Ways in Which the Individual Interacts with Others - Essay Example

MGMT 3000 Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Study Guide Chapter 2 3 Study Guide Chapter 3 11 Study Guide Chapter 4 16 Bibliography 20 Study GuideChapter 2 The motto of learning this chapter is to learn about the personality. The managers will be getting benefitted from this as it will enable them to increase the organizational outcome and they can better predict the behavior. Personality Definition: The aggregates of the ways in which the individual interact and react with others. Measuring Personality Self-Report Surveys: The most common measuring technique. It evaluates on a series of factors and potentially inaccurate because of falsehoods and impression management. Observer-Rating Surveys: It provides an accurate and independent assessment of personality. Personality Determinant Basically there are two personality determinant factors i.e. Hereditary and Environmental. Heredity: According to this approach, personality is determined at the chromosome level. The factors are gender, physical structure, temperament, biological rhythms, muscle compositions and others. Twin Studies: From the studies of the identical twins on personality development, it has been found that in comparison to the parental environment, genetics appears to be more influential. Aging and Personality: Personalities do change with age. This change is more in context to the level of ability than the behavioral traits, which are stable over time. Personality Traits It refers to the characteristics that explain the behavior of the individual; those are demonstrated in a large number of situations. Two dominant frameworks have been described. A. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) Here a series of the situational questions have been asked and then categorized into four scales to determine the type of personality. The four scales are Extraverted which refers to outgoing nature and Introverted indicates of shy and quite nature. (E/I) Sensing refers to the practical and detail oriented person who enjoy orders. Intuitive indicates those who rely on gut feelings. (S/N) Thinking and Feeling, the first one emphasize on logic and reason where feelers use emotions to make decisions. (T/F) Judging and Perceiving, where judging is control oriented and perceivers are flexible and spontaneous. (J/P) 16 Personality Types All the initials have to be accumulated to determine a personality type. For example, ENTJ, this type of persons are the ‘Entrepreneurs’. Likewise 16 possible combinations have been framed. MBTI can not be used as the employment selection tools. B. The Big Five Model Unlike the previous model, it can be used for employment screening tool as it is positively associated with the job performance. Those five factors are as follows: Extraversion: It deals with the comfort level of the employee with the relationships. Here scoring high refers to assertive and sociable nature. Agreeableness: It evaluates the deference towards the others. Scoring high refers to trusting and cooperative and warm and low scorers refer to cold and disagreeable. Conscientiousness: It is the key determinant of the organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and job performance on the big five. Here possessing high score refers to organized, responsible and dependable nature where scoring low refers to unreliable and disorganized nature. Emotional Stability: It deals with ability to handle stress. People having high emotional stability, always tend to become secure and self-confident and have comparatively higher job and life satisfaction. On the other side people with low emotional stability tends to be anxious, depressed and nervous. Openness to Experience: It focuses to determine desire and interest towards the creativity and novelty. People scoring low have a tendency to be conventional, where as on the opposite side high scorers tend to be curious, creative and artistically sensitive. Other Personality Traits Relevant to OB Core Self-Evaluation It measures the extent to which persons like or dislikes own self. Positive core self evaluators like themselves and consider themselves as capable and effective. They usually set ambitious goal and tend to perform better to achieve them where as negative evaluators dislike themselves and consider themselves as powerless. Self-Monitoring It defines the ability of the people to fit external and situational factors through adjusting their behaviors. People scoring low in this factor usually have high behavioral consistency and vice-versa. High self-monitors take leadership positions instead of having less commitment to their organizations. Personality Types There are basically two personality types A and B. Type A refers to the competitive people and can work well in high level of stress also. They are basically fast workers and less quality conscious and highly prized in America. Where as Type B people are less competitive by nature and have less time urgency. Proactive Personality: Possessing this personality, enable individuals to show initiatives and identify opportunities. They are use to be the leaders and change agents and like to challenge the status quo. Values Values are the principles in an individual’s life which shape their behavior and define who they are (NCSU, “Definitions of Value”). It ranks the individual’s value into the hierarchical value system. It consists of the content and intensity which denotes the importance of the mode of conduct to the individual and value in relation to other values. Value system ranks the individual’s values in term of intensity and defines the relative importance. The importance of values is to lay the foundations to understand the people’s behavior, attitude and motivation. Values can be further classified into terminal and instrumental values. The first one focus on the desirable end states and second one lists preferable modes of behavior for achieving terminal values. Generational Values: Contemporary Work Cohorts Values are also affected by the nature of society on which the employee grew up and proved to be helpful for predicting behavior. The explanations of the major cohorts of employees in the U.S. workforce are stated as below: Veterans/Traditionalist: Entered into workforce during 1950’s through 1960s and believe in hard work and status quo. Baby Boomers: Entered into workforce during 1965 through to 1985. They are hard working pragmatists and tend to distrust authority. Xers: They started working from 1985 through 2000. They prefer flexibility, job satisfaction. They like money but value increase in leisure time. Nexters: They are the recent cohorts having high expectations, started working in 2000. They are socially conscious and motivated by the material possessions and money. Now linking between the individual’s values and personalities to the workplace can be discussed into two parts. Person-Job Fit: It considers two theories. Holland’s Personality-Job Fit Theory which have identified six personality types. This theory argues that when personality and occupation are in agreement, then turnover is the lowest and satisfaction is the highest. Person-Organization Fit: This concept argues that employee attrition increase when personalities of the individuals do not match with the organizational culture. There is a positive relation between the job satisfaction and employee’s values and personalities with an organizational culture. From Big Five terminology three rules have been adopted. Hire people high in extraversions when organization’s culture is team oriented and aggressive. If the organizational culture is innovative and supportive then hire people high in openness to experience and agreeableness respectively. V. Global Implications A. Personality- If the personality mechanisms developed in the US are applicable in other cultures? Big Five Models- The five personality factor in the model appears in all the cross cultural studies in a wide variety of cultures. B. Values- Here it would be realistic to understand the difference in cultures as values differ in different countries. Two frameworks are used to understand the culture. Hofstede’s framework examines five value dimensions as follows:- 1. Power Distance- It explains the degree to which people accept that the power is distributed unequally. 2. Individualism/Collectivism- It explain how much of importance or emphasis is placed on the individual as opposed to group. 3. Masculinity/Femininity- It explains how much value culture places to gender roles. 4. Uncertainty avoidance- It explains the level to which structure is followed over unstructured situations. 5. Long term /Short term Orientation- It explain the degree of long term devotion to the traditional values. Globe Framework- It uses nine dimensions of national culture. 1. Assertiveness- It explains the degree to which people accept that they are tough. 2. Future orientation- It is equivalent to Hofstede Long Term/ Short Term Orientation 3. Gender differentiation- The highest level to which society allows gender differences 4. Power Distance- The maximum level of tolerating unequal paper 5. Individualism/Collectivism- Equivalent to Hofstede Individualism/Collectivism 6. Uncertainty Avoidance- Depends on social norms to do away with uncertainty 7. In-group Collectivism- It describes the degree to which the individual likes being in group membership. 8. Performance Orientation- The degree to which award is given to the group for better performance 9. Humane Orientation- The degree to which individuals are rewarded for fair behavior. VI. Implication for Managers A. Personality- Evaluation is necessary for work place and work group by the managers to determine the Big Five personality types. B. Values- Understanding of person’s value will help to improve prediction of behavior. It is important to keep in mind that personality is the totality of ways in which individual reacts with others. Values vary across and within cultures. Study Guide Chapter 3 Introduction This chapter examines the role of perceptions and influences in decision making. Perception A process by which an individual analyze and also organize their sensory impressions with the aim of giving a meaning to the environment they live in. Factors Influencing Perception Perceiver: The individual who attempts to interpret what is seen. Target: What is being perceived i.e. the object of perception! The characteristics affect the level of perception. Situation: Surrounding and environment in which perception is made. Perception towards Person OB is concerned about people perception at organizational level for determining work culture. Attribution Theory Attributions cause the events around us and perceive different behavior either internal (under personal control) or external (outside personal control). Factors creating difference between internally caused and externally caused behaviors are: Distinctiveness: Uniqueness of observed behavior at low level is internal and at high level is external. A distinctive behavior is judged as external while low distinctive behavior is judged as internal. Consensus: Depending upon situation how individual behave. Similar reaction are external while dissimilar are internal. Consistency: Response generated in same fashion over time. High consistency is internal and low is external. Fundamental Attribution Error: Tendency to overestimate any influence received from internal factors and underestimating an influence from external factors. Self-Serving Bias: Overestimate of internal influence on successes and overestimate of external influences on failures. Shortcuts in Judging Others Uniquely interpreting behavior is time consuming, so shortcuts are used which are prone to errors. Selective Perception: The filtering process of incoming stimuli for selecting only the interested one. Halo Effect: In general impression creation by following a single characteristic. It can create a false or negative impression. Contrast Effect: Based upon particular situation and how the person is different from it. Stereotyping: Perceiving any person by the group they belong. Link between Perception and Individual Decision Making Decision making occurs as a reaction to problems which is a perceptual issue as it requires evaluation and interpretation. Problem: Discrepancy between desired and current state of affairs. Decisions: Selection of alternative from all options. Common Biases and Errors in Decision Making: Overconfidence Bias: Overestimating of being correct to problems outside the area of expertise. Anchoring Bias: A tendency that focuses on the first received information and failing to sufficiently adjust as per the next set of information. Confirmation Bias: A view that confirms a known perception is highlighted while the others are discounted. Availability Bias: Overestimation probabilities of events associated with vivid occurrence. Escalation of Commitment: Based upon prior investigations, decisions are taken even if it is wrong. Hindsight Bias: People overstate the predictability of an occurrence after it has already happened. Ethical Choices Utilitarianism: Outcomes and consequences are the main criteria for ethical decision making. It is a main approach used in US businesses. Effectiveness is promoted but people’s rights are ignored. Rights: It creates too legalistic work environment hindering productivity and efficiency with consistent privacy. Justice: Fair judgment in evaluating decisions and reduces risks. Current Conditions Increased anxiety in culture about personal rights and societal integrity suggests the need for managers to develop ethical standards based solely on non-utilitarian criteria. Global Implications Attributions: Due to cultural difference caution in making attribution should be taken care off. Decision Making: Cultural background might influence decision-maker in decision making. Ethics: Different countries have varied culture and ethical practices, the global organization need to establish standard ethical philosophy for decision making for consistent practice for achievement and reflect high standards of cultural norms. Implications for Managers Perception: The managers need to recognize the reality to which their employees are reacting is derived from their own perceptions; they also should know how to expect behavior in order to influence productivity. A manager should recognize employee’s perceptions and when people’s perceptions are uneven with actuality, they should try to get them back in position. Failure in doing so might result in absence, high turnover and lesser job satisfaction. Study Guide Chapter 4 (I) Attitude They are evaluative statements which can be either favorable or unfavorable that concerns objects, people and events. (A) Main components of attitude Cognition- It is concerned with what a person thinks about certain objects. Affective- It indicates that how a person feels about the object, person or any event. Behavior- It is the outcome of the first two components and is the actual behavior. (B) Does behavior always follow from attitude? According to Leon Festinger attitudes follow behavior. He further says that people often change if what they say doesn’t contradict what they do. 1. Cognitive dissonance- When a person perceives two different kinds of behavior or attitude that he feels is inconsistent then that is called cognitive dissonance. According to Leon Festinger, if there is dissonance between what they say and what they do then people are likely to change their attitudes or behavior. The level of effort to reduce the dissonance depends upon the following moderating factors: a) Importance- The level of effort is modified according to the importance of the element that is, more the effort will be reduced if the importance is greater. b) Degree of influence- If the person has some measures of control over the elements then more efforts will be finished and vice versa. c) Rewards- If reward is associated with the removal or keeping up of dissonance then the person with high dissonance will find less pressure in removing the dissonance. 2. Moderating Variables- These shows the relation between the attitude-behaviors. The most powerful among them are: a. Importance- It reflects the self interest. Greater the importance is, stronger is the relation between attitude and behavior. b. Correspondence- When the attitude and behavior are matched closely, stronger the link becomes between them. c. Accessibility- The ease of recall makes the link stronger. d. Social pressure- greater social pressure can dominate personal attitudes and have a stronger relation to behavior. e. Personal direct experience- Experience on a situation by the person will make it easier to predict the behavior of person. C. Major Job Attitudes The various attitudes towards work and the one that attracts attention are Job Satisfaction, Job Involvement, Organizational Commitment, Perceived Organizational Support and Employee Engagement. 1. Job Satisfaction- It determines the relative feeling about the job. 2. Job Involvement- It determines the relative control of an employee on his job and tends to describe the level of attainment on job on the basis of jobs worth. 3. Organizational Commitment- These tend to determine how strongly the employee is identified in the firm for which he is working. The various dimensions of the organizational commitment are as follows: a. Affective commitment- It is the strongest dimension in organizational outcome and has emotional attachments to an organization. b. Continuance commitment- It is the weakest dimension of organizational outcome and is the economic value of remaining in the organization. c. Normative Commitment- Here the person has to compulsorily remain with the organization for moral or ethical reasons. Modest relation exists between the organizational commitment and outcome like job productivity among which the affective commitment seems to be dominant factor. 4. Perceived organizational support- It measures the employee’s trust towards the organization. Organizations are said to be supportive when they provide rewards, engage the employees in decision making and provides such supervisors who supervises. 5. Employee Engagement- It is the intensity of employee’s involvement with the job. There are conditions that increase the engagement like when the workers are provided with an opportunity to learn new skills, when they are provided with important work or when there is positive interaction with the coworkers and supervisors. D. Causes of job satisfaction - Work itself is the powerful component in job satisfaction. Money will just act as a motivator but may not make people happy if the nature of work is not satisfying. 1. Job Satisfaction and Job Performance- There is increase in satisfaction if the job is better and the organizational performance is good. 2. Job Satisfaction and Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) - Satisfaction is gained with OCB, if these is removed then the relationship doesn’t exist at all. OCB is the optional or informal behavior. 3. Job Satisfaction and Customer Satisfaction- If the employees are satisfied then they will be able to retain more customers. 4. Job Satisfaction and Absenteeism- There is negative relation between the two. If the person is not satisfied then the absenteeism rate increases. 5. Job Satisfaction and Turnover- There is negative relation between the two. The more the employee is satisfied with the job less is the likelihood of the employee to leave the organization. 6. Job Satisfaction and Workplace Deviance- Unsatisfied employee is likely to act out, that is workplace deviation takes place. Greater is the workplace deviation if there is lesser job satisfaction. 7. Managers Often “Don’t Get It”- Most of the managers are less bothered if the employees are satisfied or not. This must be their duty to check or measure the relative satisfaction level of employees. (ii) Global Implication a) Is Job Satisfaction a US concept? The concept is global. People in all cultures measure and form judgments based on job satisfaction. b) Are Employees in western countries more satisfied with their jobs? Yes, people of western cultures are more satisfied than eastern cultures because eastern culture tends to value negative emotions more than western cultures. (iii) Implication for managers It is the duty of the manager to understand the attitude of the employees because attitude may give rise to problems as they influence behavior. The managers must also check if the employees are satisfied with the job or not. It should be kept in mind that pay is not enough to increase the satisfaction. Hence managers must consider other factors as well when measuring the job satisfaction. Bibliography NCSU. “Definitions of Value”. September 24, 2010. Assignment, 2010. Read More