Industrial-Organizational Psychology: Motivation, Attitudes, Stress, and Teams

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering work motivation, employee attitudes, stress and burnout, and group dynamics/team decision-making based on Exam 2 lecture materials.

Motivation

The force that energizes, directs, and sustains behavior.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

A need-based theory proposing that human needs are arranged in a hierarchical order from basic physiological and security needs to affiliation, esteem, and self-actualization.

Achievement Motivation Theory

McClelland's theory proposing that the three critical needs in work motivation are the need for achievement, the need for power, and the need for affiliation.

Thematic Apperception Test

A projective test used to assess McClelland's three work-related needs: achievement, power, and affiliation.

Fixed Interval Schedule

A reinforcement schedule where rewards are administered after a predetermined, set passage of time, such as a regular salary.

Variable Interval Schedule

A reinforcement schedule where rewards are provided after unpredictable, varying amounts of time, such as paying a service worker on an irregular basis.

Fixed Ratio Schedule

A reinforcement schedule where reinforcement occurs after a specified, consistent number of responses or completed behaviors, such as piece-rate pay for stuffing envelopes.

Variable Ratio Schedule

A reinforcement schedule where reinforcement is delivered after an unpredictable, varying number of responses, such as sales calls or presentations.

Goal-Setting Theory

A behavior-based theory emphasizing that setting specific, challenging goals (such as SMART goals) and securing worker commitment to them are essential for motivating performance.

Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory

A job design theory stating that job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction are two separate, independent dimensions influenced by distinct job factors.

Motivators

Job content elements (such as achievement, responsibility, and the work itself) that, when present, lead directly to job satisfaction and worker motivation.

Hygienes

Job context elements (such as salary, company policies, and supervision) that prevent job dissatisfaction when adequate, but cannot by themselves generate job satisfaction or motivation.

Job Characteristics Model

A job design framework stating that core job characteristics (skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, feedback) produce critical psychological states that drive personal and work outcomes.

Equity Theory

A cognitive theory stating that workers are motivated to maintain balance by comparing their own input-to-outcome ratio with the ratio of relevant comparison others.

Expectancy Theory

A cognitive model of motivation proposing that effort depends on expectancy (effort leads to performance), instrumentality (performance leads to outcomes), and the value assigned to those outcomes.

Job Satisfaction

The positive and negative feelings and attitudes that an individual maintains toward their job.

Global Approach

A perspective that conceptualizes and measures job satisfaction as a single, overall construct.

Facet Approach

A perspective that treats job satisfaction as composed of distinct, individual components or elements of the job.

Organizational Commitment

A worker's feelings and attitudes directed toward the entire work organization, commonly assessed using the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ).

Affective Commitment

The emotional attachment and identification an employee has toward their work organization.

Continuance Commitment

A commitment to remain with an organization based on the perceived personal or financial costs associated with leaving.

Normative Commitment

A feeling of moral duty, obligation, or responsibility to remain employed with an organization.

Job Enrichment

A job redesign practice that increases job depth by granting workers greater responsibility, autonomy, and control over their work tasks.

Stressor

An environmental event or condition perceived by an individual as threatening or demanding.

Worker Stress

The physiological and/or psychological reactions to events that are perceived to be threatening or taxing.

Distress

Negative stress that can cause stress-related illness and negatively impact employee absenteeism, turnover, and job performance.

Type A Behavior Pattern

A personality pattern marked by excessive drive, competitiveness, impatience, and hostility that increases susceptibility to stress.

Hardiness

A dispositional trait indicating that an individual is relatively resistant to the negative, health-damaging effects of stress.

Relationship Between Performance and Stress

An inverted-U model demonstrating that performance is low under too little stress, peaks at an optimum level of stress, and drops under excessive stress.

Job Burnout

A syndrome of organizational withdrawal resulting from chronic workplace stress that unfolds in three phases: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and feelings of low personal accomplishment.

Depersonalization

The phase of job burnout marked by cynical, callous, detached, or uncaring attitudes toward coworkers, clients, or the organization.

Team

An interdependent group of workers with complementary skills collaborating toward shared goals.

Functional Team

A work group that collaborates on a daily basis to perform a cluster of ongoing, interdependent tasks.

Cross-Functional Team

A team composed of members from different departmental areas or functional disciplines brought together to identify and solve mutual problems.

Self-Managed Team

A team of employees that operates autonomously to produce an entire product, major component, or service.

Stages of Team Development

Tuckman and Jensen's five-stage model tracing team maturation through Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning.

Group Task Role

Member behaviors centered on task completion, including initiating, seeking information, providing information, coordinating, and evaluating.

Group Building Role

Member behaviors aimed at maintaining positive interpersonal relationships, including encouraging, harmonizing, supporting participation, and setting standards.

Self-Centered Role

Dysfunctional member behaviors focused on fulfilling personal desires at the expense of the team, including blocking progress, seeking recognition, and dominating.

Groupthink

A defective decision-making process in cohesive groups where conformity-seeking tendencies override the realistic appraisal of alternative courses of action.

Mindguards

Self-appointed members in a groupthink setting who protect the leader and group from dissenting, contradictory, or conflicting outside information.