Organizational

Behavior

15
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, 12-1
Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall
The Focus and Goals of Individual Behavior

• Organizational Behavior (OB)

− Actions of people at work
− OB addresses issues that aren’t obvious
− OB is like an iceberg. It has visible
dimensions and much larger hidden
portions
− OB provides managers with considerable
insights into these important but hidden
aspects of organization

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The Focus and Goals of Individual Behavior
• Focus of Organizational Behavior
– Individual behavior
• Attitudes, personality, perception, learning, and
motivation
– Group behavior
• Norms, roles, team building, leadership, and
conflict
– Organizational
• Structure, culture, and human resource policies
and practices
• Individuals in a group setting behave differently from
individuals acting alone
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Exhibit 15.1: The Organization as an Iceberg

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Goals of Organizational Behavior
− To explain, predict and influence behavior
− Managers need to do this to manage their
employees’ behavior
− Managers’ success depends on getting
things done through people
− To do this, managers need to be able to
• Explain why employees engage in some
behavior
• Predict how employees will respond to
various actions taken
• Influence how employee behave
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 Five important employee behaviors
Managers are specifically concerned about five important employee behaviors
− Employee productivity – a performance measure of both efficiency and
effectiveness.
• Managers want to know what will influence efficiency and
effectiveness
− Absenteeism – the failure to report to work
• Difficult to get things done if employees do not show up
• Can never be eliminated but excessive level will have direct impact on
organization’s functioning
− Turn-over – the voluntary and involuntary permanent withdrawal from an
organization
• Can become a problem with increased recruiting, selection, training
cost and work disruption
• Can never be eliminated but something managers want to minimize
• Organization wants to keep high performing employees

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Five important employee behaviors (Contd.)

− Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) – discretionary behavior

that is not part of an employee’s formal job requirement but which
promotes the effective functioning of the organization
• Eg. Helping others in the team, volunteering in the extended job
activities, avoid unnecessary conflicts, make constructive
suggestions about work-group
• Organizations need employees who will do more than their job
duties
• Organizations with such employees will outperform
− Job Satisfaction – an employee’s general attitude toward his/her job
• It is an attitude rather than a behavior
• It is an outcome that concerns managers because satisfied
employees are more likely to show up for work and stay with the
organization

Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, 12-7

Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall
 Why look at Individual Behavior?
• Psychological factors affecting employee behavior

Employee
Employee
Attitudes
Attitudes Productivity
Productivity
Personality
Personality Absenteeism
Absenteeism
Turnover
Turnover
Perception
Perception Organizational
Organizational
Citizenship
Citizenship
Learning
Learning
Job
Job Satisfaction
Satisfaction

Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, 12-8

Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall
 Psychological Factors – Attitudes
• Job Satisfaction and Productivity
– The correlation between satisfaction and productivity is fairly
strong.
– Organizations with more satisfied employees are more effective
than those with fewer satisfied employees. Job Job Satisfaction
and Productivity
• Satisfaction and Absenteeism
– Satisfied employees tend to have lower levels of absenteeism,
although satisfied employees are bound to take company
approved days off (e.g. sick days)
• Job Satisfaction and Turnover
– Satisfied employees have lower levels of turnover; dissatisfied
employees have higher levels of turnover.
– Turnover is affected by the level of employee performance.

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 Psychological Factors – Attitudes
• Job Satisfaction and Customer Satisfaction
– The level of job satisfaction for frontline employees is
related to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.
– Interaction with dissatisfied customers can increase
an employee’s job dissatisfaction.
– Actions to increase job satisfaction for customer
service workers:
• Hire upbeat and friendly employees.
• Reward superior customer service.
• Provide a positive work climate.
• Use attitude surveys to track employee satisfaction.

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 Psychological Factors – Attitudes
• Job Satisfaction and Organizational Citizenship
Behavior (OCB)
– Relationship between job satisfaction and
OCB is tempered by perceptions of fairness
– Individual OCB is influenced by work group
OCB
• Job Satisfaction and Workplace Misbehavior
– Dissatisfied employees will respond somehow
– Not easy to predict exactly how they’ll
respond

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 Psychological Factors – Attitudes
• Job Involvement
– The degree to which an employee identifies with his or
her job, actively participates in it, and considers his or her
performance to be important to his or her self-worth.
• High levels of commitment are related to fewer
absences and lower resignation rates.

• Organizational Commitment
– Is the degree to which an employee identifies with a
particular organization and its goals and wishes to
maintain membership in the organization.
– Leads to lower levels of both absenteeism and turnover.

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Psychological Factors – Personality
• Personality
– The unique combination of emotional, thought
and behavioral patterns that affect how a
person reacts and interacts with others.
− We are interested in personality because, just
like attitudes, it too affects how and why
people behave the way they do
− Two approaches to classify personality traits
have received most attention
• Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
• The Big Five Model

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 Classifying Personality Traits
• Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI®)
– A general personality assessment tool that
measures the personality of an individual
using four categories:
• Social interaction: Extrovert or Introvert (E or I)
• Preference for gathering data: Sensing or Intuitive
(S or N)
• Preference for decision making: Feeling or
Thinking (F or T)
• Style of decision making: Perceptive or
Judgmental (P or J)

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The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator: (MBTI)
Most used personality assessment instrument
Extroverted (E) Vs Introverted (I)
( Outgoing, sociable) ( Quiet & Shy)

Sensing (S) Vs Intuitive(N)

( Practical, prefer routine & order) (Unconscious, look at big
picture)
Thinking (T) Vs Feeling (F)
(Reason, logic, handle problem) (Value, Emotion)
Judging (J) Vs Perceiving (P)
(Want control, prefer ordered, (Flexible, Spontaneous)
structure)
Can be used for self awareness & provide career guide.
Criticism: Unrelated to job performance so managers probably not use
this tool.

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 Exhibit 15.4: Examples of MBTI® Types
Type Description

INFJ (introvert, intuitive, Quietly forceful, conscientious, and concerned for others. Such
feeling, judgmental) people succeed by perseverance, originality, and the desire to do
whatever is needed or wanted. They are often highly respected for
their uncompromising principles.

ESTP (extrovert, sensing, Blunt and sometimes insensitive. Such people are matter-of-fact
thinking, perceptive) and do not run back, worry or hurry. They enjoy whatever comes
along. They work best with real things that can be assembled or
disassembled.

ISFP (introvert, sensing, Sensitive, kind, modest, shy, and quietly friendly. Such people
feeling, perceptive) strongly dislike run back disagreements and will avoid them. They
are loyal followers and quite often are relaxed about getting things
done.

ENTJ (extrovert, intuitive, Warm, friendly, candid, and decisive; also usually skilled in
thinking, judgmental) anything that requires reasoning and intelligent talk, but may
sometimes overestimate what they are capable of doing.

Source: Based on I. Briggs-Myers, Introduction to Type (Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press, 1980), pp. 7–8.
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 Classifying Personality Traits
• Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI®)
− Organizations using MBTI include – Apple, AT&T,
Citigroup, GE, 3M and many hospitals and educational
institutions, the US Armed Force
− However, there is no hard evidence to support the
validity of MBTI
− How could MBTI help managers?
• Proponents of the assessment believe it is important to
know these personality types because they influence
the way people interact and solve problems
• MBTI has been used to help managers select
employees who are well matched to certain types of
jobs

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 The Big-Five Model
− A five-factor model that encompass most of the significant variations
in human personality
− The five personality traits in the Big Five Model are:
• Extraversion: Sociable, talkative, and assertive
• Agreeableness: Good-natured, cooperative, and trusting
• Conscientiousness: Responsible, dependable, persistent, and
achievement oriented
− predicts job performance in a number of jobs
• Emotional Stability: Calm, enthusiastic, and secure or tense,
nervous, and insecure
• Openness to Experience: Imaginative, artistically sensitive, and
intellectual
− More than just a personality framework – research has shown
important relationship exist between these personality dimensions
and job performance

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 Psychological Factors – Perception
• Perception
– A process by which individuals give meaning (reality) to
their environment by organizing and interpreting their
sensory impressions.
• Factors influencing perception:
− The perceiver: individual’s personal characteristics will
heavily influence the interpretation – attitudes,
personality, interest, motives, biases, etc.
− The target: characteristics of the target – distinctiveness,
contrast, similarity
− The situation: the context in which the object is seen –
time, location, light, color, other situational factors – draw
attention or distract from the target
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Exhibit 15.6: Perception Challenges: What Do You See?

12-20
Shortcuts Used in Judging Others
• Assumed Similarity
– Assuming that others are more like us than they
actually are.
• Stereotyping
– Judging someone on the basis of our perception of a
group he or she is a part of.
• Halo Effect
– Forming a general impression of a person on the basis
of a single characteristic of that person.
Implication for managers
− Employees react to perceptions (not to reality)
− Pay close attention to how employees perceive their
jobs and mgt actions
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 Psychological Factors – Learning
• Learning
– Any relatively permanent change in behavior
that occurs as a result of experience.
• Almost all complex behavior is learned.
• Learning is a continuous, life-long process.
• The principles of learning can be used to
shape behavior.
• Theories of learning:
– Operant conditioning
– Social learning

12-22
 Learning (cont’d)
• Operant Conditioning (Skinner)
– The theory that behavior is a function of its
consequences and is learned through experience.
– Operant behavior: voluntary or learned behaviors
• Behaviors are learned by making rewards
contingent to behaviors.
• Behavior that is rewarded (positively reinforced)
is likely to be repeated.
• Behavior that is punished or ignored is less
likely to be repeated.

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 Learning (cont’d)

• Social Learning
– The theory that individuals learn through their
observations of others and through their
direct experiences.

12-24
Shaping Behavior: A Managerial Tool
• Shaping Behavior
– Attempting to “mold” individuals by guiding their
learning in graduated steps such that they learn to
behave in ways that most benefit the organization.
– Shaping methods:
• Positive reinforcement: rewarding desired
behaviors.
• Negative reinforcement: removing an unpleasant
consequence once the desired behavior is exhibited.
• Punishment: penalizing an undesired behavior.
• Extinction: eliminating a reinforcement for an
undesired behavior.
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 Shaping Behavior
• Implication for Managers
− Manage employee learning by means of rewards
• A positive or negative reinforcement
strengthen a desired behavior
− tend to increase its frequency
• punishment and extinction weaken an
undesired behavior
− tend to decrease its frequency
− managers should serve as models
• set examples of the desired behavior

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