Psychology of Work (EXAM)

Organizational Behavior

field of study that investigates the impact the individuals, groups, and structure have on behavior within organizations for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organization’s effectiveness

Psychology

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 to focus 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 societies to learn about human beings and their activities

Contingency Variables:

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

Globalization

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

  • Working with people from different cultures, adapting to different cultural and regulatory norms, workplace demographics, Workforce diversity

Workforce Diversity

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

Positive Organizational Scholarship

 an area of OB research that concerns how organizations develop human strength, foster vitality, and resilience, and unlock potential

Ethical Dilemmas and Ethical Choices

Situations in which individuals are required to define right and wrong conduct

Model

an abstraction of reality, a simplified representation of some real-world phenomenon

Inputs

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

Processes

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

Outcomes

key factors that are affected by some other variables

Attitudes

Evaluative statements or judgements concerning objects, people, or events

Positive _____ Example: “I really think my job is great”

Negative _____ Example: “My job is boring and tedious”

Stress

a 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 and important

Task Performance

the 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

The set of actions employees take to separate themselves from the organization (ex: showing up late or failing to attend meetings to absenteeism and turnover)

Group Cohesion

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

Group Functioning

the quality and quantity of a group’s work

Productivity:

The combination of the effectiveness and efficiency of an organization

Effectiveness

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

Efficiency

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

Organizational survival

The degree to which an organization is about to exist and grow in the long term

Employable Skills

 Critical thinking, communication, collaboration, knowledge application and analysis, social responsibility

Personality

• the sum of total ways in which an individual reacts to interacts with others

  • “Sum total of ways”: Typical cognitions, emotions, and behaviors

The “many trait” approach

• Allport and Odbert identified 17,953 traits (ex: talkative, assertive, sociable, reserved, quiet)

  • Bad, too many traits

The “single trait” approach

• Self-monitoring and Machiavellianism

  • Bad, only one

The “essential trait” approach

• Big Five approach that takes large number of dimensions analyzes the correlations between them to identify smaller number of “factors”

Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism

• 5-Factor Model of Personality

 Openness

think flexibly; open to new ideas and experiences. Measure of personality dimension that addresses the range of a person’s interests and their fascination with novelty. These are people who are creative, curious, and artistically sensitive, imaginative

Conscientiousness

responsible and achievement oriented. measure of personality dimension that describes someone is responsible, dependable, persistent, and organized

Extraversion

outgoing, sociable, energetic, assertive. measure of personality dimension describing someone who is sociable, gregarious, and assertive

Agreeableness

warm. Friendly, cooperative, helpful. measure of personality dimension that describes someone who is good natured, cooperative, and trusting

Neuroticism

 (emotional stability): emotional control. measure of personality dimension that characterizes someone as calm, self confident, secure (positive) v.s. Negative, anxious, and insecure (negative)

 Weak v.s. Strong situations

Situations can hide individual personality characteristics

Weak Situation

• A situation where any or a wide variety of, behavior is considered appropriate; unstructured; ambiguous

  • Ex: Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

Strong Situation

• A situation that “pulls” for particular behaviors; there is a clearly appropriate way to behave or interpret the situation; structured

  • First Impressions (ex: Freshman Roommate Study)

    • Different traits are differentially stable

      • Extraversion highly stable

      • Conscientiousness and agreeableness less so

Rorschach Test

•  Ink-Blot, paint on wall and interpret (it’s a weak situation, it’s ambiguous)

 If-then personality situations

• It depends on situation) Personality may be consistent within, but not across, situations

• Trait approach looks at men levels of personality variables averaged across situations

• Personality may be stable within situations but not across situations

  • Ex: Bill Clinton

    • If faced with an academic challenge, then displays high self control

    • If faced with an attractive woman, then struggles with self-control

  • Ex: Summer Camp Study

Person-Job Fit Theory

• A theory that identifies six personality types and proposes that the fit between personality type and occupational environment determines satisfaction and turnover (ex: Realistic, Investigate, Artistic, Social, Conventional, Enterprising)

Person-Organization Fit

• People are attracted to and selected by organizations that match their values, and they leave organizations not compatible with their personalities

Personality Traits

Enduring characteristics that describes an individual’s behavior

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

A personality test that taps four characteristics and classifies people into 1 of 16 personality types

Extroverted

Outgoing, sociable, assertive

Introverted

Quiet and shy

Sensing

Practical and prefer routine and order

Intuitive

Unconscious processes and look at the “big picture”

Thinking

Reason and logic to handle problems

Feeling

rely on their personal values and emotions

Judging

control and prefer order and structure

Percieving

 flexible and spontaneous

Dark Triad

A constellation of negative personality traits like Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy

Machiavellianism

 the degree to which an individual is pragmatic, maintains emotional distance, and believes that ends can justify means

Narcissism

 the tendency to be arrogant, have a grandiose sense of self-importance, require excessive admiration and have a sense of entitlement

Self-Monitoring

a personality trait that measures an individual’s ability to adjust their behavior to external, situational factors

Psychopathy

 the tendency for a lack of concern for others and a lack of guilt or remorse when actions cause harm

Proactive Personality

people who identify opportunities, show initiative, take action, and persevere until meaningful change occurs

• a theory indicating that the way personality translates into behavior depends on the strength of the situation 

  • Clarity

  • Consistency

  • Constraints

  • Consequences

Trait Activation Theory (TAT)

predicts that some situations, events, or interventions “activate” a trait more than others

Values

basic convictions that a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state of existence

Value System

a hierarchy based on a ranking of an individual’s values in terms of their intensity

Terminal Values

Desirable end-states of existence; the goal a person would like to achieve during their lifetime

Instrumental Values

Preferable modes of behavior or means of achieving one’s terminal values

Hofstede’s Framework

framework about work-related values and found managers and employees varied on five value dimensions of national culture: power distance, individualism v.s. collectivism, masculinity v.s. feminism, uncertainty avoidance, long term orientation v.s. short term orientation

Power Distance

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

Individualism

A national culture attribute that describes the degree to which people prefer to act as individuals rather than as members of groups

Collectivism

A national culture attribute that describes 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

A national culture attributes that describes the extent to which culture favors traditional masculine work roles of achievement, power, and control

Femininity

A national culture attribute that indicates little differentiation between male and female roles; a high rating indicates that women are treated as equals of men in all aspects of society

Uncertainty Avoidance

A national culture attribute that describes the extent to which a society feels threatened by uncertain and ambiguous situations and tries to avoid them

Long Term Orientation

A national cultural attribute that emphasizes the future, thrift, and persistence

Short-Term Orientation

A national culture attribute that emphasizes the present and accepts change

The GLOBE Framework

built upon Hofstede’s work by identifying nine dimensions on which national cultures differ (power distance, uncertainty avoidance, future orientation, institutional collectivism, in group collectivism, gender egalitarianism, assertiveness, humane orientation, performance orientation)

• Physical basis for differences: phrenology, craniology, fMRI, genes

• Background & learning create differences: education, practice, training

Scientific Theories for Why People Differ

Entity Theory

Lay theory where it Is fixed (the hand you’re dealt with). Performance Goal → Helpless Patterns of Behavior

ex: “I’m an idiot”, ashamed and depressed, get drunk and eat and yell and cry

Incremental Theory

Can be changed through growth, learning, practice, hard work, education

Learning Goal → Mastery-Oriented Pattern of Behavior

ex: “I need to try harder in class”, guilty and regretful, looks at what they got on exam and works harder

Stereotyping

• The cognitive component. Belief about typical characteristics of members of a group. It can be good, bad, or neutral. It can be individual or shared by a group or culture. It can be explicit or implicit. They are information processing “short-cuts” or schemas

  • Ex: #Berniemademewhite

•  Judging someone based on one’s perception of the group to which that person belongs

Prejudice

The emotional component. An affective (emotional, evaluative, visceral) disposition towards a distinguishable group of people based only on their membership in that group

Discrimination

The behavioral component. Unjustified (usually negative or harmful) action toward a member of a group because of his or her membership in that group. Putting someone at a disadvantage because of their group membership

Bottom Down Processing

• Too much information to process, everything is consciously controlled

  • Ex: Blue/black or white/gold dress

Top Down Processing

• automatic information processing heuristics

  • Ex: A B C v.s. 12 13 14

Schemas

• One of the primary tools of fast automatic judgment. A pattern imposed on complex reality or experience to help us interpret, explain, and predict. It allows us to interact effectively with the world.

  • Ex: Participants wait in office for 35 seconds and then given surprise memory test

Person Schemas

• organized set of general knowledge and beliefs about people’s traits and characteristics. As with other schemas, it helps go beyond information we are given

  • Ex: Doctor screams “I can’t operate, it’s my son”

Catch-22

• Gender stereotypes women worry about violating the expectation they are nice, cooperative, communal but also they don’t want to confirm beliefs that women aren’t tough, effective, negotiators, etc.

The Gender Double Bind

• Example of Catch-22. Expected to act a certain way due to gender. Based on the context that you’re in, it's beneficial for you to act that way. Context versus stereotype do not match up

“Howard” v.s. “Heidi” Case Study

• Case about an assertive entrepreneur. Read identical descriptions of behavior and rate their impressions of the person’s character.  “Heidi” was seen as less likable, competent, and hireable 

  • Expected to be assertive but as a woman expected to be submissive and play the conflicting roles (gender double bind)

Surface level diversity

Differences in easily perceived characteristics such as gender, race, ethnicity, age, or disability, that don’t 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. Group in which member’s values or opinions differ tend to experience more conflict, but leaders who can get the group to focus on the task at hand and encourage group learning are able to reduce these conflicts and enhance discussions of group issues

Function Diversity

Differences in skill, abilities, or other characteristics needed for the job may improve team performance and innovation

Discrimination

Noting a difference between things; often we refer to unfair _____, which means making judgements about individuals based on stereotypes regarding their demographic groups

Biographical Characteristics

• personal characteristics- such as age, gender, race, 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

  • Ex: Number aptitude, verbal comprehension, perceptual speed, deductive and inductive reasoning, spatial visualization, memory

General mental ability

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

Physical abilities

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

Diversity Management

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

Faultlines

• The perceived divisions that split groups into 2+ subgroups baked on individual differences such as sex, race, age, work experience, language, and education