HR Test 1

OB Chs. 1, 2, 3, 4 (not all), and HRM Ch. 1

Organizational Effectiveness

An ideal state in which an organization has a good fit with its external environment, effectively transforms inputs to outputs through human capital, and satisfies the needs of key stakeholders

Open Systems

The view that organizations depend on the external environment for resources, affect that environment through their output, and consist of internal subsystems that transform inputs to outputs

Human Capital

The knowledge, skills, abilities, and creative thinking, and other valued resources that employees bring to the organization

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Organizational activities intended to benefit society and the environment beyond the firm’s immediate financial interests or legal obligations

Organizational Inputs & Processes

Organizational structure, culture, technology, change, strategy, and HR practices

Individual Inputs & Processes

Personality/values/abilities

Team/Interpersonal Inputs & Processes

Team taks/size/composition, team development/trust/cohesion, communication, leadership, power/influence/politics, conflict/negotiation

Individual Outcomes

Behavior/performance, organizational citizenship, well-being, decisions/creativity

Team/Interpersonal Outcomes

Team performance and decisions, collaboration/mutual support, social networks

Organizational Outcomes (Effectiveness)

Open systems fit, effective input-output transformation through human capital development, effective stakeholder engagement, corporate social responsibility

Anchors of Organizational Behavior

Systematic research anchor, practical orientation anchor, multidisciplinary anchor, contingency anchor, multiple levels of analysis anchor

Systematic Research Ancho

Study organizations using systematic research methods; basis for Evidence-Based Management (making decisions and taking actions guided by research evidence)

Practical Orientation Anchor

Ensure that OB theories are useful in organizations; offer specific advice on how to energize employees, improve customer service through employee attitudes, create more effective teams, determine the best communication channel for a specific situation, build a strong corporate culture, handle conflict effectively, determine when to involve others in your decisions, etc.

Multidisciplinary Anchor

Import knowledge from other disciplines, not just create its own knowledge; incorporating psychological and sociological theories and knowledge into OB

Contingency Anchor

Recognize that the effectiveness of an action may depend on the situation; the effect of one variable on another variable often depends on the characteristics of the situation or people involved; the workplace and its inhabitants are complex, so a particular action may have different consequences under different conditions

Multiple Levels of Analysis Anchor

Understand OB events from 3 levels of analysis: individual, team, organization; advanced empirical research carefully identifies the appropriate levels of analysis for each variable in the study and then measures at that level of analysis

Deep-Level Diversity

Differences in the psychological characteristics of employees, including personalities, beliefs, values, and attitudes

Organizational Justice

Involves applying appropriate rules to decide how the organization’s benefits and burden are distributed to employees; includes how well the organization applies appropriate procedural rules when making these decisions, such as being consistent, neutral, and receptive to info from employees; includes treating employees politely, respectfully, and honestly

Work-Life Integration

The degree that people are effectively engaging in their various work and nonwork roles and have a low degree of role conflict across those life domains

Strategies to Improve Work-Life Integration

Integrate multiple roles (find ways to perform work and nonwork activities simultaneously or proximally), flexible work scheduling (establish work and nonwork roles that allow work time to have variable time frames), align roles with personal attributes, boundary management

Boundary Management Types

(1) Scheduling time blocks: actively blocking out time for work vs. other life roles (2) Creating physical role space: assigning specific physical locations to specific roles (create a “mental fence” to separate that role from other) (3) Applying technological boundaries: employee shut off work-related devices during nonwork hours; digital calendar notifications turn off during nonwork hours (4) Communicating role boundary expectations: advising others of role-related boundaries, such as activating automated digital messages to signal that you’re away for a set time

Remote Work Benefits

Better employee work-life integration, attractive benefit for job applicants, low employee turnover, higher employee productivity, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, reduced corporate real estate and office costs

Remote Work Risks

More social isolation, lower team cohesion, weaker organizational structure, higher stress due to home space and roles

MARS Model of Individual Behavior

A model depicting the four variables - motivation, ability, role perceptions, and situational factors - that directly influence an individual’s voluntary behavior and performance

Motivation

The forces within a person that affect the direction, intensity, and persistence of effort for voluntary behavior

Direction

Refers to the path along which people steer their effort

Intensity

The amount of effort allocated to the goal

Persistence

Refers to the length of time that the individual continues to exert effort toward an objective

Ability

The natural aptitudes, learned capabilities, and habits required to successfully complete a task

Role Perceptions

The degree to which a person understands the job duties assigned to or expected of them; represent how well employees know where to direct their effort

Task Performance

Refers to the individual’s voluntary goal-directed behaviors that contribute to organizational objectives

Proficient Task Performance

Refers to how well employees perform the work efficiently and accurately

Adaptive Task Perormance

Refers to how well employees modify their thoughts and behavior to align with and support a new or changing work process or work setting

Proactive Task Performance

Refers to how well employees take the initiative to anticipate and introduce new work patterns that benefit the organization

Organization Citizenship Behaviors (OCBs)

Various forms of cooperation and helpfulness to others that support the organization’s social and psychological concept

Counterproductive Work Behaviors (CWBs)

Voluntary behaviors that have the potential to directly or indirectly harm the organization or its stakeholders (wide array of intentional and unintentional behaviors)

Personality

The relatively enduring pattern of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that characterize a person, along with the psychological processes behind those characteristics

Five-Factor Model of Personality (Big Five)

Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Neuroticism, Openness to experience, Extraversion

Conscientiousness

Characterizes people who are organized, dependable, goal-focused, thorough, disciplined, methodical, and industrious (best characteristic to determine a good employee)

Agreeableness

Describes people who are trusting, helpful, good-natured, considerate, tolerant, selfless, generous, and flexible (positively associated with organizational citizenship and negatively associated with counterproductive work behaviors)

Neuroticism

Refers to people who tend to be anxious, insecure, self-conscious, depressed, and temperamental (opposite of this is one of the best personality predictors of adaptive performance)

Openness to Experience

Characterizes people who are imaginative, creative, unconventional, curious, nonconforming, autonomous, and aesthetically perceptive (weak predictor of task performance but one of the best predictors of adaptive and proactive performance)

Extraversion

Describes people who are outgoing, talkative, energetic, sociable, and assertive (best overall personality predictor of proficient task performance but is a much weaker predictor than conscientiousness)

Problems with the Big Five Model

(1) The “perfect employee” isn’t the one with the highest scores on all of the personality factors (not all relationships between the factors are linear - ex. employees with moderate extraversion perform better in sales than those with high or low extraversion) (2) Some behaviors are predicted better by a specific personality trait than by the overall Big Five (ex. specific extraversion traits like assertiveness predict proficient task performance better than extraversion overall) (3) Personality isn’t completely static and factors can change over time (4) The Big Five doesn’t represent the entire domain of personality (there are perspectives/approaches to personality)

The Dark Triad

A cluster of 3 socially undesirable (dark) personality traits: Machiavellianism, Narcissism, and Psychopathy

Machievallianism

A personality trait of people who demonstrate a strong motivation to achieve their own goals at the expense of others, who believe that deceit is a natural and acceptable way to achieve their goals, who take pleasure in outwitting and misleading others using crude influence tactics, and who have a cynical disregard for morality

Narcissism

A personality trait of people with a grandiose, obsessive belief in their superiority and entitlement, a propensity to aggressively engage in attention-seeking behaviors, an intense envy of others, and tendency to exhibit arrogance, callousness, and exploitation of others for personal aggrandizement

Psychopathy

A personality trait of people who ruthlessly dominate and manipulate others without empathy or any feelings of remorse or anxiety, use superficial charm, yet are social predators who engage in antisocial, impulsive, and often fraudulent thrill-seeking behavior (considered the most sinister of the dark triad)

Organizational Politics

Use of influence tactics for personal gain at the perceived expense of others and the organization

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

An instrument designed to measure the elements of Jungian personality theory, particularly preferences regarding perceiving and judging information

Jungian and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Types

Extraversion - Introversion (getting energy), Sensing - Intuitive (perceiving information), Thinking - Feeling (making decisions), Judging - Perceiving (orienting to the external world)

Jungian Theory of Psychological Types

The perceiving function (how people prefer to gather information) occurs through two competing orientations: sensing (S) and intuition (N). Sensing involves perceiving info through the five senses; intuition relies on insight and subjective experiences to see relationships among variables. The judging function (how people prefer making decisions based on what they have perceived) consists of two competing processes: thinking (T) and feeling (F). People with a thinking orientation rely on rational cause-effect logic and data collection; those with a strong feeling orientation give more weight to their emotional responses as well as how those choice effect others

Schwartz’s Values Circumplex

This model clusters 57 values into 10 broad categories that are organized into the circular model. The 10 categories are further clustered into four quadrants: openness to change (motivated to pursue innovative ways, conservation (motivated to preserve status quo), self-enhancement (motivated by self-interest), self-transcendence (motivation to promote welfare of others ad nature)

Values Congruence

Refers to how similar a person’s values hierarchy is to the values hierarchy of another entity, such as the employee’s team or organization

The Four Ethical Principles

Utilitarianism, Individual Rights, Distributive Justice, Ethic of Care

Utilitarianism (ethical principle)

An ethical principle stating that the only moral obligation is to seek the greatest good for the greatest number of people

Individual Rights (ethical principle)

Ethical principle that states that everyone has the same set of natural rights, such as freedom of speech, freedom of movement, the right to physical security, and the right to fair trial (human rights)

Distributive Justice (ethical principle)

An ethical principle stating that the appropriate decision criteria should be applied to calculate how various benefits and burdens are distributed

Ethic of Care (ethical principle)

An ethical principle stating that everyone has a moral obligation to help others within their relational sphere to grow and self-actualize

Moral Intensity

The degree to which an issue demands the application of ethical principles

Moral Sensitivity (Ethical Sensitivity)

A person’s ability to recognize the presence of an ethical issue and determine its relative importance

Strategies to Support Ethical Behavior

Code of ethical conduct, train and reevaluate employees about their knowledge of proper ethical conduct, establish an ethics hotline operated by an independent organization, rewarding ethical conduct, punishing unethical conduct, evaluating ethical attitudes and behavior in performance appraisals

Five Cross-Cultural Values

Individualism, Collectivism, Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance, Achievement-Nurturing Orientation

Individualism

A cross-cultural value describing the degree to which people in a culture emphasize independence and personal uniqueness (high in US, Canada, South Africa, low in Taiwan, Venezuela)

Collectivism

A cross-cultural value describing the degree to which people in a culture emphasize duty to groups to which they belong and to group harmony (high in Israel, Taiwan, low in US, Germany)

Power Distance

A cross-cultural value describing the degree to which people in a culture accept unequal distribution of power in a society (high in India, low in Denmark)

Uncertainty Avoidance

A cross-cultural value describing the degree to which people in a culture tolerate ambiguity (low uncertainty avoidance) (high in Belgium and Greece, low in Denmark and Singapore)

Achievement-Nurturing Orientation

Cross-cultural value describing the degree to which people in a culture emphasize competitive versus cooperative relations with other people (high in Austria, low in Sweden)

Self-Concept

An individual’s self-beliefs and self-evaluations

Self-Concept Characteristics & Processes

Social Self, Self-Enhancement, Self-Evaluation, Self-Verification