Organizational Behavior

Professor: Pınar Acar, Ph.D.

http://odtuclass.metu.edu.tr/
Before we start…

• Pay attention to the notes page associated with each slide.

• I may not have time cover all the slides I post during my live lectures.
I expect you to self-study these slides at your own time.
Before we start…

• The only stupid question is the one you failed to ask, but whose
answer you were responsible for knowing.
Lecture 1 – Introducing Organizational
Behavior
Learning Objectives
• Define organizational behavior (OB) & get acquainted with basic OB
terminology
• Describe what managers do
• Understand why managers must know about OB
• Identify the three levels of analysis in OB
What is an Organization?
An organization is a
collection of people
who work together
to achieve
individual and
organizational goals.
ORGANIZATIONAL
PERFORMANCE
• Depends on the organizations’ ability to attain organizational goals in
an effective and efficient manner.
• Effectiveness : the degree to which the organization achieves a stated
goal
• Efficiency : the use of minimal resources to produce a desired volume
of output.
What is Management?
Management is the process of
planning, organizing, leading, and
controlling an organization’s
resources to attain organizational
goals in an effective and efficient
manner .
 The Roles of Management

Decisional

Interpersonal Informational

Prentice Hall, 2001 Chapter 1 9

Informational roles = maintain &
develop information network
• The monitor = seeking current information from many sources.
• The disseminator = transmits information to others both inside and
outside the organization.
• The spokesperson = to provide official statements to people outside
the organization about company policies, actions, or plans.
 Interpersonal roles pertain to
relationships with others
• The figurehead = ceremonial activities
• The leader = motivation, communication, and influence of
subordinates.
• The liaison = development of a web of relationships both inside
and outside the organization.
Decisional roles = make choice requiring
conceptual & human skills.
• The entrepreneurial = initiation of change.
• The resource allocator = how to allocate resources to achieve
outcomes.
• The negotiator = negotiating and bargaining for unit of responsibility.
• The disturbance handler = resolving conflicts between subordinates
or other departments.
 Managerial Skills
• Conceptual Skills: The ability to
analyze and diagnose a situation and
distinguish between cause and effect.
• Human Skills: The ability to
understand, work with, lead, and
control the behavior of other people
and groups.
• Technical Skills: Job-specific
knowledge and techniques.
 Management
Management Skills
Skills

• Conceptual Skills
CEO

Which level needs

conceptual skills the VP VP VP
most?
Mgr Mgr Mgr

Mgr Mgr

Op Op Op Op Op
 Management
Management Skills
Skills

• Human Skills
CEO

To what degree do various

levels of management VP VP VP
need human skills?

Mgr Mgr Mgr

Mgr Mgr

Op Op Op Op Op
 Management
Management Skills
Skills

• Technical Skills
CEO

To what degree do the

various levels need VP VP VP
technical skills?

Mgr Mgr Mgr

Mgr Mgr

Op Op Op Op Op
What is Organizational Behavior?
Organizational behavior (OB) is the
study of factors that affect how
individuals and groups act in
organizations and how organizations
manage their environments.
Insert Figure 1.1 here
Organizational Behavior Terminology

•Dependent Variables: Factors that you

want to explain and that are affected by
other factors.
Task Performance

Withdrawal Behaviors:
Absenteeism
Turnover

Citizenship Behaviors The

Dependent
Counter-Productive
Behaviors
Variables
Job Satisfaction
Organizational
Commitment
Organizational Behavior Terminology

• Independent Variables: Determinants of dependent factors

Individual level
Group level
Organization level
Independent Variables

Individual Group Organization

• Biographical Traits • Communication • Culture
• Personality • Other Groups • Structure
• Values & Attitudes • Conflict • Design
• Ability • Power & Politics • Technology
• Perception • Group Structure • Work Processes
• Motivation • Work Teams • Selection Processes
• Individual Learning • Leadership • Training Programs
• Decision Making • Decision Making • Appraisal Practices

22
 OB Formula
• Behavior, Attitudes = f( person, environment)
Lecture 2

Job Performance and Work Attitudes

Learning Objectives

Understand…
• Job performance:
• Task performance
• Organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB)
• Counterproductive behaviors
• Withdrawal behaviors
• Work attitudes
• Job satisfaction
• Organizational commitment
Job Performance

• Job Performance: The value of the set of behaviors that

contribute, either positively or negatively, to organizational
goal accomplishment
• Job Performance has three components:
1) task performance, or the transformation of resources
into goods and services
2) citizenship behaviors, or voluntary employee actions
that contribute to the organization
3) counterproductive behaviors, or employee actions that
hinder organizational accomplishments
Task Performance

• The behaviors directly involved in transforming organizational

resources into the goods or services an organization produces (i.e.,
the behaviors included in one’s job description)
• Typically a mix of:
• Routine task performance - well-known responses to predictable demands
• Adaptive task performance - responses to novel or unusual task demands
• Creative task performance - developing ideas or physical products that are
both novel and useful
Task Performance

• How do we identify relevant behaviors?

• Job analysis
• Divide a job into major dimensions

• List 2 key tasks within each of those major dimensions

• Rate the tasks on frequency and importance

• Use most frequent and important tasks to define task performance

Task Performance Equation

Task performance
=
Individual attributes
X
Work effort
X
Organizational support
Individual Performance Factors

• Individual attributes
• Work effort
• Organizational support
Job Performance

• Although task performance behaviors vary across jobs, all jobs

contain two other performance dimensions:
• Citizenship behavior
• Counterproductive behavior
Citizenship Behavior

• Voluntary activities that may or may not be rewarded but that

contribute to the organization by improving the quality of the setting
where work occurs
• Interpersonal citizenship behavior involves assisting and supporting
coworkers in a way that goes beyond normal job expectations.
Helping, courtesy, and sportsmanship are examples
• Organizational citizenship behavior
involves supporting and defending
the organization through voice, civic virtue
and boosterism
Helping
Counterproductive Behavior

• Employee behaviors that intentionally hinder organizational goal

accomplishment
 Counterproductive Behaviors

• Key questions:
• Are these all examples of the same general behavior pattern? If
you do one, are you likely to do most of the others as well?
• How does counterproductive behavior relate to task performance
and citizenship behavior?
Counterproductive Behaviors

• Answers:
• Research using both anonymous self-reports and supervisor
ratings tends to find strong correlations between the
categories
• Counterproductive behavior has a strong negative
correlation with citizenship behavior, but is only weakly
related to task performance
 Withdrawal Behavior
• A set of actions that employees perform to avoid the
work situation
• One study found that 51% of employees’ time was spent
working
• The other 49% was allocated to coffee breaks, late starts,
early departures, and personal things
Withdrawal
Withdrawal

• Key question:
• How exactly are the different forms of withdrawal related to one another?
• Independent forms
• Compensatory forms
• Progression
Withdrawal

• Answer:
• The various forms of withdrawal are almost always moderately to strongly
correlated
• Those correlations suggest a progression, as lateness is strongly related to
absenteeism, and absenteeism is strongly correlated to quitting
Withdrawal
Attitudes

• A predisposition to respond in a positive or negative way to someone

or something in your environment.
Two Important Work-Related
Attitudes
• Job satisfaction: General attitude toward one’s
job
• Organizational commitment: a state in which one
identifies with a particular organization and its
goals and wishes to maintain membership
Components of an Attitude

• Cognitive components
• Affective components
• Behavioral components
Components of Attitudes
Correlates of Work-Related Attitudes – Job
Satisfaction Example
Job Satisfaction

• A pleasurable emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s

job or job experiences
• It is based on both cognition (calculated opinions of your job) and affect
(emotional reactions to your job)
Job Satisfaction

• What kinds of things do you value in a job--what is it that makes you

satisfied?
Facets of Job Satisfaction

• The work
• Quality of supervision
• Relationship with co-workers
• Promotion opportunities
• Pay
Value-Percept Theory

• Does your job supply what you

value?
• Dissatisfaction = (Vwant-Vhave) x
(Vimportance)
Why Are Some Employees
More Satisfied than Others?

Satisfaction w/ Work Itself

Satisfaction w/ Work Itself

Supervision Satisfaction
Supervisor Satisfaction
Coworker Satisfaction
Coworker Satisfaction

Pay Satisfaction
Pay Satisfaction

Promotion Satisfaction
Promotion Satisfaction
 Value-Percept Theory
• Does your job supply what you
value?
• Dissatisfaction = (Vwant-Vhave) x
(Vimportance)
Value-Percept Theory
The Work Itself

• Job Characteristics Theory

• Jobs are more intrinsically enjoyable when work tasks are challenging and
fulfilling
• Five “core job characteristics” combine to make some jobs more rewarding
than others
 Job Characteristics Theory
• Core job characteristics
How Important is Job Satisfaction?
The Link between Job Satisfaction
and Job Performance
• Task Performance: Job satisfaction has a moderate positive
effect on task performance. People who experience higher levels of
job satisfaction tend to have higher levels of task performance.
• Satisfaction is most likely to affect work behaviors when
workers are free to vary their behaviors and when a
worker’s attitude is relevant to the behavior in question.
• Withdrawal Behaviors:
• Absenteeism: Satisfied workers are less likely to be
absent than dissatisfied workers.
• Turnover: Satisfied workers are less likely to leave the
organization than dissatisfied workers.
The Link between Job Satisfaction
and Job Performance
• Citizenship behaviors: Satisfied workers are more
likely to engage in this behavior than dissatisfied
workers.
• Behavior that is above and beyond the call of duty but is
nonetheless necessary for organizational survival and
effectiveness
• Helping coworkers, spreading goodwill
• Counter-productive behaviors: People who
experience higher levels of job satisfaction tend to
have lower levels of counterproductive behaviors.
The Link between Job Satisfaction and
Job Performance
• Worker well-being: Satisfied workers are more
likely to have strong well-being than dissatisfied
workers.
• Worker well-being: How happy, healthy, and prosperous
workers are
• Job satisfaction has a strong positive effect on
organizational commitment. People who experience
higher levels of job satisfaction tend to feel higher
levels of affective and normative commitment, but
not necessarily of continuance commitment
Organizational Commitment

• Organizational commitment is the collection of feelings and beliefs

that people have about their organization as a whole.
• Refers to a desire on the part of an employee to remain a member of
an organization
• Comes in three forms
Organizational Commitment
 Affective Commitment
• A desire on the part of an employee to remain a
member of an organization because of an emotional
attachment to, or involvement in, that organization
• You stay because you want to
• What would you feel if you left anyway?
Affective Commitment
Affective Commitment
Continuance Commitment

• A desire on the part of an employee to remain a

member of an organization because of an awareness
of the costs associated with leaving
• You stay because you need to
• What would you feel if you left anyway?
Continuance Commitment
 Normative
Commitment
• A desire on the part of an employee to remain a
member of an organization because of a feeling of
obligation
• You stay because you ought to
• What would you feel if you left anyway?
The Link between Affective
Organizational Commitment and Job
Performance
• Research has found affective commitment to have a weak positive
relationship with job performance.
• Organizational commitment is more closely related to organizational
citizenship behavior.
• Affective commitment also shows a weak, negative relationship to
absenteeism and lateness.
• A stronger nega­tive relationship exists between affective
commitment and turnover—workers who are more commit­ted are
less likely to quit
 Takeaways
• Realize that some workers are going to be more satisfied than others with
the same job simply because they have different personalities and work
values. Also realize that you can take steps to increase levels of job
satisfaction because it is determined not only by personality but also by the
work situation.
• Try to place newcomers in work groups whose members are satisfied with
their jobs.
• Ask workers what facets of their jobs are important to them, and do what
you can to ensure that they are satisfied with these facets.
• Because job satisfaction has the potential to impact workers’ behaviors in
organizations and their well-being, use existing measurement scales to
periodically survey your subordinates’ levels of job satisfaction. When
levels of job satisfaction are low, follow the advice in the preceding step.
• Recognize that workers’ evaluations of job facets, not what you think about
them, determine how satisfied workers are and that changing some facets
may have longer-lasting effects on job satisfaction than changing others.
 Takeaways
• Do not assume that poor performers are dissatisfied with their jobs or that good
performers are satisfied with their jobs.
• Do not assume that workers who are absent are dissatisfied or that they were not
motivated to come to work. Absence is also a function of ability to attend.
• Manage absenteeism. Don’t try to eliminate it, and keep in mind that a certain
level of absence is often functional for workers and organizations.
• Realize that turnover has both costs and benefits for an organization and that you
need to evaluate both. In particular, before becoming concerned about worker
turnover, examine the performance levels of those who quit.
• If workers do only what they are told and rarely, if ever, exhibit citizenship
behavior, measure their levels of job satisfaction, identify the job facets they are
dissatisfied with, and make changes where possible.
• Even if job satisfaction does not seem to have an effect on important behaviors in
your organization, keep in mind that it is an important factor in worker well-being.
Lecture 3

Individual differences:
Personality, Values, and Abilities
Learning Objectives

• Explain role of nature and nurture in determining

personality
• Discuss the Big Five Personality Model
• Explain additional important personality traits
• Discuss values and Hofstede’s framework
• Identify three types of ability
Personality Differences

• Personality is the overall profile or combination of traits that

characterize the unique nature of a person.
The Big Five Taxonomy

Key Dimensions of Personality:

• Conscientiousness
• Agreeableness
• Extraversion – introversion
• Emotional stability
• Openness to experience
Other terminology

• Surgency may be used instead of extraversion

• Neuroticism or Adjustment may be used instead of emotional
stability
Conscientiousness

• Conscientious individuals are dependable, organized, reliable,

ambitious, hardworking, and persevering.
• Conscientiousness has the biggest influence on job performance of
any of the Big Five.
• Conscientious individuals prioritize accomplishment striving, which
reflects a strong desire to accomplish task-related goals as a means
of expressing one’s personality.
• Associated with setting high goals and career success
• Conscientiousness is negatively related to mortality, including death
from injuries, death from cardiovascular disease, and death from
cancer, probably because conscientiousness was negatively related to
alcohol consumption and smoking during adulthood.
Agreeableness

• Agreeable individuals are warm, kind, cooperative,

sympathetic, helpful, and courteous
• Agreeable individuals prioritize communion striving,
which reflects a strong desire to obtain acceptance
in personal relationships as a means of expressing
one’s personality
• Communion striving is beneficial for some jobs, but
detrimental to others.
 Extraversion
• Extraverted individuals are talkative, sociable, passionate, assertive, bold,
and dominant (in contrast to introverts, who are quiet, shy, and reserved)
• Of the Big Five, extraversion is the easiest to judge in zero acquaintance
situations.
• Extraverted people prioritize status striving, which reflects a strong desire
to obtain power and influence within a social structure as a means of
expressing one’s personality
• Extraverts are more likely to emerge as leaders and rated as more effective as
leaders.
• Extraverts are high in positive affectivity—a dispositional tendency to
experience pleasant, engaging moods such as enthusiasm, excitement, and
elation.
• They tend to be more satisfied with their jobs
Emotional stability

• Emotionally stable individuals are secure, resilient and calm.

• Low emotional stability is called neuroticism. Neurotic individuals are
anxious, nervous, moody, emotional, insecure, and jealous
• Neuroticism is negatively related to job performance for most jobs
• Neuroticism is synonymous with negative affectivity—a dispositional
tendency to experience unpleasant moods such as hostility,
nervousness, and annoyance
• neurotic individuals tend to have lower job satisfaction than less neurotic
people.
Openness to Experience

• Open individuals are curious, imaginative, creative, complex, refined,

and sophisticated
• Openness is not significantly related to job performance across jobs,
but becomes more important in jobs that are fluid and dynamic, or
that require high levels of creative performance
Personality Determinants

• The nature/nurture controversy is the argument over whether

personality is determined by heredity, or genetic endowment, or by
one’s environment.
Locus of Control

• The extent to which people feel able to affect their lives

• Internal locus of control
• External locus of control
Type A vs. Type B Personality
Type A: A person who
has an intense desire to
achieve, is extremely
competitive, and has a
strong sense of urgency.

Type B: A person who

tends to be easygoing and
relaxed.
Self-Concept

• The concept individuals have of themselves as physical, social and

spiritual or moral beings.
 The extent to which people have pride in
themselves and their capabilities.
• Can be high or low
• Not situation specific
Personality-Job Fit

• Personalities among individuals differ

• Demands of jobs differ
• Matching personality and job leads to higher satisfaction and lower
turnover.
• Recruitment and employment conditions
• Education, training and development
• Rewards and promotions
Takeaways
• Realize and accept that some workers are more likely than others to
be positive and enthusiastic because of their personalities. Similarly,
realize and accept that some workers are more likely than others to
complain and experience stress because of their personalities.
• Provide an extra measure of direct supervision to workers who don’t
take the initiative to solve problems on their own and always seem to
blame someone or something else when things go wrong.
• Provide additional encouragement and support to workers with low
self-esteem who tend to belittle themselves and question their
abilities.
• Realize and accept that Type A individuals can be difficult to get along
with and sometimes have a hard time working in teams.
• Let subordinates who seem overly concerned about other people
liking them know that sometimes it is necessary to give honest
feedback and be constructively critical (such as when supervising
others).
Values
• Values are global beliefs that guide actions and judgments across a
variety of situations.
• Culture is the shared values, beliefs, motives, identities, and
interpretations that result from common experiences of members
of a society and are transmitted across generations
• Cultures vary in underlying patterns of values and attitudes.
• Cultural Values: Shared beliefs about desirable end states or modes
of conduct in a given culture
• Hofstede’s five dimensions of national culture:
• Power distance.
• Uncertainty avoidance.
• Individualism-collectivism.
• Masculinity-femininity.
• Long-term/short-term orientation.
Power distance

• The willingness of a culture to accept status and power differences

among members.
• Respect for hierarchy and rank in organizations.
• Example of a high power distance culture — Indonesia.
• Example of a low power distance culture — Sweden.
Uncertainty avoidance

• The extent to which a society feels threatened by uncertain and

ambiguous situations and tries to avoid them.
• Preference for structured versus unstructured organizational
situations.
• Example of a high uncertainty avoidance culture — France.
• Example of a low uncertainty avoidance culture —.
Individualism-collectivism

• The cultural tendency to emphasize individual or group interests.

• Preferences for working individually or in groups.
• Example of an individualistic culture — United States.
• Example of a collectivist culture — Mexico.
 Masculinity-femininity
• The tendency of a culture to value stereotypical masculine or feminine
traits.
• Emphasizes competition/assertiveness versus interpersonal
sensitivity/relationships.
• Example of a masculine culture — Japan.
• Example of a feminine culture — Thailand.
Long-term/short-term orientation

• The tendency of a culture to emphasize future-oriented values versus

present-oriented values.
• Adoption of long-term or short-term performance horizons.
• Example of a long-term orientation culture — South Korea.
• Example of a short-term orientation culture — United States.
Takeaways
• Do not assume that most workers have similar values
with you.
• Realize that any attempt you make to improve
attitudes, motivation, or performance will be most
effective when the change you implement is
consistent with workers’ values.
Differences in Abilities

• Ability refers to the relatively stable capabilities people have to

perform a particular range of activities.
• Cognitive abilities
• Physical abilities
• Emotional intelligence

• Abilities are a function of both genetics and the environment,

including family environment, quantity of schooling, choice of
occupations, and biological hazards in the environment, such as
malnutrition
Cognitive Ability

• Refers to capabilities related to the acquisition and application of

knowledge in problem solving.
• Verbal ability - oral comprehension, written comprehension, oral
expression, and written expression
• Quantitative ability - number facility, mathematical reasoning
• Reasoning - problem sensitivity, deductive reasoning, inductive
reasoning, originality
• Spatial ability - spatial organization, visualization
• Perceptual ability - speed and flexibility of closure, perceptual speed
Emotional Ability

• The human ability that affects social functioning, emotional

intelligence consists of four different, but related, abilities.
• Self Awareness – the ability to understand the types of emotions one
is experiencing, the willingness to acknowledge them, and the
capability to express them naturally.
• Other Awareness – the ability to recognize and understand the
emotions that other people are feeling
• Emotion Regulation – the ability to recover quickly from emotional
experiences
• Use of Emotions – the degree to which people can harness emotions
and employ them to improve their chances of being successful in
whatever they are seeking to do
Physical Abilities

• Strength – the degree to which the body is capable of exerting force.

• Stamina – the ability of a person’s lungs and circulatory system to
work efficiently while he or she is engaging in prolonged physical
activity
• Flexibility and Coordination – the ability to bend, stretch, twist, or
reach, and to synchronize movement.
• Psychomotor Abilities – the capacity to manipulate and control
objects.
• Sensory Abilities – the capabilities associated with vision and hearing.
The Ability-Job Fit
• Abilities of the employee

• Requirements of the job

• General cognitive ability has a strong, positive effect on task performance
• People who have higher general cognitive ability tend to be better at learning
and decision making
• General cognitive ability has no effect on affective commitment, continuance
commitment, or normative commitment
• Cognitive ability is not related to citizenship or counterproductive behavior
• The correlation between cognitive ability and job performance is higher for
jobs that are more complex than average and lower for jobs that are less
complex than average.

Prentice Hall, 2001 Chapter 2 99