REVIEW AND APPLICATIONS
CHAPTER SUMMARY
9-1 Identify the focus and goals of organizational behavior (OB). OB focuses on three areas:
individual behavior, group behavior, and organizational aspects. The goals of OB are to explain,
predict, and influence employee behavior. Six important employee behaviors are as follows:
9-2 Explain the role that attitudes play in job performance. Attitudes are evaluative statements
concerning people, objects, or events. The cognitive component of an attitude refers to the
beliefs, opinions, knowledge, or information held by a person. The affective component is the
emotional or feeling part of an attitude. The behavioral component refers to an intention to
9-3 Describe different personality theories. The MBTI measures four dimensions: social
interaction, preference for gathering data, preference for decision making, and style of making
decisions. The Big Five model consists of five personality traits: extraversion, agreeableness,
9-4 Describe perception and the factors that influence it. Perception is how we give meaning to
our environment by organizing and interpreting sensory impressions. Attribution theory helps
explain how we judge people differently. It depends on three factors. Distinctiveness is whether
9-5 Discuss learning theories and their relevance in shaping behavior. Operant conditioning
argues that behavior is a function of its consequences. Social learning theory says that
9-6 Discuss contemporary issues in OB. The challenge of managing Gen Y workers is that they
bring new attitudes to the workplace. The main challenges are over issues such as appearance,
DISCUSSON QUESTIONS
9-1 How is an organization like an iceberg? Use the iceberg metaphor to describe the field
of organizational behavior.
9-2 Does the importance of knowledge of OB differ based on a manager’s level in the
organization? If so, how? If not, why not? Be specific.
Answer: Student answers will vary. OB knowledge is important at every level of
9-3 Define the six important employee behaviors.
9-4 Clarify how individuals reconcile inconsistencies between attitudes and behaviors.
Answer: People seek consistency among their attitudes and between their attitudes and
9-5 Describe what is meant by the term emotional intelligence. Provide an example of how
it’s used in contemporary organizations.
Answer: People who understand their own emotions and are good at reading others’
emotions are said to have emotional intelligence and may be more effective in their jobs.
Emotional intelligence refers to an assortment of non-cognitive skills, capabilities, and
One study looked at the characteristics of the Bell Lab engineers who were rated as stars by
9-6 “Instead of worrying about job satisfaction, companies should be trying to create
environments where performance is enabled.” What do you think this statement means?
Explain. What’s your reaction to this statement? Do you agree? Disagree? Why?
Answer: Students should agree and then share why they believe it to be true. Some
suggestions would be that a caring culture and managers with good interpersonal skills will
9-7 How might a manager use personality traits to improve employee selection in his
department? Emotional intelligence? Discuss.
Answer: The major value probably lies in selection. There are more higher-performing and
A study of Air Force recruiters showed that top performing recruiters exhibited high levels
9-8 Describe the implications of social learning theory for managing people at work.
Answer: Because learning takes place on the job as well as before it, managers will be
concerned with how they can teach employees to behave in ways that most benefit the
9-9 A Gallup Organization survey shows that most workers rate having a caring boss
even higher than they value money or fringe benefits. How should managers interpret this
information? What are the implications?
Answer: Managers should adjust their styles for the people they manage and the
The implication is that employees will be more satisfied and presumably more productive
9-10 Write down three attitudes you have. Identify the cognitive, affective, and behavioral
components of those attitudes.
MyManagementLab
Students can find the following assisted-graded writing questions at
9-11 Why is it important for managers to have an understanding of organizational behavior?
9-12 Describe the key elements of attribution theory. Discuss how the fundamental attribution
error and self-serving bias play a role.
Management Skill Builder: Understanding Employee Emotions
Employees bring their emotions with them to work every day. Although managers would like to
think that employees are always rational, they aren’t. And any manager who deals with people
by ignoring how emotions—such as fear, anger, love, hate, joy, and grief—shape employees’
day-to-day behavior isn’t likely to be very effective.
Personal Inventory Assessment: Understanding Employee Emotions
How emotionally intelligent are you? Take this PIA and find out how good you are at
understanding employee emotions.
Skill Basics
To better understanding another person’s felt emotions we can look at the following cues:
Assess others’ emotional intelligence (EI).
Ask about emotions.
Look for nonverbal cues.
Look for how things are said.
Practicing the Skill
This can be a time consuming activity, so make sure that adequate time is allocated to
perform the interviews. Encourage students to ask questions at the end of the interviews
and illicit examples of both good and poor control of emotions. Stress to students that as
managers it is important to control negative emotions during the course of the job. There
are many times when managers are called upon to act professionally when they are
dealing with personal matters.
A short lecture on the benefits of emotional intelligence may help students take the
exercise more seriously.
Experiential Exercise
Wood Designs Plus
To: Ted Sigler, Director of HR
From: Michelle DePriest, President
Re: Hiring
Wood Designs Plus manufacturing operations have grown to the point where they need to add a
corporate controller and a national sales director. The controller will be responsible for
establishing operational and financial standards (in other words, a lot of number-crunching using
financial and manufacturing statistics) for our various work units. The national sales director will
be responsible for working closely with our sales staff to further develop long-lasting and
mutually beneficial relationships with our customers.
Ted, the Director of HR, has been assigned the task of writing up a short report describing the
personality type that might be an appropriate match for each of these new positions.
Teaching Tip: There are a variety of ways that students can address personality and job
fit. First, students could use a personality inventory such as the Big Five (which is
described in the chapter) and make some assumptions about which type of personality is
best suited for each job. Students could also use the MBTI (one of the most popular
inventories used in job related decisions) or a similar version such as the Kiersey
Temperament Sorter (available online).
Another approach would be to research Holland’s Occupational Themes online.
Case Application 1: Getting All Emotional at Google
Discussion Questions
9-13 Why might emotional intelligence be important to Google’s engineers?
9-14 What is the purpose of the Search Inside Yourself course?
The SIY course was designed to show Googlers how to be more aware of their emotions,
9-15 Describe each of the three parts of the SIY course. Which do you think would be hardest to
master? Why?
9-16 How has Google made the SIY course appeal to its engineers?
Case Application 2: Odd Couples
Discussion Questions
9-17 What possible OB topics do you see in this story? Explain.
9-18 What do you think about this pairing-up idea? Would you be comfortable with such an
arrangement? Why or why not?
9-19 What personality traits would be most needed for this type of work arrangement? Why?
9-20 What types of issues might a Gen Y employee and an older more-experienced employee
face? How could two people in such a close-knit work arrangement deal with those
issues? That is, how could both make the adjustment easier?
Case Application 3: Employees First
Discussion Questions
9-21 What is your impression of an “employees first” culture? Would this work in other
organizations? Why or why not? What would it take to make it work?
9-22 How might an understanding of organizational behavior help CEO Vineet Nayar lead his
company? Be specific. How about first-line company supervisors? Again, be specific.
9-23 What aspects of personality do you see in this story about HCL? How have the personality
traits of HCL employees contributed to make what HCL what it is?
9-24 Design an employee attitude survey for HCL’s employees.
Students should include attitudes such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment,
and organizational citizenship behaviors in the survey items. With the programs proposed