Fundamentals of OB in Brief

Understanding individual behaviour
Foundations of Behaviour
Organisational behaviour (OB)

The actions of people at work
Dual focus of OB
Individual behaviour
Group behaviour
Norms, roles, team building, leadership, and conflict
Goals of OB
To explain, predict and influence behaviour.
Robbins, Bergman, Stagg, Coulter: Management 4e 2006 Pearson Education Australia

Organisational behaviour
Important employee behaviours
Organisational behaviour is the study of the

actions of people at work.
Employee productivity
Absenteeism
Figure 13.1
A performance measure of both efficiency and effectiveness
The failure to report to work when expected
Turnover
The voluntary and involuntary permanent withdrawal from

an organisation
Important employee behaviours

z
Organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB)
Attitudes
Discretionary behaviour that is not a part of an employees

formal job requirements, but which promotes the effective
functioning of the organisation.
Attitudes are evaluative statements

concerning objects, people or events
Job satisfaction
The individuals general attitude toward his or her job
Psychological factors
z
Psychological factors (contd)
Attitudes
Evaluative statementseither favourable or

unfavourableconcerning objects, people, or
events.
Job satisfaction
Job satisfaction is affected by level of income earned and by
the type of job a worker does.
Components of an attitude
Cognitive component: the beliefs, opinions, knowledge,
or information held by a person.
Affective component: the emotional or feeling part of an
attitude.
Job satisfaction and productivity

For individuals, productivity appears to lead to job satisfaction.
For organisations, those with more satisfied employees are
more effective than those with less satisfied employees.
Behavioural component: the intention to behave in a

certain way.

z
Job satisfaction and absenteeism
Satisfied employees tend to have lower levels of absenteeism.
Job satisfaction and turnover
Actions to increase job satisfaction for customer

service workers:
Turnover is affected by the level of employee

performance.
The preferential treatment afforded superior employees
makes satisfaction less important in predicting their
turnover decisions.
The degree to which an employee identifies with his or

her job, actively participates in it, and considers his or
her performance to be important to his or her self-worth
Organisational commitment
Is the degree to which an employee identifies with a

particular organisation and its goals and wishes to
maintain membership in the organisation.
Leads to lower levels of both absenteeism and turnover.
Could be becoming an outmoded measure as the
number of workers who change employers increases
Hire upbeat and friendly employees.
Reward superior customer service.
Provide a positive work climate.
Use attitude surveys to track employee satisfaction.
Job involvement
10

z
The level of job satisfaction for frontline employees is related

to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Interaction with dissatisfied customers can increase an
employees job dissatisfaction.
Satisfied employees have lower levels of turnover; dissatisfied

employees have higher levels of turnover.
Job satisfaction and customer satisfaction
11
Perceived organisational support
Is the general belief of employees that their organisation

values their contribution and cares about their well-being.
Represents the commitment of the organisation to the

employee.
Providing high levels of support increases job satisfaction

and lower turnover
12
In summary
Cognitive dissonance
Attitude Components
Components
Attitude
Cognition-Cognition
Behaviour-Behaviour
Affect-Affect
Beliefs and
and
Beliefs
opinions
opinions
Intention
Intention
Feelings and
and
Feelings
Emotions
Emotions
Desire
Desire to
to reduce
reduce dissonance
dissonance is
is
determined
by:
determined by:
Importance
Importance of
of factors
factors
creating
creating dissonance
dissonance
Rewards
Rewards involved
involved
Perceived
Perceived degree
degree of
of influence
influence
Over
Over these
these factors
factors
13
Cognitive dissonance theory

z
z Implication
Any incompatibility or inconsistency between

attitudes or between behaviour and attitudes.
for managers
Attitudes warn of potential behavioural problems:

Managers
should do things that generate the positive

attitudes that reduce absenteeism and turnover.
Any form of inconsistency is uncomfortable and

individuals will try to reduce the dissonance.
Attitudes influence behaviours of employees:
The intensity of the desire to reduce the dissonance

is influenced by:
Managers
should focus on helping employees become

more productive to increase job satisfaction.
The importance of the factors creating the dissonance.
The degree to which an individual believes that the

factors causing the dissonance are controllable.
Managers
Rewards available to compensate for the dissonance.
Managers
14
The importance of attitudes
Cognitive dissonance
Employees will try to reduce dissonance unless:

identify the external sources of dissonance.
provide rewards compensating for the

dissonance.
15
16
Myers Briggs Type Indicator
Personality
z
4 Dimensions*
Personality
Social
Interaction
The unique combination of psychological

characteristics (measurable traits) that affect how
a person reacts and interacts with others.
Preference for
Gathering Data
Preferences*
Extrovert (E)
Introvert (I)
Sensing (S)
Intuitive (N)
Feeling (F)
Preference for
Decision Making
Thinking (T)
Style of
Decision Making
Judgmental (J)
Perceptive (P)
*Combining dimensions/preferences results in 16 personality types.

17
18
Other personality insights

Extraversion
Agreeableness
The Big-Five
Personality Model
Openness to
Experience
Conscientiousness
External locus: persons who believe that what happens to

them is due to luck or chance (the uncontrollable effects of
outside forces) .
Internal locus: persons who believe that they control their

own destiny.
Machiavellianism (Mach)
The degree to which an individual is pragmatic, maintains
emotional distance, and seeks to gain and manipulate
powerthe ends justify the means.
Emotional
Stability
Locus of control
19
20
Other personality insights (contd)
zSelf-Esteem
(SE)
The degree to which people like or dislike

themselves
An individuals ability to adjust his or her behaviour to

external, situational factors.
High SEs
High self-monitors:
Believe
Take
Are
in themselves and expect success.
Are
Are sensitive to external cues and behave differently in

different situations.
Can present contradictory public persona and private

selves.
Low self-monitors
more susceptible to external influences.
Depend
Are
more risks and use unconventional approaches.
more satisfied with their jobs than Low SEs.
Low SEs
on positive evaluations from others.
more prone to conform than high SEs.
21

z
Self-Monitoring
Do not adjust their behaviour to the situation.
Are behaviourally consistent in public and private.

22
Emotional intelligence (EI)

Assortment of non-cognitive skills, capabilities and
competencies that influence a persons ability to
succeed in coping with environmental demands
and pressures
Risk-Taking
The propensity (willingness) to take risks.
High
risk-takers take less time and require less

information than low risk-takers when making a
decision.
Organisational effectiveness is maximized when the

risk-taking propensity of a manager is aligned with
the specific demands of the job assigned to the
manager.
23
Self-awareness
Self-motivation
Empathy
Social skills
Self-management
24
Emotions and intelligence

z
Emotions and intelligence

zEmotional
Emotions
intelligence (EI)
An assortment of non-cognitive skills, capabilities,

and competencies that influence a persons ability
to succeed in coping with environmental demands
and pressures.
Intense feelings (reactions) that are directed at

specific objects (someone or something)
Universal emotions:
Anger
Dimensions of EI:
Fear
Self-awareness:
knowing what youre feeling
Sadness
Self-management:
Happiness
Self-motivation:
Disgust
Empathy:
Surprise
Social
25
Personality
Occupations
Realistic
Shy, Stable, Practical
Mechanic, Farmer,
Assembly Worker
Investigative
Analytical, Independent
Biologist, Economist,
Mathematician
Social
Sociable, Cooperative
Social Worker,
Teacher, Counsellor
Conventional
Practical, Efficient
Accountant, Manager,
Bank Teller
Enterprising
Ambitious, Energetic
Lawyer, Salesperson
Artistic
Imaginative, Idealistic
Painter, Writer,
Musician
Table 13.3
sensing how others are feeling
skills: handling the emotions of others
26
Perception
Hollands theory of personality-job fit

Type
managing emotions and impulses
persisting despite setbacks and failures
Perception
Factors influencing perception:
27
A process by which individuals give meaning (reality) to

their environment by organizing and interpreting their
sensory impressions.
The perceivers personal characteristicsinterests, biases

and expectations
The targets characteristicsdistinctiveness, contrast, and
similarity)
The situation (context) factorsplace, time, locationdraw
attention or distract from the target
28
Perception
Factors
Factors
That
That Can
Can
Influence
Influence
Perception
Perception
Perception challenges: what do you see?
The
The
perceiver
perceiver
The
The
situation
situation
The
The
target
target
29
Figure 13.3
30

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Understanding individual behaviour

Organisational behaviour (OB)

Robbins, Bergman, Stagg, Coulter: Management 4e 2006 Pearson Education Australia

Important employee behaviours

Organisational behaviour is the study of the

A performance measure of both efficiency and effectiveness

The failure to report to work when expected

Robbins, Bergman, Stagg, Coulter: Management 4e 2006 Pearson Education Australia

The voluntary and involuntary permanent withdrawal from

Robbins, Bergman, Stagg, Coulter: Management 4e 2006 Pearson Education Australia

Important employee behaviours

Organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB)

Discretionary behaviour that is not a part of an employees

Attitudes are evaluative statements

The individuals general attitude toward his or her job

Robbins, Bergman, Stagg, Coulter: Management 4e 2006 Pearson Education Australia

Psychological factors (contd)

Robbins, Bergman, Stagg, Coulter: Management 4e 2006 Pearson Education Australia

Evaluative statementseither favourable or

the type of job a worker does.

Job satisfaction and productivity

Behavioural component: the intention to behave in a

Robbins, Bergman, Stagg, Coulter: Management 4e 2006 Pearson Education Australia

Psychological factors (contd)

Job satisfaction and absenteeism

Psychological factors (contd)

Satisfied employees tend to have lower levels of absenteeism.

Job satisfaction and turnover

Actions to increase job satisfaction for customer

Turnover is affected by the level of employee

Robbins, Bergman, Stagg, Coulter: Management 4e 2006 Pearson Education Australia

The degree to which an employee identifies with his or

Is the degree to which an employee identifies with a

Robbins, Bergman, Stagg, Coulter: Management 4e 2006 Pearson Education Australia

Hire upbeat and friendly employees.

Reward superior customer service.

Provide a positive work climate.

Use attitude surveys to track employee satisfaction.

Robbins, Bergman, Stagg, Coulter: Management 4e 2006 Pearson Education Australia

Psychological factors (contd)

Psychological factors (contd)

The level of job satisfaction for frontline employees is related

Satisfied employees have lower levels of turnover; dissatisfied

Job satisfaction and customer satisfaction

Perceived organisational support

Is the general belief of employees that their organisation

Represents the commitment of the organisation to the

Providing high levels of support increases job satisfaction

Robbins, Bergman, Stagg, Coulter: Management 4e 2006 Pearson Education Australia

Robbins, Bergman, Stagg, Coulter: Management 4e 2006 Pearson Education Australia

Cognitive dissonance theory

Any incompatibility or inconsistency between

Attitudes warn of potential behavioural problems:

should do things that generate the positive

Any form of inconsistency is uncomfortable and

Attitudes influence behaviours of employees:

The intensity of the desire to reduce the dissonance

should focus on helping employees become

The importance of the factors creating the dissonance.

The degree to which an individual believes that the

Rewards available to compensate for the dissonance.

Robbins, Bergman, Stagg, Coulter: Management 4e 2006 Pearson Education Australia

The importance of attitudes