Foundations of Individual Behavior

Instructor: Pham Thi Bich Ngoc, PhD

Objectives
Factors influence employee behavior
Biographical characteristics Abilities Personality Values Attitudes Learning Perceptions

Implications for managers

Biographical Characteristics
Age: age and job performance were unrelated for all types of jobs
Gender: No significant consistent male/female differences in problem-solving ability, analytical skills, motivation, leadership and learning ability Marital status: maried employees have fewer absences, less turnover, and are more satisfied on the job Tenure: Seniority is negatively related to absenteeism. Tenure and satisfaction are positively related.

Ability, Intellect, and Intelligence

Ability An individual s capacity to perform the various tasks in a job. Intellectual Ability The capacity to do mental activities.

Multiple Intelligences Intelligence contains four subparts: cognitive, social, emotional, and cultural.

Dimensions of Intellectual Ability

Number aptitude Verbal comprehension Perceptual speed Inductive reasoning Deductive reasoning Spatial visualization Memory

Physical Abilities
Physical Abilities
The capacity to do tasks demanding stamina, dexterity, strength, and similar characteristics.

Nine Physical Abilities

Strength Factors
1. Dynamic strength 2. Trunk strength 3. Static strength 4. Explosive strength

Flexibility Factors
5. Extent flexibility 6. Dynamic flexibility

Other Factors
7. Body coordination 8. Balance 9. Stamina

The Ability-Job Fit

Employees Abilities

Ability-Job Fit

Jobs Ability Requirements

What is Personality?

Personality consists of stable characteristics which explain why a person behaves in a particular way.

Personality Traits

Personality Determinants
Heredity Environment Situation

Sixteen Primary Traits

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

Personality Types
Extroverted or Introverted (E or I) Sensing or Intuitive (S or N) Thinking or Feeling (T or F) Perceiving or Judging (P or J)

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

Energizing - How a person is energized:
Extroversion (E) - Preference for drawing energy from the outside world of people, activities or things. Introversion (I) - Preference for drawing energy from one's internal world of ideas, emotions, or impressions.

Attending - What a person pays attention to:

Sensing (S) - Preference for using the senses to notice what is real. Intuition (N) - Preference for using the imagination to envision what is possible to look beyond the five senses. Jung calls this "unconscious perceiving".

Deciding - How a person decides:

Thinking (T) - Preference for organizing and structuring information to decide in a logical, objective way. Feeling (F) - Preference for organizing and structuring information to decide in a personal, value-oriented way.

Living - Life style a person prefers:

Judgment (J) - Preference for living a planned and organized life. Perception (P) - Preference for living a spontaneous and flexible life.

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

The MBTI functions as a tool that helps people in organizations to:
understand themselves and their behaviors. appreciate others so as to make constructive use of individual differences. make a start with personal development. see that approaching problems in different ways can be healthy and productive for an organization

The Big Five Model

Extroversion Agreeableness Conscientiousness Openess to experiences Emotional stability

Major Personality Attributes Influencing OB

Locus of control Machiavellianism Self-esteem Self-monitoring Propensity for risk taking

Relationships among Occupational Personality Types

Values
Definition: Mode of conduct or end state is
personally or socially preferable (i.e., what is right & good) Terminal Values
Desirable End States

Instrumental Values
The ways/means for achieving ones terminal values

Value System:

A hierarchy based on a ranking of an individual s values in terms of their intensity.

Importance of Values
Provide understanding of the attitudes, motivation, and behaviors of individuals and cultures. Influence our perception of the world around us. Represent interpretations of right and wrong. Imply that some behaviors or outcomes are preferred over others.

Values in the Rokeach Survey

Source: M. Rokeach, The Nature of Human Values (New York: The Free Press, 1973).

Values in the Rokeach Survey (contd)

Source: M. Rokeach, The Nature of Human Values (New York: The Free Press, 1973).

Mean Value Rankings of Executives, Union Members, and Activists

Source: Based on W. C. Frederick and J. Weber, The Values of Corporate Managers and Their Critics: An Empirical Description and Normative Implications, in W. C. Frederick and L. E. Preston (eds.) Business Ethics: Research Issues and Empirical Studies (Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 1990), pp. 12344.

Values across Cultures: Hofstedes Framework

Power Distance Individualism vs. Collectivism Masculinity vs. Femininity Uncertainty Avoidance Long-term and Short-term orientation

Hofstedes Framework for Assessing Cultures

Power Distance The extent to which a society accepts that power in institutions and organizations is distributed unequally. Low distance: relatively equal power between those with status/wealth and those without status/wealth High distance: extremely unequal power distribution between those with status/wealth and those without status/wealth

Hofstedes Framework (contd)

Individualism The degree to which people prefer to act as individuals rather than a member of groups. Collectivism A tight social framework in which people expect others in groups of which they are a part to look after them and protect them.

Hofstedes Framework (contd)

Masculinity The extent to which the society values work roles of achievement, power, and control, and where assertiveness and materialism are also valued. Femininity The extent to which there is little differentiation between roles for men and women.

Hofstedes Framework (contd)

Uncertainty Avoidance
The extent to which a society feels threatened by uncertain and ambiguous situations and tries to avoid them.

Hofstedes Framework (contd)

Long-term Orientation A national culture attribute that emphasizes the future, thrift, and persistence. Short-term Orientation A national culture attribute that emphasizes the present and the here and now.

Attitudes
Attitudes
Evaluative statements or judgments concerning objects, people, or events. Cognitive component
The opinion or belief segment of an attitude.

Affective Component
The emotional or feeling segment of an attitude.

Behavioral Component
An intention to behave in a certain way toward someone or something.

Types of Attitudes
Job Satisfaction
A collection of positive and/or negative feelings that an individual holds toward his or her job.

Job Involvement Identifying with the job, actively participating in it, and considering performance important to self-worth.

Organizational Commitment Identifying with a particular organization and its goals, and wishing to maintain membership in the organization (Affective, Normative, and Continuance Commitment)

Types of Attitudes, contd.

Perceived Organizational Support (POS) Degree to which employees feel the organization cares about their well-being. Employee Engagement An individuals involvement with, satisfaction with, and enthusiasm for the organization.

Job Satisfaction and Customer Satisfaction

Satisfaction and Customer Satisfaction
Satisfied workers provide better customer service

Satisfied employees increase customer satisfaction because:

They are more friendly, upbeat, and responsive. They are less likely to turnover, which helps build long-term customer relationships. They are experienced.

Dissatisfied customers increase employee job dissatisfaction.

The Effect of Job Satisfaction on Employee Performance

Satisfaction and Productivity
Satisfied workers arent necessarily more productive. Worker productivity is higher in organizations with more satisfied workers.

Satisfaction and Absenteeism

Satisfied employees have fewer avoidable absences.

Satisfaction and Turnover

Satisfied employees are less likely to quit. Organizations take actions to cultivate high performers and to weed out lower performers.

Responses to Job Dissatisfaction

The Theory of Cognitive Dissonance

Cognitive Dissonance
Any incompatibility between two or more attitudes or between behavior and attitudes. Individuals seek to reduce this gap, or dissonance

Desire to reduce dissonance depends on

Importance of elements creating dissonance Degree of individual influence over elements Rewards involved in dissonance

Learning

Learning Involves change Is relatively permanent Is acquired through experience

Theories of Learning

Key Concepts Unconditioned stimulus Unconditioned response Conditioned response

Theories of Learning (contd)

Key Concepts Reflexive (unlearned) behavior Conditioned (learned) behavior Reinforcement

Theories of Learning (contd)

Theories of Learning (contd)

Key Concepts Reinforcement is required to change behavior. Some rewards are more effective than others. The timing of reinforcement affects learning speed and permanence.

Types of Reinforcement
Positive reinforcement
Providing a reward for a desired behavior.

Negative reinforcement
Removing an unpleasant consequence when the desired behavior occurs.

Punishment
Applying an undesirable condition to eliminate an undesirable behavior.

Extinction
Withholding reinforcement of a behavior to cause its cessation.

Schedules of Reinforcement

Fixed-ratio

What Is Perception, and Why Is It Important?

.A process by which we assign causes or motives to explain peoples behavior

.an explanation of the cause of behavior: how people explain the causes of their own and other peoples behavior

Factors That Influence Perception

Person Perception: Making Judgments About Others

That determination however depends on 3 factors: Distinctiveness: shows different behaviors in different situations. Consensus: response is the same as others to same situation. Consistency: responds in the same way over time.

Attribution Theory

Internal Attribution
Assigns the cause of behavior to some characteristic of the person:
Ability Personality Motivation

External Attribution
Assigns the cause of behavior to factors external to the person:
Task difficulty Luck Situation Support from others

Shotcuts in perception

Frequently Used Shortcuts in Judging Others

Recency Effects
The tendency to remember recent information. If the recent information is negative, the person or object is evaluated negatively

Frequently Used Shortcuts in Judging Others