304 Midterm 1

Week 1: What is OB?

1. What is Organizational Behavior (OB)

The understanding and managing of people in the workplace: individuals, teams, organizations

• Depends on the science bases approach of overcoming gaps in common sense

• Relies on contingency. There is no best way for every circumstance for everyone

2. Why do we care about OB?

We care about OB because it translates into employee engagement, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and perceived organizational support. (These can be measured) This will lead to productivity and profitability. 

3. What does OB look like? (Road map of semester)

Individuals: Values/attitudes, Motivation, Decision making, Power and Influence, Communication

Teams: Conflict Management, Negotiation, Teamwork, Team Type, DEI

Organizations: Structure, Leadership, Change, Culture

4. USCCT Framework

• U: Uncover the problems (root causes not symptoms)

• S: Select the most critical issues

• C: Create a multitude of solutions

• C: Choose the solution with highest chance at success

• T: Translate the solution into an effective implementation plan

Week 2: Individual Differences

1. What is emotional intelligence? This skill is critical and can be developed.

The ability to monitor and understand your emotions and the emotions of those around you. Leads you to behave effectively.

• Personal competence: Self awareness and self management of your emotions

  • Self awareness: Emotional self-awareness, accurate self-assessment, self-confidence

  • Self management: Emotional self control, transparency/trust, adaptability, initiative, optimism

• Social competence: Social awareness and relationship management

  • Social Awareness: Empathy, Organizational awareness, service orientation (prioritize others)

  • Relationship management: Inspirational leadership, Influence, change catalyst, coach/mentor, teamwork/collaboration, conflict management. 

2. Why does emotional intelligence matter?

• Helps to understand yourself and others which leads to increased communication and collaboration

• Encourages a growth mindset which can develop character and more ethical decision making.

• Explores value-based leadership where authenticity and trust are most important

3. Big 5 personality traits

• Openness (imagination, feelings, actions, ideas): Low scores indicate practicality and routine whereas high scores indicate curiosity, wide ranging interests and independence. 

• Conscientiousness (competence, self discipline, thoughtfulness, goal-driven): Low scores indicate impulsivity and disorganization while high scores indicate hardworking, dependable, organized. 

• Extroversion (sociability, assertiveness, emotional expression): Low scores indicate quietness, reservation and withdrawal while high scores indicate outgoing, warm, and adventurous. 

• Agreeableness (cooperative, good-natured, trustworthy): Low scores indicate critical, uncooperative and suspicious people while high scores indicate trusting, helpful, and empathetic people. 

• Neuroticism (tendency toward unstable emotions): Low scores indicate calm, even tempered and secure individual people and high scores indicate anxious, unhappy and negative people. 

4.  Why it Matters? Four key Workplace Attitudes

• Job Satisfaction: The degree to which one if fulfilled by and  enjoys their job 

• Organizational Commitment: The degree to which one is committed to their company

• Perceived Organizational Support: The degree to which one feels supported and and cared for by their company

• Employee engagement: The degree to which one engages with their work (Engaged, Not engaged, Actively Disengaged)

5. Attitude to Behaviors

These 4 workplace attitudes lead to increased job performance and organizational citizenship behavior (employees going above and beyond for coworkers/organization) along with decreases in counterproductive work behavior and turnover.  

6. Schwartz’s Theory of Basic Values: One’s broad values motivate across any context

• Subgroup 1: Self-transcendence: Concern for others welfare 

• Subgroup 2: Self-enhancement: Pursuit of one’s own interests

• Also ranges from open to traditional mindsets. 

7. Implications of Schwartz’s Theory

Personal Application: Employees will derive more meaning from their work by pursuing goals consistent with their values

Workplace Application: Managers can better manage employees if they understand an employee’s values and motivation (motivate and build relationships). Also, pursuing incongruent goals may lead to conflicting employee actions/behaviors which leads to cognitive dissonance→dissatisfaction→turnover.

8. VIA Characteristics (your core values)

Wisdom, courage, humanity, transcendence, justice, moderation

9. MBTI test

Extraversion vs. Introversion, Sensing vs. Intuition, Thinking vs. Feeling, Judging vs. Perceiving

          Energy source                  Information type        Decision Making        The World Around

10. Person, Job, Organization Fit

When our abilities match job demands and our values match company values we tend to be more satisfied with our job and more committed to the company we work for.

11. Fit = Self + Situation + Organization

Self (values, attitudes, personality, emotional intelligence) in comparison to company has a huge impact on behavior (performance, org citizen behavior, retention) 

Week 3 Part 1: Motivation and Performance

1. 3 Components of Motivation

Activation: Deciding to start and making a plan

Persistence: Continue step by step. Fail, learn, and move forward

Intensity: Concentrate on progress and get the most out of it

2. Types of Motivation

• Extrinsic Motivation: Motivation to perform an activity to earn a reward or avoid punishment. This is typically short term and dependent on external factors. Used with routine/repetitive behaviors. 

• Intrinsic Motivation: Motivated to perform an activity for its own sake and personal rewards. This is typically long lasting and self-sustaining which leads to creativity, innovation and personal growth.

3. McClelland's Needs Theory 

• Power: Need to control others and to gain status

• Affiliation: Need for friendship, good relationships and collaboration

• Achievement: Need to succeed, achieve in relation to others, to excel and set standards

4. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

• Physiological: The basics like food, water and shelter. 

• Safety needs: Personal security, employment, health, property

• Belongingness: Friends, family, intimacy, connection, relationships

• Esteem: Respect, self-esteem, status, recognition, freedom

• Self Actualization:  The intrinsic desire to reach your maximum potential

5. Herzberg’s Hygiene Theory

•  Hygiene factors: These are the basics that prevent us from being dissatisfied like relationships, company policies, salary, status, work conditions, basic needs. 

• Motivational Factors: These motivate and make us satisfied like achievement, recognition, job advancement opportunities, and interest in the work itself 

6. Self Determination Theory

• Competence: The feeling you are effective and complete the task at hand. People need to have control over their their lives and master their environments

• Autonomy: The feeling that you have choice and control over behavior and goals.

• Relatedness: Feeling connected to and belonging with others. Care and be cared for. 

7. Expectancy Theory (E→P→O Model): 

• Effort: (Expectancy) What are the chances of reaching my performance goal?

• Performance Goal: (Instrumentality) What are the chances of receiving various outcomes if I achieve my performance goals?

• Outcomes: (Valence) How much do I value the outcomes of achieving my performance goals?

8. Equity Theory: 

My inputs and then outputs versus the inputs and then outputs of others. Can lead to equity where we see ourselves as equal to peers, negative inequity where we feel that we are worse off than others, or positive inequity where we see ourselves as better off than others.

9. Organizational Justice Theory:

• Distributive: The perceived fairness of the way that resources and rewards are distributed/allocated

• Procedural: Fairness of the process and procedures used to make allocation decisions

• Interactional: Focuses on where people like they are treated with dignity and respect when decisions are being implemented

• Together these create the overall perception of what is fair in the workplace (Justice)

10. Goal-setting Theory:

• Goals that are specific and difficult to achieve lead to higher performance

• People need competence, resources, and commitment to reach goals

• Feedback and participation are important but not 100% sufficient

• Goal Achievement = Job satisfaction

11. Goal types

• Behavioral Goals: Can be used in most jobs, most relevant for knowledge work

• Objective Goals: Best for jobs with clear and measurable outcomes. Measures what matters

• Task/Project Goals: Best for jobs that are dynamic, near-term activities and milestones are defined. Similar to SMART goals. 

12. Feedback and Reinforcement Theory:

Feedback is both instructional and motivational. It can boost performance but is dramatically underutilized.

13. Job Design:

Any set of activities that alters the job to improve quality of employee experience and level of productivity. Can be Top-down such as management designs, Bottom-up where you get to design your own job or Idiosyncratic where the design is negotiated. 

14. Job Characteristics Model: 

15. Performance Management:

16. Individual, team and organizational incentives:

Each type has pros and cons that are logically associated with each type of incentive. 

Week 3 Part 2: Perception and Decision Making

1. Perception:

Perception is how we see and interpret the world around us. Person perception is how we view other people (overall personality, their motives/intentions, and their behavior. 

2. Heider Perception of Behavior (Bombing presentation example): 

• Internal Factors: He’s incompetent, he doesn't value the company, he procrastinated

• External Factors: He’s overworked, he has personal issues, he had the flu last week

3. Actor Observer Effect: 

• The tendency to attribute our own actions to situational factors (external) but the behavior of others to personal factors (internal)

4. Kelly’s Attribution Theory:

• Distinctiveness: Does the person behave differently in different situations? Is this action an anomaly? If distinctiveness is high the action is likely to be externally influenced. 

• Consensus: Do others behave the same way in similar situations? Is this a wider trend? If consensus is high the action is likely to be externally influenced.

• Consistency: Does the person behave the same way over time? Is this normal? If consistency is high the action is likely to be internally influenced.

5. Additional Perceptual Biases:

• Selective perception: The tendency to focus on certain info while ignoring other info

• Stereotyping: Making generalizations based on physical characteristics

• Self-serving bias: The tendency to credit ourselves for good outcomes and credit others for bad outcomes

• Fundamental attribution error: The tendency to overestimate personal characteristics and underestimate situational factors when judging others

• Contrast effect: The tendency to judge two things against each other rather than for their merits

• Halo effect: The tendency for an impression in one area to influence opinion in another area 

• Projection: The tendency to overestimate the extent to which people share the same opinion as we do

• Implicit bias: The subconscious feelings, attitudes, and predispositions that individuals have developed based on their experiences and influences in life. 

6. Solutions for overcoming biases:

• Be aware and open to the fact that you are biased. Use Kelly’s to evaluate biases.

• Emotional intelligence and feedback from advisors can be helpful

• Follow a specific decision-making process

7. 4 Main Decision Making Styles based on Tolerance for Ambiguity and Value Orientation

• Ambiguity: Being open to more than one interpretation of something

• Analytical: These people value logical reasoning and have a high tolerance for unclarity

• Conceptual: These people value emotions/relationships and have high tolerance for ambiguity

• Directive: These people have logical reasoning and low tolerance for unclarity

• Behavioral: These people value emotions/relationships and have low tolerance for ambiguity

8. Two Ways of Thinking:

• System 1: Automatic, instinctive, and emotional mode of decision making. It is fast because it relies on mental shortcuts and create intuitive solutions (heuristics)

• System 2: Slow, logical, deliberate mode of decision making. Requires more cognitive effort and helps us identify when our intuition is wrong or when emotions cloud judgement

9. Two Models of Decision Making

• Rational Decision Making (Optimizing): Similar to USCCT and involves these 4 steps. Identify the problem/opportunity, generate alternative solutions, evaluate alternatives and select a solution, implement and evaluate chosen solution. 

• Bounded Rationality (Satisficing): The act of making decisions that are “good enough” and not best because of cognitive abilities, time constraints and access to information. 

10. Decision Making Biases

• Confirmation bias: The tendency to accept the opinions that we agree with

• Overconfidence Bias: We tend to overestimate our abilities

• Hindsight Bias: Decisions seem much clearer looking back that looking forwards

• Sunk Costs: Tendency to keep investing in something that is no longer worth it

• Availability Bias: Allowing recent, potent or repetitive memories to influence actions

• Anchoring Bias: Using an anchor to evaluate further data

• Framing: How information is presented to consumers (20% off versus 80% of price)

11. Group Decision Making:

• Pros: Greater pool of knowledge, different approaches to problems, greater commitment to decisions, better understanding of decision rationale, more visible role modeling

• Cons: Social pressure, a few dominant participants, goal displacement, groupthink

  • Groupthink is most dangerous: To prevent this, assign roles, take devil's advocate, ask for all opinions, have subgroup debates, consult experts, rethink. 

Week 4: Power and Influence

1. Types of Power:

• Legitimate: Having formal authority to make decisions through title/position

• Reward: Obtaining compliance by offering/granting rewards valued by others

• Coercive: Power to make threats and deliver actual punishments

• Expert: Influencing others with valued knowledge and information. Expertise.

• Referent: Use of personal characteristics and social skills to gain other’s compliance

2. Position vs. Personal Power:

Position power comes from influenced associates with a job or position and is more formal (Legitimate, Reward, and Coercive). Personal power comes from influence that is independent from these factors (Expert and Referent).

3. Compliance vs. Commitment:

Legitimate power can foster commitment if it is used positively along with expert and referent power. Legitimate can foster compliance when used negatively along with reward and coercive.

4. Positivity of Effectiveness:

Legitimate and reward power tend to have slightly positive effects, expert and referent power tend to have generally positive effects, and coercive power can have slightly negative effects.

5. Structural Empowerment: 

Transfers authority and responsibility from management to employees.

6. Psychological Empowerment:

This type of empowerment occurs when we feel a sense of meaning, competence, self-determination, and impact at work. This kind of empowerment also has inputs that create the empowerment (org support, management, etc.) and shape outcomes (performance, job satisfaction, etc.)

7. Influence Tactics (first 5 are soft and last 4 are hard)

• Rational persuasion: Convincing with reason or logic

• Inspirational appeals: Building enthusiasm by appealing to ideals/values/emotions

• Consultation: Using others to provide info prior to decision making

• Integration: Getting someone in a good mood before making a request

• Personal appeals: Referring to friendship/loyalty before a request

• Exchange: Making explicit or implied promises. Trading favors.

• Coalition tactics: GEtting others to support your efforts to persuade someone

• Pressure: Demanding compliance or using intimidation

• Legitimating tactics: Making a request based on authority, org rules or policies

8. Cialdini's Six Principles of Persuasion

• Liking - people influenced by who they like

• Reciprocity - people feel need to return gifts

• Social proof - people do what similar others do

• Consistency - people feel pressure to conform to past commitments or behaviors

• Authority - expertise leads to influence

• Scarcity - people want what is scarce  

9. Politics in the Workplace

• Assuming blame is important on all sides of a debate/disagreement

• Impression management is the way we control or manipulate our public image

• Use connections, bend the rules, self-promote and use key stakeholders to support arguments.

Week 5: Communication and Conflict

1. Stages of the Conflict Process:

   

2. Functional and Dysfunctional Conflict:

• Functional conflict is resolved in a healthy way where collaboration leads to constructive solutions. Dysfunctional conflict represents situations where teams can’t work together. Unhealthy disagreement

3. Conflict Handling Styles

• Integrating: Parties confront the issue can cooperatively identify it, generate and weigh alternatives, and select a solution

• Obliging: Shows low concern for yourself and a great concern for others. Similarities are highlighted and differences are minimized.  

• Dominating: High concern for self and low concern for others. Characterized by winning and other party’s are largely ignored. 

• Avoiding: Passive withdrawal from the problema and active suppression of the issue

• Compromising: Give-and-take approach with moderate concern for self and others. Appropriate when pirates have different goals or equal power.

4. 6 Methods to Resolve Conflicts

• Facilitation: A third party encourages parties to deal with each other in a constructive manner

• Conciliation: A neutral third party acts as a communication conduit between two parties

• Peer Review: A panel of trustworthy coworkers who can remain objective hear both sides of a dispute in a confidential meeting

• Ombudsman: Someone who is highly regarded in the organization hears both sides and and attempts to arrange a solution

• Mediation: A neutral and trained third party guides others to find innovative solutions. No decision making and are generally external.

• Arbitration: A formal court-like setting with a neutral arbitrator, evidence, and witnesses. 

5. Managing Up: maintaining a productive relationship with your boss. Achieving both personal and company goals. This is accomplished through communication, aligning expectations, giving valuable feedback and using the right method to deliver criticism.

6. Communication Process: 

4 step process that involves a sender who choses a message and a medium, the message that is sent through a particular medium, (NOISE), a receiver who decodes the message and decides on feedback, the receiver sending a return message through a medium (NOISE) and repeat. 

7. Barriers to Communication:

8. Communication Channels:

9. Programmed Conflict through Devil’s Advocacy and Dialect Model

10. Incivility at Work:

11. Technology conflicts:

Work-life balance, flex-space (ability to work outside the office), flextime (flexible hours as long as minimums and deadlines are met). 

12. Appropriate Conflict and its Outcomes

13. Media flows:

14. Communication competence:

• Non-verbal: Hand gesture, eye contact, etc. that actually makes up more than 60% of communication.

• Active listening: Requires cognitive attention and information processing. Not hearing

  • Reveals additional opportunities. Helps us pursue our interests more effectively

• Non-defensive communication: Defensive language is generally inaccurate and inefficient

Week 6: Negotiation 

1. Negotiation: Give and take decision making process between two or more parties with different preferences. This is an art, a game and competition. 

2. Types of negotiation:

• Distributive (Position-based): Concerns a single issue “fixed pie” where one person wins at the expense of the other

• Integrative (Interest-based): Negotiation where multiple interests are considered resulting in an agreement that satisfies both parties. 

3. What does this look like?

4. Distributive Bargaining (insert image):

   

BATNA: Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement (Pick a new price/stance or negotiate a new concept altogether)

ZOPA: Zone of Possible Agreement (zone where buyers and sellers interests overlap)

5. Planning and Preparing for Distributive Negotiations (insert image):

• Identify your BATNA

• Identify your aspiration and reservation points

• Asses other party’s BATNA

• Assess other party’s reservation price

• Evaluate the ZOPA

6. Integrative Bargaining (dialogue): Maintain partnerships

• Important to pause, move around obstacles, don;t get stuck in the mud. 

• Learn about your interests and the interests of others. Don’t miss out when both can be happy. 

• ASK QUESTIONS. 

7. Power of Emotion in Negotiation (linked to emotional intelligence)

• Negative emotions: Showing less interest and narrowed thinking leads to defensiveness which creates a communication barrier. 

• Positive emotions: Show interest, pay attention, ask more questions, interact openly, and explore more creative problem solving

8. The Negotiation Process (insert image) 

9. Interest Based Approach (insert image)

Open Response Question: How have you applied OB in your own life?