Foundations of

Individual Behavior

 PEOPLE IN
ORGANIZATIONS

Psychological contract

-is a person’s set of expectations regarding what he or

she will contribute to an organization and what the
organization, in return, will provide to the individual

 The Person-Job Fit

 specific aspect of managing psychological contracts
 is the extent to which the contributions made by the
individual match the inducements offered by the
organization.
 Individual Differences

 are personal attributes that vary from one person to
another
 characterize a specific person make that person
unique
 basic categories:
 Personality
 Attitudes
 Perception
 Creativity
 I. PERSONALITY
AND ORGANIZATION

 is the relatively stable set of psychological attributes
that distinguish one person from another

Is personality NATURE or NURTURED?

 The “Big Five”
Personality
 Traits
 are a set of fundamental traits that are especially
relevant to organizations
 The “Big Five”
Personality
 Traits
Agreeableness
- is the ability to get along with others
Conscientiousness
-refers to the number of goals on which a person
focuses
Neuroticism
-characterized by a person’s tendency to experience
unpleasant emotions such as anger, anxiety, depression,
and feelings of vulnerability
 The “Big Five”
Personality
 Traits
Extraversion
-the quality of being comfortable with
relationships;
the opposite extreme, introversion, is characterized by
more social discomfort

Openness
-the capacity to entertain new ideas and to change
as a result of new information
 The Myers-Briggs
Framework

 based on the classical work of Carl Jung
 differentiates people in terms of four general
dimensions: sensing, intuiting, judging, and
perceiving

Higher and lower positions in each of the dimensions

are used to classify people into one of sixteen different
personality categories.
 Emotional Intelligence
(EQ)

-the extent to which people are self-aware, can manage
their emotions, can motivate themselves, express
empathy for others, and possess social skills.
Emotional Intelligence
(EQ)- dimensions

1. Self-awareness
-basis for the other components. It refers to a
person’s capacity for being aware of how he or she is
feeling.
In general, more self-awareness allows a person to
more effectively guide his or her own life and
behaviors.
2. Managing emotions
-a person’s capacities to balance anxiety, fear, and
anger so that they do not interfere with getting things
accomplished.
Emotional Intelligence
(EQ)- dimensions

3. Motivating oneself
-a person’s ability to remain optimistic and to continue
striving in the face of setbacks, barriers, and failure.
4. Empathy
-a person’s ability to understand how others are
feeling even without being explicitly told.
5. Social skill
-a person’s ability to get along with others and to
establish positive relationships.
Other Personality Traits
at Work

Locus of control
- the extent to which he believes his circumstances are
a function of either his own actions or of external factors
beyond his control
Self-efficacy
-person’s beliefs about his or her capabilities to
perform a task
Authoritarianism
-the belief that power and status differences are
appropriate within hierarchical social systems such as
organizations.
Other Personality Traits
at Work

Machiavellianism
-behave to gain power and control the behavior of
others
Self-esteem
-the extent to which that person believes he or she is a
worthwhile and deserving individual
Risk propensity
-the degree to which he or she is willing to take
chances and make risky decisions.
 II. ATTITUDES IN
ORGANIZATIONS

 Attitudes
-are a person’s complexes of beliefs and feelings about
specific ideas, situations, or other people
-important because they are the mechanism through
which most people express their feelings

HOW ARE ATTITUDES FORMED?

Attitudes are formed by a variety of forces, including our
personal values, our experiences, and our personalities.
 Attitude Structure

Attitudes are usually viewed as stable dispositions to
behave toward objects in a certain way.

Components of an Attitude:
cognition, affect, and intention

Cognition constitutes the knowledge a person

presumes to have about something.
 Attitude Structure

A person’s affect is his or her feelings toward
something.

An intention is a component of an attitude that

guides a person’s behavior.
 Cognitive dissonance

is the anxiety a person experiences when
simultaneously possessing two sets of knowledge or
perceptions that are contradictory or incongruent

Result to feelings of discomfort and tension.

How to overcome?

Dissonance reduction is the way we deal with these

feelings of discomfort and tension.
Can we change our
attitude?

Attitudes are not as stable
as personality attributes
 Attitude Change

 new information may change attitudes
 object of an attitude changes
 when the object of the attitude becomes less
important or less relevant to the person
 a way to reduce cognitive dissonance
Work-Related Attitudes

People in an organization form attitudes about many
different things. Employees are likely to have attitudes
about their salary, their promotion possibilities, their
boss, employee benefits, the food in the company
cafeteria, and the color of the company softball team
uniforms.

Of course, some of these attitudes are more important

than others. Especially important attitudes are job
satisfaction and organizational commitment.
Work-Related Attitudes

Job satisfaction
-the extent to which a person is gratified or fulfilled by
his or her work

Organizational commitment
-a person’s identification with and attachment to an
organization
-or also known as job commitment
 affective component of
attitudes

Managers once believed that emotion and feelings
varied among people from day to day.

People who possess positive affectivity are upbeat

and optimistic, have an overall sense of well-being, and
see things in a positive light.
People characterized by negative affectivity are
generally downbeat and pessimistic, see things in a
negative way, and seem to be in a bad mood.
 III. PERCEPTION IN
ORGANIZATIONS

Perception
-the set of processes by which an individual becomes
aware of and interprets information about the
environment
If everyone perceived everything the same way, things
would be a lot simpler (and a lot less exciting!)
but in reality
People perceive the same things in very different ways.
Basic Perceptual
Processes

 Perception and
Attribution

Attribution theory suggests that we attribute causes
to behavior based on our observations of certain
characteristics of that behavior.

That is, we attempt to explain why people behave as

they do.
The process of attribution is based on perceptions of
reality, and these perceptions may vary widely among
individuals.
The Attribution Process

The attribution process involves observing behavior
and then attributing causes to it.
Observed behaviors are interpreted in terms of their
consensus, their consistency, and their
distinctiveness.
Based on these interpretations, behavior is attributed to
either internal or external causes.
The Attribution Process

Consensus is the extent to which
other people in the same situation
behave in the same way.

Consistency is the degree to

which the same person behaves in
the same way at different times.

Distinctiveness is the extent to

which the same person behaves in
the same way in different situations.
TYPES OF WORKPLACE
BEHAVIOR

Workplace behavior
is a pattern of action by the members of an
organization that directly or indirectly influences
organizational effectiveness.
Performance behaviors are all of the total set of
work-related behaviors that the organization expects
the individual to display.
Dysfunctional behaviors are those that detract
from organizational performance.
 2 common
Dysfunctional
 Behavior
Absenteeism
occurs when an individual does not show up for work.

Turnover
occurs when people quit their jobs.
 Organizational
Citizenship

A person’s degree of organizational citizenship is
the extent to which his or her behavior makes a positive
overall contribution to the organization.