Foundations of

Individual Behavior
 Chapter Learning Objectives
• After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
– Contrast the two types of ability.
– Define intellectual ability and demonstrate its relevance to OB.
– Identify the key biographical characteristics and describe how
they are relevant to OB.
– Define learning and outline the principles of the three major
theories of learning.
– Define shaping, and show how it can be used in OB.
– Show how culture affects our understanding of intellectual
abilities, biographical characteristics, and learning.
 Ability
An individual’s capacity to perform the various tasks in a
job.
•Made up of two sets of factors:
– Intellectual Abilities
• The abilities needed to perform mental activities.
• General Mental Ability (GMA) is a measure of overall intelligence.
• Wonderlic Personnel Test: a quick measure of intelligence for
recruitment screening.
• No correlation between intelligence and job satisfaction.
– Physical Abilities
• The capacity to do tasks demanding stamina, dexterity, strength,
and similar characteristics.
Dimensions of Intellectual
Ability
 Nine Basic Physical Abilities
• Strength Factors
– Dynamic strength
– Trunk strength
– Static strength
– Explosive strength
• Flexibility Factors
– Extent flexibility
– Dynamic flexibility
• Other Factors
– Body coordination
– Balance
– Stamina
 Biographical Characteristics
Objective and easily obtained personal characteristics.
•Age
– Older workers bring experience, judgment, a strong work ethic,
and commitment to quality.
•Gender
– Few differences between men and women that affect job
performance.
•Race (the biological heritage used to identify
oneself)
– Contentious issue: differences exist, but could be more culture-
based than race-based.
 Other Biographical Characteristics
• Tenure
– People with job tenure (seniority at a job) are more productive,
absent less frequently, have lower turnover, and are more
satisfied.
• Religion
– Islam is especially problematic in the workplace in this post-9/11
world.
• Sexual Orientation
– Federal law does not protect against discrimination (but state or
local laws may).
– Domestic partner benefits are important considerations.
• Gender Identity
– Relatively new issue – transgendered employees.
 What is Personality?
The dynamic organization within the individual
of those psychophysical systems that
determine his unique adjustments to his
environment. - Gordon Allport.
The sum total of ways in which an individual reacts and
interacts with others, the measurable traits a person
exhibits
• Measuring Personality
– Helpful in hiring decisions
– Most common method: self-reporting surveys
– Observer-ratings surveys provide an independent
assessment of personality – often better predictors
 Personality Determinants
• Heredity
– Factors determined at conception: physical stature,
facial attractiveness, gender, temperament, muscle
composition and reflexes, energy level, and bio-
rhythms
– This “Heredity Approach” argues that genes are the
source of personality
– Twin studies: raised apart but very similar
personalities
– Parents don’t add much to personality development
– There is some personality change over long time
period
 What is Personality?
Personality
The sum total of ways in which an individual
reacts and interacts with others.

Personality Traits
Enduring Personality
characteristics that Determinants
describe an • Heredity
individual’s behavior.
• Environment
• Situation
 Personality Traits
Enduring characteristics that describe
an individual’s behavior
– The more consistent the characteristic and
the more frequently it occurs in diverse
situations, the more important the trait.
•Two dominant frameworks used to
describe personality:
– Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI®)
– Big Five Model
Personality Traits Relevant to Organizations
 Personality Traits

Sixteen
Primary
Traits
 The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
• Most widely used instrument in the world.
• Participants are classified on four axes to determine
one of 16 possible personality types, such as ENTJ.

Sociable Quiet and

and Shy
Assertive
Practical Unconsci
and ous
Orderly Processe
Use s Uses
Reason Values &
and Logic Emotions
Want Flexible
Order and
& Spontane
Structure ous
 The Types and Their Uses
• Each of the sixteen possible combinations has a name,
for instance:
– Visionaries (INTJ) – original, stubborn, and driven.
– Organizers (ESTJ) – realistic, logical, analytical, and
businesslike.
– Conceptualizer (ENTP) – entrepreneurial, innovative,
individualistic, and resourceful.

• Research results on validity mixed.

– MBTI® is a good tool for self-awareness and counseling.
– Should not be used as a selection test for job candidates.
The Big Five Model of Personality
Dimensions
 Personality Types
Type As
2. Are always moving, walking, and eating rapidly
3. Feel impatient with the rate at which most events take place
4. Strive to think or do two or more things at once
5. Cannot cope with leisure time
6. Are obsessed with numbers, measuring their success in terms of how
many or how much of everything they acquire

Type Bs
2. Never suffer from a sense of time urgency with its accompanying
impatience
3. Feel no need to display or discuss either their achievements or
accomplishments
4. Play for fun and relaxation, rather than to exhibit their superiority at any
cost
5. Can relax without guilt
 How Do the Big Five Traits
Predict Behavior?
• Research has shown this to be a better framework.
• Certain traits have been shown to strongly relate to
higher job performance:
– Highly conscientious people develop more job knowledge, exert
greater effort, and have better performance.
– Other Big Five Traits also have implications for work.
• Emotional stability is related to job satisfaction.
• Extroverts tend to be happier in their jobs and have good social
skills.
• Open people are more creative and can be good leaders.
• Agreeable people are good in social settings.
 Other Personality Traits
Relevant to OB
• Core Self-Evaluation
– The degree to which people like or dislike themselves
– Positive self-evaluation leads to higher job performance
• Machiavellianism
– A pragmatic, emotionally distant power-player who believes that ends
justify the means.
– High Machs are manipulative, win more often, and persuade more than
they are persuaded. Flourish when:
• Have direct interaction
• Work with minimal rules and regulations
• Emotions distract others
• Narcissism
– An arrogant, entitled, self-important
– person who needs excessive admiration.
– Less effective in their jobs.
 More Relevant Personality
Traits
• Self-Monitoring
– The ability to adjust behavior to meet external, situational
factors.
– High monitors conform more and are more likely to become
leaders.
• Risk Taking
– The willingness to take chances.
– May be best to align propensities with job requirements.
– Risk takers make faster decisions with less information.
 Even More Relevant
Personality Traits
• Type A Personality
– Aggressively involved in a chronic, incessant struggle to achieve
more in less time
• Impatient: always moving, walking, and eating rapidly
• Strive to think or do two or more things at once
• Cannot cope with leisure time
• Obsessed with achievement numbers
– Prized in North America but quality of the work is low
– Type B people are the complete opposite

• Proactive Personality
– Identifies opportunities, shows initiative, takes action, and
perseveres to completion
– Creates positive change in the environment
 Attitudes
Evaluative statements or judgments
concerning objects, people, or events.
Three components of an attitude:
The
emotional or
feeling
The opinion segment of
or belief an attitude
segment of
an attitude An intention to
behave in a
certain way
toward someone
or something
 Does Behavior Always Follow
from Attitudes?
• Leon Festinger – No, the reverse is sometimes true!
• Cognitive Dissonance: Any incompatibility between
two or more attitudes or between behavior and
attitudes
– Individuals seek to reduce this uncomfortable gap, or
dissonance, to reach stability and consistency
– Consistency is achieved by changing the attitudes, modifying the
behaviors, or through rationalization
– Desire to reduce dissonance depends on:
• Importance of elements
• Degree of individual influence
• Rewards involved in dissonance
 Moderating Variables
• The most powerful moderators of the
attitude-behavior relationship are:
– Importance of the attitude
– Correspondence to behavior
– Accessibility
– Existence of social pressures
– Personal and direct experience of the
attitude.
Predicting Behavior from Attitudes
– Important attitudes have a strong relationship to
behavior.
– The closer the match between attitude and
behavior, the stronger the relationship:
• Specific attitudes predict specific behavior
• General attitudes predict general behavior
– The more frequently expressed an attitude, the
better predictor it is.
– High social pressures reduce the relationship
and may cause dissonance.
– Attitudes based on personal experience are
stronger predictors.
 What are the Major Job Attitudes?
• Job Satisfaction
– A positive feeling about the job
resulting from an evaluation of its
characteristics
• Job Involvement
– Degree of psychological identification
with the job where perceived
performance is important to self-worth
• Psychological Empowerment
– Belief in the degree of influence over
the job, competence, job
meaningfulness, and autonomy
 Another Major Job Attitude
• Organizational Commitment
– Identifying with a particular organization and its goals, while
wishing to maintain membership in the organization.
– Three dimensions:
• Affective – emotional attachment to organization
• Continuance Commitment – economic value of staying
• Normative - moral or ethical obligations
– Has some relation to performance, especially for new
employees.
– Less important now than in past – now perhaps more of
occupational commitment, loyalty to profession rather than a
given employer.
 Attitudes

Attitudes Cognitive component

The opinion or belief
Evaluative segment of an attitude.
statements
or Affective Component
judgments The emotional or feeling
concerning segment of an attitude.
objects,
people, or Behavioral Component
events. An intention to behave in a
certain way toward someone or
something.
 Types of Attitudes
Job Satisfaction
A collection of positive and/or negative feelings
that an individual holds toward his or her job.

Job Involvement
Identifying with the job, actively participating
in it, and considering performance important to
self-worth.
Organizational Commitment
Identifying with a particular organization and
its goals, and wishing to maintain
membership in the organization.
 The Theory of Cognitive
Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance
Any incompatibility between two or more
attitudes or between behavior and attitudes.

Desire to reduce dissonance

• Importance of elements creating dissonance
• Degree of individual influence over elements
• Rewards involved in dissonance
 Types of Attitudes
Job Satisfaction
A collection of positive and/or negative feelings
that an individual holds toward his or her job.

Job Involvement
Identifying with the job, actively participating
in it, and considering performance important to
self-worth.
Organizational Commitment
Identifying with a particular organization and
its goals, and wishing to maintain
membership in the organization.
 And Yet More Major Job
Attitudes…
• Perceived Organizational Support (POS)
– Degree to which employees believe the organization values their
contribution and cares about their well-being.
– Higher when rewards are fair, employees are involved in
decision-making, and supervisors are seen as supportive.
– High POS is related to higher OCBs and performance.
• Employee Engagement
– The degree of involvement with, satisfaction with, and
enthusiasm for the job.
– Engaged employees are passionate about their work and
company.
 Are These Job Attitudes Really
Distinct?
• No: these attitudes
are highly related.
• Variables may be
redundant
(measuring the same
thing under a
different name)
• While there is some
distinction, there is
also a lot of overlap.
Be patient, OB researchers are working on it!
Emotions and Moods
 Why Were Emotions Ignored in
OB?
• The “Myth of Rationality”
– Emotions were seen as irrational
– Managers worked to make emotion-free
environments
• View of Emotionality
– Emotions were believed to be disruptive
– Emotions interfered with productivity
– Only negative emotions were observed

• Now we know emotions can’t be

separated from the workplace
What are Emotions and
Moods?
 The Basic Emotions
• While not universally accepted, there appear to be six
basic emotions:
1. Anger
2. Fear
3. Sadness
4. Happiness
5. Disgust
6. Surprise
• All other emotions are subsumed under these six
• May even be placed in a spectrum of emotion:
– Happiness – surprise – fear – sadness – anger - disgust
 Basic Moods: Positive and
Negative Affect
• Emotions cannot be neutral.
• Emotions (“markers”) are grouped into
general mood states.
• Mood states affect perception and therefore
perceived reality.
 What Is the Function of
Emotion?
• Do Emotions Make Us Irrational?
– Expressing emotions publicly may be damaging to
social status
– Emotions are critical to rational decision-making
– Emotions help us understand the world around us
• What Functions Do Emotions Serve?
– Darwin argued they help in survival problem-solving
– Evolutionary psychology: people must experience
emotions as there is a purpose behind them
– Not all researchers agree with this assessment
 Sources of Emotion and Mood
• Personality
– There is a trait component – affect intensity
• Day and Time of the Week
– There is a common pattern for all of us
• Happier in the midpoint of the daily awake period
• Happier toward the end of the week
• Weather
– Illusory correlation – no effect
• Stress
– Even low levels of constant stress can worsen moods
• Social Activities
– Physical, informal, and dining activities increase positive moods
 More Sources of Emotion and
Mood
• Sleep
– Poor sleep quality increases negative affect
• Exercise
– Does somewhat improve mood, especially for depressed people
• Age
– Older folks experience fewer negative emotions
• Gender
– Women tend to be more emotionally expressive, feel emotions
more intensely, have longer-lasting moods, and express
emotions more frequently than do men
– Due more to socialization than to biology
 What Are Emotions?

Affect
A broad range of emotions
that people experience.

Emotions Moods
Intense feelings that are Feelings that tend to be
directed at someone or less intense than
something. emotions and that lack a
contextual stimulus.
What Are Emotions? (cont’d)
Felt versus Displayed Emotions
 Emotion Dimensions
• Variety of emotions
– Positive
– Negative
• Intensity of emotions
– Personality
– Job Requirements
• Frequency and duration of emotions
– How often emotions are exhibited.
– How long emotions are displayed.
Facial Expressions Convey
Emotions
 Emotion Continuum
• The closer any two emotions are to each
other on the continuum, the more likely
people are to confuse them.
 Gender and Emotions
• Women
– Can show greater emotional expression.
– Experience emotions more intensely.
– Display emotions more frequently.
– Are more comfortable in expressing emotions.
– Are better at reading others’ emotions.
• Men
– Believe that displaying emotions is
inconsistent with the male image.
– Are innately less able to read and to identify
 External Constraints on
Emotions
Organizational Cultural
Influences Influences

Individual
Emotions
 OB Applications of
Understanding Emotions
• Ability and Selection
– Emotions affect employee effectiveness.
• Decision Making
– Emotions are an important part of the
decision-making process in organizations.
• Motivation
– Emotional commitment to work and high
motivation are strongly linked.
• Leadership
– Emotions are important to acceptance of
 OB Applications of
Understanding Emotions
• Interpersonal Conflict
– Conflict in the workplace and individual
emotions are strongly intertwined.
• Deviant Workplace Behaviors
– Negative emotions can lead to employee
deviance in the form of actions that violate
established norms and threaten the
organization and its members.

• Productivity failures
• Property theft and destruction
Ability and Selection
• Emotional Intelligence
(EI)
– Self-awareness
– Self-management
– Self-motivation
– Empathy
– Social skills
• Research Findings
– High EI scores, not
high IQ scores,
characterize high
performers.
 Emotional Labor
An employee’s expression of organizationally desired
emotions during interpersonal transactions at work.
•Emotional Dissonance:
– Employees have to project one emotion while simultaneously
feeling another
– Can be very damaging and lead to burnout
•Types of Emotions:
– Felt: the individual’s actual emotions
– Displayed: required or appropriate emotions
• Surface Acting: displaying appropriately but not feeling those
emotions internally
• Deep Acting: changing internal feelings to match display rules -
very stressful
Affective Events Theory (AET)
• An event in the work environment triggers
positive or negative emotional reactions
– Personality and mood determine response intensity
– Emotions can influence a broad range of work
variables
 Implications of AET
1. An emotional episode is actually the result of a series of
emotional experiences triggered by a single event
2. Current and past emotions affect job satisfaction
3. Emotional fluctuations over time create variations in job
performance
4. Emotion-driven behaviors are typically brief and variable
5. Both negative and positive emotions can distract
workers and reduce job performance
Emotions provide valuable insights about behavior
• Emotions, and the minor events that cause them,
should not be ignored at work: they accumulate
 Emotional Intelligence (EI)
• A person’s ability to:
– Be self-aware
• Recognizing own emotions when experienced
– Detect emotions in others
– Manage emotional cues and information
• EI plays an important role in job performance
• EI is controversial and not wholly accepted
– Case for EI:
• Intuitive appeal; predicts criteria that matter; is biologically-based.
– Case against EI:
• Too vague a concept; can’t be measured; its validity is suspect.
 OB Applications of Emotions
and Moods
• Selection
– EI should be a hiring factor, especially for social jobs.
• Decision Making
– Positive emotions can lead to better decisions.
• Creativity
– Positive mood increases flexibility, openness, and creativity.
• Motivation
– Positive mood affects expectations of success; feedback
amplifies this effect.
• Leadership
– Emotions are important to acceptance of messages from
organizational leaders.
More OB Applications of Emotions
and Moods
• Negotiation
– Emotions, skillfully displayed, can affect negotiations
• Customer Services
– Emotions affect service quality delivered to customers which, in
turn, affects customer relationships
– Emotional Contagion: “catching” emotions from others
• Job Attitudes
– Can carry over to home, but dissipate overnight
• Deviant Workplace Behaviors
– Negative emotions lead to employee deviance (actions that
violate norms and threaten the organization)
• Manager’s Influence
– Leaders who are in a good mood, use humor, and praise
employees increase positive moods in the workplace.
 Global Implications
• Do people experience emotions equally?
– No. Culture can determine type, frequency, and depth of
experienced emotions
• Do people interpret emotions the same way?
– Yes. Negative emotions are seen as undesirable and
positive emotions are desirable
– However, value of each emotion varies across cultures
• Do norms of emotional expression vary?
– Yes. Some cultures have a bias against emotional
expression; others demand some display of emotion
– How the emotions are expressed may make interpretation
outside of one’s culture difficult
 Summary and Managerial
Implications
• Moods are more general than emotions and less
contextual
• Emotions and moods impact all areas of OB
• Managers cannot and should not attempt to
completely control the emotions of their
employees
• Managers must not ignore the emotions of their
co-workers and employees
• Behavior predictions will be less accurate if
emotions are not taken into account