Chapter 9 – Foundations of Individual Behavior
CHAPTER
9
FOUNDATIONS
OF INDIVIDUAL
BEHAVIOR
LEARNING OUTCOMES
After reading this chapter, students should be able to:
9-1. Identify the focus and goals of organizational behavior (OB).
9-2. Explain the role that attitudes play in job performance.
9-3. Describe different personality theories.
9-4. Describe perception and the factors that influence it.
9-5. Discuss learning theories and their relevance in shaping behavior.
9-6. Discuss contemporary issues in OB.
Management Myth
Myth: A good manager treats all employees the same.
Truth: A good manager gets to know the unique individual characteristics of the people in his or
her team to be able to effectively manage each of them.
Teaching Tips:
Ask students how attitudes and personalities affect individual behavior. People differ in their
behaviors and managers need to understand this in order to be effective.
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Chapter 9 – Foundations of Individual Behavior
I. WHAT ARE THE FOCUS AND GOALS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR?
A. Organizational Behavior
1. Organizational behavior is concerned specifically with the actions of people at
work.
2. Addresses some issues that are not obvious, such as informal elements. (See
Exhibit 9-1.)
B. What Is the Focus of Organizational Behavior?
1. First, OB looks at individual behavior.
a) Psychologists are primary contributors.
b) Includes attitudes, personality, perception, learning, and motivation.
2. Second, OB is concerned with group behavior.
a) Sociologists and social psychologists are primary contributors.
b) Includes norms, roles, team building, leadership, and conflict.
3. Finally, OB looks at organizational aspects including structure, culture, and human
resource policies and practices.
C. What Are the Goals of Organizational Behavior?
1. To explain, predict, and influence behavior.
2. The manager needs to explain why employees engage in some behaviors rather
than others; predict how employees will respond to various actions by the
manager; and influence how employees will behave.
3. Six important employee behaviors that managers are specifically concerned with
explaining, predicting, and influencing are employee productivity; absenteeism;
turnover; organizational citizenship; job satisfaction; and workplace misbehavior.
4. Employee productivity – performance measure of both work efficiency and
effectiveness.
5. Absenteeism – the failure to show up for work.
6. Turnover – the voluntary and involuntary permanent withdrawal from an
organization.
7. Organizational citizenship – a fourth type of behavior becoming important in
determining employee performance.
a) Discretionary behavior that’s not directly part of an employee’s formal job
description, but which reflects behaviors that promote the effective functioning
of the organization.
(1) Examples, helping others on one’s work team, volunteering for extra job
activities, avoiding unnecessary conflicts, making constructive statements
about one’s work group and the overall organization.
8. Job satisfaction—not a behavior—it’s an attitude.
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a) An employee’s attitude may be linked to his or her productivity, absenteeism,
and turnover.
9. Workplace misbehavior is any intentional employee behavior that is potentially
harmful to the organization or individuals within the organization.
10. Workplace misbehavior shows up in organizations in four ways: deviance,
aggression, antisocial behavior, and violence.
II. WHAT ROLE DO ATTITUDES PLAY IN JOB PERFORMANCE?
A. Attitudes are evaluative statements—favorable or unfavorable—concerning objects,
people, or events.
1. Attitudes reflect how an individual feels about something.
B. What Are the Three Components of an Attitude?
1. An attitude is made up of three components: cognitive, affective, and behavioral.
2. The cognitive component consists of the beliefs, opinions, knowledge, and
information held by a person.
3. The affective component of an attitude is the emotional, or feeling, segment of an
attitude.
a) Cognition and affect can lead to behavioral outcomes.
4. The behavioral component of an attitude refers to an intention to behave in a certain
way.
C. What Attitudes Might Employees Hold?
1. The three most important job-related attitudes are job involvement, organizational
commitment, and employee engagement.
a) Job involvement is the degree to which an employee identifies with his or her
job, actively participates in it, and considers job performance important to his
or her self-worth.
b) Organizational commitment represents an employee’s orientation toward the
organization in terms of his or her loyalty to, identification with, and
involvement in the organization.
c) Employee engagement, which is when employees are connected to, satisfied
with, and enthusiastic about their jobs.
(1) Research shows that the top five factors contributing to employee engagement
are respect; type of work; work/life balance; providing good service to
customers; and base pay.
D. Do Individual’s Attitudes and Behaviors Need to be Consistent?
1. People change what they say so that it doesn’t contradict what they do.
2. People seek consistency among their attitudes and between their attitudes and their
behavior.
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3. Individuals try to reconcile differing attitudes and align their attitudes and behavior
so that they appear rational and consistent.
E. What Is Cognitive Dissonance Theory?
1. Leon Festinger, in the late 1950s, proposed the theory of cognitive dissonance.
2. This theory sought to explain the relationship between attitudes and behavior.
a) Dissonance in this case means inconsistency.
b) Cognitive dissonance refers to any incompatibility that an individual might
perceive between attitudes or between his or her behavior and attitudes.
3. Festinger argued that any form of inconsistency is uncomfortable and that
individuals will attempt to reduce the dissonance and the discomfort.
4. Festinger proposed that the desire to reduce dissonance is determined by:
a) The importance of the elements creating the dissonance.
b) The degree of influence the individual believes he or she has over the elements.
c) The rewards that may be involved.
5. Rewards also influence the degree to which individuals are motivated to reduce
dissonance.
a) High dissonance, when accompanied by high rewards, tends to reduce the
tension inherent in the dissonance.
6. Just because individuals experience dissonance, they will not necessarily move
toward consistency—toward reduction of the dissonance.
a) The individual will not be under great tension to reduce the dissonance if:
(1) The issues underlying the dissonance are of minimal importance.
(2) An individual perceives that the dissonance is externally imposed and is
substantially uncontrollable.
(3) Rewards are significant enough to offset the dissonance.
F. How Can an Understanding of Attitudes Help Managers Be More Effective?
1. Managers should be interested in their employees’ attitudes because they influence
behavior in the following ways:
a) Committed and satisfied employees have low rates of turnover and
absenteeism.
b) Satisfied employees perform better on the job.
c) Attitude surveys help to identify sources of dissatisfaction.
d) Employees will try to reduce dissonance.
(1) The pressure to reduce the dissonance is lessened when the employee
perceives that the dissonance is externally imposed and uncontrollable.
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(2) The pressure is also lessened if the rewards are significant enough to offset the
dissonance.
A Question of Ethics
Have you ever faked a smile? All of us have at sometime, somewhere. Now research has shown
that employees “fake a positive outlook when the boss is around.” Being ambivalent (or even
negative) about your work or about working for your organization can be a definite detriment.
Employers want to see passion. They want you to love your job and be excited about coming to
work and about doing your job. And when you don’t? If you want to keep your job, you fake it.
But all that takes a toll.
Questions for students to consider:
What ethical issues might arise under these circumstances for both employees and for
managers?
Discuss ways managers could create an environment where employees don’t have to fake
a positive outlook.
III. WHAT DO MANAGERS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT PERSONALITY?
A. Introduction
1. An individual’s personality is a unique combination of emotional, thought, and
behavioral patterns that affect how a person reacts to situations and interacts with
others.
B. Can Personality Predict Behavior?
1. Researchers attempted to focus specifically on which traits identify sources of
one’s personality.
2. Two widely recognized efforts.
a) The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.
b) The Big Five model of personality.
3. What is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator?
a) One of the more widely used methods of identifying personalities.
b) Uses four dimensions of personality to identify 16 different personality types
based on the responses to an approximately 100-item questionnaire.
(1) Used by 80 percent of Fortune 1000 companies.
c) The sixteen personality types are based on the four dimensions.
d) Extraversion versus introversion (EI).
(1) The EI dimension describes an individual’s orientation toward the external
world of the environment (E) or the inner world of ideas and experiences
(I).
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e) Sensing versus intuitive (SN).
(1) The sensing-intuitive dimension indicates an individual’s preference for
gathering data, while focusing on a standard routine based on factual data
(S), to focusing on the big picture and making connections among the
facts (N).
f) Thinking versus feeling (TF).
(1) Thinking-feeling reflects one’s preference for making decisions in a
logical and analytical manner (T) or on the basis of values and beliefs and
the effects the decision will have on others (F).
g) Judging versus perceiving (JP).
(1) Judging-perceiving index reflects an attitude toward how one deals with
the external world – either in a planned and orderly way (J) or preferring
to remain flexible and spontaneous (P).
4. What is the Big Five model of personality?
a) The Big Five factors are:
(1) Extraversion—the degree to which someone is sociable, talkative, and
assertive.
(2) Agreeableness—the degree to which someone is good-natured,
cooperative, and trusting.
(3) Conscientiousness—the degree to which someone is responsible,
dependable, persistent, and achievement oriented.
(4) Emotional stability—the degree to which someone is calm, enthusiastic,
and secure (positive), or tense, nervous, depressed, and insecure
(negative).
(5) Openness to experience—the degree to which someone is imaginative,
artistically sensitive, and intellectual.
b) Research has shown important relationships between these dimensions and job
performance.
(1) One study reviewed five categories of occupations: professionals,
managers, sales, and semiskilled and skilled employees.
(2) Job performance was defined in terms of employee performance ratings,
training competency, and personnel data such as salary level.
(3) The results of the study showed that conscientiousness predicted job
performance for all five occupational groups.
(4) Predictions for the other personality dimensions depended on the situation
and the occupational group.
(a) Extraversion predicted performance in managerial and sales positions.
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(b) Openness to experience was found to be important in predicting
training competency.
(c) Emotional security was not positively related to job performance.
5. What is emotional intelligence?
a) According to underlying research on emotional intelligence, people who
understand their own emotions and are good at reading others’ emotions may
be more effective in their jobs.
b) Emotional intelligence (EI) refers to an assortment of noncognitive skills,
capabilities, and competencies that influence a person’s ability to cope with
environmental demands and pressures.
c) EI is composed of five dimensions.
(1) Self-awareness—being aware of what you’re feeling.
(2) Self-management—the ability to manage your own emotions and
impulses.
(3) Self-motivation—the ability to persist in the face of setbacks and failures.
(4) Empathy—the ability to sense how others are feeling.
(5) Social skills—the ability to handle the emotions of others.
d) Several studies suggest EI may play an important role in job performance.
(1) One study looked at the characteristics of Bell Lab engineers rated as stars
by their peers.
(a) Scientists concluded it was EI, not academic IQ, which characterized
high performers.
(2) A second study of Air Force recruiters generated similar findings—top
performing recruiters exhibited high levels of EI.
(3) Examples, Air Force, American Express, Cooperative Printing in
Minneapolis.
e) Employers should consider EI as a criterion in their selection process.
Technology and the Manager’s Job
Increased Reliance on Emotional Intelligence
Even as technology allows more and more employees to move to off-site work arrangements,
that doesn’t mean that they won’t be interacting with others. Nope….they’ll still have ongoing
contact with colleagues and customers. And whether it goes by the name of emotional
intelligence, social intelligence, or something else, the ability to understand yourself and others
will be a skill that organizations will seek when hiring employees.
Teaching Tips:
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Many students assume that having strong technical skills makes them attractive to employers.
What they may not think about is the need to get along with others—co-workers and customers
—and how this will impact their ability to be successful.
Questions for students to consider:
Why do you think the ability to get along with others is so critical?
How can you develop this ability?
C. Can Personality Traits Predict Practical Work-Related Behaviors?
1. Five personality traits have proven most powerful in explaining individual
behavior in organizations.
2. Locus of control.
a) Who has control over an individual’s behavior?
b) An internal locus of control—people believe that they control their fate.
(1) Internals explain a performance evaluation in terms of their own action.
c) An external locus of control—people believe that their lives are controlled by
outside forces.
(1) Externals blame a poor performance evaluation on events outside their
control (e.g., their boss’s prejudice, their coworkers, etc.).
3. Machiavellianism (“Mach”).
a) Named after Niccolo Machiavelli who provided instruction in the 16th century
on how to gain and manipulate power.
b) A high “Mach” is pragmatic, maintains emotional distance, believes that ends
can justify means, and is found to have beliefs that are less ethical.
c) “If it works, use it” is consistent with a high Mach perspective.
d) High Machs are productive in jobs that require bargaining skills or that have
substantial rewards for winning.
4. Self-esteem (SE).
a) People differ in the degree to which they like or dislike themselves.
b) Research suggests that self-esteem is directly related to expectations for
success.
(1) High SEs believe that they possess the ability to succeed at work, take
more risks in job selection, and are more likely to choose unconventional
jobs.
c) Low SEs are more susceptible to external influence than are high SEs.
(1) In managerial positions, low SEs will tend to be concerned with pleasing
others and be less likely to take unpopular stands.
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d) Relationship to job satisfaction—high SEs are more satisfied with their jobs.
5. Self-monitoring.
a) An individual’s ability to adjust his or her behavior to external, situational
factors.
b) Individuals high in self-monitoring can show considerable adaptability.
c) They are highly sensitive to external cues and can behave differently in
different situations.
(1) High self-monitors are capable of presenting striking contradictions
between their public persona and their private selves.
d) Low self-monitors are behaviorally consistent between who they are and what
they do.
e) High self-monitors pay closer attention to the behavior of others and are more
capable of conforming, which might help them be more successful in
managerial positions that require multiple, even contradicting, roles.
6. Propensity for risk taking.
a) This preference to assume or avoid risk impacts how long it takes individuals
to make a decision and how much information they require.
b) In one classic study, high-risk-taking managers made more rapid decisions and
used less information in making their choices than did the low-risk-taking
managers.
(1) Decision accuracy was the same for both groups.
c) It is generally correct to conclude that managers in organizations are
risk-aversive.
d) It makes sense to recognize that there are individual differences on propensity
for being risk-aversive and to consider aligning risk-taking propensity with
specific job demands.
D. How Do We Match Personalities and Jobs?
1. Efforts have been made to match the proper personalities with the proper jobs.
2. The best-documented personality-job fit theory by psychologist John Holland
states that an employee’s satisfaction with the job, as well as the propensity to
leave that job, depends on the degree to which the individual’s personality matches
his or her occupational environment.
3. Holland identified six basic personality types.
4. The theory argues that satisfaction is highest and turnover lowest when personality
and occupation match. (See Exhibit 9-2.)
5. Three key points of Holland’s model:
a) There do appear to be intrinsic differences in personality among individuals.
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b) There are different types of jobs.
c) People in job environments compatible with their personality types should be
more satisfied and less likely to resign voluntarily than should people in
incongruent jobs.
E. Do Personality Attributes Differ Across Cultures?
1. There certainly are no dominant personality types for a given country.
2. Yet a country’s culture should influence the dominant personality characteristics of
its population.
3. For example, locus of control.
a) North Americans believe that they can dominate their environment.
b) Those in Middle Eastern countries believe that life is essentially
pre-determined.
F. How Can an Understanding of Personality Help Managers Be More Effective?
1. Over 62 percent of companies are using personality tests when recruiting and
hiring.
a) Managers are likely to have higher-performing and more-satisfied employees if
consideration is given to matching personalities with jobs.
2. Managers need to recognize that people approach problem solving, decision
making, and job interactions differently.
3. Managers need to understand employees in order to work effectively with them.
Understanding personality traits and emotions will help managers achieve this.
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