ADMS 2400: Organizational

Behaviour

Session 2
Personality & Learning

Victoria Daniel
 Dispositional Approach
• Individuals are predisposed to behave in certain ways
• i.e., it’s in their “nature”

• Individuals possess stable traits or characteristics that influence their

attitudes and behaviours over a lifetime

• Examples:
• Intelligence
• Personality
 What is Personality?

The relatively stable set of psychological characteristics that influences

the way an individual interacts with their environment and how they
feel, think, and behave.
 Five Factor Model of Personality -
“The Big 5”
Each of the five traits exist on a continuum:
(-) (+)
Careless, impulsive, irresponsible, CONSCIENTIOUSNESS Dependable, responsible, orderly, self-
impulsive, unorganized disciplined, hardworking
Cold, aloof, argumentative, AGREEABLENESS Cooperative, altruistic, friendly,
uncooperative, unapproachable, sympathetic, eager to help,
confrontational approachable, not confrontational
Stable, confident, appropriate NEUROTICISM Depressed, anxious, hostile, insecure,
emotional control prone to stress, self-doubt
[aka: Emotional Stability]
Unimaginative, not curious, unwilling OPENNESS TO EXPERIENCE Curious, has original ideas, imaginative,
to be flexible about new/different broad interests, enjoys novelty
ideas, favours status quo
Withdrawn, shy, reclusive, energized by EXTRAVERSION Sociable, talkative, outgoing, energetic,
alone time joyful, assertive, energized by people
 Some Limitations of Personality
• Not always a major predictor of desired work
outcomes “Big 5”

• Proliferation of other dimensions  Locus of

HEXACO
Control

• People often end up thinking about traits in Personality

isolation rather than the whole person Dimensions

Self-
• Even though someone is disposed to think, feel, Proactivity Esteem & -
Efficacy
and act in a certain way, this does not = perfect
prediction
Affectivity
• People can still learn skills to complement
• Does not account for context…
You should learn about these ^ from the textbook.
 Situational Approach
• Characteristics of the organizational setting influence people’s
attitudes and behaviour

• Situation strength
• Situations vary in the range of behavioural responses seen as appropriate
 Situational Strength

WEAK STRONG

Roles are loosely defined, there Roles, rules, and contingencies are
are few rules, weak reinforcement defined – clear expectations about
and punishment contingencies what is appropriate
 Interactionist Approach
• Individuals’ attitudes and behaviour are a function of both disposition
and the situation

• Trait Activation Theory

• Traits lead to certain behaviours only when the situation makes the need for the
trait salient
• E.g., some personality characteristics will be more useful in certain situations

• What does this suggest?

• There is no ideal or “perfect” personality, it depends on the context
• Varying levels of fit
 Implications for Organizations
• Personality helps predict future behaviours
• Recruitment and selection
• Managing employees effectively
• Team building
• Training and development
• Support
• Fit
• Between personality type and occupational environment is associated with
satisfaction and turnover
• People leave organizations (and managers) that are not compatible with their
personalities
BREAK
 What is Learning?

Practical Intrapersonal
Skills Skills
A relatively permanent change in
behavior occurring as a result of
practice or experience.
Interpersonal Cultural
Skills Awareness
Why do we care about learning?

Desired behaviors Undesired

(e.g., task behaviors (e.g.,
performance, counterproductive
citizenship work behaviours,
behaviors, etc.) unsafe workplace
behaviours, etc.)

Learning is a key issue in performance management…

 How do employees learn?
• Follows the basic principles of learning
• Learning is prompted by feedback about the consequences of
behaviour

Antecedents Behaviours Consequences

Manager shows me how I do it right Manager praises me

to do a new task
 Classical Conditioning (Pavlov)
• Learning to associate two stimuli
• Example of basic acquisition (i.e., when response is being learned):
BEFORE DURING AFTER

+
 Operant Learning Theory (B.F.
Skinner)
• Living creatures inherently learn to operate on their environment to
achieve certain consequences

• Law of effect: People repeat behaviours that bring them satisfaction,

and stop behaviours that bring them dissatisfaction

• Reinforcer: stimulus that follows a behaviour to strengthen

probability of that behaviour
 Operant Learning Processes
• Increase probability of behaviours = 2 reinforcement strategies
• Decrease probability of behaviours = 2 prevention/reduction strategies

Pleasant Stimulus Aversive Stimulus

Add/Apply Stimulus Positive Reinforcement Punishment

Remove/Withdraw Stimulus Extinction Negative Reinforcement

 Increasing Probability of Behaviour
Positive Reinforcement
• Why: Increase/maintain desired behaviour
• How: Addition/applying pleasant stimulus

Hit Sales Employee of Maintain High

Target the Month Performance
 Increasing Probability of Behaviour
Negative Reinforcement
• Why: Increase/maintain desired behaviour
• How: Remove/withdraw unpleasant stimulus

Hard to work Remove Improved Job

in open office Distractions Performance
 When to reinforce behaviours?
• Continuous reinforcement – reward follows each display of behavior
• Partial reinforcement – only some responses are rewarded
 Organizational Errors with
Reinforcement
• Rewards  Reinforcement
• …unless the reward is contingent on the reinforcer
• Example Rewards: pay, promotion, benefits, paid vacation, overtime if wanted,
opportunity to perform challenging tasks, feedback, other forms of praise or
recognition

• Neglecting variety of preferences for reinforcers in person whose

behaviour you’re trying to change

• Neglecting important sources of reinforcement that can be used to change

behaviour
Decreasing Probability of Behaviour
Punishment
• Why: Decrease undesired behaviour
• How: Add/apply unpleasant stimulus

Client
Reprimanded
Yelled at Client Treatment
by Supervisor
Improved
Decreasing Probability of Behaviour
Extinction
• Why: Decrease undesired behaviour
• How: Remove/withdraw pleasant stimulus

Joe constantly Bystanders Joe stops

makes jokes at stop laughing / making fun of
John’s expense listening to Joe John
 Negative Reinforcement vs.
Punishment
**These are frequently confused with each other!**

GOAL APPROACH

Maintain/Increase good/wanted Take away/Removing

NEGATIVE behaviours unpleasant/aversive stimuli (e.g.,
REINFORCEMENT (e.g., job performance, stop nagging or criticizing, remove
engagement) penalties)

Decrease/Eliminate Applying/Introducing
PUNISHMENT bad/unwanted behaviours (e.g., unpleasant/aversive stimuli (e.g.,
withdrawal, insubordination) yelling, pay cut)
 Issues with Punishment
• Limited effectiveness in eliminating unwanted behaviour because…
• Only indicates what is not wanted but does not demonstrate which
behaviours should replace the punished response
• Temporarily suppresses the unwanted behaviour

• Punishment can provoke a strong emotional reaction from the

punished individual
 Punishment is More Effective
When…
• Done immediately
• Also clear on what the right behaviour should be
• Must be truly aversive (unwanted)
• It is consistent
• Punish the behaviour (e.g., “that client meeting wasn’t handled very
well”) not the person (e.g., “you are terrible”)
• Communicate the reasons why and do so in a respectful and fair way
• It is not confused with simultaneous punishment and reinforcement
 Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura)
• Emphasizes the role of cognitive processes in regulating people’s own
behavior
Behaviour
• Like the interactionist perspective, this
accounts for both personal and
contextual factors

• People can learn through their

own action and self-influence
Environmental Personal
Factors Factors
Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura)

Observational
Learning

Self-Efficacy Beliefs Behaviour

Self-Regulation
 SCT: Observational Learning
• The process of imitating the behaviour of others:

Appraise: What Decision: Imitate

Reflect: What will
Observe: What are are the behaviour if
happen if I do the
others doing? consequences of favourable
same?
those behaviours? consequences

• Most likely role models: credible, competent, high-status people, people

who are “similar-to-me”
• Thus, managers should demonstrate the behaviours they expect from
employees
 SCT: Self-Efficacy Beliefs
• Cognitive beliefs people have about their ability to successfully
perform a specific task

Persuasion Physiologica
Mastery Observation
& Influence l State

• Influences the activities people choose to perform, the amount of

persistent effort devoted to a task, affective and stress reactions, and
ultimately performance
 SCT: Self-Regulation
• People intentionally manage their own behaviour through self-set
goals
Discrepancy
Comparing to detected
Standard/Goal
Set new goal: (self-evaluation)
Discrepancy
production Discrepancy
reduction
Current Behavior
Behavior Change
(self-observe) (self-reinforce)
 Organizational Learning Practices

• Organizational behaviour modification

• Employee recognition programs

• Training and development programs

 Effective Training Programs
Describing a set of well-defined behaviours (skills) to be
learned

Providing a model displaying the effective use of behaviours

Opportunities for trainees to practice using behaviours

Provide feedback and social reinforcement following

practice

Take steps to maximize the transfer of behaviours to the job

 Overview of Key Ideas
• Dispositional, situational, and • Basic processes of how people learn
interactionist approaches • Classical Conditioning
• Operant Learning Theory

• Personality
• The Big 5 Model • How people learn in organizations
• Social Cognitive Theory
• Applications of personality • Errors re: learning

• Organizational learning practices

 For Next Class…
• Readings from today: Chapter 2 ***Homework Assignment***

• Readings for next class:

“Session 2 Homework”
Chapter 3 – Perception, Attribution, & Full instructions provided on eClass
Bias at Work
Use link:
• Class Assignment(s) to Submit: https://yorkliberalarts.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9Mlv
3hH7CPjBbdY
• Personality Skit Handout
• Vote on Best Group Skit

Due by: Monday January 23rd

at 11:59pm