Chapter 14
Understanding Individual Behavior
Learning Objectives
 Describe the dimensions of positive individual
behaviors and their impact on organizational
performance
 Explain the characteristics of individual personalities
and strength profiles
 Explain how individual attitudes and beliefs affect
team and organizational dynamics
 Interpret how stress, deviance, and dysfunctional
behavior manifest and negatively affect team and
organizational performance
 Design a plan for maximizing individual behavior to
change an organizational culture or performance
positively
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How Individuals Make a Difference
(p. 352)
 Positive psychology
• Explores ways to help people recognize their
positive traits or strengths, rather than their
perceived weaknesses and failings
• Abundance – conscious pursuit of purposeful
possibilities that are sustainable and stable over time
• In economically rough times, it is difficult to instill
the message of positive psychology
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How Individuals Make a Difference
(cont.)
 Stress – physiological and emotional reactions
experienced by individuals to excessive
pressures or demands at work (p. 352)
• Consequences of stress
 Absenteeism
 Burnout
 Negative affectivity – general dimension of personality
where an individual experiences negative mood states
 Lowers likelihood of making contributions to the organization
• Even under adverse conditions, managers must try
to promote positive affectivity (p. 353)
 Outward display of positive emotions
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How Individuals Make a Difference
(cont.)
 Self-awareness (p. 353)
• Ability to look objectively at a circumstance and
make subjective, principle-based judgment
decisions simultaneously
• In order to make judgments about others, one must
be keenly aware of one’s own behavior
• Involves focusing on external relationships
• Mangers who practice self-awareness are more
likely to receive feedback from others, listen to
other perspectives, encourage communication, and
treat others fairly
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How Individuals Make a Difference
(cont.)
 Purposeful thinking (p. 353)
• Involves continually seeking pathways for
possibilities and looking for opportunities to learn
and grow
• Linked to self-awareness
 Relationships of thoughtful candor
• Candor – quality of being open, frank, and sincere
in speech or expression
• Must hold oneself responsible first, then others
• Show gratitude for the acts of others
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How Individuals Make a Difference
(cont.)
 Challenging work (p. 354)
• Comprised of two types of tasks
 Pleasureful tasks – provide an immediate feeling of joy
and delight, with little effect on overall life satisfaction
 Purposeful tasks – provide a sense of accomplishment that
has lasting meaning
 Moral courage
• Taking a position against something or someone even
though you know the outcome may be unpopular
• Involves taking risks
 The probability of loss or undesirable consequences
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How Individuals Make a Difference
(cont.)
 Joyful living (p. 354)
• Feelings and emotions defined by interest, passion,
curiosity, contentment, enthusiasm, satisfaction
and quality of life
• A measurable culmination of the other dimensions
of abundance, providing the means for progress
and motivation
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How Individuals Make a Difference
(cont.)
 Power of perception and a positive approach (p. 354)
• Perception – process by which individuals select, interpret,
and organize information in the world around them
• Selective perception – process by which individuals accept
information consistent with their values and beliefs, while
screening out information that is not aligned with their own
needs
• Commitment – degree to which an employee is
psychologically devoted to an organization or team (p. 355)
• Confidence – certainty about handling something that a
person desires or needs to do
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How Individuals Make a Difference
(cont.)
 Type A personality (p. 355)
• Behavioral pattern where individuals tend to be ambitious,
goal oriented, impatient, determined, highly organized,
competitive, and aggressive
 Type B personality
• Behavioral pattern where individuals tend to be more
patient, relaxed, easygoing, and more sensitive to the
feelings of others
 Psychological contract
• Informal expectation between employee and organization
that determines quality and satisfaction
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Personalities and Strengths (p. 356)
 Stereotyping
• Tendency to ascribe characteristics or attributes to
a particular group or individual unfairly
 Attribution
• Ascribed quality or characteristic that is related to
a particular individual or situation
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Personalities and Strengths (cont.)
 “Big Five” personality traits (p. 357)
• Five broad domains of human psychology
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Personalities and Strengths (cont.)
 Attitudes (p. 357)
• Person’s or group’s inclinations toward an idea or situation
 Individual differences
• Variable psychological, behavioral, cultural, and physical
dimensions that uniquely distinguish each team member
 Locus of control
• Degree to which an individual or team feels in control of
circumstances and outcomes
 Internal – one feels in control of own fate
 External – one feels that fate, rather than the actions of an
individual, controls outcomes in life
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Personalities and Strengths (cont.)
 Authoritarianism (p. 358)
• Management philosophy that using the threat of punishment,
power, and legitimacy is required to produce superior results
• Less prevalent as organizations have adopted flatter structures
 Machiavellianism
• Pragmatic management philosophy that condones unethical
and manipulative behavior if it produces desirable results
• Machiavellian leaders have little respect for their
subordinates, tend to take credit for their ideas, and rule with
fear
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Attitudes and Belief Systems (p. 361)
 Cognitive dissonance
• Psychological strain that occurs when a person is
faced with two or more conflicting cognitions
(e.g., beliefs, attitudes, or items of knowledge)
 Creativity
• Ability to devise innovative ideas to meet the
needs of a particular task or organizational goals
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Stress, Deviance, and Dysfunctional
Behavior (p. 363)
 Dysfunctional behavior
• Actions that show a lack of commitment, lack of
trust, fear of confrontation or conflicting opinions, a
refusal to accept responsibility, and a tendency to
focus on their own individual needs ahead of the
team and organization
 Deviance
• Intentional behavior and attitudes that differ from or
violate the accepted social norms
• Positive deviance – deviance that is honorable
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Stress, Deviance, and Dysfunctional
Behavior (cont.)
 General adaptation syndrome (GAS; p. 364)
• Physiological reactions to long-term stress that can
be grouped into three stages: alarm, resistance, and
exhaustion
 Citizenship
• Commitment to the overall functions of the team
and organizational culture in order to improve
performance
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Positive Deviance and Performance
(p. 365)
 Emotional intelligence (EI; p. 366)
• Capacity to recognize and appreciate emotional
responses in one’s self and others
• EQ – managers who have insight into their own
emotions and the feelings of others can inspire a
higher quality of work performance
 Requires getting substantial feedback from others to
increase self-awareness
 Inducements
• Formal or informal agreements intended to entice
positive or desirable behaviors
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