Organizational Behavior

(Revision Sheet)
1. Personality and Big Five Personality Traits.
Personality represents the overall profile, or combination of characteristics, that captures the
.unique nature of a person as that person reacts and interacts with others

Personality combines a set of physical and mental characteristics that reflect how a person
.looks, thinks, acts, and feels

Sometimes attempts are made to measure personality with questionnaires or special tests.
.Frequently, personality can be inferred from behavior alone

Personality is an important individual characteristic for managers to understand. An

understanding of personality contributes to an understanding of organizational behavior

How Personalities Differ

Big Five Personality traits

 Numerous lists of personality traits – enduring characteristics describing an individual’s

behavior – is called the “Big Five”.

1. Extraversion: Outgoing, sociable, assertive.

2. Agreeableness: good-natured, trusting, cooperative.

3. Conscientiousness: responsible, dependable, persistent.

4. Emotional stability: unworried, secure, relaxed.

5. Openness to experience: imaginative, curious, broad-minded.

2. Motivation and theories of motivation.

 Motivation is defined as the individual forces that account for the direction, level, and
persistence of a person's effort expended at work.

1. Direction refers to an individual's choice when presented with a number of possible

alternatives.

2. Level refers to the amount of effort a person puts forth.

3. Persistence refers to the length of time a person sticks with a given action

 The theories of motivation can be divided into three broad categories.

1. Content theories is focus primarily on individual needs. These theories suggest that the
manager's job is to create a positive approach to individual needs and the work
environment .
 2. Process theories seek to understand the thought processes that determine behavior.

3. Reinforcement theories emphasize the means through which the process of controlling an
individual's behavior by manipulating its consequences takes place.

3. Performance appraisal and appraisal methods.

 Performance appraisal is defined as the process of systematically evaluating performance
and providing feedback on which performance adjustments can be made.

 Performance appraisals are intended to:

1. Define the specific job criteria against which performance will be the measured.

2. Measure past job performance accurately.

3. Justify the rewards when individuals and/or group, thereby discriminating between high and
low performance.

4. Define the development experiences and rate the needs to enhance performance in the
current job and to prepare for future responsibilities.

 These four functions describe two general purposes:

1. Evaluative decisions: Performance appraisal information is used in making important

decisions such as selection and placement, promotions, transfers, terminations, and
feedback.

2. Feedback and development decisions: Performance appraisals also can be used to let
ratees know where they stand in terms of organization's expectations and performance
objectives. This feedback can be used for developmental purposes.

 Performance appraisal feedback can also be used as a basis for individual coaching or
training by the manager to help a subordinate overcome performance deficiencies..

 Performance appraisal methods can be divided into two general categories:

comparative methods and absolute methods.

 Comparative methods seek to identify one's relative standing among those being rated.
These methods include:

1. Ranking is the simplest and involves rank ordering of each individual from best to worst on
each performance dimension.

2. Paired comparison in which each person is directly compared with every other person.

3. Forced distribution that uses a small number of performance categories, such as "very
good", "good", "adequate", and "very poor", and forces a certain proportion of people into
each.
 Absolute methods: Use a scale ranging for example from "extremely agree" to "extremely
disagree". This methods include:

1. A graphic rating scale that lists a variety of dimensions thought to be related to high-
performance outcomes in a given job that the individual is expected to exhibit.

2. A critical incident diary that records incidents of unusual success or failure in a given
performance aspect.

3. A behaviorally anchored rating scale (BARS) that describes observable job behaviors, each
of which is evaluated to determine good versus bad performance.

4. Management by objectives (MBO) where goal setting is jointly done by a supervisor and a
subordinate.

4. Values and classification values as developed by Gordon Allpart.

 Values can be defined as broad preferences concerning appropriate courses of action or
outcomes. They reflect a person's sense of right and wrong or what "ought" to be.

 Sources of values include parents, friends, teachers, and external reference groups.

 Psychologist Milton Rokeach has developed a well-known set of values classified into two
broad categories:

a. Terminal values which reflect a person's preferences concerning the "ends" to be

achieved.

b. Instrumental values which reflect a person's beliefs about the means for achieving
desired ends.

 Another frequently used classification of human values has been developed by

psychologist Gordon Allport and his associates. These values fall into six major
types:

1. Theoretical: Interest in the discovery of truth through reasoning and systematic thinking.

2. Economic: interest in usefulness and practicality, including the accumulation of wealth.

3. Aesthetic: Interest in beauty, form, and artistic harmony.

4. Social: Interest in people and love and in human relationship.

5. Political: Interest in  power and influencing other people.

6. Religious: interest in unity and in understanding the cosmos as a whole.

 5. Organizational behavior and its importance.

:Organizational Behavior

 The Study of human behavior in organization.

 It is a multidisciplinary field devoted to understanding individual and group behavior.

?Why is the study of OB important

 It helps you develop a better work-related understanding about yourself and other people.

 It can expand your potential for career success in a very dynamic environment.

6.workforce diversity.
 Workforce diversity: Refers to differences based on gender, race, age, and able-
bodiedness.

7. Globalization and its forces.

Globalization and OB

 Most organizations today must achieve high performance in the context of a competitive
and complex global environment.

 We are living in the age of globalization which involves growing worldwide interdependence
of resource suppliers, product markets and business competition.

 The ability to recognize, understand and respect differences and value global diversity is an
important key to success in managing organizational behavior across cultures.

Forces of globalization

 The rapid growth of information technology and electronic communications has heightened
the average person’s awareness of the global economy.

 Valuable skills and investments are moving easily from country to country, and as a result
cultural diversity among their populations is increasing.

 Employers increasingly deal with multicultural workforces with members from nontraditional
labor sources and from ethnic backgrounds representing all corners of the globe.

 Domestic self-sufficiency is no longer a viable option for nations or businesses.

 Commercial investments and jobs now easily and routinely travel the trade routes of the
world.

 In addition, information technology creates opportunities to work in virtual space with people
and teams located around the world.
 8. Hofstede's dimensions of cultures.
Hofsted's dimensions of national cultures

 Cultures vary in their understanding patterns of values and attitudes. The way people think
about such matters as achievement, wealth and material gain, and risk and change may
influence how people approach work and their relationships with organizations.

 Hofstede offers one approach for understanding how value differences across national
cultures can influence behavior at work. He identifies the following five interrelated
dimensions:

1. Power distance is the willingness of a culture to accept power differences among its
members.

2. Uncertainty avoidance is the cultural tendency to be uncomfortable with uncertainty and

risk in everyday life.

3. Individualism-collectivism is the tendency of a culture’s members to emphasize individual

self-interests or group relationships.

4. Masculinity-femininity is the degree to which a society values assertiveness or

relationships.

5. Long-term/short-term orientation is the degree to which a culture emphasizes long-term

or short-term thinking.

9. Ethics and social responsibility.

:Ethics and Social Responsibility

Ethical Behavior

 The word “ethics” is important on OB, as it is society at large.

 There is an agreement that ethical behavior is accepted as morally “good” and “right ‘as
opposed to “bad” or “wrong” in a particular setting. But it is hard to reach an agreement on
whether or not a specific action or decision is ethical.
 10. Popular dimensions of culture.
Popular Dimensions of Culture

 Language, time orientation, use of space, and religion have been popular dimensions of
culture.

1. Language is a major determinant of our thinking. Speaking the same language doesn’t mean
sharing the same culture. Some words spoken in one language fail to carry the same meaning
from culture to culture or region to region.

 The anthropologist Edward Hall notes important differences in the ways different cultures
use language.

 Members of Low-context cultures (mostly western) are very explicit in using the spoken
and written word.

 In contrast, members of High-context cultures (mostly eastern) use words to convey only
a limited part of the message. The rest must be inferred from the context, which includes
body language, the physical setting, and past relationships.

2. Time orientation: Hall also uses time orientation to classify cultures.

 In polychronic cultures, people hold a traditional view of time that may be described as a
“circle”. In this view, time does not create pressures for immediate action or performance.

 Members of polychronic cultures tend to emphasize the present and often do more than
one thing at a time.

 Members of monochronic cultures view time as a straight line. In this linear view of time,
the past is gone, the present is here briefly, and the future is almost upon us.

 In monochronic cultures time is measured precisely and creates pressures for action and
performance.

3. Use of space: Proxemics, the study of how people use space to communicate, reveals
important cultural differences.

 Arabs and South Americans seem more comfortable talking at closer distances than do
North Americans.

 Cross-cultural misunderstandings due to different approaches to personal space are

quite common.

4. Religion is also a major element of culture and its influence often prescribes rituals, holy
days and food than can be eaten.

 Codes of ethics and moral behavior often have their roots in religious beliefs. The influence
of religion on economic matters can also be significant.

 In the Middle East, one finds interest-free Islamic banks that operate based on principles
set forth in the Koran.
11. Attitudes and its components.
 Attitude is a predisposition to respond in a positive or negative way to someone or
something in one's environment.

 Attitudes are influenced by values and are acquired from the same source as values:
friends, teachers, parents, and role models.

 Attitude has three components:

1. Cognitive component: Reflects the beliefs, opinions, knowledge, or information a

person possesses.

2. Affective components: A specific feeling regarding the personal impact of the

antecedents.

3. Behavioral component: Relative emphasis on objectivity and detachment or on

emotion and expressed feelings.

4. Specific versus diffuse: An intention to behave in a certain way based on your

specific feelings or values.