Chapter 2

Foundations of
Individual Behavior
 BIOGRAPHICAL
CHARACTERISTICS

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A. AGE

The relationship between Age And Job

Performance is increasing in importance.
Employers’ perceptions are mixed.
It is tempting to assume that Age is inversely
related to Absenteeism.
Belief that Productivity Declines with Age and that
individual skills decay over time.
The relationship between Age and Job
Satisfaction is mixed.

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 GENDER
 There are few, if any, important differences between men
and women that will affect their job performance, including
the areas of:
–Problem-solving –Motivation
–Analytical skills –Sociability
–Competitive drive –Learning ability
 Women are more willing to conform to authority, and men
are more aggressive and more likely than women to have
expectations of success, but those differences are minor.
 There is a difference between men and women in terms of
preference for work schedules.
 Absence and turnover rates

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A. Tenure
 The issue of the impact of job seniority on job
performance has been subject to misconceptions and
speculations.
 Extensive reviews of the seniority-productivity
relationship have been conducted:
• There is a positive relationship between tenure and job
productivity.
• There is a negative relationship between tenure to
absence.
• Tenure is also a potent variable in explaining turnover.
• Tenure has consistently been found to be negatively
related to turnover and has been suggested as one of
the single best predictors of turnover.
• The evidence indicates that tenure and satisfaction are
positively related.
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ABILITY

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 DIMENSIONS OF
INTELLECTUAL ABILITY
• Number aptitude
• Verbal comprehension
• Perceptual speed
• Inductive reasoning
• Deductive reasoning
• Spatial visualization
• Memory
EXHIBIT 2-1

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PHYSICAL ABILITY

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NINE PHYSICAL ABILITIES
Strength Factors
• Dynamic strength
• Trunk strength
• Static strength
• Explosive strength Flexibility Factors
• Extent flexibility
• Dynamic flexibility
Other Factors
• Body coordination
• Balance
• Stamina EXHIBIT 2-2

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THE ABILITY - JOB FIT

Ability-Job
Employee’s Fit Job’s Ability
Abilities Requirements

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 LEARNING

Learning
• Involves change
• Is relatively permanent
• It is concerned with behaviour
• Is acquired through experience

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 THEORIES OF LEARNING
It was conducted by a Russian Physiologist Ivan Pavlov
in the early 1900s.

Key Concepts
• Unconditioned stimulus
• Unconditioned response
• Conditioned stimulus
• Conditioned response

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 Thus we can say that a conditioned response involves
building up an association between conditioned stimulus
and unconditioned stimulus.

 When the stimuli, one compelling and other neutral, are

paired, the neutral one becomes a conditioned stimulus
and so takes on the properties of unconditioned
stimulus.

 Classical conditioning is passive.

 Something happens and we react in a specific way.

 It is elicited in response to a specific and identifiable

event.

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 It was propounded by a Harvard psychologist B F Skinner
and he argues that behaviour is a function of its
consequences.

Key Concepts
• Reflexive (unlearned) behavior
• Voluntary (learned) behavior
• Reinforcement

The tendency to repeat such behaviour is influenced by

the reinforcement or lack of reinforcement brought about
by the consequences of the behaviour.
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 Key Concepts
2. Attention processes
3. Retention processes
4. Motor reproduction processes
5. Reinforcement processes

It acknowledges the existence of observational learning and

the importance of perception in learning

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Key Concepts
• Reinforcement is required to change behavior.
• Some rewards are more effective than others.
• The timing of reinforcement affects learning
speed and permanence.
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TYPES OF REINFORCEMENT
 Positive reinforcement
 Providing a reward for a desired behavior.
 Negative reinforcement
 Removing an unpleasant consequence when the
desired behavior occurs.
 Punishment
 Applyingan undesirable condition to eliminate an
undesirable behavior.
 Extinction
 Withholding reinforcement of a behavior to cause its
cessation.
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 Positive Reinforcement Negative Reinforcement
Desirable e.g.: you receive bonus e.g.: supervisor stops
Behaviour after successfully criticising you when
completing important your job performance
task improves
Punishment Extinction
e.g.: you are e.g.: co-workers no
Undesirable threatened with longer praise you when
Behaviour demotion or discharge you engage in
after treating client dangerous pranks
badly.
Event is Event is
Added Removed

1. Both Positive and Negative Reinforcement results strengthen

responses and increases the probability of repetition
2. Both Punishment and Extinction weaken the behaviour and
tend to decrease its subsequent frequency.
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Schedules of Reinforcement

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Schedules of Reinforcement

Fixed-ratio

EXHIBIT 2-4

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Intermittent Schedules of
Reinforcement

EXHIBIT 2-5a

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Intermittent Schedules of
Reinforcement (cont’d)

EXHIBIT 2-5b

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BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION

Problem-solving Model
• Identify critical behaviors
• Develop baseline data
• Identify behavioral consequences
• Apply intervention
• Evaluate performance improvement
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 OB MOD ORGANIZATIONAL
APPLICATIONS
 Well Pay versus Sick Pay
 Reduce absenteeism by rewarding attendance, not
absence.
 Employee Discipline
 The use of punishment can be counter-productive.
 Developing Training Programs
 OB MOD methods improve training effectiveness.
 Self-management
 Reduces the need for external management
control. 24