PART 4: LEADING
CHAPTER 8 - FOUNDATIONS OF INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP BEHAVIOR
LEARNING OUTCOMES (PPT 8-2, 8-3)
After reading this chapter students should be able to:
1. Define the focus and goals of organizational behavior.
2. Identify and describe the three components of attitudes.
3. Explain cognitive dissonance.
4. Describe the Myers-Briggs personality type framework and its use in organizations.
5. Define perception and describe the factors that can shape or distort perception.
6. Explain how managers can shape employee behavior.
7. Contrast formal and informal groups.
8. Explain why people join groups.
9. State how roles and norms influence employees’ behavior.
10. Describe how group size affects group behavior.
Opening Vignette
SUMMARY
What do Brenda Barnes, Geraldine Laybourne, Ellen Marram, MaryLou Quinlan, and Amy
Fudge have in common besides the fact that they’re all women? They all just quit their top executive
positions at Pepsi Cola, Disney/ABC, Tropicana Beverage Company, N.W. Ayer Advertising Agency,
and Kraft Foods Desserts and Post Division, respectively. The case of Amy Fudge exemplifies the
reasons why.
Amy Fudge graduated from Simmons College, earned an MBA from Harvard, and embarked on a
very successful career as a marketing professional with General Foods. As a brand manager, she was
credited for rekindling the excitement behind Kool-Aid, Log Cabin Syrup, and Stove Top Stuffing. She
was soon promoted to head of the Dessert and Post division of the company---a division that accounted
for more than 15 percent of the entire company’s revenues.
After a year, Fudge stunned everybody by announcing she was leaving, so she could spend time
on herself. She wanted to go cycling, enjoy her house, sit on the front deck and read a book, meditate,
and have a “normal” life of eating a home-cooked dinner with her husband. After two years of doing just
that, Fudge was lured back to the corporate world as the leader of the advertising and communication
company, Young and Rubicam. Young and Rubicam was in serious trouble at the time Fudge joined it
(having lost nearly two-thirds of its revenues).
Fudge says she is excited about the challenge of turning around Y&R. She feels she can make a
difference and build a company that works with independent businesses in an effort to identify problems
and implement workable solutions. Her drive has returned, and she’s anxious to use her talents again in a
corporate setting.
Chapter 8 - Foundations of Individual and Group Behavior
Teaching tips
1. From the opening vignette, have students create a profile of Amy Fudge. Using locus of control,
Machiavellianism, self-esteem, and risk propensity, rate Amy Fudge on each dimension, and discuss
how it affects her management style.
2. Which personality trait do you think lead Amy to take the sabbatical?
3. Do you think Amy Fudge will have trouble committing to her new role after her time leading a
“normal” life? Discuss.
4. Do you think Amy Fudge’s sabbatical will influence the way in which she leads Y&R? How so?
I. TOWARD EXPLAINING AND PREDICTING BEHAVIOR
A. Organizational Behavior (PPT 8-4)
1. OB is concerned specifically with the actions of people at work.
2. Addresses some issues that are not obvious, such as informal elements. (See Exhibit 8-1.)
(PPT 8-5)
B. What Is the Focus of Organizational Behavior?
1. First, OB looks at individual behavior.
a) Psychologists are primary contributors.
b) Includes personality, perception, learning, and motivation.
2. Second, OB is concerned with group behavior.
a) Sociologists and social psychologists are primary contributors.
b) Includes norms, roles, team building, and conflict.
C. What Are the Goals of Organizational Behavior? (PPT 8-6)
1. To explain and predict behavior.
2. The manager needs to explain why employees engage in some behaviors rather than others
and to predict how employees will respond to various actions by the manager.
3. The emphasis will be on employee productivity, absenteeism, and turnover.
4. Organizational citizenship—a fourth type of behavior becoming important in determining
employee performance.
a) Not directly part of an employee’s formal job description.
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b) Reflects behaviors that promote the effective functioning of the organization.
c) Examples, helping others on one’s work team, volunteering for extra job activities,
avoiding unnecessary conflicts, making constructive statements about one’s work group
and the overall organization.
5. Job satisfaction—not a behavior—it’s an attitude.
a) An employee’s attitude may be linked to his or her productivity, absenteeism, and
turnover.
6. Attitudes are valuative statements—favorable or unfavorable—concerning objects, people, or
events. (PPT 8-7)
a) They reflect how an individual feels about something.
7. An attitude is made up of three components: cognition, affect, and behavior.
8. The cognitive component consists of a person’s beliefs, opinions, knowledge, and
information held by a person.
9. The affective component of an attitude is the emotional, or feeling, segment of an attitude.
a) Cognition and affect can lead to behavioral outcomes.
10. The behavioral component of an attitude refers to an intention to behave in a certain way.
11. The three most important job-related attitudes are job satisfaction, job involvement, and
organizational commitment. (PPT 8-8)
a) Job satisfaction is an employee’s general attitude toward his or her job.
b) Job involvement is the degree to which an employee identifies with his or her job,
actively participates in it, and considers job performance important to his or her selfworth.
c) Organizational commitment represents an employee’s orientation toward the organization
in terms of his or her loyalty to, identification with, and involvement in the organization.
D. Do an Individual’s Attitude and Behavior Need to Be Consistent? (PPT 8-9)
1. People change what they say so that it doesn’t contradict what they do.
2. People seek consistency among their attitudes and between their attitudes and their behavior.
3. Individuals try to reconcile differing attitudes and align their attitudes and behavior so that
they appear rational and consistent.
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Dilemma in Management
Must Attitudes and Behaviors Align?
SUMMARY
You work for a large international computer manufacturer as a recruiter hiring individuals for
entry-level positions. Hiring recent college graduates for these positions works well. Your job requires
you to travel extensively and your performance evaluation rests on how many people you have hired.
You have noticed a surge in open positions because after about three years, entry-level employees
quit as there is no upward mobility for them and they burn out. Benefits for entry-level employees aren’t
competitive. Almost everyone who has quit has gone on to a bigger, better job. Your company invests
heavily in training. Almost everyone in these positions receives over forty hours of specialized training
each year and has jobs that offer excellent learning experiences. Top management believes it is better to
hire new people than to pay higher salaries that seniority and experience demand. You don’t totally agree
but you recognize that the company is giving many of these individuals a great start in their career.
Questions
1. Should you disclose to college recruits during interviews that the jobs they are being considered for
are “dead-end” jobs in the organization? Why or why not?
2. Would your response change if you were evaluated not only on how many people you hired but also
on how long they stayed with the organization? Defend your position.
Teaching notes
1. As you discuss these questions with students, help them see both the ethical issues and the reality.
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People choose jobs for different reasons; many may like this situation.

How many new graduates really expect to stay with the company they start their careers with?
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If you reveal this information, you could get fired, not so much because your numbers go down, as
that management may see this as “bad mouthing” the company.

If a prospective employee is not told the truth, if there is no realistic job preview, then chances
increase for a bad fit and lower effectiveness and satisfaction anyway.
2. Students’ reasoning is actually more important than their position on the issues. They need to learn
how to think through these situations and come to a decision they can live with, not apply a template
to a problem to get the right answer.
3. Also, the way the problem is revealed is important.
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If the recruiter describes the company’s culture positively and as a stepping stone in one’s career, it
might even help recruiting—i.e., countering the poor benefits.
E. What Is Cognitive Dissonance Theory? (PPT 8-8)
1. Leon Festinger, in the late 1950s, proposed the theory of cognitive dissonance.
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2. This theory sought to explain the relationship between attitudes and behavior.
a) Dissonance in this case means inconsistency.
b) Cognitive dissonance refers to any incompatibility that an individual might perceive
between two or more of his or her attitudes or between his or her behavior and attitudes.
3. Festinger argued that any form of inconsistency is uncomfortable and that individuals will
attempt to reduce the dissonance and the discomfort.
4. Festinger proposed that the desire to reduce dissonance is determined by
a) the importance of the elements creating the dissonance.
b) the degree of influence the individual believes he or she has over the elements.
c) the rewards that may be involved.
5. Examples
a) The factors creating the dissonance are relatively unimportant and the resulting pressure
to correct the imbalance would be low.
1) Case of corporate manager—Julia Bradley.
b) The degree of influence that individuals believe they have over the elements also will
have an impact on how they will react to the dissonance.
1) If they perceive the dissonance to be uncontrollable, they are less likely to feel a need
for an attitude change.
2) If the dissonance-producing behaviors were required by the boss’s directive, the
pressure to reduce dissonance would be less than if the behavior were performed
voluntarily.
6. These moderating factors suggest that just because individuals experience dissonance, they
will not necessarily move directly toward reduction of the dissonance.
7. Rewards also influence the degree to which individuals are motivated to reduce dissonance.
a) High dissonance, when accompanied by high rewards, tends to reduce the tension
inherent in the dissonance.
8. Just because individuals experience dissonance, they will not necessarily move toward
consistency—toward reduction of the dissonance.
a) The individual will not be under great tension to reduce the dissonance if:
1)
The issues underlying the dissonance are of minimal importance.
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2)
An individual perceives that the dissonance is externally imposed and is
substantially uncontrollable.
3)
Rewards are significant enough to offset the dissonance.
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F. How Can an Understanding of Attitudes Help Managers Be More Effective?
1. There is relatively strong evidence that committed and satisfied employees have low rates of
turnover and absenteeism.
2. Managers should do those things that generate positive job attitudes and manage dissonance.
(PPT 8-10)
a) The pressure to reduce the dissonance is lessened when the employee perceives that the
dissonance is externally imposed and uncontrollable.
b) The pressure is also lessened if rewards are significant enough to offset the dissonance.
3. But, are happy workers more productive?
4. Past research studies suggested that satisfied employees were highly productive.
a) In the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, management did things that would create a “caring”
environment.
5. But their effect on productivity was questioned.
6. Most researchers perceived that managers would get better results by directing their attention
primarily to what would help employees become more productive.
a) Successful job performance should then lead to feelings of accomplishment, increased
verbal recognition, increased pay and promotions opportunities, and other rewards—all
desirable outcomes—which then lead to satisfaction with the job.
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II.
PERSONALITY
A. Can Personality Predict Behavior? (PP T 8-11)
1. We are categorizing people in terms of personality traits when we describe them as quiet,
passive, loud, aggressive, ambitious, extroverted, loyal, tense, or sociable.
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2. An individual’s personality is the combination of the psychological traits that characterize a
person.
3. Researchers attempted to focus specifically on which traits identify sources of one’s
personality.
4. Two widely recognized efforts.
a) The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.
b) The Big Five model of personality.
5. What is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator?
(PPT 8-12, 8-13)
a) One of the more widely used methods of identifying personalities.
b) Uses four dimensions of personality to identify 16 different personality types based on
the responses to an approximately 100-item questionnaire. (See Exhibit 8-2.) (PPT 8-14)
1)
More than 2 million individuals each year in the United States alone take the MBTI.
c) The sixteen personality types are based on the four dimensions noted in Exhibit 8-2.
d) Extroversion versus introversion (EI).
1) The EI dimension measures an individual’s orientation toward the inner world of
ideas (I) or the external world of the environment (E).
e) Sensing versus intuitive (SN).
1) The sensing-intuitive dimension indicates an individual’s reliance on information
gathered from the external world (S) or from the world of ideas (N).
f) Thinking versus feeling (TF).
1) Thinking-feeling reflects one’s preference for evaluating information in an analytical
manner (T) or on the basis of values and beliefs (F).
g) Judging versus perceiving (JP).
1) Judging-perceiving index reflects an attitude toward the external world that is either
task completion oriented (J) or information seeking (P).
h) Proponents of the instrument believe that personality types influence the way people
interact and solve problems.
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6. What is the Big Five model of personality? (PPT 8-15, 8-16)
a) The Big Five factors are:
1) Extroversion—the degree to which someone is sociable, talkative, and assertive.
2) Agreeableness—the degree to which someone is good-natured, cooperative, and
trusting.
3) Conscientiousness—the degree to which someone is responsible, dependable,
persistent, and achievement oriented.
4) Emotional stability—the degree to which someone is calm, enthusiastic, and secure
(positive), or tense, nervous, depressed, and insecure (negative).
5) Openness to experience—the degree to which someone is imaginative, artistically
sensitive, and intellectual.
b) Research has shown important relationships between these dimensions and job
performance.
1) One study reviewed five categories of occupations: professionals, managers, sales,
and semiskilled and skilled employees.
2) Job performance was defined in terms of employee performance ratings, training
competency, and personnel data such as salary level.
3) The results of the study showed that conscientiousness predicted job performance for
all five occupational groups.
4) Predictions for the other personality dimensions depended on the situation and the
occupational group.
(a) Extroversion predicted performance in managerial and sales positions.
(b) Openness to experience was found to be important in predicting training
competency.
(c) Emotional security was not positively related to job performance.
7. What is emotional intelligence? (PPT 8-17)
a) According to underlying research on emotional intelligence, people who understand their
own emotions and are good at reading others’ emotions may be more effective in their
jobs.
b) Emotional intelligence (EI) refers to an assortment of noncognitive skills, capabilities,
and competencies that influence a person’s ability to cope with environmental demands
and pressures.
c) EI is composed of five dimensions.
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1) Self-awareness—being aware of what you’re feeling;
2) Self-management—the ability to manage your own emotions and impulses;
3) Self-motivation—the ability to persist in the face of setbacks and failures;
4) Empathy—the ability to sense how others are feeling;
5) Social skills—the ability to handle the emotions of others.
d) Several studies suggest EI may play an important role in job performance.
1) One study looked at the characteristics of Bell Lab engineers rated as stars by their
peers.
(a) Scientists concluded it was EI, not academic IQ, that characterized high
performers.
2) A second study of Air Force recruiters generated similar findings—top performing
recruiters exhibited high levels of EI.
3) Examples, Air Force, American Express, Cooperative Printing in Minneapolis.
e) 56 percent of human resources managers felt that EI was very important or moderately
important to career advancement.
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B. Can Personality Traits Predict Practical Work-Related Behaviors?
1. Five personality traits have proven most powerful in explaining individual behavior in
organizations.
2. Locus of control. (PPT 8-18)
a) Who has control over an individual’s behavior?
b) An internal locus of control—people believe that they control their fate.
1) Internals explain a performance evaluation in terms of their own action.
c) An external locus of control—people believe that their lives are controlled by outside
forces.
1) Externals blame a poor performance evaluation on events outside their control (e.g.,
their boss’s prejudice, their coworkers, etc.).
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3. Machiavellianism (“Mach”). (PPT 8-18)
a) Named after Niccolo Machiavelli who provided instruction in the 16th century on how to
gain and manipulate power.
b) A high “Mach” is pragmatic, maintains emotional distance, believes that ends can justify
means, and is found to have beliefs that are less ethical.
c) “If it works, use it” is consistent with a high Mach perspective.
d) High Machs are productive in jobs that require bargaining skills or that have substantial
rewards for winning.
4. Self-esteem (SE). (PPT 8-19)
a) People differ in the degree to which they like or dislike themselves.
b) Research suggests that self-esteem is directly related to expectations for success.
1) High SEs believe that they possess the ability to succeed at work, take more risks
in job selection, and are more likely to choose unconventional jobs.
c) Low SEs are more susceptible to external influence than are high SEs.
1) In managerial positions, low SEs will tend to be concerned with pleasing others and
be less likely to take unpopular stands.
d) Relationship to job satisfaction—high SEs are more satisfied with their jobs.
5. Self-monitoring. (PPT 8-19)
a) An individual’s ability to adjust his or her behavior to external, situational factors.
b) Individuals high in self-monitoring can show considerable adaptability.
c) They are highly sensitive to external cues and can behave differently in different
situations.
1) High self-monitors are capable of presenting striking contradictions between their
public persona and their private selves.
d) Low self-monitors are behaviorally consistent between who they are and what they do.
e) High self-monitors pay closer attention to the behavior of others and are more capable of
conforming, which might help them be more successful in managerial positions that
require multiple, even contradicting, roles.
6. Propensity for risk taking. (PPT 8-19)
a) This preference to assume or avoid risk impacts how long it takes individuals to make a
decision and how much information they require.
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b) In one classic study, high-risk-taking managers made more rapid decisions and used less
information in making their choices than did the low-risk-taking managers.
1) Decision accuracy was the same for both groups.
c) It is generally correct to conclude that managers in organizations are risk-aversive.
d) It makes sense to recognize that there are individual differences on propensity for being
risk-aversive and to consider aligning risk-taking propensity with specific job demands.
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C. How Do We Match Personalities and Jobs? (PPT 8-20)
1. Efforts have been made to match the proper personalities with the proper jobs.
2. The best-documented personality-job fit theory by psychologist John Holland states that an
employee’s satisfaction with the job, as well as the propensity to leave that job, depends on
the degree to which the individual’s personality matches his or her occupational environment.
3. Holland identified six basic personality types. (See Exhibit 8-3.) (PPT 8-21)
a) Holland’s research supports the hexagonal diagram in Exhibit 8-4. (PPT 8-22)
b) The closer two fields or orientations are in the hexagon, the more compatible they are.
4. The theory argues that satisfaction is highest and turnover lowest when personality and
occupation match.
5. Three key points of Holland’s model. (PPT 8-23)
a) There do appear to be intrinsic differences in personality among individuals;
b) There are different types of jobs; and,
c) People in job environments congruent with their personality types should be more
satisfied and less likely to resign voluntarily than should people in incongruent jobs.
D. How Can an Understanding of Personality Help Managers Be More Effective?
1. The major value probably lies in employee selection.
2. Employees are more likely to be higher performing and more satisfied if personality types are
matched with compatible jobs.
3. Also a manager can better understand employee behavior by recognizing that people
approach problem solving, decision making, and job interactions differently.
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E. Do Personality Attributes Differ Across National Cultures?
1. There certainly are no dominant personality types for a given country.
2. Yet a country’s culture should influence the dominant personality characteristics of its
population.
3. Example, locus of control.
a) North Americans believe that they can dominate their environment.
b) Those in Middle Eastern countries believe that life is essentially preordained.
F. Do Entrepreneurs Share Personality Characteristics? (PPT 8-24)
1. One of the more researched areas of entrepreneurship has been the search to determine:
a) What, if any, psychological characteristics entrepreneurs have in common.
b) What types of personality traits entrepreneurs have that might distinguish them from nonentrepreneurs.
c) What traits entrepreneurs have that might predict who will be successful.
2. Is there a classic “entrepreneurial personality”?
3. One list—high level of motivation, abundance of self-confidence, ability to be involved for
the long term, high energy level, persistent problem solver, high degree of initiative, ability to
set goals, and moderate risk taker.
4. Another list—high energy level, great persistence, resourcefulness, the desire and ability to
be self directed, and relatively high need for autonomy.
5. Proposed use of a proactive personality scale to predict an individual’s likelihood of pursuing
entrepreneurial ventures.
a) Proactive personality describes those individuals who are more prone to take actions to
influence their environment.
b) Proactive personality scale items found to be good indicators of a person’s likelihood of
becoming an entrepreneur—education and having an entrepreneurial parent.
6. Self-Assessment #1, What’s My Basic Personality?
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III. PERCEPTION
A. Defined (PPT 8-25)
1. Perception is a process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions
in order to give meaning to their environment.
2. Research demonstrates that individuals may look at the same thing yet perceive it differently.
a) None of us actually sees reality.
b) We interpret what we see and call it reality.
c) We act according to our perceptions.
B. What Influences Perception? (PPT 8-26)
1. A number of factors operate to shape and sometimes distort perception.
2. They reside in the perceiver, in the object or target being perceived, or in the context of the
situation in which the perception is made.
3. The individual’s personal characteristics will heavily influence the interpretation.
a) His or her attitudes, personality, motives, interests, past experiences, and expectations.
4. The characteristics of the target being observed can also affect what is perceived.
a) Loud people are more likely than quiet people to be noticed in a group.
b) So, too, are extremely attractive or unattractive individuals.
5. Targets are not looked at in isolation; background also influences perception as does our
tendency to group close things and similar things together. (See Exhibit 8-5.) (PPT 8-27)
6. The context in which we see objects or events is also important.
a) Time of perception as well as location, lighting, temperature, and other situational factors
can influence attention.
C. How Do Managers Judge Employees?
1. Much of the research on perception is directed at inanimate objects.
2. Our perceptions of people differ from our perceptions of inanimate objects because we make
inferences about the actions of people that we don’t make about inanimate objects.
3. When we observe people, we attempt to develop explanations of why they behave in certain
ways.
4. These assumptions have led researchers to develop attribution theory.
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5. What is attribution theory? (PPT 8-28)
a) Proposed to develop explanations of how we judge people differently depending on what
meaning we attribute to a given behavior.
b) Suggests that when we observe an individual’s behavior, we attempt to determine
whether it was internally or externally caused.
1) Internally caused behaviors are under individual control.
2) Externally caused behavior results from outside causes.
6. That determination of whether an individual’s behavior is internally or externally caused
depends on three factors: distinctiveness, consensus, and consistency. (PPT 8-29)
a) Distinctiveness—whether an individual displays a behavior in many situations or just
one.
1) What we want to know is whether this behavior is unusual.
2) If it is unusual, the observer likely gives the behavior an external attribution.
3) If this action is not unique, it will probably be judged as internal.
b) Everyone faced with a similar situation responds in the same way, we say the behavior
shows consensus.
1) If consensus is high, an external attribution is often assumed.
2) If not, the reason would be internal.
c) A manager looks for consistency in an employee’s actions.
1) Does the individual engage in the behaviors regularly and consistently?
2) The more consistent the behavior, the more inclination to attribute it to internal
causes.
7. Exhibit 8-6 summarizes the key elements in attribution theory. (PPT 8-30)
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8. Can attributions be distorted?
a) Errors or biases distort attributions.
b) When we make judgments about the behavior of other people, we have a tendency to
underestimate the influence of external factors and overestimate the influence of internal
or personal factors. (PPT 8-31)
1) This is the fundamental attribution error.
2) Can explain why a sales manager may be prone to attribute the poor performance of
the sales agents to laziness rather than to the innovative product line introduced by a
competitor.
c) There is also a tendency for individuals to attribute their own successes to internal factors
such as ability or effort, while putting the blame for failure on external factors such as
luck.
1) This is called the self-serving bias.
2) Suggests that feedback provided to employees in performance reviews will be
predictably distorted by them, whether it is positive or negative.
D. What Shortcuts Do Managers Use in Judging Others?
1. Managers use a number of shortcuts to judge others.
2. Individuals develop techniques for making the perceiving and interpreting of what others do
more manageable.
3. These techniques are frequently valuable—allow us to make accurate perceptions rapidly and
provide valid data for making predictions.
4. These techniques are not foolproof—they can and do get us into trouble.
a) To understand the distortions, see Exhibit 8-7. (PPT 8-32)
5. Individuals cannot assimilate all they observe, so they are selective.
6. Assumed similarity. It is easy to judge others if we assume that they are similar to us.
a) But most of the time we’re wrong.
7. Stereotyping—we judge someone on the basis of our perception of a group to which he or she
belongs.
a) When stereotypes have no foundation, they distort judgments.
8. The halo effect—forming a general impression about an individual on the basis of a single
characteristic such as intelligence, sociability, or appearance.
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9. Self-fulfilling prophecy or the Pygmalion effect—when individuals behave in ways that are
consistent with the manager’s expectations.
E. How Can an Understanding of Perceptions Help Managers Be More Effective?
1. Managers need to recognize that their employees react to perceptions, not to reality.
a) Whether a manager’s appraisal of an employee is actually objective and unbiased or
whether the organization’s wage levels are actually among the highest in the industry is
less relevant than what employees perceive.
b) Employees behave as if the conditions they perceive actually exist.
2. Managers should pay close attention to how employees perceive both their jobs and
management practices.
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IV. LEARNING
A. Defined (PPT 8-33)
1. The layperson’s view—“it’s what we did when we went to school.”
2. A psychologist’s definition of learning is any relatively permanent change in behavior that
occurs as a result of experience.
3. How do we learn? How do we explain the processes by which we acquire patterns of
behavior?
4. Two popular theories—operant conditioning and social learning theory.
B. What Is Operant Conditioning? PTT 8-33)
1. Behavior is a function of its consequences.
2. People behave to get something they want or to avoid something they don’t want.
a) Operant behavior is voluntary or learned rather than reflexive or unlearned behavior.
b) Reinforcement strengthens a behavior and increases the likelihood that it will be
repeated.
3. Building on earlier work, B. F. Skinner expanded our knowledge of operant conditioning.
a) Behavior is assumed to be determined from without (learned).
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b) Causing pleasing consequences to follow a specific form of behavior will increase the
frequency of that behavior.
c) Rewards are most effective if they immediately follow the desired response.
d) Behavior that is not rewarded, or is punished, is less likely to be repeated.
4. Any situation in which it is either explicitly stated or implicitly suggested that reinforcements
are contingent on some action on your part involves operant learning.
5. If a behavior fails to be positively reinforced, the probability that the behavior will be
repeated declines.
C. What Is Social Learning Theory? (PPT 8-34)
1. Learning through both observation and direct experience is social learning theory.
2. Social learning is an extension of operant conditioning. It assumes that behavior is a function
of consequences, but it also acknowledges the existence of observational learning and the
importance of perception in learning.
3. People respond to how they perceive and define consequences, not to the objective
consequences themselves.
4. The influence of models is central to the social learning viewpoint.
5. Four processes determine the influence that a model will have on an individual. (PPT 8-34)
a) Attentional processes—people learn when they recognize and pay attention to a model’s
critical features.
b) Retention processes—a model’s influence depends on how well the individual
remembers the model’s action.
c) Motor reproduction processes—the watching must be converted to doing.
d) Reinforcement processes—individuals will be motivated to exhibit the modeled behavior
if positive incentives or rewards are provided.
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D. How Can Managers Shape Behavior? (PPT 8-35)
1. Managers should be concerned with how they can teach employees to behave in ways that
most benefit the organization.
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2. Managers often attempt to mold individuals by guiding their learning in graduated steps.
a) This is shaping behavior. (See Developing Your Skill at Shaping Behavior.)
3. We shape behavior by systematically reinforcing each successive step that moves the
individual closer to the desired response.
4. There are four ways in which to shape behavior.
a) Positive reinforcement—when a response is followed with something pleasant.
b) Negative reinforcement—rewarding a response with the termination or withdrawal of
something pleasant.
c) Punishment—penalizes undesirable behavior.
d) Extinction—eliminating any reinforcement that is maintaining a behavior.
5. Both positive and negative reinforcement result in learning; they strengthen a desired
response and increase the probability of repetition.
6. Both punishment and extinction also result in learning; however, they weaken behavior and
tend to decrease its subsequent frequency.
E. How Can an Understanding of Learning Help Managers Be More Effective?
1. Employees must continually learn on the job.
a) Managers need to decide whether they are going to let employee learning occur randomly
or whether they are going to manage learning through rewards they allocate and
examples they set.
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V. FOUNDATIONS OF GROUP BEHAVIOR (PPT 8-36, 8-37)
A. Introduction
1. The behavior of individuals in groups is not the same as the sum total of all the individuals’
behavior.
2. Individuals act differently in groups than they do when they are alone.
B. What Is a Group?
1. A group is two or more interacting and interdependent individuals who come together to
achieve particular objectives.
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2. Groups can be either formal or informal.
a) Formal groups are work groups established by the organization and have designated work
assignments and established tasks.
1) Behaviors are stipulated by and directed toward organizational goals.
b) Informal groups are of a social nature and are natural formations.
1) Tend to form around friendships and common interests.
3. Why do people join groups?
4. There is no single reason why individuals join groups.
5. Most people join a group out of needs for security, status, self-esteem, affiliation, power, or
goal achievement. (See Exhibit 8-8.) (PPT 8-38)
a) Security—gaining strength in numbers; reducing the insecurity of standing alone.
b) Status—achieving some level of prestige that comes from belonging to a particular
group.
c) Self-esteem—enhancing one’s feeling of self-worth—especially membership in a highly
valued group.
d) Affiliation—satisfying one’s social needs through social interaction.
e) Power—achieving something through a group action not possible individually; protecting
group members from unreasonable demands of others.
f) Goal achievement—providing an opportunity to accomplish a particular task when it
takes more than one person’s talents, knowledge, or power to complete the job.
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C. What Are the Basic Concepts of Group Behavior?
1. What are roles? (PPT 8-36)
a) The concept of roles applies to all employees in organizations and to their lives outside
the organization as well.
b) A role refers to a set of expected behavior patterns attributed to someone who occupies a
given position in a social unit.
c) Individuals play multiple roles.
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d) Employees attempt to determine what behaviors are expected of them.
e) An individual who is confronted by divergent role expectations experiences role conflict.
f) Employees in organizations often face such role conflicts.
2.
How do norms and conformity affect group behavior? (PPT 8-37)
a) All groups have established norms—acceptable standards shared by the group’s
members.
1) Norms dictate output levels, absenteeism rates, promptness or tardiness, the amount of
socializing allowed on the job, etc.
b) A group will have its own unique set of norms; there are common classes of norms.
1) These focus on effort and performance, dress, and loyalty.
2) The most widespread norms are related to levels of effort and performance.
c) Work groups typically provide their members with very explicit cues on how hard to
work, what level of output to have, when to look busy, when it’s acceptable to goof off,
etc.
d) These norms are so powerful that performance predictions that are based solely on an
employee’s ability and level of personal motivation often prove to be wrong.
e) Some organizations have formal dress codes—even describing what is considered
acceptable for corporate casual dress.
1) College seniors, interviewing for their first postgraduate job, pick up this norm
quickly.
f) Loyalty norms are widespread in organizations.
1) Loyalty norms often explain why ambitious aspirants to top management positions
willingly take work home at night, come in on weekends, and accept transfers to
cities in which they would otherwise prefer not to live.
g) Individuals are susceptible to conformity pressures.
h) The impact of group pressures for conformity on an individual member’s judgment and
attitudes was demonstrated in the classic studies by Solomon Asch. (See Details on a
Management Classic.) (PPT 8-39)
1) Asch’s results suggest that group norms press us toward conformity.
2) We desire to be one of the group and to avoid being visibly different.
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Teaching Notes _______________________________________________________________________
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A Management Classic
Solomon Asch and Group Conformity
SUMMARY
One’s desire to be accepted as part of a group makes him or her susceptible to conforming to the
group’s norms. Asch’s study involved groups of seven or eight people who sat in a classroom and were
asked to compare two cards held by an investigator. As shown in Exhibit 8-9, the difference in line length
was quite obvious; under ordinary conditions, subjects made less than 1 percent errors. When all the
members in the group give incorrect answers, will the pressures to conform cause the unsuspecting
subject (USS) to alter his or her answers to align with those of the others?
The experiment began with two sets of matching exercises. All the subjects gave the right
answers. On the third set, however, the first subject gave an obviously wrong answer and so did the
others, until it got to the unsuspecting subject. Asch’s subjects conformed in about 35 percent of
experiments and trials.
The tendency, as Asch showed, is for individual members to go along with the “pack.” To
diminish the negative aspects of conformity, managers should create a climate of openness in which
employees are free to discuss problems without fear of retaliation.
Teaching notes
1. You have two alternatives here. Reproduce the experiment prior to students reading this material or
discussing the results. If you choose to reproduce the experiment, the text offers sufficient detail.
2. In discussing this experiment, ask students to brainstorm examples they know of where other students
have clearly conformed to group norms and expectations.
3. List these examples on the board.
4. Discuss with students what they think the specific motivations are for the students’ conformity. What
did the students receive in return for the conformity?
5. Ask what influence group norms has on causing students to choose to smoke or not, drink to excess
or not.
6. How would they use group behavior to develop a successful campus campaign to combat either?
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3. What is status, and why is it important? (PPT 8-37)
a) Status is a prestige grading, position, or rank within a group.
b) Status hierarchies have existed for all history in many settings and are an important
factor in understanding behavior.
1) Status is a significant motivator.
c) Status may be informally conferred by anything that others in the group admire—
education, age, skill, experience, etc.
d) Members of groups usually agree closely about who is high, low, and in the middle in
status.
e) It is important for employees to believe that the organization’s formal status system is
congruent.
1) There should be equity between the perceived ranking of an individual and the status
symbols given by the organization.
4.
Does group size affect group behavior?
a) The effect of size on the group’s behavior depends on what criteria you are looking at.
b)
Small groups complete tasks faster than larger ones.
c) If engaged in problem solving, large groups consistently get better marks than smaller
ones.
1) Large groups—with a dozen or more members—are good for gaining diverse input;
more effective at finding facts.
2) Groups of approximately five to seven members tend to act more effectively;
better at doing something productive with those facts.
d) As groups get incrementally larger, the contribution of individual members often lessens.
1) Although the total productivity of a group of four is generally greater than that of a
group of three, the individual productivity of each group member declines as the
group expands.
2) Thus, a group of four will tend to produce at a level less than four times the average
individual performance.
e) The best explanation is that dispersion of responsibility encourages individuals to slack
off; this behavior is referred to as social loafing. (PPT 8-40)
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f) When the results of the group cannot be attributed to any single person, the relationship
between an individual’s input and the group’s output is clouded.
1)
Individuals may be tempted to become “free riders” and coast on the group’s efforts.
2)
There will be a reduction in efficiency when individuals think that their
contributions cannot be measured.
g) When managers use work teams, they should also provide means by which individual
efforts can be identified.
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5.
Are cohesive groups more effective? (PPT 8-40, 8-41)
a) Group cohesiveness—the degree to which members are attracted to one another and share
the group’s goals.
b) The more the members are attracted to one another and the more the group’s goals align
with their individual goals, the greater the group’s cohesiveness.
c) Research has generally shown that highly cohesive groups are more effective than are
those with less cohesiveness, but the relationship is complex.
d) A key moderating variable is the degree to which the group’s attitude aligns with its
formal goals or those of the larger organization.
1) The more cohesive a group is, the more its members will follow its goals.
2) If these goals are favorable, a cohesive group is more productive than a less cohesive
group.
3) If cohesiveness is high and attitudes are unfavorable, productivity decreases.
4) If cohesiveness is low and goals are supported, productivity increases but not as
much as when both cohesiveness and support are high.
5) When cohesiveness is low and goals are not supported, cohesiveness has no
significant effect upon productivity.
e) See Exhibit 8-10. (PPT 8-41)
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Review, Comprehension, Application
Chapter Summary
1. The field of organizational behavior is concerned with the actions of people and seeks to explain and
predict behavior.
2. Attitudes are made up of three components. The cognitive component involves the beliefs, opinions,
knowledge, or information held by the person. The affective component is the emotional, or feeling,
segment of the individual, and the behavioral component of an attitude is one’s intention to behave in
a certain manner toward someone or something.
3. Cognitive dissonance refers to the relationship of attitudes and behavior. Cognitive dissonance is any
incompatibility that an individual might perceive between two or more attitudes or between behavior
and attitudes.
4. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a personality assessment test that asks individuals how
they usually act or feel in different situations. The MBTI can help managers understand and predict
employees’ behaviors.
5. Perception is the process of organizing and interpreting sensory impressions in order to give meaning
to the environment. Several factors operate to shape and sometimes distort perceptions.
6. Managers can shape or mold employee behavior by systematically reinforcing each successive step
that moves the employee closer to the desired response.
7. Formal groups are defined by the organization’s structure, with designated work assignments
establishing tasks. Informal groups are social alliances that are neither structured nor organizationally
determined.
8. People join groups because of their needs for security; status; self-esteem; affiliation; power; and goal
achievement.
9. A role refers to a set of behavior patterns expected of someone occupying a given position in a social
unit. Norms are standards shared by group members. They informally convey to employees which
behaviors are acceptable and which are unacceptable.
10. Smaller groups are generally faster at completing tasks than larger ones. However, larger groups are
frequently better for fact-finding and are generally better for engaging in problem solving.
Companion Website
We invite you to visit the Robbins/DeCenzo Companion Website at www.prenhall.com/robbins for the
chapter quiz and student PowerPoints.
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OneKey Online Courses
We invite you to visit www.prenhall.com/onekey for the part-ending ethics scenarios, diversity exercises,
and learning modules.
 Enhancing your Skill in Ethical Decision Making
New to this edition is an online interactive feature designed to give students experience in making
management decisions about hypothetical yet realistic ethical issues. Introductory paragraphs at the ends
of Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 provide background about the company (Boeing) and set up the situation for each
set of exercises. After they have studied the chapters in each part, have students log onto
www.prenhall.com/onekey and work through the two multiple choice questions and two short-essay
questions. You may want to hold classroom debates, assign students to conduct role-plays, or have
students work in teams to explore the decision alternatives involved in some of these ethical challenges.

Diversity Perspectives: Communication and Interpersonal Skills, by Carol Harvey and June
Allard
1. Why is it realistic for a gay employee like Roy to think that straight employees may have
negative perceptions and attitudes about him, if he they know his sexual orientation?
Many individuals have experienced real and/or perceived discrimination due to others’ attributions
related to sexual orientation. People tell offensive jokes and may act differently around GLBT employees.
It is realistic for Roy to think about the ramifications of joining this group because there is currently no
federal law in the United States that protects GLBT employees from job discrimination. Louisiana, where
he is employed, currently is not one of the fourteen states where it is illegal to fire someone who is gay.
2. How do diversity based affinity groups, such as the one that Roy is considering joining, benefit an
organization?
Because such groups can enhance an individual’s self-esteem and provide an informal group network
that may be lacking in the formal work group these affinity groups can increase employee morale,
enhance productivity and decrease job turnover among diverse employees.
Reading for Comprehension
1. How is an organization like an iceberg? Use the iceberg metaphor to describe the field of
organizational behavior.
Answer – OB is concerned with the subject of behavior specifically with the actions of people at
work. It addresses some issues that are not obvious. See Exhibit 8-1. As a consequence while the
symptoms are visible, the top of the iceberg, the real causes, the substance behind the behavior is not
always readily apparent, the portion of the iceberg under water.
2. What role does role consistency play in one’s attitude?
Answer – The concept of roles applies to all employees in organizations and to their life outside the
organization as well. A role refers to a set of expected behavior patterns attributed to someone who
occupies a given position in a social unit. Individuals play multiple roles. Employees attempt to
determine what behaviors are expected of them. An individual who is confronted by divergent role
expectations experiences role conflict. The more consistent one’s role the more consistent one’s
attitude will be because any form of inconsistency is uncomfortable and that individual will attempt to
reduce the dissonance and the discomfort.
3. Clarify how individuals reconcile inconsistencies between attitudes and behaviors.
Answer – People seek consistency among their attitudes and between their attitudes and their
behavior. Individuals try to reconcile differing attitudes and align their attitudes and behavior so that
they appear rational and consistent.
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4. Describe what is meant by the term emotional intelligence. Provide an example of how it’s used in
contemporary organizations.
Answer – People who understand their own emotions and are good at reading others’ emotions are
said to have emotional intelligence and may be more effective in their jobs.
Emotional intelligence refers to an assortment of non-cognitive skills, capabilities, and competencies
that influence a person’s ability to cope with environmental demands and pressures. Five dimensions
of emotional intelligence include self awareness, self management, self motivation, empathy and
social skills.
One study looked at the characteristics of the Bell Lab engineers who were rated as stars by their
peers. The scientists concluded that these stars were better at relating to others. That is, it was EI, not
academic IQ that characterized high performers.
5. Name five different shortcuts used in judging others. What effect does each have on perception?
Answer – Managers use a number of shortcuts to judge others. Individuals develop techniques for
making the perceiving and interpreting what others do more manageable. See Exhibit 8-7.
Individuals cannot assimilate all they observe, so they engage in selectivity. Assumed similarity. It is
easy to judge others if we assume that they are similar to us. Stereotyping. The halo effect—forming a
general impression about an individual on the basis of a single characteristic. Self-fulfilling prophecy
or the Pygmalion effect—when individuals behave in ways that are consistent with the manager’s
expectations.
6. What is the most effective size of a group?
Answer – The effect on the group’s behavior depends on what criteria you are looking at. Small
groups are faster at completing tasks than are larger ones. If engaged in problem solving, large groups
consistently get better marks than smaller ones. Large groups, with a dozen or more members, are
good for gaining diverse input. Groups of approximately five to seven members tend to be more
effective for taking action. On the other hand, smaller groups are better at doing something productive
with those facts. As groups get incrementally larger, the contribution of individual members often
lessens.
Linking Concepts to Practice
1. What behavioral predictions might you make if you knew that an employee had (1) an external locus
of control? (2) a low Mach score? (3) low self-esteem? (4) high self-monitoring tendencies?
Answer – They would perceive their career is in the manager’s control, they wouldn’t be particularly
assertive, and they would readily accommodate to others’ expectations.
2. How might a manager use personality traits to improve employee selection in his department?
Emotional Intelligence? Discuss.
Answer – The major value probably lies in selection. More higher-performing and more-satisfied
employees if personality types are matched with jobs. Also, a manager can better understand
employee behavior by recognizing that people approach problem solving, decision making, and job
interactions differently.
A study of Air Force recruiters showed that top performing recruiters exhibited high levels of EI.
Using this information, the Air force revamped its selection criteria. A follow-up investigation found
that future hires who had high EI scores were 2.6 times more successful than those with low scores.
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3. Describe the implications of social learning theory for managing people at work.
Answer – Because learning takes place on the job as well as before it, managers will be concerned
with how they can teach employees to behave in ways that most benefit the organization. Thus,
managers will often attempt to mold individuals by guiding their learning in graduated steps. This
process is called shaping behavior. We shape behavior by systematically reinforcing each successive
step that moves the individual closer to the desired response. If an employee who has chronically
been thirty minutes late for work comes in only twenty minutes late, we can reinforce this
improvement. Reinforcement would increase as responses more closely approximated the desired
behavior.
4. “Informal groups in an organization can be detrimental to management.” Do you agree or disagree
with that statement? Explain your position.
Answer – Informal groups are of a social nature. These groups are natural formations that appear in
the work environment in response to the need for social contact. Informal groups tend to form around
friendships and common interests.
Behaviors of informal groups are not stipulated by the organization and are not necessarily directed
toward organizational goals. If an informal group establishes unnecessary absenteeism, lateness, or
excessive socializing on the job, then that informal group would be detrimental to management.
5. Discuss the organizational implications drawn from Asch’s conformity studies.
Answer – The impact that group pressures for conformity can have on an individual member’s
judgment and attitudes was demonstrated in the now-classic studies by Solomon Asch. See details on
a Management Classic.
Asch’s results suggest that there are group norms that press us toward conformity. We desire to be
one of the group and avoid being visibly different. We can generalize this finding further to say that
when an individual’s opinion of objective data differs significantly from that of others in the group,
he/she feels extensive pressure to align his or her opinion to conform with that of the others.
Management Workshop
Team Skill-Building Exercise
The Salary Request
Objectives:
a. To illustrate how perceptions can influence decisions.
b. To illustrate the effects of shortcuts used in evaluating others.
Time: 50 minutes
Instructions:
1. Give students a scenario (below) involving an employee’s salary increase request.
2. They are to read it and make a recommendation (either favorable or unfavorable) about the raise.
3. Divide into groups of five to seven.
4. Each group should identify and record its perceptions about the employee work habits and so on in
support of its decision.
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5. Reassemble the class and hear each group’s recommendations and explanations.
DETERMINING PAY INCREASES EXERCISE
EMPLOYEE PROFILE SHEET
You have to make salary recommendations for the eight individuals you supervise. A brief
synopsis of each is given below—some information that may or may not be useful in making your
decision.
These employees have just completed their first year of working for you, and are now being
considered for an annual pay increase. While the work of each varies, each was evaluated at least
satisfactorily. Keep in mind that you may be setting precedents and that you need to keep salary costs
down. However, there are no formal company restrictions on the amount of raises you can give—other
than you have a maximum of $24,000 available in your salary budget that can be used for these pay
increases.
Indicate the amount of the raise that you would like to give each employee by writing in a dollar
amount next to his or her name. You can give any amount you desire, including recommending no
increase. But you must justify your decision.
$__________ A. J. Adams: Adams is, as far as you can tell, a mediocre performer. You have
checked your view with other managers in the organization who have had an opportunity to observe
Adams’ work. However, you happen to know Adams has one of the toughest projects and work groups
with which to deal. Many of the people Adams’ supervises have low skill levels, and the work is often
unpleasant. If you lose Adams, you are not sure whom you could find as a replacement. Adams’ current
salary is $39,500.
$__________ B. K. Berger: Berger is singe and seems to live the life of a carefree swinger. In
general, you feel that Berger’s job performance is satisfactory to below average. Others who have
worked with Berger have indicated that Berger needs some development, and needs to learn how to avoid
costly mistakes. Berger’s current salary is $36,750.
$__________ C. C. Williams: You consider Williams to be one of your best employees. However, it is
quite apparent that other managers don’t agree with you. Williams married into wealth three years ago,
and as far as you know, doesn’t need additional money. William’s current salary is $42,439.
$__________ D. L. Davies: You happen to know from your personal relationship that Davis badly
needs more money because of certain personal problems he has with a family member. As far as you are
concerned, Davies also happens to be one of the best employees you have—a perception held by many
individuals in your organization. Davies’ current salary is $35,000.
$__________ P. E. Elston:
Elston has been very successful so far. You are particularly impressed
by Ellis’ work ethic—especially given the fact that Elston’s job is one of those hard to fill positions.
Elston is highly regarded in the organization for work that has saved the company over $100,000 given a
cost cutting suggestion Elston made three weeks after starting work. Elston’s current salary is $49,650.
$__________ E. J. Fernandez: Fernandez has turned out to be a very pleasant surprise to you, has done
an excellent job, and is viewed by peers as one of the best employees on your staff. He’s dedicated, needs
little direction, and takes initiative often. Fernandez’s current salary is $42,370.
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$__________ G. K. Hollis:
Hollis, in your opinion, just is a work-in-progress. You gave Hollis the
benefit of the doubt in rating him satisfactory, but you wonder if you did the right thing. Ironically, your
peers see Hollis as a hard worker. You don’t dispute this; you see hard work, too. But what you don’t
see are the outcomes. Hollis, in your opinion simply is “spinning his wheels.” You know Hollis’s spouse
was killed several months ago in an automobile accident. As a result, Hollis is finding it extremely
difficult to handle his work and personal lives. Hollis’ current salary is $44,950.
$__________ H. R. Reynolds: You know Reynolds personally. Reynolds appears to squander money
continually. Reynolds has one of the less challenging jobs of all your employees. Given the job
responsibilities, you believe that Reynolds should be excelling; rather than just satisfactory. You’ve also
had a few negative comments from others in the organization about Reynolds’ lack of drive on some
projects. Reynolds current salary is $34,220.
Source: This concept for this exercise is based on “Motivation Through compensation,” in R. J. Lewicki,
D. D. Bowen, D. T. Hall, and F. S. Hall, Experiences in Management and Organizational Behavior (New
York, NY: John Wiley and Sons, 1988), pp. 49-51.
Understanding Yourself
Before you can develop other people, you must understand your present strengths. To assist in this
learning process, we encourage you to complete the following self-assessments from the Prentice-Hall
Self-Assessment Library 3.0:

What’s My Basic Personality? (#1) (Also available in this chapter, p. 274)

What’s My Jungian 16-Type Personality? (#2)

What’s My Emotional Intelligence Score? (#23)
After you complete these assessments, we suggest that you print out the results and store them as part of
your “portfolio of learning.”
Developing Your Skill at Shaping Behavior
About the Skill
In today’s dynamic work environments, learning is continual. But this learning shouldn’t be done in
isolation or without any guidance. Most employees need to be shown what is expected of them on the
job. As a manager, you must teach your employees the behaviors that are most critical to their, and the
organization’s success.
Steps in Practicing the Skill
1. Identify the critical behaviors that have a significant impact on an employee’s performance.
2. Establish a baseline of performance.
3. Analyze contributing factors to performance and their consequences.
4. Develop a “shaping” strategy.
5. Apply the appropriate strategy.
6. Measure the change that has occurred.
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7. Reinforce desired behaviors.
Practicing the Skill
1. Imagine that your assistant is ideal in all respects but one—he or she is hopeless at taking phone
messages for you when you are not in the office. Since you are often in training sessions and the calls
are sales leads you are anxious to follow up, you have identified taking accurate messages as a highimpact behavior for your assistant.
2. Focus on Steps 3 and 4, and devise a way to shape your assistant’s behavior. Identify some factors
that might contribute to his or her failure to take messages—these could range from a heavy workload
to a poor understanding of the task’s importance (you can rule out insubordination). Then develop a
shaping strategy by determining what you can change—the available technology, the task itself, the
structure of the job, or some other element of performance.
3. Now plan your intervention, a brief meeting with your assistant in which you explain the change you
expect. Recruit a friend to help you role play your intervention. Do you think you would succeed in a
real situation?
Teaching tips
1. Conduct this exercise in class.
2. Either as a class or in small groups have students complete Steps 1-6.

Inform students that you will ask two groups to “fishbowl” their intervention.
3. Have two groups, one immediately after the other, conduct the intervention in front of the class.
4. As a class, critique the exercise suggesting first what was done right and then what could have been
done better.
5. Use the critique to model behavioral feedback and direct students’ feedback into that form.
Developing Your Diagnostic and Analytical Skills
Dimon Goes for the Gold
What is it that drives a person to succeed? For James Dimon, President of Bank One, it appears
that it is a mix of something one is born with and something one learns through life experience.
James Dimon was born in the 1950s in New York City, and his Greek-American grandfather and
father were both stockbrokers who specialized in assisting fellow immigrants in the City. Through his
father, he met individual-investment executive Sandy Weill---who for the next 20 years would serve as
his mentor. Dimon used a class paper while at Tuft’s University to open the door for an internship with
Weill---the paper was about one of Weill’s takeover activities while at American Express. Weill was
impressed with Dimon’s potential, and when Dimon graduated in 1982 with an MBA from Harvard,
Weill hired him as his personal assistant at American Express. Dimon’s attention to detail, his ability to
cut costs, and close deals made many people around him---including his mentor—happy folks.
However, Dimon had an assertive streak that sound found offensive, and his brashness soon
started to wear on people’s nerves. When Weill became CEO of Citigroup, he did not take Dimon with
him. They parted ways, and Dimon left to become CEO of Bank One. Upon arriving at Bank One,
Dimon cut costs and streamlined processes. Within the first year, Dimon’s strong actions were having
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Part 4 - Leading
their effect---the bank’s stock increased more than 60 percent that year. In January, 2004, Bank One
announced a $58 billion merger with J.P. Morgan Chase. Merging the assets and strength of both would
result in the creation of America’s second largest bank---right behind Citigroup.
Some believe that Dimon was motivated to initiate the merge so that he could have the chance to
go head-to-head with his mentor. While Dimon denies competing with his former mentor is his sole
motivation for wanting to succeed, he does admit that “he has something to prove---if only to himself.”
Questions:
1. Based on the information in the case, describe James Dimon in terms of the Big Five model
characteristics.
Answer – Student responses will vary. Discussion should include all five characteristics found in the
model: extroversion (Dimon’s may or may not be high on this, but given that he’s in a leadership
position and surround by many people each day, he may be high on it), agreeableness (given his
brashness and abrasive style, Dimon is more likely to be argumentative and therefore low on
agreeableness), conscientiousness (clearly he’s very high on this---he’s a very hard worker), emotional
stability (this one is a bit tricky, as Dimon can be tense; however, he’s likely to be secure and is certainly
enthusiastic), and openness to experience (Dimon seems very willing to try new things and is clearly
intellectual)
2. What type of personality characteristics do you believe would best fit into Bank One’s culture?
Why?
Answer – For the new Bank One (the one currently under Dimon’s leadership), individuals high on
conscientiousness and openness to experience should fit well. In general, people similar to the leader of
an organization tend to do well (because the leader is creating the culture), so students should note that
those most like Dimon are likely to succeed at Bank One.
3. How might perception be affecting Dimon’s evaluation of the work performance of programmers at
Bank One? Discuss.
Answer – Dimon’s likely to evaluate programmers based on the things he selectively perceives--perception theory suggests that he will see things more frequently that are important to him. So, in this
case, he’s likely to evaluate those qualities that he’s keenly aware of more highly, and notice them more
frequently when programmers exhibit them (working late, being intense, etc.)
Enhancing Your Communication Skills
1. There’s been a lengthy debate between the following two arguments in management:
“Happy employees are productive employees” versus “Productive employees are happy employees.”
Which one of the two arguments do you support? Explain and defend your position. Use examples to
support your viewpoint.
2. Using the Self-Assessment Library, take the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (Self-Assessment #2).
Identify and describe your profile. What are the implications of this profile for your career choices?
3. Each semester, students are typically asked to evaluate their professors. In completing the
evaluations, they use shortcuts in judging the effectiveness of their instructors. Using the information
contained in Exhibit 8-7 (page 243), describe how each of these shortcuts may be applicable to a
student evaluation of a professor. Then describe how specific distortions may exist.
Team Exercises Based on Chapter Material
1. Have the class break into groups of 5. Assign each group a different perceptual shortcut (see exhibit 87; Selectivity, Assumed similarity, Stereotyping, Halo effect, Self-fulfilling prophecy). Ask the groups to
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Chapter 8 - Foundations of Individual and Group Behavior
generate two examples of their assigned shortcut using the events from 9-11 as the basis for their
example. Give the groups 10 minutes to complete this assignment, and then have the groups share their
examples with the class.
2. Assign the groups into random groups of 5. Assign each group a different dimension of emotional
intelligence (self-awareness, self-management, self-motivation, empathy, and social skills) Ask each
group to determine which theories/aspects of Chapter 8 relate to their dimension (e.g., parts of the
Chapter that give them insight as to how to improve the EI on that dimension). For example, for the EI
dimension of Self-awareness, self assessment exercises are very important. Also, knowing which type of
Holland’s personality types you are and how you score on the Big Five and/or Meyers Briggs would
increase your self-awareness. Finally, understanding the notions of cognitive dissonance and perceptual
shortcuts allow you to increase your self-awareness when rationalizing something and/or making
judgments.
3. Break the class into groups of 5. Ask each group to take 7 minutes and generate 3- 5 classroom norms
they’ve noticed thus far in the course. Once time is up, ask the groups to share their list with the class,
and as they share, the instructor should write the norms on the board. For norms that are repeated , list a
“check” mark next to that norm each time a group describes it. This exercise will clearly show how
widely held some norms are in a culture, and will show how some norms are perceived by some but not
by others.
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