Management Organisational Behaviour 2 e Chapter 4 Understanding
Management & Organisational Behaviour 2 e Chapter 4 Understanding perception, learning, and personality ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
Learning Outcomes By the end of this chapter students will be able to: • Explain what is meant by person - job fit and the psychological contract. • Illustrate the impact of perceptions and attributions on people’s behaviour in organisations. • Describe three theories of learning and how they apply to organisational settings. 1 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
Elements of Person - Job Fit: The degree of fit between a person’s abilities and motives and a job’s demands and rewards. 2 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
Elements of Person-Job fit 3 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
Psychological Contract • Workers’ implicit expectations about what they are expected to contribute to an organisation and what they will receive in return. 4 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
Psychological Contract (cont. ) • Individuals contribute such qualities as their skills, effort, time, loyalty, and commitment to an organisation. In return the organisation offers such things as pay, benefits, security, and opportunities to satisfy such motives as the need for achievement, power, status, and affiliation. 5 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
Ability versus Aptitude • Ability is the capacity to perform physical and intellectual tasks. • Aptitude is the capacity to learn an ability. 6 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
The Perceptual Process: from Stimuli to Behaviour Environmental stimuli Attention and selection Organisation Behaviour Interpretation Personal meaning & interpretation 7 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
Figure - Ground Differentiation A key element in perceptual accuracy is the ability to distinguish: figure (dominant features) from ground (surrounding, competing, stimuli). 8 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
A Figure – Ground Experiment 9 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
Perceptual Closure 10 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
Perceptual Distortions • • Selective perception Stereotype Halo effect Projection 11 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
Selective perception • The tendency to focus on attributes/situations that fit our frame of reference. 12 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
Stereotype • A rigid, biased perception of a group, object, or situation. 13 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
Halo effect • The tendency to overrate a person based on a single trait. 14 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
Projection • Attribution to others one’s own thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and traits. 15 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
Attribution – an assumed explanation of why people behave as they do • Distinctiveness – used to explain whether a person’s current behaviour fits with patterns of other behaviours. • Consistency – used to explain the degree of variance over time. • Consensus – refers to how others behave in similar situations. 16 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
Attributional Error The tendency to overestimate internal factors and underestimate external factors when making attributions about others. 17 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
Self - Serving Bias The tendency of individuals to attribute their own positive performance to internal factors and their negative performance to external factors. 18 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
Attributional Factors 19 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
The Attributional Process 20 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
How do People Learn? • Learning is the acquisition of knowledge, skill, or values through study, practice, or experience. Learning leads to relatively permanent changes in behaviour as the learner develops capabilities. 21 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
Mind map showing possible stress and possible causes 22 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
Intelligence • Intelligence includes three different aspects: 1. The ability to adapt to novel situations quickly and effectively. 2. The ability to use abstract concepts effectively. 3. The ability to grasp relationships and learn quickly. 23 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
Behavioural Conditioning • Classical conditioning – Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov, over time taught dogs to salivate at sound alone. His experiments provided the intellectual basis for an empirical approach to the study of learning. 24 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
Procedure • Dogs naturally salivate (unconditional response - R). • When they are hungry and food (unconditional stimulus - S) is present. • Pavlov presented food together with the sound of a tuning fork (conditional stimulus - S’). • Over time he taught the dogs to salivate (conditional response - R’) at the sound alone. 25 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
Conditioning through Management of Reinforcement American psychologist B. F. Skinner developed operant conditioning, which is learning in which reinforcement depends on the person’s behaviour. 26 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
Contingent consequence A contingent consequence is a reinforcer: It may be positive, negative, or neutral. The term operant simply means that the individual “operates” in his or her environment to obtain some desired consequences. 27 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
Premack Principle The pairing of disagreeable tasks with enjoyable tasks or events to hasten their completion. Example: Playing a game of tennis after completing major homework assignment. 28 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
Social Learning Theory Albert Bandura researched the social learning aspects of human development. • Social learning theory The belief that we learn many behaviors by observing and imitating others. • Anticipatory control People are capable of choosing how they will respond in various situations. 29 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
The Cognitive View: New Patterns of Thought · Cognitive learning involves selective interpretation of perceptual data organised into new patterns of thoughts and relationships. · Human beings are capable of rearranging thought patterns into new configurations, or gestalts. 30 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
Gestalt Theory · Gestalt is a German word meaning “shape, configuration, or the arrangement of relationships in a total situation. ” 31 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
Insight – the sudden discovery of the answer to a problem How did Wolfgang Kohler demonstrate the first experimental evidence on insight using a chimpanzee named Sultan? 32 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
Discrimination and Generalisation: Ways of Learning • Discrimination (Differentiation): The process by which universal or previously unstructured elements are placed into more specific structures. • Generalisation: The means through which we transfer learning from one situation to another as well as categorise information. 33 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
Kolb’s Model of Experiential learning Styles 34 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
The Function of Values • Values are stable, enduring beliefs about what is worthwhile that influence thought and behaviour. • Values are learned, beginning soon after birth. • Children in many cultures learn quickly that it is bad to disobey. 35 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
Types of Values 1. Theoretical – Values the discovery of truth. Emphasises critical / rational approach to problems. 2. Economic – Values utility / practicality. Emphasises standard of living. 3. Aesthetic – Values form/ grace / harmony. Emphasises the artistic aspects of life. 36 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
Values (cont. ) 4. Social – Values love of people / altruism. Emphasises concern for others. 5. Political – Values power / position / influence. Emphasises competition and winning. 6. Religious – Values unity and people’s relationship to the universe. Emphasises high ideals. 37 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
Personal Value System • A personal value system is a relatively permanent perceptual framework (an enduring organisation of beliefs) that shapes and influences an individual’s behaviour. • When personal values (intended) and organisational values (adopted) are congruent, these become highly pragmatic operative values. 38 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
Intended and Adopted Values • Managers carry with them a set of intended values that are socially or culturally induced and personally important. • To be successful in an organisation, managers may learn adopted values, consistent with the organisation’s culture. 39 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
The Function of Attitudes • An attitude is a predisposition or readiness to respond in a certain way to a person, object, idea, or situation. • Attitudes differ from values in that they are more specific and can be less stable and enduring. • Attitudes can change with the accumulation of new information and experience. 40 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
Theory of Cognitive Dissonance • Festinger (1957) Theory of Cognitive Dissonance has been one of the most influential theories in social psychology and has led to many studies in an attempt to gain a better understanding of what determines an individuals beliefs, how decisions are made based on such beliefs and what happens when such beliefs are questioned. 41 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
How do Personalities Differ? Personality – the set of traits and behaviours that characterise the individual. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Expressive Style Interpersonal Style Work Style Emotional Style Intellectual Style 42 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
Cognitive Style – the Way an Individual Perceives and Processes Information The Jungian Framework • Two opposite ways of gathering information – by sensing and by intuition. • Two opposite ways of evaluating information – by thinking and feeling. 43 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
Four Cognitive Styles 44 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
E- Learning The three basic characteristics of E-learning are as follows: • It involves electronic networks that allow information and instruction to be delivered, shared and updated instantly. • E-learning is delivered to the trainee via computers with internet technology. • It focuses on learning solutions that go beyond traditional training to include information and tools to improve performance. 45 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
E- Learning 46 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
Personality Traits • Locus of control – internals and externals. • Authoritarianism – believes that status and power differences are appropriate. • Dogmatism – degree of flexibility or rigidity of a person’s views. • Machiavellianism – describes the extent to which a person manipulates others for personal gain. 47 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
Traits (cont. ) • Risk propensity – a person’s willingness to take risks. • Self esteem – judgement one makes about one’s own worth. • Self-monitoring – degree to which people are sensitive to others and adapt their behaviour. 48 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
Alternative Processes for Handling Information 49 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
Summary • People enter organisations with different abilities and motives. A manager’s role is to achieve the best person-job fit possible, which means matching the individual’s abilities and motives with the job requirements and rewards. • Each individual develops a psychological contract with the organisation, which includes expectations about what each party will give and receive. • The perceptual process includes the selection, organisation and interpretation of sensory stimuli. 50 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
Summary continued 1 • Individuals often perceive differently from one another, and this makes communication in organisations more difficult. • Selective perception, stereotyping, halo effects, and projection are perceptual errors that make managing behaviour in organisations more difficult. • Attributions are individuals’ efforts to explain the reasons for behaviour. Externals look for causes outside themselves; internals look within. • A common attributional biasing error is for people to blame their own failures on external factors and credit internal factors for their successes. 51 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
Summary continued 2 • Individuals learn by responding to positive and negative reinforcers in their environment, by observing others and imitating certain behaviours, and by using their cognitive skills to observe, reason, and choose an appropriate course of action. • People develop different styles of learning. Some learn by experiencing and others learn by observing and reflecting. • Individuals also favour one side of their brains in learning either the left (linear/systematic) side or the right (holistic/relational) side. Learning is a lifelong activity, made even more important by today’s fast-changing world. 52 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
Summary continued 3 • Values and attitudes shape people’s perceptions and behaviour. Values are relatively stable and enduring, affirming what is important. • Attitudes are more specific and subject to change. They include cognitive, affective and intentional components, and represent how people feel about others, objects and situations. • Each individual develops a unique personality which is the set of traits and behaviours that characterises a person. Managers who are sensitive to these differences are better able to understand predict their employees’ behaviours. 53 ©The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, 2005
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