Organizational Behavior Exam 1

Chapters 1-6, 8-9

What is OB (organizational behavior)?

study devoted to understanding, explaining, and ultimately improving the attitudes and behaviors of individuals and groups in organization.

What are the managers goals of OB?

• maximize performance

• maximize organizational commitment

what are OB skills?

the behaviors that can help enhance your individual, team, and organization outcomes.

what is resource-based view?

the idea that firms that leverage valuable resources are capable of sustainable competitive advantage.

valuable resources

are rare and inimitable

Why does OB matter? What were the findings from study 1?

• 7% decrease in turnover

• 27,000 more in sales per employee

• 18,000 more in firm market value

• 3,800 more in profit

Why does OB matter? What were the findings from study 2?

Study examined the prospectus filed for each of 136 firms in 1988, coding for language indicative of the firm valuing OB practices.

• By 1993, 81 of the 136 firms survived (approx. 60%)

• Firms valuing OB had a 19% higher survival rate than firms that did not.

What were the main findings from the ‘Putting People First for Organizational Success’ article?

• managers are focused on short term pressures

• organizations tend to destroy competence

• managers don’t delegate enough

• perverse norms abut what constitutes good management

what is the rule of 1/8?

• ½ of organizations don’t believe there is a connection between people and profit.

• ½ of those who see the connection try to make a single change, rather than attempting to make comprehensive changes.

• ½ of the firms that make comprehensive changes persist long enough for those changes to make a difference

• this suggests why it is difficult for organizations to implement OB.

• ½ x ½ x ½ = 1/8

why are people interesting?

• They are different

• They are biased

• They are emotional

• They are stressed

What questions do we have to ask ourselves, so that we can change people behaviors?

• How do we improve performance?

• How do we foster commitment?

• How do we motivate people?

• How do we build trust?

What questions do we have to ask ourselves so that we can work together?

• How do we compose an effective team?

• How do leaders obtain power?

• How do we make leaders effective?

• How do we build an effective organization?

What are the methods of knowing?

• experience

• intuition

• authority

• science

What is the method of experience?

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

What is the method of Intuition?

people hold firmly to some belief because it just "stands to reason" - it seems obvious or self-evident.

What is the method of Authority?

People hold firmly to some belief because some respected official, agency, or source has said it is so.

What is the method of Science?

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

What is the Hawthorn Effect?

Subjects improve or modify their behavior due to the mere presence of an observer.

What is the method of science broken into?

• theory

• hypotheses

• data

• verification

What is the scientific method?

The use of statistical methods to determine whether a hypothesis can be disconfirmed.

What is theory?

a collection of assertions that specify how and why variables are related.

what is hypotheses?

written predictions that specify relationships among variables.

what is data?

collection and observation of behaviors and outcomes related to the hypotheses.

What is verification?

the use of statistical methods to determine whether a hypothesis can be disconfirmed.

Does correlation equal causation?

NO

why doesn’t correlation equal causation?

Just because something is correlated, it doesn’t mean that item caused It.

What does proving causation require?

• Correlation

• Temporal precedence

• Elimination of alternative explanations

What is an example of temporal precedence?

which one came first? - Chicken and the egg analogy

What is an example of elimination of alternative explanations?

was I super productive because I drank coffee or was it because I enjoy what I do?

What is meta-analysis helpful for?

aggregating correlations

What does OB provide?

useful principles rather than cookbook perfection

What are the key OB outcomes?

• job performance

• organizational commitment

What is job performance?

employee behaviors that contribute either positively or negatively to the accomplishment of organizational goals.

• A set of behaviors (not necessarily results)

What is organizational commitment?

The desire on the part of an employee to remain a member of the organization.

What are subdivisions of job performance?

• task performance

  • routine task performance

  • adaptive task performance

  • creative task performance

What is task performance?

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

what makes up task performance?

• The tasks, duties, and responsibilities that are a core part of the job.

• The set of explicit obligations that an employee must fulfill to receive compensation and continued employment. 

What is an example of task performance?

flight attendant demonstrating safety and emergency procedures and distributing food and beverages to passengers.

What is routine task performance?

well known or habitual responses by employees to predictable task demands.

what is an example of routine task performance?

an expressionless flight attendant robotically demonstrating how to insert the seatbelt tongue into the seatbelt buckle before your flight takes off.

what is adaptive task performance?

employee responses to tasks that are novel, unusual, or at the very least unpredictable.

what is an example of adaptive task performance?

 flight attendant assisting passengers to safety. Though they receive training for emergency's, the situation is different when it is real.

What behaviors are involved in adaptability?

• Handling emergencies or crisis situations

• Handling work stress

• Solving problems creatively

• Dealing with uncertain and unpredictable work situations

• Demonstrating interpersonal adaptability

• Demonstrating cultural adaptability

what is creative task performance?

the degree to which individuals develop ideas or physical outcomes that are both novel and useful.

what is an example of creative task performance?

The creation of the bikini

what is the equation for job performance?

Task performance + citizenship behaviors - counterproductive behaviors = job performance

How do organizations identify the behaviors that underline task performance?

through job analysis

what is job analysis?

a process by which an organization determines requirements of specific jobs.

what are the three steps to conduct a job analysis?

• Generate a list of activities done in a job

• Rate each activity by "subject matter experts" - according to things like importance and frequency.

• The activities that are rated highly in terms of importance and frequency are retained and used to define task performance.

What is Occupational information Network (O*NET)?

An online database containing job tasks, behaviors, required knowledge, skills, and abilities.

What is citizenship behavior?

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

What are the types of citizenship behavior?

• interpersonal

• organizational

What is interpersonal citizenship behavior?

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

what are examples of interpersonal citizenship behaviors?

helping, courtesy, sportsmanship

what are organizational citizenship behaviors?

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

what are examples of organizational citizenship behaviors?

• voice

• civic virtue

• boosterism

what is counterproductive behavior?

employee behaviors that intentionally hinder organizational goal accomplishment.

what are examples of counterproductive behavior?

Gossip, wasting resources, theft, personal aggression

What are the subdimensions of counterproductive behavior?

• property deviance

• production deviance

• political deviance

• personal deviance

What is property deviance?

Behaviors that harm the organization's assets and possessions.

what are examples of property deviance?

• sabotage

• theft

what is production deviance?

Intentionally reducing the organizational efficiency of work output.

what are examples of production deviance?

• Wasting resources

• Substance abuse

what is political deviance?

behaviors that intentionally disadvantage other individuals rather than the larger organization.

what is personal deviance?

hostile verbal and physical actions directed towards other employees

what are examples of personal deviance?

• Harassment

• Abuse

what workplace trends affect job performance in todays organizations?

• knowledge work

• service work

• GIG work

What is knowledge work?

Jobs that primarily involve cognitive activity versus physical activity.

what are examples of knowledge work?

• Education

• continuous work

what is service work?

providing a service that involves direct verbal or physical interactions with customers

what are examples of service work?

•  Retail salespersons

• customer service representative

• food service worker

what is GIG work?

Income-earning activities that are generally short term in nature, temporary, or involve freelance work, and which occur outside the traditional long-term employer-employee relationship.

what are examples of GIG work?

• Uber

• Etsy

• Airbnb

• TaskRabbit

How can organizations use job performance information to manage employee performance?

• management of objectives (MBO)

• BARS

• 360-Degree feedback

• forced ranking practices

• social performance management

what is management of objectives (MBO)?

management philosophy that bases an employee's evaluations on whether specific performance goals have been met.

what is BARS?

use of examples of critical incidents to evaluate an employee's job performance behaviors directly.

what 360-degree feedback?

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

what are forced ranking practices?

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

what is social performance management?

The use of a social media platform for performance management involving ongoing communication among managers and employees regarding recognition, sharing of goals, progress, and constructive feedback.

what is organizational commitment?

defined as the desire on the part of an employee to remain a member of the organization.

what is withdrawal behavior?

employee actions that are intended to avoid work situations.

how is organizational commitment and withdrawal behavior connected?

Some employees may exhibit much more commitment than withdrawal, finding themselves on the green end of the continuum. Other employees exhibit much more withdrawal than commitment, finding themselves on the red end of the continuum.

what are the types of organizational commitment?

• affective commitment

• continuous commitment

• normative commitment

what is affective commitment?

An employee's desire to remain a member of an organization due to a feeling of emotional attachment.

• Provides an emotional connection that makes you want to continue to show up to work.

• You remain a member because you want to

• You are more likely to be engaged in OCB's

what models display affective commitment?

• Erosion model

• The social influence model

what does the erosion model display?

the person with the least amount of connections will most likely leave.

what does the social influence model display?

the more connections you have the most likely chance you have of staying.

What is continuance commitment?

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

• In other words, you stay because you need to.

how does emmeddedness connect to continuance commitment?

• As embeddedness increases, continuance increases, continuance commitment increases

how do alternatives connect to continuance commitment?

As alternatives decrease, continuance commitment increases

what is normative commitment?

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

• You remain a member because you ought to

• As perceived indebtedness increases, normative commitment increases.

how does indebtedness connect to normative commitment?

As perceived indebtedness increases, normative commitment increases.

how do organizational inducements connect to normative commitment?

As organizational inducements exceed requisite contributions from the individual, the individual likely will experience increased normative commitment.

what are the primary responses to negative events at work?

• exit

• voice

• loyalty

• neglect

what is the exit response?

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

what is the voice response?

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

what is the loyalty response?

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

what is the neglect response?

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

what are the types of withdrawal?

• psychological

• physical

what is psychological withdrawal?

mentally escaping the work environment.