Organization?

An Organization is a formal gathering of people coordinating

themselves towards pursuing stated, common goals
An organization consists of individuals and groups
An analysis of individual attributes is termed micro level of analysis
An analysis of group attributes is termed group level of analysis
An analysis of organizational attributes is termed macro or
organizational level of analysis
A synchronous analysis of individual, group and organizational
attributes under specific cross-level mechanisms is termed meso
level of analysis
Human Resources, Law and Management Department - September 2009

Formal & Informal Organizational Structure?

Formal organizational structure refers to formal operational design and
reflects how individuals and groups formally accept to coordinate
themselves towards pursuing organizational goals
Informal organizational structure refers to organizational culture/climate
and reflects how individuals and groups think & feel that they
informally agree, to actually coordinate themselves towards pursuing
organizational goals
Be aware that formal and informal organizational structure may or may
not be in agreement
We will discuss in further detail these 2 concepts in the 2nd part of
the session
Human Resources, Law and Management Department - September 2009

How do we inform & upgrade our knowledge?

Empirical Studies
In real-life
organizational settings

Meta-Analyses
Statistically integrating the results of many
studies & estimating population values

Sources of OB
Evidence

Survey Studies
Employing questionnaires and
interviews in sample populations

Laboratory Studies
Observation in a simulated
& controlled setting

Case Studies
In-depth investigation of
a single empirical setting

Human Resources, Law and Management Department - September 2009

Internal & External Organizational Context

Shareholders

ORGANIZATION
GROUPS
INDIVIDUALS

CLIENTS

Human Resources, Law and Management Department - September 2009

So, what determines people behavior?

Is it
The person: personal attributes of the individual which distinguish
one from another individual differences?
(The personological position envisaged by personologists)

Or
The situation/context: structural characteristics of the situation
which distinguish one from another situational contingencies?
(The situational position envisaged by situationists)
Human Resources, Law and Management Department - September 2009

So, what determines people behavior?

Or is it
A Person-Situation interaction: a byplay between personal
attributes and situational characteristics?
(The interactional position envisaged by interactionists)

The overwhelming majority of the best available empirical

evidence points to the fact that behavior is determined by an
interaction of personal attributes and situational characteristics
It seems that a causal supremacy is awarded to personal
attributes due to the overarching fact that individuals self-select
themselves, remain in the long term and are socialized into
contexts with characteristics that fit to their personal attributes
Human Resources, Law and Management Department - September 2009

Individual Differences (attributes of the person)?

personality: the psychological construct that predicts (informs) a
persons behavior in a given situation (Cattell, 1943)

As we will see in the next sessions personality integrates a series of

psychological variables from needs, traits (relatively enduring patterns of
thoughts, feelings and behavior) and attitudes, to values, beliefs, interests,
motives and goals
Most commonly assessed by special tests in the form of self-reports (in the
majority of the cases assessing traits and/or subtraits)
Although traditionally personality and abilities are conceptually
distinguished the latest conceptualizations of personality integrate also
abilities
Personality (in terms of traits) has a strong genetic component (it is
inherited to a certain degree: 50% of the variance explained) and during
adulthood exhibits slow & incremental development for the population in
average, but is also subject to some significant development (more than 1
standard deviation across adulthood) on an individual basis
Human Resources, Law and Management Department - September 2009

Abilities?
The individual capacity to perform the various tasks of a given
activity
Mental abilities: the capacity of thinking, reasoning and
problem solving
The most frequently used mental ability in OB is general
mental ability (GMA) or g more widely known as intelligent
quotient (IQ) and it integrates basic quantitative and verbal
abilities assessed by special tests
GMA has a stronger genetic component than personality traits
85% of the variance explained above 18 years old and
appears not to be subject to further significant development
beyond that age, although recently this finding has started to
be questioned
Physical abilities: the capacity to perform tasks that require
speed, dexterity, stamina, strength and other similar qualities

Human Resources, Law and Management Department - September 2009

Biographical/Demographic Attributes?
Personal attributes that are easily and objectively
obtained by personnel records and/or CVs

Age
Gender
Race
National/Regional Culture
Type & Level of Academic Formation
Type & Length of Tenure
Human Resources, Law and Management Department - September 2009

But how people make sense & interpret themselves and

the situation in order to determine their behavior?
Through individual perception: the continuous psychological process
that people go through in order to make sense & interpret themselves
and the environmental stimuli they experience
Individual perception of the self and of the environment in the long term
determines individual cognition: the long term psychological process by
which we determine our knowledge of the self and our environment

Be aware that both perception and cognition as psychological

processes integrate both mental and affective processing
Affection includes both intense and short term feelings (seconds or
minutes), termed emotions and relatively less intense and longer term
ones (hours or days), termed moods
Be aware that when it comes to behavior it is not the actual situation
that counts but how the situation is perceived by individuals and groups
(as well as how they perceive themselves)
Human Resources, Law and Management Department - September 2009

Is Individual Perception Free of Biases & Errors?

We are full of perceptual biases & errors and individual judgment
informed by experience is not objective at all

Cognitive dissonance (Festinger, 1957)

Fundamental attribution error & self-serving bias
Selective perception
Recency error
Hallo or Horn effect
Similar-to-me error
Social comparison bias
Contrast effect
Projection
Stereotyping
Self-fulfilling prophecy or Pygmalion effect
Human Resources, Law and Management Department - September 2009