CHAPTER SUMMARY – CHAPTER 14

Why Look at Individual Behavior?

 Explain why the concept of an organization an iceberg is important to

understanding organizational behavior.
 Describe the focus and goals of organizational behavior.
 Define the six important employee behaviors that managers want to explain,
predict, and influence.

The idea of an iceberg reflects the fact that there are hidden aspects that affect

how employees behave at work. (See Exhibit 14-1.)

Organizational behavior focuses on two areas: individual behavior and group

behavior. The goals of OB are to explain, predict, and influence employee behavior.

The six employee behaviors include: employee productivity – a performance

measure of both efficiency and effectiveness; absenteeism – the failure to report to work;

turnover – voluntary and involuntary permanent withdrawal from an organization;

organizational citizenship behavior – discretionary behavior that’s not part of an

employee’s formal job requirements; job satisfaction – an individual’s attitude towards

his or her job; and workplace misbehavior – any intentional employee behavior that has

negative consequences for the organization or individuals in the organization.

Attitudes

 Describe the three components of an attitude.

 Discuss the three job-related attitudes.
 Describe the impact job satisfaction has on employee behavior.
 Explain how individuals reconcile inconsistencies between attitudes and behavior.

Attitudes are evaluative statements concerning people, objects, or events. The

three components of an attitude include the cognitive (beliefs, opinions, knowledge or

information), the affective (the emotional or feeling part), and the behavioral (an

intention to behave in a certain way).

 Job satisfaction is an important attitude that can affect productivity (correlation is

fairly strong); absenteeism (satisfied employees typically have lower levels); turnover

(satisfied have lower levels); customer satisfaction (satisfied employees increase

customer satisfaction and loyalty); and workplace misbehavior (dissatisfied employee

will respond somehow).

Individuals reconcile inconsistencies between attitudes and behaviors aligning

their attitudes and behaviors so they appear rational and consistent or when there is an

inconsistency by taking steps to make it consistent.

Personality

 Contrast the MBTI and the big-five model of personality.

 Describe the five personality traits that have proved to be the most powerful in
explaining individual behavior in organizations.
 Explain how emotions and emotional intelligence impact behavior.

The MBTI is a popular approach to classifying personality traits. It looks at social

interaction (extrovert or introvert), preference for gathering data (sensing or intuitive),

preference for decision making (feeling or thinking), and style of making decisions

(perceptive or judgmental). The Big Five model looks are five basic personality

dimensions (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and

openness to experience) that underlie all others and encompass most of the signification

variation in human personality.

The five personality traits that have proved to be the most powerful in explaining

individual behavior in organizations include locus of control, Machiavellianism, self-

esteem, self-monitoring, and risk-taking.

 Emotions and emotional intelligence impact behavior because emotions,

especially how we respond emotionally and how we deal with our emotions, can be

functions of our personality.

Perception

 Explain how an understanding of perception can help managers.

 Describe the key elements of attribution theory.
 Discuss how the fundamental attribution error and self-serving bias can distort
attributions.
 Name three shortcuts used in judging others.

Perception is a process by which individuals give meaning to their environment

and managers need to understand how perception explains, predicts, and influences

behavior.

The key elements of attribution theory (see Exhibit 14-6) are observation of

behavior, interpretation of behavior (distinctiveness, consensus, consistency), and

attribution of cause (external or internal).

The fundamental attribution error is the tendency to underestimate the influence

of external factors and overestimate the influence of internal or personal factors. Self-

serving bias describes how individuals attribute their own successes to internal factors

while putting the blame for personal failure on external factors.

Three shortcuts used in judging others include assumed similarity (“like me”

effect), stereotyping (judging someone on the basis of a group to which he or she

belongs), and halo effect (letting a single characteristic form our general impression).

Learning

 Explain how operant conditioning helps managers understand, predict, and

influence behavior.
 Describe the implications of social learning theory for managing people at work.
 Discuss how managers can shape behavior.
 Operant conditioning says that behavior is a function of its consequences and it

helps managers understand, predict, and influence behavior.

Social learning theory says that people learn through observation and direct

experience.

Managers can shape behavior by using positive reinforcement (administering

something positive to get desired behavior), negative reinforcement (withdrawing

something unpleasant to get desired behavior), punishment (penalizing undesirable

behavior to eliminate it), and extinction (ignoring behavior to eliminate it).

Contemporary OB Issues

 Describe the challenges managers face in managing Gen Y workers.

 Explain what managers can do to deal with workplace misbehavior.

Managing Gen Y workers presents some unique challenges especially when it

comes to appearance, technology, and management style. (See Exhibit 14-7.)

To manage workplace misbehavior, managers need to recognize that it exists and

then try to prevent it. It can also be important to monitor employee attitudes because

negative behavior can show up there as well.