Download Consequences of Behavior

Individual Differences in
Organizations
Hui WANG
Guanghua School of Management
Peking University
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 62753645
25 Sep. 2002
OB_UG_2002 GSM
1
Questions for Today






What are key demographic characteristics?
What are the two types of ability?
What are the factors that determine an
individual’s personality?
How do learning theories provide insights
into changing behavior?
What are the differences between the four
schedules of reinforcement?
What is the role of punishment in learning
OB_UG_2002 GSM
2
Demographic
Characteristics
Age
Gender
Tenure
Marital
Status
OB_UG_2002 GSM
3
Types of Ability

What is “Ability”?


Intellectual Abilities


That required to do mental activities (e.g., number aptitude,
verbal comprehension, memory, reasoning, spatial
visualization).
Physical Abilities


An individual’s capacity to perform the various tasks in a job.
That required to do tasks demanding stamina, dexterity,
strength, and similar characteristics.
The Ability - Job Fit

Employee performance and job satisfaction are enhanced
when there is a high ability - job fit
OB_UG_2002 GSM
4
Types of Ability
Intellectual Ability







Verbal Ability
Numerical Ability
Reasoning Ability
Deductive Ability
Memory
Spatial Ability
Perceptual Ability
Physical Ability


Motor Skills (e.g.
reaction time,
dexterity)
Physical Skills (e.g.
strength, endurance)
OB_UG_2002 GSM
5
Nature and Nurture: The Determinants of
Intellectual and Physical Abilities
OB_UG_2002 GSM
6
Managing Ability in Organizations:
Ability-Job Fit using Human
Resource Management




Selection
Placement
Training
Rewards
OB_UG_2002 GSM
7
Personality Differences among
Individuals


The term personality is used to represent
the overall profile or combination of
characteristics that capture the unique
nature of a person as that person reacts
and interacts with others.
Tend to be fairly stable over time
OB_UG_2002 GSM
8
What Determines Personality?



Heredity (nature)
Environment (nurture)
Situation (high constrained vs low
constrained)
OB_UG_2002 GSM
9
Personality Tests

Personality tests are used for



selection
training workers for team work
career development
OB_UG_2002 GSM
10
The Big Five Model





Extraversion - sociable, talkative and assertive.
Agreeableness - good-natured, cooperative and
trusting.
Conscientiousness - responsible, dependable,
persistent and achievement oriented.
Emotional stability - calm, enthusiastic, secure
(positive)
Openness to experience - imaginativeness,
artistic sensitivity and intellectualism.
OB_UG_2002 GSM
11
Major Personality Attributes
Influencing OB







Locus of Control - the degree to which people believe they
are masters of their own fate. (internal vs external)
Machiavellianism - pragmatic, emotional distance, ends
justify means.
Self-Esteem - liking or disliking of themselves.
Self-Monitoring - adjust behavior to external, situational
factors.
Risk-Taking
Type A Personality
Type B Personality
OB_UG_2002 GSM
12
Type A and Type B

Type A Personality





Always moving, walking, and eating rapidly
Feel impatient with the rate
Strive to think or do two or more things at
once
Cannot cope with leisure time
Obsessed with numbers
OB_UG_2002 GSM
13
Type A and Type B (cont..)

Type B Personality




Never suffer from a sense of time urgency
Feel no need to display or discuss either
their achievements or accomplishments
Play for fun and relaxation
Can relax without guilt
OB_UG_2002 GSM
14
Holland’s Typology of Occupational
Personality






Realistic
Investigative
Artistic
Social
Enterprising
Conventional
OB_UG_2002 GSM
15
Learning:
A relatively permanent change in
knowledge or behavior that results from
practice or experience.
OB_UG_2002 GSM
16
Three Types of Learning



Classical Conditioning
Operant Conditioning
Social Learning
OB_UG_2002 GSM
17
Classical Conditioning
Learning that takes place when the
learner recognizes the connection
between an unconditioned stimulus and
a conditioned stimulus.
i.e. the learner responds to a stimulus
that would not ordinarily produce a
response.
OB_UG_2002 GSM
18
Operant Conditioning
Learning that takes place when the
learner recognizes the connection
between a behavior and its
consequences.
OB_UG_2002 GSM
19
Operant Conditioning Keys


Antecedents: Anything that tells workers
about desired and undesired behaviors
and their consequences.
Behaviors: Desirable organizational
behaviors and undesirable organizational
behaviors.
OB_UG_2002 GSM
20
Operant Conditioning Keys

Consequences of Behavior: Include
positive reinforcement and negative
reinforcement for desirable organizational
behaviors; and extinction and punishment
for undesirable organizational behaviors.
OB_UG_2002 GSM
21
Consequences of Behavior


Positive Reinforcement: Administering
positive consequences to workers who
perform the desired behavior.
Negative Reinforcement: Removing
negative consequences to workers who
perform the desired behavior.
OB_UG_2002 GSM
22
Consequences of Behavior


Extinction: Removing whatever is
currently reinforcing the undesirable
behavior.
Punishment: Administering negative
consequences to workers who perform the
undesirable behavior.
OB_UG_2002 GSM
23
Operant Conditioning
OB_UG_2002 GSM
24
Shaping:
The reinforcement of successive and
closer approximations to a desired
behavior.
OB_UG_2002 GSM
25
Reinforcement Strategies:
When

Immediate Reinforcement


or
Delayed Reinforcement
OB_UG_2002 GSM
26
Reinforcement Strategies:
How Often

Continuous Reinforcement


or
Partial (Intermittent) Reinforcement
OB_UG_2002 GSM
27
Reinforcement Schedules
(for Intermittent Reinforcement)




Fixed-Interval Schedule
Variable-Interval Schedule
Fixed-Ratio Schedule
Variable-Ratio Schedule
OB_UG_2002 GSM
28
Variable
Schedules of Reinforcement
Interval
Ratio
FixedInterval
FixedRatio
VariableInterval
VariableRatio
OB_UG_2002 GSM
29
Social Learning Theory
Individuals learn by observing what
happens to other people, being told
about something, as well as by direct
experiences.
People use these observations to create a
“model” in their own mind of what is
occuring.
OB_UG_2002 GSM
30
Social Learning Theory
Necessary components include





Attentional processes.
Retention processes.
Motor reproduction processes.
Reinforcement processes.
Self-efficacy.
OB_UG_2002 GSM
31
Definitions
Attentional processes. People learn
from a model only when they recognize
and pay attention to its critical features.
Retention processes. A model’s
influence will depend on how well the
individual remembers the model’s
action after the model is no longer
readily available.
OB_UG_2002 GSM
32
Definitions
Motor reproduction processes.
After a person has seen a new behavior
by observing the model, the watching
must be converted to doing.
Reinforcement processes.
Individuals will be motivated to exhibit
the modeled behavior if positive
incentives or rewards are provided.
OB_UG_2002 GSM
33
Definition
Self-efficacy: a person’s belief about
his or her ability to perform a particular
behavior successfully.
OB_UG_2002 GSM
34
To Encourage Self Efficacy
1. Encourage small successes
2. Let subordinates know that others like
them have succeeded on especially
challenging projects.
3. Have high expectations
OB_UG_2002 GSM
35
Specific Organizational Applications






Lotteries to Reduce Absenteeism
Well Pay Vs. Sick Pay
Employee Discipline
Developing Training Programs
Creating Mentoring Programs
Self Management
OB_UG_2002 GSM
36
Any More Applications?
OB_UG_2002 GSM
37