Individual Differences and Work Behavior

2. Chapter 3 Individual Differences and Work Behavior

3. Why Individual Differences Are Important: (1 of 2) • Individual differences have a direct effect on behavior • People who perceive things differently behave differently • People with different attitudes respond differently to directives • People with different personalities interact differently with bosses, coworkers, subordinates, and customers

4. Why Individual Differences Are Important: (2 of 2) • Individual differences help explain: • Why some people embrace change and others are fearful of it • Why some employees will be productive only if they are closely supervised, while others will be productive if they are not • Why some workers learn new tasks more effectively than others

5. Attraction-Selection-Attrition (ASA) Cycle(1 of 3) • Different people are attracted to different careers and organizations as a function of their own: • abilities • interests • personalities

6. Attraction-Selection-Attrition (ASA) Cycle(2 of 3) • Organizations select employees on the basis of the needs the organization has • skills and abilities • individual attributes such as values and personality

7. Attraction-Selection-Attrition (ASA) Cycle(3 of 3) • Attrition occurs when: • individuals discover they do not like being part of the organization and elect to resign, or • the organization determines an individual is not succeeding and elects to terminate

8. Each phase of the ASA cycle is significantly influenced by the individual differences of each person

9. Effective managerial practice requires that individual behavior differences be recognized, and when feasible, taken into consideration while carrying out the job of managing organizational behavior.

10. Individual Differences in the Workplace Individual Differences Personality Perception Ability and Skills Attitudes Work Behavior • Productivity • Creativity • Performance

11. The Basis for Understanding Work Behavior: • To understand individual differences a manager must: 1. observe and recognize the differences and 2. study relationships between variables that influence behavior

12. Individual Differences Influencing Work Behavior: Personality Hereditary and Diversity Factors Attitudes Perception Ability and Skills

13. Primary Dimensions (stable) Age Ethnicity Gender Physical attributes Race Sexual / affectional orientation Secondary Dimensions (changeable) Educational background Marital status Religious beliefs Health Work experience Diversity Factors

14. Sex Differences in Management:Selected Results(1 of 2)

15. Sex Differences in Management:Selected Results(2 of 2)

16. Abilities and Skills • Ability – a person’s talent to perform a mental or physical task • Skill – a learned talent that a person has acquired to perform a task Key Abilities Mental Ability Emotional Intelligence Tacit Knowledge

17. Attitudes • Are determinates of behavior because they are linked with perception, personality, feelings, and motivation • Attitude – a mental state of readiness • learned and organized through experience • exerting a specific response to people, objects, and situations with which it is related

18. Attitudes: Implications for the Manager • Attitudes are learned • Attitudes define one’s predispositions toward given aspects of the world • Attitudes provide the emotional basis of one’s interpersonal relations and identification with others • Attitudes are organized and are close to the core of personality

19. The Three Components of Attitudes: Cognition, Affect, Behavior Stimuli Manager style Technology Noise Peers Reward system Compensation plan Career opportunities Work environment factors Beliefs and values “My supervisor is unfair.” Cognition “Having a fair supervisor is important to me.” Feelings and emotions Affect “I don’t like my supervisor.” Intended behavior “I’ve submitted a formal request to transfer.” Behavior

20. Cognition • What individuals know about themselves and their environment • Implies a conscious process of acquiring knowledge • Evaluative beliefs – favorable or unfavorable impressions that a person holds toward an object or person

21. Affect • The emotional component of an attitude • Often learned from • parents • teachers • peer group members • The part of an attitude that is associated with “feeling” a certain way about a person, group, or situation

22. Cognitive Dissonance • A discrepancy between attitudes and behaviors • A mental state of anxiety • Occurs when there is a conflict among an individual’s various cognitions after a decision has been made

23. Changing Attitudes The Communicator The Message The Situation

24. How to Increase Your Effectiveness in Changing Attitudes: (1 of 2) • Concentrate on gradually changing the attitude over a period of time • Identify the beliefs or values that are part of the attitude and provide the attitude holder with information that will alter those beliefs or values

25. How to Increase Your Effectiveness in Changing Attitudes: (2 of 2) • Make the setting (in which the attempted change occurs) as pleasant and enjoyable as possible • Identify reasons that changing the attitude is to the advantage of the attitude holder

26. Job satisfaction – an attitude people have about their jobs Results from people’s perception of their jobs Results from the degree of fit between the individual and the organization Key factors associated with job satisfaction: Pay Promotion opportunities Supervision Coworkers Working conditions Job security Attitudes and Job Satisfaction

27. Satisfaction-Performance Relationships:Three Views Causes “The satisfied worker is more productive.” Job Performance 1. Job Satisfaction Causes “The more productive worker is satisfied.” Job Satisfaction 2. Job Performance Perceived Equity Rewards Job Satisfaction 3. Job Performance

28. Personality • A relatively stable set of feelings and behaviors that have been significantly formed by genetic and environmental factors • The relationship between behavior and personality is one of the most complex matters that managers have to understand

29. Some Major Forces Influencing Personality Cultural forces Individual Personality Social class / group membership forces Hereditary forces Family relationship forces

30. Personality and Behavior in Organizations Locus of Control The Big Five Personality Dimensions Creativity Self-efficacy

31. The Big Five Personality Dimensions Extroversion Agreeableness Conscientiousness Emotional Stability Openness to Experience

32. Locus of Control • Locus of control of individuals – • Determines the degree to which they believe their behaviors influence what happens to them • Internals – believe they are masters of their own fate • Externals – believe they are helpless pawns of fate, success is due to luck or ease of task

33. Self-Efficacy • Feelings of self-efficacy have managerial and organizational implications: • Selection decisions • Training programs • Goal setting and performance

34. How to Develop Employee Creativity • Encourage everyone to view old problems from new perspectives • Make certain people know that it is OK to make mistakes • Provide as many people with as many new work experiences as you can • Set an example in your own approach to dealing with problems and opportunities