Organization Behavior Revision Organizational behavior (OB) is the field of study devoted to understanding, explaining, and ultimately improving the attitudes and behaviors of individuals and groups in organizations. Human resource management takes the theories and principles studies in OB and explores the “nutsand-bolts” applications of those principles in organizations. OB Foundations • Industrial and organizational psychology: Job performance and individual characteristics • Social psychology: Satisfaction, emotions, and team processes • Sociology: Team characteristics and organizational structure • Anthropology: Organizational culture • Economics: Motivation, learning, and decision making Integrative Model of Organizational Behavior: Individual Outcomes What Makes a Resource Valuable? • Rare •Inimitable “Cannot be copied” The Rule of One-Eighth (1/8): At best 12 percent (1/8) of organizations will actually do what is required to build profits by putting people first. How do we know what we know about OB? • Method of Experience – People hold firmly to some belief because it is consistent with their own experience and observations. • Method of Intuition – People hold firmly to some belief because it “just stands to reason”—it seems obvious or self-evident. • Method of Authority – People hold firmly to some belief because some respected official, agency, or source has said it is so. • Method of Science – People accept some beliefs because scientific studies have tended to replicate that result using a series of samples, settings, and methods. Job performance is the value of the set of employee behaviors that contribute, either positively or negatively, to organizational goal accomplishment. Task performance includes employee behaviors that are directly involved in the transformation of organizational resources into the goods or services that the organization produces. Routine task performance involves well-known responses to demands that occur in a normal, routine, or otherwise predictable way. Ex: Starting a car Adaptive task performance, or more commonly “adaptability,” involves employee responses to task demands that are novel, unusual, or, at the very least, unpredictable. Ex: Avoiding a stalled vehicle 1 Creative task performance is the degree to which individuals develop ideas or physical outcomes that are both novel and useful. Citizenship Behavior: Voluntary employee activities that may or may not be rewarded but that contribute to the organization by improving the overall quality of the setting in which work takes place. Interpersonal • Helping, courtesy, sportsmanship Organizational • Voice, civic virtue, boosterism Interpersonal Citizenship Behavior Behaviors that benefit coworkers and colleagues and involve assisting, supporting, and developing other organizational members in a way that goes beyond normal job expectations. a. Helping involves assisting coworkers who have heavy workloads, etc. b. Courtesy refers to keeping coworkers informed about matters that are relevant to them. c. Sportsmanship involves maintaining a good attitude with coworkers, even when they’ve done something annoying. Organizational Citizenship Behaviors Behaviors that benefit the larger organization by supporting and defending the company, working to improve its operations, and being especially loyal to it. a. Voice involves speaking up and offering constructive suggestions for change. b. Civic virtue requires participating in the company’s operations at a deeper than-normal level. c. Boosterism means representing the organization in a positive way when out in public, away from the office, and away from work. Counterproductive Behaviors Counterproductive behaviors are employee behaviors that intentionally hinder organizational goal accomplishment. a. Property Deviance Refers to behaviors that harm the organization’s assets and possessions. Theft represents another form of property deviance and can be just as expensive as sabotage (if not more). b. Production Deviance Is also directed against the organization but focuses specifically on reducing the efficiency of work output. Wasting resources is the most common form of production deviance when employees use too many materials or too much time to do too little work. • Working too slowly, taking too many breaks. c. Political Deviance Refers to behaviors that intentionally disadvantage other individuals rather than the larger organization. Gossiping: is having casual conversations about other people in which the facts are not confirmed as true. • Undermines morale. 2 d. Personal aggression Refers to hostile verbal and physical actions directed toward other employees. Abuse occurs when an employee is assaulted or endangered in such a way that physical and psychological injuries may occur. Organizational Commitment Organizational commitment is defined as the desire on the part of an employee to remain a member of the organization. Employees who are not committed to their organizations engage in withdrawal behavior, defined as a set of actions that employees perform to avoid the work situation— behaviors that may eventually culminate in quitting the organization. Types of Commitment • Affective commitment – a desire to remain a member of an organization due to an emotional attachment to, and involvement with, that organization. You stay because you want to. • Continuance commitment - a desire to remain a member of an organization because of an awareness of the costs associated with leaving it. You stay because you need to. • Normative commitment - a desire to remain a member of an organization due to a feeling of obligation. You stay because you ought to. Reactions to negative work events • Exit - active, destructive response by which an individual either ends or restricts organizational membership. • Voice - an active, constructive response in which individuals attempt to improve the situation. • Loyalty - a passive, constructive response that maintains public support for the situation while the individual privately hopes for improvement. • Neglect - defined as a passive, destructive response in which interest and effort in the job decline. Task Performance and Organizational Commitment • Stars possess high commitment and high performance and are held up as role models for other employees. Likely respond to negative events with voice. 3 • Citizens possess high commitment and low task performance but perform many of the voluntary “extra-role” activities that are needed to make the organization function smoothly. Likely to respond to negative events with loyalty. • Lone wolves possess low levels of organizational commitment but high levels of task performance and are motivated to achieve work goals for themselves, not necessarily for their company. Likely to respond to negative events with exit. • Apathetic possess low levels of both organizational commitment and task performance and merely exert the minimum level of effort needed to keep their jobs. Respond to negative events with neglect. Psychological Withdrawal Psychological withdrawal consists of actions that provide a mental escape from the work environment. • Daydreaming - when an employee appears to be working but is actually distracted by random thoughts or concerns. • Socializing - verbal chatting about non-work topics that goes on in cubicles and offices or at the mailbox or vending machines. • Looking busy - intentional desire on the part of the employee to look like him or she is working, even when not performing work tasks. Physical withdrawal Consists of actions that provide a physical escape, whether short term or long term, from the work environment. • Absenteeism occurs when employees miss an entire day of work. • Quitting - voluntarily leaving the organization. Job satisfaction: is a pleasurable emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or job experiences. It represents how you feel about your job and what you think about your job. Facets of Job satisfaction a) Pay satisfaction: refers to employees’ feelings about their pay, including whether it is as much as they deserve, secure, and adequate for both normal expenses and luxury items. b) Promotion satisfaction: refers to employees’ feelings about the company’s promotion policies and their execution, including whether promotions are frequent, fair, and based on ability c) Supervision satisfaction: reflects employees’ feelings about their boss, including whether the boss is competent, polite, and a good communicator d) Coworker satisfaction: refers to employees’ feelings about their fellow employees, including whether coworkers are smart, responsible, helpful, fun, and interesting as opposed to lazy, gossipy, unpleasant, and boring. 4 e) Satisfaction with the work itself: reflects employees’ feelings about their actual work tasks, including whether those tasks are challenging, interesting, respected, and make use of key skills rather than being dull, repetitive, and uncomfortable. Satisfaction with work itself is the single strongest driver of overall job satisfaction. Job Characteristics 1. Variety is the degree to which the job requires a number of different activities that involve a number of different skills and talents. 2. Identity is the degree to which the job requires completing a whole, identifiable, piece of work from beginning to end with a visible outcome. 3. Significance is the degree to which the job has a substantial impact on the lives of other people, particularly people in the world at large. 4. Autonomy is the degree to which the job provides freedom, independence, and discretion to the individual performing the work. 5. Feedback is the degree to which carrying out the activities required by the job provides the worker with clear information about how well he or she is performing. Stress: is defined response to exceed a person’s capacity or resources. The demands that cause people to experience stress are called stressors. The negative consequences that occur when demands tax or exceed one’s capacity or resources are called strains. Types of Stressors a. Hindrance stressors stressful demands that are perceived as hindering progress toward personal accomplishments or goal attainment. Tend to trigger negative emotions such as anger and anxiety. b. Challenge stressors stressful demands that are perceived as opportunities for learning, growth, and achievement. Work Hindrance Stressors 1. Role conflict refers to conflicting expectations that other people may have of us. • Call center operator is expected to spend little time with people online and answer all their questions at the same time. 2. Role ambiguity refers to the lack of information regarding what needs to be done in a role, as well as unpredictability regarding the consequences of performance in that role. • Students working on projects with few guidelines 3. Role overload occurs when the number of demanding roles a person holds is so high that the person simply cannot perform some or all of the roles very effectively. 5 4. Daily hassles reflects the relatively minor day-to-day demands that get in the way of accomplishing the things that we really want to accomplish. Examples paper work, annoying interactions and useless communications. • The Devil Wears Prada Non-work Hindrance Stressors 1. Work–family conflict refers to a special form of role conflict in which the demands of a work role hinder the fulfillment of the demands in a family role (or vice versa). 2. Negative life events they hinder the ability to achieve life goals and are associated with negative emotions. • Divorce, death of family member 3. Financial uncertainty refers to conditions that create uncertainties with regard to the loss of livelihood, savings, or the ability to pay expenses. Work Challenge Stressors 1. Time pressure refers to a strong sense that the amount of time you have to do a task is just not quite enough. When you manage to succeed, the outcome is satisfying. 2. Work complexity refers to the degree to which the requirements of the work, in terms of knowledge, skills, and abilities, tax or exceed the capabilities of the person who is responsible for performing the work. Being stretched beyond your capacity is well worth the discomfort. 3. Work responsibility refers to the nature of the obligations that a person has to others. • Generally speaking, the level of responsibility in a job is higher when the number, scope, and importance of the obligations in that job are higher. Non-work Challenge Stressors 1. Family time demands reflect the time that a person commits to participate in an array of family activities and responsibilities. • Traveling, hosting parties 2. Personal development Participation in formal education programs, music lessons 3. Positive life events • Marriage, pregnancy The Experience of Strain Physiological strains: illness, high blood pressure, back pain, stomach aches Psychological strains Burnout is the emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion that results from having to cope with stressful demands on an ongoing basis. • Depression, anxiety, anger, hostility, irritability, inability to think clearly, forgetfulness Behavioral strains grinding one’s teeth at night, being overly critical and bossy, excessive smoking, compulsive gum chewing 6