Organizational

Behavior, 8e
Schermerhorn, Hunt, and
Osborn
Prepared by
Michael K. McCuddy
Valparaiso University

John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

 COPYRIGHT
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Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 2

 Chapter 4
Diversity and Individual Differences
 Study questions.
– What is workplace diversity, and why is it
important?
– What are demographic differences among
individuals, and why are they important?
– What are aptitude and ability differences
among individuals, and why are they
important?

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 3

 Chapter 4
Diversity and Individual Differences
 Study questions — cont.
– What are personality determinants and
differences among individuals, and why are
they important?
– What are value and attitude differences among
individuals, and why are they important?
– What does managing diversity and individual
differences involve, and why is it important?

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 4

 What is workplace diversity,
and why is it important?
 Workforce diversity.
– The presence of individual human
characteristics that make people different from
one another.
 Challenge of workforce diversity.
– Respecting individuals’ perspectives and
contributions and promoting a shared sense of
organizational vision and identity.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 5
 What is workplace diversity,
and why is it important?
 Workforce diversity is increasing.
 Accompanying the increasing diversity is
the possibility of stereotyping.
– Demographic characteristics may serve as the
basis for stereotypes.
 Workforce diversity can help in building
customer relationships.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 6

 What is workplace diversity,
and why is it important?

 Equal employment opportunity.

– Nondiscriminatory employment decisions.
• No intent to exclude or disadvantage legally
protected groups.
– Affirmative action.
• Remedial actions for proven discrimination or
statistical imbalance in workforce.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 7

 What is workplace diversity,
and why is it important?
 Equal employment opportunity — cont.
– Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
prohibits employer discrimination with respect
to:
• Race.
• Color.
• Religion.
• Sex.
• National origin.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 8

 What is workplace diversity,
and why is it important?
 Managing diversity.
– Creating a setting where everyone feels valued
and accepted.
– While groups retain their own characteristics,
they will shape and be shaped by organization.
– Any resistance to diversity management must
be properly addressed.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 9

 What are demographic differences among
individuals, and why are they important?
 Demographic characteristics.
– The background characteristics that help shape what a
person becomes.
 Important demographic characteristics for the
workplace.
– Gender.
– Age.
– Race.
– Ethnicity.
– Able-bodiedness.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 10
 What are demographic differences among
individuals, and why are they important?

 Gender.
– No consistent differences between men and
women in:
• Problem-solving abilities.
• Analytical skills.
• Competitive drive.
• Motivation.
• Learning ability.
• Sociability.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 11

 What are demographic differences among
individuals, and why are they important?

 Gender — cont.
– As compared to men, women:
• Are more conforming.

• Have lower expectations of success.

• Have higher absenteeism.

• Have lower earnings.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 12

 What are demographic differences among
individuals, and why are they important?

 Age.
– Older workers …
• Are often stereotyped as inflexible.
• Sometimes complain that their experience and
skills are not valued.
• Have lower turnover.
• Have lower avoidable absences.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 13

 What are demographic differences among
individuals, and why are they important?

 Able-bodiedness.
– Despite evidence of effective job performance,
most disabled persons are unemployed.
– Most disabled persons want to work.
– More firms are likely to hire disabled workers
in the future.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 14

 What are demographic differences among
individuals, and why are they important?

 Racial and ethnic groups.

– African Americans, Asian Americans, and
Hispanic Americans make up an ever-
increasing percentage of the American
workforce.
– Potential for stereotypes and discrimination
can adversely affect career opportunities.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 15
 What are demographic differences among
individuals, and why are they important?

 Important lessons regarding demographic

characteristics.
– Respect and deal with the needs and concerns
of people with different demographics.
– Avoid linking demographics to stereotypes.
– Demography is not a good indicator of
individual-job fits.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 16
 What are aptitude and ability differences
among individuals, and why
are they important?
 Aptitude.
– A person’s capability of learning something.

 Ability.
– A person’s existing capacity to perform the
various tasks needed for a given job.
– Includes relevant knowledge and skills.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 17

 What are aptitude and ability differences
among individuals, and why
are they important?

 Aptitude and ability tests may be used as

employment screens in the hiring process.

 To be legal, employment tests must

accurately predict job success.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 18

 What are personality determinants and
differences among individuals,
and why are they important?
 Personality.
– The overall profile or combination of
characteristics that capture the unique nature
of a person as that person reacts and interacts
with others.
– Combines a set of physical and mental
characteristics that reflect how a person looks,
thinks, acts, and feels.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 19

 What are personality determinants and
differences among individuals,
and why are they important?
 Personality determinants and development.
– Is personality genetically determined, or is it
formed by experience?
– Heredity sets the limits on the development of
personality characteristics.
– Environment determines development within
these limits.
– Across all characteristics there is about a 50-
50 heredity-environment split.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 20
 What are personality determinants and
differences among individuals,
and why are they important?

 Personality determinants and development

— cont.
– Key environmental factors in personality
development.
• Cultural values and norms.

• Situational factors.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 21

 What are personality determinants and
differences among individuals,
and why are they important?
 Argyris’s immaturity-maturity theory of
personality development.
– Dependence vs. activity.
– Limited behavior vs. diverse behavior.
– Shallow interests vs. deep interests.
– Short time perspective vs. long time perspective.
– Subordinate position vs. superordinate position.
– Little self-awareness vs. much self-awareness.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 22

 What are personality determinants and
differences among individuals,
and why are they important?
 “Big Five” personality dimensions.
– Extraversion.
– Agreeableness.
– Conscientiousness.
– Emotional stability.
– Openness to experience.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 23

 What are personality determinants and
differences among individuals,
and why are they important?
 Social traits.
– Surface-level traits that reflect the way a
person appears to others when interacting in
various social settings.
– An important social trait is problem-solving
style.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 24

 What are personality determinants and
differences among individuals,
and why are they important?
 Problem-solving style components.
– Information gathering.
• Getting and organizing data for use.
• Sensation-type individuals.
• Intuitive-type individuals.
– Evaluation.
• Using collected information.
• Feeling-type individuals.
• Thinking-type individuals.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 25

 What are personality determinants and
differences among individuals,
and why are they important?

 Problem-solving styles.
– Sensation-feeling (SF).

– Intuitive-thinking (IF).

– Sensation-thinking (ST).

– Intuitive-thinking (IT).

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 26

 What are personality determinants and
differences among individuals,
and why are they important?
 Personal conception traits.
– The way individuals tend to think about their
social and physical settings as well as their
major beliefs and personal orientation.
– Key Traits:
• Locus of control.
• Authoritarianism/dogmatism.
• Machiavellianism.
• Self-monitoring.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 27

 What are personality determinants and
differences among individuals,
and why are they important?
 Locus of control.
– The extent to which a person feels able to
control his/her own life.
– Internal locus of control.
• People believe they control their own destiny.
– External locus of control.
• People believe that much of what happens to them
is determined by environmental forces.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 28

 What are personality determinants and
differences among individuals,
and why are they important?
 Authoritarianism/dogmatism.
– Authoritarianism.
• Tendency to adhere rigidly to conventional values
and to obey recognized authority.
– Dogmatism.
• Tendency to view the world as a threatening place.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 29

 What are personality determinants and
differences among individuals,
and why are they important?
 Machiavellianism.
– Rooted in Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince.
– Evokes images of guile, deceit, and
opportunism.
– Tendency to view and manipulate others
purely for personal gain.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 30

 What are personality determinants and
differences among individuals,
and why are they important?
 Machiavellianism — cont.
– People with a high-Mach personality:
• Approach situations logically and thoughtfully.
• Are capable of lying to achieve personal goals.
• Are rarely swayed by loyalty, friendships, past
promises, or others’ opinions.
• Are skilled at influencing others.
• Try to exploit loosely structured situations.
• Perform in a perfunctory or detached manner in
highly structured situations.
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 31
 What are personality determinants and
differences among individuals,
and why are they important?
 Machiavellianism — cont.
– People with a low-Mach personality:
• Accept direction imposed by others in loosely
structured situations.
• Work hard to do well in highly structured
situations.
• Are strongly guided by ethical considerations.
• Are unlikely to lie or cheat.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 32

 What are personality determinants and
differences among individuals,
and why are they important?
 Self-monitoring.
– A person’s ability to adjust his/her behavior to
external, situational factors.
– High self-monitors:
• Sensitive to external cues.
• Behave differently in different situations.
– Low self-monitors:
• Not sensitive to external cues.
• Are not able to disguise their behaviors.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 33

 What are personality determinants and
differences among individuals,
and why are they important?
 Emotional adjustment traits.
– How much an individual experiences distress
or displays unacceptable acts.
– Type A orientation.
• Characterized by impatience, desire for
achievement, and perfectionism.
– Type B orientation.
• Characterized as more easygoing and less
competitive in relation to daily events.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 34

 What are personality determinants and
differences among individuals,
and why are they important?
 Personality and self-concept.
– Personality dynamics.
• The ways in which an individual integrates and
organizes personality dimensions and traits.
– Self-concept.
• The view individuals have of themselves as
physical, social, and spiritual beings.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 35

 What are personality determinants and
differences among individuals,
and why are they important?
 Two aspects of self-concept.
– Self-esteem.
• A belief about one’s worth based on an overall
self-evaluation.
– Self-efficacy.
• An individual’s belief about the likelihood of
successfully completing a specific task.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 36

 What are value and attitude
differences among individuals,
and why are they important?

 Values.

– Values are broad preferences concerning

appropriate courses of action or outcomes.
– Values influence behavior and attitudes.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 37

 What are value and attitude
differences among individuals,
and why are they important?
 Sources of values.
– Parents.
– Friends.
– Teachers.
– Role models.
– External reference groups.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 38

 What are value and attitude
differences among individuals,
and why are they important?
 Types of values.
– Milton Rokeach’s value categories: terminal
values and instrumental values.
– Terminal values.
• Preferences concerning the ends to be achieved.
– Instrumental values.
• Preferences for the means to be used in achieving
desired ends.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 39

 What are value and attitude
differences among individuals,
and why are they important?
 Types of values — cont.
– Gordon Allport’s values categories.
• Theoretical values.
• Economic values.
• Aesthetic values.
• Social values.
• Political values.
• Religious values.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 40

 What are value and attitude
differences among individuals,
and why are they important?

 Types of values — cont.

– Maglino’s categories of workplace values.
• Achievement.

• Helping and concern for others.

• Honesty.

• Fairness.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 41

 What are value and attitude
differences among individuals,
and why are they important?
 Value congruence.
– Occurs when individuals express positive
feelings upon encountering others who exhibit
values similar to their own.
– Incongruent values may result in conflicts
over goals and the means to achieve them.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 42

 What are value and attitude
differences among individuals,
and why are they important?
 Patterns and trends in values.
– Movement away from the following values:
• Duty.
• Honesty.
• Responsibility.
• Economic incentives.
• Organizational loyalty.
• Work-related identity.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 43

 What are value and attitude
differences among individuals,
and why are they important?

 Patterns and trends in values — cont.

– Movement toward the following values:
• Meaningful work.

• Pursuit of leisure.

• Personal identity.

• Self-fulfillment.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 44

 What are value and attitude
differences among individuals,
and why are they important?
 Patterns and trends in values — cont.
– Important work-related values for the present and the
future:
• Recognition for competence and accomplishments.
• Respect and dignity.
• Personal choice and freedom.
• Involvement at work.
• Pride in one’s work.
• Lifestyle quality.
• Financial security.
• Self-development.
• Health and wellness.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 45

 What are value and attitude
differences among individuals,
and why are they important?
 Attitudes.
– Attitudes are influenced by values and are
acquired from the same sources as values.
– An attitude is a predisposition to respond in a
positive or negative way to someone or
something in one’s environment.
– An attitude is a hypothetical construct.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 46

 What are value and attitude
differences among individuals,
and why are they important?
 Components of attitudes.
– Cognitive component.
• The beliefs, opinions, knowledge, or information a person
possesses.
– Affective component.
• A specific feeling regarding the personal impact of the
antecedents.
– Behavioral component.
• An intention to behave in a certain way based on specific
feelings.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 47

 What are value and attitude
differences among individuals,
and why are they important?
 Attitudes and behavior.
– An attitude results in intended behavior, which
may or may not result in actual behavior.
– The attitude-behavior relationship is stronger
when:
• Attitudes and behaviors are more specific.
• There is freedom to carry out the behavioral intent.
• The person has experience with the attitude.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 48

 What are value and attitude
differences among individuals,
and why are they important?
 Attitudes and cognitive consistency.
– Cognitive dissonance.
• Describes a state of inconsistency between an
individual’s attitudes and his or her behavior.
– Cognitive dissonance can be reduced by:
• Changing the underlying attitude.
• Changing future behavior.
• Developing new ways of explaining or
rationalizing the inconsistency
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 49
 What are value and attitude
differences among individuals,
and why are they important?
 Attitudes and cognitive consistency —
cont.
– Dissonance reduction choices are influenced
by:
• The degree of control a person has over the
situation.
• The magnitude of the rewards involved.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 50

 What does managing diversity and
individual differences involve,
and why is it important?
 Dealing with diversity and individual
differences is one of the most important
issues challenging managers.
– Applies in the:
• United States.
• Canada.
• European Union countries.
• Several Asian countries.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 51

 What does managing diversity and
individual differences involve,
and why is it important?
 Examples of managing workplace

diversity.
– Harvard Pilgrim Health Care.

– Coors Brewing Company.

– Microsoft.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 4 52