Org Behavior Test 1

Ch1, ch2, ch3, ch4,

Organizational Behavior

 Field of study devoted to understanding, explaining, and ultimately improving the attitudes and behaviors of individuals and groups in organizations

Human resource management

• Field of study that focuses on the applications of organizational behavior

theories and principles in organizations

Strategic management

• Field of study devoted to exploring the product choices and industry characteristics that affect an organization’s profitability

Resource-Based View of Organizations

 A model that argues that rare and inimitable resources help firms maintain competitive advantage

Resources

• Inimitable – incapable of being imitated or copied

• History – a collective pool of experience, wisdom, and knowledge created by people that benefits the organization

• Numerous small decisions – people making small decisions every day that are

invisible to competitors

• Socially complex resources – resources created by people, such as culture, teamwork, trust, and reputation. The source of competitive advantage is known, but the method of replicating the advantage is unclear

Rule of One-Eighth

 ½ of managers in organizations will not believe the connection between management and profits

 ½ of managers who believe the connection will make a single change to solve problems

 ½ of managers will persist with comprehensive changes

Organizational Behavior Knowledge

 Method of experience

• Theory that people hold firmly to some belief because it is consistent with their own experience and observations

Organizational Behavior Knowledge

 Method of intuition

• Theory that people hold firmly to some belief because it “just stands to reason” – it seems obvious or self-evident

Organizational Behavior Knowledge

 Method of authority

• Theory that people hold firmly to some belief because some respected official, agency, or source has said it is so

Organizational Behavior Knowledge

 Method of science

• Theory that people accept some belief because scientific studies have tended to replicate that result using a series of samples, settings, and methods

The Scientific Method

 Theory

• A collection of verbal and symbolic assertions that specify how and why variables are related, as well as the conditions in which they should (and should not) be related

 Hypotheses

• Written predictions that specify relationships between variables

 Correlation (r)

• Describes the statistical relationship between two variables

• r can range from 0 (no statistical relationship) to |1| (perfect statistical relationship)

• Basis of much of organizational behavior research

• Correlation does not imply causation

The Scientific Method PT. 2

 Meta-analysis

• A method that combines the results of multiple scientific studies by essentially calculating a weighted average correlation across studies (with larger studies receiving more weight than smaller studies)

 Evidence-based management

• A perspective that argues that scientific findings should form the foundation for management education

Job Performance

 Employee behaviors that contribute either positively or negatively to the accomplishment of organizational goals

Task Performance

 Employee behaviors that are directly involved in the transformation of organizational resources into the goods or services that the organization produces

Routine task performance

• Well-known or habitual responses by employees to predictable task demands

Adaptive task performance

• Thoughtful responses by an employee to unique or unusual task demands

Creative task performance

• The degree to which individuals develop ideas or physical outcomes that are both novel and useful

Job Analysis

 A process by which an organization determines requirements of specific jobs

Citizenship Behavior

 Voluntary employee behaviors that contribute to organizational goals by improving the context in which work takes place

Organizational citizenship behavior

• Going beyond normal expectations to improve operations of the organization, as well as defending the organization and being loyal to it

Interpersonal citizenship behavior

• Going beyond normal job expectations to assist, support, and develop coworkers and colleagues

Types of Organizational Citizenship Behavior

 Voice

• When an employee speaks up to offer constructive suggestions for change, often in reaction to a negative work event

 Civic virtue

• Participation in company operations at a deeper-than-normal level through voluntary meetings, readings, and keeping up with news that affects the company

 Boosterism

• Positively representing the organization when in public

Types of Interpersonal Citizenship Behavior

 Helping

• Assisting coworkers who have heavy work loads, aiding them with personal matters, and showing new employees the ropes when they first arrive on the job

 Courtesy

• Sharing important information with coworkers

 Sportsmanship

• Maintaining a positive attitude with coworkers through good and bad times

Counterproductive Behavior

 Employee behaviors that intentionally hinder organizational goal accomplishment

Types of counterproductive behavior

• Property deviance – behaviors that harm the organization’s assets and possessions (e.g., sabotage)

• Theft – stealing company products or equipment from the organization

• Production deviance – intentionally reducing organizational efficiency of work output (e.g., wasting resources, substance abuse)

• Political deviance – behaviors that intentionally disadvantage other individuals (e.g., gossiping, incivility)

• Personal aggression – hostile verbal and physical actions directed toward other employees (e.g., harassment, abuse)

Trends Affecting Performance  Knowledge work

• Jobs that primarily involve cognitive activity versus physical activity

• Becoming more prevalent than jobs involving physical activity

Trends Affecting Performance  Service work

• Providing a service that involves direct verbal or physical interactions with customers

• About 55% of the economic activity in the United States

Application of Performance Management

 Management by objectives (MBO)

• A management philosophy that bases employee evaluations on whether specific performance goals have been met

Application of Performance Management

 Behaviorally anchored rating scales (BARS)

• Use of examples of critical incidents to evaluate an employee’s job performance behaviors directly

Application of Performance Management

 360-degree feedback

• A performance evaluation system that uses ratings provided by supervisors, coworkers, subordinates, customers, and the employees themselves

Application of Performance Management  Forced ranking

• A performance management system in which managers rank subordinates relative to one another

There are three main types of task performance

• Routine – predictable task demands

• Adaptive – unusual or unique task demands

• Creative – novel and useful outcomes

Organizational commitment

• An employee’s desire to remain a member of an organization

Withdrawal behavior

• Employee actions that are intended to avoid work situations

Focus of Commitment

 The people, places, and things that can inspire a desire to remain a member of an organization

Affective commitment

• An employee’s desire to remain a member of an organization due to a feeling of emotional attachment

Continuance commitment

• An employee’s desire to remain a member of an organization due to an awareness of the costs of leaving

Normative commitment

• An employee’s desire to remain a member of an organization due to a feeling of obligation

Affective Commitment

 An employee’s desire to remain a member of an organization due to a feeling of emotional attachment

Erosion model

• A model that suggests that employees with fewer bonds with coworkers are more likely to quit the organization than employees with more bonds with coworkers

Social influence model

• A model that suggests that employees with direct linkages to coworkers

who leave the organization will themselves become more likely to leave

Embeddedness

• An employee’s connection to and sense of fit in the organization and community

Exit

• A response to a negative work event by which one becomes often absent from work or voluntarily leaves the organization

Voice

• When an employee speaks up to offer constructive suggestions for change, often in reaction to a negative work event

Loyalty

• A positive response to a negative work event in which one publicly supports the situation but privately hopes for improvement

Neglect

• A passive, destructive response to a negative work event in which one’s interest and effort in work decline

Psychological withdrawal

• Mentally escaping the work environment

• Examples: daydreaming, socializing, looking busy, cyberloafing

Physical withdrawal

• A physical escape from the work environment

• Examples: tardiness, long breaks, missing meetings, absenteeism, quitting, exit

Independent forms model

• A model that predicts that the various withdrawal behaviors are uncorrelated; engaging in one type of withdrawal has little bearing on engaging in other types

Compensatory forms model

• A model indicating that the various withdrawal behaviors are negatively correlated; engaging in one type of withdrawal makes one less likely to engage in other types

Progression model

• A model indicating that the various withdrawal behaviors are positively correlated; engaging in one type of withdrawal makes one more likely to engage in other types

Types of Employees

 Stars

• High commitment and high performance; role models

 Citizens

• High commitment and low task performance; high citizenship behaviors

 Lone wolves

• Low commitment and high task performance; motivated to achieve work goals for themselves instead of their organizations

 Apathetics

• Low commitment and low task performance; minimum effort to keep jobs

Perceived organizational support

• The degree to which employees believe that the organization values their

contributions and cares about their well-being

Practices to increase commitment

• Increasing the bonds that link employees together (affective commitment)

• Create a salary and benefits package that creates a financial need to stay (continuance commitment)

• Provide various training and development opportunities for employees (normative commitment)

Job Satisfaction

 A pleasurable emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or job experiences

 Represents how a person feels and thinks about his or her job

Values

• Things that people consciously or unconsciously want to seek or attain

Value-percept theory

• A theory that argues that job satisfaction depends on whether the

employee perceives that his or her job supplies those things that he or she

values

Dissatisfaction =

(Vwant – Vhave) × (Vimportance)

Pay satisfaction

• Employees’ feelings about the compensation for their jobs

Promotion satisfaction

• Employees’ feelings about how the company handles promotions

Supervision satisfaction

• Employees’ feelings about their boss, including his or her competency,

communication, and personality

Coworker satisfaction

• Employees’ feelings about their coworkers, including their abilities and

personalities

Satisfaction with the work itself

• Employees’ feelings about their actual work tasks

The changing employee-employer relationship

• Loyalty has decreased over time for employees and organizations

• Psychological contracts – employee beliefs about what employees owe the organization and what the organization owes them

• Transactional contracts – psychological contracts that focus on a narrow set of specific monetary obligations

• Relational contracts – psychological contracts that focus on a broad set of open-ended and subjective obligations

Meaningfulness of work

• A psychological state reflecting one’s feelings about work tasks, goals, and purposes, and the degree to which they contribute to society and fulfill one’s ideals and passions

Responsibility for outcomes

• A psychological state indicating the degree to which employees feel they are key drivers of the quality of work output

Knowledge of results

• A psychological state indicating the extent to which employees are aware

of how well or how poorly they are doing

Job Characteristics Theory

 A theory that argues that five core characteristics combine to result in high levels of satisfaction with the work itself

 Characteristics

• Variety

• Identity

• Significance

• Autonomy

• Feedback

Job Characteristics Theory

 Variety

• The degree to which a job requires different activities and skills

 Identity

• The degree to which a job offers completion of a or whole, identifiable piece of work

 Significance

• The degree to which a job really matters and impacts society as a whole