Organizational Behavior

Organizational Behavior Individual Differences

Primary dependent variables Dependent variables are the key factors that you want to explain or predict and that are affected by some other factor. • Productivity • Absenteeism • Turnover • Organizational citizenship • Job satisfaction © 2003 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights reserved.

Organization Level variables • Organizational behavior reaches its highest level of sophistication when we add formal structure. • The design of the formal organization, work processes, and jobs; the organization’s human resource policies and practices, and the internal culture, all have an impact. © 2003 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights reserved.

Group-level variables • The behavior of people in groups is more than the sum total of all the individuals acting in their own way. • People behave differently in groups than they do when alone. • People in groups are influenced by: • Acceptable standards of behavior by the group • Degree of attractiveness to each other • Communication patterns • Leadership and power • Levels of conflict © 2003 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights reserved.

Individual-level variables • People enter organizations with certain characteristics that will influence their behavior at work. • The more obvious of these are personal or biographical characteristics such as age, gender, and marital status; personality characteristics; an inherent emotional framework; values and attitudes; and basic ability levels. • There is little management can do to alter them, yet they have a very real impact on employee behavior. • Four other individual-level variables: perception, individual decision making, learning, and motivation. © 2003 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights reserved.

Dimensions ofIntellectual Ability • Number aptitude • Verbal comprehension • Perceptual speed • Inductive reasoning • Deductive reasoning • Spatial visualization • Memory © 2003 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights reserved.

Nine Physical Abilities • Strength Factors • Dynamic strength • Trunk strength • Static strength • Explosive strength • Flexibility Factors • Extent flexibility • Dynamic flexibility • Other Factors • Body coordination • Balance • Stamina © 2003 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights reserved.

Behavior Modification • Problem-solving Model • Identify critical behaviors • Develop baseline data • Identify behavioral consequences • Apply intervention • Evaluate performance improvement © 2003 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights reserved.

OB MOD Organizational Applications • Well Pay versus Sick Pay • Reduce absenteeism by rewarding attendance, not absence. • Employee Discipline • The use of punishment can be counter-productive. • Developing Training Programs • OB MOD methods improve training effectiveness. • Self-management • Reduces the need for external management control. © 2003 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights reserved.

Other Individual Differences • In addition to biographical data, we look at individual: • Values • Culture • Attitudes • Personality to help explain differences in the dependent variables. © 2003 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights reserved.

The GLOBE Framework for Assessing Cultures • Assertiveness • Future Orientation • Gender differentiation • Uncertainty avoidance • Power distance • Individual/collectivism • In-group collectivism • Power orientation • Humane orientation © 2003 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights reserved.

The Theory of Cognitive Dissonance • Desire to reduce dissonance • Importance of elements creating dissonance • Degree of individual influence over elements • Rewards involved in dissonance © 2003 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights reserved.

Measuring the A-B Relationship • Recent research indicates that the attitudes (A) significantly predict behaviors (B) when moderating variables are taken into account. • Moderating Variables • Importance of the attitude • Specificity of the attitude • Accessibility of the attitude • Social pressures on the individual • Direct experience with the attitude © 2003 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights reserved.

Job Satisfaction • Measuring Job Satisfaction • Single global rating • Summation score • How Satisfied Are People in Their Jobs? • Job satisfaction declined to 50.7% in 2000 • Decline attributed to: • Pressures to increase productivity • Less control over work © 2003 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights reserved.

The Effect of Job Satisfaction on Employee Performance • Satisfaction and Productivity • Satisfied workers aren’t 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. © 2003 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights reserved.

Organizational Behavior