FUNDAMENTALS OF

ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

MAN101: Principles of Management

 Today’s six big ideas
• Job attitude predicts performance and retention.
• Some personality traits are better suited to management
than others.
• Emotional Intelligence (EI) can and should be developed
over time.
• Resilience = building a stronger mind for management.
• People can be intrinsically or extrinsically motivated (or
ideally both) by the work that they do.
• Jobs have to be designed (and redesigned) to ensure that
employees remain motivated to perform at their best.
 Job Attitudes
• Job attitude = a consistent evaluation of your working environment and
professional circumstances.
• An attitude is made up of Affect (a feeling), Behaviour (an intended
response), and Cognition (a thought).
• Job satisfaction = your general evaluation of whether or not you like your
job and derive fulfilment from it.
• Job involvement = active participation in, and vested personal identification
with, your job.
• Organizational commitment = active participation in, and vested personal
identification with, your organization.
• Satisfied, involved, and committed employees simply perform better, which
increases overall productivity and profitability, and reduces absenteeism
and turnover.
 The Big-5 Personality Traits

• Conscientiousness (+)
• Openness to experience (+)
• Extroversion (+) / Introversion (+) – depends on the job!
• Agreeableness (+ / -)
• Neuroticism (-)
 Emotional Intelligence
• Emotional Intelligence (EI) is your ability to:
• Perceive emotions in yourself and in others.
• Understand the meaning of these emotions.
• Regulate your emotions.

• The best ways to develop your EI over time:

• Keep your “body budget” in good shape
• Expand your social experiences
• Learn to distinguish emotions more finely
• Keep track of positive experiences
• Reframe negative experiences
• Cultivate awe and gratitude
 Resilience
• “An individual’s ability to overcome challenges and turn them into
opportunities.” (Textbook, p. 473)
• “The process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or
challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional, and
behavioral flexibility.” (American Psychological Association)
• As a manager, challenges and struggles make your job better and make
you better at your job.
• Different people build resilience in different ways, depending on their
unique psychological make-up.
• Organizations that are staffed by resilient employees (and especially
resilient managers) are significantly more productive and profitable.
 Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation
• Extrinsic motivation = “An external incentive to engage in a specific
activity, especially when arising from the expectation of punishment or
reward (e.g., completing a disliked chore in exchange for payment).”
• Intrinsic motivation = “An incentive to engage in a specific activity that
derives from pleasure in the activity itself (e.g., a genuine interest in a
subject studied) rather than because of any external benefits that might
be obtained (e.g. money, course credits).” (APA Dictionary of Psychology)

• Extrinsic motivators prevent you from becoming dissatisfied in your job.

• Intrinsic motivators allow you to become satisfied in your job.
• There are numerous different theories which all support this basic
premise (each with different theoretical variations).
 The Job Characteristics Model

• Skill variety (How many different abilities and talents does the job require?)
• Task identity (How much is the task identified with a well-defined work outcome?)
• Task significance (How much does the task affect other people?)
• Autonomy (How much freedom and discretion does the employee have when performing
this job?)
• Feedback (How much information does the employee receive about their performance?)