Introduction to Management

MGNT110

Week 2
Managing Individuals
 Lecture Outline

Week 1 recap

Week 2 – Managing individuals

Organizational psychology and behaviour
The meaning of work
Nature v nurture and competition v collaboration
Schemas
Stereotyping
Values
Personality and traits
The sociocognitive approach
Humanism
Positive psychology
1
 Week 1
Managing and organizations

What do managers do?

Leadership v management
Management skills and styles
Sensemaking and framing
Organizations
The changing nature of work
 Week 2

Managing individuals
 Class Activity: What do people prioritise in their work?
Rank the items below in order of importance and see if there are any differences
with the person next to you.

Your ranking Items

Interesting work
Appreciation of work
Feeling "in on things"
Job security
Good wages
Promotion/growth
Good working conditions
Personal loyalty
Tactful discipline
Sympathetic help with problems

Source: Kovach, K.A. (1995), Employee motivation: Addressing a crucial factor in your
organization's performance. Employee Relations Today, 22: 93-107
 Table 1. Associate motivation survey results
Now compare your response to each item to the research findings below

Workers' Ranking Items Employers' Ranking

1 Interesting work 5
2 Appreciation of work 8
3 Feeling "in on things" 10
4 Job security 2
5 Good wages 1
6 Promotion/growth 3
7 Good working conditions 4
8 Personal loyalty 6
9 Tactful discipline 7

10 Sympathetic help with problems 9

 • Several studies by researchers such as
George England and his team (1994),Cornell
University on the ‘Meaning of Work ‘
• Sought to determine a person’s idea of the
relative importance of work compared to that
of leisure, community, religion, and family and
differences in attitudes across cultures
• They called this concept ‘work centrality’ and

Meaning
identified some of the following motivations:

• A needed income
of work •
•
Interest and satisfaction
Contacts with others
• A way to serve society
• A means of keeping occupied
• Status and prestige

8
Psychology and organizational behaviour

• Introduction to psychology

• Organizational behaviour

8
 Nature vs. nurture
• Nature
– Is human personality, cognition, and behaviour genetic,
pre-programmed?
• Nurture
– Is human personality, cognition, and behaviour learned,
socialized?
• Competition v collaboration - survival of the fittest?
– Individual self-interest
– Collective social interest

9
Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/05/heres-how-much-the-10-highest-paid-us-ceos-earn.html 10
 Perception and schemas

What is a schema?

• Types of schema
– Script schemas
– Social schemas
– Role schemas

11
12
 Perception at work
• Common errors in perception:

– Stereotyping

13
14
 Perception at work
Common errors in perception:

– Stereotyping

– Halo effect

– Devil effect

– Attribution errors

15
 Values
– A set of beliefs and goals that serve as guiding
principles in one’s life

– Values can create tension

– Schwartz and the ten value types

Schwartz, S.H. (2012). ‘An overview of the Schwartz theory of basic values. Online Readings in 16
Psychology and Culture, 2:1.
 Descriptions of Schwartz’s value types
Achievement Valuing of personal success by demonstrating one’s
competence according to social standards
Benevolence Preservation and enhancement of the welfare of people with
whom one is in frequent personal contact
Conformity Restraint of actions, inclinations, and impulses that are likely
to upset or harm others and that might violate social
expectations or norms
Hedonism Pleasure and sensuous gratification for oneself
Power One’s social status and prestige, control, or dominance over
people and resources
Security Safety, harmony, and stability of society, of relationships, and
of self
Self-direction Independent thought and action
Stimulation Excitement, novelty, and challenge in life
Tradition Respect, commitment, and acceptance of the customs and
ideas that traditional culture or religion provides
Universalism Understanding, appreciation, tolerance, and protection for
the welfare of all people and for nature 17
 Personality
Personality theories
– Trait theory (e.g. McCrae and Costa)

o Big Five

– Socio-cognitive theory (e.g. Rotter)

o Locus of control

– Humanist theory (e.g. Maslow)

o Self-actualization

18
 Trait theory
• Characteristics of personality can be identified and
categorized

• Once categorized, personality can be measured

• Surveys developed such as:

– The ‘Big Five’ inventory
– Myers-Briggs survey

19
 The ‘Big Five’ Inventory
• Take the Big Five inventory on Moodle

• 10 minutes to complete

• Read description of results

20
 The ‘Big Five’ Inventory
1. Extroversion – energetic, enthusiastic, dominant, sociable, and talkative.
People low on this dimension (introverts) are shy, retiring, submissive,
and quiet.

2. Agreeableness: Agreeable people are friendly, cooperative, trusting, and

warm. People low on this dimension are cold, quarrelsome, and unkind.

3. Conscientiousness: Conscientious people are cautious, dependable,

organized, and responsible. People low on this dimension are impulsive,
careless, disorderly, and undependable.

4. Emotionality: People high in emotionality are ‘feeling’ orientated and

maybe nervous, highly strung, tense, worrying. People low on this
dimension are calm, contented and less emotional.

5. Openness: Open people are imaginative, witty, original, and artistic.

People low on this dimension are shallow, plain, or simple (this trait is
sometimes labelled intelligence).

McCrae, R.R. & Costa, P.T. (1999). A five factor theory of personality. Handbook of Personality:
21
Theory and Research, 2: 139-153.
 The socio-cognitive approach
• The ‘locus of control’ (Rotter, 1966)

• Tripping over a brick

• Internals v externals

22
 The Humanist approach
• Challenged trait theory

• The centrality of a person’s ‘self-concept’

• Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

23
 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

24

Maslow, A.H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50(4), 370-396.

13
 Maslow’s hierarchy revised

25

14
 Personality and management
• Maslow, the meaning of work and motivation theory

• Internals v externals

• Trait theory

26
 Positive psychology
• Positive psychology and positive organizational behavior

• Emotional Intelligence (EQ)

• Critiques of positive psych

Seligman, M.E.P. & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive psychology: an introduction.

27
American Psychologist, 55: 5-14
 References
Clegg, S.R., Pitsis, T.S. and Mount, M. (2021). Managing and Organizations: An
Introduction to Theory and Practice, 6th Edition. Sage: London. (Chapter 2)

Kovach, K.A. (1995), Employee motivation: Addressing a crucial factor in your

organization's performance. Employee Relations Today, 22: 93-107

Maslow, A.H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50(4), 370-
396.

McDonald, M., Thi Nguyen, L., Bubna-Litic, D., Nguyen, T.-N., & Taylor, G. (2021).
Positive Psychology Applied to the Workplace: A Foucauldian Discourse
Analysis. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 0(0).

McCrae, R.R. & Costa, P.T. (1999). A five factor theory of personality. Handbook of
Personality: Theory and Research, 2: 139-153.

Schwartz, S.H. (2012). ‘An overview of the Schwartz theory of basic values’. Online
Readings in Psychology and Culture, 2:1.

Seligman, M.E.P. & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive psychology: an introduction.

29
American Psychologist, 55: 5-14
Questions?

30