Organisational Behaviour Flashcards

Flashcards based on Organisational Behaviour lecture notes.

What is Organisational Behaviour?

Field of study investigating the impact of individuals, groups, and structure on behaviour within organisations to improve organisational effectiveness.

What is Evidence-Based Management (EBM)?

Basing managerial decisions on the best available scientific evidence, not just intuition or common sense.

What are some recent negative findings in OB research regarding after-hours communication?

Employees answering emails after hours are more likely to experience emotional exhaustion, reduced productivity, negative work-related behaviours, and badmouth their employers.

What are some recent positive findings in OB research regarding employee wellbeing?

Frequent breaks from work, psychological disengagement, and physical exercise during vacation have positive effects on employee wellbeing.

What are some contributing disciplines to Organisational Behaviour?

Knowledge from different areas of study.

What are some major challenges and opportunities in OB?

Economic pressures, globalisation, workforce demographics/diversity, customer service, people skills, networked organisations, social media, employee well-being, positive work environments, and ethical behaviour.

What are key aspects of the future of work?

Increasing high-skill jobs, emphasis on cognitive and interpersonal skills, faster adoption of AI and digital technologies, remote/hybrid work, employee desire for purposeful jobs, and emphasis on wellness.

What is personality according to Robbins et al. (2024)?

"The sum total of ways in which an individual reacts to and interacts with others"

What outcomes does personality influence?

Job performance, job attitudes, leadership, team effectiveness, unethical behaviour, conflict and negotiation, leadership, stress and coping, etc.

What are criticisms of personality testing in the workplace?

Possibility of SDR, use of biased reference groups, and need for job-specific customisation.

What is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) used for?

Identifying strengths and informing career choices, often used in school and university contexts.

What did Holland's Personality Types propose?

Individuals can be classified into one of six personality types, which are likely to succeed in certain jobs.

What are the Big Five personality traits?

Openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.

How do each of the big five traits influence behavior?

Openness: less authoritarian views, healthy identity. Conscientiousness: relationship happiness, less antisocial behavior. Extraversion: life satisfaction, social status. Agreeableness: forgiveness. Neuroticism: anxiety, low life satisfaction.

What is the 'Dark Triad'?

Characterised by high scores on narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism and is linked to unethical behaviour.

What are some Important Traits at Work?

Core self-evaluations, self-monitoring, proactive personality

What is situation-strength theory and trait-activation theory?

They suggest that the effects of personality traits on behaviour depends on the situation.

What are values?

Fundamental beliefs about preferable conduct or end-states.

What are terminal and instrumental values?

Terminal values specify what you want to achieve, and Instrumental values are the behaviours shown to achieve.

What are the 5 dimensions of national culture according to Hofstede's Framework?

Power Distance, Individualism/Collectivism, Masculinity/Femininity, Uncertainty Avoidance, and Long/Short-Term Orientation.

What is power distance?

The extent to which a society accepts that power in institutions and organisations is distributed unequally.

What is the difference between individualism and collectivism?

Individualism prioritizes acting independently, while collectivism emphasizes group support and interdependence.

What is the difference between masculinity and femininity cultures?

Masculine cultures favour traditional masculine work roles. Feminine cultures support less differentiation between male and female roles.

What is uncertainty avoidance?

The extent to which a society feels threatened by uncertain and ambiguous situations and tries to avoid them.

What is the difference between long-term and short-term cultures?

Long-term orientation emphasizes the future. Short-term prioritises "the here and now" and immediate rewards.

What does Indulgence refer to?

The degree to which a culture allows for relatively free gratification of people's emotions and desires.

What are considerations when managing value differences between generations?

Managing value differences between generations is a key challenge for employers today.

What do older Generation employees vs younger Generation employees want in the workforce?

Older employees cite salary as a main reason. Gen Y and Gen Z cite career development and promotion opportunities.

What is Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)?

Diversity refers to variety; equity refers to fair treatment; inclusion is when everyone feels welcomed.

What are the benefits of DEI?

Fosters innovation, higher employee engagement, and better financial performance.

What are some biographical characteristics?

Age, gender, race and ethnicity, disability.

What is neurodiversity?

"Variations in the human brain regarding sociability, learning, attention, mood, and other mental functions".

What is ability?

An individual's capacity to perform tasks in a job.

What is diversity management?

Employers should seek to attract, select, develop and retain a diverse workforce.

What are attitudes?

Evaluative statements about objects, people, or events; they reflect how we feel about something.

What are the three components of an attitude?

Cognitive, affective, and behavioural.

What is cognitive dissonance?

Occurs when an individual becomes aware of an inconsistency between their attitude(s) and their behaviour(s).

What is prejudice?

Negative attitude toward another person or group formed in advance of any experience with that person or group.

What is discrimination?

Unfair discrimination involves making judgements about individual based on stereotypes regarding their demographic group.

What were some of the key findings from work attitudes and perceptions post-pandemic?

Post-pandemic, workers report worse workplace health, caregiver exhaustion, and work-related illness.

What are some key lessons for employers?

Employers should prioritize mental health, offer flexible work, and build inclusive organizations.

What are some major attitudes in OB?

Job involvement, organisational commitment, perceived organisational support, employee engagement, job satisfaction.

What is job involvement?

The degree to which a person identifies with a job, actively participates in it and considers performance important to self-worth.

What is organisational commitment?

The degree to which an employee identifies with an organisation and its goals.

What is perceived organisational support?

The degree to which employees believe an organisation values their contribution and cares about their well-being.

What is employee engagement?

An individual's involvement and satisfaction with, and enthusiasm for, the work they do.

What qualities do highly engaged employees demonstrate?

Vigour, dedication, absorption.

What is Job Satisfaction?

Having a positive feeling about your job.

What are predictors of Job Satisfaction?

Having an interesting job with training and variety, social support and interaction, relationships with managers and supervisors.

What is the core self-evaluations theory?

A contemporary theory of job satisfaction that focuses on the role of personality in influencing attitudes at work.

What is defined as Affect?

Affect isThe broad range of feelings that people experience

What is defined as Emotions?

Emotions are Intense, discrete and short-lived feeling experiences that are often caused by a specific event

What is defined as Moods?

Moods are Feelings that tend to be longer lived and less intense than emotions and that lack a contextual stimulus.

What are the six basic emotions?

Anger, fear, sadness, happiness, disgust, surprise.

What is evolutionary psychology?

Emotions motivate us to engage in behaviours necessary for survival.

What are sources of Emotions and Moods?

Emotions and moods are influenced by individual differences, activities, time, and personality traits.

What is Emotional Labor?

Occurs when an employee expresses organisationally desired emotions during interpersonal transactions at work.

What is Surface acting?

Hiding your inner feelings and forgoing emo1onal expressions in response to display rules

What is Deep acting?

Deep acting: Trying to modify your true inner feelings based on display rules.

What is Emotional Dissonance?

Emotional Dissonance efers to inconsistencies between the emo1ons people feel and the emotions they display

What is Affective Events Theory?

The theory focuses on how emotions can affect outcomes at work

What is Emotional Intelligence (EI)?

A person's ability to perceive oneself and others and regulate these emotions.

What is Emotion Regulation?

Emotion Regula1on involves iden1fying and modifying the emo1ons you feel

What do emotions impact at work and how?

decision-making (attention/focus), creativity, and motivation.

What plays a crucial role in service encounters?

Employee emotions through the process of emo1onal contagion.

What are deviant workplace behaviors?

Negative emotions are a major antecedent of deviant behavior at work.

What is perception?

A process by which individuals organise and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment.

What is Attribution Theory?

how we judge behaviour as internally or externally caused based on distinctiveness, consensus, and consistency.

What is Fundamental Attribution Error?

Overemphasizing internal factors and underemphasizing external factors when judging others' behavior.

What is Self-serving Bias?

The tendency for individuals to apribute their own successes to internal factors and to put the blame for failures on external factors

What is stereotyping?

Judging someone on the basis of one's percep1on of the group to which that person belongs

What is bounded rationality?

Bounded rationality is making decisions using simplified models that focus on essential problem features.

What is the Utilitarianism Approach to ETHICS?

Does the decision provide the greatest good for the greatest number?

What is the Rights Approach to ETHICS?

Does the decision respect and protect the rights of individuals?

What is the Fairness and Justice Approach to ETHICS?

Does the decision allow for fairness and protect the interests of the less powerful?

What is Ethics?

Ethics: Moral principles guiding conduct, differentiating right from wrong to guide behavior.

What are morals?

Morals: Fundamental beliefs about right and wrong that guide individual decisions.

What is Business Ethics

The study of business situations, activities, and decisions where issues of right and wrong are addressed

What is Whistle-blowing?

disclosure of illegal, immoral, or illegitimate practices by organization members to those who can take action.

What is Motivation?

The processes that account for an individual's intensity, direction and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal.

What theories explain motivation?

Goal-Setting Theory, Expectancy Theory, Self-Efficacy Theory, and Equity Theory

What is Job Demand Control Model?

In demanding jobs, providing control (autonomy) reduces stress.

What is Type A and Type B Personality Theory?

Type A personalities are driven, Type B are relaxed.