C484 Organizational Behavior and Leadership

personality

Enduring characteristics that describe an individual's behavior

Heredity

Factors determined at conception; one's biological, physiological, and inherent psychological makeup

personality traits

Enduring characteristics that describe an individual's behavior

Big Five model

A personality assessment model that taps five basic dimensions

extroversion

A Big Five personality dimension describing someone who is sociable, gregarious, and assertive

agreeableness

A Big Five personality dimension that describes someone who is good-natured, cooperative, and trusting

conscientiousness

A Big Five personality dimension that describes someone who is responsible, dependable, persistent, and organized

emotional stability

A Big Five personality dimension that characterizes someone as calm, self-confident, secure (positive) versus nervous, depressed, and insecure (negative)

openness to experience

A personality dimension that characterizes someone in terms of imagination, sensitivity, and curiosity

core self-evaluation

Bottom-line conclusions individuals have about their capabilities, competence, and worth as a person

Machiavellianism

The degree to which an individual is pragmatic, maintains emotional distance, and believes that ends can justify means

narcissism

The tendency to be arrogant, have a grandiose sense of self-importance, require excessive admiration, and have a sense of entitlement

self-monitoring

A personality trait that measures an individual's ability to adjust his or her behavior to external, situational factors

proactive personality

People who identify opportunities, show initiative, take action, and persevere until meaningful change occurs

Other-orientation

A personality trait that reflects the extent to which decisions are affected by social influences and concerns vs. our own well-being and outcomes

values

Basic convictions that a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state of existence (content & intensity)

value system

A hierarchy based on a ranking of an individual's values in terms of their intensity

terminal values

Desirable end-states of existence; the goals a person would like to achieve during his or her lifetime

instrumental values

Preferable modes of behavior or means of achieving one's terminal values

personality-job fit theory

A theory that identifies six personality types and proposes that the fit between personality type and occupational environment determines satisfaction and turnover

person-organization fit

Argues that people are attracted to and selected by organizations that match their values, and they leave organizations that are not compatible with their personalities

power distance

A national culture attribute that describes the extent to which a society accepts that power in institutions and organizations is distributed unequally

masculinity

A national culture attribute that describes the extent to which the culture favors traditional masculine work roles of achievement, power, and control. Societal values are characterized by assertiveness and materialism.

femininity

A national culture attribute that indicates little differentiation between male and female roles; a high rating indicates that women are treated as the equals of men in all aspects of the society.

uncertainty avoidance

A national culture attribute that describes the extent to which a society feels threatened by uncertain and ambiguous situations and tries to avoid them.

long-term orientation

A national culture attribute that emphasizes the future, thrift, and persistence

short-term orientation

A national culture attribute that emphasizes the past and present, respect for tradition, and fulfillment of social obligations

perception

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

perceiver, situation, target

The factors in these three areas influence perception

attribution theory

An attempt to determine whether an individual's behavior is internally or externally caused

internally caused

Behaviors are those we believe to be under the personal control of the individual

externally caused

Behaviors that we imagine the situation forced the individual to do

Distinctiveness

Term for whether an individual displays different behaviors in different situations

consensus

Term for when everyone who faces a similar situation responds/behaves in the same way

consistency

Term for when a person responds/behaves the same way over time

fundamental attribution error

The tendency to underestimate the influence of external factors and overestimate the influence of internal factors when making judgments about the behavior of others

self-serving bias

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

selective perception

The tendency to selectively interpret what one sees on the basis of one's interests, background, experience, and attitudes

halo effect

The tendency to draw a general impression about an individual on the basis of a single characteristic

contrast effect

Evaluation of a person's characteristics that is affected by comparisons with other people recently encountered who rank higher or lower on the same characteristics

stereotyping

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

self-fulfilling prophecy

A situation in which a person inaccurately perceives a second person, and the resulting expectations cause the second person to behave in ways consistent with the original perception (aka Pygmalion effect)

rational

Characterized by making consistent, value-maximizing choices within specified constraints

rational decision making model

A decision-making model that describes how individuals should behave in order to maximize some outcome

bounded rationality

A process of making decisions by constructing simplified models that extract the essential features from problems without capturing all their complexity

intuitive decision making

An unconscious process created out of distilled experience. Usually engages emotions.

anchoring bias

A tendency to fixate on initial information, from which one then fails to adequately adjust for subsequent information

confirmation bias

The tendency to seek out information that reaffirms past choices and to discount information that contradicts past judgments

availability bias

The tendency for people to base their judgments on information that is readily available to them

escalation of commitment

An increased commitment to a previous decision in spite of negative information

randomness error

The tendency of individuals to believe that they can predict the outcome of random events

risk aversion

The tendency to prefer a sure gain of a moderate amount over a riskier outcome, even if the riskier outcome might have a higher expected payoff

hindsight bias

The tendency to believe falsely, after an outcome of an event is actually known, that one would have accurately predicted that outcome

utilitarianism

A system in which decisions are made to provide the greatest good for the greatest number.

utilitarianism, rights, justice

The three ethical decision criteria

three-component model of creativity

The proposition that individual creativity requires expertise, creative thinking skills, and intrinsic task motivation

motivation

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

hierarchy of needs

Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of five needs—physiological, safety, social, esteem, and self-actualization—in which, as each need is substantially satisfied, the next need becomes dominant

lower-order needs

Needs that are satisfied externally, such as physiological and safety needs

self-actualization

The drive to become what a person is capable of becoming

higher-order needs

Needs that are satisfied internally, such as social, esteem, and self-actualization needs

Theory X

The assumption that employees dislike work, are lazy, dislike responsibility, and must be coerced to perform

Theory Y

The assumption that employees like work, are creative, seek responsibility, and can exercise self-direction

two factor theory

A theory that relates intrinsic factors to job satisfaction and associates extrinsic factors with dissatisfaction (AKA motivation-hygiene theory)

hygiene factors

Factors—such as company policy and administration, supervision, and salary—that, when adequate in a job, placate workers. When these factors are adequate, people will not be dissatisfied

McClelland's theory of needs

A theory that states achievement, power, and affiliation are three important needs that help explain motivation

need for achievement (nAch)

The drive to excel, to achieve in relationship to a set of standards, and to strive to succeed

need for power (nPow)

The need to make others behave in a way in which they would not have behaved otherwise

need for affiliation (nAff)

The desire for friendly and close interpersonal relationships

self determination theory

A theory of motivation that is concerned with the beneficial effects of intrinsic motivation and the harmful effects of extrinsic motivation

cognitive evaluation theory

A version of self-determination theory which holds that allocating extrinsic rewards for behavior that had been previously intrinsically rewarding tends to decrease the overall level of motivation if the rewards are seen as controlling

self-concordance

The degree to which peoples' reasons for pursuing goals are consistent with their interests and core values

job engagement

The investment of an employee's physical, cognitive, and emotional energies into job performance

goal-setting theory

A theory that says that specific and difficult goals, with feedback, lead to higher performance

management by objectives (MBO)

A program that encompasses specific goals, participatively set, for an explicit time period, with feedback on goal progress

self-efficacy

An individual's belief that they are capable of performing a task

enactive mastery

Gaining relevant experience with the task or job

vicarious modeling

Becoming more confident because you see someone else doing the task

verbal persuasion

Becoming more confident because someone convinces you that you have the skills necessary to be successful

arousal

When you get someone "psyched up" and they perform better

reinforcement theory

A theory that says that behavior is a function of its consequences

behaviorism

A theory that argues that behavior follows stimuli in a relatively unthinking manner

social-learning theory

The view that we can learn through both observation and direct experience

equity theory

A theory that says that individuals compare their job inputs and outcomes with those of others and then respond to eliminate any inequities

distributive justice

Perceived fairness of the amount and allocation of rewards among individuals

organizational justice

An overall perception of what is fair in the workplace, composed of distributive, procedural, and interactional justice

procedural justice

The perceived fairness of the process used to determine the distribution of rewards

interactional justice

The perceived degree to which an individual is treated with dignity, concern, and respect

expectancy theory

A theory that says that the strength of a tendency to act in a certain way depends on the strength of an expectation that the act will be followed by a given outcome and on the attractiveness of that outcome to the individual

group

Two or more individuals, interacting and interdependent, who have come together to achieve particular objectives

formal group

A designated work group defined by an organization's structure

informal group

A group that is neither formally structured nor organizationally determined; such a group appears in response to the need for social contact

social identity theory

Perspective that considers when and why individuals consider themselves members of groups

ingroup favoritism

Perspective in which we see members of our ingroup as better than other people, and people not in our group as all the same

five stage group development model

The five distinct stages groups go through: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning

forming stage

The first stage in group development, characterized by much uncertainty

storming stage

The second stage in group development, characterized by intragroup conflict

norming stage

The third stage in group development, characterized by close relationships and cohesiveness

performing stage

The fourth stage in group development, during which the group is fully functional

adjourning stage

The final stage in group development for temporary groups, characterized by concern with wrapping up activities rather than task performance