going to be performed; discretionary
behaviour can be positive, such as putting in extra time and effort, or it can be negative, such as
withholding information and cooperation.
Big data: information collected, often real- time, from sources such as internet clicks, mobile
transactions, user- generated content, social media, sensor networks, sales queries, purchases.
Data analytics: the use of powerful computational methods to reveal and to visualize patterns
and trends in very large sets of data.
Human capital analytics: an HR practice enabled by computing technologies that use
descriptive, visual and statistical analyses of data related to HR processes, human capital,
organizational performance and external economic benchmarks to establish business impact and
enable evidence- based, data-driven decision-making.
Hoofdstuk 6 Personality (hoorcollege 1)
Personality: the psychological qualities that influence an individual’s characteristic behaviour
patterns, in a stable and distinctive manner.
Psychometrics: the systematic testing, measurement and assessment of intelligence, aptitudes
and personality.
Chronotype: a cluster of personality traits that can affect whether someone is more active and
performs better in the morning or in the evening.
Type: a descriptive label for a distinct pattern of personality characteristics, such as introvert,
extravert, neurotic.
Trait: a relatively stable quality or attribute of an individual’s personality, influencing behaviour
in a particular direction.
Nomothetic: an approach to the study of personality emphasizing the identification of traits, and
the systematic relationships between different aspects of personality.
Type A personality: a combination of emotions and behaviours characterized by ambition,
hostility, impatience and a sense of constant time-pressure.
Type B personality: a combination of emotions and behaviours characterized by relaxation, low
focus on achievement, and ability to take time to enjoy leisure.
The Big Five: consistent trait clusters that capture the main dimensions of personality:
Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism.
HEXACO model: a model of personality based on six trait clusters – honesty– humility,
emotionality, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience.
Idiographic: an approach to the study of personality emphasizing the uniqueness of the
individual, rejecting the assumption that we can all be measured on the same dimensions.
Self-concept: the set of perceptions that we have about ourselves
Generalized other: what we think other people expect of us, in terms of our attitudes, values,
beliefs and behaviour.
Unconditional positive regard: unqualified, non- judgemental approval and respect for the
traits and behaviours of the other person (a term used in counseling).
, Thematic apperception test: an assessment in which the individual is shown ambiguous
pictures and is asked to create stories of what may be happening in them.
Need for achievement: a concern with meeting standards of excellence, the desire to be
successful in competition, the motivation to excel.
Projective test: an assessment based on abstract or ambiguous images, which the subject is
asked to interpret by projecting their feelings, preoccupations and motives into their responses.
Predictive validity: the extent to which assessment scores accurately predict behaviours such as
job performance.
Cybervetting: covertly gathering information from informal, non- institutional online sources
via social media and search engines to help decide whom to recruit, hire, promote
or fire.
Hoofdstuk 5 Learning (hoorcollege 1)
Learning: the process of acquiring knowledge through experience which leads to a lasting
change in behaviour.
Behaviourist psychology: a perspective which argues that what we learn are chains of muscle
movements; mental processes are not observable, and are not valid issues for study.
Cognitive psychology: a perspective which argues that what we learn are mental structures;
mental processes can be studied by inference, although they cannot be observed directly.
Growth mindset: the belief that you can develop your capabilities through hard work, good
methods and contributions from others.
Feedback: information about the outcomes of our behaviour.
Positive reinforcement: the attempt to encourage desirable behaviours by introducing positive
consequences when the desired behaviour occurs.
Negative reinforcement: the attempt to encourage desirable behaviours by withdrawing
negative consequences when the desired behaviour occurs.
Punishment: the attempt to discourage undesirable behaviours by applying negative
consequences, or withholding a positive outcome following the undesirable behaviour.
Extinction: the attempt to eliminate undesirable behaviours by attaching no consequences,
positive or negative, such as indifference and silence.
Pavlovian conditioning: a technique for associating an established response or behaviour with a
new stimulus.
Skinnerian conditioning: a technique for associating a response or a behaviour with its
consequence.
Shaping: the selective reinforcement of chosen behaviours in a manner that progressively
establishes a desired behaviour pattern.
Schedule of reinforcement: the pattern and frequency of rewards contingent on the display of
desirable behaviour.
Behaviour modification: a technique for encouraging desired behaviours and discouraging
unwanted behaviours using operant conditioning.
