Key Concepts in Organizational Behavior

Posted on Mar 6, 2025 in Organization Engineering

  • Correlation: A statistical measure of the relationship between two variables. Understanding the strength (how closely related) and direction (positive or negative) of a correlation is crucial.
  • Rule of 1/8th: The idea that only 1/8th (12.5%) of organizations will successfully implement sound management practices due to various factors like misunderstanding, incomplete implementation, and lack of persistence.

Attitudes

  • Value-Percept Theory: Job satisfaction depends on whether you perceive that your job supplies the things you value. Different values (pay, promotion, supervision, coworkers, work itself) have varying importance for individuals.
  • Organizational Commitment:
    • Affective: Emotional attachment to the organization.
    • Continuance: Awareness of the costs associated with leaving the organization.
    • Normative: Feeling obligated to stay with the organization.
  • Job Characteristics Model:
    • Skill Variety: Using different skills and talents.
    • Task Identity: Completing a whole piece of work from beginning to end.
    • Task Significance: Impact on the lives of other people.
    • Autonomy: Freedom and independence in performing work.
    • Feedback: Receiving clear information about performance effectiveness.
  • Person-Environment Fit: Compatibility between an individual’s skills, knowledge, abilities, and needs and the demands and opportunities of the work environment.
  • Psychological Contract: Unwritten expectations between employees and employers.
  • Measuring Employee Attitudes: Surveys, interviews, focus groups, etc.

Behaviors

  • Job/Task Performance:
    • Routine Task Performance: Well-known responses to predictable demands.
    • Adaptive Task Performance: Responses to novel or unusual task demands.
    • Creative Task Performance: Developing ideas or physical outcomes that are both novel and useful.
  • Correlates of Job Performance: Cognitive ability, personality, motivation, organizational commitment, etc.
  • Citizenship Behaviors: Voluntary employee activities that contribute to overall organizational effectiveness.
  • Counterproductive Work Behaviors (CWBs): Employee behaviors that intentionally hinder organizational goal accomplishment.
  • Exit-Voice-Loyalty-Neglect Model: Responses to negative work events:
    • Exit: Leaving the organization (Stars, Lone Wolves).
    • Voice: Attempting to improve the situation (Stars, Citizens).
    • Loyalty: Passively waiting for improvement (Citizens).
    • Neglect: Reducing work effort (Lone Wolves, Apathetics).
  • Performance Review: Formal evaluations of employee performance. Be aware of potential biases (halo effect, recency bias).

Individual Differences

  • Big 5 Personality Traits (OCEAN):
    • Openness to Experience: Curious, imaginative, creative.
    • Conscientiousness: Organized, responsible, dependable.
    • Extraversion: Outgoing, sociable, assertive.
    • Agreeableness: Cooperative, trusting, kind.
    • Neuroticism (Emotional Stability): Anxious, irritable, moody.
  • Impact of Personality Traits at Work: Conscientiousness is a strong predictor of job performance.
  • Pros & Cons of Personality Testing in Hiring: Can provide insights but can also lead to discrimination and faking.
  • Core Self-Evaluations: Fundamental premises individuals hold about themselves: self-esteem, locus of control, neuroticism, and self-efficacy.
  • Self- & Social-Perception Biases: Halo effect, selective perception, projection, stereotypes.
  • Attribution: Explaining the causes of behavior (internal vs. external).

Motivation

  • Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Motivators: Internal satisfaction vs. external rewards.
  • Needs-Based Theories: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Alderfer’s ERG theory, McClelland’s theory of needs.
  • Expectancy Theory: Motivation is based on:
    • Expectancy: Belief that effort leads to performance.
    • Instrumentality: Belief that performance leads to outcomes.
    • Valence: Value of the outcomes.
  • Reinforcement:
    • Positive Reinforcement: Adding a desirable consequence.
    • Negative Reinforcement: Removing an undesirable consequence.
    • Punishment: Adding an undesirable consequence or removing a desirable one.
    • Extinction: Removing a previously reinforced behavior.
  • Reinforcement Schedules: Fixed interval, variable interval, fixed ratio, variable ratio.
  • Goal-Setting Theory: Specific and difficult goals lead to higher performance. Self-efficacy (belief in one’s ability) plays a crucial role.
  • Equity Theory: Motivation is based on comparisons of input/outcome ratios with referent others.
  • Compensation Systems: Piece-rate pay, salary, bonuses, profit sharing, etc.
  • Job Design:
    • Job Enlargement: Increasing the number of tasks.
    • Job Enrichment: Increasing autonomy and responsibility.
    • Job Rotation: Moving employees between different tasks.
    • Job Crafting: Employees shaping their own jobs.

Stress

  • Causes of Stress at Work: Work overload, role ambiguity, role conflict, work-family conflict, etc.
  • Hindrance vs. Challenge Stressors: Hindrance stressors impede progress towards personal growth and goal attainment, while challenge stressors are perceived as opportunities for growth and achievement.
  • Workplace Recovery: Detaching from work during non-work hours.
  • Stress Management Strategies: Time management, relaxation techniques, exercise, social support.
  • Emotion Contagion: The process by which emotions are transferred from one person to another.
  • Affective Events Theory: Workplace events trigger emotional reactions that influence work attitudes and behaviors.
  • Emotional Labor: Managing emotions to meet job demands.
  • Emotional Intelligence: The ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions.