1. INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

2. THE ORGANIZATION’S ENVIRONMENT
The Individual
Interpersonal Influence and Group Behavior
Organizational Processes
Group behavior and work teams
Intergroup conflict and negotiations
Organizational power and politics
Communication
Skills & Abilities
Perception
Personality
Attitudes
Values
Leadership
Communications
Decision making
Reward System
Job Design
INDIVIDUAL
BEHAVIOR IN THE
ORGANIZATION

3. First law of human behavior:
“People are different. What one person considers a golden opportunity another considers a threat.”
Caveat

4. PERCEPTION
Perception is the process by which individuals make sense of their world.
The process by which individuals attend to, organize, interpret, and retain information from their environments.
Perceptual filters
how people experience stimuli
personality, psychology, experience, preferences, beliefs-based differences
Objective vs. perceived realities

5. Perception People perceive the world uniquely
Differences in perceptions can cause problems
Communication
Conflict
Motivation
Judgment
Decision Making

6. Social Perception
How we gather information about the social world--about peoples’ behavior, moods, motives, and traits
Similar to object perception, but
People are more dynamic than objects
We’re trying to figure out intentions, motives, and causes of behavior

7. Attribution Why did they do that? internal causes external causes
traits
skills
abilities
external causes
situational constraints

8. PERCEPTUAL DISTORTIONS
Selective perception
notice and accept stimuli which are consistent with our values, beliefs, and expectations
Closure
tendency to fill in the gaps when information is missing
we assume that what we don’t know is consistent with what we do know
Primacy/Recency effects
Disproportionately high weight is given to the first/last information obtained about a stimulus
Fundamental attribution error
The tendency to ignore external causes of behavior and to attribute other people’s actions to internal causes.

9. PERCEPTUAL DISTORTIONS
Stereotyping
A person has beliefs about a class of stimulus objects and generalizes those beliefs to encounters with members of that class of objects.
Halo Effects
Generalizing from an overall evaluation of an individual to specific characteristics and visa versa.
Expectancy effect
People perceive stimuli in ways that confirm their expectations
Self fulfilling prophecy

10. PERCEPTION IMPLICATIONS: SELF AWARENESS

11. Guard against specific biases
Stereotypes
Be aware that stereotyping can occur with very little information, remain open to new information
Recognize that stereotypes rarely apply to a specific individual
Fundamental attribution error?
Primacy/recency?
Halo?
Expectancy?

12. PERCEPTION IMPLICATIONS: OUR EMPLOYEES

13. SELF-PERCEPTION
The same processes and biases lead to both accurate and inaccurate perceptions of ourselves.
Self-serving bias
attribute successes to ourselves - internal
attribute failures to the environment – external
Implication for feedback?
Implication of our own self-awareness?

14. JENSEN SHOES
What do you see as the strengths and weaknesses of Brooks and Kravitz performance, interactions, and career management thus far?
What were Brooks’ assumptions about Kravitz’s abilities, attitudes and motivations? Discuss the accuracy of these assumptions.
What were Kravitz’ assumptions about Brooks’ abilities, attitudes and motivations? Discuss the accuracy of these assumptions.
What perceptual biases and distortions occurred and influenced the interactions between Kravitz and Brooks?
What would Brooks and Kravitz have had to do differently to result in a more effective working relationship?
From their own perspective
From the other’s perspective

15. IMPROVING THE RELATIONSHIP: BROOKS

16. IMPROVING THE RELATIONSHIP: KRAVITZ

17. INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
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18. PERSONALITY
Unique set of traits and characteristics that are relatively stable over time and determine a person’s preferences and behavior.
Does personality matter?
Implication?
Which dimensions of personality?

19. Emotional Intelligence
Ability to detect, express, and manage emotion in oneself and others.
Other
(Social Competence)
Self
(Personal Competence)
Self Awareness
Social Awareness
(Empathy)
Self-Management
Relationship Management
(Social Skills)
Recognition
of emotions
Regulation
of emotions

20. Emotional Intelligence
Some suggest that EI is the best predictor of work success
It’s “learnable”
It’s related to communication, motivation (self and others), effective leadership
(Hendrie Weisinger, “Emotional Intelligence at Work” (Jossey-Bass, 1998).

21. SELF-ESTEEM (SELF CONCEPT)
How we perceive ourselves in terms of our abilities, competencies, and effectiveness
Global, role-specific, job-based, organization-based
High self esteem is related to higher performance, commitment, loyalty, and longevity.
What can managers do to foster high self esteem?

22. FOSTERING SELF-ESTEEM (SELF CONCEPT)

23. LOCUS OF CONTROL
The extent to which people believe their actions determine what happens to them in life.
Internal
External
Why is locus of control important?
How?

24. JUNGS TYPOLOGY 16 personality types based on 4 sets of preferences
Extraversion vs. Introversion
Sensation vs. Intuition (N)—Perception
Thinking vs. Feeling—Judgment
Perception vs. Judgment

25. THE “BIG FIVE”: Conscientiousness
The degree to which a person is dependable, organized, thorough, perseverant, honest
Most consistent personality predictor of performance
Also predicts lack of problem behavior

26. THE “BIG FIVE”: Agreeableness
The extent to which a person is polite, good natured, flexible, cooperative, trusting.
May predict job performance in jobs…

27. THE “BIG FIVE”: Neuroticism (Emotional Stability)
The degree to which a person is anxious, depressed, moody, emotionally unstable, temperamental.
May predict job performance in what type of jobs?

28. THE “BIG FIVE”: Openness
The degree to which a person is imaginative, curious, flexible, open to change.
May predict job performance where?

29. THE “BIG FIVE”: Extraversion
The degree to which a person is sociable, talkative, assertive, active, ambitious.
May predict job performance in what type of jobs?