Organizational Behavior Lecture Notes

Flashcards for reviewing Organizational Behavior lecture notes.

Organizational Behavior

The study of what people think, feel, and do in and around organizations.

Organizational Behavior

Employee behaviors, decisions, perceptions, and emotional responses are examined in this field.

Organizations

Groups of people who work interdependently towards some purpose.

Human capital

The knowledge, skills, abilities, creativity, and other valued resources that employees bring to the organization.

Stakeholders

Entities who affect or are affected by the firm’s objectives and actions.

Triple-bottom-line philosophy

CSR=corporate social responsability

it’s based on the idea that companies have a broader responsibility to all stakeholders, not just shareholders or customers. The triple-bottom-line philosophy emphasizes that businesses should measure their success not only by financial performance but also by their impact on society and the environment, encompassing sustainable practices.

Includes economic(staying profitable and competitive), social(supporting communities and improving well-being), and environmental considerations(protecting and improving the natural environment).

Systematic research anchor

OB relies on scientific methods to understand how organizations work.

makes OB knowledge more reliable

Practical orientation anchor

OB theories must be useful in real organizations, not just academically interesting.

Multidisciplinary Anchor

OB takes ideas from other fields like psychology, sociology, economics, and anthropology.

Contingency Anchor

There is no one-size-fits-all solution in OB. The best approach depends on the situation.

Multiple Levels of Analysis Anchor

OB looks at behavior at three levels: individual, team/group, and organization.

Surface-level diversity

Differences in races, gender, age, disabilities.

Deep-level diversity

Differences in personality, beliefs, attitudes, values.

Work-life integration

o   Blending personal and professional responsibilities in a way that works best for the individual, rather than strictly separating work and life

o   Focuses on flexibility, allowing work and personal life to coexist smoothly

o   Different from work-life balance

Direct employment

Employee working directly with employer.

Motivation

  The internal forces that drive a person’s direction, intensity, and persistence of effort.

  3 elements of motivation:

1. direction

2.   intensity

3.   persistence

  without motivation, even a capable employee wont perform well

Ability

• aptitudes and learned capabilities required to successfully complete a task

• aptitudes=natural talents, can’t be learned(e.g. an ear for music)

• learned capabilities=mental skills and knowledge, can be acquired(e.g. ath skills, bycicle riding)

• even if someone is motivated, they need the right abilities to succeed

Role perception

How clearly a person understands their job duties and what is expected of them.

Situational factors

External conditions beyond the employee’s control that can affect behavior and performance.

  Can be:

·      Constraints(bad): time, budget, facilities

·      Cues(good): signs of warning of nearby hazards, situations that motivate

Task performance

The individual’s voluntary goal-directed behaviors that contribute to organizational objectives.

Counterproductive work behaviors

Voluntary behaviors that have the potential to directly or indirectly harm the organization or its stakeholders.

Presenteeism

When an employee comes to work but is not fully productive, often due to illness, stress, or disengagement.

Absenteeism

When an employee regularly misses work without valid reasons

Employee turnover

The rate at which employees leave an organization and are replaced by new hires.

Personality

The bundle of characteristics that make us similar to or different from other people.

Conscientiousness

Organized, dependable, goal-focused, disciplined, thorough.

Agreeableness

Trusting, helpful, tolerant, generous, flexible.

Neuroticism

Anxious, insecure, depressed, self-centered.

Openness to experience

Imaginative, creative, unconventional, curious.

Extraversion

Outgoing, talkative, energetic, sociable.

Narcissism

Excessive self-love, arrogance, and a need for admiration.

Machiavellianism

Manipulative personality focused on self-interest and deceit.

Psychopathy

Lack of empathy, guilt, and emotional depth.

Values

Stable, evaluative beliefs that guide what individuals consider right or important.

Self-concept

Individual’s self-beliefs and self-evaluations.

Self-enhancement

The drive to maintain a positive self-image.

Self-verification

The desire to be seen and understood accurately by others, according to how we see ourselves.

Self-esteem

How much we like ourselves; global self-evaluation.

Self-efficacy

Belief in our ability to complete tasks.

Locus of control

General belief about the amount of control he/she has over personal life elements.

Social identity theory

A theory stating that people define themselves by the groups to which they belong or have an emotional attachment.

Categorical thinking

Mental process of organizing people and objects into categories we’ve already stored in our long-term memory

simplifies our perception of the world;

helps us quickly make sense of complex info.

Mental models

Internal frameworks/knowledge structures that we build over time

Stereotyping

Assigning traits based on group membership

Attribution theory

Mental judgment where we try to decide if the cause was internal(personal traits, motivation or ability) or external(the situation, other people, bad luck)

Self-serving bias

Tendency to attribute our success to internal factors and our failures to external factors.

Fundamental attribution error

Tendency to overemphasize internal causes of an another person’s behavior compared to our own behavior.

Self-fulfilling prophecy

Your expectations about someone causes them to behave in a way that makes your expectation come true.

Halo effect

One trait influences perception of others.

False consensus effect

Overestimate how much others share our beliefs

Primary effect

First impressions dominate perceptions and are hard to forget.

Recency effect

Most recent behavior dominates perceptions

Contact Hypothesis

MORE INTERACTION=>LESS BIAS

Decision making

The conscious process of making choices among alternatives with the intention of moving toward some desired state of affairs.

Rational Choice Decision Making

use pure logic+apply all available info

Problem

Constructed from ambiguous information and a deviation between the current and the desired situation.

Opportunity

Constructed from ambiguous information and a deviation between current expectations and potentially better situation that was not previously expected

Self-serving Bias

Tendency to attribute successes to ourselves(internal factors) and blame failures to others or the situation(external factors).

Perceptual Defense

People ignore or deny problems that make them feel bad or threaten their self-image

Self-enhancement

General drive to view yourself positively and be seen positively by others

Divine discontent

Mindset where you are never fully satisfied with the current situation, even if things seem to be going well; constant drive to improve; constructively restless

Bounded rationality

When people make decisions, they can’t be fully logical or “perfectly rational” because: we don’t have access to all the information, our brains can only process so much at once.

Implicit Favorite

Pre-selected preferred choice that you keep comparing everything else to.

Decision Heuristics

Mental shortcuts that people use automatically to make decisions faster but they often lead to distorted or inaccurate judgements

Anchoring heuristic

People rely too heavily on the first piece of information(the anchor) when making decisions.

Availability heuristic

We judge how likely something is based on how easily we can remember examples-not actual statistics.

Representativeness heuristic

We judge the probability of something based on how much it seems to match a stereotype.

Satisfice

Choose an option that is “good enough”, not the best (picking something satisfactory, not necessarily the best)

Intuition

Knowing what to do without logical analysis.

Confirmation Bias

After making a decision, people focus only on info that support their choice, and ignore or downplay evidence that contradicts it

Escalation of commitment

Someone continues to invest time, money, or effort into a bad decision, instead of cutting their losses and walking away.

Power

The capacity of a person, team or organization to influence others.

Countervailing power

Balances the relationship a bit.

Legitimate power

The agreed authority that someone has because of their formal role or position.

Zone of indifference

Range of behavior that others are willing to follow without resistance.

Norm of reciprocity

Social rule that creates mutual obligation(if someone helps you, you feel obligated to return the favor

Expert power

The capacity to influence others based on possessing knowledge, skills, or experience that others value and depend on.

Reward Power

The ability to give rewards that others value or remove negative outcomes

Coercive Power

The ability to apply punishment or threaten negative consequences

Referent Power

The power to influence others because they admire, respect or identify with the power holder.

Substitutability

The power holder is less powerful if others can easily replace them or their resources. More power=when your skills, knowledge, or access to resources can’t be replaced easily

Centrality

The degree to which others depend on you for resources, support, or decisions. More power=when your actions or decisions have a greater impact on many people

Visibility

Power increases when others are aware of your skills, achievements or position. More power=when you are seen as competent or influential

Discretion

The freedom to make decisions without needing approval. More power=when you have autonomy to act on your own judgement

Social networks

Social structures of individuals or social units that are connected to each other through one or more forms of interdependence.

Social capital

The value you gain from your network, which includes knowledge, influence, opportunities and resources that come from your relationships

Broker

Someone who connects 2 independent networks and controls information flow between them

Influence

Any behavior that attempts to alter another person’s attitudes or behavior(vs power=capacity)

Hard Influence

Formal power, pressure, or authority to force compliance: direct, often create resistance, based on position not relationship

Soft Influence

Personal power, relationships, and persuasion to gain commitment: more subtle and respectful, build trust and cooperation, long-term influence

Coalition Formation

Attemps to influence people outside the group by pooling the resources and power of its members

Impression Management

Actively shaping the perceptions and attitudes that others have of us through self- presentation and other means

Exchange

Involves promise of benefits or resources in exchange for the target person’s compliance with your request(=RECIPROCITY)

Organizational politics

Behaviors in the workplace that are seen as self-serving, often aimed at gaining power, status, or rewards—sometimes at the expense of others or the organization.

Machiavellianism

Belief that deceit and manipulation are acceptable ways to get ahead; beliefs like: it’s okay to lie or deceive to influence others; it’s okay to take more than one deserves if it helps you succeed.

Communication

Process by which info is transmitted and understood between people

Emotional contagion

Automatic process of sharing another person’s emotions by mimicking their facial expressions and other nonverbal behavior

Synchronicity

Whether communication happens at the same time(synchronous) or at different times(asynchronous)

Social presence

The extent to which a communication channel makes people feel psychologically close, emotionally connected, and aware of each other’s humanity.

Media richness

Capacity to carry information –how much and how well it can transmit different kinds of cues per unit of time