1. Managing Behavior In Organizations
Sixth Edition
Jerald Greenberg
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2. Individual Processes: Personality, Social Perception, and Learning
Chapter Three
Individual Processes: Personality, Social Perception, and Learning
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Learning Objectives
DEFINE what is meant by personality and DESCRIBE its role in determining behavior
DESCRIBE various personality dimensions that are responsible for individual differences in organizational behavior
DEFINE social perception and EXPLAIN the processes by which people come to make judgments about what others are like
DESCRIBE social identity theory and Kelley’s theory of causal attribution and IDENTIFY the various biases that make the social perception process imperfect
DEFINE learning and DESCRIBE the two basic kinds of learning that occur in organizations
EXPLAIN various ways in which principles of learning is used in organizations
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Three Good Reasons Why You Should Care About Personality, Social Perception, and Learning
Understanding people’s personalities helps us know what to expect of them, and understanding our own personalities provides valuable insight into our own behavior.
The process by which we perceive others is fundamental to a wide variety of organizational activities.
Effectively training, managing, and disciplining employees requires appreciating and applying the basic principles of learning.
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5. Psychological Processes
Three processes are discussed in this chapter:
Personality
Social perception
Learning
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Personality Defined
Personality can be defined as the unique and relatively stable pattern of behavior, thoughts, and emotions shown by individuals.
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7. Personality: Some FAQs
How is personality determined?
Nature or nurture: both influence personality
What role does personality play in the workforce?
Interactionist perspective - personality predisposes people to act in certain ways, but whether they do so depends on the situations in which they find themselves.
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8. Personality: Nature or Nurture?
Nature (Impact of inherited predisposition) → Nurture (Impact of environmental factors) ↑
Personality
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9. The Big Five Dimensions of Personality
Component of the Big Five Description
Conscientiousness- The degree to which someone is hardworking, organized, dependable, and persevering (high in conscientiousness), as opposed to lazy, disorganized, and unreliable (low in conscientiousness)
Extraversion- introversion- The degree to which someone is gregarious, assertive, and sociable (extraverted), as opposed to reserved, timid, and quiet (introverted)
Agreeableness- The degree to which someone is cooperative and warm (highly agreeable), as opposed to belligerent and cold (highly disagreeable)
Emotional stability- The degree to which someone is insecure, anxious, and depressed (emotionally unstable), as opposed to secure, calm and happy (emotionally stable)
Openness to experience- The extent to which someone is creative, curious, and cultured (open to experience), as opposed to practical and having narrow interests (closed to experience)
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10. Positive & Negative Affectivity
Tendencies toward feeling good or bad
Positive affectivity - from energetic, exhilarated, high zest for life to apathetic and listless
Negative affectivity - from angry, nervous, anxious to calm and relaxed
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11. Positive and Negative Affectivity
High Positive Affectivity: Joy, enthusiasm
High Negative Affectivity: Fear, nervousness
Low Positive Affectivity: Apathy, sluggishness
Low Negative Affectivity: Calm, relaxed
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12. Impact of Positive & Negative Affectivity
Productivity is impacted in this way:
Decision making: better decisions made by people with high levels of positive affectivity
Team performance: work groups with positive affective tone function more effectively
Aggressive behavior: people with negative affectivity are more likely to be targets of aggressive behavior
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13. Core Self-Evaluations
How do you think of yourself?
The particular way in which we view ourselves reflects distinct elements of personality known as core self-evaluations
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14. How Do We Think of Ourselves?
There are four distinct elements of personality:
Self-esteem - the overall value one places on oneself as a person
Generalized self-efficacy - a person’s beliefs about his or her capacity to perform specific tasks successfully
Locus of control - the extent to which individuals feel that they are able to control things in a manner that affects them
Emotional stability - the tendency to see oneself as confident, secure, and steady (the opposite of neuroticism, one of the Big Five personality variables)
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15. Boosting Low Self-Esteem
Although it is difficult to completely change key aspects of a personality, such as self-esteem, without intensive psychological help, there are several things that organizations can do to boost and maintain the self-esteem of their employees.
Suggestion Description
Make people feel uniquely valuable- Create opportunities for people to feel accepted by finding ways to make use of their unique skills and experiences.
Make people feel competent- Recognize the good things that people do and praise them accordingly. That is, “catch someone in the act of doing something right.”
Make people feel secure- Employee’s self-esteem will be enhance when managers make their expectations clear and are forthright with them.
Make people feel empowered- People given opportunities to decide how to do their jobs feel good about themselves and their work.
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Social Perception
Social perception - the process of integrating and interpreting information about others so as to understand them accurately
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17. Social Identity Theory
Who are you?
Personal identity - the characteristics that define a particular individual
Social identity - who a person is, as defined in terms of his or her membership in various social groups
Social identity theory - a conceptualization recognizing that the way we perceive others and ourselves is based on our unique characteristics and our membership in various groups
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18. Social Identity Theory
Personal Identity
My Characteristics
I am 6 feet tall
I am outgoing
I am interested in sports
Compared to
Social Identity
Groups to which I belong
I am American
I am an employee of XYZ Company
I am a student at Big State University
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Attribution
Attribution is the process through which individuals attempt to determine the causes behind others’ behavior
Correspondent inferences - judgments about people’s dispositions, traits, and characteristics, that correspond to what we have observed of their actions
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20. Causal Attribution: Why?
Causes of Behavior:
Internal: Explanations based on actions for which the individual is responsible
External: Explanations based on situations over which the individual has no control
Kelley’s Theory of Causal Attribution - the approach suggesting that people will believe others’ actions to be caused by internal or external factors based on three types of information: consensus, consistency, and distinctiveness
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21. Kelley’s Theory of Attribution
Consensus - information regarding the extent to which other people behave in the same manner as the person being judged
Consistency - information regarding the extent to which the person being judged acts the same way at other times
Distinctiveness - information regarding the extent to which a person behaves in the same manner in other contexts
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22. Biases in Social Perception
Fundamental attribution error - individuals are generally prone to assume that others’ behavior is due to the way they are, their traits, and dispositions
Halo effect - the tendency for a person’s overall impression to bias his or her assessment of another on specific dimensions
Stereotypes - beliefs that all members of specific groups share similar traits and behaviors
Self-fulfilling prophecies - the tendency for someone’s expectations about another to cause that individual to behave in a manner consistent with those expectations
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Overcoming Biases
Some guidelines:
Do not overlook the external cases of others’ behaviors
Identify and confront your stereotypes
Evaluate people based on objective factors
Avoid making rash judgments
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Learning
Learning is defined as a relatively permanent change in behavior occurring as a result of experience.
Involves some kind of change
Cannot be directly observed
Is the result of experience
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Learning
Learning through rewards and punishments:
Operant conditioning describes the process of learning that results when the consequences of our behaviors determine whether we will be likely to repeat them in the future.
When our behaviors produce pleasant consequences, we are likely to repeat them.
When our behaviors produce unpleasant consequences, we are not likely to repeat them.
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26. Operant Conditioning Concepts
Positive reinforcement - the process by which people learn to perform behaviors that lead to the presentation of desired outcomes
Negative reinforcement - the process by which people learn to perform acts that lead to the removal of undesired events
Punishment - the process of decreasing undesirable behavior by following it with undesirable consequences
Extinction - the process through which responses that are no longer reinforced tend to gradually diminish in strength
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Learning
Learning by imitating others:
Observational learning occurs when someone acquires new knowledge vicariously -- that is, by observing what happens to others.
also known as modeling
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28. Applications of Learning
Training: The process through which people systematically acquire and improve the skills and abilities needed to better their job performance.
Widely used training methods include:
Classroom training
Apprenticeship programs
Cross-cultural training
Corporate universities
Executive training programs
E-training
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29. Keys to Effective Training
Promote participation: People not only learn more quickly, but they also retain the skills longer when they have actively participated in the learning process.
Encourage repetition: Practice enhances the effectiveness of the learning experience.
Capitalize on transfer of training: The more closely a training program matches the demands of a job, the more effective the training will be.
Give feedback: Knowledge about the effectiveness of one’s training enhances the learning experience.
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30. Organizational Behavior Management
Positively reinforce desirable behavior:
Organizational behavior management - the systematic application of positive reinforcement principles in organizational settings for the purpose of raising the incidence of desirable organizational behaviors
also known as organizational behavior modification or OB mod
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Discipline
Eliminating undesirable behavior
Discipline is the systematic administration of punishment.
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32. Tips for Effective Discipline
Deliver punishment immediately after the undesirable response occurs
Give moderate levels of punishment -- nothing too high or too low
Punish the undesirable behavior, not the person
Use punishment consistently -- all the time, for all employees
Clearly communicate the reasons for the punishment given
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