ILRID 1525: Psych of Work Prelim 1

Positive Organizational Scholarship

area of OB research concerning how organizations develop human strengths, foster vitality and resilience, and unlock potential

Organizational Behavior

field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behavior within organizations for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organization's effectiveness; in short, the study of what people do in an organization and the way their behavior affects the organization's performance

Systematic Study

looking at relationships, attempting to attribute causes and effects, and drawing conclusions based on scientific evidence

Evidence-Based Management (EBM)

the basing of managerial decisions on the best available scientific evidence

Intuition

an instinctive feeling not necessarily supported by research

Disciplines that contribute to OB

Psychology, Social Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology

Psychology

the science that seeks to measure, explain, and sometimes change the behavior of humans and other animals

Social Psychology

an area of psychology that blends concepts from psychology and sociology and that focuses on the influence of people on one another

Sociology

the study of people in relation to their social environment or culture

Anthropology

The study of humans

Contingency Variables

situational factors or variables that moderate the relationship between 2+ variables

Use of Contingency Variables in OB

Used to offer reasonably accurate explanations of human behavior in OB, a field in which there are few absolutes

Challenges and Opportunities for OB

1. Responding to continuing globalization
2. Understanding workforce demographics
3. Managing workforce diversity
4. Impact of social media
5. Employee well-being at work
6. Creating a positive work environment
7. Improving ethical behavior

Globalization

the process in which worldwide integration and independence is promoted across national borders

Workforce Diversity

the concept that organizations are becoming more heterogeneous in terms of gender, age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and inclusion of other diverse groups

Ethical Dilemmas & Ethical Choices

situations in which individuals are required to define right & wrong conduct

Model

An abstraction of reality; simplified representation of some real-world phenomenon.

Inputs

Variables like personality, group structure, and organizational culture that lead to processes

Processes

actions that individuals, groups, and organizations engage in as a result of inputs that result in certain outcomes

Outcomes

key factors that are affected by some other variables

Attitudes

evaluative statements or judgments concerning objects, people, or events

Stress

psychological process in which an individual is confronted with an opportunity, demand, or resource related to what the individual desires and for which the outcome is perceived to be both uncertain & important (stressors)

Task Performance

combination of effectiveness and efficiency at doing core job tasks

Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB)

discretionary behavior that contributes to the psychological and social environment of the workplace

Withdrawal Behavior

set of actions employees take to separate themselves from the organization

Group Cohesion

extent to which members of a group support and validate one another while at work

Group Functioning

quantity & quality of a group's work output

Productivity

the combination of the effectiveness and efficiency of an organization

Effectiveness

degree to which an organization meets the needs of its clientele or customers

Efficiency

degree to which an organization can achieve its ends at a low cost

Organizational Survival

degree to which an organization is able to exist and grow over the long term

Universal Employability Skills

Critical Thinking; Communication; Collaboration; Knowledge Application & Analysis; Social Responsibility

Levels of Diversity

Surface-Level Diversity and Deep-Level Diversity

Surface-Level Diversity

differences in easily perceived characteristics such as gender, race, ethnicity, age, or disability, that do not necessarily reflect the ways people think or feel but that may activate certain stereotypes

Deep-Level Diversity

differences in values, personality, and work preferences that become progressively more important for determining similarity as people get to know one another better

"Modern" Bias

most people deny prejudice, get 30-50% of minority group members report encountering discrimination on a daily basis

much of modern discrimination is subtle, indirect, outside of conscious awareness, the result of discomfort and lack for awareness rather than hate or superiority (often occurs in cases of ambiguity and grey areas)

Snyder et al., 1979

demonstrated attribution ambiguity--two rooms playing movies --> avoidance of person w/ visible disability

Discrimination

unjustified, usually negative or harmful, action toward a member of a group because of their membership in that group; putting someone at a disadvantage because of their group membership

Stereotyping

judging someone based on one's perception of the group to which that person belongs

Stereotype Threat

degree to which we are concerned with being judged by or treated negatively based on a certain stereotype

Biographical Characteristics

personal characteristics--such as age, gender, race, and length of tenure--that are objective and easily obtained from personnel records. these characteristics are representative of surface-level diversity

Ability

an individual's capacity to perform the various tasks in a job

Intellectual Abilities

the capacity to do mental activities--thinking, reasoning, and problem solving

Seven Dimensions of Intellectual Ability

number aptitude, verbal comprehension, perceptual speed, inductive reasoning, deductive reasoning, spatial visualization, and memory

General Mental Ability (GMA)

an overall factor of intelligence, as suggested by the positive correlations among specific intellectual ability dimensions

Wonderlic Ability Test

an intelligence test that measures speed and power (avg. score is pretty low); most widely used test in hiring decisions

Physical Abilities

capacity to do tasks that demand stamina, dexterity, strength, and similar characteristics

Diversity Management

process and programs by which managers make everyone more aware of and sensitive to the needs and differences of others

Faultlines

perceived divisions that split groups into two or more subgroups based on individual differences such as sex, race, age, work experience, language, and education

Attributional Ambiguity

a phenomenon whereby members of stigmatized groups often can be uncertain whether negative experiences are based on their own actions and abilities or are the result of prejudice

Components of Intergroup Bias

Stereotyping (cognitive); Prejudice (emotional); Discrimination (behavioral)

Limits of Information Processing

People have limited cognitive resources ("cognitive misers"); too much information to process everything in a conscious, controlled, bottom-up manner; rely on top-down, automatic information processing heuristics

Schemas

Concepts or mental frameworks that organize and interpret information; top-down processing

Uses of Schema

primary tool of fast automatic judgment; a pattern imposed on complex reality or experience to help us interpret, explain, and predict; allow us to interact effectively w/ the world

Advantages of Stereotypes

cognitive economy, suggest course of action & interaction

Expectancy Violations

instances when a person's behavior violates a stereotype

Disadvantages of Stereotypes

cognitive shortcuts can lead to errors; individuals expected to behave in line w/ group stereotypes, but also experience anxiety about confirming negative stereotypes

Gender Double-Bind

idea the cultural expectations about gender are contradictory (EG: Howard & Heidi)

Components of Attitudes

cognitive, affective, behavioral

Cognitive Component of Attitude

opinion or belief segment of an attitude

Affective Component of Attitude

emotional or feeling segment of an attitude

Behavioral Component of Attitude

an intention to behave in a certain way toward someone or something

Cognitive Dissonance

any incompatibility between two or more attitudes or between behavior and attitudes

Ways people seek to minimize dissonance

changing an attitude; changing a behavior; rationalizing the inconsistency

Organizational Identification

the extent to which employees define themselves by the same characteristics that define one's organization, forming the basis for which attitudes are engendered

Job Satisfaction

a positive feeling about one's job resulting from an evaluation of its characteristics

Job Involvement

the degree to which a person identifies with a job, actively participates in it, and considers performance important to self-worth

Psychological Empowerment

employees' belief in the degree to which they affect their work environment, their competence, the meaningfulness of their job, and their perceived autonomy in their work

Organizational Commitment

the degree to which an employee identifies with a particular organization and its goals and wishes to maintain membership in the organization

Perceived Organizational Support (POS)

the degree to which employees believe an organization values their contribution and cares about their well-being

Power Distance

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

Employee Engagement

degree of enthusiasm an employee feels for the job

Measures of Job Satisfaction

Single Global Rating (response to one question); Summation of Job Facets (rating each key element of a job on a standardized scale)

Causes of Job Satisfaction

job conditions, personality, pay, corporate social responsibility (CSR)

Core Self-Evaluations (CSEs)

believing in one's inner worth & basic competence

Outcomes of Job Satisfaction

job performance, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), customer satisfaction, life satisfaction

Impact of Job Dissatisfaction

exit, voice, loyalty, neglect, counterproductive work behavior (turnover, absenteeism), managers "don't get it"

Exit

dissatisfaction expressed through behavior directed toward leaving the organization

Voice

dissatisfaction expressed through active and constructive attempts to improve conditions

Loyalty

dissatisfaction expressed by passively waiting for conditions to improve

Neglect

dissatisfaction expressed through allowing conditions to worsen

Counterproductive Work Behavior (CWB)

actions that actively damage the organization, including stealing, behaving aggressively toward coworkers, or being late or absent

Affect

term used to describe a broad range of feelings that people experience, including emotions and moods

Emotions

an appraisal of an event and one's reaction to it

Moods

feelings that tend to be longer lived and less intense than emotions and that lack a contextual stimulus

Positive Affect

a dimension consisting of specific positive emotions such as excitement, enthusiasm, and elation at the high end and boredom, sluggishness, and tiredness at the low end

Negative Affect

a dimension consisting of emotions such as nervousness, stress, and anxiety at the high end and relaxation and calmness at the low end

What makes facial expressions difficult to interpret in terms of identifying basic emotions?

(1) some emotions are too complex to be easily represented on our faces and (2) cultural groups with less exposure to one another are not as accurate in recognizing emotions

Moral Emotions

emotions that have moral implications because of our instant judgment of the situation that evokes them

Positivity Offset

tendency of most individuals to experience a mildly positive mood at zero input (when nothing in particular is going on)

Sources of Emotions & Moods

personality, time of day, day of the week, weather, stress, sleep, exercise, age, gender

Affect Intensity

individual differences in the strength with which individuals experience their emotions

Illusory Correlation

the tendency of people to associate two events when, in reality, there is no connection

Emotional Labor

an employee's organizationally desired emotions during interpersonal transactions at work

Felt Emotions

an individual's actual emotions

Displayed Emotions

emotions that are organizationally required and considered appropriate in a given job

Surface Acting

hiding one's feelings and forgoing emotional expressions in response to display rules

Deep Acting

trying to modify one's true inner feelings based on display rules

Emotional Dissonance

inconsistencies between emotions people feel and emotions they project

Affective Events Theory (AET)

model suggesting that workplace events cause emotional reactions on the part of employees, which then influence workplace attitudes and behaviors