Expanded 12-Unit Organisational Behaviour Study Pack

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering key definitions, theories, distinctions, and models across all 12 units of the Organisational Behaviour study pack.

Organisational Behaviour

A field of study investigating how individuals, groups and organisational structure affect behaviour within organisations, with the knowledge applied to improve organisational effectiveness.

Systematic study

An evidence-based approach that looks for relationships, uses scientific evidence and collects controlled data to make more accurate predictions.

The OB trap

The mistaken belief that being a person automatically means someone accurately understands people in organisations, relying on intuition, gut feelings and personal observation rather than systematic study.

Attitude

An evaluative statement, positive or negative, about an object, person or event.

Job attitudes

Evaluations of one's job that express feelings toward, beliefs about and attachment to the job.

Cognitive dissonance

Perceived incompatibility between attitudes, or between attitudes and behaviour.

Organisational commitment

Psychological bond, attachment and loyalty to the organisation, including perceived cost or difficulty of leaving.

Perceived organisational support (POS)

The belief that the organisation values an employee's contribution and cares about their wellbeing.

Organisational justice

Employee perceptions of fairness regarding workplace outcomes, decision procedures and interpersonal treatment.

Job involvement

Psychological identification with work and its importance to one's self-image.

Work engagement

A positive work-related state characterised by vigour, dedication and absorption in work.

Personality

The sum total of ways an individual reacts to and interacts with others.

Personality trait

An enduring characteristic describing recurring patterns in an individual's behaviour.

Situation-strength theory

A theory proposing that personality translates into behaviour depending on situational clarity, consistency, constraints and consequences.

Trait activation theory

A theory predicting that particular situational cues and contexts activate specific personality traits more than others.

Terminal values

Basic convictions regarding desired end-states or outcomes that a person wants to achieve.

Instrumental values

Basic convictions regarding preferred modes of conduct or means of achieving desired end-states.

Person-organisation fit

The degree of alignment and compatibility between individual values and organisational values.

Emotion

A short-lived, intense feeling caused by a specific event or situation.

Mood

A longer-lasting, general feeling whose cause may be unclear.

Emotional intelligence

The ability to understand and manage one's own emotions and the emotions of others.

Work stress

A response occurring when job demands exceed an individual's ability to cope.

Affective Events Theory (AET)

A theory stating that workplace events produce affective reactions that influence employee attitudes and behaviour.

Surface acting

Faking and displaying an organisationally desired emotion without changing the underlying feeling.

Deep acting

Attempting to modify inner feelings to genuinely experience and express the expected emotion.

Challenge stressor

Workplace pressures perceived as potential growth, learning and achievement opportunities.

Hindrance stressor

Workplace pressures perceived as obstacles that thwart or block goal achievement.

In-role performance

Effectiveness in fulfilling formally recognised job tasks, core duties and responsibilities.

Organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB)

Discretionary behaviour outside formal requirements that supports effective organisational functioning.

Promotive voice

Discretionary communication intended to suggest beneficial improvements and constructive change.

Prohibitive voice

Discretionary communication warning against harmful, dangerous or fraudulent organisational practices.

Counterproductive work behaviour (CWB)

Scalable employee actions that detract from organisational goals or wellbeing.

Incivility

Low-intensity workplace norm violation with an ambiguous intent to harm.

Bullying

Repeated, persistent mistreatment or attempts to torment and wear down an individual.

Social identity

A construct combining one's perception of belonging to a group with others' perception that they share that group membership.

Social loafing

The tendency for individuals to expend less effort when working collectively than when working individually.

Groupthink

A situation where the group norm for consensus overrides realistic appraisal of alternative courses of action.

Groupshift

A phenomenon where a collective decision moves toward a more extreme position—either more risky or more conservative—than members' initial inclinations.

Perception

The process by which individuals organise and interpret sensory impressions to give meaning to their environment.

Cognitive bias

A mental shortcut or built-in thinking error that simplifies decisions but can create irrational judgment.

Bounded rationality

Decision-making through simplified models that extract essential features of problems without capturing their full complexity.

Halo effect

A perceptual shortcut where a single positive characteristic leads to an overly favorable general impression across unrelated dimensions.

Horns effect

A perceptual shortcut where a single negative characteristic creates an overly unfavorable general impression across unrelated dimensions.

Fundamental attribution error

The tendency to underestimate external influences and overemphasise internal factors when explaining other people's negative behaviour.

Self-serving bias

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

Culture

Everything people have, think and do as members of their society, shared and learned through socialisation.

Workplace diversity

Compositional differences among individuals in a work unit, encompassing surface-level demographic attributes and deep-level values and personalities.

Inclusion

The degree to which an employee feels like an esteemed group member through treatment that simultaneously satisfies needs for belongingness and uniqueness.

Motivation

Internal factors that impel action and external factors that induce action, affecting the direction, intensity and duration of effort.

Goal-setting theory

A motivation theory explaining why specific and difficult goals increase task performance when ability, knowledge and commitment exist.

Distributive justice

The perceived fairness of workplace outcomes and resource allocations.

Procedural justice

The perceived fairness of the decision-making process used to determine workplace outcomes.

Interactional justice

The perceived fairness of interpersonal treatment received from decision-makers, encompassing respect, propriety, justification and truthfulness.

Leadership

The process of influencing an organised group toward accomplishing its goals.

Leader-member exchange (LMX)

A theory focusing on the quality of the individual two-way social-exchange relationship between a leader and a follower.

Power

The capacity to exercise influence; it exists in relationships, is perceptual and is dynamic.

Influence

An observable change in a target's attitudes, values, beliefs or behaviour resulting from influence tactics.

Rationalisation

A defence mechanism allowing controversial decisions or behaviour to be justified in an apparently rational way, making them consciously tolerable.

Consequentialism

An ethical approach where choices are judged based on producing the greatest net benefit and welfare across all stakeholders.

Deontology

An ethical framework based on duties, universal rights and principles, holding that certain actions are inherently wrong regardless of consequences.

Moral licensing

A psychological phenomenon where an individual's prior good or ethical deeds grant perceived permission to act unethically later.

Moral disengagement

A set of cognitive mechanisms that reframe unethical conduct to make it appear socially or morally acceptable without personal guilt.

Organisational Behaviour

A field of study investigating how individuals, groups and organisational structure affect behaviour within organisations, with the knowledge applied to improve organisational effectiveness.

Systematic study

An evidence-based approach that looks for relationships, uses scientific evidence and collects controlled data to make more accurate predictions.

The OB trap

The mistaken assumption that being a person automatically means someone accurately understands people in organisations, relying on intuition or gut feelings rather than systematic study.

Attitude

An evaluative statement, positive or negative, about an object, person or event.

Job attitudes

Evaluations of one's job that express feelings toward, beliefs about and attachment to the job.

Cognitive dissonance

Perceived incompatibility between attitudes, or between attitudes and behaviour.

Organisational commitment

The psychological bond, attachment and loyalty an employee has toward the organisation, including the perceived cost or difficulty of leaving.

Perceived organisational support (POS)

The employee's belief that the organisation values their contribution and cares about their wellbeing.

Work engagement

A positive job-level attitude and state characterised by vigour, dedication and absorption in work.

Job involvement

An individual's psychological identification with their work and the degree to which it is important to their self-image.

Personality

The sum total of ways an individual reacts to and interacts with others.

Personality trait

An enduring characteristic describing recurring patterns in an individual's behaviour.

Values

Basic convictions that one mode of conduct or end-state is personally or socially preferable to another.

Situation-strength theory

A framework stating that the degree to which personality translates into behaviour depends on situational clarity, consistency, constraints and consequences.

Trait activation theory

A framework proposing that particular situations provide specific cues that activate some personality traits more than others.

Terminal values

Desired end-states or ultimate outcomes that a person aims to achieve.

Instrumental values

Preferred modes of conduct or means of achieving desired end-states.

Emotion

A short-lived, intense feeling caused by a specific event or situation.

Mood

A longer-lasting, general feeling whose underlying cause may be unclear.

Emotional intelligence

The ability to understand and manage one's own emotions and the emotions of others.

Affective Events Theory (AET)

A model stating that workplace events produce affective reactions that subsequently influence employee attitudes and behaviour.

Surface acting

A form of emotional labour where an employee fakes an expected display without altering the underlying feeling.

Deep acting

A form of emotional labour where an employee attempts to genuinely modify and feel the organisationally expected emotion.

Challenge stressor

A workplace demand viewed as a potential growth, learning, or achievement opportunity.

Hindrance stressor

A workplace demand viewed as an obstacle that directly blocks goals and causes strain.

In-role performance

Effectiveness in fulfilling formally recognised and required job tasks and duties.

Organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB)

Discretionary behaviour outside formal job requirements that supports effective organisational functioning.

Promotive voice

Discretionary communication that suggests beneficial improvements and constructive ideas for work processes.

Prohibitive voice

Discretionary communication that raises concerns and warns against harmful, dangerous, or fraudulent workplace practices.

Counterproductive work behaviour (CWB)

Scalable employee actions that detract from organisational goals or the wellbeing of members.

Incivility

Low-intensity workplace norm violation characterised by an ambiguous intent to harm.

Social identity

A construct combining one's perception of belonging to a group with others' perception that they share that group membership.

Social loafing

The tendency for individuals to expend less effort when working collectively than when working individually.

Groupthink

A situation where the group norm for consensus overrides realistic appraisal of alternative courses of action.

Groupshift

A phenomenon where a collective decision moves toward a more extreme position, becoming more risky or conservative than members' initial preferences.

Perception

The process by which individuals organise and interpret sensory impressions to give meaning to their environment.

Bounded rationality

Decision-making through simplified models that capture essential features of a problem without capturing its full complexity.

Halo effect

A perceptual bias where one positive characteristic creates an overly favorable general impression of an individual across unrelated dimensions.