Personality and Values

Personality

What Is personality?

When we speak of someone’s personality, we use many adjectives to describe how they act and seem to think; in fact, participants in a recent study used 624 distinct adjectives to describe people they knew. As organizational behaviorists, however, we organize personality characteristics by overall traits, describing the growth and development of a person’s personality.

Defining personality For our purposes, think of personality as the sum of ways in which an individual reacts to and interacts with others. We most often describe personality in terms of the measurable traits a person exhibits.

Measuring Personality

The most important reason managers need to know how to measure personality is that research has shown personality tests are useful in hiring decisions and help managers forecast who is best for a job. The most common means of measuring personality is through self-report surveys, with which individuals evaluate themselves on a series of factors, such as “I worry a lot about the future.”
Observer-ratings surveys provide an independent assessment of personality. Here, a co-worker or another observer does the rating (sometimes with the subject’s knowledge and sometimes not). Though the results of self- report surveys and observer-ratings surveys are strongly correlated, research suggests observer-ratings surveys are a better predictor of success on the job.

Personality Determinants

Heredity refers to factors determined at conception. Physical stature, facial attractiveness, gender, temperament, muscle composition and reflexes, energy level, and biological rhythms are generally considered to be either completely or substantially influenced by who your parents are—that is, by their biological, physiological, and inherent psychological makeup. The heredity approach argues that the ultimate explanation of an individual’s personality is the molecular structure of the genes, located in the chromosomes.

Early work on the structure of personality tried to identify and label enduring characteristics that describe an individual’s behavior, including shy, aggressive, submissive, lazy, ambitious, loyal, and timid. When someone exhibits these characteristics in a large number of situations, we call them personality traits of that person. The more consistent the characteristic over time, and the more frequently it occurs in diverse situations, the more important that trait is in describing the individual.

Personality Frameworks

The most widely used and best known personality frameworks are the Myers- Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and the Big Five Personality Model. Both describe a person’s total personality through exploration of the facets of personality. Other frameworks, such as the Dark Triad, explain certain aspects, but not the total, of an individual’s personality. We discuss each below, but let’s begin with the dominant frameworks.

The Myers-Briggs type Indicator

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is the most widely used personality assessment instrument in the world.12 It is a 100-question personality test that asks people how they usually feel or act in situations. Respondents are classified as extraverted or introverted (E or I), sensing or intuitive (S or N), thinking or feeling (T or F), and judging or perceiving (J or P):

• Extraverted (E) versus Introverted (I). Extraverted individuals are outgoing, sociable, and assertive. Introverts are quiet and shy.

• Sensing (S) versus Intuitive (N). Sensing types are practical and prefer routine and order, and they focus on details. Intuitives rely on unconscious processes and look at the “big picture.”

• Thinking (T) versus Feeling (F). Thinking types use reason and logic to handle problems. Feeling types rely on their personal values and emotions.

• Judging (J) versus Perceiving (P). Judging types want control and prefer order and structure. Perceiving types are flexible and spontaneous.

The Big five personality Model

• Conscientiousness The conscientiousness dimension is a measure of reliability. A highly conscientious person is responsible, organized, dependable, and persistent. Those who score low on this dimension are easily distracted, disorganized, and unreliable.

• Emotional stability The emotional stability dimension taps a person’s ability to withstand stress. People with emotional stability tend to be calm, self-confident, and secure. High scorers are more likely to be positive and optimistic and experience fewer negative emotions; they are generally happier than low scorers. Emotional stability is sometimes discussed as its converse, neuroticism. Low scorers (those with high neuroticism) are hypervigilant and vulnerable to the physical and psychological effects of stress. Those with high neuroticism tend to be nervous, anxious, depressed, and insecure.

• Extraversion The extraversion dimension captures our comfort level with relationships. Extraverts tend to be gregarious, assertive, and sociable. They are generally happier and are often ambitious. They experience more positive emotions than do introverts, and they more freely express these feelings. On the other hand, introverts (low extraversion) tend to be more thoughtful, reserved, timid, and quiet.

• Openness to experience The openness to experience dimension addresses the range of interests and fascination with novelty. Open people are creative, curious, and artistically sensitive. Those at the low end of the category are conventional and find comfort in the familiar.

• Agreeableness The agreeableness dimension refers to an individual’s propensity to defer to others. Agreeable people are cooperative, warm and trusting. You might expect agreeable people to be happier than disagreeable people. They are, but only slightly. When people choose organizational team members, agreeable individuals are usually their first choice. In contrast, people who score low on agreeableness are cold and antagonistic.

The Dark triad

With the exception of neuroticism, the Big Five traits are what we call socially desirable, meaning we would be glad to score high on them. Researchers have found three other socially undesirable traits, which we all have in varying degrees, are also relevant to organizational behavior: Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy. Owing to their negative nature, researchers have labeled these the

Dark Triad—though they do not always occur together.

• Dark Triad a constellation of negative personality traits consisting of machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy.

• Machiavellianism The degree to which an individual is pragmatic, maintains emotional distance, and believes that ends can justify means.

• Narcissism The tendency to be arrogant, have a grandiose sense of self-importance, require excessive admiration, and have a sense of entitlement.

• Psychopathy The tendency for a lack of concern for others and a lack of guilt or remorse when actions cause harm.

Other Personality Attributes Relevant to OB

• Core self-evaluation (CSE) Bottom-line conclusions individuals have about their capabilities, competence, and worth as a person.

• Self-monitoring a personality trait that measures an individual’s ability to adjust his or her behavior to external, situational factors.

• Proactive personality People who identify opportunities, show initiative, take action, and persevere until meaningful change occurs.

Personality and Situations

Situation Strength theory

Situation strength theory proposes that the way personality translates into behavior depends on the strength of the situation. By situation strength, we mean the degree to which norms, cues, or standards dictate appropriate behavior. Strong situations show us what the right behavior is, pressure us to exhibit it, and discourage the wrong behavior. In weak situations, conversely, “anything goes,” and thus we are freer to express our personality in behavior. Thus, personality traits better predict behavior in weak situations than in strong ones.

Researchers have analyzed situation strength in organizations in terms of
four elements:

1. Clarity, or the degree to which cues about work duties and responsibilities are available and clear. 

2. Consistency, or the extent to which cues regarding work duties and responsibilities are compatible with one another. 

3. Constraints, or the extent to which individuals’ freedom to decide or act is limited by forces outside their control. 

4. Consequences, or the degree to which decisions or actions have important implications for the organization or its members, clients, supplies, and so on. 

Trait Activation Theory

Another important theoretical framework toward understanding personality and situations is trait activation theory (TAT). TAT predicts that some situations, events, or interventions “activate” a trait more than others. Using TAT, we can foresee which jobs suit certain personalities. For example, a commission-based compensation plan would likely activate individual differences because extraverts are more reward-sensitive, than, say, open people. Conversely, in jobs that encourage creativity, differences in openness may better predict desired behavior than differences in extraversion. See Exhibit 5-3 for specific examples.

Values

Is capital punishment right or wrong? Is a desire for power good or bad? The answers to these questions are value-laden.

Values represent basic convictions that “a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state of existence.”85 Values contain a judgmental element because they carry an individual’s ideas about what is right, good, or desirable. They have both content and intensity attributes. The content attribute says a mode of conduct or end-state of existence is important. The intensity attribute specifies how important it is. When we rank values in terms of intensity, we obtain that person’s value system. We all have a hierarchy of values according to the relative importance we assign to values such as freedom, pleasure, self-respect, honesty, obedience, and equality.

The Importance and Organization of Values

Values lay the foundation for understanding attitudes and motivation, and they influence our perceptions. We enter an organization with preconceived notions of what “ought” and “ought not” to be. These notions contain our interpretations of right and wrong and our preferences for certain behaviors or outcomes. Regardless of whether they clarify or bias our judgment, our values influence our attitudes and behaviors at work. 

While values can sometimes augment decision making, at times they can cloud objectivity and rationality.88 Suppose you enter an organization with the view that allocating pay on the basis of performance is right, while allocating pay on the basis of seniority is wrong. How will you react if you find the organization you’ve just joined rewards seniority and not performance? You’re likely to be disappointed—this can lead to job dissatisfaction and a decision not to exert a high level of effort because “It’s probably not going to lead to more money anyway.” Would your attitudes and behavior be different if your values aligned with the organization’s pay policies? Most likely.

Terminal versus Instrumental Values

How can we organize values? One researcher—Milton Rokeach—argued that we can separate them into two categories. One set, called terminal values, refers to desirable end-states. These are the goals a person would like to achieve during a lifetime. The other set, called instrumental values, refers to preferable modes of behavior, or means of achieving the terminal values. Some examples of terminal values are prosperity and economic success, freedom, health and well-being, world peace, and meaning in life. Examples of instrumental values are autonomy and self-reliance, personal discipline, kindness, and goal-orientation. Each of us places value on both the ends (terminal values) and the means (instrumental values). A balance between the two is important, as well as an understanding of how to strike this balance.

Generational Values

Researchers have integrated several analyses of work values into groups that attempt to capture the shared views of different cohorts or generations in the U.S. workforce.89 You will surely be familiar with the labels, some of which are used internationally. It is important to remember that while categories are helpful, they represent trends … not the beliefs of individuals.

Exhibit 5-4 segments employees by the era during which they entered the workforce. Because most people start work between the ages of 18 and 23, the eras also correlate closely with employee age.

Linking an Individual’s Personality and Values to the Workplace

Personality–job fit theory a theory

that identifies six personality types and proposes that the fit between personality type and occupational environment determines satisfaction and turnover.

Person–organization fit a theory 

that people are attracted to and selected by organizations that match their values, and leave when there is not compatibility.

Other Dimensions of fit

Although person–job fit and person–organization fit are considered the most salient dimensions for workplace outcomes, other avenues of fit are worth examining. These include person–group fit and person–supervisor fit. Person–group fit is important in team settings, where the dynamics of team interactions significantly affect work outcomes. Person–supervisor fit has become an important area of research since poor fit in this dimension can lead to lower job satisfaction and reduced performance.

Cultural Values

Hofstede’s framework

One of the most widely referenced approaches for analyzing variations among cultures was done in the late 1970s by Geert Hofstede.99 Hofstede surveyed more than 116,000 IBM employees in 40 countries about their work-related values and found managers and employees varied on five value dimensions of national culture:

• Power distance Power distance describes the degree to which people in a country accept that power in institutions and organizations is distributed unequally. A high rating on power distance means large inequalities of power and wealth exist and are tolerated in the culture, as in a class or caste system that discourages upward mobility. A low power distance rating characterizes societies that stress equality and opportunity.

• Individualism versus collectivism Individualism is the degree to which people prefer to act as individuals rather than as members of groups and believe in an individual’s rights above all else. Collectivism emphasizes a tight social framework in which people expect others in groups of which they are a part to look after them and protect them.

• Masculinity versus femininity Hofstede’s construct of masculinity is the degree to which the culture favors traditional masculine roles such as achievement, power, and control, as opposed to viewing men and women as equals. A high masculinity rating indicates the culture has separate roles for men and women, with men dominating the society. A high femininity rating means the culture sees little differentiation between male and female roles and treats women as the equals of men in all respects.

• Uncertainty avoidance The degree to which people in a country prefer structured over unstructured situations defines their uncertainty avoidance. In cultures scoring high on uncertainty avoidance, people have increased anxiety about uncertainty and ambiguity and use laws and controls to reduce uncertainty. People in cultures low on uncertainty avoidance are more accepting of ambiguity, are less rule oriented, take more risks, and more readily accept change.

• Long-term versus short-term orientation This typology measures a society’s devotion to traditional values. People in a culture with long-term orientation look to the future and value thrift, persistence, and tradition. In a short-term orientation, people value the here and now; they also accept change more readily and don’t see commitments as impediments to change.

The GloBe framework

Begun in 1993, the Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) research program is an ongoing cross-cultural investigation of leadership and national culture. Using data from 825 organizations in 62 countries, the GLOBE team identified nine dimensions on which national cultures differ.101 Some dimensions—such as power distance, individualism/ collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, gender differentiation (similar to masculinity versus femininity), and future orientation (similar to long-term versus short-term orientation)—resemble the Hofstede dimensions. The main difference is that the GLOBE framework added dimensions, such as humane orientation (the degree to which a society rewards individuals for being altruistic, generous, and kind to others) and performance orientation (the degree to which a society encourages and rewards group members for performance improvement and excellence).

Comparison of Hofstede’s framework and the GloBe framework

Which framework is better, Hofstede’s or the GLOBE? That’s hard to say, and each has its supporters. We give more emphasis to Hofstede’s dimensions here because they have stood the test of time and the GLOBE study confirmed them. For example, a review of the organizational commitment literature shows both the Hofstede and GLOBE individualism/collectivism dimensions operated similarly. Specifically, both frameworks showed organizational commitment tends to be lower in individualistic countries.102 Both frameworks have a great deal in common, and each has something to offer.

Source- Stephen P. Robbins, T. A. (2017). Organizational Behavior. Pearson Education Limited.

Emotions and Moods

What Are Emotions and Moods?

In our analysis, we’ll need three terms that are closely intertwined affect, emotions, and moods. Affect is a generic term that covers a broad range of feelings, including both emotions and moods. Emotions are intense feelings directed at someone or something. Moods are less intense feelings than emotions and often arise without a specific event acting as a stimulus. Exhibit 4-1 shows the relationships among affect, emotions, and moods. First, as the exhibit shows, affect is a broad term that encompasses emotions and moods. Second, there are differences between emotions and moods. Emotions are more likely to be caused by a specific event and are more fleeting than moods. Also, some researchers speculate that emotions may be more actionoriented— they may lead us to some immediate action—while moods may be more cognitive, meaning they may cause us to think or brood for a while. Affect, emotions, and moods are separable in theory; in practice the distinction isn’t always defined. When we review the OB topics on emotions and moods, you may see more information about emotions in one area and moods in another. This is simply the state of the research. Let’s start with a review of the basic emotions.

The Basic Emotions

How many emotions are there? There are dozens, including anger, contempt, enthusiasm, envy, fear, frustration, disappointment, embarrassment, disgust, happiness, hate, hope, jealousy, joy, love, pride, surprise, and sadness. Numerous researchers have tried to limit them to a fundamental set.

Moral Emotions

We may tend to think our internal emotions are innate. For instance, if someone jumped out at you from behind a door, wouldn’t you feel surprised? Maybe you would, but you may also feel any of the other five universal emotions— anger, fear, sadness, happiness, or disgust—depending on the circumstance. Our experiences of emotions are closely tied to our interpretations of events. Researchers have been studying what are called moral emotions; that is, emotions that have moral implications because of our instant judgment of the situation that evokes them. Examples of moral emotions include sympathy for the suffering of others, guilt about our own immoral behavior, anger about injustice done to others, and contempt for those who behave unethically.

The Basic moods: Positive and negative affect

As a first step toward studying the effect of moods and emotions in the workplace, we will classify emotions into two categories: positive and negative. Positive emotions—such as joy and gratitude—express a favorable evaluation or feeling. Negative emotions—such as anger and guilt—express the opposite. Keep in mind that emotions can’t be neutral. Being neutral is being non emotional.

Experiencing Moods and Emotions

As if it weren’t complex enough to consider the many distinct emotions and moods a person might identify, the reality is that we all experience moods and emotions differently. For most people, positive moods are somewhat more common than negative moods. Indeed, research finds a positivity offset, meaning that at zero input (when nothing in particular is going on), most individuals experience a mildly positive mood. This appears to be true for employees in a wide range of job settings. For example, one study of customer-service representatives in a British call center revealed that people reported experiencing positive moods 58 percent of the time despite the stressful environment. Another research finding is that negative emotions lead to negative moods. Perhaps this happens because people think about events that created strong negative emotions five times as long as they do about events that created strong positive ones.

The function of Emotions

In some ways, emotions are a mystery. What function do they serve? As we discussed, organizational behaviorists have been finding that emotions can be critical to an effectively functioning workplace. For example, happy employees demonstrate higher performance and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), fewer CWBs, and less turnover, particularly when they feel supported by their organizations in their effort to do well in their jobs. Gratefulness and awe have been shown to positively predict OCB, which in turn increases trust and emotional expressions of concern. Let’s discuss two critical areas— rationality and ethicality—in which emotions can enhance performance.

Do emotions make us irrational? 

How often have you heard someone say, “Oh, you’re just being emotional”? You might have been offended. Observations like this suggest that rationality and emotion are in conflict, and by exhibiting emotion, you are acting irrationally. The perceived association between the two is so strong that some researchers argue displaying emotions such as sadness to the point of crying is so toxic to a career that we should leave the room rather than allow others to witness it. This perspective suggests the demonstration or even experience of emotions can make us seem weak, brittle, or irrational. However, this is wrong. Our emotions actually make our thinking more rational. Why? Because our emotions provide important information about how we understand the world around us and they help guide our behaviors. For instance, individuals in a negative mood may be better able to discern truthful from accurate information than are people in a happy mood.

Do emotions make us ethical? 

A growing body of research has begun to examine the relationship between emotions and moral attitudes. It was previously believed that, like decision making in general, most ethical decision making was based on higher-order cognitive processes, but the research on moral emotions increasingly questions this perspective. Numerous studies suggest that moral judgments are largely based on feelings rather than on cognition, even though we tend to see our moral boundaries as logical and reasonable, not as emotional.

Sources of Emotions and Moods

• Personality
• Time of Day
• Day of the Week
• Weather
• Stress
• Social activities
• Sleep
• Exercise
• Age
• Sex

Emotional Labor

If you’ve ever had a job in retail, sales, or waited on tables in a restaurant, you know the importance of projecting a friendly demeanor and smiling. Even though there were days when you didn’t feel cheerful, you knew management expected you to be upbeat when dealing with customers, so you faked it. Every employee expends physical and mental labor by putting body and mind, respectively, into the job. But jobs also require emotional labor, an employee’s expression of organizationally desired emotions during interpersonal transactions at work. Emotional labor is a key component of effective job performance. We expect flight attendants to be cheerful, funeral directors to be sad, and doctors emotionally neutral. At the least, your managers expect you to be courteous, not hostile, in your interactions with coworkers. 

The way we experience an emotion is obviously not always the same as the way we show it. To analyze emotional labor, we divide emotions into felt or displayed emotions. Felt emotions are our actual emotions. In contrast, displayed emotions are those the organization requires workers to show and considers appropriate in a given job.

 

Surface acting is hiding inner feelings and emotional expressions in response to display rules. A worker who smiles at a customer even when he doesn’t feel like it is surface acting. Deep acting is trying to modify our true inner feelings based on display rules. Surface acting deals with displayed emotions, and deep acting deals with felt emotions.

When employees have to project one emotion while feeling another, this disparity is called emotional dissonance. Bottled-up feelings of frustration, anger, and resentment can lead to emotional exhaustion. Long-term emotional dissonance is a predictor for job burnout, declines in job performance, and lower
job satisfaction. 

It is important to counteract the effects of emotional labor and emotional dissonance. Research in the Netherlands and Belgium indicated that while surface acting is stressful to employees, mindfulness—objectively and deliberately evaluating our emotional situation in the moment—was negatively correlated with emotional exhaustion and positively affected job satisfaction.

Affective Events Theory

We’ve seen that emotions and moods are an important part of our personal and work lives. But how do they influence our job performance and satisfaction? Affective events theory (AET) proposes that employees react emotionally to things that happen to them at work, and this reaction influences their job performance and satisfaction. Say you just found out your company is downsizing. You might experience a variety of negative emotions, causing you to worry that you’ll lose your job. Because it is out of your hands, you feel insecure and fearful, and spend much of your time worrying rather than working. Needless to say, your job satisfaction will also be down.

Work events trigger positive or negative emotional reactions, to which employees’ personalities and moods predispose them to respond with greater or lesser intensity. People who score low on emotional stability are more likely to react strongly to negative events, and our emotional response to a given event can change depending on mood. Finally, emotions influence a number of performance and satisfaction variables, such as OCB, organizational commitment, level of effort, intention to quit, and workplace deviance.

Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence (EI) is a person’s ability to (1) perceive emotions in the self and others, (2) understand the meaning of these emotions, and (3) regulate his or her own emotions accordingly, as shown in Exhibit 4-5. People who know their own emotions and are good at reading emotional cues—

for instance, knowing why they’re angry and how to express themselves without violating norms—are most likely to be effective.

Emotion Regulation

• Emotion regulation influences and outcomes

• Emotion regulation Techniques

• Ethics of emotion regulation

OB Applications of Emotions and Moods

• Selection

• Decision making

• Creativity

• Motivation

• Leadership

• Negotiation

• Customer service

• Job attitudes

• Deviant Workplace Behaviors

• Safety and injury at Work

Source- Stephen P. Robbins, T. A. (2017). Organizational Behavior. Pearson Education Limited.

Attitudes and Job Satisfaction

Attitudes 

Attitudes are evaluative statements—either favorable or unfavorable—about objects, people, or events. They reflect how we feel about something. When you say “I like my job,” you are expressing your attitude about your work.

The components of an attitude

The statement “My pay is low” is a cognitive component of an attitude—a description of or belief in the way things are. It sets the stage for the more critical part of an attitude—its affective component. Affect is the emotional or feeling segment of an attitude reflected in the statement, “I am angry over how little I’m paid.” Affect can lead to behavioral outcomes. The behavioral component of an attitude describes an intention to behave a certain way toward someone or something—as in, “I’m going to look for another job that pays better.”

Attitudes and Behavior

Early research on attitudes assumed they were causally related to behavior—that is, the attitudes people hold determine what they do. However, one researcher— Leon Festinger—argued that attitudes follow behavior. Other researchers have agreed that attitudes predict future behavior. 

Did you ever notice how people change what they say so it doesn’t contradict what they do? Perhaps a friend of yours consistently argued that her apartment complex was better than yours until another friend in your complex asked her to move in with him; once she moved to your complex, you noticed her attitude toward her former apartment became more critical. Cases of attitude following behavior illustrate the effects of cognitive dissonance, contradictions individuals might perceive between their attitudes and their behavior.

People seek consistency among their attitudes, and between their attitudes and their behavior. Any form of inconsistency is uncomfortable, and individuals will therefore attempt to reduce it. People seek a stable state, which is a minimum of dissonance. When there is a dissonance, people will alter either the attitudes or the behavior, or they will develop a rationalization for the discrepancy.

Recent research found, for instance, that the attitudes of employees who had emotionally challenging work events improved after they talked about their experiences with coworkers. Social sharing helped these workers adjust their attitudes to behavioral expectations.

No individual can avoid dissonance. You know texting while walking is unsafe, but you do it anyway and hope nothing bad happens. Or you give someone advice you have trouble following yourself. The desire to reduce dissonance depends on three factors, including the importance of the elements creating dissonance and the degree of influence we believe we have over the elements. The third factor is the rewards of dissonance; high rewards accompanying high dissonance tend to reduce tension inherent in the dissonance (dissonance is less distressing if accompanied by something good, such as a higher pay raise than expected). Individuals are more motivated to reduce dissonance when the attitudes are important or when they believe the dissonance is due to something they can control.

Job Attitudes

We have thousands of attitudes, but OB focuses on a very limited number that form positive or negative evaluations employees hold about their work environments. Much of the research has looked at three attitudes: job satisfaction, job involvement, and organizational commitment. Other important attitudes include perceived organizational support and employee engagement.

Job satisfaction and Job involvement

When people speak of employee attitudes, they usually mean job satisfaction, a positive feeling about a job resulting from an evaluation of its characteristics. A person with high job satisfaction holds positive feelings about the work, while a person with low satisfaction holds negative feelings. Because OB researchers give job satisfaction high importance.

Related to job satisfaction is job involvement, the degree to which people identify psychologically with their jobs and consider their perceived performance levels important to their self-worth. Employees with high job involvement strongly identify with and really care about the kind of work they do. Another closely related concept is psychological empowerment, or employees’ beliefs in: the degree to which they influence their work environment, their competencies, the meaningfulness of their job, and their perceived autonomy.

Organizational Commitment

The degree to which an employee identifies with a particular organization and its goals and wishes to maintain membership in the organization.

Perceived organizational support

The degree to which employees believe an organization values their contribution and cares about their well-being. 

People perceive their organizations as supportive when rewards are deemed fair, when employees have a voice in decisions, and when they see their supervisors as supportive. POS is a predictor, but there are some cultural influences. POS is important in countries where the power distance, the degree to which people in a country accept that power in institutions and organizations is distributed unequally, is lower. In low power-distance countries like the United States, people are more likely to view work as an exchange than as a moral obligation, so employees look for reasons to feel supported by their organizations. In high power-distance countries like China, employee POS perceptions are not as deeply based on demonstrations of fairness, support, and encouragement.

Employee Engagement 

Employee engagement is an individual’s involvement with, satisfaction with, and enthusiasm for the work he or she does. To evaluate engagement, we might ask employees whether they have access to resources and opportunities to learn new skills, whether they feel their work is important and meaningful, and whether interactions with coworkers and supervisors are rewarding. Highly engaged employees have a passion for their work and feel a deep connection to their companies; disengaged employees have essentially checked out, putting time but not energy or attention into their work.

Job Satisfaction

We have already discussed job satisfaction briefly. Now let’s dissect the concept more carefully. How do we measure job satisfaction? What causes an employee to have a high level of job satisfaction? How do satisfied employees affect an organization?

Measuring Job Satisfaction

Two approaches are popular. The single global rating is a response to one question, such as “All things considered, how satisfied are you with your job?” Respondents circle a number between 1 and 5 on a scale from “highly satisfied” to “highly dissatisfied.” The second method, the summation of job facets, is more sophisticated. It identifies key elements in a job such as the type of work, skills needed, supervision, present pay, promotion opportunities, culture, and relationships with coworkers. Respondents rate these on a standardized scale, and researchers add the ratings to create an overall job satisfaction score.

How satisfied are People in their jobs?

Are most people satisfied with their jobs? You may want to consider the OB Poll before you answer. Job satisfaction levels can remain quite consistent over time.

What Causes Job Satisfaction?

Job conditions

Generally, interesting jobs that provide training, variety, independence, and control satisfy most employees. Interdependence, feedback, social support, and interaction with coworkers outside the workplace are also strongly related to job satisfaction, even after accounting for characteristics of the work itself.Thus, job conditions—especially the intrinsic nature of the work itself, social interactions, and supervision—are important predictors of job satisfaction. Although each is important, and although their relative value will vary across employees, the intrinsic nature of the work is most important.

Personality

As important as job conditions are to job satisfaction, personality also plays an important role. People who have positive core self-evaluations (CSEs)—who believe in their inner worth and basic competence—are more satisfied with their jobs than people with negative CSEs. Additionally, in the context of career commitment, CSE influences job satisfaction as people with high levels of both CSE and career commitment may realize particularly high job satisfaction.

Pay

You’ve probably noticed that pay comes up often when people discuss job satisfaction. Pay does correlate with job satisfaction and overall happiness for many people, but the effect can be smaller once an individual reaches a standard level of comfortable living. Money does motivate people. But what motivates us is not necessarily the same as what makes us happy.

Corporate Social Responsibility (csr)

Would you be as happy to work for an organization with a stated social welfare mission as one without? An organization’s commitment to corporate social responsibility (CSR), or its self-regulated actions to benefit society or the environment beyond what is required by law, increasingly affects employee job satisfaction. Organizations practice CSR in a number of ways, including environmental
sustainability initiatives, nonprofit work, and charitable giving.

Outcomes of Job Satisfaction

• Job Performance

• Organizational citizenship behavior (ocb)

• Customer satisfaction

• Life satisfaction

The Impact of Job Dissatisfaction

What happens when employees dislike their jobs? One theoretical model—the exit–voice–loyalty–neglect framework—is helpful for understanding the consequences of dissatisfaction. Exhibit 3-6 illustrates employees’ four responses to job dissatisfaction, which differ along two dimensions: constructive/destructive and active/passive. The responses are as follows:

• Exit The exit response directs behavior toward leaving the organization, including looking for a new position or resigning. To measure the effects of this response to dissatisfaction, researchers study individual terminations and collective turnover, the total loss to the organization of employee knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics.

• Voice The voice response includes actively and constructively attempting to improve conditions, including suggesting improvements, discussing problems with superiors, and undertaking union activity.

• Loyalty The loyalty response means passively but optimistically waiting for conditions to improve, including speaking up for the organization in the face of external criticism and trusting the organization and its management to “do the right thing.”

• Neglect. The neglect response passively allows conditions to worsen and includes chronic absenteeism or lateness, reduced effort, and an increased error rate.

Counterproductive Work behavior (cWb)

Substance abuse, stealing at work, undue socializing, gossiping, absenteeism, and tardiness are examples of behaviors that are destructive to organizations. They are indicators of a broader syndrome called counterproductive work behavior (CWB), also termed deviant behavior in the workplace, or simply employee withdrawal. Like other behaviors we have discussed, CWB doesn’t just happen—the behaviors often follow negative and sometimes longstanding attitudes. Therefore, if we can identify the predictors of CWB, we may lessen the probability of its effects.

Source- Stephen P. Robbins, T. A. (2017). Organizational Behavior. Pearson Education Limited.

Diversity in Organizations                                 

Diversity

We are, each of us, unique. This is obvious enough, but managers sometimes forget they need to recognize and capitalize on individual differences to get the most from their employees. In this chapter, we’ll learn how individual characteristics like age, gender, race, ethnicity, and abilities can influence employee performance. We’ll also see how managers can develop awareness about these characteristics and manage a diverse workforce effectively. But first, let’s take an overview perspective of the changing workforce.

Demographic Characteristics

Levels of Diversity 

• Surface-level diversity 

Differences in easily perceived characteristics, such as gender, race, ethnicity, age, or disability, that do not necessarily reflect the ways people think or feel but that may activate certain stereotypes.

• Deep-level diversity 

Differences in values, personality, and work preferences that become progressively more important for determining similarity as people get to know one another better.

To understand the difference between surface- and deep-level diversity, consider an example. Luis and Carol are managers who seem to have little in common. Luis is a young, recently hired male from a Spanish-speaking neighborhood in Miami with a business degree. Carol is an older woman from rural Kansas who started as a customer service trainee after high school and worked her way up the hierarchy. At first, these coworkers may notice their surface-level differences in education, ethnicity, regional background, and gender. However, as they get to know one another, they may find they are both deeply committed to their families, share a common way of thinking about important work problems, like to work collaboratively, and are interested in international assignments. These deep-level similarities can overshadow the more superficial differences between them, and research suggests they will work well together.

Discrimination

Noting of a difference between things; often we refer to unfair discrimination, which means making judgments about individuals based on stereotypes regarding their demographic group.

Stereotyping 

Judging someone on the basis of our perception of the group to which that person belongs. belongs. To use a machine metaphor, you might think of stereotypes as the fuel that powers the discrimination engine. Stereotypes can be insidious not only because they may affect the perpetrators of discrimination, but also because they can affect how potential targets of discrimination see themselves.

Stereotype threat

The degree to which we internally agree with the generally negative stereotyped perceptions of our groups. Along with that comes a fear of being judged when we are identified with the negative connotations of that group. This can happen when we are a minority in a situation. For instance, an older worker applying for a job in a predominately Millennial-age workforce may assume the interviewer thinks he is out of touch with current trends. What creates a stereotype threat is not whether the worker is or is not up to date with trends, but whether he internally agrees that older workers (the group he identifies with) are out of date (the stereotype).

Discrimination in the Workplace

To review, rather than looking at individual characteristics, unfair discrimination assumes everyone in a group is the same. This discrimination is often very harmful for employees, as we’ve just discussed, and for organizations.

Biographical Characteristics

Personal characteristics—such as age, gender, race, and length of tenure—that are objective and easily obtained from personnel records. These characteristics are representative of surface level diversity

Other Differentiating Characteristics

• Tenure
• Religion
• Sexual orientation and gender identity
• Cultural identity

Ability

Contrary to what we were taught in grade school, we weren’t all created equal in our abilities. For example, regardless of how motivated you are, you may not be able to act as well as Jennifer Lawrence, play basketball as well as LeBron James, or write as well as Stephen King. Of course, all of us have strengths and weaknesses that make us relatively superior or inferior to others in performing certain tasks or activities. From management’s standpoint, the challenge is to understand the differences to increase the likelihood that a given employee will perform the job well.An individual’s capacity to perform the various tasks in a job.

Intellectual Abilities 

The capacity to do mental activities—thinking, reasoning, and problem solving. Most societies place a high value on intelligence, and for good reason. Smart people generally earn more money and attain higher levels of education. They are also more likely to emerge as leaders of groups. However, assessing and measuring intellectual ability are not always simple. People aren’t consistently capable of correctly assessing their own cognitive ability.

General Mental Ability (GMa) 

An overall factor of intelligence, as suggested by the positive correlations among specific intellectual ability dimensions. Intelligence dimensions are positively correlated, so if you score high on verbal comprehension, for example, you’re more likely to also score high on spatial visualization. The correlations aren’t perfect, meaning people do have specific abilities that predict important work-related outcomes when considered individually. However, they are high enough that researchers also recognize a general factor of intelligence, general mental ability (GMA).

Physical Abilities 

The capacity to do tasks that demand stamina, dexterity, strength, and similar characteristics. Research on hundreds of jobs has identified nine basic abilities needed in the performance of physical tasks.94 These are described in Exhibit 2-3. High employee performance is likely to be achieved when the extent to which a job requires each of the nine abilities matches the abilities of employees in that job.

Diversity Management 

The process and programs by which managers make everyone more aware of and sensitive to the needs and differences of others. Having discussed a variety of ways in which people differ, we now look at how a manager can and should manage these differences. Diversity management makes everyone more aware of and sensitive to the needs and differences of others. This definition highlights the fact that diversity programs include and are meant for everyone. Diversity is much more likely to be successful when we see it as everyone’s business than when we believe it helps only certain groups of employees.

Source- Stephen P. Robbins, T. A. (2017). Organizational Behavior. Pearson Education Limited.

https://www.slideshare.net/amrindersingh170/diversity-in-organizations-chapter2-organizational-behavior

Organisational Behaviour

Check out the remaining topics of Organisational Behavior, which is in PPT form and i am sharing my clipboard with you. Please visit and have a look. 
https://www.slideshare.net/amrindersingh170/clipboards/dr-amrinder-singh

Communication

https://www.slideshare.net/amrindersingh170/communication-chapter-11-organizational-behavior

Understanding Work Teams

Go Through this Topic it will help you to understand work teams.

https://www.slideshare.net/amrindersingh170/understanding-work-teams-chapter10-organizational-behavior

Women Who Made Us Proud

Women Who Made US Proud,  List of some exceptional women of India who inspire millions of others.

Baje SarGam Har Taraf Se (90'' Best National Song)

Check Out Baje SarGam Har Taraf Se

"Mile Sur Mera Tumara" Relive 90" best national song

"Ek sur" (One Tune) (languages of India), or "Mile Sur Mera Tumhara" as it is better known, is an Indian song and accompanying video promoting national integration and unity in diversity.

The concept for Mile Sur was developed in 1988 by Lok Seva Sanchar Parishad and promoted by Doordarshan (then India's sole TV broadcaster) and India's Ministry of Information. The song was composed by Ashok Patki and arranged by Louis Banks, with lyrics by Piyush Pandey (then an Account Manager and presently the Executive Chairman and Creative Head of Ogilvy and Mather, India). The project was conceived by Suresh Mallik and Kailash Surendranath and directed by Kailash Surendranath and recorded by people from all walks of life, including a supergroup of Indian celebrities—musicians, sports persons, movie stars, etc.

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Creative Advertisement, Look at some of the creative ads used by the companies to influence the consumers.

What is Organizational Behavior & Challenges and Opportunities

What Is Organizational Behavior? 

• A field of study that investigates the impact individuals, groups, and structure have on behavior within organizations, for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organization’s effectiveness.

Management and Organizational Behavior

• Manager- An individual who achieves goals through other people.

• Organization- A consciously coordinated social unit, composed of two or more people, that functions on a relatively continuous basis to achieve a common goal or set of goals.

• Planning- A process that includes defining goals, establishing strategy, and developing plans to coordinate activities. 

• Organizing- Determining what tasks are to be done, who is to do them, how the tasks are to be grouped, who reports to whom, and where decisions are to be made.

• Leading- A function that includes motivating employees, directing others, selecting the most effective communication channels, and resolving conflicts.

• Controlling- Monitoring activities to ensure they are being accomplished as planned and correcting any significant deviations.

Management skills

• Technical skills-The ability to apply specialized knowledge or expertise.
• Human skills-The ability to work with, understand, and motivate other people, both individually and in groups. 
• Conceptual skills-The mental ability to analyze and diagnose complex situations.

Effective versus successful managerial activities

• Traditional management- Decision making, planning, and controlling.
• Communication- Exchanging routine information and processing paperwork.
• Human resource management- Motivating, disciplining, managing conflict, staffing, and training.
• Networking- Socializing, politicking, and interacting with outsiders.

Disciplines That Contribute to the OB field

• Psychology- The science that seeks to measure, explain, and sometimes change the behavior of humans and other animals.
• social psychology- An area of psychology that blends concepts from psychology and sociology to focus on the influence of people on one another.
• Sociology- The study of people in relation to their social environment or culture.
• Anthropology- The study of societies to learn about human beings and their activities.

Challenges and Opportunities for OB

• Economic Pressures
• Continuing Globalization
• Workforce demographics
• Workforce diversity
• Customer service
• People skills
• Networked organizations
• social media
• Employee Well-Being at Work
• Positive Work environment
• Ethical Behavior

Coming Attractions: Developing an OB Model

• Model- An abstraction of reality, a simplified representation of some real-world phenomenon.

• Input- Variables that lead to processes.

• Processes- Actions that individuals, groups, and organizations engage in as a result of inputs and that lead to certain outcomes.

• Outcomes- Key factors that are affected by some other variables.

• Stress- An unpleasant psychological process that occurs in response to environmental pressures

• Task performance- The combination of effectiveness and efficiency at doing core job tasks.

• Organizational citizenship behavior (OcB)- Discretionary behavior that contributes to the psychological and social environment of the workplace.

• Withdrawal behavior- The set of actions employees take to separate themselves from the organization.

• Group cohesion- The extent to which members of a group support and validate one another while at work.

• Group functioning- The quantity and quality of a group’s work output.

• Productivity- The combination of the effectiveness and efficiency of an organization. 

• Effectiveness- The degree to which an organization meets the needs of its clientele or customers. 

• Efficiency- The degree to which an organization can achieve its ends at a low cost.

• Organizational Survival- The degree to which an organization is able to exist and grow over the long term

Source- Stephen P. Robbins, T. A. (2017). Organizational Behavior. Pearson Education Limited.

https://www.slideshare.net/amrindersingh170/organizational-behavior-230379979