Chapter 14

Foundations of Behavior
The Economics and
Management Department of
Shanghai University of Polital
Science and Laws
Song Yuan
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Content
Why look at individual behavior?
Explain why the concept of an organization as an iceberg is
important to understanding organizational behavior
Describe the focus and the goals of organizational behavior
Define the five important employee behaviors that managers
want to explain, predict, and imfluence
Attitudes
Describe the 3 components of an attitude
Discuss the 3 job-related attitudes
Describe the impact job satisfaction has on employee behavior
Explain how individuals recondile inconsistencies between
attitudes and behavior

Content(contd)
Personality
Contrast the MBTI and the Big Five Model of personality
Describe the five personality traits that have proved to be the
most powerful in explaining individual behavior in organizations
Explain how emotions and emotional intelligence impact
behavior
Perception
Explain how an understanding of perception can help
managers better understand individual behavior
Describe the key elements of attribution theory
Discuss how the fundamental attribution error and self-serving
bias can distort attributions
Name 3 shortcuts used in judging others

Content(contd)
Learning
Explain how operant conditioning helps managers understand,
predict, and influence behavior
Describe the implications of social learning theory for
managing people at work
Discuss how managers can shape behavior

A managers dilemma

Why look at individual behavior?

Behavior

Organizational behavior

The action of people

The actions of people at work

OB provides managers with considerable

insights into these important, but hidden,
aspects of the organization

OB fouces on people

Hidden aspects

Visible aspects

Strategies
Objectives
Policies and procedures
Structure
Technology
Formal authority
Chain of command

Attitudes
Perceptions
Group norms
Informal interactions
Interpersonal and
intergroup conflicts

Why look at individual behavior?

Focus of organizational behavior

First, OB looks at individual behavior.

Attitudes
Personality
Perception
Learning
Motivation

Second, OB in concerned with group behavior

Norms
Roles
Team building/leadership/conflict
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Why look at individual behavior?

Goals of organizational behavior

Explain behavior
Predict behavior
Influence behavior

Five important employee behaviors to explain,

predict, and influence

Employee productivity
Absenteeism
Turnover
Organizational citizenship behavior
Job satisfaction

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Employee productivity

Absenteeism

A performance measure of both efficiency and

effectiveness

The failure to report to work

Turnover

The voluntary and involuntary permanent

withdrawal from an organization

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Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB)

Discretionary behavior that is not part of an

employees formal job requirements, but that
nevertheless promotes the effective functioning
of the organization

Job satisfaction

An employees general attitude toward his or her

job
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Attitudes

discrimination is
wrong
Evaluative statements,
favorable or unfavorable,

Definition

concerni9ng objects, people, or events

Reflecting how an individual feels about sth

Components

I dont like John because

Cognitive component
he discriminates
that part of anagainst
attitude
thats made up of the
beliefs, opinions held by a
minorities
person
Affective component that part of an
attitude thats the emotional or feeling part
might
choose
to avoid
Behavioral component I
that
part
of an
Johninbecause
of my
attitude that refers to behave
a certain
way
feelings about him
toward someone or sth

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Cognitive component

attitude
Affective component

Behavioral component

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What attitudes are

managers interested in?

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Attitudes

Job satisfaction

The effect of job satisfaction on EB

Refers to a persons general attitude toward his

or her job
As time goes, theres been a marked decline in
job satisfaction
Higer incomes lead to higher job satisfaction?
Satisfaction and productivity
Satisfaction and absenteeism
Satisfaction and turnover

Job satisfaction and coustomer satisfaction

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Attitudes

Job involvement and organizational

commitment

Job involvement: the degree to which an employee

identifies with his or her job, actively participates
in it, and considers his or her job performance to
be important to self-worth
Organizational commitment: an employees
orientation toward the organization in terms of his
or her loyalty to, identification with, and
involvement in the organization

Perveived organizational support

Emlpoyees general belief that their organizational

values their contribution and cares about their
well-being
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Attitudes

Attitudes and consistency

Research has generally concluded that people

seek consistency among their attitudes and
between their attitudes and behavior
When there is an inconsistency

Altering the attitudes

Altering the behavior
Developing a retionalization for the inconsistency

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Attitudes
Can
an individuals
behavior be predicted if
Cognitive dissonance
we knowtheory
his or her
Cognitive dissonance:
Any incompatibility or
attitudes?

inconsistency between attitudes or between

behavior and attitudes
The theory sought to explain the relationship
between attitudes and behavior
How to cope with dissonance

The importance of the factors creating the

dissonance
The degree of influence the individual believes he or
she has over those factors
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The rewards that may be involved in dissonance

Attitudes

Attitude surveys

Surveys that elicit responses from employees

through questions about how they feel about
their jobs, work groups, supervisors, or the
organization
Using attitude surveys on a regular basis
provides managers with valuable feedback on
how employees perceive their working conditions

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Attitudes

Implications for managers

Managers should be interested in employees

attitudes because attitudes give warnings of
potential problems and because influence
behavior
The findings of satisfaction-productivity
relationship have important implications
Managers should also recognize that employees
will try to reduce dissonance

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Personality

Personality

The unique combination of psychological

characteristics that affect how a person reacts
and interacts with others

MBTI

Social interaction (E or I)
Preference for gathering date (S or N)
Preference for decision making (F or T)
Style of making decisions (P or J)
You want to
have a try?

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Personality

The Big Five Model

Five-factor model of personality that includes

extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness,
emotional stability, and openness to experience
Five factor

Extraversion
Agreeableness
Conscientiousness
Emotional stability
Openness to experience

The big five model provide more than a

personality framework. It shows the important
relationship between these personality dimensions
and job performance
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Personality

Additional personality insights

Locus of control
Machiavellianism
Self-esteem
Self-monitoring
Risk propensity

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Personality

Personality types in different cultures

National cultures differ in terms of the degree to

which people believe they control their
environment
Personality traits influence employees
behavior(global management)

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Personality

Emotions and emotional intelligence

Emotions: interse feelings that are directed at

someone or something
EI: an assortment of noncognitive skills,
capabilities, and competencies that influence a
persons ability to succeed in coping with
emvironmental demands and pressures

Self-awareness
Self-management
Self-motivation
Empathy
Social skills

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Personality

Impliation for managers

Employee selection

Personality-job fit theory by John Holland

Work well withy others both inside and outside

the organization

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Perception

Perception

The process of organizing and interpreting

sensory impressions in order to give meaning to
the environment
Factors that influence perception

The perceiver
The target
The situation

Attribution theory

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Old woman
or young lady?

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Attribution theory

A theory used to explain how we judge people

differently depending on the meaning we
attribute to a given behavior
When we observe an individuals behavior, we
attempt to determine whether it was internal
or external

Internal under the personal control of the

individual
External is forced into the behavior by the
situation
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Attribution theory

High

External

Three factors to determine whether the

Distinctivbehavior is internal
or externalLow
eness

Distinctiveness

Internal

High
Whether an individual displays different
behaviors in
External
different situations
Individual
High/low
Consensus
behavior

Consensus

Respond to a similar situation in the same way

High
High/low

Consistency

Low

Internal
External

Consistency

Engage in the behavior regularly and consistently

Low
High/low
Internal
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Attribution theory

Fundamental attribution error

The tendency to underestimate the influence of

external factors and overestimate the influence of
internal factors when making judgements about the
behavior of others

Self-serving bias

The tendency for individuals to attribute their own

successes to internal factors while putting the blame
for failures on external factors
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Perception

Shortcuts frequently used in judging others

Assumend similarity

Stereotyping

The belief that others are like oneself

Judging a person on the basis of ones perception of a
group to which he or she belongs

Halo effect

A general impression of an individual based on a single

characteristic

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Learning

Learning

Any relatively permanent change in behavior that

occurs as a result of experience

Operant conditioning

A type of learning in which desired voluntary

behavior leads to a reward or prevents a
punishment
Behavior is a function of its consequences
Reinforcement strengthens a behavior and
increases the likelihood that it will be repeated
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Learning

Social learning

Social learning theory: a theory of learning that

says people can learn through observation and
direct experience
The influence of others is central to the social
learning theory
Four factors influencing an individuals behavior

Attentional processes
Retention processes
Motor reproduction processes
Reinforcement processes
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Learning

Shaping: a managerial tool

Shaping behavior: the process of systematically

reinforcing each successive step that moves an
individual closer to the desired behavior

Four ways to shape behavior

Positive reinforcement

Negative reinforcement

Punishment

extinction

Result in learning through

Strengthening a desired behavior

Result in learning through

Weakening an undesired behavior

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Learning

Implications for managers

The only issue is whether managers are going to

manage their learning through the rewards they
allocate and the examples they set, or allow it to
occur haphazardly?

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OB???

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OB,

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OB

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