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2. Psychology and Work Behaviors

Personality, Attitudes, and Work Behaviors 2

  • Companies hire people with the expectation that they have certain knowledge, skills, abilities, personalities, and values.

Personality

  • Personality:
    • the person’s relatively stable feelings, thoughts, and behavioral patterns.
    • personality does change over long periods of time.
    • with aging, people tend to become more socially dominant, more conscientious (organized and dependable), and more emotionally stable; while openness to experience tends to decline.
  • Big Five Personality Traits:
    • Openness:
      • Curious, original, intellectual, creative, and open to new ideas.
      • Suitable for jobs that require creativity, innovation, flexibility, and learning new things.
      • open people gather information and feedback, build relationships, and quickly adapt to new jobs.
      • open people are more likely to be successful in training and opening their own businesses.
      • open people are easily bored with routine work.
    • Conscientiousness:
      • Organized, systematic, punctual, achievement-oriented, and dependable.
      • this is the most desired trait by recruiters.
      • conscientious people tend to be more successful in job interviews, higher job performance, higher motivation, and safety performance.
      • conscientious people tend to have less absenteeism and less turnover.
      • it is a valuable trait for entrepreneurs.
      • conscientious people seem to be more detail-oriented, and they may NOT see the big picture.
    • Extroversion:
      • Outgoing, talkative, sociable, and enjoys being in social situations.
      • it is a valuable trait for **sales**people.
      • extroverts tend to be successful managers and have inspirational leadership behaviors.
      • extroverts tend to do well in job interviews and adapt to new jobs.
      • extroverts tend to be more optimistic and happier at work.
      • extroverts tend to have more absenteeism and they don’t do well in jobs that don’t require social interaction.
    • Agreeableness:
      • Nice, tolerant, sensitive, trusting, kind, and warm.
      • agreeable people with high agreeableness tend to be more likable and get along well with others.
      • agreeable people tend to help people and be more cooperative at work.
      • agreeable people are less likely to retaliate if treated unfairly.
      • agreeable people show empathy and may be good leaders as they tend to create fairer environments when they are in charge.
      • disagreeable people to quit their jobs unexpectedly or as retaliation about something.
      • disagreeable people are less likely to engage in a change-oriented or heated conversation.
      • it is an unfavorable trait for some jobs like lawyers.
    • Neuroticism:
      • Anxious, irritable, aggressive, temperamental, and moody.
      • neurotic people tend to be more stressed, anxious, and more likely to have depression and other emotional problems.
      • this is the only trait that having a high score is undesirable.
      • neurotic people are less likely to form and maintain relationships; they are unhappy and less satisfied with their jobs.
      • neurotic people want to leave their jobs but they don’t.
      • neurotic people are less successful in their careers (measured by income and work status).
      • neuronic people create unfavorable environments when they are managers.
  • OCEAN: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism.
  • Other personality dimensions:
    • Self-monitoring:
      • the extent to which people tend to monitor their behavior in social situations and change it to fit the social context.
      • low self-monitors act the way they feel; high self-monitors act the way they think they should.
      • high self-monitors are sensitive about their behavior and capable of managing their impressions which results in achieving great images and avoiding undesired images.
      • high self-monitors are effective influencers and leaders; they get the job done by managing their impressions.
      • high self-monitors may not give honest feedback to avoid conflicts which may hinder the controlling role of managers.
    • Proactive personality:
      • Proactivity refers to a person’s inclination to fix what is wrong, change things, and use initiative to solve problems.
      • Instead of waiting to be told what to do, proactive people take action to initiate meaningful change and remove the obstacles they face along the way.
      • Proactive people are more successful in their careers, as they use their initiative to gather more understanding of the environment and politics of the organization.
      • Proactive people have a higher level of job performance.
      • Proactive people are good for real estate jobs.
      • Sometimes they are a liability: Imagine a person who is proactive but is perceived as too pushy, trying to change things other people are not willing to let go of; or using their initiative to make decisions that do not serve a company’s best interests.
    • Self-esteem:
      • It is the degree to which a person has overall positive feelings about himself or herself.
      • People with high self-esteem view themselves in a positive light, are confident, and respect themselves.
      • People with low self-esteem are attracted to situations where they will be relatively invisible, such as large companies.
      • Managing low self-esteem employees is challenging because they are more likely to be defensive, to be less open to feedback, and to be more resistant to change; thus, providing them with positive feedback and encouragement is essential.
    • Self-efficacy:
      • It is a belief that one can perform a specific task successfully.
      • High self-efficacy set higher goals for themselves and are more committed to their goals, whereas people with low self-efficacy tend to procrastinate.
      • Empowering people (giving them opportunities to test their skills so that they can see what they are capable of) is also a good way of increasing self-efficacy along with verbal encouragement and positive feedback.
  • Personality Testing in Employee Selection:
    • Several companies conduct pre-employment personality tests.
    • Overnight Transportation in Atlanta found that using such tests reduced their on-the-job delinquency by 50%–100%.
    • Cons:
      • People may fake their answers in personality tests to get the job.
      • Using self-report measures of performance may not be the best way of measuring someone’s personality; instead, other people’s feedback may be more reliable.
      • The relationship between personality and job performance is uncertain.
      • Personality only explains about 10%–15% of the variation in job performance.
      • Our performance at work depends on many factors, and personality does not seem to be the key factor for performance; however, cognitive ability seems to be more important.
      • Personality is a better predictor of job satisfaction and other attitudes, but screening people out on the assumption that they may be unhappy at work is a challenging argument to make in an employee selection context.
    • Companies should use these tests on existing employees first to check the test’s validity before using them in the hiring process.
    • Companies need to make sure that these tests do not cause discrimination against certain groups of people.

Values

  • Values:
    • They are the people’s stable life goals, reflecting what is most important to them.
    • Values are influenced by culture and life experiences.
    • Values affect people’s decisions, behaviors, and how they perceive the environment.
    • People are more likely to accept offers from companies that share their values.
    • The firm’s values are often described in the company’s mission and vision statements.
  • Schwartz’s 10 Value Inventory:
    • Achievement: the desire for personal success.
    • Benevolence: the desire to help others; the desire to protect the well-being of others.
    • Conformity: the desire to follow the rules and meet the expectations of society; being self-disciplined, obedient, and conforming with others.
    • Hedonism: the desire for pleasure and sensuous gratification for oneself.
    • Power: the desire for control or dominance over people and resources.
    • Security: the desire for safety, harmony, and stability of society, relationships, and self.
    • Self-direction: the desire for independence, creativity, and exploration of new things; the desire to be free and independent.
    • Stimulation: the desire for excitement, novelty, and challenge in life.
    • Tradition: the desire to respect and accept the customs and ideas that traditional culture or religion provides.
    • Universalism: the desire to understand, appreciate, tolerate, and protect the welfare of all people and nature.

Perception

  • Perception:
    • It is the process by which individuals detect and interpret environmental stimuli.
    • Our perception of the environment is not entirely rational.
    • What we see in the environment is a function of what we value, our needs, our fears, and our emotions.
  • Visual Perception:
    • It is how we interpret the messages our eyes send to our brains.
    • Optical illusions are a good example of how our perception can be fooled.
    • The fact that our visual perception is faulty means that managers should not always take what they see at face value.
    • The tendency to compare and contrast objects and people to each other also causes problems.
  • Self-Perception:
    • It is how we perceive ourselves.
    • Self-enhancement bias is the tendency to overestimate our performance and capabilities and see ourselves in a more positive light than others see us.
    • Self-effacement bias (or modesty bias) is the tendency to underestimate our performance and capabilities and to see events that put us in a more negative light.
    • False consensus error when we overestimate how similar we are to other people; We assume that whatever quirks we have are shared by a larger number of people than in reality; this can simplify the feel of guilt when we do something wrong if we think that is a common behavior.
  • Social Perception:
    • It is how we perceive other people in our environment.
    • Stereotypes:
      • They are generalizations based on a group characteristic; stereotypes may be positive, negative, or neutral.
      • Stereotyping is an adaptive function; we have a natural tendency to categorize the information around us to make sense of our environment.
      • It is only dangerous when the generalizations are applied to individuals in ways that may cause discrimination. E.g., refusing a woman candidate in favor of a male candidate because of the stereotype.
    • The self-fulfilling prophecy happens when an established stereotype causes one to behave in a certain way, which leads the other party to behave in a way that confirms the stereotype. For example, If you have a stereotype that Asians are friendly, you will be nicer to them, and they will be nicer to you because you are nice; here the prophecy is fulfilled.
    • Selective perception means that we pay selective attention to parts of the environment while ignoring other parts, which is particularly important during the Planning process.
    • Using data to debunk people’s beliefs or previously established opinions may not necessarily work, a tendency to guard against when conducting Planning and Controlling activities.
    • The first impressions we form about people tend to have a lasting effect.

Attitudes

  • Attitude:
    • It refers to our opinions, beliefs, and feelings about aspects of our environment.
  • Job satisfaction:
    • It refers to the feelings people have toward their job (the job itself, the pay, the promotion opportunities, the supervision, the coworkers, and the work conditions).
    • It is the most important attitude in the workplace.
  • Organizational commitment:
    • It refers to the feelings people have toward the organization they work for (the organization’s values, goals, and mission).
    • It is the second most important attitude in the workplace.
    • People with high organizational commitment refer to the organization as “we” instead of “they”.
  • What Causes Positive Work Attitudes? => High job satisfaction and high organizational commitment:
    • Personality.
    • Person-environment fit.
    • Job characteristics:
      • The ability to use a variety of skills, have autonomy at work, receive feedback on the job, and perform a significant task.
    • Psychological contract:
      • It refers to the unspoken, informal understanding that an employee will contribute certain things to the organization (e.g., workability and a willing attitude) and will receive certain things in return (e.g., reasonable pay and benefits).
    • Organizational justice:
      • People pay attention to the fairness of company policies and procedures, fair and kind treatment from supervisors, and fairness of their pay and other rewards.
      • Procedural justice refers to the fairness in the way policies and processes are carried out.
      • Distributive justice refers to the fairness in the allocation of resources or compensation and benefits.
      • Interactional justice refers to the degree to which people are treated with dignity and respect.
    • Work relationships.
    • Stress:
      • Stressors range from environmental ones (noise, heat, inadequate ventilation) to interpersonal ones (organizational politics, conflicts with coworkers) to organizational ones (pressure to avoid making mistakes, worrying about the security of the job).
      • Role ambiguity is uncertainty about what our responsibilities are in the job.
      • Role conflict involves contradictory demands at work; it can also involve conflict between fulfilling one’s role as an employee and other roles in life, such as the role of parent, friend, or community volunteer.
  • Person-job fit is the degree to which a person’s knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics match the job demands. (Human resources professionals often use the abbreviation KSAO to refer to these four categories of attributes.)
  • Organization-fit refers to the degree to which a person’s personality, values, goals, and other characteristics match those of the organization.

Work Behaviors

  • We will focus on four key work behaviors: job performance, organizational citizenship behaviors, absenteeism, and turnover.
  • Job performance:
    • It refers to the level to which an employee successfully fulfills the factors included in the job description.
    • Measures of job performance include the quality and quantity of work performed by the employee, the accuracy and speed with which the job is performed, and the overall effectiveness of the person on the job.
    • The most powerful influence over our job performance is our general mental ability also known as cognitive ability or intelligence, and often abbreviated as “g.”.
    • Other factors that influence job performance include:
      • Perceptions of organizational justice and interpersonal relationships.
      • Stress.
      • Having role ambiguity and experiencing conflicting role demands.
      • Our work attitudes, particularly job satisfaction.
  • Organizational Citizenship Behaviors:
    • Organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) are voluntary behaviors employees perform to help others and benefit the organization.
    • Examples of OCBs include helping coworkers with their work, volunteering to organize the company picnic, and providing suggestions to management about how to improve business processes.
    • The most important factor that influences OCB is the organizational justice and interpersonal relationships.
    • Other factors that influence OCB include:
      • Personality.
      • Work attitudes; happier people tend to help others more.
      • Age; older employees tend to engage in more OCBs.
  • Absenteeism
    • It refers to Unscheduled absences from work.
    • This problem is costly as the solution may involve hiring contingent workers, having other employees work overtime, or scrambling to cover for an absent coworker.
    • Some absenteeism is unavoidable and is related to health reasons.
    • Other factors that influence absenteeism include:
      • Work/life balance; other life commitments may cause absenteeism (e.g., taking care of children or elderly parents, funerals, weddings, etc.).
      • Poor work attitudes; absenteeism is a form of work withdrawal and a step followed by turnover.
      • Age; younger employees tend to have higher rates of absenteeism.
  • Turnover
    • It refers to an employee’s leaving an organization.
    • When employees leave, their jobs still need to be performed by someone, so companies spend time recruiting, hiring, and training new employees, all the while suffering from lower productivity.
    • Low-performing people may be fired, may be encouraged to quit, or may quit because of their fear of being fired.
    • The most important factor that influences turnover is Work attitudes; unhappy people tend to leave regardless of whether they are high or low performers.
    • Other factors:
      • Stress; stressed employees are more likely to quit.
      • Personality; People who are conscientious, agreeable, and emotionally stable are less likely to quit their jobs.
      • Age; younger employees are more likely to leave.

Optional Resources 3 4 1

  • Half the U.S. population now hates their job.
  • Fewer than 3 in 10 workers admit to having their hearts in their jobs.
  • The Great Place to Work Institute in November named analytics software giant SAS as the world’s best multinational workplace.
  • Leadership values that have made SAS:
    • Value people above all; in 2009, SAS did not lay off a single employee.
    • To give is to get; SAS gives a lot of perks to its employees and their families.
    • Trust above all things; flexible hours of work where no one is asked how many hours they worked.
    • Ensure employees understand the significance of their work.
  • Why SAS is different:
    • It’s a privately held company and not influenced by the short-term objectives of shareholders.
    • SAS has proven the effects of a far more abundant leadership model–one that greatly rewards all constituents.
    • Employees are made happier, more engaged, and produce exceptional work.

References

  1. 2MinutePsychology. (2013, September 16). The Big Five Personality Model Video. YouTube. https://youtu.be/xXATiPciG8o ↩

  2. Carpenter, M., Bauer, T., & Erdogan, B. (2010). Management principles, v. 1.1. https://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/management-principles-v1.1/index.html Chapter 2: Personality, Attitudes, and Work Behaviors. ↩

  3. Crowley, M. C. (2013, January 22). How SAS became the world’s best place to work. Fast Company. http://www.fastcompany.com/3004953/how-sas-became-worlds-best-place-work ↩

  4. Gregg Learning. (2018, November 1). Key work-related attitudes [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/AgzWxRBhzoo ↩