MBA 530 Test 3

National Org & Culture

Collect mental programming in different social environments

Culture is hard to change b/c embedded in identity

Culture reduced uncertainty and gives us a higher sense of control, which makes us feel more secure

Differences in National Org & Culture

•Individualism-collectivism

•Power distance

•Uncertainty avoidance

•Masculinity - femininity

What happens if we try to change culture?

People get upset like when you take a blanket from a baby b/c people don’t like change (like knowing what’s going to happen, norms)

Orgs want to change culture when they’re doing well or bad. When they’re doing bad, employees want to feel certain, and changing the culture makes them feel uncertain.

Individual-collectivism

Individuals put individuals before the group, personal identity is the most important. For collective put groups first, and social identity is the most important.

High power distance

It makes them uncomfortable to disagree or interject with superior

High uncertainty avoidance

Rely on procedures and knowing all the information

Masculinity - Femininity

Patriarchy or matriarchy

Organizational Culture Defined

Shared values, norms, and assumptions

What is important/unimportant

Allows us to predict behavior, increase perceived control, decrease uncertainty

How do you know what an organizational culture is?

Think of the iceberg.

Organizational Culture Artifacts:

What you can see above the water (tip of the iceberg): These are signals

• Structures, language, rituals and ceremonies, stories

Under the water, Organizational Culture:

• Shared values and norms (informal rules)

• Shared assumptions

Content of Organizational Culture

Researchers have a hard time measuring b/c there are a lot of different values a company might have, ignore shared assumptions, and assume culture is clear.

When measuring, don’t try to get a complete picture of the culture (1 or 2 elements only)

• There are subcultures anyway

Dominant Culture

Values/assumptions shared most consistently and widely

Subcultures

• Located throughout the organization.

• May support, oppose, or not affect the dominant culture.

• Countercultures oppose aspects of the dominant culture.

• Some firms have subcultures without a dominant culture

Two functions of countercultures:

• Surveillance and critical review.

• Source of emerging values.

Organizational Culture Strength

How much do employees hold culture’s values and assumptions?

Most employees embrace the culture, which is supported by artifacts (stories, language, structure)

Functions of strong cultures?

• Control system: everyone is watching your behavior to see if you fit in

• Social glue: cohesiveness, people feel like they fit in

• Sense making: provides norms to reduce uncertainty so we can predict how people are going to behave

Stronger culture = more effort should put in to fit in

Culture & Organizational Effectiveness

Functions of strong cultures impacts organizational performance and employee well-being.

Benefits of culture strength depends on if it fits the environment, not cult like, and if its adaptive.

When there is a merger, there are 4 things that can happen:

Assimilation, Deculturation, Integration, Separation

Assimilation

Acquired firm staff embrace acquiring culture.

Deculturation

Acquiring firm imposes its culture and practices.

Integration

Composite culture preserves best of both firms’ cultures.

Separation

Merged firms keep their own corporate cultures and practices.

Which strategy for merging cultures is best?

It depends

Changing & Strengthening Organizational Culture

• Align artifacts with desired culture

• Culturally consistent rewards (what gets measured and is rewarded is done well, but what if the narcissist is getting rewarded)

• Support workforce stability and communication (helps manage expectations)

• Model desired culture through founders and leaders

• Use attraction, selection, and socialization

People don’t like when culture changes

Attraction Selection Attrition Theory

Culture strength increases when:

•Attraction: Applicants self-select based on compatible values.

•Selection: Firms select applicants with compatible values.

Attrition: Employees with incompatible values quit/removed

Culture Fit vs Add

Culture Fit:

• Encourages unfair discrimination hiring (“mirror” approach).

• Creates a corporate cult.

Culture Add:

Congruent with culture, but not aligned to increase diversity

Organizational Socialization

Newcomers are taught the values, expected behaviors, and social knowledge from coworkers

Stages of Organizational Socialization

Preemployment socialization: learn about org and expectations (sociological contract)

Encounter (new hire): Test expectations against reality (cognitive dissonance)

Role management: Once we realize not what we expected, manage role that we have and make the best of it with work relationships

Socialization outcomes: Higher motivation, loyalty, and satisfaction. Lower stress & turnover

Motivation

• Is not a trait, so people aren’t inherently motivated or unmotivated

Expectancy Theory

Acting 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

Effort-Performance: Do employees believe they can achieve the goal? If not, need more support and training to obtain the skills they need. Otherwise, any program implemented will fail.

Performance-Reward: Do employees believe they will get the reward promised? If they don’t, not motivated to try.

Reward-Personal goal: How motivated are you by free t shirts? If you don’t want the reward, won’t be motivated. Money is a good incentive.

Effort→performance→organizational reward→personal goals

Expectancy Theory Example

We want BMW employees to put the antennas on cars faster:

• If they try harder can they stick antennas on the car faster?

  • Maybe or maybe not

• If they perform at a higher layer, will it make stock price go up?

  • Probably not

• If stock price goes up, does it help personal goals?

  • Give employees more money, which is motivating

Reinforcement Theory

A person engages in a specific behavior because that behavior has been reinforced by a specific outcome.

This brings up the idea of punishment. If person behaves counter productively, punish behavior.

Does it work? No.

Discipline programs should be progressive and documented.If you don’t have consistent programs, behavior repeats, and other employees pick them up.

Rewards: Raises are motivating at first, but effect diminishes. Should still have raises, but raises alone wont have long term positive impacts on motivation.

Hierarchy of Needs

Results in higher needs motivates us. Instead of paying employees more, make them feel special.

Not supported by research (if test question asks)

Social Learning Theory

Observational learning where people learn behaviors by observing others and then modeling the behaviors perceived as being effective

How we learn the most at work

Cognitive Evaluation Theory

Giving people rewards for things they were already internally rewarded to do decreases level of motivation.

Need to raise test scores.

Can be raised through more reading. How to motivate kids to read? Give pizza.

Long term implication of this? If I already loved reading, motivation changes because reading because you love it turns to I read for pizza.

Goal Setting Theory

Working towards a goal as source of motivation

They tell us what to do and what effort is needed

SMART Goals

When a goal becomes impossible, relationship between effort and performance goes to 0.

You want to use goals to increase sales, currently sell 15 cars. New goal should be 20 goals.

Procedural justice

Are policies and procedures fair and do we follow them?

(Following your own rules)

This minimizes discrimination

Distributive justice

Are we happy with what we get? (Salary, raise, bonus, healthcare plan)

Interactional/interpersonal justice

High interpersonal is when we treat people with respect.

Informational justice (transparency)

Explaining to people why something is happening. If we don’t get the explanation, signals that we don’t matter.

Equity Theory

Comparing my outcome/input ratio to other’s.
Want a balance between inputs and outputs.

If we believe my inputs are greater for the same output as other people’s, then will ask for more outputs (like pay).

If there is a refusal, counterproductive behavior, revenge cognitions.

Is stress bad?

Potentially threatening or demanding events. Stress we can’t handle (strain) is bad

Stress Response Process

There is a stressor

Cognitive Appraisal: how much stress?

Think of coping mechanism

If we can’t cope, there is strain

Strain leads to poor well-being

Modern Work Roles

Contain physical and psycho social stressors.

People are less evolved to deal with psycho social stressors.

Psycho Social Stressors

Conflicting roles (work, family, school)

Role related demands

Role Conflict

One role is incompatible with demands of another role (Need to work, but have to pick up kids from school)

intra sender: mixed messages (ask to do creative inquiry in job, but will get fired if not publishing research)

inter sender: 2 bosses (multiple people give directions and the information about what you do conflicts)

inter-role: Different roles conflict (work vs family)

person-role: skills & values the role requires differs from the skills you posses (quit the role that is conflicting with your values, transition to a different role, change the role)

Organizational Constraints

Occurs when:

• Lack of resources

• Interferes with task performance

• Situational elements beyond control

• Perceived organizational obstruction

Role Ambiguity

Don’t know responsibilities, task, performance goals

Role Overload

Quantitative:Too much to do and not enough time

Qualitative: Not able to do the job

Role Underload

Quantitative: Not enough work

Qualitative: Job is boring

Burn Out

Results from chronic workplace stress that’s not properly managed

Causes depression, anxiety, distraction, difficulty regulating emotions

Why is burn out not addressed in the US?

In the US, pull yourself up by your bootstrap culture means burn out is not addressed

Is burn out our fault?

Can be if you don’t set boundaries & take a job you don’t like

Stages of Burn Out

Emotional exhaustion: At the end of the day you feel drained out and tired

Depersonalization: Cynical, tend to be less personal with other people

Diminished Personal Achievement: Reduced performance

U Model of Arousal

Rust Out: Not enough work to do, low performance

Eustress: Optimal arousal

Burnout: Too much work, low performance

NOT MOTIVATION APEX - DON’T CHOOSE THAT ANSWER CHOICE

Cross Over

If you spend time with people burnt out, more likely to get burnt out yourself

Become more engaged if around others who are more engaged

Emotional Contagion

Automatic process.

Walk down the hall and someone smiles at you, smile back

Mirror neurons

Interpersonal Effects

Cross over, emotional contagion, displaced aggression

Displaced Aggression

Mistreat someone because someone mistreats us.

Boss yells at employee, employee yells at spouse

How to reduce stress & negative outcomes from stress?

Less stress & less negative outcomes from stress when:

• Active & healthy life style

• Good coping strategies

• Low neuroticism, high extroversion

• High self esteem, self-efficacy, internal locus of control

• Not a workaholic or perfectionist

What to do about stress

• Think about what your thankful for

• Exercise

• Disconnect from stress

• Have social support

• Can avoid strain by thinking of stress positively

Job Demand-Control Model

Relationship between having control over demands and job strain

Self Compassion

Reduces strain and burnout.

3 parts:

Self Kindness: Warm towards yourself, not judgement

Common Humanity: Everyone makes mistakes

Mindfulness: Acknowledge pain, but not letting it be overwhelming

Mindfulness

When you experience failure, “this is a moment of struggle”

Prevents repression

Common Humanity

“I am not the only person who feels that way”

Prevents feeling of isolation

Self-Kindness

“What do I need to hear right now” and give yourself a supportive touch

Mindfulness vs Hopefulness

Sometimes being mindful is worse than being hopeful. Need to look positively to the future rather than where it sucks in the present.

What does a leader have

Tough to assign a value since it can vary so much

They all have followers

Trait Theories of Leadership

What are the traits that become a leader and become effective in that role?

(Little success in predicting which traits)

Big Five

Non trivial correlations with leadership emergence and effectiveness.

This means openness to experience, agreeableness, etc. are not related to how effective a leader will be once in the role.

Dark and Bright Traits w/ Leadership

Narcissism: Abuse subordinates

Psychopathy

Machiavellian: Seek control over others

They want to become leaders, but may not be effective because they take risks to glorify themselves.