Chapter 15
Understanding and Managing Individual Behavior
Have you ever wondered why the people around you are behaving the way they are?
People differ in their behaviors, and even the same person can behave one way one day
and a completely different way another day. Managers need to understand individual
behavior. Focus on the following learning objectives as you read and study this chapter.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
2. Explain the role that attitudes play in job performance.
4. Describe perception and factors that influence it.
6. Discuss contemporary issues in organizational behavior.
It’s Your Career
Self Awareness: You Need to Know Yourself Before You Can Know Others
Do you know your real self? Many of us don’t. Knowledge of your strengths and
weaknesses can help you gain insights into areas you want to change and improve. And
it can help you better understand how others see you. The following identifies five key
elements of your personality. Understanding how you rate on these elements is critical to
your self-awareness:
• Introversion vs. Extroversion. Are you quiet and reserved? If so, you are
probably best described as an introvert. In contrast, are you outgoing, sociable,
and assertive? This characterizes extroverts.
• Thinking vs. Feeling. In making decisions, do you put the emphasis on reason
and logic? If so, your preference is for thinking. If you make decisions by
• Internal Control vs. External Control. Do you believe that you’re the master of
your own fate? If so, you have an internal locus of control. If you believe that
• Organized vs. Disorganized. Are you conscientious, responsible, dependable,
and consistent? If so, then you’d be organized. Are you easily distracted,
• Open to Change vs. Comfortable with the Familiar. Finally, do you tend to be
creative, curious, and enjoy new experiences? You’d be open to change. If
Many of us don’t have a good read on who we are. If that’s you, here are three
suggestions on what you can do to increase your self-awareness:
1. Seek feedback. Find individuals you trust and seek their honest feedback.
3. Keep a journal. Keep a written, ongoing account that includes comments about
CHAPTER OUTLINE
INTRODUCTION
This chapter examines numerous factors that influence employee behavior and
their implications for managers.
15.1 FOCUS AND GOALS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Organizational behavior is the study of how people act at work. The visible
organization can be described as the tip of an iceberg; many of the important
issues involved in understanding OB are not easily observed. (See Exhibit 15-1)
A. Focus of Organizational Behavior. Organizational behavior focuses on
two major areas:
1. Individual behavior
2. Group behavior
B. The goals of OB are to explain, predict, and influence behavior. Six
15.2. ATTITUDES AND JOB PERFORMANCE
Attitudes are defined as evaluative statements—favorable or unfavorable—
concerning objects, people, or events. Attitudes have three components:
cognitive, affective, and behavioral.
1. The cognitive component of an attitude is the part of an attitude
2. The affective component of an attitude is that part of an attitude
Managers are particularly interested in the job-related attitudes of employees.
Job-related attitudes include job satisfaction, job involvement, organizational
commitment, and organizational citizenship behavior.
A. Job Satisfaction. Job Satisfaction is defined as an employee’s general
attitude toward his or her job.
1. In general, US workers report that they are satisfied with their job;
2. Following the Hawthorne Studies, many managers believed that if
3. Research on job attitudes shows a strong negative relationship
between job satisfaction and absenteeism.
5. Job satisfaction has been linked to customer satisfaction, but a
6. Organizational citizenship behavior is the discretionary
behavior that is not part of an employee’s formal job requirements,
7. While it is difficult to predict how employees will respond,
B. Job Involvement and Organizational Commitment. Job involvement
is the degree to which an employee identifies with his or her job, actively
C. Employee Engagement. Highly engaged employees are passionate
essentially “checked out” and don’t care.
D. Attitudes and Consistency. Research has generally shown that people
their behavior.
E. Cognitive Dissonance Theory. Cognitive dissonance refers to any
inconsistency that an individual might perceive between attitudes or
between behavior and attitudes.
1. Dissonance or inconsistency leads to an uncomfortable state for
the individual, who will try to reduce the inconsistency.
2. The desire to reduce dissonance is determined by (a) the
F. Attitude surveys. Companies often use surveys to ask employees how
they feel about their jobs, work groups, supervisors, or the organization.
Exhibit 15-2 provides a sample of an attitude survey.
G. Implications for Managers. A controversy exists concerning the
relationship between satisfaction and productivity. Are happy workers
productive workers?
1. Following the Hawthorne Studies, many managers believed that if
2. A review of the research on worker productivity indicates that if
3. Rather, managers should focus on factors that are conducive to a
4. The implication for managers from understanding attitudes is that
there is relatively strong evidence that committed and satisfied
LEADER MAKING A DIFFERENCE
Singapore Airlines (SIA) has a stellar reputation in the fiercely competitive commercial
aviation business. Chew Choon Seng has helped to create a culture where employees
excel and passengers appreciate the outstanding customer service. How does SIA build
a positive culture? SIA carefully selects people who are warm, hospitable, and happy to
serve others. All employees—from bottom to top—are very proud to be part of the SIA
family.
What can you learn from this leader making a difference?
15.3 PERSONALITY
Personality is defined is the unique combination of emotional, thought, and
behavioral patterns that affect how a person reacts and interacts with others.
A. MBTI. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI®) is a general personality
assessment. The MBTI® measures four dimensions:
2. Preference for gathering data: sensing (S) or intuitive (N)
4. Style of making decisions: perceptive (P) or judgmental (J)
Combining these preferences provides descriptions for about 16 different
B. The Big Five Model. The Big Five Model is a five-factor model of
personality.
1. Research has shown that important relationships exist
2. The personality traits in the Big Five Model are listed
below:
a. Extraversion
b. Agreeableness
C. Additional Personality Insights. Personality researchers have identified
five additional personality traits that have proved to be the most powerful
in explaining individual behavior in organizations: locus of control,
Machiavellianism, self-esteem, self-monitoring, and risk-taking.
1. Locus of control is the degree to which people believe they control
their own fate. Locus of control can be either external or internal.
3. Self-esteem is an individual’s degree of like or dislike for himself or
herself.
5. Risk-taking refers to an individual’s willingness to take risks.
D. Personality Types in Different Cultures. Do these personality types
transfer across cultures? Although no common personality types are
E. Emotions and Emotional Intelligence. Emotional intelligence (EI) is
the ability to notice and to manage emotional cues and information.
1. Emotional intelligence is composed of five dimensions:
a. Self-awareness
2. Research has shown that emotional intelligence is positively
related to job performance at all organizational levels.
FUTURE VISION: Increased Reliance on Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence refers to an assortment of non-cognitive skills, capabilities, and
competencies that influence a person’s ability to cope with environmental demands and
pressures. People who understand their own emotions and are good at reading others’
emotions are found to have emotional intelligence and may be more effective in their
jobs as managers. In a survey of critical skills for the workforce in 2020, social
intelligence ranked second on a list of the most critical skills. By the same token,
employees who have strong technical skills but are weak on emotional intelligence will
find it increasingly difficult to find and hold a job.
The following discussion questions are posed:
Talk About It 1: Why do you think the ability to get along with others is so critical?
Talk About It 2: How can you develop this ability?
Student answers to these questions will vary.
F. Implications for Managers. The benefit of a manager’s understanding
personality differences is clearly seen in the area of employee selection.
Just as individual personalities differ, so do jobs. Efforts have been made
to match the proper personalities with the proper jobs.
1. John Holland has developed the best-documented personality-job
fit theory (see Exhibit 15-4).
2. The key points of his model: Intrinsic differences in personality
15.4 PERCEPTION
Perception is the process of organizing and interpreting sensory impressions in
order to give meaning to the environment.
A. Factors that influence perception. A number of factors operate to shape
and sometimes distort perception:
2. The target (See Exhibit 15-5)
3. The situation
B. Attribution theory is a theory that explains how we judge people
differently depending on the meaning we attribute to a given behavior.
The determination of the cause of the behavior depends on three factors:
distinctiveness, consensus, and consistency.
2. Consensus refers to whether an individual who is faced with a
3. Consistency refers to the congruency in a person’s actions, that is,
4. Exhibit 15-6 summarizes the key elements of attribution theory.
5. One of the most interesting findings of attribution theory is that
there are errors or biases that distort attributions.
a. The fundamental attribution error refers to the tendency
to underestimate the influence of external factors and
overestimate the influence of internal factors when making
judgments about the behavior of others.
C. Shortcuts We Use In Judging Others
2. Stereotyping refers to judging a person on the basis of one’s
perception of a group to which he or she belongs.
3. Halo effect refers to a general impression of an individual based
on a single characteristic.
D. The Implication For Managers. Managers need to recognize that their
15.5 LEARNING
Learning is any relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs as a result
of experience.
A. Operant conditioning is a type of learning in which desired voluntary
behavior leads to a reward or prevents a punishment.
2. Operant conditioning theory proposes that behavior is determined
3. Skinner argued that creating pleasing and desirable
4. People will most likely engage in desired behaviors if they receive
positive reinforcement for doing so.
B. Social learning is a learning theory that says people learn through
observation and direct experience. Four processes determine the amount
of influence that these models will have on an individual: attentional
processes, retention processes, motor reproduction processes, and
reinforcement processes.
1. Attentional processes. People learn from a model only when they
recognize and pay attention to its critical features.
3. Motor reproduction processes. After a person has observed a new
4. Reinforcement processes. Individuals will be motivated to exhibit
modeled behavior if positive rewards are provided.
C. Shaping: A Managerial Tool. In shaping, a manager systematically
reinforces each successive step that moves an individual closer to a
desired response. Behavior can be shaped in four ways:
1. Positive reinforcement is reinforcing a desired behavior by
providing something pleasant after that behavior.
2. Negative reinforcement is reinforcing a desired behavior with the
4. Extinction involves eliminating any reinforcement that is
maintaining a behavior.
D. Implications for Managers. From learning theory, managers should
recognize that employees will learn while doing a job. A key question:
Will managers manage employees’ learning through the rewards the
managers allocate and the examples they set, or will managers allow
learning to occur haphazardly?
15.6 CONTEMPORARY OB ISSUES
A. Managing Generational Differences. Generations are defined by the
1. In comparison to previous groups, Generation Y employees have
2. In dealing with Gen Y workers, managers find three issues that
can create conflict with traditional organizational methods:
appearance, technology, and management style.
B. Managing Negative Behavior in the Workplace. Managers need to
recognize that negative behaviors exist and ignoring such misbehavior
will only confuse employees. In dealing with negative behaviors,
managers need to practice preventive and responsive actions.
ANSWERS TO REVIEW AND DISCUSSION
QUESTIONS
Student answers to these questions will vary.
15-1. 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.
15-2. Explain why the concept of an organization as an iceberg is important.
Like the iceberg that sunk the Titanic, the real danger of icebergs is not what lies on top,
15-3. Define the six important employee behaviors.
Employee productivity is a performance measure of both efficiency and effectiveness.
Absenteeism is the failure to report to work. Turnover is the voluntary and involuntary
15-4. Describe the three components of an attitude and explain the four job-related
attitudes.
15-5. Contrast the MBTI and the Big Five model. Describe five other personality traits
that help explain individual behavior in organizations.
The MBTI focuses on learning styles and measures four dimensions: social interaction,
15-6. Explain how an understanding of perception can help managers better understand
individual behavior. Name three shortcuts used in judging others.
15-7. Describe the key elements of attribution theory. Discuss the fundamental
attribution error and self-serving bias.
Attribution theory depends on three factors. Distinctiveness is whether an individual
displays different behaviors in different situations (that is, is the behavior unusual).
15-8. Describe operant conditioning and how managers can shape behavior.
Operant conditioning argues that behavior is a function of its consequences. Managers
PERSONAL INVENTORY ASSESSMENTS
Student answers to these questions will vary.
ETHICS DILEMMA
Student answers to these questions will vary.
This chapter’s ethical dilemma introduces the concept of the ‘desperation hustle.’
Employees who are “anxious about layoffs want to look irreplaceable.” Students are
asked what ethical issues might arise for both employees and for managers. How could
managers approach these circumstances ethically? Layoffs are stressful times for
15-11. What ethical issues might arise for both employees and for managers?
15-12. How could managers approach these circumstances ethically?
(LO: 6, Discuss contemporary issues in organizational behavior, AACSB: Reflective
thinking)
SKILLS EXERCISE: DEVELOPING YOUR
SHAPING BEHAVIOR SKILL
Managers are responsible for teaching employees the behaviors that are most critical to
their, and the organization’s, success. This involves ‘shaping’ the behavior of
employees, beginning with teaching skills and having them reinforced. In this exercise,
students are given seven steps to practice their shaping skills. Students are then asked
to imagine that their assistant is ideal in all respects but one—he or she is hopeless at
taking phone messages for you when you’re not in the office. Students are asked to
think about the factors contributing to this behavior and develop a shaping strategy by
WORKING TOGETHER: TEAM EXERCISE
This exercise addresses (pardon the pun) the issue of employee dress. This exercise
puts students in the middle of a situation in which a female employee is dressing
inappropriately for work. Have students form small groups of three to four individuals.
The team’s task is to come up with a specific plan for changing (shaping) the behavior of
any employee who violates the dress code policy. Have students write this up and be
prepared to share their ideas with the class. In this exercise, have students review the
seven shaping behaviors given in the skills exercise. Students should learn that as
MY TURN TO BE A MANAGER
• For one week, pay close attention to how people around you behave, especially
people who are close to you (roommates, siblings, significant others, coworkers,
etc.). Use what you’ve learned about attitudes, personality, perception, and
learning to understand and explain how and why they’re behaving the ways they
• Write down three attitudes you have. Identify the cognitive, affective, and
• Survey 15 employees (at your place of work or at some campus office). Be sure
be prepared to discuss this in class. If you were the manager in this workplace,
• If you’ve never taken a personality or career compatibility test, contact your
school’s testing center to see if you can take one. When you get your results,
evaluate what they mean for your career choice. Have you chosen a career that
• Complete the skill-building module Mentoring found in mymanagementlab. Your
professor will tell you what to do with it. (LO: 1, Identify the focus and goals of
individual behavior in organizations, AACSB: Reflective thinking) (LO: 2, Explain
the role that attitudes play in job performance, AACSB: Reflective thinking) (LO:
3, Describe different personality theories, AACSB: Reflective thinking) (LO: 4,
Describe perception and factors that influence it, AACSB: Reflective thinking
skills) (LO: 5, Discuss learning theories and their relevance in shaping behavior,
• Have you ever heard of the “waiter rule”? A lot of businesspeople think that how
you treat service workers says a lot about your character and attitudes. What do
you think this means? Do you agree with this idea? Why or why not? How would
• Like it or not, each of us is continually shaping the behavior of those around us.
For one week, keep track of how many times you use positive reinforcement,
negative reinforcement, punishment, or extinction to shape behaviors. At the end
of the week, look at your results. Which one did you tend to use most? What
were you trying to do; that is, what behaviors were you trying to shape? Were
your attempts successful? Evaluate. What could you have done differently if you
• Now do a Web search for sample job satisfaction surveys. Find one or two
samples. Write a report describing, comparing, and evaluating the examples you
• Steve’s and Mary’s recommended readings: Yoav Vardi and Ely Weitz,
Misbehavior in Organizations (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004); Murray R.
Barrick and A. M. Ryan (eds.), Personality and Work (Jossey-Bass, 2003); Daniel
Goleman, Destructive Emotions: How Can We Overcome Them? (Bantam,
1, Identify the focus and goals of individual behavior in organizations, AACSB:
Analytical thinking) (LO: 2, Explain the role that attitudes play in job performance,
AACSB: Analytical thinking) (LO: 3, Describe different personality theories,
• Survey 10 Gen Yers. Ask them three questions: (1) What do you think
appropriate office attire is? (2) How comfortable are you with using technology,
and what types of technology do you rely on most? (3) What do you think the
• In your own words, write down three things you learned in this chapter about
being a good manager. (LO: 1, Identify the focus and goals of individual behavior
in organizations, AACSB: Reflective thinking) (LO: 2, Explain the role that
attitudes play in job performance, AACSB: Reflective thinking) (LO: 3, Describe
• Self-knowledge can be a powerful learning tool. Go to mymanagementlab and
complete these self-assessment exercises: What’s My Basic Personality? What’s
My Jungian 16- Type Personality? (Note that this is a miniature version of the
MBTI®.) Am I a Type A? How Involved Am I in My Job? How Satisfied Am I with
My Job? What’s My Emotional Intelligence Score? and How Committed Am I to
My Organization? Using the results of your assessments, identify personal
strengths and weaknesses. What will you do to reinforce your strengths and
improve your weaknesses? (LO: 1, Identify the focus and goals of individual
ANSWERS TO CASE APPLICATION 1
QUESTIONS
Student answers to these questions will vary.
Great Place to Work
15-13. What is your impression of an “employee-friendly” culture? Would this work in
other organizations? Why or why not? What would it take to make it work?
15–14. How might an understanding of organizational behavior help CEO Jim Goodnight
lead his company? Be specific. How about first-line company supervisors? Again, be
specific.
Mr. Goodnight has good ideas about motivating his workforce. He is generous with
15–15. What do you think has contributed to SAS’s low turnover? Why is low turnover
good for a company?
The culture of SAS focuses on employee satisfaction and fosters a high level of
15–16. Look back at the statements made by the SAS employee on the Best Companies
survey. What does that tell you about the importance of understanding individual
behavior?
One SAS employee wrote that in his or her opinion, employees continue to work at SAS
ANSWERS TO CASE APPLICATION 2
QUESTIONS
Student answers to these questions will vary.
Employees First
15–17. 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?
15-18. 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.
As organizational behavior focuses on attitudes, personality, learning, and motivation,
15-19. What aspects of personality do you see in this story about HCL? How have
the personality traits of HCL employees contributed to make HCL what it is?
The following personality characteristics would be consistent with HCL’s employees first
culture. Have students consider other characteristics as well, and have them defend
their selections.
• Extrovert
15–20. Design an employee attitude survey for HCL’s employees.
Students will have a variety of items for this question. You should be sure to emphasize
the legal requirements concerning types of questions that employers ask their
employees. Students should also be able to explain what their questions are designed
to measure. You may want to ask students how they would determine both the validity
ADDITIONAL CHAPTER INFORMATION
You may want to have your students research the age-old question of the role of nature
versus environment (nurture) in determining personality. Some of this research is
currently exploring which aspects of personality may have a genetic component by
asking the question: Does DNA shape behavior? Some aspects of personality that may