Reasons for Incorporating organisational behaviour principles in the workplace

1. Attract and keep high performing employees

2. Make the company a good place to work for
3. Strong relationship between quality of employee relationships and employee job satisfaction,
stress, and turnover rate
4. Can foster social responsibility awareness

Management roles
1. Interpersonal roles
a) Leadership role
b) Liaison
2. Informational roles
a) Monitor
b) Disseminator
c) Spokeperson
3. Decisional roles
a) Disturbance handlers
b) Entrepreneurs
c) Negotiators

Management skills
1. Technical skill
2. Human skill
3. Conceptual skill

Organisational behaviour is a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and
structure have on behaviour within organisations for the purpose of applying this knowledge towards
improving the effectiveness of the organisation

Disciplines contributing to OB
1. Psychology
a) Learning
b) Motivation
c) Personality
d) Emotions
e) Perceptions
f) Training
g) Leadership effectiveness
h) Job satisfaction
i) Indivisual decision making
j) Performance appraisal
k) Attitude measurement
l) Employee selection
m) Work design
n) Work stress
2. Social psychology
a) Behavioural change
b) Attitude change
c) Communication
d) Group processes
e) Group decision making
3. Sociology
a) Inter-group behaviour
b) Power
c) Conflict
d) Organisational culture
e) Organisational change
4. Anthropology
a) Comparative values
b) Comparative attitudes
c) Cross-cultural analysis
d) Organisational culture
e) Organisational environment

Basic OB model
Inputs Processes Outcomes
Individual level Individual level Individual level
1. Diversity 1. Emotions and moods 1. Attitudes and stress
2. Personality 2. Motivation 2. Task performance
3. Values 3. Perception 3. Citizenship behaviour
4. Decision making 4. Withdrawal behaviour
Group level Group level Group level
1. Group structure 1. Communication 1. Group cohesion
2. Group roles 2. Leadership 2. Group functioning
3. Group responsibilities 3. Power and politics
4. Conflict and negotiation
Organisational level Organisational level Organisational level
1. Structure 1. HR management 1. Productivity
2. Culture 2. Change practices 2. Survival
Employability skills
1. Critical thinking
2. Communication
3. Collaboration
4. Knowledge application and analysis
5. Social responsibility

Implications for managers

1. Get to know the person and understand the context
2. Metrics over hunches to explain cause and effect
3. Work on interpersonal skills to increase leadership potential
4. Imrove technical skills and conceptual skills through training
5. Through OB you can empower your employees, design and implemnt change programsm improve
customer service, and help employees balance work-life conflicts

Perception is a process by which we organise and interpret sensory impressions to give

meaning to our environment. It is important in OB because people’s behaviour is reliant on what they
perceive of reality.

Dimensions
1. Perceiver
a) Attitudes
b) Motives
c) Interests
d) Experience
e) Expectations
2. Target
a) Novelty
b) Motion
c) Sounds
d) Size
e) Background
f) Proximity
g) Similarity
3. Context
a) Time
b) Work setting
c) Social setting

Theories
1. Attribution theory
a) Judging people based on the meaning we attribute to a behaviour
b) Factors:
i. Distinctiveness
ii. Consensus
iii. Consistency
c) Errors:
i. Fundamental attribution error
ii. Self-serving bias

Shortcuts in judging
1. Selective perception
2. Halo and horns effect
3. Contrast effect
4. Stereotyping
Where these shortcuts apply
1. Employment interview
2. Performance expectation
3. Performance evaluations
Decision making
1. Rational decision making
a) Define the problem
b) Identify decision criteria
c) Allocate weights to criteria
d) Develop alternatives
e) Evaluate alternatives
f) Select the best alternative
2. Bounded rationality
a) In complex situations, we construct simplified models that extract essential features from
problems without capturing all the complexity
b) We can be rational within the limits of this simple model
3. Intuition
a) Unconscious process created from distilled experiences

Biases and errors

1. Overconfidence bias
2. Anchoring bias
a) We fixate on initial information and fail to adequately adjust for subsequent information
3. Confirmation bias
a) We seek out information that reaffirms our past choices
4. Availability bias
a) We base judgements on readily available information
5. Escalation of commitment
a) Staying with a decision even if there is clear information that it is wrong
6. Randomness error
a) Tendency to believe that we can predict the outcome of random events
7. Risk aversion
a) Tendency to prefer a sure thing over a risky outcome
8. Hindsight bias
a) Tendency to believe falsely after the outcome is known that we would have accurately
predicted it
Individual differences
1. Personality
2. Gender
3. Mental ability
4. Cultural differences

Ethics in decision making

1. Utilitarianism
2. Decisions consistent with fundamental liberties and privileges
a) Protects whistle-blowers
b) Emphasis on rights
3. Impose and enforce rules fairly and impartially to ensure justice
a) Deonance standpoint: do it because you ought to

Implications for managers

1. Perceptions influence behaviour
a) Understand context
2. Be aware of perceptual biases and decision making errors
3. Adjust decision making approach to the national culture you are operating in and organisational
values
4. Combine rational analysis with intuition
5. Try to enhance creativity
a) Novel solutions to problems
b) See problems in new ways

Attitudes are evaluative statements either favourable or unfavourable about objects,

people, or events.
Dimensions:
1. Cognitive component
2. Affective component
3. Behavioural component

Cognitive dissonance
1. Any incompatibility between two or more attitudes or between behaviour and attitude

Job attitudes
1. Job satisfaction and job involvement
a) Job involvement gives a type of psychological empowerment
2. Organisational commitment
a) Identifying with goals and values of the organisation
3. Perceived organisational support
4. Employee engagement
a) Involvement, satisfaction and enthusiasm for work

Factors affecting job satisfaction

1. Job conditions
2. Personality
3. Pay
4. Corporate social responsibility

Outcomes
1. Organisational citizenship behaviour
2. Customar satisfaction
3. Life satisfaction
Counterproductive work behaviour
1. Absenteeism
2. Turnover

Implications for managers

1. Job satisfaction level is the best single predictor of behaviour
2. Pay attention to employees’ job satisfaction as determinants of their performance, turnover,
absenteeism, and withdrawal behaviour
3. Measure employee job satisfaction at regular intervals
4. Fit between each employee’s work interest and parts of the job, improve employee job
satisfactions
5. High pay alone is unlikely to create a satisfactory work environment

Personality and Values

1. Person-job fit
2. Person-organisation fit
3. Person-group fit
4. Person-supervisor fit

Personality is the sum of ways in which an individual reacts to and interacts with others.
Determinants
1. Heredity
2.

Frameworks
1. Myers-Briggs type indicators
a) Extroverted vs Introverted
b) Sensing vs intuitive
c) Thinking vs feeling
d) Judging vs perceiving
2. Big 5 personality model
a) Conscientiousness
b) Emotional stability
c) Extroversion
d) Openness to experience
e) Agreeableness

Dark triads
1. Macchiavellianism
2. Narcissism
3. Psychopathy

Personality and situations

Situation strength theory
1. Clarity
2. Consistency
3. Constraints
4. Consequences

Trait activation theory

Values
Represent basic convictions that a specific mode of conduct or end state of existence is personally or
socially preferable.
Terminal values
1. Desirable end states
Instrumental values
1. Preferable modes of behaviour or means of achieving
Generational values

Frameworks
1. Hofstede’s framework
a) Power distance
b) Individualism vs collectivism
c) Masculinity vs femininity
d) Uncertainty avoidance
e) Long term vs short term orientation
f) Indulgence vs restraint
2. GLOBE (Global leadership and organisational behaviour effectiveness) framework
a) Power distance
b) Individualism vs collectivism
c) Uncertainty avoidance
d) Gender differentiation
e) Future orientation

Implications for managers

1. Consider fit to job and organisation in employment decisions
2. Screen candidates for conscientiousness and other Big 5 traits
3. MBTI is faulty but can still be used in training and development
4. Emphasise ideal personality and values of the organisation in recruitment material
5. Understand situation strength and context
6. Understand differences in cultural values

Motivation
The process that accounts for an individual’s intensity, direction, and persistence of effort towards
attaining a goal.

Theories:
1. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
a) Physiological
b) Security-safety
c) Social-belongingness
d) Esteem
e) Self-actualisation
2. Herzberg’s two-factor theory
a) Divides on satisfaction and dissatisfaction
b) Motivators
i. Satisfaction vs no satisfaction
c) Hygeine factors
i. No dissatisfaction vs dissatisfaction
3. McClelland’s theory of needs
a) Need for achievement
b) Need for power
c) Need for affiliation
4. Self-determination theory
a) People prefer to feel like they have control over their actions
b) Anything that turns a free-will act into an obligation affects motivation
5. Cognitive evaluation theory
a) External rewards reduce internal interest in a task
b) Newly defined self-concordance: Reason for pursuing goals consistent with interest and
core values
6. Goal-setting theory
a) Intention to work towards a goal is considered a major source of work motivation
7. Self-efficacy theory
a) An individual’s belief that s/he is capable of performing a task
8. Reinforcement theory
a) Operant conditioning: behave a certain way to avoid a consequence
b) Social learning: we can learn through direct experience as well as observation
9. Expectancy theory
a) Individual effort -> Individual performance -> organisational reward -> personal goals
10. Equity theory / Organisational justice
a) 6 choices for people who perceive inequity
i. Change inputs
ii. Change outcomes
iii. Distort perception of self
iv. Distort perception of others
v. Choose a different referant
vi. Leave the field
b) Organisational justice
i. Distributive justice: perceived fairness of outcome
ii. Procedural justice: perceived fairness of process used to determine outcome
iii. Interactional justice: sensitivity to the quality of interpersonal treatment

Implications for managers

1. Make sure extrinsic rewards for employees are not perceived as coercion
2. Either set of inspire employees to set specific, difficult goals. Provide quality feedback.
3. Align employee goals to organisation goals
4. Model the type of behaviour you would like to see from your employees
5. Expectancy theory offers a powerful explanation on performance variables such as employee
productivity, absenteeism, and turnover
6. Consider how resources are being distributed, fairness of decisions, and whether your actions
demonstrate respect of others