MANA 3318 UTA Exam 1 Questions and Answers

MANA 3318 UTA Exam 1 Questions and Answers What is organizational behavior? Organizational Behavior is the study of human behavior, attitudes, and performance organizations Why is Organizational Behavior important? (In other words, how can the knowledge of Organizational Behavior help us?) Organizational behavior: provides a set of tools that allow: (A) People to understand analyze, and describe behavior in organizations and (B) Managers to improve, enhance, or change work behaviors so that individuals, groups and the whole organization can achieve their goal Previous Play Next Rewind 10 seconds Move forward 10 seconds Unmute 0:00 / 0:15 Full screen Brainpower Read More What factors determine individual behaviors? The person and the situation What are some examples of person and situational factors? The Person: personality, ability, and attitudes etc. The situation: the work groups and the organization In what ways could people be different from each other? Dispositions Abilities Demographics Physical What are some relatively stable individuals? Some dispositions (personality, needs) some demographics (gender, ethnic group) What are some less stable individual differences? Less stable: individual differences: Abilities, education level, emotions, physical attitudes. What is personality? A relatively stable set of characteristics that influence an individual's behavior How is it determined? By different things, such as heredity, genes (nature), and environment, physical attitudes How stable is personality? It is relatively stable because it takes around 10-15 years to show personality change in some (50% is shaped by genetics and 50% is shaped by environment) Understand the Big Five Personality Traits Extraversion: the person is gregarious, assertive and sociable (Low: resevered, timid and quiet) Agreeableness: the person is cooperative, warm, and agreeable (Low: cold, disagreeable, and antagonistic) Conscientiousness: the person is hardworking, organized, and dependable (Low: lazy, disorganized, and unreliable) Openness to Experience: the person is crative, curious, and cultured( Low: practical with narrow interest) Neuroticism: High: Nervous, self-doubting, moody -- Low: stable, confident Understand the following differences: Locus of control, Self-monitoring, Self-esteem, Type A and Type B Locus of Control: an individual's generalized belief about internal (self-control) vs. external control (control by the situation of by others) -- External locus of control: describes people who believe that fate, luck, or outside forces are responsible for what happens to them-- Internal locus of control: describes people who believe that ability, effort, or their effort of their actions determines what happens to them Self-monitoring: the extent to which people base their behavior on cues from other people and situations -- high self-monitors pay attention to what is appropriate in particular situations and behave accordingly -- Low self-monitors: pay less attention to situational cues and act more consistently with their internal beliefs and feelings Self-esteem: an individual's general feeling of self-worth -- people with high self-esteen feel capable, confident, worthy, perform better and are more satisfied with their jobs -- low self-esteem: view themselves negatively are more strongly affected by what other people think of them Type A: have intense desire to achieve, are extremely competitive, have a sense of urgency, are impatient, and can be hostile Type B: these individuals are more relaxed and easygoing What can we do to effectively manage employees with different personalities? Please consult the two cases we discussed in class when thinking about this question - Acknowledge and appreciate - Adjust your own feelings and actions to work effectively with others - When feasible, structure an individual's work situation to fit his or her personality - Remember that attitudes and behaviors are determined by the interaction of an individual's personality and the situation in which the individual works. Encourage an acceptance and appreciation of the diverse personalities in your organizations. The power of personality: When is personality a powerful predictor of individual behaviors? A weak situation What are strong situation? a situation that overwhelms the effects of individual personalities by providing strong cues for appropriate behavior What are weak situations? A situation where people have more free choices in situations -- are open to many interpertations What are some situations where worker's personalities will have a strong influence on their behaviors? Feeling stressed over an exam, hungry during a meeting and can't think straight, tired because he or she stayed up all night studying, loss of a loved one, unplanned/planned life event What are some situations where worker's personalities will have a strong influence on their behaviors? At performance appraisal sessions, employees know to listen to their bosses and to contribute when asked to do Understand the three components of attitude (the ABC model) - Affect: how they feel about the policy (physiological indicators - verbal statements about feelings-- I don't like my boss - Behavioral Intent: Whether they would participate in it (observed behavior - verbal statements about intentions)-- I want to transfer to another department - Cognition: What they think about it ( attitude scales - verbal statements about beliefs)-- I believe my boss plays favorites at work What is cognitive dissonance? The tension produced when an individual experiences conflict between attitudes and behavior Understand the relationship between attitudes and behavior Attitude:Behavior correspondence depends on five things: attitude specificity, attitude relevance, timing of measurement, personality factors, and social constraints. The more specific the attitude, the stronger its link to behavior What is job satisfaction? A pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one's job or job experiences