1. Organizational Behavior, 8e Schermerhorn, Hunt, and Osborn
Prepared by
Michael K. McCuddy
Valparaiso University
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

2. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
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Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

3. Chapter 4 Diversity and Individual Differences
Study questions.
What is workplace diversity, and why is it important?
What are demographic differences among individuals, and why are they important?
What are aptitude and ability differences among individuals, and why are they important?
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

4. Chapter 4 Diversity and Individual Differences
Study questions — cont.
What are personality determinants and differences among individuals, and why are they important?
What are value and attitude differences among individuals, and why are they important?
What does managing diversity and individual differences involve, and why is it important?
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

5. What is workplace diversity, and why is it important?
Workforce diversity.
The presence of individual human characteristics that make people different from one another.
Challenge of workforce diversity.
Respecting individuals’ perspectives and contributions and promoting a shared sense of organizational vision and identity.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

6. What is workplace diversity, and why is it important?
Workforce diversity is increasing.
Accompanying the increasing diversity is the possibility of stereotyping.
Demographic characteristics may serve as the basis for stereotypes.
Workforce diversity can help in building customer relationships.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

7. What is workplace diversity, and why is it important?
Equal employment opportunity.
Nondiscriminatory employment decisions.
No intent to exclude or disadvantage legally protected groups.
Affirmative action.
Remedial actions for proven discrimination or statistical imbalance in workforce.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

8. What is workplace diversity, and why is it important?
Equal employment opportunity — cont.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employer discrimination with respect to:
Race.
Color.
Religion.
Sex.
National origin.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

9. What is workplace diversity, and why is it important?
Managing diversity.
Creating a setting where everyone feels valued and accepted.
While groups retain their own characteristics, they will shape and be shaped by organization.
Any resistance to diversity management must be properly addressed.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

10. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
What are demographic differences among individuals, and why are they important?
Demographic characteristics.
The background characteristics that help shape what a person becomes.
Important demographic characteristics for the workplace.
Gender.
Age.
Race.
Ethnicity.
Able-bodiedness.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

11. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
What are demographic differences among individuals, and why are they important?
Gender.
No consistent differences between men and women in:
Problem-solving abilities.
Analytical skills.
Competitive drive.
Motivation.
Learning ability.
Sociability.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

12. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
What are demographic differences among individuals, and why are they important?
Gender — cont.
As compared to men, women:
Are more conforming.
Have lower expectations of success.
Have higher absenteeism.
Have lower earnings.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

13. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
What are demographic differences among individuals, and why are they important?
Age.
Older workers …
Are often stereotyped as inflexible.
Sometimes complain that their experience and skills are not valued.
Have lower turnover.
Have lower avoidable absences.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

14. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
What are demographic differences among individuals, and why are they important?
Able-bodiedness.
Despite evidence of effective job performance, most disabled persons are unemployed.
Most disabled persons want to work.
More firms are likely to hire disabled workers in the future.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

15. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
What are demographic differences among individuals, and why are they important?
Racial and ethnic groups.
African Americans, Asian Americans, and Hispanic Americans make up an ever-increasing percentage of the American workforce.
Potential for stereotypes and discrimination can adversely affect career opportunities.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

16. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
What are demographic differences among individuals, and why are they important?
Important lessons regarding demographic characteristics.
Respect and deal with the needs and concerns of people with different demographics.
Avoid linking demographics to stereotypes.
Demography is not a good indicator of individual-job fits.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

17. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
What are aptitude and ability differences among individuals, and why are they important?
Aptitude.
A person’s capability of learning something.
Ability.
A person’s existing capacity to perform the various tasks needed for a given job.
Includes relevant knowledge and skills.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

18. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
What are aptitude and ability differences among individuals, and why are they important?
Aptitude and ability tests may be used as employment screens in the hiring process.
To be legal, employment tests must accurately predict job success.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

19. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
What are personality determinants and differences among individuals, and why are they important?
Personality.
The overall profile or combination of characteristics that capture the unique nature of a person as that person reacts and interacts with others.
Combines a set of physical and mental characteristics that reflect how a person looks, thinks, acts, and feels.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

20. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
What are personality determinants and differences among individuals, and why are they important?
Personality determinants and development.
Is personality genetically determined, or is it formed by experience?
Heredity sets the limits on the development of personality characteristics.
Environment determines development within these limits.
Across all characteristics there is about a heredity-environment split.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

21. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
What are personality determinants and differences among individuals, and why are they important?
Personality determinants and development — cont.
Key environmental factors in personality development.
Cultural values and norms.
Situational factors.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

22. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
What are personality determinants and differences among individuals, and why are they important?
Argyris’s immaturity-maturity theory of personality development.
Dependence vs. activity.
Limited behavior vs. diverse behavior.
Shallow interests vs. deep interests.
Short time perspective vs. long time perspective.
Subordinate position vs. superordinate position.
Little self-awareness vs. much self-awareness.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

23. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
What are personality determinants and differences among individuals, and why are they important?
“Big Five” personality dimensions.
Extraversion.
Agreeableness.
Conscientiousness.
Emotional stability.
Openness to experience.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

24. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
What are personality determinants and differences among individuals, and why are they important?
Social traits.
Surface-level traits that reflect the way a person appears to others when interacting in various social settings.
An important social trait is problem-solving style.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

25. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
What are personality determinants and differences among individuals, and why are they important?
Problem-solving style components.
Information gathering.
Getting and organizing data for use.
Sensation-type individuals.
Intuitive-type individuals.
Evaluation.
Using collected information.
Feeling-type individuals.
Thinking-type individuals.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

26. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
What are personality determinants and differences among individuals, and why are they important?
Problem-solving styles.
Sensation-feeling (SF).
Intuitive-thinking (IF).
Sensation-thinking (ST).
Intuitive-thinking (IT).
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

27. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
What are personality determinants and differences among individuals, and why are they important?
Personal conception traits.
The way individuals tend to think about their social and physical settings as well as their major beliefs and personal orientation.
Key Traits:
Locus of control.
Authoritarianism/dogmatism.
Machiavellianism.
Self-monitoring.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

28. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
What are personality determinants and differences among individuals, and why are they important?
Locus of control.
The extent to which a person feels able to control his/her own life.
Internal locus of control.
People believe they control their own destiny.
External locus of control.
People believe that much of what happens to them is determined by environmental forces.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

29. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
What are personality determinants and differences among individuals, and why are they important?
Authoritarianism/dogmatism.
Authoritarianism.
Tendency to adhere rigidly to conventional values and to obey recognized authority.
Dogmatism.
Tendency to view the world as a threatening place.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

30. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
What are personality determinants and differences among individuals, and why are they important?
Machiavellianism.
Rooted in Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince.
Evokes images of guile, deceit, and opportunism.
Tendency to view and manipulate others purely for personal gain.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

31. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
What are personality determinants and differences among individuals, and why are they important?
Machiavellianism — cont.
People with a high-Mach personality:
Approach situations logically and thoughtfully.
Are capable of lying to achieve personal goals.
Are rarely swayed by loyalty, friendships, past promises, or others’ opinions.
Are skilled at influencing others.
Try to exploit loosely structured situations.
Perform in a perfunctory or detached manner in highly structured situations.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

32. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
What are personality determinants and differences among individuals, and why are they important?
Machiavellianism — cont.
People with a low-Mach personality:
Accept direction imposed by others in loosely structured situations.
Work hard to do well in highly structured situations.
Are strongly guided by ethical considerations.
Are unlikely to lie or cheat.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

33. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
What are personality determinants and differences among individuals, and why are they important?
Self-monitoring.
A person’s ability to adjust his/her behavior to external, situational factors.
High self-monitors:
Sensitive to external cues.
Behave differently in different situations.
Low self-monitors:
Not sensitive to external cues.
Are not able to disguise their behaviors.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

34. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
What are personality determinants and differences among individuals, and why are they important?
Emotional adjustment traits.
How much an individual experiences distress or displays unacceptable acts.
Type A orientation.
Characterized by impatience, desire for achievement, and perfectionism.
Type B orientation.
Characterized as more easygoing and less competitive in relation to daily events.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

35. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
What are personality determinants and differences among individuals, and why are they important?
Personality and self-concept.
Personality dynamics.
The ways in which an individual integrates and organizes personality dimensions and traits.
Self-concept.
The view individuals have of themselves as physical, social, and spiritual beings.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

36. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
What are personality determinants and differences among individuals, and why are they important?
Two aspects of self-concept.
Self-esteem.
A belief about one’s worth based on an overall self-evaluation.
Self-efficacy.
An individual’s belief about the likelihood of successfully completing a specific task.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

37. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
What are value and attitude differences among individuals, and why are they important?
Values.
Values are broad preferences concerning appropriate courses of action or outcomes.
Values influence behavior and attitudes.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

38. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
What are value and attitude differences among individuals, and why are they important?
Sources of values.
Parents.
Friends.
Teachers.
Role models.
External reference groups.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

39. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
What are value and attitude differences among individuals, and why are they important?
Types of values.
Milton Rokeach’s value categories: terminal values and instrumental values.
Terminal values.
Preferences concerning the ends to be achieved.
Instrumental values.
Preferences for the means to be used in achieving desired ends.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

40. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
What are value and attitude differences among individuals, and why are they important?
Types of values — cont.
Gordon Allport’s values categories.
Theoretical values.
Economic values.
Aesthetic values.
Social values.
Political values.
Religious values.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

41. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
What are value and attitude differences among individuals, and why are they important?
Types of values — cont.
Maglino’s categories of workplace values.
Achievement.
Helping and concern for others.
Honesty.
Fairness.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

42. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
What are value and attitude differences among individuals, and why are they important?
Value congruence.
Occurs when individuals express positive feelings upon encountering others who exhibit values similar to their own.
Incongruent values may result in conflicts over goals and the means to achieve them.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

43. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
What are value and attitude differences among individuals, and why are they important?
Patterns and trends in values.
Movement away from the following values:
Duty.
Honesty.
Responsibility.
Economic incentives.
Organizational loyalty.
Work-related identity.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

44. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
What are value and attitude differences among individuals, and why are they important?
Patterns and trends in values — cont.
Movement toward the following values:
Meaningful work.
Pursuit of leisure.
Personal identity.
Self-fulfillment.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

45. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
What are value and attitude differences among individuals, and why are they important?
Patterns and trends in values — cont.
Important work-related values for the present and the future:
Recognition for competence and accomplishments.
Respect and dignity.
Personal choice and freedom.
Involvement at work.
Pride in one’s work.
Lifestyle quality.
Financial security.
Self-development.
Health and wellness.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

46. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
What are value and attitude differences among individuals, and why are they important?
Attitudes.
Attitudes are influenced by values and are acquired from the same sources as values.
An attitude is a predisposition to respond in a positive or negative way to someone or something in one’s environment.
An attitude is a hypothetical construct.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

47. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
What are value and attitude differences among individuals, and why are they important?
Components of attitudes.
Cognitive component.
The beliefs, opinions, knowledge, or information a person possesses.
Affective component.
A specific feeling regarding the personal impact of the antecedents.
Behavioral component.
An intention to behave in a certain way based on specific feelings.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

48. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
What are value and attitude differences among individuals, and why are they important?
Attitudes and behavior.
An attitude results in intended behavior, which may or may not result in actual behavior.
The attitude-behavior relationship is stronger when:
Attitudes and behaviors are more specific.
There is freedom to carry out the behavioral intent.
The person has experience with the attitude.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

49. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
What are value and attitude differences among individuals, and why are they important?
Attitudes and cognitive consistency.
Cognitive dissonance.
Describes a state of inconsistency between an individual’s attitudes and his or her behavior.
Cognitive dissonance can be reduced by:
Changing the underlying attitude.
Changing future behavior.
Developing new ways of explaining or rationalizing the inconsistency
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

50. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
What are value and attitude differences among individuals, and why are they important?
Attitudes and cognitive consistency — cont.
Dissonance reduction choices are influenced by:
The degree of control a person has over the situation.
The magnitude of the rewards involved.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

51. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
What does managing diversity and individual differences involve, and why is it important?
Dealing with diversity and individual differences is one of the most important issues challenging managers.
Applies in the:
United States.
Canada.
European Union countries.
Several Asian countries.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4

52. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4
What does managing diversity and individual differences involve, and why is it important?
Examples of managing workplace diversity.
Harvard Pilgrim Health Care.
Coors Brewing Company.
Microsoft.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4