Chapter 15 Individual Behavior

Planning Ahead Chapter 15 Study Questions

1. How do perceptions influence individual behavior?
2. What should we know about personalities in the workplace?
3. How do attitudes influence individual behavior?
4. What are the dynamics of emotions, moods, and stress?
Chapter 15 Learning Dashboard
1. Perception
1. Perception and psychological contracts
2. Perception and attribution
3. Perception tendencies and distortions
4. Perception and impression management
2. Personality
1. Big five personality dimensions
2. Myers-Briggs personality type indicator
3. Personal conception and emotional adjustment traits
3. Attitudes
1. What is an attitude?
2. What is job satisfaction?
3. Job satisfaction and its outcomes
4. Emotions, Moods, and Stress
1. Emotions
2. Moods
3. Stress
4. Sources of stress
-

ambition the desire to achieve or to accomplish something

o sense of competitiveness and the urge to be best

ambition to achieve
drive to solve
tenacity to preserve
confidence to act
-

openness to experience
realize to accept
learning to grow
integrity to fulfill

ppl work w/o respect, tend toward low performance, poor customer service, absenteeism
and antisocial behavior
supportive settings positive behavior sets higher performance, less withdrawal and
dysfunction and helpful citizenship
performance behaviors task performance, customer service, productivity
withdrawal behaviors absenteeism, turnover, job disengagement
citizenship behaviors helping, volunteering, job engagement
dysfunctional behaviors antisocial behavior, intentional wrongdoing

Perception
Perception - The process through which people receive, organize and interpret
information from the environment
People can perceive the same things or situations differently
People behave on the basis of their perceptions
Screen or filter through which information passes before we respond to it
Based on cultural background, values, and other personal and situational circumstances

Psychological contract - A set of expectations held by an individual about what will be

given and received in the employment relationship
Person-job fit begins here
An ideal work situation is one with a fair psychological contract
Balance of contributions made to organization and inducements received
Contributions- work activities: effort, time, creativity, loyalty
Inducements organization gives to individual in exchange for contributions: fringe benefits,
training and opportunities for personal growth and advancement, job security
Figure 15.1 Components in the psychological contract

Perception and attribution

Attribution - The process of developing explanations for events
Attribution theory describes how people try to explain the behavior of themselves and other
people while often making errors in the process
Fundamental attribution error - Occurs when observers blame anothers performance
failures or problems on internal factors rather than external factors
Overestimates internal factors and underestimates external factors as influences on
someones behavior
Self-serving bias - Occurs because individuals blame their personal performance failures or
problems on external factors and attribute their successes to internal factors

 Perceptual tendencies and distortions:

Stereotypes
Occur when attributes commonly associated with a group are assigned to an individual
Someone identified with a group or category and oversimplified attributes associated with
group or category used to describe individual
Racial and ethnic
Gender
Ability
Age
Others?
Halo effects
Occur when one attribute is used to develop an overall impression of a person or situation
Hair, smile
Selective perception
The tendency to define problems from ones own point of view
Single out for attention those aspects of a situation or person that reinforce ones existing
beliefs, values or needs
Information that makes us uncomfortable is screened out
Fail to recognize other points of view
Avoid by gathering and being open to inputs and opinions from many people
Projection
The assignment of personal attributes to other individuals
Ex. Assume other people share our needs, desires and values
Controlled through self-awareness and willingness to communicate and empathize with other
persons
Perceptual tendencies and distortions
Impression management
The systematic attempt to influence how others perceive us
dress to convey positive appeal
flatter others to generate positive feelings
when conversing, make eye contact and smile
display a high level of energy lots of work commitment and initiative
Personality
Personality - The profile of characteristics that makes one person unique from others
Big Five personality traits:
1. Extroversion
Being outgoing, sociable, and assertive
Comfortable and confident in interpersonal relationships an introvert is more
withdrawn and reserved
Management/sales
2. Agreeableness
Being good-natured, cooperative, and trusting
Gets along well with others; disagreeable person source on conflict and
discomfort for others

3. Conscientiousness
Being responsible, dependable, and careful
Focuses on what can be accomplished and meets commitments; o: lacks
conscientiousness is careless, trying to do too much and failing or doing little
4. Emotional stability
Being relaxed, secure, and unworried
Calm and confident; o: anxious, nervous and tense
5. Openness
Being curious, receptive to new things, and open to change, imaginative
Broad-minded, receptive to new things and comfortable with change; o: narrow-minded, has
few interests and resistant to change
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
o Types personalities based on questionnaire that probes into how people act or feel
in various situations
Jungs model
o Extroversion/introversion
How people differ in ways they relate with other
o Sensation (emphasizing details, facts and routine)/intuition (looking for big
picture and willing to deal with various possibilities)
How differ in ways they gather info
o Thinking (reason and analysis)/ feeling (responding to feelings and desires of
others)
How differ in ways of evaluating information
o Four MBTI dimensions
Extraverted vs. introverted (E or I) social interactions: weather a person
tends toward being outgoing and sociable or shy and quiet
Sensing vs. intuitive (S or N) gathering data: whether person tends to
focus on details or on big picture in dealing with problems
Thinking vs. feeling (T or F) decision making : whether a person tends to
rely on logic or emotions in dealing with problems
Judging vs. perceiving (J or P) work style: whether a person prefers
order and control or acts with flexibility and spontaneity

Myers-Briggs Dimensions of Personality

Extraversion/
Introversion
- how we relate to
others

Sensation/
Intuition
- how we gather
information

Thinking/
Feeling
- how we evaluate
information

Judging/
Perceiving
- how we react to
the outside world

Personal Conception and Emotional Adjustments Traits

Other personality traits that affect work behavior:
Locus of control
The extent to which one believes that what happens to them is within ones control
Internals more self-confident and accept responsibility for their own actions
Externals prone to blame others and outside forces for what happens to them
Authoritarianism
The degree to which a person defers to authority and accepts status differences
Tend to accept rigidity and be control oriented when in leadership capacity
Act subservient and comply with rules when in follower capacity
Machiavellianism
The extent to which someone is emotionally detached and manipulative in using power
High mach: unconcerned about others; end justifies means
Low mach: deferential in allowing others to exert power over him or her
Self-monitoring
The degree to which someone is able to adjust and modify behavior in response to the
external factors
High SM: learner, comfortable with feedback and willing and able to change, flexible in
changing behavior from one situation to next
Low SM: predictable and tends act consistently regardless of circumstances
Type A personality
Orientation toward extreme achievement, impatience, and perfectionism
Bring stress to themselves
Always moving, walking and eating rapidly
Acting impatient, hurrying others, put off by waiting
Doing or trying to do several things at once
Feeling guilty when relaxing
Hurrying or interrupting the speech of others

Figure 15.2 Common personality dimensions that influence human behavior at work

 Attitude
A predisposition to act in a certain way toward people and things in ones environment
Components of attitudes:
Cognitive component: believe or opinion
Affective or emotional component: specific feeling
Behavioral component: intention to behave in a manner consistent with the belief and feeling
Cognitive dissonance
The discomfort a person feels when attitudes and behavior are inconsistent
Change of attitude to fit behavior, changing future behavior to fit attitude, rationalizing to
force two to be compatible
Job Statisfaction
degree to which an individual feels positive or negative about a job
work itself Does the job offer responsibility, interest, challenge?
Quality of supervision are task help and social support available?
Coworkers How much harmony, respect, friendliness exists?
Opportunities are there avenues for promotion, learning, growth?
Pay Is compensation, actual and perceived, fair and substantial?
Work conditions Do conditions offer comfort, safety, support?
Security Is the job and employment secure?
1987: 61% satisfied; 2008: 49%

Common aspects of
job satisfaction:
Job satisfaction
The degree to which an
individual feels positively
or negatively about
various aspects of work

Work itself
Quality of supervision
Coworkers
Opportunities
Pay
Work conditions
Security

Job Satisfaction and Its Outcomes

There is a strong and positive relationship between satisfaction and absenteeism and
turnover
Withdrawal behaviors - occurs as temporary absenteeism and actual job turnover
Absenteeism workers who are more satisfied with their jobs are absent less often than those
who are dissatisfied
Turnover satisfied workers are more likely to stay and dissatisfied workers are more likely
to quit their jobs

Costly in terms of recruitment and training needed to replace workers; productivity lost while
ner workers are learning how to perform up to expectations
Satisfaction-related concepts having quality of work life implications
Employee engagement strong sense of belonging or connection with ones job and
employer
o Strong positive feeling about ones job and the organization
o Willing to help others, always trying to do something extra to improve
performance and feeling and speaking positively about the organization
o Believing they had opportunity to dot heir beset ecery day, believeing their
opinions count, believing fellow workers are committed to quality and believing
there is a direct connection between work and companys mission
Job involvement extent to which an individual feels dedicated to a job
Organizational commitment reflects degree of loyalty an individual
feels toward organization
Emotional commitments 4x more powerful than rational commitments
o Organizational citizenship willingness to go beyond the call of duty or go the
extra mile in ones work
does things that are nor required but help advance the performance of the
organization
ex. Service worker who takes care of customer; take on extra tasks;
employees who volunteers to stay late at no pay
Employee engagement
Strong positive feeling about ones job and the organization
Job involvement
The extent to which an individual is dedicated to a job
Organizational commitment
Loyalty of an individual to the organization
Organizational citizenship
Willingness to do more than the minimum required

Is there a relationship between job satisfaction and performance?

Are satisfied workers more productive?
Are productive workers more satisfied?
Do rewards for productivity create satisfaction, influencing future performance?
High performing workers likely to feel satisfied
Job satisfaction good predictor of absenteeism and turnover
rewards

Emotions, Moods, and Stress

Emotions
Strong feelings directed toward someone or something
Emotional intelligence
Ability to understand emotions and manage relationships effectively
Perform best when we are good at recognizing and dealing with emotions
Avoid letting emotions get the better of us
Show restraint when emotions of others are getting the better of them
Moods
Generalized positive and negative feelings or states of mind
Mood contagion
Spillover of ones positive or negative moods onto others
Stress
A state of tension experienced by individuals facing extraordinary demands, constraints, or
opportunities
Stressors
Things that cause stress
Originate in work, personal, and nonwork situations
Have the potential to influence work attitudes, behavior, job performance, and health
Work factors as potential stressors:
Includes:
Excessively high or low task demands
Role conflicts or ambiguities
Poor interpersonal relationships
Too slow or too fast career progress
Long work hours
Excessive e-mails
Difficult bosses/coworkers
Work-related stress syndromes:
Set up to fail performance expectations are impossible or support totally inadequate to ask
Mistaken identity individual ends up in job that doesnt at all match talents or doesnt like
Nonwork factors as potential stressors:

 Includes:
Family events (new child)
Economics (loss of income)
Personal affairs (relationships)
Spill-over effect on the stress an individual experiences at work
Consequences of stress:
Constructive stress - eustress
Acts as a positive influence to increase effort, stimulate creativity, and encourage diligence in
ones work
Can be energizing and performance enhancing
Destructive stress - distress
Impairs performance of an individual
Breaks down a persons physical and mental systems
Can lead to job burnout and/or workplace rage
Job burnout physical and mental exhaustion form work stress
Workplace rage aggressive behavior toward coworkers or the
work setting
Reduces resistance to disease and increases likelihood of physical and/or mental
illness
Hypertension, ulcers, substance abuse, overeating, depression, muscle aches
Figure 15.3 Potential negative consequences of a destructive job stress-burnout cycle

Emotions, Moods, and Stress

Personal wellness - The pursuit of personal and mental potential though a personal healthpromotion program
- taking personal responsibility for your physical and mental health through disciplined
approach to such things as smoking, alcohol use, diet, exercise, and physical fitness
- setting up wellness programs and assistance plans to help employees follow through with
wellness commitments to healthy living
- A form of preventative stress management
- Enables people to be better prepared to deal with stress