OBHR Midterm

Absenteeism

Unplanned absences

Direct Consequences of Absenteeism

Pay cost for zero productivity, overtime costs to make up for it, insurance costs

Indirect Consequences of Absenteeism

Replacement costs, management costs ( time and effort), productivity loss, client service costs, employee morale

Bradford factor

A statistical information factor used to evaluate absenteeism, that assumes that short frequent unplanned absences are more disruptive than longer absences

Bradford Factor Equation

B= (SxS) x D

Unlimited vacation time benefits

Boosts morale and loyalty, increases mental health and productivity, helps bring in talented employees

Disadvantages of unlimited vacation time

• Taking too many vacation days during turnaround times (abuse of policy)

• Taking less vacation days (underusing policy)

• Cannot offer more vacation as a reward (already offering unlimited vacation)

Organizational Behaviour

“Understanding, explaining, and ultimately improving the attitudes and behaviours of people and groups in organizations” 

OB

The study of human behaviour in organizational settings. 

• What people think, feel, and do in organizations

• How individuals and teams in organizations relate to each other and to the organization

• How organizations interact with their external environment

The goal of organizational behaviour

Improve performance Effectiveness ( achieving goals, efficiency ( watching costs) to improve performance in an ethical way

Human resources

Policies, practices, and systems that influence an employee’s behaviour, attitude, and performance in the attainment of organizational goals.

What is OB?

• Unit of analysis

• Theoretical field

• Organizational issues

Unit of Analysis

Are you studying individuals? Teams? The entire organization? 

Theoretical Field

What is the theoretical field through which you will answer your questions?Personality, Values, Motivation, Teams, Power, Leadership, Org Culture

Organization issues

What is the subject matter? What is the problem you wish to study? Job design, Job satisfaction, Team performance, Turnover, Conflict, Wellness

Explaining

An employee may resign from their job because they were dissatisfied with their pay, discriminated against, or failed to respond appropriately to an organizational crisis

Managing

Evidence-based management involves translating principles based on the best scientific evidence into organizational practices

Humans are complex

Many factors influence our behaviour,Genetics; Education; Culture; Demographics; Personality; Values; Emotions;  Personal habits; Context and environment High degree of variability: we have high levels of variability between populations and within populations. And so we really try to explain variability.  

Casual Inferences

This is the holy grail of science – to establish a covariation of cause and effect, a time-order relationship with a cause preceding an effect while eliminating other plausible causes. 

But humans are interdependent creatures (we exists and interact with others) and therefore it is very difficult to determine an independent, actual effect (or cause) of a particular behaviour. 

When it comes to human behaviour often the relationships are non-linear, moderated or mediated.

 Consistent patterns of behaviour

• Human tend to form interpersonal relationships (romantic, friendship, family etc.,). 

• universal emotions such as happiness, sadness, anger, and fear. 

• Decision making: Human combine intuition and reason when making decisions – and are often influenced by perception errors, cognitive biases and memory lapses. 

• Learning: Human have capacity to learn from experience, thus shaping future behaviour

• Social norms: humans tend to conform to the norms and expectations of their social groups

Subjectivity

Common sense can be highly subjective depending on your personal background, education, culture and personal experience 

Lacks consistency

Because common sense varies between people

Influenced by bias

Common sense is influenced by biases such as stereotypes or other fallacies which can lead to inaccurate and unfair judgement

Limitations of common sense

1. Subjectivity

2. Lacks consistency

3. Bias

Evidence based Management

The use of the best available evidence from multiple sources to increase the likelihood of a favorable outcome. 

Barriers to adopting EBM

• General misconceptions and myths ( Higher paid persons opinion)

• Research-practice gap ( Studies that only a few read, practitioners avoid reading scientific studies)

Not trained in decision making

• Obsolete knowledge

• Intuition and personal experience

• swayed by fads and fashions

• specialist skills

• mindless mimicry of top performers

• Dogma

Obsolete Knowledge

We hold true ideas that have been rendered no longer valid. 

Hypes

Business hypes can have profound effects but they dont stick around

Trends

Not temporary, they emerge slowly and get stronger as they develop

Specialist Skills

Unique qualities that include technical skills, knowledge and experience in a particular field of work or specialist area. Think of the idiom: ‘to a hammer everything looks like a nail’

Mindless mimicry of top performers

1. Organizations can mimic strategies, plan locations, market entry decisions, adaptation of process management systems, product diversifications, acquisitions, governance systems and so on. 

2. Can you imitate luck? Organizations success depends on some level of risk taking, but also on getting a bit lucky (industry’s circumstances change, other companies might have challenges etc.,) 

3. Long terms vs. short term effects: outsourcing can boosts efficiency in the short-term but can also lead to slump in innovation in the long term, downsizing, attrition and low employee morale. 

Dogma

An official system of principles or doctrines put forth as authoritative without adequate grounds. The unquestionable acceptance of certain propositions. Unlike hypothesis, a dogma refuses to consider the aspects of its own validity. The Flat Earth movement is an example of a dogma. 

Sources of evidence in EBM

1. Scientific literature

2. Organizations’ internal data

3. Stakeholders’ values and concerns

4. Practitioners’ professional expertise 

Asking

Helps identifying assumptions. Most daily life assumptions are harmless, if turned incorrect. This is not the case in business decisions.

What is the assumed problem or opportunity? 

Acquiring

Various sources (4 in EBMgmt). Whom to ask (and how many)? What to ask? How to ask? All important decisions to make  

Appraising

Where these evidence come from (scientific vs. practitioners)? And what are the potential biases? There’s always biases. Can they be reduced? How 

Attention residue

When you're still thinking about a previous task while working on a current task

Personality

“The stable patterns of behaviour and consistent internal states that determine how an individual reacts to and interacts with others”

• bundle of characteristics that make us similar or different from one another. 

Personality Theory

Inherent characteristics or traits that can be identified by the consistency or stability of their behaviour across time and situation. 

Dispositional Approach

Individuals posses stable trasits or characteristics that influence their attitudes and behaviours

Situational Approach

Characteristics of the (work) environment influence people’s attitudes and behaviours

Interactionist Approach

People’s attitudes and behaviours are a function of both disposition and the situation

Traits

Enduring characteristics that describe an individual’s behaviour. 

MBTI

Sensing, intuiting, thinking and feeling

Barnum and Forer Effect

a cognitive bias where individuals tend to believe that generic, vague descriptions apply specifically to them, even though they could apply to anyone

The Big 5 Personality traits

1. Openness to experience

2. Conscientiousness

3. Extraversion

4. Agreeableness

5. Neuroticism

Openness to Experience

One’s willingness to try new things as well as engage in imaginative and intellectual activities. It includes the ability to “think outside of the box.”

Conscientiousness

The most reliable predictor of job performance, its a person’s ability to regulate impulse control to engage in goal-directed behaviors. 

Extraversion

The tendency and intensity to which someone seeks interaction with their environment, particularly socially. It encompasses the comfort and assertiveness levels of people in social situations.

Agreeableness

How people tend to treat relationships with others (what kind of people orientation and interactions you have with others). 

Neuroticism

 The overall emotional stability of an individual through how they perceive the world. It considers how likely a person is to interpret events as threatening or difficult.

Roles for Openness to experience

Success in creative fields where innovation, imagination, and the willingness to explore new ideas are essential – designers, artists, researchers, and academics). 

Roles for Conscientiousness

Strong predictor of performance in occupations such as accounting, project managers, auditors etc., (requires responsibility, diligence, attention to details, reliability etc.,). 

Roles for Extraversion

Important for jobs that involves interacting with people, especially customers (i.e. sales), and in competitive environments such as finance

Jobs for Agreeableness

Important for performance in jobs that require interaction and involve helping, cooperating, and nurturing others as well as in jobs that involve teamwork and cooperation.We would expect to find highly agreeable individuals is roles that require empathy, compassion, and interpersonal relationship (social work, nursing, medicine, teaching, etc.,) 

Roles for Neuroticism

We would expect to find low, in roles that require individuals to remain calm under pressure and handle stressful situations effectively – spies, firefighters, paramedics, chefs, customer service roles etc., 

Narcissism

• Extreme selfishness, with an inflated sense of self. Associated with arrogant behaviour, unreasonable sense of expectations or entitlement, and desire for excessive admiration from others. 

• Although not consistently related to job performance, shows a robust connection to CWB, especially in contexts where their need for admiration and dominance is thwarted.

Machiavellianism

1. an openness to using manipulation to bring about desired results, 

2. a distrustful view of others, and 

3. prioritizing results above morality (i.e., the ends justify the means thinking).

Sociopath

A person with antisocial tendencies that are ascribed to social or environmental factors, whereas psychopathic traits are more innate, though a chaotic or violent upbringing may tip the scales for those already predisposed to behave psychopathically.

Core Self-Evaluation

1. Self esteem – how you see yourself

2. Self efficacy – belief you can perform the task

3. Locus of control – internal vs external

4. Neuroticism – negative/pessimistic approach

Self-Esteem

The degree to which someone likes themselves

Self-Efficacy

The degree to which someone finds themselves capable and effective at completing tasks

Sense of self-control

The degree to which someone finds themselves in control of their outcomes

Tolerance of Ambiguity

People with high tolerance for ambiguity might do better in high stress and chaotic situations (first respondents, extreme sport, espionage etc.,)

Self-Monitoring

An individual’s ability to adjust behaviour to external, situational factors

Why does personality matter?

Self-awareness

• The knowledge we possess about ourselves is central to improving management skills

• We cannot improve ourselves or develop new capabilities until we know what level of capability we possess

• It does seem to predict desirable work outcomes 

Self concept

An individual’s set of self-beliefs and self-evaluations (who am I and how do I feel about myself?)

MARS

Motivation,Ability, Role Perception and Situational Factors

MARS Motivation

The internal forces that affect our voluntary choice of behaviours. Can be influenced by incentives, satisfaction, grown opportunities or other intrinsic factors. 

MARS Ability

Our natural aptitude and learned capabilities that are required to successfully complete a task. It relates to things such as technical skills, emotional, cognitive and pyshical capabilities. 

MARS Role Perceptions

Refers to how clearly we understand our job duties (roles), and what is expected of us at work. Related examples are, job descriptions, communication, proper training etc., 

MARS Situational Factors

The environmental conditions that might constrain or enable our behaviours. For example, the availability of resources, time constraints, team dynamics or the culture of the organization. 

OCB

Organizational Citizenship Behaviours: discretionary behaviour that is not part of an employee’s formal job requirements but that contributes to the effective functioning of an organization. These are cooperative and helpful behaviors that support the organizations social and psychological context, that are outside of employees job descriptions.

CWB

Counterproductive Work Behaviours: behaviours that have the potential to directly or indirectly harm the organization

Presenteeism

An issue in which workers are on the job, but because of physical or mental illness, are not fully functioning. 

Self Concept - Self Perception

The way individuals perceive themselves, including their physical characteristics, personality, and abilities. This includes one's self-esteem, self-worth, and self-image.

Self Concept-Social Comparison

The way individuals compare themselves to others. 

Self-Concept Social Identity

The way individuals identify themselves in terms of their membership in various social groups. This includes identifying oneself by race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, and occupation, among other things.

Self Concept Complexity

• Refers to the number of selves we have; the number of identities we can generate when representing ourselves

• Everyone has a complex self-concept – we are never one role or one  identity – for example, I’m a professor, a friend, a father etc.,  

• Complexity also considers the separation and overlap of those selves

  • Low complexity = lots of overlap between identities (for example, an individual may identify by their high status, being an organizational leader, and a bread-winner – these are all separate but highly overlapping identities)

  • High complexity = more separation between identities 

Self Concept Consistency

• Consistency refers to how compatible an individual’s traits, values and abilities relates to his/her identities 

• people have high internal consistency when most of their self-perceived roles require similar traits, values and other attributes. 

• Low consistency occurs when some self-perceptions require personal characteristics that conflict with characteristics required for other aspects of self (i.e., traveler but a responsible pat owner). 

Self concept Clarity

• the degree to which you have a clear, confidently defined and stable self-concept

• occurs when we are confident about “who we are”; able to easily identify and describe our central identities to others; and are consistent in our descriptions across situations, people, and time

• Increases with age 

Self Concept - Personal Identity

Based on unique personal characteristics

• Interests, abilities, traits (e.g. hockey, problem solving skills, hair color)

Self Concept Social Identity

Based on perception of belonging to various social groups or categories

• Gender, nationality, occupation, religion, etc. 

Perception

The process by which individuals select, organize and interpret their impressions to give meaning to their environment

Inattentional Blindness

The failure to notice a fully-visible, but unexpected object since our attention is focused elsewhere (like being engaged on a demanding task). This phenomenon points to the limitation in our cognitive attention – we don’t see things NOT because they are hidden, but because we are not paying attention to it. 

Selective Attention

Humans have a limited capacity for attention, which means they can only focus on a limited number of stimuli at any given moment. Inattentional blindness occurs when this focus excludes other potentially relevant information.

Unexpected Events

Often, the unperceived object or event is unexpected, making it more likely to be overlooked.

Task Load

The more mentally demanding the task you are focused on, the more likely you are to experience inattentional blindness

Attribution Theory

When individuals observe behaviour, they attempt to determine whether the cause is:

• Internal/dispositional (individual is responsible) or

  External/situational (outside causes)

Self-serving bias

The tendency to attribute positive events and outcomes to internal factors (innate to us) and put the blame for failure on external factors.

Confirmation Bias

Seeking out information that confirms our pre-existing beliefs

Halo Effect

Drawing a general impression about an individual based on a single characteristic, such as intelligence, likeability, or appearance

Contrast Effect

A person’s evaluation is affected by comparisons with other individuals recently encountered

Primacy Effect

When interviewing, the first few candidates are likely to make a lasting impression. 

Recency Effect

Candidates interviewed most recently or last are easier to remember (and therefore to favour).

Similar to me effect

Giving a higher rating or overlooking negative info for someone that is similar to you

Stereotyping

When an individual assigns attributes to another solely on the basis of the other’s membership in a particular social or demographic category

Affect

Personality traits that refer to a person’s relatively stable, underlying tendency to experience positive or negative moods. Those with higher emotional stability and extraversion. Broad range of feelings people experience, including emotions and moods (Long term)

Emotion

Intense feelings that are directed at someone or something (Short term)