Organizational Behavior Key Words (Mid-term)

Person-job fit (Holland)

A theory that identifies six personality types and proposes that the fit between personality type and occupational environment determines satisfaction and turnover.

Person-organization fit

A theory that people are attracted to and selected by organizations that match their values and leave when there is no compatibility.

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.

Psychopathy

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

Emotional regulation

The process of identifying and modifying felt emotions.

emotional contagion

The process by which people’s emotions are caused by the emotions of others.

Moral emotions

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

Positivity offset

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

augmentation

AI enhances human capabilities and performance through collaboration.

automation

AI directly executes tasks with minimal human involvement.

Hierarchy of needs theory by Abraham Maslow

There is a hierarchy of 5 (6) needs that humans are motivated to meet. (Physiological, Safety security, Social-belongingness, Esteem, Self-actualization, Intrinsic values).

Two-factor theory by Frederick Herzberg

Satisfied workers attributed this to their situation. Dissatisfied workers referred to extrinsic factors. Both sets of characteristics should be recognised and we should not assume that an increase in satisfaction leads to decrease in dissatisfaction.

McClelland‘s theory of needs by David Mcclelland

Presents three needs that an individual could possibly have. One trait is usually

more dominant, but the others are present in an individual as well.

Theory X and theory Y by Douglas McGregor

Managers have assumptions about their employees.

Self-determination theory by Edward Deci and Richard Ryan

Extrinsic rewards (controlled by others) will reduce intrinsic interest (within our control) in a task. Extrinsic rewards add to quantity of work, intrinsic rewards add to quality of work.

Goal-setting theory by Edwin Locke & Gary Latham

Challenging goals – and still realistic, lead to higher performance than simple goals.

Specific goals – lead to higher performance than vague goals (‚do your best‘).

SMART goals – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time related.

Participation in goal setting – improves performance by increasing commitment to goals.

Knowledge of results – feedback is important and motivational.

Self efficacy theory by Albert Bandura

An individual‘s belief of being capable of performing a task. Managers can achieve high levels of self-efficacy by matching the theory with goal-setting theory.

Expectancy theory by Victor Vroom

One‘s behaviour results from a conscious decision-making process based on expectations, or subjective probabilities, that the individual has about the results of different behaviours leading to performance and to rewards.

Equity theory by Stacey Adams

Perception of unfairness leads to tension, which motivates the individual to resolve that unfairness. We usually see a small over-reward as ‘good luck’, and do nothing, but a modest under-reward is not easily accepted.

Job rotation

Periodic shifting of an employee from one task to another.

Job sharing

Two or more individuals split a traditionla full-time job.

Telecommuting

Working from home on certain days and using information communication technology to communicate.

Job enrichment

Adding a high-level responsibilities to a job to increase intrinsic motivation.

Relational job design

Constructing jobs so employees see the positive difference they can make in the lives of others directly through their work.

Flextime

Employees have flexible working hours.

Distributive justice

Perceived fairness of outcome.

Procedural justice

Perceived fairness of process used to determine outcome.

Interactional justice

Sensitivity to the quallity of interpersonal treatment.

Organizational justice

Overall perception of what is fair in the workplace.

Attribution theory

An attempt to explain the ways we judge people differently, depending on the meaning we attribute to a behavior, such as determining whether an individual’s behavior is internally or externally caused.

Distinctiveness

Whether an individual displays different behavior in different situations.

Fundamental attribution error

The tendency to underestimate the influence of external factors and overestimate the influence of internal factors when making judgments about the behavior of others.

Self-serving bias

The tendency for individuals to attribute their own successes to internal

factors and put the blame for failures on external factors.

Selective perception

The tendency to selectively interpret what one sees based on one’s interests, background, experience, and attitudes.

Halo effect

The tendency to draw a positive general impression about an individual based on a single characteristic.

Horns effect

The tendency to draw a negative general impression about an individual based on a single characteristic.

Stereotyping

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

Contrast effect

Evaluation of a person’s characteristics that is affected by comparisons with other people recently encountered who rank higher or lower on the same characteristics.

Rational

A style of decision making characterized by making consistent, value-maximizing choices within specified constraints.

Bounded rationality

A simplified process of making decisions by perceiving and interpreting the essential features of problems without capturing their complexity.

Intuitive decision making

An unconscious process created out of distilled experience.

Overconfidence bias

A tendency to be overconfident about our own abilities or the abilities of others.

Anchoring bias

A tendency to fixate on initial information, from which one then fails to adequately adjust for subsequent information.

Confirmation bias

The tendency to seek out information that reaffirms past choices and current views, and to discount information that challenges them.

Availability bias

The tendency for people to base their judgments on information that is readily available to them.

Escalation of commitment

An increased commitment to a previous decision, despite negative information.

Randomness error

The tendency of individuals to believe that they can predict the outcome of random events.

Risk aversion

The tendency to prefer a sure gain of a moderate amount over a riskier outcome, even if the riskier outcome might have a higher expected payoff.

Hindsight bias

The tendency to believe falsely, after an outcome of an event is known, that one would have accurately predicted that outcome.