Chapter 3

Individual Differences and

Work Behavior

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Learning Objectives
 Identifythe major individual variables that
influence work behavior
 Understand how diversity is influencing the
workplace
 Explain what an attitude is and identify its
three components

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 Learning Objectives
 Discuss the relationship between job
satisfaction and performance
 Describe the major forces influencing
personality
 Identify the Big Five personality dimensions
 Discuss several important personality factors

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 Why Individual Differences are Important

 Individual differences have a direct effect

on behavior, perceptions, and interactions
 Thesedifferences explain why some people
embrace change and others fear it
 Or,why some employees are only productive
when closely supervised
 Virtually no area of an organization is
unaffected by individual differences
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 Attraction-Selection-Attrition Framework

 A helpful way to think about the

importance of individual differences in
influencing work behavior.
 According to ASA, attraction to an
organization, selection by it, and attrition
from it result in particular kinds of people
in the organization. These people will
determine organizational behavior.

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 Attraction-Selection-Attrition Framework

 People are attracted to different careers

and organizations as a function of their…
 Abilities

 Interests

 Personalities

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 Attraction-Selection-Attrition Framework

 Organizations select employees on the basis

of the needs the organization has.
 These needs refer to:
 Skills and abilities
 Individual attributes, such as values and
personality

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 Attraction-Selection-Attrition Framework
 Attrition occurs when…
 Individuals discover they do not like being
part of the organization and elect to resign, or
 The organization determines an individual
is not succeeding and elects to terminate
 Each phase of the ASA cycle is influenced by
the individual differences of each person
 The essence of any organization is defined by
people who work for it.
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 Attraction-Selection-Attrition Framework

 Each individual is different from every other

 Managers need to ask how such differences influence
the behavior and performance of employees
 Managers who ignore such differences often become
involved in practices that hinder achieving
organizational and personal goals
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The Basis for Understanding Work Behavior
 Many factors influence individual differences and
impact a person’s personality and behavior:
 Demographic factors: Age, race, gender,
temperament, background
 Heredity and personal environment background must
also be weighed and considered: poor, middle class,
or wealthy; urban or rural
 Even with this understanding, it is difficult to
predict behavior

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Individual Differences in the Workplace

Personality
Personality

Perception
Perception Ability
Abilityand
andSkills
Skills Attitudes
Attitudes

Work Behavior
• Productivity
• Creativity
• Performance
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 Individual Differences in the Workplace
 To understand individual differences,
a manager must:
 Observe and recognize the differences
 Study relationships among variables that
influence individual behavior
 Work behavior is anything a person does
in the work environment
 Some behaviors contribute to productivity;
others are non- or counter-productive
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Individual Differences Influencing Behavior
 Heredity factors
 Psychological, mental, and moral differences
are influenced by genetic inheritance
 Debate as to whether human behavior is determined
by heredity or by environment is ongoing, ex: the
reasons for differences between males and females,
higher and lower IQs
 The foremost heredity difference is gender
 Most of the stereotypical differences used to describe
males and females are not valid
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 Diversity Factors

 Refers to the attributes that make people

different from one another
 Heredity and diversity
 Abilities and skills
 Attitudes

 Personality

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 Diversity Factors

 Primary (stable) dimensions

 Age

 Ethnicity

 Gender

 Physical attributes
 Race

 Affectional orientation
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 Diversity Factors

 Secondary (changeable) dimensions

 Educational background
 Marital status
 Religious beliefs
 Health

 Work experience

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 Diversity in the Workplace
 The workforce is becoming more diverse
 75% of the new jobs created in the U.S. will be
filled by women and minorities
 There will be dramatic growth in the number of
workers age 55 and older
 Asian- and Hispanic-Americans will continue
entering the workforce at a rapid rate
 More women than men will enter the workforce
 More of the disabled will be looking for jobs
 The percentage of white workers will drop from
79% to 69%
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 Diversity in the Workplace

 Gender, racial, age, and ethnic diversity

will bring differences in…
 Values

 Work ethics
 Behavioral norms

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 Abilities and Skills

 Abilities and skills play a major role in individual

behavior and performance
 An ability is a person’s talent to perform a
mental or physical task
 It is generally stable over time
 Skill is a learned talent
 Itis acquired in order
to perform a task, it changes as
one’ training or experience occurs
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 Abilities and Skills
 Abilities are important factors to differentiate
between higher and lower performing employees
 1- Mental ability is one’s level of intelligence, it can
be divided into…
 Verbal fluency and
comprehension
 Inductive and
deductive reasoning
 Associative memory
 Spatial orientation
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 Abilities and Skills
 2- Emotional intelligence is the ability to…
 Be self-aware of feelings
 Manage emotions
 Motivate oneself
 Express sympathy
 Handle relationships with others
 People high in emotional intelligence are
more successful on the job
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 Abilities and Skills

 3- Tacit knowledge is the work-related

practical know-how
 Itis acquired through observation and direct
experience on the job
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 Abilities and Skills
 Sternberg stated that people who develop and use
tacit knowledge will increase their chances of
success within organizations, he believes that
practically intelligent leaders…
 Capitalize on their strengths and overcome their
weaknesses
 Realize they are not good at everything
 Overcome negative expectations set by others
 Learn from positive and negative experiences
 Have can-do attitudes
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 The presence or absence of various abilities
and skills has an obvious relationship to job
performance.
 Managers must attempt to match a person’s
abilities and skills to the job requirements.
 This matching process is important since no
amount of leadership, motivation or
organizational resources can make up for
deficiencies in abilities or skills.
 Job analysis is a widely used technique.
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 Attitudes
 Attitudes are determinates of behavior because
they are linked with…
 Perception
 Personality
 Feelings
 Motivation
 An attitude is a mental state of readiness, it is
learned and optimized through experience

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 Attitudes: Implications for the Manager

 Attitudes…
 Are learned
 Define one’s predispositions
 Are the emotional basis of interpersonal
relations and identifications with others
 Are closely linked to personality
 Are subject to change

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 Attitudes are intrinsic parts of a person’s
personality
 A theory proposes that people “seek a congruence
between their beliefs and feelings toward
objects”.
 It suggests that the modification of attitudes
depends on changing either the feelings or the
beliefs.
 It proposes that cognition, affect, and behavior
determine attitudes, and attitudes in turn
determine cognition, affect, and behavior.
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 Attitudes
 Components of attitudes: cognition, affect
and behavior
 Cognition: consists of the person’s
perceptions, opinions, and beliefs. It refers to
the thought processes with special emphasis on
rationality and logic.
 An important element of cognition is the
evaluative beliefs, they are manifested in the
form of favorable or unfavorable impressions
that a person holds toward an object or person.
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 Affect:the emotional component of an
attitude, often learned from parents, teachers,
and peers. It is the part of an attitude that is
associated with “feeling” a certain way about a
person, group, or situation.
 Behavior: the behavioral component is the
tendency of a person to act in a certain way
toward someone or something (to act in warm,
friendly, or aggressive way)

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 Work environment factors (stimuli) result
in the formation of attitudes which then
lead to one or more responses.
 Stimulus can influence the three
components of attitudes, it triggers
cognitive, affective, and behavioral
responses as follows:

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 Attitudes

Stimuli Manager
Managerstyle
style
Technology
Technology
Noise
Noise Work environment
Peers
Peers factors
Reward
Rewardsystem
system
Compensation
Compensationplan
plan
Career
Careeropportunities
opportunities
“My supervisor is unfair.”
Cognition Beliefs
Beliefsand
andvalues
values “Having a fair supervisor
is important to me.”

Affect Feelings “I don’t like my supervisor.”

Feelingsand
andemotions
emotions

Intended “I’ve submitted a formal

Behavior Intendedbehavior
behavior request to transfer.”

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 Cognitive Dissonance

 Cognitive dissonance is a discrepancy

between attitudes and behaviors
 Example: Knowing that smoking is bad for
your health, but continuing to smoke.
 Creates discomfort, which individuals
attempt to reduce or eliminate

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 Implications
for Managers
 The theory of attitudes implies that the
manager must be able to demonstrate that
the positive aspects of contributing to the
organization outweigh any negative aspects
of a situation.
 It is through attempts to develop generally
favorable attitudes toward the organization
and the job among employees that many
managers achieve effectiveness.
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 Changing Attitudes
 Managers change their employees’ attitudes in
order to get them work hard, and achieve
higher performance
 Changing attitudes depends on three general
factors…
 The communicator
 The message
 The situation
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 The Communicator

 Employees are more likely to change their

attitudes if they…
 Trust the manager
 Like the manager
 Perceive the manager as having prestige

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 The Message

 Managers send both intentional and

unintentional messages
 This
occurs through verbal and non-verbal
communication
 Messages need to be clear, understandable,
and convincing
 Managers must develop and deliver
consistent, persuasive messages
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 The Situation

 The ability to change employee attitudes

depends partly on the situation in which
the effort takes place
 Distraction interferes with silent counter-
arguing
 Employees don’t have time to come up with
strong internal arguments against the request

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Increasing Attitude Changing Effectiveness
 Concentrate on gradually changing the attitude
over a period of time
 Identify the beliefs or values that are part
of the attitude
 Provide information that alters those beliefs
or values
 Make the setting (in which the attempted change
occurs) as pleasant and enjoyable as possible
 Identifyreasons that changing the attitude is to
the advantage of the attitude holder
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 Attitudes and Job Satisfaction

 Job satisfaction is an attitude toward a job

 Itresults from a perception of the jobs and
the degree of fit between the worker and the
organization
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 Attitudes and Job Satisfaction

 Factors associated with job satisfaction

 Pay

 The work itself

 Promotion opportunities
 Supervision

 Co-workers

 Working conditions
 Job security

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Satisfaction-Performance: Three Views

Causes

1. Job Satisfaction “The satisfied worker is more

Job Performance
productive.”

Causes
“The more productive worker is
2. Job Performance Job Satisfaction
satisfied.”

Perceived Equity

3. Job Performance Rewards Job Satisfaction

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 Personality
 Personality is…
 A relatively stable set of feelings and behaviors
that have been significantly formed by genetic and
environmental factors
 The relationship between behavior and
personality is complex

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 Personality
 Principles generally accepted as true…
 Personality has observable, measurable patterns
 Personality has superficial aspects, such as
attitudes toward being a team leader
 There is a deeper core, such as sentiments about
a strong work ethic
 Personality involves both common and unique
characteristics

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 Forces Influencing Personality

Culture

Individual Social class / group

Heredity Personality membership

Family relationships

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 Personality & Behavior in Organizations

 Many researchers believed that personality

testing could predict job performance
 The validity of such tests is questionable
 There was fear that such tests discriminated
against minorities
 Many companies today still use such tests
 Selection,
career planning, training, and team
assignment decisions
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 Personality & Behavior in Organizations

 Interest in personality led to research in…

 The “Big Five” personality dimensions
 Locus of control
 Self-efficacy

 Creativity

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The Big Five Personality Dimensions

Extroversion Agreeableness

Conscientiousness

Emotional Stability Openness to

Experience

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 Extroversion: it is a trait that indicates a
person’s outgoing, social behavior. It refers
to the tendency to be social, talkative and
active.
 Emotional Stability: the ability to be calm,
relaxed and secure. It is the tendency to
experience positive emotional states.
 Agreeableness: the tendency to be
forgiving, tolerant, trusting and soft-
hearted (to get along with others).
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 Conscientiousness: the tendency to be
dependable, organized and responsible.
Individuals tend to work hard and enjoy
achieving and accomplishing things.
 Openness to Experience: the extent to
which an individual is broad-minded,
creative and intelligent. The extent to which
an individual has broad interests and is
willing to take risks.
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 The Big Five Personality Dimensions
Some Implications
 No trait or group of traits predicts with precision
how well someone will perform on a project or
job.
 Firms should use a variety of selection tools to try
to match a person’s interests and skills with a
particular job.
 Additional selection tools
 Structured interview
 Cognitive ability test
 Work performance test
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 Locus of Control

 The locus of control determines the degree

to which individuals believe that their
behaviors influence what happens to them
 Internals believe their good performance is due
to their effort or skill
 Externals believe they are controlled by
outside forces over which they have little, if
any, control

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 Implications
 Inorganizational settings, internals usually
don’t require as much supervision as do
externals. This is because they are more likely
to believe their own work behavior will
influence outcomes such as performance,
promotions, and pay.
 Some research suggest locus of control is
related to moral behavior, with internals doing
what they think is right and being willing to
suffer the consequences for doing so.
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 Self-Efficacy
 Self-efficacy relates to personal beliefs regarding
competencies and abilities. It refers to one’s belief
in one’s ability to successfully complete a task.
 It has three dimensions…
 Magnitude refers to the level of task difficulty that
individuals believe they can attain
 Strength refers to whether the belief is weak
or strong
 Generality indicates how generalized across different
situations the belief in capability is

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 Self-Efficacy
Implications
 Beliefs regarding self-efficacy are learned,
and tend to be task-specific
 Feelings of self-efficacy affect…
 Selection decisions
 Training programs
 Goal setting/performance

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 Creativity

 Creativity is a personality trait

 Itis the ability to break away from habit-
bound thinking and produce novel and useful
ideas
 Itproduces innovation, which is the lifeblood
of corporations
 Itcan be encouraged and developed by giving
people the opportunity and freedom to think in
unconventional ways
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 Developing Employee Creativity
 To develop creativity in employees…
 Encourage everyone to view old problems
from new perspectives
 Make certain people know that it is OK to
make mistakes
 Provideas many people with as many new
work experiences as you can
 Setan example in your own approach to
dealing with problems and opportunities
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