2. 3 C H A P T E R Individual Differences and Work Behavior
IDENTIFY the major individual variables that influence work behavior.
DESCRIBE how attributions influence our behavior.
DISTINGUISH between stereotyping and prejudice.
EXPLAIN what an attitude is, and identify its three components.
DISCUSS the relationship between job satisfaction and performance.
DESCRIBE the major forces influencing personality.
IDENTIFY the Big Five personality dimensions.
DISCUSS several important personality factors.
C H A P T E R

3. Individual Differences
The ASA Framework
Attraction
Selection
Organizational Behavior
Attrition

4. Understanding Work Behavior
Personal
Environment
Heredity
Manager’s Role Includes:
Observing and recognizing the differences
Studying relationships between variables that influence individual behavior
Discovering and predicting relationships

5. Understanding Work Behavior
Individual Variables
Affecting Behavior
Heredity Factors
Abilities and Skills
Perception
Attitudes
Personality

6. Understanding Work Behavior
Abilities
A person’s talent to perform a mental or physical task
Generally stable over time
Skills
A learned talent that a person has acquired to perform a task
Change over time as one’s training and experiences change

7. Emotional Intelligence (EQ)
Emotional Intelligence Involves:
The ability to understand individuals to act wisely in human relations
EQ abilities in five areas:
Self-awareness
Managing emotions
Motivating oneself
Empathy
Handling relationships

8. Perception Perception is the cognitive process by which
an individual selects, organizes, and gives
meaning to environmental stimuli.
People generally perceive stimuli that satisfy:
Needs
Emotions
Attitudes
Self-concept
See Exhibit 3.2

9. Similar-to-me perception error
Misperception
Misperception is the cognitive process by which an individual selects and organizes, but misinterprets, environmental stimuli.
Similar-to-me perception error
Interviewers rate candidates who are similar in appearance, background, and interests higher than candidates who are dissimilar.

10. Stereotyping
Stereotyping is a useful, even essential, way of categorizing individuals (or events, organizations, etc.) on the basis of limited information or observation.
Prejudice
Perceptual inaccuracies
Negative consequences
Social injustices
Usefulness
Makes sense out of our environment
Increases efficiency
Stereotyping

11. Understanding Work Behavior
The Manager’s Characteristics
Knowing oneself makes it easier
to see others accurately
One’s own characteristics affect the characteristics identified in others
Persons who accept themselves are more likely to see favorable
aspects of other people

12. Perception and Behavior
Distinctiveness
The degree to which a person behaves similarly in different situations
Consistency
The degree to which a person engages in the same behaviors at different times
Consensus
The degree to which other people are engaging in the same behavior
Attribution Theory
suggests that it is the perceived cause of events, not the actual ones, that influence people’s behavior.

13. Systematic Errors or Biases
Fundamental Attribution Error
Self-Serving Bias
is a tendency for people to take credit for successful work and deny responsibility for poor work.
is a tendency to underestimate the importance of external factors and overestimate the importance of internal factors.

14. Management Implications
Attitudes
An Attitude is a mental state of readiness learned and organized through experience, exerting a specific influence on a person’s response to people, objects, and situations with which it is related.
Management Implications
Attitudes are learned
Attitudes define one’s predisposition toward given aspects of the world
Attitudes provide the basis of one’s interpersonal relations and identification with others
Attitudes are organized and are close to the core of personality

15. Components of Attitudes
Cognitive
A person’s perceptions, opinions, and beliefs.
Behavior
The tendency for a person to act in a certain way toward someone or something.
Attitudes
Affect
The emotional component and often learned.

16. Understanding Attitudes and Behavior
Cognitive Dissonance
Describes the discrepancy between attitudes and behaviors.
An attitude held might suggest behavior different from or even opposed to actual behavior engaged in by the individual.
The inconsistency between beliefs and behavior.
Solving the discrepancy means changing attitudes or behaviors.

17. Attitudes and Job Satisfaction
Factors Associated with Job Satisfaction
Pay
Work itself
Promotion opportunities
Supervision
Coworkers
Working conditions
Job security

18. Job Satisfaction and Performance
THREE VIEWS
Job satisfaction causes job performance
Job performance causes job satisfaction
The job satisfaction-job performance relationship is moderated by other variables such as rewards
RESEARCH RESULTS
First two views show mixed, but generally weak results
The third view suggests that they are related only under certain conditions

19. Personality
Personality refers to a relatively stable set of feelings and behaviors that have been significantly formed by genetic and environmental factors.
Personality is a product of Nature and Nurture
Nature
Hereditary
forces
Nurture
Pattern of life experiences

20. Extroversion Emotional Stability Agreeableness Conscientiousness
The Big Five Personality Model (Five factors central to describing personality)
Extroversion
Emotional Stability
Agreeableness
Conscientiousness
Openness

21. Personality and Behavior Selected Personality Traits
Locus of control determines the degree to which people believe their behaviors influence what happens to them
Internals
Externals
Self-efficacy relates to personal beliefs regarding competencies and abilities
Magnitude
Strength
Generality
Creativity involves the ability to break away from habit-bound thinking and produce novel and useful ideas