Understanding Individual Differences

1
Understanding Individual Differences

• Ch. 2

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Diagnosis of Employee Behavior Problems
Define Expected or Desired Behavior
Described Actual Behavior Patterns
GAP What change in behavior is desired? Why
does the gap exist?
Role Expectations
Motivation
Skills/ Abilities/ Knowledge
Resources
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Surface and Deep-Level Diversity
Surface-Level Diversity
Age
Personality
Attitudes
Race/ Ethnicity
Physical Capabilities
Deep-Level Diversity
Emotions
Self Concept
Gender
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Individual Attributes

• These dispositional factors account for 30-50 of
  the differences in an individuals behavior
• Examples
• Concepts of self
• Personality traits
• Cognitive, emotional, and physical competencies
• Values and attitudes
• Skills and knowledge
• Demographic variables

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Concepts of Self

• Self Concept
• The bundle of traits, competencies, values that
  comprise our beliefs about ourselves
• Perceived, ideal, should, would selves
• Self Esteem
• Evaluation of the worth of our selves
• Often an outcome not a cause of effective
  performance

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Concepts of Self

• Self Efficacy
• Belief that one is capable of performing a
  particular task
• What kinds of things affect our self efficacy?
• Self Monitoring
• Observing our selves and behaviors and adapting
  them to the situation at hand
• Responding to social cues about what is
  appropriate to do in a particular situation

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What is personality?

• Definition
• Set of unique traits and other mental
  characteristics that give consistency to an
  individual's behavior across situations
• Enduring tendencies to feel, think, and act in
  certain ways across many situations
• Source Nature vs. Nurture?
• What twin studies reveal
• The role of genes
• The role of environment, including culture
• Gene X Environment interactions

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Emotional Stability Resilient Responsive Reactive
35 45 55 65
Extraversion Introvert Ambivert Extravert
35 45 55 65
Openness to Experience Preserver Moderate Explorer
35 45 55 65
Agreeableness Challenger Negotiator Adapter
35 45 55 65
Conscientiousness Flexible Balanced Focused
35 45 55 65
Big Five Personality Traits Scores on the
Big 5 Inventory pp.64-66
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Extraversion

• Tendency to experience positive emotions and
  moods and feel good about oneself and the rest of
  the world
• People high in extraversion tend to be sociable,
  affectionate, outgoing and friendly, and enjoy
  jobs with lots of interpersonal interaction
• In U.S., extraversion is positively related to
  salary levels, promotions, and career
  satisfaction
• People low in extraversion tend to be less
  inclined toward social interaction and have a
  less assertive approach

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Neuroticism (opposite emotional stability)

• Tendency to experience negative emotions and
  moods, feel distressed, are insecure, worried,
  and critical of oneself and others
• Cope poorly with stress and may whine

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Agreeableness

• Tendency to get along well with others
• People high in agreeableness are likable,
  affectionate and care about others
• Agreeableness may be needed for jobs requiring
  teamwork and good interpersonal facilitation
  skills
• People with low agreeableness may be distrustful,
  unsympathetic, uncooperative and antagonistic

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Conscientiousness

• Tendency to be careful, scrupulous, and
  persevering
• People high in this trait are organized,
  self-disciplined, and goal-oriented
• People low in this trait lack direction and
  self-discipline
• Conscientiousness is correlated with successful
  performance in many jobs, but may not be good for
  jobs that require spontaneity and creativity

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Openness to Experience

• Tendency to be original, have broad interests, be
  open to a wide range of stimuli, be daring and
  curious, and take risks
• Implications
• Needed for jobs requiring innovation, creativity,
  and spontaneity
• Predictive of cross-cultural sensitivity and
  success in international assignments

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Locus of control

• Definition the extent to which one believes
  that the things that happen to them are under
  their own or others control
• Internal locus belief that ones own abilities
  and efforts control the things that happen to
  them
• External locus belief that others, situations,
  and fate control what happens to them
• Cultural differences may determine locus of
  control

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Work Attitudes

• Consistent predispositions toward events, people,
  issues, objects, etc.
• Compared to values, attitudes are
• More specific
• Not as long lasting
• Compared to moods, attitudes are
• More long lasting

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Work Attitudes

• Components include
• Affective feelings/emotions about the target
• Cognitive beliefs or thoughts about the target
• Behavioral actions toward the object
• Example Job satisfaction

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What is the relationship between attitudes and
behaviors?

• Do we act in accordance
• with our attitudes?
• OR
• Do we develop attitudes that
• are consistent with our behaviors?

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Why do we find inconsistencies between attitudes
and behaviors?

• Habit, moods, situational constraints, traits,
  impulses may conflict with attitudes
• Behavior is not always intentional
• We have different commitments to attitudes some
  are more important to us than others
• Specific attitudes are better predictors of
  specific behaviors while general attitudes are
  not as predictive of specific behaviors

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Do we develop attitudes that are consistent with
our behaviors?

• Consistency principle (Robert Cialdini)
• People have a need for consistency between
  thinking, feelings, and behavior
• Cognitive dissonance results if behavior and
  attitudes are not in agreement, which is a
  disturbing state for most people
• If we behave in ways that contradict our
  attitudes, over time we are likely to change our
  attitudes to achieve consistency

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Job Satisfaction

• Feelings, beliefs, and intentions with regard to
  job behaviors
• We may have a general level of job satisfaction
  or we may have specific levels of job
  satisfaction regarding work itself, work
  setting, supervisors, coworkers, pay, employment
  security, etc.

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Issues around Job Satisfaction

• Some aspects of our jobs are more important to us
  than others and thus, these specific facets of
  job satisfaction may matter more to us than
  overall job satisfaction
• People take a comparative approach to job
  satisfaction Satisfaction occurs when our
  expectations are met
• Hedonic adaptationwe quickly adapt to a
  satisfied state such that we become dissatisfied
  again
• However Is job satisfaction a trait rather
  than a state?

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What behaviors are related to job satisfaction?

• Performance Satisfied workers are not always
  likely to perform at a higher level than
  dissatisfied workers
• When might there be a positive relationship
  between job satisfaction and performance?
• When situational constraints are weak when
  workers are free to vary their behaviors in
  response to attitudes
• When a workers attitude is directly relevant to
  the behavior in question (satisfaction with pay
  vs. general conditions)

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What behaviors are related to job satisfaction?

• Absenteeism Satisfied workers are only slightly
  less likely to be absent than dissatisfied
  workers.
• Need to consider whether the absenteeism is
  voluntary vs. involuntary
• Turnover Satisfied workers are less likely to
  leave the organization than dissatisfied workers.

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What behaviors are related to job satisfaction?

• Organizational Citizenship (OCB) behavior that
  is above and beyond the call of duty. Examples
• Helping coworkers, enhancement of organizational
  reputation and goodwill, protection of the
  organization, giving extra time to organizational
  projects, etc.
• Satisfaction is positively related to OCB

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What behaviors are related to job satisfaction?

• Worker well-being and general happiness quality
  of life considerations for the employee
• Workers who are generally satisfied with their
  jobs are usually happier, less stressed, and
  healthier than those who are not satisfied

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Important Work Attitudes Organizational
Commitment

• Organizational Commitment strenghts of
  employees involvement in the organization as a
  whole
• Two types
• Affective
• Continuance

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Important Work Attitudes Organizational
Commitment

• Affective commitment
• Workers are happy to be members of an
  organization
• Workers believe in and feel good about the
  organization and what it stands for
• Workers are attached to the organization, and
  intend to do what is good for the organization

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Important Work Attitudes Organizational
Commitment

• Continuance commitment
• Workers are committed not so much because they
  want to be but because they have to be
• The costs of leaving the organization are too
  great (e.g., income security, health benefits,
  lack of competitiveness in the labor market,
  etc.)

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Consequences of Commitment

• Affective
• Greater organizational citizenship
• Weak, negative relationship with absenteeism and
  lateness
• Strong, negative relationship with turnover

• Continuance
• Not likely to result in greater organizational
  citizenship
• Strong, negative relationship with turnover
  (feel stuck within the organization)

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Moods and Emotions

• Mood
• A feeling or state of mind
• Positive moods provide excitement, elation, and
  enthusiasm.
• Negative moods lead to fear, distress, and
  nervousness
• Emotion
• Intense, relatively short-lived feelings

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Positive and Negative Emotions (Figure 2.4)
Negative Emotions
Positive Emotions
Anger
Happiness/Joy
Fright/Anxiety
Pride
Guilt/Shame
Love/Affection
Sadness
Envy/Jealousy
Relief
Disgust
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Emotional Intelligence

• The ability to understand and manage ones own
  moods and emotions and the moods and emotions of
  other people.

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Model of Emotional Intelligence
Self Motivation
Self Awareness
Managing Self
Emotional Trigger
Emotional Response
Behavioral Response
Managing Others
Social Empathy
Social Skills
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Implications of Emotional Intelligence

• Need to learn to handle our own emotions in
  effective ways
• Need to help others manage their emotions in the
  workplace
• Current concerns workplace civility and courtesy

Scores on the Emotional IQ Inventory on pp. 66-67