Organizational Behavior - Introduction and Determinants of Individual Behaviour (Attitude)
Organizational Behavior - Introduction and Determinants of Individual Behaviour (Attitude)
• Jobs
• Work
• Absenteeism
• Employment turnover
• Productivity
• Human performance
• Management
Contributing Disciplines to the OB Field
Micro:
The
Psychology
Individual
Social Psychology
Sociology
Macro:
Groups &
Organizations Anthropology
Contributing Disciplines to the OB Field
Psychology
The science that seeks to measure, explain, and sometimes change
the behavior of humans and other animals.
Sociology
The study of people in relation to their fellow human beings.
Social Psychology
An area within psychology that blends concepts from
psychology and sociology and that focuses on the influence
of people on one another.
Anthropology
The study of societies to learn about human beings
and their activities.
Political Science
The study of the behavior of individuals and groups within a political
environment.
Challenges and Opportunities for OB
• The workplace is contains a wide mix of cultures,
races, ethnic groups, genders and ages.
• Employees have to learn to cope with rapid change
due to global competition.
• Corporate loyalty has decreased due to corporate
downsizing and use of temporary workers.
• Managers can benefit from OB theory and concepts.
Implications for Managers: OB helps with:
https://open.lib.umn.edu/organizationalbehavior/ch
apter/1-5-trends-and-changes/
DETERMINANTS OF INDIVIDUAL
BEHAVIOUR
Why Look at Individual Behavior?
• Organizational Behavior (OB)
• The actions of people at work
• Focus of Organizational Behavior
• Individual behavior
• Attitudes, personality, perception, learning, and motivation
• Group behavior
• Norms, roles, team building, leadership, and conflict
• Goals of Organizational Behavior
• To explain, predict and influence behavior.
The Organization as an Iceberg
Important Employee Behaviors
• Employee Productivity
• A performance measure of both efficiency and effectiveness
• Absenteeism
• The failure to report to work when expected
• Turnover
• The voluntary and involuntary permanent withdrawal from an organization
Important Employee Behaviors (cont’d)
• Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB)
• Discretionary behavior that is not a part of an employee’s formal job
requirements, but which promotes the effective functioning of the
organization.
• Job Satisfaction
• The individual’s general attitude
toward his or her job
Important Employee Behaviors (cont’d)
• Workplace Misbehavior
• Any intentional employee behavior that has negative consequences for the
organization or individuals within the organization.
• Types of Misbehavior
• Deviance
• Aggression
• Antisocial behavior
• Violence
Psychological Factors Affecting
Employee Behavior
• Employee
Productivity
• Attitudes
• Absenteeism
• Personality • Turnover
• Organizational
• Perception Citizenship
• Job Satisfaction
• Learning
• Workplace
Misbehavior
Attitudes
Behavioral Component
An intention to behave in a certain
way toward someone or something
Sample Attitude Survey
Source: Based on T. Lammers, “The Essential Employee Survey,” Inc., December 1992, pp. 159–161.
Attitudes and Consistency
• People seek consistency in two ways:
• Consistency among their attitudes.
• Consistency between their attitudes and behaviors.
• If an inconsistency arises, individuals:
• Alter their attitudes
or
• Alter their behavior
or
• Develop a rationalization for the inconsistency
Cognitive Dissonance Theory
• Cognitive Dissonance
• Any incompatibility or inconsistency between attitudes or
between behavior and attitudes.
• Any form of inconsistency is uncomfortable and individuals will try
to reduce the dissonance.
• The intensity of the desire to reduce the dissonance is
influenced by:
• The importance of the factors creating the dissonance.
• The degree to which an individual believes that the factors causing
the dissonance are controllable.
• Rewards available to compensate for the dissonance.
Examples of Cognitive Dissonance
Example 1:
the cigarettes to help her deal with anxiety. Or maybe she’ll say she
The rationalization that takes place when people dieting “cheat.” How
course? Maybe you thought, “Eh, it’s only one doughnut. I’ll skip lunch
today to make up for the calories.” Or you tell yourself, “It’s not
elements.
• How to measure?
– Those with positive core self-evaluation are more satisfied with their jobs.
Employee Responses to Dissatisfaction
• Exit
– Behavior directed toward leaving the organization
• Voice
– Active and constructive attempts to improve conditions
• Neglect
– Allowing conditions to worsen
• Loyalty
– Passively waiting for conditions to improve
Outcomes of Job Satisfaction
• Job Performance
– Satisfied workers are more productive AND more productive workers are more
satisfied!
– The causality may run both ways.
• Organizational Citizenship Behaviors
– Satisfaction influences OCB through perceptions of fairness.
• Customer Satisfaction
– Satisfied frontline employees increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Absenteeism
– Satisfied employees are moderately less likely to miss work.
More Outcomes of Job Satisfaction
• Turnover
• Satisfied employees are less likely to quit.
• Many moderating variables in this relationship.
• Economic environment and tenure.
• Organizational actions taken to retain high performers and to weed out lower performers.
• Workplace Deviance
• Dissatisfied workers are more likely to unionize, abuse substances, steal, be tardy,
and withdraw.
Examples of OCB
• In a business setting, this would likely take the form of a worker choosing
to help a co-worker finish a project or a set of tasks even though the work
does not necessarily relate to what they need to get done in their regular
workday.
• Coming into work early to finish a project, working to ensure team goals
are exceeded for the quarter, developing a new way to approach a process
or procedure even when this duty is not outlined in their job description
are all ways that workers can exemplify this trait.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. OCB stands for
• Organizational Citizenship Behaviour
• Organsation control Behaviour
• Organic Concept
• None of the above
2. Which of the following is not a component of attitude
• Cognitive
• Psychological
• Behavioural
• Affective