Foundations of Individual Behaviour and the Role of Perceptions

IOP202-R: ORGANISATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

Foundations of individual behaviour and the role of perceptions

Study Unit 2: Chapter 3 and 5

Biographical characteristics

Age

-concerning factor: 3 reasons (people believe productivity decrease with age; AIDS – drop in skills; legislation outlaws mandatory retirement)

-how are they seen:

+experience, judgment, reliability, strong work ethic, committed to quality)

-flexibility and adaptability to technology

Facts (evidence)

-the older you get, the less likely to resign

-absenteeism – have to separate avoidable and unavoidable

-evidence contradicts – older people do upgrade skills

Conclusion

Elements of most jobs, even with heavy labour requirements are not so extreme, that an age-related decline in physical will have an impact on productivity where there is some decay due to age, offset gains due to experience.

Job satisfaction: mixed findings – positive vs U-shaped

-reason – professional and non-professional intermixed.

Gender

-few if any difference that will affect performance

-Psychological studies

Women
Conform to authority
Empathy, consensus building,
Participation, collaboration / Men
Aggressive
Competitive
Dominance

- what you bring to organisation

Job satisfaction: No evidence that genders effects;

However: differs between races; time schedule; absenteeism?

Evidence mix – insufficient 4 meaningful conclusions, but reasons 4 turnover do exist.

Marital status

Insufficient evidence to draw valuable conclusions

-but studies show married: more responsible/turnover & less absenteeism rate

Tenure

-work experience – seniority productivity

-best predictor of turn-over

Job satisfaction – positively related

Ability (capacity to perform tasks)

a quality that permits or facilitates achievement or accomplishment

-determines position relative to others

-goal: to know how people differ in terms of ability - determine performance

-made up of 2 factors:

a)Intellectual ability - refers to the ability measured byperformance on an intelligence test. It is also sometimes used in the context of discussing the performance of someone in an academic.

-7 Most frequently cited dimensions

• Numerical
• Verbal comprehension
• Perceptual speed
• Indicative reasoning
• Deductive reasoning
• Spatial visualization
• Memory

b) Physical ability - the ability to perform some physical act (the ability to speak)

Management must determine level of strength needed - 9 Basic physical abilities:

Strength factor

1. Dynamic
2. Trunk
3. Static
4. Explosive

Flexibility factor

1. Extent
2. Dynamic

Other factors

1. Body coordination
2. Balance
3. Stamina

*Ability-job fit

Interaction – our goal: job demands and the ability to perform

Personality

1)What is personality

Gordon Allport: the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustments to his environments.

- the sum total of ways in which an individual reacts to and interacts with others – measurable traits that a person exhibits

2)What are the determinants of Personality

-3 factors influences

a)Heredity: personality depends on the ultimate molecular structure of the genes, located in the chromosomes.

b)Environment: culture, early conditioning, norms among family/friends/social groups

• Both important, but heredity sets the parameters, but full potential will be determined by how well he or she adjusts to the demands and requirements of the environment

c) Situation: influences the effects of heredity and the environment – different demands of different situations call forth different aspects of one’s personality.

3)Personality traits (enduring characteristics that describes indivual’s behaviour)

-16 primary traits: Figure 5.1

-Myers-Briggs type indicator (MBTI)

• Extroverted vs Introverted
• Sensing vs Intuitive
• Thinking vs Feeling
• Perceiving vs Judging

-The Big Five model

Extraversion
Agreeableness
Conscientiousness
Emotional stability
Openness to experience

The effect on job performance

Major attributes influencing OB

Locus of control: the degree to which an individual believes he or she is the master of his or her own fate.

Machiavellian – the degree to which an individual is pragmatic, maintains emotional distance and believes that ends justify the means.

Self-esteem – the degree to which an individual likes or dislikes himself or herself.

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

-self-efficacy & self-monitoring

Risk taking – people differ in their willingness to take chances

Type A personality

Type B personality