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PART FIVE
C H A P T E R
Foundations of
Behavior
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T H I R T E E N
13
Have you ever wondered why the people
In their study of Chapter 13, your students will
around you are behaving the way they are? have an opportunity to learn fundamental
People differ in their behaviors, and even the information about individual and group behavior
in the workplace. This chapter explores key topics
same person can behave one way one day and
related to the behavior of individuals at work
a completely different way another day.
including attitudes, personality, perception,
Managers need to understand individual
learning, and motivation. Students will look at
behavior. Focus on the following learning
dynamics of group behavior that encompass
outcomes as you read and study this chapter. norms, roles, team building, leadership, and
conflict resolution. In exploring these dimensions
of organizational behavior, the text lays the
Learning Outcomes
foundation for understanding how and why people
13.1 Identify the focus and goals of
behave the way they do within the organization’s
organizational behavior.
environment.
13.2 Explain the role that attitudes play in job In “A Manager’s Dilemma,” students read about
performance.
the challenges facing Lisa Brummel, the new head
of Human Resources at software giant Microsoft.
13.3 Describe different personality theories.
With no previous experience as an HR manager,
Ms. Brummel is facing serious morale problems at
13.4 Describe perception and factors that
a company once known for its groundbreaking
influence it.
benefits package. What started as a seemingly
small incident, taking away free towels from
13.5 Discuss learning theories and their
employees in the locker room, has erupted into an
relevance in shaping behavior.
employee outcry of mistreatment.
13.6 Discuss contemporary issues in
Combined with decreasing stock prices and
organizational behavior.
increasing competition from Google, morale at
Microsoft is at an all time low. Ms. Brummel must
now deal with high expectations while at the same
time providing the most efficient and effective
benefits to employees. As students put themselves
in new HR manager’s position, they are asked how
they can improve the mood at Microsoft.
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ANNOTATED OUTLINE
INTRODUCTION
This chapter examines numerous factors that influence employee behavior and
their implications for managers.
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 13-1)
A.
Focus of Organizational Behavior
Organizational behavior focuses on two major areas:
1.
2.
Individual behavior
Group behavior
B.
3.
The goals of OB are to explain, predict, and influence behavior. Six
important behaviors have been identified from for the study of OB:
employee productivity, absenteeism, turnover, organizational citizenship
behavior (OCB), job satisfaction, and workplace misbehavior.
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.
2.
3.
The cognitive component of an attitude is the part of an
attitude that is made up of the beliefs, opinions, knowledge, or
information held by a person.
The affective component of an attitude is that part of an
attitude that is the emotional, or feeling, part.
The behavioral component of an attitude is that part of an
attitude that refers to an intention to behave in a certain way.
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; however, this number has been declining since
the 1995. The degree of job satisfaction has been linked
to income, but is probably influenced more by the type
of job an employee performs.
2.
Following the Hawthorne Studies, many managers
believed that if they kept their employees happy, the
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B.
employees would be productive. Current studies show a
fairly strong relationship between satisfaction and
performance.
3.
Research on job attitudes shows a strong negative
relationship between job satisfaction and absenteeism.
4.
The strongest variable related to job satisfaction is
turnover.
5.
Job satisfaction has been linked to customer satisfaction,
but a converse relationship has also been found to be
true, customer dissatisfaction has been related to an
employee’s job satisfaction.
6.
Organizational
citizenship
behavior
is
the
discretionary behavior that is not part of an employee’s
formal job requirements, but promotes the effective
functioning of the organization. While it is obvious that
job satisfaction is related to organizational citizenship
behavior, other variables such as fairness and the type of
citizenship behavior play a role in the relationship.
7.
While it is difficult to predict how employees will
respond, managers need to be aware that dissatisfied
employees may engage in misbehavior or violence at
work.
Job Involvement and Organizational Commitment. Job
involvement is the degree to which an employee identifies with
his or her job, actively participates in it, and considers his or her
job performance important to his or her self-worth.
Organizational commitment is 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. Highly engaged employees are
passionate about and deeply connected to their work.
Disengaged employees have essentially “checked out” and don’t
care. Exhibit 13–2 lists the key engagement factors
D.
Attitudes and Consistency. Research has generally shown that
people seek consistency among their attitudes and between their
attitudes and 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
importance of the factors creating the dissonance, (b) the
degree of influence the individual believes he/she has
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3.
E.
F.
Attitude surveys. Companies often use surveys to ask employees how
they feel about their jobs, work groups, supervisors, or the organization.
Exhibit 13-3 provides a sample of an attitude survey.
Implications for Managers. A controversy exists concerning the
relationship between satisfaction and productivity. Are happy workers
productive workers?
1.
2.
3.
4.
3.
over those factors, and (c) the rewards that may be
involved in dissonance.
Individuals reduce dissonance either by changing the
behavior, concluding that the dissonant behavior is not
so important after all, by changing the attitude or by
identifying compatible factors that outweigh the
dissonant ones.
Following the Hawthorne Studies, many managers believed that
if they kept their employees happy, the employees would be
productive.
A review of the research on worker productivity indicates that if
satisfaction does have a positive effect on productivity, that
effect is fairly small.
Rather, managers should focus on factors that are conducive to a
high degree of employee satisfaction. Such factors include
mentally challenging work, equitable rewards, supportive
working conditions, and supportive colleagues.
The implication for managers from understanding attitudes is
that there is relatively strong evidence that committed and
satisfied employees have lower rates of turnover and
absenteeism. Also, the belief that making employees happy will
make them productive needs to be reexamined.
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:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Social interaction: extrovert (E) or introvert (I)
Preference for gathering data: sensing (S) or intuitive (N)
Preference for decision making: feeling (F) or thinking (T)
Style of making decisions: perceptive (P) or judgmental (J)
Combining these preferences provides descriptions about 16 different
personality types. Examples of MBTI® personality types are shown in
Exhibit 13-4.
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B.
The Big Five Model. The Big-Five Model is a five-factor model of
personality.
1. Research has shown that important relationships exist
between these personality dimensions and job
performance.
2. The personality traits in the Big-Five Model are listed
below:
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
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.
2.
3.
4.
5.
D.
E.
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Conscientiousness
Emotional Stability
Openness to Experience
Locus of control is the degree to which people believe they
control their own fate. Locus of control can be either external or
internal.
Machiavellianism is the degree to which people are pragmatic,
maintain emotional distance, and believe that ends justify means.
Self-esteem is an individual’s degree of like or dislike for himself
or herself.
Self-monitoring is an individual’s ability to adjust his or her
behavior to external situational factors.
Risk-taking refers to an individual’s willingness to take risks.
Personality Types in Different Cultures. Do these personality types
transfer across cultures? Although no common personality types are
found in a given national culture a country’s culture can influence
dominant personality characteristics of its people. This is particularly
true for the personality trait, locus of control.
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.
b.
c.
d.
e.
2.
Self-awareness
Self-management
Self-motivation
Empathy
Social skills
Research has shown that emotional intelligence is positively
related to job performance at all organizational levels.
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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 too do jobs. Efforts have been
made to match the proper personalities with the proper jobs.
1.
2.
4.
John Holland has developed the best-documented personalityjob fit theory (see Exhibit 13-5).
The key points of his model: Intrinsic differences in personality
probably do exist among individuals; there are different types of
jobs; and people who work in job environments congruent with
their personality types should be more satisfied.
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:
1.
The perceiver
2.
The target (See Exhibit 13-6)
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.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Distinctiveness refers to whether an individual displays different
behavior in different situations.
Consensus refers to whether an individual who is faced with a
similar situation responds in the same way with the same
behavior.
Consistency refers to the congruency in a person’s actions, that
is, whether the person engages in the behaviors regularly and
consistently.
Exhibit 13-7 summarize the key elements of attribution theory.
One of the most interesting findings of attribution theory is that
there are errors or biases that distort attributions.
a.
b.
C.
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.
Self-serving bias is the tendency for individuals to
attribute their own successes to internal factors while
putting the blame for failures on external factors.
Shortcuts We Use In Judging Others.
1.
Assumed similarity is the belief that others are like oneself.
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2.
3.
D.
5.
Stereotyping refers to judging a person on the basis of one’s
perception of a group to which he or she belongs.
Halo effect refers to a general impression of an individual based
on a single characteristic.
The Implication For Managers. Managers need to recognize that their
employees react to perceptions, not reality. Management is also not
immune to biases and can negatively impact employees perception of
fairness with inaccurate appraisals or setting discriminatory wage levels.
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.
1.
2.
3.
4.
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.
2.
3.
4.
C.
B. F. Skinner is the psychologist most often associated with
operant conditioning theory.
Operant conditioning theory proposes that behavior is
determined from without (that is, learned) rather than from
within (reflexive, or unlearned).
Skinner argued that creating pleasing and desirable
consequences to follow some specific behavior would increase
the frequency of that behavior.
People will most likely engage in desired behaviors if they
receive positive reinforcement for doing so.
Attentional processes. People learn from a model only when
they recognize and pay attention to its critical features.
Retention processes. A model’s influence depends upon how
well an individual remembers the model’s action.
Motor reproduction processes. After a person has observed a
new behavior by watching a model, he/she must demonstrate an
ability to do the modeled activities.
Reinforcement processes. Individuals will be motivated to
exhibit modeled behavior if positive rewards are provided.
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.
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2.
D.
6.
Negative reinforcement is reinforcing a desired behavior with
the termination or withdrawal of something unpleasant.
3.
Punishment penalizes undesirable behavior.
4.
Extinction involves eliminating any reinforcement that is
maintaining a behavior.
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?
CONTEMPORARY OB ISSUES
A.
Managing Generational Differences. Generations are defined by the
attitudes and goals that distinguish them from those born in other times.
For managers, adapting to a new generation of employees can be a
challenge.
1. In comparison to previous groups, Generation Y employees have
proven to be unique in their casual and laid back attitude toward work.
Exhibit 13-8 lists some of the characteristics consistent with Gen Y
workers.
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.
?
Thinking Critically About Ethics
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Genetics or Personal
Responsibility
This critical thinking exercise asks students to think about the growing scientific evidence
that links genetics to individual behavior. As researchers link an individual’s genes to
behaviors like depression, obesity and addictions, the question to consider is where does
genetics end and personal responsibility for behavior begin.
This exercise can be used as the basis for a classroom debate, with half of the class taking
each side of the issue, i.e., “People are 100% responsible for their behavior” or “We are a
victim of our genetic predestination.” Included in this discussion can be the argument for
and against organizations providing treatment for behaviors like addictions. Students
should question if the employee can be blamed if this behavior runs in the family? On the
other hand, if the organization has a zero tolerance policy against drug use then does it
have the right to fire an employee with an addiction?
Be sure to point out to students how behaviors are attributed have an important impact
on how the workplace deals with negative behaviors.
Answers to Thinking About Management Issues
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.
Knowledge of OB is important for all managers since executives at all levels of
the organization deal with people. Low-level managers are likely to supervise
employees directly, so they need knowledge of attitudes, perception, and
learning. If they have responsibilities pertaining to the hiring of employees, they
need to have knowledge about personality. Middle-level managers are likely to
need knowledge of attitudes and personality, as they supervise lower-level
managers. Upper-level managers need knowledge of attitudes as they deal with
organizational design decisions and human resource management issues.
2.
“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?
This issue can be traced back to an argument that performance is the only
variable a manager should measure and improve. This argument makes the
assumption that employees will find satisfaction in completing meaning work.
While performance is extremely important, there are other factors that go hand in
hand with performance that should be considered. Have students consider what
would happen if a manager is only concerned with the performance of an
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employee? How would the employee react over time? What other job attitudes
would be affected if satisfaction is ignored?
3.
“A growing number of companies are now convinced that people’s ability to
understand and to manage their emotions improves their performance, their
collaboration with peers, and their interaction with customers.” What are the
implications of this statement for managers?
If the manager’s company agrees with this statement, the manager must consider
emotional intelligence (EI) as a necessary factor in employee selection, as well
as in employee training and development issues.
4.
What behavioral predictions might you make if you knew that an employee
had (a) an external locus of control? (b) a low Mach score? (c) low self-esteem?
or (d) high self-monitoring tendencies?
Employees with an external locus of control might be less satisfied with their
jobs, more alienated from the work setting, and less involved in their work.
Employees with a low Mach score would be overly idealistic, emotional, and
concerned about fair and equitable treatment. Employees with low self-esteem
would be more susceptible to external influence. Employees with high selfmonitoring tendencies would tend to be more adaptable in adjusting their
behavior to the demands of different situations.
5.
“Managers should never use discipline with a problem employee.” Do you
agree or disagree? Discuss.
Discipline that is rooted in behavior theories can be quite positive and can be
used as a means to promote acceptable and desired behavior. When disciplining
an employee, however, managers should be governed by their knowledge of the
implications of attitudes, perceptions, learning, and personality.
6.
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?
First, ask your students if they agree or disagree with this survey finding. Their
answers should be interesting and enlightening to their classmates. If they do
agree with the statement—which they most likely will—the implications for
managers would include training managers to be kind and respectful, while
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communicating to their employees that they expect the best performance from
each employee. The discussion could include a review and consideration of the
findings of the Hawthorne Studies.
Surveys indicate that during an employee’s first year of employment, his or her
level of satisfaction with the employer is about 69 percent. However, for
employees with two to five years’ experience, that employer satisfaction level
falls to about 53 percent.85 Why do you think this number drops? What, if
anything, could managers do to keep the level of satisfaction high?
In answering this question, students should consider the importance of
experience and expectations on an individual’s attitude. Over time, how does an
employee’s experience shape how they feel about the organization? Ask
students if these statistics are a sign that employees may begin with a slightly
distorted perception of work (i.e. seeing the job through rose colored glasses).
As managers seek to maintain an employee’s satisfaction over time, what can be
done to keep employee expectations meet?
7
Your 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
do. Write your observations and your explanations in a journal.

Write down three attitudes you have. Identify the cognitive, affective, and
behavioral components of those attitudes.

Survey 15 employees (at your place of work or at some campus office). Be sure
to obtain permission before doing this survey. Ask the employees what rude or
negative behaviors they’ve seen at work. Compile your findings in a report and
be prepared to discuss this in class. If you were the manager in this workplace,
how would you handle this behavior?

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
“fits” your personality? What are the implications?

Complete the skill-building module Mentoring found in mymanagementlab.
Your professor will tell you what to do with it.

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
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you think this means? Do you agree with this idea? Why or why not? How would
you be evaluated on the “waiter rule”?

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
were trying to change someone’s behavior?

Create a job satisfaction survey for a business you’re familiar with.

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
found and the survey you created.

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, 2003); L. Thomson, Personality Type: An Owner’s Manual
Shambhala, 1998); and Daniel Goleman, Working with Emotional Intelligence
(Bantam, 1998).

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
“ideal” boss would be like? Compile your results into a paper that reports your
data and summarizes your findings in a bulleted list format.

In your own words, write down three things you learned in this chapter about
being a good manager.

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? 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?
WORKING TOGETHER—Team-Based Exercise
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Student groups of three to four are asked to debate the statement: “When we use
shortcuts to judge others, are the consequences always negative?”
The debate between student groups could be enhanced by first assigning different groups
to support or negate the statement concerning specific shortcuts such as: stereotyping,
halo effect, selectivity, assumed similarity (“like me”). These four shortcuts would
require eight student groups for debate. Students may want to describe some of the
incidents or examples their groups generate.
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Answers to Case Application Questions
Odd Couples
1.
What do you think about Randstad’s pairing-up idea? Would you be comfortable
with such an arrangement? Why or why not?
Encourage students to share how they feel about working so closely with others.
While some students enjoy the camaraderie of working with a partner, it’s
common to find that today’s students do not enjoy working closely with others.
Get students to share their past experiences with groups that may have left them
with a positive or negative attitude toward the type of plan promoted by Ranstad.
2.
What personality traits would be most needed for this type of work
arrangement? Why?
The following personality characteristics would be consistent with Ranstad’s
cooperative culture. Have students consider other characteristics as well, and
have them defend their selections.
3.

Extrovert

Perceptive

Conscientious

Open to new experiences

Agreeable

Self-motivated

High self-esteem
What types of issues might a Gen Y employee and an older, more-experienced
employee face when working closely together? How could two people in such a
close-knit work arrangement deal with those issues?
The particular pairings encouraged at Randstad are sure to bring to light some of
the major differences between the two generation groups. Have students think
about some of the issues they would face working with an older employee. Also,
have students try to put themselves in the shoes of someone who is older and go
through some of the difficulties they may face working with a Gen Y. Are there
accommodations that could be made by both groups that would facilitate the
working relationships? How could they work to develop a common ground to
build a strong working relationship?
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4.
Design an employee attitude survey for Randstad’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 and the reliability of their survey items.
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
have a genetic component include risk-taking, impulsiveness, openness, conservatism,
and hostility. Another area your students may wish to address is the subject of loyalty to
one’s organization. You might ask students to consider how relevant organizational
commitment is today, considering that individuals change jobs and careers more often
than in the past.
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