Human Behavior in Organizations — prelims

I. An Overview of Organizational Behavior

1-1: What Is Organizational Behavior? These functions are applied to human, financial,
Figure 1.1: The Nature of Organizational Behavior physical, and information resources with the
● The field of organizational behavior attempts to ultimate purpose of efficiently and effectively
understand human behavior in organizational attaining organizational goals.
settings, the organization itself, and the
individual-organization interface. As illustrated
here, these areas are highly interrelated. Thus,
although it is possible to focus on only one of
these areas at a time, a complete understanding
of organizational behavior requires knowledge of
all three areas.

Functions of Management
● Planning: Determining an organization’s desired
future position and the best means of getting
there.
● Organizing: Designing jobs, grouping jobs into
units, and establishing patterns of authority
Why Study OB? between jobs and units.
● Studying OB can help you: ● Leading: Getting the organization’s members to
○ Become a better employee work together toward the organization’s goals.
○ Become a better manager ● Controlling: Monitoring and correcting the actions
○ Understand how people behave and why they of the organization and its members to keep
do what they do them directed toward their goals.
○ Help you focus on developing a global mindset
● Organizations that successfully implement OB Critical Management Skills
principles have: ● Technical Skills: The skills necessary to
○ Motivated, engaged employees whose goals accomplish specific tasks within the organization.
align with business strategy ● Interpersonal Skills: The ability to effectively
○ Strong leadership and direction communicate with, understand, and motivate
○ Better bottom lines
individuals and groups.
● Conceptual Skills: The ability to think in the
1-2: The Managerial Context of Organizational
abstract and to consider the “big picture”.
Behavior
● Diagnostic Skills: The ability to understand
Basic Management Functions and Organizational
cause-and-effect relationships and to recognize
Behavior
the optimal solutions to problems.
● Management Functions
○ Planning
Human Resource Management
○ Organizing
● Human Resource Management (HRM)
○ Leading
○ The set of organizational activities directed at
○ Controlling
attracting, developing, and maintaining an
● Resources used by Managers
effective workforce.
○ Human
● Questions OB helps HR managers answer:
○ Financial
1. Which applicants should be hired?
○ Physical
2. Which rewards will be more motivating than
○ Information
others?

Figure 1.2: Basic Managerial Functions

1-3: The Strategic Context of Organizational
● Managers engage in the four basic functions of
Behavior
planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.
Sources of Competitive Advantage
● Competitive Advantage ○ Inspired by the Hawthorne effect.
○ An organization’s edge over rivals in attracting ○ Viewed organizations as cooperative systems.
customers an defending itself against ○ Treated workers’ orientations, values, and
competition. feelings as important parts of organizational
● Sources of Competitive Advantage: dynamics and performance.
○ Innovation ○ Created a new era of more humane,
○ Distribution employee-centered managemen and
○ Speed highlighted the importance of people to
○ Convenience organizational success.
○ First to market ○ Was hampered by unsound research methods.
○ Cost
○ Service Organizations as Open Systems
○ Quality ● System
○ Branding ○ An interrelated set of elements that function as
a whole—inputs are combined/transformed by
Types of Business Strategies managers into outputs from the system.
● Cost Leadership: Striving to be the lowest-cost ● Value of the Systems Perspective
producer for a particular level of product quality. ○ Underscores the importance of an
Emphasizes operational excellence: organization’s environment
maximizing the efficiency of the manufacturing or ○ Conceptualizes the flow and interaction of
product development process to minimize costs. various elements of the organization.
● Differentiation: Developing a product or service
that has unique characteristics valued by Figure 1.3: The Systems Approach to
customers. Emphasizes product innovation: Organizations
developing new products or services. ● The systems approach provides a useful
● Specialization: Focusing on a narrow market framework for understanding how elements of an
segment or niche and pursuing either organization interact among themselves and with
● differentiation or cost leadership within that their environment. Various inputs are transformed
segment. Emphasizes customer loyalty: into different outputs, with important feedback
delivering unique and customizable products or from the environment. If managers do not
services to meet customers’ needs and increase understand these interrelations, they may tend to
customer loyalty. ignore their environment or overlook important
● Growth: Company expands organically or interrelationships within their organizations.
through mergers/acquisitions; response to
investor preference for rising earnings; success
depends on finding the right number/types of
employees to sustain growth.

1-4: Contextual Perspectives on Organizational

Behavior
Origins of Organizational Behavior
● Scientific Management Situational Perspectives on Organizational
○ First formal study of OB (1890s), abandoned Behavior
after WWI ● The Situational Perspective
○ Maximized productivity; led to monotonous, ○ Recognizes that most organizational situations
dehumanizing conditions and outcomes are influenced by other
○ Guiding Principles variables.
■ Replace rule-of-thumb work with methods ● The Universal Model
based on scientifically studying the tasks ○ Presumes a direct cause-and-effect linkage
using time-and-motion studies. between variables.
■ Scientifically select, train, and develop all ○ Complexities of human behavior and
workers. organizational settings make universal
■ Managers provide detailed instructions and conclusions virtually impossible.
supervision to workers.
■ Divide work nearly equally between workers Figure 1.4: Universal versus Situational Approach
and managers. ● Managers once believed that they could identify
● Human Relations Movement the “one best way” of solving problems or
 reacting to situations. Here we illustrate a more ○ Sense of organizational membership,
realistic view, the situational approach. The overlooking minor dissatisfactions, with intent
situational approach suggests that approaches to to remain with organization.
problems and situations are contingent on
elements of the situation. Promoting Organizational Citizenship Behaviors
● Organizational Citizenship
○ Behaviors that make a positive overall
contribution to the organization
○ Encompasses factors outside the strict
requirements of the job:
■ Willingness to train new hires
■ Works late/overtime
■ Good attendance
■ Represents the organization well
Interactionalism: People and Situations
■ Personal values consistent with the
● Interactionalist Perspective
organization
○ Focuses on how individuals and situations
interact continuously to determine individuals’
Minimizing Dysfunctional Behaviors
behavior.
● Dysfunctional Behaviors
○ Attempts to explain how people select,
○ Behaviors that detract from, rather than
interpret, and change various situations.
contribute to, organizational performance:
■ Absenteeism
1-5: Managing for Effectiveness
■ Turnover
Managing for Effectiveness
■ Theft, sabotage
● Managers’ Goals
■ Harassment, bullying, violence
○ Enhance behaviors and attitudes
■ Politicized behavior (spreading rumors, etc.)
○ Promote citizenship
■ Incivility, rudeness
○ Minimize dysfunctional behaviors
■ Workplace violence
○ Drive strategic execution

Driving Strategic Execution

Enhancing Individual and Team Performance
● Strategic Execution
Behaviors
○ The degree to which managers and their
● Productivity
employees understand and carry out the
○ Narrow measure of efficiency: number of
actions needed to achieve strategic goals.
products or services created per unit of input.
○ Assessed at the individual/group level, the
● Performance
organizational level, and in terms of financial
○ Broader concept made up of all work-related
performance.
behaviors.
○ Often requires balancing seemingly
● Commitment
contradictory outcomes.
○ The degree to which an employee feels a true
■ For example, paying high salaries can
member of the organization, overlooks minor
enhance satisfaction and reduce turnover but
sources of dissatisfaction, and intends to stay
detract from bottom-line performance.
with the organization.

How Do We Know What We Know?

Enhancing Employee Engagement and
● Quality of Information
Commitment
○ Common sense and intuition and are often
● Employee Engagement
wrong—one thing doesn’t necessarily lead to
○ The extent to which employees understand
the other.
and embrace their role in the organization.
■ Goals and confidence
● Job Satisfaction/Dissatisfaction
■ Satisfaction and productivity
○ Influenced by personal factors (individual
■ Rewards and motivation
needs and aspirations) and group and
○ OB relies on the Scientific Method
organizational factors (relationships with
■ Knowledge generation that relies on
coworkers and working conditions).
systematic studies that identify and replicate
● Organizational Commitment
a result using a variety of methods, samples,
and settings.
The Scientific Method ● There may not be global replication of behaviors.
● Theory – a collection of verbal and symbolic
assertions that specify how and why variables Figure 1.6: Interpreting Correlations
are related, and the conditions under which they ● Correlations between variables can range from
should and should not relate. −1 to +1. By studying correlations, we can learn
● Hypothesis – a written prediction specifying more about how two variables are related.
expected relationships between certain variables. Correlations of −1 or +1 are unusual, as is a
● Independent Variable – the variable the correlation of 0. Fortunately, we can still learn a
researchers set. great deal from correlations that are statistically
● Dependent Variable – the variable the significant.
researchers measure.
○ Example: In an experiment to determine the
effect of employee wages on employee
satisfaction, wages are the independent
variable, and satisfaction is the dependent
variable.

Figure 1.5: The Scientific Method

● The scientific method is a useful approach to
learning more about organizational behavior.
Using theory to develop hypotheses and then
collecting and studying relevant data can help
generate new knowledge.
1-6: The Framework of the Book
Figure 1.7: Organizational Behavior Framework
● An array of environmental, individual, group and
team, leadership, and organizational
characteristics impact organizational behavior. If
managers understand these concepts and
characteristics, they can better promote
organizational effectiveness.

Correlation
● Correlation – strength of the relationship between
the two variables
○ Ranges between −1 and +1.
○ A correlation of +1 is a perfect positive
relationship: as one variable increases, the
other always increases.
○ A correlation of −1 is a perfect negative
relationship: as one variable increases, the
other always decreases.
○ A correlation of 0 means that there is no
relationship between the two variables.
● Meta-Analysis – used to combine the results of
many different research studies done for a
variety or organizations and jobs.

II. The Changing Environment of Organizations

Figure 2.1: The Changing Environment of corporate governance, and new employment
Business relationships.
● The changing environment of business presents
both opportunities and challenges for managers
today. Five important environmental forces are
globalization, diversity, technology, ethics and
 almost 62% of those aged 55–64 are still
working, while 18% of those aged 65 or older
continue to work.

2-1: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Business

Types of Diversity
● Diversity – the variety of observable and
unobservable similarities and differences among
people. Generational Differences
○ Surface-Level Diversity – observable ● Today’s workforce is characterized in five
differences in people, including race, age, generational groups:
ethnicity, physical abilities, physical ○ Silent Generation (1928–1945)
characteristics, and gender. ○ Baby Boomers (1946–1964)
○ Deep-Level Diversity – individual differences ○ Generation X (1965–1980)
that cannot be seen directly, including goals, ○ Generation Y or Millennials (1981–1996)
values, personalities, decision-making styles, ○ Generation Z (1997–2012)
knowledge, skills, abilities, and attitudes. ● Older workers may have better job performance
○ Intersectionality – simultaneous membership in but need mentoring to adopt new technology.
more than one demographic category.
○ Separation Diversity – differences in position or The Business Case for Diversity
opinion among group members reflecting ● Diversity fosters greater creativity and innovation.
disagreement or opposition—dissimilarity in an ● Organizational performance increases when
attitude or value, for example, especially with employees have a positive attitude toward
regard to group goals or processes. diversity.
○ Variety Diversity – differences in a certain type ● Culturally diverse teams make better decisions
or category, including group members’ over time than homogeneous ones.
expertise, knowledge, or functional ● Women in top management results in more
background. innovation.
○ Disparity Diversity – differences in the ● Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits
concentration of valuable social assets or employment discrimination based on race, color,
resources—dissimilarity in rank, pay, religion, sex, or national origin.
decision-making authority, or status.
Barriers to Inclusion
Trends in Diversity ● The “Like Me” Bias
● By 2060, the total population is forecast to grow ○ People prefer to associate with others they
from 282.1 million in 2000 to 404 million. perceive to be like themselves.
● Changes in the workforce and the population in ● Stereotypes
general are toward greater diversity. ○ A belief about an individual or a group based
● Talent shortages are forecast to rise globally. on the idea that everyone in a particular group
● Population is aging; age diversity in workforce is will behave the same way or have the same
increasing. characteristics.
○ May result in younger managers supervising ● Prejudice
older workers. ○ Outright bigotry or intolerance for other groups.
○ Reverse Mentoring: pairing a junior employee ● Perceived Threat of Loss
with a senior employee to transfer ○ If some employees perceive a direct threat to
technical/computer skills from the junior their own career opportunities, they may feel
employee to the senior one. that they need to protect their own prospects
by impeding diversity efforts.
Figure 2.2: Percent of Age Groups Employed in ● Ethnocentrism
2021 ○ The belief that one’s own language, native
● The U.S. labor force includes people from a wide country, and cultural rules and norms are
array of age groups. As this graph illustrates, superior to all others.
● Unequal Access to Organizational Networks ○ Organizations and the way they are structured
○ Women and minorities are often excluded from appear to be growing increasingly similar.
organizational networks, which can be ○ The same individual behaves differently in
important to job performance, mentoring different cultural settings.
opportunities, and being seen as a candidate ○ Cultural diversity can be an important source of
for promotion. synergy in enhancing organizational
effectiveness.
Managing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion ● Attitudes and behaviors differ significantly
● Top management support for diversity and for because of values and beliefs that characterize
diversity initiatives. different countries (Geert Hofstede).
● Reciprocal mentoring: matches senior employees
with diverse junior employees to allow both Hofstede’s Dimensions of Culture
individuals to learn more about a different group. ● Individualism
● Older adults may benefit from self-paced learning ○ Exists to the extent that people in a culture
environments and confidence-boosting define themselves primarily as individuals
interventions. rather than as part of one or more groups or
● It is not realistic to claim or to pursue an “I’m organizations
totally unbiased” stance with regard to diversity. ● Collectivism
○ Characterized by tight social frameworks in
2-2: Globalization and Business which people tend to base their identities on
Trends in Globalization the group or organization to which they belong.
● Globalization – the internationalization of ● Power Distance
business activities and the shift toward an ○ The extent to which people accept as normal
integrated global economy. an unequal distribution of power.
● Factors Increasing Globalization: ● Uncertainty Avoidance
○ Advances in communication and ○ The extent to which people feel threatened by
transportation. unknown situations and prefer to be in clear
○ Businesses have expanded internationally to and unambiguous situations (also called the
increase their markets. preference for stability).
○ Control of labor, distribution and distribution ● Masculinity
costs. ○ The extent to which the dominant values in a
○ Increased international competition. society emphasize aggressiveness and
acquisition of money/possessions as opposed
Cultural Competence to concern for people and relationships (also
● Culture called assertiveness or materialism).
○ The set of shared values, often taken for ● Long-Term Values
granted, that help people in a group, ○ Include focusing on the future, working on
organization, or society understand which projects that have a distant payoff, persistence,
actions are considered acceptable and which and thrift.
are deemed unacceptable. ● Short-Term Values
● Cultural Competence – the ability to interact ○ More oriented toward the past and the present
effectively with people of different cultures. and include respect for traditions and social
○ Awareness of our worldview and reactions to obligations.
people who are different
○ Our attitude toward cultural differences Work-Related Differences in 10 Countries
○ Knowledge of different worldviews and cultural
practices
○ Cross-cultural skills

Cross-Cultural Differences and Similarities

● General Observations:
○ Cultural and national boundaries may not
coincide.
○ Behavior in organizational settings varies
across cultures. Global Perspective
○ Culture is one major cause of this variation. ● A global perspective is distinguished by:
 ○ A willingness to be open to and learn from the ○ Variations in ethical and legal business
alternative systems and meanings of other practices across countries.
people and cultures.
○ A capacity to avoid assuming that people from Figure 2.3: Managerial Ethics
everywhere are the same. ● Managers face a variety of ethical situations. In
● Given globalization trends and the multicultural most cases, these situations involve how the
nature of the U.S, workforce, managers organization treats its employees, how
increasingly need a global perspective and a employees treat the organization, and how
supportive set of skills and knowledge to be most employees and organizations treat other
effective. economic agents.

2-3: Technology and Business

Manufacturing and Service Technologies
● Technology – refers to the methods used to
create products, including both physical goods
and intangible services.
● Manufacturing – a form of business that
combines and transforms resources into tangible
outcomes that are then sold to others.
○ Once the dominant technology in the United
States.
● Service Organization – one that transforms
resources into an intangible output and creates
time or place utility for its customers.
○ Experiencing tremendous growth even as
manufacturing sector declines.
Ethical Issues in Corporate Governance
Technology and Competition ● Corporate Governance – refers to the oversight
● Maintaining a Leadership Position: technology is of a public corporation by its board of directors.
the basis of competition for some firms. ○ Proper management of the business in the
● Coping with decreasing cycle times (the time it best interests of shareholders and other
takes a firm to accomplish some recurring activity stakeholders.
or function, e.g., making deliveries, processing ○ Independence of the board from the business.
credit payments). ● Ethical Issues and Information Technology
● Information Technology and Social Media ○ Individual rights to privacy and the potential
○ Advantages: leaner and more flexible abuse of information technology by companies.
organizations, increased collaboration,
improved management processes/systems. Corporate Social Responsibility
○ Disadvantages: less personal communication, ● Corporate Social Responsibility – businesses
less “down time,” an increased sense of living and working together for the common good
communication and decision-making urgency. and valuing human dignity.
○ Can help a firm attract the best talent.
2-4: Ethics and Corporate Governance ○ Customers increasingly favor companies that
Framing Ethical Issues do the right thing.
● Ethics – a person’s beliefs regarding what is right ● To have lasting effects, social responsibility
or wrong in a given situation. efforts should be integrated into the culture of the
● Framing Ethical Issues relates to: organization.
○ Treatment of employees (hiring, firing, wages, ● The International Organization for
working conditions, respect, privacy). Standardization (ISO) has created a variety of
○ How employees treat the organization standards that help organizations gain
(conflicts of interest, secrecy, confidentiality, international acceptance of their practices and
personal internet use, unacceptable outcomes.
absenteeism).
○ Treatment of economic agents (customers, 2-5: New Employment Relationships
competitors, stockholders, suppliers, dealers, The Management of Knowledge Workers
unions). ● Some employees add value in an organization
simply because of what they know.
 ○Examples: computer scientists, physical
scientists, engineers, product designers, video Worker Mobility
game developers. ● Working remotely is not a new concept.
● Unique working arrangements and performance ● More prevalent as a result of the COVID-19
motivation requirements. pandemic.
○ Autonomous work, strong identification with ● The so-called “great resignation” began in early
professional standard, and continual updating 2021, with record numbers of American workers
of skills. quitting their jobs when workers:
○ Specifically (individually) tailored compensation ○ Realized, as a result of the pandemic, they
packages. could survive on lower wages.
■ Growth opportunities, profit sharing, less ○ Wanted flexibility not provided by their previous
bureaucracy. jobs.
○ Experienced a change in priorities and wanted
Outsourcing a better work-life balance.
● Outsourcing – the practice of hiring other firms to
do work previously performed by the organization The Changing Nature of the Psychological
itself; when this work is moved overseas, it is Contract
often called offshoring. ● Psychological Contract – a person's set of
● Advantages of Outsourcing: expectations regarding what he or she will
○ Helps firms to focus on core activities. contribute to an organization and what the
○ Lowers labor costs through exportation of organization, in return, will provide to the
work. individual.
● Disadvantages of Outsourcing: ○ Individuals contribute effort, skills, ability, time,
○ Disaffected employees: out-of-job workers are loyalty.
used to train the newly hired foreign ○ Organizations provide inducements in the form
replacements. of tangible/intangible rewards.
○ Reduction of domestic job opportunities.
Figure 2.4: The Psychological Contract
Offshoring and Contingency Workers ● Psychological contracts govern the basic
● Offshoring – outsourcing to workers in another relationship between people and organizations.
country. Individuals contribute such things as effort and
● Advantages of Offshoring include lower labor loyalty. In turn, organizations offer such
costs. inducements as pay and job security.
● Disadvantages of Offshoring:
○ Results in loss of jobs in home country
○ Controversial issue
● Contingency Worker – a person who works for an
organization on something other than a
permanent or full-time basis.
○ Includes independent contractors, on-call
workers, temporary employees (usually hired
through outside agencies), and contract and
leased employees.

IV. Individual Values, Perceptions, and Reactions

4-1: Attitudes in Organizations ○ Intention – component of an attitude that

How Attitudes Are Formed guides a person’s behavior.
● Attitudes – a person’s complexes of beliefs and
feelings about specific ideas, situations, or other Figure 4.1: Attitude Formation
people. ● Attitudes are generally formed around a
○ Formed by personal values, experiences, and sequence of cognition, affect, and behavioral
personality. intention. That is, we come to know something
● Structural Components of Attitudes that we believe to be true (cognition). This
○ Cognition – the knowledge a person presumes knowledge triggers a feeling (affect). Cognition
to have about something. and affect then together influence how we intend
○ Affect – a person’s feelings toward something to behave in the future.
 economic and/or social costs; employees stay
because they feel they have to.

Employee Engagement
● Employee Engagement – heightened emotional
and intellectual connection that an employee has
for their job, organization, manager, or coworkers
that, in turn, influences them to apply additional
Cognitive Dissonance discretionary effort to their work.
● Cognitive Dissonance – an incompatibility or ● Evidence suggests that high employee
conflict between behavior and an attitude or engagement is related to superior business
between two different attitudes. performance.
● Approaches to cope with Cognitive Dissonance: ● Engagement is enhanced when employees:
○ Change the conflicting behavior ○ Have clear goals
○ Change the conflicting attitude ○ Have the resources needed to do a good job
○ Reason that one of the conflicting attitudes or ○ Get meaningful performance feedback
behaviors is not important in this context. ○ Are able to use their talents
○ Seek additional information to better reason ○ Are recognized for doing a good job
that the benefits of one conflicting attitude or ○ Have positive relationships with coworkers
behavior outweigh the costs of the other. ○ Have opportunities to learn and grow
● Recognize that attitudes can change ○ Have supportive leadership

Figure 4.2: Influences on Job Satisfaction Top Three Worldwide Drivers of Employee
● Job satisfaction is one of the most important Attraction, Retention, and Engagement for
job-related attitudes in organizations. It reflects Different Age Groups
both our attitudes and our feelings about our job.
Job satisfaction is strongly influenced by our
personality, values, other attitudes, and the work
itself.

4-2: Values and Emotions in Organizations

Types of Values
● Value – way of behaving or end-state desirable to
a person or group.
○ Terminal Values – reflect long-term life goals
such as prosperity, happiness, a secure family,
and a sense of accomplishment.
○ Instrumental Values – preferred means of
Organizational Commitment
achieving terminal values or preferred ways of
● Organizational Commitment – reflects the degree
behaving.
to which an employee identifies with the
○ Intrinsic Work Values – relate to the work itself.
organization and its goals and wants to stay with
○ Extrinsic Work Values – relate to the outcomes
the organization.
of doing work.
○ Affective Commitment – positive emotional
attachment to the organization and strong
Conflicts among Values
identification with its values and its goals;
● Intrapersonal Value Conflict – occurs when an
employees want to stay with the organization.
individual experiences conflict between an
○ Normative Commitment – a feeling of moral or
instrumental value and a terminal value.
ethical obligation to the organization;
○ People are generally happier and less stressed
employees stay because they believe it would
when instrumental and terminal values are
be wrong to leave.
aligned.
○ Continuance Commitment – staying with the
● Interpersonal Value Conflict – occurs when two
organization because of perceived high
different people hold conflicting values.
 ○ Often the cause of personality clashes and ○ Negative Affect – consists of feelings of being
other disagreements. upset, fearful, and distressed.
● Individual-Organization Value Conflict – when an
employee’s values conflict with those of the Figure 4.4: Positive and Negative Affect
organization. ● Affect can vary anywhere along a continuum
○ Lower levels lead to greater job satisfaction, ranging from positive affect to negative affect. As
performance and commitment. illustrated here, it is also possible to fall in
between these extremes and reflect neither
How Values Differ around the World positive nor negative affect.
● Global differences in values may lead to different
managerial behaviors.
● Two major dimensions:
○ Traditional versus secular-rational values:
reflects the contrast between societies in which 4-3: Perception in Organizations
religion is very important and those in which it Basic Perceptual Processes
is not. ● Perception – the set of processes by which an
○ Survival versus self-expression values: reflects individual becomes aware of and interprets
the contrast between societies that emphasize information about the environment.
economic and physical security and those that ○ Selective Perception – the process of
emphasize subjective well-being, screening out information that we are
self-expression, and quality of life. uncomfortable with or that contradicts our
beliefs.
Figure 4.3: How Values Differ around the World ○ Stereotyping – the process of categorizing or
● Values differ around the world. One useful way to labeling people on the basis of a single
understand differences in values is in terms of attribute.
secular/rational values and ■ Certain forms can be useful and efficient.
survival/self-expression values. This figure ■ Other forms are inaccurate and can be
illustrates how different regions of the world harmful.
reflect these two sets of values.
Errors in Perception
● Categorization
○ The tendency to put things into groups and
then exaggerate the similarities within and the
differences among the groups.
● Halo Effect
○ Forming a general impression of something or
someone based on a single (usually good)
characteristic.
● Contrast Effect
○ Evaluating someone by comparing them with
recently encountered people.
● Projection
○ Seeing one’s own characteristics in others.
● First Impression Bias
The Role of Emotions in Behavior
○ The inability to let go of first impressions,
● Emotion – intense, short-term physiological,
particularly negative ones.
behavioral, and psychological reaction to a
● Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
specific object, person, or event that prepares us
○ Treating people the way we categorize them
to respond to it.
and having them react accordingly.
● Mood – short-term emotional state that is not
directed toward anything in particular.
Figure 4.5: The Attribution Process
● Affectivity – the tendency to experience a
● The attribution process involves observing
particular mood or to react to things with certain
behavior and then attributing causes to it.
emotions.
Observed behaviors are interpreted in terms of
○ Positive Affect – reflects a combination of high
their consensus, their consistency, and their
energy and positive evaluation characterized
distinctiveness. Based on these interpretations,
by emotions like elation.
 behavior is attributed to either internal or external
causes.

Perception of Fairness, Justice, and Trust

● Organizational Fairness – employees’ Common Causes of Stress
perceptions of organizational events, policies, ● Organizational Stressor – a factor in the
and practices as being fair or not fair. workplace that can cause stress.
● Distributive Fairness – perceived fairness of the ○ Task Demands – stressors associated with the
outcome received, including resources specific job a person performs.
distributions, promotions, hiring and layoff ○ Physical Demands – conditions associated
decisions, and raises. with the job’s physical setting and
● Procedural Fairness – addresses the fairness of requirements.
the procedures used to generate the outcome. ○ Role Demands – stressors associated with the
● Interactional Fairness – perceived fairness of expected behaviors of a particular position in a
interpersonal treatment and explanations group or organization.
received during the decision-making process. ○ Interpersonal Demands – stressors deriving
● Trust – expectation that another person will not from group pressures, leadership,
act to take advantage of us regardless of our interpersonal conflicts.
ability to monitor or control them. ● Life Stressor – life change or trauma

4-4: Stress in Organizations Figure 4.7: Causes and Consequences of Stress

The Nature of Stress ● The causes and consequences of stress are
● Stress – a person’s adaptive response to a related in complex ways. As shown here, most
stimulus that places excessive psychological or common causes of stress can be classified as
physical demands on that person. either organizational stressors or life stressors.
● The stress process (Selye) Similarly, common consequences include
○ General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) – individual and organizational consequences, as
identifies three stages of response to a well as burnout.
stressor: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion.
○ Sources of Stress
■ Eustress – pleasurable stress that
accompanies positive events.
■ Distress – unpleasant stress accompanies
negative events.

Figure 4.6: The General Adaptation Syndrome

● The General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)
perspective describes three stages of the stress
process. The initial stage is called alarm. As
illustrated here, a person's resistance often dips
slightly below the normal level during this stage.
Next comes actual resistance to the stressor,
usually leading to an increase above the person's
normal level of resistance. Finally, in stage 3,
exhaustion may set in, and the person's Figure 4.8: Workload, Stress, and Performance
resistance declines sharply below normal levels. ● Too much stress is clearly undesirable, but too
little stress can also lead to unexpected
problems. For example, too little stress may
result in boredom and apathy and be
accompanied by low performance. Although too
much stress can cause tension, anxiety, and low
performance, for most people there is an optimal
 level of stress that results in high energy, ● Individual Coping Strategies
motivation, and performance. ○ Exercise
○ Relaxation
○ Time management
○ Role management
○ Developing and maintaining support groups
● Organizational Coping Strategies
○ Institutional programs
■ Properly designed jobs/schedules
■ A healthy work culture
■ Workload management
○ Collateral programs
■ Stress management, health promotion,
Consequences of Stress
employee fitness programs, career
● Individual Consequences
development
○ Behavioral consequences
○ Psychological consequences
Work–Life Balance
○ Medical consequences
● Work–Life Relationship – interrelationship
● Organizational Consequences
between a person’s work life and personal life.
○ Include decline in performance, withdrawal,
● Balancing Work–Life Linkages
and negative changes in attitude.
○ Importance of long-term versus short-term
○ Burnout – a general feeling of exhaustion that
perspectives
develops when an individual simultaneously
○ Balance needs of both. wage earners in
experiences too much pressure and has too
double-income families.
few sources of satisfaction.
○ Accept that there’s a work–life integration.
Managing and Controlling Stress