Chapter 2

Foundations of individual behavior

• Ob model

• Dependent variables: productivity, satisfaction, absence, turnover, citizenship, and satisfaction

• Independent variables: individual-level variables, group-level variables, organization systems levels variables

• Individual-level variables:– Biographical characteristics;– Ability;– Leaning;– Personality characteristics;– Emotions;– Values & attitudes;– Motivations;– Perceptions

Biographical Characteristics

• Age

• Gender

• Tenure

Biographical Characteristics

• Age– Aged population– Aged workforce– Aged employees

• Work behavior– Age-turnover relationship – Age-absenteeism relationship – Age-productivity relationship– Age-job satisfaction relationship

Biographical Characteristics

• Gender– Gender-productivity relationship

• Male-female differences– Physical difference– Mental difference

– Gender-turnover relationship– Gender-absenteeism relationship

• Work schedule preference

Biographical Characteristics

• Tenure– The term of office or service

• Tenure– Seniority-productivity– Seniority-absenteeism– Seniority-turnover

• Individual-level variables:– Biographical characteristics;– Ability;– Leaning;– Personality characteristics;– Emotions;– Values & attitudes;– Motivations;– Perceptions

Ability

• Are we created equal?

• Knowing how people differ in abilities

• Knowing people’s strength & weakness

Ability

• “an individual’s capacity to perform the various tasks in a job”

– Intellectual abilities

– Physical abilities

Intellectual Ability

• Thinking, reasoning, and problem solving– Information procession

• Basic dimensions of intellectual abilities– Aptitude– Verbal comprehension– Perceptual speed– Inductive reasoning– Deductive reasoning– Spatial visualization– Memory

Intellectual ability

• Cognitive intelligence– Ability to comprehend complex things

• Social intelligence– Ability to relate to others

• Emotional intelligence– Ability to identify, understand, and manage

emotions

• Cultural intelligence– Ability to function in cross-cultural situations

How to define successful performance?

Performance = Ability X Motivation

Ability-Job fit

• Individual-level variables:– Biographical characteristics;– Ability;– Leaning;– Personality characteristics;– Emotions;– Values & attitudes;– Motivations;– Perceptions

Learning

• Learning involves changes

•

• Change must be relatively permanent

• Learning takes place when there is a change in actions

Learning theories

• Classical conditioning– Stimuli vs. response – Passive response

• Operant conditioning– Behavior = f (learned consequences)– Voluntary participation

• Social learning– Observational learning – Perception & attitude in learning

Shaping Behavior

• Communication– Learned consequences

• Change in behavior

• Reinforecment– Positive reinforcemen

• Following a response with something pleasant

– Punishment• Following a response with something unpleasant

Organizational applications

• Well pay vs. sick pay

• Employee discipline

• Developing training programs