COMMERCE 2BA3

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


Dr. Christa Wilkin
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Can You Solve These Brain
Teasers?
MEREPEAT GR 12" AVE
INSULT +
INJURY
GESG
SEGG
GEGS
GGES
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Last Class
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
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Agenda
Personality traits
Experiment on learning
Learning theories
Attribution and Perceptual errors
Nupath Case
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CH 2: PERSONALITY AND
LEARNING
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Question
An effective manager will always hire the
smartest person available.
True? False?
Why? What do you think?

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Personality
While intelligence is really important,
personality is more likely to affect employees
attitudes and behavior

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Question
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?

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What is Personality?
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.

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The Dispositional Approach
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.

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The Situational Approach
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

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The Interactionist Approach
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.

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Situational Strength
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.

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Individual Exercise
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.***
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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
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Big Five personality traits
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

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Question
Which personality factor is the strongest
predictor of job performance? Why?
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Personality
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)

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Individual Personality Results
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?

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Locus of Control
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.

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Question
Which type makes for a better employee
(internals or externals)?

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Self-Monitoring
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.

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Self-Esteem
The degree to which a
person has a positive self-
evaluation.
People with high self-esteem
have favourable self-images.
People with low self-esteem
have unfavourable self-
images.

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Question
People with high self-esteem have lower job
satisfaction and job performance.
True? False?
Why? What do you think?
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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.
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Quiz Question
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.
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QUESTIONS?
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What is Learning?
A relatively permanent change in behaviour
potential as a result of practice or experience.

Question: What types of skills do employees
learn?

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What do Employees Learn?
Practical skills:
Job-specific skills, knowledge, technical
competence.
Intrapersonal skills:
Self: Problem solving, critical thinking, alternative
work processes, risk taking.
Interpersonal skills:
Others: Interactive skills such as communicating,
teamwork, conflict resolution.
Cultural awareness:
The social norms of organizations, company
goals, business operations, expectations, and
priorities.

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Experiment
We need two volunteers
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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.

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Positive Reinforcement
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)

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Video Clip
Big Bang Theory video clip
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Negative Reinforcement
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)

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Experiment Debrief
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?

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Reducing Probability of
Behaviour
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
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Extinction
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.
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Punishment
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).
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Problems using Punishment
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.
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Question
Should we avoid using punishment in the
workplace altogether? What do you think?
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Social Cognitive Theory
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
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Modelling
The process of imitating the behaviour of
others.
Attractive, credible, competent, high-status
people are most likely to be imitated
Job shadow
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Self-Efficacy
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
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Question
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?

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Self-Efficacy Theory
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

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Self-Regulation
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)

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Quiz Question
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
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QUESTIONS?
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CH. 3: PERCEPTION,
ATTRIBUTION, AND
JUDGMENT
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What do you see?
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What is Perception?
The process of interpreting the messages of
our senses to provide order and meaning to
the environment
Depends on
Target
Attributes of a target, relationship of target to others, etc.
Situation
Social or work setting, actions of others, etc.
Perceiver
Attitudes, experiences, personalities, etc.


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Bruners Model of the
Perceptual Process
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Attribution Theory
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)

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Attribution Theory
Distinctiveness
IF he acts the same way in other situations
THEN we assume the behavior is internally
caused
Consistency
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

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Biases in Attribution
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
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Perceptual Errors
Primacy effect: First impressions
e.g., start of the interview, first meet someone
Recency: Most recent info dominates
perceptions
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.

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Perceptual Errors
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

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Perceptual Errors
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
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QUESTIONS?
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Case: Nupath Foods
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

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Summary
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

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For Next Class
Read chapter 4 on values, attitudes, and work
behaviours
*** Remember your namecard ***
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