© 2010 South-Western, Cengage Learning, Inc.
All rights reserved.
PowerPoint Presentation by Charlie Cook
The University of West Alabama
Understanding Individuals
in Organizations
• The Psychological Contract
 The overall set of expectations held by an individual
with respect to what he or she will contribute to the
organization and what the organization will provide
in return.
Individual
Contributions
The Psychological
Contract
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Organizational
Inducements
15–2
15.1 The Psychological Contract
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15–3
Understanding Individuals in
Organizations (cont’d)
• The Person-Job Fit
 Reasons for poor person-job fit:




Imperfect organizational selection procedures
Change in both people and organizations over time.
New technologies require new employee skills
Unique individuals and unique jobs
• Individual Differences
 Personal attributes that vary from one person
to another.

Physical, psychological, or emotional.
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15–4
Personality and Individual Behavior
• Personality
 The relatively stable set of psychological and
behavioral attributes that distinguish individuals.
Agreeableness
Conscientiousness
The “Big Five”
Personality Traits
Negative Emotionality
Extroversion
Openness
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15–5
15.2 The “Big Five” Model of Personality
Agreeableness
High agreeableness
Low agreeableness
Conscientiousness
High conscientiousness
Low conscientiousness
Negative Emotionality
Less negative emotionality
More negative emotionality
Extraversion
More extraversion
More introversion
Openness
More openness
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Less openness
15–6
The Myers-Briggs Framework
• The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
 A popular questionnaire that some organizations use
to assess personality types.


Is a useful method for determining communication styles and
interaction preferences.
Has questionable validity and reliability.
• Personality Types
 Extraversion (E) versus Introversion (I)
 Sensing (S) versus Intuition (N)
 Thinking (T) versus Feeling (F)
 Judging (J) versus Perceiving (P)
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15–7
Other Personality Traits at Work (cont’d)
Locus of Control
Self-Efficacy
Machiavellianism
Personality
Traits at Work
Authoritarianism
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Self-Esteem
Risk Propensity
15–8
Other Personality Traits at Work
• Locus of Control
 The extent to which people believe that their behavior
has a real effect on what happens to them.


Internal locus of control—individuals who believe they are in
control of their lives.
External locus of control—individuals believe that external
forces dictate what happen to them.
• Self-Efficacy
 A person’s belief about his or her capabilities to
perform a task. High self-efficacy individuals believe
they can perform well while low self-efficacy
individuals doubt their ability to perform.
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15–9
Other Personality Traits at Work (cont’d)
• Authoritarianism
 The extent to which an individual believes that power
and status differences are appropriate within
hierarchical social organizations.
• Machiavellianism
 Behavior directed at gaining power and controlling the
behavior of others.
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15–10
Other Personality Traits at Work (cont’d)
• Self-Esteem
 The extent to which a person believes she/he is a
worthwhile individual.
• Risk Propensity
 The degree to which an individual is willing to take
chances and make risky decisions.
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15–11
Emotional Intelligence
• Emotional Intelligence (EQ)
 The extent to which people are self-aware, can
manage their emotions, can motivate themselves,
express empathy for others, and possess social skills.
Self-awareness
Managing Emotions
Dimensions
of EQ
Motivating oneself
Empathy
Social skills
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15–12
Attitudes and Individual Behavior
• Attitudes
 Complexes of beliefs and feelings that people have
about specific ideas, situations, or other people.
Attitudinal Components
Affective
Component
Cognitive
Component
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Intentional
Component
15–13
Attitudes and Individual Behavior
(cont’d)
• Cognitive Dissonance
 The conflict individuals experience among their own
attitudes.
 The affective and cognitive components of the
individual’s attitude are in conflict with intended
behavior.
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15–14
Work-Related Attitudes
• Job Satisfaction or Dissatisfaction
 An attitude that reflects the extent to which an individual is
gratified or fulfilled by his or her work.
• Job Satisfaction and Work Behaviors
 Job satisfaction is influenced by personal, group, and
organizational factors.
 Satisfied employees are absent less often, make positive
contributions, and stay with the organization.
 Dissatisfied employees are absent more often, may experience
stress which disrupts coworkers, and may be continually looking
for another job.
 High levels of job satisfaction do not necessarily lead to high job
performance.
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15–15
Work-Related Attitudes (cont’d)
• Organizational Commitment
 An attitude that reflects an individual’s identification
with and attachment to an organization.
• Commitment and Work Behaviors
 Employee commitment strengthens with an
individual’s age, years with the organization, sense of
job security, and participation in decision making.
 Committed employees have highly reliable habits,
plan a longer tenure with the organization, and muster
more effort in performance.
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15–16
Affect and Mood in Organizations
• Positive Affectivity
 A tendency to be relatively upbeat and optimistic,
have an overall sense of well-being, see things in a
positive light, and seem to be in a good mood.
• Negative Affectivity
 A tendency to be generally downbeat and pessimistic,
tend to see things in a negative way, and seem to be
in a bad mood.
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15–17
Perception and Individual Behavior
• Perception
 The set of processes by which an individual becomes
aware of and interprets information.
• Selective Perception
 The process of screening out information that we are
uncomfortable with or that contradicts our beliefs.
 If selective perception causes someone to ignore
important information it can become quite detrimental.
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15–18
15.3 Perceptual Processes
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15–19
Perception and Individual Behavior
(cont’d)
• Stereotyping
 Is the process of categorizing or labeling people on
the basis of a single attribute (e.g., gender and race).
 May cost the organization valuable talent, violate
federal anti-bias laws, and is likely unethical.
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15–20
Perception and Attribution
• Attribution
 A mechanism through which we observe behavior
and attribute a cause to it.
• The Framework for Attributions:
Attribution
Consensus
Consistency
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Distinctiveness
15–21
Stress and Individual Behavior
• Stress
 A person’s response to a strong stimulus
(i.e., a stressor).
• General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)
 The general cycle of the stress process.
 Stage 1 Alarm
 Stage 2 Resistance
 Stage 3 Exhaustion
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15–22
15.4 The General Adaptation Syndrome
Stage 1
Alarm
Stage 2
Resistance
Stage 3
Exhaustion
Response to
stressful
event
Normal level of
resistance
Stages of the General Adaptation Syndrome
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15–23
Personality Types
• Type A Personality
 Extremely competitive (aggressive), devoted to work,
have a strong sense of time urgency (impatient).
 Have a lot of drive and want to accomplish as much
as possible as quickly as possible.
• Type B Personality
 Less competitive, less devoted to work, have a
weaker sense of time urgency.
 Less likely to experience personal stress or to come
into conflict with other people.
 More likely to have balanced, relaxed approach to life.
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15–24
15.5 Causes of Work Stress
Organizational Stressors
Task Demands
Physical Demands
Role Demands
• Quick decisions
• Incomplete information for decisions
• Critical decisions
• Temperature extremes
• Role ambiguity
Interpersonal
Demands
• Poorly designed office
• Role conflict
• Group pressures
• Threats to health
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• Leadership styles
• Conflicting
personalities
15–25
Consequences of Stress
• Negative Personal Consequences
 Behavioral
 Psychological
 Medical
• Negative Work-related Consequences
 Poor quality work output and lower productivity.
 Job dissatisfaction, low morale, and a lack of commitment.
 Withdrawal through indifference and absenteeism.
• Burnout
 A feeling of exhaustion that may develop when someone
experiences too much stress for an extended period of time.
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15–26
Managing Stress
Regular Exercise
Stress
Management Strategies
for Individuals
Relaxation
Time Management
Support Groups
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15–27
Managing Stress (cont’d)
• Stress Management Strategies
in Organizations
 Organizations are partly responsible for stress.
 Organizations also must bear the costs of stress-
related claims.
 Organizational wellness/stress management
programs can be used to promote healthful
employee activities and derive the benefits of
increased organizational productivity.
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15–28
Creativity in Organizations
• Creativity
 The ability of an individual to generate new ideas or
to conceive of new perspectives in existing ideas.
• The Creative Individual
 Background experiences and creativity

Many creative individuals were reared in creative
environments.
 Personal traits and creativity

Creative persons have personal traits of openness,
an attraction to complexity, high levels of energy,
independence, autonomy, strong self-confidence,
and a strong belief in their own creativity.
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15–29
Creativity in Organizations (cont’d)
• The Creative Individual
 Cognitive abilities and creativity
Most creative people are highly intelligent.
 They are both divergent and convergent thinkers,
a skill they use to see differences and similarities
in situations, phenomena, and events.

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15–30
The Creative Process
Preparation
Incubation
Insight
Verification
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15–31
The Creative Process
• Preparation
 Formal education and training is used to “get up to
speed.”
 Experiences on the job provide additional knowledge
and ideas.
• Incubation
 A period of less intense conscious concentration
during which knowledge and ideas acquired, during
reparation, mature and develop.
 Incubation is helped by pauses in rational thought.
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15–32
The Creative Process (cont’d)
• Insight
 A spontaneous breakthrough in which the creative
person achieves a new understanding of some
problem or situation.
 Patterns of thought coalesce into a new
understanding.
• Verification
 Determines the validity or truthfulness of the insight.
 Tests are conducted and prototypes are built to see
if the insight leads to the expected results.
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15–33
The Creative Process (cont’d)
• Enhancing Creativity in Organizations
 Make creativity part of the organization’s culture.

Set goals for revenues from creative products and services.
 Reward creativity; refrain from punishing creative
failures.

Some ideas work out as expected, others don’t work out as
intended.
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15–34
Workplace Behaviors
Types of Workplace
Behaviors
Performance
Behaviors
Withdrawal
Behaviors
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Organizational
Citizenship
15–35
Types of Workplace Behavior
• Workplace Behavior
 A pattern of action by the members of an organization
that directly or indirectly influences organizational
effectiveness.
• Performance Behaviors
 The total set of work-related behaviors an
organization expects an individual to display.
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15–36
Types of Workplace Behavior (cont’d)
• Withdrawal Behaviors
 Absenteeism occurs when an individual does not
show up for work when expected for legitimate or
feigned reasons.
 Absenteeism may be a symptom of other workrelated problems.
 Turnover occurs when individuals quit their jobs for
work-related or personal reasons.
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15–37
Types of Workplace Behavior (cont’d)
• Organizational Citizenship
 The behavior of individuals that makes a positive
overall contribution to the organization.
Determinants of
Organizational Citizenship
Individual’s
personality, attitudes,
and needs
Social context of
the workplace
(work group)
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Organization’s
capability to reward
citizenship
15–38