Organizational Psychology:

A Scientist-Practitioner Approach
Jex, S. M., & Britt, T. W. (2014)

Productive Behavior in Organizations

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 Defining Productive Behavior
• Employee behavior that contributes to the goals of the organization
• Three common forms:

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 Job Performance
• Linked to behaviors associated with job-
related tasks
• Distinguished from other related terms
(effectiveness, utility, productivity,
efficiency)
• Critical to clearly define the criterion

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 Models of Job Performance
• Aimed at identifying performance dimensions
common to all jobs
• Several dimensional models:
– In- versus extra-role performance
– Campbell’s eight-dimensional framework
– Murphy’s four-dimensional model

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Campbell’s eight-dimensional framework

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Murphy’s four-dimensional model

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Measurement of Job Performance
• Various methods exist:
– Paper/pencil, job skills, hands-on, simulations, task ratings, and
general/global ratings
– Ratings are generally the most popular
• Focus on evaluating performance-related behaviors
• Indirect is more common than direct
• Murphy’s list of performance assessment options
• Good measurement must overcome many threats:
– Measurement/rater error
– Restricted range in ratings
– Instability of performance over time
• Efforts to reduce error in ratings
– Behaviorally anchored rating scales
– Rater training
– Multiple methods
• Distinction between:
– Typical or normal performance
– Maximum or peak performance

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 Restriction in Performance Ratings
• The problem is in low variability among employees when
using the rating data
• Artifactual restriction versus true restriction
• Possible reasons for this restriction:
– “Survival of the fittest”
– Organizational standards are too low
– High performance is not consistently valued
– Low performance is often excused
– Resources are unevenly distributed or limited

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 Instability in Job Performance Over Time

• Challenge of assessing employee performance

when it changes over time (i.e., when it is not
stable)
– Comment 5.4

• Possible reasons for instability:

– Changes in employee’s knowledge
– Changes in the job’s characteristics

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 Determinants of Job Performance
• At a general level, a person’s performance
on the job is due to a combination of:
– Ability
– Motivation
– Situation
• Several other models have expanded upon
this general idea
• Figure 5.1 provides a summary
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Determinant of Job Performance

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Predictor of Job Performance

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 General Mental Ability
• Person’s capacity for information processing and
understanding
• Shown to account for 25%+ of variance in
performance across most jobs
– Especially when job is complex
• May be associated with job performance via a
person’s job-related knowledge
• Narrow cognitive abilities may be better predictors
than GMA
• Potential adverse impact of GMA tests
• Emotional intelligence as a predictor of performance
– May be especially important in jobs requiring
emotional labor

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 Job Experience
• Shown to relate positively to job
performance over many jobs
• As with GMA, seems to link to performance
via job-related knowledge
• Diminishing returns
• May be important to consider both density
and timing of past job experiences

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 Personality
• Recent resurgence of interest here
• Several specific traits have shown consistent positive
relationships with performance:
– Conscientiousness
– Extraversion
– Agreeableness
– Openness to experience
• Emerging considerations for predicting performance:
– Bandwidth: Trait versus facet level
– Potential curvilinear relationships
– Contextualizing personality to the job
• Composite traits related to performance
– Core self-evaluations
– Psychological capital
– Proactive personality

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Organizational Citizenship Behaviors
• Behaviors that go beyond those required for
(or rewarded in) the job
• Organ’s classification:
– Altruism
– Courtesy
– Sportsmanship
– Conscientiousness
– Civic virtue
• Main reasons for OCB: Positive affect,
equity, and disposition/personality
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Major Antecedents of OCB

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 Special Issues in OCB Research
• How is OCB linked with employee and
organization performance and
effectiveness?
• Does OCB  effectiveness or vice versa?
• The construct validity of OCB
• What role do employee expectations play?
• Will OCB remain a viable construct in the
future?

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 Innovation in Organizations
• Productive behavior in which useful novelty is created and
applied within an organization
• Research is considering the influence of employee and
organization factors (separately and together) on the
development of innovation
• Employee attributes that matter: Specific skills, meta-
skills, personality characteristics, and motivation necessary
for creativity
• Organizational determinants:
– Technical vs. administrative innovation
– Strategies for increasing organizational innovation:
Hiring, training, influencing motivation
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 Adaptive Performance
• Behaviors employees perform in
challenging and changing work contexts
• Eight types of adaptive performance
• Examples:
– Handling emergencies or crisis situations
– Handling work stress
– Solving problems creatively
– Dealing with uncertain and unpredictable
situations
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