HBO Chap2&3

Chapter 2: Individual Behavior, Personality, and Values

Slide 3:
An individuals voluntary behavior and performance is influenced by motivation,
ability, role perceptions, and situational factors represented by the acronym MARS
Need to understand all four factors to diagnose and influence individual behavior
and performance
Slide 4:
Internal forces (cognitive and emotional conditions) that affect a persons voluntary
choice of behavior
Direction motivation is goal-directed, not random
Intensity amount of effort allocated to the goal
Persistence continuing the effort for a certain amount of time
Slide 5:
Natural aptitudes and learned capabilities required to successfully complete a task
Aptitudes natural talents that help people learn specific tasks more quickly and
perform them better
Learned capabilities skills and knowledge
Competencies skills, knowledge, aptitudes, and other personal characteristics
that lead to superior performance
Person-job matching produces higher performance and tends to increase the
employees well-being
Select applicants who demonstrate the required competencies
Provide training to enhance individual performance and results
Redesign the job so employees perform only tasks they are currently able to
perform
Slide 6:
The extent to which people understand the job duties (roles) assigned to or
expected of them. Clear role perceptions:
Understand the specific tasks assigned to them
Understand the priority of their various tasks and performance expectations
Understand the preferred behaviors for accomplishing tasks
Slide 7:
Environmental conditions beyond the individuals immediate control that constrain
or facilitate behavior and performance
Constraints e.g. time, budget, work facilities, consumer preferences, economic
conditions
Cues clarity and consistency of cues provided by the environment to employees
regarding their role obligations e.g. lack of signs of nearby safety hazards
Slide 8:
5 Categories of Individual Behavior
Task performance goal-directed behaviors under the individuals control that
support organizational objectives
Organizational citizenship various forms of cooperation and helpfulness to others
that support the organizations social and psychological context i.e. go the extra
mile
Slide 9:
5 Categories of Individual Behavior (contd)
Counterproductive work behaviors voluntary behaviors that have the potential to
directly or indirectly harm the organization (i.e. the dark side) e.g. harassing coworkers, creating unnecessary conflict, avoiding work obligations etc.
Joining & staying with the organization agreeing to employment relationship and
staying with the organization e.g. career opportunities, extensive training, fun
culture and high involvement help reduce turnover and retain talent
Maintaining work attendance attending work at required times

Presenteeism attending scheduled work when ones capacity to perform is

significantly diminished by illness or other factorsmay be more serious than being
absent when capable of working e.g. increase health risk of co-workers.
Slide 10:
Relatively enduring pattern of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that characterize
a person, along with the psychological processes behind those characteristics
External traits observable behaviors
Internal states thoughts, values and emotions inferred from observable
behaviors
Some variability, adjust to suit the situation e.g. talkative people may talk less in a
library where no talking rules are explicit and enforced
Slide 11:
Heredity explains about 50 percent of behavioral tendencies and 30 percent of
temperament preferences
Studies of twins, including those raised apart have demonstrated surreal similarities
But nurture also counts
Socialization, life experiences, and other interactions with the environment
Personality becomes more stable over time
We form a clearer and more rigid self-concept as we age
Executive function (part of the brain that manages goal-directed behavior) tries to
keep our behavior consistent with selfconcept
Slide 12:
Conscientiousness
Careful, industrious, reliable, goal-focused, achievement striving, dependable,
organized, thorough, and self-disciplined
Agreeableness (vs. hostile noncompliance)
Courteous, good-natured, empathic, caring
Neuroticism (vs. high emotional stability)
High levels of anxiety, hostility, depression, self-conscious
Openness to experience
Imaginative, creative, curious, and aesthetically sensitive
Extraversion (vs. introversion)
Outgoing, talkative, sociable and assertive
Slide 13:
Conscientiousness and emotional stability (low neuroticism)
Motivational components of personality
Best predictors of individual performance in almost all jobs
Extroversion
Higher performance in sales and management jobs where employees must
interact with and influence people
Agreeableness
Higher performance in jobs where employees are expected to be helpful and
cooperative e.g. teams, customer relations
Openness to experience
More creative and adaptable to change
Personality influences a persons general emotional reactions to the job, how well
the person copes with stress, and what type of career path will be most enjoyable
Slide 14:
Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung proposed that personality is primarily represented by
the individuals preferences regarding perceiving and judging information
Measured through the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) which is one of the most
widely used personality tests in work settings, career counseling and executive
coaching
Slide 16:
Extroversion versus introversion (E I)
Similar to five-factor dimension
Perceiving information (S N)
Sensing perceiving information directly through the five senses to acquire
factual and quantitative details

 Intuition relies on insight and subjective experience

Judging i.e. making decisions (T F)
Thinking rely on rational cause-effect logic and systematic data collection to
make decisions
Feeling rely on emotional responses to the options as well as how those choices
affect others
Orientation toward the outside world (P J)
Perceiving open curious, flexible, adapt spontaneously to events, prefer to keep
options open
Judging prefer order and structure and want to resolve problems quickly.
Slide 17:
Stable, evaluative beliefs that guide our preferences for outcomes or courses of
action in a variety of situations
Tell us what we ought to do
Serve as a moral compass that directs our motivation and, potentially our
decisions and actions
Value system -- hierarchy of preferences which is relatively stable and long-lasting
Slide 18:
Dominant model of personal values was developed and tested by social
psychologist Shalom Schwartz and his colleagues.
Clusters 57 specific values into 10 broad value categories which are further
clustered into four quadrants
Slide 19:
Openness to change
Extent to which a person is motivated to pursue innovative ways
Conservation
Extent to which a person is motivated to preserve the status quo
Self-enhancement
How much a person is motivated by self-interest
Self-transcendence
Motivation to promote the welfare of others and nature
Slide 20:
Habitual behavior tends to be consistent with our values, but our everyday
conscious decisions and actions apply our values much less consistently
Disconnect between personal values and behavior because values are abstract
concepts relevance to specific situations is not always obvious
Decisions and behavior linked to values when:
We have logical reasons for applying a specific value in a specific situation
The situation allows or encourages us to do so
We become mindful of our values
Slide 22:
Values congruence how similar a persons values hierarchy is to the values
hierarchy of the organization, a co-worker, or another source of comparison
Person-organization value congruence
Persons values are similar to the organizations dominant values
Espoused-enacted value congruence
Consistency between the values apparent in our actions enacted values and what
we say we believe in (espoused values)
Especially important for people in leadership positions because any gap
undermines their perceived integrity
Organization-community values congruence
Similarity of an organizations dominant values with the values of the community
or society in which it conducts business
Slide 23:
Ethics is the study of moral principles or values that determine whether actions are
right or wrong and outcomes are good or bad
Three Ethical Principles
Utilitarianism
Seek the greatest good for the greatest number of people

 Focuses on the consequences of our actions, not on how we achieve those

consequences
Individual rights principle
Reflects the belief that everyone has entitlements that let her or him act in a
certain way e.g. freedom of speech, fair trial
Problem of conflicting rights e.g. right to privacy conflicts with anothers right to
know
Distributive justice principle
People who are similar should receive similar benefits and burdens e.g. two
employees who contribute equally in their work
Inequalities are acceptable when they benefit the least well off
Slide 24:
Moral intensity
The degree to which an issue demands the application of ethical principles
Ethical sensitivity
A personal characteristic that enables people to recognize the presence of an
ethical issue and determine its relative importance
Situational influences
According to a global survey of managers and HR managers pressure from top
management is the leading cause of unethical corporate behavior
Employees engage in mindless behavior
Dont consciously think about whether their actions are ethical
Slide 25:
Corporate code of ethics
Statement about codes of practice, rules of conduct, and philosophy about the
organizations relationship to stakeholders and the environment e.g. professional
conduct, corporate social responsibility
Problem: Does little to reduce unethical conduct
Ethics training
Awareness and clarification of ethics code
Practice resolving ethical dilemmas
Ethics hotlines
Ways to communicate wrongdoings
Ethical leadership and culture
Ethical conduct and vigilance of corporate leaders role model ethical standards
that employees are more likely to follow
Slide 27:
A cross-cultural value describing the degree to which people in a culture emphasize
independence and person uniqueness
Highly individualist people value personal freedom, self-sufficiency, control over
their own lives, and appreciation of their unique qualities
Slide: 28
Extent to which we value our duty to groups to which we belong and to group
harmony
Highly collectivist people define themselves by their group memberships,
emphasize their personal connection to others in their in-groups, and value the
goals and well-being of people within those groups
Note: Contrary to popular belief, individualism is not the opposite of collectivism
the two concepts are unrelated
Slide 29:
Extent to which people accept unequal distribution of power in a society
High power distance
Accept and value unequal power
Value obedience to authority
Comfortable receiving commands from superiors without consultation
Prefer to resolve conflicts through formal rules rather than directly
Low power distance
Expect relatively equal power sharing
View relationship with boss as interdependent, not dependence

 Expect power sharing and consultation before decisions affecting them are made
Slide 30:
Degree to which people tolerate ambiguity or feel threatened by ambiguity and
uncertainty
Low uncertainty avoidance
Tolerate ambiguity and uncertainty
High uncertainty avoidance
Feel threatened by ambiguity and uncertainty
Value structured situations, clear documentation, and direct rather than indirect or
ambiguous communications
Slide 31:
Reflects a competitive versus cooperative view of relations with other people
High achievement orientation
Value assertiveness, competitiveness, materialism
Appreciate people who are tough and favor acquisition of money and material
goods
Nurturing orientation
Emphasize relationships and the well-being of others
Focus on human interaction and caring rather than competition and personal
success
Slide 32:
Increasing surface-level diversity
Also associated with some deep-level diversity (e.g. racialdifferences in
individualism)
Regional differences in deep-level diversity
e.g. openness to experience, neuroticism, collectivism
Regional variations likely caused by:
local institutions (schools, religion)
physical environment
migration

Chapter 3: Perceiving Ourselves and Others in Organizations

Slide 4:
Complexity
The number of distinct and important roles or identities that people perceive
about themselves e.g. student, friend, daughter, etc. People have multiple selfconcepts
Degree of separation of selves low complexity if important identities are highly
interconnected e.g. all work-related
Consistency
High self-perceived roles require similar personality traits, values, and other
attributes
Low self-perceived roles have personal characteristics that conflict with
characteristics required for other aspects of self
Clarity
Degree to which you have a clear, confidently defined, and stable self-concept
Increases with age and consistency of ones multiple selves
Psychological well-being is higher when people have:
Multiple selves (complexity)
Well-established selves (clarity)
Selves are similar to each other and compatible with personal traits (consistency)
Slide 5:
Self-enhancement
Promoting and protecting our positive self-view
Self-verification
Confirming and maintaining our existing self-concept
Self-evaluation

 Evaluating ourselves through self-esteem, self-efficacy, and locus of control

Social self
Defining ourselves in terms of group membership or emotional attachment
Slide 6:
An innate human drive to promote/protect a positive self-view
Being competent, attractive, lucky, ethical, valued
Most evident in situations that are common and important
People with a positive self-concept:
Have better personal adjustment and mental/physical health
Tend to inflate personal causation and probability of success
Slide 7:
Motivation to confirm and maintain our existing self-concept
Stabilizes our self-concept anchors our thoughts and actions
People prefer feedback that is consistent with their selfconcept
Implications of self-verification
More likely to remember information that is consistent with our self-concept
The clearer the individuals self-conceptthe less he/she will accept feedback that
contradicts that self-concept
Motivated to interact with others who affirm individuals selfconcept
affects how well employees get along with team members and bosses
Slide 8:
Self-esteem
Global self-evaluation
High self-esteem less influenced by others, more persistent, think more logically
Self-efficacy
Persons belief the he/she has the ability, motivation, correct role perceptions and
favorable situations to complete a task successfully
Defined in terms of specific task but is also a general trait
Locus of control
General beliefs about the amount of control over personal life events
More positive self-evaluation with an internal locus of control
Slide 9:
Personal identity (internal self-concept)
Attributes that highlight a persons uniqueness
Social identity (external self-concept)
People define themselves by the groups to which they belong or have an
emotional attachment
We identify with groups that make us feel better about ourselves selfenhancement (e.g. high status groups)
Slide 10:
The process of receiving information about and making sense of the world around
us
Determining which information to notice
How to categorize this information
How to interpret information within the framework of our existing knowledge
Slide 11:
Process of attending to some information received by our senses and ignoring other
information
Influences on selective attention:
Characteristics of the person or object being perceived e.g. size, intensity, motion,
repetition, novelty, context
Characteristics of the perceiver the brain quickly and unconsciously assesses
relevance of information and attaches emotional markers e.g. worry, happiness
Confirmation bias
Tendency to screen out information that is contrary to our decisions, beliefs,
values, and assumptions and to more readily accept confirming information
Slide 12:
Categorical thinking
Mostly unconscious process of organizing people/things

Perceptual grouping principles

Similarity or proximity to others
Cognitive closure filling in missing information
See trends in otherwise ambiguous information
Interpreting incoming information
Emotional markers are tagged to incoming stimuli which result in quick judgments
about whether incoming information is good or bad
Slide 13:
Visual or relational images in our mind that represent the external world i.e. road
maps
Help us make sense of things through perceptual groups i.e. fill in missing pieces
and causal connections among events; create screen through which we select
information
Problem: May block our recognition of new opportunities, or limit our perspective
need to constantly question our mental models
Slide 14:
The perceptual process of assigning traits to people on the basis of their
membership in a social category
Occurs because:
Categorical thinking energy-saving process
Innate need to understand and anticipate how others will behave rely heavily on
stereotypes to fill in missing
information
Enhances our self-concept motivated to maintain a positive self-concept
Slide 15:
Combination of social identity and self-enhancement occurs through:
1. Categorization social identity is a comparative process
Comparison begins by categorizing people into distinct groups removes that
persons individuality
2. Homogenization simplifies the comparison process
We tend to think that people within each group are very similar to each other
tend to lose sight of the fact that each individual is unique
3. Differentiation fulfills inherent need to have a distinct and positive self-concept
Differentiate people by assigning more favorable characteristics to people in our
groups than to people in other groups
Slide 16:
Problems
Overgeneralizes stereotypes not completely fictional but they do not accurately
describe everyone in a social category
Foundation for discriminatory attitudes and behavior
Unintentional (systemic) discrimination person who doesnt fit the ideal person
in a specific role receives a less favorable evaluation
Intentional (prejudice) discrimination unfounded negative attitudes toward
people belonging to a particular stereotyped group
Overcoming stereotype biases
Specialized training can minimize but difficult to prevent activation hardwired in
our brain cells
Possible to minimize stereotype application
Slide 17:
Internal Attribution
Deciding that an observed behavior or event is caused mainly by the person e.g.
persons ability or motivation
External Attribution
Deciding that an observed behavior or event is caused by the environment e.g.
lack of resources, other people, luck
Slide 18:
Consistency
How often did the person act this way in the past?
Distinctiveness

 How often does the person act this way in other settings?
Consensus
How often do other people act this way in similar situations?
Internal attributions are made:
High consistency person behaved this way in the past
Low distinctiveness person behaves like this toward other people or in different
situations
Low consensus other people do not behave this way in similar situations
External attributions are made:
Low consistency person did not behave this way in the past
High distinctiveness person does not behave like this toward
other people or in different situations
High consensus other people also behave this way in similar situations
Slide 19:
Fundamental Attribution Error
Tendency to perceive another persons actions caused mainly by internal
attributions, whereas we recognize both internal and external causes of our own
actions
Self-Serving Bias
Tendency to attribute our successes to internal causes (e.g. personal qualities)
and our failures to external causes (e.g. bad luck)
Slide 20:
Expectations about another person cause that person to act in a way that is
consistent with those expectations
1. Supervisor forms expectations about the employee
e.g. Supervisor develops expectations about employee's future behavior and
performance
2. Supervisors expectations affect behavior toward employee
High expectancy employees receive:
More emotional support through nonverbal cues (e.g. more smiling and eye
contact)
More frequent/valuable feedback/reinforcement
More challenging goals and better training
More opportunities to demonstrate their performance
3. Effects of supervisors behavior on employee
Better training/more practice results in more skills and knowledge
Employee becomes more self-confident
4. Employees behavior/performance matches expectations
High-expectancy employees have higher motivation and better skills resulting in
higher performance
Opposite is true of low-expectancy employees
Slide 21:
Self-fulfilling prophecy effect is stronger:
At the beginning of the relationship e.g. when employee is first hired
When several people hold same expectations of the person
When the employee has a history of low achievement
Leaders should strive to develop and maintain positive, yet realistic expectations
toward all employees
Positive organizational behavior focuses on building positive qualities and traits
within individuals or institutions as opposed to focusing on what is wrong with them
Slide 22:
Halo effect
One prominent characteristic distorts our perception of other characteristics of
that person
Most like to occur when concrete information is missing or perceiver is not
motivated to search for it we use our general impression to fill in the missing
information
False-consensus effect (similar-to me effect)

 Overestimate the extent to which others have beliefs and characteristics similar to
our own
Primacy effect (first impressions are lasting impressions)
Tendency to quickly form an opinion of people based on the first information we
receive about them
Negative first impressions are difficult to change
Recency effect
Most recent information dominates our perceptions
Most common when people are making a complex evaluation
Slide 23:
1. Awareness of perceptual biases
Reduce perceptual biases by knowing that they exist e.g. diversity awareness
training
Become more mindful of thoughts and actions
2. Improving self-awareness
Help people become more aware of biases in their own decisions and behavior
e.g. formal tests that indicate implicit biases you might have toward others
Applying Johari Window (see next slide)
3. Meaningful interaction
Contact hypothesis the more we interact with someone, the less prejudiced or
perceptually biased we will be
Note:
Strongest when interaction relates to a shared goal
Improves empathy understanding and being sensitive to the feelings, thoughts
and situations of others i.e. cognitive and emotional aspects
Slide 24:
Model of self-awareness and mutual understanding developed by Joseph Luft and
Harry Ingram (hence "Johari")
Four windows
1. Open area -- information about you known to you and others
2. Blind area -- information known to others but not to yourself
3. Hidden area -- information known to you, unknown to others
4. Unknown area values, beliefs, and experiences not known to you or others
Objective is to increase size of open area so that both you and colleagues are aware
of your perceptual limitations:
Disclosure tell others about yourself (reduces hidden area)
Feedback receive feedback about your behavior (reduces blind area)
Slide 26:
An individuals ability to perceive, know about, and process information across
cultures
Awareness of, openness to, and respect for other views and practices in the world
e.g. global vs. local frame of reference and knowledge and appreciation of cultures
Capacity to empathize and act effectively across cultures e.g. understand mental
models from other cultures and use effective words and behaviors compatible with
local culture
Ability to process complex information about novel environments i.e. process large
volumes of information in new and diverse situations
Ability to comprehend and reconcile intercultural matters with multiple levels of
thinking i.e. capacity to quickly develop useful mental models of situations at both a
local and global level
Slide 27:
Strategies for improving perceptions awareness, selfawareness, and meaningful
interaction
Cross-cultural training e.g. diversity training
Immersion in other cultures e.g. embed themselves in the local environment
following local practices, using the local language