CHAPTER

15

Basic Elements
of Individual
Behavior in
Organizations

PowerPoint Presentation
by Charlie Cook
Copyright © by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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 Understanding Individuals
in Organizations
• The Psychological Contract
– The overall set of expectations held by an individual with respect to
what he or she will contribute to the organization and what the
organization will provide in return.

Contributions from Inducements from

the Individual the Organization
• Effort • Pay
• Ability • Job security
• Loyalty • Benefits
• Skills • Career opportunities
• Time • Status
• Competencies • Promotion opportunities

Figure 15.1
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 Understanding Individuals
in Organizations (cont’d)
• The Person-Job Fit
– The extent to which the contributions made by the individual match
the inducement offered by the organization.
• Each employee has a specific set of needs to be fulfilled and a set of
job-related behaviors to contribute.
• The degree to which the organization can take advantage of those
behaviors and, in turn, fulfill an employee’s needs will determine the
level of person-job fit.
– Reasons for poor person-job fit:
• Organizational selection procedures are imperfect.
• Both people and organizations change over time.
• Adopting new technologies changes the skills needed by employees.
• Each individual is unique and each job is unique.

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 Personality and Individual Behavior
• Personality
– The relatively stable set of psychological and behavioral
attributes that distinguish one person from another.
• The “Big Five” personality Traits
– Agreeableness—a person’s ability to get along with others.
– Conscientiousness—the number of goals on which a person
focuses.
– Negative emotionality—the extent to which a person is calm,
resilient, and secure.
– Extraversion—a person’s comfort level with relationships.
– Openness—a person’s rigidity of beliefs and range of
interests.
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 The “Big Five” Model of Personality
Agreeableness
High agreeableness Low agreeableness

Conscientiousness
High conscientiousness Low conscientiousness

Negative Emotionality
Less negative emotionality More negative emotionality

Extraversion
More extraversion More introversion

Openness
More openness Less openness

Figure 15.2
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 The Myers-Briggs Framework

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

A questionnaire used to differentiate personalities on
the dimensions of the MB framework:
1. Extroversion (E) versus Introversion (I)
sociable versus solitary
2. Sensing (S) versus Intuition (N)
concrete versus conceptual
3. Thinking (T) versus Feeling (F)
logic and reason versus emotion and feelings
4. Judging (J) versus Perceiving (P)
completion versus continuing participation
Useful to determine communication styles and interaction
preferences; has questionable reliability and validity.
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 Other Personality Traits at Work
• Locus of Control
– The extent to which people believe that their behavior has a
real effect on what happens to them.
• Internal locus of control—individuals who believe they are in
control of their lives.
• External locus of control—individuals believe that external forces
dictate what happen to them.
• Self-Efficacy
– A person’s belief about his or her capabilities to perform a
task. High self-efficacy individuals believe they can perform
well while low self-efficacy individuals doubt their ability to
perform.

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 Other Personality Traits at Work (cont’d)
• Authoritarianism
– The extent to which an individual believes that power and
status differences are appropriate within hierarchical social
organizations.
• Machiavellianism
– Behavior directed at gaining power and controlling the
behavior of others.
• Self-Esteem
– The extent to which a person believes she/he is a worthwhile
individual.
• Risk Propensity
– The degree to which an individual is willing to take chances
and make risky decisions.

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 Attitudes and Individual Behavior
• Attitudes
– Complexes of beliefs and feelings that people have about
specific ideas, situations, or other people.
• The Three Components of Attitudes:
– Affective component reflects the feelings and emotions an
individual has toward a situation (i.e., how we feel).
– Cognitive component is derived from perceived knowledge
(i.e., why we feel the way we feel).
– Intentional component is how a person expects to behave in
a given situation (i.e., what we intend do about the situation).
• Cognitive Dissonance
– The conflict individuals experience among their own
attitudes.

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 Work-Related Attitudes
• Job Satisfaction or Dissatisfaction
– An attitude that reflects the extent to which an individual is
gratified or fulfilled by his or her work.
• Job Satisfaction and Work Behaviors
– Job satisfaction is influenced by personal, group, and
organizational factors.
– Satisfied employees are absent from work less often, make
positive contributions, and stay with the organization.
– Dissatisfied employees are absent from work more often,
may experience stress which disrupts coworkers, and may
be continually looking for another job.
– High levels of job satisfaction do not necessarily lead to high
job performance.

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 Work-Related Attitudes (cont’d)
• Organizational Commitment
– An attitude that reflects an individual’s identification with and
attachment to an organization.
• Organizational Commitment and Work Behaviors
– Employee commitment strengthens with an individual’s age,
years with the organization, sense of job security, and
participation in decision making.
– Committed employees have highly reliable habits, plan a
longer tenure with the organization, and muster more effort
in performance.

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 Affect and Mood in Organizations
• Positive Affectivity
– A tendency to be relatively upbeat and optimistic, have an
overall sense of well-being, see things in a positive light, and
seem to be in a good mood.
• Negative Affectivity
– A tendency to be generally
downbeat and pessimistic,
tend to see things in a
negative way, and seem to
be in a bad mood.

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 Perception and Individual Behavior
• Perception
– The set of processes by which an individual becomes aware
of and interprets information.
• Selective Perception
– The process of screening out information that we are
uncomfortable with or that contradicts our beliefs.
– If selective perception causes someone to ignore important
information it can become quite detrimental.
• Stereotyping
– The process of categorizing or labeling people on the basis
of a single attribute (e.g., gender and race).
– Stereotyping may cost the organization valuable talent,
violate federal anti-bias laws, and is likely unethical.

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 Perceptual Processes

+ + Selective Perception +
+ +
+ – Screening out information
+ +
– + + that causes discomfort or +
that contradicts our beliefs + +
+ + – +

Stereotyping
Categorizing or labeling
on the basis of a single
attribute

Figure 15.3
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 Perception and Perceptual Processes
• Attribution
– A mechanism through which we observe behavior and
attribute a cause to it.
• Ways in Which Attributions Are Formed:
– Consensus
• The extent to which other people in the same situation behave the
same way.
– Consistency
• The extent to which the same person behaves the same way at
different times.
– Distinctiveness
• The extent to which the same person behaves the same way in other
situations.

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 Stress and Individual Behavior
• Stress
– A person’s response to a strong stimulus (i.e., a stressor).
• General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)
– The general cycle of the stress process.
– Stage 1 Alarm
• Panic, wondering how to cope, and
a feeling of helplessness.
– Stage 2 Resistance
• Individual is actively resisting
the effects of the stressor.
– Stage 3 Exhaustion
• Prolonged exposure to stress causes
an individual to give up.

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 The General Adaptation Syndrome

Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3

Alarm Resistance Exhaustion

Response to
stressful event

Normal level
of resistance

Figure 15.4
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 Stress and Individual Behavior (cont’d)
• Personality Types
– Type A personality
• Extremely competitive (aggressive), devoted to work, have a strong
sense of time urgency (impatient).
• Have a lot of drive and want to accomplish
as much as possible as quickly as possible.
– Type B personality
• Less competitive, less devoted to work,
have a weaker sense of time urgency.
• Less likely to experience personal stress
or to come into conflict with other people.
• More likely to have a balanced, relaxed approach to life.

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 Causes and Consequences of Stress
• Causes of Work Stress

Organizational
Stressors

Task Demands Physical Demands Role Demands Interpersonal

• Quick decisions • Temperature extremes • Role ambiguity Demands
• Critical decisions • Poorly designed office • Role conflict • Group pressures
• Incomplete informa- • Threats to health • Leadership styles
tion for decisions • Conflicting
personalities

Figure 15.5
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 Causes and Consequences
of Stress (cont’d)
• Consequences of Stress
– Negative personal consequences
• Behavioral—smoking, alcoholism, overeating, drug abuse.
• Psychological—sleep disturbances, depression, family problems.
• Medical—heart disease, stroke, backaches, ulcers, skin conditions.
– Negative work-related consequences
• Poor quality work output and lower productivity.
• Job dissatisfaction, low morale, and a lack of commitment.
• Withdrawal through indifference and absenteeism.
– Burnout
• A feeling of exhaustion that may develop when someone experiences
too much stress for an extended period of time.

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 Managing Stress
• Stress Management Strategies for Individuals
– Regular exercise
• reduces tension and stress, and improves
self-confidence and feelings of optimism.
– Relaxation
• allows individuals to adapt and better
deal with their stress.
– Time management
• reduces stress by prioritizing activities to
accomplish them in their order of importance.
– Support Groups
• away from work reduces stress.

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 Managing Stress (cont’d)
• Stress Management Strategies for Organizations
– Organizations are partly responsible for stress.
– Organizations also bear the costs of stress-related claims.
– Organizational wellness/stress management programs can
be used to promote healthful employee activities and derive
the benefits of increased organizational productivity.

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 Creativity in Organizations
• Creativity
– The ability of an individual to generate new ideas or to
conceive of new perspectives in existing ideas.
• The Creative Individual
– Background experiences and creativity
• Many creative individuals were reared in creative environments.
– Personal traits and creativity
• Creative persons have personal traits of openness, an attraction to
complexity, high levels of energy, independence, autonomy, strong
self-confidence, and a strong belief in their own creativity.
– Cognitive abilities and creativity
• Most creative people are highly intelligent.
• They are both divergent and convergent thinkers, a skill they use to see
differences and similarities in situations, phenomena, and events.

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 The Creative Process
• Preparation
– Formal education and training is used to “get up to speed.”
– Experiences on the job provide additional knowledge and
ideas.
• Incubation
– A period of less intense conscious
concentration during which knowledge
and ideas acquired, during preparation,
mature and develop.
– Incubation can be helped by pauses
in rational thought.

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 The Creative Process (cont’d)
• Insight
– A spontaneous breakthrough in which the creative person
achieves a new understanding of some problem or situation.
– Patterns of thought coalesce into a new understanding.
• Verification
– Determines the validity or truthfulness of the insight.
– Tests are conducted and prototypes are built to see if the
insight leads to the expected results.
• Enhancing Creativity in Organizations
– Make creativity part of the organization’s culture.
• Set goals for revenues from creative products and services.
– Reward creativity; refrain from punishing creative failures.
• Some ideas work out as expected, others don’t work out as intended.

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 Types of Workplace Behavior
• Workplace Behavior
– A pattern of action by the members of an organization that
directly or indirectly influences organizational effectiveness.
• Performance Behaviors
– The total set of work-related behaviors an organization
expects an individual to display.
• Withdrawal Behaviors
– Absenteeism occurs when an individual does not show up
for work when expected for legitimate or feigned reasons.
– Absenteeism may be a symptom of other work-related
problems.
– Turnover occurs when individuals quit their jobs for work-
related or personal reasons.

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 Types of Workplace Behavior (cont’d)
• Organizational Citizenship
– The behavior of individuals that makes a positive overall
contribution to the organization.
– The determinants of organizational citizenship is a complex
mosaic of individual, social, and organizational variables.
• The personality, attitudes, and needs of the individual.
• The social context, or work group, in which the individual works.
• An organization (and its culture) capable of rewarding citizenship
behaviors.

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