OB exam: April 19

Exam 3(?)

Chapter 3:
Contrast the Three Components of an Attitude
• Attitudes are evaluative statements—either favorable or unfavorable—about objects,
people, or events.
They reflect how we feel about something

Compare the Major Job Attitudes

• Job Satisfaction
– A positive feeling about the job resulting from an evaluation of its characteristics.
• Job Involvement
– Degree to which a person identifies with a job, actively participates in it, and
considers performance important to self-worth.
– Psychological Empowerment
 Belief in the degree of influence over one’s job, competence, job
meaningfulness, and autonomy.
• Organizational Commitment
– Identifying with a particular organization and its goals and wishing to maintain
membership in the organization.
– Employees who are committed will be less likely to engage in work withdrawal
even if they are dissatisfied, because they have a sense of organizational loyalty.

Components of Commitment
(a) Affective commitment: involves the recognition, participation and emotional
attachment with the organization leading to the sentiment of wishing to remain
employed in the organization;
(b) Continuance commitment, founded on the bases of profit coupled with continued
participation on one hand, and the cost coupled with leaving on the other hand creating a
desire for wanting to continue employment;
(c) Normative commitment, involves an emotional obligation towards the organization i.e. a
person should continue employment.

• 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.
– POS is important in countries where power distance is lower.
• Employee Engagement
– The individual’s involvement with, satisfaction with, and enthusiasm for the
work.
 – Engaged employees are passionate about their work and company.
• Are these job attitudes really all that distinct?
– No, these attitudes are highly related; and while there is some distinction, there
is also a lot of overlap that may cause confusion.

Define Job Satisfaction (1 of 5)

Exhibit 3-2 Worst Jobs of 2016 for Job Satisfaction*

• Job Satisfaction
– A positive feeling about a job resulting from an evaluation of its characteristics.
• Two approaches for measuring job satisfaction are popular
– The single global rating. Rating response to one question, how satisfied are you
with your job?
– The summation of job facets. Rating key elements in the job such as: type of
work, skill needed , supervision, present pay, promotion opportunities, culture
and relation with coworkers. Then sum up the results
• How satisfied are people in their jobs?
– Over the last 30 years, employees in the U.S. and most developed countries have
generally been satisfied with their jobs.
• With the recent economic downturn, more workers are less satisfied.
• Satisfaction levels differ depending on the facet involved.
• There are cultural differences in job satisfaction.
• Exhibit 3-3 Average Job Satisfaction Levels by Facet
Summarize the Main Causes of Job Satisfaction
• What causes job satisfaction?
– Job conditions
 The intrinsic nature of the work itself, social interactions, and supervision
are important predictors of satisfaction and employee well-being.
– Personality
 People who have positive core self-evaluations, who believe in their inner
worth and basic competence, are more satisfied with their jobs than
those with negative core self-evaluations.
• Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
– Corporate social responsibility (CSR): self-regulated actions to benefit society or
the environment beyond what is required by law.
 Includes environmental sustainability initiatives, nonprofit work, and
charitable giving.
 Increasingly affects employee job satisfaction.
– CSR is particularly important for Millennials.
 But, not everyone finds value in CSR.

Outcomes of Job Satisfaction

• Job Performance
– Happy workers are more likely to be productive workers.
• OCB
– People who are more satisfied with their jobs are more likely to engage in
OCB.
• Customer Satisfaction
– Satisfied employees increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Life Satisfaction
– Research shows that job satisfaction is positively correlated with life
satisfaction.
Four Employee Responses to Dissatisfaction
Exhibit 3-6 Responses to Dissatisfaction from
 • Counterproductive Work Behavior (CWB)
– Counterproductive work behavior: actions that actively damage the
organization, including stealing, behaving aggressively toward coworkers, or
being late or absent.
– Absenteeism: the more satisfied you are, the less likely you are to miss work.
– Turnover: a pattern of lowered job satisfaction is the best predictor of intent to
leave.
• Managers Often “Don’t Get It”

Implications for Managers

• Of the major job attitudes – job satisfaction, job involvement,
organizational commitment, perceived organizational support (POS), and
employee engagement – remember that an employee’s job satisfaction
level is the best single predictor of behavior.
• Pay attention to your employees’ job satisfaction levels as determinants of their
performance, turnover, absenteeism, and withdrawal behaviors.

• Measure employee job attitudes objectively and at regular intervals to determine how
employees are reacting to their work.
• To raise employee satisfaction, evaluate the fit between the employee’s work interests
and the intrinsic parts of his/her job to create work that is challenging and interesting to
the individual.
• Consider the fact that high pay alone is unlikely to create a satisfying work environment.

Chapter 9:
Distinguish Between Different Types of Groups
• A group is defined as two or more individuals, interacting and interdependent, who
have come together to achieve particular objectives.
• Groups can be either formal or informal.
– Formal groups: those defined by the organization’s structure.
– Informal groups: alliances that are neither formally structured nor
organizationally determined.
• Social identity theory: considers when and why individuals consider themselves
members of groups.
– People have emotional reactions to the failure or success of their group because
their self-esteem gets tied into the performance of the group.
– Social identities help us understand who we are and where we fit in with people.
• OB Poll Most People Report Drinking with Coworkers is Acceptable
 • Ingroups and Outgroups
– Ingroup favoritism occurs when we see members of our group as better than
other people, and people not in our group as all the same.
– Whenever there is an ingroup, there is by necessity an outgroup, which is
sometimes everyone else, but is usually an identified group known by the
ingroup’s members.
• Social Identity Threat
– Ingroups and outgroups pave the way for social identity threat, which is akin to
stereotype threat.
– Individuals believe they will be personally negatively evaluated due to their
association with a devalued group, and they may lose confidence and
performance effectiveness.

Describe the Punctuated Equilibrium Model

Exhibit 9-1 The Punctuated-Equilibrium Model

Show How Role Requirements Change

• Role: a set of expected behavior patterns attributed to someone occupying a given
position in a social unit.
– Role perception: one’s perception of how to act in a given situation.
– Role expectations: how others believe one should act in a given situation.
 Psychological contract
 • Role conflict: situation in which an individual faces divergent role expectations.
– We can experience interrole conflict when the expectations of our different,
separate groups are in opposition.

Show How Norms Exert Influence On An Individual’s Behavior

• Norms:
– Acceptable standards of behavior within a group that are shared by the group’s
members.

• Norms and Emotions

– A recent study found that, in a task group, individuals’ emotions influenced the
group’s emotions and vice versa.
– Researchers have also found that norms dictated the experience of emotions for
the individuals and for the groups – in other words, people grew to interpret
their shared emotions in the same way.
• Positive Norms and Group Outcomes
– One goal of every organization with corporate social responsibility (CSR)
initiatives is for its values to hold normative sway over employees.
– If employees aligned their thinking with positive norms, these norms would
become stronger and the probability of positive impact would grow
exponentially.
– Positive group norms may well beget positive outcomes, but only if other factors
are present.
• Exhibit 9-3 Typology of Deviant Workplace Behavior

Category Examples
Production Leaving early
Blank Intentionally working slowly
Blank Wasting resources
Property Sabotage
Blank Lying about hours worked
Blank Stealing from the organization
Political Showing favoritism
Blank Gossiping and spreading rumors
Blank Blaming coworkers
Personal aggression Sexual harassment
Blank Verbal abuse
 Blank Stealing from coworkers

• Norms and Culture

– Do people in collectivist cultures have different norms than people in
individualist cultures? Of course they do.
– But did you know that our orientation may be changed, even after years of living
in one society.

Show How Status and Size Differences Affect Performance

• Status: a socially defined position or rank given to groups or group members by others.
– Status characteristics theory: status is derived from one of three sources:
 The power a person wields over others.
 A person’s ability to contribute to a group’s goals.
 An individual’s personal characteristics.
• Status and Norms: high status individuals often have more freedom to deviate from
norms.
• Status and Group Interaction: high status people are often more assertive.
• Status Inequity: perceived inequity creates disequilibrium and can lead to resentment
and corrective behavior.
• Status and Stigmatization: stigma by association.
• Group Status: “us and them” mentality and ensuing polarization.
• Group size affects the group’s overall behavior.
– Large groups are good for gaining diverse input.
– Smaller groups are better doing something with input.
• Social loafing: the tendency for individuals to expend less effort when working
collectively than alone.

Integrating Cohesiveness and Diversity for Group Effectiveness

Exhibit 9-4 Relationship Between Group Cohesiveness, Performance Norms, and Productivity
 • Diversity: degree to which members of the group are similar to, or different from, one
another.
– Increases group conflict, especially in the short term.
• Culturally and demographically diverse groups may perform better over time.
– May help them be more open-minded and creative.

Group Decision Making

• Strengths of group decision making:
– More complete information and knowledge
– Increased diversity of views
– Increased acceptance of solutions
• Weaknesses of group decision making:
– Time consuming
– Conformity pressures
– Dominance of a few members
– Ambiguous responsibility
• Effectiveness and efficiency of group decisions:
– Accuracy
– Speed
– Creativity
– Acceptance
• Groupthink: situations in which group pressures for conformity deter the group from
critically appraising unusual, minority, or unpopular views.
• Groupshift: a change between a group’s decision and an individual decision that a
member within the group would make.
• Most group decision making takes place in interacting groups.
– Members meet face-to-face and rely on both verbal and nonverbal interaction to
communicate with each other.
• Interacting groups often censor themselves and pressure individual members toward
conformity of opinion.
• Brainstorming can overcome pressures for conformity.
– In a brainstorming session:
• The group leader states the problem.
• Members then “free-wheel” as many alternatives as they can.
• No criticism is allowed.
• One idea stimulates others, and group members are encouraged to
“think the unusual.”
• The nominal group technique: restricts discussion or interpersonal communication
during the decision making process.
– Group members are all physically present, but members operate independently.
– Permits the group to meet formally but does not restrict independent thinking,
as does the interacting group.
• Nominal groups outperform brainstorming groups.
 • Steps for a nominal group:
– Each member independently writes down his/her ideas on the problem.
– After this silent period, each member presents one idea to the group.
– The ideas are discussed for clarity.
– Each group member rank-orders the ideas.
– The idea with the highest aggregate ranking determines the final decision.
• Exhibit 9-5 Evaluating Group Effectiveness
Blank Blank Type of Group Blank
Effectiveness Criteria Interacting Brainstorming Nominal
Number and quality of ideas Low Moderate High
Social pressure High Low Moderate
Money costs Low Low Low
Speed Moderate Moderate Moderate
Task orientation Low High High
Potential for interpersonal conflict High Low Moderate
Commitment to solution High Not applicable Moderate
Development of group High High Moderate
cohesiveness

Implications for Managers

• Recognize that groups can have a dramatic impact on individual behavior in
organizations, to either positive or negative effect. Therefore, pay special attention to
roles, norms, and cohesion—to understand how these are operating within a group is to
understand how the group is likely to behave.
• To decrease the possibility of deviant workplace activities, ensure that group norms do
not support antisocial behavior.
• Pay attention to the status aspect of groups. Because lower-status people tend to
participate less in group discussions, groups with high status differences are likely to
inhibit input from lower-status members and reduce their potential.
• Use larger groups for fact-finding activities and smaller groups for action-taking tasks.
With larger groups, provide measures of individual performance.
• To increase employee satisfaction, make certain people perceive their job roles
accurately.

Chapter 11:
Define Power and Contrast Leadership and Power
• Power refers to a capacity that A has to influence the behavior of B, so that B acts in
accordance with A’s wishes.
– Power may exist but not be used.
• Probably the most important aspect of power is that it is a function of dependence.
– A person can have power over you only if he or she controls something you
desire.

• Leaders use power as a means of attaining group goals.

– Goal compatibility
 Power does not require goal compatibility, merely dependence.
– The direction of influence.
 Leadership focuses on the downward influence on one’s followers.
– Leadership research emphasizes style.

Explain Formal Power and Personal Power

• Formal Power
– Coercive Power
– Reward Power
– Legitimate Power
• Personal Power
– Expert Power
– Referent Power
• Which Bases of Power Are Most Effective?
– Personal sources are most effective.
– Both expert and referent power are positively related to employees’ satisfaction
with supervision, their organizational commitment, and their performance,
whereas reward and legitimate power seem to be unrelated to these outcomes.
– Coercive power can be damaging.
Explain the Role of Dependence in Power Relationships
• The General Dependency Postulate
– When you possess anything others require but that you alone control, you make
them dependent upon you and, therefore, you gain power over them.
– Dependence, then, is inversely proportional to the alternative sources of supply.

• What Creates Dependence?

– Importance
– Scarcity
– Nonsubstitutability

Identify Power or Influence Tactics and their Contingencies

 • Influence tactics:
– Legitimacy
– Rational persuasion
– Inspirational appeals
– Consultation
– Exchange
– Personal appeals
– Ingratiating
– Pressure
– Coalitions
Identify Nine Power or Influence Tactics and their Contingencies
• Some tactics are more effective than others.
– Rational persuasion, inspirational appeals, and consultation are most effective
when the audience is highly interested in the outcomes.
– Pressure tends to backfire.
– Both ingratiation and legitimacy can lessen the negative reactions from
appearing to “dictate” outcomes.

• Exhibit 11-2 Preferred Power Tactics by Influence Direction

Upward Influence Downward Influence Lateral Influence

Rational persuasion Rational persuasion Rational persuasion
Blank Inspirational appeals Consultation
Blank Pressure Ingratiation
Blank Consultation Exchange
Blank Ingratiation Legitimacy
Blank Exchange Personal appeals
Blank Legitimacy Coalitions

• People in different countries prefer different power tactics.

– Individualistic countries see power in personalized terms and as a legitimate
means of advancing their personal ends.
– Collectivistic countries see power in social terms and as a legitimate means of
helping others.
• Applying Power Tactics
– People differ in terms of their political skill: their ability to influence others to
enhance their own objectives.
• The politically skilled are more effective users of all the influence tactics.
 – Cultures within organizations differ markedly: some are warm, relaxed, and
supportive; others are formal and conservative.
• People who fit the culture of the organization tend to obtain more
influence.
Causes and Consequences of Abuse of Power
• Does power corrupt?
– Power leads people to place their own interests ahead of others.
– Powerful people react, especially negatively, to any threats to their
competence.
– Power leads to overconfident decision making.
– Power doesn’t affect everyone in the same way, and there are even
positive effects of power.
• Sexual harassment: any unwanted activity of a sexual nature that affects an individual’s
employment and creates a hostile work environment.
• Organizations have generally made progress in the past decade toward limiting
overt forms of sexual harassment.
• Managers have a responsibility to protect their employees from a hostile work
environment, but they also need to protect themselves.
• Mangers should:
• Make sure an active policy defines what constitutes sexual harassment, informs
employees they can be fired for sexually harassing another employee, and
establishes procedures for how complaints can be made.
• Reassure employees that they will not encounter retaliation if they issue a
complaint.
• In addition, managers should:
• Investigate every complaint and include the legal and human resource
departments.
• Make sure offenders are disciplined or terminated.
• Set up in-house seminars to raise employee awareness of the issues surrounding
sexual harassment.
Describe How Politics Work in Organizations
• Political behavior: activities that are not required as part of one’s formal role in the
organization, but that influence the distribution of advantages within the organization.
– Outside of one’s specified job requirements.
– Encompasses efforts to influence decision- making goals, criteria, or processes.
– Includes such behaviors as withholding information, whistle-blowing, spreading
rumors, and leaking confidential information.

• OB POLL Importance of Organizatoinal Politics from

Causes and Consequences of Political Behavior
Exhibit 11-3 Factors That Influence Political Behavior

Exhibit 11-4 Employee Responses to Organizational Politics from

Exhibit 11-5 Defensive Behaviors

 Avoiding Action
Overconforming. Strictly interpreting your responsibility by saying things like “The rules
clearly state...”or “This is the way we’ve always done it.”
Buck passing. Transferring responsibility for the execution of a task or decision to someone
else.
Playing dumb. Avoiding an unwanted task by falsely pleading ignorance or inability.
Stretching. Prolonging a task so that one person appears to be occupied—for example,
turning a two-week task into a 4-month job.
Stalling. Appearing to be more or less supportive publicly while doing little or nothing
privately.
Avoiding Blame
Bluffing. Rigorously documenting activity to project an image of competence and
thoroughness, known as “covering your rear.”
Playing safe. Evading situations that may reflect unfavorably. It includes taking on only
projects with a high probability of success, having risky decisions approved by superiors,
qualifying expressions of judgment, and taking neutral positions in conflicts.
Justifying. Developing explanations that lessen one’s responsibility for a negative outcome
and/or apologizing to demonstrate remorse, or both.

[Exhibit 11-5 Continued]

Scapegoating. Placing the blame for a negative outcome on external factors
that are not entirely blameworthy.
Misrepresenting. Manipulation of information by distortion,
embellishment, deception, selective presentation, or obfuscation.
Avoiding Change
Prevention. Trying to prevent a threatening change from occurring.
Self-protection. Acting in ways to protect one’s self-interest during change
by guarding information or other resources.

• Impression management (IM): the process by which individuals attempt to control the
impression others form of them.
– Mostly high self-monitors.
– Impressions people convey are not necessarily false – they might truly
believe them.
– Intentional misrepresentation may have a high cost.
• The effectiveness of IM depends on the situation.

• The Ethics of Behaving Politically

– Questions to consider:
  What is the utility of engaging in politicking?
 How does the utility of engaging in the political behavior balance out any
harm (or potential harm) it will do to others?
 Does the political activity conform to standards of equity and justice?
Implications for Managers
• To maximize your power, increase others’ dependence on you. For instance, increase
your power in relation to your boss by developing a needed knowledge or skill for which
there is no ready substitute.
• You will not be alone in attempting to build your power bases. Others, particularly
employees and peers, will be seeking to increase your dependence on them, while you
are trying to minimize it and increase their dependence on you.
• Try to avoid putting others in a position where they feel they have no power.
• By assessing behavior in a political framework, you can better predict the actions of
others and use that information to formulate political strategies that will gain
advantages for you and your work unit.
• Consider that employees who have poor political skills or are unwilling to play the
politics game generally relate perceived organizational politics to lower job satisfaction
and self-reported performance, increased anxiety, and higher turnover. Therefore, if
you are adept at organizational politics, help your employees understand the
importance of becoming politically savvy.