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COMMERCE 2BA3 ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

Class 2 Personality & Learning Perception, Attribution, & Judgment

Dr. Christa Wilkin

Can You Solve These Brain Teasers?

MEREPEAT INSULT + INJURY GR 12" AVE GESG SEGG GEGS GGES

Last Class
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Discussed how OB has widespread applications Evolution of OB Different roles of managers Contemporary concerns (e.g., workplace diversity)

THIS CLASS Personality and learning Perception, attribution, and judgment

Agenda
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Personality traits Experiment on learning Learning theories Attribution and Perceptual errors Nupath Case

CH 2: PERSONALITY AND LEARNING

Question
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An effective manager will always hire the smartest person available.

True?

False? Why? What do you think?

Personality
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While intelligence is really important, personality is more likely to affect employees attitudes and behavior

Question
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When you become rich and famous, will your best friends and family be surprised about how much your personality has changed and make comments about how different you have become?

What is Personality?
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The relatively stable set of psychological characteristics that influences the way an individual interacts with his or her environment and how he or she feels, thinks, and behaves. Dimensions and traits that are determined by genetic predisposition and ones long-term learning history.

The Dispositional Approach

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Focuses on individual dispositions and personality. Individuals possess stable traits or characteristics that influence their attitudes and behaviours. Individuals are predisposed to behave in certain ways.

The Situational Approach

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Characteristics of the organizational setting such as rewards and punishment influence peoples feelings, attitudes and behaviour. Many studies have shown that situational factors such as the characteristics of work tasks predict job satisfaction. E.g., Darley and Batsons (1973) study of seminary students told to hurry from one building to another or those told had more time; help slumped victim

The Interactionist Approach

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Organizational behaviour is a function of both dispositions and the situation. To predict and understand organizational behaviour, we need to know something about an individuals personality and the work setting. This is the most widely accepted approach to organizational behaviour.

Situational Strength
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Situations can be described as being either weak or strong. In weak situations, roles are loosely defined, there are few rules and weak reinforcement and punishment contingencies. Personality has the strongest effect in weak situations. In strong situations, the roles, rules, and contingencies are more defined. Personality has less of an impact in strong situations.

Individual Exercise
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Do a personality test Answers all 60 questions Use the scoring key to find your average score for each personality trait ***Remember that some questions are reverse scored or worded negatively (answer is marked with an R). So that means if you answered 4, you would change the answer to 2.***

Big Five personality traits

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Extroversion Energized by spending time with others Sociable, assertive, comfortable in large groups Tendency to think out loud Agreeableness Defers to others Cooperative, trusting, not antagonistic

Big Five personality traits

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Emotional stability (neuroticism; emotionality) Ability to withstand stress: backbone Calm, self-confident, resilient Openness to experience Interested in novel things vs. comfortable with the familiar Adventurous, curious, artistic Conscientiousness

Reliable, follows through Responsible, organized, dependable, persistent

Question
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Which personality factor is the strongest predictor of job performance? Why?

Personality
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New factor (e.g., Ashton et al., 2004):

Honesty

/ humility

Integrity

or morality Sincere, Not conceited, truthful, unpretentious (modest)

Not

yet part of the Big Five

much research on it yet (also not in your textbook)

Not

Individual Personality Results

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1) To what degree do you feel this is an accurate assessment of your personality? 2) What are your strengths that will serve you well, especially in terms of a career? 3) What are your weaknesses which might hinder you in your career, and how might you go about addressing one or more of the weaknesses?

Locus of Control
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A set of beliefs about whether ones behaviour is controlled mainly by internal or external factors. Internals believe that the opportunity to control their own behaviour resides within themselves. Externals believe that external forces determine their behaviour.

Question
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Which type makes for a better employee (internals or externals)?

Self-Monitoring
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The extent to which people observe and regulate how they appear and behave in social settings and relationships. High self-monitors take great care to observe and control the images that they project. High self-monitors are more involved in their jobs, perform better, and are more likely to emerge as leaders. Downside: Dealing with unfamiliar cultures might provoke stress.

Self-Esteem
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The degree to which a person has a positive selfevaluation. People with high self-esteem have favourable self-images. People with low self-esteem have unfavourable selfimages.

Question
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People with high self-esteem have lower job satisfaction and job performance.
True?

False? Why? What do you think?

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Positive and Negative Affectivity

People who are high on positive affectivity (PA) experience positive emotions and moods and view the world in a positive light. People who are high on negative affectivity (NA) experience negative emotions and moods and view the world in a negative light. PA and NA are emotional dispositions that predict peoples general emotional tendencies.

Quiz Question
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An individual's personality encompasses:

A) all aspects of the individual's physical and emotional response to their environment. B) a relatively stable set of psychological characteristics. C) behaviours which are mostly learned through childhood experience. D) all aspects of the individual's consciousness. E) a constantly shifting set of personal characteristics.

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QUESTIONS?

What is Learning?
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A relatively permanent change in behaviour potential as a result of practice or experience.

Question: What types of skills do employees learn?

What do Employees Learn?

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Practical skills:
Job-specific

skills, knowledge, technical competence. Problem solving, critical thinking, alternative work processes, risk taking. Interactive skills such as communicating, teamwork, conflict resolution. social norms of organizations, company

Intrapersonal skills:
Self:

Interpersonal skills:
Others:

Cultural awareness:
The

Experiment
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We need two volunteers

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Increasing Probability of Behaviour

One of the most important consequences that influences behaviour is reinforcement. Reinforcement is the process by which stimuli strengthen behaviours. A reinforcer is a stimulus that follows some behaviour and increases or maintains the probability of that behaviour.

Positive Reinforcement
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The application or addition of a stimulus that increases or maintains the probability of some behaviour. The reinforcer is dependent or contingent on the occurrence of some desired behaviour. E.g., If you participate in class (increase or maintain behaviour), then you will earn high participation marks (application of stimulus)

Video Clip
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Big Bang Theory video clip

Negative Reinforcement
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The removal of a stimulus from a situation that increases or maintains the probability of some behaviour. Negative reinforcement occurs when a response prevents some event or stimulus from occurring.

E.g., If you participate in class (increase or maintain behaviour), then I will stop calling on you (removal of stimulus)

Experiment Debrief
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Which technique is more effective? How did it feel to be subjected to the different feedback styles? How did you feel while you were giving the different types of feedback?

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Reducing Probability of Behaviour

Sometimes learned behaviours are detrimental to the operation of an organization and they need to be reduced or eliminated. There are two strategies that can reduce the probability of learned behaviour:
Extinction Punishment

Extinction
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The gradual dissipation of behaviour following the termination of reinforcement. If the behaviour is not reinforced, it will gradually dissipate or be extinguished. E.g., If you talk to your peers while others are speaking (unwanted behaviour), then I will stop smiling.

Punishment
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The application of an aversive stimulus following unwanted behaviour to decrease the probability of that behaviour. A nasty stimulus is applied after some undesirable behaviour in order to decrease the probability of that behaviour. E.g., If you talk to your peers while others are speaking (unwanted behaviour), then I will ask you if you would like to share your conversation with the class (aversive stimulus).

Problems using Punishment

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It does not demonstrate which behaviours should replace the punished response. Punishment indicates only what is not appropriate. Punishment only temporarily suppresses the unwanted behaviour. Punishment can provoke a strong emotional reaction from the punished individual.

Question
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Should we avoid using punishment in the workplace altogether? What do you think?

Social Cognitive Theory

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People learn by observing the behaviour of others and can regulate their own behaviour by thinking about the consequences of their actions, setting goals, monitoring performance, and rewarding themselves. Components of social cognitive theory:
Modelling Self-efficacy Self-regulation

Modelling
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The process of imitating the behaviour of others. Attractive, credible, competent, high-status people are most likely to be imitated
Job

shadow

Self-Efficacy
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A persons belief that he or she has the ability, motivation, and resources to complete a task successfully (Bandura, 1986) Different than self-esteem Can change over time

Question
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What advice would you give to someone who was faced with a new and difficult task; how would you convince them that he or she could do it successfully?

Self-Efficacy Theory
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Enacted Mastery You have done the task before Verbal Persuasion You have been told you can do it Vicarious experience You have watched someone else complete the task successfully Physiological State You are not unduly frightened by the task

Self-Regulation
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The use of learning principles to regulate ones own behaviour A key part of the process is peoples pursuit of self-set goals that guide behaviour E.g., you find a gap between how well you want to do and your performance on a test
Set

specific short-term goals Study harder (rehearse) Ask others what they do (observe models)

Quiz Question
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Ron is a sensitive person, and he works very hard so that his boss doesn't criticize him. Criticism is a(n) __________ of Ron's work.
A) punisher B) positive reinforcer C) extinguisher D) negative reinforcer E) continuous reinforcer

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QUESTIONS?

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CH. 3: PERCEPTION, ATTRIBUTION, AND JUDGMENT

What do you see?

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What is Perception?
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The process of interpreting the messages of our senses to provide order and meaning to the environment Depends on

Target

Attributes of a target, relationship of target to others, etc. Social or work setting, actions of others, etc. Attitudes, experiences, personalities, etc.

Situation

Perceiver

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Bruners Model of the Perceptual Process

Attribution Theory
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When individuals observe behaviour, they try to guess if it is internally or externally caused
e.g.,
Its

if a colleague does not do his share of the work, do you assume

because he is lazy, selfish, incompetent (internal attribution) Its because his boss asked him to do some other work (external attribution)

Attribution Theory
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Distinctiveness
IF

he acts the same way in other situations THEN we assume the behavior is internally caused

Consistency
IF

he has acted like this for a long period of time THEN we assume the behavior is internally caused

Consensus
IF

other people in the same situation behave the same way does everyone else do this?

Biases in Attribution
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Fundamental attribution error When judging other peoples SUCCESS we: Inflate the role of external factors Underestimate the role of internal factors When judging other peoples FAILURES we: Inflate the role of internal factors Underestimate the role of external factors Self-serving bias Opposite of fundamental attribution error

Perceptual Errors
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Primacy effect: First impressions

e.g.,

start of the interview, first meet someone

Recency: Most recent info dominates perceptions

e.g.,

big error a week before performance review

Halo Effect
Possession

of one excellent characteristic makes others think that other excellent characteristics are possessed e.g., you know a person is a McMaster alumni, so you think that they must also be friendly and

Perceptual Errors
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Contrast Effect
When an evaluation is affected by a comparison to the evaluation that preceded it e.g., Give a presentation after an excellent or poor one

Projection
When you assume that other people are similar to you e.g., You assume that your housemates will clean their dishes right away because thats what you always do

Perceptual Errors
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Stereotyping
Tendency to generalize about people in a social category and ignore variations among them e.g., older workers dont work hard

Self-fulfilling Prophecy
Occurs

when our expectations about another person cause that person to act in a way that is consistent with those expectations e.g., a person who expects people to be friendly, may smile more and thus receive more smiles

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QUESTIONS?

Case: Nupath Foods

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Form groups of 5 to 6 people How does perception play a role in this case? (ie. What perceptual problems or errors have occurred?) Be prepared to report back to the class

Summary
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Intelligence is very, very important, but it is not the only factor that will affect performance There are different tools available to influence other peoples behaviour Being aware of perceptual errors is important for recruitment and retention efforts

For Next Class

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Read chapter 4 on values, attitudes, and work behaviours *** Remember your namecard ***