Organization behavior note study
The Big Five Model of Personality Dimensions
Sociable, gregarious, and assertive
Extroversi
on
Good-natured, cooperative, and trusting
Agreeabl
eness
Responsible, dependable, persistent, and organized
Conscienti
ousness
Calm, self-confident, secure under stress (positive), versus nervous,
Emotional depressed, and insecure under stress (negative)
Stability
Curious, imaginative, artistic, and sensitive
Openness to
Experience
Core Self-Evaluation
• The degree to which people like or dislike themselves
• Positive self-evaluation leads to higher job performance
Machiavellianism
A pragmatic, emotionally distant power-player who believes that ends justify the means
High Machs are manipulative, win more often, and persuade more than they are persuaded. Flourish
when:
• Have direct interaction
• Work with minimal rules and regulations
• Emotions distract others
Narcissism
An arrogant, entitled, self-important person who needs excessive admiration
Less effective in their jobs
More info in depth
There are additional personality traits relevant to organizational behavior. Core self-evaluation is the
degree to which people like/dislike themselves. Positive self-evaluation leads to higher job performance.
Machiavellianism describes a person who tends to be emotionally distant and believes that the ends
justify the means. They tend to have a competitive drive and a need to win. They can be very persuasive
in situations where there is direct interaction with minimal rules and people are distracted by emotions.
Narcissism is a trait that often hinders job effectiveness. It describes a person who requires excessive
admiration and has a strong sense of entitlement.
More relevant personality traits
• Self-Monitoring
• The ability to adjust behavior to meet external, situational factors.
• High monitors conform more and are more likely to become leaders.
• Risk Taking
• The willingness to take chances.
• May be best to align propensities with job requirements.
• Risk takers make faster decisions with less information.
Values part
Basic convictions on how to conduct yourself or how to live your life that is personally or socially
preferable – “How To” live life properly.
• Attributes of Values:
• Content Attribute – that the mode of conduct or end-state is important
• Intensity Attribute – just how important that content is
• Value System
• A person’s values rank ordered by intensity
• Tends to be relatively constant and consistent
The important of value
- Provide understanding of the attitudes, motivation, and behaviors
- Influence our perception of the world around us
- Represent interpretations of “right” and “wrong”
- Imply that some behaviors or outcomes are preferred over others
Classifying Values – Rokeach Value Survey
- Terminal Values
Desirable end-states of existence; the goals that a person would like to achieve during his or
her lifetime
- Instrumental Values
Preferable modes of behavior or means of achieving one’s terminal values
- People in same occupations or categories tend to hold similar values
But values vary between groups
Value differences make it difficult for groups to negotiate and may create conflict
Week three – motivation part A
The processes that account for an individual’s intensity, direction, and persistence of effort
toward attaining a goal – specifically, an organizational goal.
Three key elements:
• Intensity – how hard a person tries
• Direction – effort that is channeled toward, and
consistent with, organizational goals
• Persistence – how long a person can maintain effort
The theories for motivation
- Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory
- Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory
Implementing management by objectives MBO
MBO is a systematic way to utilize goal setting.
Goals must be:
- Tangible
- Verifiable
- Measurable
Corporate goals are broken down into smaller, more specific goals at each level of organization.
Four common ingredients to MBO programs:
- Goal specificity
- Participative decision making
- Explicit time period
- Performance feedback
Vroom’s Expectancy Theory
The strength of a tendency to act in a certain way depends on the strength of an expectation that the act
will be followed by a given outcome and on the attractiveness of the outcome to the individual.
Week three – motivation part B
Five Core Job Dimensions
• Skill Variety: degree to which the job incorporates a number of different skills and
talents
• Task Identity: degree to which the job requires the completion of a whole and
identifiable piece of work
• Task Significance: how the job impacts the lives of others
• Autonomy: identifies how much freedom and independence the worker has over the
job
• Feedback: how much the job generates direct and clear information about the worker’s
performance
The strength of job rotation
Helps managers Reduces
in scheduling boredom
Increases
understanding
Increased skills
of work
contribution
- Alternative Work Arrangements
Flextime
• Flextime allows employees to choose the hours they work within a defined period of
time.
Job Sharing
• Job Sharing allows two or more individuals to split a traditional 40-hour-a-week job.
Telecommuting
• Telecommuting allows workers to work from home at least 2 days a week on a computer
linked to the employer’s office.
Social and physical work context
Social Context
Some social characteristics that improve job performance include:
• Interdependence
• Social support
• Interactions with other people outside of work
• Physical Context
The work context will also affect employee satisfaction
• Work that is hot, loud, and dangerous is less satisfying
• Work that is controlled, relatively quiet, and safe will be more satisfying
