1

COMMERCE 2BA3
ORGANIZATIONAL
BEHAVIOUR
Class 2
Personality & Learning
Perception, Attribution, & Judgment

Dr. Christa Wilkin

Can You Solve These Brain

Teasers?
MEREPEAT
INSULT +
INJURY

GR 12" AVE
GESG
SEGG
GEGS
GGES

Last Class
3

Discussed how OB has widespread applications

Evolution of OB
Different roles of managers
Contemporary concerns (e.g., workplace
diversity)

THIS CLASS
Personality and learning
Perception, attribution, and judgment

Agenda
4

Personality traits
Experiment on learning
Learning theories
Attribution and Perceptual errors
Nupath Case

CH 2: PERSONALITY AND
LEARNING

Question
6

An effective manager will always hire the

smartest person available.

True? False?
Why? What do you think?

Personality
7

While intelligence is really important,

personality is more likely to affect
employees attitudes and behavior

Question
8

When you become rich and famous, will

your best friends and family be surprised
about how much your personality has
changed and make comments about
how different you have become?

What is Personality?
9

The relatively stable set of psychological

characteristics that influences the way
an individual interacts with his or her
environment and how he or she feels,
thinks, and behaves.
Dimensions and traits that are
determined by genetic predisposition
and ones long-term learning history.

The Dispositional
Approach

10

Focuses on individual dispositions and

personality.
Individuals possess stable traits or
characteristics that influence their
attitudes and behaviours.
Individuals are predisposed to behave in
certain ways.

The Situational
Approach

11

Characteristics of the organizational setting

such as rewards and punishment influence
peoples feelings, attitudes and behaviour.
Many studies have shown that situational
factors such as the characteristics of work
tasks predict job satisfaction.
E.g., Darley and Batsons (1973) study of
seminary students told to hurry from one
building to another or those told had more
time; help slumped victim

The Interactionist
Approach

12

Organizational behaviour is a function of

both dispositions and the situation.
To predict and understand organizational
behaviour, we need to know something
about an individuals personality and the
work setting.
This is the most widely accepted
approach to organizational behaviour.

Situational Strength
13

Situations can be described as being either

weak or strong.
In weak situations, roles are loosely defined,
there are few rules and weak reinforcement and
punishment contingencies.
Personality has the strongest effect in weak
situations.
In strong situations, the roles, rules, and
contingencies are more defined.
Personality has less of an impact in strong
situations.

Individual Exercise
14

Do a personality test
Answers all 60 questions
Use the scoring key to find your average
score for each personality trait
***Remember that some questions are
reverse scored or worded negatively
(answer is marked with an R). So that
means if you answered 4, you would
change the answer to 2.***

15

Big Five personality

traits
Extroversion
Energized by spending time with
others
Sociable, assertive, comfortable in
large groups
Tendency to think out loud
Agreeableness
Defers to others
Cooperative, trusting, not antagonistic

Big Five personality

traits

16

Emotional stability (neuroticism; emotionality)

Ability to withstand stress: backbone

Calm, self-confident, resilient

Openness to experience

Interested in novel things vs. comfortable with

the familiar

Adventurous, curious, artistic

Conscientiousness

Reliable, follows through

Responsible, organized, dependable, persistent

Question
17

Which personality factor is the strongest

predictor of job performance? Why?

Personality
18

New factor (e.g., Ashton et al., 2004):

Honesty / humility
Integrity

or morality
Sincere, Not conceited, truthful, unpretentious
(modest)

Not yet part of the Big Five

Not

much research on it yet (also not in your

textbook)

Individual Personality
Results

19

1) To what degree do you feel this is an

accurate assessment of your personality?
2) What are your strengths that will serve
you well, especially in terms of a career?
3) What are your weaknesses which
might hinder you in your career, and how
might you go about addressing one or
more of the weaknesses?

Locus of Control
20

A set of beliefs about whether

ones behaviour is controlled
mainly by internal or external
factors.
Internals believe that the
opportunity to control their own
behaviour resides within
themselves.
Externals believe that external
forces determine their behaviour.

Question
21

Which type makes for a better employee

(internals or externals)?

Self-Monitoring
22

The extent to which people observe and

regulate how they appear and behave in
social settings and relationships.
High self-monitors take great care to observe
and control the images that they project.
High self-monitors are more involved in their
jobs, perform better, and are more likely to
emerge as leaders.
Downside: Dealing with unfamiliar cultures
might provoke stress.

Self-Esteem
23

The degree to which a

person has a positive selfevaluation.
People with high selfesteem have favourable
self-images.
People with low selfesteem have
unfavourable self-images.

Question
24

People with high self-esteem have lower

job satisfaction and job performance.

True? False?
Why? What do you think?

25

Positive and Negative

Affectivity

People who are high on positive affectivity

(PA) experience positive emotions and
moods and view the world in a positive light.
People who are high on negative affectivity
(NA) experience negative emotions and
moods and view the world in a negative
light.
PA and NA are emotional dispositions that
predict peoples general emotional
tendencies.

Quiz Question
26

An individual's personality encompasses:

A) all aspects of the individual's physical and
emotional response to their environment.
B) a relatively stable set of psychological
characteristics.
C) behaviours which are mostly learned
through childhood experience.
D) all aspects of the individual's consciousness.
E) a constantly shifting set of personal
characteristics.

27

QUESTIONS?

What is Learning?
28

A relatively permanent change in

behaviour potential as a result of
practice or experience.

Question: What types of skills do

employees learn?

What do Employees
Learn?

29

Practical skills:

Intrapersonal skills:

Self: Problem solving, critical thinking, alternative

work processes, risk taking.

Interpersonal skills:

Job-specific skills, knowledge, technical competence.

Others: Interactive skills such as communicating,

teamwork, conflict resolution.

Cultural awareness:

The social norms of organizations, company goals,

business operations, expectations, and priorities.

Experiment
30

We need two volunteers

31

Increasing Probability of
Behaviour

One of the most important

consequences that influences behaviour
is reinforcement.
Reinforcement is the process by which
stimuli strengthen behaviours.
A reinforcer is a stimulus that follows
some behaviour and increases or
maintains the probability of that
behaviour.

Positive Reinforcement
32

The application or addition of a stimulus that

increases or maintains the probability of
some behaviour.
The reinforcer is dependent or contingent on
the occurrence of some desired behaviour.
E.g., If you participate in class (increase or
maintain behaviour), then you will earn high
participation marks (application of stimulus)

Video Clip
33

Big Bang Theory video clip

Negative Reinforcement
34

The removal of a stimulus from a situation

that increases or maintains the probability
of some behaviour.
Negative reinforcement occurs when a
response prevents some event or stimulus
from occurring.
E.g., If you participate in class (increase or
maintain behaviour), then I will stop calling
on you (removal of stimulus)

Experiment Debrief
35

Which technique is more effective?

How did it feel to be subjected to the
different feedback styles?
How did you feel while you were giving
the different types of feedback?

Reducing Probability of
Behaviour

36

Sometimes learned behaviours are

detrimental to the operation of an
organization and they need to be
reduced or eliminated.
There are two strategies that can reduce
the probability of learned behaviour:

Extinction
Punishment

Extinction
37

The gradual dissipation of behaviour

following the termination of
reinforcement.
If the behaviour is not reinforced, it will
gradually dissipate or be extinguished.
E.g., If you talk to your peers while
others are speaking (unwanted
behaviour), then I will stop smiling.

Punishment
38

The application of an aversive stimulus

following unwanted behaviour to decrease the
probability of that behaviour.
A nasty stimulus is applied after some
undesirable behaviour in order to decrease the
probability of that behaviour.
E.g., If you talk to your peers while others are
speaking (unwanted behaviour), then I will ask
you if you would like to share your
conversation with the class (aversive stimulus).

Problems using
Punishment

39

It does not demonstrate which behaviours

should replace the punished response.
Punishment indicates only what is not
appropriate.
Punishment only temporarily suppresses
the unwanted behaviour.
Punishment can provoke a strong
emotional reaction from the punished
individual.

Question
40

Should we avoid using punishment in the

workplace altogether? What do you
think?

Social Cognitive Theory

41

People learn by observing the behaviour of

others and can regulate their own
behaviour by thinking about the
consequences of their actions, setting
goals, monitoring performance, and
rewarding themselves.
Components of social cognitive theory:

Modelling
Self-efficacy
Self-regulation

Modelling
42

The process of imitating the behaviour of

others.
Attractive, credible, competent, highstatus people are most likely to be
imitated

Job shadow

Self-Efficacy
43

A persons belief that he or she has the

ability, motivation, and resources to
complete a task successfully (Bandura,
1986)
Different than self-esteem
Can change over time

Question
44

What advice would you give to someone

who was faced with a new and difficult
task; how would you convince them that
he or she could do it successfully?

Self-Efficacy Theory
45

Enacted Mastery
You have done the task before
Verbal Persuasion
You have been told you can do it
Vicarious experience
You have watched someone else complete
the task successfully
Physiological State
You are not unduly frightened by the task

Self-Regulation
46

The use of learning principles to regulate

ones own behaviour
A key part of the process is peoples pursuit
of self-set goals that guide behaviour
E.g., you find a gap between how well you
want to do and your performance on a test

Set specific short-term goals

Study harder (rehearse)
Ask others what they do (observe models)

Quiz Question
47

Ron is a sensitive person, and he works

very hard so that his boss doesn't criticize
him. Criticism is a(n) __________ of Ron's
work.
A) punisher
B) positive reinforcer
C) extinguisher
D) negative reinforcer
E) continuous reinforcer

48

QUESTIONS?

49

CH. 3: PERCEPTION,
ATTRIBUTION, AND
JUDGMENT

What do you see?

50

What is Perception?
51

The process of interpreting the messages

of our senses to provide order and
meaning to the environment
Depends on

Target

Situation

Attributes of a target, relationship of target to others,

etc.
Social or work setting, actions of others, etc.

Perceiver

Attitudes, experiences, personalities, etc.

52

Bruners Model of the

Perceptual Process

Attribution Theory
53

When individuals observe behaviour,

they try to guess if it is internally or
externally caused

e.g., if a colleague does not do his share of

the work, do you assume
Its

because he is lazy, selfish, incompetent

(internal attribution)
Its because his boss asked him to do some
other work (external attribution)

Attribution Theory
54

Distinctiveness

Consistency

IF he acts the same way in other situations

THEN we assume the behavior is internally caused
IF he has acted like this for a long period of time
THEN we assume the behavior is internally caused

Consensus

IF other people in the same situation behave the

same way does everyone else do this?
THEN we assume the behavior is externally caused

Biases in Attribution
55

Fundamental attribution error

When judging other peoples SUCCESS we:
Inflate the role of external factors
Underestimate the role of internal factors
When judging other peoples FAILURES we:
Inflate the role of internal factors
Underestimate the role of external factors
Self-serving bias
Opposite of fundamental attribution error

Perceptual Errors
56

Primacy effect: First impressions

Recency: Most recent info dominates perceptions

e.g., start of the interview, first meet someone

e.g., big error a week before performance review

Halo Effect

Possession of one excellent characteristic makes

others think that other excellent characteristics are
possessed
e.g., you know a person is a McMaster alumni, so
you think that they must also be friendly and smart,
etc.

Perceptual Errors
57

Contrast Effect

When an evaluation is affected by a comparison

to the evaluation that preceded it
e.g., Give a presentation after an excellent or
poor one

Projection

When you assume that other people are similar

to you
e.g., You assume that your housemates will
clean their dishes right away because thats
what you always do

Perceptual Errors
58

Stereotyping

Tendency to generalize about people in a social

category and ignore variations among them
e.g., older workers dont work hard

Self-fulfilling Prophecy

Occurs when our expectations about another

person cause that person to act in a way that is
consistent with those expectations
e.g., a person who expects people to be friendly,
may smile more and thus receive more smiles

59

QUESTIONS?

Case: Nupath Foods

60

Form groups of 5 to 6 people

How does perception play a role in this
case?
(ie. What perceptual problems or errors
have occurred?)
Be prepared to report back to the class

Summary
61

Intelligence is very, very important, but

it is not the only factor that will affect
performance
There are different tools available to
influence other peoples behaviour
Being aware of perceptual errors is
important for recruitment and retention
efforts

For Next Class

62

Read chapter 4 on values, attitudes, and

work behaviours
*** Remember your namecard ***