Organizational behaviour
Hoorcollege 1
Teams:
- Individuals
- Groups and teams
- Organizations
→ Environment
→ culture
→ Technology
Individuals: Motivation, learning, personality, communication, perception
Groups and teams: Group formation, teamworking, groups structure, individuals in groups
Organizations: Conflict, power and politics, change, decision making, leadership.
What is Organizational Behavior (OB)?
‘’The study of the structure and management of organization, their environments, and the actions
and interactions of their individual members and groups.’’
• Organizational behavior refers to the activities and interactions of people in organizations.
What is organization?
- Social arrangement
- Collective goals
- Controlled performance
How can behavior in organizations be explained?
PESTLE: The Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, and Ecological context
• Individual factors
• Group factors
• Management and • Organizational effectiveness
organization factors • Quality of working life
• Leadership process factors
Organization’s past, present and future
What does OB do?
• Looks at attitudes and behaviors of individuals and groups in organizational context
→ Social science:
- Description (Observe, ask question, study documents & other sources)
- Explanation
- Prediction
- Control
→ Evidence-based management: To use the latest and best research evidence in managing people
and organizations, to improve decision-making quality.
Personality:
‘’Personality is a relatively stable set of psychological characteristics that influences the way an
individual interacts with his or her environment and how he or she feels, thinks, and behaves.’’
, Organizational behaviour
Why study personality?
• Want to know what kind of person we are
• It is related to several aspects of our life
• Organization and management perspective: Can personality assessment help us…
- Make better prediction of individual’s job performance?
- Choose the most appropriate job candidate?
Personality types and traits
• Hippocrates (determined by bodily, rumors)
- Sanguine (confident/ optimistic), Phlegmatic ( ), Melanholic (sad, depressed), Choleric
(aggressive/ excitable)
• Somatotype (body size and shape)
- Mesomorph (thin, introverted), ectomorph (strong, muscular), Endomorph (bigger, sociable,
relaxed, easygoing)
• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
- Based on Jung’s theory
Sensing → Intuiting
Thinking → Feeling
Introvert → Extravert
Judging → Perceiving
The main belief is to actually help us understand our preferences. (MBTI)
Personality types A and B
• A combination of emotions and behaviors characterized by…
Type A: climb the mountain Type B: Sitting beside the mountain.
Type A:
- Ambition
- Hostility
- Impatience
- Constant time pressure
- Works to much
Type B:
- Relaxation
- Low focus on achievement
- Ability to take time
- Enjoy leisure
Can Type A change to Type B?
The Big Five
- Captures 5 main dimensions of personality
- Not personality types, but sets of factors (super traits)
- The H factor- Honestly-Humility (HEXACO)
, Organizational behaviour
The Big Five and research
Conscientiousness: Positively related to salary, promotions, and job satisfaction in most
jobs
Extraversion: Inconsistent findings (may depend on type of work). In some studies
linked to performance, salary and job level, in others not
Openness and agreeableness: Not consistently related to job performance; in some instances
contribute to lower job performance
Neuroticism: Negatively related to performance, salary and status
Agreeableness: Likely to interfere with management potential.
Employee selection
• Psychometric tests:
- Not always good predictors of performance!
- Cognitive ability test (good predictor of performance)
- Identify individuals who will more likely collaborate/ come into a conflict- MBTI, Big
Five
- Strengths finder
• Interviews
- Structured competency-based interviews (focus on key competences)
• Cybervetting
Learning
• Learning is a process of acquiring knowledge through experience, leading to a lasting change
in behavior.
• Behavior psychology (observable behavior, habits, mechanistic)
• Cognitive psychology (mental processes, cognitive structure, rich and complex)
1. Growth mindset (challenges help me to grow)
2. Fixed mindset (when I’m frustrated, I give up)
Learning and feedback:
• We cannot learn without feedback
• Feedback can be rewarding or punishing
• Intrinsic feedback (self-generated)
• Extrinsic feedback (from external source)
- Concurrent feedback
- Delayed feedback
• Feedforward interview
Reinforcing certain behavior: (too simplistic?)
Positive reinforcement Introducing positive Desired behavior is repeated
consequences
Negative reinforcement Withdrawing negative
consequences
Punishment Applying negative Undesired behavior is not
consequences repeated
Extinction Attach no positive or negative
consequences
Hoorcollege 1
Teams:
- Individuals
- Groups and teams
- Organizations
→ Environment
→ culture
→ Technology
Individuals: Motivation, learning, personality, communication, perception
Groups and teams: Group formation, teamworking, groups structure, individuals in groups
Organizations: Conflict, power and politics, change, decision making, leadership.
What is Organizational Behavior (OB)?
‘’The study of the structure and management of organization, their environments, and the actions
and interactions of their individual members and groups.’’
• Organizational behavior refers to the activities and interactions of people in organizations.
What is organization?
- Social arrangement
- Collective goals
- Controlled performance
How can behavior in organizations be explained?
PESTLE: The Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, and Ecological context
• Individual factors
• Group factors
• Management and • Organizational effectiveness
organization factors • Quality of working life
• Leadership process factors
Organization’s past, present and future
What does OB do?
• Looks at attitudes and behaviors of individuals and groups in organizational context
→ Social science:
- Description (Observe, ask question, study documents & other sources)
- Explanation
- Prediction
- Control
→ Evidence-based management: To use the latest and best research evidence in managing people
and organizations, to improve decision-making quality.
Personality:
‘’Personality is a relatively stable set of psychological characteristics that influences the way an
individual interacts with his or her environment and how he or she feels, thinks, and behaves.’’
, Organizational behaviour
Why study personality?
• Want to know what kind of person we are
• It is related to several aspects of our life
• Organization and management perspective: Can personality assessment help us…
- Make better prediction of individual’s job performance?
- Choose the most appropriate job candidate?
Personality types and traits
• Hippocrates (determined by bodily, rumors)
- Sanguine (confident/ optimistic), Phlegmatic ( ), Melanholic (sad, depressed), Choleric
(aggressive/ excitable)
• Somatotype (body size and shape)
- Mesomorph (thin, introverted), ectomorph (strong, muscular), Endomorph (bigger, sociable,
relaxed, easygoing)
• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
- Based on Jung’s theory
Sensing → Intuiting
Thinking → Feeling
Introvert → Extravert
Judging → Perceiving
The main belief is to actually help us understand our preferences. (MBTI)
Personality types A and B
• A combination of emotions and behaviors characterized by…
Type A: climb the mountain Type B: Sitting beside the mountain.
Type A:
- Ambition
- Hostility
- Impatience
- Constant time pressure
- Works to much
Type B:
- Relaxation
- Low focus on achievement
- Ability to take time
- Enjoy leisure
Can Type A change to Type B?
The Big Five
- Captures 5 main dimensions of personality
- Not personality types, but sets of factors (super traits)
- The H factor- Honestly-Humility (HEXACO)
, Organizational behaviour
The Big Five and research
Conscientiousness: Positively related to salary, promotions, and job satisfaction in most
jobs
Extraversion: Inconsistent findings (may depend on type of work). In some studies
linked to performance, salary and job level, in others not
Openness and agreeableness: Not consistently related to job performance; in some instances
contribute to lower job performance
Neuroticism: Negatively related to performance, salary and status
Agreeableness: Likely to interfere with management potential.
Employee selection
• Psychometric tests:
- Not always good predictors of performance!
- Cognitive ability test (good predictor of performance)
- Identify individuals who will more likely collaborate/ come into a conflict- MBTI, Big
Five
- Strengths finder
• Interviews
- Structured competency-based interviews (focus on key competences)
• Cybervetting
Learning
• Learning is a process of acquiring knowledge through experience, leading to a lasting change
in behavior.
• Behavior psychology (observable behavior, habits, mechanistic)
• Cognitive psychology (mental processes, cognitive structure, rich and complex)
1. Growth mindset (challenges help me to grow)
2. Fixed mindset (when I’m frustrated, I give up)
Learning and feedback:
• We cannot learn without feedback
• Feedback can be rewarding or punishing
• Intrinsic feedback (self-generated)
• Extrinsic feedback (from external source)
- Concurrent feedback
- Delayed feedback
• Feedforward interview
Reinforcing certain behavior: (too simplistic?)
Positive reinforcement Introducing positive Desired behavior is repeated
consequences
Negative reinforcement Withdrawing negative
consequences
Punishment Applying negative Undesired behavior is not
consequences repeated
Extinction Attach no positive or negative
consequences
