chapter 3 Management 110 lecture

Individual differences

The ways people vary in characteristics that affect how they react and act at work.

Personality, emotions, abilities, and job attitudes

The four major categories of workplace differences identified in this chapter.

Self-awareness

The ability to accurately judge your own behavior and skills in the workplace.

Interactionist framework

The view that behavior must be understood through both a person's characteristics and the environment.

Kurt Lewin

The researcher credited in the chapter with emphasizing the joint role of the person and surroundings in explaining behavior.

Context

The circumstances and environment in which a person acts.

Personal dispositions

Relatively lasting tendencies that influence how someone naturally thinks or behaves.

Different people can interpret the same situation differently

The interactionist principle that one shared setting does not necessarily have the same meaning for everyone.

The nervous experienced speaker example

The illustration that a skilled presenter may appear less capable when facing a hostile audience.

Situational strength

The degree to which a setting pressures people to follow particular behaviors or avoid others.

Strong situation

A setting with clear expectations and consequences that lead people to interpret events and behave in similar ways.

Weak situation

A setting with unclear expectations that leaves people considerable freedom to decide how to act.

Classroom expectations

The chapter's example of a setting where students generally know what conduct is expected and that violations may bring consequences.

Sales-call discretion

The chapter's example of work in which employees may have considerable freedom to choose how they interact with customers.

Personal characteristics matter more in weak situations

The prediction that individual tendencies guide conduct more when a setting provides fewer clear rules.

Trait activation

The process through which features of a situation make a particular personal characteristic more relevant to behavior.

People are more alike than different

The chapter's caution that noticeable variations should not make us overlook widespread human similarities.

Generational stereotypes

Broad assumptions that members of an age-based group share the same work ethic, values, or behavior.

Limited support for sweeping generational claims

The research conclusion that age-group membership generally has small or sometimes nearly absent relationships with workplace outcomes.

More than 20 studies and nearly 20,000 people

The research scope described for the review of work attitudes across four generational groups.

Gender similarities

The conclusion that men and women are alike on many psychological and behavioral characteristics despite some meaningful differences.

Janet Hyde

The researcher whose review of 45 meta-analyses is discussed as evidence of broad similarities between men and women.

78 percent

The proportion of studies described in the chapter's gender discussion as showing no meaningful differences between men and women.

Personality

A relatively enduring pattern in how a person thinks and behaves.

Nature

Inherited or genetic influences on a person's characteristics.

Nurture

Environmental and situational influences on a person's characteristics.

No universally good or bad personality profile

The principle that the usefulness of a pattern of traits depends on circumstances and does not determine someone's career destiny.

Five-Factor Model (Big Five)

The widely accepted framework organizing enduring personal characteristics into five broad dimensions, each containing narrower traits.

Openness to experience

The tendency to enjoy new ideas and experiences, with curiosity, imagination, and creativity.

Conscientiousness

The tendency to be hardworking, organized, dependable, and responsible.

Extraversion

The tendency to be outgoing, sociable, energetic in groups, and assertive.

Agreeableness

The tendency to be warm, cooperative, and willing to work harmoniously with others.

Neuroticism

The tendency to experience insecurity, anxiety, nervousness, and emotional distress.

Openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism

The five broad dimensions in the chapter's main personality framework.

Facets

Narrower, more specific characteristics within a broad personality dimension.

Trait continuum

A range on which people can score low, moderate, high, or anywhere between, rather than fitting only into separate types.

Ambiverts

People who show moderate levels of both outgoing and reserved tendencies rather than falling strongly at either extreme.

Introversion

A tendency to be more reserved and less socially outgoing.

Order

The narrower characteristic involving preference for structure, neatness, and organization.

Dutifulness

The narrower characteristic involving a sense of responsibility to meet obligations.

Self-discipline

The narrower characteristic involving persistence in starting and completing tasks despite distractions.

Deliberation

The narrower characteristic involving careful thought before acting.

Achievement-striving

The narrower characteristic involving strong effort toward demanding goals and success.

Competence

The narrower characteristic involving feeling capable and effective in handling responsibilities.

Order, dutifulness, self-discipline, deliberation, achievement-striving, and competence

The six narrower characteristics listed under the hardworking and dependable Big Five dimension.

Conscientiousness and broad performance

The relationship in which being dependable and following through is linked with stronger work and school results across many settings.

Greater satisfaction and less withdrawal or unproductive behavior

The additional workplace outcomes linked to high levels of the hardworking, dependable Big Five dimension.

Emotional stability

A tendency to feel secure, confident, and less prone to anxiety; the opposite end of the dimension involving frequent distress.

Conscientiousness, emotional stability, and extraversion

The combination of traits the chapter associates with success in sales.

Agreeableness and customer service

The relationship in which warmth and cooperation are associated with better results in helping customers.

Openness and managerial training

The relationship in which enjoyment of new ideas is associated with success in learning management roles.

Product knowledge, follow-through, and professionalism

The job behaviors that can help a reserved salesperson succeed despite being less outgoing.

Adapting behavior without changing an underlying trait

Learning to act in a way that does not come naturally, such as deliberately smiling and using a warm voice with customers.

Greater conscious effort for less-natural behavior

The cost of acting outside one's usual tendencies, even when a person learns to do so successfully.

Relative stability of the Big Five

The chapter's general claim that broad personality tendencies do not change greatly over a lifetime, although people can learn new behaviors.

Dark Triad

A group of three traits associated with callousness, self-interest, and potentially harmful treatment of others.

Narcissism

A tendency toward self-promotion, desire for admiration, expectations of special treatment, and pursuit of prestige.

Psychopathy as a personality trait

A tendency toward callousness, little concern for others, and limited guilt or remorse after harming them.

Machiavellianism

A tendency to accept deceit, manipulation, and exploitation as ways to achieve goals.

Narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism

The three characteristics in the chapter's framework for the darker side of personality.

Admiration, special favors, and status

The themes in the sample survey items measuring self-importance and a need for praise.

Lack of remorse, insensitivity, and little concern for morality

The themes in the sample survey items measuring disregard for others and the harm one causes.

Lying, manipulating, and exploiting others

The themes in the sample survey items measuring calculated use of other people for personal gain.

Higher risk of counterproductive behavior

The workplace tendency associated with high scores on any of the three dark personality dimensions.

Getting ahead without getting along

The chapter's distinction that some harmful tendencies may support career advancement while damaging relationships.

Moderate narcissism with other positive characteristics

The combination the chapter says may sometimes be associated with effective leadership.

Narcissism and Machiavellianism linked with higher salary and status

The positive career association reported for two dark traits in the study summarized in OB Buzz 3.1.

Psychopathy linked with lower salary and status

The negative career association reported for the third dark trait in the study summarized in OB Buzz 3.1.

18.31 percent higher earnings

The average difference reported between highly disagreeable and highly agreeable men in one study discussed in the chapter.

A three-times-stronger earnings association for men

The gender comparison reported for the link between disagreeableness and pay in the cited study.

Poor well-being, relationship difficulties, and erratic behavior

The personal costs associated with dark traits even when some people achieve career gains.

Avoid judging extreme personality from anecdotes

The chapter's caution that most people do not have extreme traits and casual stories cannot reliably establish someone's profile.

Integrity tests

Pre-employment assessments designed to help predict theft, resource misuse, aggression, and other harmful workplace conduct.

Antisocial behavior and organizational delinquency

The broader pattern of misconduct that the chapter says can underlie different forms of employee wrongdoing.

104 studies

The number included in the research review cited as support for using pre-employment honesty-related assessments as one source of information.

44.2 billion dollars and 40 percent

The chapter's historical estimate of annual U.S. retail theft losses and the share attributed to employees.

Personality is only one influence on theft

The qualification that mistreatment by managers and other circumstances also help explain harmful workplace actions.

Core self-evaluations

The basic conclusions people hold about their own worth, capabilities, control, and emotional security.

Self-esteem

The overall value and worth a person assigns to themselves.

Generalized self-efficacy

A person's broad belief in their ability to perform successfully across different situations.

Locus of control

The degree to which a person believes they can influence the events and outcomes of their life.

Self-esteem, generalized self-efficacy, locus of control, and emotional stability

The four traits that make up the chapter's framework of basic beliefs about oneself.

Validated questionnaires

Assessments supported by research that are used to measure traits and basic beliefs about oneself.

Higher job and life satisfaction, motivation, performance, and income

The outcomes the chapter associates with more positive basic beliefs about one's worth and capabilities.

Less stress and work-family conflict, with better customer service

The additional workplace outcomes linked to more positive basic beliefs about oneself.

Better school grades

The academic outcome the chapter associates with feeling positively about one's own worth and capabilities.

Emotion

A brief, intense feeling that occurs as a reaction to an event or situation.

Mood

A longer-lasting, less intense feeling that does not necessarily have an obvious immediate trigger.

Anger, fear, joy, love, sadness, and surprise

The six core feelings identified by the chapter.

Short-lived reaction versus longer-lasting general feeling

The main distinction between an emotion and a mood.

Emotion and cognition work together

The chapter's correction to the belief that feelings can simply be separated from rational thought at work.

Feelings can support effective work

The correction to the older assumption that emotional reactions are always harmful to decisions and performance.

Disgust, irritation, and rage

The more specific feelings the chapter uses to illustrate variation within the broad category of anger.

Positive affectivity

A general tendency toward pleasant involvement with one's surroundings, including joy and enthusiasm.

Negative affectivity

A general tendency toward distress and unpleasant involvement with one's surroundings, including nervousness and sadness.

Creativity, helping, cooperation, and reduced stress

The workplace outcomes associated with a generally pleasant emotional outlook.

More interpersonal conflict and harmful behavior, with weaker performance

The workplace outcomes associated with a generally distressed emotional outlook.

Mood repair

Taking steps to shift an unpleasant general feeling toward a more positive one.

Music, friendly contact, pleasant activities, and helping others

The examples of actions the chapter offers for improving an unpleasant emotional state.

Abilities

Relatively stable capacities that enable a person to perform.