MGMT301: Unit 2. Slide #1. The Principles of Management. Mason Carpenter, Talya Bauer, and Berrin Erdogan. Audio: No audio Slide #2

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1 MGMT301: Unit 2 Slide #1 The Principles of Management Mason Carpenter, Talya Bauer, and Berrin Erdogan No audio Slide #2 Chapter 2 Personality, Attitudes, and Work Behaviors Learning Objectives Define what personality is and how it affects work behaviors Understand the role of values in determining work behaviors Explain the process of perception and how it affects work behaviors Identify the major work attitudes that affect work behaviors List the key set of behaviors that matter for organizational performance [Image: a picture of two employees in yellow helmets] Welcome to Unit 2, Chapter 2 in your textbook. Management is often divided into two halves, micro and macro. The macro side is the large view of the organization and the company s strategy. The micro view deals with the individuals. We are going to begin with the micro view or individual personalities and from there during the semester we will expand and we will take in the entire organization. Page 1 of 16

2 Slide #3 Slide 3 Successful organizations depend upon getting the right mix of individuals in the right positions at the right time. Each individual brings the following to the workplace Personality Values Ability Skills At the micro level, we consider individuals and what they bring to the organization. In many ways, people look to work at organizations where their personality, values, abilities, and skills all fit. Someone who is shy usually doesn t apply for a sales position and creative people would probably want to work at a company like 3M who is known for innovation rather than being a bookkeeper for a firm where creativity would probably be highly discouraged. Slide #4 Slide 4 Goldberg s Big 5 Personality Traits Trait Description Openness Curious, original, intellectual, creative, and open to new ideas. Conscientiousness Organized, systematic, punctual, achievement-oriented, and dependable. Extraversion Outgoing, talkative, sociable, and enjoys being in social situations. Agreeableness Nice, tolerant, sensitive, trusting, kind, and warm. Neuroticism Anxious, irritable, aggressive, temperamental, and moody. One of the questions that often arises with the big 5 personality traits is is there an ideal mix of the big 5 personality traits? In other words, is it good for somebody to be really high in things Page 2 of 16

3 like openness, conscientiousness, extraversion and agreeableness and perhaps very low in neuroticism? It is not a good idea to think about the big 5 personality traits quite that way. Being high in something has its own cost. For example, conscientiousness is usually thought of as being a good trait. People who are conscientious typically do better at most jobs. However, somebody who is very high in conscientiousness might also lose the ability to be flexible. They become so systematic and so organized that they don t adapt well to new situations. So, rather than thinking of these as something you want to be high in, think about balance. Think about different jobs and different individuals fitting in different circumstances. So, different combinations of the traits make people more suited to various tasks. Slide #5 Self-Monitoring and Proactive Personality High social monitors understand what the situation demands and act accordingly Proactive personalities use initiative to solve problems In addition to the big 5 personality traits there are a number of other dimensions and characteristics that people possess. The book talks about high social monitors; you probably know a few of these. They are really adept at reading the situation and knowing how to act. Proactive personalities or people who are typically involved and engaged, but there are a number of others that your book doesn t talk about. A very popular one in today s press is emotional intelligence which has to do with the person s ability to recognize and understand their own emotions. Sounds like it is a fairly simple thing to do, but you would be surprised how many people don t understand their own emotions or aren t able to manage them. All of these different personality traits and individual characteristics make us unique and they impact how we perform our jobs. Slide #6 Slide 6 Self-Efficacy Job Performance Page 3 of 16

4 One dimension that is very important in impacting job performance is our self-efficacy, which is the belief that you can perform a given task. Unsurprisingly, people with higher self-efficacy usually have higher job performance. As the old saying goes, those who belief they can and those who believe that they can t, they are both right. Slide #7 Slide 7 Personality Testing in Employee Selection Companies such as Kronos and Hogan Assessments conduct pre-employment personality tests [Image: a picture of Kronos office building] As an activity for this unit, I had you take a very simple personality test and that determined your personality color so to speak. I have a lot of fun with this activity in class. I usually take the colors and divide them up into groups and then I have them draw their ideal office. Noholes Bard what would your ideal office look like? Different colors tend to draw different kinds of offices. For example, if you were gold, I could pretty much picture what your office would look like: highly organized, file cabinets, book shelves, so forth. They will even draw their desk out to precise dimensions and where their staple is located, where their keyboard is going to be everything. Oranges tend to go crazy with their office. A lot of fun: their offices show up in tree houses and on the beach, fun crazy places like that. Blues, blues will typically have at least one round table in their office somewhere with a bowl of candy on it. It is funny how that always shows up. Greens use a lot of technology in their office. While these types of things are fun activities to participate in, how accurate are they? Did your describe you? Maybe it did, maybe it didn t, but what if it wasn t just for fun? What if there was a job offer at stake? Slide #8 Slide 8 Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Page 4 of 16

5 Meyrs-Briggs Type Indicator assessment is the best known and most trusted personality tool available today While the use of personality tests are somewhat controversial in hiring practices, that hasn t stopped a lot of companies from using them. The most commonly used personality test is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, usually called the MBTI. It classified your personality along four dimensions extraversion versus introversion; sensing versus intuitive; thinking versus feeling; judging versus perceiving. Based on the results of the test, you fall into one of 16 different personality categories. For example, an extravert, sensing, thinking, judging person in MBTI that would be called an ESTP, those types of individuals are flexible and tolerant. They take a pragmatic approach and focus on immediate results. Theories and conceptualizations bore them. They want to act energetically to solve problems. They focus on the here, now and they are spontaneous. They enjoy material, comfort and style and they learn best by doing. How accurate is that as a descriptor? According to the MBTI folks, pretty accurate. Slide #9 Slide 9 Schwartz Value Inventory Values Achievement Benevolence Conformity Hedonism Power Security Self-direction Stimulation Tradition Universalism Definition The desire for personal success The desire to protect the well-being of people who are close to the person. Being motivated by being self-disciplined and obedient. Conforming to others The desire for pleasure in life The desire for control over others, attaining power and prestige. Valuing safety and stability. The desire to be free and independent The desire for a stimulating and exciting life Acceptance of social customs and traditional ideas in a society. The desire to protect the well-being of all people. Caring about social justice. Page 5 of 16

6 The Schwartz value inventory is one way to think about your values. As you look down the list, could you describe yourself in terms of security and conformity, universalism? Another interesting exercise that I have seen done to help you think about your values is to have you write your own eulogy. Assume you are going to be 80 or 90 or whatever you think is a good old age to die at, what would you want somebody to say about you at your funeral? If you could have them say anything that would describe you, what would that be? Write it down. Then, read through your eulogy. Pick out the values that are in it. Did you want to be a good friend? Interesting parents? A helpful person? Someone who was successful? If you look at it closely, you will find your own values in it. Slide #10 Slide 10 Think about the personality traits covered in this section. Can you think of jobs or occupations that seem particularly suited to each trait? Which traits would be universally desirable across all jobs? What are the unique challenges of managing employees who have low self efficacy and self-esteem? How would you deal with this situation? What are some methods that companies can use to assess employee personality? Have you ever held a job where your personality did not match the demands of the job? How did you react to this situation? How were your attitudes and behaviors affected? Identify ways in which the Big Five (of the manager and/or the employee) may impact how you as a manager would carry out the Leadership function. No audio Slide #11 Slide 11 What is Perception? The process with which individuals detect and interpret environmental stimuli Perception is affected by our values, needs, and emotions Page 6 of 16

7 Perception is a funny thing. We perceive some things and we ignore others. For example, you probably aren t aware of how your toes feel right now. Well, at least you weren t until I have mentioned them. Now, you are thinking about them, aren t you? How did you do on the video for this particular unit? Did you watch that? Did you pick out the interesting piece in there? Sometimes our perceptions don t actually match reality. We may perceive plane travel as dangerous and car travel as safe, but statistics show clearly that on a per mile basis, planes are much safer than cars. Perception depends upon the individual and is based somewhat upon their personality and their other characteristics. You can tell a lot about a person by what they pay attention to. Slide #12 Slide 12 [down arrow] Self enhancement bias Self-effacement bias [up arrow] Perhaps in no other area are perceptions more important than our perceptions of ourselves. While you might think we would be experts at this, many people really aren t. We have all met that conceded jerk who thinks he is a great person. On the other hand, we have met people who can t see their own good points. The extreme example of this might be a person who is anorexic. They think they are fat when obviously they are not. It is not reality; it is our perception of reality that matters. Those perceptions influence how we behave. Slide #13 Slide 13 One of the more interesting areas of organizational behavior to me is this notion of perceptual biases. We all fall prey to certain perceptual biases. We don t like to spend a lot of time thinking about things so our mind has certain patterns that it follows. These perceptual biases then impact the way we see the world. These aren t just the optical illusions you book talks about. Perceptual biases are consistent errors that we make when we interpret our world. Stereotypes, self-fulfilling prophesies and selective perceptions are just some of the ways that we are typically biased. You might ask how do we overcome such biases to see the world more realistically? Actually Page 7 of 16

8 knowing that the biases exist and being aware of them is the best first step in avoiding them. Slide #14 Slide 14 First Impressions [Image: a picture of two women meeting each other] The first impression establishes the mental framework in how another person is viewed and later evidence is either ignored or reinterpreted to coincide with this framework Perceptual biases help us explain the importance of first impressions. Once we have met someone, we have a preconceived notion about what they are going to be like based upon that original perception of them. You have to put a lot of cognitive effort into changing those believes. They don t seem right so you tend to ignore the things about them that don t fit your first impression. So, first impressions become very important because again, it is not reality that we are worried about, it is what we perceive as reality. Slide #15 Slide 15 What are some of the typical errors, or optical illusions, that we experience when we observe physical objects? What are the problems of false consensus error? How can managers deal with this tendency? Describe a situation where perception biases have or could affect any of the PLOC facets. Use an example you have experienced or observed or, if you do not have such an example, create a hypothetical situation. How do we manage the fact that human beings develop stereotypes? Do good stereotypes exist? How would you prevent stereotypes from creating unfairness in management decisions? Describe a self-fulfilling prophecy you have experienced or observe in action. Was the prophecy favorable or unfavorable? If unfavorable, how could the parties have chosen different behaviors to produce a more positive outcome? No audio Page 8 of 16

9 Slide #16 Slide 16 Work Attitudes What determines your attitude? What does your attitude communicate? Is there a relationship between your attitudes and your behaviors? Our attitudes are formed by a number of factors such as personality, experiences, values and our mood at a given moment. Some people have a tendency to have a positive attitude while others tend to be negative. If you give somebody that proverbial lemons, well positive people make lemonade, negative people throw them at you. In the workplace though, we are concerned about the attitudes that lead to specific behaviors. If we have positive attitudes, we see people who are more enthusiastic and open and tend to perform better in the workplace. Slide #17 Slide 17 Attitude refers to opinions, beliefs, and feelings about aspects of our environment [Image: a picture of a man showing thumbs up] Beware! Your attitude is showing! Some companies actually consider attitude as the primary in whether to hire someone. Southwest Airlines had a long policy of hiring people based upon attitude and outgoing personality. They believe they can teach an employee everything they need to know about the tasks of the job, but they can t change their personality or who they are. Since most of their job required people to interact with the public, they want people with a positive attitude. They have been fairly successful at it so far. Slide #18 Slide 18 Page 9 of 16

10 Overall Job Satisfaction of U.S. Workers Based on 557 full-time and part-time employees; 45 percentage points [Image: a bar graph showing 48% completely satisfied; 42% somewhat satisfied; 7% somewhat dissatisfied; 2% completely dissatisfied; 1% no opinion] Gallup Poll, Aug. 7-10, 2008 GALLUP POLL Job satisfaction rates have been surprisingly stable over the last 50 years, but they do vary some. Do you think they go up or down during the recession? Interestingly enough, during a recession, job satisfaction rates go up. People are satisfied to have a job, any job, whatever the conditions might be, but when unemployment rates are low, job satisfaction typically decreases a little bit. Workers see that they have options to be in other places and the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. Slide #19 Slide 19 [Image: a picture of a cartoon called The Born Loser by Art & Chip Sansom:] You wanted to see me, chief? Come in, thornapple! I wanted to tell youi have decided to institute a new program In an effort to get more in touch with the employees, we are going to have a monthly job satisfaction survey! And my goal is to have every employee answer 100% very satisfied! An admirable goal, chief! But, of course, you realize it s not realistic in a company this large, there are bound to be a few employees who won t answer 100% very satisfied! Then we ll fire them and hire people who will! This is one of my favorite cartoons about job satisfaction. Does the boss remind you of anybody you know? I hope not! Page 10 of 16

11 Slide #20 Slide 20 Personality Person-environment fit Job characteristics Job Satisfaction Psychological contract Organizational Commitment Organizational justice Work relationships Stress Why are companies worried about job satisfaction? What is so important about it? Well, high job satisfaction leads to better work performance; more OCBs, less turnover. It is good business sense to make a workplace where employees can be happy. Slide #21 Slide 21 I want you to note the connection here between perceived justice, organizational commitment and the psychological contract. In order to get my students to understand the psychological contract, I conducted a little activity in class a couple of years ago. I walked into class with an official looking letter, read the letter which basically told all the students that the business school where we are currently located was being closed down and all the students would be required to transfer to the Arch Rival school across the state. Needless to say, they were not very happy about that, but it was interesting to watch their reaction. I had a football player who was an offensive lineman just about broke his desk in half. We have to ask ourselves about that contract that we have with our employees in the business world. What does it do to their commitment to the organization and perceived justice if we downsize and remove them from the organization? How committed are they likely to be to their next organization? Are they going to be as involved? Are they going to participate organizational citizenship behaviors or they just waiting for the ax to fall again? I don t know the answers to these questions but they are interesting to think about. Page 11 of 16

12 Slide #22 Slide 22 Our work performance depends upon many factors of course. Our cognitive abilities and our skills are part of that equation, but there are a number of other things that impact our job performance. Things like our attitudes about our boss and our work environment. There is altruism in HR circles today that says, People don t leave their job, they leave their boss. As you look at this chart about job performance, think about how much impact your boss has over things like equitable treatment and the stress you experience. How about you? Have you ever thought about leaving your job or were you thinking about leaving your boss? Slide #23 Slide 23 What is the difference between job satisfaction and organizational commitment? How do the two concepts relate to one another? In your opinion, of the factors that influence work attitudes, which three are the most important in making people dissatisfied with their jobs? Which three are the most important relating to organizational commitment? Do you think making employees happier at work is a good way of motivating people? When would high satisfaction not be related to high performance? How important is pay in making people attached to a company and making employees satisfied? Do you think younger and older people are similar in what makes them happier at work and makes them committed to their companies? Do you think there are male-female differences? Explain your answers. No audio Page 12 of 16

13 Slide #24 Slide 24 When people fit into their organization, they tend to be more satisfied with their jobs, more committed to their companies, they are more influential in their company, and they actually remain longer in their company We have already talked about this idea of people fitting with their jobs or fitting with their organization. Intuitively it makes some sense that if a person fits with their job and their organization, they will be more productive and they are more likely to stay on the job so we have less turnover, but fit can also have some negative consequences. People fit when they are like everyone else in the organization. That makes for a very homogenous organization. Everybody is the same. That limits new ideas and could lead to stagnation. So, while there are some good benefits to this notion of fit, there could also be some negative side effects. Slide #25 Slide 25 A good fit is jointly determined by the individual and the situation Person organization fit refers to the degree to which a person s values, personality, goals and other characteristics match those of the organization. Person job fit is the degree to which a person s skill, knowledge, abilities, and other characteristics match the job demands. Fit comes in two ways. People fit with the job or people fit with the organization. Of course, you could fit with both. Of the two, though, research shows that fit with the job is the most important. Slide #26 Slide 26 How can a company asses person-job fit before hiring employees? What are the methods Page 13 of 16

14 you think would be helpful? How can a company determine person-organization fit before hiring employees? Which methods do you think would be helpful? What can organizations do to increase person-job and person-organization fit after they hire employees? No audio Slide #27 Factors which have a strong influence over work behaviors Work Behavior and Job Performance Job Performance Citizenship Absenteeism Turnover General mental abilities How we are treated at work Health problems Having low performance How we are treated at work Personality Work/life balance issues Negative work attitudes Stress Positive work attitudes Negative work attitudes Stress Positive work attitudes Older employee Younger employee Personality Personality Younger employee and shorter tenure Ultimately our work outcomes are a factor of our behaviors and our job performance and these are an extension of many other factors. This chart summarizes just four of these. There are many others besides this. Look at the things that contribute to each of these behaviors. Some of these are within the manager s control and some are not. For example, under citizenship behaviors, older employees typically engage in more citizenship behaviors, but the boss can t change the personality. It can hire the people with the right personality I suppose. Once they are there, how much control does the boss really have? Page 14 of 16

15 Slide #28 Slide 28 What is the difference between performance and organizational citizenship behaviors? As a manger, how would you improve someone s performance? Are citizenship behaviors always beneficial to the company? Given the factors correlated with job performance, which employee selection methods should be better at identifying future high performers? What are the downsides of selecting employees using these methods? What are the major causes of absenteeism at work? How can companies minimize the level of absenteeism that takes place? No audio Slide #29 Developing Your Personal Skills [Image: a picture of employees jumping up] So, what can you do to be more valuable and productive to your workplace? How do you save your job when there is downsizing coming? Obviously work attitudes impact behaviors and therefore, performance, but can we determine and control our attitudes? The answer to this is a qualified yes. At least to some degree we can by acting positive we often become positive. Slide #30 Six Suggestions for Finding Work Satisfaction Get accurate information about the job and the company Develop good relationships at work Page 15 of 16

16 Be proactive in managing organizational life Know when to leave Leverage your Big Five traits A good fit with the job and company are important to your happiness Of the suggestions provided here, I would like to pay special attention to being proactive in managing the organizational life. You can do a lot to control your environment at work. It is not all dependent upon your boss. You have some control too. Seek out mentors that can help guide you. When I took my first teaching position, I was very careful to seek out a couple of long-term faculty members who could guide me through the organizational pitfalls, things to avoid, how to stay on the dean s good side kind of stuff. Being proactive helps you eliminate many of these problems before they arise. Once they arise, they eat up a lot of time and energy and cause a great deal of stress. So, be proactive in managing your organizational life! Slide #31 Slide 31 Do you believe that your own happiness at work is in your hands? What have you done in the past to increase your own satisfaction with work? Think back on the most negative person you work or interact with. Why do you think they focus more on the negative side of life? Based on what you have read in this chapter, can you think of ways in which you can improve you r effectiveness in dealing with them? No audio Page 16 of 16