Human

Behavior in
Organizations

LECTURE BY
DEAN MARIA PAZ A. MAGSALIN
 Dynamics of Behavior in
Organizations

Managers need to understand the way individuals & groups act

Employees and managers bring their individual differences to

work each day
Differences in attitudes, values, personality, and behavior
influence
◦ how people interpret an assignment,
◦ whether they like to be told what to do
◦ how they handle challenges
◦ how they interact with others

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Dynamics of Behavior in
Organizations

Attitudes
Personality
Perception
Learning
Stress management

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Organizational
Behavior
Commonly called OB or HBO

•Interdisciplinary field dedicated to the study of

attitudes
behavior
performance

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 Interdisciplinary Influences on Organizational
Behavior

Economics Cultural Anthropology Vocational Counseling

Sociology Management

Ethics
Psychology Organizational
Behavior
Industrial
Engineering

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 Organizational
Citizenship
Work behavior that goes beyond job requirements and contributes as
needed to the organization’s success
● Being helpful to coworkers and customers
● Doing extra work when necessary
● Looking for ways to improve products & procedures

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Attitudes
Cognitive and affective evaluation that predisposes a person to
act in a certain way

Attitudes determine how people

◦ Perceive the work environment
◦ Interact with others
◦ Behave on the job

or

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Components of an
Attitude

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 Components of
Attitudes
Particularly important when attempting to change attitudes
Cognitive component includes the beliefs, opinions, and information the
person has about the object of the attitude
Affective component is the person’s emotions or feelings about the
object of the attitude
Behavioral component of an attitude is the person’s intention to behave
toward the object of the attitude in a certain way

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High-Performance Work Attitudes
Two attitudes that might relate to high
performance
◦ Job Satisfaction
◦ Organizational Commitment

Managers of today’s knowledge workers often rely on

job satisfaction to keep motivation and enthusiasm for
the organization high
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High-Performance Work
Attitudes

Job Satisfaction = positive attitude toward one’s job

Organizational Commitment = loyalty to and heavy involvement

in one’s organization

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Conflicts Among
Attitudes
Cognitive Dissonance = condition in which two attitudes or a
behavior and an attitude conflict

◦ Leon Festinger – 1950s

◦ People want to behave in accordance with their attitudes
◦ Usually will take corrective action

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Perception
Cognitive process people use to make sense out of the
environment by
● Selecting
● Organizing
● Interpreting information

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 Perception
Perception Process: Cognitive process Perceptual Selectivity:
used to make sense out of the process by which
environment (3 steps) individuals screen and
 Observe information via senses select various stimuli that
vie for their attention
 Screen information & select what to
 Primacy (toward beginning)
process
 Recency (toward end of event)
 Organize selected data into patterns

Perceptual Distortions/Errors: errors in

perceptual judgment arising from inaccuracies
in any part of the perceptual process
Common Errors:
 Stereotyping
 Halo effect
 Projection

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 Common
Perceptual
Distortions Stereotyping

Tendency to assign an individual to a group or broad

category and then attribute generalizations about the group
to the individual

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 Common
Perceptual Halo
Distortions Effect

Overall impression of a person or situation based on one

characteristic, either favorable or unfavorable

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 Common Perceptual
Distortions Projection

Tendency to see one’s own

personal traits in other
people

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 Common
Perceptual Perceptual
Distortions Defense

Tendency of perceivers to protect themselves by disregarding

ideas objects, or people that are threatening to them

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Attributions
Judgments about what caused a person’s behavior—either
characteristics of the person or of the situation

As people organize what they perceive, they often draw

conclusions

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External or Internal
Attributions

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Attribution Biases
Fundamental Attribution Error = tendency to underestimate the
influence of external factors on another’s behavior and to
overestimate the influence of internal factors
Self-serving Bias = tendency to overestimate the contribution of
internal factors to one’s sucesses and the contribution of
external factors to one’s failures

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 Personality
Set of characteristics that underlie a relatively stable pattern of
behavior in response to ideas, objects, or people in the environment

◦ Big Five Personality Factors

◦ Extroversion
◦ Agreeableness
◦ Conscientiousness
◦ Emotional Stability
◦ Openness to Experience

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Big Five Personality
Factors

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 Emotional
Intelligence (EQ)
Basic Components
Self-awareness: basis for all other components, being aware
of what you are feeling
Self-management: control disruptive or harmful emotions and
balance one’s moods so they do not cloud thinking
Social awareness: understand others and practice empathy
Relationship awareness: connect to others, build positive
relationships, respond to emotions of others, and influence
others

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 Locus of Control
Tendency to place primary responsibility for one’s success or failure
either within oneself (internally) or on outside forces (externally)
● Internal locus of control- your actions influence what happens to you
● External locus of control- represents pawns of fate

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 Behaviors Influenced by
Personality
Authoritarianism = belief that power and status differences
should exist within the organization

Stick to conventional values

Obey recognized
authority above them Critically judge others

Concerned with power Oppose the use of

and toughness subjective feelings

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 Behaviors Influenced by
Personality

Machiavellianism = tendency to direct much of one’s behavior

toward the acquisition of power and the manipulation of other
people for personal gain

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Problem Solving Styles
Based on work of Carl Jung
Individuals differ in the way they solve problems
and make decisions
Gathering and evaluating information are
separate activities
● Gather information
● Sensation
● Intuition
● Evaluate information
● Thinking
● Feeling

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Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
(MBTI)
Personality test that measures a person’s preference
for
◦ introversion vs. extroversion
◦ sensation vs. intuition
◦ thinking vs. feeling
◦ judging vs. perceiving

Experiential Exercise: Personality Assessment (MBTI)

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Learning and Learning
Styles
Learning = change in behavior or performance that occurs as the
result of experience
Learning Styles
Diverger
Assimilator
Converger
Accommodator

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 Stress and Stress
Management
Stress = physiological and emotional response to stimuli
that place physical or psychological demands on an
individual
Type A Behavior = pattern characterized by extreme
competitiveness, impatience, aggressiveness, and
devotion to work
Type B Behavior = pattern that lacks Type A and includes a
more balanced, relaxed lifestyle

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GAS (General Adaptation
Syndrome)
Psychological theory developed by Hans Selye about how the
body reacts to stress and produces illness as a result.
Adaptation can be HEALTHY ADAPTATION or ILLNESS.

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 Stages of GAS
1. Alarm: Fight or Flight reaction. Body mobilizes resources
to combat threat; activates the sympathetic nervous
system.
2. Resistance: Enhanced ability to fight stressor via moderate
physiological arousal; ability to withstand additional
stressors (eg., infection) is reduced
3. Exhaustion: Depletion of resources brings on diseases and
disorders (eg., chronically high heart rate and blood
pressure increases chances of heart attack and stroke).

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The Stress Response
(GAS)

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Work Stress
Work stress is skyrocketing

Four Categories
Job Tasks Demands
Physical Demands
Role Demand (Sets of expected behaviors)
Interpersonal Demands

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 Coping Strategies
Problem-Focused Coping: a response aimed at
reducing, modifying, or eliminating a source of stress
(e.g., if grades in a course are low, reduce work
hours, change study strategy, etc.).
Emotion-Focused Coping: a response aimed at
reducing the emotional impact of the stressor (e.g.,
denial, religious faith, wishful thinking, humor,
alcohol/drugs, promiscuous sex). In the low grades
example, you can reappraise the stressor and reduce
the importance you attach to that course, that major,
or academic work in general. Two major emotion-focused
strategies are: Meditation and Biofeedback
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Reference
Organizational Behavior by Richard Daft and Raymond Noe

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