Lecture 1: Attitudes
Organizational behavior = interdisciplinary field dedicated to understanding people at work
HRM = the policies, practices and systems that influence employees’ attitudes, behaviors and performance
Attitudes
● an important predictor of behavior
● definition: ‘evaluative statements or judgments concerning objects, people, events or ideas’
→ learned predispositions to respond in a consistently favorable or unfavorable manner with
respect to an attitude object
Generating positive attitudes increases desired behaviors such as performance, health and OCB
decreases undesired behaviors such as absenteeism and turnover
Attitude has three components: cognitive, affective and behavioral (CAB)
Not only attitudes influence behavioral intentions
→ subjective norms: what one’s surroundings thinks of certain topics
→ perceived behavioral control: people's perceptions of their ability to perform a given behavior
Cognitive Dissonance Theory by Festinger: It refers to the mental conflict that occurs when a person's
behaviors and beliefs do not align
→ Cognitive Dissonance: unbalance between cognition, affect and behavior
1) change attitude/behavior 2) reduce the importance
,Lecture 2: Personality
‘Combination of enduring physical, behavioral and mental characteristics that makes individuals
unique’
Key aspects:
- stable → temporal & cultural stability
- psychological dispositions towards certain behaviors
- highly visible in weak vs. strong situations
- determined by genetics and environment ( interactionist perspective)
BIG 5 Personality Traits
Stability of personality
● The traditional view: changes during childhood and adolescence; this stops around age 30 →
meta-analysis → did not match the traditional view as biggest changes occur from 20-40
years
Proactive personality
a stable character to take personal initiative in a broad range of activities and situations
● related to conscientiousness; extraversion; internal locus of control
● highly valued in today’s work and career & generalizable to different cultures
Strongest correlates of proactive personality
career success - performance - being entrepreneurial - learning orientation
+ performance
+ being entrepreneurial
+ learning orientation
Dark triad
1. narcissism → grandiosity, entitlement, dominance, superiority
2. machiavellianism → emotionally distant, manipulative, ends satisfy means, cognitive
empathy
3. psychopathy → highly impulsive, thrill seeking, lack of anxiety
,Link between Dark Triad & outcomes
+ positively related to counterproductive behavior
+ can help get ahead (not to get along) e.g. promotion
+ related to toxic leadership
+ positively related to student cheating behavior
Lecture 2 - part 2: Diversity
Surface level diversity
● differences in easily perceived characteristics e.g gender, ethnicity, age
● does not necessarily represent the way people think or feel → stereotypes
Deep level diversity
● differences in harder to see characteristics e.g. values, beliefs, and work preferences
● becomes progressively more important as people get to know each other
Diversity management
Affirmative action = intervention aimed at giving management a chance to correct past imbalance,
injustice, or discrimination
Managing diversity = entails enacting a host of organizational changes that enable all people to
perform to the max of their potential
Reasons of diversity management
1. Business case
- improved employee attitudes > respectful treatment increases engagement and
performance
- improved recruiting > larger pool of talent to select from
- increased sales and profits > access-and-legitimacy perspective
- increased creativity and innovation > heterogeneous teams with broader range of
perspectives
- increased group problem-solving skills > better quality decisions
2. Moral case
- social equality
- democracy principle
- reduction of conflict
3. Legal case
- laws, legislation and procurements
, Stereotypes
Individual’s set of beliefs about the characteristics of attributes of a group
- social categorization crucial for stereotyping: people get individually judged based on their
apparent group memberships
- stereotypes serve two functions: efficiency (as accurate as possible with least amount of
effort) and self-affirmation (regulate and boost self-esteem)
Perceptions, Decisions and Power
Organizational behavior = interdisciplinary field dedicated to understanding people at work
HRM = the policies, practices and systems that influence employees’ attitudes, behaviors and performance
Attitudes
● an important predictor of behavior
● definition: ‘evaluative statements or judgments concerning objects, people, events or ideas’
→ learned predispositions to respond in a consistently favorable or unfavorable manner with
respect to an attitude object
Generating positive attitudes increases desired behaviors such as performance, health and OCB
decreases undesired behaviors such as absenteeism and turnover
Attitude has three components: cognitive, affective and behavioral (CAB)
Not only attitudes influence behavioral intentions
→ subjective norms: what one’s surroundings thinks of certain topics
→ perceived behavioral control: people's perceptions of their ability to perform a given behavior
Cognitive Dissonance Theory by Festinger: It refers to the mental conflict that occurs when a person's
behaviors and beliefs do not align
→ Cognitive Dissonance: unbalance between cognition, affect and behavior
1) change attitude/behavior 2) reduce the importance
,Lecture 2: Personality
‘Combination of enduring physical, behavioral and mental characteristics that makes individuals
unique’
Key aspects:
- stable → temporal & cultural stability
- psychological dispositions towards certain behaviors
- highly visible in weak vs. strong situations
- determined by genetics and environment ( interactionist perspective)
BIG 5 Personality Traits
Stability of personality
● The traditional view: changes during childhood and adolescence; this stops around age 30 →
meta-analysis → did not match the traditional view as biggest changes occur from 20-40
years
Proactive personality
a stable character to take personal initiative in a broad range of activities and situations
● related to conscientiousness; extraversion; internal locus of control
● highly valued in today’s work and career & generalizable to different cultures
Strongest correlates of proactive personality
career success - performance - being entrepreneurial - learning orientation
+ performance
+ being entrepreneurial
+ learning orientation
Dark triad
1. narcissism → grandiosity, entitlement, dominance, superiority
2. machiavellianism → emotionally distant, manipulative, ends satisfy means, cognitive
empathy
3. psychopathy → highly impulsive, thrill seeking, lack of anxiety
,Link between Dark Triad & outcomes
+ positively related to counterproductive behavior
+ can help get ahead (not to get along) e.g. promotion
+ related to toxic leadership
+ positively related to student cheating behavior
Lecture 2 - part 2: Diversity
Surface level diversity
● differences in easily perceived characteristics e.g gender, ethnicity, age
● does not necessarily represent the way people think or feel → stereotypes
Deep level diversity
● differences in harder to see characteristics e.g. values, beliefs, and work preferences
● becomes progressively more important as people get to know each other
Diversity management
Affirmative action = intervention aimed at giving management a chance to correct past imbalance,
injustice, or discrimination
Managing diversity = entails enacting a host of organizational changes that enable all people to
perform to the max of their potential
Reasons of diversity management
1. Business case
- improved employee attitudes > respectful treatment increases engagement and
performance
- improved recruiting > larger pool of talent to select from
- increased sales and profits > access-and-legitimacy perspective
- increased creativity and innovation > heterogeneous teams with broader range of
perspectives
- increased group problem-solving skills > better quality decisions
2. Moral case
- social equality
- democracy principle
- reduction of conflict
3. Legal case
- laws, legislation and procurements
, Stereotypes
Individual’s set of beliefs about the characteristics of attributes of a group
- social categorization crucial for stereotyping: people get individually judged based on their
apparent group memberships
- stereotypes serve two functions: efficiency (as accurate as possible with least amount of
effort) and self-affirmation (regulate and boost self-esteem)
Perceptions, Decisions and Power
