Organizational behaviour - Chapter 3: Values, Attitudes, and Diversity in the Workplace

Values

A judgmental element in that they carry an individual's ideas as to what is right, good, or desirable, or vice versa

Value system

When one’s values are ranked based on their intensity

Terminal values

Desirable end-states of existence

e.g. A comfy life, an exciting life

Instrumental values

Preferred ways of behaviour

e.g. Hard-working, relaxed

Ethics

The study of moral principles that guide our behaviour and inform us whether actions are right or wrong. 

Power distance

The degree to which people in a country accept that power in institutions and organizations is distributed unequally

Power distance (con’t)

A high rating on power distance means that large inequalities of power and wealth exist and are tolerated in the culture, as in a class or caste system that discourages upward mobility.

A low power-distance rating characterizes societies that stress equality and opportunity.

Individualism

The degree to which people prefer to act as individuals rather than as members of groups and believe in individual rights above all else

Collectivism

Emphasizes a tight social framework in which people expect others in groups of which they are a part to look after them and protect them.

Masculinity

The degree to which the culture favours traditional masculine roles, such as achievement, power, and control, as opposed to viewing men and women as equals.

Femininity

The culture sees little differentiation between male and female roles and treats women and men equally in all respects.

Uncertainty avoidance

The degree to which people in a country prefer structured over unstructured situations

Uncertainty avoidance (con’t)

In cultures that score high on uncertainty avoidance, people have an increased level of anxiety about uncertainty and ambiguity, and use laws and controls to reduce uncertainty

Cultures low in uncertainty avoidance are more accepting of ambiguity and are less rule-oriented, taking more risks and readily accepting change.

Long term orientation

People who look to the future and value thrift, persistence, and tradition. 

Short-term orientation

People value the here and now; they accept change more readily and don't see commitments as impediments to change.

Indulgence

Emphasizing the gratification of basic needs and the desire to enjoy life

Restraint

Controlling the gratification of needs

The Global Leadership and Organizational Behaviour Effectiveness (GLOBE) 

An ongoing cross-cultural investigation of leadership and national culture using data from 825 organizations in 62 countries, which identified nine dimensions on which national cultures differ

Generational differences in baby boomers (mid 40s to 60s)

Success, achievement, ambition, dislike of authority

Generational differences in generation Xers (late 20s to early 40s)

Work-life balance, team-oriented, dislike of rules, loyalty to relationships

Generational differences in millennials (Under 30)

Confident, financial success, self-reliant but team-oriented, loyalty to both self and relationships

Attitudes

Evaluative statements (either positive or negative) about objects, people, or events which reflect how we feel about something.

e.g. When someone says “I like my job” they’re expressing their attitude about work

Cognitive component

The opinion or an attitude’s belief segment, and a description of or belief in the way things are

e.g. My pay is low

Affective component

The emotional or feeling segment of an attitude, which is reflected in the statement 

e.g. I’m unhappy with how little I’m paid

Behavioural component

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

e.g.I’m gonna find a job with better pay

Job satisfaction

A positive feeling about a job resulting from an evaluation of its characteristics

Job satisfaction (con’t)

A 2016 study found 47% of people said they weren’t satisfied with their job

What causes job satisfaction?

According to a European study, job satisfaction is positively correlated with life satisfaction, in that your attitudes and experiences in life spill over into your job approaches and experiences

What causes job satisfaction? (con’t)

• Good job conditions

• Good pay

• Feelings of self-worth, competencies, and capabilities (core self-evaluation [CSE])

Other benefits of job satisfaction

• Increased productivity

• More organizational citizenship behaviour

• More customer satisfaction

Exit

A strategy of expressing dissatisfaction by leaving an organization via resigning and finding a new job

Voice

A strategy of expressing dissatisfaction by suggesting improvements, discussing problems with superiors, and undertaking union activity.

Loyalty

Passively but optimistically waiting for conditions to improve, such as speaking up for the organization in the face of external criticism and trusting the organization and its management to do the right thing."

Neglecg

Passively allowing conditions to worsen, including chronic absenteeism or lateness, reduced effort, and increased error rate; is destructive from the point of view of the organization

Counterproductive work behaviour/ deviant behaviour in the workplace

Conduct that actively harms the workplace

e.g. Stealing, absenteeism, gossiping, etc

Organizational commitment

The degree to which an employee identifies with a particular organization and its goals, and wishes to maintain membership with it

Affective commitment

 An individual's emotional attachment to an organization and a belief in its values.

e.g. A PetSmart employee may be affectively committed to the company because of its involvement with animals.

Normative commitment

The obligation an individual feels to stay with an organization for moral or ethical reasons

e.g. An employee spearheading a new initiative may remain with an employer because she feels she would "leave the employer in the lurch if she left.

Continuance commitment

An individual's perceived economic value of remaining with an organization

i.e.  An employee may be committed to an employer because she is paid well and feels it would hurt her family to quit.

Job involvement

The degree to which people identify psychologically with their job and consider their perceived performance level important to their self-worth

Psychological empowerment

Employees' beliefs in the degree to which they influence their work environment, their competence, the meaningfulness of their job, and their perceived autonomy.

Perceived organizational support (POS)

The degree to which employees believe the organization values their contributions and cares about their well-being.

Employee engagement

An individual's involvement with, satisfaction with, and enthusiasm for the work they do

Employee engagement (con’t)

Highly engaged employees have a passion for their work and feel a deep connection to their company, while disengaged employees have essentially “checked out”, putting time but not energy or attention into their work.

Employee engagement (III)

Between 17% - 29% of employees are engaged by their work

Reasons for high employee engagement

1. Having a good manager to work for

2. Feeling appreciated by their supervisor

Surface-level diversity

Differences in easily perceived traits like gender, race, ethnicity, age, etc that don’t exactly reflect the ways people think or feel, but still might activate certain stereotypes

Deep level diversity

Differences in values, personality, and work preferences that gradually become important for determining similarity

Protected groups

The four groups designated by the Employment Equity Act as beneficiaries of employment equity

• Women

• Disabled people

• Aboriginal people

• Visible minorities

Cultural intelligence (CQ)

The ability to understand someone’s unfamiliar and ambiguous gestures in the same way as people from that culture would

What do people with high cognitive CQ do?

They look for clues to help them identify a culture's shared understandings such as consistencies in behaviour across a variety of people from the same cultural background

What do people with high physical CQ do?

They learn the customs and gestures of those from other cultures and therefore act more like them. This increases understanding, trust, and openness among people of different cultures

What do people with high emotional/motivational CQ do?

They believe that they are capable of understanding people from other cultures, and will keep trying to do so, even if faced with difficulties in doing so.

CQ profiles most managers fall into

• Provincial. They work best with people of similar background, but have difficulties working with those from different backgrounds.

• Analyst. They analyze a foreign culture's rules and expectations to figure out how to interact with others.

• Nawral. They use intuition rather than systematic study to understand those from other cultural backgrounds.

CQ profiles most managers fall into (con’t)

• Ambassador. They communicate convincingly that they fit in, even if they do not know much about the foreign culture.

• Mimic. They control actions and behaviours to match others, even if they do not understand the significance of the cultural cues observed.

• Chameleon. They have high levels of all three CQ components. They could be mistaken as being from a foreign culture. According to research, only about 5 percent of managers fit this profile.

Cultural code switching

The ability to modify behaviour in specific situations to accommodate varying cultural norms